Showing posts with label best laptop computers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label best laptop computers. Show all posts
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Discount Certified Pre-Owned Aluminum PowerBook G4/1.5 GHz, 1.3 GB of RAM
This product arrived super quick, with extra software included. The seller even included a 1 GB card to upgrade the RAM. Would definitely buy from this seller again.NO AIRPORT CARD LOOKED LIKE IT WAS REBUILT SCRATHES EVERYWHERE NO USB NO ETHERNET INPUT IT WAS JUST AWFUL SPECS WERE WRONG LIED ABOUT EVERYTHING
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Reviews of Toshiba mini notebook NB255-N250 10.1" widescreen Laptop (Glossy
It's a netbook, so that means you shouldn't expect a lot, but it gets the job done. I've never had any signicant issues with it. The keyboard is a little smaller than a laptop, but unless you have really large hands it shouldn't be a problem. I actually bought an Asus before this one and had to return it because the mouse pad was too close to the space bar (which made the mouse jump around every time I hit the space bardrove me nuts!). This one is a lot better because there's a nice gap between the two. Another thing I like is that it's fairly light which is nice when you're traveling. Overall I'd say it's a pretty solid machine. It's good for using the internet and word processing. I'd recommend it.
Thanks for the good deal. I am very satisfied!
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This laptop is exactly what I wanted. The delivery was really quick. I got it on the first day of delivery. Packaging was appropriate. The laptop worked right out of the box. The laptop is now charging and updating software (135 updates from Microsoft).Thanks for the good deal. I am very satisfied!
Best Deals for Toshiba mini notebook NB255-N250 10.1" widescreen Laptop (Glossy
My girlfriend needed a small netbook for college and i got her this. she couldn't be happier and i'm thinking about buying one nowHonest reviews on Toshiba mini notebook NB255-N250 10.1" widescreen Laptop (Glossy
THIS COMPUTER IS SO NOT WORT THE MONEY THIS IS THE WORST COMPTUER THAT I HAVE EVER HAD AND I DO MEAN EVER HAD IN MY LIFE
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Cheap Refurbished) Dell Latitude D630 14.1" Laptop PC - Silver Notebook
op needed upgrades and java spy bot and avast need to be loaded abode and other.
Still a good buy remember to set up a reboot or system restore point.
I like the XP system.
Still a good buy remember to set up a reboot or system restore point.
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Works great no problems arrived on time.in good condition,plug in and use.I would reccomend this itemI like the XP system.
Best Deals for Refurbished) Dell Latitude D630 14.1" Laptop PC - Silver Notebook
Keyboard was broken and they didn't cover the cost to fix it. I ask for my $30 to be refunded and they refused. There was also no wifi card installed that I had to put in.Honest reviews on Refurbished) Dell Latitude D630 14.1" Laptop PC - Silver Notebook
Great product and great price. The product was shipped as promised and arrived on time. The only thing I would advise to buyers is that Microsoft open office does not have Microsoft word and etc you have to get this separate. All together this was a great purchase.Monday, September 1, 2014
Reviews of Dell Inspiron i15R-2646MRB 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mars Black)
I bought this during the Black Friday week sales so I got a really good price reduction on the machine. Even at it's current higher price it's still a pretty good deal. It features a core i5 processor, 6GB of RAM and a 640GB internal drive. I haven't had any problem running software/games including Civ 5 which runs quickly and smoothly. The wireless and Bluetooth operate well, though the machine seems reluctant to automatically reconnect to a network once it has entered sleep mode.
The laptop is sturdy and the screen is bright. The keyboard takes a little getting used to as the keys are a bit off-center and some keys that you will use a lot are half-sized (cursor keys, delete, etc.). That takes a little getting used to. The fan is quiet and keeps the laptop cool. It runs noticeably cooler than my previous Dell laptops and much cooler than the HP laptop we have.
It comes with 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium and I haven't had any issues with older programs not running. Adding printers is noticeably faster and easier than it was with Vista. Office 10 trial is installed and you can run "starter" for free if you don't want to buy it. That's a nice feature if all you are going to do is basic word processing/worksheets.
The negatives for this model are fairly minor. The number and placement of ports is unusual. There are only four USB ports and two are on the back and the other two near the back, one on each side. I'd rather see over/under dual ports on the side. The other problem is the power cord falls out a lot. As in all the time. Even minor shifts in your sitting position can jar it loose.
Overall it's a very nice machine.
I have a few minor quibbles...none of which particularly bother me, but I can see other people not being satisfied as a result of them.
It is not as sturdy as I would like.
There is a lot of "bloatware" installed on the machine that really needs to be taken care of to achieve optimal results.
The faux metal surface where you put your hands to use the keyboard will get scratched by your watch. So if that bothers you, don't get this computer.
The battery life is not amazing. I am getting about 1.5 hours off battery.
1. For a 15.6" screen, the resolution is low: 1366x768. Business laptops have standard 1400x900 for 14" screens. I've had one for years and that resolution was great for the screen size. The screen is glossy and will reflect light. Outdoors, it's almost impossible to see anything, unless you hunch over the screen to shade it. POOR vertical viewing angles. 20 degree off the perpendicular direction to the screen, colors begin to shift visibly: whiteout if you look at the screen from above, darkened if you look from a bit below.
2. The keyboard can be really annoying:
silly reassignment of Fn keys to perform laptop-specific functions (volume up/down, Wi-Fi on/off etc.) instead of doing those by pressing Fn+F#. Configurable from the BIOS though.
besides that, the F# keys are labeled a faint blue on black, and are barely visible in a well-lit room. The reflection of the screen on the glossy laptop finish near the hinge doesn't help. The visible labeling is for the laptop function keys (Wi-fi on/off, brightness up/down etc.). This shows how the laptop is aimed at those who don't know what F5 does.
odd placement of the PrintScreen key between Insert and Delete
narrow trackpad buttons, often annoying to hit with the thumb
the arrow keys are too thin, half the height of normal keys
after having used laptops without a numeric keypad for the past few years, the keypad is not only useless; it gets in the way. where I expect Backspace to be, there's now Keypad Minus.
there is no Break key (useful for Win+Break to get the Windows System properties, or Ctrl+Break in command line applications)
there is no context menu key (equivalent to right click on the focused control)
3. My unit had a problem with the fan, while other owners reported theirs worked fine. Maybe Dell has a quality control problem here. For no reason at all, my laptop's fan would ramp up and whir every 2-3 minutes for about 20 seconds, even if there is no spike in CPU load. This became really annoying in a quiet environment, such as a classroom or library. I had updated to the latest BIOS (A12), and the problem was still there. One possible way to "fix" this is to always have the CPU running one core at full speed, e.g. by running some CPU-intensive application like Folding@Home. This will keep the fan at a constant (albeit loud) speed.
So make sure these things don't bother you, or you'll hate the laptop. Try to get a feel for the keyboard and trackpad at a local store (Staples, Office Max, Office Depot, Fry's etc.)
The laptop is sturdy and the screen is bright. The keyboard takes a little getting used to as the keys are a bit off-center and some keys that you will use a lot are half-sized (cursor keys, delete, etc.). That takes a little getting used to. The fan is quiet and keeps the laptop cool. It runs noticeably cooler than my previous Dell laptops and much cooler than the HP laptop we have.
It comes with 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium and I haven't had any issues with older programs not running. Adding printers is noticeably faster and easier than it was with Vista. Office 10 trial is installed and you can run "starter" for free if you don't want to buy it. That's a nice feature if all you are going to do is basic word processing/worksheets.
The negatives for this model are fairly minor. The number and placement of ports is unusual. There are only four USB ports and two are on the back and the other two near the back, one on each side. I'd rather see over/under dual ports on the side. The other problem is the power cord falls out a lot. As in all the time. Even minor shifts in your sitting position can jar it loose.
Overall it's a very nice machine.
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I got this for $785. It appears the price has gone up. It is a good computer, quite fast. I am hoping that it lasts as long as my previous Dell.I have a few minor quibbles...none of which particularly bother me, but I can see other people not being satisfied as a result of them.
It is not as sturdy as I would like.
There is a lot of "bloatware" installed on the machine that really needs to be taken care of to achieve optimal results.
The faux metal surface where you put your hands to use the keyboard will get scratched by your watch. So if that bothers you, don't get this computer.
The battery life is not amazing. I am getting about 1.5 hours off battery.
Best Deals for Dell Inspiron i15R-2646MRB 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mars Black)
The real product name of this laptop, as shown in BIOS and in Windows System Information, is Dell N5010. For its price, this is a good laptop, but it can also piss you off if you are peculiar about things:1. For a 15.6" screen, the resolution is low: 1366x768. Business laptops have standard 1400x900 for 14" screens. I've had one for years and that resolution was great for the screen size. The screen is glossy and will reflect light. Outdoors, it's almost impossible to see anything, unless you hunch over the screen to shade it. POOR vertical viewing angles. 20 degree off the perpendicular direction to the screen, colors begin to shift visibly: whiteout if you look at the screen from above, darkened if you look from a bit below.
2. The keyboard can be really annoying:
silly reassignment of Fn keys to perform laptop-specific functions (volume up/down, Wi-Fi on/off etc.) instead of doing those by pressing Fn+F#. Configurable from the BIOS though.
besides that, the F# keys are labeled a faint blue on black, and are barely visible in a well-lit room. The reflection of the screen on the glossy laptop finish near the hinge doesn't help. The visible labeling is for the laptop function keys (Wi-fi on/off, brightness up/down etc.). This shows how the laptop is aimed at those who don't know what F5 does.
odd placement of the PrintScreen key between Insert and Delete
narrow trackpad buttons, often annoying to hit with the thumb
the arrow keys are too thin, half the height of normal keys
after having used laptops without a numeric keypad for the past few years, the keypad is not only useless; it gets in the way. where I expect Backspace to be, there's now Keypad Minus.
there is no Break key (useful for Win+Break to get the Windows System properties, or Ctrl+Break in command line applications)
there is no context menu key (equivalent to right click on the focused control)
3. My unit had a problem with the fan, while other owners reported theirs worked fine. Maybe Dell has a quality control problem here. For no reason at all, my laptop's fan would ramp up and whir every 2-3 minutes for about 20 seconds, even if there is no spike in CPU load. This became really annoying in a quiet environment, such as a classroom or library. I had updated to the latest BIOS (A12), and the problem was still there. One possible way to "fix" this is to always have the CPU running one core at full speed, e.g. by running some CPU-intensive application like Folding@Home. This will keep the fan at a constant (albeit loud) speed.
So make sure these things don't bother you, or you'll hate the laptop. Try to get a feel for the keyboard and trackpad at a local store (Staples, Office Max, Office Depot, Fry's etc.)
Honest reviews on Dell Inspiron i15R-2646MRB 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mars Black)
overall this is a good value laptop esp considering 6 GB RAM/500 GB HDD. screen resolution is great; however battery life is only 2 hours even with dimming the screen. my other dell laptop with a 9 cell battery (albeit 14 inch screen) lasts 4 hours.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Dell Inspiron i15R-2646MRB 15.6-Inch Laptop (Mars Black)
I got this laptop to use while traveling and it does what I wanted it to do. Add to that, the graphics and you have a great deal here. I'm not a big PC gamer, but I decided to try a couple games and see how they would work on the laptop. All the games I've installed so far, have worked perfectly. I've got a couple other Dell laptops I use for everyday things and home entertainment, both cost more than this laptop. The 2 older Dell's I have have the 17" monitors and continue to work great, but it is nice to have the slightly smaller Dell to take on trips with me. I don't use it battery powered too often, but it does have a fairly short battery life. If battery life is your biggest concern, don't bother with a laptop, pick up a netbook. I'm pleasantly surprised at the quality of this laptop, especially for the price paid to get it.Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Discount HP Pavilion DV7-4065dx 17.3" Notebook PC
Do not buy. This laptop lastes less than 2.5 years and for that kind of money I expected more. Turns out the problem is well known and yet they continued to sell this model. Before you buy, google hp pavilion dv7 won't wake up from sleep mode or dv7 won't boot up and read about it for yourself.
Loved this laptop until it just suddenly stopped working with no warning signs and no drops/spills/abuse/virus. Can't believe I spent over $700 and didn't even get 3 years out of it.
Hope this saves someone some money!
Loved this laptop until it just suddenly stopped working with no warning signs and no drops/spills/abuse/virus. Can't believe I spent over $700 and didn't even get 3 years out of it.
Hope this saves someone some money!
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I certainly am not a computer geek and have no intention of trying to provide you with a technical breakdown of the unit. The computer does what it is supposed to do based on the specifications. ( Oops haven't tried the fingerprint reader, I forgot!) What I really wanted to convey in this review is the fact that the laptop was recertified, refurbished, remanufactured, whatever!!! Without reading that statement on the box, I would have told you I have brand new laptop. I am sure that there are people out there that would probably rather pull their own nails out rather than buy a recertified unit!! I just wanted to tell you this isn't my first recertified unit nor do I expect it to be my last. I do not fear recertified!! And I am suggesting that if you want to get the most bang for your buck, recertified is definitely the way to go. Now as sure as God made little green apples, there is going to be someone outside who has purchased a recertified unit that might have been DOA and they want my tongue. Well people, that happens to new unit too! I love my laptop and the many features that go with it. At least think about what I have suggested!! Happy computing!Monday, June 30, 2014
Review of HP ENVY TouchSmart 15t-j000 Quad Edition Windows 8 Professional 64
List Price: $1,499.99
Sale Price: $1,288.88
Today's Bonus: 14% Off
with it's combination of CPU, large (and upgradeable) RAM, and latest generation of CPU core, is amazing, you don't need to pay extra for a professional laptop.
With this laptop you have the latest generation of CPU, very large RAM, a very good sound (the laptops are not generally characterized in this regard), Good Hybrid disk of 1TB, backlight keyboard and fingerprint reader with good software and good recognition. And it's touchscreen, is excellent for Windows 8. Very recommended.
Monday, June 16, 2014
Acer Aspire V5-471P-6843 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Silky Silver) Review
List Price: $799.99
Sale Price: $577.72
Today's Bonus: 28% Off
This is my first Windows 8 touchscreen laptop. The aesthetics of it are very pleasing it's a very sleek design that still manages to fit a disk drive without any real bulk or weight. The touch screen is very responsive and start-up is very prompt. It doesn't have a full HD resolution, but the screen is still very crisp and clear.
The keyboard has been taking me a while to get used to. The keys are softer than on my previous laptop, but I feel that it definitely improves my typing speed. The keys are all beautifully backlit and makes the whole aesthetic of the laptop, again, very pleasing.
I've only had this laptop for about a week now and my only real concern about it is the touchpad. It doesn't seem to be too responsive and scrolling with it is extremely difficult. Maybe I'm still getting used to it, but I often have to opt for scrolling by using the touch screen (which, by the way, works really well and does a good job at reducing finger prints and smudges) or arrow keys. I hope that it all will just take practice but this problem is pretty noticeable.
It comes with Dolby Advanced Audio which works really well. Music sounds great off of this laptop but the speakers are underneath it, so playing music or otherwise off a flat surface really improves the experience.
Overall, you get a very sturdy and complete touchscreen laptop for a very, very reasonable price.
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The laptop is super fast, excellent performance, however to that Wi-Fi is very sensitive, only manages to keep the Connect wifi device near, otherwise I can not. It's really very sad that I can not ge Connect achieve and maintain, at least in the house .... not really happens .. the rest all goodBest Deals for Acer Aspire V5-471P-6843 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Silky Silver)
Best laptop I've ever owned!!! Love all the features. Package was delivered promptly, and package in perfect condition. Love all the special features, especially the lighted keyboard! Would definitely recommend!!Honest reviews on Acer Aspire V5-471P-6843 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Silky Silver)
very good computer, good quality. Very good the touch screen is a computer that is well designed and very fast processorFind helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Acer Aspire V5-471P-6843 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Silky Silver)
Excellent purchase. Compact yet powerful. This is a great product. Very please to have made the purchase. Great for college students.Monday, June 9, 2014
Best Dell Inspiron 14z i14z-2203sLV 14.0-Inch Ultrabook (Moon Silver) Deals
List Price: $759.99
Sale Price: $628.99
Today's Bonus: 17% Off
I owned and loved a previous version of the Dell Inspiron 14z. Unfortunately, it didn't love me back when I got caught in a major thunderstorm and it got soaked through. When searching for a new computer, I look at other brands and models before settling on another Inspiron 14z.
First, the cosmetics. This laptop is considered an ultrabook -it's super thin (0.8") and light (4.12 pounds). For a Dell, it's remarkably chic and stylish. I love the Moon Silver finish.
The battery life on this computer is fantastic. I typically get four to five hours of moderately heavy use; if I'm consciously trying to conserve power (turning down display brightness, limiting programs running in the background, etc.) I can routinely get at least six hours. Compared to other computers I've owned, this is simply great. The Inspiron 14z also charges quickly, which is one of my favorite things about it.
It has an 1.8 GHz Intel Core i5 processor (a third-generation Intel processor), which is fantastic for the price. It also comes with a 500 GB hard drive and 6 GB of RAM. The computer boots up fast and has no problem running numerous memory-intensive programs at once. The graphics quality is great, it has an HDMI port, and the webcam works wonderfully. I definitely give it 5/5 for overall performance.
As with most Dell products, it takes some initial tweaking to get the machine working the way you want. Adjust the sleep/hibernation settings right off the bet to avoid major annoyance (the default is far shorter than I prefer), change the energy-saving preferences, and alter the trackpad settings. I also uninstalled McAfee and installed Norton instead (personal preference -I've had major performance problems with McAfee in the past). It takes a few days to get used to a new trackpad and keyboard, but the transition was easy for me, as I've owned an Inspiron 14z in the past.
Overall, I highly recommend this ultrabook. It looks fabulous, is light and portable, and is lightning fast. That, combined with the excellent battery life, make this a fantastic product in my book. Enjoy!
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The Dell Inspiron 14z is sold as an ultrabook. We get 2-3 hours of battery life even when we are doing simple, low energy tasks like editing a document. Reality (2-3 hours), Dell's promotional materials (5-8 hours), and their post-purchasing customer service are three entirely different things. We are very unhappy customers.Dell's promotional material says that the Inspiron 14z (6 cell battery) gives "Power to stay productive Ultrabooks don't skimp on battery life: with 5 to 8 hours or more of running time they can keep you productive all day" (http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-14z-5423/pd) and Dell's on-line customer service chat will tell you the "Inspiron 14z's battery last for up to 7 hrs depending on operating conditions"
We bought the Inspiron because we thought we were getting a reasonable battery life. After we purchased the computer, we contacted Dell about the battery life issue, thinking that the computer was malfunctioning and could be repaired. We even sent it back to them for "repair." Still only got 2-3 hours. We talked further with customer service (many calls over many weeks). Dell's technology staff now say that with a 6 cell battery, you should only expect 2-3 hours and that the marketing material (5-8 hours) refers to time when the computer is asleep. I don't know about you, but I'm not being "productive all day" when my computer is asleep.
Dell won't stand by their product. They basically told us that we should have known that a six cell battery will only last 2-3 hours and we were out of luck. We will never buy another Dell product. Their customer service is horrible and you can't trust anything they say on their own websites or in their on-line chats.
Best Deals for Dell Inspiron 14z i14z-2203sLV 14.0-Inch Ultrabook (Moon Silver)
The laptop has gone bad thrice withing the first two months. This is almost like a refurbished laptop, even worse!Honest reviews on Dell Inspiron 14z i14z-2203sLV 14.0-Inch Ultrabook (Moon Silver)
my previous laptop (insipiron 15r) was so heavy and this new one looks as big and it's super light not to mention incredibly fast. i totally recommend it if you're looking for a fast, light, big screen and great price.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Dell Inspiron 14z i14z-2203sLV 14.0-Inch Ultrabook (Moon Silver)
This is very practical, very good computer, I like very much, the speed of the arrival of the goods soon, thank youMonday, May 19, 2014
Cheap Acer Aspire 15.6-inch 1.50GHz 250GB SATA HD Laptop Grey |
I purchased this laptop a month ago; it has crashed twice already, it will require more memory. The speakers/sound is good. The picture/resolution is good. I woould not purchase this laptop again, I probably wouldnt recommend it either. The keys on the keyboard are flat which can be annoying for some people. It has taken me some time to get used to this. I havent played movies on it yet, but I have watched You Tube videos and the resolution is good.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Discount Lenovo IdeaPad Y560 Series 064655U 15.6-Inch Laptop (Grey)
I got this laptop on Christmas sale... which was at a discounted price... and got it shipped next day itself. It was a nice deal and having the laptop in my hand next day was a great plus.
Liked the overall look and the performance is good as a normal home multimedia laptop.... not for high end gaming though...
One more major plus point was the touch pad...
Would recommend anyone if they get it at a discounted price....
But in general, I feel satisfied with this laptop.
Liked the overall look and the performance is good as a normal home multimedia laptop.... not for high end gaming though...
One more major plus point was the touch pad...
Would recommend anyone if they get it at a discounted price....
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For me, this laptop is quite good for me to play games and doing some entertainment. But if u turn too much software on at the same time, the speed of your computer will be very slow...But in general, I feel satisfied with this laptop.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Reviews of VIZIO CT15-A5 15.6-Inch Thin + Light Ultrabook
I was considering purchasing the Vizio laptop CT15-A5 only as choice #2...the Samsung Series 9, similar to that of the Vizio except for the 8GB RAM memory, was my primary focus. However, taking into consideration Vizio's specifications, its price, and Amazon's association, I decided to proceed with the Vizio acquisition.
The shipping/delivery packaging, both by Amazon and Vizio, was excellent, neat, tidy, safe, and simple. The laptop's stunningly unique appearance, [lightweight, slim] and durability cannot be denied. The manufacturer's future considerations and modifications must continue regarding opening the laptop with one hand, currently it can only be done with practice and patience. But this should not be a dealer breaker.
I cannot say enough about the boot ramp-up time, absolutely phenomenal with a threshold of 3-7 seconds. Additionally, Out of the box you will have approximately 200GB of free space. Let's not forget that Vizio has a MS signature allowing for no bloating software, I applaud this initiative.
Historically, from my own personal research, there has been significant negative reviews pertaining to Vizio's `track pads'. Not so with Vizio Windows 8, all functions are readily available, easily accessible, two finger scroll [up, down], zoom [in, out], double touch throughout, [right, left] click, etc. This is by far one of the best track pads I've ever used.
I compared the screen with the Samsung series 9 which is owned by a friend, the S9 is superior, especially while viewing in daylight. Saying this does not mean the screen is bad, I watched several movies and the screen did not disappoint me at all, it was adequate.
The battery charger's cable houses enough length extending its usage to outlets immediately out of reach. It also provides visual indicators such as `yellow', `green' notification during the charging process. Depending upon usage, battery life is approximately 3 hours on MS Signature Power Plan.
WIFI reception has not been an issue, it has actually been outstanding. Proximity during usage in my home, which is relatively spacious, far surpasses that of the Samsung 9.
I have yet to max-out speaker volume...Vizio has provided more than adequate sound during my recent movie viewing.
Amazingly, Vizio's heat venting and dispersemant system is incredible, I have not experienced any unnecessary grills during operation and the fan's performance is barely audible.
In conclusion, as its name implies, Vizio is visually impressive...it looks cool, feels cool, runs cool, and most importantly my fingers are happy dancing around its keyboard. On that note, Vizio, Visual that is, back-lit keys should have been implemented improving its night usage.
My only recommendation to Vizio is to offer a upgradable storage option. I would have enjoyed a 500gb one.
UPDATED 11-21
I want to add that if you update the synaptic touchpad driver to the latest (go to Synaptics website), you can enable 3 and 4 finger windows 8 gestures built specifically just for this large touchpad. It is really awesome!
Pros
Designfeels great. Fantastic build qualityeasily on par with my mac. very light too! The chassis feels very solid with very minimal flex. I think I remember reading vizio is using some unibody-type construction like the macbooks do.
ScreenFantastic. I got so sick of the glossy screen on my mac so the matte screen on the vizio is a very welcome change. The resolution is fantastic and viewing angles seen to be better than most laptops.
SpeedI am doing mostly document editing, lots of web browsing and some video watching. Most computers are plenty adequate for this and the vizio is definitely overkill here. The SSD is incredibly fast (both in real world use and benchmarks). One of the best thing about this computer to me though is that it is so fast and does NOT get hot. My macbook would literally burn me if I played a flash video or anything slightly intense. This vizio doesn't have ANY heat problemsI'm really impressed here.
Neither pro nor cons:
Battery lifefor web browsing and document editing you should expect to get about 4.5 hours. This is fine for me but it simply can't compare to the 6.5 hours I got with my mac.
Speakersgood for laptop speakers, but they lack a lot of lows and are definitely inferior to my previous mac's speakers.
Touchpadit is probably the best touchpad you will find on a PC! That being said, it still isn't quite as good as the apple touchpads. What I think I miss the most is how fluid the scrolling was on the macthis vizio can't quite compare although I think it is more a limitation of microsoft windows.
Windows 8Windows 8 is just plain weird. I'm slowly adjusting to it, but this is seriously weird. I've used PCs for all except the last two years (when I got my mac) and have had quite a few confusing moments with it. I think I will get adjusted fine eventually though. The good news is that Windows 8 appears to be very efficient power and speed-wise.
Cons:
Keyboardit kind of sucks. The key travel is very low and there is a small amount of flex. Put these two problems together and it is definitely not the easiest computer to type on. You will end up accidently double-typing a lot of letters. I think this may be something I will adjust to though. It just will require you to adjust the way you are used to pushing on keys though. The keyboard on the macbook is the best there is on any computer and it definitely beats the vizio. Note the samsung 15" ultrabook has similarly low key travel issues too but I found it more comfortable to type on that this computer.
ChargerTwo problems: 1. It is piano gloss blackwhat this means is after 1 day of use you will already have plenty of scratches on it and it is going to look like crap after a couple of weeks. 2. I really wish more comopanies would design their power bricks so they can be directly plugged into the wall like apple does. As someone who always commutes with my laptop it is really annoying to have to pack not only the charging brick but ALSO a huge annoying cord as well.
Overall, I'm very happy with this computer though. I did pay significantly less than retail during a blackfriday sale but you will be very hard pressed to find a 15" ultrabook with specs anywhere near this for the price. Unless you really need the extra space and speed of the CT15-A5 the CT15-A4 may be a much more affordable option and likely has even better battery life.
Mainly because I thought that for 1080p IPS Laptop with Core i7 and 256GB SSD is pretty good deal and I can live with any downsides. And I think I am justified.
The main feature of this laptop is 1080p IPS MATTE SCREEN. Very vibrant and well color balanced. I am absolutely thrilled how good it is. I had a think pad x201 tablet and it was difficult to work with in direct sun but this one is workable even at the half brightness. The brightness is a little bit more than SONY VAIO S series 15" notebooks.
The second most important feature is 256GB SSD. It is not a whole lot of space to store your media. But other than that it is more than adequate. I run two VMs off of it and have documents and other stuff and does the job. Pretty snappy boot time. I had a samsung SSD SATA-II based and it is easily twice as fast as that.
If these two features haven't made you fall in love with this then third one is large trackpad and bloatware/trialware free windows. It looks nice and very sleek and lightweight and has a neat look. Boots in 3 seconds.
Great. Now stop here and go buy the laptop!!!
Okay Great you bought it!!! Honeymoon is over and now work on the compromise and respect each others's feeling. Stop complaining about the keyboard! Yeah I know you don't like it. The old thinkpad had a pretty good keyboard...but live with it. After sometime you will begin to like it.
Yes my only wish was dedicated PgUp and PgDown key and full size arrow keys. The key does misses sometimes. But hey that black spot above your nose doesn't look right either.
Okay I know your next complaint, Windows 8... well it is not too bad. You will get used to it. Learn a few gestures and with good trackpad you will have the honor of educating your friends on how to use windows 8 and start convincing them to drop their iProducts and make a switch (as if they will ever!! after all they earn for apple).
Battery life is what everybody said. And I am comfortable with that. The only complain is that to replace it is a pain when time comes. Good news is that replacing battery yourself will not void the warranty. Does it matter if it wasn't covered? Hell no. Because you will most probably be replacing the battery after warranty expires in one year. If you buy additional warranty, check if they will cover battery replacement or you may end up losing your warranty. You have been warned!!!
On warranty side, A three year warranty on this thing will probably cost you about $200 with ADP. So once you pay $200 and anything happens you get back $799. But that means you effectively netted $599 to get a replacement. So save your money ($200) because after two year you will want to buy a new laptop anyway. Hey Haswell is just around the corner. Isn't it?
For those brave souls who want to install Virtual Machine. The key to get to BIOS is F2. (to save yourself time to search). If you are unable to get to BIOS after repeated shutdown and pressing F2 then you are probably just resuming windows not restarting. Use the restart option of windows 8 and then press F2 and enable Virtualization in BIOS and you will be good to go.
Will update if I notice any problem....
**UPDATE 2/1/2013 **
Spilled some coffee on the laptop. But was quick in drying it out so didn't encounter any issues. The key felt sticky for next two days but became fluid again.
The keyboard feels fine now..that I am getting used to it. So folks .. it takes some time but you will eventually forget about it.
The screen still feels very good... I work with about 30% brightness and still think it is very bright.
online seller for 100 less. After reading reviews here which have been very helpful I went to Vizio's website and updated the touchpad drivers and the wi-fi drivers. Big improvement. I also made some adjustments to the two finger scrolling in the settings and works very much like my Macbook pro now.
My wife was very hesitant about it because of the windows 8 thing but after about 2 days she is really liking it. The keys on the keyboard are fantastic with great feedback and proper spacing. The touchpad is great size and works like a charm once the drivers are updated. I think I totally blew my wife away when I turned it on and it was ready to use in 2 seconds or less for real. It makes my Macbook pro look really slow. I am kind of embarrassed now. I use to brag about how fast my Macbook starts up but Wow I can't even begin to start mine up in 2 seconds or less and that is from either a total shutdown or waking from standby.
I also noticed how much faster this laptop is on the internet than any other computer I have seen. So I guess internet speed is also related to the computers performance after all. I will say that I have been anti Microsoft for many years and still am but my wife loves Microsoft windows so that is why I bought this for her. I also have to admit that this Vizio laptop is really making me rethink Microsoft windows again. It is a combination of the huge screen size, extremely thin size, blazing fast speed, battery life and on that is making me think about buying one for myself and maybe try to install mac OS on it.
Ok now onto the battery life. We have been experiencing about 4.5 hrs continuous use with preset screen brightness which is very bright by the way. Onto the screen now. The screen is very clean, clear, and bright. I am really glad they have chosen the matt finish and not the gloss. Another great thing I have noticed is that the laptop stays very cool even after hours of use for work or play. If you listen really closely in a very quite setting you can faintly here a soft whisper from the fan.
The aluminum chassis is fantastic and built just like an Apple. Very ridged and overall construction quality resembles a Macbook Air. I really hope that it holds up as well too.
If I had to have a gripe then it would be the lack of a SD card slot. Yes you can just use an USB adapter that accepts SD cards so no big deal. All I can say is that after many hours of research I choose this laptop for my wife and she loves me for it. Oh I should also mention that I considered The Acer Ultrabook, the Sony T series, and Samsung but in the end this one was a hands down for me. I would certainly recommend this to anyone serious about a performance Ultrabook.
Pros: Extremely thin and light. Might be the thinest for a 15.6 size screen?
I7 very fast processor that performs very well.
Fantastic feel and responding keyboard and multi touch keypad
long battery life 4.5 plus hrs real life use.
Laptop runs very quite and cool
Laptop startup in 2 seconds or less and ready to use
Very fast internet performance
Exceptional screen clarity and performance
Microsoft Certified with no bloatware software to waste time removing. Finally!
Might be able to turn it into a Macbook with Mac OS??
Cons: Well if I must complain it would be the lack of an SD card slot but this can be overcome with an USB adapter that accepts SD cards.
The shipping/delivery packaging, both by Amazon and Vizio, was excellent, neat, tidy, safe, and simple. The laptop's stunningly unique appearance, [lightweight, slim] and durability cannot be denied. The manufacturer's future considerations and modifications must continue regarding opening the laptop with one hand, currently it can only be done with practice and patience. But this should not be a dealer breaker.
I cannot say enough about the boot ramp-up time, absolutely phenomenal with a threshold of 3-7 seconds. Additionally, Out of the box you will have approximately 200GB of free space. Let's not forget that Vizio has a MS signature allowing for no bloating software, I applaud this initiative.
Historically, from my own personal research, there has been significant negative reviews pertaining to Vizio's `track pads'. Not so with Vizio Windows 8, all functions are readily available, easily accessible, two finger scroll [up, down], zoom [in, out], double touch throughout, [right, left] click, etc. This is by far one of the best track pads I've ever used.
I compared the screen with the Samsung series 9 which is owned by a friend, the S9 is superior, especially while viewing in daylight. Saying this does not mean the screen is bad, I watched several movies and the screen did not disappoint me at all, it was adequate.
The battery charger's cable houses enough length extending its usage to outlets immediately out of reach. It also provides visual indicators such as `yellow', `green' notification during the charging process. Depending upon usage, battery life is approximately 3 hours on MS Signature Power Plan.
WIFI reception has not been an issue, it has actually been outstanding. Proximity during usage in my home, which is relatively spacious, far surpasses that of the Samsung 9.
I have yet to max-out speaker volume...Vizio has provided more than adequate sound during my recent movie viewing.
Amazingly, Vizio's heat venting and dispersemant system is incredible, I have not experienced any unnecessary grills during operation and the fan's performance is barely audible.
In conclusion, as its name implies, Vizio is visually impressive...it looks cool, feels cool, runs cool, and most importantly my fingers are happy dancing around its keyboard. On that note, Vizio, Visual that is, back-lit keys should have been implemented improving its night usage.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
Congrats to VIZIO for getting the the windows 8 ultrabook right. This is the cheapest ultrabook of all core i7 that has a 256GB SSD. Start up is truely instant.. something around 1-2 secs. The design make it so slim that you don't mind carry it everywhere. It beats my old hp. The screen is great to watch movies, do work, read email. I love the multi-touch trackpad, especially with windows 8 gestures.My only recommendation to Vizio is to offer a upgradable storage option. I would have enjoyed a 500gb one.
UPDATED 11-21
I want to add that if you update the synaptic touchpad driver to the latest (go to Synaptics website), you can enable 3 and 4 finger windows 8 gestures built specifically just for this large touchpad. It is really awesome!
Best Deals for VIZIO CT15-A5 15.6-Inch Thin + Light Ultrabook
I previously owned a 15" Macbook pro i5 (about 2 years old) and moved to this vizio. I've been using the vizio for about a week and can comment on most important aspects of it in comparison to my old mac.Pros
Designfeels great. Fantastic build qualityeasily on par with my mac. very light too! The chassis feels very solid with very minimal flex. I think I remember reading vizio is using some unibody-type construction like the macbooks do.
ScreenFantastic. I got so sick of the glossy screen on my mac so the matte screen on the vizio is a very welcome change. The resolution is fantastic and viewing angles seen to be better than most laptops.
SpeedI am doing mostly document editing, lots of web browsing and some video watching. Most computers are plenty adequate for this and the vizio is definitely overkill here. The SSD is incredibly fast (both in real world use and benchmarks). One of the best thing about this computer to me though is that it is so fast and does NOT get hot. My macbook would literally burn me if I played a flash video or anything slightly intense. This vizio doesn't have ANY heat problemsI'm really impressed here.
Neither pro nor cons:
Battery lifefor web browsing and document editing you should expect to get about 4.5 hours. This is fine for me but it simply can't compare to the 6.5 hours I got with my mac.
Speakersgood for laptop speakers, but they lack a lot of lows and are definitely inferior to my previous mac's speakers.
Touchpadit is probably the best touchpad you will find on a PC! That being said, it still isn't quite as good as the apple touchpads. What I think I miss the most is how fluid the scrolling was on the macthis vizio can't quite compare although I think it is more a limitation of microsoft windows.
Windows 8Windows 8 is just plain weird. I'm slowly adjusting to it, but this is seriously weird. I've used PCs for all except the last two years (when I got my mac) and have had quite a few confusing moments with it. I think I will get adjusted fine eventually though. The good news is that Windows 8 appears to be very efficient power and speed-wise.
Cons:
Keyboardit kind of sucks. The key travel is very low and there is a small amount of flex. Put these two problems together and it is definitely not the easiest computer to type on. You will end up accidently double-typing a lot of letters. I think this may be something I will adjust to though. It just will require you to adjust the way you are used to pushing on keys though. The keyboard on the macbook is the best there is on any computer and it definitely beats the vizio. Note the samsung 15" ultrabook has similarly low key travel issues too but I found it more comfortable to type on that this computer.
ChargerTwo problems: 1. It is piano gloss blackwhat this means is after 1 day of use you will already have plenty of scratches on it and it is going to look like crap after a couple of weeks. 2. I really wish more comopanies would design their power bricks so they can be directly plugged into the wall like apple does. As someone who always commutes with my laptop it is really annoying to have to pack not only the charging brick but ALSO a huge annoying cord as well.
Overall, I'm very happy with this computer though. I did pay significantly less than retail during a blackfriday sale but you will be very hard pressed to find a 15" ultrabook with specs anywhere near this for the price. Unless you really need the extra space and speed of the CT15-A5 the CT15-A4 may be a much more affordable option and likely has even better battery life.
Honest reviews on VIZIO CT15-A5 15.6-Inch Thin + Light Ultrabook
I finally bit the bullet and bought it from microsoft store for $799.Mainly because I thought that for 1080p IPS Laptop with Core i7 and 256GB SSD is pretty good deal and I can live with any downsides. And I think I am justified.
The main feature of this laptop is 1080p IPS MATTE SCREEN. Very vibrant and well color balanced. I am absolutely thrilled how good it is. I had a think pad x201 tablet and it was difficult to work with in direct sun but this one is workable even at the half brightness. The brightness is a little bit more than SONY VAIO S series 15" notebooks.
The second most important feature is 256GB SSD. It is not a whole lot of space to store your media. But other than that it is more than adequate. I run two VMs off of it and have documents and other stuff and does the job. Pretty snappy boot time. I had a samsung SSD SATA-II based and it is easily twice as fast as that.
If these two features haven't made you fall in love with this then third one is large trackpad and bloatware/trialware free windows. It looks nice and very sleek and lightweight and has a neat look. Boots in 3 seconds.
Great. Now stop here and go buy the laptop!!!
Okay Great you bought it!!! Honeymoon is over and now work on the compromise and respect each others's feeling. Stop complaining about the keyboard! Yeah I know you don't like it. The old thinkpad had a pretty good keyboard...but live with it. After sometime you will begin to like it.
Yes my only wish was dedicated PgUp and PgDown key and full size arrow keys. The key does misses sometimes. But hey that black spot above your nose doesn't look right either.
Okay I know your next complaint, Windows 8... well it is not too bad. You will get used to it. Learn a few gestures and with good trackpad you will have the honor of educating your friends on how to use windows 8 and start convincing them to drop their iProducts and make a switch (as if they will ever!! after all they earn for apple).
Battery life is what everybody said. And I am comfortable with that. The only complain is that to replace it is a pain when time comes. Good news is that replacing battery yourself will not void the warranty. Does it matter if it wasn't covered? Hell no. Because you will most probably be replacing the battery after warranty expires in one year. If you buy additional warranty, check if they will cover battery replacement or you may end up losing your warranty. You have been warned!!!
On warranty side, A three year warranty on this thing will probably cost you about $200 with ADP. So once you pay $200 and anything happens you get back $799. But that means you effectively netted $599 to get a replacement. So save your money ($200) because after two year you will want to buy a new laptop anyway. Hey Haswell is just around the corner. Isn't it?
For those brave souls who want to install Virtual Machine. The key to get to BIOS is F2. (to save yourself time to search). If you are unable to get to BIOS after repeated shutdown and pressing F2 then you are probably just resuming windows not restarting. Use the restart option of windows 8 and then press F2 and enable Virtualization in BIOS and you will be good to go.
Will update if I notice any problem....
**UPDATE 2/1/2013 **
Spilled some coffee on the laptop. But was quick in drying it out so didn't encounter any issues. The key felt sticky for next two days but became fluid again.
The keyboard feels fine now..that I am getting used to it. So folks .. it takes some time but you will eventually forget about it.
The screen still feels very good... I work with about 30% brightness and still think it is very bright.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for VIZIO CT15-A5 15.6-Inch Thin + Light Ultrabook
I bought this laptop for my wife about a month ago to replace her slower than turtle less than one year old Dell laptop. I took a gamble on buying a laptop from Vizio as they are new to laptop manufacturing but after hours and hours of research I am happy to say if has been a great purchase. I should note that I did not buy it here but from anotheronline seller for 100 less. After reading reviews here which have been very helpful I went to Vizio's website and updated the touchpad drivers and the wi-fi drivers. Big improvement. I also made some adjustments to the two finger scrolling in the settings and works very much like my Macbook pro now.
My wife was very hesitant about it because of the windows 8 thing but after about 2 days she is really liking it. The keys on the keyboard are fantastic with great feedback and proper spacing. The touchpad is great size and works like a charm once the drivers are updated. I think I totally blew my wife away when I turned it on and it was ready to use in 2 seconds or less for real. It makes my Macbook pro look really slow. I am kind of embarrassed now. I use to brag about how fast my Macbook starts up but Wow I can't even begin to start mine up in 2 seconds or less and that is from either a total shutdown or waking from standby.
I also noticed how much faster this laptop is on the internet than any other computer I have seen. So I guess internet speed is also related to the computers performance after all. I will say that I have been anti Microsoft for many years and still am but my wife loves Microsoft windows so that is why I bought this for her. I also have to admit that this Vizio laptop is really making me rethink Microsoft windows again. It is a combination of the huge screen size, extremely thin size, blazing fast speed, battery life and on that is making me think about buying one for myself and maybe try to install mac OS on it.
Ok now onto the battery life. We have been experiencing about 4.5 hrs continuous use with preset screen brightness which is very bright by the way. Onto the screen now. The screen is very clean, clear, and bright. I am really glad they have chosen the matt finish and not the gloss. Another great thing I have noticed is that the laptop stays very cool even after hours of use for work or play. If you listen really closely in a very quite setting you can faintly here a soft whisper from the fan.
The aluminum chassis is fantastic and built just like an Apple. Very ridged and overall construction quality resembles a Macbook Air. I really hope that it holds up as well too.
If I had to have a gripe then it would be the lack of a SD card slot. Yes you can just use an USB adapter that accepts SD cards so no big deal. All I can say is that after many hours of research I choose this laptop for my wife and she loves me for it. Oh I should also mention that I considered The Acer Ultrabook, the Sony T series, and Samsung but in the end this one was a hands down for me. I would certainly recommend this to anyone serious about a performance Ultrabook.
Pros: Extremely thin and light. Might be the thinest for a 15.6 size screen?
I7 very fast processor that performs very well.
Fantastic feel and responding keyboard and multi touch keypad
long battery life 4.5 plus hrs real life use.
Laptop runs very quite and cool
Laptop startup in 2 seconds or less and ready to use
Very fast internet performance
Exceptional screen clarity and performance
Microsoft Certified with no bloatware software to waste time removing. Finally!
Might be able to turn it into a Macbook with Mac OS??
Cons: Well if I must complain it would be the lack of an SD card slot but this can be overcome with an USB adapter that accepts SD cards.
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Review of Samsung RF511-S02 15.6-Inch Laptop (Brilliant Black)
Yeah, this computer is pretty good, fast, quiet, good battery life (around 3 hours if you are browsing internet, listening to music or no heavy stuff).
I am using it for photoshopCS5 and lightroom3, and I can say that it handles it pretty good, by the way my computer sample has the new i5 intel core...
Now, the design is 8.5 in a scale to 10, its nice...
The sound is loud and clear, nice...
The camera is kind of weak, not much resolution, not so nice...
The fast start is ok, sony, toshiba and hps are a little faster from when you open the computer to start messing with it... kinda nice...
The price is fair, not cheap, that would be a hp with same specs for 100 bucks less, but then you have to deal with all the crappy hp stuff that comes with it, wich is a pain...
What really bothers me (I am the guy who changes computer every six months) is no Firewire NOR ExpressCard slot. That means, I have a miniDV camcorder and CAN'T hook it up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I have to go out and buy an adapter for around 70 dollars when I could have it in my laptop... Anyhow....
Good, not Great, Its new, lets see what happens....
Thanks for reading...
The ONLY problem is the hard drive. It's terrible. I've run test upon test upon test and it comes back fine, but it is ridiculously slow. It takes about 5 minutes for me to login and actually get online. I cloned my hard drive onto a Western Digital and it flies. No, I don't have viruses. The hard drive is terrible. Samsung dropped the ball on that one.
Otherwise the computer is excellent, but you'll want to replace the hard drive eventually.
I am using it for photoshopCS5 and lightroom3, and I can say that it handles it pretty good, by the way my computer sample has the new i5 intel core...
Now, the design is 8.5 in a scale to 10, its nice...
The sound is loud and clear, nice...
The camera is kind of weak, not much resolution, not so nice...
The fast start is ok, sony, toshiba and hps are a little faster from when you open the computer to start messing with it... kinda nice...
The price is fair, not cheap, that would be a hp with same specs for 100 bucks less, but then you have to deal with all the crappy hp stuff that comes with it, wich is a pain...
What really bothers me (I am the guy who changes computer every six months) is no Firewire NOR ExpressCard slot. That means, I have a miniDV camcorder and CAN'T hook it up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I have to go out and buy an adapter for around 70 dollars when I could have it in my laptop... Anyhow....
Good, not Great, Its new, lets see what happens....
Thanks for reading...
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
I replaced my old MacBook with this computer and it's extremely fast. I have not regretted my purchase. I upped the RAM to 8GB and I've clocked Google Earth at taking only 3 seconds to start.The ONLY problem is the hard drive. It's terrible. I've run test upon test upon test and it comes back fine, but it is ridiculously slow. It takes about 5 minutes for me to login and actually get online. I cloned my hard drive onto a Western Digital and it flies. No, I don't have viruses. The hard drive is terrible. Samsung dropped the ball on that one.
Otherwise the computer is excellent, but you'll want to replace the hard drive eventually.
Best Deals for Samsung RF511-S02 15.6-Inch Laptop (Brilliant Black)
this computer has all the specs of a ferrari but runs like a prius. this laptops takes foreever to load. is the only laptop i have seen with something called fast boot from samsung. i wonder why did samsung felt the need to add this program. the laptop takes around 8 minutes to be ready to use. why? my wife has a toshiba and running the same programs and is super fast. i tried and tried to make it boot faster, disabling anything I could, and still the boot is super slow. what i do now is that i use sleep instead of shutdown. samsung did something to this poor soul, to make it so slow. the hardware looks and feel solid. great keyboard, blueray and great screen. but the booting time is painful.Sunday, March 16, 2014
Dell Inspiron i15N-2728BK 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Review
First off, I'm not a power user by any means. I need a laptop for basic computing, web surfing, video streaming, media playing, etc. I am not expecting this machine to run Crysis or anything like that. This laptop is PERFECT for students and those interested in a quality laptop that will handle most anything you throw at it.
I play some games on my laptop with absolutely no issues. Minecraft runs well, so do my hidden object games, and I even tried slender man...all played magnificently. The screen is really nice, also you can definitely tell it's an HD screen while streaming videos or playing games, everything just seems to pop off the screen.
All in all I'm super happy I chose this computer, would definitely buy from Dell via Amazon again :)
*EDIT*
After installing some more games I've had great results. I'm not much of a gamer, but Fallout 3, Mass Effect (1 and 2), Borderlands, and Amnesia are all working well!
*Edit*
Had it for a month now and it's still great! I've been playing some more graphic intensive games and the computer is handling them very well on medium settings. Everything is still lightning quick.
The laptop comes with 8x DVD read/write optical drive and a storage capacity of 500GB. Windows 7 Home Premium operating system is part of the deal, so there is no need to use pirated versions and suffer data loss.
I play some games on my laptop with absolutely no issues. Minecraft runs well, so do my hidden object games, and I even tried slender man...all played magnificently. The screen is really nice, also you can definitely tell it's an HD screen while streaming videos or playing games, everything just seems to pop off the screen.
All in all I'm super happy I chose this computer, would definitely buy from Dell via Amazon again :)
*EDIT*
After installing some more games I've had great results. I'm not much of a gamer, but Fallout 3, Mass Effect (1 and 2), Borderlands, and Amnesia are all working well!
*Edit*
Had it for a month now and it's still great! I've been playing some more graphic intensive games and the computer is handling them very well on medium settings. Everything is still lightning quick.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
This is a great hardware. Sparkling black finish, smooth keyboards and a nice touchpad. Windows had lot of crap in it and I uninstalled one by one. wifi is very good and reception was awesome. Nice DELL touch and highly recommend it. I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 which has been doing good for past 8 years, so I have high hopes on Dell reliability.Best Deals for Dell Inspiron i15N-2728BK 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)
So far so good with this NAS. This is my second Dell laptop and I have no doubts in its performance which is why I decided to invest in a second. The 15.6" wide screen gives an outstanding high definition picture quality. The Bluetooth and the built in WiFi help to stay connected round the clock. This stylish Dell Inspiron is a head turner.The laptop comes with 8x DVD read/write optical drive and a storage capacity of 500GB. Windows 7 Home Premium operating system is part of the deal, so there is no need to use pirated versions and suffer data loss.
Honest reviews on Dell Inspiron i15N-2728BK 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)
Had a Dell 4600 for 9 years.... Well solid built computer. So I gave another Dell a try! I couldn't believe this price for what you get! It's fast! It's light... (really light). I thought it would be heavy.. but easy for transporting. The HD screen is awesome...Great colors! It does have a 2.4gz processor... I could have had a 2.5 gz processor on another model, but for way more money... I didn't think the .1gz difference in processor speed would make much difference. Also no bloatware, just basic software. Dell Stage I don't use right now, but won't delete it. Maybe I will use it later. You can tell this is solid built as well! Glad I chose Dell again, that's for sure... And you know Dell has great customer support too. The finish on this thing is really nice, smooth, shiny. It's not too big to sit on your lap and the wifi works great for me! Better pick one up before they sell this one out!Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Dell Inspiron i15N-2728BK 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)
Many of the reviews that are here make no sense. One guy bought it in Venezuela, another complains about a different Dell model "that looks like this one." This is my second 15N-2728bk that I bought this month. I needed two but decided to buy them one at a time to make sure that it was a good system. I paid 429 each and it was truly worth it. A great little machine that I use for my Real Estate business. I have been using them a lot and get about 4+ hours on a charge. Two negatives are: I attached a mouse because the pad is overly sensitive; and, when I load a DVD I support the open drawer with one hand so as not to exert too much pressure on the very light-weight dvd drawer (and that is just common sense). The 6gb memory for this price is terrific. So, read all the reviews here on Amazon but be sure that the reviewer is not confusing this Dell with another (as there are dozens of models).Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Buy Apple MacBook Pro MC700LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop (OLD VERSION)
When I purchased this MacBook Pro, most reviews seemed to be from existing Mac users who were comfortable with the device. There are a lot of reviews talking about the technical specs of this Mac, so I'll spare those coz I myself am still coming up the curve on them. My review is based solely on my experience from the perspective of a PC user for the past 16+ years. Hopefully if you, like me, are considering making the switch, you will find this at least partially useful. I mostly use the Mac for Office and Adobe applications and don't know much about computers beyond that as far as technicals are concerned.
Set up Set up is as straight forward as it is with any Apple device. They make it intuitive and a breeze to set up their devices. Absolutely no issues there.
Updates One thing that really bothered me about Windows was that it was constantly updating itself I mean I bought a brand new PC and Windows took a good 10 minutes to "update" (huh?). This slowed down my PC, and shutting it down took several minutes as Windows did its thing. No such complaint with the Mac. Even if it does automatically update, the process is not visible and does not slow down the speed of the Mac.
Compatibility I really only need the Adobe Suite and MS Office on a daily basis. I purchased these 2 suites and setting them up was easy. Transferred all files from my PC through a shared network and the process was seamless. Apple's interface is terrific for the entire initial set up process.
Programs I have been able to run pretty much all programs that I ran on my PC. The only two programs I am currently having problems with are Google Talk and WINRAR. Google Talk seems erratic in iChat. It will log in at times, while most of the time it will give a username/password error. This is an issue Google seems to be aware of but haven' fixed it yet. WinRar doesn't work on Mac as far as I know. Stil looking for a compatible file compressing software that can open RAR files. Other than that, all MS Office applications run the same. The differences are minor Excel has a very sparse shortcut key menu on the Mac, one of the main things I greatly miss about having a PC. Same applies for Outlook as well I could work in both programs without having to touch my mouse, but with the Mac, I really need to rely on the mouse.
TouchPad and keyboard Plain and simple Mac's touchpad and keyboard is the BEST. Typing on the Mac is such a better experienced the quality of the material and overall layout of the keys is more ergonomic and well thought out. Toshiba, Dell and HP laptops that I have used in the past have a more crammed keyboard. Scrolling on the Touchpad is phenomenal. Even if I did consider going back to a PC, this feature alone would probably keep me glued to the Mac. It's hard to use a regular mouse after using this touhpad. With my previous HP laptop, the TouchPad was problematic because the left click would get pressed even if I was simply scrolling. Haven't had a single accidental click on my Mac for over a month of use.
Browser Safari works great, but I was so used to Firefox, I just downloaded Firefox for Mac and it runs absolutely fine. One thing I am still trying to figure out is how to switch between various Firefox Windows on the Mac (similar to ALT+TAB on the PC). If any one know the answer, please let me know!
Goodbye Norton!! No more pop-up windows, no more slowing down of the browser as websites try to gather information about you (happened on my PCs every single time), no more worries about crummy viruses that have on one ocassion rendered one of my prior PCs useless, no more buying expensive Norton software and having to renew every year!
Support I had to call Apple's support line only once for some basic questions. I was on hold for about 5 minutes and all my questions were appropriately answered by the reps. Excellent overall support.
Downside the one downside of owning an Apple product is the list of accessories and their expense. A PC doesn't require a case or screen protective film. With a Mac, you can choose to leave it bare, but given how beautiful this device is, you will likely be tempted to accessorize it for protection. Any other Apple accessory you might need (power adapter, software, superdrive, etc) are all expensive. I have only bought a case, keyboard cover, and a screen film, and I am already out a $100! I need to buy another AC charger for my office and that will run I think another $75-80 right there.
Upside well, a Mac does have a cool factor to it!
Online forums are a beautiful thing. If I had any questions or doubts about using the Mac, some previous user had already posted them and others had already answered them on the forums. I found all answers with a few searches on those forums (MacForums is fantastic!).
Hope this helps. This is no way meant to be a technical or thorough review (I couldn't even write one to save my life), but I hope this will helps others like me when deciding whether to make the switch to a Mac. My advise make the switch, you'll love it!
UPDATE 10-06-11
After having spent a few more weeks with the Mac, I have truly come to appreciate the beauty of this outstanding piece of technology. It runs significantly smoother than my previous laptop the experience of browsing, typing emails, just doing anything is truly a breath of fresh air as mentioned by one of the reviewers. I had to power up my laptop earlier today and I noticed how loud it was (feels louder now after having used the Mac). Even if I was doing nothing on the laptop, the drive still used to be running with a humming sound (maybe it's a fan or something, I don't know). It just made me realize how quiet the Mac is.
Truly a phenomenal product, and one of MANY products that are now part of Steve Job's legacy the greatest innovator that ever lived.
The strong point of this computer over previous 13 inch unibody MacBooks is the processor. It is noticeably faster at computationally intensive tasks. For example, I have a large application written in the C++ programming language which Xcode on my late 2008 vintage MacBook could compile in 16.5 minutes, this MacBook can do the same task in 8.5 minutes, a nearly doubling of speed. Similiarly, converting a 10 minute MP3 file to AAC in iTunes used to take 21 seconds, now it takes 14 seconds. Unsurprisingly, computer processors have gotten faster. The new processor does tend to heat up fast under full load, so be prepared for more frequent fan noise.
The weak point is the stock hard drive, a 320GB 5400 RPM Hitachi laptop drive. Any operation depending on hard drive throughput is not going to be much faster on this computer than in years past. If you do not have large capacity needs, you may be better served special ordering a model with a smaller but much faster solid state drive (SSD), they do not come cheap, but will result in a much more balanced computer that does not leave its high performance CPU idling awaiting data. I would do so, but the higher capacity SSDs cost as much as the computer alone.
If you were to upgrade to an SSD, be aware that while this model has one type III SATA port, you might have trouble using one of the new type III SATA SSD drives in it. [Update: online reports indicate Apple has started shipping these laptops with the optical bay also using an SATA III port.] I tried to install a 128 GB Crucial RealSSD C300 into the hard drive bay and the operating system installer failed to install. Online forums indicate people are having troubles with type III drives, and whether the problem is with the drive used, a bad cable, or firmware is in dispute. You might want to wait on a type III upgrade until this settles out. In the meantime, I've purchased a bracket allowing me to replace the optical drive and put the SSD on the type II port formerly used by the SuperDrive.
This and the new MacBook Air are the only laptops Apple sells without a discrete graphics processing unit (GPU), instead relying soly on the Intel integrated 3000HD GPU. Intel has previously not been known for its GPU prowess, but space constraints and Intel's design restrictions, and improvements in performance finally pushed Apple into going integrated only. I would have preferred a discrete GPU, especially in a premium laptop, but I am not a gamer, and will make do with the much better CPU. I'm sure Apple would have preferred a discrete GPU, as their strategy for performance improvements is to use the GPU for general purpose computing using the OpenCL framework.
New to this year's models is the Intel Thunderbolt connector superseding the Mini Display Port connector. This flexible port will likely become more and more useful as hubs and peripherals become available to make use of its fantastic speed. Adaptors and docks will be available to use this one port as a USB, DVI, Firewire, Ethernet port simultaneously, making one data cable for easy desktop docking. But, I don't have any use for it now. Media reports indicate Apple will have this port to itself this year, although Intel is insisting that other motherboard manufacturers could start to include it, and I hope they do. Whether the port is a marketplace success is not a foregone conclusion, but I look forward to syncing and charging a future iPad over this speedy port; sadly the iPad 2 does not have this port, but someday.
I am glad to have a standard FireWire 800 port, and an SD Card reader, neither of which were found on my previous non-Pro laptop. I'll be able to charge my iPad at maximum speed with the 2 Amp USB ports, something I couldn't do before. The FaceTime app for OS X comes pre-installed, you don't have to buy it from the Mac App Store.
Little luxuries include the backlit keyboard, the MagSafe power cable, the firm responsive keyboard, and the big multitouch capable trackpad. The display is bright and has a good, but not great range of viewing angles, certainly worse than an iPad, but better than most cheap laptop monitors Yellows are a bit saturated while using the default color profile. I'm sure many would prefer a higher resolution than 1280x800, but I'd prefer a jump to very high resolutions combined with support for resolution independence in the operating system and applications. Maybe someday. The high resolution iSight camera surprised me with its clarity and size when doing a FaceTime chat.
A few things have gone downhill. It takes the removal of 12 screws to swap out the hard drive, my old MacBook had but 1. There used to be a dedicated microphone port next to the headset jack, but that has gone the way of the dodo, and I never used it anyway. Charge time for going from dead battery to 100% is a bit more than 3 hours, which I think is worse than it used to be.
I chose to purchase my own 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) named brand memory from a favorite online vendor and saved quite a bit of money over Apple's charge for 8GB of RAM (2x4GB). Installation was simple enough with the right sized Phillips screwdriver, although it is odd that we are expected to change the RAM while the battery is still connected. Still the installation went without incident, and is certainly simpler than most other laptops. I was a bit disappointed that the added RAM didn't appreciably improve my Xcode compile time, slicing at most 20 seconds off the 8.5 minutes, but hopefully it will help when multitasking multiple applications.
This is a refinement to previous generations, and I would bet likely to be the last for this series of machined unibody anodized aluminum enclosures, as elegant and perfect as they seem to be. If you wait a year or more, you might get such changes as awesome Liquid Metal cases of fantastic shapes, Retina Display monitors, touch screens, standard SSD boot drives, 4G cell networking and the loss of the optical drive. But I couldn't wait, I needed the horsepower now, not next year.
As a Mac Developer, I've been running OS X Lion 10.7 on this box as my primary operating system for several weeks prior to the official release and I recommend upgrading to Lion if it didn't come pre-installed. Quick and solid, although you should prepare to train yourself with the more intensive use of gestures brought over from iOS and which make a perfect fit with the built in trackpad.
Compared to other Macs.
Owners of recent vintage 13 inch MacBooks will have to make an informed decision to stay pat or move up. Many will get better value for their money replacing their spinning hard drive with an SSD, something I was tempted to do. Seriously, a Core 2 Duo with a separate NVidia GPU and an SSD will run great under OS X Lion in a few months, so think about just doing a hard drive upgrade instead of the whole computer. Having said this, this model has much better battery life than that of a few years ago, and a better set of ports, along with the backlit keyboard, much faster CPU and a higher resolution camera. Another advantage against my late 2008 model is the maximum RAM, this model has a maximum capacity of 8GB, the same as last years model, but higher than my old capacity.
Versus the 2.7 GHz i7 version of this same screen size, which also comes with Intel integrated graphics. Online reports give the i7 version an overall speed improvement of perhaps 10-15%, which is pushing being even noticeable. I preferred to do what I did, spend the money on putting in a moderately sized boot SSD in the former optical bay. The difference in random disk access is amazing, and very noticeable. If money is no object, you could do both.
Between this and the new MacBook Air. The new Air is approximately as fast at processing as this Pro, but has an extremely fast built in SSD drive; in practice it will feel turbo charged next to the base model of the MacBook Pro with it's spinning disk. The Air is also lighter and the 13" model has a higher resolution display. Basically I recommend getting the Air unless you absolutely need one of the following: more than 256 GB of hard drive space, a Firewire port in the box, more than 4GB of RAM, or an Ethernet port. I am planning on purchasing an Air for my wife, coupled with the new Cinema display which comes with USB, Ethernet, and a Firewire port, it will be a flexible, albeit extremely expensive combination. I, however, need the hard drive space so I'll be sticking with this MacBook Pro for this round.
Between larger MacBook Pros. As I carry my laptop back and forth to work daily and prefer to work with it on my lap, I've never had any urge or wish for the 15 inch, much less the 17 inch version. But they do have real discrete GPUs, and i7 processors, so for people with large display and maximum horsepower needs, they are an excellent option. One lemonade out of lemons advantage of not having a discrete GPU is a more consistent battery life; the discrete GPU should only be in use when the horsepower is needed, but sometimes it becomes unnecessarily active resulting in decreased battery life of perhaps an hour less, something 13" owners don't have to worry about.
Compared to PC Laptops
Obviously, if you need a Mac, you're choices are limited, but some people buy MacBooks for use as Windows 7 laptops. There is the extra expense of buying Windows 7 for System Builders separately, but basically, Apple's Boot Camp makes any Mac into an excellent Windows box. My wife has been running Windows on a 4 year old Mac Mini for years without major issues. Alternatively, you could buy third party virtualization software like VMware Fusion and run both OS X and Windows simultaneously. The question is why would a Windows user bother.
Mainly because MacBook Pros are premium laptops, and most laptops sold by non-Apple manufacturers are economy models. Apple ships more thousand dollar plus laptops than anyone else, and it has the economies of scale to make expensive laptops cheaper than other manufacturers--see for example the Dell Adamo. Take the enclosure, a single block of aluminum machined by robot into a lightweight yet rigid piece and anodized to resist most scratches, with a reliable hinge that keeps the monitor closed when closed and opened at your angle when opened. Possibly the best enclosure in the world. Other manufacturers don't do this or don't do it as cheaply because they don't make a million premium laptops a quarter. Similarly, I wouldn't know where to find a PC laptop with a Thunderbolt port, mini-Display Port, Firewire 800, optical audio out, a MagSafe power connector, and 7 hours of claimed battery life. On the other hand, any reasonably priced PC laptop will have a Blu Ray drive, and might have USB 3. The MacBook Pro market for Windows 7 users are those consumers with the money and the wish for quality, which isn't being met in the PC marketplace, not for people who are on a tight budget, or who's computer isn't a big deal to them, or who just dislike Apple for whatever reason.
Windows laptops targeting the same general consumer need would be the Lenovo Thinkpad X220, and the Sony Vaio S. Windows users should be sure to compare these models and other Sandy Bridge chipset based 13 inch laptops.
In summary, this is an excellent, computer if a bit pricey. I expect to get a couple of years of service out of it, and then hand it off to a relative for many more years of useful life. These things are built to last.
The UPGRADES are
1) The MBP 13 base model now has a 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 dual-core processor which is a massive upgrade over the outdated Core2Duo processors in last years model. These processors are great for multitasking and content creation (video and audio encoding/decoding )
2)Thunderbolt port. This is a super fast data transfer port now included in the MBP 13. Data transfer speeds (in daily use) are supposed to be as fast as USB 3.0 and firewire 800 if not more. As of now, no thunderbolt compatible products are available at retail but should be available soon. The TB port also functions as a Minidisplay port. For connecting your MBP 13 to an external monitor, you'll need a Syba High Quality Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter If you want to connect it to a tv, you'll need a Kanex iAdapt MDPHDMIV2 HDMI V2 Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter with Audio Support
3) iSight HD Camera The camera now can make 720p resolution videocalls with support for facetime.
4) 320 GB hard drive up from 250 gb in last years model (a small 70 gb difference)
5) SDXC card slot the XC stands for extended capacity so you'll be able to add SD cards of extremely high capacities.
STANDARD FEATURES carried over from last years 13 inch model are
An Aluminum unibody,
1280 x 800 resolution Glossy LED backlit screen,
8x slot-loading SuperDrive dvd burner
4GB ram
Large glass multi-touch trackpad
Backlit keyboard with comfortable chiclet keys
Magsafe power adapter (with redesigned tip to reduce stress on the cable)
1 Firewire 800 port,
2 USB 2.0 ports ,
Stereo speakers and subwoofer.
Wi-Fi 802.11n ; 802.11a/b/g compatible, Bluetooth 2.1 and Gigabit Ethernet -10/100/1000.
7 hours of battery life.
So some key changes, including a transition to Intel's 2011 processors, a thunderbolt port and a HD webcam make up the list of upgrades for the early 2011 model. The processor is much faster than last year's Core 2 Duo model and editing photos and videos is a lot snappier.
Apple continues to include integrated graphics in the MBP 13's and these models have Intel's Integrated.Graphics 3000 graphics processor. Which is not really an upgrade. Most benchmarks reveal that the I.G 3000 is worse or at best equal to the Nvidia 320m integrated graphics processor in last years model.
The machine still has 4gb of ram, which is great for multi-tasking. You probably won't need more unless you're really into running virtual machines or editing super large graphic files or images.
It also comes with a 320gb 5400 rpm hard drive, which is not that great capacity wise and probably contributes to a somewhat degraded user experience (as applications will take longer to launch due to the slow rotational speed of the hard drive) Apple needs to realise it's selling a "Pro" product priced at a premium and the user experience should reflect that. (In totality, not just through the software) Luckily, its quite easy to upgrade the hard drive by yourself and doesn't void the warranty unless you break something (so be careful)
Apple now advertises the 2011 MBP as having battery life upto 7 hours. As I mentioned in my 2010 MBP review, the battery life of the MBP 13 was closer to 5 to 6 hours instead of the impossible to achieve 9 to 10 hours Apple advertised. The reduction in the 2011 MBP 13 battery life is not a downgrade, it's just Apple being honest. The battery is still inbuilt so once it's exhausted, you will have to take your machine back to an Apple store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider for replacement. However, Apple states that the battery will hold 80% of it's charge for up to a 1000 charges which means approximately 3 to 4 years of daily use. So it should be a while before you have to go in for that battery replacement.
Software included is OS X 10.7 "Lion" and the iLife 2011 suite of content creation tools (which include iPhoto, Garageband, iWeb and iMovie).
A 1 year warranty on parts and 90 day telephone technical support is standard.
The new i5 processor upgrade, 4gb of ram and other design elements such as the large multitouch trackpad and the backlit keyboard make this a great machine to use daily. The MBP 13 is a sleek, solid product, fast enough for most purposes and is more than capable for the majority of daily tasks. Demanding applications like Skype, Photoshop, Lightroom, iMovie run smoothly. Definitely recommended for school / college work, photo editing, music composing, basic video editing and video chat.
If you do decide to purchase a MBP 13, I recommend purchasing applecare also AppleCare Protection Plan for Portable Apple Computers 13 Inches and Below (Newest Version) along with the notebook.
As Apple uses most of the same parts (hard drives, processors, dvd drives, wireless cards) that other laptop manufacturers use, their reliability is no worse or better than other laptop manufacturers. But when and if a product / part malfunction occurs after the first year limited warranty has ended, Apple charges extremely high fees for repairing and replacing parts (when compared to other laptop manufacturers ) IF you don't have Applecare.
Keep in mind, the A.P.P. only covers hardware failure not accidental damage so it's still expensive for what you get but it's better than paying Apple's prices for repair/replacement parts.
Another viable warranty extension option that you could buy instead of Applecare is SquareTrade 3-Year Laptop/Tablet Warranty Plus Accident Protection (Laptop/Tablet $1000-1250)(which costs the same as Applecare but also includes damage protection which is a big plus point ). It's better to pay once for Applecare or Squaretrade (whatever you prefer) and be covered for 2 more years after the first year is up than pay exorbitant repair/replacement fees to Apple if a part malfunctions.
Also, in case you're confused between the standard MBP 13 and the higher end MBP 13, it's simple This is the better buy between the two MBP 13's with regards to value.
Here are some facts to help you make an informed choice. I've posted Geekbench results below Geekbench is the most recognized benchmarking software for Macs.
Geekbench Benchmark results
Standard 13" MBP 2.3 GHz dual i5 2011: 5948
High end 13" MBP 2.7 GHz dual i7 2011, 6796
There is a difference of 848 points between the standard MBP 13 and the high end MBP 13 which shows a 12% difference.
If you buy the higher end MBP 13, you'd pay $300 more (25% of the cost of the standard $1199 MBP 13 or 20% of the cost of the $1499 MBP 13 ) for a minor 12% difference due to a 400 mhz processor speed difference (not at all major in any way as seen in the benchmarks) and a 180 gb hard drive space increase. This standard MBP 13 is the better buy between the two models in terms of bang for your buck since every other tech specification and feature is identical amongst the two models.
Hope this helps!
2010 model overview: 2.4ghz Core 2 duo, gt320m
2011 model overview: 2.3ghz Core i5, Intel HD3200
The graphic card went from a discrete graphic card to a on board graphic, which is a huge let down for me, as a fan.
All the new thunderbolt technology is a step up, but think about this. USB 3 or Thunderbolt, I'd say USB 3 will be more popular and more useful. Another let down is the limited connectivity of Thunderbolt.
Verdict:
If you are using this for school, word, internet surfing, general school work. Go for it.
If you are using this for designing, I'd say you get the 15" or above since the graphic card boost in PS and other designing software really do take effect.
If you are using this to show off, GO FOR IT! You will receive envious looks when you take it out.
If you are using this to Game, save your money and get a gaming laptop, not this
If you are using this for music, save your money for HP Envy Beats(although it is recently sold out, but you can get it on ebay). Envy Beats is almost like a MBP copy, its got the feel to it. And the Black-and-Red design grants it a new style. The CPU, graphic, and sound is more well balanced on it.
PS: Yes, I did buy this. The OSX is very well optimised, it is much better than Windows, but there is too many program that I use that does not support OSX, which compels me to dual boot with boot camp.
Side notes: Look into the program called "Crossover". It virtually emulate windows for certain programs to work.
much faster cpu (latest Sandy Bridge processors)
faster memory
support for fastest data drives (sata III connection)
Neutral:
same solid construction
HD webcam
Thunderbolt port
Battery life?? UPDATE: tests confirm slightly better battery life (+10%)
Cons:
inferior graphics compared to 2010 model
Quick take:
The 2011 model is a significant upgrade in processing power over the 2010 model. There are a couple of additional upgrades, such as Thunderbolt or the HD webcam, which may be useful in the future, but currently are not that important. Battery life, which is important for many users, is probably as good or better than the older Macbook Pro, but it is hard to determine how it compares. On the downside, the graphics are actually inferior to the 2010 model, but should work for the majority of users.
UPDATE: Laptop Magazine found the battery life is approximately 10% longer on the 2011 Macbook Pro. Thanks to the commenters for pointing this out.
DETAILS:
Full Review:
I use my Macbook Pro as my main computer at work where I have it hooked up to an external monitor. I do a lot of number crunching (i.e. statistics) so upgrading from my 2010 Macbook Pro to this 2011 version with the latest CPU made a lot of sense. It may not make sense for many people who own 2010 or 2009 versions of the Macbook Pro. I list all the pros and cons below.
PROS:
Much Faster CPU
This Macbook Pro (MBP) update is all about the CPU (i5 "Sandy Bridge"). The 2010 MBP missed out on a generation upgrade last year, keeping the same Core 2 Duo family that was in the 2009 MBPs. This made the 2010 version only marginally faster than the 2009 version. The benchmark scores on the 2011 13" 2.3 GHz MBP are 35% to 40% higher than the 2010 13" 2.4 GHz MBP. That is a HUGE leap in computational performance. It is true that the Core 2 Duos were very dated, but the low end 2.3GHz 2011 MBP is just as fast as last year's high end 15"/17" MBPs which had i5 and i7 2.8 GHz processors! Very awesome. Here are some benchmark scores I got off the web.
Model: Geekbench Score (Speedmark Score)
MacBook Pro 13" i5 2.3 GHz (2011): 5900 (140)
MacBook Pro 13" Core2 Duo 2.4 GHz (2010): 3351 (106)
MacBook Pro 13" Core2 Duo 2.4 GHz (2009): 3137 (??)
MacBook Pro 15" i7 2.67 GHz (2010): 5564 (151)
MacBook Pro 17" i7 2.8 GHz (2010): 5837 (??)
As you can see, this is a significant bump over the 2010 and 2009 models.
Faster Memory:
This is part of the faster performance observed, but it means that you can't use your memory from your old MBP.
Support for the fastest SSD hard drives
If you want to upgrade to an SSD this is an important upgrade. The latests SSD hard drives are blazing fast, but require a Sata III 6Gb/s connection to achieve their 500 MB/s reads. (Right now, OCZ's Vertex 3 and Intel's 510 Series are the only drives that really need the higher speed port, but more are coming.) On the downside, it appears that the optical drive connection is Sata II 3 Gb/s. So if you were planning on removing the optical drive in favor of a second SSD, it will be running on a slower connection.
NEUTRALS:
same solid construction
Not much to report. Still on of the best builds in the business, but no reason to upgrade.
HD Webcam
Nice I suppose, if you are using you laptop as a camcorder, but if you are streaming video (like over Skype) you are going to have a bandwidth bottle neck so the HD webcam it isn't going to make any difference.
Thunderbolt
Awesome technology, but there isn't anything out there right now that takes advantage of it. Maybe in six months it will be more of a benefit. It doesn't hurt to get it now though.
Battery Life
This is hard to determine. One of the marketing points of the Sandy Bridge CPUs are the integrated Intel HD graphics which are supposed to increase battery life. However, Apple changed their battery tests since 2010. The reported battery life is "7 hours" for the 2011 MBP vs "8-9" hours for the 2010 MBPs, but battery life for the same usage may actually be longer for the 2011 MBP. I'm not sure how to tell, but I would guess that battery life is at least as good as the 2010 MBP due to the integrated graphics in the 2011 MBP.
UPDATE: Someone has done an apples to apples comparison on battery life. According to tests by Laptop Magazine, the 2011 MBP has approximately 45min more battery life than its predecessor. Using a web surfing via WiFi based test, they found that the 2011 MBP lasted 8:33. The 2010 MBP lasted 7:48 using the same test. Thanks to those who left comments that pointed out this battery test.
CONS:
Graphics Performance
The integrated Intel HD graphics are not as powerful as the discrete Nvidia graphics found in the 2010 MBP. Call of Duty gaming tests achieve 26fps with Intel graphics (2011 MBP) vs 33fps with Nvidia graphics (2010 MBP). For me this is a non-issue as don't game and don't run graphics intensive programs (Photoshop, AutoCAD, etc). The most graphically intensive task I have is running a 27" external monitor which the Intel graphics handle without a problem. In theory, the integrated graphics have the advantage of increasing the battery life, but this is not verifiable.
SUMMARY:
In short, if you are maxing out the CPU on your current laptop, then this guy will be a MAJOR improvement. Otherwise you may not see a big difference and you might want to opt for an SSD upgrade instead.
Set up Set up is as straight forward as it is with any Apple device. They make it intuitive and a breeze to set up their devices. Absolutely no issues there.
Updates One thing that really bothered me about Windows was that it was constantly updating itself I mean I bought a brand new PC and Windows took a good 10 minutes to "update" (huh?). This slowed down my PC, and shutting it down took several minutes as Windows did its thing. No such complaint with the Mac. Even if it does automatically update, the process is not visible and does not slow down the speed of the Mac.
Compatibility I really only need the Adobe Suite and MS Office on a daily basis. I purchased these 2 suites and setting them up was easy. Transferred all files from my PC through a shared network and the process was seamless. Apple's interface is terrific for the entire initial set up process.
Programs I have been able to run pretty much all programs that I ran on my PC. The only two programs I am currently having problems with are Google Talk and WINRAR. Google Talk seems erratic in iChat. It will log in at times, while most of the time it will give a username/password error. This is an issue Google seems to be aware of but haven' fixed it yet. WinRar doesn't work on Mac as far as I know. Stil looking for a compatible file compressing software that can open RAR files. Other than that, all MS Office applications run the same. The differences are minor Excel has a very sparse shortcut key menu on the Mac, one of the main things I greatly miss about having a PC. Same applies for Outlook as well I could work in both programs without having to touch my mouse, but with the Mac, I really need to rely on the mouse.
TouchPad and keyboard Plain and simple Mac's touchpad and keyboard is the BEST. Typing on the Mac is such a better experienced the quality of the material and overall layout of the keys is more ergonomic and well thought out. Toshiba, Dell and HP laptops that I have used in the past have a more crammed keyboard. Scrolling on the Touchpad is phenomenal. Even if I did consider going back to a PC, this feature alone would probably keep me glued to the Mac. It's hard to use a regular mouse after using this touhpad. With my previous HP laptop, the TouchPad was problematic because the left click would get pressed even if I was simply scrolling. Haven't had a single accidental click on my Mac for over a month of use.
Browser Safari works great, but I was so used to Firefox, I just downloaded Firefox for Mac and it runs absolutely fine. One thing I am still trying to figure out is how to switch between various Firefox Windows on the Mac (similar to ALT+TAB on the PC). If any one know the answer, please let me know!
Goodbye Norton!! No more pop-up windows, no more slowing down of the browser as websites try to gather information about you (happened on my PCs every single time), no more worries about crummy viruses that have on one ocassion rendered one of my prior PCs useless, no more buying expensive Norton software and having to renew every year!
Support I had to call Apple's support line only once for some basic questions. I was on hold for about 5 minutes and all my questions were appropriately answered by the reps. Excellent overall support.
Downside the one downside of owning an Apple product is the list of accessories and their expense. A PC doesn't require a case or screen protective film. With a Mac, you can choose to leave it bare, but given how beautiful this device is, you will likely be tempted to accessorize it for protection. Any other Apple accessory you might need (power adapter, software, superdrive, etc) are all expensive. I have only bought a case, keyboard cover, and a screen film, and I am already out a $100! I need to buy another AC charger for my office and that will run I think another $75-80 right there.
Upside well, a Mac does have a cool factor to it!
Online forums are a beautiful thing. If I had any questions or doubts about using the Mac, some previous user had already posted them and others had already answered them on the forums. I found all answers with a few searches on those forums (MacForums is fantastic!).
Hope this helps. This is no way meant to be a technical or thorough review (I couldn't even write one to save my life), but I hope this will helps others like me when deciding whether to make the switch to a Mac. My advise make the switch, you'll love it!
UPDATE 10-06-11
After having spent a few more weeks with the Mac, I have truly come to appreciate the beauty of this outstanding piece of technology. It runs significantly smoother than my previous laptop the experience of browsing, typing emails, just doing anything is truly a breath of fresh air as mentioned by one of the reviewers. I had to power up my laptop earlier today and I noticed how loud it was (feels louder now after having used the Mac). Even if I was doing nothing on the laptop, the drive still used to be running with a humming sound (maybe it's a fan or something, I don't know). It just made me realize how quiet the Mac is.
Truly a phenomenal product, and one of MANY products that are now part of Steve Job's legacy the greatest innovator that ever lived.
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I stopped by my local Apple Store the morning this MacBook Pro was made available to the public and bought one, replacing my over two year old unibody MacBook. These are premium computers, and well made. My old computer, which looks very much like this one, still looked great after two years, with a little scratching on the bottom, and an unfortunate denting of one corner. I do not regret for one minute paying more for a device I use several hours a day, and from which I derive my living.The strong point of this computer over previous 13 inch unibody MacBooks is the processor. It is noticeably faster at computationally intensive tasks. For example, I have a large application written in the C++ programming language which Xcode on my late 2008 vintage MacBook could compile in 16.5 minutes, this MacBook can do the same task in 8.5 minutes, a nearly doubling of speed. Similiarly, converting a 10 minute MP3 file to AAC in iTunes used to take 21 seconds, now it takes 14 seconds. Unsurprisingly, computer processors have gotten faster. The new processor does tend to heat up fast under full load, so be prepared for more frequent fan noise.
The weak point is the stock hard drive, a 320GB 5400 RPM Hitachi laptop drive. Any operation depending on hard drive throughput is not going to be much faster on this computer than in years past. If you do not have large capacity needs, you may be better served special ordering a model with a smaller but much faster solid state drive (SSD), they do not come cheap, but will result in a much more balanced computer that does not leave its high performance CPU idling awaiting data. I would do so, but the higher capacity SSDs cost as much as the computer alone.
If you were to upgrade to an SSD, be aware that while this model has one type III SATA port, you might have trouble using one of the new type III SATA SSD drives in it. [Update: online reports indicate Apple has started shipping these laptops with the optical bay also using an SATA III port.] I tried to install a 128 GB Crucial RealSSD C300 into the hard drive bay and the operating system installer failed to install. Online forums indicate people are having troubles with type III drives, and whether the problem is with the drive used, a bad cable, or firmware is in dispute. You might want to wait on a type III upgrade until this settles out. In the meantime, I've purchased a bracket allowing me to replace the optical drive and put the SSD on the type II port formerly used by the SuperDrive.
This and the new MacBook Air are the only laptops Apple sells without a discrete graphics processing unit (GPU), instead relying soly on the Intel integrated 3000HD GPU. Intel has previously not been known for its GPU prowess, but space constraints and Intel's design restrictions, and improvements in performance finally pushed Apple into going integrated only. I would have preferred a discrete GPU, especially in a premium laptop, but I am not a gamer, and will make do with the much better CPU. I'm sure Apple would have preferred a discrete GPU, as their strategy for performance improvements is to use the GPU for general purpose computing using the OpenCL framework.
New to this year's models is the Intel Thunderbolt connector superseding the Mini Display Port connector. This flexible port will likely become more and more useful as hubs and peripherals become available to make use of its fantastic speed. Adaptors and docks will be available to use this one port as a USB, DVI, Firewire, Ethernet port simultaneously, making one data cable for easy desktop docking. But, I don't have any use for it now. Media reports indicate Apple will have this port to itself this year, although Intel is insisting that other motherboard manufacturers could start to include it, and I hope they do. Whether the port is a marketplace success is not a foregone conclusion, but I look forward to syncing and charging a future iPad over this speedy port; sadly the iPad 2 does not have this port, but someday.
I am glad to have a standard FireWire 800 port, and an SD Card reader, neither of which were found on my previous non-Pro laptop. I'll be able to charge my iPad at maximum speed with the 2 Amp USB ports, something I couldn't do before. The FaceTime app for OS X comes pre-installed, you don't have to buy it from the Mac App Store.
Little luxuries include the backlit keyboard, the MagSafe power cable, the firm responsive keyboard, and the big multitouch capable trackpad. The display is bright and has a good, but not great range of viewing angles, certainly worse than an iPad, but better than most cheap laptop monitors Yellows are a bit saturated while using the default color profile. I'm sure many would prefer a higher resolution than 1280x800, but I'd prefer a jump to very high resolutions combined with support for resolution independence in the operating system and applications. Maybe someday. The high resolution iSight camera surprised me with its clarity and size when doing a FaceTime chat.
A few things have gone downhill. It takes the removal of 12 screws to swap out the hard drive, my old MacBook had but 1. There used to be a dedicated microphone port next to the headset jack, but that has gone the way of the dodo, and I never used it anyway. Charge time for going from dead battery to 100% is a bit more than 3 hours, which I think is worse than it used to be.
I chose to purchase my own 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) named brand memory from a favorite online vendor and saved quite a bit of money over Apple's charge for 8GB of RAM (2x4GB). Installation was simple enough with the right sized Phillips screwdriver, although it is odd that we are expected to change the RAM while the battery is still connected. Still the installation went without incident, and is certainly simpler than most other laptops. I was a bit disappointed that the added RAM didn't appreciably improve my Xcode compile time, slicing at most 20 seconds off the 8.5 minutes, but hopefully it will help when multitasking multiple applications.
This is a refinement to previous generations, and I would bet likely to be the last for this series of machined unibody anodized aluminum enclosures, as elegant and perfect as they seem to be. If you wait a year or more, you might get such changes as awesome Liquid Metal cases of fantastic shapes, Retina Display monitors, touch screens, standard SSD boot drives, 4G cell networking and the loss of the optical drive. But I couldn't wait, I needed the horsepower now, not next year.
As a Mac Developer, I've been running OS X Lion 10.7 on this box as my primary operating system for several weeks prior to the official release and I recommend upgrading to Lion if it didn't come pre-installed. Quick and solid, although you should prepare to train yourself with the more intensive use of gestures brought over from iOS and which make a perfect fit with the built in trackpad.
Compared to other Macs.
Owners of recent vintage 13 inch MacBooks will have to make an informed decision to stay pat or move up. Many will get better value for their money replacing their spinning hard drive with an SSD, something I was tempted to do. Seriously, a Core 2 Duo with a separate NVidia GPU and an SSD will run great under OS X Lion in a few months, so think about just doing a hard drive upgrade instead of the whole computer. Having said this, this model has much better battery life than that of a few years ago, and a better set of ports, along with the backlit keyboard, much faster CPU and a higher resolution camera. Another advantage against my late 2008 model is the maximum RAM, this model has a maximum capacity of 8GB, the same as last years model, but higher than my old capacity.
Versus the 2.7 GHz i7 version of this same screen size, which also comes with Intel integrated graphics. Online reports give the i7 version an overall speed improvement of perhaps 10-15%, which is pushing being even noticeable. I preferred to do what I did, spend the money on putting in a moderately sized boot SSD in the former optical bay. The difference in random disk access is amazing, and very noticeable. If money is no object, you could do both.
Between this and the new MacBook Air. The new Air is approximately as fast at processing as this Pro, but has an extremely fast built in SSD drive; in practice it will feel turbo charged next to the base model of the MacBook Pro with it's spinning disk. The Air is also lighter and the 13" model has a higher resolution display. Basically I recommend getting the Air unless you absolutely need one of the following: more than 256 GB of hard drive space, a Firewire port in the box, more than 4GB of RAM, or an Ethernet port. I am planning on purchasing an Air for my wife, coupled with the new Cinema display which comes with USB, Ethernet, and a Firewire port, it will be a flexible, albeit extremely expensive combination. I, however, need the hard drive space so I'll be sticking with this MacBook Pro for this round.
Between larger MacBook Pros. As I carry my laptop back and forth to work daily and prefer to work with it on my lap, I've never had any urge or wish for the 15 inch, much less the 17 inch version. But they do have real discrete GPUs, and i7 processors, so for people with large display and maximum horsepower needs, they are an excellent option. One lemonade out of lemons advantage of not having a discrete GPU is a more consistent battery life; the discrete GPU should only be in use when the horsepower is needed, but sometimes it becomes unnecessarily active resulting in decreased battery life of perhaps an hour less, something 13" owners don't have to worry about.
Compared to PC Laptops
Obviously, if you need a Mac, you're choices are limited, but some people buy MacBooks for use as Windows 7 laptops. There is the extra expense of buying Windows 7 for System Builders separately, but basically, Apple's Boot Camp makes any Mac into an excellent Windows box. My wife has been running Windows on a 4 year old Mac Mini for years without major issues. Alternatively, you could buy third party virtualization software like VMware Fusion and run both OS X and Windows simultaneously. The question is why would a Windows user bother.
Mainly because MacBook Pros are premium laptops, and most laptops sold by non-Apple manufacturers are economy models. Apple ships more thousand dollar plus laptops than anyone else, and it has the economies of scale to make expensive laptops cheaper than other manufacturers--see for example the Dell Adamo. Take the enclosure, a single block of aluminum machined by robot into a lightweight yet rigid piece and anodized to resist most scratches, with a reliable hinge that keeps the monitor closed when closed and opened at your angle when opened. Possibly the best enclosure in the world. Other manufacturers don't do this or don't do it as cheaply because they don't make a million premium laptops a quarter. Similarly, I wouldn't know where to find a PC laptop with a Thunderbolt port, mini-Display Port, Firewire 800, optical audio out, a MagSafe power connector, and 7 hours of claimed battery life. On the other hand, any reasonably priced PC laptop will have a Blu Ray drive, and might have USB 3. The MacBook Pro market for Windows 7 users are those consumers with the money and the wish for quality, which isn't being met in the PC marketplace, not for people who are on a tight budget, or who's computer isn't a big deal to them, or who just dislike Apple for whatever reason.
Windows laptops targeting the same general consumer need would be the Lenovo Thinkpad X220, and the Sony Vaio S. Windows users should be sure to compare these models and other Sandy Bridge chipset based 13 inch laptops.
In summary, this is an excellent, computer if a bit pricey. I expect to get a couple of years of service out of it, and then hand it off to a relative for many more years of useful life. These things are built to last.
Best Deals for Apple MacBook Pro MC700LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop (OLD VERSION)
The Macbook Pro 13 has just been updated on Feb 24th 2010. There are some upgrades and a few major changes between this years model and 2010's model, detailed below.The UPGRADES are
1) The MBP 13 base model now has a 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 dual-core processor which is a massive upgrade over the outdated Core2Duo processors in last years model. These processors are great for multitasking and content creation (video and audio encoding/decoding )
2)Thunderbolt port. This is a super fast data transfer port now included in the MBP 13. Data transfer speeds (in daily use) are supposed to be as fast as USB 3.0 and firewire 800 if not more. As of now, no thunderbolt compatible products are available at retail but should be available soon. The TB port also functions as a Minidisplay port. For connecting your MBP 13 to an external monitor, you'll need a Syba High Quality Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter If you want to connect it to a tv, you'll need a Kanex iAdapt MDPHDMIV2 HDMI V2 Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter with Audio Support
3) iSight HD Camera The camera now can make 720p resolution videocalls with support for facetime.
4) 320 GB hard drive up from 250 gb in last years model (a small 70 gb difference)
5) SDXC card slot the XC stands for extended capacity so you'll be able to add SD cards of extremely high capacities.
STANDARD FEATURES carried over from last years 13 inch model are
An Aluminum unibody,
1280 x 800 resolution Glossy LED backlit screen,
8x slot-loading SuperDrive dvd burner
4GB ram
Large glass multi-touch trackpad
Backlit keyboard with comfortable chiclet keys
Magsafe power adapter (with redesigned tip to reduce stress on the cable)
1 Firewire 800 port,
2 USB 2.0 ports ,
Stereo speakers and subwoofer.
Wi-Fi 802.11n ; 802.11a/b/g compatible, Bluetooth 2.1 and Gigabit Ethernet -10/100/1000.
7 hours of battery life.
So some key changes, including a transition to Intel's 2011 processors, a thunderbolt port and a HD webcam make up the list of upgrades for the early 2011 model. The processor is much faster than last year's Core 2 Duo model and editing photos and videos is a lot snappier.
Apple continues to include integrated graphics in the MBP 13's and these models have Intel's Integrated.Graphics 3000 graphics processor. Which is not really an upgrade. Most benchmarks reveal that the I.G 3000 is worse or at best equal to the Nvidia 320m integrated graphics processor in last years model.
The machine still has 4gb of ram, which is great for multi-tasking. You probably won't need more unless you're really into running virtual machines or editing super large graphic files or images.
It also comes with a 320gb 5400 rpm hard drive, which is not that great capacity wise and probably contributes to a somewhat degraded user experience (as applications will take longer to launch due to the slow rotational speed of the hard drive) Apple needs to realise it's selling a "Pro" product priced at a premium and the user experience should reflect that. (In totality, not just through the software) Luckily, its quite easy to upgrade the hard drive by yourself and doesn't void the warranty unless you break something (so be careful)
Apple now advertises the 2011 MBP as having battery life upto 7 hours. As I mentioned in my 2010 MBP review, the battery life of the MBP 13 was closer to 5 to 6 hours instead of the impossible to achieve 9 to 10 hours Apple advertised. The reduction in the 2011 MBP 13 battery life is not a downgrade, it's just Apple being honest. The battery is still inbuilt so once it's exhausted, you will have to take your machine back to an Apple store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider for replacement. However, Apple states that the battery will hold 80% of it's charge for up to a 1000 charges which means approximately 3 to 4 years of daily use. So it should be a while before you have to go in for that battery replacement.
Software included is OS X 10.7 "Lion" and the iLife 2011 suite of content creation tools (which include iPhoto, Garageband, iWeb and iMovie).
A 1 year warranty on parts and 90 day telephone technical support is standard.
The new i5 processor upgrade, 4gb of ram and other design elements such as the large multitouch trackpad and the backlit keyboard make this a great machine to use daily. The MBP 13 is a sleek, solid product, fast enough for most purposes and is more than capable for the majority of daily tasks. Demanding applications like Skype, Photoshop, Lightroom, iMovie run smoothly. Definitely recommended for school / college work, photo editing, music composing, basic video editing and video chat.
If you do decide to purchase a MBP 13, I recommend purchasing applecare also AppleCare Protection Plan for Portable Apple Computers 13 Inches and Below (Newest Version) along with the notebook.
As Apple uses most of the same parts (hard drives, processors, dvd drives, wireless cards) that other laptop manufacturers use, their reliability is no worse or better than other laptop manufacturers. But when and if a product / part malfunction occurs after the first year limited warranty has ended, Apple charges extremely high fees for repairing and replacing parts (when compared to other laptop manufacturers ) IF you don't have Applecare.
Keep in mind, the A.P.P. only covers hardware failure not accidental damage so it's still expensive for what you get but it's better than paying Apple's prices for repair/replacement parts.
Another viable warranty extension option that you could buy instead of Applecare is SquareTrade 3-Year Laptop/Tablet Warranty Plus Accident Protection (Laptop/Tablet $1000-1250)(which costs the same as Applecare but also includes damage protection which is a big plus point ). It's better to pay once for Applecare or Squaretrade (whatever you prefer) and be covered for 2 more years after the first year is up than pay exorbitant repair/replacement fees to Apple if a part malfunctions.
Also, in case you're confused between the standard MBP 13 and the higher end MBP 13, it's simple This is the better buy between the two MBP 13's with regards to value.
Here are some facts to help you make an informed choice. I've posted Geekbench results below Geekbench is the most recognized benchmarking software for Macs.
Geekbench Benchmark results
Standard 13" MBP 2.3 GHz dual i5 2011: 5948
High end 13" MBP 2.7 GHz dual i7 2011, 6796
There is a difference of 848 points between the standard MBP 13 and the high end MBP 13 which shows a 12% difference.
If you buy the higher end MBP 13, you'd pay $300 more (25% of the cost of the standard $1199 MBP 13 or 20% of the cost of the $1499 MBP 13 ) for a minor 12% difference due to a 400 mhz processor speed difference (not at all major in any way as seen in the benchmarks) and a 180 gb hard drive space increase. This standard MBP 13 is the better buy between the two models in terms of bang for your buck since every other tech specification and feature is identical amongst the two models.
Hope this helps!
Honest reviews on Apple MacBook Pro MC700LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop (OLD VERSION)
Apple always knew the way of maximizing profit: 2010 model were a step up but drawn back on the CPU, 2011 model had a huge step up on CPU, but drawn back on its graphic.2010 model overview: 2.4ghz Core 2 duo, gt320m
2011 model overview: 2.3ghz Core i5, Intel HD3200
The graphic card went from a discrete graphic card to a on board graphic, which is a huge let down for me, as a fan.
All the new thunderbolt technology is a step up, but think about this. USB 3 or Thunderbolt, I'd say USB 3 will be more popular and more useful. Another let down is the limited connectivity of Thunderbolt.
Verdict:
If you are using this for school, word, internet surfing, general school work. Go for it.
If you are using this for designing, I'd say you get the 15" or above since the graphic card boost in PS and other designing software really do take effect.
If you are using this to show off, GO FOR IT! You will receive envious looks when you take it out.
If you are using this to Game, save your money and get a gaming laptop, not this
If you are using this for music, save your money for HP Envy Beats(although it is recently sold out, but you can get it on ebay). Envy Beats is almost like a MBP copy, its got the feel to it. And the Black-and-Red design grants it a new style. The CPU, graphic, and sound is more well balanced on it.
PS: Yes, I did buy this. The OSX is very well optimised, it is much better than Windows, but there is too many program that I use that does not support OSX, which compels me to dual boot with boot camp.
Side notes: Look into the program called "Crossover". It virtually emulate windows for certain programs to work.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Apple MacBook Pro MC700LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop (OLD VERSION)
Pros:much faster cpu (latest Sandy Bridge processors)
faster memory
support for fastest data drives (sata III connection)
Neutral:
same solid construction
HD webcam
Thunderbolt port
Battery life?? UPDATE: tests confirm slightly better battery life (+10%)
Cons:
inferior graphics compared to 2010 model
Quick take:
The 2011 model is a significant upgrade in processing power over the 2010 model. There are a couple of additional upgrades, such as Thunderbolt or the HD webcam, which may be useful in the future, but currently are not that important. Battery life, which is important for many users, is probably as good or better than the older Macbook Pro, but it is hard to determine how it compares. On the downside, the graphics are actually inferior to the 2010 model, but should work for the majority of users.
UPDATE: Laptop Magazine found the battery life is approximately 10% longer on the 2011 Macbook Pro. Thanks to the commenters for pointing this out.
DETAILS:
Full Review:
I use my Macbook Pro as my main computer at work where I have it hooked up to an external monitor. I do a lot of number crunching (i.e. statistics) so upgrading from my 2010 Macbook Pro to this 2011 version with the latest CPU made a lot of sense. It may not make sense for many people who own 2010 or 2009 versions of the Macbook Pro. I list all the pros and cons below.
PROS:
Much Faster CPU
This Macbook Pro (MBP) update is all about the CPU (i5 "Sandy Bridge"). The 2010 MBP missed out on a generation upgrade last year, keeping the same Core 2 Duo family that was in the 2009 MBPs. This made the 2010 version only marginally faster than the 2009 version. The benchmark scores on the 2011 13" 2.3 GHz MBP are 35% to 40% higher than the 2010 13" 2.4 GHz MBP. That is a HUGE leap in computational performance. It is true that the Core 2 Duos were very dated, but the low end 2.3GHz 2011 MBP is just as fast as last year's high end 15"/17" MBPs which had i5 and i7 2.8 GHz processors! Very awesome. Here are some benchmark scores I got off the web.
Model: Geekbench Score (Speedmark Score)
MacBook Pro 13" i5 2.3 GHz (2011): 5900 (140)
MacBook Pro 13" Core2 Duo 2.4 GHz (2010): 3351 (106)
MacBook Pro 13" Core2 Duo 2.4 GHz (2009): 3137 (??)
MacBook Pro 15" i7 2.67 GHz (2010): 5564 (151)
MacBook Pro 17" i7 2.8 GHz (2010): 5837 (??)
As you can see, this is a significant bump over the 2010 and 2009 models.
Faster Memory:
This is part of the faster performance observed, but it means that you can't use your memory from your old MBP.
Support for the fastest SSD hard drives
If you want to upgrade to an SSD this is an important upgrade. The latests SSD hard drives are blazing fast, but require a Sata III 6Gb/s connection to achieve their 500 MB/s reads. (Right now, OCZ's Vertex 3 and Intel's 510 Series are the only drives that really need the higher speed port, but more are coming.) On the downside, it appears that the optical drive connection is Sata II 3 Gb/s. So if you were planning on removing the optical drive in favor of a second SSD, it will be running on a slower connection.
NEUTRALS:
same solid construction
Not much to report. Still on of the best builds in the business, but no reason to upgrade.
HD Webcam
Nice I suppose, if you are using you laptop as a camcorder, but if you are streaming video (like over Skype) you are going to have a bandwidth bottle neck so the HD webcam it isn't going to make any difference.
Thunderbolt
Awesome technology, but there isn't anything out there right now that takes advantage of it. Maybe in six months it will be more of a benefit. It doesn't hurt to get it now though.
Battery Life
This is hard to determine. One of the marketing points of the Sandy Bridge CPUs are the integrated Intel HD graphics which are supposed to increase battery life. However, Apple changed their battery tests since 2010. The reported battery life is "7 hours" for the 2011 MBP vs "8-9" hours for the 2010 MBPs, but battery life for the same usage may actually be longer for the 2011 MBP. I'm not sure how to tell, but I would guess that battery life is at least as good as the 2010 MBP due to the integrated graphics in the 2011 MBP.
UPDATE: Someone has done an apples to apples comparison on battery life. According to tests by Laptop Magazine, the 2011 MBP has approximately 45min more battery life than its predecessor. Using a web surfing via WiFi based test, they found that the 2011 MBP lasted 8:33. The 2010 MBP lasted 7:48 using the same test. Thanks to those who left comments that pointed out this battery test.
CONS:
Graphics Performance
The integrated Intel HD graphics are not as powerful as the discrete Nvidia graphics found in the 2010 MBP. Call of Duty gaming tests achieve 26fps with Intel graphics (2011 MBP) vs 33fps with Nvidia graphics (2010 MBP). For me this is a non-issue as don't game and don't run graphics intensive programs (Photoshop, AutoCAD, etc). The most graphically intensive task I have is running a 27" external monitor which the Intel graphics handle without a problem. In theory, the integrated graphics have the advantage of increasing the battery life, but this is not verifiable.
SUMMARY:
In short, if you are maxing out the CPU on your current laptop, then this guy will be a MAJOR improvement. Otherwise you may not see a big difference and you might want to opt for an SSD upgrade instead.
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