Showing posts with label best laptops under 500. Show all posts
Showing posts with label best laptops under 500. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Gateway LX.WZL02.003 17.3 6g 500gb Red Reviews
I purchased this laptop Sept 2011 and I loved it. Unfotunately it was stolen from me on 3/20/12 while at the Orlando International Airport. I just purchased the higher model of this one in red again thats how much I loved this laptop!
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Cheap HP ENVY TouchSmart15 15-j040us 15.6-Inch Laptop
List Price: $1,098.00
Sale Price: $701.00
Today's Bonus: 36% Off
I like the look of the computer. It is a little "plasticky" feeling but not so bad. I like the keyboard. The track pad takes some getting used to. It just feels really hollow. It could be a deal breaker for you. I usually use a mouse anyways. The two finger scrolling stuff works for the most part. The right clicking function is a little hard to pull off though. The screen isn't very bright and colors are a little washed out but the fact that its a decent touchscreen more than makes up for it. The only thing that makes me consider making it three stars is the annoying fan noise. You can always hear it. If you play any type of game or any significant computations the fans kick into high gear and it gets pretty annoying. I wish it had an ssd and that would prob make this computer considerably better but that comes at a price obviously. I love that they made it 8gb of ram because its using about 4 gb already. Nice computer overall. I like the Samsung series 9 better but it doesn't have the number pad and its quite a bit more $. Great business type ultra-book with the inclusion of the # pad. Don't believe the BEATS hype. It may get a LITTLE louder but not much. Computer speakers just suck period.The laptop is awesome, I read reviews saying that there is something off about the keyboard. I really like the laptop. Sleek and beautiful
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Cheap Gateway MT6840 15.4-inch Widscreen Notebook Computer PC
I added 1GB of RAM (to 2GB) before even booting up out of the box, which I regret now, just for curiosity reasons, but so far I am very pleased with the twin-core MT6840. I had a Gateway MX7118 before and loved the widescreen display, and I wasn't about to spend a thousand or more bucks on a high-end laptop. I realize you get what you pay for usually, but if you're budget-conscious you could do a lot worse than the MT6840. Battery life is roughly 3 hours. Streaming HD TV video from ABC is flawless on the MT6840; the same video still stops and starts on my AMD Sempron desktop with 1.5 GB RAM. And so far, Vista has been a pretty pleasant experience. Like anything else new, it takes some getting used to.
i never had any problems with it.
for the price i think its a great little laptop.
The laptop comes with a Intel Core-Duo T2450 which was a decent processor at the time but you can actually "upgrade" the chip to a Core 2 Duo T5200 (Socket M) without a bios update and a used chip will only run about $10. The best part about replacing the chip is that with a Core 2, you can run a 64 bit OS. So I am currently rocking 64 bit Windows 7 on my MT6840 and it is running great. Another benefit I found is that the new processor and HD runs a LOT cooler then what came stock.
So I would defiantly recommend this laptop to anyone looking for a decent affordable laptop with a solid upgrade path that can be done in parts.
I have recently updated the ram form two .5GB to two 2GB sticks. The system recognized the update immediately. The system came with a restore partition but I never trust them and have external disks in case of a virus or anything physical. I also updated to Windows 7 and anticipate trying Windows 8.
Just a note that unless you are ept and can adjust to the exterenal wrld without help from the manufaturer this may not be the best way to go. Personally I find the challenge fun.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
ive owned this laptop for about a year.i never had any problems with it.
for the price i think its a great little laptop.
Best Deals for Gateway MT6840 15.4-inch Widscreen Notebook Computer PC
What a bargain for the price..does everything I want it to. I run two businesses now when I'm on vacation, no lost business because of slow responses. Bright screen, easy keyboard, and the kids watch dvds in the car, during those long boring(?) stretches of Nevada Desert.. These are still selling elsewhere for $799 and upHonest reviews on Gateway MT6840 15.4-inch Widscreen Notebook Computer PC
It is a great laptop if you can get it for under $200. I actually "downgraded" to XP when I first got it, which ran better then VISTA. A really good thing about this laptop is that you can extend it life and usefulness with a few upgrades. The easiest is swapping out the memory. It comes with 1 gig but you can add 4 gigs (2 sticks of 2 gigs)of PC2 5300 memory for about $45. You can also replace the Hard Drive with a SSD. But what I recommend is a Hybrid HD/SSD. I added a 500 gig drive for about $80. Not only is it a lot cheaper this way,but because the laptop has an older SATA the performance is almost going to be the same as a full solid state because of the bottle neck.The laptop comes with a Intel Core-Duo T2450 which was a decent processor at the time but you can actually "upgrade" the chip to a Core 2 Duo T5200 (Socket M) without a bios update and a used chip will only run about $10. The best part about replacing the chip is that with a Core 2, you can run a 64 bit OS. So I am currently rocking 64 bit Windows 7 on my MT6840 and it is running great. Another benefit I found is that the new processor and HD runs a LOT cooler then what came stock.
So I would defiantly recommend this laptop to anyone looking for a decent affordable laptop with a solid upgrade path that can be done in parts.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Gateway MT6840 15.4-inch Widscreen Notebook Computer PC
This animal is older than the hills. It actually came with Windows Vista. I only bout the critter for something to use while having another system updated. The selling point was being able to see the 15 inch screen which was a good size for the time. This wireless "g" is still in the main stream today and wireless N devices also accept it.I have recently updated the ram form two .5GB to two 2GB sticks. The system recognized the update immediately. The system came with a restore partition but I never trust them and have external disks in case of a virus or anything physical. I also updated to Windows 7 and anticipate trying Windows 8.
Just a note that unless you are ept and can adjust to the exterenal wrld without help from the manufaturer this may not be the best way to go. Personally I find the challenge fun.
Friday, June 13, 2014
Review of Acer 15.6" AMD N660 3.0GHz Laptop | AS5552-7819
Slim design, sleek keyboard with numeric pad, and fast processor make up this wonderful laptop. Powerful video graphics does HD with ease but it doesn't play new core games, this is NOT a gaming laptop, the graphics card is wonderful but any game past Oblivion will most likely fail. The cons are not aplenty, but are there. When maximizing the use of the processor, be aware the fan will become hot. Because of the computer's sleek design the fan is not that powerful. This is easy to get around on when you buy a good cooling pad with a fan, preferably one that arches to allow for the small under-belly fan to access air. My only other complaint is the graphics card not being able to play new games... but hey, you get what you pay for. If any one is worried about the 4 gigs of RAM, don't fret, go to crucial.com and follow the on screen instructions to determining what upgrade you want to buy (up to 8 gigs of RAM for this laptop). The website even has an excellent video demonstrating how to install the memory yourself, saving around $50. Anyway, I have 8 gigs of RAM coming today, I will update soon to tell how that goes.
All in all, get this computer if you want excellent for the price... there are what, 2 left in stock?
This is the perfect laptop for the student, the traveling businessman, or for the limited space of an apartment or bedroom. I know that I sound like I'm from Acer, but I'm not and I've bought a ton of stuff from Amazon and I don't leave many reviews, but I needed to leave one for this machine.
Buy it and you won't regret it. Oh, and use common sense.
All in all, get this computer if you want excellent for the price... there are what, 2 left in stock?
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
I've had this laptop for about 16 or 17 months now and I have yet to find a single issue. These closest I've found is when you are crunching a lot of video memory, it can get warm, but using a spacer to give the fan more room fixes that. I run hard photo editing software and autodesk. I am still at the factory 4gb of memory, but am now thinking of going to 8gb.This is the perfect laptop for the student, the traveling businessman, or for the limited space of an apartment or bedroom. I know that I sound like I'm from Acer, but I'm not and I've bought a ton of stuff from Amazon and I don't leave many reviews, but I needed to leave one for this machine.
Buy it and you won't regret it. Oh, and use common sense.
Best Deals for Acer 15.6" AMD N660 3.0GHz Laptop | AS5552-7819
This notebook is fantastic for the price. It's very fast an reliable. I don' understand some of the reviews that state this notebook get really hot. I haven't had any problems with it getting hotter than other notebooks. I just wish it would of come with a back-up CD.Thursday, May 22, 2014
Cheap HP Pavilion g7-2291nr Notebook PC
This is a nice unit. Unfortunately, HP computers consistently come with loads of bloatware, and Windows 8 is terrible. Uninstalling bloatware is easy, though, and most of Win8's flaws have neat work-arounds. In any case, the computer itself is as new as it gets; manufacturer refurbishing doesn't frequently go wrong. The item was shipped promptly and safely, priced fairly, and described accurately.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Review of Dell Inspiron Special Edition i15Rse 15-Inch Laptop / 3rd Gen
List Price: $949.99
Sale Price: $760.00
Today's Bonus: 20% Off
I advise you to buy a computer with a touchable screen! That will be more convenience than this. This computer's touch pad is not working good with win8.1 although I have use the newest driver!
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Discount Alienware AM17XR3-6842BK 17-Inch Laptop (Stealth Black)
I have owned this laptop for about 8 months at this point. Let me tell you that is by far the fastest laptop I have ever used. It handles most games with ease at full graphics.
That being said there is a major flaw with this laptop. Within 2 months of owning the laptop, the keys started popping off. Dell does have a picture tutorial on how to put this keys back on, but if you follow the tutorial it will often lead to adjacent keys popping off. And if you push too hard when trying to get the keys to latch, then you are out of luck. Luckily my first experience with Alienware customer service ended in a keyboard replacement in less than 2 days from calling tech support. However when it started happening again tech support was not that helpful. I was told I would need to purchase a replacement keyboard for $110! The laptop is under warranty for 4 more months. I was even considering extending the warranty.
My suggestion is to use the built in keyboard as little as possible. I use a logitech keyboard now, my biggest issue is now the laptop does not really travel easily anymore.
Now for the part which gets the 0 star review that made me select the 3 star total...
I bought through Dell, and while the warranty period lasted, it was fine.
Rather than having to send it in, they walked me through popping off the touch sensitive panel where the volume controls and eject button etc are when it arrived and they didn't work. I dislike the fact that you have to use a thin screwdriver or other hard/sharp object to pry off a panel made of softish plastic but that's the price you pay for not having visible screws. It was easy enough to replug the tiny connection that had wiggled loose and then snap the plastic back into place, and the problem was solved, for a few months, until putting it down when done using it eventually caused it to wiggle free again. But knowing what had happened the first time I didn't even have to call and wait on hold, just fixed it myself in 10 minutes, this has happened a few more times since then, always with the same fix.
I did have it stop registering the charger as other people have mentioned, but all I was told to do was remove the charger, remove the battery and wait 30 seconds for any residual power to dissipate and then put it all back together. Which basically reset it and fixed the issue. I have had to do this a few times since as well but it always fixes it.
The drivers on the CD are a good starting point for reinstalling WIndows, but they lack good descriptions for anyone not into building their own computers, so finding updated ones online can be fun. The ones on the Dell website are a joke. There are new video card drivers for my 285M on the Nvidia website from within the last month, but the ones specific to the Alienware, which does make a difference, are only as recent as 2010...
If you try to install the ones from Nvidia you will get an error telling you that no eligible hardware is found... even though your card is listed in the description. Its because the way Alienware sets up the system requires custom drivers so your card actually has a slightly different ID than the standard ones and that specific ID isn't listed in the standard driver programming. If you want the latest you will end up spending a few hours doing you tube video watching and forum searching to find the solution which involves rewriting a portion of the driver files to include your model ID, then doing it again to include the basic third video card that is installed along with the 2 running in SLI, and then going into your BIOS and disabling the Hybrid SLI and the Integrated Graphics so that the computer will recognize the SLI cards and not try to run off of the basic card instead. Then you go into your video card control panel and tell it to use the SLI again... And then it works beautifully.
If you are into building your own computer and working on it yourself, these systems are great. I wouldn't trade mine in, I love this beast, but I also know that for a beginning techno geek or someone who needs simple maintenance only devices, this would be one of the biggest headaches ever. Be forewarned...
That being said there is a major flaw with this laptop. Within 2 months of owning the laptop, the keys started popping off. Dell does have a picture tutorial on how to put this keys back on, but if you follow the tutorial it will often lead to adjacent keys popping off. And if you push too hard when trying to get the keys to latch, then you are out of luck. Luckily my first experience with Alienware customer service ended in a keyboard replacement in less than 2 days from calling tech support. However when it started happening again tech support was not that helpful. I was told I would need to purchase a replacement keyboard for $110! The laptop is under warranty for 4 more months. I was even considering extending the warranty.
My suggestion is to use the built in keyboard as little as possible. I use a logitech keyboard now, my biggest issue is now the laptop does not really travel easily anymore.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
Mind you, I give this 3 stars only because of the amount of self maintenance that needs to be done, I have the 1st revision M17x from 2009, with all the bells and whistles and it runs newer games flawlessly still, so for game performance it gets a 5 star review. I agree that the reflective screen is an issue if taken outside or played by a window, but I have no problems with it inside, and usually play at night anyway, don't most gamers? So for looks I give a 5 star review as well, the keyboard lighting themes you can set to match your mouse or background and its very eye-catching and fun.Now for the part which gets the 0 star review that made me select the 3 star total...
I bought through Dell, and while the warranty period lasted, it was fine.
Rather than having to send it in, they walked me through popping off the touch sensitive panel where the volume controls and eject button etc are when it arrived and they didn't work. I dislike the fact that you have to use a thin screwdriver or other hard/sharp object to pry off a panel made of softish plastic but that's the price you pay for not having visible screws. It was easy enough to replug the tiny connection that had wiggled loose and then snap the plastic back into place, and the problem was solved, for a few months, until putting it down when done using it eventually caused it to wiggle free again. But knowing what had happened the first time I didn't even have to call and wait on hold, just fixed it myself in 10 minutes, this has happened a few more times since then, always with the same fix.
I did have it stop registering the charger as other people have mentioned, but all I was told to do was remove the charger, remove the battery and wait 30 seconds for any residual power to dissipate and then put it all back together. Which basically reset it and fixed the issue. I have had to do this a few times since as well but it always fixes it.
The drivers on the CD are a good starting point for reinstalling WIndows, but they lack good descriptions for anyone not into building their own computers, so finding updated ones online can be fun. The ones on the Dell website are a joke. There are new video card drivers for my 285M on the Nvidia website from within the last month, but the ones specific to the Alienware, which does make a difference, are only as recent as 2010...
If you try to install the ones from Nvidia you will get an error telling you that no eligible hardware is found... even though your card is listed in the description. Its because the way Alienware sets up the system requires custom drivers so your card actually has a slightly different ID than the standard ones and that specific ID isn't listed in the standard driver programming. If you want the latest you will end up spending a few hours doing you tube video watching and forum searching to find the solution which involves rewriting a portion of the driver files to include your model ID, then doing it again to include the basic third video card that is installed along with the 2 running in SLI, and then going into your BIOS and disabling the Hybrid SLI and the Integrated Graphics so that the computer will recognize the SLI cards and not try to run off of the basic card instead. Then you go into your video card control panel and tell it to use the SLI again... And then it works beautifully.
If you are into building your own computer and working on it yourself, these systems are great. I wouldn't trade mine in, I love this beast, but I also know that for a beginning techno geek or someone who needs simple maintenance only devices, this would be one of the biggest headaches ever. Be forewarned...
Best Deals for Alienware AM17XR3-6842BK 17-Inch Laptop (Stealth Black)
I bought an Alienware M17x in November of 2011, I loaded it up with a total cost of $5750. By March I expirenced power issues. The power adapter is plugged in but the system does not recognize the adapter. This causes the CPU to throttle back and run very slow. Dell has trouble shooted the problem over the phone, sent a technician out to replaced the mother board and adapter 5 times now. The problem still exists. They refuse to refund my money or exchange the system. Customer support says it is against policy to exchange unless I have the 4 repairs done within 30 days. Them being slow to dispatch technicians prevents 30 day policy to work in my favor. I did pay for the exteneded priemer warranty, which is now apparent to me that this was also a waste of my money. Search Google "Alienware M17x power issues". You will see I am not alone is the complaint.Honest reviews on Alienware AM17XR3-6842BK 17-Inch Laptop (Stealth Black)
I just wanna say this laptop is really good. I have it for more than two months and there is not any issue with it at all. Diablo 3 runs smoothly on this machine and all of my friends around admiring my Alienware.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Alienware AM17XR3-6842BK 17-Inch Laptop (Stealth Black)
when i first heard bout alienware products i was hooked,but never had the money for it.I saved enough money and brought one online,my first alienware laptop.This thing is sweet!!! i love the color and it plays all my pc games with no problems, i have brought many of laptops over the years and they just cant pull of the graphics,but not Alienware im playing the the really best graphics games now!!! no more dumbing down the graphics just for it to play smooth.If you have the money get this product best money i ever spent!!!Sunday, April 13, 2014
Review of MSI Computer Corp. G Series GT683DX-840US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)
The product came new, in the original manufacturer's sealed packaging. Delivery took only a few days, on the early side of the estimated time for delivery. As for the product, it looks and works great so far. I have had no problems running Skyrim, which has very high requirements, on ultra hi-res settings for the last couple of weeks. Overall a great buyer experience, and a product worth considering for anyone thinking about purchasing a gaming laptop.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
I bought this for my son for his Minecraft addiction ;). I did some research online and this came up as one of the most affordable gaming computers out there so I took a chance and bought it. It is a great computer not only for gaming but for all of our needs. It doesn't come loaded with programs so take that into account and the price when purchasing. For us it was a winner. Sorry I am not tech savvy and cannot comment on the specs.Best Deals for MSI Computer Corp. G Series GT683DX-840US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)
This is a great notebook with a great mobile graphics card; works well with online gaming and intensive graphic programs.Honest reviews on MSI Computer Corp. G Series GT683DX-840US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)
I ordered this laptop to run software that my old computer could either handle laboriously or not at all. This machine is an amazing value for the power it can offer. The software that my other computer had trouble with now runs seamlessly. I haven't tried gaming on this machine yet as I've strayed away from PC games over the years, but something tells me this computer will bring me back into that world. Also, despite what some people say I think the orange LED lights on the side are awesomesauce.Thursday, February 13, 2014
Discount Toshiba - Satellite 14" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel® CoreTM
Copied and pasted from bestbuy where I originally posted the review. check their prices, when i bought this laptop, they beat Amazons price.
What's great about it: Quick boot up times, touchscreen is great, keyboard is good, sound is amazing, size is great, ports are fantastic
What's not so great: Slight flex in keyboard (bearable), not the best button placement of cd drive, not as high build quality as say.. Asus
I received this laptop as a graduation gift for college, and I want to go through my experience with my purchase and use of this laptop.
Due to the nature of my schedule this year at the end of the semester I had obscene amounts of free time in my classes, so I dedicated much of the time to researching laptops so I could get the perfect laptop for me for college. I originally thought that I was looking for an ultrabook style laptop for my college years, and I looked heavily into all the offerings from Asus Acer HP and the like, and did not find what I was looking for, I liked the slim size and quick SSD performance, but everything I found that was in my price range was either skimping on specs or ports or build quality or otherwise, so I broadened my scope to laptops in general hoping to find something that met me half way between sexy ultrabook and chunky laptop. so wrote out my list of required spec I was looking for in a computer, and a list of wants and stuff like that, and started looking at normal laptops, and came across this one -
I fell in love with it, it was everything I was looking for, size, processor, lit keyboard, Asus build quality, two usb 3.0 ports!, 8 gigs of DDR3 RAM.. I was hooked.. however it failed in two points, and for me, they proved to be large points. The first thing that didn't get my seal of approaval were the lack-luster speakers. looking at the device you can not see the speakers at all, as they are bottom facing ( I will never understand the reasoning for why so many companies do this, its moronic) and shoot the sound directly into the ground. I am a big music guy, and I wanted good sound. the sound on the Asus is "hearable" but not what I was looking for. it also does not have a touch screen which at the time I didn't bat an eye at, who in their right mind puts a touchscreen on a laptop? so anyways I was almost bought the Asus, but I decided to look around some more and see if I could find one with matching specs and better sound. So a little more looking and I came across this one, I was a little sad that it dropped down to the i5 processor, but other than that all the specs were the same as the Asus, but for two big differences. one. harmon kardon. and two. touchscreen. If you are like me and had never heard of Harmon Kardon speakers before seeing it in this product then let me assure you, they make fantastic notebook speakers, the sound on this device is incredible, I first tried it by playing an intense orchestral piece, and was blown away with the clarity and the volume of the sound, it is truly fantastic sound.
Now on to the touchscreen. before using it, I thought a touchscreen laptop was maybe something that I would use once and never touch again (pun somewhat intended) but I may or may not have ever been more wrong in my life. I love having a touch screen. the first time I tried it I was not convinced, but after having it longer and getting used to all the windows 8 gestures and such, I have trouble going back to computers that do not have a touchscreen. Windows 8 does a really good job of making not just recent windows applications work with touch, but making almost all of everything work really well with touch input. (you will however come across the occasional odd application that doesn't like the simple scroll gesture and this is annoying to be sure, but not the biggest issue and I am sure it will be addressed eventually).
The keyboard. The keyboard looks fantastic. the back-lit keys are perfect and do their job perfectly, with options to turn the feature always on, always off, or on a timer to go off after around 15 seconds of inactivity. There is, as previously mentioned, slight flex in the keyboard that is not a hindrance to typing, especially if you do not look at the keyboard ever while typing, but if you still look at the keys as you type you will definitely notice the flex of the keys. not a big issue, but somewhat annoying. above the keyboard their are your typical assortment of media control keys and such. these are very useful, they share the f1, f2, f3 etc.. keys but are default as the obviously more important media control buttons. you can switch this if desired.
The ports. this laptop has three USB 3.0 ports which is awesome. if that looks like jargon to you, its nothing complicated, 3.0 supports much higher speeds than 2.0 does. they are also blue. blue is cool. included also is both VGA and a full sized HDMI cable which is nice, allowing you to operate both new and old projectors/tv/monitors/whatever without the use of an annoying dongle.
random final notes.
this laptop is not silent, but it is fairly quiet. I have yet to be disturbed by the fan sounds at all.
I have yet to get this laptop hot, however all I have done is the typical Word/youtube/facebook/gmail/minecraft activities so I can not actually attest to how hot it gets.
note. this laptop does not have much video memory at all, so graphic intense games are not going to work well if at all.
note. this comes with a lot of preinstalled junk. annoying.
note. this does come with a free year of the new Microsoft suite 365 for a year. nice.
overview.
this is a very good laptop, I love the touchscreen, I love the sound, I love the ports, I really like windows 8, I really like the speed, i like the track-pad, I like the keyboard, I do not like the
This product is...
Good sound quality A touch pad that works great Perfect for Business A nice compact size easy to set up great touchscreen slightly flexy keyboard
About me...
Budget Conscious Basic web surfing & emails Student Technology guru Social media enthusiast music lover
What's great about it: Quick boot up times, touchscreen is great, keyboard is good, sound is amazing, size is great, ports are fantastic
What's not so great: Slight flex in keyboard (bearable), not the best button placement of cd drive, not as high build quality as say.. Asus
I received this laptop as a graduation gift for college, and I want to go through my experience with my purchase and use of this laptop.
Due to the nature of my schedule this year at the end of the semester I had obscene amounts of free time in my classes, so I dedicated much of the time to researching laptops so I could get the perfect laptop for me for college. I originally thought that I was looking for an ultrabook style laptop for my college years, and I looked heavily into all the offerings from Asus Acer HP and the like, and did not find what I was looking for, I liked the slim size and quick SSD performance, but everything I found that was in my price range was either skimping on specs or ports or build quality or otherwise, so I broadened my scope to laptops in general hoping to find something that met me half way between sexy ultrabook and chunky laptop. so wrote out my list of required spec I was looking for in a computer, and a list of wants and stuff like that, and started looking at normal laptops, and came across this one -
I fell in love with it, it was everything I was looking for, size, processor, lit keyboard, Asus build quality, two usb 3.0 ports!, 8 gigs of DDR3 RAM.. I was hooked.. however it failed in two points, and for me, they proved to be large points. The first thing that didn't get my seal of approaval were the lack-luster speakers. looking at the device you can not see the speakers at all, as they are bottom facing ( I will never understand the reasoning for why so many companies do this, its moronic) and shoot the sound directly into the ground. I am a big music guy, and I wanted good sound. the sound on the Asus is "hearable" but not what I was looking for. it also does not have a touch screen which at the time I didn't bat an eye at, who in their right mind puts a touchscreen on a laptop? so anyways I was almost bought the Asus, but I decided to look around some more and see if I could find one with matching specs and better sound. So a little more looking and I came across this one, I was a little sad that it dropped down to the i5 processor, but other than that all the specs were the same as the Asus, but for two big differences. one. harmon kardon. and two. touchscreen. If you are like me and had never heard of Harmon Kardon speakers before seeing it in this product then let me assure you, they make fantastic notebook speakers, the sound on this device is incredible, I first tried it by playing an intense orchestral piece, and was blown away with the clarity and the volume of the sound, it is truly fantastic sound.
Now on to the touchscreen. before using it, I thought a touchscreen laptop was maybe something that I would use once and never touch again (pun somewhat intended) but I may or may not have ever been more wrong in my life. I love having a touch screen. the first time I tried it I was not convinced, but after having it longer and getting used to all the windows 8 gestures and such, I have trouble going back to computers that do not have a touchscreen. Windows 8 does a really good job of making not just recent windows applications work with touch, but making almost all of everything work really well with touch input. (you will however come across the occasional odd application that doesn't like the simple scroll gesture and this is annoying to be sure, but not the biggest issue and I am sure it will be addressed eventually).
The keyboard. The keyboard looks fantastic. the back-lit keys are perfect and do their job perfectly, with options to turn the feature always on, always off, or on a timer to go off after around 15 seconds of inactivity. There is, as previously mentioned, slight flex in the keyboard that is not a hindrance to typing, especially if you do not look at the keyboard ever while typing, but if you still look at the keys as you type you will definitely notice the flex of the keys. not a big issue, but somewhat annoying. above the keyboard their are your typical assortment of media control keys and such. these are very useful, they share the f1, f2, f3 etc.. keys but are default as the obviously more important media control buttons. you can switch this if desired.
The ports. this laptop has three USB 3.0 ports which is awesome. if that looks like jargon to you, its nothing complicated, 3.0 supports much higher speeds than 2.0 does. they are also blue. blue is cool. included also is both VGA and a full sized HDMI cable which is nice, allowing you to operate both new and old projectors/tv/monitors/whatever without the use of an annoying dongle.
random final notes.
this laptop is not silent, but it is fairly quiet. I have yet to be disturbed by the fan sounds at all.
I have yet to get this laptop hot, however all I have done is the typical Word/youtube/facebook/gmail/minecraft activities so I can not actually attest to how hot it gets.
note. this laptop does not have much video memory at all, so graphic intense games are not going to work well if at all.
note. this comes with a lot of preinstalled junk. annoying.
note. this does come with a free year of the new Microsoft suite 365 for a year. nice.
overview.
this is a very good laptop, I love the touchscreen, I love the sound, I love the ports, I really like windows 8, I really like the speed, i like the track-pad, I like the keyboard, I do not like the
This product is...
Good sound quality A touch pad that works great Perfect for Business A nice compact size easy to set up great touchscreen slightly flexy keyboard
About me...
Budget Conscious Basic web surfing & emails Student Technology guru Social media enthusiast music lover
Monday, January 20, 2014
Review of Lenovo ThinkPad SL510 28476GU 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)
This purchase was a disappointment. Within less than a month after purchase in November 2009, the wireless card stopped functioning. Lenovo/IBM Customer Service was slow to respond, provided inaccurate information and instructions, required that I pay to ship the product to the service center for warranty repair, and communicated a general lack of interest in customer satisfaction. Without prior notice, Lenovo cancelled the service request. It is now March 24, 2010, and the laptop remains inoperable for the purpose intended.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Discount Sony VAIO F2 Series VPCF232FX/B 16.4-Inch Laptop (Matte Black)
Sony VAIO F2 Series VPCF232FX/B 16.4-Inch Laptop is not just another computer. It delivers on all advertised features but the best is the speed of the processor, I7 intel and the quality of the picture (full 1080P resolution). My unit came with only 4 gigs of ram upgradable to 8 gigs and a 500 gig hard drive but was just under a grand. For games you might need more ram.
This is supposed to be a gamer laptop but I have been editing video and working on my website and once you take a break and watch a blue-ray movie it is mesmerizing and gratifying to see every detail in animated action films. This is a tool for the professional so it is priced in the pro bracket but worth every penny. I have only had it for a couple of months but I cant find a fault
in this package. Even the battery holds up for about 5 hours. There is a higher capacity battery if you need one. It comes with plenty of software, even Sony editing software. I saved big with no tax and free shipping through Amazon. If you have a need for speed, quality, and portability this will fill the bill.
I have used this notebook for two months and two weeks so far. While installing some applications in the first week I noticed something was preventing full installation. So I uninstalled pre-loaded anti-virus software and replaced it with another one which came free with RoadRunner cable. Since then all applications installed smoothly. When purchasing this laptop I didn't pay much attention to pre-loaded software, but exploring the notebook I noticed it came with video-editing and music-editing applications. Therefore I didn't have to look for Windows7 upgrade of my old video-editing software. Also, as I'm interested in playing around with Miku-like vocaloid, I can use the pre-loaded music-editing software to compose background music to go with vocaloid. I already downloaded many free loops available at the applications websites but I need to learn more about composing.
The laptop automatically looks for updates of system and Vaio softwares and notifies you when available. I just had such a notice a week ago and when I click "intall", several updates were downloaded from Vaio sites and installed one by one into the laptop. My major use of this laptop so far (only two months) is for editing photos, images, videos, web-browsing while listening music, I haven't done any heavy stuff yet. But everything has been fast and smooth so far and I don't feel I need to add another 4GB RAM anytime soon. The Internet button is convenient. I push it to check email and browse the web for a short time after I come home from work during the weekdays. During the weekend I always keep the laptop on and put it in the sleep mode when not using. It wakes up quickly and wireless connection hasn't failed once. As this is my home pc, I disabled the touchpad. I always use a wireless mouse instead. I'm much more confortable placing the screen farther from my eyes than my arms reach, and this way also allows me to have a cup of tea or coffee and a snack or desert plate between the laptop and me, not worrying about spills and splashes. So far I'm very happy with my new Vaio.
The shortcoming is that sony default setting using intel graphic card to save energy. I turned it on and updated the software by clicking "Sony update". Guess what, the result is amazing!
Here's the problem I had with mine. It would lockup and windows would give me a blue screen error saying that it was shutting down to prevent damage to my computer. This would happen at random times when I was using software programs; and it would also happen when the laptop was sitting idle with no software running. I spent 2 days researching what could be causing this problem. Some of my research showed that it could be a hardware problem and other research showed it could be software related. So the big question was: Is this something my software caused or did it come with this problem from the factory.
I deleted all my programs and files and reinstalled windows (Using a copy of Windows that I purchased from Staples). That didn't fix the problem. So I chatted with Amazon customer service and without hesitation they agreed to send me another laptop (same model) and pay for the original laptop to be sent back to them. That's great! Amazon definitely knows how to take care of customers. I'm very happy with how Amazon helped me.
So the new laptop arrived a few days later. To make a long story short; I had the same problems again. Again I hopped on chat with Amazon customer service and they said since I am having the same problem with both laptops that it would be best to refund my money and they will take a look at their entire batch of this model of Sony laptops to see if they all have the same problem.
Again, I'm very happy with how Amazon helped me with this problem. They even refunded my original shipping costs. So Amazon lost money on the deal. But they made sure I was taken care of.
I ended up purchasing a Samsung laptop with most of the same features that the Sony had. I've been running it for almost a week now and have not had the blue screen error at all. So I'm pretty sure the problem was with the Sony laptop.
My advice: Check with Amazon to see if they have inspected this batch of Sony laptops before buying one. But don't worry if you have a problem; Amazon with take care of you.
I also swapped out the spinning harddrive with a no-moving parts 120 GB Solid State Drive ($99 at Tigerdirect) and this baby is really zippy, and generates almost no heat...I can't hear the fan at all. With the SSD, this laptop is actually cool to the touch...30 seconds to boot Windows 7, less than 2 seconds to open any Office app, about 4 seconds for Photoshop. All the software/drivers you need for a new install is at Sony.com, and even though it took some time, it's worth it and pretty easy.
All and all I am quite happy...my last Viao lasted three years of DJ nights and days of Adobe and Office...the fan was so loud, you could hear it from across the room. This new F Series is almost silent, the 1080p HD is gorgeous, and I can actually hear great sound from the speakers (Can't say that about my macbook pro)...Love it!
This is supposed to be a gamer laptop but I have been editing video and working on my website and once you take a break and watch a blue-ray movie it is mesmerizing and gratifying to see every detail in animated action films. This is a tool for the professional so it is priced in the pro bracket but worth every penny. I have only had it for a couple of months but I cant find a fault
in this package. Even the battery holds up for about 5 hours. There is a higher capacity battery if you need one. It comes with plenty of software, even Sony editing software. I saved big with no tax and free shipping through Amazon. If you have a need for speed, quality, and portability this will fill the bill.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
I purchased this notebook for home use to replace my old 17" Vaio, WinXP, Pentium4, 60GB HD notebook which I used almost 8 years absolutely free of trouble. My old Vaio was still working but after installing so many applications and Windows updates (these accumulate) C drive(10GB) was suffocating. I decided to look for a new one before something bad would happen. As I have used Vaios since the time it first came out as desktop model 18 years ago and those I used were all reliable and long-lasting I had no reason to look for other brands. I selected this model because this has full HD screen, Blue-ray player, the fast i7 processor, with all of which I can do many things for several years from now. The size 16.4" was just right to replace my old one, and the price was also reasonable and came with $50 Amazon gift card. I could use the card for purchasing a fitness bike I wanted too.I have used this notebook for two months and two weeks so far. While installing some applications in the first week I noticed something was preventing full installation. So I uninstalled pre-loaded anti-virus software and replaced it with another one which came free with RoadRunner cable. Since then all applications installed smoothly. When purchasing this laptop I didn't pay much attention to pre-loaded software, but exploring the notebook I noticed it came with video-editing and music-editing applications. Therefore I didn't have to look for Windows7 upgrade of my old video-editing software. Also, as I'm interested in playing around with Miku-like vocaloid, I can use the pre-loaded music-editing software to compose background music to go with vocaloid. I already downloaded many free loops available at the applications websites but I need to learn more about composing.
The laptop automatically looks for updates of system and Vaio softwares and notifies you when available. I just had such a notice a week ago and when I click "intall", several updates were downloaded from Vaio sites and installed one by one into the laptop. My major use of this laptop so far (only two months) is for editing photos, images, videos, web-browsing while listening music, I haven't done any heavy stuff yet. But everything has been fast and smooth so far and I don't feel I need to add another 4GB RAM anytime soon. The Internet button is convenient. I push it to check email and browse the web for a short time after I come home from work during the weekdays. During the weekend I always keep the laptop on and put it in the sleep mode when not using. It wakes up quickly and wireless connection hasn't failed once. As this is my home pc, I disabled the touchpad. I always use a wireless mouse instead. I'm much more confortable placing the screen farther from my eyes than my arms reach, and this way also allows me to have a cup of tea or coffee and a snack or desert plate between the laptop and me, not worrying about spills and splashes. So far I'm very happy with my new Vaio.
Best Deals for Sony VAIO F2 Series VPCF232FX/B 16.4-Inch Laptop (Matte Black)
I saw many laptops include Apple and Dell. They are all more than $2000. But the picture of Sony F laptop is sooo sharp and make me shock! My model is SOVPCF23JFXB which is different with this one. But basic hardware and software are the same. I NEVER had such experience to use this kind of computer. My sony computer was designed for game. I found that it is not good for game. It very good for home theater.The shortcoming is that sony default setting using intel graphic card to save energy. I turned it on and updated the software by clicking "Sony update". Guess what, the result is amazing!
Honest reviews on Sony VAIO F2 Series VPCF232FX/B 16.4-Inch Laptop (Matte Black)
I never owned a Sony laptop before I bought this one. All the research I did on this laptop before I bought it said that it's a great computer. Even the feedback here on Amazon shows that people are happy with their purchase.Here's the problem I had with mine. It would lockup and windows would give me a blue screen error saying that it was shutting down to prevent damage to my computer. This would happen at random times when I was using software programs; and it would also happen when the laptop was sitting idle with no software running. I spent 2 days researching what could be causing this problem. Some of my research showed that it could be a hardware problem and other research showed it could be software related. So the big question was: Is this something my software caused or did it come with this problem from the factory.
I deleted all my programs and files and reinstalled windows (Using a copy of Windows that I purchased from Staples). That didn't fix the problem. So I chatted with Amazon customer service and without hesitation they agreed to send me another laptop (same model) and pay for the original laptop to be sent back to them. That's great! Amazon definitely knows how to take care of customers. I'm very happy with how Amazon helped me.
So the new laptop arrived a few days later. To make a long story short; I had the same problems again. Again I hopped on chat with Amazon customer service and they said since I am having the same problem with both laptops that it would be best to refund my money and they will take a look at their entire batch of this model of Sony laptops to see if they all have the same problem.
Again, I'm very happy with how Amazon helped me with this problem. They even refunded my original shipping costs. So Amazon lost money on the deal. But they made sure I was taken care of.
I ended up purchasing a Samsung laptop with most of the same features that the Sony had. I've been running it for almost a week now and have not had the blue screen error at all. So I'm pretty sure the problem was with the Sony laptop.
My advice: Check with Amazon to see if they have inspected this batch of Sony laptops before buying one. But don't worry if you have a problem; Amazon with take care of you.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Sony VAIO F2 Series VPCF232FX/B 16.4-Inch Laptop (Matte Black)
I researched my laptop purchase extensively before I shelled out my hard-earned cash, and for the price, this is the most bang for your buck in a souped-up laptop (i7 Quad Processor, 1920 x 1080 screen resolution, usb 3.0, blu-ray...). While I'm not a gamer, I am a power-user nonetheless. This model has a great (customizable in the Control Panel) backlit keyboard...essential for a DJ or in flight...no other laptop in this price range has it...Plus, it's beautiful and angular, and really stands out among the 'plasticky-looking' models in it's class. Do yourself a favor and throw a 4GB memory card into your cart for $22 (here on amazon [Corsair 4 GB DDR3 Laptop Memory CMSO4GX3M1A1333C9])...remove the memory cover on the bottom, and there's an empty slot right there waiting for it, (it snaps right in with no tools) and it doubles your memory and speed instantly.I also swapped out the spinning harddrive with a no-moving parts 120 GB Solid State Drive ($99 at Tigerdirect) and this baby is really zippy, and generates almost no heat...I can't hear the fan at all. With the SSD, this laptop is actually cool to the touch...30 seconds to boot Windows 7, less than 2 seconds to open any Office app, about 4 seconds for Photoshop. All the software/drivers you need for a new install is at Sony.com, and even though it took some time, it's worth it and pretty easy.
All and all I am quite happy...my last Viao lasted three years of DJ nights and days of Adobe and Office...the fan was so loud, you could hear it from across the room. This new F Series is almost silent, the 1080p HD is gorgeous, and I can actually hear great sound from the speakers (Can't say that about my macbook pro)...Love it!
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Buy Apple 13.3" MacBook Air 2.13GHz, 4GB RAM, 256GB Flash Storage
UPDATE (April 2011)
It's been nearly 6 months since I bought this machine, and I still love it. However, if you're thinking about buying one and you don't need it right away, I suggest waiting. CNET and others suggest that Apple will update the Air this summer and equip it with Intel's new Sandy Bridge processor, which will be a huge step up in processing power over the Intel Core 2 Duo that's in the current Air. It's not likely that Apple will raise the price; their normal pattern is to add features and power but keep the same price.
My original review (with minor edits and one new part at the end):
* * *
I purchased this exact configuration (the maxed out 13") a few weeks ago. It's my first Mac.
There are lots of cool things about the new Macbook Airs. But what stands out most to me is the performance gain from an SSD instead of a spinning magnetic hard drive. It boots up from cold to ready in under 10 seconds. Seriously. It shuts down in about 4-5 seconds. Of course, you don't need to shut it down and boot it up from cold every time just shut the lid and it goes to sleep in 1 second. Open it later and it wakes up just as you left it in about 1 second. Really. Windows laptops have this same feature, but in my experience it doesn't wake up about 1/4 of the time, so I stopped using it. But it works perfectly on the Mac.
Reading from and writing to the SSD is very fast, whether you're installing programs or loading files. The difference is striking compared to my Dell XPS laptop, which has a 7200rpm hard drive and Core 2 duo processor with a higher rated speed.
Now that I have a laptop with an SSD as the main drive, I will never go back to one using a spinning hard drive it's yesterday's technology and just doesn't perform well, compared to this. Of course, part of the performance gain could well be due to the Mac OS X. OS X seems more stable and refined than Windows 7 (and I like Windows 7, though I'd like anything after the disaster that was Windows Vista).
The Air's integrated NVIDIA 320 graphics handles all my needs very well, though I am not a graphics-intensive gamer or video editor, just an average user.
Battery life is really exceptional. At this moment, I've been running my MBA 5 or 6 hours since the last charge, and the battery meter still shows 44% remaining. Since I bought it, I have gotten at least the rated 7 hours of battery life every time. This, too, is due at least in part to the SSD. Regular hard drives use a lot of juice they have motors that physically spin a magnetic platter 5400 or 7200 revolutions per minute. With SSD, there's no spinning disk and no motor, hence longer battery life. [update april 2011: battery life over the last 6 months is consistently at least 6 hours if I'm using the air intensively, 7 or more for light use (web browsing, word processing)]
The MBA runs cool most of the time. After I use it for a few hours at a time, the bottom gets SLIGHTLY warm. This is a huge improvement over EVERY OTHER LAPTOP I've ever owned or used, which get VERY WARM or even HOT.
I've only heard the fan come on ONCE the first day, when I was installing MS Office using an external DVD/CD drive. Other than that, my MBA has been completely silent and cool.
[update april 2011: the fan comes on more often that my initial comment suggests, in particular whenever doing heavy writing or deleting of large quantities of files to the SSD, such as when installing or uninstalling MS office. however, it remains true that the MBA's fan comes on MUCH less often than the fan on my Dell laptop at home or my Lenovo laptop at work, and it is definitely true that the MBA runs very cool most of the time, and when it gets warm, it's much less warm than my Dell or Lenovo laptops]
Once I complete my transition from Windows to Mac, this MBA will be my main home computer. For average users like me, it's plenty powerful enough. At home, I have it plugged into an external monitor (which requires a $20 adapter), an external mouse, plus I have an external USB drive for backups and an Apple Super Drive (external DVD/CD). I slightly regret buying the Super Drive; Amazon sells Samsung drives that perform better and cost about $30 less.
The everyday experience of using the 13" MBA is like that of using a regular Macbook, Macbook Pro, or other "serious" laptop. What I mean is, when you're using it, it LOOKS and FEELS like using a "serious" laptop, not a laptop that makes compromises to achieve ultra portability. But when you take it with you somewhere, THAT'S when you notice how wafer-thin and feather-light it is.
And for something so remarkably thin, it feels very sturdy. Build quality is excellent.
I read a lot of other reviews by long-time MB users, many of whom are disappointed that the MBA doesn't have the backlit keyboard that Macbooks have. I've never had that feature on a laptop, so I don't miss it. But for people who do, you can get an LED lamp on an adjustable arm that plugs into the USB port not a very elegant solution, but functional and inexpensive Amazon has some good ones pretty cheap.
This is probably not a huge factor in your decision, but you might be interested in knowing the sound quality coming from the headphone jack is excellent. I did an A/B comparison between my MBA, my Dell XPS, and the Lenovo ThinkPad I use at work. I used high-end headphones to listen to a track encoded in iTunes at 320 bps on all 3 machines. The sound quality from the MBA's headphone jack was great, as good as my iPod touch, and way better than the Dell or Lenovo.
On the other hand, tiny speakers built into the MBA are no better than the average laptop speakers.
[update April 2011: when I wrote that the built-in speakers were average, I hadn't used them much, and hadn't compared them to the other laptops I use. since then, i have used them more, and it is clear to me that they are better than the speakers on my other laptops]
If you're thinking about buying a MBA, I have a few suggestions.
First, go to an Apple store or Best Buy and see one in person. Play around with it.
Second, make sure you know all the options available at time of order. The 11 and 13 inch MBAs can be ordered with upgrades (bigger SSD, faster processor, more RAM). But, once you buy a MBA, you may not be able to upgrade these components later. (Apple says you cannot. Some user forums say you can. I'd rather not take my chances.) So, you should probably opt for as many of the upgrades as you can afford at the time of initial purchase.
* * *
update april 2011: my Dell xps laptop is 3 years old and on its last legs. For work, I need to keep one foot in the windows world. I was thinking of getting a cheap windows laptop for this purpose, but then learned about boot camp. Boot camp comes on all new macbooks, including this MBA, and allows you to create a windows partition on your SSD or hard drive. Then, you can install Windows 7 or Windows XP on this partition, and any Windows software you might need. When you boot up the macbook, it'll let you choose whether you want to boot to Mac OS or to Windows. If you choose Windows, it runs Windows natively not in an emulator and therefore it runs at full speed.
I did this last week. Creating a windows partition and installing Windows 7 went very smoothly. Installing software, such as Office 2010 for Windows, went very smoothly (and relatively quickly due to the fast write speeds of the Macbook Air's SSD). Since then, I've been heavily using the Windows side and going back and forth between the two OSes and it works really great. Even though the Macbook Air is not a powerful machine by today's standards, it runs Windows 7 and Windows applications very very well. It almost perfectly replicates the experience of working on a Windows laptop (except that Mac keyboards do not have home, end, page-up, and page-down keys). All of the peripherals I use with Windows laptops work with the Macbook Air, whether I boot into Windows or OS X.
At this time, I have fully migrated to the Macbook Air as my main computer. I'll be retiring the Dell soon and most likely never buying another Windows machine.
Pros:
Very light. While lighter laptops have been available for some time (the Thinkpad X300 comes to mind, for example), you will be hard-pressed to find one that has a 13.3" screen, a 256 GB SSD, and a large and well-designed touchpad.
Certainly powerful enough to serve as your main computer. I have been using my Air as an ultra-portable desktop. At work and at home, I plug it into a monitor and a USB hub that is connected to all my peripherals (keyboard, mouse, external hard drives, Kindle, cell phone, memory sticks etc.). This gives me plenty of desktop space to work with (13.3" widescreen is barely enough to display half a vertical page of text at a comfortable font size), while giving me the power to carry my work with me wherever I go. I normally have 10-20 browser tabs, a few Office documents open, some scientific or data analysis software and at least one virtual machine running. Never has any task, such as starting an application or opening a file ever been bogged down.
The lack of a CD drive, while not a pro, has not been an issue for me. After installing Office, the Adobe suite and some other programs, I have not used a CD drive and will probably not need one for a long time. I am glad that I am not lugging around a device that I don't need. My next laptop, even if it isn't an Air, will not have a CD drive in it.
The trackpad. I love the mouse gestures.
The screen. Very good color reproduction, great viewing angles, excellent contrast. I don't like it that it's glossy as dust is more visible on it, but I can live with the glossiness.
Battery life is great. I don't know how many discharge cycles the battery will last, but currently, I can easily get 7 hours when just writing documents and browsing the web (with no Flash).
The SSD makes a difference. While not the fastest SSD available on the market, everything feels snappy. Boot times are 10-15 seconds, starting applications is very quick and because there are no moving parts, you can safely toss your laptop onto your bed without worrying about a hard drive crash!
Cons:
No Kensington lock slot. There is no real way to physically secure the Macbook Air. This is a well-known issue for the last few years that has even been discussed on Apple's own forums. The fact that Apple has chosen to ignore this consistently makes me feel that their vision is to see the Air as a toy, or as a device for media consumption, not as a laptop for real work. The absurd thing is, some people are so Apple-deluded as to suggest that a "workaround" is to carry the laptop with you wherever you go, even for 5 minutes to go to the bathroom or to grab a coffee. There are third-party devices available that are basically steel pieces inserted through the monitor lid hinge, but none of them work when the lid is closed.
The keyboard. After using Thinkpads for close to a decade, Mac keyboards just don't compare. The keys have very little travel, and typically need to be bottomed out for a keypress to be registered, which reduces your typing accuracy and speed. I get around this by hooking up an external mechanical keyboard whenever I can.
The fan, when it does come on, can be surprisingly loud. Fullscreen high resolution Flash video, 1080p H.264 decoding (with Plex or a similar package) and running quantum computational software is enough to turn the fan on at high speed. Under "normal" use, you are unlikely to ever hear the fan, which is great.
Occasionally, I feel like I am using an appliance. It's a strange feeling for someone who has been used to opening up computers and tinkering with them. Nothing is intended to be user-replaceable. Not the RAM (soldered onto the motherboard, yikes!), not the hard drive, not even the battery.
Apple makes many, many usability and user interface decisions that the user has no convenient way of modifying. For example, as far as I can tell, there is no way to close the laptop lid and ensure that the laptop does NOT go to sleep, without connecting an external monitor and a keyboard/mouse. Yes, there are third-party applications that can enable this, but why can't OS X provide this option to users in the first place? Another example, I love Spaces. What would make it much more powerful is if I could redirect different spaces to different monitors, each with a menu bar at the top. Imagine how much that would increase your productivity. It has been trivial to do this in most Linux distributions for some time. No known way on a Mac. As another example, consider Time Machine. It's great and makes backup super-easy to do. However, there is no way to change the default backup schedule of hourly backups for 24h, daily backups for 1 week and weekly backups forever. How difficult would it be to add an "Advanced" button and allow users to change this schedule? Finally, OS X support for changing key bindings, without the help of a third-party application, is woefully inadequate. Want Num Lock to work? Sorry. The "Home" and "End" keys will not work the way you expect them to (with no built-in way to change the behavior to what you want), and the context menu key found on many Windows-style keyboards cannot be remapped to simulate a right mouse button click. Moral of the story -Yes, Mac OS X is a UNIX, but don't expect the same level of customizability that you may have gotten used to in some other UNIces.
The Apple religion. It's strange how so many people have congratulated me on "switching," as if I have completed a pilgrimage. Whatever Apple has done, one thing it has done very well is convincing users that PCs are irredeemable quagmires and that Macs are somehow infinitely better. A "Mac" is not such a different beast. Nearly everything at the hardware level is the same, except for a BIOS that many PCs still use, while Macs use EFI. "It just works," is also a marketing tagline, not always the case. Macs do get kernel panics (the equivalents of Windows' famed "blue screen of death.") What Macs give you is a tightly integrated package that may not always be the most flexible for your needs. While "Genius Bars," and hip-looking retails stores may be cool, the cost of these frills is going to be included in the products you buy.
It is really an awesome line of machines and in no way is it a "limited" machine like the Air's used to be. This is going to be my main work machine. It has the guts to do it too. I'm just shocked at how fast it is!
4GB memory is plenty for daily computing needs. Matched with a high resolution 13.3" screen perfect.
Would have preferred an ethernet port without having to spend an extra $30 for the USB dongle.
Purchased on Amazon but fulfilled by OnSale which is a subsidiary of MacMall. Fast shipper. No sales tax.
Customer service was very good with e-mail for order inquiry & tracking number.
It's been nearly 6 months since I bought this machine, and I still love it. However, if you're thinking about buying one and you don't need it right away, I suggest waiting. CNET and others suggest that Apple will update the Air this summer and equip it with Intel's new Sandy Bridge processor, which will be a huge step up in processing power over the Intel Core 2 Duo that's in the current Air. It's not likely that Apple will raise the price; their normal pattern is to add features and power but keep the same price.
My original review (with minor edits and one new part at the end):
* * *
I purchased this exact configuration (the maxed out 13") a few weeks ago. It's my first Mac.
There are lots of cool things about the new Macbook Airs. But what stands out most to me is the performance gain from an SSD instead of a spinning magnetic hard drive. It boots up from cold to ready in under 10 seconds. Seriously. It shuts down in about 4-5 seconds. Of course, you don't need to shut it down and boot it up from cold every time just shut the lid and it goes to sleep in 1 second. Open it later and it wakes up just as you left it in about 1 second. Really. Windows laptops have this same feature, but in my experience it doesn't wake up about 1/4 of the time, so I stopped using it. But it works perfectly on the Mac.
Reading from and writing to the SSD is very fast, whether you're installing programs or loading files. The difference is striking compared to my Dell XPS laptop, which has a 7200rpm hard drive and Core 2 duo processor with a higher rated speed.
Now that I have a laptop with an SSD as the main drive, I will never go back to one using a spinning hard drive it's yesterday's technology and just doesn't perform well, compared to this. Of course, part of the performance gain could well be due to the Mac OS X. OS X seems more stable and refined than Windows 7 (and I like Windows 7, though I'd like anything after the disaster that was Windows Vista).
The Air's integrated NVIDIA 320 graphics handles all my needs very well, though I am not a graphics-intensive gamer or video editor, just an average user.
Battery life is really exceptional. At this moment, I've been running my MBA 5 or 6 hours since the last charge, and the battery meter still shows 44% remaining. Since I bought it, I have gotten at least the rated 7 hours of battery life every time. This, too, is due at least in part to the SSD. Regular hard drives use a lot of juice they have motors that physically spin a magnetic platter 5400 or 7200 revolutions per minute. With SSD, there's no spinning disk and no motor, hence longer battery life. [update april 2011: battery life over the last 6 months is consistently at least 6 hours if I'm using the air intensively, 7 or more for light use (web browsing, word processing)]
The MBA runs cool most of the time. After I use it for a few hours at a time, the bottom gets SLIGHTLY warm. This is a huge improvement over EVERY OTHER LAPTOP I've ever owned or used, which get VERY WARM or even HOT.
I've only heard the fan come on ONCE the first day, when I was installing MS Office using an external DVD/CD drive. Other than that, my MBA has been completely silent and cool.
[update april 2011: the fan comes on more often that my initial comment suggests, in particular whenever doing heavy writing or deleting of large quantities of files to the SSD, such as when installing or uninstalling MS office. however, it remains true that the MBA's fan comes on MUCH less often than the fan on my Dell laptop at home or my Lenovo laptop at work, and it is definitely true that the MBA runs very cool most of the time, and when it gets warm, it's much less warm than my Dell or Lenovo laptops]
Once I complete my transition from Windows to Mac, this MBA will be my main home computer. For average users like me, it's plenty powerful enough. At home, I have it plugged into an external monitor (which requires a $20 adapter), an external mouse, plus I have an external USB drive for backups and an Apple Super Drive (external DVD/CD). I slightly regret buying the Super Drive; Amazon sells Samsung drives that perform better and cost about $30 less.
The everyday experience of using the 13" MBA is like that of using a regular Macbook, Macbook Pro, or other "serious" laptop. What I mean is, when you're using it, it LOOKS and FEELS like using a "serious" laptop, not a laptop that makes compromises to achieve ultra portability. But when you take it with you somewhere, THAT'S when you notice how wafer-thin and feather-light it is.
And for something so remarkably thin, it feels very sturdy. Build quality is excellent.
I read a lot of other reviews by long-time MB users, many of whom are disappointed that the MBA doesn't have the backlit keyboard that Macbooks have. I've never had that feature on a laptop, so I don't miss it. But for people who do, you can get an LED lamp on an adjustable arm that plugs into the USB port not a very elegant solution, but functional and inexpensive Amazon has some good ones pretty cheap.
This is probably not a huge factor in your decision, but you might be interested in knowing the sound quality coming from the headphone jack is excellent. I did an A/B comparison between my MBA, my Dell XPS, and the Lenovo ThinkPad I use at work. I used high-end headphones to listen to a track encoded in iTunes at 320 bps on all 3 machines. The sound quality from the MBA's headphone jack was great, as good as my iPod touch, and way better than the Dell or Lenovo.
On the other hand, tiny speakers built into the MBA are no better than the average laptop speakers.
[update April 2011: when I wrote that the built-in speakers were average, I hadn't used them much, and hadn't compared them to the other laptops I use. since then, i have used them more, and it is clear to me that they are better than the speakers on my other laptops]
If you're thinking about buying a MBA, I have a few suggestions.
First, go to an Apple store or Best Buy and see one in person. Play around with it.
Second, make sure you know all the options available at time of order. The 11 and 13 inch MBAs can be ordered with upgrades (bigger SSD, faster processor, more RAM). But, once you buy a MBA, you may not be able to upgrade these components later. (Apple says you cannot. Some user forums say you can. I'd rather not take my chances.) So, you should probably opt for as many of the upgrades as you can afford at the time of initial purchase.
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update april 2011: my Dell xps laptop is 3 years old and on its last legs. For work, I need to keep one foot in the windows world. I was thinking of getting a cheap windows laptop for this purpose, but then learned about boot camp. Boot camp comes on all new macbooks, including this MBA, and allows you to create a windows partition on your SSD or hard drive. Then, you can install Windows 7 or Windows XP on this partition, and any Windows software you might need. When you boot up the macbook, it'll let you choose whether you want to boot to Mac OS or to Windows. If you choose Windows, it runs Windows natively not in an emulator and therefore it runs at full speed.
I did this last week. Creating a windows partition and installing Windows 7 went very smoothly. Installing software, such as Office 2010 for Windows, went very smoothly (and relatively quickly due to the fast write speeds of the Macbook Air's SSD). Since then, I've been heavily using the Windows side and going back and forth between the two OSes and it works really great. Even though the Macbook Air is not a powerful machine by today's standards, it runs Windows 7 and Windows applications very very well. It almost perfectly replicates the experience of working on a Windows laptop (except that Mac keyboards do not have home, end, page-up, and page-down keys). All of the peripherals I use with Windows laptops work with the Macbook Air, whether I boot into Windows or OS X.
At this time, I have fully migrated to the Macbook Air as my main computer. I'll be retiring the Dell soon and most likely never buying another Windows machine.
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I have had a notebook with this exact configuration for a little over a month. I have been a Windows user since the days of Windows 3.1 and a Linux user since at least Red Hat Linux 6, so I've written this review from that perspective. I still haven't made the "switch" completely as I run Windows and Linux VMs using Parallels to use software that is not available for Mac OS X. Anyway, here are some initial thoughts:Pros:
Very light. While lighter laptops have been available for some time (the Thinkpad X300 comes to mind, for example), you will be hard-pressed to find one that has a 13.3" screen, a 256 GB SSD, and a large and well-designed touchpad.
Certainly powerful enough to serve as your main computer. I have been using my Air as an ultra-portable desktop. At work and at home, I plug it into a monitor and a USB hub that is connected to all my peripherals (keyboard, mouse, external hard drives, Kindle, cell phone, memory sticks etc.). This gives me plenty of desktop space to work with (13.3" widescreen is barely enough to display half a vertical page of text at a comfortable font size), while giving me the power to carry my work with me wherever I go. I normally have 10-20 browser tabs, a few Office documents open, some scientific or data analysis software and at least one virtual machine running. Never has any task, such as starting an application or opening a file ever been bogged down.
The lack of a CD drive, while not a pro, has not been an issue for me. After installing Office, the Adobe suite and some other programs, I have not used a CD drive and will probably not need one for a long time. I am glad that I am not lugging around a device that I don't need. My next laptop, even if it isn't an Air, will not have a CD drive in it.
The trackpad. I love the mouse gestures.
The screen. Very good color reproduction, great viewing angles, excellent contrast. I don't like it that it's glossy as dust is more visible on it, but I can live with the glossiness.
Battery life is great. I don't know how many discharge cycles the battery will last, but currently, I can easily get 7 hours when just writing documents and browsing the web (with no Flash).
The SSD makes a difference. While not the fastest SSD available on the market, everything feels snappy. Boot times are 10-15 seconds, starting applications is very quick and because there are no moving parts, you can safely toss your laptop onto your bed without worrying about a hard drive crash!
Cons:
No Kensington lock slot. There is no real way to physically secure the Macbook Air. This is a well-known issue for the last few years that has even been discussed on Apple's own forums. The fact that Apple has chosen to ignore this consistently makes me feel that their vision is to see the Air as a toy, or as a device for media consumption, not as a laptop for real work. The absurd thing is, some people are so Apple-deluded as to suggest that a "workaround" is to carry the laptop with you wherever you go, even for 5 minutes to go to the bathroom or to grab a coffee. There are third-party devices available that are basically steel pieces inserted through the monitor lid hinge, but none of them work when the lid is closed.
The keyboard. After using Thinkpads for close to a decade, Mac keyboards just don't compare. The keys have very little travel, and typically need to be bottomed out for a keypress to be registered, which reduces your typing accuracy and speed. I get around this by hooking up an external mechanical keyboard whenever I can.
The fan, when it does come on, can be surprisingly loud. Fullscreen high resolution Flash video, 1080p H.264 decoding (with Plex or a similar package) and running quantum computational software is enough to turn the fan on at high speed. Under "normal" use, you are unlikely to ever hear the fan, which is great.
Occasionally, I feel like I am using an appliance. It's a strange feeling for someone who has been used to opening up computers and tinkering with them. Nothing is intended to be user-replaceable. Not the RAM (soldered onto the motherboard, yikes!), not the hard drive, not even the battery.
Apple makes many, many usability and user interface decisions that the user has no convenient way of modifying. For example, as far as I can tell, there is no way to close the laptop lid and ensure that the laptop does NOT go to sleep, without connecting an external monitor and a keyboard/mouse. Yes, there are third-party applications that can enable this, but why can't OS X provide this option to users in the first place? Another example, I love Spaces. What would make it much more powerful is if I could redirect different spaces to different monitors, each with a menu bar at the top. Imagine how much that would increase your productivity. It has been trivial to do this in most Linux distributions for some time. No known way on a Mac. As another example, consider Time Machine. It's great and makes backup super-easy to do. However, there is no way to change the default backup schedule of hourly backups for 24h, daily backups for 1 week and weekly backups forever. How difficult would it be to add an "Advanced" button and allow users to change this schedule? Finally, OS X support for changing key bindings, without the help of a third-party application, is woefully inadequate. Want Num Lock to work? Sorry. The "Home" and "End" keys will not work the way you expect them to (with no built-in way to change the behavior to what you want), and the context menu key found on many Windows-style keyboards cannot be remapped to simulate a right mouse button click. Moral of the story -Yes, Mac OS X is a UNIX, but don't expect the same level of customizability that you may have gotten used to in some other UNIces.
The Apple religion. It's strange how so many people have congratulated me on "switching," as if I have completed a pilgrimage. Whatever Apple has done, one thing it has done very well is convincing users that PCs are irredeemable quagmires and that Macs are somehow infinitely better. A "Mac" is not such a different beast. Nearly everything at the hardware level is the same, except for a BIOS that many PCs still use, while Macs use EFI. "It just works," is also a marketing tagline, not always the case. Macs do get kernel panics (the equivalents of Windows' famed "blue screen of death.") What Macs give you is a tightly integrated package that may not always be the most flexible for your needs. While "Genius Bars," and hip-looking retails stores may be cool, the cost of these frills is going to be included in the products you buy.
Best Deals for Apple 13.3" MacBook Air 2.13GHz, 4GB RAM, 256GB Flash Storage
This is my second MacBook, and this tiny thing is better in every way than the MacBook Pro it replaces. The only moving parts on this sucker are the screen and the keys on the keyboard. Other than those it's just one big solid state device. It really moves files around faster than any computer I have ever seen before. In several cases I drag and dropped folders with hundreds of megs of files and they just copied in the blink of an eye. So fast that I didn't believe it and had to verify that the files actually copied before I could believe it.It is really an awesome line of machines and in no way is it a "limited" machine like the Air's used to be. This is going to be my main work machine. It has the guts to do it too. I'm just shocked at how fast it is!
Honest reviews on Apple 13.3" MacBook Air 2.13GHz, 4GB RAM, 256GB Flash Storage
The MacBook Air 2.13 GHz, 4 GB RAM with 256 GB SSD is really a great computer to use. It is really light and faster than expected. The SSD flash drive really makes this a joy to use with the computer turning on very quickly and being very responsive. While being very light is an attribute, the hand rest area can be heard flexing with the slightest of pressure. I recently had to take in the laptop to Apple to have the trackpad replaced because it was acting very erratically after only 2-1/2 months of use. One possibility was that the trackpad area was moved out of alignment because the framing in this area is very thin. Be careful about just holding onto the front edge of the computer where its the thinnest. The other issue with the computer is the fan noise can be rather obtrusive when playing YouTube videos.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Apple 13.3" MacBook Air 2.13GHz, 4GB RAM, 256GB Flash Storage
Absolutely love the Macbook Air. Light weight makes a huge difference when walking between airport terminals.4GB memory is plenty for daily computing needs. Matched with a high resolution 13.3" screen perfect.
Would have preferred an ethernet port without having to spend an extra $30 for the USB dongle.
Purchased on Amazon but fulfilled by OnSale which is a subsidiary of MacMall. Fast shipper. No sales tax.
Customer service was very good with e-mail for order inquiry & tracking number.
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