Cheap ASUS G73JW-A1 Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black)

Customer Ratings:

First, Amazon Prime is awesome. I received my computer in 1 day (28hrs) for $4 shipping (15lbs). Wow!

I researched a few weeks before deciding on the XA1. I liked the A1 also but for $300+ less I couldn't resist the XA1.

What I like:

1. The case is flat black and will never show fingerprints (finally a finish for gamer's (and diets))!

2. The illuminated keyboard is super handy.

3. This computer is FAST, COOL and QUIET. Excellent cooling out the back as described in specs.

4. Low profile decorative lighting.

5. The DVD drive is on the left side of the computer so doesn't interfere with my mouse (right handed).

What I don't like:

1. The DVD drive has no drive status or drive in-use light. You have to rely on the software to tell you it is in-use.

2. Since the cooling out the back is so agressive, all the ports (USB/VGA/HDMI etc.)are on the sides. This crowds the sides if you want to use a video cable.

3. I think the hard drive status light is hard to see as it is right under the touch pad.

4. At certain angles, one can see the LEDs under the keys on the keyboard and and they are bright and distracting.

Differences between the A1 and XA1:

1. Yes, it's verified, the XA1 does NOT come with a back pack or ASUS gaming mouse as does the A1.

2. The XA1 has 8GB of 1033Mhz memory as reported by the CRUCIAL memory tester program (although the outside of the box states 1333mhz). The A1 has 8GB of 1333MHz memory.

3. No blue-ray player in the XA1. The A1 has one.

4. Did I mention that the XA1 is more than $300 cheaper?

5. Only 1 year warranty but it is still covered for accidental drops and spills for that whole year (ASUS Global Warranty). The A1 has a 2 year warranty.

6. Oh, almost forgot, the hard drive installed is 750GB and is 7200rpm (verified). It is pre-partitioned to a 250GB OS partition and a 500GB data partition. The A1 has two 500GB 7200RPM drives.

My first impression is that I can't believe I got this much computing power for < $1500. The computer has a quality feel and fit and seems to be thoughfully designed. I have only had mine for a few days but would highly recommend this to others. I'll post more info as I gain more experience.

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I sold my MacBook Pro to have this machine and Windows 7. I don't regret it for one moment.

I bought this machine primarily for gaming, but also to use it daily as my work computer. It's a champ at both jobs.

Some attributes:

--Fast: This machine never bogs down, and it has a fantastic video card. I can play Fallen Earth and Champions Online at full resolution with the details cranked up, and it's smooth as butter. Also, I can rip and encode videos quickly.

--Quiet: The loudest thing about this machine is the optical drive, and even that operates at a whisper. My MacBook Pro's fan and optical drive were both loud as sin. And that machine was nearly twice as expensive as this one!

--Cool: Run this machine as hard as you want -it'll still be cool to the touch, thanks to the rear exhaust. My MacBook Pro constantly operated so hot that it almost burned my hands! I had to use an external keyboard all the time.

--Aesthetically pleasing: The chiclet keyboard is easy to use and feels great. The rubberized keyboard rest is very soothing as well. The machine is also just dead sexy to look at. The keyboard backlight, and other lights, are great.

Other bonuses:

--Bluray reader: heck yeah!

--Free backpack: This is actually a pretty nice backpack, and fits the laptop well (if snugly).

--Free gaming mouse: Ditto for this mouse: Pretty dang good for a give-a-way!

NOTE:

If you have any problems typing with the keyboard (i.e. missing keys when you know you hit them, especially when typing quickly), uninstall the Synaptics trackpad/mouse driver. This fixed this issue for me and others. This was the only problem I had with this machine.

Best Deals for ASUS G73JW-A1 Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black)

I recently upgraded from my faithful G51J-A1 gaming laptop to this one. The main reasons for the upgrade were the larger 17.3 inch diagonal screen (vs. the 15.6 inch screen of the G51J-A1), the newly available NVidia GTX460M (vs. the GTX260M of the G51J-A1), Intel Core i7 740QM processor (vs the Core i7 720QM of the G51J-A1), the availability of 4 memory dimm slots (vs. the two DIMMs of the G51J-A1), and lastly the new cooler redesign that uses two dedicated fans; one for the CPU and one for the GPU (vs. the single fan design of the G51J-A1). These were all valid reasons for the upgrade in my opinion. I am happy to report that this laptop outperforms the G51J-A1 in every category except for space savings ;)

But, as with all reviews there are some drawbacks that come with the improvements that the G73JW laptop provides:

PROs:

Great performance for the money (similiar equipped Alienware will run $500 more...)

Superior cooling design allows laptop to run quietly even when gaming!

Excellent LED display great for watching HD videos and Blu Ray movies

Blu Ray optic drive is now a standard option finally!

Excellent sound from built-in speakers and subwoofer; way better than my G51J-A1's sound capability

Support for EAX 5.0 finally! My G51J-A1 only has EAX 4.0 support

USB 3.0 port; albeit only one :(

Battery life is surprisingly good for the performance power this laptop provides (about 2 hours from an 8-cell lithium ion battery is pretty good)

White LED Backlit keyboard w/variable brightness (still not an available option on most laptops only Dell, Alienware, and Asus provide this so far...)

Light weight for its size most 17 inch laptops weigh easily over 10lbs this one weighs in at 8lbs! WOW

CONs:

Stock WiFi card has just two antenna connections good for only 2.4Ghz 802.11N

Internal WiFi does not provide a third antenna for true 5Ghz 802.11N WiFi you will need to buy the extra WiFi antenna off the internet and install it yourself

No PCMCIA expansion slot G51J-A1 has one! Weird for Asus to omit this feature?

No eSATA port would have preferred both an eSATA port AND a USB 3.0 port

4th DIMM slot is hidden on the other side of the motherboard; allowing the ability to upgrade only three of the memory DIMMs (unless you want to take apart the whole laptop just to upgrade!)

A bit disappointed that Asus didn't offer an option to buy this laptop with either a GTX470M or GTX480M graphics card maybe they will offer it in the future? (fingers crossed)

One final note I wanted to make. I have read several hardware reviews on this laptop and all of them make the statement that the G73JH variant that is equipped with the ATI 5870 mobile graphics card performs better than the GTX460M. That is true for the moment. Remember, the ATI 5870 mobile card has been out for about 6 months. The drivers are very mature vs. the GTX460M drivers are still in beta. Once the drivers are perfected, the GTX460M will blitz past the 5870 with ease especially with any game or application that uses CUDA, Physx, hardware tesselation, and of course 3D Vision which by the way is a feature ATI does not have. And, surprisingly the GTX460M runs a full 20 degees Celsius cooler than the 5870 when under full processing mode! O_o NUFF SAID!

In conclusion, this is an excellent laptop and I am very happy with my purchase. I have only a few minor gripes to report and none of them are "show stoppers". I highly recommend this product for those looking not to spend over $1,800 on a good gaming laptop.

Honest reviews on ASUS G73JW-A1 Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black)

One of the things I find frustrating are reviews that say "this is wonderful" right out of the package without giving ongoing experiences. As this is a lovely little laptop that I would expect to be around for a while I'll be updating for a year with check ins about once a month.

Ratings (created: 11.29.10):

After playing with it for 20 some days I'm ready to add ratings.

Reducing overall rating to 3.5 from 4 because frankly I think that people should expect higher quality. If the LED is the only other issue I have I'll raise back to a 4 with a disclaimer of "know what you're purchasing"

Speed: 4.5 stars (there's more powerful but not by a ton and that's why this and the price is so tempting)

Price: 5.0 Stars for the speed it's incredible.

Quality: 3.0 stars. I knew the key skipping issue before purchasing and didn't care. If that was the only thing wrong with it I'd be ecstatic and likely keep it at 4. The LED lighting going out though makes me frown and this is the major cause of my overall rating drop from 4 to 3.5. It's a new issue and one that was not documented by others. As I generally don't use it, it's not a big deal, but it makes me nervous because ASUS has a HORRIBLE customer service history and the previous model would have rated a 1 in quality due to the issues.

Customer Service: 1.0 star. This is based on other reviews. Hands down every review out there that has dealt with customer service has a bad story. I haven't dealt with them and purchased with the idea the purchase was a gamble or I'd be repairing myself. Summary of issues are lack of reponse/responsibility and LONG loss of laptop times (3weeks or longer with one person having gone 2 months).

Bang for the buck: 4.0 After the LED keyboard lights went out, I'm now concerned that other issues lurk. If the key skipping and LED are the only issues I run into and you don't care about those issues I'd say a solid 5.0. right now it's an unknown so I go with 4.0.

Received laptop 11.11.10

Comes with:

1.) Laptop

2.) Power brick for plugging in

3.) Free starcraft trial (I haven't looked at it yet)

4.) Brief owners manual... very brief.

5.) DVD with drivers but NO and I repeat NO back-up disc. I highly recommend that you purchase (5) dvd's and do the back-up after everything is powered and set-up (windows told me I needed 5 although I haven't finished it yet and will be doing that tonight).

Packaging:

The laptop comes in an amazon box stuffed with paper to take up the extra space. I like the added protection and the lack of a "hey everyone! it's a laptop.

The asus box itself doesn't use styrofoam but instead uses cardboard. Personally I love this as it's more environmentally friendly. That said I did notice a panel on the bottom had snapped out of place. I simply popped it back in.

Starting Up:

There were no instructions here really. It simply tells you to install the battery (not how long to charge or how long a full charge takes) and turn on. When you turn the machine on it continues with the set-up process. I don't think it took more than 10 minutes. I was at work so I could be a little off, but roughly around there. It'll ask for a language (it warns that this can't be changed), date correction and location, password, username, wireless (not required and I didn't use as I was at work), PC name. Once these are all plugged in and you agree to the license the laptop is ready for use.

Prior to starting windows it opened up in this other screen (before set-up) it looked like it was an asus screen and the bottom right corner had a "go to Operating system" button. I hit that to get going.

Looks:

Shiny screen... booo. I know many consumers like this look which is why laptops have it. It makes colors look brighter/prettier. The issue is that light can glare off these types of screens like crazy. Obviously many consumers don't mind. I do, but oh well. I believe you can purchase adhesive covers much like the iphone covers if it really bothers you. I'm not going to bother as this won't see a lot of outdoors use.

keyboard feels cramped. this is silly considering how much space there is on the left and right (about 1 5/8" boarder) that the keyboard could have been extended into. Keyboard keys are about the same size as other keys, but they lack that little curvature that can help you find your keys and they seem just a hair too close together so the fingers trip a little. smaller fingers likely have less of an issue and I suspect mine will get used to it after a while. Reality is that I'm using this for gaming and not typing and as such I just need a few keys. Numberpad, arrows, and function keys are on the smaller side.

The keyboard back lighting is easy to turn off. doesn't really glare at me with it on the desk top and definitely not an issue if in your lap.

The case feels fantastic. It's not some gloss monstrosity that soaks up finger prints. On a desk it looks very slim thanks to the optical illusion of it sloping back.

The photo used for this product (at time that I purchased) is actually the older model using the 5870 video card. You can tell because it has that stupid one mouse button. Relax and know that this has two.

As another user noted the power source is LITERALLY the size of a brick. Unlike del power sources i've used in the past it's not designed for mobility with any kind of strapping for cord management.

I purchased an alienware backpack so I have storage for this, but I highly suggest making sure you have something to store it in.

Concerns I had based on previous model:

These are issues from reviews of the previous model that this is based on and there were 3.

1.) single mouse button difficult to use current model has two (despite picture that might make you think otherwise it does have two buttons)

2.) SERIOUS bios issue that caused games and computer to die frequently (oh there were many rants about this online) supposedly resolved based on reviews of this. The older model had the 5870 video card instead of the Nvidia 460 (no issues yet 11.29.10)

3.) Keyboard keys don't register click causing skipping and retyping. Work around in the past is that you had to disable the touch pad drivers and use a standard mouse. I'll be watching for this. (YES it's there 11.29.10)

I almost purchased an alienware that was less powerful and almost 600 more expensive PLUS taxes. Luckily Dell's customer service messed up with me and inspired me to go looking around. this is only about 1500 and I figured that was worth a gamble. Based on the research I did, IF you don't have to deal with Asus customer service, this will be a great buy. If you do... ugh. Reviews I read were pretty horrendous on this front. If you notice issues I strongly recommend dealing with them ASAP so you can deal with Amazon's 30-day policy and avoid Asus all together. Hopefully most issues will show up by then.

Screen:

I inspected for any dead pixels and didn't see any on mine. WOOT!!! The screen seems to have multiple options at a touch of the button. I'm honestly not really sure what to do with that. I just clicked it to something that seemed as color correct as possible and called it good.

Video Card:

A quick review is that this is a fantastic video card. Drivers for it are new and the performance should greatly improve as games adapt to the card and as drivers are updated in the future. As a gamer, always makes sure that you have the latest drivers. For everyone else... i doubt you'll notice. You definitely do not want the older model with the 5870 card. Although the card currently performs better that will change as the 460 drivers are updated and matures. Also, that older model had sever bios issues.

For those out there wondering "will it play my game? Well... any game in 2010 and before that's a 100% yes (based on specs and reviews I've read from tech forums) with a couple of the most intensive games requiring a slight downgrade in visual settings for acceptable frames per second (fps).

Sound:

So what can I say about the speakers? Well, they're loud in that you can actually hear them! I've had SOOO many issues with both desktops and laptops in this department. It's annoying. On the other hand the quality of sound coming through leaves a LOT to be desired. I think Tinny may be the word used to describe the sound. It's not horrible, but that tinniness is there. Higher ranged sounds can actually hurt my ears if the volume is up too high. Plug in the headphones though and it's fine. Nice sound and will likely vary based on your headphones.

Hard drives:

Drives are partitioned because it creates a more stable environment. In this case there are two partitions.

C: 141GB free of 174GB (clearly some bloat I'll be cleaning out)

D: 504GB free of 504GB

Operating System:

I'm familiar with XP and vista. Windows 7 is much the same from a user perspective with some tweaks. I seem to be able to navigate fairly well without any more searching that XP and Vista take me as I'm not an operating system guru.

Battery Life:

Downloading patches for most the time while surfing and watching youtube videos the batter life was just over 1.5 hours. I think I also played some chess in there as well while the downloads were taking place. (came with it and loving that bloatware). (1.5 hours seems pretty consistent 11.29.10)

Heat:

Running all night, downloading, chess games, music playing, DVD burning... the laptop feels cooler than room temperature with just one or two areas a little bit warm. Frankly even without game play I feel pretty impressed by how cool this is all over. (Also playing games very minimal heat 11.29.10)

Real Use:

I don't recommend using this as a laptop. It's a little tipsy in the lap and I have a big lap. It's also 17" and large. Definitely want a table or desktop or floor for this bad boy. (after having it for a while, it's not that bad. I think I've just become used to the size vs smaller laptops I used. It is tipsy though if not supported in the back and could prove an issue for smaller customers 11.29.10)

I also suggest making sure that if you DO travel you have a container that will fit it. It will not fit in a standard bag. If you pay $300ish more you get some more toys, larger hard drive and a back-pack. Your call if it's worth it to you.

Overall:

Right now I'm looking at this laptop and thinking about how attractive it looks. It's also pretty darn fast (which is why I bought it)

It's heavy and I really wish it was smaller/15" but that's a personal preference. I avoided the 15" in the same model due to the lack of a huge size difference and some complaints on the model.

That said, I have no buyers remorse as of yet. 1500 was a great price to pay for the contents of this beast.

As i load games and travel I'll provide review updates. If there are questions please ask. I don't know that I'll respond to you in a timely manner, but I can likely flesh it out so others have the answers.

***EDIT 11.12.10***

I updated my notes a little in regards to sound, what's in the box for this model, battery life, heat, and real use.

Also, the mouse seems to jump around a bit. I'm not sure if I'm hitting it with my arm or this is the driver issues I was worried about. It's annoying but not detrimental to use and I'm not sure yet if it's me or the laptop as that touchpad is huge. I'm currently using the laptop touch pad as it's still being set-up and not ready to replace my computer yet. I should be doing some game testing this weekend, so I'll let you know how that goes. (mouse jumps seem to be form accidental hits. the pad is HUGE 11.29.10)

The LED keyboard lights don't come back on once turned off. Plugging and unplugging the power seems to work as does a reboot and start. This is a little annoying because I wanted to play with it, but reality is that once you figure out what you like, you're not likely to change it. (They've stopped working all together 11.29.10)

Day two I'm still liking the laptop, but it looks like there's some minor bugs with it. If this is all I have to deal with, then I'm still loving this thing. Currently I'm playing WoW and starcraft II(or will be once the back-up is done and updates are downloaded). I'm going to load the older blizzard games to see how they work and I think I'll go out and pick up a game to challenge this laptop this weekend was well.

***EDIT 11.29.10***

I've now had some more time to play with this due to traveling.

Issues:

LED lighting for the keyboard stopped working. I personally don't care although the one time in my life I'll likely ever want that feature, it didn't work.

Key skipping... yep, definitely key skips for me. I'll try the fix others have listed in other reviews and post back what it was and if it worked.

Additional thoughts:

The mouse pad is HUGE and causes accidental bump issues if not turned off or when using keyboard without external keyboard/mouse.

The wrist rest room has been wonderful while traveling and not using an external keyboard. I thought it was a lot of dead space, but find myself loving the design here.

The machine is powerful and nice and works well for the games I'm playing, specifically warcraft and starcraft II. I've been very happy with FPS.

Oh, and in regards to the chess program that comes with this. I love that it's there, but lvls 1-4 seem a little inconsistent in difficulty. It does increase but at times the computer makes moves where it literally gives a piece away. Also... it allows you to castle after you've been placed in check. The computer has yet to beat me. I've been playing each level ten times to get a feel for it. Most people won't care about this, but if someone does, now you know.

Bottom line, I still don't regret purchasing but I admit an additional issue (LED lights for keyboard) has made me nervous. I won't be sending it back to Amazon unless something major happens in the next few days. Speed wise it's a dream. Quality wise I can live with the current bugs I'm aware of.

***UPDATE*** 3/09/11

I've owned it for a little while now. During that time I installed the updates. I found I had to plug the laptop in, possibly because one of the updates was to the wireless. I'd waited a few months so if there were issues with the patch they could correct. When I finally loaded them all I had no issues, BUT the drivers update DID have to complete and the process took some time. I freaked out because it had wiped the graphics driver before replacing with the updated graphics driver. The duration of time and the lack of a clear "this is still being updated even though you've rebooted" had me nervous. After two more reboots, though, everything was in clean working order. The machine is still functioning. currently this is being used as My dvd player and I haven't been traveling as much. I haven't noticed a huge difference with the old and new patches.

Still, things are working so life is good.

***UPDATE**** 5/19/11

Still working fine. Nothing new to report. As this item is no longer for sale on Amazon I won't be reviewing again.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS G73JW-A1 Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black)

There are plenty of detailed reviews and articles out there for this laptop that are far more technical than I am willing to go. This is just a quick overview for anyone who might be interested in a high end laptop, but are put off by the gamers orientated marketing this product has.

I purchased this laptop for my girlfriend, who is by all means not a gamer. She mostly needed a laptop to do work on MS Office, watch movies, photos, surf the interwebs, etc. My criteria for this was:

1) Good Large Quality Screen

This screen is beautiful. Full 1080p resolution. Better pictures than on my desktop monitor.

Viewing angles are largely good side to side, verticals not as forgiving.

Glossy, but why would you be carrying this around outside to use for the 1 hour battery life you get?

Super bright. So bright in fact I had to turn it down.

Everything else, including my iPhone 4 screen looked yellow in comparison.

2) Multitasking Performance

Overkill. Seriously this laptop is as fast as my cutom built desktop gaming rig.

I threw everything I could at it and it chewed through it like a fat kid with cake.

Office 2010, Hulu, Youtube 1080p, Blu-Ray, games cutting butter with a hot knife.

3) Build Quality

I was originally concerned by the FanBoy neon stealth fighter look this laptop had in the photos.

Because of this, I was also considering the HP Envy. I'm glad I chose this computer.

The case is a beautiful subdued matte black. It has a soft touch feel like a good quality dashboard.

It's big, but surprising light and compact. The case actually looks very professional in person.

The rear exhaust design extends the case behind the screen, but it works amazingly well.

Everything is put together like a tight ship and it is extremely quiet and cool to the touch.

Let me emphasize how quiet and cool this computer runs. You really can't tell it's on.

Even under extreme use, this laptop with Nvidia card runs cold. This can't be said for this model

using the ATI card or the HP Envy.

4) Input Devices

The keyboard is excellent. Soft touch with no flex. The keys are backlit with white LEDs.

This is great for using it in the dark, but can bother your eyes if the laptop is placed

in a higher position, because the light from underneath the keys glares out.

This can be turned off or dimmed.

Track pad is huge and fairly responsive if you adjust the settings.

I prefer using a mouse and was pleasantly surprised it included one.

Razor mouse. It is fairly good. The buttons are a little stiff but far better than generics.

5) Storage & Connectivity

This laptop comes with two 500gb 7200rpm hard drives. Which is a lot better than the 5400 ones

that laptops usually come with. But not as fast as SSD ones. I don't understand why ASUS puts

so many partitions on their drives. It's really annoying. So instead of having two 500gb drives,

you get one 180gb, one 320gb, and two 250gb drives. You can use the partition manager to change

the sizes but your stuck with the OS partition unless you do a clean install. Which is not a bad idea.

Blu ray is useful if you have any. But make sure you don't delete the PowerDVD software it comes

with.

The ports all being on the sides really isn't a problem. It's nice they included a USB 3.0 and

HDMI ports.

6) Mobility

Like I said this is meant to be a desktop replacement, so it's big. But as far as 17 inch laptops

go, it seems fairly sleek and light. The battery life is 2 hours at most, so it's really not meant

to be on the go. But if you're going to be moving around room to room, or do ocassional traveling,

then this laptop is perfect. Plus it comes with a pretty good quality backpack. The laptop's extended

dimensions will make it difficult to find a laptop case I believe.

7) Warranty

ASUS provides a 2 year warranty standard. Also included is 1 year accident coverage. This protects

the machine against any drops or spills etc. You must fill out the included card to make this active.

If you look at the cost of supplemental accident coverage, you will see that this is a great value.

Overall, I am very happy with this laptop and recommend it to anyone who needs a fast and powerful computer. It is definitely a desktop replacement, and has the technology to keep it current for quite some time.

Thanks!

Review of HP Envy 4-1115dx 14-inch Touch Ultrabook

Customer Ratings:

After poking around a store and peeking in the returns cage, I found my HP Envy 4 at a heavily discounted price due to a missing battery? Really? The battery is built in. I had been shopping for literally months for an affordable Ultrabook with a touchscreen, backlit keys, small footprint, an I5 CPU, and for under a grand. The closest one I could find was an Acer M5, but that one has all the USB connections in the back (yes, under the monitor hinge), and the power button is on the front edge?!? Silly design.

The HP Envy Touch 4 is nearly perfect for me, especially after the minor tweaks I have made, and plan on making. It would be perfect if it had an IPS screen. Like most TFT screens, you have to angle it right to get the most contrast. However, the screen looks better out of the box than the Acer M5. 4GB of ram is a little light for my Photoshop needs, but I can add more ram with the removal of the bottom casing. The first and easiest tweak involved a little angelic program called Classic Shell, which not only boots straight to the Windows 8 Desktop, but also adds a Windows 7 style Start Button! I have NO use for the Start Screen or Screen Formerly Known as Metro. I didn't when I beta-tested it, and I still don't. Metro is a shameless marketing ploy to get on the app bandwagon. Silly Microsoft! Apps are for kids!! With Classic Shell, you get all the familiarity of Windows 7, with all the speed of Windows 8.

The backlit keyboard is hard to find among the plethora of laptops out there, and this keyboard is perfect for me. I had considered an Asus Q500 laptop once, but the grey backlit keys were a turn-off. My last laptop was a 17-inch with a 10-key number pad, and I never used it as much as I thought I would. This keyboard is just the write size for the writing I do.

The sound is nice through the headphones, and okay without. How much sound can you expect from a 14-inch laptop anyway, Beats Audio non-withstanding?

The battery life is adequate. I haven't timed it, but I've easily used it for over 3 hours with still plenty left. It is a 4-cell Lithium Ion Polymer battery, much better than Lithium-ion alone.

I really don't use the touchscreen that much since I installed Classic Shell.

Boot-up is under 15 seconds!!

Pros: I5 CPU, super fast PC3-12800 ram, touchscreen, 2 USB 3.0 on the left, 1 USB 2.0 on the right, and SD card reader. Small, thin form factor.

Cons: Nearly 5 lbs, Windows 8, no access doors, no IPS or hi-def screen. Hey, it costs under $800 everywhere, less for an Open-Box deal!

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Toshiba Satellite M305D-S4830 (AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 Dual-Core Reviews

Customer Ratings:

I've had this computer for a year and a half and was happy with it up until recently. I am a graduate student and when I first got this computer it had exactly what I needed and did everything wonderfully and in some ways still does. I was completely impressed by this computer. It was fast at completing all tasks when I got it and a year later after much usage and lots of space taken up it is still just as fast. It's a beautiful, sleek looking computer and it comes with a lot of great features. It has small lights that act as buttons at the top of the keyboard you lightly put your finger on and they do tasks such as launching itunes, muting audio, and playing/stopping/fastforwarding movies so you don't have to navigate to other windows or the desktop to complete tasks. It also has labelflash which is useful if you want custom labeled dvd's. I have burned hundreds of dvds and cds with this computer and have never had any problems and the burner is still going strong. I've never had any issues connecting to wireless internet and have even used this computer to connect to other computers wirelessly to transfer documents. I can have multiple windows and tabs open and it doesn't effect the speed of the computer. I can run games easily and it plays programs flawlessly. It has three usb outlets and I am able to run a usb mouse, a printer, and a usb disk at the same time if I need to. This computer in many ways is great.

It does have its not so great points though and the main one is that its parts broke down fast. Around three months after I got this computer I started having issues with the screen flickering. At first it only did it on rare occasions so I didn't think much about it, but after while, after it was too late for returns, it flickered worse and worse. Four months ago I couldn't move the laptop from my desk for fear of flickering. The screen eventually went out and I had to replace it. It's been three months since then and the screen worked fine after I replaced it until a few weeks ago when the flickering returned. I'm afraid I am going to have to replace another part in the laptop, either the display cable or another part. If you do your research toshiba laptops are notorious for having screens go out along with other parts even when they are fairly new. This is a huge drawback and if I had done better research beforehand I wouldn't have bought this laptop.

A second minor issue is one small turnwheel. The laptop has a small turnwheel on the front you can use to turn volume up and down. This stopped working pretty soon after I got the laptop but this hasn't really impacted me much because I rarely used it anyway.

Another issue I am having is that I have had to replace the power cord. I do not move my laptop around much. It usually sits stationary on my desk so I find it odd the power cord has a short in it when I barley move the laptop off of one spot. So far I have put a lot of money into fixing problems I shouldn't have had to deal with at early times in a laptops life. Instead of fixing the screen again I am just going to hook it up to an external monitor and let it sit stationary on my desk and use it as an at home computer because my screen issues have made it too unreliable to trust in the future. It's not a good computer to travel to school and home with and doesn't seem to react well to you opening and closing it and I think that is what is causing my current screen issues. Instead of putting more money into fixing my toshiba satellite I am just going to buy a new laptop. I have loved this laptop because it has been great with the exception of the repair issues I've had. I've accomplished a lot of work using this machine and it has produced well for me. I am sad to have to give up on this one after trying so hard to get it to work correctly but putting more money into it isn't a possiblity now because I need a laptop for school that isn't going to break down again and I can't be sure this one won't.

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I purchased this laptop in March 2009. It was fast, had good video and sound--for a month, then we had video problems. The faulty hard drive and defective LCD cable harness were replaced in warranty. Today, 11/02/2010, it would not power up. I will have to pay $425 for a motherboard replacement. When it worked, it worked well, but to have to replace the main board, hard drive and video cable within two years is ridiculus. The reliability of this model is very questionable.

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I bought this Toshiba laptop 3 years ago. Since then, my screen started flickering then it just went completely white, now its doing a long flash that prevents me from doing my work properly or watch a movie in peace. My keyboard is not working anymore and it's just pushing off an odd heat now. Looking at other people's comments, we all have the same issues. This is an unreliable machine and I would NEVER buy another Toshiba device again. Horrible! And here i thought HP was the worst! DO NOT BUY!

Honest reviews on Toshiba Satellite M305D-S4830 (AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 Dual-Core

I bought this Toshiba laptop 3 years ago and it worked great for 1.5 years. At the 1.5 year mark, the screen started to flicker and died not long after that. I had to hook it up to an external monitor and used it as a 'desktop' because I figured the repair cost was too much. It hobbled on for another 1.5 years then died completely. I think my experience with Toshiba's poor reliability is very common, judging from reading many others' similar experience. I would never buy another Toshiba computer based on so many complaints by so many people. By the way, my 8-year-old Sony laptop is still going strong, slow but working still.

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Pros(1) lasted me 4 years. (2) never slowed down on me (3) easy to restore all info. Buttons and extra lights are convient. (4) fits right in my puma purse (5) plays games smoothly and quietly.....Sims.. (6) 3 usb ports & sd slot

Cons (1) gets very hot (2) delicate laptop don't drop it.

Good buy for student or kids or even grannxy. Not good for hardcore gamers

Cheap HP ENVY 15 TouchSmart Notebook 256GB SSD + 1 TB 16GB RAM (Intel

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List Price: $3,145.00
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The laptop arrived well enough but while building the Microsoft profile there was an interruption and upon resuming I got the error message "Profile Cannot Be Loaded." Since the laptop comes without any media and no DVD drive, I am unable to recover. I called Microsoft and HP for support. Microsoft didn't want to know and told me to call HP. After getting shuffled around from telephone number to telephone number, being asked each time the same questions over and over again, I reached Jason in the Philippines. After trying every function key combination possible and then some, it was determined that I needed to recover the system. HP promised to send me USB recovery software. This all happened around midnight on August 8. I was promised 1 day shipping. Well, four days later I am down and waiting. I called HP and was told that the recovery software would not ship till August 18. The blame being put on FedEx and the approaching typhoon.

My experience with HP, be it the iPaq, the LX6XX handheld or any of their PCs, has ben that nothing ever works quite right and HP abandons you.

To anyone who reads this do NOT buy any ENVY laptop from HP try Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo or Acer and you'll probably have less grief and not have to fumble around with the very small function keys of the ENVY.

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This is a fast and well conceived laptop. The touch screen is smooth and very helpful especially for reading documents or just scrolling through websites. The SSD drive is much faster than anything else, obviously. For me, it came down to this high end ENVY vs a high end mac book pro. (same processor). I saved the 1000 dollars and gained the touchscreen. However, the interaction between touch screen and mouse pad is definitely glitchie. No crashes yet but there are times where one or the other just freezes. I am hoping they will work these problems out in future HP updates. Overall, I would recommend this computer but still wonder if I should bought a mac.

Best HP Pavilion g7-2317cl Laptop Computer, AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M, 4GB Deals

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Not the best work computer. I'd say this computer is better for light-use and perhaps light game play. Not suited for photo editing, design, or development. Overall, its a great casual computer. Best for students and at-home use. I wouldn't recommend this computer for anyone looking for a work heavy system.

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Reviews of Lenovo G580 59359688 i3-3120M 2.5 GHz 15" laptop

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Has some compatibility issues with upgrading latest version of Windows. You have to download some drivers for it to work properly.

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Screen is just amazingly bright and beautiful when turned up how I like it!! Sound is loud and clear!! Keyboard is superb... Fan makes no real noise!! Fast as hell with a core I3... Two usb 3 ports in front. All the other important ports are there too. There is no Bluetooth but who cares? Not me.. This is simply a fantastic wonderful laptop. I always install Start8 software for 5 lousy bucks to turn windows 8 into a joy.

Major

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Cheap and does what I want. I'm not too found of Windows 8, but the laptop is quiet and fast.

Honest reviews on Lenovo G580 59359688 i3-3120M 2.5 GHz 15" laptop

This computer is fantastic and the service is bar none... I had a small problem with it and they handled it right away!!!

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Got exactly what I paid for, for ~400$ this laptop isn't a bad buy, definitely not for gaming but for web browsing and taking notes/ making presentations for college it's served me very well. The uptick on the i3 processor (3120M, up from 3110M in other models) was worth the 10-20$ difference in price.

Pros: Fast on boot up, very sleek looking, the keyboard feels pretty good for a laptop and it even comes with a number-pad, and as someone who uses the number-pad a lot this is great as more and more laptops are just leaving them out to save either on space or increase key size. Also, the DVI and HDMI out ports are very convenient for when I'm in a situation that doesn't require me to be mobile. The trackpad is actually pretty good, I've read a lot of hate on this model because of the trackpad, and despite being non-multitouch (which most laptops are not) it functions very well. Sound is actually fairly good for a laptop, speakers can get pretty loud, but the sound on the laptop itself is on-par, if not better, than my desktop on-board audio (H61M-P35 G3). On top of that they also have a reserved partition for all the laptop drivers, some people might not like this as it's just more work for them to be getting the full amount of HDD space they paid for, but I find it useful in-case I ever need to reinstall windows whenever my linux partition starts giving me issues.

Cons: These are all personal gripes I have, might not be the products fault but I think it warrants a few comments.

The finish is very glossy, while this looks nice aesthetically, after about a day of use you're going to have fingerprint marks all over the laptop.

Bloatware ho!: This laptop comes with a decent amount of extra crap (lenovo cam manager, something called "freeridegames," McAfee anti virus, Amazon store app built in (might be from win8 though). I understand manufacturers want to make some more money by marketing, but as a consumer I don't like having to remove all the extra crap included, especially if they boot up on start. Easy fix with 20min of uninstalling and checking to make sure you're not uninstalling some obscure driver (this happened to me as i had never heard of Aetheros Communications, so i figured it was a VoIP service and uninstalled, turns out it was the wireless card driver, not a big issue as they included drivers in a separate partition on the hard drive.

Windows 8 is pretty awful, but that's not the products fault.

Camera isn't the best quality, but it works fine for skype-ing.

Uncategorized:

For me this is a pro, but for others it might be a con, the battery life @ 100% is about 6 or so hours, that being on the "balanced" power setting in windows, you can squeeze out more if you use Linux (such as arch or ubuntu) but i imagine that's not much help to the average user.

Cheap Toshiba C855-S5350 15.6-Inch Widescreen Laptop (6GB/640GB

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List Price: $529.99
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The programs run fine, and the computer is fairly fast. But I returned the laptop because it was poorly put together. Within one week of purchase, the touchpad stopped working. Even the technical support team at Staples couldn't repair the problem. (Pushing the function keys did nothing). So I exchanged the laptop for the same model, thinking I had a defective computer. Four days later, the keypad on the new laptop was warped and the keys loose. In addition, the mouse would occasionally freeze. I researched reviews for this laptop on other websites, and several other customers had the same complaint about the mouse and the poor quality of the assemblage. Again, the programming works great accept for the pointer device. It's the assemblage that's poor. I recommend investing in a different brand.

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I have this lappy and am pretty satisfied with it. For the price, it's a very good laptop. It's a budget laptop but would satisfy most casual users' needs (heavy gamers need not apply). Let's face it, the majority of people use their laptops for internet, media watching, and other usual programs. I'm one of those people and satisfied with this lappy's performance. According to CNet, its Intel Pentium B980 2.4GHz is on par with the performance of the i3 chip. It's light and has all the usual features, what's not to like, esp. for the price.

Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with this laptop. My other laptop is fancier and better-built, but then again, that 17" Sony Vaio cost me over $1000 couple years ago. Anyway, you can't go wrong with this if you're looking for a budget laptop.

Best Deals for Toshiba C855-S5350 15.6-Inch Widescreen Laptop (6GB/640GB

This Toshiba-C855-S5350 has been the worst laptop that I have ever purchased. It was bought in November, 2012 and bit the dust in July, 2013. I sent the laptop to Toshiba for repair because it is still within Toshiba's one year warranty. For Toshiba to diagnose the problem, it cost me $131.00. The following week I received an email telling me that the cost for the repair would be $481.00. The customer service rep would not discuss the warranty because he told me that they are the repair company that Toshiba uses. That they are not in any other way connected to Toshiba. I spoke with a Toshiba rep, and was told that the repair would not be covered by the warranty. That was it, as far as Toshiba was concerned, end of discussion.

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Have found that the Toshiba computers are very reliable and easy to use. I have owned over five Toshibas and will continue to purchase them. This model has a great look. The touch pad is not overly sensitive as to move the mouse while you are typing and with the textured construction it seems easier to use. Windows 8 took some time to figure out. Am very impressed with the quietness of the computer fan and the length of the battery life. Calculated the battery life between 4 1/2 5 hrs. Overall a great computer for my use. And the price beat most laptop with the similar quality.

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6gb RAM with a decent intel dual core processor, (it's no i5), but it certainly gets the job done for the average computer user. Tons of hard drive storage and easily capable of running multiple programs, applications, while downloading and listening to music. The touchpad has no scrollbar, which is a little less convenient, but I use a mouse half the time anyway. For the price there are really no comparable products.

Personally i am not a big fan of the new Windows 8 home-screen, i much prefer the old desktop style setup. The actual operating system is quality, but it seems like it would be more user friendly with a touch screen computer, which this particular laptop is not.

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 13.3-Inch Convertible Touchscreen Ultrabook Review

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List Price: $1,049.99
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I just purchased the Lenovo Yoga 13.3 inch and love it. The screen is terrific with Music Reader for Windows. Yes, there is a little space at the bottom of each sheet music page which I find useful for add'l notes. Once you crop your sheet music, it fits even better. Much better than an IPad. The whole thing fits perfectly in my briefcase and is easy to hold for lap viewing. Very quiet unit. A side benefit is that I no longer need a light on my music stand.

I also love the way the keyboard hinges and folds behind the screen. Much better than the detachable keyboards which are a hassle. I recommend that you also purchase the Lenovo slip keyboard cover which can hold only the keyboard or the entire folded up tablet. The folded up tablet fits perfect on my music rack for both my piano and harp. All the other tablets had detachable or wireless keyboards which felt cumbersome to me. Purchase the screen protector directly from Lenovo for $9.99 which includes shipping. Amazon charges $29 for the same product. It has totally changed the way I play and my practice time is put to much better use.

The only negative is that it's much more expensive than similar tablets with slightly smaller screens. But I wanted a bigger screen and one that would be light weight and very portable.

I've only had it for a week but so far no problems.

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Just opened the box this evening. This is my first Windows 8 PC. This is an awesome pc. It is a perfect fit for someone who loves the uses of a tablet but hates typing on touch screen. It is built very sturdy. It feels just like a laptop until you flip it into a tablet, it is a rather large feeling tablet but props up nice and is very user friendly.

I would recommend this product.

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I have had my Yoga 13 for 6 months, working as a General Contractor and taking it with me EVERYWHERE. It has survived everything. I had written off so many times after some rough falls, long sits in the direct sunlight and having dust blow all over it, but it keeps surviving perfectly! The hinges are still solid and it works like new. I am on amazon tonight to buy a screen protector because I'm worried my kids will hurt it. haha!

I have an IT background so I do a lot of cool things with it and it keeps up with all of it. I've never regretted my purchase and have been very pleased with it's performance.

Lenovo is a good companyI've been to their main office in Beijing to see their product center where they show off their products that are coming out & they also announced that they are building a factory and office in North Carolina. Isn't that awesome for a Chinese company to do! Yeah!

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This is one of the coolest tablets/laptops I have seen. I am more than pleased and would recomend it to anyone looking for a very lite laptop or large tablet. At 3 lbs. it is heavier than an ipad or similar tablet, but if the weight isn't an issue then you will love it. Windows 8 and the touch screen are super. Take a look at this tablet if you are thinking about a new laptop or ipad. I did and am very pleased with my decission. By the way the delivery and service from Amazon was super.

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I generally like this. The price is great, its light and thin, and the battery life is great. I liked the flip screen more than i thought i would, especially for reading on the kindle app. These were the most important factors I was looking at when buying this laptop. I'll focus most of this post on the downsides and you can weight these appropriately for your purposes.

Downsides:

Not sure if its Windows 8, the machine or the combination of the two, but the computer has crashed a few times very randomly. Windows 8 tries to "repair" but doesn't really do it.

The touch mouse pad is super sensitive and has too many fancy features on it. When typing its easy to touch the pad with the edges of your palm and suddenly switch windows around or zoom in, etc.

The key board layout isnt the best. To access the F buttons you are required to hold down the Fn key, which is annoying if you Excel shortcuts a lot. The shift/Enter keys on the right side are small and crowded together, so it takes a little getting used to.

The wifi is also a little weak. Ive sat around other laptops that can pick up the signal when i couldnt. Usually works fine but is annoying.

Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 16-Inch Laptop (2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 3210M 8 Reviews

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I've owned the Z580 for a few months and have found that this machine is a great value for it's performance level. The keyboard has a nice touch and feel and if you like having a numbers pad on the keyboard it's perfect(otherwise takes some getting used to). The cooling fan driver features a mode to clear dust (very useful) but otherwise operates super-quiet, nearly silent mode. The clear pluses on the value side are:

-Intel Ivy Bridge Core i5 machine for a nice price

-Classy look and feel; nice keyboard, lightweight and not a cheap setup

-Energy saving features and 5-hour battery charge

-Quiet and cool operation

The cons are:

-Issues with LED backlite driver; it reverts to an energy saving mode when rebooted (no fix as of this writing)

-Some sound features ("Dolby") but not as great as other laptops I've owned

-Video playing sometimes needs tweaking to get the best picture and sound

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The laptop is very lightweight, yet sturdy. I needed a laptop that would travel well, and this fits the bill.

Noise level nearly silent! :) Plus, it never gets hot in my lap!

Multi-gesture, sensitive touch pad. Its a bit too sensitive (ie, the occasionally (often) moves while I'm typing.

Numeric keypad one of the key factors in choosing this laptop was the inclusion of a numeric keypad. I do a lot of data entry. However, the keypad on this laptop is scaled down. Therefore, the natural position for data keying doesn't work. I find myself using the numberline above the alpha keyboard because its easier. Also, there is no indicator light for the Num Lock. Therefore, I always have to guess whether the Num Lock is in the on position. (The same is true for CAPS Lock.) This is very annoying. If a numeric keypad is a deciding factor in your laptop purchase, this is not the one you want.

They keyboard is supposed to be backlit. However, no function keys are assigned to this task. I've not yet figured out how to turn on this feature. (The salesman at the store was able to operate it, so I know its there.)

This laptop is responsive, it can handle a lot of graphics, and many memory eating programs at once. It is also easy to navigate back and forth between them thanks to Windows 8.

I use this laptop for presentations, video conferencing. The sound and video quality of this laptop are great. The forward facing camera works well. The DVD player works well and is easy to use.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this purchase!

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I was a little disappointed when I opened this laptop. It's dully lit in an enclosure that has an outdated design. The metallic color is an upside that kind of makes up to give a new gen look. Having used Lenovo T series for work for many years now I went with Lenovo because of it's good track record on reliability.

Pros:

Dolby sound (very impressive)

HDMI port (Connected to TV to watch a movie on Netflix with subtitle)

Quiet operation

Rugged built quality keys

LCD screen

Metallic finish

Cons:

Outdated design In the age of ultrabooks this bulky laptop's designers still live in the past

No fancy lights (while competitors offer backlit keyboard this laptop don't even have a wasy to indicate battery is charging)

Inferior camera

Wi-Fi (can be spotty at times, takes a while to connect)

Bulky

This will be a good fit if you are looking for an entertainment PC that you don't need to have it on your lap all the time. Plenty of storage (1TB) with decent performance (I5 6GB RAM).

Windows 8 is tricky and has already hanged-up and crashed a couple of times. I haven't installed any app other than anti-virus. A few times laptop installed windows updates but failed to complete the installation.

Honest reviews on Lenovo IdeaPad Z580 16-Inch Laptop (2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 3210M 8

I bought this computer and have been very satisfied. It is not as described in another opinion. It is extremely quiet. Works fast. Easy to figure out, once you get used to Win 8. In my opinion you get alot of bang for your buck with this sweet running PC.

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I'm enjoying this computer though the touch pad is large and touchy. I sometimes get pages popping up that I don't intend, seems to be getting better with more use.

Windows 8 start page (replaces desktop) is like apps on a phone and takes some getting use to. Can switch to the previous style desktop too as needed.

For my email, bill paying, Quicken, Facebook, etc. it has been so much faster than my older, cheaper eMachine that I finally gave up on. Seems like this is a fair price for what I got.

Review of HP Pavilion g7-1318dx - AMD A4-3320, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive

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I ordered 2 of these for my family . I am not a laptop fan but these surprised me with great monitors and power usage(reset the power to "Power saver") on battery and good to go.

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Computer fan stopped working, sent for repair, came back, turns itself off for no reason. HP won't replace. Don't buy!

Discount ASUS Q200E 11.6" Core i3 500GB HDD Notebook

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List Price: $799.99
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I've been testing the Q200E-BH13T45, which I've purchased from Best Buy during a sale, for several months now and, overall, my conclusion is that, as others noted, it's a very good product for the price without any major flaws.

Rather than getting into an overly winded review, I will try to touch upon the most important aspects of the ultrabook.

Performance

There will be arguments about this, but my personal feeling is that performance should come first as an electronic's first purpose is to make its user's life easier or, at the least, more entertaining. Frustrating and pissing the user off by being slow, freezing, and causing aggravation is sort of counterproductive to that goal.

In this regard, the Q200E comes off spectacularly well for all the most important aspects of a computer uses, although gaming is a bit weak.

It comes with an Intel Core i3, 4GB RAM (with 64-bit OS to take advantage of it), and an Intel HD 3000 video card. In the majority of cases, the Q200E runs pretty flawlessly; certainly, you're not going to encounter slow downs just navigating Windows 8 or editing office documents/spreadsheets as I'm wont to do. Videos (even 1080p ones), music, web surfing (yes, even with a dozen tabs opened) aren't problems either.

However, games is certainly the Q200E's weak point. One could have guessed that playing games like Crysis on Ultra is not going to be easy from the fact that it has an Intel HD 3000 GPU, but it's quite a bit worse than I had hoped. Still, I can't dock any points for this weakness as the Q200E is not meant to be a dedicated gaming device and turning it into such would make it lose some of the things I find attractive about it (attractive thinness, very low weight, etc).

P.S. I know some of you care about boot-up time. It personally doesn't bother me at all, but here are the stats: From complete shut down, booting up to usable Windows is roughly 10-11 seconds and it's another 10-15 seconds for all background processes to start up depending on how many you have. From sleep (i.e. closing the ultrabook's lid instead of shutting down), it is 2 seconds before the Q200E is completely active.

I see a lot of people quail about putting in an SSD in the Q200E in order to improve performance, but personally, I rather save the money and keep the 500GB space.

Touch Screen

I originally thought of putting this in the 'performance' section, but I decided to give it its own section simply because of sheer importance. A big reason why I chose to buy this ultrabook was because of the touch screen, so for others in the same position as me, it's only fair I give touch screen a section of its own.

To make it concise, the touch screen is well done.

It is responsive and using it with Windows 8 works as well as using the iPhone, Android phone, or, if you will, Windows Phone. I have to commend Microsoft (and Asus for putting in a responsive screen) as I had not expected to like using touch screen nearly as much as I did. The touch screen responsiveness and ease of usage on the Windows 8's Modern UI and the desktop mode really does a lot to add to the enjoyability of the Q200E.

And for those wondering as I did whether the touch screen works well with legacy applications/games instead of Modern UI-designed apps/games, the answer is a resounding yes. I tried games and applications designed specifically for non-touch screen Windows XP/Windows 7 and they work excellently. Basically, touch screen presses react as if you had left-click with the mouse and, if you need more precision, you can drag on the screen and it will highlight items.

Display/Battery Life

The display for the Q200E is fairly good. It is bright and, especially at 100% brightness setting, the color become more vibrant giving the screen a nice liveliness. The resolution (1366x768) might be low for some, especially when there are ultrabooks that head into the 1920x1080 'full HD' resolution, but despite it, the resolution does not distract from the quality of the display for me.

No doubt, a number of people are wondering about how well the display works in sunlight too. The truth is that, in direct sunlight, it is absolutely horrible. You can't see a damn thing, except for glare and reflections. But...this is pretty standard for most screens anyway. As for indirect sunlight, though, the screen works decently well. There is much reflections, of course, but what matters is the screen is very visible and thus usable so long as the sunlight is not directly hitting the screen.

The battery life is a bit of a downer, though. On a full charge using 'Balanced' power setting, battery life seems to be around 3-4 hours. Now, that battery life doesn't bother me too much. While the Q200E is intended to be my main computing device, I'm generally near a power socket whenever I intend to use it in excess of 1-2 hours. Otherwise, I find the 3-4 hour estimated battery life to be plentiful.

If you are the type to use your laptop/ultrabook extensively on the go, though, be forewarned of the battery limits on this device.

Hardware Design

One of the things that made me fall in love with the Q200E while browsing the mobile section at Best Buy was the low 2.9lbs weight combined with what I feel was a sleek design.

The top and touchpad/keyboard area is designed as a smooth metallic surface while the screen is, yes, glass and the bottom is the standard plastic. This is good in practical use. Generally, the metallic areas is the area you tend to touch and stare at allowing you its more high end feel.

What adds to the sleekness, a bit surprisingly, is that it was designed so that all of the ports is located at the end near the screen. This makes the ultrabook become slimmer as you move away but thicker as you move in rather than giving it an equal thinness distribution. It might sound a bit awkward and I'm guessing it might not be a popular design as I noticed most other ultrabooks seem to add an optical drive (which the Q200E lacks) plus a few more ports and even out the thinness distribution. However, to me, it feels much better to hold and adds to the sleek appearance.

Audio

This is the last thing I want to touch on, but it is important to me and I'd imagine quite a few other people too.

The Q200E places the speakers inside the casing in the area beside the touchpad and allows the sound to flow out through two openings at the bottom. Unlike smartphones, which also tend to place speakers on the back, the Q200E's speakers is located near the edge and the edge curves up a bit meaning the sound doesn't get muffled when you place it on a flat surface.

Additionally, also unlike smartphones, the sound quality is loud and of good quality. I am not familiar with Asus' 'Sonic Master' speaker brand, but according to Asus, it brings 'audiophile' quality music to their laptops. I'm not so sure of that, but yes, it sounds good through the speakers and on headphones (though be forewarned, headphones is not nearly as loud through the Q200E as when used through a desktop).

So pound for pound, it places speaker in an out of the way location for good looks, but ensure the quality remains good and well.

Overall Rating

Now lets tally up everything and give the Q200E an overall rating.

Pros:

Excellent performance

Sleek and thin hardware design

Great audio quality and speaker placement

Great display quality

Easy to use touch screen

Cons:

A bit weak with gaming

Battery life seems to top out at 3-4 hours; likely 5 hours if you turn down all settings and use it conservatively

Overall Rating: 8/10

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I bought this laptop after doing a lot of research both online and in a store. I wanted a laptop that was light, had windows 8 and a touchscreen.

Most of the computers that fit all of my needs were way out of my price range and when I saw this computer I was hesitant but decided to make the purchase.

I have not regretted it for a minute. The computer is lightweight, the screen is vibrant and very responsive the track pad is also very responsive. I Love windows 8 and the ability to totally customize the start screen. I did learn that Google Chrome does not work if you use it to pin tiles to your start screen. You need to use internet explorer. Google Chrome can be used to browse.

If you are looking for a lightweight computer that doesn't cost an arm and a leg I highly recommend this one.

Update. My affair with this computer ended sadly. It really started to slow down and the fan really got loud after about an hour of use. I ended up returning it. :(

Best Deals for ASUS Q200E 11.6" Core i3 500GB HDD Notebook

I purchased a Microsoft Surface when it was released because I thought it would finally bridge the gap between a fun tablet and a productive tablet. And while it was a very nice device, it just felt like a prettier "fun" tablet. And I was needing something small that I can do work on and with a touchscreen. I saw this ASUS Q200E and immediately sold my Surface to snatch this thing up. While I may miss my Surface, this is really what I needed.

I wanted PC that was easy to take with me and a touchscreen and this one fits the bill. I was surprised at the speed after seeing some reports of it being slow (hard drive). While the initial updates were kind of slow, I've had no problems out of this device.

It doesn't have dedicated graphics but let me tell you...I wasn't planning on loading Bioshock on this but I did install Star Trek Online and Star Wars Old Republic and BOTH ran well. No stuttering and fairly smooth. If you are a hard core gamer, you may notice frame rate issues but I was not disappointed at all and actually quite surprised.

This laptop also boots VERY fast once you are all setup. About 6 seconds from a cold boot and about 1-2 seconds from sleep. I was also very impressed with this.

The sound is very impressive on this laptop. The first time I played a game or fired up XBOX music, I was blown away. It was a nice surprise.

About the only thing I would give this low marks for is the display. Coming from the Surface, I could see a big difference. For sure, not as sharp and some colors seems washed out. But it isn't bad either. Touchscreen response is good but sometimes can over compensate. Just takes a bit to "learn" it.

I am actually a Windows 8 fan. I have it on my home PC, work PC and other non-touch laptop. I've gotten used to the new interface and organized my tiles and it is joy to use. That said, TOUCH makes it even more enjoyable. And I admire Microsoft for sticking with this as touch is the future. This being as mix of touch and mouse control makes it just a totally awesome device.

For this price, this is a MAJOR steal and I highly recommend this laptop! If you don't mind an 11.6 inch screen, you will not find a better bargain than this.

Honest reviews on ASUS Q200E 11.6" Core i3 500GB HDD Notebook

I would like to come right out and say that this is a great general usage computer. By general usage I mean that you're using it mostly for word processing, viewing videos (maybe two or three loading in different tabs), or maybe a light java scripted web based computer game (like Farmville or Poker, games on Facebook are fine for this). So now that we have our target user not an aspiring gamer or CAD user let's talk about this computer.

It comes preloaded with Windows 8 and has a bit of a learning curve attached to it. Fortunately this computer is touchscreen, which makes Windows 8 a lot easier. However, there are a few times when the curser seems to jump to a different position on the screen which only seems to happen if I've just been touching then switched to the finger mouse pad. But it's in a blimp of a second, my guess is it's simply taking a moment to figure out that you've switched control, and is calibrating the cursor to the new relative position from the change over. It's not a problem, I mention it so if you see this you don't flip out thinking "I've got spyware and someone else just moved my cursor!" Now if that happens and you're not switching between the two run your anti-virus or other protocols depending on your level of computer knowledge. One thing users should keep in mind is that Windows should be evaluated separately from the computer itself. If you don't like W8 you'd probably love this computer with W7 or Vista.

On the physical aspect I'd say this computer is perfect for students, writers, and other's who prefer to be able to take their computer on the go with them and aren't planning on making it a main movie computer. This puppy fits anywhere your tablet will for most part. It's thin and light compared to other laptops. The touchscreen makes it great for reading books on. For me as a science major I'll often read technical articles or books. Some of these are on websites or PDFs, but when your reading along and there's a diagram referenced that's a bit small compared to the font zooming in with the touch screen then zooming back out to continue reading is very nice. So you get some tablet advantages with the touchscreen, making this laptop excellent as a reading device if you have a sturdy location to set it and are planning on being there long enough to where standard boot up times aren't an annoyance. Which on that topic the computer boots up relatively fast, but nowhere near those laptops with Solid State Drives (SSD).

Again for the target audience, the hard drive is plenty at 500GB. I would like to mention however there is NOT a built in CD/DVD drive. You will need an external one. So if you want to watch movies on the go you'll need to preload them or stream them from the web (assuming you'll have WiFi). One reviewer said his came with an external drive in the box, mine did not. But that shouldn't be too big a deal as you can come across one on sale for as low as $30 and pretty standard around $50. The reason they do this is to make the laptop thinner and lighter.

That being said, the screen. The screen gives you plenty of light in my opinion, for use indoors. Outdoors it's a bit dim but still usable. Now I also put on a Zagg screen protector as I take mine with me a lot. You'd be surprised how much just little dust particulates will gently mar the screen of your laptops in general. With this one being touch screen I don't want these mars there potentially de-functing the sensors so I do recommend you buy the screen protector. Mine as stated was Zagg, specifically cut for this computer. I found it was easy to put on as long as you put on a nice even coat of the applicator solution TO THE PROTECTOR NOT THE SCREEN.

Another regard for the screen is that if you do want to watch a movie using the laptop as a source, don't despair. There's an HDMI out port on the left upper corner to plug into your HDTV. I also really like that there are two USB ports on this same side and one more on the opposite side near the headphones jack and card slot. A few USB devices come out and turn at 90degrees essentially blocking the next port, so this ensures that if you have one of those devices it doesn't block you out.

The charging cable is nice too. It doesn't have a bulky transformer like a lot of laptops, and it's got plenty of length. As far as battery life goes, it last's around 3+ hours no problem. I generally always keep mine plugged in, so what's the max and how does it vary on usage, I don't really know. I mostly am watching educational videos or typing when using mine.

As far as anything burning out, I'll have to make that an update when something finally does. I've only had this computer for about two weeks now. So far it's been good to me and I anticipate good things. I have a couple friends who were using ASUS products and their stuff has lasted for quite some time. Sadly many of them are pretty rough on their machines.

Bottom line, I like this laptop and recommend it as a general use (not for gamers/CAD users)and portability focused users. Especially good for sitting down and really focusing on e-books due to it's touch screen zooming ability (I've really enjoyed this, can you tell?)

AS AN ASIDE FROM THE COMPUTER'S REVIEW.........................

That being said I'd like to also note for those of you who seem to have a lot of hard drive failures on your laptops. Any standard spinning hard drive needs to NOT be tilted during use, it damages the drive and reduces the life of your computer. Don't just walk around leasurely while it's on. Be careful to move it within the same plane (think back to geometry). Many people seem to not realize this type of treatment is bad for their computer or they just don't care to exercise the extra caution. If your either one and say I'll just buy a new laptop after this one burns our from my tipping and bumping it around while it's on, don't blame the manufacturer. Also, you may consider buying a SSD laptop. Since there's no moving parts you can be pretty careless while it's on like with a tablet or your phone. But those SSD laptops currently have very small drives and are really expensive. But hey, if you can afford to buy a new laptop every four or five months maybe it'll be cheaper for you to go this route.

I'm not trying to be critical of anyone here, I just want to make sure due blame rests where it should and help move buyers to what products will suit them best. Everyone wins when we are educated buyers. To all out there my best regards.

By the way I also bought mine from a local retailor for less than $490 with free shipping if I purchased it off their site. But I do still love Amazon.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS Q200E 11.6" Core i3 500GB HDD Notebook

*NOTE: To my knowledge, the Q200E is a Best Buy-only product, where I got mine.*

Pros:

+ Gorgeous design--the brushed metal finish and slim form factor made this the envy of everyone who saw it.

+ Zippy. The i3 processor, while aging and a bit weedy compared to its big brothers, let everything run smooth and quickly.

+ Touch screen is fun, intuitive (once you get used it it) and functional.

+ Portable. While a bit on the heavy side, this is much easier to lug around than my 15.6" work laptop. Even the power brick is small and portable!

+ Boots up FAST and wakes from sleep INSTANTLY thanks to the instant-on feature.

Cons and nitpicks:

Windows 8. Ugh. But a necessary evil.

Mechanical HDD--while this lends to more space for less money made me feel uneasy as they are fragile, especially in notebooks. They are also slower than the (still) insanely expensive SSDs.

Screen is small, low resolution, has poor color, and feels cheap with its plastic film. (To be fair, they had to cut back somewhere, and Asus is known for low-resolution laptop screens)

Touch interface is a gimmick on Windows 8.

Touchpad mouse has odd bouts of unresponsiveness, and I wish the multi-touch gestures were customizable.

i3 processor, while adequate, did not meet my expectations.

Third-party programs lag (browsing on IE was fast and zippy, though).

Shameful battery life.

For less than $500, this little notebook packs a lot of great features and is absolutely wonderful for students or professionals on the go. It is beautifully designed with its sleek contours and lines, brushed metal finish, and dual-tone color scheme. Everyone I showed it to immediately wanted one. While a tad on the heavy side, I found it to be a joy to move around, taking computing where I needed. I was also pleasantly surprised at how zippy it was. I am a multi-tasking power-user, and I was surprised at how well this machine stood up for me. What I really loved about this machine, though, is that it boots up blazingly fast and wakes up from sleep in as much time it takes to open the lid, letting you get back to computing in an instant. If you want a decent computer that is highly portable (and great to admire), then this is it. I highly recommend this for anyone who wants good, portable computing--for the price, you definitely get your money's worth.

Unfortunately, while very cheap, I was unsatisfied and opted for a bigger and more powerful machine. First and foremost, Windows 8 is disgusting--and I'll leave it at that; this is not the machine's fault. My biggest gripes are the touchpad mouse and battery life. The touchpad mouse mimics the functions of the touch-screen, so it almost feels redundant--to a fault. The gesture-based controls are definitely catered to maneuver around Windows 8, but I feel this also takes away some of the practical functionality I am used to from older Asus laptops (mostly two-finger tap as mouse wheel-click; it is instead, simply right-click). Worst of all was that the touchpad mouse refused to recognize some of my gestures (like the two-finger tap). I found this frustrating, and it slowed down my computing experience.

What more, the battery life is rather abysmal (I suppose they had to make budget cuts somewhere to make it so cheap). This touts a 4-hour battery life, but with internet browsing over wifi, that seemed closer to 2.5 or 3 hours. I was able to get through my meetings away from the charger, but immediately had to plug it back in. This sort of kills the portability of this machine. I am surprised at this considering I can squeeze close to 6 hours of computing on my 15.6" Asus UL50VT laptop. I would have thought battery life would have gone up in the years since I got my older machine. Thankfully, the charger on this machine is very small and equally portable.

The reason why I returned mine, however, was because I wanted something more powerful. While the i3 performed admirably, it didn't win me over. I opted for a newer release from Asus that had better specs and an all-glass screen (ASUS ViVoBook S500CA-DS51T 15.6-Inch Laptop ( Black ), if you're interested). If I hadn't discovered the S500CA, I would have kept the Q200E--my only regret is that I miss the portability.

Bottom line, if you want something cheap, but good and portable, get the Q200E. Personally, I always shop and recommend Asus for notebooks.

Reviews of MSI Computer Corp. MSI GT70 2OD-064US;9S7-176312-064 17.3-Inch

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $2,435.64
Sale Price: $1,879.99
Today's Bonus: 23% Off

First Im writing a review to balance out the unnecessary low score. Anyway this is a great gaming computer. It runs the newest and best Nvidia GPU for laptops, the 780M. This machine can play any game on the highest settings, including Metro Light (everything max and SSAA on 2x). I started playing PC games again because of this computer. The color keyboard is cool and I really like typing on the keyboard. The keyboard is chiclet style but its better than Apple IMO. The touch pad is rather small however. When playing games who uses the touchpad anyway? I do like that the touchpad will automatically deactivate when you connect a mouse. If you are going to play games with this on your lap then I recommend a cooling pad because it does get hot during intense gaming. You can use the cooler boost that turns up the fan which is fan if you have the volume up or use headphones. This computer has really nice speakers. It is supposed to have a subwoofer but I really cant tell it makes any difference. The HD is only 5400 rpm so I recommend an SSD in the first bay and using the HD as a data drive. There is a sticker that says void if back is open. But really? They have 2 HD bays for a reason. So I hope that is not true. I recommend a square trade warranty in case it is and they would cover any problems then. If you find this too heavy at about 8 lbs then go with the MSI GE 70 which has the 765M GPU which is no slouch either.

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I have had the GT70 for about a week now, and I have to say, it's pretty sweet.

PROS:

GTX 780m handles everything I have thrown at it so far. DayZ (ARMA II) with everything set to 'Very High' gets 24fps average.

Quite, no loud fan noise, well maybe a little when in game, but not as much as my older Samsung.

Stays Cool! I keep the house about 80 F and I haven't had an issue yet with heat. Again, the Samsung would roast my fingers on the keyboard when in game...

Back Lit keyboard FTW!

VERY nice display, so sharp and bright!

Expandable, even though it may void the warranty, I plan on getting an SSD and more ram in the future...Oh and Windows 7!

CONS:

Not liking Windows 8... I'm old school I guess...

Amazon was confused about the a few things:

-Hard Drive. It is NOT a 7200 RPM, it's 5400, Amazon states both.

-It's 2.4GHz, not 3.2GHz, unless there is some boosting settings I haven't found yet.

-I was aware of these things from my research prior to buying, so I'l good...

Keyboard layout is different than what I'm use to, no biggie..

If you're looking for a really nice Gaming Laptop, but don't have a ton of cash right now and would like to upgrade it as you go, I think this is the right choice.

Best Deals for MSI Computer Corp. MSI GT70 2OD-064US;9S7-176312-064 17.3-Inch

Hardware wise this laptop is as awesome as you can get for the price. Unfortunately it comes with Win 8. So either you deal with Win 8 like I am doing, or just install Win 7. Everything has worked perfect so far and I've owned it for a month. I love hooking this sucker up to my 47" TV with HDMI and playing my Steam games, which it runs incredibly well. I've always been very satisfied with MSI products. The only issue I've run into was getting the warranty with the MSI site. I tried to register it with the serial code provided next to the battery several times with no luck, so the only other option is to call MSI tech support. Besides that one snag, it's perfect.

Honest reviews on MSI Computer Corp. MSI GT70 2OD-064US;9S7-176312-064 17.3-Inch

Only took a week and this 'gaming' notebook is going back. And shame on me for still not learning, more typically equals less.

PRICE & COMPONENTS

Comparing the price of this MSI GT70 with a slightly less equipped ASUS G750JX-DB71 17.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

Both have Intel processors with the slight edge to the MSI Intel Core i7 4700MQ vs 4700HQ (better) / +1 MSI

Both have a great amount of RAM 12GB vs 16GB (overkill but more RAM can never hurt) / +1 ASUS

Both have good storage 1TB HDD @ 7200RPM vs 1TB HDD @ 5400RPM + 256 SSD (slower HDD but great SSD) / +1 ASUS ***If you purchase the ASUS, just swap the HDD with the SSD and do a fresh WIN7 64 install WIN8 is HORRIBLE!

Both have a decent GPU GTX780M 4G vs GTX770M 3G (780M is easily the better GPU) / +1 MSI

Both have nice (looking) keyboards MSI touts the Steelseries, which along with the Dynaudio label should have been the first warning sign too many labels +1 so far to MSI because it's the best feeling keyboard I have used on a notebook, and being able to configure the keys into a 3-color scheme is way cool. However, the keyboard layout absolutely SUCKS! The arrow keys, which gamers still occasionally use are flush with the rest of the key layout. The forward slash "/" is next to the spacebar, and unforgivable are the HOME & END keys that can only be invoked by using the FN key! MSI cheaped out on building a Western keyboard layout, so instead you get to fumble about with a European keyboard layout! -50 MSI

The rest of my gripes are nitpicking stuff so I'll skip to the meat of how the MSI completely fails long-term, which is where it matters. COOLING!!!

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7076/msi-gt70-dragon-edition-notebook-review-haswell-and-the-gtx-780m/4

This link is only to show the case open with the single-fan layout of the MSI, which most people would otherwise not consider, like me! If you are considering the MSI please read the entire article.

COMMON SENSE

Evey computer, regardless of how weak or powerful needs good thermal venting features. The MSI has 1 vent to the side. In fact on the product page it is clearly stated, and again shame on me for not noting this before purchase as odd, "A smart, quiet, and highly efficient single fan cooling solution." Unfortunately there is nothing 'smart' about single cooling for a gaming notebook.

The MSI takes air in from the rear, 1 fan cools the GPU first then the CPU, and pushes the hot air out the left-side. Thank goodness they at least realized most people place a mouse on the right-side. So basically the already baking CPU gets whatever air, typically hot, off the GPU, which is then vented outside the case. In my situation, the CPU is constantly throttling to keep cool, causing in game lock-ups. Every 10-20 seconds, regardless of the game, the system freezes for 1-2 seconds. Initially I thought it was the HDD, but HD Sentinel proved the drive was in "Perfect" condition. Also tested the RAM, which also proved to be in good working order. Then I wondered, what is this touch-button on the quick access bar above the keyboard? Of course! It's a fan boost because this notebook only has one fan to cool the entire system! It needs human intervention when the CPU is starving for air, and it allows MSI an excuse to create another cool looking touch button. Unfortunately invoking this fan creates so much noise you either need headphones or turn the volume all the way up. Fortunately the audio on the MSI system is pretty good. Long term MSI creates another revenue stream repairs. It's a fact that components that are constantly exposed to extreme temperatures will fail far faster than those properly cooled. +1 MSI for AUDIO / -100 MSI for COOLING

The ASUS on the other hand has "Intelligent and Powerful Cooling." This is 2 fans pulling cool air from the front of the machine, across all the components, and out the back. Holy smokes, what kind of crazy is that?!? In the process the CPU and GPU get their own cool air flow and hot air never reaches the user. +100 MSI

I could go on a bit more but my mind is already made up and an ASUS G750 is on the way to replace my MSI melted butter CPU. Yeah the ASUS does not look as pretty, has no quick launch buttons, with components that on paper are less powerful, but cooling seems to be far superior and better thought out, the keyboard layout appears far superior and the connections along the sides appear to be better placed. Overall I expect my gaming experience to be far better does no good if a more powerful CPU packed inside a case locks up every few seconds because its poor thermal properties eventually cause a system-wide failure.

I tried to make sense of this based on a little research and my experience with the MSI brand I'll update this after tomorrow when the ASUS arrives and I had time to play with it a bit. Just be smart before plunking down anything vertical of $1500 on a laptop/notebook, and not overwhelmed by, in this case, way too many features for the price.

ASUS review http://www.amazon.com/review/R5ZNHLJ1BZRB5/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00COQIKKA&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag=

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for MSI Computer Corp. MSI GT70 2OD-064US;9S7-176312-064 17.3-Inch

This laptop plays most games maxed out when pluged in.(less so on battery.)

The audio is very good for a laptop.

Bigger than I thought it would be.(but bigger is better right.)

I do not like win8's gui but thanks to stardock I switched back to win7's.(Avoiding win7 install)

ONE WARNING!!! opening the bottom to change or add a hard drive, ssd or mem. will void your warranty.