Buy HP Folio 13-1020US 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Steel Gray)

Customer Ratings:

I am an experienced graphic designer (Photoshop / Dreamweaver / In Design) and full-time internet retailer shipping about 100 $200+ orders daily, so I guess you could say I am a power-consumer from both sides of the curtain. I am on my machine(s) at least 8-12 work related hours / day updating my web site(s), communicating with customers and vendors and researching a wide variety of products and issues related to my business. Additionally, I get about all my news online and spend more time than average in social networking media promoting my business.

I own several (currently HP) desktop machines, as a small business owner with a handful of employees I am also my own IT guy, chief cook and bottle-washer, and have been so since 1996. I compare / purchase several computers annually as I personally like everyone to have the latest and greatest, not only is it fun but I can rationalize it as giving my company the edge over my competitors, and can also depreciate it on my taxes so it costs me a lot less to upgrade than the home user. Besides, communication is the key to a successful dot-com, we answer our inquiries and other customer service communications darn near real-time. I'm on my third or fourth Android device having migrated from Blackberry a few years back. I mention all this so you know where I'm coming from ...

This whole thing started when I got frustrated with my Kindle Fire's virtual keyboard, surfing and replying to emails. I have been doing a lot of that on my Samsung Stratosphere but being an old fart my vision isn't what it used to be and wanted a bigger screen. I mean, you can't communicate if you don't have a device with you, opening a 17" laptop in a vehicle or on the tarmac is doable but cumbersome because of its size; the phone is great for a quick note in the grocery store or waiting room but locating a URL, cutting and pasting it into your response can be challenging on any smart phone and is far from ideal this, I reasoned, is where the tablet will rule. This goes also for the sofa, bed, and yes, the commode. I am dead serious when I told you I'm always online and confess I even have a small computer table in the john. (Great place to read the news.) But one of the road blocks to handiness is the infamous power cord, I have always required several so I can avoid hauling it, and the computer, hither and yon. Sucks to be me.

So I've been patiently waiting for the Android 4.0 OS (Ice Cream) before handing the Fire over to the wife (I have a standard Kindle for e-books) when I saw that HP battery-in-the-airport ad ... bingo! The light bulb went on and I was on a mission.

I shopped hard before deciding on the Folio 13, studied, watched the videos, compared tech specs and did some power tab-clicking with all the customer reviews of the ultrabooks and 14" notebooks, factory web sites and other professional review sites like CNet, PC World, liliputing and/or whatever else is to be found in a Google search. I looked at the Samsung Series 9, the Acer Aspire S3 and the Asus Zenbook on-the-hoof at Best Buy before purchasing the HP on Amazon (these were the only ones on the shelf in my area). I buy a lot of stuff on Amazon and really enjoy shopping here.

What I was to learn is that you basically have many pretty good choices, but must make your decision based on anticipated usage and what size you are willing to put up with. Then there's the puny little solid state drives, long on performance (I upgraded my laptop to an expensive hybrid drive last year) but short on capacity. i looked on my 500 Gig VAIO and discovered I was only using about 250 (I keep most lesser-used photo and video files on a big external Seagate drive), and that's with a good deal of incidental duplication from the last upgrade. Still, the 70 gigs or so you have left on the ultrabook after loading the OS would fall quite a bit short eventually I reasoned, as I'd like to be able do an ad or site update should the need arise and would therefore require current photography and more recent ad files, in addition to the core Adobe CS4 software I swear by, loaded on the machine. Plus I am a part-time rocket scientist (hobby-level) so needed some of that stuff on it also.

I have been threatening to make the move back to Mac since abandoning that platform for price in 2004, so I did consider the Airbook. One chat session with Adobe however nuked that idea I'd have to abandon my PC software if I were to get new OSX licenses, or spend another $1400 on CS5 for the Mac. That's right, Adobe wanted $1400 in fees if I wanted to run their design suite on a $999 Airbook. Adobe sucks.

This should give one some clarity obviously I couldn't do all that with a Galaxy Tablet even though Adobe does now have Photoshop and such for tablets now so it is a possibility, but I'd have to fork out more cash for that as well. Rocksim however is Windows only (rocket design software). Be sure to consider these little whoppers or suffer the consequences!

So if you're deciding between a tablet or an ultrabook, whether or not you want your core productivity software on the little machine comes first. With these babies you can run most Windows software, unlike tablets, so they are far more flexible and for this reason may eventually emerge to dominate the tablet-portable category.

Now there's the issue of storage capacity. Few ultras have 256 gb of storage (see the Dell XPS), those that do are 25-40% more ($1299 Dell), although that is likely to change as the category evolves. If you go over 256 you are in hard drive (HDD) versus solid state drive (SSD) territory so performance would suffer somewhat, that's kind of heretical anyway. What to do?

Then I discovered the new Lexar 128 GB SDXC Flash Memory Card LSD128CRBNA133. Viola! For $175, considerably less than the $300 Dell wants on the upgraded drive XPS 13 ... problem solved as long as the ultra I chose has an SD slot! (Optionally, the 64gb card is $100)

Decisions, decisions .... The XPS 13 and Samsung Series 9 sure are sexy, I would have loved having one of those on my flight's drop-tray, why didn't I go with one of them? Almost did, oh man they look good! Then it dawned on me my #1 requirement, the starting point of this whole endeavor, was not style, it was battery life. Ah, battery life, everything I can find on the black-boxed beauties indicated they were far from ideal in this regard. Then there was the issue of the SD card, no slot at all on the Dell, Micro SD on the Samsung so capacity would suffer immensely. Practicality has to preside as much as I wish it not be so.

By the way, the read-speed of the Lexar is FASTER than the onboard SSD drive, though the write is much slower, so you're not giving up much and have the additional benefit of reading your camera cards.

Now my requirements were taking shape, and there is a HUGE variety of I/O port availability on these various and sundry ultrabooks, but currently the market requires you to choose between a selection of I/O schemes and design. I went for the 'book with the most options and that meant the Folio 13:

USB 3.0 Port (much faster for devices that support it)

USB 2.0 Port (most USB devices)

Bluetooth 3.0 (excellent way to connect headphones, mouse and other peripherals)

Ethernet RJ 45 Jack (I shy from those public hotel networks)

SD Card Slot greatly expanded storage options

Full HDMI jack (Dell has a mini)(I use these often for larger monitors and TV viewing)

Backlit keyboard (careful with this one, many ultrabooks don't)

Headphone / speaker / mic jack (this should be handy for VOIP apps like Skype and Google Phone)

Battery Life (Folio allegedly has an hour lead over the Dell)

Sure, there's sexier 'books out there but sensibility won out. If you, however, don't need all that and are simply looking for a stylin' communication and Microsoft Office system, I'd take a hard look at the Dell. Now there's a CNet review comparing them. They agree advantage HP (but no one could blame you for getting the Dell.)

Here's my impressions on Day Three of Folio 13 ownership ....

As usual my Amazon shopping experience was flawless. I don't sell on Amazon or Ebay anymore because they take too large of a percentage off the top, but I have in the past so understand the entire fulfillment process well. Amazon is the best especially when you purchase from Amazon as opposed to a third-party vendor so I generally pay attention to who is doing the selling for best results. This was another flawless Amazon Prime transaction, I highly recommend it.

The Good:

It took me about 2 minutes to set up the machine when it was unboxed. No challenges whatsoever. Basically name it, enter your wireless router info in the step-by-step wizard and you're live. Loading the Adobe suite and copying files from the main machine was a breeze with the hi-cap SD card. I put the software on the built-in solid state drive and the graphic files and other documents on the Lexar SD card. Let's see how long it stays that way ....

I would describe the HP Folio 13 as a professional's ultra-portable machine. The outside top cover and the case surrounding the keyboard is brushed aluminum; strong, clean and neat but otherwise unremarkable. The "soft-touch" surrounding the screen and on the bottom gives the entire package a very inviting, user-friendly feel one will likely notice immediately and surely will outlast the machine unless I do something stupid.

It boots at a blazing-fast speed, you will be amazed. Restarts will no longer be coffee breaks however, so take your java to your desk on the way in. Recovering from a closed lid or other sleep related states can me measured in single-digit seconds, I just timed it at 3 or 4. Very cool.

The entire strip above the keyboard, between the display hinges, is speaker. It's a LOT better than I expected from one of these little units, but since I haven't heard the others I have nothing to compare to. I wouldn't use it for a boom-box but its more than adequate for YouTube videos and the like. Certainly it's comparable to most other notebooks and there's a headphone / speaker jack if you need it. Connecting to my Logitech Surround Sound Speaker System Z906 (980-000467) definitely rocks the entire building all out of proportion to size.

One other big plus, and one I compared to the Best Buy demos, is the keyboard. Love it, have absolutely none of the complaints everyone is discussing on other machines. The keys are sure-footed and lively. you don't have to hammer them yet they tell your fingers they've done the job when struck with a gentle touch. Even heavy phat-fingers like mine naturally relax when using it, they are of a size and in good position as far as I am concerned. The function keys are primo, you do not have to press and hold the 'fn' key simultaneously with the top key to instantly backlight the keyboard, turn off the wireless, fast forward video or adjust the volume & brightness, a nice feature in my book compared even to full-size laptops. In the lower right corner you have the four scroll keys, they work well and are intuitive in position and function. No, you don't nave a number pad or a 10-key lock but it is not to be expected in a box this small.

Another nice feature is a handy switch in the upper left corner of the trackpad to turn the pad off and on. When you read my trackpad review below you can see why it's there ...

The bottom remains very cool and there's no annoying fan noise that some are complaining about on competitive models. Also some people wonder if they can deal with life sans CD-ROM. I wondered also, mostly because of software discs I have laying about, plus I do watch the occasional movie while flying or RVing so I added the AmazonBasics USB 2.0 8x DVD Writer External Optical Drive (Black) for $40 just in case.

The Bad:

Um, trackpad buttons are far too stiff. One almost has to pinch the box to get them to respond. Too bad and may be a deal breaker for some. I tend to spell badly and use the right-click spell-checking functionality a lot, so this is going to have be worked out for me at least. I'll be doing a lot of pad touching and two-finger scrolling in the mean time. I have never been big on trackpads however, much preferring a mouse, and one of the pluses is the aforementioned button to disable it in favor of another device. Maybe they'll loosen up with use, we'll see, but there's really no excuse to botch-up an otherwise very functional and useful overall input design. Shame on you H-P.

The only other small thing I noticed is the display itself it is a bit flat, washed out if you will. In fact I noticed this on all the ultrabooks I could try, even the Samsung, a brand well known for their superior LED's. One would be best served to put them all side-by-side and hit the graphics controls to see what's what if that's a key consideration, anyway. Bear in mind that none of them are designed as primary Photoshop machines.

In all fairness it's such a minor point, even to a graphics guy like me, that I haven't taken the time to mess around with the color, brightness, gamma and contrast settings so that may help. Generally I hook-up to an external display when doing anything important anyway and the 13.3" LED screen onboard is plenty good for general browsing and email.

UPDATE: This situation was easily corrected in the Intel Graphics Control Panel (right click on desktop background > graphics properties > advanced options > display > color enhancement > saturation slider). Outstanding.

The Ugly:

I'd have preferred they didn't affix the promotional stickers to either side of the track pad, they could simply put them in the box for attachment should that particular unit become a showroom demo. I don't need the pitch I already bought it after all and they mess with my aesthetics.

Overall:

I really like this unit, what it lacks in style it more than makes up for with functionality. Hard to think of a peripheral that wouldn't connect well, and there's enough variety to connect your choice of headphones, mouse, external monitors, networking options, printer and so on, simultaneously.

I booted it at 6am this morning after charging all night, it's now 11:21AM and I still have 2 hr 49 min left. * hours, exactly the reason I got it.

Expandability of the HP Folio 13 is the best of all the true SSD ultrabook entries at this point (Acer has the quasi-ultras with CD's, bigger HDDs and such), mainly due to the porting and SD card slot as mentioned and all of this comes at the lower end of the pricing spectrum. I got mine for $858 with a $100 gift card for a net of $758! Adding the $175 for the 128 GB card puts it right at $900, 40% less than the Dell (or or indeed any others I found with 256 gig drive) even considering the big SD card.

More connectivity, class-leading expandability, top battery life, all for for less money out-of-pocket: now THAT is a winning hand in my book! Stiff trackpad be damned. I'm getting more and more used to it with use, perhaps it is getting broken in. Anyway, I have a Bluetooth mouse hanging around here somewhere ....

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Pros: It's very light compared to the normal 6+ lb laptops I usually use, traveling with it is a pleasure! Performance is decent considering its size and it has so many ports compared to other ultrabooks. It has an Ethernet port! That's a big deal for me as hotel wi-fi networks are usually really bad. Almost no other ultrabook has that, same with a regular sized HDMI port. Sure you could get a different computer and carry ethernet/hdmi adapters with you but carrying around adapters defeats the purpose of having an ultrabook!

Cons: The screen's color contrast is a bit washed out and can not be adjusted. However this is only a minor annoyance to me and the screen is plenty bright.

Overall: I bought this and the Toshiba Portege Z835 at the same time and used both side by side for a few days. The HP won hands down. There are other ultrabooks but they all are missing something; ethernet, hdmi, backlit keyboard... As of early 2012 this is the best ultrabook on the market.

Best Deals for HP Folio 13-1020US 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Steel Gray)

I have had this laptop for about one month and so far so good. I use it for college and it is great for portability and its battery lasts all day. I have gotten 8.0 hours on the battery with brightness fairly low using wifi (Netflix and browsing). I like the USB 3.0 with an external HDD because it is really fast transfer. The only thing with it is that the SSD is only 128gb but with the recovery partition plus operating system there is only about 70 gigs for the user. I got a 32 gig class 10 SD card to get some extra space. Some people have tons of music and videos on their computer so this laptop may not be for you but I have very little media on mine and doubt that it will be a problem. The SSD makes booting, loading, copying and installing programs really fast. The computer boots up to a usable state in about 18 seconds and all hardware is very good. Keyboard and trackpad are very good. Backlight on the keyboard is awesome however not as cool in the white color than my previous HP ENVY with a red backlit keyboard.

Honest reviews on HP Folio 13-1020US 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Steel Gray)

I have looked and compared portege, u400, zenbook, aspire and after weighing in the price and specs, I went ahead and bought the Folio 13. I read a lot of reviews in cnet, engadget, etc and Folio always had excellent reviews. I also went to bestbuy to check out for myself. My second choice was zenbook but it was too pricey for me. Here is a list of pros and cons for these ultra notebooks:

portege build quality is poor. the screen bends like paper and wiggles. but you get ssd, i5, backlit key

u400 you get a dvd drive which is nice. but no sd card an backlit key and the keyboard is small. build quality is awesome though.

aspire plasticky and not fast, not ssd, but cheap for $800

zebook would have been perfect but too pricey. no ethernet port

I wanted to check out also the samsung 7, it talks about expresscache. but pricey as well.

With HP Folio, for $850, you get SSD, USB 3.0, backlit key, and an i5 core. Seriously, the SSD costs about $140 in itself and it makes your computing a lot faster. You get a lot of ports and keyboard is really nice. Battery is super.

The only cons on the Folio, is that my legs get warm and the right click button malfunctions sometimes, it responds as left button. Screen is average...

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UPDATE AUGUST 4 2012:

I have actually starting taking this laptop on my trips rather than my MacBook Air. I still use my MacBook Air but sometimes there are things I need a windows machine, which is mostly due to some work reasons. The battery life is great, sure I have to plug it in but 99% of the time that I use the machine I unplug it, take it with me to move around the house, go to work or go to a meeting without bringing my power cord.

The SSD hard drive on this machine is nice. It boots fast, it surfs the web fast. I open the lid on the laptop, hit the power button, login, load up iTunes and download what I need over wireless and sync to my iPod, or check my email or a document and close the lid in must a matter of a couple minutes.

I have also found myself using the touchpad on this machine more than an external mouse. It allows for two finger scrolling, which I originally used on my MacAir and found that I can do the same thing on the Folio VERY HANDY.

At times I forget this laptop has light-up keys. I am sitting in the dark and can't see the keys and remember that I can hit "F5" to turn on the LED lit keys, again VERY HANDY.

This laptop is fast and light and so many of it's features are "Handy" which makes it more productive than any other laptop I have used for daily activities.

MARCH 7 2012:

I have a MacBook Air 13.3 with an i5 processor, it is very nice machine. I got this machine, the HP Folio 13, because I wanted a Windows laptop that was very portable AND usable. I am not going to do a 1 to 1 comparison between this and the MacBook Air 13 because I am sure someone else already has. Over the years I have used a few windows based "mini's" and while they are portable they are not quite usable. This machine is very very light AND at the same time very fast. The screen may be 13 inches but the resolution makes it look bigger. I like how bright this screen is. I like being to able to adjust things on the keyboard. I like being able to turn on the backlit keyboard so I can type in the dark, kind of like the MacBook air. The one thing that I really like about the MacBook Air is I can use two fingers to scroll on the touchpad and I can do the same on the Folio 13. I loaded up Windows 8 Consumer Preview on the Folio and wow, it was fast but I want back to Windows 7 because I didnt like Windows 8 at all and the new UI.

So in the end, the Folio is around $800 and the MacBook Air is around $1300 and each has their own qualities but I find myself using the Folio more than the MacBook air these days.

MSI Computer Corp. GS70 2OD-001US 17.3-Inch Laptop Reviews

Customer Ratings:

This laptop honestly had everything I was looking for. (Except for windows 8.. not a huge fan)

The screen looks great! From playing games with high settings to watching HD movies, everything has looked very good to say the least. The colors look great!

The Audio is pretty decent as well. Speakers are pretty decent not to mention it has a built in subwoofer. Everything seemed pretty clear as far as the vocals go.

They Keyboard is done by SteelSeries and is pretty comfortable to type on. The keys are also illuminated and have a program which is very customizable for the LED settings.

The touchpad takes some getting used to but once customized its decent. Honestly though if I'm gaming or doing some long work then I'm usually using a mouse. The left and right click are hidden under the bottom of the touchpad making it look pretty sleek.

The graphics card is pretty decent too. I've been able to LoL, WoW, and FFXIV:ARR with pretty high settings and have good FPS.

The heat dissipation was very well thought through for this laptop in my opinion. It pulls air from the top and expels it from each of the sides at a 45 degree angle upward. This makes sure that the heat doesn't make your legs into toast and ensures that the heat doesn't get trapped under the laptop.

I havent had a chance to use the webcam yet.

Battery life is pretty decent and has a feature that allows the user to toggle between integrated and dedicated graphics in order to optimize battery life.

I love the 16 gigs of ram and the SSD(s) that make this laptop pretty quick. I really loved the how I was able to get so many features along with a slim laptop. It also looks very sleek and classy.

I would recommend this laptop. In hindsight, if I had it to do over, I would have gotten the version that had 2 SSD(s) instead of only one. (FYI the only difference between the two is storage space and an additional SSD)

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this has everything i need for a PC but now in a laptop form, wish it had standard video jacks, but no worries, now i have to go out and buy an HDMI monitor

Best Deals for MSI Computer Corp. GS70 2OD-001US 17.3-Inch Laptop

I bought this Laptop because I wanted something bigger than my Sager NP 7330. I am constantly deployed with limited space, so I was needing something with decent power and a Laptop that was very thin. I read many reviews about people complaining about the temperatures of this Laptop when Gaming. After I purchased this, I contacted the seller because I wanted to return it due to all the negativity I have read. I AM GLAD THAT I DID NOT. I have played Call Of Duty Black Ops II, Battlefield 3, Arma III, and many other Games. I have played Black OPS II for over 2 hours straight and did not have any issues with Heat..(at a solid 60FPS)The GTX-765m is the right card for this Machine.The Laptop never shut down once on me like I thought it would.

This Laptop Boots in about 7-8 seconds from a Cold Boot, maybe faster. I am a big fan of using Raid 0, and MSI did a great job of implementing "Super Raid". My notebook as a 750GB Data Drive, and 2 64GB Msata Drives in Raid 0. The Msata Drives have the OS on them and just a few Games that I play regularly. I am not a big fan of Windows 8, but once I update to 8.1 I am sure I will be just fine.

The Keyboard is made by Steel Series, and has only a slight bit of Flex in it. The lighting effects add a nice look when you are Gaming in the Dark. There is combination after combination of colors you can choose from. If you don't want to look like a Nerd, you can even turn them off.

I am not a big fan of the Touch-Pad, but I also have not updated the touch-pad Drivers yet. I am sure once I do that, it will be just fine.

Honest reviews on MSI Computer Corp. GS70 2OD-001US 17.3-Inch Laptop

i7 cpu, 2gb gpu memory, 16gb ram, 128gb ssd, 750 hdd, packed into a very thin design for $1700.

OS boots up in literally ~5 seconds.

The touchpad initially caused some frustration. But after downloading the latest firmware and changing the settings to my liking, it has some very nice features.

Discount Acer All-in-One DQ.VFRAA.001;VZ2650G-UG645X 20-Inch Laptop

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $757.87
Sale Price: $626.60
Today's Bonus: 17% Off

Touchscreen is excellent with this computer. I've heard people complain about windows 8, but if you are used to a tablet its no problem. Screen resolution is excellent. I've watch movies or video in full HD through Netflix and Youtube and they look fantastic. I like that it has both HDMI in and an HDMI out. I have my PS3 hooked up to the HDMI in. There is a button on the side you can switch from PC to HDMI in. Using it for my PS3 it looks excellent. My main issues is that the sound from the speakers honestly sucks. But I had a set of Logitech speakers with a subwoofer so it wasn't an issue for me. If you are buying this computer you will want to add better speakers. The other issue is that 4gb of memory is not enough. I've already run into the issue of being told memory is low and I need to close a program. I plan to add another 4gb of memory.

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I ordered this on a Monday and got it on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It was easy to set up and the graphics and screen quality are phenomenal. It is a great computer for a great price.

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So I've owned this computer for about a week now and I ave a had a flawlessly smooth experience getting accustomed to windows 8 alond with the touchscreen capabilities. This machine is a powerhorse and seems very responsive. Ive noticed absolutely no lag. overall im happy with my purchase and definitely recommend to anyone willing to give windows 8 a try. you wont regret it :]

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Received my Acer desktop computer on time, very easy to setup, great HD, the touch screen is very nice, makes operating in Windows 8 a breeze. I also do online gaming, now problem great graphics, and sound. Well worth the money, also great support from Acer as well; if needed. I bet you asking yourself how does he know, is there something wrong with the PC? my answer to you is no, I just tried it out to see if the support was there and it is. If you are looking to buy a All in 1 desktop consider this one. Thanks

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I have had this unit for two months and it works great! One of the reasons I picked this unit was because it had an HDMI-out port to support a second monitor. So far, everything is working well with this computer.

Reviews of HP Pav 847 14.0 16G 4G CHROME Notebooks

Customer Ratings:

Love this laptop. Fast and functional. Larger screen than your average chromebook, but battery life is about 4hrs. This one really isn't for traveling. I just use it at home, so battery life isn't an issue.

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Buy Acer Aspire 5349-2418 - 15.6" - C B815 - Windows 7 Home Premium

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I BOUGHT THIS LAPTOP FROM SCHEWEL FURNITURE AND I NEVER HAD AN ISSUE WITH IT. DOWNLOADS ARE QUICK,AND FEATURES ALOT OF OPTIONS. I WOULD RECOMMEND THI LAPTOP.ESPECIALLY GOOD FOR BEGINNERS.

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Discount HP G72-b60us 17.3-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 5 Hours of Battery Life

Customer Ratings:

My desktop fried after 4 years, and decided to look into this 17" HP laptop.It's been 2 months since purchase and each time I log in, I pat myself on the back for making such a good choice.Great screen size,not too heavy,and powerful enough unless your head over heels into gaming. The case is classy,the screen is clear & sharp,and the Intel I-series processor is fast,really fast. If you are thinking about a laptop,do not overlook this one.

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I purchased this product at Staples after doing a little research on it and finding out that it had all that I need, 1. a large hard dive (500 gb is plenty for me), 2. 17.3" screen, 3. Windows 7, and the price wasn't bad either. I've been using mine for about 4 days now and I really do love it. It easily connects to wifi without problems, and for the most part once I insert a device into the usb port it automatically downloads the software, so I don't have to go onto various websites looking for downloads. I also like the fingerprint resistant surface, and the quick tab keys located at the top of the keyboard, which allow me to change the volume, or the brightness level of the screen. The numeric keyboard to the right, and the full sized keyboard is a plus as well.

Cons:

The touchpad. I don't really care for it. It's design is flawed in my opinion, so I am using an external one.

Best Deals for HP G72-b60us 17.3-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 5 Hours of Battery Life

Saw a good deal at Stapples last week and decided to purchase this laptop. Not really computer savy but tend to purchase lots of technology and have owned several pcs for work projects including Apple products. As a basic user who tends to search for jobs, read the news online, load pictures, and occassionally download music, this pc has been effective so far. The only annoyance is the mouse pad area which requires a bit of pressure to left/right click things. This laptop seems to be a test run for style because I don't think that mouse pad is effective even though it looks simple. A minor issue in my opinion so just take it as a finger work out. It's also very quiet and the music sounds ok once tweeked a bit. If I could rate it 4 1/2 stars (decent price with the discount at purchase plus the mail in rebate, screen size, memory, but the mouse pad and the starter programs could be better) I would but 5 for the basic user, college student, or the older adult I think you will be pleased.

Honest reviews on HP G72-b60us 17.3-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 5 Hours of Battery Life

Unfortunately, all of the wonderful aspects of the laptop do not make up for the problems. The screen is gorgeous, the colors are lovely, the price is right for an array of excellent features. I dearly love my little guy, but he is no longer reliable (this matters to me because I use it for work and running statistical models). There is an electrical problem which forces the computer to randomly shut down (other customers have been told it is related to over heating). After looking up multiple potential ways to fix, I became aware the there are a LOT of people with HP laptops (a multitude of different HP laptops) that all have the same set of problems, including faulty/easy to break powercords. That is all well and good, expected as no computer is perfect. I also have a macbook and have had problems with it over the years, but Apple has had, by and large, amazing customer support. HP on the other hand is the most awful, deviant company I have ever spoken to. After your 1 year warranty is up, they refuse to even talk to you. Unless you pay them an inordinate sum of money. Companies that do not stand by their products and repeatedly issue products with similar problems are dishonest and I will no longer be an HP customer after this. HP, you have let us down.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for HP G72-b60us 17.3-Inch Laptop PC - Up to 5 Hours of Battery Life

To begin, I have owned this laptop for two months. I needed a replacement laptop for a Dell Inspiron 1721 (AMD Dual Core 1.9ghz), which stopped working and wouldn't boot up. I needed a 17" because it is my "desktop" and my eyesight is not that good. To say I got a great laptop is not doing this PC justice. My Dell literally used to take 10 minutes to boot up. This takes 15 seconds to get to the login page and 50 seconds to boot up completely. I loaded the exact same software I had on my Dell. This is very fast. Another problem I had with my Dell was overheating. When I took the Dell apart, there was dust accumulation so thick that there was 70% occlusion. This HP has been running 27 degrees Celsius on standard apps/web-surfing and about 35 degrees Celsius on movies and game-play(using speed fan temperature monitor). The fan rarely comes on and runs cool to touch. It is incredibly light in comparison and the best feature is the HDMI (the Dell was missing HDMI). I hook up the HDMI to my 32" Toshiba Regza constantly to watch HD content and the transition is smooth and flawless. Color comparisons are superb with no clarity loss. The smudge-proof surface is nicely textured and--once you get used to it--the scroll features (vertical and horizontal) are not an issue. One cool feature is the Synaptics Pointing Device. With this enabled, I can use my mouse pad in fast-scroll and pinch/expand mode...big plus. The one problem (small) is that the space bar--when tapped a bit to the right of center--does not always work. I sometimes have to go back and place spaces between words (thank goodness for spell check!). Overall, my happiness level is high with this laptop. Several reviewers spoke of poor customer service. I can't speak to this, but the new norm is "poor" unless you're dealing with Apple. In my humble 30+ years of technology experience, companies come and go, customer service comes and goes. You take the good with the bad and learn from mistakes. That's why I DIDN'T choose a Dell (this time).

Buy Toshiba Satellite L875D-S7131NR 17.3'' LED Notebook - AMD A-Series

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $604.99
Sale Price: $579.99
Today's Bonus: 4% Off

All laptops manufactured these days seem suspect to me.Whether this one and it's confusing Windows 8,or the cheaply made Gateway laptop I bought in January of 2012 (what a waste!) and all points in between.All I can say about this laptop is that it'll serve it's purpose:my e-mail,my office documents and presentations and my personal files.Nothing spectacular,no special features.Just a seemingly decent laptop computer.

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This computer is slow slow slow. For a quad core, I couldn't believe how slow this computer is. Everything I tried doing on this computer prompted a 100% High CPU usage warning. Adobe caused this, IMVU caused this, just about anything that required a little bit of power caused this. I do NOT recommend this computer for anything other than checking email. This computer can NOT do gaming at all.

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THE OPERATING SYSTEM IS MADE FOR AN IPAD. I WANT A LAPTOP. I NEED TO GO THRU 4 SCREENS TO GET TO MY BROWSER.TOSHIBA/MICROSOFT WANTS TO COMPETE WITH APPLE. DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING. TOSHIBA SATELITE IS GREAT LAPTOP. RESOLUTION IS GREAT. GO BACK TO BASICS. WINDOWS 7 IS BETTER .BUT MORE EXPENSIVE NOW BECAUSE THEY (MICROSOFT) IS PUSHING WINDOWS 8. JUST LOOK AT THE PRICES. I ASKED FOR WINDOWS 7 AND THE RESPONSE FROM TOSHIBA WAS THEY HAVE A THIRD PARTY INSTALLER FOR IT . BUT HAS NO WARRANTY. MY RESPONSE WAS "I WILL SEND YOU A THIRD PARTY POST DATED CHECK" WE BOTH LAUGHED. KEITH GAFFNEY. NEW YORK

Honest reviews on Toshiba Satellite L875D-S7131NR 17.3'' LED Notebook - AMD A-Series

This item: Toshiba Satellite L875D-S7131NR 17.3" Notebook Computer, AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M 1.9GH

Customer Rating There are no customer reviews yet 3.0 out of 5 stars (2) 2.3 out of 5 stars (3) 3.9 out of 5 stars (12)

Price $639.99

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CPU The central processing unit (CPU) is the part of the computer that does most of the data processing and calculations. More processing power means a faster experience. AMD A Series 1.90 GHz Intel Core i3 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 2.5 GHz A-Series Dual-Core A4-4300M 3 GHz

Operating System The operating system (OS) is the computer's software environment that manages the hardware and allows you to run programs on your computer. Different operating systems such as Windows, Mac OS X, and Chrome provide different features. Windows 7 Home Premium Windows 7 Home Premium

Memory Random access memory (RAM) is short term memory where programs live when they're running on your computer. More memory provides better multi-tasking performance. 16 GB

Hard Drive Hard drives contain long-term memory where all of your files and programs are stored. More hard drive memory means more room for software, movies, music, and other content. Hard drives can come in a traditional hard disk format or as a solid state drive (SSD). Traditional hard disk drives offer more storage at a lower price while SSDs are much faster but are also more expensive. 750 GB

Discount HP Envy 17-1191NR 17.3" Laptop (1.60 GHz Intel Core i7-720QM

Customer Ratings:

I just bought Men in Black 3D and it won't play in 3D mode. Windows media says it can't be run on its player.

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Being an older model, two years old in the electronic world seems to be ancient as told by me at the tech office for hp. I did not care about the age of the model, it was the specs of the model that sold me. I really wanted a full hp 3d laptop, and all others were more expensive and heavier and more bulky. This computer for the average user like myself is just great. I do alot of photo editing and music related stuff, so this laptop has the power and space and speed to handle just about everything I like to do. The screen is very bright! and it is perfect for 3d as glasses can hold back alot of light. The black contrast is excellent! I have only had it for a couple weeks and have found nothing I don't like about it. If anything at all there is one thing. The menu for hp smart player to watch movies does not show the 2d/3d mode for watching movies. It only displays it in the demo mode. Once you put a movie in, it is no longer an option. What I mean by that is, you can not change the movie mode for turning a normal blu ray movie into a 2d ( simular 3d movie ) other than that, it is a fine machine. Also hp does not have an update for windows 8 to run the 3d options. I was told they are working on it, and will have one soon. so keep the windows 7 on this model until update is ready.

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The computer is top of the line. It features everything that a productivity PC should, along with the power to be a functional entertainment device. I love the Beats audio and the screen resolution, but what I can't get enough of is its speed. Hands down, this is the fastest computer I've owned.

Cheap HP G62-219WM Laptop PC with Intel Pentium Dual-Core T4500 Processor

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run good, the HD video is very clear when you watchsomething in youtube or realplayer. The speed is very fast when surfing in internet

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EXCELENTE CONDICIONES MAS DE LO QUE ESPERÁBAMOS Y UNA MAQUINA MUY POTENTE. LA RECOMENDAMOS 100%. Y LA TIENDA MUY RESPONSABLE

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I would have given this purchase a four or five star rating EXCEPT for the deceptive way the Warranty Support section dealt with what I thought was a rather simple request for a copy of the Windows 7 media. The refurbished HP laptop has been reliable to this point, i.e., March, 2012 some four months later. The first thing I do when I get a laptop is take an image of the disk so I can restore the system later WHEN a virus takes the machine down or just to refresh the system. When I tried to restore the system, however, it required the Windows 7 media which was not delivered with the laptop. I contacted ComputerLand Customer Support for the first time December 12, 2011, just a week or so after the laptop was delivered. Kudos to the customer support line as I always got in touch with a real person right off the bat and they routed me right into the technical support section. Joshua was the individual I dealt with most of the time and he assured me that the media would be delivered in a week or so. It is now March 11 and I have a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate that I had to purchase. From December 12 into February I got story after story from Joshua. First he was waiting on corporate to approve the purchase and would buy it himself if that didn't come through. HE indicated they don't usually deliver the media because of piracy issues. Hmmm. But I kept getting told they would get it to me. Finally, around the February 1 time frame I escalated the call to Joshua's manager. Joshua seemed a nice guy who genuinely wanted to help. His manager I'm not so sure about. I had just about had it with the back and forth at that point and it took about two conversations with this character to come to the realization they were intentionally deceiving me about ever delivering the Windows 7 media. They had no intention actually doing so and had never intended to. They had hoped that I would just give up after a while which I did after telling Joshua's manager on the phone that he was a bald faced liar and deserved to have a one star rating up on Amazon and be reported to the Better Business Bureau. Comments to which he had no reply. Here's the one star rating. A call to the BBB goes in this week. Again, the hardware is still holding up (fingers crossed) and if ComputerLand support had just been honest they would probably have gotten four stars but they lied.

Best HP ENVY 17t-j000 Fully Loaded Quad Edition Laptop PC (120GB SSD Deals

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,949.99
Sale Price: $1,529.95
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This machine is awesome it is the speed of a desktop on a very small package. Lighter then expected and the machine is quiet I'm a heavy user. Was worried about heat as my dell I had before overheated to the point I couldn't touch it. This machine is extremely cool it was a little warm with big conversions for videos. Normal everyday use and it was just fine. Love the instant on and the space is great. Touchscreen is a must it works great.

The only thing that took a little time is the touchpad which once I got it dialed in I now don't have any issues at all.

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I bought it some days ago when i went to E.U.A and I think it's a good laptop according to the price, the only thing I didn't like was Windows 8, but today I changed for Windows 7. It's good to work and play games like Crysis 2, Rage, etc., and yeah the proccesor speed is 1.7 ghz but remember that it can change up to 2.7 with turbo boost.

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The processor is really 1.7 ghz not 2.7!! This is false advertisement for amazon to be using. This should be addressed.

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List Price: $999.99
Sale Price: $849.95
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I got my Lenovo U410 2 days ago, first impression:

PROS: Very good Laptop in term of speed and battery life. Great price (I got it for 729$) for its specs. Great finishing and looks very fancy. Light and low noise.

CONS: Very Disappointed with this Lenovo U410 since it is impossible to use the wi-fi connection. The internet connection is very slow and it disconnect very often. In my opinion the wireless antenna is not well designed and not well integrated in the system. Probably some interference with the aluminum chassis. I would point out that when the wireless connection goes down there are interference and bad connection also on surrounding devices. My second laptop and ipod lose the connection with the router too. So the interference hypothesis is consistent.

Updating the driver or do whatever is written online on the forums doesn't help at all.

I solved this problem turning off the laptop wireless device and buying and USB Wi-Fi Adapter (unfortunately 60$ out of my pocket). Now I can connect to internet without problem.

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