Best Compaq CQ57-310US Notebook PC - Black Deals

Customer Ratings:

didnt expect the laptop to be so good ! its 15 inches which is not what i expected , i thought it would be smaller , but its great , i have no bad comments on it other than it comes with alot of software already pre-installed over 1000 pre installed files which is kinda alot ! but the memory was still good . i recommend !!!

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I love this laptop, I recieved it as a christmas gift. it was easy to activiate, it was easy to start up, the Norton Security was a good help to stop me from having any viruses on mine. It was a great gift, my 2 cousins recieved one for christmas as well, and they both love it.......Just a great laptop! Recommend it to anyone and everyone!

Best Deals for Compaq CQ57-310US Notebook PC - Black

My brother has this laptop. I was over and was using it and I was impressed by the speed, screen quality, and build quality. I will probably be picking one up soon

Honest reviews on Compaq CQ57-310US Notebook PC - Black

all was perfect, the article is like the offered me in the amozon's web page, is a very good laptop

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I bought this laptop when amazon was really pushing it for about 365.00. The specs are decent if you only want it for just surfing the net or for a student.

What I really like about it is that the in built webcam has a light when its activated so it great when using skype. What I hate about it is that touch pad is rough and the right and left keys are too close together (fingers go further away from where it really is)

The price I see they are asking for it now (468.00) is definitely not worth it. If you want a basic computer this is for you.

Discount Lenovo G570 4334EAU 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

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The setup:

I normally use a Toshiba L755, which I love. However, due to circumstances nothing short of disastrous, it required repairs I couldn't manage myself. These took FOREVER. I needed a computer in a hurry, and my only option was to buy a new, inexpensive one. This is the model I chose.

The beginning:

When I opened the box, I was pleasantly surprised. The computer feels very well made, more so in fact than the Toshiba. First, I upgraded the memory to 8GB, which was easily done. I plugged it in, turned it on, and started the lengthy update process necessary to keep Windows happy. It completed without error. I then set about installing the software I planned to use, and expunging the bloatware, which was less than came with the L755. Heartened that this might mean there would be no teething problems, I then went to work.

The muddle:

Though not as fast, everything appeared well... at first. This did not last long.

I burn a lot of DVDs. Instructional videos, Youtube videos, home movies, work videos, etc. the quality of these is very important to me. Those I created with the G570 were a DISASTER. They locked up. They skipped. They refused to play. I was furious.

I thought Lenovo had been saving money, putting a cheap DVD burner in my machine. I upgraded to a Samsung SE-208BB, which was simple, as Lenovo clearly has thought about ease of service. This improved things a bit. Discs no longer refused to play or locked up. However, they still skipped. Fighting my desire to find a fireaxe, I then turned my attention to Windows.

I burn discs using Windows all the time. It's easy, fast, and the best programmes for burning are FREE. I know my software well, and knew I wasn't at fault. So, I started tweaking.

Nothing helped. Days and DOZENS of ruined discs later, I was far behind, and entertaining dire thoughts about 'bargain' equipment. Then I had an Idea.

The end :

I upgraded the HDD to a 750GB WD Blue. This was easy. then I popped a Ubuntu 12.04 CD in the tray, and booted to CD. I whizzed through the Install/update cycle, added the equivalent programmes, held my breath, and set to work.

POOF! Problems solved! No skippy discs, no popups begging me to 'pleasepleaseplease buy our ', no 'reduced functionality' versions of software. All was right with the world!

Wait... why isn't the BATTERY charging?!

I GIVE UP

More when I figure out what the HELL is wrong this time.

UPDATE 25 Sep, 2012:

There IS a way to keep the battery at full charge in Ubuntu!

BEFORE YOU INSTALL UBUNTU!!!: Charge the battery fully, turn OFF all LENOVO ENERGY MANAGEMENT features, even those under the 'advanced' tab, then restart the computer. Leave the laptop plugged in whilst you install and update Ububntu. Restart the computer. It should now keep the battery topped up. At least, it has for me.

There remains NO WAY to burn an acceptable DVD under Windows7.

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So far, very impressed. Fast, responsive. Like the non-top heavy lid. Keypad feel awesome, set up easy and complete walk through.

Best Deals for Lenovo G570 4334EAU 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

I bought this laptop on May 2011. 5 months later the left hinge came apart. It was fixed under warranty. On October 2012 the left hinge came apart again even though this laptop is handled carefully. Local Lenovo lab says they can't do anything but fix it if I pay for it. Google revealed it is a known failure. Lenovo still refuses to fix it again. Cars are fixed under recall years after warranty expires. I expect Lenovo to do the same. Meanwhile, I offer not to buy Lenovo.

Lenovo G570 4334EAU 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

Honest reviews on Lenovo G570 4334EAU 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

I purchased the Lenovo G570 for my daughter to use in college. After reading several reviews, I thought it would be a great and affordable computer for her. Was I ever wrong! How I overlooked all the bad reviews, I don't know.

Go to the Lenovo forum at: to see for yourself.

Essentially the problem is that repeated opening and closing of the lid causes internal parts to break. Many people have this occur within the first five months of owning the computer. My daughter treats her laptop gently and so it didn't start happening to her laptop until at about seven months.

Most people on the forum have had Lenovo refuse to repair it under warranty. The best solution I've read thus far is to disassemble the computer and then glue the hinges on with epoxy! We're still trying to figure out what to do.

Other than this problem, my daughter loves her laptop. However, if you don't intend to leave your laptop open all the time, I'd recommend you look elsewhere.

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Couldn't have been happier with the overall buying and setup experience of this PC. Came from amazon with a very clean operating setup, and lenovo's boot optimizer is an excellent feature.

Would have bought a 14" unit purely out of preference and habit, the offset touchpad and placement of ancilliary keys seems odd compared to every other PC we have.

...but that was all ok.. until the screen hinge levered the case of this PC open at the left rear corner as it sits in your lap. Really? It's called a laptop. People, you know, set them in their laps to type with the screen open. So, that hinge should be,, um, at least vaguely sturdy!! #fail.

Discount Used iBook G4/800, 1.2 GB of RAM, 30 GB internal drive, internal

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I've had a 12" iBook G4 since 2005 and it's still my favorite notebook for browsing the internet, writing letters, and even reading pdf's. It's very lightweight and I consider the screen the perfect size. It's held up very well. One of the keys has a hairline crack and one of the rubber feet on the bottom fell off but I clean it every month or so and it still looks almost new.

My only criticism is that it gets a little warm so I keep it on top of a clipboard when holding it in my lap. No viruses, no crashes, no worries.

When netbooks started becoming popular a couple of years ago, I had to laugh because I already have a lightweight, handy netbook. In fact, I'm using it right now to write this review. Given a choice between a new Asus or Dell netbook or a used iBook G4 for the same price, I would take the G4 without thinking about it for a second.

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I absolutely LOVE this computer! It has everything you need, in a small, compact machine. It's a Mac, so you know you're getting quality, the start up time is extremely fast, and it does everything a similar-looking 13" Macbook does without you having to pay $1000 for a new computer. This iBook G4 works just as well, and if you're looking for a good, small computer, this is the one for you! The only complaint I do have is that the CD-drive doesn't work (but it's probably an issue on just my machine). Overall, a great buy!

Best Deals for Used iBook G4/800, 1.2 GB of RAM, 30 GB internal drive, internal

This iBook arrived with a keyboard problem, but I was able to get it fixed for free, because it was still under warranty. Originally seller wasn't of much help with this problem, but I got it fixed locally. Works just fine now.

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Bought this for my 7 year old grandson and both of us are very happy with it. Looks like new and runs great. They even did a system upgrade at no extra charge, which was a nice surprise. Delivery was better than expected. I will definitely do this again when my other grandson is ready for his first computer.

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what good is a computer without a power supply? A power supply is basic. I shouldnt have to purchase one now. Absurd.

Buy Dell Inspiron i1545-4583JBK 1545 15.6-Inch Laptop (Jet Black)

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I'm not sure where the above bad reviews came from, but I find it hard to believe that anyone had such a bad experience with the same system that I bought from Amazon. Looks like most of the reviews are for computers bought from someone else or even directly from Dell, and the guy that bought 3 in the last year and had all of them crash within a month after the warranty expired????? well that doesn't make since.... they all come with a 1 yr warranty, and if he bought three within the last year, then they would still be under warranty..... but I digress,,, and here is my review:

I bought the Inspiron i1545 that is sold on Amazon.com and it has more than met my expectations. I figured that a $619 laptop would be the low end of the spectrum when looking for performance, but this has all the componants of the "high end", as far as RAM and Hard disc. Win 7 makes it easy and has very fast start up and shut down times. It runs very effeciently when I have multiple windows open and I'm gettting close to 8 hours between charges (so far). I did a ton of research for computers before making this purchase, and even went to places like Best Buy so I could get a better feel for what the computer looks and feels like. This Inspiron has all the qualities I was looking for: Sleek, light weight, incredibly clear screen, and responsive keys. Add that together with the 4GB of RAM, 500GB of Hard disc, and I love the "Dell Dock" that allows me to put all my icons in one place, which keeps my desktop clean and professional looking.

My opinion is that you cannot go wrong with this system. You certainly get more for your money!

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I have purchased three from this company in the past year -we have twins in college and each needed one -then one for personal/home use.

Within a month after each warranty expired, the hard drive died. Nothing could be done but order a replacement which first requires a $49 diagnostic fee....before they can even tell you what the part is that is needed and how much that will cost.

They cannot replace items lost on the drive --so be sure to have your own external hard drive or system for back up. They are no help.

This happened three times!! Three different laptops!! All with simple use at home and university. Each just AFTER the warranty expired -and they are in India -and make no adjustments to "policy" -and have the most effective system of blocking customers from access to attaining help.

Never, ever again. Burned THREE times -with THREE different laptops. Never, never again.

Best Deals for Dell Inspiron i1545-4583JBK 1545 15.6-Inch Laptop (Jet Black)

My wife and I have been loyal Dell customers over 10 years and four machines. All our previous machines have performed well and we have never had much reason to call customer service for anything. The few times we did (years and years ago) were reasonably pleasant experiences, though. My impression of Dell has always been that they are a solid company that produces solid products.

Not now.

This laptop, which is my wife's, has been nothing but a nightmare from day one. Pathetic battery life, hardware and software issues, trackpad problems, cursor jumping around, intermittent wireless problems, a shoddily-made machine with flimsy screen hinges that easily break.

Dell's customer service has been the absolute worst experience I have ever had with any company in my entire life. I started out trying to return the unit, but quickly found out that they count the number of days that you have had the computer as starting on the day you order the unit, not the day you receive it, so I was two days past the last day I could return the unit. After being transferred back and forth between two different departments who each thought the other department was supposed to help me, I finally found someone who understood the issue and said he would work on getting special approval to return the unit and then call me back. He also sent me an email. He never called back, never responded to emails, never answered the phone, never returned calls. Anyone else I talked to acted like they knew nothing and told me I could not return the unit. Then I tried to appeal to their business sense, by trying to exchange the unit for a higher model (figuring that if they saw I wanted to pay them more money, they would forgive the 2-day thing).

It took me two more weeks of calling every day to find a guy in their corporate customer service group who (even though he shouldn't have even helped me) agreed that what I wanted to do made good business sense and would help the company hold onto a loyal customer. It took him two more weeks to get what he told me was internal approval for the return (their system only allowed them to process it as a return, not a repair or replacement). He even CC'd me on the email where the manager approved the return and gave him instructions on how to process it. I was told I would receive a return code and instructions on how to return the unit for credit. A week went by--nothing. I called and emailed the guy over and over. No response. I finally got someone else who's email address was on the approval email to respond, who explained that the person who approved the return was in one of two different departments who had to approve the return. He said what everyone else always told me--that he would personally take responsibility for resolving my case. He gave me a phone number that was supposedly his direct number and an email. Never heard from him again. The phone number went to a generic mailbox.

After months of getting the runaround and taking every my lunch hour every day to sit on the phone while eating a sandwich, I simply gave up and decided it just wasn't worth it for a $560 laptop. We are already shopping for a replacement after 7 months of owning this thing. Guess who we won't be buying it from.

Honest reviews on Dell Inspiron i1545-4583JBK 1545 15.6-Inch Laptop (Jet Black)

After seeing some of the other reviews I thought I would add my two cents worth, as it may help out some of you who are looking to purchase an Inspiron 1545.

I've owned this laptop now for a little over a week and I am very happy with the experience so far. I am very knowledgeable about computers, and currently run several machines running Windows 7, Windows Home Server, Mac OSX, and Ubuntu. I have also worked in IT support in the past, so diagnosing and upgrading PCs is something I'm very comfortable with.

Quick Pros and Cons List:

PROS:

+ Windows 7 (it really is a nice and stable OS)

+ Intel dual-core T4400 processor (works well for most users, easy on battery life)

+ 4GB of RAM (helpful for running programs simultaneously, such as Office, Photoshop, Media Center, etc)

+ 320GB hard drive (plenty of storage for most users)

+ Integrated 1.3MP Creative Labs Live! webcam

+ 7-in-1 media card reader (almost a necessity today)

+ Easily upgradeable (discussed below)

CONS:

T4400 is a dual-core processor, not as powerful as a Core 2 Duo, or the current Core i3 (1545R)

Memory is slower 800MHz speed, not current 1066MHz (1545R)

Wireless (wifi) card is A/B/G, but not N-spec

While the webcam is 1.3MP, it isn't of the highest quality but it's okay

VGA-out included, not HDMI-out like on the newer 1545R

Bluetooth not included (though upgradeable)

High gloss surfaces do attract fingerprints (not a big negative)

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:

I've owned many Dells, and this is the third computer I've purchased from Dell this year... not because something was wrong, but they've had good deals on desktops and laptops this year. This is the first entry level laptop that I have purchased from Dell, and overall I am happy with the design, layout, and quality of the build. The high gloss plastic areas on the palmrest and LCD bezel are obvious fingerprint magnets, but not as bad as an iPhone or iPod. They keyboard is laid out well, with good distance between the keys and a nice feel when typing. The keyboard includes dedicated buttons on the right hand side for Home, Page Up/Down, End, and the four arrow keys.

The hard drive, a Seagate Momentus 5400.6 has decent storage space at 320GB, though it is slower at 5400RPM with an 8MB cache. After formatting, you have about 300GB of usable storage. The memory for this machine is 4GB, though the motherboard can support up to 8GB. The memory speed is 800MHz, which is fine, but is slower than the current 1066MHz memory available. It would have been nice if Dell included an HDMI video port, but instead chose VGA. The HDMI comes standard on the new 1545R with the Core i3 processor. The LCD is crisp and bright, with decent viewing angles. The native resolution of 1366x768 is good, though a little compact, but makes viewing 720p video very nice. The AC adapter is the slim variety... the only issue is that the power plug into the computer fits a little loosely though probably on purpose to prevent damage to the laptop if the cable is snagged by a passerby.

UPGRADEABILITY:

The nicest aspect of this laptop is that if you find that you need more speed, hard drive space, memory, faster wifi, or even bluetooth all of these components can be easily upgraded. Reading the service directions at Dell, you can see that taking apart the Inspiron 1545 is easy and straight forward. By removing the keyboard, you can easily add the bluetooth module and cable, which together go for about $25 on eBay. By removing the bottom cover, you can replace the memory, wifi card, and processor with little difficulty. An Intel 5100 N spec wifi card goes for about $12 on eBay. You can also add memory if need be up to 8GB is supported. The processor can also be replaced, though make sure that the processor you choose is supported by the laptop's bios. The 1545 supports Intel Socket P (478-pin Micro FCPGA) processors; with the bios specifically supporting the Celeron 900, Dual-Core T4200, T4300, T4400, and the Core 2 Duo T6400, T6500, T6600, P7350, P7450, P8600, and P8700. The faster processors, like the P8700 include more onboard cache, faster processor speed, faster bus speeds, and virtualization. Replacement processors like those mentioned can be found on eBay for around $20-150. The hard drive can also be easily upgraded I installed a new Western Digital 64GB SSD, which took about 60 seconds to install. The hard drive slot is on the right hand side, and comes out with the removal of two screws. I installed the new wifi in about 60 seconds, adding bluetooth took about two minutes. It doesn't take a lot of know-how to upgrade these components just a screwdriver and a quick read of the manual.

CONCLUSION:

It's a good laptop for the price, which can be upgraded into a better computer easily and cheaply... all you have to do is read the manual, which is straightforward. I usually keep computers for about a year or two, and by next year I'll probably be ready to sell this at a decent price and use the proceeds to get another Inspiron but it will have been worth it for sure. In my opinion, for the price, quality, and support, you can't go wrong with a Dell.

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I have purchased two of these now.

The one I bought at Best Buy lasted 5 days before having hardware failure. I returned it.

I bought the second one at Staples. It lasted 3 hours before giving an error saying, "No hard drive detected."

Don't buy this laptop!

Buy Dell Inspiron i17R-2617MRB 17.3-Inch Laptop (Mars Black)

Customer Ratings:

I just bought this laptop. Its simply amazing. lightning fast. very solid. super sexy. plays games. very very very pleased. wasnt exactly cheap but it most certainly well worth the money! BUY THIS LAPTOP NOW. Dell 17r intel i5 w/ 4g ddr3 and 1g ati gpu

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This is a great desktop replacement, has everything that I could need, and I ordered it from the Dell Outlet and saved another $300-$350

Best Deals for Dell Inspiron i17R-2617MRB 17.3-Inch Laptop (Mars Black)

They send me laptop other than I order. I want Mars Black but I have silver now. I got a different laptop than the pictures with a protruding battery, which is not wanted. t is annoying but I do not want to refer back and wait.

Buy Alienware M18x R2 AM18XR2-11481BK 18.4-Inch Laptop (Space Black

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This item is really very good, and I like it very much! It was really useful for me, thank you!

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The first computer I received had a display that was defective so I had to return it. The return process was very easy and Amazon shipped the new one before I even had a chance to ship the one I had back. Amazon customer service was very helpful. The only reason I gave the item 4 instead of 5 stars is because of the price. It is an expensive computer but I'm very happy with it. Great for gaming!

Discount HP 2000--2B89WM 15.6" Core i3 500GB HDD Notebook

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I bought this laptop for personal use. Some of the best features include light weight, latest OS, and best value for money. It is easy to carry around and retains battery for more than 7 hrs after charging it fully. Money best invested.

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Excellent computer for the price. I first purchased a DEll for almost twice the price and it did not work at all. After returning it I desided to just buy a cheap computer. Boy was I wrong. This Hp is anything but cheap. I've had it in use now for 6 months and have had no problems at all. Only thing I would recommend is to get rid of the Norton security and use the Windows defender security that is already down loaded on this computer and its free!! I did have issues with Norton and windows 8, but since I switched to windows defender there have been none.

Best Deals for HP 2000--2B89WM 15.6" Core i3 500GB HDD Notebook

thanks I received my product in Venezuela, although I have not used yet because I have not configured the Spanish I think everything is fine, the keyboard model might be a little dated but that is overshadowed by comparing it with the aesthetic of the other parts team as well as its configuration. I am very happy with the team, I feel very complete in terms of price and value

Honest reviews on HP 2000--2B89WM 15.6" Core i3 500GB HDD Notebook

The computer seems to work ok. It came with Windows 8, so I'm learning a new operating system. My old computer has Windows XP Pro, which I really like, but I see I can do a lot more things with Windows 8. I do like the HP it is a new computer and has more goodies

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I was very skeptic of purchasing a refurbished item. But my boyfriend convinced me that it can be just as good as a new item. The computer works for the most part but the battery life is little over an hour, the optical drive doesn't work properly and it came with a scratch. Also, the manual is not very detailed.

Disappointing buy.

Discount ASUS F75VD-NS51 17.3" Notebook Intel Core i5 3230M 6GB Memory 750GB

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List Price: $749.99
Sale Price: $589.49
Today's Bonus: 21% Off

This laptop offers a pretty good "bang for the buck" value. A good third gen i5 processor and a decent GPU with 1gb of dedicated VRAM. However, it has a few caveats that may make you give pause when deciding on this purchase. I just bought one the other day. It comes with Windows 8, which sucks. So, I began the process of downgrading. Since Windows 8 takes over the BIOS, there is no way to tell it to boot from CD easily. There are some guides out there that will help with that, but that is not what my main issue with this machine was. My biggest problem is the touchpad. It has a hyper-sensitive touchpad with multi-touch capability. So you can pinch to zoom, twist, etc. The problem is, the touchpad sucks. Even when you go into the mouse options and turn down the sensitivity, it still is very jumpy. You can hold your finger in one spot on the touchpad and your cursor will jump around. You'll often find yourself pressing buttons on screen while typing because the touchpad thought you were trying to click it. Even installing software like touchfreeze didn't help. I'm constantly clicking or zooming or opening "save as" dialogues while typing. I even had to retype this message twice. So, if you plan on getting this laptop, plan on using an external mouse and disabling the touchpad, or plan on headaches. Another bad thing about it is the speakers. They face towards the bottom of the laptop, so the sound is muffled unless you tilt the entire laptop back and give the speakers some room to breathe. It's a good machine, but those poor design choices hold me back from recommending it to anyone. IF you're using external speakers and an external mouse, it's a good buy.

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I researched several laptops before purchasing this one. Using Amazon Prime it arrived in two days after I purchased in perfect running condition. I've had it a week now and I was amazed to find this level of performance for only $599 on Amazon. It is more than capable of any computing (mostly MS Office Suite programs), skyping, and game playing that I do (granted I only play games like CIV V and Empire Total War, but it handles them on highest settings without a hitch). I love how cool this computer keeps itself. You can set it on your lap and type on it and it never gets hot. My old laptop was very hot to touch, so this is an added bonus. The only thing that I don't like is Windows 8, but everything comes with that version of Windows these days.

Cheap MSI A6200-021US Notebook PC - Intel Core i5-430M 2.26 GHz / 15.6"

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Would recommend this laptop. However, when I purchased it I did not realize it came with 32bit Home Premium Windows 7 and not 64 bit. So I went and purchased 64 bit and reinstalled the OS. Works even better with 64bit Windows 7 Home Premium. I ran it with 32 bit for a day and for the last few days have had 64 bit windows on it. Screen is great. Can't complain except MSI should clearly state that it comes with 32bit on their packaging. Better yet they should install it with 64bit.

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First off this IS IN FACT AN LED SCREEN and...

Not an LCD as this ad and the website of national reailers like Office Depot claim, in Fact if you take a brief trip to the website of MSI they too, confirm this and since buying one last night at my local Office Depot I have confirmed that the info on the MSI website is correct this is once more is an LED display !!!

With that said this unit overall is as good as any laptop I have ever owned, or used from my job. This includes 11 different laptops in the last 14 years from NEC, IBM, HP, Toshiba, Acer and Dell.

The only complaint I could find is that it comes with Windows 7 32 bit instead of 64 bit which is not that much of an issue as most applications do not support 64 bit mode at the moment anyway, however I just don't think it makes much sense to have not used 64 bit.

With all that said a quick review and my first impressions...

1. The screen is excellent, large and beautfiul, great contrast and colors

2. The keyboard is excellent, a little different for someone not used to the chicklet style made popular by Apple, but doe not take long to get used to.

3. The processor is an obvious selling point, it runs cool, consumes less power than any previous high end Intel Processor and Graphics combo !

4. Overall build quality is top notch and for the solid feel it is actually quite light !!!

5. The tochpad is TOP NOTCH and I say that as someone who does not use a mouse, tochpad functionallity is something of a pet peeve for me when buying a laptop, so if you too are someone that finds many of the tochpads out there today not worth a penny..

Rest assured this touchpad works and works well !

Windows Experience Index scoring was as follows

Processor 6.4

Memory 7.2

Graphics 4.6

Gaming Graphics 5.1

Hard Drive 5.3

So as you can see for this is a great laptop with plenty of power to spare !

If you are looking for a 15.6 inch unit that is powerful and more than capable of handling Flash media at 1080P look no further, this will make and excellent unit for developers and would serve well as an all around machine for business oriented users too !

One last thing I forgot is the battery and it out of the box after its first charge I got about 2 1/2 hrs or real time use surfing the web and half the time I was watching an episode of Red Eye on Hulu which is very processor intensive...

So when this company claims 2 1/2 hrs they mean it !

Unlike most companies who will site the number windows show right after unplugging it (HP, DELL, Toshiba) Just to name a few !

If you are wondering that number shown when placing the mouse pointer over the batter icon was showing 4 hrs. 15 min on my unit after first charge !

Hope that helps and I will say agian I could not be happier, you will not regret buying this laptop !

Best Deals for MSI A6200-021US Notebook PC - Intel Core i5-430M 2.26 GHz / 15.6"

I purchased this laptop for a mere $525 from Amazon last week. I'm thrilled with the performance of the i5 and DDR3 combined with Windows 7. My only complaints about this machine are:

1. Lack of bluetooth despite having a bluetooth LED and function key

2. Trackpad has a vertical scroll bar, but it isn't raised or visible so kind of difficult to use at times.

3. USB and power ports are in the back as opposed to the sides of the machine.

4. Power LEDs are very bright blue, almost distracting at night.

This machine has a great keyboard, tons of power, a really great screen, and it isn't too heavy. I love MSI and I'll continue buying from them in the future. I would recommend the A6200 to anyone in the ~$600 price range.

Honest reviews on MSI A6200-021US Notebook PC - Intel Core i5-430M 2.26 GHz / 15.6"

I am so glad my fiancee convinced me to spend the extra $100 dollars on this laptop (the one I wanted) over a similar Acer with a Core i3 processor. This is hands down the best laptop I have ever owned.

The good:

LED display

Solid build

light weight (5.5 lbs)

full keyboard

HDMI port

bluetooth

EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE

Great price $599

The bad:

not very much information online

weak speaker set

no firewire port

I will be recommending this notebook to my family, so obviously i would recommend it to you.

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I am so happy with this laptop! It is by far better than the $900 Dell I bought 2 years ago. And I only paid $600. This computer really handles what you throw at it. I would definitely recommend this laptop to anyone.

The problem with the speakers that everyone is complaining about is summed up to the fact that they put them on the front of the computer so when its sitting on your lap it sounds muffled. While its not exceptional, it wouldn't keep me from purchasing this laptop. I'm actually able to play sims 3 on it and even my desktop won't run it well. It plays perfectly! I'm so happy with this!

Review of HP Mini 1000 Notebook, Intel Atom Processor N270 1.60GHz, 8.9" LED

Customer Ratings:

PROs: Boots fairly fast and low noise (both thanks to having no hard drive).

CONs: When you tell it to sleep (either with Fn-F1 or by tapping the power button) there is a 50% chance it will go into hibernation and a 50% chance that the screen will *say* it's preparing for hibernation, but will lock up before it is successful. It doesn't matter if all application programs are closed and it's been 10 minutes since the last time you used it--there's still a 50% chance it'll just hang. There are only two ways to get out of this state: 1) hold the power slide button for 10 seconds until the unit turns off, 2) unplug the power cord until the battery is low enough that it turns off. When you power it back on, all is fine (except you'll have to jump through about 6 hoops to restore your background image).

Some people might find they run out of storage with only 16 GB, but netbooks are made for cloud computing. I've had this computer over a year and haven't used up even half the space (compared to my desktop PC, where I have a 1 TB hard drive and it's nearly full).

All in all, I would recommend it. For some reason, these days it is hard to find a netbook that has SSDs instead of noisy HDDs (which have a MTBF of 6 months compared to the 100 years for SSDs) so if you can find one of these, snap it up!

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Review of Razer Blade 14 Inch Gaming Laptop 256GB - Windows 8.1

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,999.00
Sale Price: $1,964.24
Today's Bonus: 2% Off

I'm a bit of a computer junkie, which means I'm constantly buying a "new shiny toy" and this is especially true with computers. Luckily enough I've always found my laptops super-on-sale so after using them a few months I'm able to sell them for profit to purchase a new one. Eventually this meant going from $500 laptops all the way to this bad boy. I've compiled some information regarding this laptop which may assist someone else:

Why did I buy this laptop?

-Incredibly thin and lightweight

-Battery life lasts a VERY long time

-8GB RAM is perfect Any more seems to be a waste for my needs

-256GB SSD is a great medium between cost and size. Of course a 512GB would be nice, but I have an external for media files anyway.

-HDMI Out Essential component that many "budget" computers lack (This is definitely not a budget computer)

-Three USB3.0 Ports I never use more than 2 at a time anyway, but I understand that some people will need more ports. Personally I prefer to use Bluetooth so there are no wires.

-Serves as a good desktop replacement

Below are some questions people often ask me about it:

1)How hot does it get?

-It feels pretty hot when I play certain games like Crysis 3 on max settings; however, I checked the CPU core temperature only to realize it was actually cooler than my previous laptop had been. I believe this may be due to the bezel being made out of metal which can more easily transfer heat than plastic.

2)Can it play games?

-This is always my favorite question because it's a gaming laptop and people love to ask if it can play games. In short the answer is yes. So far I have run into no problems playing games except with radial flora shadows on Battlefield 3 and motion blur in Crysis 3. Both of these settings need to not be on extreme or the FPS take a hit.

3)How is the battery life?

-Great! Best out of any laptop I've ever had. I'm sure this is directly correlated with the new Intel Haswell processor that is inside since Intel's big selling point with this generation was lower power consumption. While playing games I generally can get about 5-6hours on battery and doing low power tasks such as browsing the internet and typing a paper I get about double the battery life. It's hard to get an exact number, but with my screen brightness all the way down and battery saving options enabled I was able to get a good 14 hours off one charge. Sure screen is a little harder to use with the brightness so low, but eventually your eyes adjust and it's fine.

4)Are there any weird "quirks?"

-When I first purchased it I noticed the internet was a bit spotting. I avoided using the built in NIC card by using a USB Wireless Adapter that I used on my desktop, but what's the point of having a good laptop if the internet doesn't work well on the go? So I did some research and realized my Killer drivers were out of date. (Of course--it's always a drivers issue!) After fixing that I haven't really had any problems at all with the internet.

5)How long does the laptop take to turn on?

-People ask me this all the time because my last laptop had a dual-raid SSD so it could boot in about 7 seconds. This laptop (thankfully) can boot in about the same time. I haven't really timed it, but if I push the on button then grab my laptop mouse--the computer is on and at my desktop before I've put the mouse case back in my bag. Any faster would really be a waste considering the work it would take could go into improving something else.

6)What did the Windows Experience Index place the laptop at?

-The base score is a 6.9 and here's the breakdown:

o Processor: 7.8

o Memory: 7.8

o Graphics: 6.9

o Gaming Graphics: 6.9

o Primary Hard disk: 8.1

7)Did it come with any bloatware?

-It depends what you consider bloat. There were no programs such as Norton's Anti-Virus installed; however, there was some of the Razer software such as Razer Comms and Razer Synapse 2.0 installed. I use these programs so it wasn't a big deal for me, but I could see where someone else might not want them.

8)How is the screen quality?

-When I was looking to purchase the laptop I definitely considered it a downside; however, since the screen is smaller it doesn't really make much of a difference at all. Coming from a 1080p screen on my last laptop I don't really notice the difference at all. Of course there will always be people who claim they can see the difference, but speaking per inch a 17.3 inch screen with 1080p resolution is 127.34PPI, a 15.6 inch screen with 1080p resolution is 141.21PPI, a 15.4 inch screen with 1080p resolution is 143.05PPI, and a 14 inch screen with 1600x900 resolution is 131.13PPI. With that being said--I'm satisfied with the screen. Sometimes I feel like people are chasing pixels they can't see. . .

I think that sums up my review. If you have any questions please leave a comment and I will reply to it as soon as I can.

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The 2013 Razer Blade 14 is a fantastic laptop. It's lightweight, well put together, and packs a TON of power in a small package. They've chosen to provide a premium experience at a premium price. This is truly the laptop I've been waiting for. For the past 10 years I've exclusively purchased Apple MacBooks (or PowerBooks for you old school people) and run Boot Camp to sneak some gaming in. So this is from the perspective of someone who loves a well built aluminum machine.

The battery life easily matches what only ultra low voltage laptops can deliver, except the Razer has an NVIDIA GTX 765m GPU that lets you enable high or max settings in all the current games. I have had run-time vary between 4-7 hours browsing/doing work, or about 2.5-3 hours when gaming. This thing is a beast. I bet you're thinking, "Dang, you really like this thing." And you'd be right, but with some reservations.

Most of the reviews overlook an issue or two. The screen, webcam, and occasionally defective power adapter. Fortunately, their customer service sent me new power adapters until I received one that didn't make loud clicking noises. I'll break everything down below:

Display This is a tough one. If you see people complaining that this doesn't have a 1080p screen, they are wrong to criticize it. 1600x900 is an excellent choice at 14" and is the appropriate resolution for the GTX 765m graphics card to power. Viewing angles on the other hand are pretty atrocious. It is difficult to find the "right" angle and the screen washes out if you move your head at all.

That said, I understand why Razer chose a TN panel; we can't have slow response times when gaming, but the color gamut and contrast is about a 3 on a scale 1 to 10. It makes dark scenes in games difficult to see and webpages with grey text hard to read. There is one positive aspect of the screen though The extreme brightness and matte finish allow you to use this computer in well lit environments, even outside.

Webcam The webcam is a pain point for me. When you have any type of florescent bulbs, or poor lighting at all the camera responds in an extremely terrible way. It attempts to adjust for the light and starts FLASHING green. It is absolutely useless, but I suppose you don't buy this laptop for Skype/Google Hangouts. I want to be clear, my laptop is not defective. All Razer Blade 14s exhibit this bad behavior and I even received a response from the company stating this. Unfortunately for Razer, I have quite a few devices, and NONE of them flicker/flash like this. Check out this short video for an example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP74XeviTy8

Performance This is where the Blade 14 truly shines. The new Haswell i7, NVIDIA GTX 765m? So. Damn. Fast. It runs all my games at high or ultra settings. It is simply mind blowing to be using a laptop this small and thin with this kind of ridiculous performance. I don't even need to dedicate a large section to this, you won't find a faster laptop at this size and quality.

Build Quality Speaking of quality. If you've owned a MacBook Pro, or handled a new Retina model then you know how this computer feels. Solid, dense, well built, no flex. Just add fingerprints and that is how this computer feels/looks.

Aesthetics This computer stands out and it is striking to be using a Windows 8 machine with this form factor. Combined with the sweet Razer green lighting, you have something truly unique and people will stop to comment on it.

Heat There is no getting around this, the Razer gets hot... in all the right places. The palm rest and bottom cover of the computer get a bit warm, but they are totally in line with what I expect (and very similar to the MacBook Pro 15" Retina). Now if you place your finger near the power button you're going to get burnt. It is well over 100 degrees there, but what do you expect when they shove over 100 watts of pure performance in such a small package? Just get a Squaretrade warranty ;)

Noise At idle, and just browsing this thing is dead silent. During gaming the fans obviously kick in, but it isn't that loud at all. It is much much quieter than my friend's GS70 Stealth.

Trackpad Probably the first Windows trackpad that I've truly enjoyed using. If you consider the MacBook trackpad a 10 (and they are), then this is a solid 8. With just two finger scrolling and edge gestures enabled it isn't necessary to plug an external mouse in for day to day usage. I also find the real buttons a pleasure to use, though a bit small to press. It doesn't earn a 10 because it can misread on occasion when scrolling/tapping.

So overall, I have to give this computer 4 out of 5 stars. The Razer Blade is their first shot at a 14 inch notebook and they have almost nailed it. It is a beautiful, thin, high performing machine that I will definitely be keeping. It has a few flaws like the screen and webcam, but if you're willing to make a few trade-offs you gain an incredible amount of graphics horsepower to game on the go. And that's what this computer is built for. Gaming.

Best Deals for Razer Blade 14 Inch Gaming Laptop 256GB - Windows 8.1

I love this laptop. I am selling my pimped out Origin EON15 S now that I've received this one.

I go to college and I have big gaps in between classes so I wanted a laptop that I could bring with me to school, but still play games in between classes. This laptop weighs nothing (take into consideration I'm coming from the Origin) and on top of that, the brick is soo small. I hated bringing my Origin to school because the fans were loud and it just looks ridiculous when you place it on your desk to use microsoft word. I have a desktop at my house so there was no point in having a desktop-replacement-style laptop.

The battery on this thing is insane. It lasts longer than my old 15" Mid 2010 Macbook Pro which I always thought was really good. I get through 2 back to back classes and still have battery to spare. I've never seen a notification telling me that the battery was low.

The thing that had me most reluctant to buying this was that I thought the screen was going to suck, but this is not the case. The screen is really good. Not crappy or just "ok" like many of the reviews say. The viewing angles bother me more than I thought they would have, but that's just because I can't sit still in class so I'm always adjusting the screen. Games look sharp and crisp and the color looks great as well.

In terms of performance, the blade does everything I want from it. I mostly play League of Legends, which isn't a graphics intensive game, so I don't really push the computer. I recently installed Dishonored and Fable: Lost Chapters and it runs both of those really well. I average 90 fps on max everything, windowed-borderless in League of Legends. I could get 140 fps on my Origin, but I can fit 3 blades inside that laptop haha.

Things that could be better:

The laptop doesn't sit flush/flat on desks. It has a slight wobble that is pretty annoying.

A magnetic charger would have been cool. I'm always paranoid that someone is going to trip over my cable and send it flying (who cares about the injured person).

My Origin laptop had a key that turned off the trackpad which is really cool when I use a mouse (all the time) so my palm doesn't mess around with the trackpad at the same time the mouse is. You might be able to change this with razer synapse 2.0, but I haven't checked yet.

I hate the fact that they stick the windows key on the bottom of the laptop and the intel sticker on the top of the inside of the laptop. I tried taking off those types of sticker before with little luck and this only seems worse because the finish of the laptop is matte. The intel sticker is also slightly crooked which makes my eye twitch.

tl;dr The Razer Blade is amazing as an actually portable laptop that you carry around with you everywhere. It isn't a desktop replacement, but it can do 99% of what I need it to do.

Honest reviews on Razer Blade 14 Inch Gaming Laptop 256GB - Windows 8.1

Let me begin by saying that I've owned Alienware laptops including the M14x, M15x, M17x and M18x among other laptops not so highly rated, and while thr M18x and the M14x hold a special place in my heart, the Razer Blade has completely redefined the Gaming Laptop or even the Laptop concept with this new laptop.

For starters, the laptop is truly an engineering marvel to say the least, it's barely over half an inch thick and weighs 4 pounds, that alone is a worthy to mention, however what makes the Razer Blade something special is how much power it packs under the hood, it's simply an unbelievable achievement.

By know, you know this thing has a Haswell Processor i7 4702HQ, and a full fledged Nvidia 765GTX 2 GB, we're talking the latest mobile technologies for both CPU and GPU! And sure enough, there are more powerful configurations out there, but none come anywhere near the size and weight of the Razer Blade. To have all this power means that one can not only do their every day work on it, but for the first time, be able to carry a Laptop under the arm that can play ANY game out there today at High/Ultra settings, that's gaming with no compromises on the go.... For the first time EVER, I find myself actually taking my laptop with me to even short trips.

I would even take it a step further and say that so far, I have not even used my 4770k/780GTX desktop that much, the Blade has pretty much become my every day computer.

Some of the negatives you'll hear are to be taking lightly... for instance the resolution is 1600x900, many claim they wish it had a 1080p display, however it's the actual resolution that enables the Blade to play all these games with maxed settings, when you put these specs on a 1080p display, you automatically lose between 20-30% performance in gaming.

I will say that the 14" TN LED display could be better, no doubt, I'm not in love with the viewing angles or the color depth, but because of what the Blade does and for how long the battery lasts (6+ hours browsing/office and 2-3 hours gaming)it's not too hard to forgive the screen quality, in all fairness as bad as it is, it works just fine.

The build quality is also the best I've seen in any laptop, it goes above Alienware and even Apple, presenting a top notch looking device with the best Keyboard/Trackpad on the market.

There are two minor details that I found.. 1) One of the Laptops had a clicking noise inside, as if a fan was hitting a piece of plastic, lasted for a few seconds but it was consistent. The Web camera is sub-par, in all fairness, the screen is good compared to the webcam.....

Because of the clicking noise, I did call Amazon customer service and they were incredible, they shipped a new Razer overnight at their expense and arranged a pick-up for the replacement at my place... in short I had to do nothing at all to get the exchange in my hands, just a simple call.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Razer Blade 14 Inch Gaming Laptop 256GB - Windows 8.1

Razer ran a promotion on twitter a month ago, the #RazerB2S (back to school giveaway). I won, so here is my review. . .

Lets start with appearance. The design is very simple, no weird angles or bevels, just a clean smooth design with rounded corners. The finish is a beautiful matte black, so it looks great and doesn't take finger prints. While some have complained about the green Razer logo, I think it looks striking, especially since it glows when the screen is on.

Next up is the physical build quality which is superb. It feels sturdy, and will not bend/flex (well, the screen will, but anything that thin would). The keys feel solid, and there are two long rubberized feet on the bottom (running most of the length of the front and back). The charging brick and cord are solid (and wonderfully small and light), and the connection feels very good. Many charging ports feel as if they would break under a tiny stress, this one feels like I could dangle the computer from it without damage (note: I'm not going to try it, you probably shouldn't either). Of course that can be a disadvantage if you are apt to trip on the cord, as that could pull the laptop onto the floor. A magnetic solution (similar to a Macbook) may have been an over all more robust solution, but for a standard charging cable, it feels great.

Now, onto the system. Boot time is unbelievable, you can go from cold to fully operational in seconds, which is partially thanks to Razers hardware optimizations, and partially thanks to Windows 8's vastly improved boot times. The OS is pretty much stock Windows 8, the Razer website says that it has no bloatware, which is *true* to some extent. But there are a few programs installed that aren't stock Windows.

Razer Synapse 2.0: I'll give this a pass, since this is a Razer gaming machine, and synapse allows for customizing keyboard hotkeys, and for adjusting the key backlight. However I was disappointed that I could not use the FN key (which controls secondary functions on the F1-12 row) to give keys (even F-row) secondary functions. In fact you don't seem to be able to be able to program hot keys that use modifiers at all. All in all I think AHK will remain my key-mapping solution. It dose make disabling the caps lock key easy though.

Qualcomm Atheros Killer Network Manager: I'm not sure what it's for honestly, it appears to track network (and system) performance, but not in a really useful way. I don't know what the point is, and it keeps bugging me to run speed tests and can't seem to remember that I selected "don't show this message again". It just doesn't seem useful, especially with a memory footprint of up to 100MB (that I have noticed). I don't know how to classify this as anything but bloatware.

Intel/Nvidia stuff: There are settings managers for the Intel graphics and for the SSD, and for Nvidia graphics. All are poorly designed, but are probably necessary for optimal performance.

Razer Comms: Unlike Synapse this has nothing to do with my hardware, it's just a chat/messenger application. . . For a system I don't use, or have any reason to use. Skype works perfectly fine. . . So what's the point? Gotta call it bloat.

Aside from that it's just Windows 8.

Now as too the performance. The Nvidia graphics card kicks in automatically when the intel graphics can't handle the load, so you may see low FPS for a second, that a major spike when it switches over. You will know that the Nvida is on because of a very low hum from the fans that will kick in (though the noise increases as it heats up) as soon as it swaps. I can easily record Minecraft at 1080p and 60 FPS (higher actually, if I don't lock the FPS) with all the settings maxed out. And the SSD is able to write fast enough to not kill the performance. The downside is that at 256GB a 60 FPS raw HD video will fill up the drive rather fast. Unfortunately it gets HOT, really hot. It can become uncomfortable to play games since your hands are resting on the machine, and the keyboard is almost too hot to touch at times. This is unfortunate, but not really avoidable in a laptop that's this small.

The keyboard and trackpad are not the worst, nor are they the best. The keys are a bit on the harder side to press, but they feel clicky rather than mushy. Unfortunately due to the size they are small low-profile keys (which can be annoying to type with) and it lacks a numerical keypad (which is normal for a 14" laptop, it would be hard to fit, but it's missed). Aside from the physical aspect, I have noticed that the back light can be a bit uneven. My Windows key is very bright, and the F11 and F12 keys are rather dim, the back light is a much appreciated feature, but it could have been implemented better. And my last beef with the keyboard? The font choice, it just looks kinda wonky, but I guess that's just personal preference. The trackpad is a synaptics touch pad, with very nice satisfying clicky buttons. it's a fairly large touch pad, with all the multitouch and gestures you would expect, and all the features that normally come with a synaptics device. I think I prefer the (also synaptics) touch pad on my old computer, that was smaller, and had a textured surface. The pad isn't bad, but unfortunately not the best and simply not very game friendly. But what track pad is?

Now about the screen. . . This has to be the most annoying feature the screen is not full HD, and the anti-glare finish makes anything white look grainy. I would really have liked a 1920x1080 screen, especially for recording games, which requires that you have a 1080 screen to record in 1080.

Then there are a few things it completely lacks. First, the optical drive, it has none. I like my BD drive, so the loss is annoying, but well worth the trade off for size and weight. Second is a wired network adapter. An Ethernet port probably wouldn't even fit, but man did I wish I had one when my wireless router was on the fritz.

But my favorite parts? First is the battery: It lasts for hours (when not gaming) even with the brightness turned all the way up. Now if you do start gaming (or utilize the Nvida card) the battery is just not going to last, and you can't expect it too that card is optimized for performance, which requires far more power. The other amazing feature? The weight. It's so amazingly light and thin, and yet packs all the power you would expect from a gaming machine. And it isn't just the most powerful laptop in the size class, but a pretty high level gaming machine in it's own right.

Summary:

Pro:

Wight

Thickness

Battery

Performance

Design

Boot time

Charger

Supports 5Ghz Wi-Fi networks

USB 3

SSD

Con:

Screen resolution

Heat

key size

Back light uneven

No optical drive

No Ethernet

All in all this is an amazing machine, it has its flaws, but I think we need a new tech spec: Performance per ounce, cause this machine would be at the top of the charts.

Review of Sony VAIO VGN-FW373J/B 16.4-Inch Laptop - Black

Customer Ratings:

I was going to wait a bit longer before writing this review of the new Sony FW-373J/H 16.4" 1080P Hi Definition Notebook computer, but it's so impressive, with outstanding performance, utility, standard features, software, and has hardware packaging that is 2nd to none in this price range of c.$1250+/notebooks, that I couldn't wait to put it in perspective, compared to other "media center" notebooks.

I bought this Sony for my wife, but it's such a gem, has incredible performance characteristics and utility features like the Blu-Ray ROM (Sony Optiarc BC5500S v1.75 firmware-Oct, 2008) optical drive, a very efficient, speedy 2.4Ghz C2Duo Intel SCR(P)-8600 CPU w/3MB L2 Cache, running a 1066Mhz FSB (front side system bus, the pathway between the 4GB of PC-6400 800Mhz SDRAM and the hard drive, ie faster is better(!)--and this is as fast as it gets-FSB's in notebooks), that I've been using it too. A LOT!

Don't forget the 7200-RPM SATA II 2.5" HD, which is easily reached via a 2-screw trap door on the bottom of the case (as is the SDRAM, but that's only 1 screw!), which has plenty of room for most people's work, media collection, photos, applications for business and pleasure, et al. I can't imagine "upgrading/updating" this particular HD setup, as 320GB is as big as a 7200RPM HD gets right now...maybe IF Hitachi, Western Digital, or Samsung comes up with a 500GB 7200RPM notebook HD there will be a reason to upgrade, but not now!

Tonight we watched "Transporter 3" using the Sony notebook as the player, the Jason Statham action-sequel in Blu-Ray ROM format, on our Samsung 52" HDTV, the TOC (Touch of Class) Series 8000x model w/50,000 Contrast Ratio, 120Mhz Video Codec Switching, 4ms response time, etc, arguably the best LCD available today, and it was just astonishing & fantastic! We hooked everything up via a simple 10-feet-long-HDMI-Cable using the Sony FW-373J/H as the "player" with the standard Blu-Ray on-board player built into the Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium OS by Sony engineers, called "InterVideo® WinDVD® BD for VAIO" (quite a mouthful, yah? They could have just called it "Sony BluRay Player" but no, go figure!).

All you do is hook up your HDTV to one end of the HDMI cable after "sourcing it", attach the other end to the Sony notebook, insert the Blu-Ray movie into the optical drive, (with preferences enabled this happens...) and BAM! The video starts playing on the TV instantly, with full on-screen controls available for menus, setup, etc for the movie. Crazy-Bitchin-Good!

That was the deal-sealer, seeing that Blu-Ray movie via the Sony notebook tonight!! It WAS CLEAR, CLEAN, PERFECT, EVERYTHING YOU WANTED in clarity, depth of field, all that Blu-Ray HDTV goodness rolled up into a great action-movie experience like "Transporter 3"... and to see the new notebook's player and optical drive doing the duty, putting the film up onscreen with such a quick one-two-three "Play!" sequence, well, it was just great! The sound was fantastic, everything synched-up correctly with our Marantz-6800-powered audio system, enabled by a JBL Studio Sound Speaker System in all its 16-inch bass-reflex glory, and I am telling you it played purrrfectly through the Sony notebook's optical drive. No Hill For a Climber!

Now that experience is out of the way, and fully described, because it IS a fantastic feature to be able to play Blu-Ray media through the notebook, but let's talk about the CPU, the memory, the OS, the unbelievably full-featured, and strong ATI Mobile RADEON® HD PCI-Express Video Card w/512MB of discrete, dedicated DDR2 VRAM, with get this, 2280MB of "burst VRAM" available via shared memory from the SDRAM/HD system! Holy Smokes! That's quite a package!!

Some desktops don't have a better video card system than the Sony does, and this thing just SMOKES in performing its rituals, whether it's working magic with the 16.4" 1920 x 1080P NATIVE HD widescreen back-lit LCD display on photos in Corel's PC photo program, displaying 2 side-by-side web pages with Flash-Player enabled, or just simply going about the business of mundane things like working behind-the-scenes to enable crisp, clean, precise rendering of any normal project you can think of: Word Processing, film editing in Sony Vegas 5 Pro, or just plain 'being beautiful'...it's a stunning display of video power all-around!! I can't say enough about how the ATI Mobile HD Video Card w/512MB of DDR2 VRAM/SDRAM performs, because it's the best notebook display I've seen in a long, long time...bar none, including all Mac Pro displays, right up to the 17" Apple widescreen in their top-of-the-line $2700 notebook.

Our LCD screen, apparently a Samsung device as best as I could tell (they are the No.1 producer of LCD technology devices worldwide), has NO DEAD PIXELS, not a one to be found! It's clear, clean, crisp, responsive and fast in any and all circumstances, has no big "footprint" like the 18.4" widescreen notebook LCD's do, and yet there you go, there's native 1080P display power all day, all night! It's truly a fantastic, feature-laden display, one I can't say enough about.

The C2Duo 2.4Ghz CPU is F A S T, don't think it isn't! You know it's good when you see the Windows Performance scores of 5.4 to 5.9 on everything but "Gaming graphics" where the notebook scores "5.0", oh well, it's built by humans, yes? It does have a small weakness there, but that's about it! The 4GB of 800Mhz PC-6400 SDRAM does a nice job with almost any assignment, ie it's enough for virtually all Windows Vista tasks, throw in 4 to 5 open programs, some background FM music via FireFM in FireFox 3.0.7 (ditch Windows Explorer as your browser first chance you get!), and there's still 1GB of SDRAM availble for "burst" assignments.

You can order up twin 4GB DIMMs to make 8GB of SDRAM in the machine, but at this time it's prohibitively expensive @ c.$400 a DIMM, so equipping the notebook with 8GB of SDRAM is stupid right now...wait until summer, or later, when Samsung's chip supply dries up (they cornered the market on the 4GB DIMMs apparently), and you can buy a pair of 4GB DIMMs for $400 or less for both, and then it'll be a good thing to do...but not right now.

As for the network adapter, which is an Intel PCI-Express WLAN card, with A, B, G, and "Spec N"-qualified high-speed abilities, it's so seamless in its operation that I almost forgot to mention it! It just works fantastic. You should have seen my eyes when I installed iTunes 8.1 for PC the other day, and hit the "shared" Library key in iTunes, and voila! Up popped my 2TB Apple TV/iTunes Library from my G5 "SuperSystem," across my studio over in the "serious computer territory", yes, right there on the PC's desktop there was an unlimited supply of iTunes goodness, some 200GB of music, and more than 1.4TB of AppleTV movies ready for sharing on the PC! My Lordie, that was a fantastic surprise!! So I didn't have to install a bunch of music for my wife's edification...she could simply "share" my rather substantial Apple iTunes music system from across the room, a coup'de'etat if I've ever made one happen...PC and Macs living in harmony, together, functioning perfectly fine using the same music. Now that's KUHL!

What else is nice, and stands out? Well, the touch-pad works 110% to my liking, if you're not using a Mini-BlueTooth Mouse like my LogiTech V470, which only costs $38 here at Amazon.com, so there you go! Another strong point, the notebook's "A2DP" BlueTooth (stereo BlueTooth for headphones, earphones, and v2.1.x BlueTooth for external devices like a mouse) is another wonderful standard feature, so you can utilize the USB ports (3 of them, located on the right, front side of the case) for what they were meant to be used for: peripherals like a printer, scanner, etc. There's also a FireWire port, for those of you who still own FireWire movie cameras, or have external HD's with FireWire 800/400 connections, (with Oxford 924 or 912 bridge boards...these are good things), they are all GOOD TO GO with this notebook, with the conveniently placed port on the left side of the case.

You know, I should say something about how this notebook LOOKS! It's just great! It has spacey curves over to the heavy-duty magnesium-alloy body's end, which is at a set of HD hinges that will never, ever creak, groan, lack support for the display, and it looks T H I N, and subtle, and even though it weighs some 6.7 lbs w/standard battery, it doesn't look heavy and overblown, like so many of the "big generation" of PC notebooks do these days. The brushed magnesium finsh is really groovy! Clean looking! The media controls over the back-right edge of the chassis, up by the screen are appropriately placed, and work well for home-base media movies onscreen, or playing music with the optical drive, whatever!

I am glad I held out for the grey case vs. the black case, aren't all of you in this group? It just looks G R E A T with the alloy body, the two compliment each other, sort of "flow into each other" and work with the Sony Style form to make up a stunning notebook masterpiece. As a practical exercise, the Sony wins, to me anyway it does...it's just so "handsome and practically sexy-looking"... In so many notebooks there's nothing but plastic and buttons, and this machine rocks the house with heavy-duty doses of class, style, and grace of design. The key placement is a bit unusual unless you're a previous Sony owner, with the keys placed/vertically surfaced OUT of the top of the case, but with a scant 2mm of travel per key, they feel right-on, and correct for the application.

I bought an Antec® notebook cooler, the twin-fan design alloy and plastic device, for the notebook with the order, so I can't comment on its ability to cool itself without a notebook cooler, all I can say is you have to be a little crazy to NOT have an Antec (or other fine brand) cooler if you are constantly using your notebook...it's just simply the way to go. HEAT KILLS NOTEBOOKs, and the only sure way to avoid that problem is to invest in a mere $28 shipped notebook cooler like the Antec, which runs off one of the USB ports with a "pass-through" connector so you don't lose the port, and BAM! Instant Coolness! All the time.

That about wraps up my take on the new Sony FW-series notebook that we have had for a scant 2.5 weeks now, but this thing leaves an impression on you, trust me, it does! As to its so-called weaknesses? I honestly can't think of a one. Its price is more than competitive with anything in its class; the feature-set is the best there is right now; the Blu-Ray and BlueTooth features are especially pleasant, and functional, something you can use all the time; that fast 7200RPM 320GB SATA II (Hitachi, in my case! ...Hitachi is The Best!!) HD really cranks out the jams; yes, it all works great together!

There you go, a thorough dissection of this notebook and how it performs in the real world. My wife loves it, and I think it's prety KUHL! I give the Sony Five Stars ***** across the board, and highly recommend it for the best price, features, and performance in the current crop of "media center" notebooks. This one adds some class to the class, and gets my vote for best performer for c.$1250 shipped... out of everything else available right now.

Wavey Davey 3-14-2009

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This laptop is really nice for the price I paid. However, I was somewhat disappointed by the wrong technical description listed by Amazon. The blu-ray drive is definitely NOT read/write capable. It is a ROM (Read Only)!! I contacted Sony to verify it. Thought about returning it but decided it is still a good buy even without that feature. By the way, I still prefer Windows XP over Vista. This laptop did not change my opinion about it.

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I bought this Vaio VGN-FW373J black about 2 weeks ago from Amazon. My overall impression is that this computer is a good value laptop.

1. Spec.

It has 2.4GHz C2D P8600 processor, which is fast enough for most tasks you can have today, even for some scientific computations (I use matlab to do simulations). Memory is ample, 4GB. Although with 64bit Vista, the system will start up with about 1.3GB memory used, you still have enough left. Hard disk is 7200rpm 320GB, fast, VERY quiet and large. The best part of this computer is the blu-ray rom and FULL HD 1080p LCD! I like that. The blu-ray rom have two laser diodes, one for blu-ray reading, one for normal DVD/CD reading and writing. The full HD 1920x1080 LCD is amazing! Everything is crisp clear! For small font, you can easily change the DPI setting to make it large and clear without running in lower resolutions. I think the LCD is a little bit TOO bright, I have to run at 50% brightness to make my eyes comfortable. The graphics card is ATI 3650 with 512MB graphics memory. I can run Battlefield 2 with Project Reality mode in medium settings without problem. 3 USB ports are enough however they are all crowded on the right side of the laptop, which is very odd. Bluetooth and wireless works very well. HDMI connection is also quite convenient: you only need one cable to send both video and audio to your HDTV. I use a Samsung 46" 1080p LCD TV, and the movie experience is fantastic! It has a build in SD card reader and sony memory stick slot. Overall, the spec is very good, I will give it 5/5.

2. Building quality

Well, at this price, you should not expect every details are built perfectly. Actually I found the plastic used in this laptop is quite cheap-feeling (all the outer shell of the computer is plastic except the small cover over the speakers which is metal). The black outer cover is rough and feels easy to crack. Not as good as my thinkpad's rubbery shell (Dell also have the similar rubbery shell in the XPS laptop line). As many people have said, the hinge connecting the display to the main body doesn't look very tough. The keyboard feels just fair. Not as good as a thinkpad, again, this is a value notebook, not a business class. The keyboard of my laptop has right side lower than the left side. Not a problem for use but you can see the building quality here. The touch pad's buttons are really hard to use. It is a little bit recessed into the main body. I think it is designed so as users won't accidentally click on it. But it is really hard to find it when are looking at the screen. And the buttons are hard to push: feels like 2lb push. Overall, the computer is not built as good as thinkpad, I will give it 3/5.

3. Software

It comes with Vista Home Premium 64bit. It takes a lot of memory to run this OS. There are also a lot of trial software which are useless (to me at least). So the first thing I got this computer is to remove all those useless software. Sony has some "computer tune up" software which will clean the disk and registry to keep your computer fast. I haven't use it a lot but I think this is quite useful. It is true that you can download this kind of things over the internet, but this one comes from sony, which makes me feel safer to let it modify and clean windows registry. WinDVD for Blu-ray movie is pretty good. Comparing the PowerDVD, the UI of WinDVD is a little bit too simple. But WinDVD can play HD movie with less CPU usage. That means, less consumption of power, which is good when you run on battery to watch HD movie. So overall, software is pretty good, I give it 4/5.

4. Blu-ray playback experience

The major reason I bought this computer is for the blu-ray movie playback capability. Besides the blu-ray rom, this machine has a full HD 1920x1080 display itself and it has HDMI to easily connect to HDTVs. So you have a mobile blu-ray player at home, almost! I said almost because the sound is not HD quality, which is a not too small drawback. The sound chip of the computer is Realtek HD audio, which is supposed to have the capability to support 5.1 speakers. But because of the OS is Vista (again it's vista's fault), there is no Realtek driver for windows vista to support 5.1 speakers. The only option you have is stereo two speakers. If you use the TV's two small speakers to play the sound, it is ok but if you connect the signal to 5.1 speakers, only the front left and right speakers have sound. The middle one (which should be the major one) and all rear surround speakers are muted. Sounds like a huge disappointment. However I think this is only the driver issue. Maybe (only maybe) in the near future, there will be some Realtek HD driver for vista to support 5.1 speakers. And then this issue will be gone. So for HD playback I give it 3/5.

So overall, you can't expect this machine to be perfect to every detail. But you know the spec is good enough for the price.

Honest reviews on Sony VAIO VGN-FW373J/B 16.4-Inch Laptop - Black

I researched laptops last year and put purchasing one off once again because I couldn't decided on a PC or Mac. In 2009 I decided to make the plunge. I looked at LED screens, Macs, solid state drives,....this video card that video card, shiny vs. none shiny, small vs. sorta small, and the list goes on and on. I knew I wanted something that looked intelligent, was designed well, had the latest or close to the latest technology, and performed well with graphic apps. I, like most, could not justify the cost of a Mac. For what I could get with this Sony I could not even come close with Mac.

So after many back and forths reading PC vs. Mac articles and listening to friends justifications....I went with the Sony. It's design is very clean and well thought out. The keyboard is fantastic! The HD is amazing and the speed of the machine is perfect. It runs large Photoshop and Illustrator files with ease although a 100 mb sketch-up model for work seem to drag a bit. Not sure why at this point. Programs open instantly and boot up is fast...very fast. It will even tell you current boot time.

The Sony preinstalled software is ok...similar to the PS3. I don't use it since I have iTunes and all my images sorted by my Canon Software. I do like Sony's System utility software...nice. Windows Vista has never been an issue for me, even on my older machine. Confirmations are annoying but I got used to it.

Battery life was a big research topic for me and this will eat the life right out of them. I keep it on battery saver when unplugged. Movies will suck the juice so I am looking to get a second battery for trips. Otherwise I can manage and have not found this not to be a negative at all. This size is great...not too big and not too small. The weight may not be good for those traveling a lot. For trips to the local coffee house its does just fine. I did get the neoprene case....nice for tossing in my cycling bag.

Overall its great. No crashes...no complaints. Just a workhorse and fun computer. Recommend to those searching and considering all the things I did. I am a perfectionist when it comes to making choices and I am satisfied with this one.

One more thing....I do wish it had a backlit keyboard but its not 100% necessary... But it would be nice.

Hope this helps or eases the process of getting a new machine. Happy shopping!

Cheers!

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:OVERALL:

Major props to Sony on this one. This is absolutely THE best laptop you can find for the price. I spent just over $1000 on this and I'm loving it. Honestly, where can you find a powerful computer with 1080p resolution, a dedicated ATI video card, 16.4 inch screen, Blu-Ray player, and 4GB of ram for that little? A Mac with similar specs would cost you $2800! Save yourself the $1800 and buy a Plasma 50 inch TV, or for the down payment on a car, or a week in Hawaii the list goes on and on.

:PROS:

(1) Quick computing. I run serious MATLAB and Mathematica modeling programs on this bad boy, and it handles them just fine for a laptop.

(2) Runs cool. I've had some previous issues with powerful laptops overheating. This runs VERY quiet and cool.

(3) Blu-Ray is gorgeous.

(4) Overall Windows Experience Index Number is 5.1 on my machine.

(5) Keyboard is wonderfully ergonomic and fits perfectly to my hands. The keys have a great click to them, and don't feel cheap.

(6) The touchpad is great. I would rank it higher than any windows based machine I've ever felt and only slightly inferior to Apple's trackpad.

(7) Is very sleek and sexy. I think it's the best looking laptop I've ever owned, Macbooks included. Additionally, it is SURPRISINGLY LIGHT.

(8) Packaged/included software isn't too obtrusive.

(9) Speakers don't suck.

(10) Decent battery life, though I don't use this in such a way that it would matter either way.

(11) Very respectable boot up time.

(12) PRICE! You won't find a similar quality laptop for this price.

:CONS:

(1) Doesn't include packaged discs with drivers and the OS. You have to create them yourself. Not too difficult.

(2) Had to go online and update drivers manually for the Blu-Ray player.

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A QUALITY, POWERFUL LAPTOP WITHOUT SHELLING OUT A COUPLE G's, LOOK NO FURTHER!!

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I wanted to buy a new laptop and since i used to own a Samsung previously i chose this model. The outcome was excellent, its a great laptop, fast, stylish, light and with great features.

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