Review of HP Pavilion dv6-3050us 15.6-Inch Laptop

Customer Ratings:

As an AMD fan, this laptop is perfect with its combination of a quad core CPU and Radeon 56xx series GPU. It has the best combination of aesthetic design, build quality, and components. It will be hard to find another laptop at a low price with these components and a 15.6" screen others are 17" which can be bulky to carry around. The 1366x768 screen is good for tasks such as videos and gaming, but it might not be enough for those used to and require higher resolutions. The only negatives about this laptop are the lack of a firewire port (for the video folks) and an ExpressCard slot, and weak sound. Also, a couple things that aren't listed in the product description is that the HP logo on the lid lights up when turned on and an integrated Radeon 4250.

The Graphics

I recommend staying away from laptops by Toshiba, Sony, and Panasonic to prospective buyers that plan on playing games and considering similarly spec'd laptops. AMD offered to release Catalyst drivers for Mobility Radeons several months ago and these companies chose to opt out. This means that if there's a problem with the laptop's graphics driver e.g. game glitches, you will have to wait/hope that these companies release updated drivers instead of downloading ones released regularly by AMD.

As far as the Radeon 5650, it's been great thus far. I've been running Battlefield: Bad Company 2 smoothly at 1080p on an external monitor with settings on high, and AA and AF off. It will easily play most games out for the PC today and many games coming out. For the programmers out there interested in OpenCL, the 5650 is compatible and only requires downloading the Stream SDK from AMD.

The addition of the integrated Radeon 4250 is also welcomed. It allows for PowerXpress for power savings when running on battery or just to cut down on the electric bill. For those wondering, PowerXpress is AMD's version of switchable graphics. The general difference being PowerXpress is the combination of integrated and dedicated Radeon graphics, while switchable graphics is the combination of Intel HD integrated and either Nvidia or AMD graphics. This is another driver update consideration because Intel doesn't give driver updates to AMD for their graphics users will have to rely on the company from which they buy their laptops.

The Processor

AMD mobile CPUs have gotten a bad reputation for running hot. It's my opinion that it's just laptop manufacturers choosing to pair cheap parts and poor cooling solutions with AMD CPUs because they're "cheap" processors. In fact, the areas that get hottest on the dv6 are the left palm rest where the hard drive resides underneath and the vent on the left side where the laptop fan shunts the heat produced by the CPU and GPU under full load. Rest assured that the dv6 will run as cool as laptops with the Core i processors.

Now, the N930 shouldn't be compared to the Core i7. This CPU is designed and priced to compete with the Core i5 and i3 CPUs. The caveat to comparing it to the i5 and i3 is that the i5 and i3 are dual core with the i5 able to trick Windows into thinking it has 4 cores through Intel's Hyperthreading technology. With Turbo Boost technology on both Core i3 and i5, the Intel processors will perform better on single threaded applications due to their ability to intelligently overclock while the N930 maxes out on its 2.0 GHz limit. The N930 shines with multithreaded programs where it matches or beats i5 processors. For most users, none of this matters since performance differences in everyday programs like web browsers and Microsoft Office are unnoticeable.

The Power Consumption

Because the N930 is a true quad core, actual battery life for the dv6 is 2.5-3 hours with wireless on, Radeon 4250 activated, and 60% screen brightness while doing light tasks like listening to music, web browsing, and typing documents. Laptops sporting CPUs with fewer cores will have longer battery life due to less cores needing power.

In any case, I highly recommend the dv6 to anyone looking for a laptop at a low price with its specifications. A solid processor with the combination of the Radeon 5650 and 4250 make this laptop an excellent purchase.

Error Corrections and Additions (2010-08-19):

The hard drive is not under the left palm rest, but under the touchpad.

The GPU is under the left palm rest, which is what is generating the heat there.

The dv6-3050us is a United States quickship model for the dv6z Select Edition that's customizable on HP's website.

This does not come with the backlit keyboard or touchscreen. It was mentioned in the comments, but I thought to add it here.

The battery is a standard capacity 6 cell 55Wh battery.

This does not come with recovery DVDs. HP has a utility pre-installed that allows users to make them, which requires 5 DVDs or a USB Flash drive of equal capacity. Dual layer and re-writables will not work. I recommend everyone make these recovery discs the first thing after Windows loads and store them somewhere safe. Make 2 sets if you want to be safe.

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This laptop is Amazing, it's fast' light weight and seems to be very well built.I got right at 4hrs on the battery while playing music, surfing the net and transferring files from my old laptop. The battery recharged in just about an hour.

The keyboard is solid all though it took a little getting use to, coming from my 17in Dell with a full size keyboard. The track pad is great with pinch to zoom and gestures.

The AMD quad core is powerful and hasn't missed a beat yet. The laptop stays cool and quiet the only time i hear a fan is when it's booting up.

This is a great laptop and i would buy this again in a heart beat

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I actually ordered this from HP Direct, since they had a good sale going on, which I heaped a coupon on top of. But, that's neither here nor there.

I'm glad I opted for this unit rather than one of the units with a dual-core Turion II Ultra and a 17.3" screen. Honestly, to me, the 15.6" screen seems utterly ginormous. The laptop is definitely large and relatively 'in charge'...

Pros:

Seemingly huge widescreen LCD.

2 GHz quad-core Phenom II mobile processor.

Fingerprint recognition (didn't think I'd use this much; now I wonder how I ever lived without it, as I never even type my password to log in to the system any more, since a simple swipe of the finger logs me in)

Dual ATI video chips for high-performance and power-saving uses.

Nearly every port, communication device and connector you'll ever need (Ethernet, WiFi B/G/N, Bluetooth, VGA out, HDMI out, SD card reader, several USB 2 ports)

Massive 640GB hard drive.

QuickWeb Instant-On environment (lets to power directly into a limited windowed environment to connect to the web, certain online e-mail systems, stream video, listen to your music library, access an event calendar and one or two other functions).

It looks nice. It has an aluminum (I think) outer body, with a pleasant but not overly elaborate design etched into it.

Cons:

HD is 5400 rather than 7200 RPM. Haven't decided yet whether this will be a bottleneck on the system. I hope not. Startup doesn't seem SIGNIFICANTLY faster than Windows XP. A few seconds shaved off here and there. Not sure whether that's a HD seek-time / read-time issue, or if Windows 7 just innately has more stuff to load up.

There is a lot of pre-loaded software that folks may want to take off.

Doesn't come with a hard copy of startup discs. You have to burn your own restore media to a DVD or flash drive. The system only lets you burn them once. So, if you lose them, you're SOL.

By default, the fingerprint reader only lets you set up 8 fingers, not all 10. It's unclear why this is so or how to fix it. A rather silly and arbitrary setting.

When going from wall power to battery power, the system will switch from a high-power video chip to a low-power video chip. The switch in hardware sometimes causes software to hang if it doesn't know how to deal with the change. Best to close as much software as possible before switching chips, or else leave the high-power chip running and deal with the reduced battery life.

The QuickWeb environment seems to not be as good at playing streaming video as Windows proper is, so if you maximize the video it sometimes becomes quite blocky or stuttery. Not sure why this should be so.

The left and right mouse buttons are built into the touchpad and are 'touchy' to say the least. If you tap-click either of them it only works as a left-click. I haven't found a way to set the right button to tap-click as a contextual menu right click. Since they're touch sensitive, if you try to push the buttons manually by pressing down on them, you will likely end up unintentionally moving the cursor off what you were trying to click in the first place before the button is fully depressed. This has become rather noisome. I haven't yet found an adequate software or hardware workaround/hack to make this function 'as-expected.'

Overall, I very much like this laptop. I can't really compare it to any other models out there, since I only need one laptop, really.

The QuickWeb environment is nifty for quickly powering in to a usable environment and surfing the web wirelessly from our WiFi router. Setup was pretty simple. Only take about 1-2 seconds to power into it and 3-5 seconds after you click the browser icon for it to hook up to the WiFi, on average (it's a bit odd that it doesn't hook up immediately, so you get a 'page not found' error, but as soon as it connects, it automatically refreshes the page and connects, so you're up and running).

The fingerprint scanner is a rather nice feature. I never log in manually anymore. Much easier to just swipe a random finger and let it figure out who's logging in, and have it load the appropriate desktop (I only have one desktop, but I'm quite certain that's how it works; it does the heavy lifting). It'll also let you set up website password storage where you can just swipe your finger as authentication. I actually somewhat prefer to type web passwords manually, so I can remember them. But I can see how some folks might be lazy enough to use it, and for them it probably would be handy.

I haven't started gaming on it yet, but with what appear to be some pretty decent video chips built-in, I have little doubt it should do pretty well on the gaming front.

The quad-core processor seems to power through Seti@Home computations like they were nothing. It seems BOINC can make use of the GPU for additional computing power, too. So things it predicts should take about 156 hours take about 54 hours. Things BOINC figures on being about 8 hours are done in about 4-5. At least that seems to be the case so far.

Unlike the one or two other reviewers, I have not encountered any problems with this unit, in terms of defective parts or hardware failures. One assumes they're simply one-offs and not a systemic problem. Granted, I did buy mine from HP, so there may be some additional room for jostling and breakage by buying retail where things get shipped from warehouse to warehouse, then by the Post Office or FedEx before arriving at the end-user's home or business. Not saying that's THE reason things break. Just one possibility. HP does warranty its new products for a full year. They also offer extended warranties for a little extra money if you're really worried about breakage and up-time.

So, in general, I find this to be pretty much everything I was expecting... Yay for a new laptop! :)

Honest reviews on HP Pavilion dv6-3050us 15.6-Inch Laptop

Came very quickly. Kudos to Amazon for shipping and packaging. Love this computer. It has in my opinion, the best array of features for a sub $1000 computer. I thought initially that a 15.6 inch screen might be a tad bit to big but it is perfect. Not too big and not too small either.I still feel like I have to be careful in handling this computer. Maybe because its my first, but it seems to be well built. I like the brushed aluminum finish versus the glossy finishes many laptops have had up till now. great thinking from HP. The combo Ati 4250 and 5650 video cards are awesome too. Now granted, it won't run the absolutely newest spankin brand new titles coming out, but if you are a light to moderate gamer who has mostly older titles (2-4 years old) or just needs a system with good graphics this system fits the bill. Flight Simulator X has issues when flying in new york. Not sure if that's a processor, video card or actaul game issue but then again, that game is hard to run on any system. Did run Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 on this dv6 and it handles it like a dream. The 1 GB of DDR3 ram on the Ati Mobility Radeon HD5650 is good, but the best in line for gamers is GDDR5. But then again, I didn't buy this computer for gaming alone. I look forward to doing more with it as I've only had it for a couple of days, but so far it is excellent. It runs videos, even HD Videos (720P) very smoothly. A must buy...especially for those going to school.

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I purchased this computer last summer. I use it for work and play, and overall I've been happy with it.

Pros:

1. Big screen with nice graphics. Important for my work, which involves analyzing microscopy pictures.

2. Fast. Starts up fast (I usually set it to hibernate rather than turn it off, making start up even faster) and runs fast.

3. Decent memory (see above with all the microscopy...the images take a lot of disk space, and I'm not even close to filling up the memory. Not to mention tons of personal pictures)

4. Fingerprint log-in is fun, and keeps the computer slightly more secure.

5. Decent built in camera and microphone for video calls.

6. Quiet keyboard with decently spaced keys.

7. Touch pad can be turned on and off easily, and has that cool zoom in/out two finger motion.

8. Decent speakers (better than my last Dell)

9. Easy buttons for controlling sound/screen brightness/calculator/etc

10. Lots of input sources located on the side of the computer (USBs, video, headphones, etc).

11. Lightweight.

12. Windows 7 is much nicer than Windows XP or whatever that other version was that came in between XP and 7. It's fast and has few glitches.

Cons:

1. When trying to zoom into pictures or PDFs, it's easy to turn the image rather than zoom in/out.

2. Runs hot, thanks in part to the quality graphics. I'd recommend getting a fan to cool it off, or a lap desk so you don't overheat it. I haven't over-heated the computer yet, even though I run it all the time, but I definitely make sure I don't keep the computer on my lap (which I could do with my Dell). An easy fix is placing the computer on a book or binder rather than your lap.

3. I really wish it had a number pad. I do a lot of data entry, and it's easier to enter numbers in with a number pad.

4. Really short battery life. I'm lucky if I still get 2 hours on a charge (it started with just 3 hours) thanks to the fan that always runs.

5. The fan always runs.

6. Occasionally when the computer is switching between graphic cards (which it does when you switch from an AC source to the battery, to save on energy), the screen won't come back on until I hit the "increase brightness" button. Occasionally that doesn't work either, and I have to restart the computer. I haven't called HP customer services to ask about this yet.

7. If you run the lower-quality graphics card when the power is coming from the battery, the quality definitely decreases, which is a bummer.

All in all, I can work around the running fan and don't have too much of an issue keeping the computer plugged in. For the price, it's a decent deal. If you want decent memory and speed and can deal with the fan running and an occasional quirk, it's worth the savings.

UPDATE: Hard drive quit after 2.5 years. Bummer.

HP 14" Pavilion dm4-1165dx Entertainment Notebook PC Review

Customer Ratings:

I very much liked this computer when I got it. Then about 1.5 years after using it only for school and barley travled out the house with it the hinge on the left side broke. It got to the point where I couldn't close it properly. I needed it deperatly so I bought a replacement part and had the entire screen replaced (the only way to fix the problem) Now its six months later and the same left hinge broke. This time I decided to look up if anyone experinced this. To my suprise this happens a lot. For hp to know of this problem and ignore it is terrible. I am annoyed at hp for this. This take 700-800 dollars out of my pocket. Being a student I can not afford for a computer to last only 2 years. I don't think I will ever buy a hp again.I have never written a bad review because I know no product is perfect but hp straight up took my money for this junk of a computer!!

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This laptop was bought more than 6 months ago and I think it is a good quality laptop. It could be better in some areas like the mouse pad. The pad is a little finnicky and it is hard to control sometimes. Other than that, it seems to be pretty good quality with everything else, including a big hard drive and a good processor. The battery life is pretty long, I find it usually lasts around 4 and half hours or so if I am just surfing the web and using word/excel type functions. The coolest thing about the laptop is it's sleek design and its light weight aluminum brush finish.

I have found the customer service to be pretty helpful when my laptop wasn't working properly for a minor issue connecting to the internet. They are contracted from India somewhere, but they did solve my issue which seemed pretty abstract to solve in the first place; so that is a good sign. I actually ended up taking out the battery and holding the power button for 45 seconds to discharge any static built up in the laptop.

All in all, I would give this laptop on a scale of a 100 an 85. If I had to grade it on marginal dollar value, I would grade it a little higher, maybe 90 out of 100. Hope this helps.

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I also have been having problem with its left hinge. After googling, I have concluded that this is a design flaw of the Pavilion dm4 series -there are too many people experiencing problems regarding to the left hinge, repeatedly. And bad reviews of the hinge problem are everywhere -quite a few topics on HP forum, people mentioning the left hinge problem on other Amazon reviews, and, there's even a youtube video regarding fixing the left hinge of Pavilion dm4! As a customer, I feel raged, being told by the HP Customer Service people that the hinge broke because I dropped it -NO, I didn't. You simply cannot deny the design flaw by blaming your customer. I am sorry, HP, if you think that this is the right way to treat your customers, then you probably deserve to be bankrupted.

On a side note, the Customer Service people were also extremely not helpful -I was describing the problem to them trying to find replacement parts, but they basically told me that I just need a hinge cover, which is definitely not true. After a lot of research, I found that the main problem comes from the hinge and the cracked plastic anchor on the back cover. I have done my homework, and it shouldn't be this way -forcing your customers to become computer experts?! Ridiculous.

My roommate, who also had a Pavilion dm4 (she bought it 2 weeks after I did), is now back to IBM since that her dm4's system board and memory broke. It would have costed her more to fix it than to get a new one, so she got a new one, from IBM... And she also agreed that she would never go back to HP again.

This is my first time writing a bad review. I have just send in a complaint to HP, hopefully they will come up with a solution. Will update when they solve the problem.

Update 1:

HP contacted me back (which is quick and efficient of them), saying that they don't have any records of it being a designed flaw. Based on the information I have gathered, I requested HP a further investigation on this issue. They did offer me half off repair, which considering how they have offered other out of warranty Pavilion dm4 customers free repair, I am starting to feel raged again.

Honest reviews on HP 14" Pavilion dm4-1165dx Entertainment Notebook PC

I had this computer for a few years and absolutely love it! For the dude with the sensitive mouse pad you can adjust the sensitivity in the control panel. I don't know why someone would call it a cheap design. I'm not sure what the charging light is all about,but I don't think it should get a one star just for that. Like I said, I have had this computer a couple years with no issues I love it and am writing a review because I saw the low star rating and was completely perplexed. I think the low reviews are nit picky. I understand a bad review if your hinges broke, but the rest appear to me to just be written by cranky people and are baseless.

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I bought this laptop a few weeks ago. Frankly, it is really light, fast and portable, easily fits in your backpack and has a long-lasting battery life.You can use it for hours while enjoying a coffee at Starbucks or when doing a homework in a library.

Its shape is pretty thin and helps you grab it with confidence. I also like the screen resolution, gives out perfect pictures and makes video watching so enjoyable.

The only think that would make it deserve an A+++ would be a back-lit keyboard, but this can still be put on afterwards, right?

Anyway, I think it still gets a 5* from me, not that I am very generous, but let's render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's...

Cheap HP Pavilion dv7-1247cl Notebook 2.10GHz, 400GB, 17" LCD

Customer Ratings:

I have been very happy with it so far (almost a year). It is quiet, it's CPU is fast enough, has a large screen, plenty of ram and drive space and looks sharp. It is not something you want if you travel a lot. Don't even bother trying to open it up on a plane. I tend to push my computers really hard and this one has held up quite nicely.

It is meant to be a desktop replacement and pretty much does just that. I was rather surprised with the video card performance. I plugged it into my HDTV and am able to watch 4+ gig Divx movies with out as much as a hiccup. I am not much of a gamer but it plays older games like Half Life 2 at a decent resolution. I was surprised that a lappy with an integrated video card and shared memory could even PLAY video games.

It really is an entertainment PC. It has decent sound on it's own and works well as a portable media center. The remote is a nice touch and use it when watching videos while making dinner or doing chores.

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MSI Computer Corp. Notebook GE60 0ND-257US;9S7-16GA11-257 15.6-Inch Review

Customer Ratings:

I purchased this product about three months ago, and so far I am very happy with it.

Case:

The laptop is thinner than most gaming laptops you will see, and made out of a nice durable plastic. The lid and palmrest are smooth and silky to the touch, but they attract fingerprints like crazy. I get some compliments on the lid, which has red and black designs on it. The screen has zero flex and seems very sturdy. The keyboard is nice to type on, I love the Steelseries brand, own a Steelseries mousepad. The keyboard is of the chiclet variety and has nice key travel. Doesn't take too long to get used to at all. All the keys are full-size except for the right shift key, which is a bit small. I personally never use that shift key, and would much rather take a small shift key over the tiny arrow keys on some laptop keyboards. Overall the design is great, nice and sturdy construction. 9/10 (for shift key)

Screen:

The screen is by far the nicest thing about this laptop. The screen has a 1920x1080 resolution, making it full HD, as opposed to 90% of the laptops at this price which will have a 1366x768 display. A note about HD: Everything is smaller and more crisp. I love the crispness on this screen, but if you don't like how small the type is you can switch to 1366x768 in settings. The screen is also anti-glare, which is a blessing. You will never see distracting lights reflect on your screen, or your own reflection. The brightness can go very high. Setting this laptop next to my friend's Toshiba Satellite is like setting a 3DS next to a Gameboy. If you didn't understand that comparison, just know that you'd be hard-pressed to find a better screen. 10/10

Performance:

The processor is a 3rd generation quad-core Intel i7. You can't get much better and I would accept nothing else. multitasking is a breeze. On this computer I will have a web browser (Chrome), Skype, League of Legends, iTunes, and Word all open 24/7, and it's not unusual for me to run two games at the same time. I highly doubt I've ever used more than 75% of my power. You will NEVER have responsiveness issues with everyday tasks. Info on the processor:

8 gigabytes of memory is more than enough for anything you are going to do. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

The graphics card is a 2GB GTX660M, which is a high-performance card although not the best around. Link for stats:

Note: This laptop I have running all day, and trust me if you don't have the fan blocked it will never overheat. This baby has 5 (FIVE!) built-in fans, and they're damn quiet.

I would rate a 8/10 in performance. This is perfect for my needs, as I just want to run any new game at medium-high settings. This laptop will do that easily. You will spend literally double this price to get 10/10 instead of a solid 8.

Hard Drive:

7200 RPM is above average, but normal hard drives are becoming obsolete. People are buying expensive solid-state drives (SSD) instead. They run at something like 10 times the speed but they are far too pricey for me. Solution? Go out and buy a 128 gb SSD and an optical bay caddy, take out your CD reader, and install it there. Put your operating system on the SSD, and now you have 750 gigs to store everything, and Windows will be far faster.

7/10 (10/10 with my SSD)

Wrapping up, this laptop is perfect for hardcore multitasking or gaming on medium-high settings. The screen is what really sets it apart and makes it a great value. Hope this helps you decide. Leave any questions in comments.

Links:

Article on installing a SSD in your optical bay:

Help on finding the right caddy:

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The MSi GE60, with the i7 3630QM cpu and a Geforce 660M gpu, delivers solid gameplay on all games I've played. Solid 30+ fps on Guild Wars 2, and that is with a bad patch from the developer which has known issues with nvidia hardware. Everything else like Battlefield 3 on ultra, 45-60fps. I am very happy with this laptop, it is my first big laptop purchase over $1000 and meant to be a gaming machine when I am away from my desktop. If you're looking for the best bang for your buck on a gaming laptop, this is it.

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It runs games pretty well, no lag, and pretty good quality. Just make sure you have it plugged in

Pros:

Lightweight.

Great Screen looks beautiful

NO errors with anything, seems solid

Very fast for going on the internet, streaming video

Cons:

If you plug a microphone into it, you get a very loud static noise

Not as powerful for gaming as I'd hoped

No light up keyboard (not for me but many people would feel this way)

Gets pretty hot at times

little battery life

Honest reviews on MSI Computer Corp. Notebook GE60 0ND-257US;9S7-16GA11-257 15.6-Inch

I have been using the European version of the MSI GE-60 OND (identical specs to US version) for over 2 months now so I want to share a few thoughts.

The laptop looks pretty good out of the box with its glossy finish but you do have to clean it often as it will accumulate fingerprints and dirt over a short time. The Steel Series keyboard does not a have great feel for typing but it is suitable for gaming as the keys have very short travel distance and are light to hold down. The actuation force is low enough not to cause fatigue over extended FPS gaming and the rebound is fast enough for double taps in RTS gaming.

The display has a matte finish as advertised so don't expect superb contrast as in Samsung LED TVs but I like it as I can comfortably use it in daylight. Be aware that this laptop uses NVidia Optimus technology so for purposes of power saving the system alternates between the GTX660m GPU and the integrated Intel HD4000 graphics adapter depending on the application. Here is the problem: even if you are rendering a frame using the 660m GPU, the integrated chip is ALWAYS ON and it will copy the rendered image from the NVidia frame buffer to its own buffer where it will finally be sent to the display. Because of this design, the HDMI output is physically connected to the integrated Intel HD4000 chip and not the NVidia GPU. Therefore even though the NVidia GTX660m supports stereoscopic 3D gaming you will not be able to play in 3D when you are connected to a 3D capable display thru HDMI because the HD4000 does not support it. You will not be able to install NVidia's 3D Vision and HDMI audio drivers.

I did have some issues running the system out of the box. StarCraft 2 was crashing constantly. Turns out the Killer Network E2200 adapter driver was not compatible with Win 8 so I had to update that. The NVidia GTX660m GPU was running at 835MHz whereas it should have been running at 950MHz with GPU Boost (turbo function). I was also unable to overclock the GPU with MSI Afterburner. This issue was solved by flashing the latest BIOS.

Overall I am pretty happy with the machine's performance. With the exception of the GPU it generally performs better than my custom 3 year old Win 7 desktop with Intel i7-950 CPU (stock clock settings), Asus Rampage III Formula motherboard and NVidia GTX 460 GPU which is impressive for a mobile system.

Gaming performance with the GTX660m is acceptable. Don't expect to play Crysis 3 unless you don't mind low frame rates. Some games I can manage to play at a steady 60fps with vertical sync turned on are :

StarCraft 2 (DX9) High settings no AA except for a few demanding maps where I switch shaders from high to medium.

Colin McRae Dirt 2 (DX11) Medium settings 2xAA generally.

Company of Heroes (DX9 or DX10) High/Ultra settings. If I switch to Ultra (DX10) shaders frame rate drops below 60fps.

Call of Duty 4 World at War (DX9) 60fps on max settings but barely.

Graphically more demanding games such as EA's Battlefield series will require you to play between low and medium settings.

The reason I gave an average rating for this product is the laptop's somewhat poor cooling performance. If you have read through specs you will know that there is a turbo fan you can activate at the press of a button whenever you start gaming. This fan works, it does cool the system between 5-6 degrees but it is very loud. You will not hear it with headphones on but other people sharing the room will be disturbed.

The problem is the laptop's thin design makes it very difficult to get efficient airflow inside. I wish MSI had opted for a less attractive but more performance oriented design as that is what most gamers care about. I think ASUS's twin fans in their gaming laptops provide better thermals (at a little higher cost).

Do not stress test your system with FurMark or Prime95 as temperatures will easily peak to throttling levels. For more real life applications I monitored temperatures while running a StarCraft 2 replay as this game is graphically demanding for a mobile GPU and can even bring desktop CPUs on its knees during big battles. Averaging around 80% GPU usage on stock clock settings the GPU peaked at 80 C and the CPU at 83 C.

I then overclocked the GPU to 1085MHz (core +135MHz, memory +450MHz). I increased in-game graphics settings so I would still average GPU usage around %80 leaving me enough headroom for big battles, explosions etc. Running the same replay the GPU peaked at 84 C and CPU at 86 C. While I did not overclock the CPU, you can observe that CPU temperatures increased running exactly the same set of computations. This indicates the GPUs heat is dissipating towards the CPU.

Needless to say I was not very happy with these thermal values as I have read about many overclocked 660m GPUs peaking in the low 70s with other laptops manufacturers. I therefore purchased a notebook cooler and I managed to get temperatures barely below 80C again. This actually defeated my purpose of buying a "gaming" laptop as I thought cooling performance would not be excessively compromised on these. Even my Zalman NC-3000 cooler was only able to reduce temperatures by 4C because there aren't enough apertures below the machine to facilitate airflow.

Now I know I shouldn't evaluate cooling performance based on overclock settings as notebooks are not a suitable environment for overclocking but I would have expected better temperatures from standard clock settings as well. The GPU and CPU will both certainly be able to handle 80C but other PCB components may warp over the long run. I therefore deduct 1.5 stars for high temperatures and 0.5 stars for having to flash BIOS just to get the GPU working properly and award this product with a 3 star rating.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for MSI Computer Corp. Notebook GE60 0ND-257US;9S7-16GA11-257 15.6-Inch

I've had this laptop for over a year now and I've had to send it to MSI for repair twice. I must say however, MSI has had extremely wonderful customer service and has been extremely quick to reply and quick to fix any problems. The first was simply a bad stick of RAM the second was the headphone jack broke on the inside somehow. Overall this laptop has a lot of power for gaming, and as people have mentioned the screen is fantastic. A full 1920x1080 at only 15.6" is insanely awesome.

My one con with this laptop is the build quality seems flimsy. The case around the screen feels weak, although I haven't had any problems with it so far. A good case should probably protect it plenty.

The other build quality problem is I believe the keyboard uses ABS plastic. Now the feel of the keyboard is awesome when you first get it. It works great and feels nice to type on. (Typing this review on it now) The problem with ABS plastic on keyboards however is with long term use the oils on your hands actually wear away the plastic and create that shiny effect you may be familiar with. This is mostly an aesthetic thing as I don't think it compromises the structural integrity of the keyboard. I would recommend a keyboard cover, but I have been unable to find one that both fits and has positive reviews. (If you're using this as a desktop replacement laptop you could always buy a nicer quality keyboard for use at home)

Overall if you're looking for a high speed good price laptop this is an excellent choice.

Sony Vaio VPCF1390x Quad Laptop - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Review

Customer Ratings:

I had purchased this laptop directly from Sony about two years ago. Immediately I noticed that the fan is loud! A fresh boot, wait your four minutes for everything to load and the fan is just noisy. After a while you kinda got used to it. The second thing is the keyboard would stop functioning after a reboot. No lights, no buttons, nothing worked. To fix, I had to close the lid to sleep mode. Then reopen the lid and wake up computer, to find that the keyboard now works fine and all lights are working also. The last thing was the screen is now black. After some research, two different techs examined it (one at the Sony Store) and both said to replace the motherboard. The video chip is broke, so the whole board needs to be replaced. I've 'googled' new boards and cant seem to find a replacement board online. The Sony Store said I could send it in for repair and that a motherboard repair is considered a 'major' repair, its minimum $300, no parts. At this point it just be cheaper to buy a new, cheap laptop for that and buy an extended warranty to cover future breakdowns. Or just consider building a desktop. Either way, $1000+ laptop, worthless.

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I bought a VPCF1390X directly from Sony about a year ago. I am now planning to sell it and get something a little lighter and less annoying to use.

The good: this model has excellent port options, as I would expect of a high-end notebook, including two USB 3.0 ports, eSATA and HDMI output. Overall it is constructed well (with the exception of the cooling system, described below), and the keyboard is ample and well designed. It boasts a nice, large widescreen display, which is glossy (I actually prefer matte, but your mileage may vary). While I didn't care for much of the bloatware that Sony installed, I was ecstatic that they included Adobe Elements with Acrobat 9 Standard (which is apparently difficult to get by any other means).

The bad: I was disappointed in the performance of this notebook. Compared with my old 2007 model HP DV8000T, this newer and more powerful notebook actually seemed to lag when operating internet and simple desktop programs. It did have an advantage in being able to run 64 bit Windows, newer games and looked nicer, but it didn't really do any of that very well. The bloatware that comes on the Vaio also seems to contribute to it getting bogged down and running at higher temps, which brings me to the next point...

The ugly: My VPCF1390X is outfitted with an Intel Core i7 840QM processor factory rated at 1.87Ghz and 45W TDP, as well as discrete NVIDIA Geforce GT 425M graphics. As such, there's variable demand on the notebook's cooling system, and there's where the problem creeps in. The laptop's cooling is freaking loud. This is to be expected with most i7 CPUs and discrete graphics card, but there's an additional problem with the laptop's fan: a high-pitched whistle at mid-speed. Sony spent the better part of 2011 troubleshooting this problem, but eventually was unable to resolve it. Some users have published guides and videos showing a procedure that is supposed to eliminate this, but I had no success with it, perhaps because it doesn't work with my unique hardware. If the thing was just loud like any other high-end laptop, I wouldn't be too bothered, but with the fan speeds oscillating up and down constantly and fading in and out of this annoying whistle sound, I've gotten so tired of using this thing that I'm done with it.

This is probably the most uninformed purchase I've made when it comes to electronics. Hopefully I won't repeat that mistake with my next notebook.

Toshiba - Satellite L455-s5975 --Intel Celeron 900/ 2gb Ddr2/ 15.6" Review

Customer Ratings:

I purchased this to be used like a netbook, except bigger and with all the benefits of a laptop. For $320 (Best Buy) you can't go wrong. For a light mobile laptop that is as quick as you need it to be and offers all the features a netbook doesn't, this is a perfect alternative. This will make a perfect laptop for a teen, college student or the person on the run. This isn't a Toshiba high end laptop, but for surfing the Internet, using Office and connecting it to my cable line and recording TV, this thing handles it all with no problems and does it fairly quickly. The graphics and sound quality is pretty good, and the 15" screen is perfect for watching TV. I am impressed and I am glad I came upon this opportunity instead of going with a netbook for just a bit more. This is a nice laptop and a steal for what I paid, even for the price offered on Amazon, but I recommend checking around (Best Buy on-line). You can't go wrong, Toshiba makes great products and from what I have seen in the week of using this, this is one of them.

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I bought this computer three weeks ago from Best Buy for 349. I can't believe the value for the price. I love windows 7 -it is much quicker than vista and they have added some very nice features. All the MS Office programs load quick as well as any other program I have used. It comes preloaded with Norton Internet Security. I really hate it when they load programs to get you hooked for 30 days free and then remind you every hour that it is time to buy, however, Norton is a very good fit for this computer and it doesn't seem to eat up any processing speed running in the background. I'm going to wait another week then part with some hard earned money for the annual subscription. The only negative with this computer is that the cooling fan cycles on and off which can be annoying if you are working in a quiet area. It does it job, though and keeps the computer cool. Bottom line: Unless you are a power hungry gamer, you can't go wrong with this computer.

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Great Deal!! I bought this computer mainly for internet use and light computing, watch some movies from netflix. It is totally great for price. I highly recommend this computer if you are looking just for internet use. Highly satisfied. Whole family uses it.

Honest reviews on Toshiba - Satellite L455-s5975 --Intel Celeron 900/ 2gb Ddr2/ 15.6"

Well purchased a Toshiba Satellite for my son for Christmas and have disappointed since day one. Plugged it up and we get scrambled LCD screen with black blobs all over the place. I call Toshiba for advice and the first thing they say is this is covered under warranty. Seems they will not repair any screen related issues with there laptops. They said it was caused by abuse. I find this hard to believe since it was this way right out of the box and used for less than 3 days. No were in the warranty book does it say this is not covered. I ask for them to point this out to me and no one would answer my question. The kicker is they want $425 to repair a $400 computer. I will be returning this laptop and will avoid Toshiba like the black plague. I would suggest anyone considering a Toshiba call the warranty department first and ask them what does there warranty cover. Don't make the mistake I made.

Reggie

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I currently own this laptop and had it since November 2009. I purchased this laptop because my previous Dell computer broke. At time time I was attending a community college and needed a nice inexpensive computer. This laptop is a lil older than other laptops, but overall it's a solid machine. You get what you pay for with this laptop. This machine is great for web browsing, certain games, listening to music, play DVDs, typing papers, and storing files. This would be a great buy for a normal student or adult that just want a computer for the basic functions. I'm not sure how this computer compares to the other inexpensive computers, such as Compaq and Accer, sold at Walmart, but this computer isn't a bad buy. The down sides to this computer is that it can become heavy to carry around (although lighter than my Dell Laptop). It can run slowly if too many programs are running and it doesn't have a webcam (it didn't matter to me). The sound isn't as good as other computers such as MacBook. Today I wouldn't advise paying more than $250 for it from someone on Amazon or Craigslist--and that's if the laptop comes with everything (itunes, windows 8 upgrade, Windows office, etc). I recently purchased a MacBook Pro, but I still utilize my Toshiba to read ebook and study videos as I take notes on my MacBook.

Dell Inspiron 17 i17RV-9909BLK 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black Matte Review

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List Price: $649.99
Sale Price: $529.99
Today's Bonus: 18% Off

I am very pleased with this Dell laptop. Initial set up was smooth and subsequent additions of my existing programs went well. I especially like the textured finish on this model. Looks and feels very nice. The 17.3 display is also very nice. The only addition I added was a wireless mouse which makes it almost as complete as my desk top model which I used constantly in my business. The model runs extremely quiet with hardly any noise at all. It should be noted that not everyone might like this size model since it is larger than one might expect, but that is what I wanted for remote work. Overall I am extremely pleased so far and highly recommend this model for anyone looking for a larger laptop with plenty of power for online work and office applications.

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program I've had prior experience with a 17inch laptop before; i owned a Gateway 6860fx and it was a bad experience. I hadnt used a 17inch laptop since then until i tried this Dell 17inch. After a month of having this in my possession i really like it alot; and would definitely recommend it for those looking for a mid-tier 17inch laptop for everyday use. The following are the notes i've taken in my month with the product:

-I got roughly 3 hours on highest performance setting while watching Netflix. General use, you can easily get 4hours.

-It takes roughly 1min to open from cold boot. From standby it takes like 10 seconds.

-The lcd lid doesnt have a latch or anything. Just pull up to open. Because of this it doesnt open very easily and you need to use both your hands (one to pull the lid , the other to hold the bottom down)

-The sound levels produced by the speakers are adequate.

-Very rarely gets hot on my lap, and its very quiet... even when I did some stress testing on the CPU.

-I think that the build quality is great. The gateway 6860 started breaking down eventually but i dont see that happening with this one.

-The indicator lights on the front are small and hard to see. The power button doesnt have any light.

-Really can be considered light-weight for 17in: Its 5.8 lbs with a small ac adapter. (my old gateway was 9.2 + it had a huge block ac adapter)

So it wouldnt be to much of a pain to carry around, especially since AC adapter is so small and the computer itself isnt thick either.

webcam quality was great on my calls via skype.

Max resolution is 1600x900. But the overall quality is nice even though i did have to adjust gamma and contrast ratings to my liking cause i felt they were off some.

Other tidbits:

-Touchpad supports multitouch gestures(eg pinch zoom , two finger scrolling)

-5.6 windows exp index.

-685 GB usable from the 750GB HDD, but also had 35GB already used by windows 8 and bloatware

-Textured surface is nice but a fingerprint magnet. You can see the places your fingers touched.

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program My Laptop & Windows History:

Prior to getting this laptop I'd been using my previous one for about 4 years. It was an ASUS and had Windows 7 on it. I liked that one but it was getting old and outdated, full and slow. It was time for a new one. Earlier this year I purchased a Samsung laptop that came with Windows 8. The laptop was horrible. It was slow and cheaply made. I ended up returning it after just a few days. Since this was my first experience with Windows 8 it left a bad impression in my head. I thought my problem with that laptop had something to do with that. When we returned that laptop we told Customer Service that it was like taking a laptop from 10 years ago and slapping a new title on it and installing Windows 8 on it. It was really primitive.

This Laptop with Windows 8:

I was a bit nervous getting a new laptop that comes with Windows 8 but that's pretty much all you can find on the market today. Turns out that I was nervous for nothing. This laptop is great! Although I'm not a huge fan of Windows 8, it's certainly not as bad as I thought it was. It's easy to maneuver around it.

Size and Keyboard Layout:

I have a Dell 15.6 inch touch screen laptop that I use for my everyday usage. Then I have this 17.3" laptop that I find a bit bigger than I need for everyday use but when I want to play a game or even watch a movie on, this size is perfect. This laptop has become what I'm referring to as my gaming laptop. I also do a ton of typing so the keyboard layout is very important to me. I find the layout on 17.3" laptop very comfortable and spaced out perfectly. It's not compact by any means and it's not too spaced out that you have to reach too far either. Except for the number pad, if you use the number pad quite frequently then it's a bit more difficult on this laptop. This is where I find the spacing to be a bit too far apart. The layout on this laptop is pretty close to perfect for me. The number pad isn't horrible, it's just going to take some getting used to.

Other thoughts:

Speed & QuietnessI think this laptop is very fast. And I love how you can boot it up and you're good to go in less than a minute. It's very quiet too.

Picture QualityThe picture looks great on this laptop. Making it great for my games. With that Samsung laptop that I had, the picture quality was awful. I have absolutely no complaints about the graphic quality on this laptop. It's very high quality.

Space750GB is more than I required but for the price it can't be beat. It'll hold I that I need it to.

CD / DVD DriveA CD Drive is not an option for me, it must have one. There are so many laptops out there nowadays that no longer have this feature. I was very happy to see that this laptop has it. It works great too. On my previous laptop I was constantly accidentally opening the CD Drive. This isn't a problem on this laptop. It stays closed. You have to push a small little button in just the right way to get this one to pop open. This is a plus for me.

Textured FinishAlthough I like the feel of the textured finish on this laptop, it leaves way too many fingerprints. It's difficult to clean them off too. When the laptop is just lying there closed it doesn't look too great because it always looks like there are greasy fingerprints all over it. Our hands are always clean when we use the laptop so it's just the oils from your skin that leaves marks. This would probably be the only thing that I would complain about with this laptop.

SolidnessWhen I had the Samsung laptop for a few days I noticed that it felt empty. It just felt like an empty plastic shell. This laptop feels solid and it's not a cheap plastic feel. This laptop feels how a laptop should feel.

Getting startedRight out of the box I found this laptop to be fast and easy to set-up. I had it up and running in probably 5-10 minutes. It's a very simple set-up process.

Overall I absolutely love this laptop and I would highly recommend it. It's a great everyday laptop that I find to be very high quality.

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program I picked up this laptop to replace my old ThinkPad T42. Any machine running Windows XP beyond April of 2014 will be a security nightmare, so it's good to update now. Plus the ThinkPad ran too slow for most modern software, and little tasks were a pain to execute.

What I liked most about the ThinkPad was its sturdy construction. It could be dropped, bumped, and even sat on without any noticeable markings on the outside. Most of the laptops I've seen look dirty with something as insignificant as a fingerprint. That's what interested me in this Dell Inspiron; its shell is wrought so it can take more of a beating. Plus the textured surface easily hides marks. The only thing I noticed was a darkening in areas where I touched it with oily hands, but that can be easily wiped off.

Next is the performance. Getting an i5 for this price range is amazing. It's one of the best processors out there. The negative is that it's only 1.8 GHz; fast enough for everyday tasks, but a bit slow for gaming. I would not recommend this as a gaming laptop even though it's a 17" with a 10-key number pad. Sure, basic games are fine, but don't expect to get into intensive FPS with topped out graphics. 6GB of memory is decent, but the 5400 rpm hard drive is a bit slow (takes programs longer to load into memory, including Windows bootup). My plan was to swap out the drive for a Solid State Drive (SSD), but there's one big problem with that. And that leads up to my next section.

Software.

The laptop comes with a copy of Windows 8, the latest in Microsoft's long line of OS builds. At first, I found it a bit awkward compared to Windows 7. My wife kept getting frustrated when she'd be in one window, and then suddenly it would disappear and another would open in its place. After doing some digging on Google, I discovered that the track pad used something called App switching. Basically, whenever my wife would inadvertently swipe from left to right, it would switch back to her previously used program. After I disabled this in the settings, Windows 8 became a lot easier to use.

Here's the settings:

1. Press the Windows Logo+I keys together and a menu will pop-up in the right-hand side.

2. Click on Change PC settings option.

3. Head to General tab and then turn the "Allow switching between recent apps" slider OFF.

4. Also, disable "When I swipe from the left edge, switch directly to my most recent app."

Now back to my original point. Why I couldn't install my Solid State Drive like I had planned. The laptop does not come with any installation disks. If that wasn't bad enough, there's no sticker on the bottom to give the serial number for Windows 8. So, even if I were to get my hands on a disk, I could not reinstall Windows without that number. This means that your OS is locked to the hard drive that came with the computer. Bad news if your computer crashes and you need to reformat. Of course, Dell gives you the ability to do a factory restore, but what good is that if the drive itself goes bad? My only option for putting in a different hard drive would be to repurchase Windows 8, which isn't a financially smart thing to do. I could always put an older version of Windows on, or even Linux, but part of what you pay for with this laptop is that Win8 license. Seems silly to let it go to waste.

So I decided to keep the slower hard drive that came with it. The drive is not terrible. For the most part, everything loads at a reasonable speed. Plus 5400 rpm will consume less juice from the battery (speaking of which, the battery life is fairly decent--I can get a few hours out of it when streaming video, and more for simpler tasks). Overall, this laptop is night and day when compared to my older and slower ThinkPad T42. It's a great price for a really good system. Just don't plan on having it last forever. Also, you may want to consider the 15" version as this one is a bit of a beast to carry around--but if you keep it on a desk, 17" is fine.

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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program First of all, you need to know that the texture is not a nice thing. It is basically just there to "gussy up" the surfaces from being too obviously plastic. The actual use of the machine isn't effected by the "texture" but it is very noticeable, and I can't help but think that over time, it would be filled with dirt and dust if not fully cleaned on a regular basis. So keep in mind that the surface of the laptop is a major downer. The touchpad and the keyboard are regular plastic and are fantastic to use.... more on that ...

The screen has a good resolution, with poor viewing angles. When looking at it straight on, it is great, but move to the side, or look at it above, and the angles get washed out. If it is an IPS screen, I can't tell it .. I am thinking that it is not an IPS.

Otherwise, the screen is LED backlit and has good colors and a clear picture. It is not a touchscreen and with the bargain price, you would not expect to see one.

The inside processor, memory, and hard drive are all very capable. The machine is fast and can handle anything that you throw at it.

The keyboard is fantastic, with good feel, good travel, and it is very responsive. I love the keyboard! Only downside, is that it is not backlit. So if you work on your computer in the dark, you will need an overhead light or something to help you find the keys ....

Windows 8 is installed, and you can search the Web to find the pros and cons on that OS.

There are plenty of ports and it seems to handle anything you want to plug into it. I am using it as a desktop replacement and I have my Ethernet, a mouse, an iPhone cable, and a printer all hooked in, no problem. It also has a DVD drive to watch movies and to burn dvd's / cd's.

The sound is very good and does a pretty good job at sounding full. I am very comfy watching a movie by myself in front of the laptop (bad viewing angles, not good for more than one person) listening to speech and other sounds. Watching a heavy action flick might pose a challenge with distortion, but during my time with it, it has handled most sound well ...

So to recap:

Pros: Great affordable price tag, very capable processor and memory, good screen resolution, good hard drive space,great keyboard, good sound, lots of ports, and can pack it up and take it with you as needed

Cons: Weird bumpy surface, poor viewing angles, not an SSD, no backlit keyboard, big and heavy for a portable.

Toshiba Satellite U845-S402 14.0-Inch Ultrabook (Sky Silver) Review

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $749.99
Sale Price: $628.60
Today's Bonus: 16% Off

I fell in love with this laptop as soon as it started up!

It's nice and lightweight, doesn't overheat fast, and starts up quickly.

It's my first Toshiba and I'm completely satisfied with it.

The only thing that seems a bit backwards is when using the "F" keys ie. F5, F8 etc, you have to hold the "FN" or Function button and then whichever F key you want. I learned this the hard way by disabling my track pad accidentally!

Aside from that it's great. I was surprised that there was no removable battery pack, which probably is the reason it's so light! It has a nice long battery life when not plugged in and keeps up its speed.

A huge bonus is one of the USB ports will still charge your accessories while the computer is in sleep mode. Very handy!!

I'm not missing NOT having a cd drive, I still have my old laptop in case I need to burn anything.

My canon printer and all other accessories have been able to sync up fine via USB connections without any additional installation issues.

I've had it for a little over a month, so I'm sure there's still tons to find out about it but so far so good, I highly recommend it!

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If what you really do with your laptop is check out websites and your e-mails, download and manage music (that's what I do the most) and maybe some social networking, this one is for you. I'm not into video games, maybe hard core gamers need much more, but I don't. Yes, we all would like to have the last thing out there. For example, I was considering one with Windows 8, but if you think about it, then you would have to upgrade programs you already have like Windows 7-compatible Microsoft Office and maybe buy another printer and who knows what else. Honestly, if you just can't spend $100 more in a new computer, this one is perfect.

My former laptop was a 12" Toshiba Satellite but I bought it in 2007. It never crashed or gave me any kind of problem at all, it just felt behind. So I always thought of replacing it with another Toshiba because I trust the brand. I was worried with the size difference (12" vs 14"), but it's so lightweight it's not an issue. And it's so, so fast I love it.

It's an Ultrabook so they don't come with CD/DVD Drives anymore, but I think that's the main reason why they're so light and slender. So I bought Toshiba Portable SuperMulti Drive PA3834U-1DV2 and problem solved. You know you don't use it everyday, so why carry it everyday?

I like the tile keyboard but I guess I have to get used to it because I mispelled more often. And the mouse pad is giant compare to what I had before, also something to get used to. It doesn't have separate bottons for right and left click and that's giving me a hard time. It's like I lose control of the pointer sometimes when I click.

Battery life it's amazing. I couln't believe it but it's true, it lasts a little over 7 hours unplugged. A huge difference compared to my old one. 3 USB, one of them allows you to keep charging even in sleep mode. And now, instead of using a thick and heavy VGA/audio cable to transfer image on screen to my TV, I can use HDMI for better quality.

I bought it almost a month ago and so far so good. I highly recommend it!

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I was looking for a Windows 7 laptop with good memory, storage and options. I found the Toshiba Satellite to be perfect. This is a secondary laptop for the household so I didn't want all the extras on it. It could use a better mouse pad area but most laptops could. Works great with a wireless external mouse. Good size, super light weight, great for average use.

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Laptop is great but there is one major flaw. The video posted by amazon about this product says that it has a back lit keyboard. IT DOES NOT. I am disappointed by this but I guess I will live with it any way. Don't mean to be negative about the product. Amazon you should remove the video that says this product has a back lit keyboard.

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I've just used it for a few days but so far very happy. The greatest thing about this computer is it's weight. It is very light and easy to carry around. I had a netbook before but decided to go for something bigger but still wanted something very portable. I don't need the dvd so I don't miss it. We use it mostly for Word and internet and it's pretty fast. Easy to set up. Only thing I don't like is the mouse buttons. They are hard to click especially right click. Other than that after adjusting the mouse speed, the mouse pad responds pretty well to my movements. People complained about the keyboard but it works fine for me.

Review of Asus - 11.6" Windows 8 Touch-Screen Laptop - Q200E-BSI3T08

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List Price: $499.00
Sale Price: $379.99
Today's Bonus: 24% Off

So my ASUS netbook which I absolutely loved and took everywhere with me died. The latest selection of netbooks didn't excite me so I decided to upgrade to this model. The price is what sold me initially; the touchscreen seemed like a silly thing that I wouldn't use much. But after a day of using this side by side with an older laptop I was restoring, I was convinced. I now find myself touching the screens of all my computers. It's definitely the only way to use Windows 8.

I use this for home finance, web surfing, some word processing and a little video, photo and sound editing. The keys are a little small and take some getting used to. I am a touch typist and find the small keys a little annoying. Also the case edges are sharp and since the base is a bit wider than my old netbook It slips around a bit more on my lap. And the built-in battery does concern me; I hope when the time comes that replacing it won't be difficult.

Sound is acceptable I watch Netflix while working in the kitchen and it's loud enough (much better than my netbook). The unit has 3 USB ports, SD slot and HDMI port. I have used this to stream videos to my projector and quality is excellent.

Battery life is long enough for my use; surfing and watching occasional video at home. It's made a couple of plane trips and I've managed enough battery to watch movies. It's so small and thin that I take it everywhere. And the AC adapter is not much larger than my phone charger very convenient.

If I were doing serious typing I might hook up an external keyboard but for what I do it's perfect. Also due to constant touching the screen shows smudges but that's not the fault of the design clean your hands or use a stylus if that bugs you!

The touchpad was very jumpy at first but a Windows update seems to have taken care of that.

I seem to be one of the few people who paid $499 for this at Best Buy (it's been $449 pretty much since Christmas). You won't find a touchscreen system that can come close for the price.

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Let me tell you about my Asus laptop / Amazon experience. I found this laptop at a great price on Amazon and decided to order it. It arrived quickly even using super-saver (free) shipping, however once I opened it I realized it had been damaged during shipping. I turned it on and it worked great, but the case was dented/damaged so I decided to send it back. I was already anticipating having to fight with Amazon when I contacted them using the chat feature and ‘spoke' with Richard to see what could be done.

Amazon, listen up – Richard is the single most important reason I will be recommending Amazon to my friends and family.

Richard took the time to listen to my story and assisted me in exchanging my defective laptop and getting the replacement . . . actually, I had to return the defective one to get a refund then repurchase the replacement but to my pleasant surprise Richard made it just about painless. Richard sent me a link to print out the prepaid shipping label and expedited my order so I was only without my laptop for 1 day. It's service like this that keeps me coming back . . . I'll definitely recommend Amazon. It's this kind of action we need in the White House! ;-)

Anyway, about the laptop – you're probably not going to find a better deal on a Windows 8 laptop with a touch screen feature anywhere else (Best Buy sometimes has it on sale). The Q200E-BSI3T08 has a quick 1.8 GHz Intel Core i3-3217U processor (3rd generation), 4 GB of DDR3 memory, a 500 GB hard drive, a 1.0 MP webcam, a USB 3.0 port, wireless LAN (802.11n) and a built-in 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) network card. Please note – the screen is an 11.6" WXGA display and there is NO optical drive (no CD/DVD drive) so you'll need to use an external CD/DVD drive. Also, the 4 GB of ram is soldered in so you can't expand it and the battery is not removable (you'll have to take the laptop apart to change the battery).

First thing I did was to follow JDHodges.com Asus Q200E hard drive upgrade website (you can Google it) and replaced the 500 GB hard drive with a Samsung 840 Pro solid state drive (SSD). The SSD made a big difference in performance and battery consumption and my Asus now boots up and is ready to go in about 8 seconds. I didn't have a copy of Windows 8 for a clean install so I used the Samsung Data Migration software to bring everything over from the original hard drive. The Samsung Magician software also makes it easy to optimize/tune my new SSD and monitor drive health. Both software titles are included with the SSD or it can be downloaded from the Samsung website for free. FYI it will only work with Samsung SSD drives (it checks).

Next I swapped out the wireless card for the Intel Network 6235AN.HMWWB Centrino Wi-Fi card. This card is dual band (Advanced-N) and includes Bluetooth. It ran about $22 from Amazon with free shipping. You'll need another antenna for the dual band so I also ordered a pair of laptop wireless mini-PCI-E internal antennas (ASIN: B004ZHT2JE) from Amazon for about $10 including shipping.

Now I have a touch-screen Windows 8 laptop that rocks! It's super light (about 3 pounds), boots in less than 10 seconds, has a decent processor with a solid state hard drive (no worries about bumps) with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and is only 0.9" thin! Because of the new SSD hard drive efficiency – battery consumption has improved, but you'll probably get between 3.5 to 4 hours of use depending on your usage. I loaded Microsoft Office 2013 (Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, Outlook) and Visual Studio and they work great no issues so far.

I've only had this laptop for a about a month so I'll update my review in a few months if things change.

Best Deals for Asus - 11.6" Windows 8 Touch-Screen Laptop - Q200E-BSI3T08

I've been loving my laptop I'm sorry some people had a bad experience and I'm grateful mine laptop is working just fine. I love the touchscreen comes in handy for a couple of things specially scrolling. Didn't have to install anything to use my printer it found it right away lol I was so happy. And the battery last enough. One time it says the remaining time was 6 hours which I doubt any battery could last that long but if i HAD to choose a length of time I would say 4 hours but don't quote me on it I'm not sure. I find myself using windows 8 wit ease. If i don't know how to do something or where to find something I google it! i advise you to do the same once you find how to do something you realize is really easy. o your research of the seller ratings so you feel sure of who you are buying from.

Honest reviews on Asus - 11.6" Windows 8 Touch-Screen Laptop - Q200E-BSI3T08

I just got my computer a few hours ago, but I already love it. The size and weight is perfect for who is looking for a portable device, but not uncomfortable. And the sound in this computer is fascinating, I was surprised!!

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This is a really cool laptop, feels like a macbook, i am all for portability and this is one of the best machines out there considering the price. Not to mention I got a very good bargain from amazon, its price is $50 or $100 higher in stores.

Cheap HP ENVY 17t-j000 Quad Edition Notebook PC (Silver); Intel Core

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,299.99
Sale Price: $1,249.95
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This 4 stars are there because it is a great computer and has every function I needed but it's a bit bigger than I thought. The new features on windows 8 are pretty good, maybe a little disorganized but on the other hand, it's really fast and works perfectly with Adobe software which I use a lot.

So if you don't mind the size (or maybe if you do) this is an amazing computer for those who want a great performance and a well sized screen.

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Took me some time to choose this one,the specs i loved, but not the operating system....however i decided i`ll go ahead.Been using it for over a month now, and is very satisfied.....One prob i have noted, is that the finger print is not working...don`t know if am doing anything wrong, but up to this point it`s still not working......Like i said, though, i just love this noetbook!!!

October 7th 2013 Update:After software update,about a week ago finger print has been activated, and is working just fine!!

Discount Lenovo® IdeaPad Z570 (1024-DBU) Laptop Computer With 15.6"

Customer Ratings:

They advertise this computer as one with an HD screen. It's not... Everything seems to be OK but that.

The build seems nice, the keyboard feels OK, the price is excellent. The speakers are not great, but for a laptop, the do the job.

I will update this later as I use it a bit more. I just set it up some minutes ago.

Update, some days later: As I said, the computer performs very well, the i5 processor is very fast. I plugged it to my TV through HDMI and it works flawlessly. I'm planning to buy an external AOC screen for photo editing (a big one perhaps).

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Computer is fast and reliable. My son uses it for Adobe Photoshop with no speed problems. Recommended. Great price latest technology. Very impressed with Lenovo.

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Very good computer, i fully recomended! For a lower price i get a high performance computer. Lenovo is actually one of the best options in the market.

Honest reviews on Lenovo® IdeaPad Z570 (1024-DBU) Laptop Computer With 15.6"

I liked this PC, it is very fast and made of high quality materials. The only thing I did not like so much is the keyboard because the keys are narrow. The touch of the keys is very good though. My wife does not see it as a problem because she has narrower fingers.

I for the price we have paid, we could not ask for anything better.

I am waiting for the price of the ultrabooks to go down to replace my Lenovo notebook PC but until then we will stick with the traditional notebooks around in the marketplace.

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Be Careful!!! I ordered the Lenovo Z570 laptop and what I received was not what Amazon was advertising. I ended up with something inferior. Although Amazon refunded the item, it was a huge frustration that adds to my existing sentiment about purchasing digital product online too much uncertainty and not enough control. Buyers Beware!!!

Lenovo ThinkPad X201 12" Laptop - Intel Core i5-540M 2.53GHz - 4GB Review

Customer Ratings:

The laptop arrived exactly when they said it would and came fully loaded. There was one glitch I had with it and I called Go-Get Computers and they were able to resolve the problem immediately over the phone and said to call back if I had any further problems. Definitely an A+ experience!

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Best Acer Aspire NX.M83AA.006;V5-121-0818 11.6-Inch Laptop Deals

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $413.75
Sale Price: $328.99
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I was very impressed with the arrival of my netbook. I needed an inexpensive netbook because my recent tablet fried itself. The netbook arrived in excellent condition. Out of the box it was up and working. I needed to spend about 8 hours going through updates to the Windows operating system. But i expected having to reboot after upgrades, since this has happened before with other computers who had an initial image of the WIN 7 operating system when it was manufactured, but needed to catch up. Keyboard is acceptable. Glide mouse works great. Sreen is ample when I am in Starbucks, but I plug into a larger Acer flat screen when I work from home.

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Easy to use.... and carry. Windows 7 is still my favorite so we were glad to find a new laptop with 7 on it.

Best Deals for Acer Aspire NX.M83AA.006;V5-121-0818 11.6-Inch Laptop

It is the best thing, I think, I could have found for the size and specs I wanted. I'm not crazy about the 1 GHz however it does have more Ram then most little computers, I believe. I am very please with it; I was nervous about getting a computer small then my Viao, but I really do like it. I would have to say what I don't like about it is the top is a finger print magnet and the charger hook up is kinda tricky to plug in. It is a bit slow, but that's only because I'm going from a 2.4 GHz to a 1. All in all, it's little, a Windows 7 (yay!) and gets what I need for my classes done. I would recommend this computer.

Honest reviews on Acer Aspire NX.M83AA.006;V5-121-0818 11.6-Inch Laptop

This product is perfect for my sight impaired daughter. The size and keyboard work well with her talking programs. This is her second Acer and she loves them. They don't last all that long, but, what do you expect for what you pay? Will definitely order another like it.

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this little laptop is great, no problems, the processor works great, you can't beat it for the money, money or not you can't beat it.