I've been searching for a few months since my 7-year old, $2,000 HP Pavilion was about ready to give up the ghost. A laptop is also a "nice-to-have" rather than a primary computer. The drop in price of laptops has been stunning. You can now get a brand new Lenovo (formerly IBM) for $300. And HPs are flying for $5-600.
But I wanted performance, a large screen, a full-sized keyboard, good battery life ... and so many folks kept saying "get a Mac." However, an Apple Macbook Pro is very pricey, and used ones (4-6 years old) go for $5-700. Plus, they're not as easy to work on if you're a writer like me. The PC keyboard is simply built for writing. (After all, it is a standard, old qwerty typewriter keyboard.)
I compared lots of laptops, online and hands-on. Sony Vaios were looking better and better, but the new, top-end ones are $1100-1300. I somehow landed on this Amazon page with this refurb high-end Sony Vaio that's called a gaming / entertainment laptop. (Originally $1200.) I'm not a gamer, and not planning on watching movies on my laptop ... just a serious computer user and full-time writer. Guess what -the better graphics and horsepower make a lot of difference.
My old HP Pavilion is a 17" diagonal laptop. This Sony Vaio is a 16.4" diagonal. However, the screen format has changed to an HD look, so it's actually just as wide as my old 17", but not as tall. However, the extra screen size is not missed, and the more compact Sony is far better.
These refurbs are available from Sony directly for $977. But there are several here on Amazon as of this writing for as low as $550. I bought one of those and recommend the seller (USA Laptop Parts) highly. Great communication and product just as described. This is last year's model, and there are lots of things I prefer about it over this year's high-end Sony Vaio, including the touch pad and keyboard.
It's a beautiful PC that stands up very well against the Macbook Pro. It comes with 4MB of RAM and I ordered more to bring it up to the 8MB max.This Laptop has powerful processor, really good sound and video quality. Plenty of memory and nice design. Not really heavy at all. Recommend it to anyone.
Showing posts with label laptop best buy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label laptop best buy. Show all posts
Monday, November 3, 2014
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Buy Dell XPS 13-L321X Ultrabook - i5-2467M 1.60GHz - 4GB - 128GB SSD
Solid construction. Mostly aluminum. Extremely fast startup. Only reason for missing star on review is that it does not come with a hard-wire Ethernet port, but I think you can buy an adapter. Also, the mouse pad is a little finicky every once in a while... but a external mouse fixes that. (not a deal breaker by any means)
It feels very solid like it's made of high quality parts. It looks cool too. It starts up lightning fast, much faster than my Dell laptop. It worked flawlessly right out of the box
and hasn't missed a beat since. The builtin WIFI works at Tim's and all other hot spots I tried, as well as at home. Battery life is very good.
The only snag I found is the trackpad sometimes doesn't recognize a touch. My workaround is to left-click the trackpad button instead.
If you want a reliable mobile computer, get this one you won't be disappointed.
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I've had my XPS13 for a few months and I can truly say it has met all my expectations.It feels very solid like it's made of high quality parts. It looks cool too. It starts up lightning fast, much faster than my Dell laptop. It worked flawlessly right out of the box
and hasn't missed a beat since. The builtin WIFI works at Tim's and all other hot spots I tried, as well as at home. Battery life is very good.
The only snag I found is the trackpad sometimes doesn't recognize a touch. My workaround is to left-click the trackpad button instead.
If you want a reliable mobile computer, get this one you won't be disappointed.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Buy Toshiba Computer Systems - Satellite 15.6" Laptop - 4gb Memory
This budget laptop has some nice features for the money. It's got a good size hard drive (640GB) and 4GB of RAM, and it's reasonably fast. It also has a nice bright 15" screen. But I just can't get past the horrible sounding speakers. Now I know the speakers on most laptops are terrible. But these are by far the worst I've ever heard. The SRS Premium Sound HD option that comes with this laptop improves the sound SLIGHTLY. But even when using that option, the speakers still sound very tinny and trebly...to the point where I can't even listen to them anymore. Because they actually grate on and cause a very unpleasant sensation in my ears. After just a few days, I had to buy some Logitech multimedia speakers to use as a replacement speaker system for this laptop. Also, after just a few days, I've noticed that the mouse freezes up sometimes. I guess it's like anything else...you get what you pay for. But despite its positive attributes, I can't recommend this product.
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Reviews of ASUS N61JV-X2 16-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Dark Brown)
PROS:
On the initial setup, the laptop played a pretty cool Asus video that showed many "on" buttons forming various images. It made the purchase seem even more personal. Nice touch Asus. Here's a link: paste "ASUS Laptop Startup Video (2009 ASUS)(HD)" on Youtube. Watch in HD fullscreen to get the same feel. Yes simple things amaze me x_o.
My first impression of this laptop is its big size. I'm used to running a netbook, in terms of mobile pc. Examining the layout closely, the screen isn't the perpetrator herethe speaker adds roughly 2 inches to the width. Although this is easily forgiven once I heard the sound quality, which is similar to an HDTV's. This may make the laptop slightly bigger than regular 16in notebooks, but for an "entertainment"-advertised laptop, it was necessary.
I'm happy it has an eSATA port because this allowed me to couple my internal hard drives with a hard drive docking station (Thermaltake BlacX). Really helpful for storage and backups. The USB3.0 is a great addition as well. Makes it a bit more future-proof. As for the touchpad, my netbook had the same exact touchpad and I always turned it off because I was not a fan of it. Nothing beats a mouse!
Battery life depends on 4 settings through a power-managing software called Power4Gear. At "High Performance" setting, no power saving option is on and the battery life drains within 2 hours. The more balanced "Entertainment" setting, lasts 3 hours. With the power option set to "Quiet Office", the battery life lasts 4 hours. Lastly, the"Battery Saving" mode increases the battery life even longer. What it does is it disables your wallpaper, gadgets, autohides the taskbar, lowers brightness to 20% and sets every setting to maximum power savings. Of course the realtime battery life will be ultimately affected by what task you are doing.
In terms of performance, this thing packs a wallop! It will not beat a same-priced desktop, but what's important is portability. It's a great purchase for the performance. Although keep reading to learn about the current GPU driver as a caveat emptor. Another warning: I believe this was first advertised as having bluetooth. I can confirm that it does not. While this is not a deal breaker, I feel it should have been included being an entertainment laptop. Some of the pre-installed softwares are helpful, like the Power4Gear battery managing software and the Splendid Utility which enhances the screen's color/contrast/brightness settings with preset modes. The Cyberlink TrueTheater HD software is amazing. I popped in my "LotR: Fellowship of the Ring" DVD and with the smoothest playback settings (60FPS) and sharpest modes, it seemed like a whole new movie. I do not own a bluray player so I'm not used to this type of quality, but yes, it is better than any YouTube 1080p HD trailers or any HD channels I've seen.
Graphic Card Tests (Gaming):
All games were tested on the Geforce GT325m (Optimus driver version 189.07), running at 1366x768 native resolution, full screen, and with FRAPS frame counter benchmark. I wanted to keep it at native resolution to show the highest resolution capability of this GPU. Lowering resolution and some graphical settings will unquestionably increase the frame rates, but playing graphically-lush games is always a delight.
Batman Arkham Asylum: Fight sequence VS 5 inmates at start of game)
Settings: VSync Off, Hardware PhysX Off, Detail level: Very High, 2xAnti-aliasing
Min FPS: 25, Avg FPS: 33 Max FPS : 50
Verdict: Smooth gameplay, lag-free.
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Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare 2 : (Single Player: Heavy gun fight on "Act II: Hornet's Nest" level)
Settings: VSync On, All Graphic Settings On, All Textures set to Extra, 4xAnti-aliasing
Min FPS 30, Avg FPS 35, Max FPS 60 (Remember VSync caps this at screen's refresh rate, which is 60 in this case)
Verdict: Very playable considering it's at max in-game settings. Will experience some tiny lag spikes, which I also experienced on my desktop PC which has better specs than this laptop, so it must be the game.
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Mass Effect 2: (Gun fights on mission to recruit Prof. Mordin)
Settings: VSync On, All graphic settings on except for Film Grain, 4xAnti-aliasing, 8xAnisotropic Filtering
Min FPS 24, Avg FPS 38, Max FPS 49
Verdict : Smooth gameplay. Some random lags but does not ruin the experience.
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Crysis: (From game start all the way to "First Light" gun fights)
Test 1: VSync Off, Everything to Medium, No AA
Min FPS 19, Avg FPS 26, Max FPS 34
Verdict : Smooth gameplay, lag free even if the FPS results seem low. Graphic texture pop-ins on some of the vegetation, especially when using "maximum speed" boost.
Test 2: VSync Off, All graphic settings to medium, except for Texture and Shader at High. 2xAnti-Aliasing .
Min FPS 13, Avg FPS 16, Max FPS 20
Verdict : Clunky gameplay. With these settings, the texture looked sharper and much easier on the eyes, and while there are no dramatic lag spikes that will get you killed easily (it's a steady 15-16 frames on gun fights), the slow gameplay is quite noticeable.
Test 3: VSync Off, Everything to High except Shader to Medium, No AA
Min FPS 14, Avg FPS 22, Max FPS 29
Verdict : Smooth gameplay, but sometimes has that laggy feel to it. No jittering lag. Pretty impressive for the High settingI guess Shader is what really stresses the framerates.
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World of Warcraft: VSync off, Effects at Medium-High, Window Mode + Maximized option to properly scale the resolution
Test 1: Riding mount around Dalaran's North Bank steps with ~30 toons around me.
Min FPS 22, Avg FPS 33, Max FPS 39
Verdict: No lag
Test 2: Outside Dalaran, flying epic flight
Min 50, Avg 85, Max 150
Verdict: No lag
In instances, the gameplay is very smooth. Depending on the instance, some will be over 100FPS whereas the newer ones + raids, will be in the low 50s.
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6008 pts in 3DMark06
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10594 pts in 3DMark05
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CONS:
Note: This part of the review will only be valid until Nvidia releases the proper Forceware drivers for the laptop's GPU. The GT 325m series is relatively new; NVidia has one official release for it on their website: Optimus Driver 189.07. This driver is not bad. As shown by the benchmarks, 3D gaming works well. But here's where things tend to get annoying: the Nvidia GPU, with its current drivers, rely on the Intel integrated graphics to handle screen scaling. Meaning if you connect this to a larger monitor, in my case an Acer 21.5" 1080P native res widescreen LCD, scaling works well when the GPU running is the Intel IGP, but when you switch to games, you are forced to use the 1080p resolution through the in-game settings, which will be taxing on the framerates. I know the native resolution of the laptop does not match the monitor's, but with the "normal" geforce drivers, scaling to fit the screen works well and allows the laptop's native res to stretch the image onto the monitor. My ASUS 1201n netbook does this easily through it's Nvidia Control Panel, with the same native res as this laptop. I hope NVidia releases this capability with the next driver update.
I still do not trust the current Nvidia driver for this GPU just yet. Once it is properly optimized and up to date, the fps will increase. I'll update this entry if the graphic drivers are updated through NVidia or some modding website.
NVidia Optimus: This technology sounds great but I'm having a little problem with it. See, when my laptop is plugged in, the Optimus technology works just fine: the intel switches to the nvidia GPU when loading a 3D game. But when I load a 3D game while this laptop is unplugged (regardless whether battery is full or low charge), the GPU does NOT switch. It stays on the Intel GPU and I get low framerates. This problem occurs even if I use "High Performance" mode on the power settings, even if my preferred GPU is NVidia, even if I assign the game profile to load with Nvidia GPU, even if I right click and "run with graphics processor: High performance Nvidia processor". I do notice that if I suddenly plug the laptop to the outlet, the frames will go up fast again (as if the Nvidia GPU was suddenly turned on). There needs to be a better software-based of forcing the GPU on since the NV Control Panel is faulty at this point. Isn't the whole point of Optimus to provide performance when necessary and lengthen battery life, when available? Here is NVidia's claim: "Watch a HD movie, surf the web or play top 3D games knowing that you'll get the long battery life you need and the performance you expect from NVIDIA." This technology should work even on battery, as stated there. I would like to know if this is just my laptop doing thiscomment if you can help.
Update 1: there is a fix that works. Make sure your HDMI is in digital mode and not analog. This allows your monitor to do the scaling. Although, if you only have analog mode for HDMI, you can try using a DVI to HDMI cable. Or just wait for Nvidia to update the driver and you won't have to go through all this.
Update 2: March 15, 2010. Well it seems that Nvidia actually listened. I opened a technical ticket on their website and though I can't take credit for them actually solving this, I can tell you that they have put up a solution. New Optimus drivers are out on their website: version 189.42. The highlights of this release is eerily accurate to the issues I was having with my N61JV. It fixes the incompatibilities with the Intel IGP driver and corrects the Optimus Profile system. The sad news is I have already returned my N61JV almost 2 weeks before the release of this driver so I cannot personally test its reliability. I have since gotten a replacement laptop (Gateway NV5925u) or I would have loved to test this out.
Update 3: April 29, 2010. Another GPU driver is released on the Nvidia website: Driver 189.79. Although the main highlight is, "This is an Optimus driver update that fixes an issue with the beta release of StarCraft II."
Hope this review helped those who may be thinking of buying this notebook!
More pc and electronic reviews at mycoretechs*com. Subscribe to my YouTube channel: JaymarkTech. If you found this review helpful, please rate it Helpful. Thank you!
The i5 processor is fast, the laptop runs quiet even when the fan comes on. The laptop does not heat up much. I use it on my lap while sitting on the couch and even after 2-3 hours, my lap is fine (not warm or uncomfortable). Guess I'm a couch potato! The multi-directional touchpad is pretty cool but really sensitive. It takes some getting used to but that's because I'm a die hard mouse person. However, I do like the touchpad and may be converting. Sound is crisp and clear. Battery life depends on what you're doing. I get about 2.5-3 hours when surfing the web. It's around 2 hours if watching a dvd. There's a lot of bloatware on it which I haven't removed since I need to brush up on how to remove it.
Warranty: There is only one warranty card in the box, it's for the Accidental Damage Warranty. The 1-year global warranty is automatic. Amazon was going to let me return it because it was missing info on the global warranty but I called Asus to see if I was supposed to get a separate card in the box. Asus said only the ADW card is in the box because the global warranty is automatic. Asus confirmed by running my serial number. Anyway, you can register your laptop online at Asus and register your ADW online too. But you still have to mail a copy of the invoice and ADW email confirmation to the address they tell you.
Comments on Asus: Asus's website is challenging to navigate but eventually you find what you're looking for. Their customer service was very helpful. I did not have any technical issues so I cannot speak about their tech help.
I hope this review is helpful. I did a lot of research on this site and others before buying this laptop and I'm very happy with my purchase. $899 for a quality 16-inch i5, 500 GB hard drive, NVIDIA graphics, and a warranty that includes free ADW too. The only improvement would be if the laptop could play blu-rays but no biggie.
UPDATE 6/28/10: After having the laptop for 3 months, it just froze at the Asus logon. I tried the hard reset several times per Asus Tech help, but since the computer did nothing, Asus said to send it in for repair. I was not pleased since i had to take it a repair shop for data recovery (which cost me $95) before sending it to Asus. Once I get it back, I'm going to be sure to save all things to an external hard drive on a daily basis. Thank goodness my old Toshiba is still working while I wait for Asus to fix this one.
UPDATE 7/20/10: Asus failed to repair my computer on the First try. They replaced the hard drive and sent it back to me. Once I turned it on, I got a black screen with instructions to insert a boot device. Called Tech Help again, tried to use Bios menu but did not work, told to send it back to Asus for the Second time. This time it went to Asus HQ in Fremont, CA. Turns out there was a screw missing when the first place replaced the hard drive. Got the computer back and it actually works. This time system recovery requires 3 dvds instead of 4. Wondering if I'm missing files but Asus says the files are just compressed. In total, I was without a working computer for 6 weeks during the 4 months I've owned it. Will I buy Asus again? Probably Not.
Sent back to ASUS and they replaced the motherboard. Fine now, but the turnaround on the repair was a bit long--about 2 weeks.
I'm still happy with the computer in general. Very nice machine. Hope they've got better quality control on the newer models.
-----original review ----
I've had the Asus N61jv for about 2 months now, and it's time to set down some of my trials and tribulations and successes. Overall, I like the computer a lot, but it has a few quirks that I'd have designed differently, and there were some serious problems that seem to be mostly overcome by now.
Design: the computer is not flat on the bottom. It's got feet at the back that are raised plastic with rubber pads. This is great for using on a desk and are absolutely non-skid. I don't know why they had to be so prominent, though--about 1/4". My problem with this is that when using the computer on the lap, they can be very uncomfortable, so I've had to learn to shift the computer off center a bit, or keep my knees close together. Not a big problem, but the ones on my previous Dell Inspiron 9300 didn't do that. Of course that computer was lots heavier, and wider too, so the rubber feet were further apart. All in all, I'd have preferred a flat bottom (the fan vents out the side) with just tiny little rubber pads.
Second design complaint: It's got these large white LED deals on either side toward the back, referred to as "Eagle Eyes." When the computer is on, they're always on, and when it's in sleep mode, they flash! Or breathe or something. Like I really want bright white lights pulsating in an otherwise dark room when the computer's asleep! I communicated with Asus, and they cannot be turned off. They are still visible when the lid is closed, as they're sort of built into dips in the case. What is wrong with electronics mfgrs these days, that they think users want disco lights going even when the machine is off? It's similar to those annoying SanDisk Cruzer usb drives that pulsate orange light when plugged in, even when nothing's happening. My solution to this was to put a bit of black vinyl electrical tape over each one. It stretches to conform to the depressions, and it sort of blends in color wise. They also put a big while LED around the power button, which also pulsates during sleep--aagh! At least that one is hidden when the case is closed. BTW, apparently the Eagle Eyes change to blue when the NVidia GeForce system is on turbo, which I haven't used yet, and don't really care about the blue. I guess heavy gamers might feel it's a positive feature.
The computer runs very cool even if left on all day. I'm not doing heavy duty gaming, but even when playing a movie, or burning DVDs etc, there's very little heat. And the thing flies--that's why I bought it--the i5 processor and the Nvidia Optimus tech (even though I don't use that as yet).
The chicklet keyboard seems very good, and there are some nice features, like Fn-Enter opens the calculator etc. There are dedicated speaker control buttons above the keyboard, which is a useful feature.
As I said, I really like the computer, but some of this awe might come from using Windows 7, which is really great. This computer easily runs the fancy Switcher (Windows-Tab) that shows all your open windows in a rotating 3D display. It's quite cool! However, a freeware program, Vista Switcher, is even better, if not quite as dramatic looking. And the super bar truly is super. Plus lots of other things, like the search box on the start menu finding all kinds of stuff really fast.
I upgraded from the installed W7 32 bit, to W7 Professional 64 bit, mainly for the XP compatibility mode (altho could have stayed with 32 bit I suppose).
An early issue almost had me send the computer back. There's a lot on the web about it--that it's not easy to "record what you hear." I do a short radio show that I put together with Audacity, and it is essential that I be able to record from eg WMP, YouTube, DVDs, etc. It wouldn't do that to begin with, and the web talk was stuff about digital copy protection etc. Seems a lot of folks have seen the same issue, with different hardware too.
I purchased the 3rd party program, Virtual Audio Cable, which is great. It allows routing the output of a device through virtual software cables to another device. This solved the problem, altho recording was not quite as loud a level as it should have been. Still, this worked fine for awhile. Then I found time to fool around with the W7 and audacity settings, and finally found the right ones, and now it works perfectly without VAC. Windows 7 handles low level audio in a new way apparently, and it's not always easy to set it up. Why the default settings aren't better I don'k know.
Here's what I found to work:
In Audacity preferences, set host to Windows Direct Sound, recording device to Primary Sound Capture Device, and playback to Primary Sound Driver.
In Windows, right click the speaker icon; choose Recording. Set Stereo Mix as the default recording device, and set Speakers as the default Playback device. I don't remember what the defaults were, but they weren't exactly these.
Another selling point for the n61jv is it has both esata and usb 3.0 ports. I've had mixed results with these. I ordered several esata enclosures (after the first one didn't work at all) and a usb 3 enclosure, plus a couple of Hitachi 500gb 7200 rpm drives. None of the esata enclosures worked well (except with usb 2 they were fine). I began to suspect it might be a hardware issue. In the meantime, my wireless connectivity suddenly went out. It looked like a hardware issue too, since the wifi switch near the front showed the same icon for on and off, and it's a hardware switch. I began thinking I'd have to send the unit back. However, I called Asus, and the tech gave me a few drivers to install from the site. (I'd already installed what I could find by searching the site, but it's hard to tell what's relevant and what isn't). That did the trick! It must have been a firmware problem, since I'd already swapped another drive in with a much older W7 image, and it still didn't work. Once I loaded the driver, the problem was solved with either W7 image, though it was installed via only one of them.
A similar thing worked with the esata. It was unreliable for big files, eg 10GB or more. It would lose the connection. Just today, I got an email back from Asus on the problem, and they gave me two more drivers to install. Again, I didn't find these on a site search, or at least they didn't stand out from the crowd as relevant to my problem. But they appear to have done the trick. My INEO enclosure was recognized right away (before it would first say the drive needed formatting, and then maybe recognize it, maybe not). And I copied a 50gb image to the drive with no problem at all. So I'm thinking that's another firmware driver that needed an update.
The usb 3.0 may be similar. I've had a few problems, although I've been able to make a 50gb Acronis drive image that I verified by putting it on a drive and booting. Still, that'll be my next query to the Asus team to see if there are driver updates needed.
Touchpad: this is a mixed bag too. It's got a lot of features, but not too much in adjustments for sensitivity. In fact the only one seems to be for palm sensitivity. I do tend to get erroneous movements because part of my right palm sometimes brushes the pad. Partly this is because it's a big pad, which is nice for cursor movements. But I find that adjusting the palm sensitivity down makes it so other features don't work well either.
So I leave the palm sensitivity up, and am learning to (touch) type with a slightly different hand position. This works--just takes some self-training. The various features are nice--good enough that I'm not using a mouse much at all (I used to use a mouse all the time with my previous Dell). Two fingers can scroll up or down, and a two-finger tap sets up an autoscroll icon in most programs. This lets you roll through pages at varying speeds, depending on how close the cursor is to the icon. Very nice when you get used to it.
Three fingers tap simulates a right click, which I use a lot. There are more features, like sideways scrolling and a magnifiers, but I've turned most of them off, since they tend to happen accidentally, and I don't use them anyway. There are other taps too which do things like opening task manager or flipping through windows, but I prefer to do those with the windows key plus other keys. I've found that the two finger tap does some other really useful things: On a superbar icon, it opens a new instance (like mouse right click, then choose a new instance). In Firefox, it opens a link in a new tab, so these shortcuts really save some time when using just the pad.
The touch pad is left of center, but centered on the main part of the keyboard. I wish they'd put it a little more to the left though, since it's the left part of the right palm that causes trouble.
There's a dedicated numeric pad, which is nice.
I have a Kensington radio mouse that I use for cursor-intensive things like Audacity projects. It's great. It's got a nano-usb transmitter, that only sticks out about 1/4", so I leave it in all the time. The mouse has an on/off switch on the bottom, which is very good, since mouse movement will wake up the computer. The mouse is low profile, flat and black, so it looks very cool with the computer.
There are 3 usb ports on the computer (one of which is 3.0 but works fine for 2.0 and below too). I kind of miss the 6 built-in usb ports of my Dell, but I can always add a couple via an express card. The placement of the ports is a bit strange. There's one on the front left, one on the right rear, and one on the right front. This would make it hard to use those usb Y cords that some enclosures come with, but so far it seems the ports supply enough power. The front right has a usb port right next to the esata port. Since the esata cable is heavy and not too flexible, it sometimes gets in the way of ejecting a CD. I would have liked that somewhere else. Still, I could get an express card esata port that would put it on the left side, so that's solvable if need be.
I'm surprised asus didn't put any ports on the back. In some ways that would be more convenient, and would keep cables out of the way. But the trade off is that this way, you don't have to struggle the computer into odd angles to get things plugged in. Overall, I think it's better this way, but it took some getting used to. At least the power cord had a right angle connector, and that's the one I keep plugged in the most. Keeps it out of the way.
I get 4 hours plus on the batteries without doing any fancy configuring. But I'm not playng DVDs etc. YMMV. Still, the power seems very good compared to my old Dell and to some of the laptops of my friends. The screen is plenty bright--I usually keep it on about 15%, and the colors are really good even at that level. There's a utility to adjust screen qualities six ways from Sunday, which I haven't really used.
So those are the main issues. There have been problems, but so far have been solved by tech support. Asus support is great, either by phone of email (via their trouble report form on the website). That's a big plus, but then Dell support was good too.
Am I happy with my purchase? Yes, despite the trials. Would I buy it again? Probably, because the price is good and the specs are great. The build quality seems very good--that's the big "if" for me, buying without seeing. Is the look and feel going to meet my expectations--and they have. And that's basically why I bought the computer. The price and specs were good, and early reviews were mostly positive.
A lot of my friends are Mac people. Believe me, I was tempted to go Mac this time around. I've used Macs and they're very nice. But I'm a pedestrian at heart, and Macs seem a bit hoity-toity. A PC friend of mine was asked why he didn't like Macs, and he said "They're too simple." I feel a bit that way too. I like solving some problems as long as the frustration level doesn't get too high. Plus I have a few programs that run in XP compatibility mode but wouldn't run on a Mac without some kind of fancy emulation.
Plus I've never liked the Apple exclusivity thing. They're getting away from that a bit, but those things are still very pricey for the power you get. If I was rich enough to not worry about money, would I buy a Mac? Sure, I'd get both.
I'm giving this sucker a 4 because it's put me through some hoops. But it's a great machine, and if I didn't have to install new drivers, I'd probably have given it a 5 even despite the Eagle (evil) eyes!
For the money you can't beat the features with its 16" glossy screen and Intel core i5 processor and ddr3 memory with usb 3.0 controller and DVDRW drive this is an awesome laptop. As soon as i got it i reformatted the 7200 RPM hard drive and put Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit on it and the thing just runs like a champ.
When it first arrived it was packaged very well and protected well, when i turned it on for the first time it went thru a setup process that took about 5-10 min, after that everything was good to go. However, in the first 2 weeks I got 1 blue screen and 1 odd screen with vertical lines across the screen within a couple days of each other, but after i reformatted and installed Win 7 Ult 64bit i can't say i have had any other issues.
I would recommend to anyone that gets this laptop to immediately update everything until there are no more updates to download, especially the nVidia drivers, Intel drivers, and Windows updates, not necessarily in that order, and you might consider uninstalling all the bloatware installed, there are some cool apps that come pre-installed but you may not need all of them, if you get my drift. Also, i will add that i do not like Trend Micro antivirus, which came pre-loaded on the laptop, because i have experienced a lot of system issues with that program so i immediately removed it, this may not be the case with other people. Instead I use freeware programs like Avast Home Edition or Microsoft Security Essentials along with Windows Defender and Windows Firewall, as well as a good spi/nat router firewall.
I have to say the nVidia GTS 325M is impressive for a lower to mid-range graphic card but i do wish i could get better frame rates on games like Crysis/Warhead/Wars but the card handles DX9 and DX10 games surprisingly well. And the Optimus functionality seems to work flawlessly changing from regular desktop graphics to game graphics seemlessly. The Intel HD graphics are not bad either for general use (to get best picture for intel hd graphics i had to update to latest drivers then move the saturation slider up to about 10-15 because everything looked washed out), but everything all in all is quite sufficient, especially for the money.
If you're serious about quality and performance versus cost, get this laptop, you will not be sorry. Oh yeah, the laptop actually comes with a 2 year Asus warranty, you have to first register your laptop at Asus website then fill out a warranty card that comes with it and send it in within 60 days of purchase.
I am very, very pleased with my purchase of the Asus N61JV-X2.
On the initial setup, the laptop played a pretty cool Asus video that showed many "on" buttons forming various images. It made the purchase seem even more personal. Nice touch Asus. Here's a link: paste "ASUS Laptop Startup Video (2009 ASUS)(HD)" on Youtube. Watch in HD fullscreen to get the same feel. Yes simple things amaze me x_o.
My first impression of this laptop is its big size. I'm used to running a netbook, in terms of mobile pc. Examining the layout closely, the screen isn't the perpetrator herethe speaker adds roughly 2 inches to the width. Although this is easily forgiven once I heard the sound quality, which is similar to an HDTV's. This may make the laptop slightly bigger than regular 16in notebooks, but for an "entertainment"-advertised laptop, it was necessary.
I'm happy it has an eSATA port because this allowed me to couple my internal hard drives with a hard drive docking station (Thermaltake BlacX). Really helpful for storage and backups. The USB3.0 is a great addition as well. Makes it a bit more future-proof. As for the touchpad, my netbook had the same exact touchpad and I always turned it off because I was not a fan of it. Nothing beats a mouse!
Battery life depends on 4 settings through a power-managing software called Power4Gear. At "High Performance" setting, no power saving option is on and the battery life drains within 2 hours. The more balanced "Entertainment" setting, lasts 3 hours. With the power option set to "Quiet Office", the battery life lasts 4 hours. Lastly, the"Battery Saving" mode increases the battery life even longer. What it does is it disables your wallpaper, gadgets, autohides the taskbar, lowers brightness to 20% and sets every setting to maximum power savings. Of course the realtime battery life will be ultimately affected by what task you are doing.
In terms of performance, this thing packs a wallop! It will not beat a same-priced desktop, but what's important is portability. It's a great purchase for the performance. Although keep reading to learn about the current GPU driver as a caveat emptor. Another warning: I believe this was first advertised as having bluetooth. I can confirm that it does not. While this is not a deal breaker, I feel it should have been included being an entertainment laptop. Some of the pre-installed softwares are helpful, like the Power4Gear battery managing software and the Splendid Utility which enhances the screen's color/contrast/brightness settings with preset modes. The Cyberlink TrueTheater HD software is amazing. I popped in my "LotR: Fellowship of the Ring" DVD and with the smoothest playback settings (60FPS) and sharpest modes, it seemed like a whole new movie. I do not own a bluray player so I'm not used to this type of quality, but yes, it is better than any YouTube 1080p HD trailers or any HD channels I've seen.
Graphic Card Tests (Gaming):
All games were tested on the Geforce GT325m (Optimus driver version 189.07), running at 1366x768 native resolution, full screen, and with FRAPS frame counter benchmark. I wanted to keep it at native resolution to show the highest resolution capability of this GPU. Lowering resolution and some graphical settings will unquestionably increase the frame rates, but playing graphically-lush games is always a delight.
Batman Arkham Asylum: Fight sequence VS 5 inmates at start of game)
Settings: VSync Off, Hardware PhysX Off, Detail level: Very High, 2xAnti-aliasing
Min FPS: 25, Avg FPS: 33 Max FPS : 50
Verdict: Smooth gameplay, lag-free.
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Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare 2 : (Single Player: Heavy gun fight on "Act II: Hornet's Nest" level)
Settings: VSync On, All Graphic Settings On, All Textures set to Extra, 4xAnti-aliasing
Min FPS 30, Avg FPS 35, Max FPS 60 (Remember VSync caps this at screen's refresh rate, which is 60 in this case)
Verdict: Very playable considering it's at max in-game settings. Will experience some tiny lag spikes, which I also experienced on my desktop PC which has better specs than this laptop, so it must be the game.
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Mass Effect 2: (Gun fights on mission to recruit Prof. Mordin)
Settings: VSync On, All graphic settings on except for Film Grain, 4xAnti-aliasing, 8xAnisotropic Filtering
Min FPS 24, Avg FPS 38, Max FPS 49
Verdict : Smooth gameplay. Some random lags but does not ruin the experience.
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Crysis: (From game start all the way to "First Light" gun fights)
Test 1: VSync Off, Everything to Medium, No AA
Min FPS 19, Avg FPS 26, Max FPS 34
Verdict : Smooth gameplay, lag free even if the FPS results seem low. Graphic texture pop-ins on some of the vegetation, especially when using "maximum speed" boost.
Test 2: VSync Off, All graphic settings to medium, except for Texture and Shader at High. 2xAnti-Aliasing .
Min FPS 13, Avg FPS 16, Max FPS 20
Verdict : Clunky gameplay. With these settings, the texture looked sharper and much easier on the eyes, and while there are no dramatic lag spikes that will get you killed easily (it's a steady 15-16 frames on gun fights), the slow gameplay is quite noticeable.
Test 3: VSync Off, Everything to High except Shader to Medium, No AA
Min FPS 14, Avg FPS 22, Max FPS 29
Verdict : Smooth gameplay, but sometimes has that laggy feel to it. No jittering lag. Pretty impressive for the High settingI guess Shader is what really stresses the framerates.
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World of Warcraft: VSync off, Effects at Medium-High, Window Mode + Maximized option to properly scale the resolution
Test 1: Riding mount around Dalaran's North Bank steps with ~30 toons around me.
Min FPS 22, Avg FPS 33, Max FPS 39
Verdict: No lag
Test 2: Outside Dalaran, flying epic flight
Min 50, Avg 85, Max 150
Verdict: No lag
In instances, the gameplay is very smooth. Depending on the instance, some will be over 100FPS whereas the newer ones + raids, will be in the low 50s.
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6008 pts in 3DMark06
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10594 pts in 3DMark05
--
CONS:
Note: This part of the review will only be valid until Nvidia releases the proper Forceware drivers for the laptop's GPU. The GT 325m series is relatively new; NVidia has one official release for it on their website: Optimus Driver 189.07. This driver is not bad. As shown by the benchmarks, 3D gaming works well. But here's where things tend to get annoying: the Nvidia GPU, with its current drivers, rely on the Intel integrated graphics to handle screen scaling. Meaning if you connect this to a larger monitor, in my case an Acer 21.5" 1080P native res widescreen LCD, scaling works well when the GPU running is the Intel IGP, but when you switch to games, you are forced to use the 1080p resolution through the in-game settings, which will be taxing on the framerates. I know the native resolution of the laptop does not match the monitor's, but with the "normal" geforce drivers, scaling to fit the screen works well and allows the laptop's native res to stretch the image onto the monitor. My ASUS 1201n netbook does this easily through it's Nvidia Control Panel, with the same native res as this laptop. I hope NVidia releases this capability with the next driver update.
I still do not trust the current Nvidia driver for this GPU just yet. Once it is properly optimized and up to date, the fps will increase. I'll update this entry if the graphic drivers are updated through NVidia or some modding website.
NVidia Optimus: This technology sounds great but I'm having a little problem with it. See, when my laptop is plugged in, the Optimus technology works just fine: the intel switches to the nvidia GPU when loading a 3D game. But when I load a 3D game while this laptop is unplugged (regardless whether battery is full or low charge), the GPU does NOT switch. It stays on the Intel GPU and I get low framerates. This problem occurs even if I use "High Performance" mode on the power settings, even if my preferred GPU is NVidia, even if I assign the game profile to load with Nvidia GPU, even if I right click and "run with graphics processor: High performance Nvidia processor". I do notice that if I suddenly plug the laptop to the outlet, the frames will go up fast again (as if the Nvidia GPU was suddenly turned on). There needs to be a better software-based of forcing the GPU on since the NV Control Panel is faulty at this point. Isn't the whole point of Optimus to provide performance when necessary and lengthen battery life, when available? Here is NVidia's claim: "Watch a HD movie, surf the web or play top 3D games knowing that you'll get the long battery life you need and the performance you expect from NVIDIA." This technology should work even on battery, as stated there. I would like to know if this is just my laptop doing thiscomment if you can help.
Update 1: there is a fix that works. Make sure your HDMI is in digital mode and not analog. This allows your monitor to do the scaling. Although, if you only have analog mode for HDMI, you can try using a DVI to HDMI cable. Or just wait for Nvidia to update the driver and you won't have to go through all this.
Update 2: March 15, 2010. Well it seems that Nvidia actually listened. I opened a technical ticket on their website and though I can't take credit for them actually solving this, I can tell you that they have put up a solution. New Optimus drivers are out on their website: version 189.42. The highlights of this release is eerily accurate to the issues I was having with my N61JV. It fixes the incompatibilities with the Intel IGP driver and corrects the Optimus Profile system. The sad news is I have already returned my N61JV almost 2 weeks before the release of this driver so I cannot personally test its reliability. I have since gotten a replacement laptop (Gateway NV5925u) or I would have loved to test this out.
Update 3: April 29, 2010. Another GPU driver is released on the Nvidia website: Driver 189.79. Although the main highlight is, "This is an Optimus driver update that fixes an issue with the beta release of StarCraft II."
Hope this review helped those who may be thinking of buying this notebook!
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I've had my laptop for over 3 weeks and not experienced any problems. Guess my mine was manufactured on a good day compared to some others. It started fine, no problems burning the recovery dvds, no problems waking up after the lid is closed --just hit the power button. It wakes up exactly where I left off ---internet, word document, etc. An earlier reviewer mentioned the screen brightness then dimming after a few minutes but you can easily adjust the settings to your preference.The i5 processor is fast, the laptop runs quiet even when the fan comes on. The laptop does not heat up much. I use it on my lap while sitting on the couch and even after 2-3 hours, my lap is fine (not warm or uncomfortable). Guess I'm a couch potato! The multi-directional touchpad is pretty cool but really sensitive. It takes some getting used to but that's because I'm a die hard mouse person. However, I do like the touchpad and may be converting. Sound is crisp and clear. Battery life depends on what you're doing. I get about 2.5-3 hours when surfing the web. It's around 2 hours if watching a dvd. There's a lot of bloatware on it which I haven't removed since I need to brush up on how to remove it.
Warranty: There is only one warranty card in the box, it's for the Accidental Damage Warranty. The 1-year global warranty is automatic. Amazon was going to let me return it because it was missing info on the global warranty but I called Asus to see if I was supposed to get a separate card in the box. Asus said only the ADW card is in the box because the global warranty is automatic. Asus confirmed by running my serial number. Anyway, you can register your laptop online at Asus and register your ADW online too. But you still have to mail a copy of the invoice and ADW email confirmation to the address they tell you.
Comments on Asus: Asus's website is challenging to navigate but eventually you find what you're looking for. Their customer service was very helpful. I did not have any technical issues so I cannot speak about their tech help.
I hope this review is helpful. I did a lot of research on this site and others before buying this laptop and I'm very happy with my purchase. $899 for a quality 16-inch i5, 500 GB hard drive, NVIDIA graphics, and a warranty that includes free ADW too. The only improvement would be if the laptop could play blu-rays but no biggie.
UPDATE 6/28/10: After having the laptop for 3 months, it just froze at the Asus logon. I tried the hard reset several times per Asus Tech help, but since the computer did nothing, Asus said to send it in for repair. I was not pleased since i had to take it a repair shop for data recovery (which cost me $95) before sending it to Asus. Once I get it back, I'm going to be sure to save all things to an external hard drive on a daily basis. Thank goodness my old Toshiba is still working while I wait for Asus to fix this one.
UPDATE 7/20/10: Asus failed to repair my computer on the First try. They replaced the hard drive and sent it back to me. Once I turned it on, I got a black screen with instructions to insert a boot device. Called Tech Help again, tried to use Bios menu but did not work, told to send it back to Asus for the Second time. This time it went to Asus HQ in Fremont, CA. Turns out there was a screw missing when the first place replaced the hard drive. Got the computer back and it actually works. This time system recovery requires 3 dvds instead of 4. Wondering if I'm missing files but Asus says the files are just compressed. In total, I was without a working computer for 6 weeks during the 4 months I've owned it. Will I buy Asus again? Probably Not.
Best Deals for ASUS N61JV-X2 16-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Dark Brown)
First off, the Nvidia Optimus technology is GENIOUS. Asus is the only brand I know currently utilizing it, but I am sure others will quickly change to it. I changed the default video card to the nvidia 325, and I noticed with only using the nvidia 325 video card, and playing games, battery life is around 2 hours. This is of course with the core i5 doing it's thing and turbo-booosting to 2.53ghz. I know you're probably wondering about game performance. Alright, so after installing the update for the nvidia drivers, I ran tf2 COMPLETELY maxed out on highest resolution, and it ran at about 100fps. And remember that TF2 doesn't utilize multi-core processors as well as some of the even higher end games that have come out after it. I am anxious to see how this machine will handle BF:Bad Company 2. Anyways, the great thing is that I don't have to change anything with the cards. Optimus defaults to the integrated and then switches to nvidia 325 when needed. This, partnered with the smart i5 that adapts based on system needs, allows for a respectable battery life of about 3 hours with only a 6-cell lithium battery! Not too shabby. Next is the mousepad. Oh wow. I love it! It's quite intuitive, and once you get the hang of it, you will be DISAPPOINTED when you go to your friends' laptops without the multi-touch pad. It has almost 10 actions that are possible through the multi-touch pad! I know I caught myself trying to 3-finger swipe to go back a webpage. Needless to say it didn't work on theirs. Ha. Finally, for now, the Asus Software and Windows 7. Asus REALLY set the bar INCREDIBLY high with the production of this laptop. The Asus software that comes with it has some really cool features such as facial recognition. If you want, you can set the laptop to lock out whenever your face is not in front of the webcam for however long you want. Kinda a cool trick to play on your friends when they are facebook. Just give them time to login and them BAM, locked out. Ha. Funny stuff. Windows 7 really just tops the cake with the laptop though. I have loved everything about windows 7, and I learn new things almost daily as to what it can do. oh yea. the ONLY complaint I have with this laptop is that the 500gb hard drive came partitioned. The (C:Drive), or OS drive, comes at 100gb, and the (D:Drive), or Data drive, comes at 330gb. This can be useful for some, but I didn't care for it. However, with Windows 7, I am EASILY able to just stretch the size of the (C:Drive) as long as nothing is on the (D:Drive), without losing ANY data from the (C:Drive). Love it! And lastly, this thing comes with USB3.0! So this laptop is the PERFECT compromise of performance/battery life and all for less than $1k. Stop reading and buy already!Honest reviews on ASUS N61JV-X2 16-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Dark Brown)
Update: The computer began having problems rebooting. If I shut it down, then tried to start up right away, the caps lock and num lock lights would come on and stay on. The high speed fan sometimes came on. And it would not boot even to the ASUS logo. Wait a few minutes, and it would boot fine again.Sent back to ASUS and they replaced the motherboard. Fine now, but the turnaround on the repair was a bit long--about 2 weeks.
I'm still happy with the computer in general. Very nice machine. Hope they've got better quality control on the newer models.
-----original review ----
I've had the Asus N61jv for about 2 months now, and it's time to set down some of my trials and tribulations and successes. Overall, I like the computer a lot, but it has a few quirks that I'd have designed differently, and there were some serious problems that seem to be mostly overcome by now.
Design: the computer is not flat on the bottom. It's got feet at the back that are raised plastic with rubber pads. This is great for using on a desk and are absolutely non-skid. I don't know why they had to be so prominent, though--about 1/4". My problem with this is that when using the computer on the lap, they can be very uncomfortable, so I've had to learn to shift the computer off center a bit, or keep my knees close together. Not a big problem, but the ones on my previous Dell Inspiron 9300 didn't do that. Of course that computer was lots heavier, and wider too, so the rubber feet were further apart. All in all, I'd have preferred a flat bottom (the fan vents out the side) with just tiny little rubber pads.
Second design complaint: It's got these large white LED deals on either side toward the back, referred to as "Eagle Eyes." When the computer is on, they're always on, and when it's in sleep mode, they flash! Or breathe or something. Like I really want bright white lights pulsating in an otherwise dark room when the computer's asleep! I communicated with Asus, and they cannot be turned off. They are still visible when the lid is closed, as they're sort of built into dips in the case. What is wrong with electronics mfgrs these days, that they think users want disco lights going even when the machine is off? It's similar to those annoying SanDisk Cruzer usb drives that pulsate orange light when plugged in, even when nothing's happening. My solution to this was to put a bit of black vinyl electrical tape over each one. It stretches to conform to the depressions, and it sort of blends in color wise. They also put a big while LED around the power button, which also pulsates during sleep--aagh! At least that one is hidden when the case is closed. BTW, apparently the Eagle Eyes change to blue when the NVidia GeForce system is on turbo, which I haven't used yet, and don't really care about the blue. I guess heavy gamers might feel it's a positive feature.
The computer runs very cool even if left on all day. I'm not doing heavy duty gaming, but even when playing a movie, or burning DVDs etc, there's very little heat. And the thing flies--that's why I bought it--the i5 processor and the Nvidia Optimus tech (even though I don't use that as yet).
The chicklet keyboard seems very good, and there are some nice features, like Fn-Enter opens the calculator etc. There are dedicated speaker control buttons above the keyboard, which is a useful feature.
As I said, I really like the computer, but some of this awe might come from using Windows 7, which is really great. This computer easily runs the fancy Switcher (Windows-Tab) that shows all your open windows in a rotating 3D display. It's quite cool! However, a freeware program, Vista Switcher, is even better, if not quite as dramatic looking. And the super bar truly is super. Plus lots of other things, like the search box on the start menu finding all kinds of stuff really fast.
I upgraded from the installed W7 32 bit, to W7 Professional 64 bit, mainly for the XP compatibility mode (altho could have stayed with 32 bit I suppose).
An early issue almost had me send the computer back. There's a lot on the web about it--that it's not easy to "record what you hear." I do a short radio show that I put together with Audacity, and it is essential that I be able to record from eg WMP, YouTube, DVDs, etc. It wouldn't do that to begin with, and the web talk was stuff about digital copy protection etc. Seems a lot of folks have seen the same issue, with different hardware too.
I purchased the 3rd party program, Virtual Audio Cable, which is great. It allows routing the output of a device through virtual software cables to another device. This solved the problem, altho recording was not quite as loud a level as it should have been. Still, this worked fine for awhile. Then I found time to fool around with the W7 and audacity settings, and finally found the right ones, and now it works perfectly without VAC. Windows 7 handles low level audio in a new way apparently, and it's not always easy to set it up. Why the default settings aren't better I don'k know.
Here's what I found to work:
In Audacity preferences, set host to Windows Direct Sound, recording device to Primary Sound Capture Device, and playback to Primary Sound Driver.
In Windows, right click the speaker icon; choose Recording. Set Stereo Mix as the default recording device, and set Speakers as the default Playback device. I don't remember what the defaults were, but they weren't exactly these.
Another selling point for the n61jv is it has both esata and usb 3.0 ports. I've had mixed results with these. I ordered several esata enclosures (after the first one didn't work at all) and a usb 3 enclosure, plus a couple of Hitachi 500gb 7200 rpm drives. None of the esata enclosures worked well (except with usb 2 they were fine). I began to suspect it might be a hardware issue. In the meantime, my wireless connectivity suddenly went out. It looked like a hardware issue too, since the wifi switch near the front showed the same icon for on and off, and it's a hardware switch. I began thinking I'd have to send the unit back. However, I called Asus, and the tech gave me a few drivers to install from the site. (I'd already installed what I could find by searching the site, but it's hard to tell what's relevant and what isn't). That did the trick! It must have been a firmware problem, since I'd already swapped another drive in with a much older W7 image, and it still didn't work. Once I loaded the driver, the problem was solved with either W7 image, though it was installed via only one of them.
A similar thing worked with the esata. It was unreliable for big files, eg 10GB or more. It would lose the connection. Just today, I got an email back from Asus on the problem, and they gave me two more drivers to install. Again, I didn't find these on a site search, or at least they didn't stand out from the crowd as relevant to my problem. But they appear to have done the trick. My INEO enclosure was recognized right away (before it would first say the drive needed formatting, and then maybe recognize it, maybe not). And I copied a 50gb image to the drive with no problem at all. So I'm thinking that's another firmware driver that needed an update.
The usb 3.0 may be similar. I've had a few problems, although I've been able to make a 50gb Acronis drive image that I verified by putting it on a drive and booting. Still, that'll be my next query to the Asus team to see if there are driver updates needed.
Touchpad: this is a mixed bag too. It's got a lot of features, but not too much in adjustments for sensitivity. In fact the only one seems to be for palm sensitivity. I do tend to get erroneous movements because part of my right palm sometimes brushes the pad. Partly this is because it's a big pad, which is nice for cursor movements. But I find that adjusting the palm sensitivity down makes it so other features don't work well either.
So I leave the palm sensitivity up, and am learning to (touch) type with a slightly different hand position. This works--just takes some self-training. The various features are nice--good enough that I'm not using a mouse much at all (I used to use a mouse all the time with my previous Dell). Two fingers can scroll up or down, and a two-finger tap sets up an autoscroll icon in most programs. This lets you roll through pages at varying speeds, depending on how close the cursor is to the icon. Very nice when you get used to it.
Three fingers tap simulates a right click, which I use a lot. There are more features, like sideways scrolling and a magnifiers, but I've turned most of them off, since they tend to happen accidentally, and I don't use them anyway. There are other taps too which do things like opening task manager or flipping through windows, but I prefer to do those with the windows key plus other keys. I've found that the two finger tap does some other really useful things: On a superbar icon, it opens a new instance (like mouse right click, then choose a new instance). In Firefox, it opens a link in a new tab, so these shortcuts really save some time when using just the pad.
The touch pad is left of center, but centered on the main part of the keyboard. I wish they'd put it a little more to the left though, since it's the left part of the right palm that causes trouble.
There's a dedicated numeric pad, which is nice.
I have a Kensington radio mouse that I use for cursor-intensive things like Audacity projects. It's great. It's got a nano-usb transmitter, that only sticks out about 1/4", so I leave it in all the time. The mouse has an on/off switch on the bottom, which is very good, since mouse movement will wake up the computer. The mouse is low profile, flat and black, so it looks very cool with the computer.
There are 3 usb ports on the computer (one of which is 3.0 but works fine for 2.0 and below too). I kind of miss the 6 built-in usb ports of my Dell, but I can always add a couple via an express card. The placement of the ports is a bit strange. There's one on the front left, one on the right rear, and one on the right front. This would make it hard to use those usb Y cords that some enclosures come with, but so far it seems the ports supply enough power. The front right has a usb port right next to the esata port. Since the esata cable is heavy and not too flexible, it sometimes gets in the way of ejecting a CD. I would have liked that somewhere else. Still, I could get an express card esata port that would put it on the left side, so that's solvable if need be.
I'm surprised asus didn't put any ports on the back. In some ways that would be more convenient, and would keep cables out of the way. But the trade off is that this way, you don't have to struggle the computer into odd angles to get things plugged in. Overall, I think it's better this way, but it took some getting used to. At least the power cord had a right angle connector, and that's the one I keep plugged in the most. Keeps it out of the way.
I get 4 hours plus on the batteries without doing any fancy configuring. But I'm not playng DVDs etc. YMMV. Still, the power seems very good compared to my old Dell and to some of the laptops of my friends. The screen is plenty bright--I usually keep it on about 15%, and the colors are really good even at that level. There's a utility to adjust screen qualities six ways from Sunday, which I haven't really used.
So those are the main issues. There have been problems, but so far have been solved by tech support. Asus support is great, either by phone of email (via their trouble report form on the website). That's a big plus, but then Dell support was good too.
Am I happy with my purchase? Yes, despite the trials. Would I buy it again? Probably, because the price is good and the specs are great. The build quality seems very good--that's the big "if" for me, buying without seeing. Is the look and feel going to meet my expectations--and they have. And that's basically why I bought the computer. The price and specs were good, and early reviews were mostly positive.
A lot of my friends are Mac people. Believe me, I was tempted to go Mac this time around. I've used Macs and they're very nice. But I'm a pedestrian at heart, and Macs seem a bit hoity-toity. A PC friend of mine was asked why he didn't like Macs, and he said "They're too simple." I feel a bit that way too. I like solving some problems as long as the frustration level doesn't get too high. Plus I have a few programs that run in XP compatibility mode but wouldn't run on a Mac without some kind of fancy emulation.
Plus I've never liked the Apple exclusivity thing. They're getting away from that a bit, but those things are still very pricey for the power you get. If I was rich enough to not worry about money, would I buy a Mac? Sure, I'd get both.
I'm giving this sucker a 4 because it's put me through some hoops. But it's a great machine, and if I didn't have to install new drivers, I'd probably have given it a 5 even despite the Eagle (evil) eyes!
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS N61JV-X2 16-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Dark Brown)
There are more powerful laptops out there on the net that can do and handle a whole lot more than this laptop can but for the money this is hands down the best Power User/mid-range Gamer Laptop that i could find on the net, and believe me, i did my research, for under $1000 you can't get any better, at least not right now.For the money you can't beat the features with its 16" glossy screen and Intel core i5 processor and ddr3 memory with usb 3.0 controller and DVDRW drive this is an awesome laptop. As soon as i got it i reformatted the 7200 RPM hard drive and put Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit on it and the thing just runs like a champ.
When it first arrived it was packaged very well and protected well, when i turned it on for the first time it went thru a setup process that took about 5-10 min, after that everything was good to go. However, in the first 2 weeks I got 1 blue screen and 1 odd screen with vertical lines across the screen within a couple days of each other, but after i reformatted and installed Win 7 Ult 64bit i can't say i have had any other issues.
I would recommend to anyone that gets this laptop to immediately update everything until there are no more updates to download, especially the nVidia drivers, Intel drivers, and Windows updates, not necessarily in that order, and you might consider uninstalling all the bloatware installed, there are some cool apps that come pre-installed but you may not need all of them, if you get my drift. Also, i will add that i do not like Trend Micro antivirus, which came pre-loaded on the laptop, because i have experienced a lot of system issues with that program so i immediately removed it, this may not be the case with other people. Instead I use freeware programs like Avast Home Edition or Microsoft Security Essentials along with Windows Defender and Windows Firewall, as well as a good spi/nat router firewall.
I have to say the nVidia GTS 325M is impressive for a lower to mid-range graphic card but i do wish i could get better frame rates on games like Crysis/Warhead/Wars but the card handles DX9 and DX10 games surprisingly well. And the Optimus functionality seems to work flawlessly changing from regular desktop graphics to game graphics seemlessly. The Intel HD graphics are not bad either for general use (to get best picture for intel hd graphics i had to update to latest drivers then move the saturation slider up to about 10-15 because everything looked washed out), but everything all in all is quite sufficient, especially for the money.
If you're serious about quality and performance versus cost, get this laptop, you will not be sorry. Oh yeah, the laptop actually comes with a 2 year Asus warranty, you have to first register your laptop at Asus website then fill out a warranty card that comes with it and send it in within 60 days of purchase.
I am very, very pleased with my purchase of the Asus N61JV-X2.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Review of Lenovo G570 Laptop w/ I3 2370m (2.4ghz) Procesor, 15.6in Led
I got my first Lenovo when Lenovo wasn't even thought of as a top maker. Now it is the biggest in the world.
It was than owned by IBM or the ThinkPad generic but now it is the leading computer manufacturer.
This model is a great machine for the price!
It was than owned by IBM or the ThinkPad generic but now it is the leading computer manufacturer.
This model is a great machine for the price!
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Cheap HP Pavilion Touchsmart 11-E010nr 11.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop
List Price: $567.00
Sale Price: $375.45
Today's Bonus: 34% Off
I bought mine for $329 at Office max when they had an $100 off sale. It was a deal sealer. They said this model just came out, and it was top of line. Its an very attractive model over ASUS which is two tone with Silver and I hated that. This is my first HP and I love it.
This laptop boots up to useable screen in 3 seconds! And I set mine to shut down when the lid is shut.
It comes with windows 8 and you can switch to windows desktop with a push of the screen or by pressing window button on the keyboard. I believe windows 8 is far superior to windows 7 and the touch screen is a real nice item! I bought this after looking at a bunch of them and decided I wanted touch screen & windows 8-with desktop like windows 7. The start button is missing but its coming back in the next update. I'm using short cuts to 'my computer' and 'my documents' to get around it.
The screen is very vibrant to look at, has 2 USB 3.0 ports, and one 2.0port that I use for a wireless mouse. it has HDMI hook ups for HD external monitor and it appears to have an express card slot, VGA, and built in Ethernet for connecting to the internet if you don't have access to wireless.
It doesn't play DVDs with an external DVD player unless you have a program like cyberlink 8 or betterI just happened to have one laying around, those programs can be expensive. I bought the LG external player for $20+ and I used it to install software too and its very portable.
The computer is pretty fast and I had no problems installing stuff. It has 500 Gb hard drive plenty of space, 4 gigs of ram and I believe its upgradable to 8 gigs.
I have to say its the best laptop I have ever purchased.. lightweight, very portable, fast, very attractive, and you're up and running very quick.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
I needed a small laptop with a wired Internet connector (to use in hotels--their wi-fi is often not free, and often isn't very responsive). This unit more than met my needs, and has Windows 8 and a touch screen to boot. There is a LOT of capability here for a VERY reasonable price.The touch screen and Windows 8 work very well together, but of course Windows 8 takes some getting used to if you're not already familiar with it. Having the touch screen makes that a LOT easier.
The main thing I notice about this laptop is how nicely it is designed. The connectors, the keyboard, the lights, the case, the screen -everything just oozes quality and good engineering. HP must have hired some designers away from Apple, because this is a NICE machine, along the lines of Apple's famous hardware. It's not the fastest thing in the world, but after all it's a low-cost laptop.
There's no optical drive in the computer, and I haven't yet hooked it up to an external drive and tried to load any software. Based on other reviews, I don't expect any problems. I haven't used the machine on battery power, but it seems to have ample battery life. It gives you battery reports in percent remaining AND an estimate of what that translates to in time. I imagine that this is a Windows 8 feature, but whoever put it in, it's nice to have.
Best Deals for HP Pavilion Touchsmart 11-E010nr 11.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop
Looking for a laptop to go to Florida that was not as bulky as my 15 inch, or as heavy I picked this up on sale and as of two days it seems a really good buy. It is quick,loads quick has windows 8 which I am getting used to and I am getting used to the key placement although I wush it had a back lit keyboard and as you know it doesn't have a cd dvd drive. Other than that for a little more than 350 I am very satisfiedFriday, May 16, 2014
Cheap Toshiba Satellite P875-S7102 Core i7-3630QM 2.4GHz 8GB 750GB DVD±RW
List Price: $899.99
Sale Price: $878.99
Today's Bonus: 2% Off
The Laptop is very fast and good. But there are some problems regarding the need of a solid state Hard Drive and the cover that is made of plastic. But the PC is incredible and with an excellent and the Computer Geek has good offers.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
it is fast, really. nice screen. but the keyboard space bar require you to hit it in theexact middle and EXTRA hard for the space key to work. so get it repair under warranty? this is when you find out there is only one option to pack it up and send it into toshiba for service. no local authorized repair centers available. will notlet you payfor thepart, repalce and return defective keyboard for credit. so i have to remove all my data to send itin andthen will have toreinstall. along with thefactthatiam out ofthelaptop for a couple of weeks.by the way. i tested another of the same model on display at bestbuy and the same crappy space key problem so not sure sendingit in for repairwill improve anything. it mightjust be abad keyboard design.
notice had badthe typing on itis?
*****UPDATE********
I sent it back to Toshiba for repair. The turn around was faster than I expected, 1 week. The repair did fix the issues with the spacebar on the laptop. Shame on Toshiba though, the laptop came back with a new keyboard but is was no completely installed and just flopping around when I received it back. Not a big deal for me and I had is properly installed in about 5 minutes. I am very pleased to have my laptop keyboard functioning and greatly increasing the value of my laptop. I am changing my rating from 2 to 4 stars.
Best Deals for Toshiba Satellite P875-S7102 Core i7-3630QM 2.4GHz 8GB 750GB DVD±RW
I love this laptop. It's a nice desktop replacement. The battery life leaves much to be desired but I have it plugged up most of the time. Thanks. Couldn't beat the price either.Honest reviews on Toshiba Satellite P875-S7102 Core i7-3630QM 2.4GHz 8GB 750GB DVD±RW
Got this laptop for around 500 new. Loving it, gobs of power, room to expand. If you want it to be ninja, get a SSD drive as the main and use the built in drive to hold your "stuff" I added 16 gb of ram, a 120gb SSD hdd, and a bluetooth dongle. Great machine, the screen is gorgeous and hugeCons:
great huge screen.
Very powerful
backlit keyboard
expansion room for 2nd hdd and another 24gb of ram
good speakers
Cons:
Heavy... Like really heavy.. if you want portability, this is not the machine you want. look at a Lenovo 14", they are great portable powerhouses (priced to match)
The graphics card will not do the latest games at high levels, but i can play any steam game (Left 4 Dead 1/2, Portal 1/2 etc at full tilt and it rocks)
Battery life
Keyboard and trackpad are obnoxious at first they do get better with time. (i really recommend a nice optical wired mouse. The touch pad is in an odd location making typing difficult, you plug in a mouse and it auto turns off and you can type much better,
the dvd drive is cheesy feeling
windows 8
Asus X501A-DH31-WT 15.6-Inch Laptop Reviews
I replaced my 5 year old Toshiba laptop with this ASUS and have been very impressed. I was just looking for a basic laptop for web browsing, email, Youtube, etc, and this fit the bill. It's slim and lightweight (at least compared to the other older laptops we have) and runs very cool. With the Intel i3 processor along with 4GB of RAM it's not cutting edge by any means, but as a basic laptop it's more than enough.
I've got an ASUS netbook that's a couple of years old and have had no issues at all with it, and hopefully the new laptop will fare as well. If you're looking for a good, basic laptop then put this on your list.
I just open and use couple hours....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are truly sorry, but I have been informed by our returns department that we received your return of the ASX501DH31W ASUS 15.6"NTBK WH;I3-2350M which had already been opened and used.
Unfortunately we cannot authorize/process your return since you did not return this properly according to our guidelines in our return policy, which you can see listed on our web site: (partially copied here in the next paragraph.) as well as on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aag/details?ie=UTF8&asin=&isAmazonFulfilled=&isCBA=&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&orderID=&seller=A17MC6HOH9AVE6&sshmPath=returns#aag_returns
Returned or exchanged products must be in brand-new, mint condition. Items must be in the original, undamaged manufacturer's packaging with all packaging materials, including instruction booklets, packing inserts, and the blank warranty cards. Any merchandise missing the original Universal Product Code (UPC) cannot be returned. The manufacturer's labeled packaging must be enclosed within an additional shipping carton. Please do not place stickers or shipping labels on the original manufacturer's package. Please ship your parcel back to Adorama freight prepaid and Insured. Sorry, Adorama cannot accept COD or freight-collect shipments. Return shipping cost (the cost to send an item back to our store) is not reimbursable. …….Notebooks netbooks, laptops, tablets and computers cannot be returned or exchanged once opened or unwrapped.
Our returns department cannot issue refund since in this condition, the manufacturer considers this as not ours to return but rather it belongs to the customer, and therefore they will not accept it back from us for credit.
Since this is NOT defective, it's just that you No longer needed/wanted
It wasn't easy to use windows 8. I couldn't get internet connection with my internet cable..I couldn't figure out to install skype too...
I am sorry, but sice this is not defective per your email request to return this (and you don't have a case#) we can either return this to you or if you cannot accept this back, we will have no choice but to split the loss and process your return less 50% and sell it a a "Used" item.
Please reply ASAP within 3 business days.
Thank you for your patience and understanding
I've got an ASUS netbook that's a couple of years old and have had no issues at all with it, and hopefully the new laptop will fare as well. If you're looking for a good, basic laptop then put this on your list.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
I am very shocked at how well this computer runs and works. I've never had an Asus before but I'm glad I got it. It turns on really quick and the Windows 8 is super fast compared to Windows 7.Best Deals for Asus X501A-DH31-WT 15.6-Inch Laptop
They won't give me back refund....sucksI just open and use couple hours....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are truly sorry, but I have been informed by our returns department that we received your return of the ASX501DH31W ASUS 15.6"NTBK WH;I3-2350M which had already been opened and used.
Unfortunately we cannot authorize/process your return since you did not return this properly according to our guidelines in our return policy, which you can see listed on our web site: (partially copied here in the next paragraph.) as well as on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aag/details?ie=UTF8&asin=&isAmazonFulfilled=&isCBA=&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&orderID=&seller=A17MC6HOH9AVE6&sshmPath=returns#aag_returns
Returned or exchanged products must be in brand-new, mint condition. Items must be in the original, undamaged manufacturer's packaging with all packaging materials, including instruction booklets, packing inserts, and the blank warranty cards. Any merchandise missing the original Universal Product Code (UPC) cannot be returned. The manufacturer's labeled packaging must be enclosed within an additional shipping carton. Please do not place stickers or shipping labels on the original manufacturer's package. Please ship your parcel back to Adorama freight prepaid and Insured. Sorry, Adorama cannot accept COD or freight-collect shipments. Return shipping cost (the cost to send an item back to our store) is not reimbursable. …….Notebooks netbooks, laptops, tablets and computers cannot be returned or exchanged once opened or unwrapped.
Our returns department cannot issue refund since in this condition, the manufacturer considers this as not ours to return but rather it belongs to the customer, and therefore they will not accept it back from us for credit.
Since this is NOT defective, it's just that you No longer needed/wanted
It wasn't easy to use windows 8. I couldn't get internet connection with my internet cable..I couldn't figure out to install skype too...
I am sorry, but sice this is not defective per your email request to return this (and you don't have a case#) we can either return this to you or if you cannot accept this back, we will have no choice but to split the loss and process your return less 50% and sell it a a "Used" item.
Please reply ASAP within 3 business days.
Thank you for your patience and understanding
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Best ThinkPad T61 Notebook 2GHz Core 2 Duo 14.1" Wide Deals
first i want to be very clear...i am reviewing the machine not the operating system. sooooo many problems with these machines have to do with the o.s. and have nothing to do with the machine.
when i get a machine, i take out the h.d. and put in my own with linux. maybe i'll dual boot with windows but thats rare.
i have owned the old ibm t-pads and the lenovos and i think they are great machines and this one is no exception. for such an outdated cpu (t7300), its very snappy and does the normal surfy, streamy things just dandy.
i put a solid state h.d. in mine and i recommend them for a little more speed.
excellent keyboard and decent display and right now the cpu cores are running at...35c and 39c and the fan isn't even running. thats nice and cool.
there was a problem with the hinges loosening on these, but i took mine apart and checked them. they were tight but there is that typical slight wobble that you get with older machines (and most new ones). they will be fine.these things are built like tanks. if you saw the insides of one you would understand.
i dont really know what else to say. every port and plug is fine and the machine always works.
i wrote this because these old machines are great for extra machines or beginner (kids) machines and i thought some input would help.
why get a cheap netbook when these are so much better and cheaper?
i hope i helped.
Thank you Computer Thirst. The laptop is very good, fast smooth windows 7 is very good.
Professor Sanders
when i get a machine, i take out the h.d. and put in my own with linux. maybe i'll dual boot with windows but thats rare.
i have owned the old ibm t-pads and the lenovos and i think they are great machines and this one is no exception. for such an outdated cpu (t7300), its very snappy and does the normal surfy, streamy things just dandy.
i put a solid state h.d. in mine and i recommend them for a little more speed.
excellent keyboard and decent display and right now the cpu cores are running at...35c and 39c and the fan isn't even running. thats nice and cool.
there was a problem with the hinges loosening on these, but i took mine apart and checked them. they were tight but there is that typical slight wobble that you get with older machines (and most new ones). they will be fine.these things are built like tanks. if you saw the insides of one you would understand.
i dont really know what else to say. every port and plug is fine and the machine always works.
i wrote this because these old machines are great for extra machines or beginner (kids) machines and i thought some input would help.
why get a cheap netbook when these are so much better and cheaper?
i hope i helped.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
I love the T61. It is bullet-proof and everything was good about this unit except the battery life. Only an hour and a half, so I bought a new 9-cell for $26. Now it is as good as new. The seller makes sure the screen and unit are in perfect condition. I'm willing to pay a little extra for that.Best Deals for ThinkPad T61 Notebook 2GHz Core 2 Duo 14.1" Wide
I bought a top-of-the-line version of this for my son for med but it turned out to be completely unreliable. And 9 of the 10 others in his class who had Lenovo's had the exact same experience. Only 1 was satisfied. What's worse, when we had a disagreement with Lenovo over whether we should pay for a repair that did not fix the problem, the head of Lenovo's customer service department told me -and this is an exact quote -"I don't care what's good for the customer, I care what's good for Lenovo. BEWARE!Honest reviews on ThinkPad T61 Notebook 2GHz Core 2 Duo 14.1" Wide
WHo needs 600 dollar laptops when you can buy this bad larry for 150 and get a fantastic piece of machinery.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ThinkPad T61 Notebook 2GHz Core 2 Duo 14.1" Wide
March 28, 2013Thank you Computer Thirst. The laptop is very good, fast smooth windows 7 is very good.
Professor Sanders
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Review of Apple MacBook Air Core i7 1.8GHz 13"-4GB RAM-256GB
Get it from the apple store online refurbished and save a lot of $$$$. At the apple store website...on the bottom left side of the page under special deals click on refurbished mac...they are selling it for $1439+tax and you can get a full 3 year applecare warranty too. I am very satisfied with my macbook air that was shipped to me... it is brand new! no blemishes of any kind. The battery has lasted upto 9 hours! Overall excellent product.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
Finally a device arrived that's worth to be called a notebook. The unit packs a powerful punch of CPU, fast memory and solid state storage which is finally starting to reach practical capacities and capabilities. The top end i7 model fully loaded (4GB RAM, 256GB SDD at the time) does easily rival a MacBook Pro, and outperforms my 2007 17" MacBook Pro (2.4GHz dual, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD with 4GB SDD cache). No moving parts other then the fan, which hardly comes on. The missing optical drive may throw you off originally but other then for software installation and burning the odd DVD you will hardly miss it during day-to-day use. In that case the optional USB drive doesn't break the bank, and if you have another Mac somewhere you can easily mount that drive remotely. The only downside, and I found this will all my MacBooks in the past, is the poor lighting of the displays, it's uneven and most noticeably darkens in corners and edges. I would understand burnout after years of use like mine that run 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, some 5+ years now. But not with a new device out of the box. There are more significantly lower priced Laptops out there that do a much better job in that area. Now, I use the unit as a business notebook with mainly commercial apps and a WIndows VM on top, so I can live with it, but it's still not acceptable at that price point.Best Deals for Apple MacBook Air Core i7 1.8GHz 13"-4GB RAM-256GB
Too bad, amazon only sells a version without core i7 CPU upgrade. If they do and the price is around 1599 (since i5 version is at 1499 and apple store add 100$ for upgrading), I will order immediately.Honest reviews on Apple MacBook Air Core i7 1.8GHz 13"-4GB RAM-256GB
This is a great laptop. I like how it boots up instantly, and the almost weightlessness of it. Hey it is an Apple what did you expect me to say. LOL. I also appreciated John and his fast communication, the care in shipping it quickly to me and his personal follow up. Thanks John.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Apple MacBook Air Core i7 1.8GHz 13"-4GB RAM-256GB
Farhad Manjoo of Slate magazine was 100% right when he wrote recently, " If you want a great laptop, buy a MacBook Air." It's that simple.Acer Aspire V5-471P-6605 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Silky Silver) Review
List Price: $699.99
Sale Price: $473.00
Today's Bonus: 32% Off
I will keep this relatively short-you get what you pay for! For the current listed price there is no other 14" touchscreen on the market at this price point. I have now had this laptop for nearly a week and it is pretty fast. I ordered 4gb of ram along with the computer to upgrade to 8gb total. This makes all the difference and for roughly $25 you can get the most out of this computer with this simple upgrade that a child could install. Backlit keyboard is great and illuminates nicely without blinding you in very dark locations. As for the fit and finish-I personally like it. It really is silky in feel. The computer itself is solidly built and all parts fit well. Also, the speakers on this thing are great for a budget laptop. They get a lot louder than previous laptops I've had and with more body. They really sound the best when the laptop is sitting on a hard surface so they can reflect sound off of it since they are on the bottom. My only issues with this laptop are the wifi and the smallish battery. The wifi disconnects on a regular basis and has to be reset. Three hours on the internet and I will have to reset atleast twice. I will probably just get a nano usb wifi module to fix this situation. That being said, still a great purchase as long as I get 2 years out of this thing.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
This is a great laptop and definitely worth the price. I had some issues with the wifi staying connected, but went to Acer's site and downloaded a different driver and now it works perfect! I love the touchscreen! It has everything I need in a computer and very happy with the purchase.Best Deals for Acer Aspire V5-471P-6605 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Silky Silver)
I researched extensively before buying this laptop. I needed something under $800, lightweight, had an optical drive, a webcam, quick start at boot and a decent size hard drive. This is what I ended up purchasing.PROS:
-Good price for what you get.
-Very comparable to ultrabooks for a similar size and weight (albeit slightly heavier, but not much bulkier)
-Haven't had any software issues, or bugs to report. I've been using this laptop for 3 1/2 months.
-When starting the computer it literally takes less than 10 seconds to boot.
-Good size memory and RAM
-Processor speed is good.
-The touchscreen; I have gotten used to it and really like it. Scrolling on webpages can go way faster than using the pad on a laptop.
CONS:
-The wifi adapter tends to go in and out. Every couple of hours or so you will lose your connection for about 10-30 seconds.
-As is you will need to do a manual update for the wireless adapter from the Acer website. If you aren't very computer saavy this can take a while to figure out how to do.
-The casing of the laptop (on mine at least) is poorly put together. There is a good 1/4 inch gap in the casing on the left side of mine.
-The touchscreen; If you use it often your screen will need to be cleaned very often. Visually this can get annoying. If you have OCD, don't even bother getting a touchscreen laptop. It will drive you nuts.
OVERALL:
Overall I think for the price you are getting higher end "insides" with a lower quality "outside". If you're on a budget and don't mind the few issues I have found so far, this computer will work fine. None of the issues were enough, for me, to ever get frustrated or regret my purchase. I think its great that you can still get a higher functioning laptop for a lower price.
Edit: Upon opening there was a tiny scratch in the corner of the casing where the screen is. Amazon resolved my issue within a matter of minutes via email. No worries when purchasing from Amazon.
Honest reviews on Acer Aspire V5-471P-6605 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Silky Silver)
maybe it was just my luck but it got defective on me twice so had to return, Amazon saved me!! i wouldve cried if I couldnt lol. dont mean to scare anybody it worked awsome when it did, just didnt last! ;(UPDATE,Ive searched and searched and searched for another good laptop for a good price!! and no luck!, thers 2 other acer for 50-60 more and I think im going to reorder this one again! :( so heads on on a semi cheap laptop, if you want it to last, get square trade coverage here in amazon! which is what Im going to do, other wise it'll probably last me 2 years or less. Its so worth it if you dont want an expensive laptop right now! I wish these other people would answer their reviews! haha.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Acer Aspire V5-471P-6605 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Silky Silver)
Bought this awhile back, has been good so far! No real complaints. The touch screen element is really neat and handy at times when not using the alternate browser.Sunday, February 16, 2014
Acer Aspire AS7739Z-4804 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black) Review
The screen is beautiful and the multi function keypad works great. Although not a gamer power machine this unit for the price is great for the student like myself. If is stolen they didn't steal my life savings. For the price this is a great computer with windows 7 installed and the large hard drive it is a good deal. If you need more power, speed, memory and RAM. Pay more and get something else. For this money and comparable components your looking at a 15" screen not a 17.3" with an out standing picture.
Other than the rip-off service from ACER, I love the computer. This is the third laptop I've purchased from ACER and I have always been extremely satisfied with their products.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
I love my laptop. Good price and all that. I use mine just to get online and check emails, etc. I have 2 other computers in the house,but this one sits in the kitchen for me to check out things quickly and have had not problems at all. I am impressed with this brand and product.Best Deals for Acer Aspire AS7739Z-4804 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)
I understand there can always be a bad component but when I contacted Acer I was told I had to pay $129.00 for them to diagnose the problem because they thought it was a virus. When we realized it was the keyboard I thought they would refund my money and I said so. I was told they would look over my situation and get back to me. I did need to send my computer in for them to replace the keyboard and they did. But they also kept my $129.00. That was almost 3 weeks ago and I will call them again to try to solve this disagreement.Other than the rip-off service from ACER, I love the computer. This is the third laptop I've purchased from ACER and I have always been extremely satisfied with their products.
Honest reviews on Acer Aspire AS7739Z-4804 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)
The product arrived quickly and on time. I am very pleased with the product and the ease of set up. The screen has great resolution and it is a good product so far. I use this for my work and have mainly web-based applications and word processing needs and this has worked great to his point. I would buy it again.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Acer Aspire AS7739Z-4804 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)
The computer came a day earlier than it was supposed to. The ad says the computer is black, when it's actually grey. My tech-buddy roommate help me set it up and it's been running smoothly! I absolutely love it!Friday, February 14, 2014
Buy Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5133 Laptop Computer With 15.6"
can't go wrong with this laptop. Long battery life, nice display and responsive track pad. Low heat out put also. long charging cable is a plus.I have never had trouble with a computer until I used this one. The first week I had to call Toshiba to fix it.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Acer Aspire S7-392-6832 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Crystal Review
List Price: $1,399.99
Sale Price: $1,309.42
Today's Bonus: 6% Off
I've been wanting to upgrade my laptop for the past year or so, but until this laptop came out I couldn't really find one that matched what I was looking for. I wanted a laptop that was 11-13" since I'm a student and will be travelling with it relatively frequently. I also wanted good battery life since I don't always have access to an outlet. Finally, I wanted a laptop that had decent technical specs and performance. Finding a balance between all three of these facets was difficult but this laptop fits the bill (I'm currently typing on it right now).
Specs: 5/5
With one of Intel's new Haswell processors, I've noticed that Acer has really improved the battery life from their previous iteration of the S7. They've also managed to bump up performance by 10-15% according to recent benchmarks. Finally, the integrated graphics on this particular processor has also been improved slightly from the previous HD 4000 series. These specs are more than enough to run Microsoft office, watch HD video, browse the internet, run lab software, and do light gaming. I leave the more intensive games to my desktop. The SSD is quite snappy-the boot up time from power button press to desktop is around 5 seconds. This is great as I'm often turning it on and off when I move around.
Screen: 5/5
The touch screen is quite nice at 1080p resolution. The laptop comes with the text set to increased size, but I'm currently running it at 100% size and I can read everything comfortably. The text is crisp and the colors are vibrant. The screen is quite bright. It does have a glossy finish, however, so it will get fingerprints on it if you decide to use the touch screen. I rarely use the touch screen so it's just nice to have in case there's ever any reason I need it in the future.
Sound: 3/5
The speakers are probably one of the laptop's bigger weaknesses. They are somewhat tinny and have very little bass. I use headphones whenever I'm on the laptop though, so this doesn't really affect me. Some Dolby software equalizing does come preinstalled, but I don't find it to be particularly useful.
Keyboard: 4/5
The keyboard has increased travel compared to the previous S7, which is good since it was quite shallow before. The keyboard is nice to type on (I haven't noticed more errors than usual), but Acer did decide to shrink the function keys into the number keys. This was an interesting choice... it makes the keyboard look more clean, but also results in more keys being dual function. If you use Alt-F4 or anything with F# keys, then you'll have to add another key press to those combos-Alt-F4 becomes Alt-Fn-4 and so on. There are a few other changes to the layout (Esc is now where the tilde key usually is, and the caps lock key is now two keys: caps lock and tilde), but most of the changes are on keys that I don't use so I don't mind as much. You may find yourself having to adjust depending on which keys you use.
Touchpad: 4.5/5
The touchpad is now a Synaptics touch pad, and I find it pretty sensitive and functional. It has multitouch capabilities (pinch to zoom, two finger scrolling, etc.). As far as I know, it doesn't allow for three finger tapping. Otherwise, basic functionality is there and it just works. It can either be press to click or tap to click. There are two unmarked areas at the bottom that correspond to left and right click. Not the most mind-blowing stuff.
Input/Output: 4.5/5
The power button has now been moved so that it is protected by the power cord. The power cord plugs in with a right angle connector, and it folds over the power button. I personally like this change as it prevents me from pressing it by accident. There's one USB 3.0 port on the left and an SD card reader. On the right is the headphone jack, an HDMI port, a USB 3.0 port, and an Acer converter port that allows you to buy an ethernet dongle. It's annoying that there's no ethernet port, but if you were planning on staying on WiFi anyways, then it's not a huge deal. The wi-fi issues of the last iteration seem to be resolved as I haven't had any problems with either disconnecting, connecting or signal strength. The webcam works well, as do the built in microphones.
Battery life: 5/5
Acer has really improved battery life by giving the S7-392 a bigger battery capacity, as well as upgrading to Haswell. I've been able to go the entire day in lab (10-12 hour days) without having to even pull out my charger when I use the laptop intermittently, and under heavy use I can easily get more than enough time (6-7 hours). Haswell really does improve the management of idle power consumption of the processor. The adapter is pretty small compared to other bricks I've owned, and it's not a pain to carry around. There is NOT a mag-safe type connection if you're looking for that. It plugs into the laptop so if you somehow trip over the cord, it will probably pull the laptop off the table depending on what angle it pulls at. Maybe you'll be luckier than I usually am... that's why I'm always extra careful walking around laptops.
Design: 5/5
This is something that is far more subjective, but I find the design to be gorgeous. The gorilla glass 2 cover is beautiful and since it's on a white background, it's harder to see fingerprints than if it were on a black background. The style inside the laptop is very clean and it's clear that Acer has gone for a more simple design aesthetic. There are very few lights blinking on it, which I like. There's one indicator for power, and another for when the laptop is charging. I don't need a hard drive activity, WiFi, or other indicators so I'm glad they kept it simple.
Operating system/install:
This is something that people probably find somewhat polarizing. I have no issues with Windows 8. It's a snappier version of Windows 7 and the lack of the "physical" start button in the bottom left doesn't really bother me. Other people will disagree-regardless, this is a review of the laptop not the operating system so I'm not going to base my review on the OS. However, I will base some of it on the fact that it comes installed with a bunch of programs that I found kind of useless. I immediately uninstalled McAfee antivirus (it comes with a year subscription I believe), a few Norton utilities, some preinstalled games, some Acer programs, and many windows 8 apps that I wasn't interested in. It took around 20 minutes or so.
Overall, I really like this laptop so far. I've only been using it for a week or so but it's been a huge improvement over what I was using before. I appreciate the improvements they've made over the previous model and while there are several aspects that I would change if I could, these don't seem to affect my use of the laptop (though they may affect yours.) Overall it's a quite solid laptop with good build quality and great design. I think it was worth the purchase and I would probably make the same choice if I had to choose a laptop again.
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I'm an IT consultant who visits several clients a week, so my required features in a laptop were light weight, great battery life, a 1080p screen so I can see more stuff at once and something sharp looking. The first version of the S7 (391) had notoriously poor battery life, so I was really happy to see the second version (392) got a bigger battery and the new Intel Haswell chip with its promise of superior battery performance.The other laptops I seriously considered were the Sony Vaio Pro 13 and MacBook Air 13. I didn't choose the Sony because its carbon fiber body flexes too much for my liking, even if it's potentially less fragile. I passed on the MacBook Air because running Windows in Boot Camp creates some annoyances that I'm not willing to deal with (all of my clients are Microsoft shops so I need to run Windows).
***Great Things About This Laptop***
-The improved battery life promise is real. I'm getting 7 hours per charge so far with this machine. My typical usage includes MS Office applications, a few browser tabs to run cloud apps, a few more browser tabs to goof off, some other IT-related tools and constant remote desktop sessions.
-It's very light, thin and good looking; it was also nice to find a beautifully designed ultrabook that doesn't try to mimic the MacBook Air. Its good looks are accompanied by a surprisingly solid build quality. Surprising to me that is, because I've seen some terrible products from Acer in my 16+ years of IT work. Frankly it was a small leap of faith for me to make this purchase.
-The screen is amazing. Holy crap. Makes my old laptop's screen look like garbage. It's a high quality IPS panel, so it looks good from any angle and the 1080p resolution is razor sharp. Colors are vibrant.
-The keyboard is pleasant to use. It's an improvement over the first S7's keyboard and much better than the Toshiba Portege's keyboard that I came from. It's spacious enough and the keys are nicely backlit too. It's not as good as a Thinkpad keyboard but considering how thin the machine is, it's pretty good. I like typing on it, and I have to type a lot.
-System performance is solid and it stays cool. The improved Haswell version of the Core i5 processor seems to breeze through whatever I throw at it. I rarely hear the fans spin up, and even watching Netflix doesn't seem to make it work too hard.
***Merely Acceptable or Not-So-Great Things About This Laptop***
-In case you're wondering about the Wi-Fi issue, I did indeed see some problems out of the box with dropped connections. I simply updated the driver from Intel's website (it's the Dual Band Wireless-N 7260) and have not had any problems since. This seems to be more of an Intel issue than an Acer issue.
-The keyboard arrangement is odd in some places, like the integration of the number/symbol and F1-F12 function keys. That means using something like the Alt-F4 combo to end a program now requires Fn-Alt-F4. Having the Home and End keys crammed in with the arrow keys will result in some initial frustration. It takes a little while to get used to the arrangement.
-The touchpad is a little finicky sometimes. I occasionally have trouble with two finger scrolling, and it takes a while to get used to figuring out the regions for right and left clicks. It's MUCH better than the trackpad on my 2.5 year old Toshiba Portege, but not as good as the Mac's (still the best in the business as far as I'm concerned).
-When you cram 1920x1080 pixels into a 13" screen, things are going to be small. Just be aware that although Windows 8 supports scaling, text on websites and in applications starts to look different (i.e. not as good) when you go above the native 100% sizing. I'm willing to deal with the small text though because I need to see multiple windows / data at once. At least it's super crisp.
-It's expensive... but understandably so when you look at how well it performs in such a light, thin, well built package.
-It's a little difficult to open the lid. The top is slightly recessed from the bottom which makes it difficult despite the added trim piece that's meant to help with the process.
-I hate the bloatware that every manufacturer includes with their laptops and Acer is no different. The Pokki app in particular takes some work to fully get rid of.
***Final Thoughts***
I really, really like this thing. There aren't exactly a lot of choices for Haswell ultrabooks right now, but I don't feel like I'm settling at all. It's a beautiful device with terrific battery life, the screen is amazing and it hardly breaks a sweat while I'm working. I'm an IT pro so I see lots of laptops... lots of ugly, clunky laptops with crappy screens... and this ain't one of them. Yeah it's expensive, but you start to see why after you've used it for a while.
***Update 10/11/13***
Going on 1.5 months with this machine and it's been terrific. Wi-Fi has still not been an issue since I updated the Intel driver on day one. It stays amazingly cool and quiet. The SSD is quick. The touchpad is good enough that I stopped using my bluetooth mouse. I still really, really like this thing.
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Updated review after 3 months of use.I had my eye on the S7 391 for months but was hoping for fixes for the fan noise, keyboard and touchpad issues. The 392 is the same body but those 3 components have been replaced.
I have the i5. The fans are either silent (off) or soft. I am not a power user, and have hardly heard them. Computer stays remarkably cool given how quiet the fans are. There is an electronic hum when the keyboard backlight is on, which gets louder the brighter the light is.
Keyboard: Quiet but key action is crisp. I have not had double letters or space-bar issues on either unit (see below) but am not a fast typist. No touchpad issues. The loudest thing about the computer is the touch pad click
It's fast. I transferred 1.5 gigs of photos in 1 min 45 sec vs. 8 min 30 sec to copy them on my HP dm3. I downloaded ClassicShell 3.6.8 to solve the Windows 8 start screen nuisance.
Pros: Elegant. It's visually light and physically light. It may be the only ultra thin that's all silver when open.
Fast!
The display is gorgeous.
Generally quiet and runs quite cool.
Battery life is at least 7 hours with 2 browsers running (IE for work, ugh), and screen at 100% brightness.
I'm happy with both touchpad and keyboard.
Comes with the best cleaning cloth (2!) I've used. Papery fabric that looks/feels like packing material; don't throw away!
Cons:
Quality control. I've been luckier than some other reviewers, but my original unit did completely die after about 4 days, probably a stripped
screw which lost contact after computer was moved around. Amazon replaced it promptly.
Acer's customer service. You pay to ship your brand new malfunctioning computer to them, turnaround time is 10 business days (2 weeks) and they don't follow through well. I sent the second one back for an intermittent electronic hum. I later learned by asking here that the keyboard backlight is the cause and(can be turned off).
Backlight is sluggish. Several seconds feels like an eternity to type in the dark before you can see the keys.
A sensor sometimes adjusts the screen brightness and is distracting
Power cord has 4 connection points (at computer, socket, and the 2 blocks are each in 2 parts) so easily loses contact.
Honest reviews on Acer Aspire S7-392-6832 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Crystal
Lots of complete reviews here, so I will keep this short. I am really liking this laptop after 48 hours,were it not for the fact that the space key, arather important feature in a keyboard, works on a schedule that is somewhat different than my requirements.This is especially frustrating, in that I have not suffered through anyof the other hardware/software complaints (wireless working without flaws, USB connections solid, touch pad has tolerable sensitivity, etc.). The bloatware is a bummer, but save for a few OEM's that offer clean installs, this is a common "feature." If I canget used to the fact that I have anoccasional space key...I may keep it, as I really like it otherwise.
The above was written without correcting space bar failures. I have found that if I hit the space bar near the back edge (nearest the screen), then it registers correctly. Hit towards the middle or edge further front, a frustrating failure rate results.
The carbon fiber Sony Vaio Pro 13, another Haswell machine, was super light but far too flexible, so I opted for the rigid aluminium of the Acer. I would have waited to see what is coming out in the fall, but my college student (and constant drain on my finances) needed a laptop for the current semester, so there went the mechanically flawless Sony Vaio VGN-Z530N that I had been using.
If you can wait to see what is coming out, do that. In the meantime, I will attempt to update this review after more experience, and also to post about my attempts to stretch my right thumb.
PRO
Light weight
Battery life (after shedding battery-draining software)
Screen resolution
Start-up wait (almost none to speak of)
More than adequate speed (combo of Haswell i5, in my case, and SSD's)
CON
Space bar
Windows 8 (not Acer's fault)
Overloaded keys (only 5 rows....6 rows really are better, and there appears to be room. My old Sony, also a 13 inch, fit the 6th row, and it worked perfectly. I can live with it, though, using the other functions so infrequently.
Only 60gb left available of the "128gb" at start. Actually, twin 60gb SSD's in raid 0, so 128gb is inaccurate. Get the i7 with the larger SSD's, if you can afford it.
Tons (and tons) of bloatware.
EDIT 1, same day: Corrected a few typos, and decided to take the advice of Don Blair. I am returning this unit due to the problem with the space bar, but will give a replacement a try since I am otherwise happy with it. Based on similar experiences documented in other reviews, I am not necessarily optimistic. On the plus side, I am going to go through the process of completely re-installing the operating system to wipe out my data. Oh, joy.
EDIT 2, 9/1/13: Took previous advice and returned the S7 with wonky spacebar. Got on phone with Amazon support to verify a rapid turnaround of replacement S7 (the i7 w/larger SSD's), and as usual, Amazon does not disappoint, received replacement in 1 day. Which is all the good news.
I still like the design and features of this machine. However, it is clear that Acer has fairly severe quality control issues on their manufacturing line. The very first time I powered on the replacement S7, odd behavior, consisting of faint circles appearing in a vertical line at the left side of the screen, without input on my part. I forged ahead, and completed the process of setting up the PC. Naturally, this included a huge amount of update files. Since the update, the spontaneous registration of touches on the screen has subsided, but the wonkiness on startup remained. It lasts for only a few seconds, and nothing much results from it. Based on this experience, I am uncertain whether the problem is hardware, firmware, or what.
However, if the problem persists, I will be returning this machine, as well, upon my return from travel. As I advised previously, if you can wait to see what other machines are coming out later, do so. Either that, or buy the Mac Air 13 and be done with it. I can't take that option, as I am firmly entrenched in the Microsoft nightmare that is Windows.
I begin travel very soon, and am now forced to go with this machine
EDIT 3, 9/28/13: I have sent the latest machine back, seeking a refund rather than a replacement. The replacement S7 received unprovoked input on the touch screen, and it only got worse during my travel. The result was especially frustrating, causing undesired actions to take place.
This is two for two, and I am giving up on Acer.
Based on this experience, and other reviews complaining of similar and other hardware issues, I believe it is valid to state that Acer has serious issues with quality control during manufacture. It would have been nearly impossible to miss the problem with my latest machine, since it appeared at first boot-up and was consistent. Ergo, Acer's Q.A. process is deficient at best.
I cannot recommend the S7 laptop's from Acer at this point, since acquisition of a reliable machine appears to be random chance, and I have revised my rating down to a single star from the 3-star rating I provided originally. This type of quality control simply cannot receive any higher rating. On the other hand, those reviewers whose machines were without hardware issues seem quite happy, so your mileage will no doubt vary.
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My purchase was done through the Microsoft Store online in July as it was one of the few ways to get the device that early. Generally the laptop proved to be quick, quiet and absent of heat-related issues. It's a great looking device providing better than expected audio from the built-in speakers and admired by those who have seen it. My experience until the last couple weeks had been positive.The Little Annoyances:
It took a little time to get use to the Function keys requiring an additional key-press
The color used to indicate the characters on the physical keyboard is like a matte gray on a matte silver background. Under certain lighting conditions when back-lit keys aren't fully illuminated, it is difficult to identify each key at a normal viewing angle.
After waking the device, I often have to hit Ctrl-Alt-Del to get the mouse pointer to appear. This happens whether or not the laptop is connected to my usb 3.0 universal docking station.
THE BIG PROBLEM:
After barely two months of use, the machine suddenly froze one day and became totally unresponsive. I eventually powered it off. At that point the "boot device" or hard drive was no longer visible to the system in any way shape or form. The device was over-nighted to Acer support in Texas as directed. After a week and a 1/2 I received the unit back but with ONLY 40gb of hard drive space TOTAL less than 8gb of that was available for use. What followed was a lot of time on the phone with support and then Acer's level 2 support. Finally I was told that they would pay to have it shipped back for repair via ground and then "re-configure the Raid settings." Wanting to be clear, I asked what the drive(s) and volume(s) capacity would be after this repair. I was told it would appear as 64gb and that they would do nothing else. This unit was purchased and used in a 128gb configuration until the problem occurred. The SKU doesn't even come with storage configured the way they said they would do it. However, it didn't seem to matter what I said. Oh and yes, I work in IT and understand different raid configurations and their requirements. I called the Microsoft store to see if they would advocate for me. Even they wondered what in the world Acer was doing. However, it will be a couple days before their escalation team gets involved.
Wow Acer! Really? Arrgh!
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