Windows 7 Home Premium
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz
4GB RAM
64 -bit OS
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3670
500GB Hard Drive
I have owned my Dell Laptop for a year and have no complaints. It can get pretty warm with graphic intense games, but so did my old laptop, which would freeze up every few minutes. My favorite features are the backlit keyboard and slot-load DVD drive. I miss the plethora of USB slots, and prefered the earphone jacks up front, instead of on the side, as they are on the XPS. The screen makes movie-watching fun. I carry it to work almost daily and reccomend a case of substance as it feels quite heavy. Probably not a good idea for a travel laptop; it is billed as a desktop replacement, but it works well for me on the go.
Showing posts with label pocket notebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pocket notebook. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Buy Sony VAIO T Series SVT14126CXS 14-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook
List Price: $899.99
Sale Price: $769.99
Today's Bonus: 14% Off
I spent lots of time doing research on the internet before buying this laptop. I have had an 15.6' Acer for years and it was time to look for a replacement. Since my plan is to keep the new laptop for several years as well, I wanted to get something that would stay up to date for a while. I decided to go for a touchscreen since apps and programs will only require it more and more.
After reading reviews on the internet and comparing prices, I narrowed down my selection to this Sony, its 13' little brother and a Acer 14' ultrabook (a brand that usually gets you more bang for your buck). After comparing them in a store, the 14' Sony ended up the clear winner. The 13' Sony is fantastic, slim and very light but since I spend a lot of time on my laptop, I was concerned that the smaller screen would make my eyes bleed. The 14' feels much heavier but offers similar performance (its processor is actually a little bit faster, and it has a DVD player). The Acer turned out to be a huge disappointment, especially the touchscreen. There were streaks and strange shadows around my fingertips everywhere I touched it. I read complaints about it before; it turned out the be worse that expected.
You can probably find cheaper 14' laptops but this was the one with the best performance at this price point based on my extensive research. I usually prefer to spend a little bit more and have computers that don't get outdated after a year or two. If you carry your laptop with you everyday like I do, 14' is a nice compromise between the heavier 15.6' laptops and the smaller 13' ultrabooks. I have already done some heavy photo editing in Lightroom and some music production using Native Instruments software, and am very satisfied with the way the Sony Vaio handles these.
My only complaint would be about the screen resolution (a standard 1366X768). It's not bad but it isn't that great either; you can see the pixels. I am no Apple fan but the resolution on their macbooks blows this Sony out of the water (2560X1600 I believe). Important features like that make brands like Sony lose customers to Apple. This is a great product but why did Sony decide to cut corners? The resolution is basically the same as that of the Acer I purchased 6 years ago, and much lower than the resolution of my cheap 3 year old smart phone. Come on, Sony! Is that the best you can do for your ultrabook lineup?
Enough said. This is a very good deal for a slick ultrabook.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
5 Stars for the Amazon rep seeking the answers1 Star if this is a proprietary model with the Sony Factory sub model specification indicating other features.
I am asking this now because I tried to buy this but note it says "500 GB" hard drive, not "500 GB + 24GB SSD" as specified for the "Sony VAIO T Series SVT14126CXS" on the Sony website. Apparently unless clarified by another department, the Amazon rep I just talked to said this only has the 500GB HD. That would make it a marginal value given pricing of this computer elsewhere.
If you bought this, please confirm the hard drive arrangement.
If this only has the HD, Amazon needs to change the model number or indicate it has a proprietary hardware setup.
In the meantime that $900 I almost spent this morning will likely be spent elsewhere.
Best Deals for Sony VAIO T Series SVT14126CXS 14-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook
It is fast and smooth in operation. But has only 2 USB ports. Good value for the price. The monitor screen is shaking a lot while typing.Honest reviews on Sony VAIO T Series SVT14126CXS 14-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook
Excellent package. Still early in usage. A little slower than expected. Windows 8 is a pain, but one to be endured. Bought this unit because wanted optical drive in an ultrabook.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Sony VAIO T Series SVT14126CXS 14-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook
This was given as a graduation gift and therefore I can't really rate it for myself. What my granddaughter said is it is good and she really likes the touch screen. My only concerns are the battery life. I was expecting more from an Ultrabook and was disappointed with the spec for this machine.
Friday, November 14, 2014
Lenovo ThinkPad T420 4177RVU 14-Inch LED Notebook - Core i5 Review
I bought this product from the Lenovo website because of its functionality and battery life. My personal belief is that a laptop must have 7 hours of realistic use in order to be a 'mobile' device. Im a university student and stay on the campus for about 12-14 hours three days a week, with heavy use of my Laptop. This saying, I have been very excited about the 13 hour battery life with the 9cell battery, where the 'slice battery' can up this to around 21 hours.
Here are some of the options I did, and did not take:
Display: default 720p (not upgraded)
Processor: core i5 3210m (upgraded from i3, ivy bridge)
Memory: 4GB DDR3 (not upgraded)
Storage: 320GB 7200 RPM (not upgraded)
Camera: None
Battery: 9 cell (upgraded from the 6 cell)
-also took on the fingerprint reader, not as useful as I thought. Don't upgrade if you can and spend less money. But it's not an annoyance, so if you want to spend on cash, its kinda cool.
-did not take the backlit keyboard
-took the 2x2 intel antenna
Suggestions on the upgrades:
-Don't upgrade to the 500 GB because the speed is only 5400RPM, which will significantly slow it down. Take on the SSD if you can afford it.
Core i5 3210m is enough for most people, it handles everything I throw at it, and I'm not playing games on it. I play some flash games, and it's very functional. I use photoshop to edit some images and it's very speedy. I also do some video editing and the performance is good. I don't see a good reason to upgrade to an i7. Higher processors will take in more battery, make the fan loud from trying to cool down the system.
-Don't get the backlit keyboard if you don't need it. There is an overhead angled light on the screen (included in all models) that is very powerful. It's more than enough to see the keyboard in low light, and it's more useful than just a backlit keyboard because it acts like a flashlight.
-Take your priorities on the display, I'm satisfied with the display but not fully. Definitely upgrade if you can afford it.
-Don't upgrade to the discrete graphics card, I've read from multiple sources that it makes the laptop become very warm and kicks in the fan into overdrive.
Here are my thoughts on the laptop:
Display: Quite honestly, the display is poor but one of the most functional I have ever used. The reason is because the colors are not varied, and it has the worst viewing angles I have seen. The pros are that everything is crisp and clear. The display also heavily helps the battery life. You can up the brightness, but it's not that bright it sunlight. You can smoothly see the screen at full brightness in daylight, but it could be better. One thing that really impressed me was the angles the screen can be pushed back and forth. You can push the screen back so that it can be laid flat on a surface. I didn't think it was the big of a deal, but it helped so much when I was trying to share an idea or a funny video with someone. On that note, the screen is also very rigid and sturdy. I can pick the whole laptop up from the a screen corner while its open without it giving in. The cons are also very manageable, within a couple days I got used to it and it wasn't a problem. There are steel rollcages that make sure the screen is durable
Keyboard: The keyboard flies, I wasn't a fast typer before but now I can smoothly type lightning speed and barely even look at the keyboard. I had another Lenovo laptop with the old keyboard and this new one is very much better .
Aesthetics: This is a major factor (for some reason) when people are buying a new laptop. Let me tell you that yes, this is fugly. It looks old but the design is mainly for functionality. The aesthetics, however, do show a hint of performance and business, so for that reason it will appeal to some people.
Performance: I've owned some very high performance and some very low performance PC's over the years and this laptop is consistent and reliable. It takes everything I throw at it without a hiccup and I've seen no real lags or freezes. If you're using it for school where you might make a video, edit some photos, play some games, I'm sure this won't have problems. This is NOT for hardcore video editors or gaming people. I would suggest alienware for gaming and an Apple computer for video editing. I've tried playing WOW and some maplestory and it runs very, very smoothly when on medium-high settings.
Battery Life: Like I said before, this thing is THE BEST when it comes to battery life. The T-series have the world's BEST battery life, hand down. Many competitors don't come close. One thing to note tis that it also charges extremely quickly. Mine usually goes from aroun 65% to full in about 10 minutes.
Speakers and audio: I can tell you from experiencing horrible speakers and audio on many laptops that the speakers on this thing are BEYOND what I expected. They are very loud and crisp, and the rival many dedicated desktop speakers. The noise can fill a room at around 70% audio. When it comes to plugging in some headphones, the audio maintains the same quality and then some. I'm often decreasing the volume on every video to almost the lowest because of how loud and great the audio on this laptop is. There is the Dolby Advanced Audio on the t430, so I expected a great quality and was met, and then some. This seriously surprised my and was great because I am pretty much an audiophile.
Weight/thickness/portability; The 14 inch is very thin compared to other laptops. It's only about an inch, and It kinda surprised me because the pictures make it seem much thicker. It's not bulky at all, which was what I thought it would be. Overall, it's more mobile than I thought it would be, so that was a pleasant surprise. The 14inch is pretty small, I can't say the same about the 15inch.
Trackpad: The trackpad isn't so great, it sometimes lags. It's not so reliable but smooth. Some laptop have the flat glass like trackpad, but comfort wise, this feels much better. The red button in the middle is a surprise, I didnt think I would ever use it. I'm getting used to it and it's much more accurate, reliable, efficient, and comfortable than the trackpad. The reason it's not so popular is probably because it takes so long to learn.
Connectivity: There are a total of 4 USB compatible ports, 2 of them being USB 3.0 (also compatible with USB 2.0) There is a default SD Card reader, which works. I don't use it, but there is a network card slot. I don't use the optical drive, but it's comforting to know that I can use it in case I need it for upgrading or troubleshooting (or even gaming). I chose the 2x2 intel antenna, and HEAVILY SUGGEST EVERYONE DO THAT SAME. There is no upgrade charge (at least when I ordered) and it has the REAL N speeds. There is also 2 antennas instead of the one, so connectivity is optimal. I've had no real problems with connecting to wifi besides my router being stubborn. Nothing to complain about when it comes to connecting to wifi. Its very consistent and reliable.
Fingerprint reader: work like a charm, but I use it less than I wanted to. It makes starting up alot slower because you have to wait upwards to minute for the fingerprint software to load up before scanning and logging in. I think just making the computer sleep and boot up from restore would fix this. Never had it really fail, but again, not too useful. Avoid this option if you can.
Build Quality: Excellent build quality, this has goen through military qualifications, so If it can survive a warzone, it will be able to survive a university. No complains at all about the build quality, only good things to say about it
Some concerns:
-again, the trackpad isn't the best. but the red button thing makes up for it if you learn to use it.
-sometimes the optical drive opens up after i shut down the computer and throw it in my bag. It's probably because something hit the eject button, but you just learn to be more careful with the eject button.
-I've bad some updating issues, but it fixed itself. It didnt disrupt my work flow, but windows kept on asking me to restart because the update had failed.
-Not really an issue, but the cover strangely attracts fingerprints for some reason. I don't really care since the think is kinda fugly anyways, but it's something to note.
edit: I should give more credit to this laptop. It is very modular too. I've changed out the CD drive to an extra hard drive bay. I now have an SSD for my boot drive and my original HDD as my storage drive. Perfect combination.
By researching more you can even change out the screen, add an mSATA SSD, mod the appearance. It's just awesome.
Shipment said 4-7 Business days and came in on the 7th day exactly.
Cons: I see there is an issue with launching the camera / mic using the function keys., but the cam works when an application starts using it.
Cannot beat the price for what I got this..
-3Nadh
Here are some of the options I did, and did not take:
Display: default 720p (not upgraded)
Processor: core i5 3210m (upgraded from i3, ivy bridge)
Memory: 4GB DDR3 (not upgraded)
Storage: 320GB 7200 RPM (not upgraded)
Camera: None
Battery: 9 cell (upgraded from the 6 cell)
-also took on the fingerprint reader, not as useful as I thought. Don't upgrade if you can and spend less money. But it's not an annoyance, so if you want to spend on cash, its kinda cool.
-did not take the backlit keyboard
-took the 2x2 intel antenna
Suggestions on the upgrades:
-Don't upgrade to the 500 GB because the speed is only 5400RPM, which will significantly slow it down. Take on the SSD if you can afford it.
Core i5 3210m is enough for most people, it handles everything I throw at it, and I'm not playing games on it. I play some flash games, and it's very functional. I use photoshop to edit some images and it's very speedy. I also do some video editing and the performance is good. I don't see a good reason to upgrade to an i7. Higher processors will take in more battery, make the fan loud from trying to cool down the system.
-Don't get the backlit keyboard if you don't need it. There is an overhead angled light on the screen (included in all models) that is very powerful. It's more than enough to see the keyboard in low light, and it's more useful than just a backlit keyboard because it acts like a flashlight.
-Take your priorities on the display, I'm satisfied with the display but not fully. Definitely upgrade if you can afford it.
-Don't upgrade to the discrete graphics card, I've read from multiple sources that it makes the laptop become very warm and kicks in the fan into overdrive.
Here are my thoughts on the laptop:
Display: Quite honestly, the display is poor but one of the most functional I have ever used. The reason is because the colors are not varied, and it has the worst viewing angles I have seen. The pros are that everything is crisp and clear. The display also heavily helps the battery life. You can up the brightness, but it's not that bright it sunlight. You can smoothly see the screen at full brightness in daylight, but it could be better. One thing that really impressed me was the angles the screen can be pushed back and forth. You can push the screen back so that it can be laid flat on a surface. I didn't think it was the big of a deal, but it helped so much when I was trying to share an idea or a funny video with someone. On that note, the screen is also very rigid and sturdy. I can pick the whole laptop up from the a screen corner while its open without it giving in. The cons are also very manageable, within a couple days I got used to it and it wasn't a problem. There are steel rollcages that make sure the screen is durable
Keyboard: The keyboard flies, I wasn't a fast typer before but now I can smoothly type lightning speed and barely even look at the keyboard. I had another Lenovo laptop with the old keyboard and this new one is very much better .
Aesthetics: This is a major factor (for some reason) when people are buying a new laptop. Let me tell you that yes, this is fugly. It looks old but the design is mainly for functionality. The aesthetics, however, do show a hint of performance and business, so for that reason it will appeal to some people.
Performance: I've owned some very high performance and some very low performance PC's over the years and this laptop is consistent and reliable. It takes everything I throw at it without a hiccup and I've seen no real lags or freezes. If you're using it for school where you might make a video, edit some photos, play some games, I'm sure this won't have problems. This is NOT for hardcore video editors or gaming people. I would suggest alienware for gaming and an Apple computer for video editing. I've tried playing WOW and some maplestory and it runs very, very smoothly when on medium-high settings.
Battery Life: Like I said before, this thing is THE BEST when it comes to battery life. The T-series have the world's BEST battery life, hand down. Many competitors don't come close. One thing to note tis that it also charges extremely quickly. Mine usually goes from aroun 65% to full in about 10 minutes.
Speakers and audio: I can tell you from experiencing horrible speakers and audio on many laptops that the speakers on this thing are BEYOND what I expected. They are very loud and crisp, and the rival many dedicated desktop speakers. The noise can fill a room at around 70% audio. When it comes to plugging in some headphones, the audio maintains the same quality and then some. I'm often decreasing the volume on every video to almost the lowest because of how loud and great the audio on this laptop is. There is the Dolby Advanced Audio on the t430, so I expected a great quality and was met, and then some. This seriously surprised my and was great because I am pretty much an audiophile.
Weight/thickness/portability; The 14 inch is very thin compared to other laptops. It's only about an inch, and It kinda surprised me because the pictures make it seem much thicker. It's not bulky at all, which was what I thought it would be. Overall, it's more mobile than I thought it would be, so that was a pleasant surprise. The 14inch is pretty small, I can't say the same about the 15inch.
Trackpad: The trackpad isn't so great, it sometimes lags. It's not so reliable but smooth. Some laptop have the flat glass like trackpad, but comfort wise, this feels much better. The red button in the middle is a surprise, I didnt think I would ever use it. I'm getting used to it and it's much more accurate, reliable, efficient, and comfortable than the trackpad. The reason it's not so popular is probably because it takes so long to learn.
Connectivity: There are a total of 4 USB compatible ports, 2 of them being USB 3.0 (also compatible with USB 2.0) There is a default SD Card reader, which works. I don't use it, but there is a network card slot. I don't use the optical drive, but it's comforting to know that I can use it in case I need it for upgrading or troubleshooting (or even gaming). I chose the 2x2 intel antenna, and HEAVILY SUGGEST EVERYONE DO THAT SAME. There is no upgrade charge (at least when I ordered) and it has the REAL N speeds. There is also 2 antennas instead of the one, so connectivity is optimal. I've had no real problems with connecting to wifi besides my router being stubborn. Nothing to complain about when it comes to connecting to wifi. Its very consistent and reliable.
Fingerprint reader: work like a charm, but I use it less than I wanted to. It makes starting up alot slower because you have to wait upwards to minute for the fingerprint software to load up before scanning and logging in. I think just making the computer sleep and boot up from restore would fix this. Never had it really fail, but again, not too useful. Avoid this option if you can.
Build Quality: Excellent build quality, this has goen through military qualifications, so If it can survive a warzone, it will be able to survive a university. No complains at all about the build quality, only good things to say about it
Some concerns:
-again, the trackpad isn't the best. but the red button thing makes up for it if you learn to use it.
-sometimes the optical drive opens up after i shut down the computer and throw it in my bag. It's probably because something hit the eject button, but you just learn to be more careful with the eject button.
-I've bad some updating issues, but it fixed itself. It didnt disrupt my work flow, but windows kept on asking me to restart because the update had failed.
-Not really an issue, but the cover strangely attracts fingerprints for some reason. I don't really care since the think is kinda fugly anyways, but it's something to note.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
I've been using IBM for more than four yrs now between school and work!I must say I love IBM.In addition,this shopping journey on amazon and antonline was amazing ,good quality & fast delivery,thank u!Best Deals for Lenovo ThinkPad T420 4177RVU 14-Inch LED Notebook - Core i5
I've own two expensive gaming laptops prior to this, a Lenovo Y series and an Asus G series. They are bulky, hot and not reliable. This however, is light, robust, simple, not hot, relatively small, and reliable. I was a gamer but now I will never go back to buying a gaming laptop, I would rather sacrifice the graphical performance, than getting a big, heavy, hot, barely portable computer.edit: I should give more credit to this laptop. It is very modular too. I've changed out the CD drive to an extra hard drive bay. I now have an SSD for my boot drive and my original HDD as my storage drive. Perfect combination.
By researching more you can even change out the screen, add an mSATA SSD, mod the appearance. It's just awesome.
Honest reviews on Lenovo ThinkPad T420 4177RVU 14-Inch LED Notebook - Core i5
Always find the hard drive（ssd）, you need to restart the computer ，and it was working normally. Screen resolution is low. I spent the money to buy the most expensive highest configuration, but the screen resolution is very low. I am very puzzled. Contact the seller email, the seller has been no reply.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Lenovo ThinkPad T420 4177RVU 14-Inch LED Notebook - Core i5
Pros: I like what was shipped is what was ordered. They upgraded the RAM and HDD for me as they missed the fingerprint reader.Shipment said 4-7 Business days and came in on the 7th day exactly.
Cons: I see there is an issue with launching the camera / mic using the function keys., but the cam works when an application starts using it.
Cannot beat the price for what I got this..
-3Nadh
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Buy Acer Aspire V5-471P-6498 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Silky Silver)
List Price: $779.99
Sale Price: $523.99
Today's Bonus: 33% Off
The laptop is pretty decent. Backlit keyboard is cool but feels a little delicate..not a big deal though. Had issues with the wifi connection dropping randomly but uninstalled the driver and installed newer driver from Acer's website (Please see that if you check the driver already installed it says the driver is up to date. But there is another latest driver on Acer website. So you will need to manually uninstall the current driver and install the newer driver). No more issues with the wifi dropping so far. Got a nice deal from Amazon. The speakers are great. Need to get used to Windows 8. Touchscreen is nice. The battery lasts about 4-4.5 hrs. Laptop is sleek and looks fancy. Touchpad is not upto the mark, but again that's not a deal breaker. Some people complained of fan noise on similar model series, but it was minimal and unnoticeable. Will definitely recommend this laptop.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
I purchased this computer mostly for wifi use and traveling. When I first tried it slow would have been to kind of a word. Windows 8 was another issue but that is training more that a problem. I brought up the task manager, ctrl, alt, del and watched the resource meter. Symantec was eating more than 50% of the resources and even more during an update. I removed Symantec and installed Kaspersky instead and it made a huge difference. I installed Classic Start 8, which s free and the computer now works as I hoped it would. Hope this helpsBest Deals for Acer Aspire V5-471P-6498 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Silky Silver)
I bought the machine after extensive research and did so even with some reviewers mentioning the wifi issues. I got my moneys worth. After the upgrade from Acers website, I have had no problems with the wifi connection.Let me start with the Cons, because there are so few:
1. The graphics display is not exceptional. But good for most uses.
2. All the USB ports are on the left side. It would've been nice if they put one on the right side.
3. The LAN connection requires a provided adapter. It might be a hassle carrying it around.
That is all I have for the issues.
Pros:
1. Fast for normal use. i5 is sufficient for most everyday purposes.
2. keyboard is nice and the backlight is good.
3. Touchscreen works well. I have had no problems with it so far and windows 8, though with its own problems, is not as bad as a lot of the reviews say.
4. comes with 4GB ram in 1 of 4 slots. I am going to purchase another 4 GB to make sure I don't get slowed down with the number of applications I have running.
5. Quite light. The battery is tiny.
There may be more things I like about this machine the best thing is the price around $550.
For that price, this machine is a steal. I have a few other Acer machines, and they are all working fine. Good job on this one Acer!!
Honest reviews on Acer Aspire V5-471P-6498 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Silky Silver)
Everything is great with Acer except with Wi-Fi it continues to lose contact and I have no problem with any other device I have (iPod touch roku and kindle fire) Those that complain about windows 8 I can't understand it gives a great touch experience I will call Acer about Wi-Fi and hope they can correct this then I would give another star maybe two.Went to Acer website and downloaded driver update. No problems at all and have been on Internet for hours. With that solved I can honestly say this is better than my Asus all in one with Windows 7.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Acer Aspire V5-471P-6498 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Silky Silver)
I saw all the other reviews and recommendations for reloading the wifi driver and accomplished that no problem and have had no problem with connectivity with my router. On the other hand, the touch pad is WAY TOO TOUCHY! and is large enough to be around my hands no matter what I'm doing on the PC typing. For example, while I've been typing this response, the screen has been jumping all over the place and jumped to the START screen before I could push the ESC key.I placed two calling cards on either end of the pad, but that has only been partially successful in keeping the touch pad deadened to my touch.
I really like the computer, but will find a way to deaden the touch pad more to keep it.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Buy HP Folio 13-1020US 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Steel Gray)
I am an experienced graphic designer (Photoshop / Dreamweaver / In Design) and full-time internet retailer shipping about 100 $200+ orders daily, so I guess you could say I am a power-consumer from both sides of the curtain. I am on my machine(s) at least 8-12 work related hours / day updating my web site(s), communicating with customers and vendors and researching a wide variety of products and issues related to my business. Additionally, I get about all my news online and spend more time than average in social networking media promoting my business.
I own several (currently HP) desktop machines, as a small business owner with a handful of employees I am also my own IT guy, chief cook and bottle-washer, and have been so since 1996. I compare / purchase several computers annually as I personally like everyone to have the latest and greatest, not only is it fun but I can rationalize it as giving my company the edge over my competitors, and can also depreciate it on my taxes so it costs me a lot less to upgrade than the home user. Besides, communication is the key to a successful dot-com, we answer our inquiries and other customer service communications darn near real-time. I'm on my third or fourth Android device having migrated from Blackberry a few years back. I mention all this so you know where I'm coming from ...
This whole thing started when I got frustrated with my Kindle Fire's virtual keyboard, surfing and replying to emails. I have been doing a lot of that on my Samsung Stratosphere but being an old fart my vision isn't what it used to be and wanted a bigger screen. I mean, you can't communicate if you don't have a device with you, opening a 17" laptop in a vehicle or on the tarmac is doable but cumbersome because of its size; the phone is great for a quick note in the grocery store or waiting room but locating a URL, cutting and pasting it into your response can be challenging on any smart phone and is far from ideal this, I reasoned, is where the tablet will rule. This goes also for the sofa, bed, and yes, the commode. I am dead serious when I told you I'm always online and confess I even have a small computer table in the john. (Great place to read the news.) But one of the road blocks to handiness is the infamous power cord, I have always required several so I can avoid hauling it, and the computer, hither and yon. Sucks to be me.
So I've been patiently waiting for the Android 4.0 OS (Ice Cream) before handing the Fire over to the wife (I have a standard Kindle for e-books) when I saw that HP battery-in-the-airport ad ... bingo! The light bulb went on and I was on a mission.
I shopped hard before deciding on the Folio 13, studied, watched the videos, compared tech specs and did some power tab-clicking with all the customer reviews of the ultrabooks and 14" notebooks, factory web sites and other professional review sites like CNet, PC World, liliputing and/or whatever else is to be found in a Google search. I looked at the Samsung Series 9, the Acer Aspire S3 and the Asus Zenbook on-the-hoof at Best Buy before purchasing the HP on Amazon (these were the only ones on the shelf in my area). I buy a lot of stuff on Amazon and really enjoy shopping here.
What I was to learn is that you basically have many pretty good choices, but must make your decision based on anticipated usage and what size you are willing to put up with. Then there's the puny little solid state drives, long on performance (I upgraded my laptop to an expensive hybrid drive last year) but short on capacity. i looked on my 500 Gig VAIO and discovered I was only using about 250 (I keep most lesser-used photo and video files on a big external Seagate drive), and that's with a good deal of incidental duplication from the last upgrade. Still, the 70 gigs or so you have left on the ultrabook after loading the OS would fall quite a bit short eventually I reasoned, as I'd like to be able do an ad or site update should the need arise and would therefore require current photography and more recent ad files, in addition to the core Adobe CS4 software I swear by, loaded on the machine. Plus I am a part-time rocket scientist (hobby-level) so needed some of that stuff on it also.
I have been threatening to make the move back to Mac since abandoning that platform for price in 2004, so I did consider the Airbook. One chat session with Adobe however nuked that idea I'd have to abandon my PC software if I were to get new OSX licenses, or spend another $1400 on CS5 for the Mac. That's right, Adobe wanted $1400 in fees if I wanted to run their design suite on a $999 Airbook. Adobe sucks.
This should give one some clarity obviously I couldn't do all that with a Galaxy Tablet even though Adobe does now have Photoshop and such for tablets now so it is a possibility, but I'd have to fork out more cash for that as well. Rocksim however is Windows only (rocket design software). Be sure to consider these little whoppers or suffer the consequences!
So if you're deciding between a tablet or an ultrabook, whether or not you want your core productivity software on the little machine comes first. With these babies you can run most Windows software, unlike tablets, so they are far more flexible and for this reason may eventually emerge to dominate the tablet-portable category.
Now there's the issue of storage capacity. Few ultras have 256 gb of storage (see the Dell XPS), those that do are 25-40% more ($1299 Dell), although that is likely to change as the category evolves. If you go over 256 you are in hard drive (HDD) versus solid state drive (SSD) territory so performance would suffer somewhat, that's kind of heretical anyway. What to do?
Then I discovered the new Lexar 128 GB SDXC Flash Memory Card LSD128CRBNA133. Viola! For $175, considerably less than the $300 Dell wants on the upgraded drive XPS 13 ... problem solved as long as the ultra I chose has an SD slot! (Optionally, the 64gb card is $100)
Decisions, decisions .... The XPS 13 and Samsung Series 9 sure are sexy, I would have loved having one of those on my flight's drop-tray, why didn't I go with one of them? Almost did, oh man they look good! Then it dawned on me my #1 requirement, the starting point of this whole endeavor, was not style, it was battery life. Ah, battery life, everything I can find on the black-boxed beauties indicated they were far from ideal in this regard. Then there was the issue of the SD card, no slot at all on the Dell, Micro SD on the Samsung so capacity would suffer immensely. Practicality has to preside as much as I wish it not be so.
By the way, the read-speed of the Lexar is FASTER than the onboard SSD drive, though the write is much slower, so you're not giving up much and have the additional benefit of reading your camera cards.
Now my requirements were taking shape, and there is a HUGE variety of I/O port availability on these various and sundry ultrabooks, but currently the market requires you to choose between a selection of I/O schemes and design. I went for the 'book with the most options and that meant the Folio 13:
USB 3.0 Port (much faster for devices that support it)
USB 2.0 Port (most USB devices)
Bluetooth 3.0 (excellent way to connect headphones, mouse and other peripherals)
Ethernet RJ 45 Jack (I shy from those public hotel networks)
SD Card Slot greatly expanded storage options
Full HDMI jack (Dell has a mini)(I use these often for larger monitors and TV viewing)
Backlit keyboard (careful with this one, many ultrabooks don't)
Headphone / speaker / mic jack (this should be handy for VOIP apps like Skype and Google Phone)
Battery Life (Folio allegedly has an hour lead over the Dell)
Sure, there's sexier 'books out there but sensibility won out. If you, however, don't need all that and are simply looking for a stylin' communication and Microsoft Office system, I'd take a hard look at the Dell. Now there's a CNet review comparing them. They agree advantage HP (but no one could blame you for getting the Dell.)
Here's my impressions on Day Three of Folio 13 ownership ....
As usual my Amazon shopping experience was flawless. I don't sell on Amazon or Ebay anymore because they take too large of a percentage off the top, but I have in the past so understand the entire fulfillment process well. Amazon is the best especially when you purchase from Amazon as opposed to a third-party vendor so I generally pay attention to who is doing the selling for best results. This was another flawless Amazon Prime transaction, I highly recommend it.
The Good:
It took me about 2 minutes to set up the machine when it was unboxed. No challenges whatsoever. Basically name it, enter your wireless router info in the step-by-step wizard and you're live. Loading the Adobe suite and copying files from the main machine was a breeze with the hi-cap SD card. I put the software on the built-in solid state drive and the graphic files and other documents on the Lexar SD card. Let's see how long it stays that way ....
I would describe the HP Folio 13 as a professional's ultra-portable machine. The outside top cover and the case surrounding the keyboard is brushed aluminum; strong, clean and neat but otherwise unremarkable. The "soft-touch" surrounding the screen and on the bottom gives the entire package a very inviting, user-friendly feel one will likely notice immediately and surely will outlast the machine unless I do something stupid.
It boots at a blazing-fast speed, you will be amazed. Restarts will no longer be coffee breaks however, so take your java to your desk on the way in. Recovering from a closed lid or other sleep related states can me measured in single-digit seconds, I just timed it at 3 or 4. Very cool.
The entire strip above the keyboard, between the display hinges, is speaker. It's a LOT better than I expected from one of these little units, but since I haven't heard the others I have nothing to compare to. I wouldn't use it for a boom-box but its more than adequate for YouTube videos and the like. Certainly it's comparable to most other notebooks and there's a headphone / speaker jack if you need it. Connecting to my Logitech Surround Sound Speaker System Z906 (980-000467) definitely rocks the entire building all out of proportion to size.
One other big plus, and one I compared to the Best Buy demos, is the keyboard. Love it, have absolutely none of the complaints everyone is discussing on other machines. The keys are sure-footed and lively. you don't have to hammer them yet they tell your fingers they've done the job when struck with a gentle touch. Even heavy phat-fingers like mine naturally relax when using it, they are of a size and in good position as far as I am concerned. The function keys are primo, you do not have to press and hold the 'fn' key simultaneously with the top key to instantly backlight the keyboard, turn off the wireless, fast forward video or adjust the volume & brightness, a nice feature in my book compared even to full-size laptops. In the lower right corner you have the four scroll keys, they work well and are intuitive in position and function. No, you don't nave a number pad or a 10-key lock but it is not to be expected in a box this small.
Another nice feature is a handy switch in the upper left corner of the trackpad to turn the pad off and on. When you read my trackpad review below you can see why it's there ...
The bottom remains very cool and there's no annoying fan noise that some are complaining about on competitive models. Also some people wonder if they can deal with life sans CD-ROM. I wondered also, mostly because of software discs I have laying about, plus I do watch the occasional movie while flying or RVing so I added the AmazonBasics USB 2.0 8x DVD Writer External Optical Drive (Black) for $40 just in case.
The Bad:
Um, trackpad buttons are far too stiff. One almost has to pinch the box to get them to respond. Too bad and may be a deal breaker for some. I tend to spell badly and use the right-click spell-checking functionality a lot, so this is going to have be worked out for me at least. I'll be doing a lot of pad touching and two-finger scrolling in the mean time. I have never been big on trackpads however, much preferring a mouse, and one of the pluses is the aforementioned button to disable it in favor of another device. Maybe they'll loosen up with use, we'll see, but there's really no excuse to botch-up an otherwise very functional and useful overall input design. Shame on you H-P.
The only other small thing I noticed is the display itself it is a bit flat, washed out if you will. In fact I noticed this on all the ultrabooks I could try, even the Samsung, a brand well known for their superior LED's. One would be best served to put them all side-by-side and hit the graphics controls to see what's what if that's a key consideration, anyway. Bear in mind that none of them are designed as primary Photoshop machines.
In all fairness it's such a minor point, even to a graphics guy like me, that I haven't taken the time to mess around with the color, brightness, gamma and contrast settings so that may help. Generally I hook-up to an external display when doing anything important anyway and the 13.3" LED screen onboard is plenty good for general browsing and email.
UPDATE: This situation was easily corrected in the Intel Graphics Control Panel (right click on desktop background > graphics properties > advanced options > display > color enhancement > saturation slider). Outstanding.
The Ugly:
I'd have preferred they didn't affix the promotional stickers to either side of the track pad, they could simply put them in the box for attachment should that particular unit become a showroom demo. I don't need the pitch I already bought it after all and they mess with my aesthetics.
Overall:
I really like this unit, what it lacks in style it more than makes up for with functionality. Hard to think of a peripheral that wouldn't connect well, and there's enough variety to connect your choice of headphones, mouse, external monitors, networking options, printer and so on, simultaneously.
I booted it at 6am this morning after charging all night, it's now 11:21AM and I still have 2 hr 49 min left. * hours, exactly the reason I got it.
Expandability of the HP Folio 13 is the best of all the true SSD ultrabook entries at this point (Acer has the quasi-ultras with CD's, bigger HDDs and such), mainly due to the porting and SD card slot as mentioned and all of this comes at the lower end of the pricing spectrum. I got mine for $858 with a $100 gift card for a net of $758! Adding the $175 for the 128 GB card puts it right at $900, 40% less than the Dell (or or indeed any others I found with 256 gig drive) even considering the big SD card.
More connectivity, class-leading expandability, top battery life, all for for less money out-of-pocket: now THAT is a winning hand in my book! Stiff trackpad be damned. I'm getting more and more used to it with use, perhaps it is getting broken in. Anyway, I have a Bluetooth mouse hanging around here somewhere ....
Cons: The screen's color contrast is a bit washed out and can not be adjusted. However this is only a minor annoyance to me and the screen is plenty bright.
Overall: I bought this and the Toshiba Portege Z835 at the same time and used both side by side for a few days. The HP won hands down. There are other ultrabooks but they all are missing something; ethernet, hdmi, backlit keyboard... As of early 2012 this is the best ultrabook on the market.
portege build quality is poor. the screen bends like paper and wiggles. but you get ssd, i5, backlit key
u400 you get a dvd drive which is nice. but no sd card an backlit key and the keyboard is small. build quality is awesome though.
aspire plasticky and not fast, not ssd, but cheap for $800
zebook would have been perfect but too pricey. no ethernet port
I wanted to check out also the samsung 7, it talks about expresscache. but pricey as well.
With HP Folio, for $850, you get SSD, USB 3.0, backlit key, and an i5 core. Seriously, the SSD costs about $140 in itself and it makes your computing a lot faster. You get a lot of ports and keyboard is really nice. Battery is super.
The only cons on the Folio, is that my legs get warm and the right click button malfunctions sometimes, it responds as left button. Screen is average...
I have actually starting taking this laptop on my trips rather than my MacBook Air. I still use my MacBook Air but sometimes there are things I need a windows machine, which is mostly due to some work reasons. The battery life is great, sure I have to plug it in but 99% of the time that I use the machine I unplug it, take it with me to move around the house, go to work or go to a meeting without bringing my power cord.
The SSD hard drive on this machine is nice. It boots fast, it surfs the web fast. I open the lid on the laptop, hit the power button, login, load up iTunes and download what I need over wireless and sync to my iPod, or check my email or a document and close the lid in must a matter of a couple minutes.
I have also found myself using the touchpad on this machine more than an external mouse. It allows for two finger scrolling, which I originally used on my MacAir and found that I can do the same thing on the Folio VERY HANDY.
At times I forget this laptop has light-up keys. I am sitting in the dark and can't see the keys and remember that I can hit "F5" to turn on the LED lit keys, again VERY HANDY.
This laptop is fast and light and so many of it's features are "Handy" which makes it more productive than any other laptop I have used for daily activities.
MARCH 7 2012:
I have a MacBook Air 13.3 with an i5 processor, it is very nice machine. I got this machine, the HP Folio 13, because I wanted a Windows laptop that was very portable AND usable. I am not going to do a 1 to 1 comparison between this and the MacBook Air 13 because I am sure someone else already has. Over the years I have used a few windows based "mini's" and while they are portable they are not quite usable. This machine is very very light AND at the same time very fast. The screen may be 13 inches but the resolution makes it look bigger. I like how bright this screen is. I like being to able to adjust things on the keyboard. I like being able to turn on the backlit keyboard so I can type in the dark, kind of like the MacBook air. The one thing that I really like about the MacBook Air is I can use two fingers to scroll on the touchpad and I can do the same on the Folio 13. I loaded up Windows 8 Consumer Preview on the Folio and wow, it was fast but I want back to Windows 7 because I didnt like Windows 8 at all and the new UI.
So in the end, the Folio is around $800 and the MacBook Air is around $1300 and each has their own qualities but I find myself using the Folio more than the MacBook air these days.
I own several (currently HP) desktop machines, as a small business owner with a handful of employees I am also my own IT guy, chief cook and bottle-washer, and have been so since 1996. I compare / purchase several computers annually as I personally like everyone to have the latest and greatest, not only is it fun but I can rationalize it as giving my company the edge over my competitors, and can also depreciate it on my taxes so it costs me a lot less to upgrade than the home user. Besides, communication is the key to a successful dot-com, we answer our inquiries and other customer service communications darn near real-time. I'm on my third or fourth Android device having migrated from Blackberry a few years back. I mention all this so you know where I'm coming from ...
This whole thing started when I got frustrated with my Kindle Fire's virtual keyboard, surfing and replying to emails. I have been doing a lot of that on my Samsung Stratosphere but being an old fart my vision isn't what it used to be and wanted a bigger screen. I mean, you can't communicate if you don't have a device with you, opening a 17" laptop in a vehicle or on the tarmac is doable but cumbersome because of its size; the phone is great for a quick note in the grocery store or waiting room but locating a URL, cutting and pasting it into your response can be challenging on any smart phone and is far from ideal this, I reasoned, is where the tablet will rule. This goes also for the sofa, bed, and yes, the commode. I am dead serious when I told you I'm always online and confess I even have a small computer table in the john. (Great place to read the news.) But one of the road blocks to handiness is the infamous power cord, I have always required several so I can avoid hauling it, and the computer, hither and yon. Sucks to be me.
So I've been patiently waiting for the Android 4.0 OS (Ice Cream) before handing the Fire over to the wife (I have a standard Kindle for e-books) when I saw that HP battery-in-the-airport ad ... bingo! The light bulb went on and I was on a mission.
I shopped hard before deciding on the Folio 13, studied, watched the videos, compared tech specs and did some power tab-clicking with all the customer reviews of the ultrabooks and 14" notebooks, factory web sites and other professional review sites like CNet, PC World, liliputing and/or whatever else is to be found in a Google search. I looked at the Samsung Series 9, the Acer Aspire S3 and the Asus Zenbook on-the-hoof at Best Buy before purchasing the HP on Amazon (these were the only ones on the shelf in my area). I buy a lot of stuff on Amazon and really enjoy shopping here.
What I was to learn is that you basically have many pretty good choices, but must make your decision based on anticipated usage and what size you are willing to put up with. Then there's the puny little solid state drives, long on performance (I upgraded my laptop to an expensive hybrid drive last year) but short on capacity. i looked on my 500 Gig VAIO and discovered I was only using about 250 (I keep most lesser-used photo and video files on a big external Seagate drive), and that's with a good deal of incidental duplication from the last upgrade. Still, the 70 gigs or so you have left on the ultrabook after loading the OS would fall quite a bit short eventually I reasoned, as I'd like to be able do an ad or site update should the need arise and would therefore require current photography and more recent ad files, in addition to the core Adobe CS4 software I swear by, loaded on the machine. Plus I am a part-time rocket scientist (hobby-level) so needed some of that stuff on it also.
I have been threatening to make the move back to Mac since abandoning that platform for price in 2004, so I did consider the Airbook. One chat session with Adobe however nuked that idea I'd have to abandon my PC software if I were to get new OSX licenses, or spend another $1400 on CS5 for the Mac. That's right, Adobe wanted $1400 in fees if I wanted to run their design suite on a $999 Airbook. Adobe sucks.
This should give one some clarity obviously I couldn't do all that with a Galaxy Tablet even though Adobe does now have Photoshop and such for tablets now so it is a possibility, but I'd have to fork out more cash for that as well. Rocksim however is Windows only (rocket design software). Be sure to consider these little whoppers or suffer the consequences!
So if you're deciding between a tablet or an ultrabook, whether or not you want your core productivity software on the little machine comes first. With these babies you can run most Windows software, unlike tablets, so they are far more flexible and for this reason may eventually emerge to dominate the tablet-portable category.
Now there's the issue of storage capacity. Few ultras have 256 gb of storage (see the Dell XPS), those that do are 25-40% more ($1299 Dell), although that is likely to change as the category evolves. If you go over 256 you are in hard drive (HDD) versus solid state drive (SSD) territory so performance would suffer somewhat, that's kind of heretical anyway. What to do?
Then I discovered the new Lexar 128 GB SDXC Flash Memory Card LSD128CRBNA133. Viola! For $175, considerably less than the $300 Dell wants on the upgraded drive XPS 13 ... problem solved as long as the ultra I chose has an SD slot! (Optionally, the 64gb card is $100)
Decisions, decisions .... The XPS 13 and Samsung Series 9 sure are sexy, I would have loved having one of those on my flight's drop-tray, why didn't I go with one of them? Almost did, oh man they look good! Then it dawned on me my #1 requirement, the starting point of this whole endeavor, was not style, it was battery life. Ah, battery life, everything I can find on the black-boxed beauties indicated they were far from ideal in this regard. Then there was the issue of the SD card, no slot at all on the Dell, Micro SD on the Samsung so capacity would suffer immensely. Practicality has to preside as much as I wish it not be so.
By the way, the read-speed of the Lexar is FASTER than the onboard SSD drive, though the write is much slower, so you're not giving up much and have the additional benefit of reading your camera cards.
Now my requirements were taking shape, and there is a HUGE variety of I/O port availability on these various and sundry ultrabooks, but currently the market requires you to choose between a selection of I/O schemes and design. I went for the 'book with the most options and that meant the Folio 13:
USB 3.0 Port (much faster for devices that support it)
USB 2.0 Port (most USB devices)
Bluetooth 3.0 (excellent way to connect headphones, mouse and other peripherals)
Ethernet RJ 45 Jack (I shy from those public hotel networks)
SD Card Slot greatly expanded storage options
Full HDMI jack (Dell has a mini)(I use these often for larger monitors and TV viewing)
Backlit keyboard (careful with this one, many ultrabooks don't)
Headphone / speaker / mic jack (this should be handy for VOIP apps like Skype and Google Phone)
Battery Life (Folio allegedly has an hour lead over the Dell)
Sure, there's sexier 'books out there but sensibility won out. If you, however, don't need all that and are simply looking for a stylin' communication and Microsoft Office system, I'd take a hard look at the Dell. Now there's a CNet review comparing them. They agree advantage HP (but no one could blame you for getting the Dell.)
Here's my impressions on Day Three of Folio 13 ownership ....
As usual my Amazon shopping experience was flawless. I don't sell on Amazon or Ebay anymore because they take too large of a percentage off the top, but I have in the past so understand the entire fulfillment process well. Amazon is the best especially when you purchase from Amazon as opposed to a third-party vendor so I generally pay attention to who is doing the selling for best results. This was another flawless Amazon Prime transaction, I highly recommend it.
The Good:
It took me about 2 minutes to set up the machine when it was unboxed. No challenges whatsoever. Basically name it, enter your wireless router info in the step-by-step wizard and you're live. Loading the Adobe suite and copying files from the main machine was a breeze with the hi-cap SD card. I put the software on the built-in solid state drive and the graphic files and other documents on the Lexar SD card. Let's see how long it stays that way ....
I would describe the HP Folio 13 as a professional's ultra-portable machine. The outside top cover and the case surrounding the keyboard is brushed aluminum; strong, clean and neat but otherwise unremarkable. The "soft-touch" surrounding the screen and on the bottom gives the entire package a very inviting, user-friendly feel one will likely notice immediately and surely will outlast the machine unless I do something stupid.
It boots at a blazing-fast speed, you will be amazed. Restarts will no longer be coffee breaks however, so take your java to your desk on the way in. Recovering from a closed lid or other sleep related states can me measured in single-digit seconds, I just timed it at 3 or 4. Very cool.
The entire strip above the keyboard, between the display hinges, is speaker. It's a LOT better than I expected from one of these little units, but since I haven't heard the others I have nothing to compare to. I wouldn't use it for a boom-box but its more than adequate for YouTube videos and the like. Certainly it's comparable to most other notebooks and there's a headphone / speaker jack if you need it. Connecting to my Logitech Surround Sound Speaker System Z906 (980-000467) definitely rocks the entire building all out of proportion to size.
One other big plus, and one I compared to the Best Buy demos, is the keyboard. Love it, have absolutely none of the complaints everyone is discussing on other machines. The keys are sure-footed and lively. you don't have to hammer them yet they tell your fingers they've done the job when struck with a gentle touch. Even heavy phat-fingers like mine naturally relax when using it, they are of a size and in good position as far as I am concerned. The function keys are primo, you do not have to press and hold the 'fn' key simultaneously with the top key to instantly backlight the keyboard, turn off the wireless, fast forward video or adjust the volume & brightness, a nice feature in my book compared even to full-size laptops. In the lower right corner you have the four scroll keys, they work well and are intuitive in position and function. No, you don't nave a number pad or a 10-key lock but it is not to be expected in a box this small.
Another nice feature is a handy switch in the upper left corner of the trackpad to turn the pad off and on. When you read my trackpad review below you can see why it's there ...
The bottom remains very cool and there's no annoying fan noise that some are complaining about on competitive models. Also some people wonder if they can deal with life sans CD-ROM. I wondered also, mostly because of software discs I have laying about, plus I do watch the occasional movie while flying or RVing so I added the AmazonBasics USB 2.0 8x DVD Writer External Optical Drive (Black) for $40 just in case.
The Bad:
Um, trackpad buttons are far too stiff. One almost has to pinch the box to get them to respond. Too bad and may be a deal breaker for some. I tend to spell badly and use the right-click spell-checking functionality a lot, so this is going to have be worked out for me at least. I'll be doing a lot of pad touching and two-finger scrolling in the mean time. I have never been big on trackpads however, much preferring a mouse, and one of the pluses is the aforementioned button to disable it in favor of another device. Maybe they'll loosen up with use, we'll see, but there's really no excuse to botch-up an otherwise very functional and useful overall input design. Shame on you H-P.
The only other small thing I noticed is the display itself it is a bit flat, washed out if you will. In fact I noticed this on all the ultrabooks I could try, even the Samsung, a brand well known for their superior LED's. One would be best served to put them all side-by-side and hit the graphics controls to see what's what if that's a key consideration, anyway. Bear in mind that none of them are designed as primary Photoshop machines.
In all fairness it's such a minor point, even to a graphics guy like me, that I haven't taken the time to mess around with the color, brightness, gamma and contrast settings so that may help. Generally I hook-up to an external display when doing anything important anyway and the 13.3" LED screen onboard is plenty good for general browsing and email.
UPDATE: This situation was easily corrected in the Intel Graphics Control Panel (right click on desktop background > graphics properties > advanced options > display > color enhancement > saturation slider). Outstanding.
The Ugly:
I'd have preferred they didn't affix the promotional stickers to either side of the track pad, they could simply put them in the box for attachment should that particular unit become a showroom demo. I don't need the pitch I already bought it after all and they mess with my aesthetics.
Overall:
I really like this unit, what it lacks in style it more than makes up for with functionality. Hard to think of a peripheral that wouldn't connect well, and there's enough variety to connect your choice of headphones, mouse, external monitors, networking options, printer and so on, simultaneously.
I booted it at 6am this morning after charging all night, it's now 11:21AM and I still have 2 hr 49 min left. * hours, exactly the reason I got it.
Expandability of the HP Folio 13 is the best of all the true SSD ultrabook entries at this point (Acer has the quasi-ultras with CD's, bigger HDDs and such), mainly due to the porting and SD card slot as mentioned and all of this comes at the lower end of the pricing spectrum. I got mine for $858 with a $100 gift card for a net of $758! Adding the $175 for the 128 GB card puts it right at $900, 40% less than the Dell (or or indeed any others I found with 256 gig drive) even considering the big SD card.
More connectivity, class-leading expandability, top battery life, all for for less money out-of-pocket: now THAT is a winning hand in my book! Stiff trackpad be damned. I'm getting more and more used to it with use, perhaps it is getting broken in. Anyway, I have a Bluetooth mouse hanging around here somewhere ....
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Pros: It's very light compared to the normal 6+ lb laptops I usually use, traveling with it is a pleasure! Performance is decent considering its size and it has so many ports compared to other ultrabooks. It has an Ethernet port! That's a big deal for me as hotel wi-fi networks are usually really bad. Almost no other ultrabook has that, same with a regular sized HDMI port. Sure you could get a different computer and carry ethernet/hdmi adapters with you but carrying around adapters defeats the purpose of having an ultrabook!Cons: The screen's color contrast is a bit washed out and can not be adjusted. However this is only a minor annoyance to me and the screen is plenty bright.
Overall: I bought this and the Toshiba Portege Z835 at the same time and used both side by side for a few days. The HP won hands down. There are other ultrabooks but they all are missing something; ethernet, hdmi, backlit keyboard... As of early 2012 this is the best ultrabook on the market.
Best Deals for HP Folio 13-1020US 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Steel Gray)
I have had this laptop for about one month and so far so good. I use it for college and it is great for portability and its battery lasts all day. I have gotten 8.0 hours on the battery with brightness fairly low using wifi (Netflix and browsing). I like the USB 3.0 with an external HDD because it is really fast transfer. The only thing with it is that the SSD is only 128gb but with the recovery partition plus operating system there is only about 70 gigs for the user. I got a 32 gig class 10 SD card to get some extra space. Some people have tons of music and videos on their computer so this laptop may not be for you but I have very little media on mine and doubt that it will be a problem. The SSD makes booting, loading, copying and installing programs really fast. The computer boots up to a usable state in about 18 seconds and all hardware is very good. Keyboard and trackpad are very good. Backlight on the keyboard is awesome however not as cool in the white color than my previous HP ENVY with a red backlit keyboard.Honest reviews on HP Folio 13-1020US 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Steel Gray)
I have looked and compared portege, u400, zenbook, aspire and after weighing in the price and specs, I went ahead and bought the Folio 13. I read a lot of reviews in cnet, engadget, etc and Folio always had excellent reviews. I also went to bestbuy to check out for myself. My second choice was zenbook but it was too pricey for me. Here is a list of pros and cons for these ultra notebooks:portege build quality is poor. the screen bends like paper and wiggles. but you get ssd, i5, backlit key
u400 you get a dvd drive which is nice. but no sd card an backlit key and the keyboard is small. build quality is awesome though.
aspire plasticky and not fast, not ssd, but cheap for $800
zebook would have been perfect but too pricey. no ethernet port
I wanted to check out also the samsung 7, it talks about expresscache. but pricey as well.
With HP Folio, for $850, you get SSD, USB 3.0, backlit key, and an i5 core. Seriously, the SSD costs about $140 in itself and it makes your computing a lot faster. You get a lot of ports and keyboard is really nice. Battery is super.
The only cons on the Folio, is that my legs get warm and the right click button malfunctions sometimes, it responds as left button. Screen is average...
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for HP Folio 13-1020US 13.3-Inch Ultrabook (Steel Gray)
UPDATE AUGUST 4 2012:I have actually starting taking this laptop on my trips rather than my MacBook Air. I still use my MacBook Air but sometimes there are things I need a windows machine, which is mostly due to some work reasons. The battery life is great, sure I have to plug it in but 99% of the time that I use the machine I unplug it, take it with me to move around the house, go to work or go to a meeting without bringing my power cord.
The SSD hard drive on this machine is nice. It boots fast, it surfs the web fast. I open the lid on the laptop, hit the power button, login, load up iTunes and download what I need over wireless and sync to my iPod, or check my email or a document and close the lid in must a matter of a couple minutes.
I have also found myself using the touchpad on this machine more than an external mouse. It allows for two finger scrolling, which I originally used on my MacAir and found that I can do the same thing on the Folio VERY HANDY.
At times I forget this laptop has light-up keys. I am sitting in the dark and can't see the keys and remember that I can hit "F5" to turn on the LED lit keys, again VERY HANDY.
This laptop is fast and light and so many of it's features are "Handy" which makes it more productive than any other laptop I have used for daily activities.
MARCH 7 2012:
I have a MacBook Air 13.3 with an i5 processor, it is very nice machine. I got this machine, the HP Folio 13, because I wanted a Windows laptop that was very portable AND usable. I am not going to do a 1 to 1 comparison between this and the MacBook Air 13 because I am sure someone else already has. Over the years I have used a few windows based "mini's" and while they are portable they are not quite usable. This machine is very very light AND at the same time very fast. The screen may be 13 inches but the resolution makes it look bigger. I like how bright this screen is. I like being to able to adjust things on the keyboard. I like being able to turn on the backlit keyboard so I can type in the dark, kind of like the MacBook air. The one thing that I really like about the MacBook Air is I can use two fingers to scroll on the touchpad and I can do the same on the Folio 13. I loaded up Windows 8 Consumer Preview on the Folio and wow, it was fast but I want back to Windows 7 because I didnt like Windows 8 at all and the new UI.
So in the end, the Folio is around $800 and the MacBook Air is around $1300 and each has their own qualities but I find myself using the Folio more than the MacBook air these days.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Acer Aspire AS5532-5535 Laptop Notebook - 15.6" LCD / AMD Athlon Reviews
like the others i was sold on the low price and considerable amount of ram, both on the graphic end and the computing end. i find it difficult to multitask on this computer that is, until i did a fresh install of win 7. definitely not designed for windows 7. i can imagine this computer being a lot faster running either 32 bit xp or 64 bit xp. whatever. i made negative points due to "factory settings." once i got a little more intimate with this machine. (THATS WHAT SHE SAID JOKE) i found it to be amazing. my daws run well. only exception being the resource intensive plugins BUT HEY. the processor is upgradable! so whatever. no sound card crackles! no lags when i record or play last gen games! four stars for a reason. its a solid machine. me and my band use it for samples/bassdrops live via midi input. it can take a beating. the keys feel a little cheap but thats no biggie. the internal network card is not good for long range. but hey, they arent really meant to be? the display is awesome, the speakers KINDA suck but grab some earbuds and youre good to go. I PERSONALLY LUCKED OUT. a lot of people have complaints with this. its a pos!, it broke, the power input solder is cracked, the usb input is broken, the screen flickers, etc. I USE THIS IN A CONCERT SETTING. IT IS NOT A PIECE OF S***. its a solid computer "for the price." best thing one step up from a netbook.
Additionally, this is only a single core processor, so one of the first things I did was get rid of the McAfee and install the Avast Home Free edition virus software (available to anyone for free at ). Additionally, when I tried to use the Window Media Center, it used up all of my available rom/ram and caused serious slow downs (like taking 3 minutes to shut down). Once again, I uninstalled the Windows Media Center (though kept the Media Player installed) and downloaded the video codex files for Windows 7 Media Player (also from ) so any DVD I watch is through the Media Player. It runs very smooth when I watch videos now! The other program I installed was Advanced System Care (also free from ... and no I do not work for them). This will go through and remove any junk files, registry errors, spyware, etc... Great free program for keeping your system running bug free! After these three simple changes I have not had a single problem with this laptop.
I hope this helps you folks out there considering this laptop, or if you already have this laptop. :-)
Win 7 64 bit runs great on this machine, even with a single core processor. BUT....... you can upgrade this processor to a dual core AMD chip for less than $40. Add in the best integrated video card made, 3 GB RAM and an HD 720P Resolution Widescreen, and you have a great deal.
Some little things that I LOVE about this laptop are the physical on/off toggle for WiFi and the touchpad. These are amazingly convenient things that you might not consider looking for when shopping, but they are super useful. Since I use a wireless mouse, I find the AC Adapter location on the left side to be perfect. I had a Lenovo Ideapad that put the plug on the right side and it was a giant pain. It runs cool and is very quiet. I threw a 4GB SD card in the reader for Readyboost and I feel like this is faster than 64 bit Vista was on the aforementioned Lenovo(T5800 Core 2 Duo 2.0ghz and 4GB RAM). I run full screen ripped DVD's with no problem, run off the optical drive no problem(movies look great!) and run Office 2007 without a glitch.
I do wish it had a physical volume rocker at least 1 more USB port, but for $329, I really can't complain.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
This is a great notebook if you're like me and need something where you can do homework, watch YouTube videos and play a few games. Although its not the best of notebooks it does get the job done. Price is the one thing that did get me with this laptop. I recently got rid of my Dell and bought an HP netbook which came to an untimeley demise because of my dog. I was going to get another netbook but then saw this one with a comparable price to a few netbooks out there. Windows 7 runs very smooth, also it is a lightweight laptop so you don't have to worry about lugging around a heavy bulky laptop. One thing I will say is that if you are going to buy this notebook look at your local Best Buy for it, my husband paid $375 for it with tax.Best Deals for Acer Aspire AS5532-5535 Laptop Notebook - 15.6" LCD / AMD Athlon
I purchased this notebook at the beginning of January and have enjoyed it so far. I do have a few suggestions for the folks out there having problems with it lagging or running too slow. First, realize that this does not have the best video card installed, and it is not upgradable, so you may have issues with watching HD videos directly off the internet. Internet speeds vary from house to house and can affect your video watching ability. Videos work quite a bit smoother if you download them first(if you have that option) then view in Windows Media Player.Additionally, this is only a single core processor, so one of the first things I did was get rid of the McAfee and install the Avast Home Free edition virus software (available to anyone for free at ). Additionally, when I tried to use the Window Media Center, it used up all of my available rom/ram and caused serious slow downs (like taking 3 minutes to shut down). Once again, I uninstalled the Windows Media Center (though kept the Media Player installed) and downloaded the video codex files for Windows 7 Media Player (also from ) so any DVD I watch is through the Media Player. It runs very smooth when I watch videos now! The other program I installed was Advanced System Care (also free from ... and no I do not work for them). This will go through and remove any junk files, registry errors, spyware, etc... Great free program for keeping your system running bug free! After these three simple changes I have not had a single problem with this laptop.
I hope this helps you folks out there considering this laptop, or if you already have this laptop. :-)
Honest reviews on Acer Aspire AS5532-5535 Laptop Notebook - 15.6" LCD / AMD Athlon
Purchased the Acer Aspire 5532 from Best Buy in November. Great value, you get what you pay for. Out of the box, it's attractive dark blue, nice size & the display is vibrant and clear. All I need it for is email, lil surfing, MS Works word processor, works great for those things. The mousepad as one reviewer pointed out is very persnikity, it will drag on you and the pointer will end up where you don't want it. Speedwise it's pretty good, Windows 7 runs really smooth, I like it alot. After approx 2 months on this thing, my ac adapter/power cord went kaput! I can only use it on battery power which of course is now drained, not even enough juice to even make a light glow. Highly disappointed as Acer customer service/tech support is non existant, or so it seems. It looks like I will be returning to Acer at my own expense for possible repair. I think it's a good deal for basic computing only, and be very careful with the power cord/settings once you lose battery power there is no getting it back on!Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Acer Aspire AS5532-5535 Laptop Notebook - 15.6" LCD / AMD Athlon
Preface-I only paid $329.00 for this machine and I have an iMac for Video editing. If you realize what this machine is and what it is designed for, I don't think there is a better bargain right now.Win 7 64 bit runs great on this machine, even with a single core processor. BUT....... you can upgrade this processor to a dual core AMD chip for less than $40. Add in the best integrated video card made, 3 GB RAM and an HD 720P Resolution Widescreen, and you have a great deal.
Some little things that I LOVE about this laptop are the physical on/off toggle for WiFi and the touchpad. These are amazingly convenient things that you might not consider looking for when shopping, but they are super useful. Since I use a wireless mouse, I find the AC Adapter location on the left side to be perfect. I had a Lenovo Ideapad that put the plug on the right side and it was a giant pain. It runs cool and is very quiet. I threw a 4GB SD card in the reader for Readyboost and I feel like this is faster than 64 bit Vista was on the aforementioned Lenovo(T5800 Core 2 Duo 2.0ghz and 4GB RAM). I run full screen ripped DVD's with no problem, run off the optical drive no problem(movies look great!) and run Office 2007 without a glitch.
I do wish it had a physical volume rocker at least 1 more USB port, but for $329, I really can't complain.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Discount ASUS G75 17.3" i7 12GB/500GB/GTX 660M Win7 NB
the computer is more then i wished for
its a bit expansive as im not used to spending 1400dolars on a laptop but this one was worth it
i also aditionaly put an ssd hd inside and now its one fast road runner.
the only down side is when im on batery mode i cant play games ,they lag hard
Pros:
1. Speed of computer is superb
2. Starcraft 2 on ULTRA settings run flawlessly
3. Can run multiple games (Counterstrike, diablo 3, and starcraft with no lag simultaneously)
Cons:
1. Hard drive could be faster 5400rpm. If you have a a little extra money then just replace the hard drive with a SSD.
2. Screen sometimes looks a little grey. But thats during daylight. At night its awesome.
So concluding, I would definitely recommend this to any wanting a high end gaming laptop for a reasonable price.
Also, at they have an older model backpack solid black, that is a ROG official backpack for 17.3 inch laptops for 49.99. Pick that up right away as its a great sale.
1. It comes with a ridiculously large amount of bloatware. Upon initial boot you'll find dozens of useless programs.
2. It doesn't come with Office.
3. The screen resolution is poor for the price. Definitely a visible step down from G75VW-TS72 screen.
4. The touchpad has a raised bump on it. This could just be a defect with the one I received. It's just noticeable enough to be annoying.
Overall I would recommend spending a little more to get a better model.
its a bit expansive as im not used to spending 1400dolars on a laptop but this one was worth it
i also aditionaly put an ssd hd inside and now its one fast road runner.
the only down side is when im on batery mode i cant play games ,they lag hard
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
Okay, This was a great purchase for the price. I researched all possible competing laptops and none came close. After using this product for a month, I have concluded the following:Pros:
1. Speed of computer is superb
2. Starcraft 2 on ULTRA settings run flawlessly
3. Can run multiple games (Counterstrike, diablo 3, and starcraft with no lag simultaneously)
Cons:
1. Hard drive could be faster 5400rpm. If you have a a little extra money then just replace the hard drive with a SSD.
2. Screen sometimes looks a little grey. But thats during daylight. At night its awesome.
So concluding, I would definitely recommend this to any wanting a high end gaming laptop for a reasonable price.
Also, at they have an older model backpack solid black, that is a ROG official backpack for 17.3 inch laptops for 49.99. Pick that up right away as its a great sale.
Best Deals for ASUS G75 17.3" i7 12GB/500GB/GTX 660M Win7 NB
I have had the Asus G75V for nearly a year now. Very quick unit and very reliable. The only down side, and this is a big one, is the piece of crap touch pad that they use. It it total junk. The cursor jumps all over the place and selects things that you don't want to select. It does this even with the sensitivity turned way down. Using an external mouse is somewhat better but it is still annoying. Other than that I would highly recommend this unit.Honest reviews on ASUS G75 17.3" i7 12GB/500GB/GTX 660M Win7 NB
I had pretty high hopes for this laptop considering the incredible reviews from multiple online retailers. The laptop is indeed very sturdy, and based on the specs seems like a really great buy. But there's a reason this laptop seems like a great deal:1. It comes with a ridiculously large amount of bloatware. Upon initial boot you'll find dozens of useless programs.
2. It doesn't come with Office.
3. The screen resolution is poor for the price. Definitely a visible step down from G75VW-TS72 screen.
4. The touchpad has a raised bump on it. This could just be a defect with the one I received. It's just noticeable enough to be annoying.
Overall I would recommend spending a little more to get a better model.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Best Apple MacBook 13", White Intel Core Duo 2.16 GHZ, 2GB, 320 Gb Hard Deals
I purchases this Mac a month ago, first I called the seller to inquire more abt the products. Just as he described it. The items was clean free of scratches. I gave it 4 bcoz I believed more cld have been done in upgrading the software to a Mountain Lion other than that great product, good price. Delivery was impeccable.
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Ordered this my MacBook on Saturday and had it by Wednesday! The macbook was usedvery good but when I got it, it was in like new condition and had a brand new battery on it. The screen and keyboard were clean and everything was in working order! Very happy with this buy and product! Will buy from them again!Best Deals for Apple MacBook 13", White Intel Core Duo 2.16 GHZ, 2GB, 320 Gb Hard
My macbook works great. I've had it two months now and have had no problems. I even received one with 180 more gigs than I paid for.Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Discount Dell Inspiron i14z-1000sLV 14-Inch Ultrabook (Moon Silver)
List Price: $706.00
Sale Price: $489.98
Today's Bonus: 31% Off
Some of the other reviewers here have had issues with Dell products in the past, as have I from time to time; however, you can't deny you are getting decent hardware for the money. If I were you I'd ignore some of these other reviews which clearly have not actually tried this exact Inspiron model as it was first released in October of 2012 and they are talking like they've had it for a year and a half! I've owned Inspirons in the past and plan on them lasting me 3-4 years. That's exactly what you should expect out of any inexpensive laptop. I bought this particular model because I wanted the new Ivy Bridge processor and SSD included with this model. So far, it works great!
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Purchased this for my husband for christmas! He loves it except has to get used to using WIndows 8 !Best Deals for Dell Inspiron i14z-1000sLV 14-Inch Ultrabook (Moon Silver)
Pros: Hybrid drive is well optimized.The lower end processor actually saves quite a bit of power. Computer lasts 6 hours without a charge.
Quality frame
This is a great computer between home/work
Cons: Most issues with this computer is Win8. Just remove that puppy and put win7 on it. If you prefer to use Win8, I suggest downloading Pokki. It will alleviate the tears at night that you will have from the new start menu.
Honest reviews on Dell Inspiron i14z-1000sLV 14-Inch Ultrabook (Moon Silver)
Me parece un excelente computadora de las mejores portatiles que he tenido, sería bueno incluir el paquete de Office para no tener que comprarlo por separado, por lo demás estoy satisfechoFind helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Dell Inspiron i14z-1000sLV 14-Inch Ultrabook (Moon Silver)
If you look around, then you'll see that this is a good overall buy for the money. I've had no problem with Dell laptops in the past and the same is true of this one.Sunday, June 22, 2014
Review of Dell Inspiron 14" Laptop (2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 2450M Processor, 6
I read 3 or 4 computer websites about the Dell Inspiron 14z before purchasing on Amazon, and my experience is in line with those reviews. (I ordered the model with i5 processor/6 GB of RAM). My family has several other Dell Inspiron 14-inch laptops; this is our first 14z. (And Dell, if you're reading this, I really wanted to buy another 14R, but the switchable lids make it feel cheap. It's a computer, not a toy). Anyway, back my review:
Good:
Lightweight and thin, yet sturdy
Very good processor speed (probably worth getting the i5)
Accessible keyboard
Three USB ports
Bright, clear screen
1 year of McAfee
Windows 7
Could be better:
Port covers are not necessary and get in the way
The mouse buttons take a lot of effort to "click" (and as such, I would not recommend this computer for a small child)
Does not have the Power DVD software common to previous Dell laptops I've purchased
And, unfortunately, includes a lot of software you probably won't want. The first 30 minutes of using this computer was a struggle among all the various "helpful" programs all simultaneously expecting to be registered, activated and/or updated. A "Nero" program was particularly annoying and could not be turned off, only minimized; I wound up uninstalling it altogether.
Surface areas easily show fingerprints
I would have liked to add the optional backlit keyboard, but it is only available on the top-of-the-line 14z model for $200 more
All in all, a good value, and I estimate I saved $60 buying from Amazon rather than direct from Dell.
I needed a laptop for school that could handle CAD programs, handle computational programs, have a good battery, and be portable. At the time my Toshiba Satellite had lasted me a good 4 years but the hard drive was becoming spotty and the battery life was decreasing. I decided to upgrade and after a little looking around I decided on the Dell Inspiron 14z. It looked good for a decent price. I quickly received the laptop from Amazon and the Dell was considerably faster than my previous Toshiba, a lot lighter, and the battery life was almost double. After a month of owning it I discovered that the microphone did not work with Skype or Google Chat. I guessed this problem was around since I bought the laptop. I was still in school at the time so I waited until summer to get it fixed. In July I contacted customer support via online chat help. After over an hour of diagnosis it was determined that my laptop motherboard was defective and I needed to send it in. This is what I had been afraid of, but since it was summer I could be without the laptop for a couple weeks to get it fixed.
Dell sent the package very quickly and then called me every step to let me know what was happening. A little too much in my opinion but it was good to know it would be done quickly. I then received the laptop back from Dell. I turned it on and first tested the microphone and it worked, problem solved. Not too fast, I was reloading my files that I had backed up and noticed that on 'Computer' window that my laptop said it only had 4GB of RAM. As in the description it came with 6GB of RAM when it was new. I opened up the back panel and saw that there was a 4GB RAM stick in the slot. I then popped out the keyboard to check the other slot and found out there was no RAM in RAM slot. I was hoping that it was something I could fix, but I was not so lucky. I called Dell again and told them my problem, it was pretty obvious and customer support said they would send the 2GB RAM stick.
I received the RAM within the next week, opened the keyboard again and put in the recently sent RAM. I then go to turn on the computer and it starts beeping at me (repetitive 3 beeps). I took out both RAM units and tried the new RAM unit in the slop on the back of the laptop, everything worked and computer booted up. Then tried the 4GB RAM in the keyboard slot, didn't workbeeps again. Time to call Dell again. I told them my problem and after a lengthy conversation they said they would fix the problem after I would send it in. Frustrated that they didn't fix it and annoyed that I wouldn't be able to use it for a more time, my only option was to send it in. I sent it in late-August. While the laptop was out for repairs I see a deal at Dell online that with a promo code the 14z laptop costs $500 with a $75 gift card to Dell. Which BEFORE the gift card, is $80 less than I had paid in April. And I had only used it for half of the available time due to issues.
Dell replaced the motherboard again and after a hold for parts I received it back mid-September. Finally, and just before school starts again my laptop is here and ready to go. Within 12 hours I discover yet another problem. The sound is not working either from speaker or headphone jack. I called them again. After running a couple of tests they confirmed that the speakers did not work. They wanted me to send in the laptop again. I really didn't want to, school was starting and it seems this fixing process has not worked before. I let the technician and his manager know my disgust asked for a new laptop because fixing it did not work the past 2 times. After a while of back and forth they couldn't do that. I then asked for the difference in cost since I was not able to use it for the entire summer. But it ended in that they can't and all they can do is service it in warranty. This fix will have the 4th motherboard installed for this laptop, not so random. It is so frustrating. Dell is completely wasting my time and can not fix a problem. I also asked them how they can be sure it is fixed completely but all I got was the same-as-always `we will run tests'-which have not worked in the past. What if the problem is not fixed? I will just be going through this song and dance again.
I would stay as far away from Dell as you can. This is an unacceptable product and service. I know problems occur but at such a large company, they should have ways to check that products are fixed correctly. I have been with out a laptop for 3 months at the moment and it's just going to get longer. School is starting and I will be without my laptop. A complete waste of time and money.
When I was researching laptops, I was on the fence of getting a laptop with an i3 processor or an i5 processor. I had to pay a little more, but I felt that it would still be a pretty decent laptop a few years for now.
The i3 processor is only a dual core, while the i5 is a quad core. Also it comes with 6 GB of RAM -most laptops only come with 4 GB in this price range. I haven't tried it for gaming yet, but when I get a chance, I'll try installing Diablo 3 and revise my review. I have no doubt that this laptop should be able to handle it. Maybe not at the best settings, but good enough to play without any issues.
Initial setup was like any laptop. A few registration prompts, but nothing major. If you've owned a laptop before, setting this up should be simple enough.
Somethings that I found annoying is the default Dell application that handles your media and movies. I had to manually set it so that it doesn't open up. I'll try to post pics later. Also I hate the fact that it has covers on the USB ports because it doesn't really open up all the way and it ruins the convenience factor.
Overall I feel that this is a little power house with great features that should last for awhile before I think about upgrading.
5/28/12 UPDATE
I installed Diablo 3 and it runs fine with the default settings minus the anti aliasing. It did have that display driver out of date message after I installed it, but ran it with the default hardware and it's ok. No problems. CPU usage around 10% and physical memory about 36% if that helps out.
I just noticed that the battery angles the laptop a little more than usual so it allows better airflow and keeps it cooler on the table. This really helps out because I noticed the fan blowing harder when playing Diablo 3.
Well, it's been 4 yrs since I last bought a computer so there are changes. I dont like this Nero software that comes with the puter but you can always uninstall. My biggest complaint is that the same as previous reviewers: mainly that the touchpad buttons are really stiff and unresponsive. So much so that I would have gone with a different model if i had tried it at a store. Definitely doesnt feel like my previous Dell laptop.
I use my laptop everyday for surfing, youtubing, ebaying, and photoshopping. I knew that the specs were more than enough for my needs since my previous Dell with Duo Core processor, 3GB handled my needs just fine. So, I dont really see a difference in speed considering what I am doing with it. Sleeping and waking are normal.
The colour Expresso Black should just be called Expresso. It's definitely not black; it's ebony with a hint of red in it.
Good:
Lightweight and thin, yet sturdy
Very good processor speed (probably worth getting the i5)
Accessible keyboard
Three USB ports
Bright, clear screen
1 year of McAfee
Windows 7
Could be better:
Port covers are not necessary and get in the way
The mouse buttons take a lot of effort to "click" (and as such, I would not recommend this computer for a small child)
Does not have the Power DVD software common to previous Dell laptops I've purchased
And, unfortunately, includes a lot of software you probably won't want. The first 30 minutes of using this computer was a struggle among all the various "helpful" programs all simultaneously expecting to be registered, activated and/or updated. A "Nero" program was particularly annoying and could not be turned off, only minimized; I wound up uninstalling it altogether.
Surface areas easily show fingerprints
I would have liked to add the optional backlit keyboard, but it is only available on the top-of-the-line 14z model for $200 more
All in all, a good value, and I estimate I saved $60 buying from Amazon rather than direct from Dell.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
Short story: Stay way. I have had multiple problems with this laptop and Dell support can not fix said problems.I needed a laptop for school that could handle CAD programs, handle computational programs, have a good battery, and be portable. At the time my Toshiba Satellite had lasted me a good 4 years but the hard drive was becoming spotty and the battery life was decreasing. I decided to upgrade and after a little looking around I decided on the Dell Inspiron 14z. It looked good for a decent price. I quickly received the laptop from Amazon and the Dell was considerably faster than my previous Toshiba, a lot lighter, and the battery life was almost double. After a month of owning it I discovered that the microphone did not work with Skype or Google Chat. I guessed this problem was around since I bought the laptop. I was still in school at the time so I waited until summer to get it fixed. In July I contacted customer support via online chat help. After over an hour of diagnosis it was determined that my laptop motherboard was defective and I needed to send it in. This is what I had been afraid of, but since it was summer I could be without the laptop for a couple weeks to get it fixed.
Dell sent the package very quickly and then called me every step to let me know what was happening. A little too much in my opinion but it was good to know it would be done quickly. I then received the laptop back from Dell. I turned it on and first tested the microphone and it worked, problem solved. Not too fast, I was reloading my files that I had backed up and noticed that on 'Computer' window that my laptop said it only had 4GB of RAM. As in the description it came with 6GB of RAM when it was new. I opened up the back panel and saw that there was a 4GB RAM stick in the slot. I then popped out the keyboard to check the other slot and found out there was no RAM in RAM slot. I was hoping that it was something I could fix, but I was not so lucky. I called Dell again and told them my problem, it was pretty obvious and customer support said they would send the 2GB RAM stick.
I received the RAM within the next week, opened the keyboard again and put in the recently sent RAM. I then go to turn on the computer and it starts beeping at me (repetitive 3 beeps). I took out both RAM units and tried the new RAM unit in the slop on the back of the laptop, everything worked and computer booted up. Then tried the 4GB RAM in the keyboard slot, didn't workbeeps again. Time to call Dell again. I told them my problem and after a lengthy conversation they said they would fix the problem after I would send it in. Frustrated that they didn't fix it and annoyed that I wouldn't be able to use it for a more time, my only option was to send it in. I sent it in late-August. While the laptop was out for repairs I see a deal at Dell online that with a promo code the 14z laptop costs $500 with a $75 gift card to Dell. Which BEFORE the gift card, is $80 less than I had paid in April. And I had only used it for half of the available time due to issues.
Dell replaced the motherboard again and after a hold for parts I received it back mid-September. Finally, and just before school starts again my laptop is here and ready to go. Within 12 hours I discover yet another problem. The sound is not working either from speaker or headphone jack. I called them again. After running a couple of tests they confirmed that the speakers did not work. They wanted me to send in the laptop again. I really didn't want to, school was starting and it seems this fixing process has not worked before. I let the technician and his manager know my disgust asked for a new laptop because fixing it did not work the past 2 times. After a while of back and forth they couldn't do that. I then asked for the difference in cost since I was not able to use it for the entire summer. But it ended in that they can't and all they can do is service it in warranty. This fix will have the 4th motherboard installed for this laptop, not so random. It is so frustrating. Dell is completely wasting my time and can not fix a problem. I also asked them how they can be sure it is fixed completely but all I got was the same-as-always `we will run tests'-which have not worked in the past. What if the problem is not fixed? I will just be going through this song and dance again.
I would stay as far away from Dell as you can. This is an unacceptable product and service. I know problems occur but at such a large company, they should have ways to check that products are fixed correctly. I have been with out a laptop for 3 months at the moment and it's just going to get longer. School is starting and I will be without my laptop. A complete waste of time and money.
Best Deals for Dell Inspiron 14" Laptop (2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 2450M Processor, 6
I bought this laptop for my wife to use for her daily use such as email and watching videos. Let's just say that for the price, it can't be beat. It comes with Windows 7 Home, a Core i5-2450M and 6 GB of RAM. I felt that it was just the right size at 14" ... not too big and not too small. It also still has a DVD/CD drive.When I was researching laptops, I was on the fence of getting a laptop with an i3 processor or an i5 processor. I had to pay a little more, but I felt that it would still be a pretty decent laptop a few years for now.
The i3 processor is only a dual core, while the i5 is a quad core. Also it comes with 6 GB of RAM -most laptops only come with 4 GB in this price range. I haven't tried it for gaming yet, but when I get a chance, I'll try installing Diablo 3 and revise my review. I have no doubt that this laptop should be able to handle it. Maybe not at the best settings, but good enough to play without any issues.
Initial setup was like any laptop. A few registration prompts, but nothing major. If you've owned a laptop before, setting this up should be simple enough.
Somethings that I found annoying is the default Dell application that handles your media and movies. I had to manually set it so that it doesn't open up. I'll try to post pics later. Also I hate the fact that it has covers on the USB ports because it doesn't really open up all the way and it ruins the convenience factor.
Overall I feel that this is a little power house with great features that should last for awhile before I think about upgrading.
5/28/12 UPDATE
I installed Diablo 3 and it runs fine with the default settings minus the anti aliasing. It did have that display driver out of date message after I installed it, but ran it with the default hardware and it's ok. No problems. CPU usage around 10% and physical memory about 36% if that helps out.
I just noticed that the battery angles the laptop a little more than usual so it allows better airflow and keeps it cooler on the table. This really helps out because I noticed the fan blowing harder when playing Diablo 3.
Honest reviews on Dell Inspiron 14" Laptop (2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 2450M Processor, 6
This is the worst computer I have ever used. The hard drive failed within the first month, and I had to get it replaced. The track pad is of horrific quality, and the computer struggles with basics like connecting to the internet. The absolute worst computer I have EVER used. Don't know how Dell gets away selling these things. Will NEVER buy a Dell again. Avoid at ALL costs. 500 dollars down the drain.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Dell Inspiron 14" Laptop (2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 2450M Processor, 6
My previous laptop Dell Inspiron 1525 was 4.5 yrs old so it was time for a new puter. I know that there are a lot of Dell haters out there but I had a better experience with Dell than I had with Apple, Sony (piece of junk, HATE!) and Toshiba so I wanted another Dell.Well, it's been 4 yrs since I last bought a computer so there are changes. I dont like this Nero software that comes with the puter but you can always uninstall. My biggest complaint is that the same as previous reviewers: mainly that the touchpad buttons are really stiff and unresponsive. So much so that I would have gone with a different model if i had tried it at a store. Definitely doesnt feel like my previous Dell laptop.
I use my laptop everyday for surfing, youtubing, ebaying, and photoshopping. I knew that the specs were more than enough for my needs since my previous Dell with Duo Core processor, 3GB handled my needs just fine. So, I dont really see a difference in speed considering what I am doing with it. Sleeping and waking are normal.
The colour Expresso Black should just be called Expresso. It's definitely not black; it's ebony with a hint of red in it.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Discount Lenovo - Ideapad 15.6" Laptop - 6gb Memory - 750gb Hard Drive
The vendor described this product as "like new" and that's exactly how I received it. The machine has performed flawlessly so far although I really haven't tested full battery life. Touchpad is a little sensitive but my fat fingers find that most pads are. Great screen and keyboard layout. Machine feels sturdy. Received well packed and very quickly from vendor.
Friday, May 30, 2014
Review of Lenovo G530 15.4-Inch Laptop (Black Matte)
We have noted various other computers while both shopping and helping solve our family's various computer issues, so I knew about what I wanted when it came time to replace our 10 year old IBM T23 Think Pad. Price was also a factor in our selection and frankly I simply wanted a Lenovo having had a long and very good experience with my T23. Lenovo is continuing the tougness of the past generation of IBM laptops.
The Lenovo G530 is really a fantastic laptop. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that the $1200 laptops have, but it is extremely quick in doing everything I need when I go online. There is tons of storage space with a 165 gig Hard Drive, plus tons of memory-and I am even starting to like Windows 7. I may eventually go back to Linux Ubuntu distro which is my OS of choice.
The Lenovao G530 has a very bright wide screen moniter. All functions are responding well. Lenovo has continued the IBM PC and Laptop appearance, and I chuckle at the black matte finish and think: "something only a mother could love." Don't worry about appearances, they still have the toughness that I enjoyed for years with my T23. Imagine going from 30 gig hard drive up to 165 gigs, and the same relative improvements on the processor speeds and memory capacity. This unit literally flies from on web page to another. The visual properties of the 15.4 inch monitor as well as the more than adequate sound card give good performance for enjoying videos as well as extended listening to your favorite audios through Windows Media which is included in the Windows 7 Premium OS.
I plug in my Koss PortaPro Headphones and hear every detail of the music. The sound card gives crisp digital audio performance that you will really enjoy. I'm not an audiophile but enjoy listening to a lot of good music and I appreciate the sound that I get with the Lenovo G530
We are very satisfied with this purchase which arrived from Amazon in just two days. We used the $40 Amazon Vista rebate so the entire purchase was $400.00 which is a very good value for a laptop with the large screen and obvious quality and speed. A tip that works for me, instead of paying extra to buy Windows Office, we installed Open Office which works great for me both on Windows 7 and our Linux OS which I have on our Dell Desktop PC.
I recommend this computer and feel you'll get many performance features that you get on computers that cost much more. I have owned Gateway, Dell, HP and IBM and much prefer the current Lenovo G530 to all of them. Our Dell Desktops are recent purchases. The G530 has quickly taken over as my favorite. Great Value, Very Fast, and Built Tough.
It runs nice & cool (amazingly cool, actually), great picture quality (gotta catch the recent NCIS episodes!) and the keyboard feels good to use.
The black matte finish keeps it looking nice (without fingerprints, etc) too.
Probably my only very minor complaint is that the place to plug-in the earphones (and microphone/alt audio-in) are at the very front which makes them inaccessible when I use my laptop cradle (which sets the laptop at an angle, resting against something on that bottom/front).
Oh, and I absolutely love the feature that allows me to physically turn off the wireless card!!!
Well, it did NOT come loaded up with crapware. I'm a real fan of that! I had planned on spending an hour or two removing unwanted bloat, but didn't need to. It works just fine for what I bought it for running some light weight stuff like word processing, spreadsheets, finance and a tiny bit of web surfing. At the price of this thing, I can afford to keep it dedicated to those business type tasks while I use my other machines for gaming, heavy web surfing, etc.
All in all, I'm very impressed with this, my first Lenovo. I'm fairly certain I'll go to them for my next machine as well.
I use it regularly with HP's WiFi Mouse, Siig's USB to HDMI Converter, Sandisk's MicroMate SD/SDHC Reader, Belkin's Mini Bluetooth Laptop Adapter (for tethering to my Blackberry Storm2 9550, and Belkin's USB 2.0 4-Port Mini Hub.
The keyboard is first rate for laptops. Likewise, no problems with the trackpad (which features a scroll function along the right side). Operation is quiet, even when the cooling fan is on. And the unit never gets too hot. No problems with the mic or web cam to report.
But I do have a list of either "dislikes" or "things I should have considered before purchasing" that I think are worth mentioning. Hopefully these will give you some available features to consider before finalizing your laptop decision:
1. The screen is glossy, not "anti-glare" -which means brighter colors, but depending on lighting conditions, it can be difficult to view (or you may find you're looking at a reflection of yourself).
2. As much as I tether to my cell phone for internet connectivity, I could stand to have built-in Bluetooth. The Belkin adapter I use takes up one of two available USB ports.
3. The battery live is limited. I can get about an hour of streaming internet video before it's depleted. Not much more for just general web surfing. I haven't found an extended battery for this unit.
4. The speakers are lacking in volume output when something louder is needed, though the sound quality is fine.
5. To play online video from Hulu or NBC on my television, I have to use the USB to HDMI converter I mentioned. I'd much rather have purchased a laptop with HDMI out.
6. A built-in SD card reader would have been nice. The Sandisk reader I use is fine, except it's so wide that I need to use it through a USB hub because otherwise it interferes with the other USB port.
7. There's no backlighted keyboard, so typing in the dark can be challenging.
8. I'm not a fan of front-facing headphone jacks for those semi-regular occasions I use earbuds.
9. Part of me would like a numeric keypad for very infrequent use, though that usually comes with a marked size increase.
The narrow aspect ratio of the 15.4" screen is almost impossible to find on anything newer than this unit, which is too bad because none of the 15.6" laptops fit in my bag. (Boo hoo!)
Contrary to what I've written, I don't regret this purchase much -the price was right, the operation is solid, and since purchasing this G530 I've learned a lot more about how I'll want to use my next laptop (or, at least, what features I want in it). So I'm satisfied that I didn't overbuy this first time around, yet am able to do want with it.
If you're looking for a bare bones internet machine with enough processor to get through some drawing and photo editing, and will be close to a power source, I have no qualms recommending this on your list of consideration -especially at the prices you can find it for these days.
The Lenovo G530 is really a fantastic laptop. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that the $1200 laptops have, but it is extremely quick in doing everything I need when I go online. There is tons of storage space with a 165 gig Hard Drive, plus tons of memory-and I am even starting to like Windows 7. I may eventually go back to Linux Ubuntu distro which is my OS of choice.
The Lenovao G530 has a very bright wide screen moniter. All functions are responding well. Lenovo has continued the IBM PC and Laptop appearance, and I chuckle at the black matte finish and think: "something only a mother could love." Don't worry about appearances, they still have the toughness that I enjoyed for years with my T23. Imagine going from 30 gig hard drive up to 165 gigs, and the same relative improvements on the processor speeds and memory capacity. This unit literally flies from on web page to another. The visual properties of the 15.4 inch monitor as well as the more than adequate sound card give good performance for enjoying videos as well as extended listening to your favorite audios through Windows Media which is included in the Windows 7 Premium OS.
I plug in my Koss PortaPro Headphones and hear every detail of the music. The sound card gives crisp digital audio performance that you will really enjoy. I'm not an audiophile but enjoy listening to a lot of good music and I appreciate the sound that I get with the Lenovo G530
We are very satisfied with this purchase which arrived from Amazon in just two days. We used the $40 Amazon Vista rebate so the entire purchase was $400.00 which is a very good value for a laptop with the large screen and obvious quality and speed. A tip that works for me, instead of paying extra to buy Windows Office, we installed Open Office which works great for me both on Windows 7 and our Linux OS which I have on our Dell Desktop PC.
I recommend this computer and feel you'll get many performance features that you get on computers that cost much more. I have owned Gateway, Dell, HP and IBM and much prefer the current Lenovo G530 to all of them. Our Dell Desktops are recent purchases. The G530 has quickly taken over as my favorite. Great Value, Very Fast, and Built Tough.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
Love this computer... its having Windows 7 doesn't hurt either. It's fast, and feels good & solid (not like some of the cheaper models that almost feel like toys that'll break at the drop of a hat). We have another laptop we recently purchased at a local store this other one, besides feeling 'cheaper' has a dvd/cd tray that doesn't have the button to open the drive. This Lenovo has that simple feature I never appreciated before.It runs nice & cool (amazingly cool, actually), great picture quality (gotta catch the recent NCIS episodes!) and the keyboard feels good to use.
The black matte finish keeps it looking nice (without fingerprints, etc) too.
Probably my only very minor complaint is that the place to plug-in the earphones (and microphone/alt audio-in) are at the very front which makes them inaccessible when I use my laptop cradle (which sets the laptop at an angle, resting against something on that bottom/front).
Oh, and I absolutely love the feature that allows me to physically turn off the wireless card!!!
Best Deals for Lenovo G530 15.4-Inch Laptop (Black Matte)
This system is much easier to deal with than I had anticipated. I bought is based on screen size, price, and knowing that lenovo used to make IBM's laptops. Figured I'd buy it and then cope with all the new system joy.Well, it did NOT come loaded up with crapware. I'm a real fan of that! I had planned on spending an hour or two removing unwanted bloat, but didn't need to. It works just fine for what I bought it for running some light weight stuff like word processing, spreadsheets, finance and a tiny bit of web surfing. At the price of this thing, I can afford to keep it dedicated to those business type tasks while I use my other machines for gaming, heavy web surfing, etc.
All in all, I'm very impressed with this, my first Lenovo. I'm fairly certain I'll go to them for my next machine as well.
Honest reviews on Lenovo G530 15.4-Inch Laptop (Black Matte)
I bought this laptop for my wife's birthday. So far, she loves it and has no complaints at all. It's not a fully loaded computer, but for the price, it's a great choice. One thing I noticed, though, is when you plug or unplug the power while the laptop is on, it makes rather loud beeping. It may be embarrassing when that happens if you are in a meeting. Does anyone know if the beep can be turned off?Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Lenovo G530 15.4-Inch Laptop (Black Matte)
I probably ought to have researched this purchase just a little bit more than I did, but I do like this laptop. It's bare bones, but otherwise meets the standards of quality of earlier IBM-manufactured ThinkPads. For web browsing, internet video playback, Inkscape, GPS map unpacking / updating, Skype/Google video chat and telephone calls, and photo uploading (the types of tasks I routinely perform on my G530), it's fine. More than enough storage, speedy Windows 7 operations and boot / standby recovery times.I use it regularly with HP's WiFi Mouse, Siig's USB to HDMI Converter, Sandisk's MicroMate SD/SDHC Reader, Belkin's Mini Bluetooth Laptop Adapter (for tethering to my Blackberry Storm2 9550, and Belkin's USB 2.0 4-Port Mini Hub.
The keyboard is first rate for laptops. Likewise, no problems with the trackpad (which features a scroll function along the right side). Operation is quiet, even when the cooling fan is on. And the unit never gets too hot. No problems with the mic or web cam to report.
But I do have a list of either "dislikes" or "things I should have considered before purchasing" that I think are worth mentioning. Hopefully these will give you some available features to consider before finalizing your laptop decision:
1. The screen is glossy, not "anti-glare" -which means brighter colors, but depending on lighting conditions, it can be difficult to view (or you may find you're looking at a reflection of yourself).
2. As much as I tether to my cell phone for internet connectivity, I could stand to have built-in Bluetooth. The Belkin adapter I use takes up one of two available USB ports.
3. The battery live is limited. I can get about an hour of streaming internet video before it's depleted. Not much more for just general web surfing. I haven't found an extended battery for this unit.
4. The speakers are lacking in volume output when something louder is needed, though the sound quality is fine.
5. To play online video from Hulu or NBC on my television, I have to use the USB to HDMI converter I mentioned. I'd much rather have purchased a laptop with HDMI out.
6. A built-in SD card reader would have been nice. The Sandisk reader I use is fine, except it's so wide that I need to use it through a USB hub because otherwise it interferes with the other USB port.
7. There's no backlighted keyboard, so typing in the dark can be challenging.
8. I'm not a fan of front-facing headphone jacks for those semi-regular occasions I use earbuds.
9. Part of me would like a numeric keypad for very infrequent use, though that usually comes with a marked size increase.
The narrow aspect ratio of the 15.4" screen is almost impossible to find on anything newer than this unit, which is too bad because none of the 15.6" laptops fit in my bag. (Boo hoo!)
Contrary to what I've written, I don't regret this purchase much -the price was right, the operation is solid, and since purchasing this G530 I've learned a lot more about how I'll want to use my next laptop (or, at least, what features I want in it). So I'm satisfied that I didn't overbuy this first time around, yet am able to do want with it.
If you're looking for a bare bones internet machine with enough processor to get through some drawing and photo editing, and will be close to a power source, I have no qualms recommending this on your list of consideration -especially at the prices you can find it for these days.
Monday, May 12, 2014
Buy Lenovo ThinkPad X130e 2338 - 11.6" - Core i3 2367M
I figured, rather than settle for a high end tablet which looks pretty but bottom line has only 1/3 as much versatility and capability as a laptop, I'd go ahead and drop the half grand for this baby.
Liked right out of the box...super sturdy/solid/durable, which explains its hefty weight despite its small size (it was designed for the K-12 classroom environment of hard knocks)...feels just as heavy as my 15.6" Thinkpad T520! The only small gripe I have is that the T520 has an old style keyboard, whereas the x130 has a chiclet keyboard...but it's quite nice for a chiclet keyboard anyhow.
I also appreciated the easy expandability...just 3 screws to take off the back panel, and you can replace the hard drive with a Solid State Drive and upgrade the memory. I ordered 2 sticks of 4GB memory to go with it, and it was a nice little upgrade, I like being able to leave a gazillion Chrome tabs open without fear of memory slowdowns. This is a distinct advantage over the super-thin "ultra-books" that are not upgradeable because the memory (and sometimes, even the hard drive) is soldered into the motherboard. I'd much rather have the expandability and accept having a little bit more bulk and weight.
The Core i3-2367 processor is more than adequate as long as you're not a gamer (I'm not), definitely a step up from the AMD processors often found in laptops of this size. Everything else works great, battery life is respectable, a solid 6 hours or so...I'm putting in an SSD this week, so I expect it to increase a bit. There is some bloatware but not that much compared to say, a Dell or HP, and it was easy to remove using the Revo Uninstaller freeware. It would've been nice to have a backlit keyboard or an LED worklight like my T520, but that's not a dealbreaker for me. Getting stuck with Windows 8 would have been, so I was happy that it came with Windows 7!
>> update 3/31/13: when installing an SSD or HDD, make sure it's the slim 9.5mm thickness not the standard 12.5mm ... I went with the Samsung Pro 128GB SSD which is the correct thickness, and have been very happy with it (see my review of that product). Did a clean reinstall of Windows without all the Lenovo bloatware, which now makes this baby SCREAMING fast!
Liked right out of the box...super sturdy/solid/durable, which explains its hefty weight despite its small size (it was designed for the K-12 classroom environment of hard knocks)...feels just as heavy as my 15.6" Thinkpad T520! The only small gripe I have is that the T520 has an old style keyboard, whereas the x130 has a chiclet keyboard...but it's quite nice for a chiclet keyboard anyhow.
I also appreciated the easy expandability...just 3 screws to take off the back panel, and you can replace the hard drive with a Solid State Drive and upgrade the memory. I ordered 2 sticks of 4GB memory to go with it, and it was a nice little upgrade, I like being able to leave a gazillion Chrome tabs open without fear of memory slowdowns. This is a distinct advantage over the super-thin "ultra-books" that are not upgradeable because the memory (and sometimes, even the hard drive) is soldered into the motherboard. I'd much rather have the expandability and accept having a little bit more bulk and weight.
The Core i3-2367 processor is more than adequate as long as you're not a gamer (I'm not), definitely a step up from the AMD processors often found in laptops of this size. Everything else works great, battery life is respectable, a solid 6 hours or so...I'm putting in an SSD this week, so I expect it to increase a bit. There is some bloatware but not that much compared to say, a Dell or HP, and it was easy to remove using the Revo Uninstaller freeware. It would've been nice to have a backlit keyboard or an LED worklight like my T520, but that's not a dealbreaker for me. Getting stuck with Windows 8 would have been, so I was happy that it came with Windows 7!
>> update 3/31/13: when installing an SSD or HDD, make sure it's the slim 9.5mm thickness not the standard 12.5mm ... I went with the Samsung Pro 128GB SSD which is the correct thickness, and have been very happy with it (see my review of that product). Did a clean reinstall of Windows without all the Lenovo bloatware, which now makes this baby SCREAMING fast!
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
Love this laptop. You can see the thought in design of this little laptop. It's almost bulletproof and performancewise it is outstanding. The 11.6" screen makes this big enough for real use... It has Windows 7 Professional so no dealing with an unfamiliar "Metro" interface (Windows 8) . I highly recommend this laptop.Best Deals for Lenovo ThinkPad X130e 2338 - 11.6" - Core i3 2367M
Product exactly as described... If it says fulfillment by Amazon.... I give it 5 stars.... I love the sturdy feel of it, plus, it not that heavy to carry around... And most of all, the best keyboard laptop there is in the market
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