Panasonic ToughBook CF-19 INTEL Core 2 Duo 1100MHz 80Gig Serial ATA Reviews

Customer Ratings:

This was the BEST bang for my buck!!!!! Negative was no webcam or cd drive. However Now a days everything is on external drives anyway and webcams I use very rarely. Although I did buy an external dvd drive and webcam. I ABSOLUTELY love this better than any laptop or netbook I have had in the past. The service was EXCELLENT. I wasbeing deployed and the seller worked with me to intercept the package and ship another one next day. I had to pay the shipping but was a big surprise he helped out so much given the circumstances. If you have the money and looking for a COOL, FUN, HIGH SPEED, AFFORDABLE, and TOUGH netbook and have the money BUY IT!!! You will NOT regret it. I can not say enough about this toughbook or the seller who helped out so much during a very difficult transaction.

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Great value, fast shipping and amazing machine. It came with 2 GB of RAM and for about $50.00 I was able to quickly upgrade to 4 when I received the item. Will keep my eye out for them to offer more of these at such a great value!

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I'm really upset with this product I resived because they don't specif a lot of things ,they didn't send me the AC adapter charger just the toughbook with a lot of scrathed ,they said refurbished product and is used product unacceptable don't buy it .

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Very tough and we got it used on Amazon. The keyboard is not as kid proof and its easy to remove keys.

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the software was not correctly installed and the panasonic factory software was never reinstalled. The computer is slow due to the lack of Toughbook drivers

ASUS ZENBOOK UX21-ESL4 11.6-Inch Thin and Light Ultrabook (Silver Reviews

Customer Ratings:

HISTORY: I originally had a Compaq laptop that was 15.6 inches I think? It was a couple inches thick and made my school bag heavy. The ad for it said Bluetooth and webcam, but the laptop actually had neither. When the MacBook Air came out in 11.6 inches and Apple's ad said it could do iCloud synchronization, I gave my Compaq to my little brother and got the MacBook 11. As it turns out, the next class I was registered for at school (I take online college classes and work full time) required a computer with "Windows environment". SO... I needed a Windows laptop again.

I researched 11.6 inch laptops for about 2 weeks and learned that the Asus Zenbook UX21A (I think the K series?) had all the specs I wanted, but no-one in America sold the K-series. Best Buy sold the UX21A with 250 GB of flash drive, improved backlit keyboard and improved trackpad response, i7 processor, and Windows 8 (which I found really frustrating to use within the first hour I tried it) for about $2000. Amazon advertised the UX21E with 128 GB of flash drive, non-backlit keyboard, the original trackpad, i5 processor, and Windows 7 (which was easy for me to learn and already familiar) for $748. After learning that I only used about 70 GB of hard drive on my Compaq, I decided on the UX21E.

THE RESULTS:

May 25, 2013 I ordedred the UX21-ESL4 from Amazom. The estimated delivery date was June 3 June 18, 2013. It arrived May 31, only one day after my class began. The first day was for introductions, so I slid past ok just using my MacBook. Since then, I've only had a few minor issues arise using the Zenbook.

1) The settings on the WiFi would turn on when you told it to connect, but then drop every so many minutes. This was really nerve-wrecking when it happened a couple days before my first test. I had typed up an essay in-class and the WiFi dropped taking Blackboard and my essay with it. Luckily, I had copied and pasted the essay into MS Word and was able to re-paste in Blackboard once I got back in. The fix? I took the laptop to work and a co-worker hit a button and now the WiFi stays on.

2) The software on the UX21E are a bit more up to date than my Compaq... About 2 or 3 years more up to date. For whatever reason, Blackboard does not recognize/accept Ctrl-V from my Zenbook (even though it did from my Compaq). The fix? I use right-click + "Paste" when the teacher requires us to copy and paste things.

3) The security settings are awesome. Windows has a firewall. The UX21E has IE10 (not IE9, yay!) and it has a firewall. IE10's firewall would not let me stream Pandora at all and I use Pandora to get in the groove when I'm studying. The fix? I took my laptop back to work where the original guy and his 2 team mates fiddled with the security settings. I think they added Pandora to the accepted websites on the Security tab.

This part I just thought it needed saying for those wondering how I conveniently completed my little school kit. There aren't many bags out there that are as short as the Zenbook 11 is wide. I'd rather my laptop NOT get bounced around in a bookbag that's too big for it and not be left in a laptop messenger bag which any thief can recognize. I've found only 2 sellers that make a real backpack in the proper size. Toppu sells a faux-learher laptop bag that's classy and designed for technology this size. KGHP & Jaimall sell it for about $70 I think. It's advertised here on Amazon in mint color, but I think they're able to restock in brown and black. By the time I found out (yesterday) I'd already bought the SwissGear Dashpack for $25. Perfect fit for the laptop and my books. If you want your cords and thumb drives to stay nice, neat, and put away, also try the Mead Five Star XPanz zipper pouch. It holds the Zenbook's power cord, my Case Logic ER303 mouse, my Skullcandy earbuds, my thumb drive, my iPhone 5 USB cord, and my 6ft extension cord perfectly. I topped it all off with a Novotel MHS 890 WiFi hotspot purchased from Verizon. I can do my homework virtually anywhere now.

This was a trial and error lesson on laptop purchasing, but having a lightweight office in my backpack is very rewarding and comforting. When you're as active and small as I am, you really do better with tools that "fit" you properly. Try the Zenbook UX21E if you're looking for portability and convenience. Go easy on the keyboard ;-) and you won't go wrong.

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i was surprised. the only other thing i don't like about this ultrabook is that at least the chrome browser seems to lag when i scroll through pages; i didn't have that on my 4-yr-old desktop for some reason. otherwise it's pretty solid.

Reviews of Acer Notebook NX.V7PAA.013;TMB113-E-4808 11.6-Inch Laptop

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $410.99
Sale Price: $397.99
Today's Bonus: 3% Off

The laptop is fine, reasonable speed, battery life etc. The 6-cell battery is severely protruding at the back, something that is not shown on Acer or Amazon pics. The battery tilts the laptop by an inch which is weird to use on your lap.

Better options out there:

For about $400: 13 inch Dell Inspiron 13z or refurbished laptops (Toshiba Portege R835).

For about $550: 13 inch ultraportables with a touchscreen Lenovo u310 or Sony Vaio.

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Best HP ProBook 4540s C6Z35UT 15.6' LED Notebook - Intel - Core i3 Deals

Customer Ratings:

Very happy with the laptop so far. Not a huge fan of Windows 8, but the build quality and look of the laptop is excellent. Feels solid, a wide variety of inputs/outputs including VGA for those of us who still need it, and HDMI for the future. A solid laptop at a good price. The Intel I3 processor is very solid, and I haven't had any software or hardware issues.

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I purchased this laptop not expecting much but it is very solidly constructed, has a plethora of features and is lightweight. Perfect.

Best Sony VAIO VPCEE23FX/BI 15.5" Notebook, AMD Athlon II Dual-Core P320 Deals

Customer Ratings:

I bought this laptop from a different retailer several months ago. I am extremely happy with my purchase! The only thing that that could be improved on is the sound which could be a little louder. I LOVE that this has the HDMI port (this was actually the main reason I chose this!) By connecting an HMDI cable from my laptop to TV, I am able to surf the web on a 50 inch screen (as well as watch movies, etc). I noticed that someone commented on the keyboard personally, I have had no problems. My mom has Rheumatoid arthritis and uses my laptop frequently with no complaints. I think the keyboard is really cool! Plus if you shop around you can get a keyboard skin for under five bucks (The EB series fit perfectly!) I use this laptop for everything school (Microsoft office), graphic design(Photoshop), and download many things to the hard drive. It has continued to run flawlessly! Also, there is an "assist" button that connects you with live help from Sony 24/7 (It's free, I use it all the time!) I highly recommend this laptop!!

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First of all, I would like to say that I have owned four different laptops now, and, out of all of them I like this one second best. Strongly missing my Dell Studio 15, right now.

This was a laptop purchased for me by a dear friend, since my Dell just kicked the bucket. We had decided on a cheaper Gateway laptop, but at the last minute she got me this one instead, thinking it was a nicer model.

I can say that it is a physically attractive laptop... you can't tell from the photos, but, it has a nice sheen and some glitter in it if you're into that sort of thing.

My number one complaint, and it's a pretty big deal to me, is that they tried to cram a full-sized keyboard onto a laptop, and the result is disastrous. When I got my Dell Studio, it was like putting on a glove in regards to comfort... but this Vaio is like putting a right shoe that is three sizes too small onto a left foot. My fingers and knuckles are already very sore due to the angle I have to type at to even try to put my fingertips on the correct keys. The touch pad is entirely unusable due to location and the texture they used for it.

Other than that, the graphics card seems pretty nice, Guild Wars looks beautiful on this laptop and runs wonderfully-just hope it'll handle Guild Wars 2. It seems to run things relatively fast, and came with Google Chrome already installed-I was happy about that tidbit. Windows 7 is a great Operating System.

For the price paid, it's a good buy, but will take getting used to for this ridiculous keyboard.

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This was a gift from me to a person out of state. Since this is someone else's I contacted them. They are totally satisfied with looks, performance and quality of product. Guess that sums it up.

Reviews of MSI G Series GT780DX-406US 17.3-Inch Laptop

Customer Ratings:

OK, it took me months of searching for a notebook. I started looking for a notebook around August and there were a couple of them that piqued my interest. That list included the Asus G74, Alienware M17x, HP Envy 17, and the Dell XPS 17. I wanted a gaming notebook, but more then that I wanted a notebook that would be future proof for a couple of years well as my Gateway FX was when I bought it. Knowing this, I know for sure that I made the right choice. I started looking at the MSI GT780DX after I heard these newer core i7 processors were coming out, I decided right away that the 2670QM was right for me. At that time when I purchased this notebook all of the above listed notebooks, except the Alienware had these newer processors. So why did I choose this notebook? GTX 570M at a price that no one else can beat. At the time of this writing, there is no other brand that even offers the GTX 570M as an option. Its 15% faster then the GTX 560M and not much slower then the GTX 580M, and with the overclock option on this MSI, it's not that hard to reach this 580M stock speeds.

So when it was finally time to choose I bought this over the G74SX, those were my two final choices and the MSI was more appealing to me. Better audio system, 5 USB vs 4 USB, Matte display vs glossy display, an unbelievable multicolored changing keyboard vs a regular white keyboard, and in my opinion better styling (debatable of course). Not to mention this MSI was only $50 more and what you get in content was worth a lot more then $50, I would argue the multicolored back-lit keyboard alone is worth that price. Also, this comes with a DIRT 3 voucher where you get the game for free. You just scan the code or take a picture of the voucher, and attach it to the online form, and a couple of days later AMD emails you the game key and you download the game (Have not received mine yet).

So OK, on to the notebook lets start with the speakers. The speakers truly are phenomenal, I have known about Dynaudio for quite some time, a lot of Volkswagen cars use this audio system and the speakers are very solid, just like they are in the cars. I listen to all types of music from classic, all the way to Rap/RNB/Country/Rock and have never felt disappointed with the audio, great job here. The keyboard is wonderful, I love the spacing of the keys, it took me only one day to be able to use this keyboard perfectly fine. It really feels like you are typing on a desktop keyboard, anyone should catch on quick. The back-lit keyboard is truly amazing, you can use many different color combinations, and have different types of settings on the back-light. You can have the keyboard breath, wave, dual color mode (the keyboard changes between two different colors), and gaming mode. Gaming mode is intelligent, it only lights the left hand side of the keyboard so the other keys don't get in your way especially when gaming at night. Another nice thing about the keyboard is they put the windows key on the right side, so you won't hit it while gaming!

I have run some benchmarks already, 3DMark06 and Crystal Disk Mark. Both have blown me away, I am getting a score of 17500 in 3DMark06 and for Crystal Disk Mark I am getting read and write times at 125! That is very fast for a normal mechanical HDD, I was expecting about 100 read and write but 125 was very unexpected. This notebook comes with a Western Digital Scorpio Black drive which is known to have great performance. I have not run any other benchmarks yet, and have not overclocked the notebook using turbo mode to run benchmarks, I will update the review and add this in. Before I go, I have to add one thing, this notebook like any other notebook on the planet is not perfect. There are two gripes that I have, the first thing I don't like is the touch button you have to press on top of the keyboard to open the DVD drive, it is not intuitive. I tried to open my DVD drive while I was restarting my computer, and had to wait until windows booted up all the way to open up the disk drive, very annoying. If there was a physical button, it would have been able to open right away. The second problem I have, is those touch buttons in general. Maybe its just me, but it doesn't seem responsive, you have to hit it exactly in the middle for it to work, and it's hard because these button are not lit period! So you have to actually look very closely to even see especially at night time. That's something I hope MSI considers on the next revision of this notebook, give those buttons back lighting so you can actually see them without having to put your head against the screen at night. It lights up when that key/feature is activated, but still that is not enough, make it another color when it's off so people can still know its disabled.

So overall, I have to give it 5 stars. The value, GPU, build quality, keyboard and the speakers are all truly phenomenal for any notebook under 2 grand. My gripes are minor and something I can live with, for every one thing I hate, there are 5 things I like, this is how a notebook should be made, great job MSI!

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I previously owned a MSI GT735 laptop and was very satisfied with its quality and performance. However, it was aging and I'm one who tends to like the latest technology. After searching new models and reading reviews, I decided to by another MSI, the GT780DX. I did not order mine from Amazon but from an online retailer of gaming laptops. All, I can say is this laptop is just beautiful. It is built tough, uniquely designed, and performs better than my expectations.

Screen +

Coming from a glare type screen, the matte was a concern before ordering this laptop. I'm very pleased with the matte screen and really like it more than my glare type. The screen on the GT780 is much brighter than on my old GT735 so that makes a difference as well. If matte is a concern, don't fret because it is probably better than what you have.

Keyboard -

The keyboard is the only issue I have with this laptop. I had read reviews of keyboard problems with the GT780 series, but I was hoping MSI and Steelecase had worked out those bugs before I purchased. I had an issue with the spacebar not working when the bottom left/right were pressed. I fixed this by gently lifting up on the spacebar which seems to have reseated the key. Also, the down arrow key won't register if the bottom edge is not hard pressed. I've used many laptops and I've never seen a keyboard which required the key to be pressed dead-center. A couple of other keys also won't register if they are pressed on the left edge. I have an open RMA with MSI to fix/replace the keyboard. Not wanting to be without the laptop for up to two weeks, I'm waiting on a convenient time before sending it for repair. Too bad they won't send me the keyboard and I'll replace it myself :). Other than that, I've had no other issues with my keyboard. It has no flex and keys are easy to press with minimal pressure (except noted). The lighting, as you know, is an added benefit and is evenly lit across the board. The lighting is not a bothersome feature. In fact, I forget it's even there.

Touchpad +

No issues and it works very well but I have seen better. Pleased with its performance and I am very picky about touchpads. I've worked on family laptops which had touchpads that were horrible to use. The touchpad buttons are easy to press and they do make a click sound...they are not silent. The pad is hard plastic and not the rubbery, softer pad.

Build +

Very well built machine all around. Feels very solid. Screen hinges have just the right amount of tension. The power brick is huge. I thought my old brick was big, but this one is about an inch wider and longer. I don't have a ruler nearby but estimated it to be 3"x6.5"x1.25". One of the features I like about MSI gaming laptops is the rear power connector. This allows me to site anywhere without a power cord stretched across my lap. My old laptop's power adapter had a right angle, where this one is straight. I prefer the angled adapter because it places less tension on the cable. The DVD drive has no eject button. You have to press a button on the S-bar to eject. This is my first machine without a button but so far it has not been an issue for me. I sorta like the s-Bar eject feature over searching for an eject button on the drive.

Sound +

Couldn't believe my ears. There is a demo which comes with this laptop called Stone Giant. Run it to hear the full effects of this laptop's sound quality. The program is difficult to exit however, so I had to watch the entire show. Run it full resolution. Don't expect booming base because the laptops just don't have the speakers capable of such but the clarity is astounding.

Very pleased with this laptop thus far.

Games played with no issues on max settings, (WOW, Ultra settings, obtain 60fps in SW), (Crysis 2, max Settings), (Battlefield 3, max settings). Laptop fans will kick in (they are quiet) and blow some warmer air when playing these games on max settings. The laptop has a touch button to increase fan speed to assist removing the hot air (noticeable noise of course).

Installed a Samsung 830 series,128GB SSD, . Now getting bootup to Windows login in about 12-15 seconds. Windows login to desktop is about a second.

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This is more of a review concerning MSIs business practices rather then on the PC itself. Laptop was received quickly from Beach Audio. I went to install SWTOR and it failed on the first DVD. 5 minutes later I had a Blue Screen crash. The laptop has since crashed so many times I lost count. I emailed MSI and left numerous voice-mails and finally received a reply. Seems this laptop has a bad MB and get this! MSI wants me to pay to ship it to them to fix their defective laptop! If I return it to the Amazon etailor the only way they will pay for shipping is if I order another laptop and charge my credit card again and wait 2 weeks for a credit back to the card, but if I just want to return it I have to pay shipping!!! I really wanted to love this laptop it has many nice features, but unfortunately it has given me nothing but problems. I tried many different OSs, HDs and memory configurations, but to no avail. What a waste of my time! MSI needs to learn how to service customers immediately and with proper procedures.

attached are some other comments about MSI...MSI support is terrible...I got a MSI GT780r after 2 weeks got an RMA# send it back, the laptop arrived yesterday at MSI headquarters... I am on hold right now waiting for over 30 minutes and I have to keep pressing star on the phone, if I do not the phone call is terminated, when I got a hold of someone is a voice mail. I find the phone choices on the menu very misleading also. I hope they fix the laptop really good it cost me with insurance to send it back, $42.00.

Honest reviews on MSI G Series GT780DX-406US 17.3-Inch Laptop

I bought this laptop not knowing what to expect as i had originally intended to purchase a machine from alienware. After searching for cheaper alternatives I came across the MSi GT780DX. Not only was it cheaper than its dell made equivalent (by over $200), but it's specifications were far better. 12 GB or ram compared to 4 GB!!!! NO contest.... (and that's not the only specification that is better). I've had no troubles with the laptop after almost 2 months and am very satisfied with my purchase. I've thrown at least 20 graphically demanding games at this machine and it has yet to slow down. Well done MSi.

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The GT780DX stays very Cool under Load, consistently pushing the graphics the GPU temperature never rises beyond 40c. A welcomed changed from previous gaming PC configurations I have owned. You will be able to tell the difference after the first 45 minutes of game play. No noise.

Cheap Sony VAIO VPC-EE41FX/T 15.5" Notebook (2.3GHz Athlon P360 4GB RAM

Customer Ratings:

I will keep this brief, because this is not the newest technology. This is the second VAIO I have owned and both of them have performed well. I have no real complaints with the hardware at all. Sony seems to have gotten it mostly right as both of my machines have had absolutely no problems that were machine related.

I chose this machine because I was not pleased with the new Windows 8 environment...and this machine was still available with Windows 7. Windows 8 may be a real pleasure for tablet users or someone who just likes the touch screen environment, but I have had two touch screens fail and I wasn't interested in trying another one. Windows 7 is a much more stable environment than Vista which is running on my previous VAIO. Since the choice was either this machine or one running Windows 8, I chose this one....Yes, you can use Windows 8 without a touch screen, but the interface for the user is the same as the touchscreen...and I was not impressed.

Having said that, my previous VAIO has experienced some software issues after the repeated Vista updates. Vista was never a really stable environment and I grew to dislike it. I have been using Windows 7 on other machines and find it much better behaved than Vista...so it was a natural choice for me. Previous VAIO is about 7 or 8 years old and is still running in the original mechanical condition. The battery finally gave up about a year ago, so it has been necessary to keep it hooked up to the power adapter to keep it running. This new machine appears to have a slightly smaller battery...at least it seems like it. I am not certain about the run time yet, but I expect it will be okay...although not as long as some others. This machine is acceptably fast and handles graphics well with the ATI graphics adapter. The 4 GB of on-board memory is enough for almost any normal task, but is upgradeable to 8 GB if you so desire. The HDD is 500 GB and seems to seek (R/W..)faster than the previous one. The optical drive is also very efficient, fast and quiet. The boot routine is MUCH improved over Vista based routines (at least in my experience..)and much faster to completion. This is probably a function of improved BIOS as well as improved routines embedded in Windows.

Overall, my only complaints with this machine are software related....and those are the same with any modern notebook. The hardware seems to be solid.....So four stars based on acceptable performance and good value.

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This is a very good laptop at affordable price which I paid. Ideal for office work on run, internet access. sizable HD and RAM for most of your work.

manpreet goraya

Cheap Dell XPS XPS15-1579sLV 15-Inch Laptop

Customer Ratings:

There aren't many laptops on the market that can offer the ergonomics and build quality of this new XPS 15. I wanted an Ultrabook like feel/battery life, but with a larger 1080 screen and disc drive. I have never before been impressed by a Dell product, but they have clearly stepped up their game and this fit the bill perfectly.

I have been using this computer for about a month now, and I honestly have 0 complaints. While this is the most basic XPS 15 offered, it still gives excellent performance. The i5 on this particular model is only dual core, but I have had no problems gaming or with any other task I have given it. Coming from a quad core AMD on my previous laptop, this processor hands down performs better, not to mention, I can usually squeeze a good 4+ hours of use out of the battery.

The screen is brilliant and the fact that it is 1080p makes the 15" screen feel like a 20" screen when carrying out everyday tasks. If you're looking for something sleek and solid with an HD screen like--dare I say--a MacBook, look no further. Perhaps I was being picky but in looking through just about every Windows laptop currently available, this was the only one of its kind. Compare the price of this to that of a similar MacBook Pro and the XPS 15 is a clear winner. I have to agree with the other reviewer that said this laptop is worth every penny.

One thing to note is that the hard drive seems to be more of an HDD/SSD hybrid drive. From what I can tell, you cannot access the 32gb SSD portion independently from the HDD portion. It will act as a single 500gb drive, but the 32gb SSD gives it some sort of "cache" that improves performance and boot time.

UPDATE: Buyer beware. I really like this laptop but there are some well known issues with the wifi due to the aluminum. Under certain scenarios, you WILL NOT get the same throughput as you will on any other cheaper laptop. I also ended up purchasing another one of these. The 2nd unit I purchased has recently started making an incredibly annoying squeaking sound that sounds like it is coming from the hard drive.

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I am extreemly impressed not only does it have beautiful graphics but super fast. I really recommend it, learning Windows 8 is a real trip. Amazon got it here ahead of schedule my compliments to the organization.

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I like it that is very good item.I think I will buy new laptop like this again .It is very good.

Honest reviews on Dell XPS XPS15-1579sLV 15-Inch Laptop

Yes, a RGB screen. But it probably means nothing to people who are not nerds. Beside, you get what you paid for. DELL has started order from the major Chinese supplier of Apple, so there should be no quality issue at all. Mine works great so far.

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It is great laptop, mine came with some bad wifi issue but that was resolved by Dell quickly.

The look and feel of this laptop is very good and when you will hold such a kind of laptop, you would never want to go for something below level from this Laptop.

You will not find any information about this laptop with value as XPS15-1579sLV as that value is amazon internal, which was confirmed by Dell to me.

To get more appropriate value, look for DELL XPS 15 L521X. By searching this you can find all the information that you need.

Great value of the price and functionality wise too.

The Screen 1080p quality is really amazing and boot time is 3 seconds, that is true 3 seconds from the time you press power on button to see Windows 8 screen.

Reviews of Samsung Series 7 Gamer NP700G7C-S01US 17.3-Inch Laptop

Customer Ratings:

I've had my Samsung Series 7 Gamer laptop for over a week now, and I thought I'd share my thoughts on the machine since I haven't found much out there about it. Overall, it's a very fancy, very powerful piece of hardware. And the price certainly reflects that. While you could spend thousands more on even fancier, gobbed-out custom notebooks or even a completely tricked out Alienware the S7G was more than adequate for my purposes (and for the price of a top-end Alienware, you really should buy a desktop system, anyway). I bought the laptop for two primary reasons: 1) To run Guitar Rig 5, which is a very CPU-intensive virtual guitar amp/effects program used for performing and recording, and 2) to play games from the past several years at high levels. Gaming-wise, I'm primarily a console gamer, but since it's looking less and less like the next Xbox and PlayStation will be backward compatible with current-gen games (probably with the exception of platform-defining first-party titles like Halo and Uncharted), I wanted to start collecting my current favorites on the PC so I don't have to shelve and maintain extra consoles when the next-gen rolls around. I wanted titles like Batman: Arkham Asylum/City, Skyrim, the Mass Effect trilogy, GTA4, Fallout 3/NV, Dead Island, BioShock, and Metro 2033 to all be available when the mood strikes me. Not to mention the upcoming final round (for the Xbox 360 and PS3) of highly anticipated current-gen titles: Max Payne 3, Metro: Last Light, Far Cry 3, BioShock: Infinite, GTA5, etc.

While the S7G is definitely a brute of a laptop (in a good way), let me get its bad points out of the way first. The most negative aspect of this laptop is Samsung's proprietary Mode Dial. Basically you can turn a knob on the front of the laptop, and there are instructions built into the system to enable/disable certain features depending if you want quiet (no fan), battery savings (backlit keyboard off), or all-out gaming performance (everything on and maxed out, battery be damned). It's pointless, and what's worse, the interface that overlays on your desktop is annoying. It comes preloaded with desktop themes that will engage a screen saver after 60 seconds no matter what. The good news is from the desktop you can disable the themes and revert to a traditional Win7 desktop, which also kills the screen saver. However, there's still a clickable node in the upper-right corner of the desktop that allows you to tweak the Mode Dial settings; this will not go away. I personally have the dial set to "game" mode all the time; the likelihood that I'll used this laptop unplugged for more than a half-hour is close to zero.

The second biggest disappointment with the S7G is its plastic case. While it looks like a TRON wet dream when the lid's open, the laptop's housing is light-weight plastic. For almost 20 bills, this really needs to have a higher quality metal case. Perhaps it was an effort on Samsung's part to reduce weight, but it's probably an effort on Samsung's part to reduce its cost.

Other negatives: I have the laptop connected to an external monitor via HDMI, and I use an external USB keyboard and USB mouse (running through a USB hub). The laptop sets under a shelf, on which the monitor sits. I put the computer into sleep mode overnight and during the day when I'm at work. The problem is, the factory default settings kill the power to the USB ports when in sleep mode, and I could not get the external keyboard to "wake" the computer. The only way I could wake it is to unplug everything, move the keyboard out of the way, pull it out from under the shelf, open the lid, make sure it wakes, close the lid, slide it back under the shelf, reposition the keyboard, and plug everything back in. I wasted an hour on-line chatting with Samsung tech support, and never once did the support rep understand the problem, even though I explained it to him about 873 times. I went to Google and found the solution: you have to get into the BIOS and enable the USB devices to retain power while in sleep mode, which allows them to wake the computer. Shouldn't tech support know this? If you need to contact Samsung tech support, do yourself a favor and exhaust all other searches before you call because my on-line tech support chat session with Guptarjeeshaputa in Bombay was akin to slamming my face into a brick wall repeatedly for 60 straight minutes.

The final negative is one gamers want to pay attention to: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M is a very, very nice GPU. However, it is essentially a rebadged GTX 580M from the previous generation. NVIDIA will soon release the new GTX 680M, which uses a whole new chipset, will be faster, and run cooler. If I did not need a new laptop immediately, I would have waited for the 680M. If you are concerned about such things, hold on a little longer until laptops are available with the new GPU.

This is not really a complaint, but more of a warning to those who might be unaware: this laptop is huge ("It sure is, Tiny Elvis!"). It's big and it's heavy, and it's not something you'll want to just pop out of your bag on the metro or an airplane. The power brick is also enormous. When I was unpacking the laptop, I saw the edge of the power supply and thought it was another box of parts. Not until I pulled it out did I realize it was the power brick! It's also worth noting that to order a second power supply, expect to spend some serious money. I ordered a travel/backup supply through Samsung parts (it's not available anywhere else), and it was about $150 for the brick and power cord (note: they are sold separately from each other, so make sure you buy both pieces). The battery also doesn't last long; expect maybe a couple of hours if you're lucky. Again, I knew this when I bought it, but if you've never owned a 17"+ high-power laptop, be aware of this stuff.

Okay, on to the positives. This laptop is very powerful. It has not choked at anything I have thrown at it (with one exception, see below). It also has a very eye-pleasing, modern design. While I normally use it with the lid closed, when I do open the lid it feels like you're at the helm of a spaceship. It's wickedly fast booting up Windows. I go from entering my Windows password to a fully ready desktop in about 10 seconds or less. This is thanks to the 8GB ExpressCache SSD. For everything going on under the hood, the heat output remains nicely under control, even under the duress of Battlefield 3 and Skyrim. While the built-in cooling system is nice, I still HIGHLY recommend a laptop cooling pad; they're inexpensive, easy to use, and keep your big investment running at a safe temp. It also has tons of storage (note that the system has two 750GB HDDs that are NOT in RAID 0, so it has a total of 1.5TB of storage, but not in a single C: drive). Also not listed in any spec sheets is the laptop uses DDR3-1600 RAM, so expect 1600 MHz speeds (verified with CPU-ID).

So far I have had a wonderful gaming experience with the S7G. I use 1920x1080 resolution for all games, and I'm generally able to get high performance numbers even at that high of a resolution. However, DirectX 11 is just a bit too much for the system to handle with some games at that resolution, and I sometimes back games down to DX10. Here are some of my performance numbers (collected using reports generated by FRAPS, or the game's internal benchmarking tool):

Batman: Arkham Asylum 54 FPS (Ultra settings, PhysX on HIGH, 4x AA)

Batman: Arkham City 47 FPS (Ultra settings, PhysX on HIGH, DX10, 4x AA)

Battlefield 3 30 FPS (Ultra settings, 2x AA)

Crysis 2 30 FPS (High Quality Texture Pack, Ultra settings, DX10)

Diablo III 60+ FPS (Highest settings, 8x AA)

Grand Theft Auto IV 62 FPS (Ultra settings, View Distance = 50, Detail Distance = 50, 8x AA, sometimes dips to < 30 FPS during top speeds in heavy traffic)

Max Payne 3 30+ FPS (with HDAO and minimum AA)

RAGE 40 FPS (Ultra settings, 16x AA)

Serious Sam 3 BFE 30 FPS (Ultra settings, 4x AA)

Skyrim 54 FPS (Hi Res Texture Pack, Ultra settings, 8x AA, 13 additional user mods running)

The only game giving me problems is The Witcher 2. To get a playable frame rate of over 30 FPS, I have to switch everything to low. With medium settings I get less than 20 FPS, and it chugs and stutters. After doing some research, I'm finding a lot of people unable to get this game running well, even on machines exceeding the recommended specs from the publisher. I am still investigating this, but I believe this is a situation where the game has incredible graphics, but is very poorly optimized. I can play Battlefield 3, Max Payne 3, and Batman: Arkham City at very high quality and not run into the frame rate problems The Witcher 2 has.

In conclusion, if you're looking for a fast gaming laptop right now, the Samsung Series 7 Gamer should be at the top of your shopping list. I looked at several other brands (Alienware, HP, Sager), and the Samsung, more than any other brand/model, met my needs at a price I was willing to pay. You can spend thousands more if you can afford it, but you get a lot of bang for your buck with the S7G. It isn't perfect, but it sure will get the job done.

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Background

Purchased this system as a Grad student for both college and play.

Screen

The screen is a beautiful HD 1920 X 1080 Resolution screen. I've never seen anything like this; not even on a television. It is a retina scorching 400 nits with superb contrast and very deep blacks.

Sound

Dolby home theater surround sound. System sounds lifelike and has a built in sub-woofer. I'm very pleased with the sound quality all though I think the JBL sound system on the new regular 17.3" Samsung series 7 sounds better.

Keyboard

Most comfortable keyboard I've ever used. The keyboard slopes back to accommodate wrists and sys cooling. The keys are a curved style like Lenovo's laptops. Very ergonomic. White backlighting; "WASD" keys light red in "gamer mode."

Performance

One of the best-performing systems available for the price. Runs cool and quite. One game won't run so far; "Tribes Ascend." I'm very upset about this as it's my favorite game to play right now. It will not run on any of the new gaming laptops with 3rd gen i7. Battery life is not that good (2.5-3.5 hours). No wifi or connectivity issues. Wifi has great range and seems a little above average.

*****Coreection*******

The game would not run because of the Nvidia driver. I had to delete a file from the Nvidia driver folder. I don't recall what file was deleted. Tribes Ascend now runs on the system after deleting the file. I have not noticed any problems with the system since deleting the file.

Design

Plastic Chassis, glossy black-like finish and black-anodized brushed aluminum palm wrest and keyboard area. Overall, a beautiful and sturdy computer. I'd prefer all aluminum, but Apple would probably start another lawsuit lol :-P. At-least Samsung didn't ripoff this design. System looks both fun for gaming and professional in office environments.

Value:

Great v competition in my own opinion i.e. Dell Alienware and Asus G75. I'm am biased as Samsung is my brand of choice and Apple second to Samsung.

Concl

Overall, I'm very excited and pleased to be the owner of Samsung's first gaming system. I think they are a company that takes themselves seriously and will continue to excel in their ventures. Thanks Samsung for a high-quality and innovative gaming system.

Hope this quick overview helps.

Best Deals for Samsung Series 7 Gamer NP700G7C-S01US 17.3-Inch Laptop

I've had this laptop for about a week now and I absolutely love it. I have a busy lifestyle with kids so the only time I can carve out for gaming is late at night. I used to head down to the basement while my lovely wife would be in bed and play on my desktop. I got tired of feeling neglectful of my wife and getting eaten by spiders in my unfinished basement so I figured it was time to get a laptop for the bedroom.

I purchased this tray to use in the bed: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GU7GAK/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00 and the laptop sits atop it perfectly.

After my wife drifts off to sleep I pull out this bad boy and am treated to spectacular gaming experience in ultimate comfort.

Pros:

Best screen on a laptop I have ever seen, it can even do 120Hz if you want. The brightness is nearly blinding (in a good way) and the black levels are excellent.

Keyboard is pleasant to play on and the backlighting really helps when playing in the dark. The best part of this keyboard is that it doesn't feel cheap and it has extensive "anti-ghosting" for gaming. It really helps when playing games that require a lot of button pressing.

Very quiet. This was a huge concern for me due to the fact I am lying next to someone while playing computer games in a bed. My wife says she has no problem sleeping with the small amount of noise it does make.

Very cool, I've had laptops that feel like they could boil a pot of water, this laptop runs at a very reasonable temperature considering the internals.

I can run all of my games on ultra (so far). I've only played Diablo 3, TF2 and SC2 so far but it looks a heck of a lot better than my desktop sporting an older 9800 GTX.

Cons:

It's HEAVY. Not really surprising considering what's in this thing but it's noteworthy. I will never travel with it so it's not a huge problem for me.

Doesn't support RAID, it comes with 2 750GB drives but no hardware raid which is kind of silly. Not the end of the world but it would have been nice.

The video card is not an AMD 7970M. The 675M is still a great card even if it's just a re-labeled 580m but it's not cutting edge anymore. I was aware of this fact when I bought it but it didn't stop me from forking over my cash based on how great this laptop is otherwise.

I would highly recommend this laptop to anyone who wants a great desktop replacement gaming laptop. It does not feel cheap; it's gorgeous and has all of the features you need for gaming. A job well done by Samsung.

Honest reviews on Samsung Series 7 Gamer NP700G7C-S01US 17.3-Inch Laptop

I read literally hundreds of reviews of everything I could find. Being retired I simply can NOT afford this. But it kept "calling out" to me....The wife "called out" a few things her own self when I showed it to her as well. But, I simply will cut to the chase and say I love this thing. I have no games that I can't run at their highest settings. To my amazement, it even plays Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings so fast it literally altered game play. I mean, it was so slow on any of my other 4 computers I had abandoned it completely. now, it simply RIPS through all that used to flat kill my other rigs.

I will leave all the already repeated hype to the others...I just want to throw out there that this is rock solid for weeks now. Bummer was the price dropped a LOT within a few minutes of my buying it but I kept it anyway. Not going to make Amazon suffer & send it back then reorder! I guess I never paid top dollar before yet came away still so happy. Only weird glitch I have had is once I had turned Bluetooth on and my games ALL turned to crap. I mean this computer flat fell on it's face! More embarrassing was it took me 2 days to figure out the problem and what I had done to screw things up. Most of the reason it took me so long is I had been playing nonstop for 18-20 hours both days! I was mortified once I realized my stupid mistake.

Other weird thing is that every single time I open the lid I KEEP getting a damned warning that my auto update feature for Windows needs to be turned on. What pisses me off is I have changed to do auto update over 200+ times already and it simply won't hold that setting! I finally turned off the notification setting altogether so I don't completely lose my old mind. Go to change the speaker volume after a few hours of game play & risk burning your finger, it DOES get that hot. But...it has been rock solid unless I do something stupid to sabotage things so not going to ding it for that. I am giving this a rare 5 stars after honestly torturing it for a month now. I will downgrade it on the spot if it bites me in any way or as I find weaknesses that simply have not shown themselves to me yet. I SO wanted the Asus to save money but all the complaints in reviews scared me off. Glad they did too after a month with this beauty. Like so many, the black is uninspiring, wish it was the candy red like at the CES show. But if after all I have done to this, WITH this the past month, if I still love it this much, at this price and with me on my meager Social Security check to live on...well, it must have EARNED that 5 stars.

Sept 25 2012 UPDATE:

I know being retired is gonna wear me out.....Now I have a battery issue. I always have it plugged in yet after 10 hours of gaming my battery is dead (well, down to 12% remaining). I am forced to close the lid and it then takes a couple hours to slowly recharge so I can resume gaming. Not sure if I am the only one having this problem? Of course I should take a break by then anyway I suppose?

October 25 2012 Update:

Samsung Support (for ME) has been a pleasant surprise. A woman who spoke perfect English and in America now less (!!!!) advised me to do a battery recondition. I did this while explaining to her she was full of crap....well surprise, it solved my problem. I now have had 3 weeks of gaming 12-18 hours a day with my newer XCOM: Enemy Unknown as well as Medal of Honor: Warfighter both as max settings with ZERO issues. Due to this and some new negative reviews that look like scam reviews by LOONS or trolls I am raising this to a well deserved 5 stars. On it's own, this deserves it. I waited to go 5 stars until it had been time tested, not to just rush in when all excited etc. And 1 warning. If you ever have to use the supplied restoration disk that Samsung provides to restore? Well as another reviewer correctly explained, you LOSE EVERYTHING you need to make this computer work! I recommend you go to Samsung NOW and do the following. Go to their support area and download each & every available download so when & if you need to restore, you will have all these drivers ready to go. If not, no track-pad, no sound, no nothing....REALLY pissed me off. It was a nightmare experience but a lesson well learned. Trust me, you NEED to do this now, before you get stuck. Now that everything has "burned in", has a couple thousand (yes thousand) hours on it, all is rock solid. Gaming has become my life sadly, but I am all smiles so why worry? 5 solid stars all around. For the record I am not any kind of Samsung "fanboy" or even Samsung "fan codger"! I have adjusted my rating on this 3 times now and maintain my reviews to honestly reflect all that I spend my money on. I am loyal to NO brand. I just call em like I see em.

10 Month Update on June 19 2013: This computer has fully EARNED it's solid 5 stars. I can't kill it. NO game I have bought even creates any challenge for it. Other than my wife, this has been love at first sight, and a love affair than has never waned......

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Samsung Series 7 Gamer NP700G7C-S01US 17.3-Inch Laptop

Final Update 6: I have dropped the rating to a 1 star, while the specs may be nice, you can get better spec'ed laptops for about the same price. They will probably last you a lot longer. I've had 2 warranty repairs in the first year of ownership and now the reliability has taken another hit, where the graphics card likes to crash on occasion, even after installing different drivers and such. I finally attempted a Windows 7 re-install and things seem to be running ok, though with 1 crash since the redo it makes me question it,but I haven't really used it too much as I NEED reliability. So I ended up getting a new Laptop. Better spec'ed and better built by far. Plus it was a little cheaper. Samsung also seems to have abandoned the Gamer series as there has been no Haswell refresh of the Gamer Series, where Asus, Alienware, even Toshiba has done refreshes and everything. When I bought this laptop, I expected it to last me at least 2 years, if not longer as the specs where higher than I needed at the time. (I expect this out of all laptops I buy. Since I tend to buy while thinking ahead.) Instead, it's been about a year and 3 months. It's now out of warranty, and I will not spend ANYMORE money on this laptop. It's just not worth it since the reliability is the most important thing to me and it's the one thing in question.

With all these updates I CANNOT recommend this laptop with the reliability issues I have had. To be fair I probably got a lemon, but also with everything else newer that has come out I can't recommend it. With this being said I will not be doing any more updates until it actually dies. (Even then it may be awhile before I update it as it's not at the top of my todo list.) I am still a student, and almost done with classes, but still use the computer for so much more. I can't have reliability issues. I have owned Asus before this and while I've had small issues here and there. They were ALWAYS fixable, but when primary parts fail like in this one. (Cpu first time, gpu second time and now maybe a third time and it's no longer under warranty.)

Will this marks the end of this part, read on for the whole shebang, but this is the most up to date one.

Update 5: I received my laptop back on June 14th (2013) after about 2 weeks of waiting. (This includes shipping it to them, which cost me another $50) It is running like new again. I added a star since the repair went pretty quick and seems good. I may add 1 more star if this lasts longer than that last repair (which was in November, so it was like 7 months.) I won't be giving 5 stars no matter what as this issue has soured my thoughts on Samsung now. (And I think I may be generous with the 4 stars, but I am also keeping in mind I may have gotten duds.) Again, 2 repairs in less than a year? It makes me question the lifespan of the laptop. Performance wise it's great, but it may go bad again, only time will tell and if it happens I will be completely re-writing my review from scratch. I really, really want to love this laptop, but it's becoming harder to do so.

Update 4: This is a minor update to Update 3 (Below): They have pushed my Estimated repair date twice now. Originally it was going to be done on June 4th, then it got pushed to June 10th. Now it's been pushed to June 11th. (They are probably waiting on a replacement part.) But this is just not good. I have docked another star due to the issues. It is making it harder and harder to suggest buying this laptop. I really WANT to love it, and for the specs you can't go wrong. But the issues I am having is just a big issue when it comes to making me wonder about longevity. I bought this laptop to last me for a long time, and now as stated later, I have had to send it in 2x in less than a year for repairs. Almost $100 more for shipping it. The brand Samsung, has always been the name of a great, wonderful and quality product to me. Now I am really starting to wonder if they have left me like other brands have. I am just glad I picked up an Asus G46 for under $700 at Best Buy so that I could still do my schoolwork and play games. I anxiously await getting my Samsung back, if only to have the horsepower again, and will just hope that all the delays allow them to really make sure that it is in full working order. If that happens and I don't need to send it in again, ever, I will restore this to a 5-star despite the issues, I'll know that Samsung still takes care of their customers. (I'm really hoping things will be great so I can do so. :)

UPDATE 3: I had to send my laptop in again for repair! This is starting to get ridiculous! I paid almost $2000 for a laptop that was suppose to last me a long time. (I bought it for gaming and so that even if the games started getting a little more advanced I figured that for the power it would last me awhile. But now after having ownership for about 10 months and needing to send it in twice now it's just mounting up to be even more expensive! It cost almost $50 to ship it both so add another almost $100 to the price I paid! I am now docking 2 stars from the perfect 5 stars I gave it. I understand things can go wrong, but twice in 1 year, scratch that less than a year? I'm sorry but this is drawing the line. I'm just hoping they will give me a whole new laptop instead. I don't know what else to say, I really want to love the laptop, it's great for the price and specs. But I'm questioning the purchase now. It's not about warranty service or the laptop itself, it's lifetime of the product, and I expected more than a year. I will update once I get my laptop back.

UPDATE 2: I recently had to send my laptop in for a repair. The cpu fan seemed to not be working properly and it would overheat when running almost all my games. Fortunately it is still in warranty. I sent it about 3 days before Thanksgiving and due to The holiday it didn't get there until Monday following Thanksgiving. They repaired it. (Seems the replaced the motherboard, gpu and the keyboard. (I now have a Windows 8 style keyboard where the Start key isn't the older orb shape but is the newer windows logo) All in all, it took about 2 weeks due to holiday to get my laptop back. Which isn't really bad considering I live in Ohio and had to ship it all the way to Texas. I shipped via UPS ground with insurance (I am paranoid about that stuff.) Samsung shipped it back with 2 day Air. I was able to track both ways and knew when it would be coming so I was ready for it. The fix is good! Now I no longer overheat. Now I think that my issue was just a fluke as I don't see many with the issue, so I'm not taking any stars away and would in fact add a star for good customer support if I could. I still recommend this laptop. As you still get a good bang for your buck.

UPDATE: Other have written that you can't turn down the brightness if you run the screen at 120Hz. This HAS been fixed! Download the latest video drivers from nvidia Geforce 310.33 beta or later and you CAN adjust the brightness level while on 120Hz. I already tried it with 310.33 beta and can confirm it works. Nvidia has also released another beta (310.54)today (November 12th, 2012) that I have yet to try, but can for sure say that the beta 310.33 works fine. So anyone who wants to adjust their brightness while on 120Hz, you can do so!

On to the review now.

I've owned quite a few gaming laptops, The Asus G73JH (I still have that one as a backup), Asus G53SW (I sold to get this one) are the closest in comparison. Though they are still decent gamer laptops. This one blows those out of the water. I have owned mine for close to 2 months now and don't have much to gripe about.

Comparisons (These are comparing the differences of the Asus's and this Samsung one):

* Asus used crappy Atheros Wifi cards in their laptops (I had to upgrade to in Intel card for better wifi. This one had an Intel in it already, I expected to have to change the wifi.

* Both My Asus's cost a max of $1,200 but after upgrading the ram and adding a second hard drive as will as upgrading the wifi + any labor expenses they each cost as much as this Samsung.

* All the laptops have a big rear. That's good for the cooling. 2 exhausts 1 is for the cpu and 1 is for the gpu. All laptops win in this category.

* The Asus's felt a little cheaper built than this Samsung.

* The Asus's Keyboards are of the chiclet style, this Samsung one offers something a little more traditional and feels great! A note on the G53SW and from what I have been reading all the

latest Asus Gamers seems to be a keyboard lag at times. When you type sometimes it would skip letters. This drove me crazy on the G53SW. To the point I ended up only using it's keyboard for

when I was in class. Not the case on the Samsung gamer. Typing is a dream.

* I can't really compare specs since I'd be comparing 1-3 year old tech to now. But I'm a gamer, music maker, photo editor and video editor (student in the last 2) and this laptop has yet to

disappoint in any of the categories. What I thought was an awesome gaming experience on my other laptops was nothing!

Negatives:

I don't have much to gripe about and have been very happy with this laptop but if I would have to nitpick:

* The glossy screen lid and screen are finger print magnates. Though a lot of manufactures use that stuff. It would have been nice to have a anti glare screen at least. But I'm used to it.

Considering I do a weekly cleaning and dusting of my laptops it doesn't bother me too much. I knew it would be this way by other reviews so I really can't gripe since I still bought it

knowing.

* If you go to turn off Wifi with the shortcut button it turns off both wifi and bluetooth. It would have been nice to cycle or something like that. But I hardly use this function so it isn't a

big deal to me.

* The power brick is large, so get a large bag for it. I'm used to large power bricks as the Asus gamers had large ones, so I can't complain on this. Ideally I would love a small power brick

but think about how much power this laptop needs. The power brick is a 200W one. My Asus's were 150W.

On to any other thoughts:

This laptop does get warm when under heavy use. But it's never been so hot that I can't touch it. It's to be expected. Look what's in it. The I73610 ivy bridge is comparable to one of the most powerful mobile i7 sandybridge's (last generation) The gpu is comparable to a Desktop GTX 560 (I believe but don't quote me on that). frankly I'm astounded at how well this laptop stays cool. Warm laptops aren't new to me as I've had gamer laptops before. But honestly this one actually is a little cooler. I use coretemp and msi afterburner to monitor the temps of the cpu and gpu respectively and they have been cooler than my older machines.

I love the backlighting and how it changes colors for gaming mode. You can disable the screensavers that start up when you switch to gamer mode. It's under Mode Shift, then click Visual Effects.

I like the design and coloring, it doesn't really scream "I'm a gaming laptop!" Unless you put stickers or stuff all over the lid. I wanted something I could potentially use for taking to a job someday that still had a lot of power and this works fine for that. The samsung label on the lid lights up like the Apple logo lights up on macbooks. Just as a side note.

The 8GB Express Cache seems to work. I really can't tell other than things seem to run a little faster and boot up isn't bad. Better than my other laptops.

The screen is a vibrant one. I've always liked Samsung TV's for their screens and the screen on this laptop doesn't disappoint.

Battery runs for about 2 hours on normal use. Not much to write about. The battery is powering a lot of powerful components.

Conclusion:

One heck of a laptop, you get what you pay for, and that is a lot of bang! You could pay more for an Alienware or such and not get as good of specs (I know because I priced them at the time I bought this machine some were as high as $1000 more!) This is one heck of a machine and you can't go wrong with it. I've been happy and surprised at how will it performs, yeah I'm still getting surprised 2 months after I bought it.

Notes:

I wish to put the specs of my old laptops up for comparison to this one.

Asus G73JH

17.3" 1600x900 display

Core i7 740QM 1.73GHZ turbo to 2.93GHZ

8GB DDR3 Ram

500GB 7200rpm and 640GB 5400rpm drives

Intel Wifi and bluetooth

Ati Radeon HD 5870m 1GB GDDR5

Battery gets 1.5 hours if I'm lucky on normal use.

Asus G53SW (Sold to buy the Samsung)

15.4" 1920x1080

Core i7 2630QM 2GHZ turbo to 2.9GHZ

14GB DDR3 Ram (upgraded by me)

2x 500GB 7200rpm drives (2nd drive added by me)

Intel 6230 Wifi and bluetooth (upgraded by me)

Nvidia GTX 460M 1.5GB GDDR5

Games I played on ALL machines: Torchlight, Command and Conquer Kane's Wraith, Sims 3, and Minecraft. They all played great and improved on each subsequent machine. Though Kane's Wraith couldn't do high detail on the G53SW when the nuke was fired. The Samsung has no problems. I didn't even buy Starcraft 2 until I bought the Samsung as I read people had issues with the 460M and SC:2. SC:2 plays at over 60Fps on the Samsung no problems. Minecraft would choke on some 256x and any 512x texture packs I tried on the G53SW though it was playable there were enough framerate drops for me to use only 128x or lower texture packs. Not so on the Samsung. I sued 512x packs and still got 60fps. (Contrary to belief you DO need a beefy gaming rig to play minecraft, ESPECIALLY with HD textures.

Hope this helps and feel free to ask me any questions if you have them and I will help you to the best of my knowledge. This review will be updated as the time comes so please check back every so often. Cheers!

Reviews of Asus TAICHI 21 Black Notebook Computer

Customer Ratings:

As always Asus does it again. This is so amazing. I would recommend this company to buy it from and as the product is always the best and the warranty can not be matched or beat. It doubles, its a laptop, no wait, its a tablet, no wait, its both. It is a must for business oriented or trainers or for just using it daily use. It covers everyone. Did I mention. I love Asus. It is very fast. Easily connect via Wi-Fi or with the included Ethernet connector. Running windows 8. Two partitions which are extremely hard to even fill up one. Included also is the mini hdmi to hdmi. The included touch pen doubles as a two button mouse. Two year warranty is excellent. The first year anything accidental is covered(liquid, shock, fire or drops). The second year is the normal parts and labor being covered. There is so many things that are truly amazing with this product that I would run out of room if I continue I will run out of space. All I can say is buy it. You will not regret it.

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Toshiba Satellite U845W-S410P 14.4 LED Ultrabook Intel Core Review

Customer Ratings:

If you catch this on sale (check prices, it's listed several ways on Amazon) it's a steal, it's a good value even at the "regular" discounted price. See my review of the same model with 256 GB SSD and i7 CPU here: Toshiba Satellite U845W-S414 14.4-Inch Ultrabook (Midnight Silver)

The two machines are identical except for the CPU and SSD. The i5 in this model is quite capable as well and you get more storage in the 500 GB HDD. For the price you get an excellent, solid and very well built ultrabook with great performance and a lot of nice features, like three USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI out port, the unique 21:9 wide screen display and very nice styling. The is a very attractive ultrabook and for productivity uses, it performs very, very well. The side-by-side windows are a treat for daily tasks and combined with the excellent speakers makes watching videos or listening to music a great experience. The speakers sound very good and are a big plus. Nearly all the comments in my other review apply to this model as well.

Text is clear and easy to read even at the 100% default setting, you can boost to 125% if you like, but even with my old, tired eyes I did not feel the need to do so. Also, one of the nicest looking Ultrabooks (in my opinion) around. Easy to carry and handle, too. Very sleek. The rubberized surfaces are wonderful every one should copy Toshiba on this aspect.

A top performer (excellent benchmarks) and an excellent value.

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Lenovo IdeaPad Y430-7342U 14.1-Inch Laptop - Black Reviews

Customer Ratings:

Good:

well put together

good looking

Fast processor with generous RAM

nice screen

Poor:

No Bluetooth

Struggles with HD. The graphics card is poor.

Weird touch panel that is not that useful.

gets hot

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I got this laptop a week ago. It is really fast, I had considered changing to XP due to the fact I had used Vista a few times and it had lackluster performance. I deceided to stick with the Vista-64, not a single complaint once you get used to the interface and it runs smoothly on the computer. My one complaint came yesterday, I had a big problem with the WiFi. It would not pick up my router, at first I thought it might be the router but after testing it with another computer I figured out it was the computer's wifi. After trying everything I fixed it doing the following:

I uninstalled the driver for the wifi, and then installed the new drivers from intel:

This fixed the problem. Don't use the driver at Lenovo since it is out of date. Uninstalling the original driver may not be needed as well.

Hope you enjoy your laptop.

Best Deals for Lenovo IdeaPad Y430-7342U 14.1-Inch Laptop - Black

If you happen to get or have another one ,i would like to purchase it around the same price i payed for this one . Thank You

Honest reviews on Lenovo IdeaPad Y430-7342U 14.1-Inch Laptop - Black

The equipment works great, I had no issue with the set up, performance is very good.

No complaints. The product is exactly how I expected it to be...

Cheap Sony VAIO VGN-CR320E/R 14.1-inch Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo T7250

Customer Ratings:

I bought the Sony Vaio CR320E/W after weeks of research. It is light, fast, and stylish (and cheap?). I needed something portable for college so I went with the 14" and I love it. The screen is really bright and glossy. The laptop itself weighs nothing compared to my dad's 15" Dell laptop. The build quality is very sturdy and the gloss white finish doesn't show fingerprints as bad as one would think. It does not have a latch to keep it closed but rather it relies on the tension of the spring. The spring works fine and has never been an issue. The Core2Duo processor is great for all around use. It isn't the fastest dual-core out there, but it is more than enough to get the job done for the average consumer. The bluetooth worked great and instantly connected to my phone. The camera is one of the neatest features. Besides taking regular photos and videos, it also has mac-like effects that can distort the image in weird ways and do random flips and rotations of the image. Another mac-like thing was the keyboard. The keyboard has a slight gap in between each key and they are all rounded a little. The keys have the just right amount of "roughness" to make good contact with your fingers. The speakers on this laptop are not extraordinarily load but they are not weak by any means. I said it was cheap because the older version of this laptop (vgn-cr220e/w) which doesn't have bluetooth and a slower/smaller hard drive is actually more expensive on amazon.com than this one. I personally saved a little more money and picked this laptop up from Best Buy after instant rebate.

There were 3 cons that I found with this laptop. First of all, it comes loaded with Sony bloatware programs. I spent the first 2-3 hours with this laptop just uninstalling the software. All they do is slow down the computer and most of them are very repetitive when compared to Windows programs (Sony Home Video Creator v. Windows Movie Maker). The other issue with this laptop was the battery life. Even though it is advertised as 2-4.5 hours, I just wanted to bring that up because it typically gets around 3-4 hours, which is a little bit too short for me. The third issue was that it comes with a weak graphics card. It is fine for general use, but it probably would have a little difficulty keeping up with the newest games. All in all, this vaio is a great buy.

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I can't tell you how happy I was about three weeks ago when I got this Gorgeous Pink Sony Vaio as a gift! Let's just put aside that my favorite color is PINK and this is just the most beautiful pearly pink color I have ever seen. It's like an accessory. Which is the main reason you buy a colored laptop isn't it?

This is a critical part of my work. I'm a paralegal and I needed somthing light but sturdy to take back and forth with me to work. I went with the 14.1" screen because it is big enough to see exactly what I need. Bright and colorful as well. I don't use the computer for much but work and documents, so I'm not sure how it stacks up with things like game play, etc. But I can tell you that it is quick (maybe not the fastest laptop ever) enough for the everyday consumer! This computer also comes in a variety of high gloss colors at great prices!

It took me all of two minutes to have the Vaio up and running wirelessly online! (and I'm definitely NOT a computer savvy person) But it's very easy to set-up. The instructions are clear and effortless! It's all that I need and more. It's quick, runs my necessary programs, music interface and Microsoft Office Professional without a problem. I've owned other Vaios and have loved them all as well. *This one is my very favorite hands down.

It has a lot of room on the hard drive, is super quick, gorgeous color and user friendly. I'm not the most computer literate person, but this comptuter makes it easy to understand.

It's compact and light. Perfect Keyboard, I absolutely love it! I also bought the Sony case for protection and it matches perfectly and keeps the computer padded, protected and easy to carry around!

There are a ton of programs preinstalled on it though. Some I found useful and some I don't need at all. The virus program is great, along with Microsoft Professional and a few others. Mostly I love that it has everything I need on it and more in one tiny, compact, sturdy, and gorgeous machine. What I see so far is wonderful and I know that I'll have many years to come with this notebook!

For me, I couldn't ask for more! You'll have to decide what you need it for, but if you're looking for a machine that does what most everyone needs it for in a compact, light, yet sturdy form, I can't see why you wouldn't love this user-friendly product. Sony is a name I've grown to know and love and would buy their products again and again!

Perfect for students in both high school and college and for adults that use it as a second computer or one to travel with. Not only does it download and play my music, but it also burns cd/dvds, which is a plus! I hope this has been of some help in your decision making, I know I don't know a whole lot about "tech talk", but I do use it every day and couldn't be without it!

ENJOY! I am! I've gotten a ton of compliments on this notebook! It's certianly a conversation piece! A Quality Computer At A Quantity Price! This is THE computer of my dreams!

Best Deals for Sony VAIO VGN-CR320E/R 14.1-inch Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo T7250

My excitment of owning a vaio all went into the drain when I got first hand experience of its performance. In general its processing speed is worse than a pentium 3. And I dont have anything saved on my hard drive since I mostly use it for internet browsing. Everytime I switch on my computer I wonder what will go wrong in the processing today. e.g. internet browsers take ages to open, or if you type its takes ages for the text to appear. I have tried everything possible.

Sony is unwilling to admit that they have a defective model. I would not recommend anyone to buy this. HP, IBM or Dell will provide you with better processing speed. Otherwise you are buying a model claiming to be a core 2 duo and you are getting pentium 2 or 3 at best performance. So if this laptop cant take internet browsing... then if you do more stuff I am not sure how it will take.. it may just crash. So BEWARE!!

Honest reviews on Sony VAIO VGN-CR320E/R 14.1-inch Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo T7250

After a few weeks of contemplation I settled on this as my first laptop for use when I start grad school in the fall. However, I've gotten much more than I expected. The graphics are AWESOME!! It's light and quiet, the keys aren't as hard to use as I'd expected after years of desktop use...I could go on and on : )

There are a few consthere's a few more programs loaded on it than I think I really need and like most VAIOs it gets a bit hot but generally I have no complaints!!

I would advise that if you want something like this to get the newer model which is only $100 morethe CR420...it's processor is 2.1 GHz and it comes with 3GB of RAM....commit to Sony and enjoy : )

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I originally went to Sony web site for this laptop to be built but Amazon had the same laptop ready to go, and I ordered it at 2pm on a Wednesday and it arrived the next day. It is a fantastic laptop, clean looking, all the applications I need were included, including some great trial applications I will purchase, for the money the Viao is a great buy

Discount Lenovo ThinkPad W530 243852U 15.6" LED Notebook - Intel - Core i7

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $2,071.07
Sale Price: $1,449.00
Today's Bonus: 30% Off

I have been using it for a couple of weeks and all I can say is that this is the best laptop I've had so far (previous: Dell, HP and now a ThinkPad :D). I can use it for professional work (Matlab, AutoCad,...) and for personal projects too (video editing, video playing, etc). It's quite powerful. I also like the way it looks, before buying it I thought it was kind of ugly, but in real life it just looks great. The keybord at night is quite cool!

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Even as a then Mac bigot the Lenovo (then IBM) ThinkPad with a writing pad and touchscreen was one of the few times I had bought a Windows laptop. Fast forward to 2013 and I was given a brand new W530 for work and hate it (though much less than the lousy new HP Ultrabook). I did not get this laptop from Amazon but love reading Amazon reviews and wanted fellow buyers here to have this review to help them buy something else from Amazon other than this Lenovo dumbbell set.

In 2013 a no touchscreen Windows 8 laptop is funny enough, but it is designed by a team of truck designers or drivers. They put a 15 inch non-touch screen in a body bigger than most 17" laptops. And about as elegant.

WARNING: You need to buy a matching Samsonite luggage set for this, not to protect the laptop but to protect other people's luggage from it. Get a set of two, one for the boulder sized laptop and the other for the power adaptor just slightly lighter than a concrete block.

It has the weakest speakers on any laptop I have ever owned, and the world's most atrocious sandpaper textured touch pad that often requires multiple attempts to register movement.

And what can I say about the Lenovo web site designed by those who were rejected for the mail room janitor jobs.... The site asks you for a 4-25 character ID, which it later rejects because you used non-AlphaNumeric characters, like a period in the name. They of course do not state it before you have clicked submit. You write a short review and THEN the site does not accept it because it has "too much text"... but does not tell you what the text limit is. Last time I will go to that site....

Though Windows 8 has been rock solid on this and I have not had any crashes at all since I got it, the hardware is the worst ever.

I cannot recommend this to anyone.... well, except my worst enemies. :-)

Imran Anwar

UPDATE 09/09/2013

------------------

As if things could not get worse, or as if to prove some latent tendency to feel pain and anger, I went to the Lenovo web site to look for some updated firmware and drivers. The made-by-Martians-for-Saturnites-living-on-Neptune interface would be funny if it did not make you cry for how you have to (or I had to) click on about a dozen or more links to display the drivers under various areas, and then to click on each of THOSE to see what the issue date was. If the date was later than the purchase date I downloaded it. (I did not download all because some were not relevant to me). When all was said and done, I dutifully and painfully installed each one by one... Until...

One of the update installers completed its work, asked for a reboot, which I allowed and then...

The Lenovo W530 stopped booting. It just stopped going past the Boot Menu, but instead of showing the various USB stick, external disk or even WIndows2Go on USB OS plus the internal drive, it simply showed ZERO boot devices available. In the meantime, the utilities area allowed me to run disk tests on the internal drive and memory etc. All came back 100% but the machine remained unbeatable. So, after spending one day trying to resolve that, I had to go in for a technician to try everything he could, and he had no luck either. FInally, the only way the machine was booted was with LAN startup and formatting and reinstalling the OS. That used up most of today. And now I have to dig for installers of all the files, not to mention the work in progress from the last few days that had not been backed up (since I am not at home in NY).

Word to the wise, Friends Don't Let Friends Buy Lenovo.