I bought this as a birthday and graduation gift for my sister, after I saw her old Pavilion DV4150US. I wanted her to have something that'll carry her farther than just her current Master's studies, as well as help her with her orchestra performances and student tutoring sessions. She was absolutely ecstatic when she signed for it and opened the box!
She ran into one problem: Office 2010 Professional. For some inane reason, when she got ready to use Word 2010, it asked her for the product key. The other applications in the suite did likewise. We checked all the paperwork that came with the system to no avail. Because it was loaded by HP (OEM), she'll have to wait for when she has time off to call HP's Customer Care to request help. That makes me rather unhappy 'cause I don't like giving anyone, even my own sister, a half-functioning gift.
In the meantime, she's able to use it a lot more for her classes, her students, and her performances without any hangups or issues. Will update this review once we hear from HP.
Showing posts with label 7 mini notebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 7 mini notebook. Show all posts
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Best Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 0633 - Core i3 2.13 GHz - 14″ - 4 GB Ram Deals
Been using my y460 for a year and half, never once had any troubles so far with it, its been rock steady with usage around 10 hours a day. I do everything on it from video editing to gaming, since its got a dedicated card I can do all those things without the hassle of waiting to long for the editing stuff, in some programs at least the GPU helps. I would say buying any laptop even a ultrabook now without a dedicated card is just silly even though there is better CPU integrated graphics like the Intel HD 4000 in the new IVY bridge processors to me no laptop should be without a dedicated graphics chip, just really silly if you ask me to not have it.
Watch out for the new Lenovo ideapads that have just been announced the Lenovo Ideapads Y400/Y500, they got back lit keyboards and the ability to swap out optical bays called ultrabays that let you add a second graphics card in SLI, a freaking 14 inch laptop that is actually 13.6 inches wide with SLI, HAH, amazing!
Watch out for the new Lenovo ideapads that have just been announced the Lenovo Ideapads Y400/Y500, they got back lit keyboards and the ability to swap out optical bays called ultrabays that let you add a second graphics card in SLI, a freaking 14 inch laptop that is actually 13.6 inches wide with SLI, HAH, amazing!
Monday, November 3, 2014
Discount Acer 15.6" AMD A8-3500M 1.50 GHz 500GB Notebook | AS5560G-SB485
I researched all over for the best notebooks possessing AMD's new APU processors, and this is the fastest AMD made at the time. It's important that you understand the difference between an AMD APU and your standard run of the mill CPU. If you don't know much about APUs, please let me explain...
APUs (for the time being) are just dual core x86 processors except there are two other cores built into the APU just for graphics. Now, if you couple those two graphic cores with another dedicated GPU (as this laptop has) you are basically running two graphics cards in CrossFire mode which means this thing rocks in 3D applications. However, since you only have two cores for standard processing tasks, you will note some applications take longer to run than if you simply had a quad x86 core processor. So there's a tradeoff between brute processing and graphics. Bit, if you play any type of games on your laptop (like I do), the speed of the graphics is more important than being able to crunch database numbers.
Plus, don't forget that when you have any computer with "integrated graphics" (like most laptops, and especially all of that "BumBumBum" company's) you lose a percentage of your RAM to run the integrated graphics. Whereas, the optimal setup is to have a dedicated graphics card (like this does) and leave all of your RAM to do what it was designed to do (which is not generate graphics).
Many people were disappointed with these APUs when they first arrived, but much of that is due to poor driver support from the laptop manufacturers. For instance: out of the box this Acer does not have AMD's latest VISION Catalyst driver which allows you to determine if you want applications to run in Crossfire mode (meaning you will use both GPUs: the ones on the APU and the dedicated GPU). All you have to do is go to AMD's website and download the app which will install the exact driver software you need. Then in Windows it will prompt you to decide if you want to run both GPUs on certain applications. (However, keep in mind this will use more power.)
The main reason I gave this a 4-star is because the pre-installed hard drive is so incredibly and pathetically slow that it took a good 3 minutes to log on to Windows (after typing in my password). This is completely unacceptable in my opinion. I own netbooks that are quicker. So, the first thing I did was install 8GB of RAM (which is the most you can install on this laptop). However, this made zero performance improvement.
So, I finally broke down and purchased an internal SATA2 SSD. It cost a little over $100, but WOW!!! Windows literally logs in under 5 seconds. With an SSD, there is zero hesitation and this thing runs like a top tier desktop. In fact, I hardly use my desktop now that this thing is so fast.
So, after I installed the SSD here are my Windows Experience Numbers (if you'd like to compare them to others you are considering). Remember 7.9 is the max in Windows 7:
Processor: 6.5
Memory: 7.2
Graphics (2D): 5.1
Gaming Graphics (3D): 6.4
Hard Drive (SSD): 7.7
APUs (for the time being) are just dual core x86 processors except there are two other cores built into the APU just for graphics. Now, if you couple those two graphic cores with another dedicated GPU (as this laptop has) you are basically running two graphics cards in CrossFire mode which means this thing rocks in 3D applications. However, since you only have two cores for standard processing tasks, you will note some applications take longer to run than if you simply had a quad x86 core processor. So there's a tradeoff between brute processing and graphics. Bit, if you play any type of games on your laptop (like I do), the speed of the graphics is more important than being able to crunch database numbers.
Plus, don't forget that when you have any computer with "integrated graphics" (like most laptops, and especially all of that "BumBumBum" company's) you lose a percentage of your RAM to run the integrated graphics. Whereas, the optimal setup is to have a dedicated graphics card (like this does) and leave all of your RAM to do what it was designed to do (which is not generate graphics).
Many people were disappointed with these APUs when they first arrived, but much of that is due to poor driver support from the laptop manufacturers. For instance: out of the box this Acer does not have AMD's latest VISION Catalyst driver which allows you to determine if you want applications to run in Crossfire mode (meaning you will use both GPUs: the ones on the APU and the dedicated GPU). All you have to do is go to AMD's website and download the app which will install the exact driver software you need. Then in Windows it will prompt you to decide if you want to run both GPUs on certain applications. (However, keep in mind this will use more power.)
The main reason I gave this a 4-star is because the pre-installed hard drive is so incredibly and pathetically slow that it took a good 3 minutes to log on to Windows (after typing in my password). This is completely unacceptable in my opinion. I own netbooks that are quicker. So, the first thing I did was install 8GB of RAM (which is the most you can install on this laptop). However, this made zero performance improvement.
So, I finally broke down and purchased an internal SATA2 SSD. It cost a little over $100, but WOW!!! Windows literally logs in under 5 seconds. With an SSD, there is zero hesitation and this thing runs like a top tier desktop. In fact, I hardly use my desktop now that this thing is so fast.
So, after I installed the SSD here are my Windows Experience Numbers (if you'd like to compare them to others you are considering). Remember 7.9 is the max in Windows 7:
Processor: 6.5
Memory: 7.2
Graphics (2D): 5.1
Gaming Graphics (3D): 6.4
Hard Drive (SSD): 7.7
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Reviews of Toshiba Satellite L655-S5103 15.6-Inch Laptop (Fusion Finish in
I have been enjoying my Toshiba laptop for some time now & would highly recommend this laptop to others. It was just what I was looking for at an affordable price.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Reviews of ASUS K53U-DH21 15.6-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Mocha)
[[ASIN:B005PAJVVO ASUS K53U-DH21 15.6-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Mocha)]
I was especially disappointed when I plugged in my broadband modem and the RealTek Global Controller wouldn't recognize the ISP IP address. ASUS told me it was Comcast's fault because the laptop diagnostic stated it was a broadband issue... a quick ipconfig command in DOS revealed that the laptop was reading the IP addresses correctly... 3 more calls to ASUS after a DNS flush and reset, winsock reset and system recovery that took 8 hours total (the first call we reloaded the driver for the adapter). 2 of the four reps at ASUS spoke clear english, and 2 had very broken accents that just prolonged the agony. I finally had to return the product when ASUS concluded that the unit was faulty. It seemed to be OK at first, but without connectivity... and the service hassle... what was the point? I would have liked to see how the unit performed actually... unfortunately the bad experience will probably steer me away from ASUS. The keys and unit were quiet enough, the right and left click buttons were a bit noisy, but that is no big deal to me. Startup into Windows 7 was very quick and shutdown even quicker but I hadn't loaded my recording studio onto the machine yet either. The touch pad was REALLY sensitive... which can be a plus or minus depending on what you are used to.MY WIFE CHRISTINE IS VERY PLEASED WITH HER BIRTHDAY GIFT AND USES IT REGULARLY TO PLAY HER GAMES ETC.. VERY GOOD CHOICE....
I was especially disappointed when I plugged in my broadband modem and the RealTek Global Controller wouldn't recognize the ISP IP address. ASUS told me it was Comcast's fault because the laptop diagnostic stated it was a broadband issue... a quick ipconfig command in DOS revealed that the laptop was reading the IP addresses correctly... 3 more calls to ASUS after a DNS flush and reset, winsock reset and system recovery that took 8 hours total (the first call we reloaded the driver for the adapter). 2 of the four reps at ASUS spoke clear english, and 2 had very broken accents that just prolonged the agony. I finally had to return the product when ASUS concluded that the unit was faulty. It seemed to be OK at first, but without connectivity... and the service hassle... what was the point? I would have liked to see how the unit performed actually... unfortunately the bad experience will probably steer me away from ASUS. The keys and unit were quiet enough, the right and left click buttons were a bit noisy, but that is no big deal to me. Startup into Windows 7 was very quick and shutdown even quicker but I hadn't loaded my recording studio onto the machine yet either. The touch pad was REALLY sensitive... which can be a plus or minus depending on what you are used to.MY WIFE CHRISTINE IS VERY PLEASED WITH HER BIRTHDAY GIFT AND USES IT REGULARLY TO PLAY HER GAMES ETC.. VERY GOOD CHOICE....
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Gateway 15.6" Laptop 4GB 500GB | NE56R27u Review
List Price: $399.99
Sale Price: $329.98
Today's Bonus: 18% Off
Bought this for less than 300 bucks at Target. Very basic, but gets the job done. I've been using it for two weeks and have not had any problems at all. Nice bright screen, fast, easy. Windows 8 is taking some getting used to, but other than that it's been flawless.
I'd seen on some other site people making fun of the 2.2GHz Intel Pentium B960 processor, but come on. If you need the computer for web surfing, email, or homework you don't need more than that. Plus I've watched downloaded movies on it and Netflix instant and it looks great!
It amazes me that you can get such a solid laptop for such a low price. And the bottom never seems to get hot like other laptops I've had. I'm just very impressed and happy with my purchase. You won't be sorry if you get this, and your bank account won't either.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
like the other reviewer, bought this on sale the week it was $260 at the bullseye store. bought the white asus 14" laptop at best buy for $250 on black friday, but returned the following week when I saw this on sale. the asus got some good reviews, but i couldn't resist the gateway's 15.6" screen and 500 gb hdd(about 450 of which is usable). but the biggest difference was this came with an optical drive(don't make fun, i'm old-school). i have to have that "bonus" built-in dvd/cd player.amazon does a good job with the product description but I will just reiterate some things anyway: windows 8 os, 4gb ddr3 memory, 500 gb hdd, sd card reader, web-cam, dvd-super multi dl drive, 3 usb ports, plus 1 ethernet/vga/& hdmi port. mostly standard stuff with the 'price to what you're getting' ratio being the stand-out feature.
at $260 it's a no-brainer. at the regular/suggested price at $360-400, you might want to shop around or consider the speakers. they are borderline terrible imo, low and weak sounding near the max setting. you will need headphones/external speakers of some sort(these are cheap anywhere so no big deal really).
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as far as windows 8 is concerned, still trying to get used to and familiar with it. but all reviews that say it's better with a touchscreen or optimized for touchscreens are not exaggerating. having said that, I was doing fine with the track pad and clicks and I never felt the need to touch the screen to do anything. if you're familiar with tablets and apps you should be fine though cause it's all very app-focused. the live tiles are colorful and kinda cool and make me want to leave the laptop on 24/7(but that's crazy talk). there is a tile to take you to desktop mode if you prefer, and quite a few ways to take you back to the start screen.
last thing I will say is I thought it was strange I had to download windows movie-maker from the windows store and windows media player only opens up if you click on windows photo gallery. if you try to put in a dvd or cd it will default to the gateway media player app(which isn't bad, but I need the familiarity of windows media player for now). anyway, i'm not a techie and this is my first ever windows 8 or gateway product for that matter so i'm sure I got something wrong, but those are just some first-impressions. like I said, at 260 go for it. at 360-400 might as well do some comparison shopping for what's best for you. i'm glad I bought it though.
Best Deals for Gateway 15.6" Laptop 4GB 500GB | NE56R27u
The laptop came on time and everything was in the box that was expected and so far it works great. Only minus I can think is that it's a little bigger and bulkier than I had expected. Otherwise it's a great laptop, I'm really just using it for online access but it definitely exceeds those needs.Honest reviews on Gateway 15.6" Laptop 4GB 500GB | NE56R27u
I chose this rating due to the fact that every time I get on the computer it shows that I have a full internet connection, but then when I go to the internet, I get a message that I have no internet connection. I then have to troubleshoot every time and for some reason windows never can find a solution. I eventually get the connection, but this is ridiculous. My old computer with Windows 7 has a lot of purchased programs recently and I cannot transfer my backup to Windows 8. They want me to purchase everything over again even my Adobe Photoshop!! There are some serious issues here and will be returning this product and going back to Windows 7. I think Windows 8 was actually made for a touch screen.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Gateway 15.6" Laptop 4GB 500GB | NE56R27u
We have had to buy 11 new antiviruis programs since getting this computer, Soon as we began using this laptop all of our others got viruses, inspite of our antvirus we already had. We have had to pay to have all the computers cleaned and this one has just never worked right, wont load onto internet half the time. It seems like a jinx
Friday, June 6, 2014
Buy HP Pavilion dv6t QE Laptop - Windows 7 Home Premium, Intel Core
This is a great computer. Very fast and a beautiful shape. I've just bought this one two months ago and I am amazed.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
I was on the hunt for a laptop to replace a 3 year old HP dv7 3000, which at the time was top of the line. I mainly was intrested in the dv6 quad edition becuase of the sheer bang for your buck facotr. at less than 1,000, you get a second gen i7 sandy bridge with 1gb (upgradable to 2gb) of dedicated graphics. When it finally arrived, i was nothing short of blown away by the speed. boot up time was around 40 seconds for first time, and around 30 after that for initial power up. Battery life is around 5 hours with a 6 cell battery, which is more than decent for the horsepower this machine has. To sum it up: Looks great, works vast, and is one of the best laptops out there for less than 1,000.Best Deals for HP Pavilion dv6t QE Laptop - Windows 7 Home Premium, Intel Core
if you are looking for a great laptop, whether for gaming or other tasks...look no further. I would recommend this to anyone.Honest reviews on HP Pavilion dv6t QE Laptop - Windows 7 Home Premium, Intel Core
I have previously owned seven HPs and two Dells, and like Dell, HP has really gone downhill in both product and customer service. CS has been gone for a long time, but when I looked at this as a replacement for a 4 year old 17.1" core duo 2.5 originally $1750 HP laptop, I was shocked at the overall poor quality in the new version. The old case was simply beautiful. The screen was crisp and clear. The keys had a very good feel and the track pad was responsive. This new model the screen is higher resolution but way lower everything else. The colors are dull and there is no real adjustment for tweaking to a personal preference, and the glare from the gloss screen is a headache in the making. With the heat reported to still be coming from the discrete graphics card I was hesitant in buying one again since that is what helped destroy my previous HP laptop. It was hot enough to make a burning wood odor come off my coffee table. Forget using it on a lap. You'd think in 4 years HP would figure out a better fan system or make a bigger heat sink? Nope. I used this and compared it to a cheaper Asus which also has a reputation for non-existant or malignant customer support, and the Asus is a better product. Shame on HP for cheaping out in the usual default to corporate greed. Bad enough that all computers are being built in China and any laptop is now basically a craptop; add in the fact that the HP computer division is supposedly being sold to a Chinese company and good luck with any future support.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for HP Pavilion dv6t QE Laptop - Windows 7 Home Premium, Intel Core
muy bueno es lo que buscaba excelente producto lo recomendare a otros porque en estos tiempos hay que estar seguro de lo que se compraFriday, May 30, 2014
HP Notebook DV6T Select Edition - Windows 7, Intel Core i7-720QM Reviews
My old Dell laptop broke on me so I had to purchase another laptop. So after doing my research, I decided on the HP Pavilion Dv6t Series. It was just delivered today (It came faster than the original ship date) and already I'm in love. It's the perfect size for me and best of all, it doesn't collect fingerprints. It's light and very portable. I'm playing around with it but it was DEFINITELY a good buy. Stylish yet extremely function-able for the right price. I would definitely recommend this laptop. Job well done HP.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Best Lenovo G780 17.3-Inch Laptop Deals
I decided not to try and get a Windows 7 machine, and just went with the best Windows 8 machine I could get in my budget (it was on sale for $500 at the time.) For that money, I get more computer than I ever have before. My last machine was an HP Win XP business model with 100GB hard drive, which I got at a discount for $700 five years ago. So I felt really good about how much I was getting for the price.
The machine is satisfyingly large without being heavy. It is in fact surprisingly light for the size. It also runs very quietly and doesn't get hot, even sitting on a lap. The case (a semi-shiny black) is a fingerprint magnet, but that's not uncommon these days. The screen is large, bright, and I found no issues with the angle. The keyboard is really nice; it has very shallow key wells, so no little crumbs falling and getting stuck under the keys to get crunched unpleasantly and make them sticky. It is also much slimmer than I expected.
I get the griping about the Windows 8 PC/Tablet compromise, but it took me all of five minutes of Googling to find some add-ons and programs to revert to Windows settings I was more comfortable with, as an XP user. There are a number of very nice programs available to add a Start button back in, for example (I chose to use Classic Shell, which also adds more functionality to Win Explorer, but that's just one of many.) I have so far not found that convenient "Adjust for Best Performance" setting I used in XP to knock the sleek windows appearance back a bit, but with 6 GB RAM, I haven't found all that fancy animation to affect performance at all. In fact, I had six apps/programs running along and was installing new ones without a hiccup. It is irritating that the Apps don't have an in-program close button, but they can be closed on the left-hand side of the screen. Counter-intuitive but easy enough once figured out.
I am a little irked that all the pre-loaded Lenovo apps have no explanations about what they do or a booklet describing them or something. I couldn't even find a description of them on the Lenovo site, and am not inclined to Google each one to figure out whether I need it or not.
Overall, I found it to be a wonderful laptop for the money. Time will tell if it proves reliable enough to last years, but my first impression is very positive.
Thinking of purchasing system myself. Amazon has been great itself.
The machine is satisfyingly large without being heavy. It is in fact surprisingly light for the size. It also runs very quietly and doesn't get hot, even sitting on a lap. The case (a semi-shiny black) is a fingerprint magnet, but that's not uncommon these days. The screen is large, bright, and I found no issues with the angle. The keyboard is really nice; it has very shallow key wells, so no little crumbs falling and getting stuck under the keys to get crunched unpleasantly and make them sticky. It is also much slimmer than I expected.
I get the griping about the Windows 8 PC/Tablet compromise, but it took me all of five minutes of Googling to find some add-ons and programs to revert to Windows settings I was more comfortable with, as an XP user. There are a number of very nice programs available to add a Start button back in, for example (I chose to use Classic Shell, which also adds more functionality to Win Explorer, but that's just one of many.) I have so far not found that convenient "Adjust for Best Performance" setting I used in XP to knock the sleek windows appearance back a bit, but with 6 GB RAM, I haven't found all that fancy animation to affect performance at all. In fact, I had six apps/programs running along and was installing new ones without a hiccup. It is irritating that the Apps don't have an in-program close button, but they can be closed on the left-hand side of the screen. Counter-intuitive but easy enough once figured out.
I am a little irked that all the pre-loaded Lenovo apps have no explanations about what they do or a booklet describing them or something. I couldn't even find a description of them on the Lenovo site, and am not inclined to Google each one to figure out whether I need it or not.
Overall, I found it to be a wonderful laptop for the money. Time will tell if it proves reliable enough to last years, but my first impression is very positive.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
This is a well designed and powerful laptop for the family. The screen is large 17.3" by limited by the 16:9 resolution. So, video enjoyment is not as good as full 1080, but at this price point, it does okBest Deals for Lenovo G780 17.3-Inch Laptop
Bought this laptop for school work for my 2nd grader who is homeschooled. Everything works great EXCEPT for connecting to wifi....did everything that was suggested to do to fix it....still didn't work. Finally called Lenovo support...they fixed it by uninstalling then reinstalling the wifi driver....then it only worked for a day...so now I'm back to no wifi...have to plug in a long CAT6 to get Internet access...gonna call Lenovo tech support AGAIN to see if they can fix it....NOT A HAPPY CUSTOMER RIGHT NOW!!!!!Honest reviews on Lenovo G780 17.3-Inch Laptop
Love this laptop. Has all the features I need at an affordable price. Quiet, does not get hot, sound is great.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Lenovo G780 17.3-Inch Laptop
Purchased this Laptop for my son attending College. After looking at several systems I found this one. Checked Best Buy and Lenovo's site. Found good reviews on youtube. After purchasing from Amazon found the price had dropped $90.00. After asking Amazon customer service was immediately refunded the $90.00. Son has been using the system for a month now and loves it. Does exactly what he needs it to do. 17.3 inch monitor looks great in HD.Thinking of purchasing system myself. Amazon has been great itself.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Cheap Gateway LT Series LT4010U Intel Atom N2600 X2 1.6GHz 1GB 320GB
Gateway LT Series LT4010u
I was looking for a very compact computer to easily carry around with me. I didn't need a powerhouse as I have a desktop and a very powerful Asus laptop for when I need a workhorse.
I wanted something that I could use for email, to surf the net, save photos on and create documents. I also wanted something light and small to keep a version of Bible Explorer on, so I could keep my library of Christian books at my fingertips.
I should also mention that I am not a fan of tabletsI especially don't like touch-screens. I was given a rather expensive tablet ($800) for work & I have absolutely no use for it. So I decided to swim against the tide of the ever growing tablet popularity and purchase a netbook.
I looked at many, many netbooks and found that for the price you couldn't do much better than this little Gateway (Acer) LT 4010u. Even with its little Intel Atom N2600 processor & just 1GB of RAM I find it to be plenty quick (for comparison my Asus has an Intel Core i7 processor & 8GBs of RAM). I should mention for those who want more RAM that the 4010u is expandable to 2GB RAM, but I wouldn't attempt to disassemble to get to the card (nor do I see a need to expand to 2GB). I also found the 320G hard drive a pleasant surprise. I'm sure the fact that the 4010u comes with just the (non-power sapping) Windows 7 Starter part of the reason I don't find this little netbook to be slow at all. The Windows 7 Starter may be a fairly basic operating system, but it is perfectly fine for a netbook, so no complaints here.
I find the 10.1" display excellent bright, clear & crisp dispay for viewing photos, watching videos, or reading the Bible or books in my Christian library. This little dynamo seems to do everything well. The fact that this netbook comes equipped with niceties such as three 2.0 USB ports, a webcam, and a 6-in-1 memory card reader all pluses. The 3-cell lithium-ion battery is said to provide up to 4 hours of battery life, however you can purchase a 6 cell (which should provide about 8 hours per charge) from Gateway Accessories for just $49.99 plus tax & shipping.
In short, for the money, this is an excellent little value-packed netbook. I am very pleased with my purchase. In fact so pleased with its performance, features & fantastic price that we ended up buying three of these great little netbooks for the family (surprisingly, the total cost of three of these netbooks all with extended warranties still was less the cost of my 14" Asus U46 in fact the price of each Gateway LT 4010u netbook was only $28.01 more than the cost of the two-year warranty ALONE on the Asus). Imagine that, a wonderful little feature packed netbook for just $28.01 more than the cost of a two year warranty on a laptop!
I also should add that we also find Gateway/Acer Customer Service excellent. They are easy to reach, and you can do a live on-screen chat for any questions you might have, be it about the netbook itself, available accessories etc. Also purchasing parts & accessories is a snap, & the prices are very reasonable ($49.99 for the 6 cell battery, for example), and shipping is prompt. I'm a careful shopper, in that I do a lot of research before making a purchase & I'm very picky when it comes to computers, yet without any reservations or hesitation I highly recommend the Gateway LT 4010u Netbook.
I was looking for a small PC and I bouthgt this unit because
1. Cheap
2. Small and Light (around 2.3lb)
3. Comes with a keyboard (not the best but much better than tablet on-screen keyboard)
4. Large HDD memory 320GB (when you compare this with tablet, this is huge !!)
5. Expandable (I will tell you more on this below)
Ok. Maybe someone say why do I compare this with tablet? This is not a tablet PC. True. But I was looking for a portable unit, I was considering both tablet and small PC. Tablet is great and popular today but many of them are actually heavy, or light but too small, no keyboard or comes with keyboard but adds more weight, or has everything but more expensive. From hardware configuration point of view, I liked the Microsoft Surface RT, but again it cost over $400. Plus many of these tablets come with memory size under 100GB. 4010u comes with 320GB!! and SD slot. You can spend little more $ to get a larger and more powerful low-end notebook, but I just like the smallness of this PC and 10.1 inch netbook was a perfect choice for me.
Gateway LT4010u comes with Win7 Starter. This is the light version of Win7 and it has all of the functions I need but Win7 Starter limits the RAM size recognition (It only recognize up to 2GB of RAM). So I did some search and found out that you can actually upgrade memory higher than 2GB and also that will improve the performance of this PC dramatically !! Here is how.
Step1: Upgrade OS from Win7 Start to Win7 32-bit or higher
Benefit -
I installed previously purchased Win7 Pro 32-bit to my 4010u. With this OS, I can make 4010u to recognize RAM size up to 2.99GB. I heard if you install 64-bit version, you can recognize higher memory size upto 4GB.
Challenge -
Since this PC does not come with a CD/DVD drive, I installed Win7 Pro from USB thumb drive. If you have a external CD/DVD drive, use it, but since I don't, I used my desktop PC and created an ISO file from CD, then installed from the USB thumb drive. There are many instructions available online so just google it.
Install Win7 Pro 32-bit Drivers -
After I installed Win7 Pro, I went the Gateway site, downloaded drivers and installed them. The link is here.
When I finished installing Win7 Pro, I found many drivers are missing and some functionality became unstable (e.g., touch pad). So you must install all drivers listed in this site to fix all of that. You don't need to install Gateway applications which you can find them on the same website but I only installed the WebCam app.
Step2: RAM upgrade from 1GB to 4GB
After Win7 Upgrade, I bought following memory from Amazon.
Crucial 4GB Single DDR3 1066 MT/s (PC3-8500) CL7 SODIMM 204-Pin Notebook Memory Module CT51264BC1067
I bought it at Amazon.com for around $26.
You can find the instruction of how to open 4010u and install RAM at following Youtube site. The netbook on this video is different from 4010u but it has a same exact design so you can apply same procedures to open 4010u and install RAM.
How-To: Gateway LT4004U Netbook RAM and Hard Drive Access
After this upgrade, you will feel this little netbook runs much much faster !!
The computer itself has a gloss black cover and a gloss bright screen (if you are not a fan of either don't consider buying this), for how small the computer is I thought the keyboard wasn't a bad size. For the battery It only comes with a 3-cell (3-4hrs of runtime) or you can upgrade and buy a 6-cell and get twice that. I enjoy this notebook and say if you can find them for a good price pick one up!
I was looking for a very compact computer to easily carry around with me. I didn't need a powerhouse as I have a desktop and a very powerful Asus laptop for when I need a workhorse.
I wanted something that I could use for email, to surf the net, save photos on and create documents. I also wanted something light and small to keep a version of Bible Explorer on, so I could keep my library of Christian books at my fingertips.
I should also mention that I am not a fan of tabletsI especially don't like touch-screens. I was given a rather expensive tablet ($800) for work & I have absolutely no use for it. So I decided to swim against the tide of the ever growing tablet popularity and purchase a netbook.
I looked at many, many netbooks and found that for the price you couldn't do much better than this little Gateway (Acer) LT 4010u. Even with its little Intel Atom N2600 processor & just 1GB of RAM I find it to be plenty quick (for comparison my Asus has an Intel Core i7 processor & 8GBs of RAM). I should mention for those who want more RAM that the 4010u is expandable to 2GB RAM, but I wouldn't attempt to disassemble to get to the card (nor do I see a need to expand to 2GB). I also found the 320G hard drive a pleasant surprise. I'm sure the fact that the 4010u comes with just the (non-power sapping) Windows 7 Starter part of the reason I don't find this little netbook to be slow at all. The Windows 7 Starter may be a fairly basic operating system, but it is perfectly fine for a netbook, so no complaints here.
I find the 10.1" display excellent bright, clear & crisp dispay for viewing photos, watching videos, or reading the Bible or books in my Christian library. This little dynamo seems to do everything well. The fact that this netbook comes equipped with niceties such as three 2.0 USB ports, a webcam, and a 6-in-1 memory card reader all pluses. The 3-cell lithium-ion battery is said to provide up to 4 hours of battery life, however you can purchase a 6 cell (which should provide about 8 hours per charge) from Gateway Accessories for just $49.99 plus tax & shipping.
In short, for the money, this is an excellent little value-packed netbook. I am very pleased with my purchase. In fact so pleased with its performance, features & fantastic price that we ended up buying three of these great little netbooks for the family (surprisingly, the total cost of three of these netbooks all with extended warranties still was less the cost of my 14" Asus U46 in fact the price of each Gateway LT 4010u netbook was only $28.01 more than the cost of the two-year warranty ALONE on the Asus). Imagine that, a wonderful little feature packed netbook for just $28.01 more than the cost of a two year warranty on a laptop!
I also should add that we also find Gateway/Acer Customer Service excellent. They are easy to reach, and you can do a live on-screen chat for any questions you might have, be it about the netbook itself, available accessories etc. Also purchasing parts & accessories is a snap, & the prices are very reasonable ($49.99 for the 6 cell battery, for example), and shipping is prompt. I'm a careful shopper, in that I do a lot of research before making a purchase & I'm very picky when it comes to computers, yet without any reservations or hesitation I highly recommend the Gateway LT 4010u Netbook.
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I'm not very computer savy but I read some reviews online before I bought. Most were positive but there were a few that complained about how slow it was saying that the processor isn't up to snuff. When I first fired it up and got to using it it was pretty slow. I uninstalled and deleted anything I didn't need and made sure I didn't have any unnecessary background programs or extensions running and it seems to do alright now. If you like to multitask this probably isn't for you, but if all you want is a small netbook to take anywhere to surf the net and not much else then it will probably work for you, but there are probably better options that are competitively priced. If you do get it, clean up the had drive by removing anything you know you don't need (tread lightly if you don't know what's important and whats garbage) and running as few programs as possibly at any time.Best Deals for Gateway LT Series LT4010U Intel Atom N2600 X2 1.6GHz 1GB 320GB
This is excellent for the average user, although it can be a trifle slow running the stock operating system, which comes loaded to the hilt with all sorts. However, when you use the remove programs feature and whittle it down to just what you need, it becomes quite a bit faster. It's has a dual core Intel Atom processor and 1 gig of RAM and 320 gig drive. However, if you don't mind losing a bit of trivial functionality, you can do what I did, five minutes after buying it, and wipe the hard drive and put Linux on it (PinguyOS). Wow, real fast now and very stable. A much better computing experience and in doing this you get the full use of the 320 gig hard drive. This is because when you first get it about 13 gig of hard drive space is partitioned off for Gateway 'bloatware' storage which is then hidden. I thought this was a waste of space and made me feel like I didn't really own the computer. But now it's all mine, just the way I like it. Great little piece of kit. Recommended.Honest reviews on Gateway LT Series LT4010U Intel Atom N2600 X2 1.6GHz 1GB 320GB
I bought this PC about a month ago from Walmart Online at $178+Tax.I was looking for a small PC and I bouthgt this unit because
1. Cheap
2. Small and Light (around 2.3lb)
3. Comes with a keyboard (not the best but much better than tablet on-screen keyboard)
4. Large HDD memory 320GB (when you compare this with tablet, this is huge !!)
5. Expandable (I will tell you more on this below)
Ok. Maybe someone say why do I compare this with tablet? This is not a tablet PC. True. But I was looking for a portable unit, I was considering both tablet and small PC. Tablet is great and popular today but many of them are actually heavy, or light but too small, no keyboard or comes with keyboard but adds more weight, or has everything but more expensive. From hardware configuration point of view, I liked the Microsoft Surface RT, but again it cost over $400. Plus many of these tablets come with memory size under 100GB. 4010u comes with 320GB!! and SD slot. You can spend little more $ to get a larger and more powerful low-end notebook, but I just like the smallness of this PC and 10.1 inch netbook was a perfect choice for me.
Gateway LT4010u comes with Win7 Starter. This is the light version of Win7 and it has all of the functions I need but Win7 Starter limits the RAM size recognition (It only recognize up to 2GB of RAM). So I did some search and found out that you can actually upgrade memory higher than 2GB and also that will improve the performance of this PC dramatically !! Here is how.
Step1: Upgrade OS from Win7 Start to Win7 32-bit or higher
Benefit -
I installed previously purchased Win7 Pro 32-bit to my 4010u. With this OS, I can make 4010u to recognize RAM size up to 2.99GB. I heard if you install 64-bit version, you can recognize higher memory size upto 4GB.
Challenge -
Since this PC does not come with a CD/DVD drive, I installed Win7 Pro from USB thumb drive. If you have a external CD/DVD drive, use it, but since I don't, I used my desktop PC and created an ISO file from CD, then installed from the USB thumb drive. There are many instructions available online so just google it.
Install Win7 Pro 32-bit Drivers -
After I installed Win7 Pro, I went the Gateway site, downloaded drivers and installed them. The link is here.
When I finished installing Win7 Pro, I found many drivers are missing and some functionality became unstable (e.g., touch pad). So you must install all drivers listed in this site to fix all of that. You don't need to install Gateway applications which you can find them on the same website but I only installed the WebCam app.
Step2: RAM upgrade from 1GB to 4GB
After Win7 Upgrade, I bought following memory from Amazon.
Crucial 4GB Single DDR3 1066 MT/s (PC3-8500) CL7 SODIMM 204-Pin Notebook Memory Module CT51264BC1067
I bought it at Amazon.com for around $26.
You can find the instruction of how to open 4010u and install RAM at following Youtube site. The netbook on this video is different from 4010u but it has a same exact design so you can apply same procedures to open 4010u and install RAM.
How-To: Gateway LT4004U Netbook RAM and Hard Drive Access
After this upgrade, you will feel this little netbook runs much much faster !!
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Gateway LT Series LT4010U Intel Atom N2600 X2 1.6GHz 1GB 320GB
I picked up one of these great netbooks when they were on clearance and I am glad I did! I was looking for a laptop computer but didn't need a powerhouse (I have a desktop for that). I started looking at netbooks and this is the one that caught my eye, I have always had Gateway computers ever since I was younger and have always found them to be reliable. Don't expect this thing to be a "power house", when I bought it the computer had Windows 7 Starter (which in my option is a waste of a OS) 1GB of RAM and a 320GB Hard Drive featuring a Atom N2600. The good news is the RAM is expandable to 2G and it is a dual core. I found that it runs pretty smooth so far for a netbook. I plan to expand the Ram to a 2GB and install the Windows 7 Starter to Windows Home Premium update to improve the performance.The computer itself has a gloss black cover and a gloss bright screen (if you are not a fan of either don't consider buying this), for how small the computer is I thought the keyboard wasn't a bad size. For the battery It only comes with a 3-cell (3-4hrs of runtime) or you can upgrade and buy a 6-cell and get twice that. I enjoy this notebook and say if you can find them for a good price pick one up!
Friday, April 25, 2014
Alienware X51 i7-3770 3.4GHz GTX 660 16GB 1TB DVD Review
Everything was excellent and perfect, except the customer service was a little bit slow at the beginning. For the Alien itself "perfect". I have nothing to say more than this because this is all.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Best Fujitsu LifeBook P770 12.1" Notebook PC Deals
This notebook is one of the most powerful laptops in the ultra portable, super compact laptop class. It's not your typical cheap notebook, it costs more then most, but it looks expensive right out of the box, and yes, it's worth every penny, because it offers a great bundle of the most popular options and very latest technologies, in one extremely small but a powerful package! Punch of a Monster in a size of a netbook! A definite show stopper! Will work for years to come with Fujitsu famous assembly quality and top of the line reliability! You will take pride in owning one. Enjoy!
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Best Samsung Series 3 NP300E5C-A08US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Blue Silver) Deals
List Price: $599.99
Sale Price: $552.00
Today's Bonus: 8% Off
This is a 2 part review. 2nd part is in response to the reviewer who gave this laptop a low rating for a 100 MHz typo.
Runs as I expected and looks stylish. My wife can take this to work and people seem to look at it quite a bit.
Has Samsung included apps for the general public to make everything easier. Samsung easy Migration works much better than the Easy Transfer from Windows.
Pro's
* Fast and smooth.
* Stylish Blue tint.
* Clear screen with typical resolution.
* Lighter than expected which is a plus for her.
* Samsung apps seem to be fluid
Con's
* 2.5 instead of 2.6 GHz (minor typo)
* Bloatware. Personally I hate Norton products because they are so intrusive and it takes more than just the uninstall to remove.
This was purchased to replace my wifes aging Lenovo G530 with a 2 Ghz T6400 C2D. Mostly she uses her laptop for facebook, shopping, minor games, and documents. She also uses her company VPN and Quickbooks but that is almost the extent of her laptop useage.
Being that she does so little, this is more than enough machine for her. However I bought it because she was looking at a few games and her previous machine could not play much of anything. For example she likes the Sims 3, and a few puzzle games.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am a Systems Engineer for a Fortune 500 company and I get to play with a lot of different toys. Laptops, Desktops, Servers, etc. and 10 years ago I could scarcely notice the difference in a 1.4 Ghz AMD Thunderbird or a 2 GHz Willamette Pentium 4. And that was a 600 Mhz difference. Even people who can Max out a CPU with Video editing or CAD Design can not notice a 100 Mhz difference. If they can I want that talent.
When a review is written, it should use the following (or similar) standards;
1. Brief Opening Description telling what drew you to this particular product.
2. List of PRO's(if any) ie. Weight, size, color, or it makes your bed. Whatever you think is a Pro List it.
3. List of CON's (if ANY) ie. Weight, size, color, or it doesnt make your bed. OR as in this case, The description has a typo like, "The description states this is a 2.6 Ghz Intel i5-3210 but in reality it is a 2.5 Ghz Intel i5-3210 if this will make any difference."
4. Last would be your conclusion ie. What you think about it, any advice for readers, what you could not get it to do, and so on.
You dont give a negative product review based on a 100 Mhz typo. That is not fair to the product, the Manufacture, or potential purchasers. Many people rely on the reviews and while most people cannot tell the difference in 100 Mhz, if they see a laptop that is 2.6 Ghz for 5 dollars cheaper that doesnt have a negative review then they will go there. But is it the best laptop for them? Who knows but they did not see a serious review for the other one so they passed.
Conclusion: This laptop is well worth the money. Samsung usually builds quality and their support is good if needed. I use some of their various products and like most things there are bad ones here and there but so far this is not one.
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I'm starting physical therapy assistant school this month, and as such, I wanted a laptop to take to school with me. Here are some of the pros and cons as I have seen:Pros:
Sleek, thin form factor Nice lines, curves, and countours. This laptop looks quite stylish and very professional.
Fast processor With an i5 @ 2.5GHz, you will be able to surf facebook and write reports like never before. Joking aside, this processor is more than fast enough for normal usage.
Integrated camera It's nothing special, but it works.
Build quality It felt a little "plasticy" at first, but over time I have come to appreciate the materials and feel that the build quality is actually quite good, especially considering the price I paid ($500 -it was on sale).
RAM 4GB is plenty for most people. In my opinion, any more RAM would be virtually pointless on this machine. The only reason I can think of that you would need more is for intensive video editing, but without a dedicated GPU, this laptop isn't really designed for such purposes anyways. Whatever games can be played on this laptop will be just fine with 4GB of RAM.
Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics I am actually quite impressed with the HD 4000 integrated graphics. Don't expect to max out Battlefield 3 (or even play on low settings with a comfortable framerate), but, benchmarks have shown that many modern games are playable on low settings with 25-30 FPS. Older games should run even better.
Sound For a $500 laptop, I feel that the speakers are perfectly adequate. If you want better sound, get some headphones.
Keyboard I can type about 80WPM average, so a good keyboard is very important to me. It seems that when you are buying a laptop, you're making a sacrifice as far as the keyboard goes no matter which laptop you buy (since a traditional desktop keyboard is much thicker and has much more tactile feedback), but the chicklet keyboard in this laptop works quite well and I can type with relative ease.
If you reformat the laptop to install Windows 7, make sure you install the latest touchpad drivers from Samsung so that can get "Palm Tracking", the feature that will disable the touchpad temporarily after any key is pressed (more on that later).
Cons:
Personally, I am not crazy about the finish on the top of the laptop. It can look a little "oily" in certain lighting conditions. I feel that it would look much better if it were a flat surface and did not have all of the ridges. That said, it's certainly not terrible, and I can live with it. Some people seem to really like the way it looks, so it's just personal preference. However, given the fact that this is one of my only "cons", please do not let this deter you from purchasing this laptop.
The laptop's screen does not open up nearly as far as I initially thought it should. However, I am finding that I usually do not open the laptop's screen up all the way anyways, so it is more of a non-issue. My old Inspiron 9300 could open a full 180 degrees -why you would ever need that much is beyond me, but going from that, to this, was a bit of a shock at first. I would imagine that most people wouldn't even notice and that the angle that it CAN open up to is perfectly adequate.
Bloatware. There are a lot of additional programs and features installed which I feel are completely unnecessary and seem to be shells over built-in Windows functions. However, this was not as much of an issue for me since I reformatted and installed Windows 7, only installing the drivers and software that I wanted.
Speaking of bloatware, Samsung's "Easy Settings" is somewhat of a necessary evil because it's required in order for the Fn keys to work (such as the brightness and sound Fn key shortcuts).
In and of itself, Easy Settings isn't all that bad, but one "feature" of Easy Settings that I particularly despise is how it splashes a giant caps lock notification onto your screen whenever the caps lock is enabled or disabled. Why couldn't they make it much smaller and/or make it appear at one of the corners of the screen? Why not make it an option to enable or disable notifications such as this? Alas, I do not know. It seems like many software devs just make the assumption that their consumers want it "as simple as possible" and do not think that providing options is a good thing. And for many people, this may be a complete non-issue, but for me, it's an annoyance. Especially if I'm playing a game in which I use caps lock.
I'm still looking into a way to disable the caps lock notification while keeping Easy Settings (so that I can use the function keys), but one surefire way to disable the notification is to simply uninstall Easy Settings. Many options can still be easily accessed by simply hitting win+X, so it's not really a deal-breaker if I can't use the Fn key shortcuts.
The internal microphone is terrible. I picks up the clicks and clacks of the keyboard and mouse buttons very well, but I have to basically yell for my voice to be heard at all. Even putting my mouth right up to the mic hole doesn't seem to make a big difference.
However, I since I have reformatted and reinstalled Windows 7, I have not yet installed the Realtek sound driver, so it's possible that that may fix my issue. I will update this review after I have downloaded and installed the driver with results. If the mic is no better, I would say that unless having a good integrated mic is a big deal to you, don't let this bother you. If you use a mic that much, it would be better to get a cheap external mic anyways.
Additional Notes:
As I mentioned above, the elan touchpad driver installed on this laptop features Palm Tracking. Whenever you hit a key on the keyboard, Palm Tracking automatically disables the touchpad so that you don't accidentally jump the cursor and start typing somewhere else or lose focus on the current window. In general, this is a fantastic feature and allows you to rest your hands on the laptop while typing, but there are a few circumstances when I would want to disable it (i.e. gaming).
Sadly, the most recent driver does not allow Palm Tracking to be disabled in the GUI menu. However, there is a solution. I have made a couple of .reg files which, when ran, either enable or disable Palm Tracking. For the .reg files and full instructions on how to use them, please download from mediafire, here:If that link gets deleted, simply type this in your address bar: mediafire(dotcom)(forward slash)?1d5gyop026rcfux
Obviously, replace what is in the parentheses with .com and / respectively. Delete the actual parentheses from the URL as well.
After you download Palm Tracking.zip, simply extract the Palm Tracking folder to any place of your liking and open up Readme.txt to understand how to use the files.
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In conclusion, this is a fantastic laptop for the price and the issues I have expressed here are minor annoyances at worst which most normal users would probably not even notice anyways. So, If you like the looks of this laptop and you don't plan on heavy gaming, this laptop should more then exceed your needs and expectations. So far, I'm really liking it. I will update this post with any more information as it becomes relevant.
~~UPDATE 1/8/12~~
After reading some troubling information about how Easy Settings can negatively affect DPC latency, I have decided to completely uninstall it altogether. Easy Settings was just bad news from the start. It has low-level processes than can increase the DPC latency, it splashes giant notifications on your screen whenever certain buttons are pressed (caps lock), and it messes with the power options and the actual behavior of the computer itself in strange ways.
For example, with Easy Settings, my computer will resume from sleep when the lid is opened (it won't do this without Easy Settings for some reason). However, Easy Settings also changes the "Shut Down" button to "Sleep" in the start menu, and it disables the pulsing blue LED during sleep mode, making me think that the computer was completely off when it was not.
So in the end, I think that completely removing Easy Settings altogether is definitely the right move. Although I lose Fn key functionaily (the sound Fn keys still work though), and although the computer no longer resumes from sleep when the lid is raised (I have to hit the power button to wake it up), I would rather live with this things than be subjected to the jacked-up bloatware party going on under the hood. No thanks, Easy Settings.
I have also determined the the mic just plain sucks. Maybe it's just the nature of the beast with built-in mics, but I have a feeling that everyone's mic is probably similar to mine.
That said, I did figure out what I have found to be the best possible settings for clarity and volume. The Realtek sound driver is absolutely essential to making the mic sound at least halfway decent because of a couple enhancements it features.
So, here's what I did to fix the mic:
1. Hit win+R
2. Type this: "control mmsys.cpl sounds" or copy and paste (without quotes)
3. Hit enters
4. Choose the "Recording" tab at the top of the Sound menu
5. Double-click "Microphone" (Realtek high definition audio)
6. Click the "Levels" tab
7. Completely max out both the Microphone and Microphone Boost sliders
8. Click the "Enhancements" tab
9. The following should be selected:
-Immediate mode
-DC Offset CAncellation
-Noise Suppression (NS)
-Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC)
10. Finally, click "Ok" to apply the changes
You should find that doing these things should clean up your mic a lot. If you already have the Realtek driver installed, the enhancements may already be selected by default, but you may still need to turn up the sliders in order for your voice to be heard by others. Also, you can play with Noise Suppression vs. Far Field Pickup (only one can be enabled at a time) -I've found the NS is a little softer but more clear, while FFP is louder, but a little more muddled and unclear. Personally, I go with NS.
The bottom line is that the mic is junk and it is probably not located in the ideal position anyways. If it were me, I probably would've put it next to the camera so that it actually faces the user and is farther away from the keyboard so as to reduce the bone-jarring clicks and clacks that happen while typing. But, alas, I am not an engineer, and no one asks me these questions.
Despite all of these things, I still feel that this is a great laptop for the money. It's just a little disappointing to see prevalence of such terrible software and questionable design choices this far into the life of the laptop in general. I'm sure Samsung probably isn't alone in this, but sometimes it makes you wonder what their engineers/designers were thinking when they designed the product.
Ultimately, I feel that a score of 4/5 stars is perhaps a little generous, but mostly accurate. If this laptop came without all of the bloatware installed, I would give it 5/5 stars hands down, even with the crappy built-in mic. But, I just can't so easily excuse such terrible software which seems completely superfluous and actually harmful to the system. It doesn't make sense to me.
Best Deals for Samsung Series 3 NP300E5C-A08US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Blue Silver)
So far so good...I needed a better processor with higher RAM and memory, plus something that allowed me to work from home when necessary. This laptop can run several programs, including Microsoft Office, simultaneously and at a good processing speed. The keyboard is very comfortable to use; and setting it up was easy. Very happy with this!Honest reviews on Samsung Series 3 NP300E5C-A08US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Blue Silver)
Have had this laptop for about a week now. Overall I am very happy with it. Had never owned a samsung laptop beofre but due to quality of their over products decided to go for it. I had picked out a slightly different model on another site but it sold out. Did a bit of looking and found this one.This is a great buy for the $. Love the I5 cpu, wish the HD was 7200prm or SSD but for less than $800 it would be hard to find that. The screen is quite nice and bright, does a great job with different media. Onboard graphics can be pretty bad sometimes but I have to say that its not the case here. The other thing I found quite surprising was just how light it is. For a 15.6 laptop i have to say its quite light and really portable.
If your looking for a decent laptop that you use for school, media, surfing and want to be able to travel easy with it this could be for you.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Samsung Series 3 NP300E5C-A08US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Blue Silver)
I've been using this notebook for 2 weeks and so far I'm am pretty impressed. Added 4GB more RAM for good measure. Clearly some corners were cut to keep it under $500 but I'm very happy with the product overall.PROS
-Fast
-Lightweight
-Great picture
-Sound is loud/decent quality for the $. I'd use external speakers though if I really wanted nice sound.
CONS
-Case feels budget plastic feels like it might not hold up to much of a beating.
-Keys on keyboard have a very shallow action. I'm getting used to this now but at first it felt awkward to type on.
-Screw holding RAM door on was very easily stripped. Was able to remove with a screw extractor.
Update: 33 days after purchase I thought the Backspace and both Enter keys failed and was about to ship it to Fort Worth, TX for warranty repair. But before returning the product I decided to re-install factory software to verify it wasn't a "logic" issue. Keys are all fine now and I'm back to loving this computer.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Acer Aspire V5-572G-6679 15.6-inch Laptop (Polar Black) Reviews
List Price: $729.99
Sale Price: $529.99
Today's Bonus: 27% Off
This laptop is definitely a great surprise for someone new to Windows 8 and semi-high-performance laptops.
PROS:
-The Aspire V5-572G is light, sturdy, and very eye-catching when experiencing it for the first time. The upgraded gpu is what completely sold me, and I needed a laptop I could use for school, occasional gaming, and for occasional distractions. This guy does all three.
-Windows 8 was a new experience that took a day or so to get used to. FOLLOW THE MINI-TUTORIAL IN THE BEGINNING. It helps. Now that I've grasped the concept of Windows 8, I'm blazing through all of my software/applications faster than a bat out of hell. The only thing that could make this experience even better would be a touchscreen, but I can live without it.
-Intel Turbo Boost was a new (for me) tech which gives the Intel i5 processor speed a boost from 1.8ghz 2.6ghz when it needs to. So whenever I load up a heavy game (Skyrim, Bioshock:Inf, BF3, etc.), the Turbo Boost automatically clocks in and gives me the performance that I need to run smoothly. It's very much like overclocking without the risk of overheating/damaging or even the hassle of manually overclocking.
-The V5-572G comes with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 720M gpu. I recently bought my first GeForce GTX 660 Ti for my desktop, so having the NVIDIA cards in both my laptop and my desktop help me sleep at night. The benchmarks on the Aspire V5-572G are phenomenal. Along with the Turbo Boost, the gpu graphics are very mouth-watering compared to my elder Dell laptop.
CONS:
-After being spoiled with Solid-State Drives and high-rpm HDDs, the stock HDD was the only thing that was lacking. The V5-572G came with a Toshiba 5400rpm 500GB(True memory ~460GB) HDD. The transfer rates are slow due to it's low 5400rpm, but if you have a few minutes to spare, then you're golden. You can live with it. This is fixable, so I did not rate a star lower.
-Out-of-the-box, the Aspire V5-572G is amazing. The power button is hidden in plain sight (it took me a while to find it), so finally finding it was exciting. Like every first boot-up/run, it was slow. But it wasn't just slow, it was painfully slow. Slower than I've ever experienced; even my elder Dell laptop wasn't this slow (maybe my expectations have changed now that I'm older?) I honestly began thinking something was wrong with it because of how slow it was running. However, I eventually figured out how to navigate Windows 8 and updated all of the drivers and the Windows Live updates. After updating and restarting once or twice, it boots up faster and loads applications/software faster than before. Funny how something that small can alter the entire performance of one piece of tech. After that slight hiccup, it's all around one of the quickest laptops I've ever used.
The Aspire V5-572G is amazing. The upgraded graphics, the turbo boosted processor, the portability, the weight, the price; everything was here. I believe the MSRP is $729.99 on Acer's website, so saving an extra $100+ was also a swaying factor.
Overall: Excellent.
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Ordered this computer because I wanted something that can play some decent games on medium settings. It has only arrived yesterday, but I am already in love with it. It feels solid, well built and has insane computing power for a laptop of its price. The Dedicated video card is a huge plus. The GT 720m is a newer card and it shows. You can easily play TF2, Runescape, LoL, Torchlight 2, Diablo 3 and many other "lower end" games on max settings. Then we get to the heavy hitters, like Crysis, BF3 and Skyrim. It handles Skyrim on medium at 35 FPS, BF3 on low at 25-40 and Crysis... well lets just say you can barely play it on low. That's no big deal for me because I have a custom built desktop that can easily handle such games, but for others it might be a concern.The only con I have is Windows 8, It is AWFUL. I'll be torrenting Win 9 as soon as it is released.
Best Deals for Acer Aspire V5-572G-6679 15.6-inch Laptop (Polar Black)
This laptopo is great and on sale and is good for running most 2013 games on low or medium graphics with great frames while a lot of modern games can also be run on high.Honest reviews on Acer Aspire V5-572G-6679 15.6-inch Laptop (Polar Black)
Bought this for my son as a back to school gift he wanted a computer that could play games and i wanted it to also be able to do his school work. it allowed him to do well in school and still play computer games with his friend would recommend this to anyone planing on buying a computer that can allow a child to play games and get school work doneFind helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Acer Aspire V5-572G-6679 15.6-inch Laptop (Polar Black)
I am very happy with this laptop. It is serving my needs quite well. I don't know that I will really ever require the extra graphics capability consider how I will use it (I only got laptop with them on my brother's suggestion) but it is nice to know they are there when/if I need.The screen is clear and crisp. I haven't noticed any of the washout I hear with Acer products (although I have owned three and been satisfied always), excepting their service desk is a pain to use and it has been a chore just to register my laptop. Still not sure if it actually even is registered to be honest.
I have used the touch pad far more than I expected and find its responsiveness to be right where I want it. There is a bit of a strange spot in the bottom left corner. It depresses more than any other spot, but its size is appropriate and does not interfere with my typing at all.
I LOVE the key board. It fits my fingers perfectly and has just the right "touch" and sound to give a very satisfying "I am typing" experience. The separate number pad was a must for me also.
Battery life is sufficient but not exceptional. I expect if I was using graphics intensive programs it would be considerably less, but like I said, that is not much of an issue to me.
I was a bit apprehensive going with a 1.8 GHz processor, even though it is an i5, but considering the hyper-threading/ turbo features I haven't had any problems, so all is good there.
I initially balked at the lack of an optical drive, but really, how often does one get used anymore? Besides, with the USB 3.0 port I can buy one that would be better than any stock version anyway.
The sound quality is GREAT for such a little machine. when I first tried it out I was not impressed, but then realized I hadn't activated the Dolby system (ha ha) and when I did I was amazed. I was used to having my old laptop speakers set to a little under max, but this one functions better and louder under 50%
Overall appearance is very nice. It is small, sleek, and feels durable. It is fairly fingerprint resistant and the all black color scheme is stylish.
BTWjust in case anyone is wondering (I was) it does come with Windows 864 bit, despite only being listed as windows 8. i suppose this goes without saying to some considering it has 6 GB RAM, but I couldn't be sure. I don't HATE W8, but I don't see it as being a major improvement either, although some features are nice. It doesn't take long to set up a decent desktop either if you want to make the effort.
Its hard to find anything negative with this machine so far, so I will just say that it, like most, could do with a better hinge system. I prefer a continuous hinge. It just makes me feel better.
To sum up, at the price of this machine I couldn't find a better system and am very happy with my purchase.
Buy Acer AS5552-6838 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mesh Black)
I tried to write a review which was rather lengthy but somehow got mysteriously deleted when I was almost finished. OK, so let's try this again. This machine handles heavy duty programs but its Achilles Heel is the touchpad. First of all, there is apparently no way to adjust sensitivity. Unreliable, unpredictable scrolling. Unwanted links pop up all the time when unprompted. Completely flat profile on the touchpad so that you cannot feel your way to find the left click. I hate this. Why couldn't they put a simple bump there? I have resigned myself to the fact that I will simply use a remote mouse. Otherwise, no problems, so far.
The appearance is nice. The mesh black is nice because of the lack of fingerprints, as everyone has pointed out. The screen is glossy though, and it's fingerprint city. The speaker sucks, which everyone pointed out. I thought they were exaggerating, but it really is awful. You can max everything out and still have trouble making words out from a foot away. On the upside, the fan is very quiet, so that won't interfere with sound. There's also a camera, which is nice, if you're not paranoid. There's built-in software/bloatware for it, but we all know we're just gonna use gchat or skype. The best thing is the keyboard. It's big and easy to get used to, and I love having a full numpad on a laptop. The key design (not sure how to describe it...chiclets?) makes it pretty quiet too. The only big flaw on the keyboard is that the numlock key is right next to backspace, and I often find myself accidentally hitting that then running into trouble when I try to type numbers later (the 0 key is Insert when numlock is off frustration GO!).
The last thing to touch on is the infamous touchpad. Honestly, I think people are blowing it way out of proportion. Every once in awhile, it will zoom when I try to click or not zoom when I want it to, but it's not any worse than any other laptop I've owned. When you use a laptop enough, you get used to making sure you don't inadvertently touch the touchpad when you're trying to type. Usually that's only somewhat effective, but, with this laptop, I almost never have any accidental touch issues. It works great. The mouse buttons are annoying, as people say. It's one big button and you just kind of have to know where left click ends and right click begins. Is that really so tricky though? Yes, it's very annoying the first few days, but your thumbs gain the necessary muscle memory very quickly, and that issue becomes obsolete. In other words, the touchpad issue is not an issue. I'm happy with this laptop and would recommend it until the tech gets surpassed.
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Bought this laptop on cyber money for a great deal. Came today and I am writing this on it. Screen is amazingly clear and bright. Very fast, feels of good quality. Packaged well but amazon shipped it in an overly big box filled with plastic air bags. They should use smaller boxes that are closer in size with the product they are shipping. So far the laptops great. Runs very quiet and the keyboard is very nice. I do wish they had another speaker. There is just one near the power button on the left side of the laptop. Another one placed on the right side would be nice. Will update after more usage. For the price I paid, I couldn't find a better deal so I jumped on it.Best Deals for Acer AS5552-6838 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mesh Black)
The integrated video card on my last laptop dropped out, and I needed a new one asap. After a day of extensive research, I ended up buying this one, and I'm very happy with it. It's powerful with far fewer hiccups than any other laptop I've owned and without being overpowered and overpriced. I've already got a self-built tower that cost tons and handles games laptops aren't for that unless you enjoy spending money. That said, I do a bit of gaming on it, and it handles it fine. I'm not exactly running 16x AA, but I am able to set the graphics settings pretty high. Games = heat = short laptop life, though, so enough about that. I installed Windows Ultimate on it, and it runs fine. If a laptop couldn't at least run an OS, I guess I'd be worried.The appearance is nice. The mesh black is nice because of the lack of fingerprints, as everyone has pointed out. The screen is glossy though, and it's fingerprint city. The speaker sucks, which everyone pointed out. I thought they were exaggerating, but it really is awful. You can max everything out and still have trouble making words out from a foot away. On the upside, the fan is very quiet, so that won't interfere with sound. There's also a camera, which is nice, if you're not paranoid. There's built-in software/bloatware for it, but we all know we're just gonna use gchat or skype. The best thing is the keyboard. It's big and easy to get used to, and I love having a full numpad on a laptop. The key design (not sure how to describe it...chiclets?) makes it pretty quiet too. The only big flaw on the keyboard is that the numlock key is right next to backspace, and I often find myself accidentally hitting that then running into trouble when I try to type numbers later (the 0 key is Insert when numlock is off frustration GO!).
The last thing to touch on is the infamous touchpad. Honestly, I think people are blowing it way out of proportion. Every once in awhile, it will zoom when I try to click or not zoom when I want it to, but it's not any worse than any other laptop I've owned. When you use a laptop enough, you get used to making sure you don't inadvertently touch the touchpad when you're trying to type. Usually that's only somewhat effective, but, with this laptop, I almost never have any accidental touch issues. It works great. The mouse buttons are annoying, as people say. It's one big button and you just kind of have to know where left click ends and right click begins. Is that really so tricky though? Yes, it's very annoying the first few days, but your thumbs gain the necessary muscle memory very quickly, and that issue becomes obsolete. In other words, the touchpad issue is not an issue. I'm happy with this laptop and would recommend it until the tech gets surpassed.
Honest reviews on Acer AS5552-6838 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mesh Black)
pros: I really like the acer aspire 5552-6838, it is fast processor for someone browsing the web, emails, pictures. screen is bright with good resolution and good size. cons: speaker is weak, only has one, no very good quality, the battery does not last very long..Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Acer AS5552-6838 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mesh Black)
Overall so far very surprised by quality of the computer. Quite an impressive processor, noticeable zippiness all around in Windows 7. The 4gb of ddr3 ram is running at 1066 mhz so its plenty fast to do all notebook type things. I am running multiple windows and about 12 tabs and no slow down whatsoever. This review is subjective because I just got this thing today. The mesh pattern is quite nice and for any normal user it more than meeets the power needs. Another important thing to mention is that it remains surprisingly cool.
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