Review of Acer Aspire S5-391-6495 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Black)

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $999.99
Sale Price: $699.99
Today's Bonus: 30% Off

Excellent product. It has an excellent cost benefit. It is light, the operating system starts very quickly and is very beautiful.

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Wow! Does this thing ever suck. Black screen, refuses to let you login, freezes at frequent intervals, hard to navigate from screen to screen. Add the egregious Windows 8 into the mix and you have a computer that is virtually impossible to use. Oh, and be sure to call support and be sold a totally useless service contract! These people deserve to go out of business. Minus five stars.

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PRO...

weight, super light and pretty user friend to tote around

DOES hook up to the Apple thunderbolt screen, not easy to find for a ultrabook

guess, overall it's "fine"

CON...

HATE the windows 8

the backspace button is jacked

the overall feel of the computer is kinda plasticy

Overall, my company gave me the choice of picking a PC or MAC, in retrospect, I should have just got the MAC, pretty much same price and called it a day. :(

Sony VAIO VPC-Z112GX/S 13.1-Inch Laptop (Silver) Reviews

Customer Ratings:

I am more of a Mac user usually, but I need a windows machine occasionally, and this is far and away the best piece of hardware I have ever had (in case you wonder, I also have a thinkpad X200 and macbook pros of all sizes). The hardware spec is very similar to the last generation of macbook pro (same graphics card, similar CPU), but this is a 3lb machine, vs a 6lb mbp). The SSD is blazingly fast, the machine never gets even slightly warm (despite the fact that I usually run a number of CPU hogs on it), the keyboard is amazingly comfortable (It has a similar chicklet layout to the MBP keyboard), the screen is phenomenal (by contrast, the Thinkpad screen is much too dim). I am sure there is a bit of bloatware, but I don't notice it (256GB is a lot of bits), and the default browser is Chrome. Windows 7 is the most usable Windows release yet, which may or may not be saying much.

To comment on another review: I am very much a unix person, but if you want to run unix on a laptop, just get a mac, and certainly DO NOT get a sony. Sony has always made slightly incompatible hardware (I got my first Sony ultraportable in the late 1990s -same problems). That said, I have NEVER had a linux laptop which ran properly (Thinkpads, Dells, Acer, you name it). Power management is always goofy, the display drivers are always a little off, etc, etc. Run linux at home/work, and use a vnc client to connect, if linux is that important to you. Every single old unix hack I know carries a mac (that includes some of the fathers of the open source movement) -essentially every useful piece of linux software runs (sometimes better) under OSX.

Anyway, giving two stars to the Vaio because it is not a unix box is like giving two stars to your ferrari because it won't go offroad (or conversely, to your landrover because it can't keep up with a mustang GT from a light). Use the right tool for the job.

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I would recommend against purchasing this laptop. I purchased this in April 2010 for $2300. A month or so later, I started seeing lines on the LCD screen which I thought were dirt marks form the keys on the keyboard. I tried to wipe it off, but it didn't come off. Apparently, the lines are scratch marks caused by the keys on the keyboard. The LCD screen is designed to be too closed to the keyboard. The scratch marks are in the shape of the keys. Contact Sony and at first, they blame it on me for scratching it and said it was outside of warranty. After reasoning with them that there are no other signs of damage on the laptop (no signs of puncture, drop, or other type of accidents", they retracted their claim and provided the repair.

You can Google this issue with this laptop and you will see that there are many other people with this problems. I am not the only one. And the responses from Sony have been the same with first denying the problem and then blaming the customer.

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This is my third "Z-series" Sony Vaio (I previously owned a VGN-SZ750N which replaced an earlier VGN-SZ680N).

The VPC-Z116GX/S is awesome. Its lighter, faster and with Windows 7 64-bit Professional it just snaps along.

The smaller form-factor screen with its much higher resolution over that of the VGN-SZ series takes some getting used to.

I use this (like I used the others) for work and play (I travel a lot) and it is a perfect balance between portability (weight and size) and power for me.

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A 3 pound laptop is essential to me. I can't carry the big guys especially when I'm running around airports. Since I've had amazing good luck with all my other Sony products, including a 2005 laptop which my lawyer son is still using to show judges videos in court, and my Sony All-in-Ones, one bought in 2005 and given to the same son who is using it problem-free, and my current much bigger All-in-One, I naturally turned to Sony again, after first trying Macs and Dells. This z-series is a dream. I'm using Windows 7 64 bit pro, which has the capability of XP imaging for 32 bit programs. I have 4 G of RAM, 500 SSD hard drive, 303 ghz speed, a long lasting battery on which I've worked 6-7 hours and still had capacity left on it, a very responsive keyboard, essential to a writer, the bluray R/W drive, and have had nothing but praise for it. The person who downgraded this because it isn't a Linux machine is absurd. It's a Windows machine. You want to run Linux and fiddle with your own BIOS, fine. This isn't for you. But if you want a machine that is light, swift, responsive, and does what all the big guys do, this is your machine. Also, someone said it heated up as he worked on it. I work on mine in bed for hours, and it doesn't get hot. I did, you note, pay for extras, so I paid more than the base price, but it's worth it.

One word about reliability. In 2005, I bought a small Sony laptop and their first All-in-One desktop. I outgrew them, although they never gave me a bit of trouble, and passed them on to my son, who is using them both in his law practice. I also have a Sony All-in-One PCV-AHIL, which is superb, marvelous responsive keyboard, blazing fast and in 7 months have never had a thing go wrong with this either. Ditto my Sony HDTV and bluray player.

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I was the first guy to buy this laptop at the Sony store in Beverly Hills-I bought it hours after it arrived. I've had it for about six weeks now. It is an excellent, very high quality and well built machine. It is visually beautiful and the user experience is the best I have ever experienced with a laptop. It is incredibly fast-in fact with sophisticated benchmark programs it runs almost as fast as my custom built desktop i5 machine. Even though it is expensive, it is worth the money. In an odd way, at $1899, it is a good buy.

My only gripe is that there seems to be an issue from time to time with the video card or Dynamic Hybrid Graphics System. This system isn't working out as well as I'd hope. If it was omitted from this machine, it would be a solid 5 star review.

When I first bought the computer it stalled and the video went black almost every time I used it t play video. After I did the software update the problem went away for the most part. Now the video only crashes about once a week. This is why I am only giving it 4 stars. Overall though, I would by this laptop again in a second. It is light years ahead of everything else I checked out and I am not a Mac guy. They are less prone to software and software based hardware complications but they don't advance as quickly and you pay a high premium for lesser hardware.

Best ASUS U47A-RHI7N15 Laptop Computer with 14" Screen / 3rd Gen Intel Deals

Customer Ratings:

Right out of the gate, this has been an impressive laptop. No, it's not an ultrabook, but it's reasonably light, at 4.4 lbs. It also has features, like a DVD reader/burner, full size HDMI port, etc., that are lacking on many budget notebooks these days.

Pros:

*Fast. Very fast. It's an i7 chipset, and it truly flies through most tasks.

*8 GB of RAM, straight out of the box. What a joy, not having to deal with upgrading.

*One of the best keyboards of this style that I've ever used. Nice feedback, responsive, and easy to type on (I so wish I had the same keyboard on my much more expensive U31)

*While not the fastest, the hard drive is huge. 1TB is almost unprecedented for a laptop.

*Great fit and finish. Everything feels solid, the screen hinges really grab (sadly lacking in many notebooks), no wobble from the screen when it's up. This is not a delicate flower of a notebook -it's solid and substantial.

*Good port selection, including a pair of USB 3 ports. No VGA, but full-sized HDMI. Wired Ethernet.

*Backlit Keyboard w/adjustable brightness.

*Surprisingly good sound from front-firing speakers.

*ASUS Instant-On works flawlessly. Boots from sleep in seconds. (Boot from shutdown takes much longer, since the drive is not SSD, but you won't use it often. It can sleep for a month on a full charge.)

*It's quiet. I mean, really quiet, even under a load. Processor is so powerful that the fan almost never needs to run, and when it does, it's a whisper. Huge kudos to ASUS on this. It has never gotten hot on me, even transcoding video. Oh, and the exhaust is on the side, thankfully.

Cons:

*Mousepad, while solid, is a bit too stiff as a clickpad, and a bit too sensitive when tapping. However, my guess is that the clickpad will loosen-up in time. It is, however, responsive and accurate.

*Screen is the standard 1366x768 LED backlit, which is fine, but it's calibrated horribly from the factory. You need patience to get it adjusted properly. Obviously not a retina display, but, as a plus, it's non-glare, and easy in any light.

*You WILL NEED to update the BIOS immediately, to version 410 or above. Mine came with 407, and suffered lockups until I did. Fortunately, in this day and age it isn't too hard to do, but if you're not tech oriented it might be a hassle.

*Standard bloatware, including the completely unnecessary McAfee anti-virus, and some other things. Not horrible, but you'll have a bunch to get rid of.

I know there are a lot of folks ranting about Windows 8, and this is my first machine with it installed. Took a bit to get the lay of the land, but honestly, within a day I had no problems with it. Actually, I see little difference between it and Win7, once you're in desktop mode (which is where you automatically wind up most of the time anyway). Sure, there are some quirks, and new ways to do things, but so it goes. Anyhow, I'm not rating Win 8, I'm rating the hardware.

Overall, I can highly recommend this laptop. No, it's not the sleekest or fanciest. No, it's not a touchscreen. It is, however, incredibly powerful and fast for the price, and the build quality is top notch.

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A WOW Laptop!

This Asus U47A is one of the finest computers I've ever owned. It's only a day old as of this writing and have yet to find anything about it I don't like. The jury is still out about the Win 8 OS, but that has nothing to do with the laptop. More on that later.

I share a previous reviewer's comments (D.M. Seeley) about the pros. I only want to add a few things to what was already covered:

The Good:

*With the i7 chipset, this machine screams!

*The 8 GB or RAM will enable the user to open just about any program that exists or have several RAM intensive programs open simultaneously.

My Windows Experience Index is as follows: Overall5.9

Processor: 7.7

Memory: 7.8

Graphics: 6.5

Gaming graphics: 6.5

Primary hard disk: 5.9

Since the Index is based on the lowest number, the addition of an SSD will boost the overall score up to 6.5. The 1TB HHD supplied on this laptop spins at only 5400 rpm hence the low reading.

*The fit and finish on this laptop is simply awesome. It reminds me of a race car that looks fast just standing still!

The Not So Good:

As said by D.M. Seeley, the bios needs to be updated right out of the box. Mine came with v. 4.7 and the latest is v.4.10. It's not terribly difficult to do but advise using Google and Youtube to get comfortable with the procedure.

This has nothing to do with Asus, but Windows 8 isn't compatible with POP3 mail. There's a work around for this but not without having to jump through many hoops. So, at this point, my favorite email client won't work but I can simply log on to my ISP's website to retrieve and send mail. If you opt to use Windows Mail, Outlook,or any of the web-based email programs no problems.

I highly suggest you download an excellent program by Soluto (soluto.com) after you finish deleting the usual bloatware from this machine. Soluto can tell you which applications are necessary and which aren't. It also gives you some very helpful information about your machine, too. Also, startup can be speeded up if you delay the loading of some of the necessary programs. I much prefer using Soluto as opposed to "msconfig."

When researching the U47A on the internet, it was suggested to uninstall Asus Live Update before connecting to the internet for the first time. Uninstalling this will keep the laptop from downloading the "USB Charger Plus" program which sometimes disables all the USB ports. Since I don't charge things from my computer, I don't need this program to begin with.

Some people have mentioned having wireless issues due to the Wireless Console 3 which I also disabled.

The above mentioned issues were never really issues with me, so your mileage may vary. Deleting or disabling certain things will hopefully keep future issues at bay.

All that being said, I highly, highly recommend this machine! Asus makes quality stuff and it's very apparent with this laptop. No matter what machine you ultimately buy, there's always a bit of tweaking to do. There was much less to do with the U47A than any other computer I've ever had. Three thumbs up, ASUS!

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good device overall

i recommend it highly

the only con is the touchbad

the edges is over sharp a bit

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I purchased this laptop last week and I am very pleased with it. It's portable, fast, and fully equipped with everything I needed. I wanted an optical drive, 14 inch screen, and much more. It also has a back-lit keyboard.

I was a bit hesitant about purchasing a laptop with Windows 8 but I actually adjusted today in no time. I decided to download Classic Shell so that I could easily see the famous "start menu." The other plus to downloading Classic Shell was that the "Tiles Start Up Screen" is totally bypassed in Windows 8 and goes directly to my desktop. Therefore, I really don't have to deal with the nuisance "Tile Screen" if I don't want to.

Overall, this is a good budget friendly laptop equipped with the average necessities of a home user.

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Perfect screen and keyboard size.

It is fast, but lags. Has Windows 7 on board and all bloatware removed.

Cons:

Touchpad is not working properly. Cursor jumps around the screen.

This is hardware problem. Cannot be fixed with drivers update.

Asus should recall laptops with faulty touchpads.

To fix it, you will need to remove aluminum foil under the touchpad, but I was not able to disassemble it. It looks like I have to break mounting clips around the edges.

Youtube "how to fix asus touchpad"

Buy Toshiba Satellite C655-S5068 Laptop Notebook PC / Intel Pentium

Customer Ratings:

For this price and get a dualcore and dual layer dvd rw drive, you can't go wrong. Bought this for college and couldnt be happier does what I need it to do, multi tasking for example burning 360 games, listening to some tunes checking email surfin the web and writing papers all at once with no lag.

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Discount HP Envy 17-3290NR 17.3-Inch 3D Laptop (Silver)

Customer Ratings:

First of all be warned that I don't have this exact model, but Envy 17-3290el which shows the following differences:

processor: Intel i7 3612QM instead of 3610QM (slightly lower power consumption)

monitor: 2D instead of 3D

disc: only 1Tb HDD, no SSD drive

I made the following additions to the product:

Crucial m4 256Gb mSata SSD drive: the 1Tb magnetic drive is a bad performance bottleneck and the 256Gb SSD used as system drive allows the computer to run 3-4 Windows XP or Linux virtual machines flawlessly

matte screen protector: the glass-covered display is way too reflective, so that the matte cover improves usability radically

wireless mouse: I just can't get used to any touchpad, but that's probably my fault

Good things:

performances: great CPU, good GPU, fast with SSD drive

expansion: good. 1 Sata6 2.5" bay, 1 Sata3 2.5" bay, 1 Sata6 mSata bay, 4 usb3, 1 Hdmi, 2 Display port

battery: lasts up to 6-7 hours of my normal use (internet, writing, light web development) and 3 hours of intensive gaming. I appreciate HP battery management, as it doesn't continue to charge a full battery when connected to the network: I had this problems with Acer notebooks and it took painfully careful management or the battery would die too soon

display: good, not an IPS one, but a TN display with good viewing angle, contrast and color rendition; just too reflective

audio: just the greatest notebook audio I ever heard

keyboard: good. To dim/increase backlight you should press the keyboard backlight button plus up/down arrows (this was not in the manuals and I had some issue as it was my first backlit keyboard)

heating: none at all. Unless the battery is charging, the 120w adapter stays cold or just a little above room temperature. Putting a roof to CPU performance at 99% in battery management in order to disable turbo boost, CPU and GPU stay below 50 C even with intensive gaming and CAD/CAE

Bad things:

display too reflective, but with a matte screen protector you wave this problem goodbye

problems with the installation of Windows 7 from recovery discs. After several trials I even gave up trying to install from the recovery discs to SSD drive: I finally downloaded Windows 7 Home Premium 64 from Microsoft website, made an installation DVD and registered through the registration key on the bottom of the computer. However, this way I lost the Adobe Premiere/Potoshop Elements and I am still looking for a way that get those back

support: well, the good thing is that you can find a lot of help in disussion forums. Tha bad is just too bad: at the first problem i get a "Shut down and disconnect the battery" suggestion from italian support, which doesn't fit with the integrated battery, and the support should know...

size: well, if you choose this notebook, just remember that it's size and weight are huge compared to some more expensive or less performing alternatives, altough it's smaller than gaming laptops with similar performances

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I'm very pleased with this Envy. The price was great and it was easy to upgrade to 16GB of RAM, add a nice SSD and third drive (you need to get the drive carrier from another company--I used newmodeus and it was perfect).

The build quality is pretty strong and it's a fast machine. It replaced an aging Dell Studio 1745. Like others said, the battery is integrated, but I never swapped batteries in my Dell. While I wish the battery would hang on a little longer, it''s adequate enough to lug into the conference room for 1-2 meetings.

Yes, it is a large machine. It serves a niche for those of us that want a single machine that does it all. The Envy fits the bill nicely.

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Received mine from Amazon at the beginning of the month and am very pleased. Mine did come with the Norton 2 years free. The 3D works fine. System start up is lightning fast. The light up keyboard is great and the machine runs pretty quiet and stays cool. Although I'm not thrilled that the 80gb hard drive is so small, I'm happy that it's a SSD. I foresee a day not too far in the future where it will fill up quickly and at that point I plan on replacing the drive with something larger but also SSD. I just have to try to make sure everything that's non-operating system is installed on the D drive. The D drive is partitioned into two additional smaller drives for a Recovery Tool and Recovery Data.

There wasn't much bloatware on the system, which is great for once. The speakers are rather nice for a laptop, it has two headphone jacks on the left side and two display ports and an HDMI port on the right side. Unfortunately, the HDMI port is too far up on the right side. So, it's near your mouse hand if you're right handed. However, on the rare occasions I plug my computer into an HDMI cord, it's because I'm using my computer for whatever reason with my TV; so wouldn't be using my computer directly anyway..but still annoying nonetheless. I like the touchpad, which is unusual for me. It operates multi-touch kind of like an I-pad or I-pod. You can also turn it on or off directly through the touchpad by double-tapping in the corner of it. The screen is glossy and the colors are vivid thanks to the glossiness. However, this also means it reflects like crazy. But, this being a 17" laptop and not that portable--for me anyway, I don't really see this as an issue as it probably won't be leaving home. One thing that worries me is the slot drive. I can see this possibly being an issue at some point in the future but will deal with it when it happens. There's an eject button on the keyboard. Another nice thing I like is the keyboard function key locks so you don't have to hold down the function key when using a function button. Also, love the num pad. This is a great desktop replacement!

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The Envy is a great line of laptops. They're built well, they look good, and they deliver straightforward computing with no surprises. I set this laptop up for my Dad before giving it to him and I'm happy to report there was very little in the way of promotional software that had to be uninstalled.

Personally, I would never buy the 17" model for myself as it really becomes more of a desktop replacement at that point and not very mobile. However, my Dad loves the larger size and he is very happy with it.

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It is very good more then what I expected...perfect desktop replacement Laptop..

Only concern is 80GB SSD Hard Drive, it should have been at least 128GB. Overall very much satisfied.

Dell Latitude D630 14.1" Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0Ghz, 160GB Reviews

Customer Ratings:

I did receive my refurbished dell latitud better than I Expected,

very good conditions, Xp preloaded, the battery in good conditions

I'm really very happy with this purchase,

I high recommend the seller and the product

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Cheap HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Edition Notebook,Intel Quad i7-2820QM 2.3

Customer Ratings:

I reviewed the Specs for this item to consider purchase, however, when I noticed that the 160SSD was set up in a Raid 0 with the 500 HDD, I became very displeased. For anyone who doesn't know the standard detail of a Raid Array, here it is. The HD with the LOWEST RPM is the average for the array, which means, though it may have an expensive SSD in the array, it is functioning at the rate of the average HDD. The best idea for this perticular system, to make the value actually tolerable, would be to install the OS on the SSD, and create a Mount Point to lets say My Documents from the HDD, so that way the extreme ability of the SSD would be used to load up the OS and the Programs, and the other HDD can be used as storage.

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Dell Inspiron i15RN-3647BK 15-Inch Laptop (Diamond Black) Reviews

Customer Ratings:

If you're looking for a computer worth its weight then search no further because this amazing machine will give you everything you've ever wanted and more. The processor is extremely fast for a 64-bit based system. It comes equipped with plenty of goodies such as Windows 7 Premium, Dell Integrated Webcam software, and McAfee Antivirus to name just a few. I've owned this unit for over a year and it has withstood the test of time. Plus the battery life on it is just as good now then it was the day I bought it. In conclusion, I would recommend this product without a doubt.

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This laptop has everything I wanted. For a 15" screen, it seems huge, and it's very bright. The chiclet keyboard suits my imperfect typing skills perfectly. Although the touchpad is easy to use, I purchased a wireless external mouse which works great. There are plenty of ports, and the DVD drive has come in handy, with the premium sound. I haven't tried Skype yet, but it's nice to know I have it. I use the laptop primarily for email/internet, and creating documents and flyers for work, and I couldn't be happier. Highly recommended.

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This laptop offers a good product for a good price. I am using for a month and I don't have any complaint. I recommend!

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No matter what the CPU speed is the bottleneck with most laptops is the slow hard drive, but here is how you can make it faster by switching to SSD:

First I used a 20 dollar software called "Paragon Migrate OS to SSD" to move Windows 7 from the hard drive to a Crucial 128GB SSD.

Then I followed DELL's very clear disassembly instructions on the web, took apart the laptop and swap out the slow 5400 rpm hard drive and put in the 128GB SSD.

Memory is cheap nowadays, so I also double the memory to 8 GB (4GB x 2).

Now I have a laptop with 128GB SSD and 8GB of memory. Buying a similar computer from DELL would have cost me about 1000 dollar.

DIY upgrade saved me a lot of money and turned this slow computer into a speedy machine.

I plan to use the leftover hard drive as an external backup, the leftover memory chips I will sell on ebay. Nothing is wasted.

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I love my new laptop. I find many new option. The 3 new USB 3.0 ports, the web cam and the bluethoot make this laptop a excellent choice for a good price. I recommended !!!

Reviews of HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Edition Notebook PC, Intel i7-2670QM (2.2

Customer Ratings:

Laptops have been around for quite a while and they keep improving. HP has really gotten it right with the DV7t Quad Series. These are powerful and beautiful machines that are well-thought out, with impeccable build construction, and lightning-fast performance. I bought the one featured here on Amazon with the exception that I added a 2GB Hard Disk Drive and went with 12GB of DRAM. Overkill perhaps, but there you are.

The screen is superb on this Notebook. I have an external HP 2511x 25 inch monitor which I have considered to be pretty much the gold standard for monitors. The 17 inch screen on the DV7t is every bit as crisp and bright (perhaps even a touch brighter and crisper) and is very, very pleasant to work with. The keyboard is well laid-out and the keys are what touch-typists like myself look for. The touchpad is about as good as pads of this type get, and it has a hardware off-switch by tapping rapidly on a designated part of the pad. So if you are using an external mouse, like I do, you can deactivate the touchpad without having to deal with layers of Windows menus.

One nice feature that the touchpad has is the ability to "pinch" the screen so that it is magnified less or more. This is a very convenient feature for those of us who wear reading glasses. If a given website uses too-small type, on this computer the user can "pinch" the touchpad causing the size of the type (i.e. the magnification of the web page) to increase to any desired amount. I find myself using this feature often.

The Blu-Ray disk drive works perfectly and the picture is incredible. I played several movies on it with great results. I have not burned any Blu-Ray files yet.

Performance of this computer is what you would expect: lightning-fast. It can manipulate huge digital files with ease and perform other heavy-duty tasks better than any other computer that I personally have used. Unfortunately most digital photography programs are still 32 bit, but when they become 64 bit this computer will be ready for them, with performance that we can only guess at.

Physically, this is a beautiful machine. The black chassis has a spectacularly nice metallic look to it that is not the fingerprint magnet of earlier HP chassis. There are 4 USB ports (two on each side) and an HDMI port, which many users will want to use in connection with a second monitor. Personally I would have preferred that the USB ports be on the back rather than on the side.

The audio on this unit is pretty good, but the volume could be better. Playing a Blu-Ray disk, I found myself wanting and preferring powered external speakers.

The fingerprint reader is easy to use and works well. This enables the user to scan a finger, and subsequently log into Windows with just a swipe of the finger rather than typing in a password. Very nice. The Hard Disk Drive indicator LED is (weirdly) on the side rather than the front, so it is not visible to the user and thus pretty useless. Not a huge issue in the greater scheme of things. In mitigation of this, the external headphone and speaker jacks are on the other side of the computer, rather than the front, which is a big improvement over earlier models on which these jacks were on the front, presenting the user with cumbersome cables. Plus, this unit gives you two speaker jacks instead of one, which is nice to have.

This is not a small computer. Most users will not be toting it around for casual use like a tablet or netbook. This one, with its 17 inch screen, is really a portable desktop computer and that is how it fits into my scheme of things. It is really designed to be the user's main computer (it has no compromises as regards performance) with the added capability of being portable and capable of use without an AC cable for a time. For me (I am an attorney) that means I can work with it at home or in the office, and when necessary take it to the courthouse. For this type use this computer is hard to beat. iPads and netbooks have their own niches, and this computer is no iPad. But there are still certain applications for which a full-powered computer is required, and the so-called demise of the personal computer will not be occurring any time soon.

This is the best computer that I have thus far owned and used. Recommended without reservation. RJB.

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The pavillion feels very cheaply made compared to previus pavillions. It feels like a toy and like it would break if I looked at it wrong. I picked the computer up by the bottom and the bezel and this caused the screen to crack. HP will not cover it under warranty because they say it was "accidental damage". I picked up my computer on purpose ... not accidentally. I should have a reasonable expectation that the act of picking up the computer wouldn't break it. I've tried on other laptops to apply enough pressure to the bezel to effect the screen and I couldn't do it. I would not buy from HP and buy from a company with a better constructed product and better customer service.

Update HP has decided to do the right thing and fix the computer for free

Best Deals for HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Edition Notebook PC, Intel i7-2670QM (2.2

I ordered this laptop to do CAD work on. So far no problem opening and working with the very large Catia files I use for design. I had to mess around a little with the switchable graphics to get it to run Catia with the stand alone video card. It was trying to run it off of the built in video card. The obviously wan't cutting it. The battery life is pretty short, about 3-1/2 hours but that is expected considering the hardware this laptop has. I only have a few complaints. No back-lit keyboard, minor but slightly irritating for such an expensive laptop. HP bloatware that slows the boot time down quite a bit. The flat keyboard bezel was not snapped down all the way on the top part of the keyboard right at the center. I thought I was going to have to send the laptop back because of it but was able to snap it into place with a little prying and pushing. I guess I would say that the laptop is fast but typical of the way things are built now a days, not very refined and kind of cheap feeling. You shouldn't have to snap the keyboard in place on a brand new laptop you just spent $1,250 on. I guess if you really want build quality you could buy the similarly spec'd mac book pro and spend $3,000 for the same computer with a different OS.

Honest reviews on HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Edition Notebook PC, Intel i7-2670QM (2.2

La mejor inversion, super rapida , calidad de sonido, imagen, y salidas de video increible.....El autocad funciona sin tiempos de espera, igual que corel, photoshop, pinnacle studio, etc.

Tengo pc para muchos años...

Best Gateway NE56R47u Notebook NE56R47U Deals

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $499.99
Sale Price: $344.38
Today's Bonus: 31% Off

The computer is overall a decent and good computer. For the price it is a great sized screen and fast machine. I mostly got this to check email, basic graphics editing, skype, word processing, and web browsing.

At this time haven't had any issues. The only thing keeping me from a five star rating is it is still pretty heavy for portability. Five star for home use.

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Its working great but as promised it did not come with a 750 gig hard drive it has a 500gig and I was not happy about that.

Best Deals for Gateway NE56R47u Notebook NE56R47U

This laptop has been handy and reliable so far. For less than $400, including the 2 year extended warranty, I believe I got a fair deal. My use is pretty simple a few websites to maintain, QuickBooks, Microsoft Office, internet, and email. Keyboard has a nice light touch.

I gave it 4 stars because i couldn't get it without Windows 8. I know it's silly, but I really don't like Windows 8. If I wanted a touch screen experience all the time, I'd use my phone or tablet. Too many steps to move through the screens.

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This computer is reasonably priced, works well, works quickly, and is one of the best computers I have owned. The RAM was small but it was easily upgradable. I am a very satisfied owner.

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I am sorry to say that I deeply regret to have bought this laptop. After only 2 months, it stopped working (I came to the conclusion that it's a faulty hard drive, after my own research). Gateway support sucks BIG TIME, all they can do is annoying you with their constant "don't worry miss, we will help you with this issue", but in the end, all they do is telling you to send in your laptop. Horrible I have to say, and after talking to three customer service reps, and many "don't worry" statements, I was really fed up.

I bought this laptop for my daughter who is being home schooled and who's doing online classes, and since we're traveling a lot, losing her laptop after only 2 months was just unbelievable. We were on our way to Europe, so we had to send in the laptop to Texas, from Canada, and now we are not able to get the repaired laptop until we get back home. I can't blame Gateway for us traveling for several months of course, but the fact that their products are faulty is just a big turn off, and what was bad for me, that I only found out that Gateway = Acer, after the laptop failed, was even worse. If I had known this before, I would have never bought this laptop, because I had two Acer laptops before, and both of them died within a short time, and unfortunately, since we're traveling all over the world, we were out of warranty.

So do yourself a favor, go buy yourself another laptop, and save yourself the headaches with this brand.

Discount Dell Latitude E4300 13.3" Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz, 160GB

Customer Ratings:

At work our company purchased a fleet of Dell Latitude E4300 to replace our old D400/D600 notebooks. These notebooks are stylish and superfast with SSD and Win7 upgrades. The warranty is excellent, if hard drive fails or someone is wrong. Dell warranty is fast to replace or fix any problems you made experience and overnight the part for you FREE. The E-Series will last for many, many years to come.

"Dell Customer Service for Small Business was superb, delivering new keyboards overnight, or sending a technician over, the next day with almost no questions asked."

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I am very happy with the laptop. The product looks like new, the computer is fast , small and light.

The keyboard is in very good condition. The screen doesn't has any scratch.

Notebook cover is like metal but it has some small scratch but it is normal.

I installed it Ubunto linux 11.10 and it works great ( i am using double boot Windows 7 and Linux).

The laptop has windows 7 license ( it was a nice surprise) when i bought the laptop had Windows XP professional license.

The Feature are:

Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz

DVDRW Drive

Hard disk 160 GB

4 Gb of Ram

Wifi

Screen 13.3"

Micro SD reader

USB Ports

VGA Port

Extra port to extra battery

Charger

Windows 7 license for refurbished equipment.

ALL THE COMPONENTS WORKS =).

Best Deals for Dell Latitude E4300 13.3" Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz, 160GB

I was kind of expecting a Windows 7 like other user had, instead mine is a Vista, I never use the Vista before, not a big fun, but the laptop itself made up for it, every things are working, I loaded a few software, it is ready to go to replace my wife's old desktop or can be my backup pc if I am on a trip. if it is worth for a while, plan to upgrade it to win7.

Cheers.

Honest reviews on Dell Latitude E4300 13.3" Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz, 160GB

Great computer! My wife and I bought three of them and we use them for home schooling. These laptops have sufficient speed to satisfy our kids "Mine Craft" gaming, are easy to use, battery charge lasts a long time, and although we thought the screens may be a little too small they are proven to be just fine. We have 5 kids, bought these three for our boys and will not hesitate to pick up another two for our two younger girls soon. Good investment and great value! Dennis and Shemariah in Oceanside, CA www.thevospergroup.com

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Dell had a nice thin feel to it with a good bit of memory running XP Pro which is real bonus. It has a docking port which I used at home to do remote access to work with duel flat top monitors, it makes an excellent work environment. Has very good processing speed.

XN517UAR#ABA HP XN517UAR#ABA HP XN517UAR#ABA Review

Customer Ratings:

After loading Microsoft Office Professional 2010 + Microsoft Security Essentials I began receiving messages from Microsoft that the version of Windows 7 was not authentic and that Security Essentials would shut down in 30 days in addition to automatic updates all failing. A little phrase above the time on the lower right of the screen appeared and stayed there: "not an authentic version of Windows 7". Since I had already loaded MS office professional 2010(a very expensive program)I was forced to buy an authentic version of Windows 7-and load the authentic product keyBRINGING THE TOTAL COST TO WELL OVER $400.

Over a month later this PC is full of qwirks.

DONT BUY FROM DISHONEST SELLERS LIKE THESE PEOPLE

COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE SELLER REVEALED THAT HE IS BARELY LITERATE.

The Amazon claim process is 99.9% automated and individual issues are not well addressed.

I would not want to return a pc after I loaded MS office and was forced to buy an authentic version of Windows 7. That would be returning a much more valuable product than the one I bought.

I requested a refund for the authentic version of Windows 7. The automated return process is not set up for specific requests and only offered a return.

ABSOLUTELY NOT WORTH IT!!!!

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Maybe not for the power gamer but,great laptop for the adverage user. Purchased this laptop feb 2011 factory refurbed for $275 with the standard 6 month warranty given refurbs. Have had no problems. has web mike but no cam. Can always clamp one on. Must replace the battery now, but wait, That's 18 months of daily use on a 17"er. Not bad at all. To the reviewer who gave this item a one star. Sounds like your problem was with the seller trying to pull a fast one. Sorry to hear.

Cheap Samsung Laptop / Intel Core i5 Processor / 14" Display / 4GB M

Customer Ratings:

We didnt get this laptop from amazon, but figured it would be nice to leave a review. My wife had a Toshiba laptop she bought in 2010 and after a few spills and damages from the kids the laptop fried in 2011. We took it to best buy where we got it and got this laptop as a replacement because of our protection plan. This laptop was actually more in replacement cost then her old laptop, but the store was past closing time by the time they were ringing us up and they just had a manager adjust the cost difference.

This laptop runs great, and has lasted our kids. The screen is glass covered and protects it from damage. The aluminum is a nice touch, but more of a preference. The chicklet style keyboard makes for a more simplistic, less cramped, keyboard. I prefer full sized keyboards with number pads for gaming, but this laptop was nice because I didnt have to worry about hitting too many buttons at once when I was moving around too much in the game.

The laptop works to play skyrim, battlefield 3, and many other games that I want, while my wife has a very portable laptop to tote around to wherever. The battery is good, the build quality is great, and for the price and value its definitely a winner. We even spent just a little bit of cash to upgrade to 8gb ram, and makes this all the better.

I have used many machines, I build computers, repair them, etc. So I know what to look for in a good laptop, and this definitely set the bar for similar value laptops.

The bottom line is that this is a good machine, and a great value for the price. For anyone looking for a nice laptop that has enough power to do what you need, without feeling like you are carrying around a bag of bricks then this is the perfect laptop.

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I don't know why people are giving this laptop one star. They may not be treating it right, because this laptop has a special option that extends battery life by charging up to 80% when on AC power. My battery still has enough power on full charge to give it 4 hours of use! I bought May 2011, and it's still running just as fast as it did when I first bought it. Whatever Samsung did with this computer, I'm sure their newer ones are even better! Great laptop, I probably won't get a new one until I've drained the life out of this one, probably in another 2 years!

Best Deals for Samsung Laptop / Intel Core i5 Processor / 14" Display / 4GB M

I like the computer given me no problems I have a few games on it and just Browse the Internet .

other then that I don't do much more with it and can't say much more about it

Honest reviews on Samsung Laptop / Intel Core i5 Processor / 14" Display / 4GB M

I just wanted to say that the samsung touchpad is overactive, producing undesired clicks and gestures. The touchpad driver offers no settings to adjust sensitivity or to automatically disable whilst typing. The only remedy seems to be manually inactivating the touchpad by pressing Fn-F10, and constantly toggling the feature is tedious.

This pitfall certainly wasn't apparent while shopping for this notebook, and hopefully I'll remember to scrutinize it more closely in my next purchase.

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First off, I've owned this laptop for 15 months, and it is a nice looking laptop, is fast, and offers plenty of space (640GB). There is another review here about the tempremental touchpad I agree 100%. My primary complaint is with Samsung, and with it's so called warranty. Six months after the purchase, my laptop got to the point where it needed to be plugged in 100% of the time. I would, at most, have 10 minutes of un-tethered laptop use. I called Samsung, thinking that it was a battery problem and asked for the battery to be replaced. I was told that this was not covered under warranty (which came as a shock to me), and they ran me through a diagnostic battery check with maybe added 10 minutes to my unplugged use, so the call to Samsung was useless. Battery life consistently got worse, so I decided to bite the bullet and just get a new battery. I had previously owned a Dell, so I thought popping in a new battery would be an easy and productive fix. Which brings me to the next topic it's an internal battery YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE BATTERY YOURSELF!!! Batteries plus can't do it either. Best Buy (where I bought the laptop) told me a new battery would run $120-$200 to change the battery, $100 or so for the battery, plus another $80-$100 to have someone "install" it. I paid over $800 for this laptop, and I think that A) Samsung should cover batteries under their warranties, and B) I should not be had this problem with a 6 month old laptop, and C) I should be able to change the battery myself. After this experience, I will not purchase a laptop with an internal battery, it's a deal-breaker.

Reviews of HP Envy 14-2166SE - Beats Edition - Core i5 2430M / 2.4 GHz

Customer Ratings:

over all I like this laptop, love the backlite keyboard, the only problem the pointer sticks sometimes...other than that it arrived on time and is everything the seller claimed it to be.

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