Best Asus ZENBOOK Prime UX32A-DH31-CA Ultrabook (13.3-inch, I3-3217U Deals

Customer Ratings:

In had a user who's not supposed to lift heavy things, and was shlepping around a Dell Latitude that was ~7lbs or so, not counting the laughably large power supply, and it was not working out well. There is a Microsoft Store in the area, so I figured I could go there and see a variety of Ultrabooks from various makers and compare build quality. I got there and found that the Microsoft stores now only carry systems with Windows 8 (barf) and are all touchscreens (because of the Windows 8 requirement no doubt). I am amazed that there is nothing at all in the Microsoft Store that was even a little bit "business friendly." Being the only non-employee in the place, I was free to ask the idle employees about this development, and they agreed that it was dumb. They previously HAD been carrying Windows 7/non-touchscreen systems, but had to pull them. One fellow told me that the Asus Zenbook had the best build quality of those they carried. At that point I left and came to Amazon and bought one sight-unseen. Additionally, it was pre-loaded with Windows 8, so I had to make sure there were Windows 7 drivers available (there are), because no way am I asking anyone to live with that mess.

There are three things I was looking for specifically, and none were related to performance. The first is a decent hinge. Macbooks have this one nailedyou can lift the lid of a Macbook and the bottom doesn't lift up off the desk/your lap. That is, the hinge doesn't require more force to open than the weight of the bottom part. PC makers regularly fail on this point, but this Asus was pretty good. Not Macbook good, but better than most. The next is screen/lid integrity. When the laptop is open grab the top corners of the lid and push on and pull the other a little, in such a way that the screen is twisted (GENTLYdon't snap your screen and yell at me) I look for as little wobble as possible, and usually this is a deal-breaker too, but the Asus was better than most. The last item is a good touchpad. The Macbooks have some kind of glass surface that wears like nails, but most PC makers use something that feels like a shower curtain liner in short order. I don't know how the Asus will fare on this point, but the initial tactile experience was decent.

The Zenbook has two disksone 24GB SSD and one ~500GB SATA. They have a utility that is meant to use the 24GB SSD as a cache, and I struggled to decide how to handle the reloading. Did I want to recreate this shared arrangement or what? 24GB isn't quite enough to load Win 7, Office, and other sundry things a user needs, and given that the intended recipient is a remote worker, I decided to just load everything on the 500GB and ignore the small SSD. What? You now think I'm nuts? Okay, but here's my angleif I'd setup the sharing arrangement and something went sideways, what are the odds that I could support it well? In my mind, it's negligible. Beyond that, there is the matter of default disk formatting. The Windows 8 models (not sure about the others) have the disks formatted in GUID mode, not the conventional MBR formatting. Does it matter? Not a ton, but if you want to do whole disk encryption (as I do), Truecrypt won't fly. It needs MBR disks, as do most other encryption utilities. If you use Windows 7 Ultimate, you can use BitLocker, and that's what I did. Yes, that's a performance hit, but in this case the user who'll have it is not power hungry. In the configuration I'm describing, the performance is ordinary.

As for the dimensions/weight, it's a close approximation of a 13" Macbook Air. The screen is slightly different geometry, but you'll need to set it next to a Macbook Air to notice. In other respects, it's Air-like. The closed profile is about the same, the materials are similar, but the Zenbook feels a little bit heavier. Don't get me wrongmy lift-limited user is delighted with the change. It's around three pounds, and the power cord is a small block much like the Macbook Air one. It doesn't come with a USB to Ethernet adapter, which I thought was a rotten of Asus to exclude. Hell, even Apple gives you a Thuderbolt to Ethernet adapter when you buy a Macbook Air. As long as I keep comparing this to the Macbook Air, I'll mention that the battery life on the Zenbook is maybe a bit less, but certainly in league. In my usage, it would get close to 5 hours on a charge.

Verdict? If you really want Windows (over say Linux, Mac OS X, etc.) and don't want Apple hardware, this is a good choice. I suppose the cost is another significant factor. As of this writing, the Zenbook is $768 and a Macbook Air is $1200not twice as much, but close. My preference would have been to get the Macbook Air, and load Windows natively. I find the Air to be a better made item (and I'm betting the trackpad on the Zenbook won't stand the test of time well), but the user in this case didn't want any more changes than necessary, and I'm not upset by saving money. I didn't have time to try making a "hackbook" with this, and have no idea if OS X will run well on this model.

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First, don't let this review reflect amazon because they were great about shipping the product. I purchased an asus that broke and sent it for repairs. They fixed the initial problem after a 4 week turnaround time and sent it back broken with another problem. They then took another 3 weeks ( which I am still waiting on), refused to send me a loaner or speed up the process even though they broke the computer and worse the computer doesn't even run well. Think twice before purchasing an asus

Best Deals for Asus ZENBOOK Prime UX32A-DH31-CA Ultrabook (13.3-inch, I3-3217U

I was short with the ASUS 128 GB solid state hard drive. This has 24 GB solid state plus 500 GB regular hard drive and I have enough memory for my dropbox files. Size, weight, operation are no problem.

Reviews of HP Envy dv6t 15.6-inch Laptop (Latest dv6 Model), 3rd generation

Customer Ratings:

After previously purchasing an HP Envy dv6 laptop for my husband, when I needed to replace mine, I immediately opted for this latest model of it. I feel it is a well rounded offering and excellent value for the price. It was received promptly, was easy to set up, and I couldn't be happier. I highly recommend this laptop to families and individuals.

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Discount VIZIO Thin and Light CT14-A1 14-Inch Laptop

Customer Ratings:

Overall the Vizio CT14-A1 is a solid Ultra book. It is extremely fast, the screen is beautiful and its very light. The design of the laptop is elegant and it is very well built, similar to a MacBook Air (solid aluminum chassis). I installed Windows 8 about a week ago, and its made the laptop even faster. Like others mention, the keyboard is very light and it feels significantly different from the Dell laptop I'm used to. My only real complaint with the computer is also with the keyboard. It has a propensity to double letters and not acknowledge when the shift key is pressed. Other reviewers have mentioned this as well. It doesn't do it often, or consistently, but I do notice it occasionally.

As far as I know the only difference between the CT14-A1 and the CT14-A4 is the windows version. When upgrading to Windows 8 I did have to find the drivers for the wireless NIC by doing a google search and manually installing them. I am also using a USB to LAN adapter to speed up my internet connection, although the wireless also works great.

I was a little concerned about gaming performance due to the Intel 4000 integrated graphics. Overall it's adequate for light gaming. It's runs graphics intensive games like World of tanks at 1600x900 on low settings with 25+ frames per second.

Pros

+Beautiful construction

+Fast for everyday uses (

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Gateway NV5929u, i5-430m, 4GB DDR3 memory, n-wifi, 6-cell battery Reviews

Customer Ratings:

I know my review is extremely long, but I've tried to provide as much information as I can. I will continue to update this review periodically and respond to comments, so if you have questions please feel free to ask.

A note on the error:

A lot of people picked up this laptop on sale at Best Buy for $500. It was an error on Gateway's part; they put in i5 chips instead of i3 chips, but the box was labeled as i3 and the laptop has the Intel i3 inside sticker on it. The system bios says it has an i5 and benchmark tests prove it does have an i5-430m. It will get up to 2.53 ghz when turboboost comes on. Stock speed is 2.26 ghz. Hyperthreading means it has 2 physical cores and 2 virtual cores. This laptop does have a $750 msrp value, but I wouldn't have paid $750 for it. Many people got them on sale because of a mistake. In any case, this is a solid laptop, although not at the retail price of $750. I think for $750 there are definitely a lot of good laptops out there, but you need to buy with your goals in mind. If you want a gaming laptop, look for a really good video card. What you need varies by what you want to do with the computer.

Pro:

The laptop feels sturdy, the screen has little play in it and stays firmly in place to wherever you open it. It looks sleek, is thin and pretty light at under 6 lbs. A 15.6 inch screen is a nice balance between size and portability, in my opinion. 17.3'' is great but they can weigh a pound or two more as the entire laptop is bigger as a result. 15.6 inches fits in my backback with no problem. Overall I really like the design and build quality of this laptop even if it is plastic. The only aluminum-cased laptops I've ever seen are the macbook pro ones from Apple, and those cost upwards of $1500. If you want a metal or carbon fiber one, get a macbook pro or some other high end model.

This thing is fast. The i5-430M is an excellent chip. You can google benchmarks on it. The i3 is 30-40% faster than a C2D, and the i5 is quite a bit faster than the i3 because of turbo boost technology. It also gives better battery life than the i3 because it has speed step and lower voltage. It's odd that the faster chip gives you better battery life, but that's just another perk.

4GB DDR3 1066mhz (3.68gb usable it says) is excellent. DDR3 is the newest type of RAM and it's still really expensive. The Gateway website says it recognizes 4gb RAM max but it actually will take 8gb. It only has 2 RAM slots so if you get 8gb it'll be maxed. However adding anything more than 4gb RAM would be pretty much useless for most people. I haven't been able to get this to use much more than 2gb, let alone 4. 4gb RAM is perfect for most people, get a solid state drive if you want a performance boost.

320gb 5400rpm hard drive is plenty of space. Whoever wrote the product description made a mistake because it is a 320gb hard drive. It's roughly 284 usable after having been formatted and with the Gateway Recovery Partition still in place. Many people don't understand that when you buy a 320gb hard drive, you do not get 320gb of space. No, you have not been lied to. Manufacturers use decimal notation (320gb = 3.2 billion)but computers read binary, so it's really about 298gb. You always get slightly less than what the manufacturer says, I believe it's 7% less than what is advertised, so this one holds about 298gb. The Recovery Partition takes up some space as well, so for usable space it's in the 280s unless you get rid of the partition. If you want a 500gb hard drive, they're easy enough to buy online and put in yourself. There are guides online for how to do this; it's very easy to do on this model. You remove a few screws from the bottom panel and you have access to the hard drive and the RAM. To remove the hard drive you take out 2 more screws and then pull the hard drive down to free it, and then you can remove it from the case. A solid state drive would make this ridiculously fast, but they're very expensive right now because they're bleeding edge technology. In a year or two they'll be way cheaper and absolutely worth the money for an upgrade.

The screen looks good. It's a glossy LED-backlit LCD screen. The resolution isn't super high, but this isn't a $2000 laptop. It's 1366 x 768. Most people will want to use the HDMI port to watch blu-ray on their LCD/plasma tv. With a 15.6 inch screen you can still enjoy blu-ray movies even if they aren't on a huge screen. I notice they have a lot of detail, but a small screen really doesn't do blu-ray justice. That's what HDTVs are for. This screen, like all budget laptop screens, suffers from poor viewing angles. I really don't mind this at all, but some people want an awesome screen. If this is a concern to you, be prepared to spend $1500+.

The optical drive will play blu-ray movies and you can use it to burn CDs and DVDs, but not blu-ray discs. No one can distinguish between 720p and 1080p on a screen this size, so it not having a 1080p resolution isn't a dealbreaker for me. While I've noticed that blu-ray movies are much crisper and have more detail than standard DVDs, the difference isn't as significant as viewing a dvd and then a blu-ray movie on my hdtv. This laptop will let you play 1080p on your hdtv via the HDMI port, but you can't actually get the full 1080p experience on the laptop itself because the screen's resolution is not 1920x1080. The 720p/1080p difference only matters on bigger screens and depends on how far away you're sitting from the screen. If you want a 1080p screen, you're going to pay the premium price for one. I think this resolution is fine for both blu-ray and normal tasks. As far as the optical drive goes, you can't burn blu-ray with it. If you are wanting to burn blu-ray movies, I imagine you're going to want to be able to do HD encoding, and for that you really want an i7 quad core desktop setup anyway.

There are tactile buttons up by the screen for mute, volume up, volume down, wireless on, etc. Very cool.

The laptop feels cool to the touch. I had it running for 5 hours and it wasn't even warm on my legs. Update 6-16-10: After using this for several months it still stays very cool. CPU temp usually stays in the mid to high 30s C, peaking around 43C when computer is under light use. This is very cool for a laptop. The hard drive also stays cool, in the low 30s C. I've been able to get the temp up to 83C using Handbrake to encode video to .mkv with h.264. That's the max temp I've achieved.

Windows 7 Home 64 bit is pre-loaded. It's better than Vista.

The computer will not continue to charge if you plug it in and it's already a really high charge, say 96-100%. This is a good thing. It means it won't charge the battery when it's not needed. So it will say "96% plugged in, not charging." What ruined my old laptop battery was overcharging and heat.

Cons:

The keyboard isn't the best ever, but I tend to have low expectations for laptop keyboards. I never buy $2000 laptops, so for the price you can't expect something incredible. I have no problem with this keyboard, though. It has the number pad on the right so you can work with numbers a lot easier. This doesn't have a standard 10-key layout, though. The period is above the number pad instead of between 0 and enter at the bottom. I find this to be annoying, but it's ok. Having a number pad at all is a great feature.

The touch pad is somewhat difficult to work with, but overall it's not that bad once you get used to it. I think all touch pads feel slightly different, so it's something that you have to grow accustomed to. I adjusted the settings to remove the two-finger gestures, tapping and what not, so it works much better than it did when I first turned the laptop on.

Normally there are two buttons, one for left and one for right click. This has a plastic bar where you click on the left or right side. I don't really like it, but for me it's not a deal killer. It took a little getting used to. I think the advantage that it offers is that you won't accidentally right click as much. Otherwise it's an odd bit of engineering. This won't matter if you carry a mouse.

128mb of integrated video memory is good, but not enough to play most modern computer games that need 256, 512 or higher. If you're doing something that's GPU-intensive (photoshop CS4+, playing games like Crysis, etc) this will be something to consider. If you need more video graphics, look elsewhere. Make sure to update the graphics driver on the Intel website. Apparently I can't put a valid link in my review despite it being the correct link to the Intel website. You'll have to do a search for it yourself. On the Intel website under Support you can use their Intel graphics update utility or search for the correct update by selecting the operating system and clicking on drivers to find the new updates. As of 6-16-10 the current driver is 8.15.0010.2119

A 6 cell battery isn't the best. A 9 cell would have been amazing, and it's possible there are 9 cell batteries available for this, but 9 cell batteries are heavier than 6 cell ones, so it's a trade off. It gets a little over 4 hours on the lowest power setting. Make sure to go into advanced power plan options by clicking on the battery icon. You should change the "power saving" plan's advanced options. You'll want to set the CPU to use 0% max while unplugged. It's still enough cpu power to watch streamed video or play blu-ray movies and your battery will last a lot longer on a charge while unplugged if you do this. You can also set the cooling to passive so the fans won't come on; this will give you a little extra battery life as well. Getting over 4 hours on a single charge with a laptop that performs as well as this one is fantastic. It's not a netbook, so expecting 12 hours is unrealistic. This thing has a lot of power even in the power saving mode with the adjustments I suggested.

The webcam is only 0.3 megapixels, but this is fine for most people. I don't notice much difference between this one and my 1.3mp Hercules Deluxe Glass webcam. Amazon and other places sell nice Logitech 2.0 megapixel ones, so consider buying one of those if you need a really nice webcam. I imagine they're better than most (if not all) internal webcams and can be had for less than $70 on sale.

Overall:

This is a great laptop for the price. It will do anything a college student needs unless he or she does something graphics-intensive (playing games like Crysis). If you can get it for $500-$600 it's a fantastic price. At $750, I'd look elsewhere for one with more video memory and a better case/keyboard/track pad.

Other thoughts:

Gateway makes fine laptops, despite some people thinking the brand is bad. What most fail to realize is that Gateway, Dell, Acer, Apple, Asus or whatever other company don't make most of the parts that go into the laptop. On this one the processor is made by Intel. The hard drive is made by Seagate. The motherboard is made by another company (I believe this one is an Asus). The RAM for this is from Samsung. Most of the hardware is made by another company. The differences are really in the way the laptop looks: the exterior, the keyboard, the touch pad. These companies outsource and contract out pretty much all of the work. They don't really build anything anymore. It's all made in China. Yes, even the $2000 Macbook Pros are made in China. Brand does not matter as much as it used to.

I read a statistic from SquareTrade (they provide 3 year warranties) that 10% of laptop failures in the first 3 years of a laptop's life that were reported to them were from drops/spills/accidents. Don't eat/drink around your computer and try not to drop it!

In the end if you take care of your laptop, don't let it get dusty, don't drop it and don't spill anything on it, it should last three years, at which time you should think about upgrading again. A general rule for electronics is that if they work for the first month, they're going to keep working as long as you take care of them. Make sure to get a can of compressed air and remove dust at least once a year. Dust kills computers because fans and heat exhaust vents get clogged so the computer can't cool itself properly.

Download VLC or Media Player Classic Home Cinema and use that for watching movies rather than the PowerDVD8 software that comes on the laptop. You need PowerDVD for watching blu-ray, though, because you need a player that will decode the encoded blu-ray content. For anything not blu-ray, I use VLC (a free movie/music player that will play basically anything). Also consider downloading Avira (free, excellent anti-virus), Spybot S&D, Ad-aware, Malwarebytes, Ccleaner, and Defraggler (to periodically defragment your hard drive). Microsoft Security Essentials is also a pretty decent anti-virus, although I prefer Avira. I suggest using a free firewall program like Comodo Internet Security Premium. These are all very important applications to have. Stop using Internet Explorer and get Firefox. I suggest using the following add-ons: Noscript, Adblock Plus, Flashblock and Web of Trust. These will block scripts and flash (you can allow things you want to allow) and Web of Trust will help you not go to sites labeled as containing malware. If you're careful, you won't have to deal with getting a virus. Don't forget to update the video card driver from the Intel website. I hope this has been helpful.

6-16-10 Some more updates: Again, I've updated quite a few things throughout my review. I'm glad people have found it useful. I still really enjoy using this laptop. (The Intel driver update fixed the video problem I mentioned earlier, so I've removed that section from my review.)

There is a high pitched noise that comes from the left speaker and is also noticeable in your headphones when they are plugged into the headphone jack. It's not noticeable coming from the laptop speaker if there's any ambient noise, but you will hear it in your headphones. If you google the Mosquito ring tones, it sounds something like 17 or 18khz, but not exactly. It is certainly annoying if you're sitting in silence, which is the case with me because I live in a very quiet apartment. I haven't found the cause yet. It does not make this noise while in safe mode or at the BIOS screen, so I imagine it's a software-triggered issue rather than an inherent hardware problem. It seems to happen while the CPU is not under load. I imagine a BIOS update might fix this issue. It might be hardware-related, such as a fan that needs to be replaced. In any case, it's not enough of a problem to really bother me. I listen to music and then I can't hear the noise it makes. 6-16-10: I don't notice this sound anymore, so it must have become a lot fainter. I'm leaving this paragraph here because I think it's relevant information about the laptop. Overall I'm still very pleased with this laptop.

Update history:

Update 3-3-10: I'm updating several things throughout the review, most notably that there are only 2 RAM slots. I'm still very pleased with this laptop and think it's a great buy.

Update 4-2-10: Slight update for the optical drive section.

Update 6-16-10: I found some embarrassing errors in my review that were present because of the edits. I think I've caught them all. I edited a few things here and there, mostly minor details that weren't totally correct. I removed the thing I mentioned about jittery video because that hasn't happened at all since Intel released the updated drivers for the integrated graphics. I'm still pleased with this laptop. It performs well, has good battery life, and does what I need it to. I've watched blu-ray movies on my hdtv and they look fantastic. I'll continue to update this review as time goes on. I know it's incredibly long, but I hope all the information remains useful to people.

Update 7-12-12: It's an old laptop now at 2.5 years old but it still works great. It runs warmer than it used to. I use it as a home theater PC, which means I have it hooked up to my TV to watch streamed content online or movies on Blu-ray. It still runs and I haven't had any real issues with it, so it was a nice purchase. There are much better laptops out there right now. This one is entirely outdated and overpriced at $800. Hopefully no one buys such an old laptop when there are superior models out now for less.

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I was one of the lucky ones. I got the mislabeled one , but I my mom bought one two and hers also had the i5. I think it's a great computer for the price plus bluray , 4g ram. Hdmi output. This is the spec I've been waiting for. I would not have bought it at 749

Best Deals for Gateway NV5929u, i5-430m, 4GB DDR3 memory, n-wifi, 6-cell battery

This laptop is completely awesome. Basically, whoever assembled these at Gateway messed up and put a Core i5 430M in the machine instead of the Core i3 330M that it was supposed to have. This laptop is very fast and capable and it will be very hard to find a laptop with an i5 CPU and a Blu-Ray drive for this price. Windows 7 is such a great OS compared to Vista. It's hard for me to say this, but I actually switched from a Macbook to get this laptop. With this hardware and Windows 7 you'll be hard pressed to find a better laptop. Just about the only thing I've found that this machine can't do is play the most demanding games. The Intel HD GPU comes with only 128 MB of VRAM (I think it can share some of the system memory too). You can play some games with it, but just make you sure you read the system requirements before you buy. I have played Civilization IV so far without any problems. Basically, unless you're a hardcore gamer, I highly recommend this laptop for the price.

Honest reviews on Gateway NV5929u, i5-430m, 4GB DDR3 memory, n-wifi, 6-cell battery

I bought this Gateway laptop when a 3 year old Gateway 14.1" Vista's Hard Drive Failed. However I use this for business and pleasure. This is the 5th Gateway. This brand is under-rated. My business partner has her 3 year old laptop and uses it day and night, never breaking. Other brands such as Dell and Sony caused laptop hell.

Got this unit on sale in Bestbuy for $499.00 what a find, it had an I5 chip instead of the posted I3 chip. It is the fastest laptop I ever owned, even beating a new Dell Desktop in speed. Turns on and signs off really fast. The keyboard did not take me long to master, but because of the extremely bright LED screen this unit should have had a back-lit keyboard.

The screen does not appear to be as clear as my glossy 3 year old but this is 15.6". The bluray drive is fantastic, my Son is amazed at the clarity.

The battery is OK and lasts longer on an energy saver setting which also cuts down on the intense brightness of the screen, which can be a plus in may situations. However the battery recharges really fast.

This is a high quality machine, mated to Windows 7 it is the ultimate laptop.

I fixed my 3 year old Gateway, and it is also working fine, but no way can it compare to this new model. The wireless capability is miraculous. Buy it and it will make you happy. If you have to love something, this beauty is light and easy to carry over the threshold.

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I am still loading software. This computer is fast. It is a NV5927U with an i5 chip and Blu-ray player. The seller compares the computer to the NV5929U. But the specs don't quite match up. So, don't bother comparing the specs. This computer is an excellent deal. If the price holds up 30 days, it will be even a better deal. I only say that because every time I buy a computer, there is a better deal within a month of the purchase. Oh well, that's technology for you.

It has been a month now and I haven't found anything better yet. Just not much out there that I can use with the 64 Bit OS. But that will change. Blu-ray works well. All programs loaded and functional accept the Palm Sync for my Palm Z22. So, I'll have to find a substitute for that. I had to get a wireless mouse, since the touch pad is too sensitive. Also, the multi-touch takes getting used too. I have completely switched over to the new computer and so far it has been performing well.

Battery life is about 3 hours. Not bad for a 6 cell. If a 9 or 12 cell is available, I will get one and use the 6 cell as a back-up.

Discount Lenovo G580 15.6" Laptop / Intel Pentium B980, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD

Customer Ratings:

Love it! It Came In just 3 days after I ordered it, I had windows 8 pre-loaded with very little unnecessary software. Laptop works great no issues. Great value, Lenovo's are sturdy machines, this laptop was purchased as a replacement for my t400w that just died after 6 years of faithful field service.

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I've had this model for over three months, and have really enjoyed it. The windows 8 system on this is pretty nice, although I don't see a need for apps on a fully functioning computer. I sometimes miss the windows start button since the interface has changed, but it's easy to navigate around that. The screen on this computer is visually stunning from nearly any angle. The keyboard is very well laid out, and has large flat buttons. The battery lasts several hours, unless you're doing heavy gaming/video activities, at which point the battery will last anywhere from 2.5 to 3 hours. The speakers are loud and clear. The cpu is very fast, allowing you to run a few or more programs at once. However, its' achilles heel is the integrated gpu, which for today's high demand games is fairly weak. However, it rarely ruins my game playing experience. I often watch videos and play games at the same time, and seldom have any lag. On my unit, the 4gb of memory is single channel, because only one 4gb stick was installed. Anyway, the G580 memory is very fast, and the hard drive is acceptable. As a heads up, I should say Lenovo has its' own battery management tool, which doesn't charge the battery until it falls beneath a certain percentage. So don't worry if you see your battery level under 100%, and not charging. It will eventually charge back up. Many people think this is a software or hardware malfunction. This computer always runs fairly cool, and has a strong, quiet fan. The touchpad is okay, but is missing a scroll bar. This model has an attractive, glossy metallic finish. I've benchmarked this computer, in case you're interested in its' performance stats. Here are some of the results; Cpu mark2364, memory mark1336, hard disk mark339, 2d graphics436, 3d graphics direct 9 simple15.7. The overall passmark benchmark rating for my unit is 752. You can search these benchmark terms if you don't understand them, but my review pretty much told you what you need to know. For the price, I don't think I could have bought a better machine.

Best Deals for Lenovo G580 15.6" Laptop / Intel Pentium B980, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD

I chose this rate because it seems excellent product.

I am satisfied with the product.

recommend to all this Produco

Honest reviews on Lenovo G580 15.6" Laptop / Intel Pentium B980, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD

Until finally received my laptop ...! this because my courier delays in moving toward Vzla and delivery in my country .. it is too beautiful =), I've tried every day and I found very handy and great for my work, but I need to adapt to Windows 8 and slowly adding some applications of other so far so good and happy with my new laptop. Excuse my English ... -

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This was a Christmas gift for my daughter and she absolutely loves it!!! We are very pleased ... great price for a great product.

Best Thinkpad X100e 11.6" AMD Athlon Neo X2 L335 (1.60GHz) 160GB Deals

Customer Ratings:

I have just received my awesome Lenovo Thinkpad x100e and I've only had it an hour and this is performing beautifully. Now I know that Lenovo doesn't really consider this particular model a netbook but if you are looking for something near netbook size and portability but the performance of a decent laptop this is the one for you.

I own quite a few computers and I'm what you can consider a technoJunkie. I have a 13 inch Macbook Pro (love Apple), Acer amd phenom II Quad core desktop, the Ipad, a dell inspirion mini, etc. The Macbook serves as my more powerful laptop when I need to do my more data intensive work or require more raw power. This little Thinkpad tho is great for everything else. Streaming video is far more superior then any netbook that I have seen. I know that the x100e has a few different models out there but if you are gonna get any model get the faster cpu. The amd athlon neo x2 processor really does make all the difference. Great keyboard as well.

This is a great little laptop and as a fan of thinkpads this is a beauty.

Sidenote: I know in the title it says 160 gb hdd but I took the gamble and I did receive a 250 gb hdd.

This review was written using my new Thinkpad x100e!

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At only 3.3 lbs this notebook is very light. It was also inexpensive. But the dual core performance is outstanding. Windows 7 Pro is icing on the cake. This was purchased to replace a net book used while traveling but I've ended up using it almost as much as my larger 15" notebook.

Best Deals for Thinkpad X100e 11.6" AMD Athlon Neo X2 L335 (1.60GHz) 160GB

I like the Thinkpad X100e laptop. It has good performance, small form factor, light weight, good keyboard and good price. The reason I give 4 stars instead of 5 stars is because its battery lifetime is not as great. You can use 2 to 3 hours depending on load, which is not as great as Intel's high-end ultra mobile processors or Intel's Atom. However, 2 hours is not that bad. Other than that, I am very pleased with this laptop. One thing you need to be careful with is that you should get a Dual-core version (AMD Neo X2). Lenovo sells both dual-core and single-core versions of Thinkpad X100e. The performance of the single-core version is not as great even though power consumption is at about the same level. A single-core version is recommended only when its price is very good.

Honest reviews on Thinkpad X100e 11.6" AMD Athlon Neo X2 L335 (1.60GHz) 160GB

Right now Lenovo just launch the x120e, that solves all the performance issues that this model has. Please don't buy it...I just did and now I need to work with no more than 2 applications opened (Outlook 2010 and IE with 2 tabs open) to avoid freezing. It just doesn't worth it.

Weight & size are great, but without performance is useless...I just prefer a netbook for less money. Since I'm a thinkpad fan, I have many expectations with the x120e, with a great review at engadget.

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Poor Machine. I had it for less than a day brand new, ran it fora couple hours it hung, so I powered it off and that is the story of this laptop.

It would not power back on. Lenovo, Amazon, and Ant Online are reusing a return.

Discount Sony VAIO VGN-FW448J/B 16.4-Inch Laptop - Black

Customer Ratings:

great customer service. i used this laptop for 2 years. originally got this as a going away present to college. i used it all the time, lugging it to classes and taking notes on it. when i dropped it, there was a big ding in it. i called up the guys at fry's and they shipped my laptop back to sony's. i got a loaner for 90 days--which was a long time, yes. but i got an awesome laptop in the meantime.

all in all, the laptop has a huge screen and is great for watching shows on and writing essays on. it's just a joy and is sturdy enough for me. that's saying a lot, because i used to go through a laptop a year.

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The review says that it is a Full HD display. As far as I know this would mean a resolution of 1920x1080.

Instead it has a max resolution of 1600x900. The description from Amazon is confusing and I didn't expect this from them.

Apart from this and the annoying assistants at startup (which you can'd disable), the VAIO is OK.

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I bought it last fall, 2009 and it works flawlessly since then. Very stable, stylish (Mac style) and fast. Battery good for about 3 hrs (while streaming heavy HD video), will last longer for general use.

Honest reviews on Sony VAIO VGN-FW448J/B 16.4-Inch Laptop - Black

I purchased an FW laptop in November 2008 and the keyboard failed in August 2009. Service was responsive and replaced it. In January 2010., keyboard failed again and Sony will not cover since the computer is "out of warranty". I have another brand that is still working after 8 years. One year life is outrageous!

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The only thing I would change about this computer would be to upgrade it from Vista to Windows 7. Which I did!

HP Pavilion DV6-1375DX Entertainment 15.6-Inch Widescreen Laptop Reviews

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HP is the best computer thaer is from my owne exsprince and I have tried other computers befor but I never had one last as long as the hp duse and I had other computers befor the only reason I am giving it such A lowe review is because I just got it and have not had it long enugh to work it and review it and the windows program has gliches that I alone can't fix so till I am able to see A teach to fix it this is all I give it for now

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Reviews of ASUS G75VX G75VX-BHI7N09 17.3-Inch Laptop

Customer Ratings:

I've always thought to myself that the ROG Notebook line was always built a lot larger than it should be. Although this notebook comes across as over-sized and bulky, it truly does make up for it in performance, thermals, and build quality.

I won't lie, this thing is a monster. There is simply no way around it. If you plan on lugging this thing around frequently, I'd seriously recommend either physical training, or a good Laptop Backpack. I do both, and the Slappa Matrix allows this behemoth to fit, although quite snugly. I will say, I was surprised at how small the power brick was, I expected a significantly larger brick. Those of you worried about the power supply being proportionately large shouldn't worry too much. I would imagine the reduction in size is due to the Kepler based GPU, which requires less power than its Fermi GPU cousins (more on that later).

The build quality and design are quite optimal and are what I expect from a premium ROG branded laptop. Everything seems to be well mounted, or fastened down and that glue or adhesive use is at a relative minimum compared to other laptops. This machine look like it will stand up well in the long-haul as well as moderate abuse, but in the end, only time will tell. I will say, I am not as worried about wear and tear with the G75 as I was with my previous M17X R3. My previous R3 had a considerable amount of glue and adhesive and over time, due to the heat from the CPU/GPU (and despite significantly lower temps after re-pasting) several parts of the trim began to peel and pull away, not what I had expected from a "premium," brand laptop. Like I said, time will tell and I plan on updating this review with any problems I come across.

One of two Major Complaints I have against the Laptop is the lack of End-User customization or maintenance. Without completely tearing the G75 apart, you are limited to swapping out hard drives (there are two easily accesible bays), and RAM. You could tear it down to install an mSata SSD, change the wireless card, or access the other two RAM slots, but you would only do so knowing that your warranty is void and that you know exactly what you are doing. On the other side of the coin, I understand why the motherboard and the layout is the way it is. With that said, in my opinion, the percentage of performance gained from upgrading most likely does not merit the cost of a CPU or GPU upgrade.

My Other major complaint rests with windows 8 and the lack of recovery options. I knew going into this the 1TB HDD was a measly 5400 RPM. Completely unsatisfactory for any gaming laptop. I had pulled my 512GB SSD from my previous R3 and planned to use that and install/restore Windows 8. This was a unique learning experience to say the least. After exhausting many options, from cloning partitions to tweaking partition tables using GParted from a Linux Live USB, I even considered ordering the OS disc from ASUS, but I ended up installing Windows 7 on the SSD and using the drivers from the G75VW. Thus far, I have had no problems.

I am pleased with the keyboard and the spacious trackpad. I think the white lighting is a good, neutral touch. I like the idea of different color lighting schemes, but don't believe it to be at all necessary. The keyboard itself is nice to type on (for a laptop), and shows very little flex towards the center. The trackpad is quite large and accommodates multi-touch as well, making for quick zoom-in and out functions. With Windows 8 this feature seemed almost a requirement without a touchscreen. The wrist-rest is stout and feels as if it were made of a high grade ABS type plastic. There is also a soft-touch type texture applied and seems as if it would hold up well in the long-haul to wear and tear.

Performance and thermal testing. I am impressed with the performance of thislaptop (for the time being). Not only can the 3630QM hit 3.4GHz on one core during turbo, but it can maintain load at more than optimal temperatures. Same goes for the GTX 670MX. Even while gaming for extended periods, the fans are nearly inaudible. Borderlands 2 with Ultra Settings, I get an average of 49 FPS. Skyrim on Ultra I see an average of 40 FPS. Hitman Absolution I can only take it to high settings and my frames are generally 34 FPS. In Far Cry 3, I usually see 46 FPS with high settings. All are played in 1080p using the Nvidia 314.07 Drivers. During stress testing, The GPU's temperature maxed out at 68C in furmark for thirty minutes, while the CPU maxed out with 82C in Prime95 for thirty minutes. While gaming, I have not seen higher than 62C on the GPU, and 73C on the CPU. Personally, i'd like to see temperatures after re-pasting the thermal compound, but I don't plan on doing that for several months as I'd like to keep my warranty.

Despite the bulkiness of the G75VX, I appreciate the trade-off received in performance and cooler temperatures. It is also nice to see the new Kepler based 670MX. It may not be a 675MX or 680M, but I understand the compromise of speed, energy efficiency and temperature. Not to mention I need some reason to go back to my desktop every so often. As of now, I highly recommend the G75VX over an Alienware or Clevo-based mobile gaming platform.

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Pros:

fast Fast FAST! For the price, its really hard to beat the specs of this machine. The i7's and the factory 8 gigs of ram make this machine a screamer.

Build quality is excellent. I cant find any build defects whatsoever.

Keyboard is quite nice to use and is good quality. Keys aren't exaclty what i would consider high quality, but for a laptop I have no complaints

Large multi-touch trackpad. Having multi-touch in Windows 8 makes for a MUCH better experience than a standard trackpad.

GTX670MX is an excellent GFX card. It should run most modern games for you, although some will be need to be tuned down a bit. I played the demo of Mass Effect 3 and it looked brilliant. Also, being Kepler based it stay much cooler and saves on energy than some of its counterparts.

Excellent ventilation. I play SWTOR for hours on end (not the most demanding game) and it barely warms up. Laptop stays cool to the touch and very little heat coming from the exhaust.

Dual Hard Drive SATAIII bays. It comes standard with a 1TB 5400rpm Hard drive, but its nice to have the spare slot for additional storage/SSD boot drive.

Cons:

Size. This isn't really a con to me but I thought I would list it for potential buyers. This is no small laptop. I use this as more of a desktop replacement so it works well for me. If you plan on traveling a lot I would probably something smaller and lighter.

Standard 1TB 5400rpm Hard Drive. To me this is an odd choice by ASUS. A very high performing machine hindered by a slow drive. Do yourself a favor and replace it with an SSD and move this drive to the 2nd bay for storage.

No blu-ray drive. This isn't really a con for me but I thought I would list it. You really wouldn't want to be toting this thing around watching movies anyway

No OS discs included. Why is this becoming so rare? If you want to re-install Windows 8 to a different drive you'll have to order an OS disc from ASUS or find someone with a Windows 8 disc (Key is stored on the motherboard so it will auto detect for you)

Wrap Up:

All in all this is an excellent laptop. It performs very well out of the box. If you want to make this thing even better for a little extra cash, replace the standard 1TB 5400rpm with a SSD and move the 1tb to the other bay. Re-install windows to the SSD and this machine boots in less than 8 seconds. Also to future proof a bit (or for bragging rights), install 2 x 4gb ram sticks in the 2 open slots on the bottom of the computer to 16 gigs total. As of today, you can get a 64Gb SSD for about 80 bucks and 2x4GB Ram for about 60.

Feel free to comment with questions!

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Hey everyone!

I have this gamer for about 90 days now. I did not buy it here since this version seems to have the worst hard drive one can put in a laptop that otherwise got the power to match a 1GB desktop GTX 650Ti or so !!! Pixel & texture fill rates are even higher than 650Ti, when OC'd.

Now, let me tell you about how much OC one can do on it :D

As most know by now Kepler GPUs have a core limit that won't let you clock more than +135MHz on laptops, without doing modifications that will void the warranty or may harm your hardware if you don't know what you're doing. Anyway, the core on 670MX is good enough to play all the latest stuff in 1080p on Ultra and even go ahead and turn on MSAA or FXAA it's not a surprise when you see that the chip is a GK104, which is also the chip that powers 675MX/680M/MX as well as desktop 660/Ti, 670 & 680 :)

The only "downfall", if you will, would be the memory bus (192 bit) and the clock frequency the memory runs on 1400MHz is low, even 670M ran @ 1500MHz.

Considering this I have to mention that if your GPUs ASIC quality is 80% and up, like mine is, you'll be able to max the memory clocks in MSi Afterburner @ +1000MHz !!!

The sweetest thing about this is that 670MX seems to embrace that crazy 60% memory OC and DOMINATE any game I tried @ only 2-3*C over the stock clock temps. The highest temperature I got while playing 2 hours is 65*C !!!

OK, enough about the graphics for now :D

Let's take a look @ the sound.

Sound is supplied by a Realtek HD Audio.

No more playing BF3 with headphones and having sound coming both from speakers and headphones simultaneously like my older G75VW with VIA HD sound card did.......I loved it by it was kind of an annoying issue, especially when you have a hot chick sleeping in the room and she does not like gaming sounds and she decides to leave after that, not cool :D

The sound is a lot more crisp and focused and it has a lot of options that will give you a surround sound-like quality on the stock speakers and theater-like sound with a HDTV. I use a 24" 1080p Toshiba TV and together they just KILL IT!

One small sound issue is the instance when you plug or unplug audio-in or -out, like headphones or a mic from the laptop and you have your Windows taskbar set to "auto hide". Sometimes it will lock it in "visible" position preventing it from "hiding". Anyway, it can be resolved by simply plugging/unplugging again this will make it hide properly. In the end I remember having the same on a Win7 Asus K53SV-A1, which also used the same sound card it's more of an Windows issue than Realtek HD problem.

The hard drive it came with is a 7200rpm 750GB Seagate Momentus XT. It goes for about $125-150 or so right here on Amazon and is pretty fast for a mechanical drive.

My older VW came with the non-XT version of this HDD and I'm happy to say this one is visibly faster....1080p BF3 gameplay playback recorded with Fraps would cause lag on the Momentus, the XT is yet to choke :D

I do use an OCZ Vertex 4 SSD with it for gaming only, Win8 is on the Seagate XT, it makes games near seamless fps drops are caused by the GPU.

My model is a G75VX-RH71 and comes with 12GB of Hyundai Hynix memory, which is pretty cheap but I do have 16GB Kingston Hyper X RAM and plan to put it in anyday now (voiding the warranty if I do it too rough, damn those G75s are tight inside :D). Honestly, this gamer doesn't need that much RAM though I have it from my VW as it does everything @ thunder speed already.

The processor used in this Asus is a Intel Core i7 3630QM an entry level Ivy Bridge Quad Core which is more than you'll ever need. I edit around 50-100GB of raw/uncompressed 1080p video a week and this processor, does it ~10-15% quicker than 3610QM did.

In my opinion it's the best CPU choice, since all the 37xx/38xxQM and 3940XM are way overpriced and will make this Asus cost as much as an damn Alienware, while delivering just few more "horses". Not to mention most today's laptop components will be outdated next year and you gonna be stuck with an older GPU, while your CPU has enough power till 2014.... makes no sense.

This laptop is a great buy today and will sell with ease when you're ready for the next one believe me, I've sold 2 of them by now and it never took more than a week to get them sold.

The fps is just wonderful on this bad boy in any game I threw at it.

Like I said before you can turn all the bells & whistles in them and get high fps.

Battlefield 3 all ultra, 1080p, 2xMSAA 50-80fps, with Fraps 35-70fps, though I turn MSAA off when recording;

NFS:Most Wanted You'll never go below 60fps maxed-out, period;

GTA4 + over 60 high-poly car mods + ICEnhancer v2.1 with High-End PC config.ini file all very high, shadows medium, draw distance 50 the fps is 30-45;

When recording this game all GPUs I had: GTS 360M, GT 540M, GTX 660M & now GTX 670MX never worked @ 100% core engagement, so when recording the fps might go as low as 15fps and as high as 35fps;

I never tried this game without mods but I'm sure you can put all settings on max and still get like 50fps with ease......the car/graphic mods are what's causing the drops.

Some of the things I feel are worth mentioning too is the fact that even with Win8 on an HDD, this Asus takes about 10seconds to go from being off to asking for your password.

The next thing is the presence of Thunderbolt outlet. I never used it myself, but I remember my G75VW having the same outlet in the exact same place and those who said the VW comes without Thuderbolt and complained about it. Well, here all of you "complainers" will finally be satisfied as well it's OFFICIAL this time, the VX has it and it works perfect, I checked it this time :)

Well, that's it for now.....I think the laptop is a great buy, the $1500 amount here seems a bit pricey for what you get (8GB RAM/5400rpm HDD), but that's not my business everyone should do their own research before buying and considering that retailers like BestBuy are just getting them in stock for the first time might explain the price as well.

I'll do an update in 90 days to let everyone interested know if there are any issues that need addressing, but from my experience with AsusTek I can almost be sure there won't be.

Thanks for reading and I hope this review helps y'all to make a decision.

Peace.

Honest reviews on ASUS G75VX G75VX-BHI7N09 17.3-Inch Laptop

PROS: Really nice HEAVY Laptop. Let's be clear. This is not to be hauled around on a daily basis. This is a desktop replacement for sure. Even with the slow 5400RPM drive, the system flies. I will most likely upgrade it to MAX the ram and put the most capacity SSD drive I can afford, in addition to a faster, additional hard drive.

I do not care for games. I want computing power for graphics and business and this does the trick so far.

Man this thing is big..Did I mention how big it is? Think...COFFEE Table Book!

So here is my goal. Use my iPad4 during the day, and this thing at night for the heavy work.

Cons: Slow 5400RPM Drive. But that is minor at best. I am sure they leave this drive in here to hit the $1500.00 Price point. Understandable as ASUS probably figured us nerds would toss it and put something else in...

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After a lot of consideration I finally decided to go with this laptop because of the price for the cpu and gpu combo.I'm pretty happy with my decision despite the poor performance from the 5200rpm hard drive,i knew I should have sprung for an ssd and plan to soon,though it is upsetting it didn't come with any recovery software so installing a new hard drive will require an installation disk.I've already jumped the hurdles of installing windows 7 with a 7200 rpm drive I had which can be a headache if you don't research before you dive right into it lol. anywho before I start bashing windows 8 i'll do a like/dislike list

Likes:

bright vibrant display HD

cool simple design almost like a Lamborghini hood very solid

great performance plays my games smoothly at high settings

speakers sound pretty good but I prefer headphones so not a good judge of that

fairly easy access to 2 hard drive bays and 2 extra memory slots

Dislikes:

Matte screen I've owned a matte screen before and I don't recall it having this much texture almost looks dirty annoys me

Wifi seems to have problems connecting at the right speeds research suggests they haven't sorted out the drivers for the qualcom cards yet

keyboard chicklet I think they call it idk but too flat hard to feel for the key I want to press without looking but maybe that's just me

and last but not least the harddrive is painfully slow (by todays standards yees I remember windows 95) installing and loading games or anything else for that matter lol

not much else I can add all I do is play games and watch youtube on it so if that's what you do I highly recommend this laptop just not the windows 8 which isn't really all that bad just annoying and unnecessary

Cheap Dell Inspiron 15R-2nd Gen 15.6" Notebook / 2nd Generation Intel(R)

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $999.99
Sale Price: $898.00
Today's Bonus: 10% Off

i orderd this produc but i didn't arrive in estimated time delivery so i made a full refund purchase the seller was verry prompt about my refund and i got my money back in no time .it's a trusted selle i may say.all good and tks about my refunds

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ASUS 1015E-DS03 10.1-Inch Laptop ( Black ) Review

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List Price: $249.00
Sale Price: $229.00
Today's Bonus: 8% Off

Amazing notebook for under $250, fast shipping from Amazon. I've had it for a week and it has performed flawlessly for what my wife and I use it for. We wanted a

small notebook that can be easily carried around the house, as well as taking on trips. It's great for web browsing, watching youtube videos(search ubuntu-restricted-extras), typing documents using libreoffice, etc. Battery lasts 4.5-6 hours or so, depending on usage.

It comes with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64-bit, which is supported through April 2017. The initial configuration takes approximately 10 minutes before booting into the OS,

which then required 430 MB of updates. The notebook uses efi boot with gpt partitioning. Here's the partitioning:

1. 100 MB fat32 boot-efi

2. 4 GB fat32 PQServices restore

3. 179 GB ext4 Ubuntu OS

4. 7.5 GB swap

5. 108 GB ntfs data

You can boot from usb flash by pressing the "Esc" key at the Asus screen during boot. According to a reviewer of the Asus X201E-DH01, the recovery partition can be

accessed by pressing "shift" at boot. It comes with bios ver. 3.2, the latest is 3.4, which can be downloaded from Asus support. I wouldn't recommend updating the

bios unless you know what you're doing.

I'm an experienced Ubuntu user, so didn't have any problems setting everything up. For someone with little or no experience, there's tons of online help, especially

ubuntuforums.org. The unity launcher takes a little getting used to, and I recommend going into System Settings--->Appearance--->Behaviour and setting the launcher

to auto-hide and moving the sensitivity to high. This will free up much needed screen space. I've installed cairo dock, which really isn't needed, but some might

prefer it over unity's launcher.

Ubuntu isn't for everyone, but the good thing is it can be tested by downloading the Ubuntu 12.04.2 iso, burning it as an image to cd or dvd. The live cd(which is

much slower than an install) will give you the Ubuntu experience, without actually installing it on your present computer.

Once Ubuntu is set up & personalized on the notebook, there should be little or no configuring required. I would highly recommend the ASUS 1015E-DS03 to anyone who is familiar with Ubuntu or is willing to put in a little effort to learn a new OS(Windows was new at one time).

I'm an old timer(65 year old "cooter") so anyone can learn to use Ubuntu, it's been a rewarding experience for me(and my wife).

Just wanted to add that everything worked out-of-the-box; however I haven't tried ethernet, but wireless is fast & reliable. The notebook quickly suspends when

the lid is closed and immediately resumes when opened. I did have one time that it didn't suspend(you'll know this if the wireless light remains on), only the

power light blinks if it suspends properly. The battery discharged completely when it didn't suspend, so I later went into System Settings--->Power--->Turn off

power when battery is critically low, to prevent this.

I don't want this to be an Ubuntu help review, but here's a few other tweaks that I did. In Firefox, to enable click to select all in the address bar: Type "about:config"(without quotes) into the address bar, type "browser.urlbar.ClickSelectsAll", toggle from false to true.

To adjust fonts & various other tweaks, search for "ubuntu-tweak" online, the directions will require using the command line or terminal(press the "Windows" key,type

"terminal" in the search box, copy & paste one line at a time, press "enter" after each line. In ubuntu-tweak, you might also want to change to a more traditional

scrollbar by disabling overlay scrollbar. Don't let using the terminal(it's easy) deter you from using Ubuntu, this should be the last time you'll use it.

Note, pressing the "Windows" key opens the Dash menu, where you can find all the programs installed on the computer. This paragraph isn't an actual review of the

notebook, but maybe it'll help get anyone started who is unfamiliar with Ubuntu Linux.

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Asus began the netbook era with a very small computer running Linux. The screen was 7" (800x480), the machine had 512 meg of RAM, plus 4 G of not so fast SSD space. It ran a Celeron CPU. The electronics bled power, the screen was tiny, but it was cheap, under $500 (US), and it ran a customized version of a somewhat out of date distribution called Xandros Linux.

Eventually, manufacturers stopped making netbooks, and by that time Microsoft had crippled the form factor (now with better electronics and a 10" screen) with its own crippled version of Windows, and insisting that they all come with 1 G of RAM. Intel finished the job by making netbooks Linux hostile with their latest 2600 Atom based systems.

Now Asus has returned with a Sandy Bridge based Celeron computer with a 10" screen, running Ubuntu Linux (12.04). Behold the new netbook. It has little that you can upgrade. Still, it comes with 2 G of RAM, and a decent sized hard drive (320 G). The screen, while 10", bumps the resolution to 1366x768, an improvement over the 1024x600 displays of previous netbooks.

The keyboard is usable, if a bit squishy in its feel. One positive is that Asus put a second function key next to the arrow keys. The biggest complaint typists will have is that the spacing from hand rest to screen is cramped. You may miss when changing rows. The touchpad is one of those with the buttons integrated. The bottom of the touchpad clicks. Click feel is lousy. The pad surface is cramped. I never tested the touch aspect with the supplied Ubuntu, but I can say that with Debian, it is quite good, responding well to swipes, and one through three fingered taps.

Netbooks have always featured strong connectivity. These included 3 USB ports, one Ethernet, SD card, VGA out, and audio. This machine changes one of the USB ports to USB3, and adds a full sized HDMI port to the mix.

The CPU is more powerful than its Atom cousins. It also features hardware support for virtual machines. The difference in speed running any virtual machine on this machine, compared to a traditional netbook is dramatic. Unfortunately, the 2 G of RAM that comes with the 1015E cannot be upgraded, somewhat limiting the machine's usefulness for running virtual machines.

The machine will run warm in spots, mostly on the left side by the exhaust vent (your left leg will feel it). If you cover the bottom intake vents, the machine will get hot. The fan, however, never gets noisy.

The better netbooks came with bulgy, external batteries, for better battery life. So does this one. Some people will complain that this is one, fat, ugly netbook, and they would be right. Such people should get another Asus machine. It's slim, slightly larger, runs cooler, and features no unsightly bulges. It also comes with the same Ubuntu Linux, along with twice the RAM, plus a keyboard with better touch and spacing. Battery life for that machine is 4-5 hours. This one reaches 6. Sometimes, I like bulges. Even better, this battery can be replaced easily.

A couple of comments for you Linux aficionados who like to experiment with other distros. Go right ahead. I typically try to run Debian. Here are my observations:

The wireless uses a Broadcom chipset. Veteran Linux users know what I mean. Broadcom support has gotten better over time, though. For Debian you download the package "broadcom-sta-dkms," and the Linux headers associated with your kernel. Debian will then pull in a bunch of other programs for compiling software. It's all automated, and what you end up with is a compiled kernel module called "wl." It works fine, and will update automatically, should a kernel update call for it, but good luck installing Debian, and expecting the installer to use your wireless connection. That may hold true for other distributions, too, but not all. It's good this machine has Ethernet, as I used the Debian Netinstall disk.

The machine comes with the not-so-capable Intel Graphics 2000 video (it's what comes with Sandy Bridge computers). Linux support is decent, though with Debian, you may want to disable, or remove Xscreensaver.

All told, a decent machine with basic hardware that gives very good battery life. If you travel, want a very portable, cheap machine that can still get work done without plugging in, this is the one for you.

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EDIT: I discovered that with gestures off, the mousepad is not too bad if you move around with one finger, then hold that finger in place while you use a different finger to click. The biggerest problem, as reported by many, happens when you move the cursor with one finger, then lift that same finger to click.

IMPORTANT: This same physical computer is available with either Windows or Linux (Ubuntu) operating system. They are listed as different products in Amazon. You are reading reviews for Ubuntu. The device is the same, but how it works (the software) is very different. The Ubuntu version costs less. I see that many questions are from persons who have come here because this version (with Ubuntu) is cheaper. If you do not understand the difference between Windows and Ubuntu, then pay more and get the Windows version, not this one. If you do understand the difference, this device works well with Linux. If you intend to dual-boot Windows and Linux, be aware that some (not all) users have reported UEFI secure boot installation problems. Read web site for info before doing anything drastic.

I am experienced with both Windows and Linux. I chose the Linux version by intent, since I have only one business program that must run on Windows (and I have another computer). Why pay more?

Keep in mind that this class of device does not have a CD or DVD slot. If you need that capability, then you will need to use an external CD/DVD reader, or (if possible) transfer a readable file. You probably cannot run iTunes on Linux, even with an emulator, but you can play mp3 files transferred via another computer. That's how I do it. Other reviewers report that the product is too slow for gaming, but plenty fast for Netflix. Note that Linux (Ubuntu) does play Flash, so you can see YouTube. You can also run QuickTime and Adobe Reader. You probably won't need Adobe Reader because the ability to read (and create) PDF is built into the Ubuntu system.

The 1015E native resolution is 1366x768. That is, it has a high-resolution monitor, even though the monitor area is small. This is good and bad. If your application is watching videos (via external device or online) or viewing photos, you have a lot of pixels. But for ordinary web browsing and office work, the physical size of objects is shrunken. For example, you may find it hard to grab the scrollbars on the browser, or read small text. One of the first things you should do is to adjust the size of things (such as minimum text size) via the operating system settings. This can be done in both Windows and Linux. You can also change the display resolution, but I don't recommend doing it that way.

I wanted the under-sized keyboard. I am an adult male with small hands (for a guy) and I can type rapidly with this device. Your results may differ. The keys are about standard size, but they are closer together than standard. This is typical for products of this size.

The mousepad is atrocious. I knocked off a star for that. Other reviewers also detest the mousepad. Get a mouse, and toggle the mouspad on or off via FN+F9.

The product does not come with Bluetooth, but a USB Bluetooth adapter works fine (Windows or Linux).

The device becomes warm on its left side. This can be felt on the bottom (it will warm your leg, if you have it there) and on your left palm. The Windows version has extra ASUS software to minimize power and prolong battery life. On Linux (Ubuntu) you will have to use Linux methods, meaning that you might not get the advertised 7.5 hours battery life. Be sure that your system power settings are for power savings rather than for fastest CPU; that might not be the default. If you are an experienced Linux user who wishes to experiment, the PowerTOP program can help you to optimize your power. Not for noobs.

My other computer dual-boots Windows 7 and openSuse Linux. So on this 1015E, I removed Ubuntu and installed OpenSuse 12.3 64-bit K desktop. If you do something like that, you must use the GRUB2-EFI bootloader, not any other. This is an obscure setting during installation. It also requires a FAT partition at the front of the disk, which the installer will demand. If you intend to dual-boot Windows 8 and Linux, you may need to fool around with the BIOS settings or play tricks. Surf the Internet for advice. It seems that the BIOS on this product demands EFI boot, not MBR boot. My device (purchased with Ubuntu) did not have secure boot enabled, but some who bought the Windows 8 version report that it has secure boot and they can't disable it. Keep in mind that changing the OS may void your warranty!

If you are not already comfortable with Linux, then you probably should spend the extra money and get a device with Windows pre-installed. Certainly, Ubuntu is easy to use and powerful; but if you're the only one you know who has it, then your friends can't help you. This product, with Ubuntu, has a lot of capabilities. It is a real computer, and will do an amazing number of things well. But it will not run most Microsoft programs, at least not easily, and probably won't play games or other software intended for Windows or Mac. On the other hand, it comes with word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, PDF, mail, and Firefox browser. These programs are so good that on my other (Windows) computer, I also use them, instead of Microsoft's programs. You can download free image and audio editing software, and many other things. In fact, if you know how to do it, you can write a whole book (with artiwork too) and format it in industry-standard digital file for submission to a publisher.

If you purchase mp3 files from Amazon, then you will have to download them one by one, rather than via cloud player. A linux program "clamz" can help you.

The product doesn't come with a protective sleeve. But it fits into the Amazon Basics 7-10-inch Netbook Bag with Handle, with room to spare, enough to carry the charger and even a travel-size mouse.

Honest reviews on ASUS 1015E-DS03 10.1-Inch Laptop ( Black )

I'm a university student studying computer science, so being able to have a Linux machine with you at all times is crucial.

I picked this machine up because I needed a replacement for my old Windows laptop. I figured it would just be easier to buy something with Linux pre-installed than go through the trouble of finding a distribution that supports your machine's hardware.

Some things I like about it:

-Extremely light

-Matte screen

-Good battery life (I can get around 6 hours if I manage my power correctly)

-Useful for my programming classes

-Has Ubuntu pre-installed and working

-Surprisingly fast for the clock speed of the processor

-Enough memory to keep a few programs and all your files.

Some thing I don't like:

-Keys are sometimes unresponsive and need to be struck with a little bit more force than I'm used to

-Touch pad is very small but that's to be expected, however I absolutely hate that the mouse buttons also respond to touch. This makes it very hard to click things without moving the cursor on accident. Another thing is that you need to tap the pad rather hard to get it to click on anything. I bypass all these problems by using a mouse.

-Vent on the side can get a little hot, and uncomfortable on your wrist after using for extended periods of time.

-Plastic case. Can be cracked open easily, but also popped back in place just as quickly. I guess you get what you pay for though.

Overall: This computer is worth the money as long as you're sure it fits your needs. If you don't plan on putting your machines up to heavy tasks, this little guy might be just what you need.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS 1015E-DS03 10.1-Inch Laptop ( Black )

I just returned from my annual working vacation to Florida. I purchased the ASUS 1015E just for this trip because I got fed up schlepping along my 8+ lb. laptop computer with only a 2-3 hr. battery life. Here is my honest evaluation of this computer.

The cons:

1) There is no caps lock indicator resulting in case sensitive text entry errors.

2) Remote computer access software does not work (Remmina and Transmission Remote GUI). To access my home computers, I successfully utilized http://logmein.com free version.

3) The touchpad is terrible. It is very finicky and hard to control. I ended up using a mouse with mousepad.

The pros:

1) The ASUS 1015E has excellent connectivity. It is very easy to get online from any WiFi hotspot.

2) The small size and low weight makes this unit very portable and great for travel on plane, bus, train.

3) The large capacity battery gives the computer almost 6 hours between charges, almost twice that of most laptop computers.

4) There are many free apps for the ASUS 1015E and they can be directly accessed, downloaded, and installed with ease and simplicity from the software menu.

5) The 320 Gb hard drive allows storage of a large amount of data.

6) The Ubuntu Free Office software is compatible with the Microsoft Office software.

7) The price of the ASUS 1015E at $210, is so low that loss, theft or damage to the unit is not catastrophic.

The pros list is very long. In spite of the cons, I love my ASUS 1015E for all the reasons listed above. Although there are more powerful laptop computers available, the overriding factors for purchasing this computer were it small size, low weight, and its power of connectivity to the internet and my home computer.

Cheap Fujitsu PC Fujitsu LIFEBOOK NH751 - Core i7 2 GHz - 17.3? - 4 GB

Customer Ratings:

I've had this laptop for a week and so far it's great. The screen is big and beautiful. It is huge but it's supposed to be. It's a desktop replacement. It also runs very quiet compared to other laptops I have. And there is a space for an additional hard drive. That is a HUGE bonus, and wasn't mentioned anywhere when I bought it. Stylewise is looks great too, especially the big speakers on top. The touchpad is very sensitive, and works much better than on other laptops I've seen, once you get used to it.

The only real issue I had with it was the spacebar. If you didn't tap it right in the center, it wouldn't make a space. It was driving me nuts when typing. But I pried out the spacebar, put a small piece of foam underneath to force the button underneath down a little farther, and it worked like a charm. Now I barely touch the spacebar anywhere on it to make a space. It works perfectly.

UPDATE November 2012: About six months with this computer and it still works wonderfully. No problems.

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It is powerful and fast, but has some issues. I had an ASUS G74 series that was a powerhouse, but had no provisions for firewire, so I sold it and bought this Fujitsu. The computer works ok, except the Nvidia graphics card fails on a regular basis. I've only had the computer about a month and it has been doing that since I took it out of the box. The GPU failure causes whatever program you're working in to shut down. All drivres are current, it's just a defect. Maybe I just got a bad one.

I also miss the illuminated keyboard on my Asus.

Other than that it's a good computer.

Best Deals for Fujitsu PC Fujitsu LIFEBOOK NH751 - Core i7 2 GHz - 17.3? - 4 GB

2nd gen core i7 CPU, 17 inch hi-def 1080p hi-gloss finish, blu ray drive, hd audio, Intel+NVidia graphics, 8g ddr3 RAM, 9 hours battery life, Windows 8 Pro 64 bit OS, spill proof keyboard, 3 USB ports, display port, hdmi port, headphone/microphone port, webcam, mic, extra drive port, 11n wifi,

Review of Dell Inspiron E1405 Laptop (Intel Core Duo 2MB Cache/1.66GHz/667MHz

Customer Ratings:

This laptop is a great !!! It's fast and works great for everything that I need it for. A +++

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I HAD THIS LAPTOP FOR 4 YEARS AND GOING STRONG, IM A ROAD WARRIOR SO I ALWAYS TAKE IT FOR MY EMAILS, DATABASE,EXCEL, MAKE MUSIC, AND ADOBE MASTER SUITE. ITS A GREAT LAPTOP, ITS AS GOOD AS THE PRESENT LAPTOPS. RECOMMENDED!

Best Deals for Dell Inspiron E1405 Laptop (Intel Core Duo 2MB Cache/1.66GHz/667MHz

Are you a professional typist, a person who types 100 words a minute or more? This is the laptop for you. It has real keys, real key feel. Not the usual flat unresponsive keyboards you get with laptops these days.

I would still like to buy one. I have a borrowed one, and they will reclaim it whenever. I will miss it.

Reviews of Apple MacBook ProMB991LL/A 13.3 Inch Laptop

Customer Ratings:

This is my first Mac computer. My first four computers ran Win 3.1, Windows 95, XP, and Vista (from about 1995-present). I have quite a lot of time spent on each of them. Switching from Windows to Mac is not difficult, but it can be a bit frustrating for a week or so. There are Windows features that you will miss, but they are mostly overcome by overall advantages in my opinion.

I've spent two weeks with this machine now. If I had written this review after one day, I would have probably stated that I regretted the switch to Mac. After getting more proficient with the machine and realizing how well it works, I would definitely recommend it to a friend.

This review is going to be a mix of my impressions of both the hardware and the Mac operating system from a new Mac user perspective.

The only difference between my machine and the one on this product page is that I ordered directly from Apple and upgraded the hard drive to 250GB (from the 160GB base option). I am using 2gb of ram and the lower-end processor.

My Mac OS impressions:

The biggest thing I missed from Windows at first was the task bar. Mac uses the "dock" to replace the task bar. The dock is kind of like the quick launch toolbar in Windows spread out across the entire bar, with large icons. Having used windows with a task bar for the past 13 years, I missed the ability to see all open programs and switch between them with the task bar. The dock has a tiny dot below the icon on running-programs, but nothing else to separate it from other program and folder icons. The dock is not nearly as useful for multitasking as the task bar.

The saving grace that rescues the Mac from awkward app-switching while multitasking is called expose. Expose is activated by either pressing a key or using a multitouch gesture (four-finger swipe). Expose uses the entire screen to display all open windows and allow you to switch between them. It's like alt+tab on steroids. Having used the machine for a couple weeks, I miss using expose when I use my Windows machine. As much as I hated the dock at first, I have to give the advantage to the Mac for managing multiple windows while multitasking.

The controls for open-windows are quite different than in MS-Windows. In Mac, there is a resize, hide, and minimize button instead of maximize, minimize, restore, and close. To close an app on the mac you need to use a menu command or keyboard shortcut. The Mac resize button kind of works like restore/maximize, only it's a bit more awkward. A commenter here pointed out that it resizes the window for ideal viewing without using the entire screen. I find myself resizing windows by dragging corners more than I ever did on a Windows machine. I really miss the ability to maximize, if for no other reason but to avoid distractions. The green resize button may be better on an enormous monitor, but not on a 13" notebook. When you minimize or hide an app on the Mac, it is only available from the dock and is hidden from expose. I'll give the window size-management advantage to Windows in this contest. The windows system is just easier and more logical in my opinion. It isn't a deal-breaker, but I do miss the Windows "window controls." If you are a frequent user of the F11 key while web browsing in Windows you'll have to kiss that feature goodbye. Neither Firefox nor Safari will go full-screen.

Windows Explorer is "replaced" with an app called Finder. Finder is kind of like the start menu and an explorer window all rolled up into one. Compared with older versions of Windows, finder is adequate but Vista's explorer is quite a bit easier and more logical to use. I prefer Vista's preview pane to Mac's coverflow. I miss the "up folder" button. I have found myself mostly using the view that puts files, folders and apps into a column view for easiest computer browsing, and it just isn't as elegant as Windows Vista. The lack of a maximize button has caused frustration especially in the finder, because the finder likes to stay in a very small window unless you drag the corners.

The Safari web browser is nice and quick and has a decent security reputation. I have been switching back and forth between Safari and Firefox. Firefox has crashed a couple of times and I really like being able to use multitouch gestures with Safari, so I'm leaning toward making Safari my main web tool. Reading RSS feeds, and the bookmark toolbar are really well done in Safari. Browsers are so personal that it's difficult to recommend one over the other, but as a Firefox user in Windows I think I have high standard and Safari has met or exceeded them.

I absolutely hate the iPhoto app. Iphoto does not allow you to organize and browse your photos in folders. It imports your pictures and sorts them itself based on time/date stamps on the photos. This works fine for personal vacation snapshots but it completely mixed up the rest of my images. Folders that were neatly organized for work projects, and fun web clippings, and adult stuff were all shuffled into one big mess after I imported my image collection. I ended up just deleting all of them and not using iphoto at all. Right now I'm just using Finder to browse my photos and the preview app to view them. Light editing work isn't possible in the preview app and I still haven't decided what to use for a basic photo editor yet. Vista's photo app is junk but it's still superior to iPhoto if you like to keep your photos organized using your own folder system. I know people who love iphoto. It comes down to whether you want the ability to organize your collection yourself. If you have a big mess of photos, you'll love iphoto's ability to organize them via event and face recognition.

Edited to add: you can organize your photos into "albums" after you import them into iPhoto, but be prepared to spend a lot of time reorganizing everything. Even after you organize into albums, the main library screen gives you views of your entire collection (perhaps things you don't want everyone to see).

I have not used Garage Band or iMovie yet. I'll update later when I get a chance.

Edited to add: I played with garage band a bit and it's pretty powerful. It allows you to import and export AAC and MP3 tracks and record sound in multiple tracks. Very easy to use. The only other audio app i've ever used is audacity and I much prefer Garage Band. I haven't used any of the music lessons it offers yet but plan to soon.

I played with iMovie for a few minutes and it seems pretty nice and very intuitive. I actually don't mind Windows Movie Maker, which is included with Vista. I would not consider it a big step up from Win Movie Maker, but it's a nice app.

The mail, calendar, and address book apps are basic but work very very well. The address app will import common file types easily. It will sync with yahoo out of the box. Address book will only sync with Google contacts if you own an iPhone or iPod Touch.

Everyone has an opinion about iTunes. I'm a big fan of it. It's exactly like the windows version only it runs a bit faster without the bugs. If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, the Windows-iTunes bug with time/date being wrong after the computer sleeps is not an issue on the Mac.

Time machine is the Mac's backup app. It is amazing and very simple. I'm using an external drive plugged into my Apple Airport wireless router, as a backup disk. My wireless disk showed up on my desktop instantly once I plugged it into the router. Time machine noticed the external drive right away and went to work backing up my files (after asking permission of course). Now my machine automatically backs up any changes every hour as long as I'm in range of my wireless access point. Time machine is a big load off my mind. If I ever have a drive failure or my computer is destroyed I have an exact backup of everything without remembering to backup my files. Vista will backup according to a set schedule, but it lacks the ability to easily look through backups for specific files. Time machine is wonderful and make wireless backup effortless.

The Mac disk utility is almost as good as the one in Vista and it's easier to use. It's far superior to the one in XP. I used it to format my external wireless drive because the Mac router couldn't read NTFS formating (although the computer can read NTFS drives via USB for some reason).

The graphics control software is a joy to use. When I plug in my external monitor it immediately extends my desktop to the new monitor. Adjusting everything from resolution to rotation couldn't be any easier.

Boot camp is a utility that allows you to create a partition and install Windows as a secondary boot system (you need to own or buy a legal single-disk 32bit copy of either Windows XP or Windows Vista). When you start up the boot camp utility, it gives you a choice between using either 5 or 32 GB of space for the Windows partition. I learned the hard way that Windows XP SP3 won't fit into 5GB. You need to give it at least the 32 GB (which left me with almost exactly 200GB on my "250" GB drive). Installing Windows using the Boot Camp utility is very very easy. Once you get Windows loaded, your OSX install disk makes quick work of installing drivers for all of your laptop's hardware. It's too bad that Nvidia and HP aren't as good at putting together easy Windows driver packages as Apple. In order to boot into Windows, you simply press the "option" key during bootup and it allows you to choose which OS to run. Windows XP absolutely screams on this hardware.

The hardware:

The hardware is where this computer really shines.

The biggest advantage is stability. My last computer purchase was a vista machine. To say that I had stability and hardware compatibility issues with my HP Vista desktop is an understatement. The main reason I turned to mac for this purchase was the fact that the hardware, drivers, and software are made for each other. This machine has ran flawlessly for the past two weeks. I did have two crashes of the Firefox browser while watching Flash video, but only the browser went down rather than the entire system.

I have connected an external monitor, camera, ipod, USB drive, and router to this machine. All of the drivers were already installed and everything has "just worked." The hardware is a joy to use when it just works. It is difficult to put into words how happy I am with the lack of effort in using this machine.

The speed isn't blazing-fast but it runs very well, even with many many apps and windows running. My Vista desktop has similar specs, but my new Mac feels slightly faster.

One outstanding productivity feature of this machine is the touch pad. I honestly prefer it to using a mouse for office and browsing tasks. I can't say enough good things about the multitouch gestures. Two finger scrolling, two finger right-click, three finger forward and back in Safari, and four finger expose make this machine feel like like it is part of you. Having the entire surface of the touchpad as the button is brilliant, especially for drag and drop operations. The large size of the touchpad makes it very precise.

The keyboard is really nice. At first I thought the keys were a bit soft and the travel was too shallow, but I quickly got used to it and now prefer it to my more "clicky" desktop keyboard. I don't know how I lived this long without a backlit keyboard. The backlight is more useful than I thought it would be.

The display is beautiful. It has good color, a wide viewing angle, and is plenty bright for indoor environments. I would prefer that the screen wasn't glass, but the reflections aren't as bad as I feared. If there is a bright light source behind you, you'll need to angle the screen to reduce the glare but it's workable.

The DVD drive is a DVD drive. It feels slow and makes a lot of noise. I've never owned an optical drive that I considered fast and quiet, and this one isn't any exception. It works well, but isn't anything special.

The battery life is incredible. The seven hour battery life is not an exaggeration if you are using the computer for light browsing and office apps. Expect about 4-5 hours if you're using it for heavy web browsing and a bit of media. Listening to music with the display off would easily last over the advertised 7 hours. Streaming high definition video on netflix using wireless will knock it down to at or below three hours. I haven't watched DVD movies on battery power but I expect it to barely get you through a single two hour film with a bit left over.

The size and weight are ideal for portability. 4.5lbs doesn't exactly feel light until you compare it to similarly spec'd machines that weigh a full pound (20%) more. I wouldn't want a larger machine if I had to lug it around much.

The speakers are quite good for a small light machine. Don't expect much bass, but the sound is very clear with good mids and highs. The speakers are plenty loud for listening to podcasts or music in a semi-quiet medium sized room or office. I won't need to pack external speakers for use in my hotel room when I travel, like my last laptop.

The "magsafe" power adapter is more than just a gimmick, and more than just a way to avoid tripping and breaking your machine. The "power brick" itself is a lot smaller than my last dell laptop. It's exactly the same size as the USB wall adapters that used to be included with ipods. The cord is 6ft long and the brick includes fold-out wings to wrap the cord around. It is very well thought-out for travel. With the cord wrapped up and the plug folded into the body, the power brick only takes up about 2.5" x 3" x 1" in your bag. When you are using it at home or at the office there is an included 6ft extension cord for the power brick so you aren't as tethered to your desk.

The computer runs very cool compared to most laptops. Also, there are no vents where super-heated air blows out. While I'm sure it uses a fan, I've never audibly actually heard it run or felt a stream of warm air from it. I think it may vent through ports and the keyboard but it runs cool enough that you don't notice it. Edited to add: it does get rather warm when watching high resolution video, but stays quite cool when web browsing or using normal office apps. Even when very warm, the fan is still quiet (the only way to actually hear the fan is to hold it near your ear).

The only drawback to the hardware compared to Windows machines is the fact that there is no option to hibernate when closing the lid. It sleeps when you close the lid but it still is using a small amount of power. If you're only going to be away for a couple hours this isn't an issue, but you must completely shut down when on battery power if you're going to be away much longer.

This machine is a lot more expensive than similarly spec'd Windows machines but I feel that it's worth the money. I'm a very satisfied Mac switcher.

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Well I must say I am very happy i did not buy apple's first iteration of the 13" aluminum macbook last year b/c they really got it right the second time around upgrading it to a macbook pro! Its nice to have that "pro" stamp on a 13" now! Apple has listened to their customers adding almost everything we have asked for and more, and managed to reduce the price! Thanks Apple!

CHANGES FROM LAST YEAR

$100 less

13" aluminum macbooks became macbook pros

2.53Ghz up from 2.4GHz dual core

4GB RAM up from 2GB

led display has 60% greater color gamut than previous model

new advanced built-in battery that lasts up to 7 hours vs 4hrs

FireWire is back (after all the complaints of first model)

SD card slot (replaces express card slot)

new models now come with iLife '09

separate digital audio input is gone

new model uses the same integrated mic and headphone port as the iPhone

PROS

finally a price cut with a performance upgrade! i knew apple could do it. i was tired of paying for aesthetics and not performance.

new Snow Leopard Operating System comes pre-installed! Same great ease of use with much faster performance!

much better lcd screen! inline with the pro models...still glossy and still some glare but much nicer!

backlight keyboard on all 13" models now! ( i really enjoy this as it can be controlled from low to high)

battery life is significantly better than last year.( i get about 6 hours w/ regular use not the 7hrs that is reported)

the computer is designed beautifully truly a head turner.

iLife 09 suite is superb for pictures, movies, and music. Good software really does sell hardware.

SD card slot accepts SDHC, which goes up to 32GB and works like a charm. (can boot from SD card as well)

CONS

aluminum outer casing does dent easily if dropped. (buy a soft case for it!)

power cord is short and does not reach as many places as I would like...must sit very close to power outlet.

battery can't be removed easily

SD card sticks about half way out of slot. eye sore.

blu-ray option would have been nice but understandable given licensing fees. (many blurays are offering digital copies which help)

Taking into consideration all the great improvements over last year with a nice price cut I can now truly recommend this near perfect Macbook Pro!

Best Deals for Apple MacBook ProMB991LL/A 13.3 Inch Laptop

I just got my brand new 13.3" Macbook Pro in the mail. I customized mine with 4GB of RAM and a 250 GB hard drive, but with the entry-level 2.26 GHz Intel processor. I unboxed it in front of my mother and sister, and they were both oohing and aahing about how beautiful and thin it was. They also loved the magnetic connector on the end of the power adapter that snaps the power cord into the computer nearly by itself. I powered the computer up, went through the Leopard setup screens, and within minutes was logged in. While starting up, the light sensor powered on, the screen dimmed, and the keyboard lit-up automatically. Everything about this computer suggests ingenious design and engineering, with great attention to every detail. It is very light, and since I am using this for school, I am very happy with the size and form factor, particularly the charger. Switching from a large Dell that sported a charger that could be used to bludgeon somebody to death, the small white charger that is about the size of a wallet is a breath of fresh air. This laptop will be a pleasure to travel with.

Are there things this computer lacks? Yes, there is no Blu-Ray player, which would have been nice, but for me was not a deal-breaker. I suspect that the next-gen MBP's will phase out the rotary hard drives and switch to solid state as the standard, and will all have Blu-Ray players. Until that time, this little laptop is more than sufficient.

If I had to come up with a gripe about this computer, there is really only oneand this is true for most of Apple's productsthe iPod, iPhone, and MBP'sI wish that they would not coat portable products with textures that are so easy to scratch. It is apparent that after a few months of toting this to class, it is going to have some scuffs on it. It seems like a bit of a paradox that a company that puts so much value on aesthetics seems only to care about how the product looks when it is taken out of the original packaging. That said, this laptop feels extremely sturdy, and apart from normal wear and tear marks, I am not fearful that it will fall apart, which is a whole lot more than I can say for my previous piece of crap plastic Dell.

In reading other reviews, people seem to be unable to understand that this qualifies as an ultra-portable laptop. It is simply not going to have a peripheral hookup for every type of flash card and five USB hookups. Are people serious with lambasting Apple for merging the audio jack in/out ports into one single port? Really, who gives a rat's a$$? This is a PORTABLE computer, not a media center. If you are a user who favors those things, then you are free to go out and purchase the necessary adapters, but I would rather have a lightweight computer that I can easily tote around. If you want a laptop that is prepared for any occasion, go buy an 8 lb. Dell desktop replacement, and have fun. I for one think people just want a reason to moan or find something to complain about. The fact is that for the money, you are not going to find a better laptop than this one. It costs a bit more than competing PC products, but I have owned Dell's and HP's, and I can tell you, you get what you pay for. If you use your laptop for at least a couple of hours a day, I think it is worth a couple hundred extra to get a really high quality product that makes you happy, and that is why I upgraded to the MBP.

Honest reviews on Apple MacBook ProMB991LL/A 13.3 Inch Laptop

There are lots of positives. First, the aluminum unibody design is both gorgeous and practical. The precision construction gives the whole unit a solid feel. Aluminum and glass won't wear out like the plastic on many other laptops. The silver matte finish with black keys looks classy as well.

Fingers glide easily over the large, glass trackpad. The trackpad also operates as a mouse button -it takes a small amount of pressure to click it. Other trackpads I've used often register a click just putting my fingers down -the MacBook Pro's trackpad gives physical feedback which reduces those mis-clicks.

Multiple-finger gestures make it a snap to navigate through documents and websites. Pressing with two fingers instead of one performs the equivalent of a right click. Swiping with 2 fingers scrolls the current window. Spreading fingers apart zooms in; pinching zooms out (similar to the iPhone). Swiping 4 fingers exposes the desktop or switches between applications. These gestures are intuitive and it is hard going back to the Windows laptop after getting used to their convenience (I am really hooked on the 2-finger scrolling).

The keyboard automatically lights up as the room light dims. This isn't an essential feature (especially for touch typists), but is helpful for picking out the correct function keys after dark. It's little touches like this that make the MacBook Pro a pleasure to use.

Apple put a lot of thought into the design of their power supply. It has a special connector that attaches magnetically to main body -so it connects easily and won't cause your laptop to crash to the floor if you trip over it. The connector even has a light that shows it's connected and charging (turning green when the battery reaches 100%). A little plastic clip on the cord helps manage its length. When traveling, the extension cord can be replaced with a retractable plug that goes directly into an outlet, so there's even less to carry. The U.S. plug is included with the MacBook Pro, but you can order plugs for other countries.

The solid body, backlit keyboard and MagSafe power supply are nice design flourishes, but the important feature is the long battery life.

The built-in battery can last up to 7 hours between charges so you can get almost a full day of work out of it. The downside is that the battery cannot simply be swapped out when it gets low or reaches its end-of-life. Apple says their smart charging method allows up to 1000 recharges and batteries should last for up to 5 years. The inability to swap in a fresh battery could be an issue for people that take long intercontinental plane trips, although a HyperMac external battery can keep a 13" MacBook Pro running up to 33 hours.

The MacBook Pro's LED backlit display provides a wide color gamut (Apple says it is a 60% improvement over the MacBook). This is major plus for art and photography applications. A lot of people complain the glossy display is hard to use outdoors -I like its sharpness and mostly work under indoor lighting. However, I can see how this might annoy some users.

Apple has added a FireWire 800 port and support for up to 8GB of RAM. Currently, the cost of a full 8GB of memory is prohibitively expensive, but 4GB is quite reasonable. Eventually memory prices should drop and the MacBook Pro can be inexpensively upgraded to its full potential. The support for more RAM is a welcome feature as we enter the age of 64-bit operating systems. If you are using Photoshop, editing video or running Windows in the background, you might consider extra memory (the manual describes how to upgrade the memory yourself).

The MacBook Pro is a reasonable value for the money, but cheaper laptops are certainly available. I'll leave it to others to argue the merits of one operating system over the other. Because the Macs are Intel-based, they can still be used to run Windows applications, either through Apple's Boot Camp or virtual machine software such as Parallels or Fusion (or Sun's free VirtualBox). The Mac operating system, OS X, is easy to use, so Windows users needn't worry about switching.

The new Macs now ship with Snow Leopard, the latest version of the Mac OS X operating system. If the 13" MacBook Pro you bought came with Leopard, you can upgrade to Snow Leopard for $9.95 via Apple's up-to-date program (be sure to sign up within 90 days of purchase). Google "snow leopard up to date" for details.

What's not to like? This MacBook Pro does not have an ExpressCard slot which limits its expandability. Apple is probably right that most users will be satisfied with the SD slot, but pro photographers might prefer to insert their compact flash card. 3D graphic designers might want to consider one of the higher end MacBook Pros that offer a separate graphics processor. Hard core gamers should probably invest in a PC. And it's no deal-breaker, but a writable Blu-ray drive is still on my wish list. There are rumors that the MacBook Pros will be upgraded with faster processors in January 2010.

The aluminum body is durable -I have had mine for months now and it still look great. Naturally, nothing is totally scratch-proof and scratches on the anodized aluminum case cannot be simply buffed out. Scuff marks happen -true road warriors must learn to accept this as a fact of life. However if it's a big concern, a Speck See Thru Case or InvisibleShield might offer some piece of mind. Personally, I prefer to just be careful and carry my MacBook Pro in a Tom Bihn Ristretto messenger bag (the STM Small Alley Messenger Bag looks like good alternative).

The 13" model is perfect for someone wanting a full-featured laptop that's easy to carry around. The MacBook Air is even more portable, but has less battery life and is not as expandable (plus the Pro's built-in DVD is convenient). To work on a larger screen, plugging into a standalone display turns the laptop into a desktop machine. I can tell you, I would have loved to have a MacBook Pro when I had to march 20 minutes to campus for computer classes.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Apple MacBook ProMB991LL/A 13.3 Inch Laptop

I purchased the Unibody MacBook in October, and I sold it just to get the new MacBook Pro. I have to agree that the new 13" MacBook Pro deserves the name "Pro" in it now. It has much better features, and this should have been the computer that the Unibody MacBook was back in October. Ever since Apple introduced the Unibody MacBook, many people complained about the loss of FireWire and the terrible screen quality. Fortunately, Apple responded to those complaints with the new 13" MacBook Pro. The return of FireWire has made a lot of people happy, and the surprising addition of the SD Card slot made it even better. The quality of the screen is also a lot better. The screen displays much better colors, and it still carries the revolutionary LED backlit.

The pricing of the MacBook Pro line has also dropped significantly. The original 15" Pro was starting at the price of $1999, but they dropped it by $300 making it $1699. The Unibody MacBook was asking for $1299, but they are now asking for $1199 with the addition of the new features. I am very pleased that they dropped the price, as it is very rare to hear Apple drop their prices. The new features make it much more affordable. The computer still looks identical to the previous October notebook revision. It still carries the sexy Unibody design, and the backlit keyboard is now standard on all models. I actually find the backlit keyboard very useful, even as a touch typist. The gorgeous glass multi-touch trackpad still pleases me with the features and the size.

After the rebranding of the Unibody MacBook, and the addition of the new features. Apple has really stepped up to the plate. They successfully tightened up the competition, as the new MacBook Pro line is now much more affordable and is priced very well. The new 13" MacBook Pro does feel like a "Pro" computer, where the performance is hard to feel unsatisfied. The graphics are incredible. Even if you feel that the MacBook Pro line is still too much, Apple is also offering the classic MacBook line for a low price of $999. If you purchase this laptop now, you'll be able to upgrade to Snow Leopard for only $10. With the gorgeous Unibody design, LED backlit display, and trackpad, $1199 is a price that cannot be beaten. Great job Apple!