Discount Sony - VAIO Laptop / Intel® CoreTM i7 Processor / 16.4" Display

Customer Ratings:

Using this laptop for at least 6 hours a day, I can assure you: it is fast. The i7 is so much better than the i3 or i5 chip. The wireless networking is also very reliable, and easy to use with Windows 7. I rarely use the blu-ray but I watched the sample video and it was beautiful, clear, better than expected. The one thing that really bothers me about this laptop is the heat. Using the touchpad burns my fingertips, regularly. Normally I use an external wireless keyboard but when I travel, that is a pain. Overall, this is the best value-for-money laptop I have bought since 1980.

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Review of Dell Studio XPS 1640 15.6-Inch Obsidian Black Laptop - Up to 3

Customer Ratings:

Okay, so how many laptops can you find with a 15.6" screen, 1080p resolution, and a decent graphics chipset for under $1000? Not many! This laptop met all three of these needs for me. It came with enough RAM that I don't need to upgrade it until the 8GB of SODIMM modules become ridiculously cheap. The video chipset M96XT (AKA Radeon 4670) has pretty decent performance . There are just way too many other laptops out there that have 1080p screens and an Intel GMA chipset, or low resolution 1280x800 screens with decent video chipsets. This laptop has both high resolution and a good chipset.

I recently took it to a LAN party to play Team Fortress 2 and it ran beautifully with all the settings turned up to high (60fps+). My last laptop died because the CFL backlight failed, with the LED backlight that should never be a problem. It's also super bright. I usually have it set to a quarter of the brightness and it's still pretty bright.

If you don't like the disk I/O speed (I think it's fine) you can always put a SSD in this as it's a standard SATA disk drive. There are USB ports on the left AND one eSATA/USB on the right, so you can use either one.

My laptop actually did have a gigabit network adapter (not the 10/100 listed here) but no jumbo frames support :( Typical with Broadcom.

Oh, and Windows 7, 64bit is amazing. You have the full 4GB of system memory and 1GB of video.

Cons?:

No scroll lock button, no pause/break button. Not sure how if there is some hidden Fn shortcut to get these. But who uses these really? There's no Fn num-pad, but really, I never used that. The wireless enable/disable switch is a capacitive touch button right above the keyboard. It's easy to accidentally hit it and turn the wireless off and not realize it.

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This Dell Studio XPS 1640 was a very good buy. Its battery lasts a little less than three hours when browsing the web and some light work in Word with the help of Dell Extended Battery Life. All the newer games I've tried have very acceptable framerates with most settings at High. Om most older games such as Oblivion and The Sims 2 I can leave the options at Very High and I haven't found any noticeable slowdown.

I also do all my programming and college work in this computer and I'm very happy with it.

Best Deals for Dell Studio XPS 1640 15.6-Inch Obsidian Black Laptop - Up to 3

Very nice laptop. I shopped obsessively. I looked at many different laptops in this size/power class and ended up with this one. I'm very pleased with its looks and performance, especially for the price. The 1920 x 1080 screen is very nice. The keyboard has a nice feel. It gets warm but not excessively hot. My only complaint is with the optical drive, it is very noisy and it seems to spin up for no apparent reason sometimes. This is a desktop replacement for me and it also needed to run 3D games reasonably well. It runs Half Life 2 with everything cranked and runs my Realflight 4.5 Simulator very well also.

Honest reviews on Dell Studio XPS 1640 15.6-Inch Obsidian Black Laptop - Up to 3

Purchased this computer a few weeks ago for my son who is heading to college and we have been very happy with it. Sleek, responsive, and able to handle gaming and media applications with the well-above-average video card, memory, display and processor combination. All for under $1000.00? Impressive. A fingerprint magnet, which bothers some, but is not a big deal to me. Battery life is average compared to the other laptops I have owned, but acceptable, and I am confident, but admittedly have not looked, that an aftermarket upgrade at battery is available. I have seen complaints that it runs hot, but have not experienced that, at least not hotter than any other laptop with a dedicated video card running during intensive applications and certainly not uncomfortably so. The fan is partially blocked by the monitor, but does its job, and for long sessions of gaming I would recommend a secondary cooling device for any laptop. I have also seen at least one review indicate that the video card was not good for gaming, but other independent reviews of the specific card and pc configuration, and my own experiences, refute that, this pc was built with demanding gaming in mind, while not sacrificing portability or versatility.

I have only one beef with the purchase. Amazon no longer price guarantees its products. This machine dropped in price $35.00 shortly after I purchased it (within a week). I still had it, unopened, and contacted Amazon about a price credit, and was basically told to pound sand. The most frustrating thing about that was I could have simply returned it for a full refund under the 30 day return policy for unopened computers, and bought another one at the new price, discounting my price savings by the 15 dollars or so in return shipping costs (I do not think the return policy covers that), and when I pointed that out to Amazon, I was invited to go ahead and do that. To me, it appeared Amazon was effectively banking on the fact that I would not go through such hassle for such a "small" savings. And they were correct, but only because I did not want to be empty handed for my son's 18th birthday. So they won my business with a good price on a great machine, but lost my respect as a company for such poor customer service. I make many internet purchases, and absent a serious reason to do so, will not be shopping at Amazon in the future.

EDIT REVIEW after I wrote this it got me worked up all over again so I contacted Amazon a second time and low and behold I was given a 35 dollar credit! While they deserved the smack on the nose with a rolled up paper they got for how I was treated the first time, they likewise deserve a treat and an attaboy for eventually doing the right thing. Amazon you have won back my business.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Dell Studio XPS 1640 15.6-Inch Obsidian Black Laptop - Up to 3

Although I do agree with some of the other reviews that the laptop performs well for gaming purposes (if you set it on a table and not in your lap!), and I have done some gaming on it that was beautiful, I do have a few complaints.

First and most importantly, to me, it is very hot. I have had this laptop for a few years now, and it has gradually gotten hotter and hotter, and for the last 12 months (give or take a couple) it has gotten to the point where it is uncomfortable to just have it in my lap. Now, I do not primarily use my laptop for gaming, I have only used it for that a few times. When I did, there was definitely no way I could have just put it in my lap, it would have burned me up. However, even with normal activities browsing on the internet, listening to music, looking at photos the laptop will get very hot after a while, and if I touch the edge of it, it burns!

I find it really silly to call something a "laptop" that you cannot comfortably use on your lap.

The next thing is that it's heavy. This isn't really all that big of a deal, but it is a bit cumbersome, and I'm pretty sure there are lighter more high-tech laptops available these days.

The third thing is no key pad. :( That just makes me sad. I cannot make any fancy symbols on this laptop at all. Really inconvenient for trying to type in Spanish. I have been wishing for a cooler, lighter laptop with a keypad for a long time. Not to mention those neat fingerprint things!

(It's kind of ironic that I'm typing out my complaints about the laptop while using it.)

It's not a bad laptop overall though. It does have a nice big, high res screen and plenty of memory. However, the cumbersome weight is not ideal for a college setting where you want to carry your laptop around everywhere or even put it in your bookbag, and the when it gets hot the fan works extra hard which can be a bit loud for a classroom. It needs a better cooling system.

I am not a laptop expert, and I'm sorry if I got anything wrong.

Thanks for reading.

Discount Samsung NP300U1A-A01US Ultra Portable 11.6" Laptop (1.30 GHz Intel

Customer Ratings:

Things to consider before buying:

-Matte screen: personal preference, for some it is a plus because it doesn't become a mirror during bright conditions. The bad side is it's not as bright as its glossy counterpart.

-Keyboard: chiclet type keys, again personal preference. I prefer the regular type of keyboard where there are no spaces in between but I can live with it. Also, it lacks a dedicated "Page Up/Page Down, Home, End" keys. They are function keys instead and also, the multi-finger-touch-pad and its swipe features somewhat replaces these keys. I'm a keyboard type of guy though and it is annoying for me when I have to switch keyboard to touchpad constantly, more on this later...

Those are pretty much the cons of this laptop. Others may point out the tiny speakers but honestly, I've never heard of a sub 14" laptop produce good sound.. maybe loud and lots of treble but lacks the bass. This is super light, around 2+ lbs. and comes with lots of extras: hdmi, bt3.0, cat5, vga/sub, cam, mem card reader, 3 usb. I think that in itself is amazing at this weight and price (well I got mine on sale during the Staples deal of $349).

Build quality is good. Lots of plastic though but I guess thats to cut the weight and keep the cost down.

Pet peeve: after doing a lot of web surfing and multitasking, aka typing and moving the cursor around and clicking here and there.. the touchpad glitch (keyboard to touchpad delay) gets in the way; google it for more info. Basically if you use the keyboard, the touchpad is unresponsive until a short amount of time has passed (~2 seconds). The idea behind this is to prevent accidental touches on the pad (which I can assure does happen a lot on other laptops). But I think I'd rather live with accidental touches than the delay. A lot of people have the same issue so it's not just me. The touchpad uses the Elan Tech software (as of 10/16/2011) there is no fix for it that I know. I downloaded the latest driver/software from Samsung support website and all it did was change the default setting of the touchpad sensitivity to have the least noticeable amount of delay. While it reduced the delay, it is still there. I suppose I'll be using a mouse and disabling the touchpad to work around this issue or if Samsung or Elan Tech ever does an update.

The other thing is the miniscule battery included. I wouldn't mind the extra weight if it would give me 8 hours as opposed to 2-2.5 hours. Now I have to lug around the power adapter which is more weight. Nice thinking there, Samsung. Probably cost cutting factor though.

Back to the goodies. This laptop is very fast as it comes with an Intel i3 (slow version) but its still multitudes faster than similar Atom netbooks and a 4GB ram. I won't be playing high end 3D games, I have a desktop for that, but you can watch HD movies and still do other things just fine.. Staples salesperson says the MS Office was a trial version but they were wrong, you are given a full version key (though it lacks Outlook Express and other stuff that is found on the Professional version of office). Comes with MS Office 2010 Home/Student edition(powerpoint, excel, word, onenote) and the only bloatware I had to remove was Norton and Wildtangent games. Kindle software comes with it too but I actually am using it so for some it might be considered bloatware.. That's about it so far, might come back later to do an update.

I'd say it's a good laptop for the student or the office worker.

==========================

**Update: Dec 03, 2011**

==========================

I still have the same feelings about the laptop. I replaced the hard drive with a Samsung Solid State Drive [SSD] (this laptop uses a thinner than normal; 7mm VS the normal 9mm). Using an SSD is probably the best upgrade you can do to ANY computer because hard drives (non-SSD) is usually the slowest component. Now the laptop is turbo-fast! One thing I noticed though, because I had to re-install Windows 7, is that Samsung website does not have the hardware drivers/softwares for this laptop model. This model is not even listed! I ended up downloading the Samsung series 9 software. The drivers were downloaded using Windows Update (surprisingly Windows found all the drivers through updates).

FYI on the battery: People have reported bigger batteries on sale with this laptop and they say they get 6+ hours out of them. I learned to live with the 2.5 hours though..

P.S. The lag between keyboard and touchpad seems to have disappeared. I'm not sure if maybe because I got used to it or because of the new SSD or because of the new windows re-install.

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For a few weeks, I've been playing with the Samsung 11.6" laptop on display at my local Staples store. I really liked the size, weight, and portability this laptop had to offer. I also liked that it ran a full version of Windows 7 Home. Staples finally put it on sale for half price this week. I bought this ultraportable laptop to replace my slow Toshiba Atom-processor netbook (with meager Windows 7 starter). What a fantastic deal. This ultraportable Samsung laptop is well made, has a sleek design, and is comfortable to use.

Once out of the slender box, I popped in the battery and plugged in the laptop into an outlet to charge the battery. It took about 2 hours. So far, my initial charge resulted in about 4 hours of use. Not bad.

The laptop keeps relatively cool and I hardly notice any fan noise. The initial setup/installation of the laptop was easy and quick. Network setup was easy as well as connecting to the network printer.

During the initial installation, the hard drive storage capacity was more like 294GB available. I ended up creating two partitions: C: (90GB) and D: (204GB). If I had to restore the system, my data on D: drive should be untouched.

As others have mentioned MS Office Home/Student edition was included along with an activation key. This version comes with Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

Microsoft Live apps (Mail, Messenger, Movie Maker, & Photo Gallery) are included as well as MS Live Writer that I use to write posts to my blogs.

Trial version of Norton's Internet Security is included. I registered online and was able to extend the usage for 60 days. That's long enough for me to decide whether to get the complete package or use something else.

Other applications included: Kindle and Skype

I registered my new laptop at Samsung's website and they automatically extended my one year warranty an additional 3 months. When registering, the actual make and model does show up. I know on their main website, this model doesn't show up in the product listings.

As a photographer, I plan on using this laptop for traveling and also for use at home. Mostly for minor photo editing, emails, researching on the web, and maintaining my blogs. This is a fast laptop and I haven't seen any slowness or delays. This is a true winner at a wonderful price.

I will be back to update this review as I uncover new features.

** Update 12/22/11 **

For my initial two charges: I fully charged the battery and then disconnected the laptop from the AC power source. I use the laptop for about 4 hours (off charge) and then let the battery drain completely. I let the laptop go into hibernation (~5%) and then recharge the battery 100% full. Work for another 4 hours (off charge) and let the battery drain for the second time. Recharge 100% full.

After the two full initial charges, I can now recharge when I need to. I'm still getting 4 hours of use on a single charge. So far, I'm happy with this laptop and the results I'm getting.

** Update 12/22/11 **

I've installed Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 on this laptop and have no issues with running this software. I've tweaked how the app will run...e.g. pointed the scratch disk to my drive D: which is has the largest space. PE automatically selected the memory size to use...I think it was 70% of the RAM. I will mainly use this program to crop my pictures, minor adjustments to contrast/brightness, add my copyright notice, reduce the image size, and save for the web.

** Update 12/23/11 **

Being a Mac desktop user, I was getting frustrated with the Windows Updates on this laptop. One time, I shut down the laptop and had 65 updates! I still had enough juice in the battery and let the updates do its thing. I felt that every other time I would shut down the laptop and there additional updates. Some took a long time.

There's a setting on the desktop that allows you to change the automatic updates feature to just letting you know that there are updates available. That way I can do the updates when I want them to occur. Here is the location of the settings if you want to make the same changes: Start>Control Panel>System and Security>Windows Update>Change Settings.

** Update 12/23/11 **

I want to make a few comments on using the trackpad. Having Mac experience and using Apple hardware, I actually like this trackpad. Initially, I had problems with my cursor wandering around the desktop or all over a web page as I was typing. I believe that is because parts of my hand or thumb would graze over the trackpad and would make the cursor jump to different areas of the screen. After an hour or two of use, it appears that the trackpad has become one with me. Strange I know. The initial issues I had are gone. The single long click button on the trackpad works like it's suppose to (left and right clicks) and works well.

** Update 03/01/12 **

This laptop travels well. I have taken this along with me on a two week cruise around the Caribbean. I mostly used it to upload and back up the 3600 pictures I took. The small size worked well for me. While on the ship, I was able to leave the laptop in the drawer when not in use. I didn't feel burdened carrying around this light laptop.

** Update 04/21/12 **

I've uncovered a neat battery calibration tool that's included in the laptop's BIOS. I ran it a few weeks ago and I'm happy to report back that it really works. I now actually get four hours of battery life on a single charge. That's while my screen brightness is set to 2 or 3 out the eight bars.

I unplug my laptop from the power source and power down the laptop. I turn the laptop back on and hit F2 as the BIOS is loading. While in the BIOS settings, there should be a Battery Calibration selection. Once selected, it will tell you to unplug the laptop from the power source and then it will force a drain on the battery. There's a bar displayed to show the status. I believe I saw maximum time was five hours depending how much juice is left on your battery. Once the battery is drained, the laptop should be plugged back in to the power source and then allowed to fully charged.

I don't know how many times this should be done. I would think after a few months of ongoing laptop use and I start to notice a drastic decline in the battery life from a single charge, I would probably do another calibration.

Best Deals for Samsung NP300U1A-A01US Ultra Portable 11.6" Laptop (1.30 GHz Intel

So a quick summary of Pro's/Con's:

Pro:

Thin design, good looking cover.

Keyboard is good and feels bigger than it is,

display is not exceptional but it's crisp and clear.

CPU is powerful, comes with 4GB of RAM

Microsoft Office 2010 full version (not pro, so no Access or Outlook)

Bluetooth 3.0

Bloatware isn't too bad....

Con:

Battery life is poor (I've been getting maybe 2.5 hours while using MS Office)

No USB 3.0 Ports

While the case never gets hot, the CPU does run on the warm side (around 45 C with nothing running) Disregard comment in video about not getting above mid 50's, it was at about 70 Celsius while rendering this video. It got VERY warm.

Fan can be on the loud side.

Samsung is very poor, microphone should not have been right next to the touch pad.

Price This would be an absolute steal at $350, or even $400. At $500 I expect a 6 cell battery for a netbook, it's got everything else so I really wish it came with a 6 cell.

Alternatives:

Samsung NP305U1A or any E-450/E-350 AMD or Intel Atom Netbook/Ultraportable. Unless you can get one for $400 or less, the i3 Sandybridge is much more powerful and worth the extra cost.

Samsung NP350U2A/Lenovo X120e or other i3 ultraportables. They usually run around $550-$600, but most come with a 6 cell battery. If you need the extra battery life it could be worth it, the NP350U2A also has a slightly larger 12.5in screen.

If you insist on getting a Solid State Drive, you'll pay about $850 for a Series 5 13.3 ultrabook with the i5 2467M processor. If you have the budget this would be an excellent move up as it has much better battery life (same 4 cell battery though) and the i5 CPU has turbo boost which will be noteably faster. In addition the ultrabook chassis is much higher quality. The price is getting close to twice as much however, so I don't think many buyers will be cross shopping the two.

My personal preference would be an Asus U31 series, preferably with the i5. They can be had for under $600, come with an external GT 520M video card (which helps a little) and have much better battery life, though they are slightly cheaper build quality, are thicker and heavier as well.

Passmark Benchmark ratings:

Battery / Plugged-In

Overall: 527.9 / 771.6

CPU: 1040.6 / 1761.8

2D GPU: 211.5 / 304.1

3D GPU: 167.3 / 205.1

Memory: 331.3 / 557.8

Disk: 554.4 / 550.2

Honest reviews on Samsung NP300U1A-A01US Ultra Portable 11.6" Laptop (1.30 GHz Intel

The computer has very good spec. Powerful enough as an ultra portable laptop.

The most awesome thing is it HAS FULL License Microsoft Student Office key. (that's a $100 value in itself!). So buying this for less than $500 bucks is a great deal!

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Samsung NP300U1A-A01US Ultra Portable 11.6" Laptop (1.30 GHz Intel

I did not buy this from Amazon; I actually bought this during the firestorm sale at Staples for $350 out the door, which is an awesome deal to me IMHO.

Pros:

PRICE!!,

small, portable & light, bluetooth,

nice brush metal design,

did not come with a TON of bloatware,

good quality webcam, SD slot,

HAS FULL License Microsoft Student Office key. (that's a $100 value in itself!),

4Gb memory,

Cons:

-Only real con I have is that the battery life doesn't last so long, it is a 4000mAh battery (but that can be overcome.. have to buy a 7800mAh battery which extends from 3hrs of usage to about 5.5hrs Google for the battery).

-HD space could be bigger and faster but I don't care since i'm using for web surfing only. I have a quad-core,8Gb PC to handle bigger tasks.

only 1 slot for memory (which is fine standard 4gb installed)

I'm not going to play games on this laptop so I do not care about Video bench marks or do photoshop, video editing.

I wouldn't get it if it was $600, but it's definitely a steal for $350.

Cheap ThinkPad X201 3680X08 12.1" LED Notebook - Core i5 i5-520M 2.4GHz

Customer Ratings:

Lenovo ThinkPad X201 3680X08 12.1" LED Notebook Core i5 i5-520M 2.4GHz

1. the weight is very light;

2. the quality is very nice;

3. the price is very cheap.

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Cheap Lenovo E430c 14"W i3 320GB 2GB Notebooks

Customer Ratings:

Cons: I loved my old ThinkPad but that was a while ago and if this model is representative, I won't be buying any more. I hate this model. Windows 7 Professional doesn't seem to work well; I had a lot of trouble updating Windows. Maybe part of the problem was one or more of the dozen additional programs installed. Some of them might have been helpful to enterprise clients, they were just in my way. I know this laptop is inexpensive, but brand new computers usually seem pretty fast. This laptop did NOT. ever. seem fast. It is often sluggish and sometimes grinds to a momentary hourglass halt for no apparent reason. I added a 2GB RAM module and things are slightly better. Software that works fine on other computers fails on this one. The computer is also flimsy. After light usage in a padded backpack, the screen is permanently damaged by scraping against the keys; apparently, the case backing the screen is not sufficiently rigid to prevent the LCD from being forced against the keyboard. This is literally the most disappointing of the 50 or so computers I have used/owned. I may be forced to install Linux to make it useable.

Pros: The track pointer works. And... well, it hasn't burst into flames (yet).

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Needed several updates, but very happy with this purchase. Easy to use. Right for the price. Great little extras. Thanks.

Buy HP Pavilion dv6-3150us 15.6-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 4.5 Hours of

Customer Ratings:

I previously had a refurbished HP that I purchased in 2001 and it finally passed away 2 years ago, and for the two years since I used a Dell laptop that I acquired through a Masters program, the Dell lasted a total of four years. My HP laptop lasted about 7 years total. Thats durability!

I was very impressed with my previous HP laptop and after doing my research purchased this HP dv6 3150. My main reason was because I wanted my laptop to boot up and process other things very quickly, and the Intel I-5 processor gets things done very quickly. I like the large screen, and am looking to purchase one for my mom for christmas. When I bought this, I didnt pay too much attention to the other perks, I was just focused on the screen size and I-5 processor. This laptop comes with a backlight, so if I'm working in dim light, I can turn the backlight on and my keys light up. And I didnt know that it also came with the finger print identifier, so when I log on, I can log on using either a password, or just swipe my finger. I think my mom will get a real kick out of that when she gets hers.

As of this date, I havent tested out the web cam features just yet.

My reason for purchasing this laptop is for home use. I plan on taking classes next semester and I know that creating powerpoints and other documents isnt going to be a problem. It's a great laptop and I'm very happy with my purchase.

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I've been looking all for for a laptop with reasonable specs. I wanted a 15" screen, 4GB memory, an i5 processor, and 4+ hour battery life for under $800.00. I really thought this HP was going to be the solution. On paper it looks great. Unfortionaitely after unpackaging it and using it for a while I was really dissapointed. The touchpad on it is really hard to use out of the box. I was able to update the drivers and Synpatic software which enabled me to adjust the zone size and sensitivity but it's still hard to use. The keyboard is also poorly laid out. HP in their infinite wisdom decided to put any extra colum of keys on the left hand side. This doesn't look like a big deal in the pictures but in practice it's very annoying because every time I put my hands on the keyboard I'm hitting the wrong keys. The screen was comparable to other laptops in this price range / resolution but that isn't necessarily a plus. It's fine for web browsing and productivity apps but I wouldn't want to use it for serious Photoshop work or gaming.

On the plus side the laptop seems to be reponsive and doesn't come with to much bloatware. After running for a while the fans will kick into high occasionally but the laptop doesn't get very warm. I also appreciated the smooth lines and relatively thin look. The battery life was approximately 4.5 hours as specified with Wifi turned on.

If it wasn't for the keyboard and mouse problems I'd have given it 4 stars and kept it. As is though I've decided to return it and look elsewhere.

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I must first admit that I am not a techie and bought this for home use.

But I love this laptop. The screen is crystal clear and I love the slimness of the product. I did not buy it for the fingerprint reader but have found that I really enjoy storing all my internet passwords so I do not have to fumble for them each time I log on. The fingerprint reader was simple to set up and use. I use a wireless mouse much of the time so did not find the mouse pad a problem, but even when I use the mouse pad I did not experience the stiffness that other users complained about. The keyboard set up is a little unusual with extra keys on the side, but it only took me minutes to get used to the lay out and I rarely misstype.

The best thing about this laptop is the speed. The Intel i5 processor is lightning fast and worth every cent.

I cannot find a thing that I don't like about this laptop! Would buy again in a heartbeat.

Honest reviews on HP Pavilion dv6-3150us 15.6-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 4.5 Hours of

I have had it for a day and even though I normally do not post reviews I just wanted to share with potential buyers. Reason being that all the concerns I had from the few negative reviews on HP pavil dv6 laptops have all been alleviated :

1. keyboard layout extra keys on the left.

The extra keys on the left have not caused me too much confusion. Some keys may appear to be slightly misaligned but I think it is no different from most laptop keyboards where compromises have been made for space. I got used to the keyboard pretty quickly and I have only had it for a day.

2. keyboard layout function keys on the top changed

The F1 -F12 keys can be changed back to traditional usage in the bios. Just turn off "action keys".

3. touchpad buttons Yes, they are a bit stiff but I do not use them that often since I tap the touchpad for left click. I also read from one reviewer that they loosen up after a few weeks, so I am counting on that happening too.

4. Initially the sound was not working. I rebooted to fix that but it was echoing a lot I then realized I *may* have accidentally turned on microphone recording causing horrible echo feedback. I turned off the microphone and everything is fine.

Overall I am quite pleased with the laptop. It is fast and of reasonable weight. I also needed the keyboard light which works well.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

UPDATE on 2/26 (after 3 weeks) :

Still works well. The battery power is not as good as advertised but good enough for my mostly home usage. If you do mostly web browsing with no video then I can see it maybe getting close to advertised. I have not tested this. I am programmer and developing software on this laptop significantly reduces the battery time.

The touchpad buttons have loosened up slightly, I expect it to get better. It helps a lot if you click towards the middle of the touchpad.

Overall, I am yet to see a laptop I would trade this for at the same price. The more I compare this with equally priced and more expensive VAIO i5 laptops, I realize how good the build quality is on this laptop.

I am also pleasantly surprised with how much I am liking Windows 7. (I run Linux on my desktop!)

AM

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I purchased laptop + push2tv bundle. Haven't bought a computer in retail for a long time always was buying custom configured. But, the specs and WiDi addition was a great selling point.

Computer has few nice options wireless display, fingerprint reader, lighted keyboard, quick access buttons. The only thing that I had to add was bluetooth adapter. Watching movies from internet on HDTV was a blast awesome picture when using HDMI (a/v connection is not even worth trying if you can use HDMI).

Asus Eee PC 10.1†Screen Size, Intel N270 Chipset, 1GB RAM Reviews

Customer Ratings:

I bought the white color. It came with xandros linux and the UI was choppy so I downloaded Ubuntu Netbook edition and installed a 2GB memory module. Ubuntu is very impressive on this netbook.

The battery really does last just as long as they say it does. I love the Solid State Drive because it makes booting Linux real fast. I would say, its much better than the Windows version.

Forget about tech support and forget about anything asus. They just don't care. I could not get a hold of them and their web site is terrible.

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Best ASUS K55N-DB81 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Deals

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $449.00
Sale Price: $439.99
Today's Bonus: 2% Off

I am just so pleased with this ASUS laptop. I have now been playing and messing with the new laptop as well as the new to me Windows 8 which overall is not that bad once you get the hang of it. As for the laptop I did my studying before jumping in and buying a decent priced laptop. I decided to go with this laptop due to the price, specs, and having dealt with ASUS with my Nexus 7 which everyone knows was incredible for the price. I was shopping around for a few days before making my mind up on this laptop. I am very pleased with this purchase. I tried a few games already just to see how well the laptop can run the games right out the box, and I am pleased. Far Cry 3 runs great, as do a few other PC games I tried out. Just please keep in mind this laptop is not made for gaming so do not expect some of the newer games coming out to run on maximum settings. The speed of this little bad boy is incredible. The pc has yet to really heat up or make a noise this is after hours of use at a time. The laptop seems really well built. The keyboard is very responsive. Also I was very surprised at how great the screen looks for being only 720p, plus very please at how loud the speakers are for this very overall well put together laptop. The laptop also looks and feels great. I would not try it but I am sure it can take a fall or two. I paid 450 and I honestly if I had hands on prior I would not have mind paying a few hundred more, yes it is really that good. Anyways if your looking for a great laptop for a great price you have one here. Enjoy!

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So im a big time gamer and my desktop was assembled by myself and cost me a good chunk of cash, but I needed a portable gaming laptop for the weekends and dont have the cash to shell out for one. This thing is a beast, I dont know how it plays the games it does with the specs that are on it but Ive been playing League of Legends, black ops 2, dota2, starcraft, Final Fantasy 14 mmorpg, world of warcraft all on medium settings with 60 fps, this thing stays cool as can be, and the battery life while gaming straight through is three hours which is falsely advertised but highly expected from anyone who knows a thing about computers. If you are looking for something cheap and will play any current game on the market at medium settings this thing is for you, IT IS the cheapest gaming laptop on the market period! It also does all those boring things like surf web and school project junk ^^ without any stuttering, and can run multiple apps at a time with no lag.

Best Deals for ASUS K55N-DB81 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

The raw specs on this laptop are simply the best at the price.

The main PROs:

-The AMD A8 is a stellar processor (or rather, "APU"). You can now officially play most of the games on the market with a laptop under 400 dollars. In a recent test, the only game that really pushed it past the limit and couldn't run was the latest Crysis, which pushes just about anything to its limits. While Intel makes great CPUs, they've focused too much on high-end raw processing power for desktops/servers and most of their affordable laptop hardware is sorely lacking for VIDEO performance. Thanks to Amazon for taking my Intel i3 back so I could order one of these instead.

-More RAM than most computers at this price (6 vs 4 gb). Translation: You can have more stuff open at once.

-More hard drive space than most computers at this price (750 vs 500 gb). More storage.

The main CONs:

-Windows 8. While one can indeed "get used to it", it never stops feeling like a major step backwards from Windows 7 and even from XP. However, this is in no way the fault of ASUS or AMD.

Matters of preference:

-Some glare. I prefer the anti-glare monitors available on the Samsung 3/5/7 Series and HP Probooks/Elitebooks.

-The keyboard is also a matter of preference but I prefer the older style over the cutesy "chicklet" style.

Honest reviews on ASUS K55N-DB81 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

The laptop itself is a truly amazing product. I was fortunate enough to purchase this laptop whilst it was slightly cheaper, but even now the ASUS K55 is an incredible "bang for your buck." There are absolutely no regrets towards purchasing this laptop. Unfortunately I have come across a small issue regarding the screen, and have no clue how it was conceived. This laptop has been under my care for at least two weeks, all the while furiously curb-stomping any task I have thrown at it, but for some reason the screen has started to fail on me. The top, roughly 1/6th, portion of the screen is completely incapable of anything other than emitting a funky grey or yellow color. I don't know if I had placed the laptop in my bag incorrectly as I was packing during the morning, or if some other nuance managed to take advantage of me. Also, even though I would LOVE to have this replaced, apparently it is not an applicable option.

So with that, I will warn all possible customers to be as careful as possible with the screen. Other than that, this laptop is a magnificent product for whatever you may need it for. It is incredibly fast and responsive, and will dominate any task you throw at it. If I were able to get a replacement, and not have to settle for a refund, (or the screen itself didn't give out on me) this laptop would definitely have had received five stars.

TL;DR

Pros:

Fast and Responsive A8 quadcore processor

Very suitable large hard drive

Hard drive is also double partitioned (C: & D:)

Beautiful 720p graphics

Battery life is decent

Cons:

The screen is either very weak, or mine was defective

The mouse pad takes a little getting used to

Other:

Windows 8 is confusing at first, but I don't see any of the 'major' issues others come up with. Personally, I can dwell in the desktop portion of the OS and go back to the home screen whenever I want to look at stock or other feeds.

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This is an amazing machine for the $$. There are others on the market right now for twice the price and more that dont have as much hardware as this thing does, plus its an Asus, an absolute top tier brand. It looks and feels like you could drop it off of a 30 story building and it would just laugh it off. Mind you, it isnt really attractive or lightweight and has a pretty big footprint, but its as solid a machine as you can buy. IF they were charging even $200 more it would be a bargain.

Discount ASUS X301A-EB31 13.3-Inch LED Laptop Windows 7 home premium

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $569.00
Sale Price: $479.95
Today's Bonus: 16% Off

Just got this laptop a couple of weeks ago! The screen is pretty nice (1366x768), because its so small the 1366x768 screen looks pretty crisp. I cant complain about the keyboard its very good, however I would like it to be back-lit! The performance is what I expected it to begood for almost anything except for games, I'm a student so i use it for writing and surfing the web and it does the job well! Battery life is great reaches 5 hours however that depends on how u use it! Its fairly light, its not as light as an ultra book, however its lighter than a typical 14 inch laptop and can be carried in a bag easily. It has a great selection of ports. I would like to add that it looks much smaller and thinner than it does on the above pictures. On the negative side it had a lot of bloatware! I installed a fresh copy of win 8 Pro and now it runs smooth. In addition to that the black version is a fingerprint magnet, i cant say that for the white version. I did have some issues with touch-pad driver and the Bluetooth is nonexistent, but i didn't try installing it because i never use it -I don't know anyone who does! The track pad does the job well, its not a MacBook but its smooth and precise! Otherwise i would recommend it to any student that wants a light laptop with solid battery life.

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At $430, this is definitely the bang for your buck.

* BUILD

Although the frame is constructed entirely out of plastic, it has a sturdy feel to it. It's not flimsy. Not heavy but not ultrabook-light either, pretty thin. However, this thing is a fingerprint magnet. Using rubbing alcohol and wipes removes them. The bottom of the laptop tends to get warm, but this "IceCool" sorcery manages to keep your typing space cool. This laptop does not have an optical drive.

* BATTERY

The battery life is decent you can get a good 4-5 hours of usage. The charger comes in two pieces, the power cord and the adapter. There's no velcro strap :(

* KEYBOARD

The keyboard is very nice chiclet style. No numpad, the home/end keys are nested under the arrows. I'd recommend putting one of those silicone covers over it to prevent dust/crap from getting in.

* POWER

@2.4 GHz & 4 GB of RAM, this will handle all of your basic office/web browsing needs. To give you an idea, I'm running iTunes, Skype, 10 tabs on Firefox, 7 on Chrome and some background processes. This amounts to ~75% of the RAM being used. Should be ok for light gaming (e.x. Minecraft), don't go crazy.

* SOFTWARE

This is where it (and most mass-manufacture brands) sucks. It's loaded with A LOT of bloatware. You can uninstall it manually or just install a fresh copy of Windows (USB boot though; no optical drive).

Additional note(s):

Best Deals for ASUS X301A-EB31 13.3-Inch LED Laptop Windows 7 home premium

I was looking for a light weight laptop to get everyday tasks done but didn't want to spend too much money. This felt like it fit the needs perfectly.Alas' once I got the product, it was such a big disappointment. I have used ASUS tablets and thought this laptop will be of similar quality like them. But this laptop is made of plastic and doesn't feel well built at all. Moreover, it takes a while to boot and the key board is not very comfortable. I could go one but whats the point, it ended up going back to Amazon.

Honest reviews on ASUS X301A-EB31 13.3-Inch LED Laptop Windows 7 home premium

Love the fact I could purchase this computer with windows 7... Has been fairly easy to

adjust from windows XP since I am not computer savvy..

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The first item I received came with a defective battery and a defective power source. The laptop would go off after I disconnected the charger, also the touchpad was damaged and not properly attached to the laptop's structure. I then requested an exchange on the same item. The second laptop arrived with a defective monitor, when I turned it on I would only see grayish colors with low brightness and low contrast. That is it; I had a really bad experience with this Asus product and will not be buying any other product with the Asus logo ever. Although I want to point out the excellent costumer service I received from the In-amazon store I purchased the laptop from. They were very responsive and handled the exchange and the refund in a professional way.

Gateway M465-E Laptop CoreDuo - 15 Inch Screen - Wifi Review

Customer Ratings:

The Gateway m465-e has a 15 inch screen not a 10 inch. For those that want to be absolutely sure just google this item and you will see that the m465-e never came with a 10 inch screen.

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Awsome Laptop!

Runs Windows 7 Ultimate very smoothly!

Fast DELIVERY! ( Got it on 2 business days )

Great customer service from seller!

Mine came with:

Windows 7 Ultimate

Microsoft office 2007

120GB HardDrive

1GB RAM

CD/DVD Drive

Norton Antivirus

Best Deals for Gateway M465-E Laptop CoreDuo - 15 Inch Screen - Wifi

I got this in December 2012 and by the fall of this year, it was having a major issue and I was told it is probably the mother board. I hadn't, and don't use it that often, so there is no reason anything of the magnitude of a mother board should be going out on it. It also is very slow in connecting with Internet Explorer and sometimes dosen't connect at all, necessitating that I shut down and redo the whole thing. I contacted Amazon and they deferred, saying that it's a third party seller and would not help me in any way. For it to go down in less than eight months, with only very mild use, is ridiculous! I'm no computer expert, far from it, but even I know that I should not be having a problem this severe, in such a short amount of time. I know I will not buy from this company again and I recommend to others to steer clear of this company.

Turns out that it was the mother board. It would have been 350 to repair it and I only paid 200 for it. I say again, DO NOT buy from this company!

Honest reviews on Gateway M465-E Laptop CoreDuo - 15 Inch Screen - Wifi

Well, there are a couple of problems with this laptop. The microphone stays on all the time and I keep getting a white screen for my background. I do realize these are probably software/driver issues, but it is very annoying. This may explain the very low price I paid for the laptop. Otherwise, am happy with the timeframe of the arrival.

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Is A 10" Notebook laptop is not 15" ok Very GOOD CONDITION

Reviews of Asus A53E-IS51 15.6" Notebook Computer, Intel Core i5-2450m 2.5GHz

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $649.99
Sale Price: $449.99
Today's Bonus: 31% Off

I own a similar computer which has served me well, hence, the ordering of this unit. Asus has a superior warranty ( one year covering drops, spills, power surges and fire damage ) included with all notebooks, no extra charge.

The A53 series has an aluminum inner case which is always cool to the touch, unlike other lap-tops which I have used. The touch-pad is VERY sensitive and some reviewers recommend disabling it when using a mouse.

I do wish that the key-board was under-lit ; it is difficult to see in low-light situations.

This unit came with a defective space-bar key, which works only when squarely struck dead-center and which defect I have found to be a noted in other on-line reviews of similar units.

My over-all experience was a positive one, so far as dealing with Amazon, and even though it was my first purchase through them, it still seemed a simple enough process.

If not for the factory defect, I would have probably given my experience with this Amazon purchase a full 5 stars.

*** UPDATE REGARDING WARRANTY REPAIR SERVICE ***

I sent the unit to ASUS to have it repaired. Shipped on a Tuesday ; notified it had been received on Fri. the same week, in Ca. (I live in Ga); it was repaired and shipped back to me . . . . received it back in Ga. on Wed. 8 days after I had originally shipped it. I believe that they were primed and ready to repair what I had come to understand was potentially a "generic" type defect and so the exceptional turn-around.

No additional problems. I have up-graded my initial rating of three stars, to a four star rating based on the exceptional warranty repair and shipping turn around of 8 days total . . . . from sending it to them, to receiving it fed-exed back to my driveway.

REPAIRS MADE : KEYBOARD REPLACED

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There were many things to like about this product, but the functionality of the keyboard made it unusable.

Things I found that I liked:

Battery life probably average for this class machine

Software load: Not loaded with bloatware

Fit and Finish: Good sturdy aluminum frame

Ran cool and relatively silently compared to an older laptop

Nice clear display

Performance: Acceptable but not significantly better than a four year old laptop based on my light workload requirements(spreadsheets, Word processing, Internet browsing, email) with up to perhaps six sessions running at once.

The thing that made it totally unacceptable:

Keyboard: chiclet style keyboard (found on more laptops these days) without a good tactile feel. Big issue was that my space bar key strikes would be missed about three times for each line of text typed. I found my hands cramped up while trying to position them in such a way that my key strikes would be registered. I worked with it for three weeks, then finally gave up and returned it.

I purchased another Asus machine a few weeks earlier as a gift (Asus 15.6" Laptop 4GB Memory 320 GB Hard Drive-Model X54C-BBK19) for just under $300 and had a totally different experience after having the opportunity to work on it from time to time. It had an Intel I3 processor and only a 300GB drive (vs. an I5 processor and 500GB drive on this unit for a cost of around $450), The keyboard and general operation of the cheaper laptop was superlative. It ran quieter, while just as fast and the keyboard was totally different with no problems what so ever. A big factor in my purchase of both machines was that they both came loaded with Windows 7.

What I learned with this experience was how important the keyboard was to my satisfaction level with a laptop.

Best Deals for Asus A53E-IS51 15.6" Notebook Computer, Intel Core i5-2450m 2.5GHz

I purchased this laptop for my daughter in order for her to do a on line college course. Within 45 days the plug on the machine broke. I sent it off and had it repaired. The company did a pretty fast repair. I told them of another defect on the machine that was the keyboard doesn't type all the right letters. They did not repair this. My daughter gets by with it. She purchased another laptop when this one was in the shop and between the two she can do her school work.

Honest reviews on Asus A53E-IS51 15.6" Notebook Computer, Intel Core i5-2450m 2.5GHz

I like the computer but the trackpad is too sensitive or something. I am always getting into some kind of zoom screen or scroll all the time. Other than that, for the price, it has everything I need. The camera is a little slow....that could be my connection though. I like the 10-key pad. I had to get used to typing on the left side of keyboard, but that only took a couple of days. So far so good. I have had it for over 3 months now.

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Computer keyboard layout is awesome. You have an actual numeric keypad very strategically placed. Runs great on Windows 7. Using it for business, so I did not upgrade to Windows 8 because of so many incompatibility issues with current programs.

Best HP ENVY Sleekbook 6t-1000 Laptop PC Deals

Customer Ratings:

This product has unbelievable build quality, it feels extremely solid and is well manufactured. The specs are amazing and has everything any reasonable person could want. I got mine yesterday and am very, very satisfied with the product. Highly recommended alternative to an ultrabook better price and who can tell the difference anyway?

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The worst laptop ever. Three times back to service center and they can't fix it. Now they want a technician to come to my house as though that will make a difference. Now we learn that all available technicians are off for the holidays so its now Dec 27 and we wait until Jan 2 to schedule an appointment. Have asked for a refund several times but that is just not in the cards. I will never buy from HP again (and we buy alot around here as we both work through our computers). Bad job HP, very bad job.

12/28/2012...after Peter (see his post below) emailed regarding this issue the representative that we've been dealing with all along called again. His purpose was to confirm (again) that we have an appointment to see a technician in our home to review the issue. So after several weeks of back and forth with the service center now we can wait another 10 days for a technician (they are all off for the holidays I am told). We said to Jamie again that what we want is a refund.

The best companies to deal with would have long ago taken this lemon back...companies such as Amazon and Costco would immediately end our dissatisfaction...but in this case we purchased directly from HP who only seems to care about their own internal metrics. Next step after the technician visits I will be posting the positive outcome or the videos of this Lemon Laptop will be posted on YouTube and every other social media I can find. Yes, we are upset. This was a birthday gift from my wife and she is way more upset then I am.

01/04/13...the technician invested 2 hours of his time and could not get the laptop to act up. He watched a couple of my videos but in the end determined there was nothing wrong with it. Within hours after he left the screen froze up again. i made another video and called customer support. Now we wait for a call back.

January 9, 2013 update...we have filed complaints with the BBB and Attorney Generals Office because HP cannot fix the problem and will not offer a refund or an exchange.

Best Deals for HP ENVY Sleekbook 6t-1000 Laptop PC

This computer has a fatal flaw and this flaw killed my Envy.

The lid on this laptop sticks and weight is poorly distributed (it's designed that way). It's necessary to carefully pry this thing open with both hands. Most new Ultra-books are designed to open smoothly with one hand. NOPE, NOT THIS ONE.

Try to open it with one hand at your own peril, the entire laptop lifts up and flips over.

Mine fell off the counter this way, smashed the corner and broke off a piece of the case.

OK, it's only cosmetic, but here's the other issue. Since it was delivered, I had been getting the blue screen of death (BSOD) from a failing SSD card. I was getting ready to send it into HP before "the fall." Now that it was "dropped", HP refused to fix the SSD under warranty (obviously, dropping it didn't break the SSD).

So, I spent the $60, bought an SSD card and fixed it myself everything was working great.

Then it happened...

My sister asked to borrow my new HP Envy OK Sis, no problem.

I began to demonstrate what NOT TO DO so this thing doesn't break.

The stupid piece of junk slipped off my finger about 4 inches from the counter.

Guess what, it died! From a 3-4 inch slip. Dead at 6 months old. Give me a break!

Call me an idiot for not knowing how to open a laptop, but this is just simply bad design.

In the past I bought a new HP laptop every two years.

NOT ANYMORE! I will NEVER buy another HP.

Honest reviews on HP ENVY Sleekbook 6t-1000 Laptop PC

A large display with a 1366 resolution too bad. This laptop should be offered with 1080p resolution and more people would buy it. Too bad that HP missed the boat again... But the good thing is, sometimes they listen to basic observations like this one and adapt we'll see...

Buy Apple Black Macbook

Customer Ratings:

I purchased this laptop in 2007 and nearly 6 years later it is still running. It has been all over the country with me and a few parts have been replaced, but it keeps on running. One repairman told me it shouldn't be running anymore, but it is! Mac is the BEST!

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The hard drive was not working. Didn't state in the advertisement that the hard drive was damage. Don't know if it's working or not ,have to buy a hard drive first.

Best Deals for Apple Black Macbook

Bought the product with the highest expectations because my windows laptop was going to shit. Came within about 3 days and im an artist/producer and i cant say how much i love working with the UI and garageband as well is honestly the shit when you know what you're doing. Had a couple pieces chip off the laptop but due to a drop its understandable, i love this thing have been wanting it for 3 years, now that i have it, i couldnt be happier.

Honest reviews on Apple Black Macbook

Product was just as I expected. Very satisfied with the outcome and I indeed love the item to death. Thanks Jack!

Lenovo IdeaPad U410 43762BU 14-Inch Ultrabook (Graphite Gray) Review

Customer Ratings:

I bought the U410 because it had the best price for an ultrabook with the speed my work requires. The key is the hybrid hard-drive. It has a 32G solid state drive (SSD) and a large traditional drive givin speedy computing experience and capacity. The hybrid works as well as having only a solid state drive but this allows capacity not available in solid state HDs.

The keyboard is good, typical Lenovo. The keys are flat chicklet style. Back lighting is not possible at this price point. I use a LED laptop keyboard light that is USB powered and works better than back-lit keys.

Ultrabooks do not have an optical drive so you need an accessory drive to install new software from DVD. There is no numbers keypad; that is easy to give up in exchange for being much easier to carry.

Be sure you are getting the 3rd generation Intel CPU. Ads are confusing at the moment and you can get 2nd generation and a non-hybrid hard-drive if not careful. In Lenovo series, look for "Prime" in its model name.

Along with the third generation chip, the subsystems in the U410 are quick. The RAM is more than adequate for business use; it may be fine for gaming but I don't know.

I am pleased and can recommend this laptop atLenovo IdeaPad U410 43762BU 14-Inch Laptop (Graphite Gray) $900.

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Right out of the box (November 8, 2012) the Wi-Fi speed of my Ideapad U410 was ridiculously low compared to my other laptop, which was sitting right next to it.

I ran three speedtests:

Ideapad U410 Download Speed: 1.50Mbps, Upload Speed: 13.29Mbps

Acer Aspire 5740 Download Speed: 51.29Mbps, Upload Speed: 45.01Mbps

I couldn't even watch a YouTube video without it stopping every 5 seconds for several minutes. Insane!

Updating the Wi-Fi drivers did not solve the problem.

FYI, the Lenovo support forum has a 57-page thread about this Wi-Fi issue, which Lenovo still does not acknowledge.I would strongly recommend NOT purchasing this item because it comes with this serious flaw.

Best Deals for Lenovo IdeaPad U410 43762BU 14-Inch Ultrabook (Graphite Gray)

Hi everyone, I have had this beautiful laptop (ruby red) for a week now. It is a quality built laptop (made of aluminum alloy) and is often compared to the mac due to its quality build. It has windows 8 which I am getting used to (coming from Windows Vista). I love the 3.0 USBs X2. You do not know how important having those is, especially when I am transferring data constantly for homework and projects for engineering. Extremely lightweight and portable which is important for me since I am moving between classes and carrying this on my backpack all dayneed something light. No "optical" drive, or CD ROM drive for playing movies/cd's/etcknow that when you are buying this since it is for making it lighter weight; one can work around this by burning the CD on another laptop and transferring via USB OR by buying an external CD ROM. I might need to purchase an external CD ROM since I desire to download photoshop... and there are 8 CD's. Good to know and be informed as you are deciding..

But, there is a design flaw in terms of the wi-fi. I was aware of an extremely common wi-fi issue coming from Lenova U series (includes this U410 and U310). People would complain that they have either 1) a disconnecting wi-fi internet problem 2) low signals until very close to wi-fi access.

My theory is that since the casing of the laptop is almost 100% thin aluminum, the metal casing is reducing the wi-fi strength. In other words, the wi-fi adaptor is like your cell phone trying to text inside a metal elevator casingreducing the signal or losing it frequently like when you go through a tunnel. Maybe the design flaw is because they are almost mimicking the mac's metal chassis and they failed mimicking on one key part... like allowing an opening for the wi-fi antenna....

RegardlessMy love for this laptop will outweigh returning the laptopfor nowas I am currently purchasing an external wi-fi antenna USB. An antenna will test my hypothesis of whether it is the whole casing, which is the design flaw, or if the brand new network adaptor sucks (unlikely but possible).

Keep you posted.

Edit: 12/6/2012

Design flaw averted by simply adding on cheap external wifi adapter. Acts like an antenna to get better signals than many laptops. Yay!

I bought a CISCO Lynksis external wi-fi adapter for $49.99even though on best buy I saw it for half off. I needed internet ASAP, so I went for it (I can always order the cheaper version, then return with receipt for the current to save 25$ once it arrives)it works! I can even access my n network now. My download speed went from 0MB to 8.6MB; Upload speed from 0MB to 3.6MB on

I tentatively recommend getting this laptop and investing in a $10-50 external wifi.

Edit: 8/15/2013

DO NOT GET A CISCO Lynksis external wi-fi adapter! Its long extension broke. Here is my review link:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2R6U9F61SMVW0/ref=cm_cr_ryp_det?ie=UTF8&channel=ryp

I recommend a shorter, cheaper external wifi adapter. Size matters.

Otherwise, I am typing on the U410 right now and it is great. Depending on how I am sitting, the abrupt edge can cut uncomfortably into my wrists. The keys are still intact. Sound is a little strange occasionally? Like when I am watching a show voices will 1% of the time sound gargled like listening submerged in an electronic pool. Maybe it's just a software driver issue? My laptop can handle most games I play with my brother. It can also handle engineering software well, especially 3D rendering. I love watching how crisp transitions are between switching views. I could care less about Windows 8, since I normally go to Windows 7 mode (go to desktop). Don't get suckered into Windows 8 UNLESS you intend on getting Office 2013 and/or get a touch screen.

I hope this was helpful!

Honest reviews on Lenovo IdeaPad U410 43762BU 14-Inch Ultrabook (Graphite Gray)

I needed a solid upgrade from my EeePC (what a terrible computer). Typing on the u410 is a dream. The screen isn't the highest quality I've ever seen, but one of the best for the price point. YouTube, Hulu and Netflix look great. Stupid fast boot time. All in all, I was leaning heavily on the MacBook Pro. I swore to myself a little while ago that my next computer would be a mac. However, the specs on this Ultrabook blow my friends with their macbooks out of the water. A backlit keyboard would have put this at 5 stars for me. Other than that... purely lovely.

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If you are doing your research before buying a new ultrabook, be advised that this particular model, as well as the U310 from Lenovo, both have MAJOR wifi issues. The problem is so bad that even Lenovo doesn't know what to do. Just read the forums and you will find people all over the globe sending their machines for over 3 different times with no successful fix!

The internet at my place is a 10mb plan and works well on all others computers and smartphones I have, however, my U410 shows onl 0.3-0.4mb download speeds even if I'm right close to my router!! That is unacceptable! Lenovo says it's a hardware issuae, but how does that work if they can't fix the problems themself?? This company has scre*&^% over so many customers that I don't understand how they are still in business selling this notebook everywhere!

Another big issue I have is with the battery. Do not fool yourself into thinking you've got an 8 hour battery that is supposed to last a full day at the office.... hahahaha it's more like 3.5-4 hours at the max on balanced mode! Plus, this unit does'nt have a backlit keyboard, the screen resolutions is a joke at 1366x768, it's thicker than the pictures illustrate and a little too heavy for a 14" ultrabook.

The only pros I find is the processor and the HD4000 graphics which is just as good as the also installed Geforce 610m... yes, go read the reviews on this old video card and see it for yourself what kind of hardware they are pushing to us.

This is the most valuable piece of info you may find online:I wish I read that before buying this notebook.

PS: No, all U410/U310 manufactured after 7/23/2012 STILL have the same wifi issue, do not trust the administrators from Lenovo! Would you buy a computer from a company which allegedly sells faulty items and just ignores customers when they ask for help in the forums??