Reviews of Toshiba Satellite P755-S5274 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Black)

Customer Ratings:

I purchased this laptop 6/30. I received and un-boxed it 7/5. It is well-equipped for the price.

Positives

-The 2nd Gen Core-i5 has excellent benchmarks, comparable and even better than some 1st Gen Core-i7. (See Passmark Benchmark ratings)

-The video card puts out 1080p video without issue. It is not really capable of doing any gaming but that is to be expected at this price from the Intel HD 3000.

-For the price point the theoretical specs are fabulous, hence my purchase and excitement upon arrival.

-It comes with a full size keyboard built in which I enjoy. The sizing and spacing is all acceptable although the backspace is a touch smaller than I would like.

As far as negatives are concerned,

-The webcam is horrendous, I mean, it works, but the resolution and video quality is pretty shameful. I knew this going into the purchase and was willing to accept it, but if you are hoping for a decent integrated webcam this is not a computer for you. Of course you can always get a very high quality external webcam which will best any internal.

-Toshiba Bloatware, I haven't fully investigated them, but a lot of them are redundant to services that windows provides, or just excessive little power hungry toys. Thus far I do actually like the extra power settings, but that is the only one among many.

-Other Bloatware (Extra links to install trial programs...etc)

Now, the reason for 1-star.

The laptop I received on 7/5 was defective. The audio card integrated on the motherboard was deemed defective by Toshiba. Of course Toshiba customer support made me re-install the driver, and "revert to factory settings". I found this excessively annoying as I has just opened the box and reverting to factory settings wouldn't do anything. Regardless the problem remained and they agreed it was defective and told me I could send it to a repair facility (a brand new laptop? and wait a few weeks, i think not). Or Amazon could send me a new one. I have had better dealings with Amazon than Toshiba so I opted for a replacement. Props to Amazon for the prompt replacement (it arrived within 24 hours). Now, believe it or not, the 2nd laptop is also defective. I then had to call Toshiba again to inform them of this. They didn't seem to find it odd that two of the exact same computers are both defective. Anyway Amazon is refunding me the money and I intend to get something else. Preferably not Toshiba despite my previously high impressions of them.

I would be interested to know if anyone else is having these issues. For anyone who may be skeptical as to the fact that two computers are both defective let me assure you sound was tested with several samples of audio from the HD, and the internet. It was also tested on both computers using the laptop speakers, Sennheiser Headphones, and a high quality system with Polk Audio speakers.

Bottom Line:

The specs are great, but I cannot recommend a computer that has come defective 2/2 times. Once is acceptable, it happens, but twice is not acceptable and both Amazon and Toshiba should be ashamed to be selling faulty merchandise repeatedly.

[UPDATE]

After receiving a third defective laptop I have ordered a Lenovo from Best Buy. I cannot fathom that nobody else is having this issue. This has been tested on numerous receivers, numerous cords, numerous speakers. I have had friends with me to verify that I am in fact not going insane, and Toshiba has verified they are all defective. The error occurs upon setup without changing factory settings at all.

Stay away.

In other news the touchpad is definitely a little far to the left and while typing I often touch it with my left palm. Minor issue though.

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Bear with me here folks, I'm still trying to pull together my thoughts on my brand new laptop here, consider my review a "first draft". :)

Received this laptop early this morning. My first impression is pretty good, but I've only been with it for a few hours thus far. I've surfed around online some, streamed some HD video, played a couple games, and removed a ton of bloatware.

Was a little worried at first, because the first boot-up took quite awhile, but once I removed some bloatware, shut down, and booted up again, it's ready to go within 20-30 seconds. After running it for 2 hours straight, mostly surfing around online, it's not hot enough to even call it warm, so it should be good about keeping cool. The fan seems to come on pretty often, but it's not very loud, it's mostly just the sound of air moving in and out. Wireless internet seems to work perfectly, and I easily connected to my network.

I actually quite like the touchpad on it, which is strange for me to say, because I'm picky about touchpads. I think it works well, and it's slightly textured, but not overly so. The keyboard seems nicely built for a laptop too.

I don't own much in the name of games, but I've played some Sim City 4 and The Sims 2 on high settings without any hiccups. HD video streamed smoothly as well.

Overall, I'm quite happy with my purchase. I'll be updating this review once I spend more time with it and finish getting my thoughts together.

Edit: Okay, so I never updated my review, too lazy to do it. However, it is now February 3rd 2012, and this computer is still up and running like new. I've owned it for 7 months and I have had no problems, even though I run it about 7 hours everyday. It continues to run cool, fast, and with no issues at all.

Best Deals for Toshiba Satellite P755-S5274 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Black)

This is my first laptop, and even though I've only had it for 9 days, I believe I've drawn a conclusion already.

Pros: 6gb ram and huge 640gb hard drive

Extremely smooth Youtube video playback

USB 3, Bluetooth 3, Wireless B/G/N, HDMI and VGA out

Quiet

Great battery life (in my opinion?)

The "chiclet" style keyboard is incredibly easy and satisfying to type on. The keys give off a satisfying light click, and they're far enough away from eachother so I rarely hit another key.

I have never seen an HD Youtube video play back so smooth before, not even on my desktop with an Nvidia Geforce GTS 250.

Speaking of video performance, Minecraft plays as smooth as my desktop plays it. I have not played other games, but DO NOT buy this laptop for gaming; you'll likely regret it.

It takes 22 seconds from power on (with the BIOS option "Load BIOS onto harddisk" checked), until you get a usable Windows 7 login screen.

The laptop has quite a few ports and features including: USB 2 and 3, Bluetooth 3, Wireless B/G/N, and HDMI and VGA out. Very handy to have and use all of them.

Internet browsing is far from slow, it feels much faster than my desktop.

You can only hear the fan occasionally speed up, if you strain to hear it in a quiet room.

Battery life is awesome, I was able to type an entire 725 word essay from start to finish with 10% left.(3 hours at least, maybe 4. I lost track of time)

Speedfan claims both cores are idling at 109f, but you can hardly feel any warmth from the laptop even after several hours of use.

Display is glossy, vivid and bright. Some may see it being glossy as a con; it's fine indoors, but tough to use outside (I never use it outside).

The numpad is an awesome feature to include, it was one of my main requirements in a laptop.

Windows 7 makes everything feel instant and responsive.

I've never run out of ram with the included 6gb.

Now onto the bad stuff (Minor whining on my part)

Cons: Keyboard is not backlit

Off center touchpad location interferes with typing

Dust magnet

Bloatware madness

Speakers suck(ish)

This laptop has doesn't have backlit keys, not a con if you know how to type; I just always thought they looked cool at night.

Regularly while typing, my hand rests on the touchpad and jumps the mouse around as another reviewer also mentioned. Annoying at times, just reposition your left hand slightly.

Needs to be wiped off daily or it grows a beard of dust. (Or maybe I just need to vacuum my room more than once a year)

Copious amounts of bloatware -some bundled with drivers. Google a program before deleting to make sure you don't inadvertently kill flashcards or the touchpad.(Happened to me)

Extremely slow until you kill off bloatware and stuff you don't plan on using.

As another reviewer stated, I have had the laptop claim it had an hour of battery life left, then 5 minutes later, it shut off. I remember reading through the Toshiba manual, and apparently it has to kind of "calibrate" the battery meter and run itself down once in a while to be accurate; I am guessing this applies to the first cycle especially. It has not done this since.

Speakers are clear, but severely lack bass. Using skullcandy earphones remedies that problem.

The bright Satellite letters and line above the touchpad can be turned off in the BIOS. I believe another reviewer said that already.

I am not a picky person, so these cons don't annoy me enough to be worth subtracting a star. The bottom line is that this is an awesome laptop for everything except gaming. (After you get over the minor quirks.)

Honest reviews on Toshiba Satellite P755-S5274 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Black)

I've had this laptop for about two weeks and I love it. It's fast and loaded with a lot of useful features. Multi-tasking, installing programs, removing crapware and transferring data onto this machine have been a quick breeze.

I love the keyboard and number pad. They both have a normal set-up so you don't have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out where a certain button has been misplaced (an issue I've had previous laptops/netbooks I've owned and other models I've tried out in stores). Keys are pretty easy on the fingers and feel nice to the touch. Keyboard is NOT backlit as far as I can tell but it wasn't an important feature for me so no minus marks there.

Screen is crisp and has good contrast; it's not washed out like a lot of laptop screens I've come across in my research. It's viewable from almost any angle so it doesn't need to be at an exact precise angle for you to see the screen well-lit.

Speakers can go pretty loud for laptop speakers. They aren't the best speaker quality but pretty darn good for a laptop.

Unlike previous laptops I've had, this one runs pretty cool. Haven't had an issue with heat at all (even when I've absentmindedly left it running on top of the bed or on carpet). I do feel heat being pushed out by the fan but the system itself remains pretty cool to the touch (ie you won't burn your lap if it's resting on your leg and you'll probably have no need for a laptop cooler fan).

Other people have commented on the placement of the touchpad. This was a concern for me before I purchased it but it turns out that I rarely have an issue with it. Once in a while the touchpad does act up while I'm typing but in comparison to a lot of other models I've tried out it's a pretty minor problem. The touchpad on/off key is conveniently located near the touchpad so it can be switched off right away if you need to do some heavy-duty typing.

Laptop has a high-quality plastic feel (yes, it's plastic). No flexing in the keyboard or case; feels very sturdy. The grooved design all over the laptop is a nice touch that prevents fingerprint smudges.

An added bonus is the free Xbox for students. I haven't received the xbox credit yet. I'v contacted Amazon and they swiftly replied that the xbox credit is on it's way so we'll see how that goes.

It took me a while to decide on buying this laptop since I couldn't find the exact model in any brick and mortar store to try out personally. You can't go wrong with the specs but I would recommend going to an electronic store and trying out similar Toshiba models to see if you like the configuration of the keyboard, touchpad, etc since those are all based on personal preference. I think I tried out P755-S5215 at Best Buy; it has nearly an identical appearance. For the price the specs on this machine are great. No regrets so far, very happy customer.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Toshiba Satellite P755-S5274 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Black)

I replaced an 8 year old Satellite with this computer. This new computer is very quick, keyboard keys have a nice touch. Fairly quite, lightweight and solid feeling. Windows 7 seems to be pretty good.

I find that the dolby advanced audio is not good and distorts music, try turning it off to make your music sound good. Also when you plug your speaker line into the headphone jack, select the headphone option, otherwise the line-in option also takes away from the music.

I was afraid that off center keyboard would be awkward and it is. Maybe I will get used to it. There is very little room for the left palm to rest on the computer and frequently inadvertently touches the mouse pad causing the mouse to do things I don't want it to do.

I chose toshiba again because my previous satellite served me near flawlessly (replaced hard drive once)for 8 years.

Sony VAIO(R) VPCF122FX/B F Series 16.4" Notebook PC - Black Reviews

Customer Ratings:

I'm giving this one 3 stars. I don't see the big speed improvement when compared to my 2 year old Dell. Then again, I haven't tried any games that would take advantage of the 1G video card or heavy processor intensive work. I mainly use it for everyday use like email, MS Office, browsing, running a web site, etc.

Things I don't like:

Keyboard: It takes getting use to. Typing on the raised keys is defintly diffenent then the conventional keyboards.

Hard drive: Not the fastest at 5400rpm. I might upgrade to either with a SSD or a 7200rpm HD. Also, you can hear the HD spinning, reading and writing under the keyboard. Clicking sounds are a little annoying.

Memory: Only comes with 4G when it could support max of 8G. Comes with 2x2G and if you need to upgrade, you need to pull out the existing memory. It's a waste of money.

Weight: Little on the heavy side.

Comes with a Blu-Ray reader and not a Blu-Ray burner

Bloatware: :Added Value" or not, I've uninstalled tons of unwanted software.

Back-lit keyboard (goes off after few seconds. Can't leave it on all the time)

Things I like:

Large screen, 16.4"

Ease of making backup media in case the hard drive crashes. You'll need 3 DVDs.

Back-lit keyboard (makes it easier to see the letters in the dimmly lit room)

Price; I got mine really cheap as I bought it as an opened box and it was a previously retuned item.

Bottomline: Not a bad machine; I wouldn't have bought it for the full price;

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I purchased a Sony Vaio VPCF122FX and I'm not happy with it. It seems to be running hot all the time. The cooling fan is very noisy and you cannot watch a video or listen to music without this high pitch noisy fan running in the background. I've used a DELL E6400 laptop and it is super quiet by comparison, regardless of how many windows I've got open or applications I've got running.

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Bought this laptop a year ago and of course after the one year warranty, things go south.

The laptop is flimsy, as the majority of the case is made from plastic. When you pick this thing up, you can feel and hear this thing cracking and flexing. Not Good.

As a result of the flimsy case, components began failing. First the blue ray player went out, but not completely, it still plays blue rays and burns DVDs and cds. It just won't read regular US DVDs. I've reformatted the hard drive, installed all updates, and cleaned it and everything under the sun! After contacting sonny about the problem they recommended the drive needs to be replaced.

Second, the hard drive failed after I reinstalled everything after the failure of the blue ray drive. Luckily I had an extra 320 gig laying around. The disk drive's failure was mechanical, possibly due to the lack of internal support or shock absorbing properties of the case itself. I do not travel much; it's a shame after about 4 trips in a backpack the drive/s fail.

After the hard drive and blue ray drive failures, I was convinced things were ok again. Wrong. As I am Skyping the wife, in mid sentence, the keyboard and touch pad quit working. I'm thinking virus, although I have up to date Norton, driver failure or something. After troubleshooting every software possibility, it turned out the ribbon that connects the display buttons and keyboard, have a bad connection. I wiggled the ribbon, which is located under the speaker panel by the caps lock lights, and the keyboard came back. The touch pad, however still does not work. So I took it all apart to find that a manufacturing flaw caused the ribbon of the touchpad to be pinched between the case. Over the course of a year, the thin and flimsy ribbon wore through.

I use a Bluetooth mouse so I had to borrow a usb mouse to install my Bluetooth mouse, but now everything is working, except the touch pad of course.

With how unreliable this computer is, I would never use it to type an important document, you never know when this thing will fail you. I'm going to give it to my 6 year old to play with.

On the plus side, despite the slow hard drive, the processor, graphics, ram and esata port are great.

The display is fuzzy, not very clear.

Never again Sony.

Seth

Reviews of ASUS UX51Vz-DH71 15.6-Inch Laptop

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,999.00
Sale Price: $1,812.99
Today's Bonus: 9% Off

If you're someone who prefers Windows over OS X, then you've probably identified the Asus UX51VZ as a potential windows-competitor to the Apple Macbook Pro Retina. My wife has the MBPr, so I have had some experience with it. While Asus gets most things right, I think it falls a little bit short in the hardware department. But don't get me wrong, this is a great laptop.

Things this laptop gets right:

The combination of full-powered CPU and dedicated graphics card give it enough power to game (although I don't game myself)

They laptop looks very good, and is both thin and light

3x USB 3.0 Ports is great for data transfer speeds; I don't need thunderbolt at this point

8GB RAM needs to be more common in thin laptops (can be upgraded to 12GB)

They keyboard is great to type on and the trackpad is the best I've used on any Windows laptop (doesn't match Apple trackpads, but comes close)

This display is terrific. There aren't many options out there for people who want a thin laptop with a nice IPS display. It's also matte, which is a huge plus over the MacBook Pro Retina (and it's actually the #1 benefit over the MBPr I think aside from running windows natively). Color gamut may not satisfy the most professional photographer, but you can hook it up to an external monitor for that (although, see con below).

Things where this laptop fails:

The fan never turns off! The idle fan noise is very annoying and it's something that Asus needs to fix ASAP. In my book, if Asus just fixes this issue, then this laptop goes from a 4 to 5 star laptop. I hope they have every engineer at their disposal working on this issue.

I am not sure why this laptop has a mini-VGA instead of a mini-DisplayPort connector. The future is in high-resolution monitors. The HDMI is limited to 1080p. Right now there is nothing on this laptop to support my 30" Dell Ultrasharp at its highest resolution which is very disappointing. I hope Asus gets this right in the future

There is no kensington lock on this laptop. When I'm working in a coffee shop I like to be able to lock up my laptop and not worry about it when I go to the restroom. I realize this is a small request, but it's surprising that it wasn't included.

It's clear that this laptop is a great one if you're shopping the thin + light premium laptop category. If Asus could just fix those couple of missteps (namely the fan noise issue and add a mini-DisplayPort) then this laptop would be absolutely perfect.

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I started researching replacements for my 15" unibody MacBook Pro in October '12. I wanted a similar form factor that preserved some of the things I'd grown attached to from Apple: great screen, responsive touchpad, and chiclet keys with great tactile response. I also wanted to massively upgrade. My MBP was top dog of its line when it was new, and the MBPr looks good, but only comes with a limited amount of video RAM. At minimum, I wanted: quad-core i7, 8GB RAM, SSD primary drive, nVidia dedicated graphics w/ 2GB video RAM. 1080p screen resolution was a must. Fit, finish, and materials had to be premium. I've never been too concerned with battery life, so in that regard I just wanted to maintain what I'd become accustomed to with the MBP. I'm notoriously difficult to shop for, and I'm exceptionally picky. After a month of searching high and low I began worrying that what I wanted simply didn't exist, and began worrying that I'd need to start making concessions. My wife has a Republic of Gamers ASUS laptop that looks like Batman's Tumbler vehicle. I can't stand the looks of it, but the performance was hard to ignore. Just before my purchase, I happened upon the u500 series from ASUS. On paper, I was sold. After a couple of weeks of research, some hands-on experience with the other ASUS Zenbooks, and lots of consideration, I made the purchase.

I. First Impressions

I'm a big fan of presentation, and ASUS didn't disappoint. The unboxing experience is satisfying, and as a gadget lover this is one of the best parts of getting a new "toy." Attractive packaging and creative boxing.

Bootup times are crisp and smart: 5-7 seconds when plugged in, with a couple of seconds extra on battery power. Installing software, browsing, and word processing happen nearly instantaneously; extremely fast. I play a few games: Counter-Strike GO, Minecraft, and World of Warcraft. All of them look excellent at maximum settings, and the nVidia card offers great performance in such a small package. One MINOR gripe: with maxed settings, there's just a LITTLE screen-tearing. It's almost unnoticeable, and I suspect it's more an issue with the screen than the rest of the machine. I'm also a web and software developer, and the screen offers a very pleasurable reading and writing experience. Text is very crisp; very sharp. All in all, I have zero regrets about my purchase. It does exactly what I want, and does so in a super sleek and sexy package. It's a powerhouse, and turns heads as soon as you open it.

II. Windows 8

I dislike Windows 8. There's no Start button, so without installing an add-on (more on this in a minute), it's necessary to go back and forth with the tiled interface. If the ASUS had a touchscreen, this might be a different take. If you're buying a version of this model in the UK or Australia, I hear this laptop not only has a touchscreen, but also comes with an external USB drive. Neither of these is the case for US models, so Windows 8 is pretty pointless. Feel free to point out all of the nifty new features under the hood that makes Windows 8 better than its predecessor, but if the first layer of user experience is more a hindrance than a help, it doesn't really matter what's going on behind the scenes. I installed the small add-on Start8 almost immediately after figuring out that I hated the default Windows 8 interface. It's a $4.99 purchase from the Stardock company, and it's phenomenal. Is Windows 8 usable without the Start button and a touchscreen? Sure, but it's painfully obvious that Microsoft did not intend it. Before installing a spare copy of Windows 7, if you have one, do yourself a favor and give Start8 a try. There's a 30-day demo, but you'll only need an hour to love it.

III. Bloatware

There's not a lot, but it's present. The usual crappy Norton trial is included, as is Office Starter edition. Windows 8 comes with an option to reinstall a completely barebones installation; don't bother. The bloatware will still be there after startup. Apparently, "barebones" installation still includes whatever subsidized garbage the manufacturer wishes to include. Thankfully, it only takes about five minutes to uninstall the garbage.

Best Deals for ASUS UX51Vz-DH71 15.6-Inch Laptop

I think the first review of this laptop is written very well, and I agree on many points. Since they have corrected the fan noise with BIOS 203, and since the Kensington lock is not an issue for me, nor is needing touchscreen, it is as perfect a laptop as one can get.

The sound is amazing, one of the best in speaker quality I have heard.

The display is top notch. The GPU is what I was looking for, a game worthy card. Having that on an i7 with 8GB of RAM, and an SSD, with three USB 3 ports, this doesn't lack for anything on my list. I understand the price is high, but anything in the 1000-1500 range comes with serious compromise--only 4GB of RAM, a spinning HDD, an Intel HD 4000 onboard card. I wouldn't have any of that at this stage, and could not find anything with those specs in a light (sub 3 lbs), thin "ultrabook". When you need those specs in a light, slick-looking package, suddenly the $2000 range is what you end up looking at.

Honest reviews on ASUS UX51Vz-DH71 15.6-Inch Laptop

I have owned many Dell Computers, and during my years as a Network Engineer, I configured and installed hundreds more. They had been my choice for many years after Sony stopped supporting the VIAO line with good driver updates, etc. My last Dell worked well enough, but it had a lot of plastic parts, it shipped with a scraping cooling fan, and the bezel cracked quite quickly. This put me in mind that I would shop elsewhere for my next computer.

Asus had been my favorite motherboard for desktop builds, and I never had trouble with one. When I learned that they were making laptops, I was interested. I read other reviews where people talked about cooling fan noise, but this seemed silly to me. This particular Zenbook is a very compact, very powerful unit, and it made sense to me that it might run the fan most of the time, which it does. I live high in the Colorado Rockies in a secluded location, and the fan noise has never been an issue at all.

The decals that others complained about came off in five minutes with a little nail polish remover (acetone,) Kleenex, and my fingernail. The touch-pad is indeed large and sensitive, and I do sometimes find that I have brushed it unintentionally. However, Function-F9 toggles the pad off and on for extended typing. I don't know what anyone else was expecting from a big well-made touch-pad. The recovery time from sleep mode is blazingly fast; just a few seconds, and it will stand by in that fast mode for a week or more.

I hate Windows 8 as much as anyone else, but a company called Stardock software makes a little program that gives you back your start button and all that it offers. This cost five bucks (really!)

This computer is not only the finest I have ever owned, it is one of the prettiest pieces of equipment I have ever owned. The shipping carton is even beautiful. I thought the sub-woofer would be a silly item, but it works surprisingly well. With companies like Dell seeming to fall on their sword, I am happy to have my money going to a company so clearly anxious to earn it.

This computer does not have a touch-screen.

After two months of ownership, this gets my highest ever rating.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS UX51Vz-DH71 15.6-Inch Laptop

After having used this laptop nearly daily for the past seven months or so (since late November 2012), I, without hesitation, can recommend it as an option for anyone interested in a machine that balances portability and performance. Since several reviews already exist, I will try not to be redundant, but rather, to offer some insight into the less-covered aspects of the device. Let me also offer this disclaimer: if I seem at times to be overly enthusiastic, I apologize, but I really do love this computer.

I use the device mainly for editing word documents, taking notes in class, browsing the internet, checking email, etc., but I also do some video editing and moderate gaming. Under lighter usage, the computer runs cool and efficiently, offering upwards of 7 hours of battery life. The computer runs games and other graphics intensive programs well, but it does get rather hot under heavier usage. Even though the touchpad and keyboard remain relatively cool, I definitely recommend using a laptop-cooling pad for gaming or video editing.

Having done as much typing as I have over the past few months (I am a college student!), I can say that the keyboard is very sturdy and comfortable to use--adequate spacing and key travel, no loose or squeaking keys. I also really appreciate that ASUS included a number pad, which is especially useful for editing spreadsheets and doing general computations. I do agree somewhat with one of the previous reviewers on the sharpness of the edge of the computer around the palm rest. Depending on your posture relative to the machine (i.e., the height at which the computer keyboard sits relative to your elbows), the front edges of the computer can cause some discomfort in the forearm/wrist during typing. However, I do not find this to be much of a problem because I usually place the computer on my lap or on an angled dock on my desk, such that my forearms do not rest on the laptop.

The 1920 x 1080 IPS display has excellent contrast, and text appears sharp and is especially pleasing to read on the matte screen, even under harsh lighting (reminiscent of reading from my Kindle, in a way, albeit the display technology is different). Indeed, I do not think that I will ever purchase another computer without a matte display! Yes, there is some light bleed around the edges of the screen, but it is only noticeable when I am viewing a completely black image (in essence, only when the computer is booting up).

The touchpad is large and smooth. As to its usability, I have to say that the touchpad has become increasingly responsive and precise with successive iterations of the drivers that ASUS has released since I bought the computer (as one would hope/expect, right?). Although the touchpad was somewhat finicky at first, it now works very well, which is important because it is fundamental to gesture operation in Windows 8, especially in the absence of a touchscreen.

Speaking of Windows 8 and touchscreens, one might ask whether I miss having a touchscreen in what is a seemingly touch-oriented operating system. My opinion is that, on such a large device, reaching across the keyboard to interact with the screen would be a bit unwieldy (or perhaps I am just lazy!). For example, my mother has a 13.3-inch touch-enabled Windows 8 laptop. While manipulating content via the touchscreen on her smaller device is natural and convenient, the screen is also considerably closer to the user, i.e., you do not have to reach as far to touch it.

My one and only major peeve with the computer is that SD cards do not sit flush with the edge of the computer when inserted. Since I expected to use a 128 GB card as a more-or-less permanent expansion to storage, the card jutting out of the computer disappointed me.

The audio quality on this machine is simply first-rate for a laptop. I have never been able to use any of my high-end earphones with a computer (Macs included) without an attenuator or portable amplifier, as the audio output and distortion/noise have always been uncomfortably high. However, with the UX51VZ, I can finally use my earphones directly with my laptop, which is a double boon because the audio processing via the included Waves MaxxAudio software is fantastic, especially when coupled with lossless audio files. The sound through the laptop's built-in speakers is no less stunning (again, for a laptop). With MaxxAudio and the placement of the speakers on the device, the spatial resolution of the music is phenomenal: songs are immersive and vibrant. The laptop also comes with a mini external subwoofer that lends a fuller, richer sound to the audio. To be fair, I still prefer to use my earphones, headphones, or other external speakers for listening, but I never imagined that such audio quality was possible from a laptop's speakers!

By far, the UX51VZ is the best computer that I have ever used. Fast, sleek, and portable, it is a superbly crafted device as well as a pleasure to use.

Discount ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB72 13.3-Inch Ultrabook

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,599.99
Sale Price: $1,519.99
Today's Bonus: 5% Off

I wanted an ultrabook with Windows 7, not Windows 8, and this one fit the bill. The screen resolution is fantastic and the speakers are excellent. The front facing camera is very good and video chats are excellent quality. The ultrabook is lightweight and easy to carry. It comes with a sleeve and can be carried around like a paper notebook if desired.

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I bought this for my wife, a lawyer. She has no problems and it was very easy to get her up and running. Great battery life (I don't use it so I do not know the time but she is very please with the system). She takes it every where with her. The boot speed is excellent, 10 sec. She was using a full size notebook and did not like to take it to court it was very heavy and took a min. to boot.

This Ultrabook is excellent for her. We installed a remote hard drive hooked to her wireless router. This is used to store files since the hard drive is 256 Gi. All works well.

Would buy again.

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I'm an IT guy, bought this for the boss, who is almost as technical as he thinks he is. He loves the machine. He was all about the Apple book because it was sleek and sexy, and with some luck we were able to talk him out of that and into a Windows machine. We chose this because specs were comparable to the apple, nice and thin and sleek. The specs are better and the machine runs as gret as expected. ASUS is known in our circle at least for fantastic and reliable parts. I build my servers with ASUS boards. The touchpad is large, which is against my personal preferance, but it is nicer to use than many others.

Honest reviews on ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB72 13.3-Inch Ultrabook

Worst laptop ever. The mouse trackpad is unreliable. Sometimes the cursor flies around in the middle of typing. It is unusable. The keyboard sticks. Randomly the backspace key would not work slowing me down. The letter "D" worked off and on and I was unable to password into accounts that had the letter "d" in it. My text gets randomly deleted sometimes. When I sent it in for repair it took a very long and it came back unfixed. I would not recommend this laptop to anyone!!

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I purchased this Asus through Amazon late last year It worked perfectly initially but the keyboard is faulty and I have had to upload a virtual keyboard so that I can use it. Currently the "c" and the "k" are not working. There are others with the same problem according to the various tech web-sites. If it weren't for this extremely irritating factor I would recommend it highly as the screen, the portability are all exceptional. It is not as though it has been subject to over-use or travelI have had it mainly at home in benign conditions.

Sony VAIO VPCEH34FX/B 15.5-Inch Laptop (Black) Review

Customer Ratings:

The only thing I will recomend for this laptop,is, buy another 4gig memory card and expand it to 8. I got a card at best buy for 25 bucks, and it really made a vast improvement in my computers speed. I'm sure you can find one at Amazon for less, but its well worth the investment. If you get a card, Youtube has many videos on how to install it. Trust me, it was easy. It took 5 min. You will not have to have a shop do it. Just remember to remove the battery before you do it, and have a small philips ready.

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I did tons of research before I purchased this computer, & I'm so glad i purchased this one! Set up is a breeze. I love the pattern on the computer, it completely eliminates finger prints & smudges. I have read reviews that said not very good speakers/sound. But, I have to disagree, mine is powerful & I love it! The offset track pad is in the perfect position for typing & very convenient. Fast shipping,(I chose 2 day)arrived exactly when it was estimated. Tracking was dead on accurate. I love this computer, hopefully it lasts a long time! Overall review: BUY IT!!!

Best Deals for Sony VAIO VPCEH34FX/B 15.5-Inch Laptop (Black)

I couldn't be happier with my new Sony laptop. I switched from an HP Entertainment laptop and have no regrets. Being a neat freak I especially love the texture of the outside and wrist rest area that doesn't show fingerprints. I was able to set it up and get going in no time. I read some comment regarding the screen size being smaller... doesn't bother me at all. Love it!

Honest reviews on Sony VAIO VPCEH34FX/B 15.5-Inch Laptop (Black)

Best 6hundred bucks ever spent this laptop is everything and so much more! I searched and searched for close to a year (NOT KIDDING) to make sure I got something that was worth every penny. And I'm more then satisfied w/my new pink VAIO. I love this thing and treat it like gold. lol It's my first but my Mother in-law has gone through so many laptops (none were Sony) in the past 3 years it's insane. and it's not like she dropped any of them they just couldn't keep up with all the work she does and did and just burnt out on her or overheated. I have always had and grown up around Sony products and they've always held up to there standards.

If your thinking about a new laptop and your not sure this is a great buy!

But do your research and never make a purchase until you feel a 100% confident in what your investing in.

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I like the finish, it feels great. I also like the # pad on it. The speakers aren't that loud so I got the gogroove sonawave from Amazon for 24.99 & it sounds wonderful now.

Best HP ENVY Gaming System DV7-7243CL i7 3rd Gen 12GB RAM 1TB HDD 17.3" Deals

Customer Ratings:

The laptop itself is fantastic. It is blazingly fast and will provide you with more power than you ever need. Windows 8 is absolutely built for touch screen though, and you'll find yourself wondering if you're missing anything by not having one. If you, like me, don't much care for touch screen laptops, then this is the laptop brand for you.

**Edit** The first laptop was shipped to me with some damage to it. After contacting the seller, they shipped a new model out to me, giving me the ability to swap the hard drives and send back the damaged one with the UPS guy! Well done!

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Had some problems but HP helped and resolved quickly. Would purchase again tomorrow. Very good price with 12GB and screen size a plus.

Best Deals for HP ENVY Gaming System DV7-7243CL i7 3rd Gen 12GB RAM 1TB HDD 17.3"

This is a very good laptop. Even though it's large one, but it's fast and good. I have problems in dealing with windows 8 but it's ok. This laptop heat up but not too high if used for more than an hour. It's refurbished but perform like new. Nothing to complain till now.

Honest reviews on HP ENVY Gaming System DV7-7243CL i7 3rd Gen 12GB RAM 1TB HDD 17.3"

Tried the computer for one week now. Seems to be as expected, It is quite fast for my applications, but I do not use it for gaming, just business applications. For the specs, it is an excellent price. Like the specs and especially the back lit keyboard after the problem with seeing the keys with my last HP notebook. Not thrilled with windows 8. I find that a huge step back from Window 7 but not an option in this case. Bought it for the specs at the price point and was not disappointed.

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Excellent bargain. I am an HP fan. This replaces a four year run with another HP laptop. Very happy with their reliability and performance.

Acer Aspire 7250-0209 - 17.3" - E-450 - Windows 7 Home Premium Review

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This really is a wonderful laptop. While I mainly use mine for school, it can also be used for light gaming. The only thing bad about it is the fact that you only have 512 Megs of Video Ram.

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Reviews of Acer Aspire V5-571P-6888 15.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Silky Silver)

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List Price: $749.99
Sale Price: $539.99
Today's Bonus: 28% Off

I bought this laptop for my daugher as a back in school gift, after two weeks, it is time for a praise.

Though I am not a tech savvy, I helped her to set up the laptop, and tried to run a number of applications at the same time including movie player, Photoshop, oh la la, to my surprise there was no crash at all, it was smoothly run and no heating over, even after two hours of test! Battery is good, after one hour and half with many apps, the gauge still showed 55% full capacity.

My daughter likes it very much, as she loves the elegant silky color, and the thin, lightweight aspects as well as a powerful machine for a high school student. I am very pleased with the purchase!

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Was afraid of getting windows 8 plus a new computer. This set up in seconds, took a little longer getting to Windows 8 but was surfing in a few hours. The built in tutorial made the change much easier than I ever expected. I am no computer tech so I just followed the directions and have no problems with this computer. Love the speed, lighted keys, light weight and ease of transition. Now windows 8 is another story!

Best Deals for Acer Aspire V5-571P-6888 15.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Silky Silver)

Perhaps I got a bad unit but this PC cannot keep a WiFi connection even if its a couple of feet from the router!

The signal starts off strong, then after a few minutes, it goes to "Limited" connectivitity status.

The trackpad is at times unresponsive and does not properly respond to right-click.

Overall performance (just basic web surfing) is laggy and trying to maintain more than a few browser tabs is pretty taxing on the mediocre I3 processor.

Regrettably, I had to return this laptop to Amazon. I picked up a much cheaper (non touchscreen) HP Envy 15 for about $100 less. Its much faster, has better trackpad response and most importantly, it holds a rock steady WiFi connection, even from the other side of the house!

If you are looking for this type of PC, consider looking into the HP Envy line. For about the same price, you can get one with a touch screen if that feature is important to you.

Honest reviews on Acer Aspire V5-571P-6888 15.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Silky Silver)

Against the advice of friends, I bought the Acer Aspire after reading PCMag and other reviews suggesting it as a good replacement for a PC. The laptop arrived, looked ok, powered up but the screen was black. Spent quite some time trying to figure out what went wrong. Was told that it was most likely a failure in the mainframe, battery or power cord all of which would need to be replaced. I was very disappointed but realized that cheap is cheap and opted to return it and get a more expensive competitor (HP Envy) and so far so good. I wouldn't recommend the Acer even if you're just looking for a cheaper option for a child. Unreliable and cheap. I also want to mention that the laptop arrived a day later than promised by Amazon. First time in a long time that happened. All around a bad experience I won't be repeating.

Apple MacBook Pro MD213LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop with Retina Display Review

Customer Ratings:

UPDATE: 12/11/12

After following Anandtech and their WebKit beta benchmarking awhile back, I've been testing all the newer WebKit builds over the past week and the scrolling gets better and better every few releases. The Pinch to Zoom on text is actually MASSIVELY better than the current actual Safari release. I think it goes a long way in proving, the point that better threading, Intel 4000 drivers or GPU off loading or all the above making everything much snappier on Ivy Bridge SoC retina machines. Surely not too far from an actual Safari update. You can grab a webkit download for free and test it yourself. Updates come out nearly everyday or more often.

***

If you don't own the machine don't review it. You are polluting the purpose of why Amazon has these here in the first place. To all the people who have "tried" the machine out for 30 seconds scrolling web pages and claim the 15 inch Retina is a better buy you are wrong. The 15 inch model which I also use at work also depends on the Intel HD4000 for everything on the OS aside from video rendering, Photoshop GPU load or games. The UI performance and web browser scrolling is THE EXACT SAME on the 15 inch model if not worse. You have no business "reviewing" a product without using it for an extended amount of time.

If you are buying this you are paying for the display. That's all there is to it. I reviewed the 15 incher Retina when we received it at the office and just about everything I said there applies exactly as it does here. The unit I purchased with my own money direct from Apple has been configured with the option Core i7 and 256gb SSD. I will reiterate my standings. I am a daily news and sports photojournalist and also an IT Manager. I work long days and long hours on both. I work with Linux, OS X and just about every flavor of Windows desktop or Server. I need fast, portable and reliable machines for tearing through my .NEF images from my D3 and D700. I need something fast and friendly for accessing Windows via Bootcamp. This 13 inch Retina Macbook is exactly what I need. But just like all of Apple products, it is not for everybody. That is why Apple has such a diverse catalog of machines somewhere in there, you will find something for your needs at the right price.

PROS:

This is a Macbook Pro through and through. It has a speedy processor that blows through most tasks. Though it's only a dual core, unlike the quad core 15, I/O is still really fast: startup, Application launches, saving, exporting they are all blisteringly fast for something this small. I can process batches upon batches of RAW images in my now "old" copy of Photoshop CS4 with zero hesitation. It just wipes them out.

Size and weight are PERFECT. The 15 inch Retina is a freaking boat anchor compared to this. It's simply too wide to be truly portable. My 11 inch Macbook Air is a cramped pain to edit more than a few dozen images at a time. This 13 inch Retina weighs marginally more than a 13 inch Macbook Air but not enough that feels significant.

It has a chunky keyboard and comfortable palm rest area.

Who needs a CD drive anymore? Dirt cheap and fast USB flash sticks are quickly becoming the new swappable storage. If you do need one the USB superdrive isn't bad, but a normal 15" model may be better in this price range.

Speakers and sound quality are simply astonishing for a laptop. I can't hear half what I play on my 11 inch air, here, you can Smokey Robinson or Vampire Weekend boom throughout the room with a real attention to clarity and low distortion.

It's built like a vault and feels more expensive than you will ever pay for it.

The display is just stunning. It's silky and subtle you don't notice fully until you see something else. I had a field assignment yesterday and packed in the Macbook Air 11 because I don't yet have a protective case for this Retina. I about threw up in my mouth for how bad terrible even the display on that Air is compared to this. You simply cannot go back.

CONS:

Battery life isn't that great. The five hour range isn't out of the questions, but don't expect a whole lot more than that.

I prefer the Magsafe connector that is parallel to the chassis and not perpendicular like this. That's picky but most Apple users are.

8 gigs of RAM forever sounds scary, but with the fast SSD, it is far less important than it would be with a slow platter drive. The soldered RAM is more of a talking point than actual problem.

THis is not a gaming laptop. PERIOD. I have owned EVERY SINGLE form factor iteration of the Macbook and a good deal of the Pro line, even back to the freaking Powerbook 160. Yes a 160. I can say with authority, the 13 inch Macbooks have NEVER done gaming or video on any level more than passable. I have a fire breathing GTX 670, SSD and 16gb of RAM PC at home for games and we have MacPros at work for FCP and Video.

Though most things are snappy, because of the Ivy Bridge 4000 Graphics, expect Mission Control and some scrolling on graphic heavy websites to drop frames. You can tell there's a struggle to push all those millions of pixels. The 15 incher performs EXACTLY like this. The nVidia discrete graphics acceleration is only called for heavy lifting apps, it isn't used for OS navigation at all. The biggest issue with the graphcs power has nothing to do with Apps the slower UI navigation shows up most obviously in the "MORE SPACE" display res mode of 1680x1050. Same as the 15 incher. This not a deal breaker though.

If you like to use your machines for work this is a fantastic computer in most ways. If you like buying computers to stare at how quickly Launchpad comes up while pressing the button for it really fast, then this is an expensive machine for that. If you want a gaming laptop buy a Razer. This computer does just about everything well, save gaming, with a display that is just in a class of it's own. This is totally in line with Apple's product DNA going back the old late 90s Cinema Display driven off crappy ATI Rage graphics with 16(!)mb of VRAM. If you don't like it, don't buy it.

8/10

UPDATE 3:

After living with this machine day in and day out for some time, I am 100% satisfied with my purchase. I will address the "whys' Apple chose the supposed "cheap" Intel 4000 over another discrete unit. Agree or not, this is why:

Manufacture, dev costs and higher margins. Duh

Lower power, better battery

Apple is in love with integration. They are pushing Intel and trying to give them incentive for bulking up their SoC silicon.

High spec gaming is niche. Fact. Metro 2033 and Battlefield 3 are MIA for Mac and few designers or photographers I know even know they exist.

iOS devices have great integrated graphics and in two years after Haswell and later Broadwell, I would think discrete graphics are facing complete extinction for all X86 mobile computers. Time will tell.

UPDATE 2: Well I had to amend my review. Turns out this thing is in fact pretty good with video. Exporting and manipulating files in FCP is pretty swift. I would say gaming and the CoreAnimation performance are the only two relative weak spots.

UPDATE: Just some Geekbench numbers to toss out there. On the free 32-bit suite, my Retina 13" i7 kicks out a 7759 score, within striking distance of 8580 score for my homebuilt Sandy Bridge i5 3.3ghz quad core with SSD, GTX 670 FTW and 16gb of RAM. Pretty impressive. My Sandy Bridge Air 11" with i7 comparatively scores a 5870. So for the numbers people, this is a reasonable indicator that the machine is a performer. Just not if you're trying to run Battlefield 3 on Ultra in Bootcamp.

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The new Retina MacBook Pro is outright gorgeous in terms of its form factor and screen resolution. There are several improvements in this version compared to the 2011 MBPRO 13" that I owned previously:

SIZE Feels significantly lighter and thinner. Somewhere between the MBAir and old MBPRO. It's almost a full pound lighter than the 4.5lb older MBP. A much more portable feel to it compared to the old MBP.

RESOLUTION No question, the resolution is what this device is all about. Refreshing new look as the screen is incredibly crisp (and that's an understatement) with it ridiculously high pixels and also more on-screen real estate to work with. The screen is less reflective compared to its predecessor, making it easier to work in bright conditions.

PORTS Great improvements in my opinion addition of an HDMI port and moving the second USB port to the other side, giving a USB port on both sides. Makes using them slightly easier. Firewire port replaced with an extra Thunderbolt port. Ethernet port and optical drive eliminated.

MAGSAFE 2 Original MagSafe connector replaced with MagSafe 2 connector. I personally am not aware of any advantages of the new connector in terms of charging/data transfer speed, but this was annoying because I had to buy another $80 MagSafe 2 charging cable for my office I leave one at home and one at work.

SPEED Flash storage makes using this device significantly faster. Boot up time and loading time for apps is super fast. Opening up the screen from standby takes less than a second.

BATTERY not sure of the battery specs but I get about the same use on this as I did with my older MBP. If I am away from a wall outlet, a full charge is god enough to get me by the day with 20-30% battery remaining. This could of course vary depending on personal usage.

STORAGE and RAM The rMBP comes with 128GB of flash storage and is also available with a 256GB configuration at an additional $200 or so. A device with higher capacity storage can be configured but that pushes up the price pretty quick and pretty steep. The processor is a 2.5GHz dual-core i5, the Apple rep told me there was no option to get a quadcore processor for this device. Only upgrade possible was I think a i7. If the storage or processor is a deal breaker for you, consider getting the 15" rMBP which comes with a i7 quadcore processor and 256GB flash storage. Performance wise or based on configuration options available, the 15" fares significantly better than the 13" but it is quite a bit more expensive.

Bottomline the 13" rMBP in my opinion offers a good balance across all MBP and MBA devices it offers fantastic portability (only slightly thicker than MBA) and great performance (falls short of rMBP 15 but better than other models).

At the end of the day, whether or not to buy this device is entirely a personal decision based on several factors. IMHO, if portability is a major factor for you, the MBA might be better suited though I think if you try both devices side by side, the difference is insignificant. If performance is a must-have in terms of computing power and storage, the 15" is definitely the better option with the additional $500 price tag . If you don't care about either and just need a good functioning Mac, the older version MBP would be perfect and it's much cheaper at $1199. That being said, once you see the resolution and form factor of this rMBP, it would be difficult to go back to the old MBP!

Best Deals for Apple MacBook Pro MD213LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop with Retina Display

WARNING: My laptop which I fully stand behind the 5 star reveiw and am in LOVE with was STOLEN during intenrational travel. This is just a warning to other users, turn on your find a macbook feature during setup!!! It does work abraod. I am not sure if I set it up in mine but it is not showing up in my icloud :( neither is my other stolen apple device. Only the device that wasn't stolen is surfacing. The device has to be connected to wifi for it to show on the map which is the one downside. Consider installing other anti theft software as well. A huge investment down the drain if you have it lost or stolen so be VERY careful with it!! Once I can afford it I plan on buying the same one again. I paid $2012 for this laptop at the apple store and for this current amazon price I would DEFINATLEY recommend this laptop.

Got my hands on the new macbook pro retina 13 inch 8gb i5 256 today retailing at apple for 1999.

First impressions:

PROS:

-the screen is indeed INCREDIBLE. Images and text appear crisp sharp and stunning. I can't look away. It makes anything look so vivid.

-the size is a plus, the footprint is a little bit smaller than the macbook air. you can probably find pics of the comparison online.

-keyboard is easy to type on, backlit as the others. There is no backspace or page up down key so far those are the differences Ive noticed from my other non mac computer.

-sound is also pretty nice so far. It is actually coming from little slits along both bottom sides of the computer. Although its on the sides it isn't touching the bottom because of the tapered design of the sides. Pretty cool design. Doesn't muffle the sound I find so far.

-it is very thin at first glance from the sides when you look closer you see that the sides are tapered so there is more to it that kind of goes off at an angle underneath.

-weight is about 3.57 pounds. it is noticeably heavier than the macbook air by a little, but not enough to break your back or rule it out as an option for an ultraportable powerful laptop. you can hold it in one hand but it def isn't as fabulous as holding the 11 and 13 airs, few things are.

CONS:

-price, about 2k, yikes!! The odd thing here is that with the apple education pricing for about $7 more you get the base configuration of the 15inch rMBP which gives you more screen, speakers on the sides of the keyboard, an NVIDIA graphics card and an i7 processor in the base model. The 15inch is about a pound heavier a little thinner but longer and wider. It seems like the better deal at this price point so the contemplation will be over how much size and weight matters to you comparatively with the specs you will gain. Ultimately this will depend on how much you will carry the laptop around and what you are buying it for.

-the bottom seems to be heating up quite a bit while streaming videos. I hope this doesn't become a big issue since I really like this laptop!

UPDATE: the part near the screen top and bottom does heat up a bit, I think that is where the battery is. I noticed when I stream videos it can get quite hot, but when I used the HDMI cable to stream videos onto a large tv it did not heat up at all. You have to be careful to make sure not to block the vents at the back of this laptop which are in the hinge area under the screen. I found it not enough of a reason to take it back.

TBD:

-battery life. not sure if it lives up to the 7 hours, so far its still going strong since I pulled it out of the box earlier today. check into professional reviews when they put it through the paces, not many are online yet but will likely be popping up tomorrow and onward.

UPDATE: while streaming videos the battery can be quite short like around 5 hours depending on the settings, but while traveling and without video streaming I was finding it was about 7 like promised.

-HD 4000 graphics cardthe biggest concern of mine for this laptop and probably the biggest reason most people won't choose it over the air is that it only has the one HD4000 graphics card which people seem to think may not be enough and no separate NVIDIA graphics card. I am not sure how much this will effect the graphics and video streaming etc in the long run so this is still tbd for me. The apple people said that the extra NVIDIA card is only needed or noticeable when doing 3d gaming or intense video editing so in that case it may not be a problem. So far the videos I have streamed look great and have been playing just fine. Will have to see how much this matters in the end.

UPDATE: video streaming on this was a dream. I only had it stream slowly once I think it may have been the internet connection, but for my usage light editing of pics and vido streaming while watching movies and shows I did not feel like the HD 4000 card was underperforming. Also as other reviews have noted to those who are screaming that just the 4000 card in this machine is a downgrade for a pro, currently all 13 inch mac laptops have the same 4000 graphics card and no other supporting graphics card from what I saw. If you want the extra graphics card go with the 15inch rmbp.

Comparison with 13 inch macbook air:

Graphics quality: I had both the 11inch and 13 inch macbook air previous models but took them both back because although the design of the computer is beautiful there were a few things that I couldn't get past, mainly there was too much noise and fuzzy quality to the graphics when streaming videos which would always catch my eye and bother me. For most people I don't think this will be an issue and although the retina screen is prettier, I don't know if it will be pretty enough to justify $400 and .57 pounds heavier. But for me this was a real sticking point and in this category Pro wins. Although they use the same graphics card everything seems to look better on the pro.

Price: Since you can configure the airs with the same specs as this pro for around 1600-1700 there is def a premium price for a few more ports (mainly addition of HDMI port in the pro) and the screen. Air wins in terms of pricing and for most users the air will likely be the way to go for now. The price is the biggest disappointment in the pro laptop. For the $300 to upgrade the flash storage, you still only get an i5 processor. I think the price/value will improve after a few refreshes but I guess the premium price is for whoever is willing to pay to start using this laptop right away. The education pricing for the pro also only takes $100 off for the 13 inch as compared to $200 for the 15inch. The 15 inch offers a much better value at this price point but for ppl going between the air and the rmbp the size and weight of the 15inch may rule this out leaving you with the option of paying more for less specs in the 13 inch.

Design: Another prob I had with the airs is while the tapered design was beautiful the bottom edge would dig into your wrists while typing and it would be noticeable after a little while and very comfortable. I got around this by putting a case over it which had a soft cover for everything but the trackpad, so it is not an insurmountable problem. So far I don't notice the same problems on the retina pro because the edge is thicker than the pros. I think the airs do look extremely sexy as a laptop even though the external design is pretty much the same as 2008 it is still the best looking laptop out there. The two are kind of tied here. The air and pro are both very beautifully designed computers.

Screen: besides the pixel/quality of the screen, I don't think much can surpass the retina screen in terms of quality but the air screen holds up well on its own, for most users. If you mostly do web browsing email and document processing, I don't think you will miss all of the pixels on the retina screen, even though it makes things look nicer. Where it really is noticeable is in video streaming/editing and picture editing etc. One thing I was worried about was what websites, apps, videos etc that are not "optimized for retina" would look like on this computer since there is some talk that they look terrible and fuzzy. However so far everything I've viewed from many different types of websites and a few apps looks great. No fuzzy jagged edges. I also haven't noticed glare on the screen which is a def plus. A minor difference is preference between the silver bezel and the black bezel edges. The airs silver bezel edges are wider and more noticeable. I think the black looks nicer in terms of it is much narrower and when putting things into fullscreen barely noticeable. Pro wins.

Those are just some first impressions to help others who are thinking of buying this laptop. I waited months and months and months for the air refresh (to see if the graphics improve) and then for the rMBP 13 inch to come out once rumors surfaced so I am glad to finally have found what I think may be the right mac for me. I think most users will go with airs but the pros may be for some users who need just a little more especially in terms of image and graphics quality and are willing to spend extra for it. The price/value/purpose is something that should merit some serious reflection though before pulling the trigger on this one since upgrading to the 256 flash storage takes you above 2k. So far I am very happy with this laptop and find that it addresses everything I wanted in a laptop and then some. If the price was a little less it would def be more palatable. But I hope that this will be an excellent laptop and investment that will last for quite awhile.

Honest reviews on Apple MacBook Pro MD213LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop with Retina Display

First of all, I'm an Apple-addict :) Have almost all their products. 1) Don't agree with those that the price is too high. MAC's have never been cheap. If you don't have enough money, go and get yourself a Lenovo... 2) Design, feel, all at usual for Mac levels. I personally just hate touching my employer's PC after a weekend home. Feels like plastic that is working 3 times as slow as a thin and great looking piece of art. And the tactile feeling that you get! unmatchable! 3) All flash architecture really works it's literally lightning fast. Even with 20-30 MB RAW photos in Photoshop, not to mention pages and keynote applications. The new rMBP is a great machine, but...

1) I don't know what i'm doing wrong but never ever came even close to proclaimed 7 hours, even when web-surfing... 3-4 max. It's not that bad, but I can spend the whole day using my I-Pad and I want the same flexibility with this machine. It's promised by Apple, but not fulfilled

2) Somehow, if you use your gestures to increase the text size on a web page, not the "command+" combination, the web pages start to scroll really slow!!!! as if somebody turns off your graphic processing capability... try the hockey news site for example

3) Fully agree with those that say that the new MagSafe2 power cord falls off every time! I believe, it's because they made it perpendicular to the machine. I bought their adapter for 9.99 and use the old charger. It hold as it used to...

Hope you find it useful. And final hint. The Macrumours site says "wait" as cycle is approaching its end. Carefully look at the number of days and don't wait, if you decide to buy this machine. MacBooks have never been renewed in less than a year. So, don't expect the new one until 2014...

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Skeptical from reviews by those such as Vicky, I still went with this machine and have been settling into it after a week now. All I have to say is wow, if you think this thing is not worth it and you're just paying for the screen that is ridiculous! SSD are expensive, because they are new technology! What a difference this is, I hold it up to my ear and it does not even make a faint hum it is completely noiseless. The responsiveness is incredible with many tabs open in Safari as well as other programs.

I have been an avid PC enthusiast/builder and PC gamer since i could click a mouse, and I finally went to the dark side. I hate to love this thing! I would not even consider it a "laptop" its so much more! The connectivity with my iPhone effortlessly setting up this machine was amazing. It's like my gadgets were talking to each other and I didn't have to worry about the nitty gritty tech details. The first time I opened the calendar on my retina, it already contained everything scheduled on my iPhone!

The retina display is phenomenal. The text is so crisp it makes everything a pleasure to read and write. This machine went way above and beyond my expectations and surprised me with things I didn't even consider like noise level, comprehensive track pad navigation, incorporation of iPhone style layout apps, and incredible responsiveness...this thing is worth every painstaking penny. Also, the speakers sound great just to add another observation. Can't wait to really max out the potential on this thing because I feel I've just scratched the surface.

Cheap Acer Aspire 15.6-inch 1.50GHz 250GB SATA HD Laptop Grey |

Customer Ratings:

I purchased this laptop a month ago; it has crashed twice already, it will require more memory. The speakers/sound is good. The picture/resolution is good. I woould not purchase this laptop again, I probably wouldnt recommend it either. The keys on the keyboard are flat which can be annoying for some people. It has taken me some time to get used to this. I havent played movies on it yet, but I have watched You Tube videos and the resolution is good.

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Toshiba Satellite Laptop (U405D S2874) Reviews

Customer Ratings:

The Toshiba Satellite. My first laptop ever that turned out to be an outstanding choice for me.

I'm a musician, gamer, and occasional artist. I needed something that gave me enough CPU power to mix and master production quality music, but enough portability to do this on the go. Something that could handle realtime mixing of audio and MIDI tracks... orchestral soundscapes, electric guitars, and intricate synth pads. The Toshiba Satellite handles this well, especially with a dual core CPU.

I'm an old school gamer, so I wanted something that was powerful enough to run console emulators, and do it all on the go. N64 and PSX emulators? No problem. The Radeon 3100 built into the laptop, handles 2D and 3D graphics nicely. I got smooth framerates running all my favorite games on this laptop. Windows Aero in Windows 7 is also very smooth and nice on the Toshiba Satellite.

I also enjoy using visual software suites for graphics design. Photoshop, After Effects, GIMP... you name it. I had very few issues using these programs on this laptop. RAM is important here. The Toshiba Satellite has 4GB of RAM. 4GB is great for multitasking and graphics.

Is it the perfect laptop? No. Are there faster and better ones on the market? You bet. Considering the price, this laptop is hard to beat for the quality. So all in all, my experience with the Toshiba Satellite U405d s2874 was great. I'm sure there are others out there who have had great experiences and bad experiences with their laptops, but mine was definitely positive. That's my 2 cents.

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XN517UAR#ABA HP XN517UAR#ABA HP XN517UAR#ABA Review

Customer Ratings:

After loading Microsoft Office Professional 2010 + Microsoft Security Essentials I began receiving messages from Microsoft that the version of Windows 7 was not authentic and that Security Essentials would shut down in 30 days in addition to automatic updates all failing. A little phrase above the time on the lower right of the screen appeared and stayed there: "not an authentic version of Windows 7". Since I had already loaded MS office professional 2010(a very expensive program)I was forced to buy an authentic version of Windows 7-and load the authentic product keyBRINGING THE TOTAL COST TO WELL OVER $400.

Over a month later this PC is full of qwirks.

DONT BUY FROM DISHONEST SELLERS LIKE THESE PEOPLE

COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE SELLER REVEALED THAT HE IS BARELY LITERATE.

The Amazon claim process is 99.9% automated and individual issues are not well addressed.

I would not want to return a pc after I loaded MS office and was forced to buy an authentic version of Windows 7. That would be returning a much more valuable product than the one I bought.

I requested a refund for the authentic version of Windows 7. The automated return process is not set up for specific requests and only offered a return.

ABSOLUTELY NOT WORTH IT!!!!

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Maybe not for the power gamer but,great laptop for the adverage user. Purchased this laptop feb 2011 factory refurbed for $275 with the standard 6 month warranty given refurbs. Have had no problems. has web mike but no cam. Can always clamp one on. Must replace the battery now, but wait, That's 18 months of daily use on a 17"er. Not bad at all. To the reviewer who gave this item a one star. Sounds like your problem was with the seller trying to pull a fast one. Sorry to hear.

Buy HP Folio 13-1029WM 13.3" Ultrabook (1.4 GHz Intel Core i3-2367M

Customer Ratings:

This computer is nice and quick. It is less than the regular ultrabook with the i7, but i think the i5 has enough for regular office and internet use. If you need a great gaming or design software computer i would spend the money for the i7.

There is no cd player, but you have to ask yourself, do we even use those any more anyway? I prefer it w/o anyway for weight reason and the battery life is ridiculously awesome.

Overall, very happy with our purchase as it is perfect for what we needed.

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Great laptop, having this laptop for 4 days, everything works well so far. The screen is not one of the best but acceptable. Keyboard and trackpad works very well. Battery up to 5 hours depends on how you use it. I got 5 hours for surfing the internet and watching youtube. I used torrent and let the screen be turned off, it got up to 8-9 hours. It gets some heat and can be quite hot at the bottom but you will rarely notice it unless you touch the bottom. So far so good, it's very light and thin. I usually use it for email, webs, movies when I'm at school and I really like it! But I have to take off 1 star because of the battery and the screen, but other than those, everything is perfect.

Best Deals for HP Folio 13-1029WM 13.3" Ultrabook (1.4 GHz Intel Core i3-2367M

My first HP folio 13 was so good, I bought this one for may daughter to use at college. They boot fast with no issues. the battery life is excellent, and they are very portable.

Honest reviews on HP Folio 13-1029WM 13.3" Ultrabook (1.4 GHz Intel Core i3-2367M

I bought mine at WalMart on 9/29/12 and had to travel to a store 45 miles away to get the last one in the area. It has a great battery life, longer than any laptop I have ever had. It boots up/shuts down in seconds. The look and feel is very nice. The aluminum top makes it as nice as a Mac Air. I really like the lighted keyboard, but use sparingly because it depletes the battery a bit quicker. I think it is a very nice machine for $500; too bad they are all sold out, even online.

I had to download and update the Fresco driver to get the USB 3.0 drive to work. You will probably need to buy a USB extender (2.0 or 3.0) because you will need more ports.

I installed Adobe's Lightroom 3 and uploaded 240 RAW pictures via a Compact Flash reader. It took 5 minutes to import all of the pics. Editting was a breeze. When I exported to the SSD in JPG format, it took 5 1/2 minutes to process for of the pictures. Therefore, I can say that the HP3000 GPU and the i3 processor struggles to handle this type of application. This is the reason for the 4 stars. All other applications seem to work fine.

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after a week of constant updates , i'm getting used to the move from Xp to Windows 7 ... it does freeze up once in a while ,...

but i almost expect those issues from any Windows system .. ! it is very lite weight , nice battery life if needed ... feels much much faster doing everything than Win Xp ... still getting used to slight tighter keyboard , but the Backlit keys are great .. !

Best Sony VAIO T Series SVT13114GXS 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver Mist) Deals

Customer Ratings:

Well, you will fall in love with this laptop's apperance. And, it's Sony brand, what can go wrong. So far I used it for almost a month, here's my feeling toward it.

1. Speed = pretty fast. It boots windows and shuts down as advertised. i haven't really compare it with other ultrabook but to compete over 0.5 second to me is silly.

2. Weight = 3.5 lb is a bit heavier than I like to. Toshiba portege that I played with at Bestbuy was awesomely light. But there were reports about it being filmsy so I hesitated to get that and end up with sony. Personally I like this to be another 0.5 lb lighter to have that real ultrabook feel.

3. screen = man i wish this would be 1600 x 900 that would make this world a much happier place for me. i have this urge to get a S serie and just swap the screen.. :(

4. power = ok now. there is a problem. as we all know, ultrabook was suppose to compete with macbook air but macbook air can be on standby mode for days. i had this laptop fully charged in the morning and put on sleep mode but by the time i'm writing this review, 10:40 pm, battery is down to 9% ... something is not right. i will try it again and if the result reversed, i will revise this part of my review. Also the default 5 hour use time is somehow exaggerated. i think 3.5 4 hours are more realistic.

5. durability = i baby this laptop. i have no intention to rough test it so i'll pass this to someone else to provide.

6. accessories = bought a keyboard skin for 2.99 from ebay instead of 19.99 + tax from sony direct. very happy about this.

7. upgrades = i added 4gb to make it 8gb. removed the default 500gb hdd with a intel 120GB ssd. i recommend all to do the same. :) i also had to re-install clean windows + office to speed things up.

8. keyboard = not a big fan here. the key location is not comfortable compare with thinkpad. and the feel of the click feel i am going to poke a hole in it. but after a while i do get use to it. not happy here but acceptable. no backlit here.

thank you all for bare with me. to sum it all up, i like the name sony , the way it looks, and perform for the most part are satisfactory. some minor upgrade such as better screen resolution, led backlit keyboard, would be nice.

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This is a nice looking machine, suitable for home users and business types, but not for serious gamers due to its lacking a dedicated graphics processor. It is very solidly built, with no creaking or flexing, and feels very nice to the touch. The touchpad is responsive and has a full area click feature, with the right-hand lower corner reserved for right-clicks. A slight downside is that while clicking, the mouse sometimes drifts away slightly as you are still on the touch surface; I found tapping the touchpad more reliable.

The screen is bright and has good viewing angles for this type of device. The screen is glossy and not matte, so it can act like a mirror in bright environments. The resolution is also fine for a screen of this size. It is no retina display for sure as close inspection of letters reveals the step-like stagger of pixellation. However, the key word there is close: at the normal screen to eye distance the stagger is smoothed away naturally not a deal breaker for me.

The webcam is great and produces good colour representation from what I have seen. I have not tried it in low light conditions yet. The microphone also picks up sound very well, so no shouting required.

The speakers are surprisingly good and completely hidden. My wife bought an albeit-cheap ($9), USB-powered pair of external speakers before she tried the laptop's and she really should not have bothered: the laptop outperformed them in every way.

Speaking of sound, then cooling fan is audible at full throttle, but is is acceptably quiet.

Ports-wise, this laptop is well-endowed, especially given its ultrabook form factor: LAN port, VGA, full HDMI, SD & Pro Duo card slot, headphone port, 1x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0 (also a sleeping-charge port for external devices).

The keyboard is clickless and has that nice resist and collapse feel, so no sponginess.

All of this for $800 is an absolute bargain frankly. If you plan on getting Windows 8, get Windows 7 Home Premium as Microsoft offers an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $15.

Best Deals for Sony VAIO T Series SVT13114GXS 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver Mist)

The three previous reviews generally echo my impressions. However I wanted to clarify some of the specifications. The weight is variously listed as 3.3 lbs, 3.4lbs and 3.54 lbs. I believe there is confusion as to whether the number after the decimal point is in tenths of a pound or in ounces. I have weighed the Vaio T on a digital postal scale and it weighs 3 lbs 5.8 ounces. In terms of lbs this equates to approx. 3.36 lbs. The power brick is surprising small. It weighs 5.2 ounces (the brick and the nondetachable cord that goes from the brick to the computer.) The brick dimensions are 3.5" long, 1 3/8" wide and 1" high. The review that lists a "Con" has the Vaio being .5 lb overweight may be overstated as I noticed that the specs for the soon to be released Asus Zenbook Prime UX32A (with a hybrid drive) lists its weight as 3.2 lbs. If that is pounds and tenths of pounds then the difference is actually less than 2 tenths of a pound (or less than 3 ounces).

The Vaio T has a 500GB hard drive plus a 32GB SSD in what is listed as a 532GB hybrid drive. This compares favorably to the announced slew of other ultrabooks with hybrid drives. The competition (Samsung series 5, Asus UX32A and Acer S5) generally has only a 24GB SSD. In addition the Vaio has one expandable RAM slot which can take up to 4GB of additional RAM. I bought a 4GB chip for about $26 and installed it and it worked without any hitches.

Hope this helps.

Honest reviews on Sony VAIO T Series SVT13114GXS 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver Mist)

This ultrabook looks great, feels great, solidly built

and is very responsive. I had it so far only 3 days.

Easy to setup and quick to start because of 32GB solid state memory.

I read some questionable reviews about the display and the keyboard.

The display is very sharp and the keyboard is good, considering that this

product weighs less than 3.5lbs and is quiet thin. If you are not a major

gamer or graphic designer, you will have all the speed you need with the

3rd generation Core I5 processor. I have not tested the battery, but based on

the indicator I don't think that it will give you 7 hours unplugged.

If your eyes are on the weaker side, you should go with a 15.4" display,

if PC is your comfort environment this is your notebook, especially for

travel... If you can afford and feel comfortable with the MAC go for the

Notebook Air or Notebook Pro, they give you a faster processor that will

serve you further in the future.

But overall this notebook met and exceeded most of my expectations.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Sony VAIO T Series SVT13114GXS 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Silver Mist)

Bought this from Amazon using my friend's prime account

Likes

1. Very tiny power brick (fits in the palm of my hand)

2. Quick start up from hibernation (4-8 seconds as opposed to 2-4 seconds when brand new)

3. Sleek and light

4. Nice sound from speakers

5. No heating problems

6. nice light and firm keyboard (thankfully not too much innovation has been done here by adding funky stuff)

Dislikes

1. only 2 USB ports located on the left of the machine. Very inconvenient for mouse. (I am right handed)

Additional Notes:

1. web-camera is standard

2. battery lasts 4-5 hours