Best Laptop Under 500

Review of AS5742Z-4646 - DDR3 Sdram - Serial Ata - 15.6 Inch - Tft Active

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Mon, 5 Jan 2015 06:04:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

Wecam, 15.6" screen,intel P6200 duo core, 4G Ram and 320 HD... great laptop! I use it for basic stuff: email, internetj/research, download music and that is pretty much it. I don't game at all. This is my first laptop and you need to understand that my old computer (6 years old) was a Pentium 4, 80G HD, 512 Ram. I've had this ACER for a month now and I am more than pleased with its performance. Speed is great. Screen is great. Keyboard is great (I never have to worry about my wrists accidently hitting the house pad), mouse pad is great. I haven't tried the webcam yet. Speakers are weak but I don't use my computer to listen to music. I bought this laptop for $379.00 with free shipping in early February. Too cheap. I wonder how much the workers in Asia are being paid to make them??? :(

-D

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This is my second Acer Laptop, my previous laptop was good but this one is great. I just use my laptop when I am traveling, it has WiFi, keyboard has a very good ease of use and the 15 in screen is wide enough that I can watch movies and work without any eye strain, battery life is good at least 3.5 hours. I would recommend this to anyone who needs a good inexpensive system.

Best Deals for AS5742Z-4646 - DDR3 Sdram - Serial Ata - 15.6 Inch - Tft Active

Loves this laptop. I got it for him as he went off to college. Really good buy for the price.

Discount Lenovo IdeaPad U310 4375 - 13.3" - Core i5 3317U

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Mon, 5 Jan 2015 04:11:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

I am definitely satisfied with the purchase, good price, excellent computer.

it just has one issue when connecting to wifi, it seams to have low "antenna" capacity, though it works fine when the wifi signal is good.

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I got the laptop factory refurbished. It didn't have even the smallest scratch.

The only problem is the know wifi issue. With some (not all) wifi routers, the wifi speed decreases dramatically (down to 6Mbps).

Apart from that, super fast, didn't encounter any work or multimedia task that it couldn't handle.

Discount HP - Pavilion Laptop DV7-3085DX 17.3" LED Wide Screen 6GB Ram

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Mon, 5 Jan 2015 02:24:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

I've had this computer for over 2 years now, and have only recently had to replace the power cord. Being a truck driver, my power cords are often mangled easily, but this one lasted much longer than expected. As far as the physical casing goes, there is no major wear on any part of the computer and only a small chip on the case from dropping it off of a three-foot high shelf onto a steel floor a couple times. I've never had a laptop that was able to withstand the abuse of being in a truck nearly as well. It is also capable of complete versatility; I handle all of my financial documents, taxes, trip paperwork, video calls to family back home, and anything I need for my business with it, and am still able to play some of the more advanced computer games (even WoW plays on high-res with no lag). Overall, I would highly recommend this system for anyone interested in a good, stable, versatile computer that can take pretty much anything you throw at it!

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Just got this model for Christmas. There are veriations of this model along with different prices. It's a bit more expensive than most computers that will do similiar functions, with only the exception of having a core i7 processor (quad core). All the other computers that had i7 were way over priced built for gaming, but from that prespective, it's actually one of the cheaper ones if that'll be your primary use or want to have it as an option. On appearance, its black sleek look is very impressive. You'll have to get the customized version from hp.com if that's not your taste. The widescreen looks great that's nice for watching movies. The sound is pretty impressive too...lots better than most laptops, complete with sub and all. Windows 7 is sweet; so far opening programs fast and running it smooth. The side number keys are a plus too. I gave it s 4/5 because for the price I think they could've added more; like a blu-ray drive, 8GB RAM instead of just 6GB, a TV-tuner would also make it a total power house. The spec say it weights 7.7 lbs, but it feels more like 10 lbs. The heat vent felt pretty hot on the ones displayed in the store, but that may be because it had been left on all day. Currently it feels a little warmer than other non-high performing laptops, but not too bad. I'm thinking that may be an issue in the future, that's why you should get an extended warranty on it from hp.com. It's expensive, but well worth the investment...just calculated it into your total cost! Overall it's still a very cool laptop and I would highly recommend it.

Best Deals for HP - Pavilion Laptop DV7-3085DX 17.3" LED Wide Screen 6GB Ram

Even though this wasn't one of my most heavily used machines, the battery didn't last long and of course right after the warranty expired, an expensive keyboard replacement was needed. On the positive side, you get a large 17" display, good quality speakers, and while it's an older device, its far from obsolete with a Core i7 processor and 6 GB of memory. If you're in the market for a used PC, you might want to consider this one with the understanding that you'll probably end needing to have it plugged in most of the time.

Honest reviews on HP - Pavilion Laptop DV7-3085DX 17.3" LED Wide Screen 6GB Ram

This laptop has everything I would ever need. I have had this laptop for two years and haven't found anything I don't like about it. To be honest with vista vs windows 7, vista is the best in my opinion. I know this laptop comes with vista, but a lot of stuff requires vista or older. Great laptop.

Reviews of Sony VAIO(R) SVS13A25PXB 13.3" Premium Notebook PC - Black

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Mon, 5 Jan 2015 00:32:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

Good computer. Windows 8 comes preloaded which is a pain. More trouble than it's worth with a non touch screen computer. The computer it's self is very fast. Ergonomics are good. Keyboard is still a good usable size. Don't love the mouse pad, but easy fix with a blue tooth mouse. Screen is average although the graphics when on my standard 1080 p monitor are above average. There is a light sensor that automatically sets screen brightness. I had to disable it because the screen would constantly flicker brighter and darker.

All in all a good value.

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The hardware is great, but you need get used to Windows 8.

This computer is very fast, light. Really worth its price!

Best Deals for Sony VAIO(R) SVS13A25PXB 13.3" Premium Notebook PC - Black

She is a great computer with a lot more power that the tiny ultrabooks.

What I do not like is really the sound. Not yet they have found no solution for him.

For the rest, for normal tasks a lot of RAM, Hard Disk SSD, and super video plate, although I will always use the HD4000 as it is in these hybrid equipment.

The cabinet fashion repeats with my predecessor VPC-SA4FGX/BI.

A little expensive for me, since I live in Argentina, and I have spent around 1870 dollars(final in my office), but to my 50 years, I prepare some gifts, since life is very short to save money.

I have just found a more cost-reducing offer that he is and in 17,3"incredible! "Sony Vaio SVE1712BCXB 17.3" 2.80GHz i7-3840QM 16GB 500GB SSD AMD 7650M FullHD Windows 8 BD-ROM"

Thanks Amazon! Amazing....Joe

Best HP Envy 15-3040NR 15.6 Inch Laptop (Black/Silver) Deals

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Sun, 4 Jan 2015 11:18:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

I really wanted to like this laptop, because on paper, there are very very few (if any) laptops that offer a similar package at this price point (up to 30% off MSRP after various HP coupons on the web for i7-2620qm, powerful graphics via 7690m, but most of all, 1080p IPS display). However, after 2 months of patience, I can no longer ignore the glaring issues HP has chosen to overlook. First, there have been numerous reports first appearing in forums about users' complaints about the Envy 15 1080p's inability to produce red colors. Since the initial reports in January, numerous tech blogs like the Verge, notebookcheck, and Engadget (among others) have confirmed this issue. While I had tried to overlook the issue myself, the non-reds eventually became far too big of a distraction, especially considering that this was a $150.00 upgrade option. If HP charged $250.00 for a screen upgrade that had a decent color gamut (come on! I'm not asking for Dreamcolor quality or even 95% Adobe coverage like Lenovo offers, just a screen that can reproduce the THREE PRIMARY COLORS!), I would have gladly and without hesitation ponied up the extra cost. I regret that HP chose to cut corners like this, when they were so close to a phenomenal laptop/display. -1 Star for display.

The second issue I take is the keyboard. To be fair, when I first received this unit, I had no skipped/missed keys, and I decided I could live with the slight flex on the left side of the keyboard. But ever since a BIOS update (F.05, for those of you keeping track), which by the way was ON HP's OWN SITE, the keyboard will miss literally about 15% of my keystrokes whenever I'm running on AC adapter (but strangely, I have no problems when running on battery!). The keystroke issue is actually distracting enough to disrupt my day-to-day web browsing (missed spaces and mistyped web addresses are nothing but common); in fact, the only way you are reading this review without typos in every 3rd word is by my proofreading. Again, to be fair, I am understanding of the fact that software/updates can be buggy at times; it's another matter when the manufacturer does not fix these bugs, not to mention refuse to acknowledge the numerous complaints from customers (google for forums in notebookreview.com and HP customer support forum for "Envy 15 BIOS keyboard" and skim through results). -2 Star, 1 each for keyboard/HP customer service handling complaints.

Others have complained about banged up USB ports, scratches, paint peeling, etc., but my unit arrived cosmetically flawless so I will not dock any stars for that.

It is my own fault for waiting 2 months to try to like this laptop and end up discovering all of this, instead of returning the unit within the initial 21-day period. I hope others will benefit from my less-than-pleasant experience with the Envy 15. I will update this review should HP offer any solutions to these and other complaints not even mentioned in this mini-review, but I am not holding my breath.

EDIT 2/21/12: BIOS F.06 also does nothing to address the keyboard problem.

EDIT 3/20/12: I'm adding one star back to my review. F.07 was released a couple of days ago, and I'm happy to report that all of the keyboard woes are gone! Here's to hoping that those problems don't return... I would like to add on a half-star if I could, for the fact that HP's coming around to responding and ACKNOWLEDGING the problems surrounding the Envy. HP recently made a formal (though somewhat vague) announcement about HP's proposal to fix the screen issue. This gives me some hope that the company's at least taking steps to do what it can to remedy the issues at hand. I will update again after seeing what HP ultimately does w/ the LCD problem.

EDIT 5/10/12: HP released a software that allows some control over colors for the display, but as I had suspected, the software doesn't do anything to fix the red/violet issues (I wasn't hoping for too much out of the software option anyway since my research had confirmed the colors are a limitation of the LG panel itself).

EDIT 7/10/12: I honestly didn't think I'd be updating this review again, but here I am. First I have to say that HP's engineers offered better customer concern/service than any dedicated customer service departments, period (Thanks again, Jonathan!). Second, HP contacted me a few weeks ago to ask whether I had the orange-red issues with my panel, to which I provided details about the problem. Long story short, I was offered a free exchange (HP paid shipping both ways), and quite frankly, I wasn't expecting any difference despite the different panel part number of the new panel. Well I was wrong--wrong about my customer service comments above, and wrong about the panel. The new panel isn't perfect or even great by any standard, but it is definitely a noticeable improvement on the original Envy 15 panels' reds. In light of these two points, I'm adding one more star back mostly due to the way that HP decided to handle the crappy-display issue because the screen, as improved as it is, is still only average. Here's a quote from a post I wrote on another forum, describing the difference:

"While the reds on the new panels are still definitely not a natural, deep red, it's a noticeable improvement from the older panels. The red is at least almost on par with my Galaxy S phone, and noticeably but not hugely worse than my Dell U2311h. Reds are noticeably more orange than on my Dell U2410, but I'm not expecting much there because that is, after all, a 118% gamut display. My Envy 14's red is definitely redder, but I didn't expect the E15 to be as good anyway since the E14's panel is 84% gamut, and the E15's is supposedly 60%. The reds are indistinguishable from the reds on my wife's Late 2011 Macbook 15 (1680x1050 panel), and in some cases (netflix website, fullscreen red in Paint), the E15 actually appears redder--and no, there is nothing "wrong" with the Macbook's panel.

It's very hard for me not to expect more though b/c I've been far too long spoiled by the likes of HP's dreamcolor display, Dell's no longer existent RGBLED XPS 16 display, and excellent desktop monitors... yet, in spite of that, I can confidently say that at least the color aspect of the new panels are no better or worse than the colors of a typical TN panel on the average laptop. That said, I always thought that given equal color reproduction, there is little/no reason not to opt for IPS or TN (at least on a laptop), so I think I can lay aside my gripes about the orange-y reds. I can always wish/complain about wanting a higher gamut, but I know that's not what I paid for, nor did HP advertise high-gamut displays on the E15 as they did with the E14."

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I bought this from Amazon but I ordered it through my wife's account (she has a prime student) and that's why Amazon is not showing as verified purchase. This laptop is gorgeous, very much a clone of a Macbook pro. I use a Early 2010 Macbook pro 17" for my work, and I can assure you it excels my Macbook pro in the following functional aspects:

1. It has a full keyboard. The Macbook's so called "Full" keyboard is really not that full. Macbook misses all the home, end, page up and page down button. And trust me, even after two years of regular usage, I find it irritating. True, you can use Command + Up/Down etc. combination. But it's really a productivity issue.

2. The Envy's 4 speakers and the woofer combination is really awesome. In fact, this is the first laptop that I saw that outperforms my 17" Macbook pro speaker (both sound quality and volume). Previously I compared Asus N53, hp DV5, Lenovo (forgot the model number) and hp DV6 and all of them had much inferior sound quality than my Macbook pro

3. The USB ports are distributed on two sides, which is really nice

From aesthetics and ergonomics part, it excels my Macbook pro in the following aspects:

1. The corners of the rectangular chassis is not sharp like my Macbook pro, which is really nice. The Macbook's sharp edges cut into my palm everytime I lift it. Even while typing, it feels like a knife against my arm.

2. I liked the back lighting of the hp keyboard better

Now some cons in comparison to my Macbook pro 17 (early 2010):

1. My hp envy 15 power button's painting is already peeling off!! My Macbook pro still looks like brand new (not just the power button). To be fair, the Envy 15 doesn't seem to have any other weak part to peel off, and I am planning to keep the laptop as that minor cosmetic blemish is not a big deal for me.

2. The screen on my Macbook pro still would outperform the radiance display (to be fair, this is the best display of all the non Macbook pro that I have seen (refer to the earlier mentioned laptop models that I played with)). That being said, the Macbook pro 15" display really SUCKS. Refer to my updated comparison with Macbook pro 15" at the end of this review.

3. My 2 years old Macbook pro's 640x480 resolution webcam (yes that's only 0.3 mega pixel) still outperforms this Envy HD webcam (True vision or whatever they call it). That being said, again, to be fair, this is one of the best webcam that I have seen in non-Macbook pro laptops. Particularly, my last attempt with Asus N53SV webcam was horrible! It was sooo laggy and soo horrible quality that it was a deal breaker for me. (UPDATE: I changed my opinion, and kindly refer to my updated part of this review for my current subjective opinion).

4. The touchpad on my macbook pro has NO competitor. It's really awesome, and the hp touchpad can only dream to be of that quality.

Now some common complaint and their solution:

1. The touchpad is horrible, doesn't do smooth scrolling, doesn't register click etc. The solution is to install the latest driver. The notebook review forum has a Envy driver page which is up to date with the latest drivers (including drivers that are still not officially available from HP) and I downloaded a Synaptic driver from that link. It's a direct download from HP server, so nothing to be worried about. HP is probably going to release that soon. The driver was built at the end of January and after installing that, this touchpad is REALLY awesome. Almost as good as my Macbook pro (but as I said, it's still has a long way to go)

2. The two finger tapping has no right click configuration: If you come from Mac world, you are probably accustomed to tapping with two fingers and that acts like a right click. You can install an open source program named TwoFingerScroll (hosted on google codes) to achieve that. After that, IMHO, the touchpad is feature complete (you can configure many options in original Synaptic control panel + TwoFingerScroll)

3. Battery issue, and smooth switching between built in and ATI graphics card: Right now I have fixed mode driver enabled and I am only using built in Intel Graphics, which is more than adequate for me as I don't play games. You just need to go to BIOS settings and set Fixed mode in video switching setting (instead of Dynamic (the default)), and then right click on the desktop and go to Configure Switchable Graphics and set the power saving GPU as the graphics card. That seems to give me around 5 hours of typical usage, where I can edit the documents or browse typical web. Please refer to the updated review at the end of this review for some battery comparison with Macbook pro 17" and 15".

4. People complain that the red looks orange. But that's a common problem of the recent IPS panels (I heard Sony has same problem). And to me it doesn't look bad at all. The notebook review forum has some color calibration suggestion to improve the red accuracy. But I don't think it would be fixed with such a simple solution. So, if you really need a very accurate color output, look elsewhere.

Some features that I really like:

1. The analog volume control: Oh my gosh, that is sooo handy and sooo cute. You really need to feel it to understand how great that feature is. I always got lost between various top row volume control button. Now I never miss volume up and volume down. And they also have a cute mute button next to the analog volume control.

2. Buttonless touchpad: While they copied it from Apple, I think that's really great. Particularly, now you have the whole area as a touchpad and for multi-touch gesture.

Some issues that I hate:

1. The fan sound. It's definitely louder than my Macbook pro (Which is almost silent), and it's even louder than my Asus N53!

2. The left side of the keyboard (a, s, d etc. keys) feels loose (probably people call it flexing??) It doesn't feel solid.

3. I hated the crappy painting that is peeling off from the power button

All being said, this is the best non-Apple laptop that I have ever seen in my life. I am really happy with the build quality and the look (which they definitely copied from Apple), and the laptop is really very snappy (as you would expect from such a high end laptop). Unless the IPS Red accuracy is an issue for you, and you can live with some hit and miss on the build quality, it should be fine. Give it a try, and of course Amazon's excellent customer service would help you get a refund if you are not happy.

UPDATE 02/22/2012:

I now played with the laptop little more, and I also compared it with my brother's late 2011 Macbook pro 15" (The latest model). Here is my findings:

1. Envy's display might be inferior to my Macbook pro 17" which has a full HD (not 1080p) 1920x1200 display. But it blows away the latest 15" Macbook pro's display which only has 1440x900 and you cannot even upgrade that display. In fact, the Macbook pro 15's display looks super pixelated next to Envy's display.

2. I heavily tested the webcam, and compared it against both my Macbook pro 17 and my brother's Macbook pro 15. While the Macbook pro's webcam looks more brighter, it is actually inferior to HP's true vision webcam. The hp webcam gives high color accuracy and more contrast. In return, you get more noise. In a first look it does appear that Macbook's webcam is smoother. But my wife pointed to me that my green t-shirt during testing was looking almost whitish with the Macbook pro (both 17" and 15") webcam.

3. Moreover, on the Webcam part, the HP webcam is buttery smooth. I don't have a scientific comparison. But, I felt like they are capturing the frames at at least 20+ FPS. Macbook pro's Webcam is also quite good. But I felt like they have little bit of lag and not as smooth as HP.

4. Apple actually lost their battery edge! This is particularly surprise to me. My 17" Macbook pro still gives me 6+ hours of battery life. While the brand new Macbook pro 15" actually depletes within 3 hours of continuous video playback! On skype video calling, it was showing me a dismal 1.5 hours of estimated battery life! The MBP 15" battery life is therefore very similar to Envy's battery life. I believe this is because of the quad core processor. Another thing that irritated me is Apple's unwillingness to disable the dedicated graphics card. In my Early 2010 MBP, there was an option in System Preference, where I could disable my dedicated graphics card to save some power. As I never play game, I never use dedicated graphics card. But, looks like in OS X Lion and the late 2011 MBP, they only either allow you dynamic switching or a dedicated graphics card. Neither could accomplish the best possible battery life with just an exclusive non-negotiable built in graphics card (as I mentioned, both my MBP 17 and Envy is currently set to built in graphics only).

5. And finally, I really got disappointed at my brother's latest Macbook pro 15" after introspecting with what he got after paying 1.5 times the cost of Envy:

5.1. MBP 15 has 512 MB of graphics RAM, while Envy 15 has 1GB.

5.2. Envy 15 came with Radeon 7690M while MBP came with 6750M.

5.3. Envy 15 came with 750GB Hard disk, while MBP came with 500GB HDD. Also, Envy came with 7200 RPM faster Hard disk, while MBP 15 came with 5400 slower hard disk.

5.4. Envy 15 came with 8GB 1600MHz RAM, while MBP came with 4GB 1333MHz RAM

5.5. Not to mention the super CRAPPY display of 15" MBP. That itself would be a deal breaker for me.

That being said, would I stop buying a Macbook pro in the future, when such a perfect Macbook pro clone is around? NO. I am a Computer Science researcher and I love the power of Unix. I am writing this part for those parents who often times buy Windows machine for their college going sons/daughters with Computer Science major. I personally believe that for productivity of a Computer Science major, Mac OS X has NO competitor. While Linux could be a viable alternative, it doesn't have any polished software. E.g., when I first bought my Mac, I commented that just for Unix compatibility, Omnigraffle, Keynote and native PDF integration of Mac OS X, I would pay the Apple premium. Linux simply doesn't have the Apps ecosystem. And Windows will never be able to emulate a Unix system as it doesn't have the POSIX layer. That being said, Windows is an excellent Entertainment OS. E.g., you cannot easily stream your media to your TV through a MAC (it doesn't come with DLNA and UPnP support), while Windows 7 is bundled out of the box with all those nice features. I can keep going on. But, my point is, for productivity, buy a Mac. For leisure and entertainment buy a Windows machine. That's just my personal opinion of course.

Update 03/24/2012:

After updating the bios to F.06, my keyboard started missing lots of keystrokes. Fortunately, Amazon was happy to send me another one. The new one came with F.06 pre-installed, but it only missed keystrokes when the backlit is ON. Luckily, HP released their latest F.07 BIOS. And now, all my problems are gone! The keyboard is perfectly working, and thanks to Amazon, I have got a new laptop with no power button paint peeling. So, I am hereby updating my review to 5 star. I know I have gone through lots of ordeal to get to this point. But I don't wanna keep any hard feeling, particularly when the laptop is so fast and smooth, and cute looking.

Best Deals for HP Envy 15-3040NR 15.6 Inch Laptop (Black/Silver)

My previous laptop was a Macbook pro 17" unibody. It was a beautifully built product. I'm quite surprised that I'm just as happy with the Envy as I was with the Macbook.

Pros:

Good build quality. Almost up there with the macbooks.

Based on the pictures, I thought the bottom and the lid were made of plastic. They're made on metal instead!

The drivers and base software bundle is very polished.

Re-install from recovery media is very streamlined and a pleasant experience.

Not a single crash so far.

The 1080p display quality is great. But there are some drawbacks. I use it in graphic design at work.

Quick boot time ad least with an ssd. The bios/post screen is a blink of an eye.

Battery life is good in normal tasks. I haven't tested anything heavier so far.

The gpu switching utility is simple and very useful. You specify which programs you want to fire up the more powerful gpu. That's something I missed on macs.

The usb port which lets you charge devices even when the computer is off is superb. Tablets and phones charged without problems. Now you can charge your phone when it's getting low on battery even while walking down town.

Nice stylish font on the keyboard.

Quite decent connectivity for such a device

Ability to function as a wlan access point and share the internet connection even while you're connected via wlan yourself.

Cons:

The bottom cover wobbles just slightly after a couple of opens. Normally no one needs the open it though. It is opened only if you replace the hdd, memory or battery

The volume levels tend to be to high with headphones and the volume knob. On the first level of volume it's too low and on the second level it's too loud. It kind of takes the usefulness out the knob. I haven't found a way to fix that so far. You really shouldn't need to search for a solution for volume settings.

The displays black levels seem to be quite high. The back light bleeds through quite a lot. On the other hand it's very uniform (led backlight), so it doesn't bother that much.

The power brick is huge and hideous. HP really needs to do something about these. It's a pain to carry them around. I bought a smaller one right away and use the original one only on my work desk.

Super reflective display finish.

Arrow keys are awful.

Recommendations:

I recommend to reinstall everything from the recovery dvd and select minimized install. That way all the non-essential software won't be installed.

Buy an ssd. It makes the world of difference.

Honest reviews on HP Envy 15-3040NR 15.6 Inch Laptop (Black/Silver)

Spec wise and all. This laptop is pretty good.

The display is very crisp and clear.

It's fast.

It has a sleek design.

Cool button for changing volume.

Back lit keyboard.

Switchable graphics can save power.

HD

Beats Audio provides great sound through the speakers.

That being said, there are some issues I have with this laptop.

First, as I type this right now, it seems I have to hit my space bar key pretty hard when I use my right thumb since it seems to not respond when I hit it from the right side.

The red is not so red. I don't really care much about it, but it's an issue some of you might not really enjoy.

Switchable graphics not so switchable. Sometimes, it doesn't switch GPUs, but it's not that big a deal since you can simply, no, I advise you to change it to manual switching on the BIOS if you chose to get this laptop, so you can switch the GPUs yourself.

As I feel through the edges of the laptop, it feels uneven. It's not noticeable when you look at it, but you can feel it.

Looks like a Mac book. Originality please.

As for game performance and display, it performs great for the basic games, though it struggled a bit with GTA IV, but I was not on High Performance power mode, so I can't be certain.

Summary: If you are into Photoshop or you do stuff that involves colors, than I'll advise you to stay away from this laptop. If you are just a gamer(casual) looking for a portable gaming machine from this era, and you don't care much about color, then go ahead and get this.

Color-wise, I don't feel like returning it. Keys-wise, I just might.

EDIT(2/21/2012): According to some info I got from another forum, there was a BIOS update to attempt to fix the keyboard issue (BIOS F.06). I installed this update, but it didn't fix anything for me. On the other hand, some people claim that it fixed the issue for them. There was also another fix which would force the BIOS to recover, and some said that fixed it for them while others, like me, still remain with the keyboard issue. I guess right now, it's a game of chance for those with this laptop.

I have also decided to return the laptop since I couldn't bear the missing keystrokes any longer.

EDIT(3/8/2012): Long story short, I couldn't return the item yet, but I was able to ask for an exchange. I received another Envy and this one works way better than the one I got before even though it is still running the F.06 BIOS. The one thing you'll have to do to avoid skipping keystrokes is to dim the back light of the keyboard while on AC (You don't need it to be too high anyway). While on Battery, you should turn off the back light, and that should solve, or "improve", the missing keystrokes issue (It did/does for me) until HP decides to throw out a fix.

EDIT(3/28/2012): Hp released BIOS F.07 update to fix the keyboard issue. I have updated to that version and I am convinced, and can conclude, that the keyboard issue has been rectified. So if you aren't running F.07, get that.

Later.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for HP Envy 15-3040NR 15.6 Inch Laptop (Black/Silver)

I purchased a custom Envy 15t-3000 directly from HP. I received the laptop 16 days after placing my order.

The laptop was packaged nicely, and the appearance of the Envy was amazing. The aluminum chassis was nice. If I held down the front left corner and lifted the right corner, the laptop only flexed about 1/4 inch. The backlit keyboard is a great touch, and the clarity of text on the 1920x1080 screen is wonderful.

That's where the good stuff ends. The computer cost $1224.99 after using a 30% coupon ($1749.99 originally), which I consider expensive. This expensive beauty cannot perform the simple tasks my $200 netbook does perfectly. I ended up returning the computer for a full refund. Many people in the notebookreview Envy 15 3xxx forums have done 3+ exchanges with HP just to keep getting computers with hardware issues. HP quality control is terrible.

Reasons I returned mine:

1. Terrible trackpad. Two-finger scrolling is difficult, random right clicks, detects palms as fingers while typing

2. Missing keystrokes. Different letters at different times would not register as I typed them. If I pressed T 100 times, it would only register 5 of the pushes.

3. Display. The clarity of text was nice, and I didn't mind the orange issue (reds appear orange), but a 1920x1080 in a 15inch screen doesn't work well. I had to used 150% dpi, which some applications such as iTunes cannot handle well.

4. Audio Issues. Random volume increases and decreases, and many times I had to throw my headphones off my head to save my ears from instant, unexpected pain. The Beats volume wheel will randomly increase volume as it is turned to decrease. Listening on the lowest possible volume setting was still very loud. Static through headphones when nothing is playing. Beats software stopped working after installing updated driver to fix above issues.

5. Heft. This thing was heavy, and it is unusually long making it difficult to put into my DaKine laptop backpack (designed for 15inch laptops).

6. Back up. It took 3 hours to burn the 5 backup disks. No way am I doing that again if I exchange. So, I'm getting a refund instead.

7. Performance. It's not much faster than my Asus UL30vt. My envy had the hybrid drive, and that only took about 5 seconds off of boot times, and 2 seconds off of Outlook open times.

My build

Envy 15

* Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

* 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM (2.2 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz

* 1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7690M GDDR5 Discrete Graphics(TM) [HDMI, DP]

* 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)

* 750G 7200 rpm Hybrid Hard Drive

* Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word/Excel(R) only, No PowerPoint(R)/Outlook(R)

* 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

* 15.6-inch diagonal Radiance Full HD Infinity LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080)

* SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support

* HP TrueVision HD Webcam

* Intel 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth(R) with Wireless Display Support

* Full-size Radiance backlit keyboard

* Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) Elements 9 & Adobe Premiere(R) Elements 9

* 2 year limited warranty included

* HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

Discount Hewlett Packard Envy 15 Notebook Pc with Amd Elite Quad-core

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Sun, 4 Jan 2015 09:59:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $799.99
Sale Price: Price Unavailable
Today's Bonus: 20% Off

The laptop is fairly lightweight and the screen has good resolution but that's about it is far as positives go.

The default navigation on mine was touchscreen and swipe, but it's really clunky. After having difficulty performing even the most basic navigation I had to call tech support to get them to disable it.

The other major issue is the touch pad which is very stiff and requires some serious dexterity to move around the screen. It doesn't always click either. And then sometimes it clicks too easily. It makes using the computer a nuisance.

As another reviewer mentioned the computer is also slow. It often has problems connecting to wi-fi and I have to yet to go through a day where I didn't have to reboot it at least once. I called tech support on this also and all of my software and drivers were up to date, so the slowness is puzzling. If my other laptop, which is half the RAM and memory didn't work so much better using the same wi-fi signal I could see if it was a network problem.

I use this primarily for work. If I had to use this for personal stuff I'd be ticked even if it were half the price.

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Discount HP ENVY TouchSmart 15t-j000 Quad Edition Notebook PC (Silver);

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Sun, 4 Jan 2015 08:07:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,799.99
Sale Price: $1,299.95
Today's Bonus: 28% Off

This is indeed an excellent laptop. A very sleek and light compared to its size, the silver colour makes it even better. And of all the windows 8 pro makes the laptop even better.

The delivery was prompt and very happy with the service.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

Best Acer Aspire Ethos AS8951G-9630 Deals

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Sun, 4 Jan 2015 06:21:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

Some product details, since amazon did not post any :

Operating System : Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

Processor Manufacturer : Intel

Processor Type : Core i7

Processor Model : i7-2670QM

Processor Speed : 2.20 GHz

Processor Core : Quad-core (4 Core)

Cache : 6 MB

64-bit Processing : Yes

Hyper-Threading : Yes

Chipset Manufacturer : Intel

Chipset Model : HM65 Express

Standard Memory : 8 GB

Maximum Memory : 16 GB

Memory Technology : DDR3 SDRAM

Memory Standard : DDR3-1066/PC3-8500

Number of Total Memory Slots : 4

Memory Card Reader : Yes

Memory Card Supported

Memory Stick : xD-Picture Card, Secure Digital (SD) Card, MultiMediaCard (MMC, Memory Stick PRO, MMCplus

Hard Drive Capacity : 750 GB

Hard Drive Interface ; Serial ATA

Hard Drive RPM : 5400

BD-Reader/DVD-Writer

Optical Media Supported : BD-ROM/DVD-RAM/±R/±RW

Screen Size : 18.4"

Display Screen Type : Active Matrix TFT Color LCD

Display Screen Technology : CineCrystal

Aspect Ratio : 16:9

Screen Mode : HD 1080

Backlight Technology : LED

HDCP Supported : Yes

Graphics Controller Manufacturer : nVIDIA

Graphics Controller Model : GeForce GT 555M

Graphics Memory Capacity : 2 GB

Graphics Memory Technology : DDR3 SDRAM

Graphics Memory Accessibility ; Dedicated

TV Card : No

Wi-Fi Standard : IEEE 802.11 a/g/n

Ethernet Technology : Gigabit Ethernet

Bluetooth : Yes

Bluetooth Standard : Bluetooth 2.1

Webcam : Yes

Microphone : Yes

Finger Print Reader : Yes

FireWire/i.LINK : Yes

HDMI : Yes

Total Number of USB Ports : 4

Number of USB 2.0 Ports : 3

Number of USB 3.0 Ports : 1

VGA : Yes

Network (RJ-45) : Yes

eSATA/USB Combo : Yes

Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word and Excel® only, with advertising. No PowerPoint® or Outlook®. Buy Office 2010 to use the full-featured software.

Battery : Number of Cells : 8-cell

Battery Chemistry : Lithium Ion (Li-Ion)

Battery Capacity : 6000 mAh

Maximum Battery Run Time : 5.50 Hour

Maximum Power Supply Wattage : 120 W

Height : 1.5"

Width : 17.3"

Depth : 11.6"

Weight : 8.38 lb

Security Features

Kensington Lock Slot

BIOS passwords :

User

Supervisor

Hard Drive

Green Compliant : Yes

Green Compliance Certificate/Authority : Energy Star

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

I purchased this laptop from a different site as it was on sale for $999. And quite simply its the most impressive laptop I've ever used (which is quite a few). I ordered another 8 GB of ram for 25 bucks, so it was a quad core Core i7, 16 GB of ram, 750GB hard drive, 2GB of video ram alone. It's fast, runs cool, and the luscious 18.4" full HD screen is wonderful.

The trackpad's wonky, it's over 10 pounds, and its a beastly and unwieldy machine, but its really more of a slightly portable desktop rather than a large laptop. But you'll love it.

Best Deals for Acer Aspire Ethos AS8951G-9630

Hard to say since there is no product information here to confirm what you are buying.

What is up with that?

Honest reviews on Acer Aspire Ethos AS8951G-9630

Acer didn't even bother to wire the 2nd hard drive bay.

It costs you $60+ for the cable and brackets and lots of research to make the laptop usable.

I will NEVER buy an Acer again.

Discount Dell 15.6" Inspiron i15R-1847MRB Intel Core i3 Laptop 4GB Notebook

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Sun, 4 Jan 2015 04:47:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

Screen resolution is very good. The web camera has excellent image quality. Very nice appearance. The weight is appropriate to the size of the equipment. 4 hours duration battery is discrete.

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HP Pavilion DV6-1030US 16.0-Inch Laptop Reviews

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Sun, 4 Jan 2015 02:55:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

1. Bus Speed is 800Mhz. In the laptop world, this would be right between slow and fast. If you a casual user (watch youtube while checking your e-mail and writing a report), this will be sufficient.

If you like to do multiple things at once (extended desktop to create dual screen enviroment, move large files to and from external HDs, burn a cd, with video(s) playing and a music production progam running) my recommendation is that you become familar with tweeking your Vista settings or buy a more powerful computer. It's not that it can't handle such lofty requests, it can. It will just be slow/will lock up.

2. Comes with 4Gb DDR2 (2x2GB). Now, this will be MORE than enough RAM for almost anyone. But what if you dream big and want to be a desktop in laptop's clothing? It's upgradable to 8GB, which is rare for a laptop. For the most part, 8 Gb laptop RAM (2 x 4GB) doesn't exsist. If you can find it, it will be at least $250+. HP Build a laptop states that a 8GB upgrade would be $400. Why would you need this much ram? I cannot say. This may be useful in the future, I do not know.

3. Harddrive speed is 5400RPM. This goes back to how much multi-accessing you do. 7200RPM would be nice, but not necessary.

4. Bloatware. I'm not really sure why this is much of a complaint in regards of any computer. Windows/Control Panel has a build in remove software feature that can remove most software completely in a short period of time. I'm sure that some computers come with INSANE programs that are so integrated into Windows, you must have a court order and holy water to remove it from your life. If you don't like the in house program, there is 3rd party softwere (free & pay) out there that claims to do a more through job cleaning out the gunk.

5. The Vista experience is rated at 3.8. Just a FYI.

6. This really isn't a "gaming" PC. It's just not. Spades, No problem. Minesweep until you can't see straight. It's your world baby. Crysis (and if you know what this game is, you know what I'm gonna say next) ain't happpening. BUT, if someone wants to try it on this notebook, please leave a comment on this review and let me know how that goes.

7. There is a slot in the PC that holds the mini remote control. On the left side of the laptop. COOOOOOOOOLLLLL! At least I think so.

8. Do I like this laptop. I do. It's not the fanciest thing on the market, but for the price, it's good.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

I have only had this for five or so days but i am in love with it already lol.

I am a amateur photogrpher and i already have a bunch of photos stored on it, the space on this is great!

I have been on about eight or nine different sites (including youtube) at once and they are all as fast as just haveing one open.

The web cam is good quality, with great effects. the mic is crystal clear.

The lightscribe is great, even though it isnt in color i definitely prefer it over labels.

Oh, the only thing i wasnt looking forward to was the fact that the battery only last two hours. But it actually last about 4 hours, and that is with the laptop open and being used for four hours straight.

Best Deals for HP Pavilion DV6-1030US 16.0-Inch Laptop

I shopped around and believe me, this is the best "Bang for the Buck" around. I no longer really play games, so the Intel integrated video being the only weak point was no big deal. ***Amazon's Ethernet Specs are Wrong*** This unit does NOT have Gigabit Ethernet, 10/100mb connection only. But everything else is top notch. Core 2 Duo 2.0, Beautiful 16" 720P HD Screen, Vista 64bit Premium (Do yourself a favor and buy the Upgrade to Ultimate 64bit), 320GB HD, 4GB Ram, eSATA, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, docking port, Wireless N!!!, remote and this is one gorgeous laptop.

I added a Gigabit Ethernet Express Card for $50, from Amazon, to make this laptop perfect.

This is a case of "You get MORE than what you pay for..."

Honest reviews on HP Pavilion DV6-1030US 16.0-Inch Laptop

I fell in love with this machine the instant I saw its specs and looks in Amazon... I got it delivered and the first problem I had was that the computer was described as having an internal bluetooth antenna, which after searching how to start it for half and hour and chatting with HP I realized it was not there! I got a discount from Amazon for this "mistake" which seems to happen quite frequently (I had the same problem with a Toshiba Satellite I purchased a while ago). The 64bit Vista is rather problematic than helpful. I am considering either upgrading to Ultimate or downgrade to 32bit. Although its processor is ranked as "genious" and it brings 4gb of ram I have runned tests with my old Toshiba running 32 bit Vista with a slower processor and with half the ram and time after time my new HP gets beaten!!!!!!!!!!!! I experience so many software related problems I cannot feel satisfied a single day about my purchase! The speakers and volume control give so many problems as well: I place the laptop in "mute" and still I get a fraction of a second of the beep of the instant messenger I use; the speakers are always making this noise like the power was just turned on; the volume control is non-responsive and then when it finally answers my command, it gets stuck both visually and audible. I still doubt that this machine can be expanded up to 8gb of ram as the specs in Amazon advertise, but I have not checked this yet. I guess I will get further disappointed... It's a shame that I feel this way for a laptop I found so captivating and (thought) powerful... Now I bought an xb3000 expansion base (which is advertised as the compatible one for the dv6) and I found myself with the obligation to purchase a new A/C adapter since the laptop AC should work with the base but guess what? the dv6 AC is too big for the base!!! So there you can add $50 extra if you decide to get the whole bunch. Bottom line: You can get the same performance with a cheaper, more convenient model and save yourself a lot of hassle... Sad but true!

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for HP Pavilion DV6-1030US 16.0-Inch Laptop

This is my very 1st laptop, and 2nd HP computer. Originally I was looking for another desktop, as I didn't feel I could afford a laptop with decent specs. But I came across this while browsing. The price point was very good and I couldn't believe how loaded it was. Very fast, love the HD briteview wide screen. Loads up in decent time, even with all the bloatware and preinstalled Norton crap. It also has a handy little remote to run HP's media center. All in all I am very pleased with this computer.

Dell XPS XPS15-9474sLV 15-Inch Laptop Review

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Sun, 4 Jan 2015 01:08:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,810.00
Sale Price: $1,599.99
Today's Bonus: 12% Off

I've had problems with the wireless card on this computer since I got it. It says it's connected to the internet, but frequently drops the connection. I ended up paying $275 for Dell's concierge service, and they replaced the card, but it still happens, though slightly less often. The screen is great, lots of memory, runs quickly,even with Adobe Photoshop running but the internet issues kill this computer for me.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

I really love this computer! It's not the fastest thing you can get on the market but it's certainly worth every cent I paid for it! The keyboard is really responsive and quiet. The touch pad is wonderful, picks up the lightest touch when you want it to but it never picks up my wrists. Really nice features and a really sturdy design.

The touch pad and around the touch pad has a rubberized feel to it that can be hard to keep clean so keep that in mind. If you're a neat freak like myself, this might not be the best choice for you. It's pretty heavy for it's size, the macbook pro weighs a good pound less than this guy. Battery life is pretty good, lasts a good 5 and a half hours fully charged when watching a movie so you can get through the majority of plane rides with this guy.

Great computer overall, I would highly suggest this to any of my friends.

Best Deals for Dell XPS XPS15-9474sLV 15-Inch Laptop

The laptop really sucks. I called Dell THREE times for different problems in the first week. The problems include a fallen-out Fn key, a disfunction SD slot and the BIOS system. The touchpad is really a mess because it reacts to anything even a hair on it. I chose XPS because my last laptop is an XPS and I never called Dell for technical help for SIX years. In my opinion the company is going down and my next laptop is definitely NOT gonna be a Dell.

Honest reviews on Dell XPS XPS15-9474sLV 15-Inch Laptop

The display, processor speed, memory, and peripherals are excellent. Build quality is rugged. Keyboard is smaller than standard. If you're also using a standard keyboard it may take some getting used to when you switch back and forth, since the keys are in slightly different position. The blueray/dvd drive spins noisier than it should, but this seems specific to my laptop (we bought two and the other doesn't have this issue). Installed the OS on the solid state drive and it boots in under 10 seconds (laptop shipped booting from the hard drive), extremely fast! Overall this is a good laptop for the money.

Buy HP Blu-ray 17.3" Laptop G7-2246NR 6GB DDR3 500GB HDD HDMI USB 3.0

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Sun, 4 Jan 2015 00:32:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

this is a very nice laptop.I have the windows 7 model.It is extremely fast.Boots up in seconds and the video quailty is beautiful.I do not have the problems that other people are posting.One problem everyone has is with the power dvd movie player software.The software has a problem playing some bluray dvds.This a major problem with power dvd software version 9 and 10 and 11 and 12.Everyone all over the net is posting problems.Best bet is to use another brand of bluray movie player software.Best feature of this laptop is the hp restore feature.When you re-boot,hold the f-8 key and it takes you to the hp restore feature page.You can restore the whole system or just the sound system or just the video drivers ect.If you retsore the whole system do a minimal restore and all the bloatware is not put on the machine.warnong though:you can only use this feature apx 6 times.After that hp wants you to buy another restore disc.The bass is very good.You need to go into the sound settings and adjust the bass,treble, and volume level ect.Also power dvd has sound settings you must adjust to get the best sound.All in all,this is one of the best laptops i have had so far except for my sager 17" gaming laptop,lol.One last note:i bought this machine used.The person selling listed this machine for parts only for $50.His headphones stopped working and he took it to a shop and they said he needed a new motherboard for apx 400.I gave him the $50 and drove down to frys electronics and bought a high quality usb headphones and they work great.

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This computer is a great deal for the specs: 17.3" screen, 6gb RAM, USB 3.0, 500gb HDD, very good integrated graphics for a laptop. I can play most games on medium settings.

Best Deals for HP Blu-ray 17.3" Laptop G7-2246NR 6GB DDR3 500GB HDD HDMI USB 3.0

This laptop is fast, has a great display and plenty of hard drive space.

Cons:

The speakers have no base and the sound stopped working for me on one occasion, I restarted the computer and the sound worked.

The fan is a little loud at times

Windows 8 doesn't function as well as I hoped it would, I still like Windows 7 more... I mainly don't like the navigation issues and the corner icons disappearing when I try to access them or appear when I'm trying to click something else in that corner. Although the windows button is quite useful for navigation on Windows 8.

Honest reviews on HP Blu-ray 17.3" Laptop G7-2246NR 6GB DDR3 500GB HDD HDMI USB 3.0

received it and it is ok haven't really had a chance to use it yet. It didn't come with an owners manual which should have. Also it should have come with a case which would have been nice.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for HP Blu-ray 17.3" Laptop G7-2246NR 6GB DDR3 500GB HDD HDMI USB 3.0

I ordered this laptop from ocean reef electronics a little over a month ago and had the misfortune of being busy with work for a few weeks before I had a chance to check it out. it was sent to me with the following three problems, first it has a crap battery that will not hold a charge, second the sound is completely busted and last every other time I log in the computer reboots itself. im sure the computer itself would be fine from any other source but ocean reef is seemingly unknowledgeable of the products they sell so I wrote this to warn other potential buyers. ocean reef electronics has no issues against selling broken goods and the only thing worse than their goods is their extremely poor customer service. I will never order anything from them again and I encourage everyone to save themselves the trouble and do the same.

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

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Sat, 3 Jan 2015 12:11:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

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

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

What I like:

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

2. The illuminated keyboard is super handy.

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

4. Low profile decorative lighting.

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

What I don't like:

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

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

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

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

Differences between the A1 and XA1:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

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

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

Some attributes:

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

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

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

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

Other bonuses:

--Bluray reader: heck yeah!

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

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

NOTE:

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

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

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

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

PROs:

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

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

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

Blu Ray optic drive is now a standard option finally!

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

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

USB 3.0 port; albeit only one :(

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

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

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

CONs:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ratings (created: 11.29.10):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Received laptop 11.11.10

Comes with:

1.) Laptop

2.) Power brick for plugging in

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

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

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

Packaging:

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

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

Starting Up:

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

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

Looks:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Concerns I had based on previous model:

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

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

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

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

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

Screen:

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

Video Card:

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

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

Sound:

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

Hard drives:

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

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

D: 504GB free of 504GB

Operating System:

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

Battery Life:

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

Heat:

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

Real Use:

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

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

Overall:

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

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

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

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

***EDIT 11.12.10***

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

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

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

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

***EDIT 11.29.10***

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

Issues:

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

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

Additional thoughts:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still, things are working so life is good.

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

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

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

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

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

1) Good Large Quality Screen

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

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

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

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

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

2) Multitasking Performance

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

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

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

3) Build Quality

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

using the ATI card or the HP Envy.

4) Input Devices

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

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

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

This can be turned off or dimmed.

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

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

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

5) Storage & Connectivity

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

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

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

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

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

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

with.

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

HDMI ports.

6) Mobility

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

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

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

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

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

7) Warranty

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

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

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

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

Thanks!

Review of Toshiba Satellite C855-S5194 15.6" Laptop (Fusion Finish in Mercury

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Sat, 3 Jan 2015 10:43:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $599.99
Sale Price: $539.00
Today's Bonus: 10% Off

I researched and researched looking for the best machine I could get for my money and I could not be happier after purchasing the Toshiba C855-S5194. But........I purchased it locally at a major office supply store because their 'in store' discount coupled with the $50 rebate was a better price than here. Most of the negative reviews I'd read about *any* laptop was that Windows 8 was horrible. Well, that has nothing to do with the performance of the laptop. AND, Toshiba sends you a free e-copy of Windows 8 for Dummies (only 32 pages) so there's no excuse to say you don't know how to navigate. Memory was a huge selling point for me, there's lots of it on this machine, and it had a better processor than some of the others I was looking at. I did have to change some of the settings on the touchpad because I didn't like the defaults (i.e. to scroll you have to use TWO fingers and I'd rather use one on the side or bottom). You have to be slightly deliberate in your typing, but I'm ok with that too. And I've really been impressed with the battery life. I can work on it for up to four hours (maybe a little more). The web cam is very clear and adjusts the light accordingly. My husband and I Tango (free video chat app) and the images are good (depending on your signal). I installed Office Home Professional without any trouble. It's light for the size it is. I would highly recommend this machine to anyone in the market!

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I have been shopping for a laptop for about a month now and almost went for another HP but decided to try a Toshiba instead and so far I am completely happy with this decision. First time using Windows 8 but I am catching on quickly.. very easy to set up and super quiet. The laptop is quite fast and quiet, and so far works for what I need. ok so the not so good things, the keyboard is ok... it feels kinda cheaply made like I may lose keys for some reason... also the sound isn't that great as well so I will end up purchasing external speakers but its ok Im not too picky about it. Also I expedited the shipping but didn't get it in a timely manner which kinda upset me a little bit as I paid extra for that and if I would have done regular shipping it would have been free and I prob would have gotten it at the same time.... I will recommend this product as a light to medium user who doesn't need to do anything extravagant like heavy gaming... thumbs up!!!

Best Deals for Toshiba Satellite C855-S5194 15.6" Laptop (Fusion Finish in Mercury

The laptop is good for the price and it makes the job.

The screen has a good resolution and the exterior design it's fine

Honest reviews on Toshiba Satellite C855-S5194 15.6" Laptop (Fusion Finish in Mercury

Received sooner than expected. Works great, good speed. Very happy with this laptop. I would suggest downloading the latest video driver and touch pad driver, What a difference they made. Touch pad is smooth and reacts a lot better. Video is much smoother with no delays.

I highly recommend this laptop.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Toshiba Satellite C855-S5194 15.6" Laptop (Fusion Finish in Mercury

Size a litttle bigger for my taste. but is great laptop screen very nice and 6g of memory gives good performance

Reviews of Toshiba Satellite P755-S5274 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Black)

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Sat, 3 Jan 2015 08:50:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

I purchased this laptop 6/30. I received and un-boxed it 7/5. It is well-equipped for the price.

Positives

-The 2nd Gen Core-i5 has excellent benchmarks, comparable and even better than some 1st Gen Core-i7. (See Passmark Benchmark ratings)

-The video card puts out 1080p video without issue. It is not really capable of doing any gaming but that is to be expected at this price from the Intel HD 3000.

-For the price point the theoretical specs are fabulous, hence my purchase and excitement upon arrival.

-It comes with a full size keyboard built in which I enjoy. The sizing and spacing is all acceptable although the backspace is a touch smaller than I would like.

As far as negatives are concerned,

-The webcam is horrendous, I mean, it works, but the resolution and video quality is pretty shameful. I knew this going into the purchase and was willing to accept it, but if you are hoping for a decent integrated webcam this is not a computer for you. Of course you can always get a very high quality external webcam which will best any internal.

-Toshiba Bloatware, I haven't fully investigated them, but a lot of them are redundant to services that windows provides, or just excessive little power hungry toys. Thus far I do actually like the extra power settings, but that is the only one among many.

-Other Bloatware (Extra links to install trial programs...etc)

Now, the reason for 1-star.

The laptop I received on 7/5 was defective. The audio card integrated on the motherboard was deemed defective by Toshiba. Of course Toshiba customer support made me re-install the driver, and "revert to factory settings". I found this excessively annoying as I has just opened the box and reverting to factory settings wouldn't do anything. Regardless the problem remained and they agreed it was defective and told me I could send it to a repair facility (a brand new laptop? and wait a few weeks, i think not). Or Amazon could send me a new one. I have had better dealings with Amazon than Toshiba so I opted for a replacement. Props to Amazon for the prompt replacement (it arrived within 24 hours). Now, believe it or not, the 2nd laptop is also defective. I then had to call Toshiba again to inform them of this. They didn't seem to find it odd that two of the exact same computers are both defective. Anyway Amazon is refunding me the money and I intend to get something else. Preferably not Toshiba despite my previously high impressions of them.

I would be interested to know if anyone else is having these issues. For anyone who may be skeptical as to the fact that two computers are both defective let me assure you sound was tested with several samples of audio from the HD, and the internet. It was also tested on both computers using the laptop speakers, Sennheiser Headphones, and a high quality system with Polk Audio speakers.

Bottom Line:

The specs are great, but I cannot recommend a computer that has come defective 2/2 times. Once is acceptable, it happens, but twice is not acceptable and both Amazon and Toshiba should be ashamed to be selling faulty merchandise repeatedly.

[UPDATE]

After receiving a third defective laptop I have ordered a Lenovo from Best Buy. I cannot fathom that nobody else is having this issue. This has been tested on numerous receivers, numerous cords, numerous speakers. I have had friends with me to verify that I am in fact not going insane, and Toshiba has verified they are all defective. The error occurs upon setup without changing factory settings at all.

Stay away.

In other news the touchpad is definitely a little far to the left and while typing I often touch it with my left palm. Minor issue though.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

Bear with me here folks, I'm still trying to pull together my thoughts on my brand new laptop here, consider my review a "first draft". :)

Received this laptop early this morning. My first impression is pretty good, but I've only been with it for a few hours thus far. I've surfed around online some, streamed some HD video, played a couple games, and removed a ton of bloatware.

Was a little worried at first, because the first boot-up took quite awhile, but once I removed some bloatware, shut down, and booted up again, it's ready to go within 20-30 seconds. After running it for 2 hours straight, mostly surfing around online, it's not hot enough to even call it warm, so it should be good about keeping cool. The fan seems to come on pretty often, but it's not very loud, it's mostly just the sound of air moving in and out. Wireless internet seems to work perfectly, and I easily connected to my network.

I actually quite like the touchpad on it, which is strange for me to say, because I'm picky about touchpads. I think it works well, and it's slightly textured, but not overly so. The keyboard seems nicely built for a laptop too.

I don't own much in the name of games, but I've played some Sim City 4 and The Sims 2 on high settings without any hiccups. HD video streamed smoothly as well.

Overall, I'm quite happy with my purchase. I'll be updating this review once I spend more time with it and finish getting my thoughts together.

Edit: Okay, so I never updated my review, too lazy to do it. However, it is now February 3rd 2012, and this computer is still up and running like new. I've owned it for 7 months and I have had no problems, even though I run it about 7 hours everyday. It continues to run cool, fast, and with no issues at all.

Best Deals for Toshiba Satellite P755-S5274 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Black)

This is my first laptop, and even though I've only had it for 9 days, I believe I've drawn a conclusion already.

Pros: 6gb ram and huge 640gb hard drive

Extremely smooth Youtube video playback

USB 3, Bluetooth 3, Wireless B/G/N, HDMI and VGA out

Quiet

Great battery life (in my opinion?)

The "chiclet" style keyboard is incredibly easy and satisfying to type on. The keys give off a satisfying light click, and they're far enough away from eachother so I rarely hit another key.

I have never seen an HD Youtube video play back so smooth before, not even on my desktop with an Nvidia Geforce GTS 250.

Speaking of video performance, Minecraft plays as smooth as my desktop plays it. I have not played other games, but DO NOT buy this laptop for gaming; you'll likely regret it.

It takes 22 seconds from power on (with the BIOS option "Load BIOS onto harddisk" checked), until you get a usable Windows 7 login screen.

The laptop has quite a few ports and features including: USB 2 and 3, Bluetooth 3, Wireless B/G/N, and HDMI and VGA out. Very handy to have and use all of them.

Internet browsing is far from slow, it feels much faster than my desktop.

You can only hear the fan occasionally speed up, if you strain to hear it in a quiet room.

Battery life is awesome, I was able to type an entire 725 word essay from start to finish with 10% left.(3 hours at least, maybe 4. I lost track of time)

Speedfan claims both cores are idling at 109f, but you can hardly feel any warmth from the laptop even after several hours of use.

Display is glossy, vivid and bright. Some may see it being glossy as a con; it's fine indoors, but tough to use outside (I never use it outside).

The numpad is an awesome feature to include, it was one of my main requirements in a laptop.

Windows 7 makes everything feel instant and responsive.

I've never run out of ram with the included 6gb.

Now onto the bad stuff (Minor whining on my part)

Cons: Keyboard is not backlit

Off center touchpad location interferes with typing

Dust magnet

Bloatware madness

Speakers suck(ish)

This laptop has doesn't have backlit keys, not a con if you know how to type; I just always thought they looked cool at night.

Regularly while typing, my hand rests on the touchpad and jumps the mouse around as another reviewer also mentioned. Annoying at times, just reposition your left hand slightly.

Needs to be wiped off daily or it grows a beard of dust. (Or maybe I just need to vacuum my room more than once a year)

Copious amounts of bloatware -some bundled with drivers. Google a program before deleting to make sure you don't inadvertently kill flashcards or the touchpad.(Happened to me)

Extremely slow until you kill off bloatware and stuff you don't plan on using.

As another reviewer stated, I have had the laptop claim it had an hour of battery life left, then 5 minutes later, it shut off. I remember reading through the Toshiba manual, and apparently it has to kind of "calibrate" the battery meter and run itself down once in a while to be accurate; I am guessing this applies to the first cycle especially. It has not done this since.

Speakers are clear, but severely lack bass. Using skullcandy earphones remedies that problem.

The bright Satellite letters and line above the touchpad can be turned off in the BIOS. I believe another reviewer said that already.

I am not a picky person, so these cons don't annoy me enough to be worth subtracting a star. The bottom line is that this is an awesome laptop for everything except gaming. (After you get over the minor quirks.)

Honest reviews on Toshiba Satellite P755-S5274 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Black)

I've had this laptop for about two weeks and I love it. It's fast and loaded with a lot of useful features. Multi-tasking, installing programs, removing crapware and transferring data onto this machine have been a quick breeze.

I love the keyboard and number pad. They both have a normal set-up so you don't have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out where a certain button has been misplaced (an issue I've had previous laptops/netbooks I've owned and other models I've tried out in stores). Keys are pretty easy on the fingers and feel nice to the touch. Keyboard is NOT backlit as far as I can tell but it wasn't an important feature for me so no minus marks there.

Screen is crisp and has good contrast; it's not washed out like a lot of laptop screens I've come across in my research. It's viewable from almost any angle so it doesn't need to be at an exact precise angle for you to see the screen well-lit.

Speakers can go pretty loud for laptop speakers. They aren't the best speaker quality but pretty darn good for a laptop.

Unlike previous laptops I've had, this one runs pretty cool. Haven't had an issue with heat at all (even when I've absentmindedly left it running on top of the bed or on carpet). I do feel heat being pushed out by the fan but the system itself remains pretty cool to the touch (ie you won't burn your lap if it's resting on your leg and you'll probably have no need for a laptop cooler fan).

Other people have commented on the placement of the touchpad. This was a concern for me before I purchased it but it turns out that I rarely have an issue with it. Once in a while the touchpad does act up while I'm typing but in comparison to a lot of other models I've tried out it's a pretty minor problem. The touchpad on/off key is conveniently located near the touchpad so it can be switched off right away if you need to do some heavy-duty typing.

Laptop has a high-quality plastic feel (yes, it's plastic). No flexing in the keyboard or case; feels very sturdy. The grooved design all over the laptop is a nice touch that prevents fingerprint smudges.

An added bonus is the free Xbox for students. I haven't received the xbox credit yet. I'v contacted Amazon and they swiftly replied that the xbox credit is on it's way so we'll see how that goes.

It took me a while to decide on buying this laptop since I couldn't find the exact model in any brick and mortar store to try out personally. You can't go wrong with the specs but I would recommend going to an electronic store and trying out similar Toshiba models to see if you like the configuration of the keyboard, touchpad, etc since those are all based on personal preference. I think I tried out P755-S5215 at Best Buy; it has nearly an identical appearance. For the price the specs on this machine are great. No regrets so far, very happy customer.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Toshiba Satellite P755-S5274 15.6-Inch LED Laptop (Black)

I replaced an 8 year old Satellite with this computer. This new computer is very quick, keyboard keys have a nice touch. Fairly quite, lightweight and solid feeling. Windows 7 seems to be pretty good.

I find that the dolby advanced audio is not good and distorts music, try turning it off to make your music sound good. Also when you plug your speaker line into the headphone jack, select the headphone option, otherwise the line-in option also takes away from the music.

I was afraid that off center keyboard would be awkward and it is. Maybe I will get used to it. There is very little room for the left palm to rest on the computer and frequently inadvertently touches the mouse pad causing the mouse to do things I don't want it to do.

I chose toshiba again because my previous satellite served me near flawlessly (replaced hard drive once)for 8 years.

Review of Asus X55A-JH91 15.6-Inch Laptop

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Sat, 3 Jan 2015 07:31:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $502.13
Sale Price: $391.99
Today's Bonus: 22% Off

I needed something to run multiple apps including powerpoint and video simultaneously with no lag. This does the job. The keyboard took some getting used to, the keys do not have the dull plastic feel that I am used to with a Dell, but more of a cold metallic feel. One quirk I am trying to figure out with Windows 8 ... there seems to be an automatic swipe gesture I keep doing with the mousepad when I swipe up/to the right to move around the screen. It takes me to the start screen, which is annoying, and I would love to turn that feature off. Windows 8 on a non-touchscreen device can be a bit awkward and I wish I had windows 7. There is no start menu to access programs or quickly shutdown ... instead I control/alt/delete to shutdown or go back to the start screen by putting the mouse in the lower left screen of the computer and accessing the settings ... takes too much time. Overall, this is a good machine for the money, and I must point out that the audio/speakers are top notch. I am able to play for my entire classroom without external speakers, a first for any laptop I have ever had. Also, the battery has lasted me an average of 5 hours with the screen brightness turned way down. It is also a very quiet machine -no loud fans or processing sounds. Sometimes I forget that it' even on.

Update: The annoying automatic swipe function I was talking about turns out to be something that is actually fantastic called ASUS Smart Gesture. You can turn features on/off, like using two fingers for scrolling, one finger for select, three fingers to navigate pages, etc.

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This laptop can be found for under $300 and it is well worth it if you are willing to install Ubuntu Linux 12.10. If you're willing to do that, you'll end up with a laptop that feels like a MacBook Pro which last I checked was $1,500.

The trackpad is little sensitive and ethernet wasn't picked-up out of the box by Ubuntu which are the only reasons I'm giving it 4 stars. Otherwise, love this for a Linux laptop.

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I bought this laptop 2 months at k mart, and is had been a horrible experience..the keypad is way to sensitive and when i write something with the keyboard it goes crazy and all my information automatically gets delete it, or end up in another location of the text...is really annoying!! other than that, is great but prepare for some frustrations when chatting.

Best Toshiba Satellite S875-S7140 17.3-Inch Laptop (Ice Blue Brushed Deals

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Sat, 3 Jan 2015 05:48:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

***SEE UPDATE AT BOTTOM***

I do copious amounts of research when buying electronics, but it's reading product reviews that gives me a sense of comfort about the product. Therefore, when I literally couldn't find any descriptive reviews of this laptop, I was terrified. However, the technical specs swayed me. And I'm glad I took the plunge.

What you need to know is that this computer delivers on performance. I've already loaded up about half of the hard drive, and it's still just as fast as when it was clear. It's not lightening fast (maybe around 7-10 seconds for it to come on) but is certainly a lot faster than my older laptop that took around a minute each time to start up. The graphics are very sharp as well.

The two big disappointments from me concerning hardware, are the sub-par speakers and glossy screen. My five year old Lenovo speakers had a much richer, fuller sound with a discernible bass. These speakers are tiny and shrill sounding in comparison. It's not the end of the world for me as I hardly use the built in speakers (use headphones or a speaker set), but it certainly surprised me. The screen is glossy as opposed to matte, which I knew when buying it, but it pisses me off. I hate glossy screens--I do a lot of graphics work and they just annoy me. However, given that everyone is trying to make their hardware look like Apples', I couldn't find any laptops with the same specs with a matte screen.

The metal brushed finish and casing is really nice though. It feels sturdy and expensive as well as looks seriously cool. It is heavy and quite large though. This is not a "carry around in the backpack" laptop. It's not a monster--but is also not portable in my opinion. The keyboard is a bit odd as well. I've always had laptops where the keys are very tightly placed. On this keyboard, there are large gaps between keys. I initially thought this would screw up how fast I type as I thought my fingers would have to relearn distances--but it's been fine actually. It might take a few minutes to get used to though. Also, in my perfect world--this computer would have a trackpoint.

Anyone upgrading from Windows 7 to 8, needs to be aware that there are initially some very big differences. Being a child of the tech era, I was convinced that I would just naturally be able to figure everything out immediately within a few minutes. Not so. It took me a good hour and watching a couple of youtube tutorials to figure out how to run programs, how to navigate between my desktop app and the start screen properly and even how to actually put it to sleep. At first it was just confusing and tedious, but now it's really not so bad. It's simple to use once you get used to the new layout and extra options, and is additionally very fast and very clean. The graphics are sharp and well done. As I'm using 8 on a laptop, I don't think I'm ever really going to have a use for the app start screen, but it's just one click from there to a traditional desktop--and the desktop now has even more functions and capabilities, so overall not too bad. I have to say though, if it was a tablet--I think it would be a pretty killer and simple operating system. I was planning on buying a Google Nexus tablet eventually, but now given the ease, fluidity and high performance of Windows 8--I will be seriously looking at other tablets now.

All in all, I got what I wanted--a high performing laptop with lots of space for a great price. It's not the most portable and isn't perfect, but I'm happy. And that's what counts.

***Update, so today I was horrified that I had a defective laptop. The mouse and touch-pad were completely frozen. I restarted several times figuring that would make it snap out of it, and nothing. With my heart in my stomach, I did what all people should do when they have computer problems---googled it. Come to find out, Toshiba put a key that freezes the mouse close to the volume controls keys. I'm not really sure what the point of this key is, and it's not a problem now that I know that it's there--but I figured if I had a mini panic attack over it, probably other people will eventually have this same problem. So just a heads up on this key.

****UPDATE****10/7/13

Due to my recent experience with the laptop I am taking off two stars. I tried taking it on a trip a few months ago--and even though I was very careful with it and had it padded at all times, my inner screen somehow cracked. Toshiba support said that this was my fault, and I ended up having to pay about $250 to get it fixed. I would concur that it was "user error" on my part as I did not receive a defective laptop; however, I think it is ridiculous that the laptop couldn't survive one measly weekend trip in a thickly padded backpack (had it in my photography backpack which protects my thousands of dollars of camera gear just fine). So unfortunately, when I said above that this laptop is not portable--I was more right then I knew at the time. It's not just a size issue, it's actually a build issue too. Despite feeling sturdy, its just not. I would recommend buying it only if you plan on barely moving it (ie. it staying on top of a desk).

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I did quite a bit of shopping around to find a good laptop for not a ridiculous amount of money. I'm very happy with the choice I've made. I use this computer primarily for work, and the programs I use are graphically intensive and rough on a processor. This computer maintains its speed regardless of what I've got running. It's comfortable to use, doesn't get hot on your lap, the graphics are great, and it looks cool too! Many have complained about Windows 8. I'm actually enjoying it now that I've become acclimated to using it. As for long term usage of this computer, I can't yet say, but so far I am very impressed.

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This is basically a good laptop: plenty of hard drive and memory, and a very fast chip. The problem with it is that it's not properly grounded. I sent back the first one, received a second one, and they both had the same issue. I had to return it and cancel the order. Amazon customer service was very nice, very cooperative, but that doesn't make up for the product being faulty.

Here's the problem I'm talking about:

In the middle of the power cord is a rectangular box. It's supposed to convert AC current (from the wall outlet) to DC current. I know somebody with a pretty good knowledge of electronics, and with the proper equipment, and we were able to measure a little bit of AC current leaking out of the box. There's not supposed to be any AC current going to the laptop. As a result, I could feel a slight vibration, or tingling, on the outside of the laptop. The outside is aluminum, so it conducts electricity. What I was feeling was not a physical vibration, it was a small AC current. Besides being uncomfortable having electric current coming from the case, this is bad for the equipment in the long run. Even worse, there's a person in my house with a pacemaker, and stray electric fields/currents are downright dangerous for them.

Toshiba needs to deal with this issue. I wouldn't use a laptop with this problem.

Honest reviews on Toshiba Satellite S875-S7140 17.3-Inch Laptop (Ice Blue Brushed

It works very good and fast, a lot of space on the Hard drive It is not too heavy and so quiet.

I read a review about this Laptop from some reviewer who said that it does not have a LED

on the "Caps Lock" key, it is not true, I see the green light when I hit the Caps Lock key.

I have the Laptop just 4 weeks but I love it.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Toshiba Satellite S875-S7140 17.3-Inch Laptop (Ice Blue Brushed

got this item in a timely fashion,packaged carefully,works great.this Toshiba is a quality machine and I am very pleased with its performance.i highly recommend this product.

Cheap Toshiba Qosmio X875-Q7390 17.3-Inch 3D Laptop (Black Widow Styling

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Sat, 3 Jan 2015 04:08:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $1,949.99
Sale Price: $1,679.99
Today's Bonus: 14% Off

I just have to briefly review this laptop to put some of the bad reviews at bay. I just got this baby yesterday and it has blown me away. The screen is brilliant, the speed is unreal, and the 3D is awesome. Even the speakers are top notch. I'll gush more about it later, first I want to let future buyers know the few minor quirks:

Yes, the secondary hard drive makes a small clicking noise. However, what you will want to do ANYWAY when buying such a rig, is replace the PRIMARY hard drive slot with a solid state drive (I used a 240GB Intel 520). THEN, put the original primary drive (the hybrid one) in the secondary slot. Now, enjoy face-melting mind-bending speeds without any clicking noise. Now your boot time is maybe 10 seconds with a fresh windows 8 install.

Yes, battery life is very short. It is not unexpected with such a powerhouse of a computer. If you need to go more than probably 2 hours without an outlet, this beast is not for you. This is not an ultra-portable machine. It falls more in the desktop-replacement category.

Yes, you can watch your 3D movies (even MKVs) with this laptop. You will probably want to follow a brief tutorial (google iradar mkv 3d nvidia) on using an application called Stereoscopic Player. Choose "Sensio" in Layout settings and "NVIDIA 3d Vision" in playback methods. Make the video full screen with your glasses on and enjoy. Nvidia also offers an application to play 3d video.

I will update this review with any other notable findings that have not been mentioned by other reviewers.

UPDATE 1: I have been casually using the laptop for a couple weeks now. I want to note a couple cool things. The "Qosmio" on the back of the screen glows red in the dark which I JUST noticed. The screen is REALLY bright. On maximum brightness, it is brighter than my 58" plasma TV which is on vivid setting. The laptop has not gotten hot like I thought it might, even after hours of watching 3D video. However, I have not tested the temperature with intensive gaming which could produce different results.

I think it is important for future buyers to really consider the size of the laptop, as well as the massive charger when considering this machine. It is considerably heavier than the average laptop, weighing in at 7.5 lbs. You will almost certainly need to carry the charger as well, so add another 2 lbs. More to come later.

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I got the Qosmio laptop. Few weeks back, and I'm quite impressed with it. Its pretty damn fast when its starts up and takes you straight into the main menu where you can select what you an to do. I always been a fan of Nvidia graphics, and playing the high-end games like Crisis 3 on it doesn't pose any issue on the unit. It'll get hot while running games like that mainly because of all four processors are running. But if you want to keep it cool, I suggest buying a cool in pad designed for gaming laptops. These things deffinately do a god job sucking that hot air out from beneath it. I would choose this gamin g platform over Alienwhare anytime.

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I was a little hesitant about buying this laptop at first. $1,600 is a lot of money. Also no matter where I looked on the web I couldn't find many reviews about the laptop. So now that I've had it for 3 months let me tell you some things about it. (there is no rhyme or reason to the layout)

1. Nothing has broken or gone wrong, other people were complaining that thiers broke in a day and blah blah. But mine is just fine.

2. Yes, the battery life is only 2 hours when playing a game without have the charger plugged in, but everyone who buys a gaming laptop accepts that fact.

3. It plays just about anygame on high graphics that I want it too. But if your thinking of buying this laptop be warned that it does not run filters such as FXAA and anti-aliasing that greatly. I mean, you can turn all the filters on a game such as skyrim on and turn the graphics to ultra. However you will be getting roughly 25-30 fps. But I've found that across all games if I leave the filters off but dial the graphics up they run 45 fps or over depending on the game and still look beautiful.

4. the list of games I play and the roughly estimated average fps I get: Minecraft-150-200 fps, Skyrim-45-60fps, borderlands 2-35-45 fps, chivalry medieval warfare-45-60 fps, planetside 2-35-45 fps, Black Ops 2: 45-55fps, GTA IV-35-45 fps, DayZ Mod-40-55fps, etc. I play many more games than that, those are just some of the more graphically demanding games. All games were set to high graphics with low or no filters

5. Windows 8 is just as good (better in my opinion) than wnidows 7. its much (much much) faster on start up. Like from opening the lid of the laptop to getting into the desktop takes about 2 seconds. including typing in a PIN. Also whoever says this isn't a gaming laptop because of windows 8 is lying. Software doesn't matter. It's all about the hardware.

6. I bought this laptop because my old dell inspiron something something fizzled out on me and I wanted to get a gaming laptop for college. I love it. Just don't be expecting to lug it to class every day if you get one because it is monstrous. Although I personally like bringing it to class to put everyone else's MacBook Pro to shame (Mac's suck)

7. I would suggest buying a cooling pad to put underneath it because it does get HOT. I went with the cooler master X3 because it had a bigger fan than the X2 even though the X2 had better reviews. The X3 is perfect and gets the job done well. My normal CPU tempt in games is about 67-70 Celsius and same with my GPU.

8. Be warned that even though it says 3GB gtx 670m in the description, IT WILL NOT PERFORM LIKE THE DESKTOP GTX 670. The gtx 670 plays skyrim at 100+ fps with filters and all on full. the gtx 670m (laptop version) WILL NOT DO THAT. With that being said, it is still an excellent graphics card.

9. The 2 TB of HDD space is lovely, I've alrdy used about 500gb of space on mine... I have a lot of games.

10. If you purchase one be sure to update the GPU driver and you will get better performance.

All in all it is a perfect gaming laptop. It's well priced compared to other laptops *ahem AlienWare*, built out of sturdy aluminum, or aluminium if your British, runs everything I want it to beautifully, It really is the Bee's Knee's. Just keep in mind that for this kind of money you can build an epic desktop that could play cryisis 3 on full 1080p graphics and what not. think of this as a $1200 desktop that you payed an extra $400 to have put into laptop form. Really, that's where most of the money is going, to make everything function very well at 1/3 it's intended size. With that being said this laptop is the ultimate LAN party machine because it has incredibly good graphics and you can pick up from your desk, pop it in your back pack, go on down to your friend Larry's house and set it back up with ease... Then chop his head off in Chivalry medieval warfare :D

5 out of 5... It is a seriously good gaming laptop for the money

Honest reviews on Toshiba Qosmio X875-Q7390 17.3-Inch 3D Laptop (Black Widow Styling

This was my 5th Toshiba Laptop between me and my family but will definitely be my last. Bought it customized from Toshiba Direct. It worked for about a month, and failed. They directed me to take it personally to their authorized service center for fastest service. It sat for a month waiting for a part that didn't fix it and now they are waiting for a new hard drive that they estimate will take 6 WEEKS to deliver. When I called support they told me that it would be faster if I go pick it up and mail it back to them (with no commitment on what "faster" means). They offer no explanation of why it would take 6 weeks for a new hard-drive. Also the warranty continues to expire while the unit sits in their hands. (It is warranted from purchase date only)

I asked for my money back. After 2 weeks they come back with an offer of store credit to Toshiba Direct because they don't give refunds. They only want to credit the purchase price so I would need to eat about $200 in sales tax and shipping on the original and another $200 when I use my credit. They explained to me that this was a great favor as they were not depreciated the value of the computer for the one month that I was apparently honored to have it work for me.

So the only choice I get from Toshiba are take a credit and get another Toshiba craptop eating the shipping and tax charges 2 twice or wait until they fix the one I have with no guarantee of how long it will take while my warranty ticks away.

Here are some other fun facts they won't give me anything in writing about my options won't send me an email. You also can't send them emails. Strikes me a little odd a computer company won't take an email. Nothing in writing appears to be their policy.

UPDATE Response to Toshiba's comment:

Regarding Toshiba's response to this review writing a review is what got their attention. They have someone who has the job to read these reviews. The resolution was they figured out how to get a hard disk and the computer was repaired after they read this review.

To be clear I still will not buy another Toshiba nor would I recommend buying one.

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I bought this computer because I wanted a 17" with 3D capability and blu-ray viewing. To me it seemed like Toshiba has some of the strongest processor specs for a good price. I like to keep a laptop for 4 5 years so I did not want some underpowered processor which becomes obselete quickly. I looked at Dell and HP and settled on this unit.

The first unit I bought directly from Toshiba. This one was defective because the 3D did not function properly. Toshiba online direct support diagnosed a defective graphics card so I returned the unit. Now I am leery of Toshiba quality because I had bought the predecessor of this computer in 8/12 (the q7290), and this also was completely defective. Despite 2 duds I wanted to buy a Toshiba for the processor (i7 3630, price, blu-ray, and 3D. I could not find another major manufacturer offering all of this. I also liked the Toshiba website because to me it seems much clearer in terms of the specs of the computer and other details.

From my standpoint I am happy with this computer. It starts very quickly from the sleep mode (

Discount Sony VAIO T Series SVT14127CXS 14-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Sat, 3 Jan 2015 02:22:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

This is my first Sony Vaio laptop. I have owned a few laptops before, and I have to say I really like this one. First, the SSD drive allows the computer to boot up within 3 seconds, best feature of all. The size and weight of the laptop are perfect for traveling and carrying. It's true that it's not as thin as some of the other 'UltraBooks' out there, but this has a dvd-rom and you can expand the memory and replace the battery. So you do sacrifice a little bit, but it's worth it. The touch screen is a nice touch, and Sony gives you a ton of software to use that can be helpful for graphic art and media design.

Some things I'm not crazy about it, but can live with are:

-The battery is a little weak, but I don't travel that much so I'm not totally bothered by it.

-Some of the keys are a little oddly placed. Home, End, Page Down/Up

-No direct access volume button, except for in the function keys

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Turns on and loads quickly. Windows 8 and the touchscreen take a little getting used to. Also, I went from 15.6 inch to 14 inch, so the keyboad took some getting used to as well. I didn't expect to miss the backlit keybord so much.

As far as performance, it the wireless network adapter is glitchy. At first it would work fine, then every hour or so it's drop my WLAN connection, and automatically reconnect after about 1 min. Annoying! Took me 2 weeks and about 10 fixes before I got it to stop dropping out for no reason.

Now that it's fixed, it works flawlessly though. No complaints.

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I am an engineering student and bought this computer for college next year. I have had positive experiences with Sony products in the past and was hoping for good results with this one. I should have heeded the two other reviews on here warning of wifi issues, because I had the same problem. Out of the box, the wifi worked for about an hour, then stopped working. I updated drivers to no avail, and even re-imaged the hard drive to try to fix this. No matter what I tried, the wifi would continue to drop out after a minute of connection. Perhaps if I spent another two weeks looking for a fix as another reviewer did I might have eventually found an answer. However, it's up to you whether you want to preserve your sanity looking for a solution. I have since returned this computer and am typing this from an ASUS S400ca DB51t, which is running without any hitches so far.

The fan is also quite loud, the sound is usable but not pleasant, and finding a proper viewing angle for the glossy screen is frustratingly fickle. If you are looking for a quality product that runs out of the box, look elsewhere.

Honest reviews on Sony VAIO T Series SVT14127CXS 14-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook

Great laptop! Visual appeal is A+. Aluminum frame feels sturdy and well built, screen feels solid, and hinges do not feel flimsy. Optical drive does feel somewhat flimsy when extended but is to be expected in a "ultrabook". Boot time 14 sec, SSD (98 gb available) limited but fast. I have owned numerous laptops (HP, Samsung, Toshiba, Dell, and Apple) and this Sony ranks in the top three. Read other reviews talking about finiky wifi, Have had no issues. Although, did update BIOS and wifi driver immediately upon arrival. Only gripe, windows 8 needs some improvement. Touch screen is perfect addition but limited by windows 8 intricacies.

Pros:

Fast (boot time, transfer rate)

Amazing Design

Price

SSD

optical drive

USB 3.0

Cons:

limited ports (one USB 3.0)

Ivy Bridge (no Haswell)

1366_x_768 resolution

no dedicated volume buttons!

Shallow keyboard ( getting used to it)

Overall, Great laptop!

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Sony VAIO T Series SVT14127CXS 14-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook

wifi always gets disconnected for some reason. i dont know why its doing that. eversince i had this laptop that has been the issue.

HP Pavilion Sleekbook 14" Laptop / 14-b015dx / Intel® 3rd Review

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Sat, 3 Jan 2015 00:34:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

Good overall laptop. Gets the job done. The build of the laptop does feel a bit cheap though. Had it for a couple months, take it around with me all the time. The plastic where i rest my hands when typing is beginning to make a bit of noise. I do use it a lot though.

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I like the laptop and it is working well. I don't like the Windows 8! Windows 8 seems to want to make my laptop into a tablet but it can't. I need to get work done on the thing and it constantly gets in the way! I would change it to Windows 7 if I could. I might load Linux on it. I know that would be an improvement over anything Microsoft!

Cheap HP Compaq Business nc2400 Notebook

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Fri, 2 Jan 2015 10:43:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

I use these computers at work for temporary assignments (road trips) and they perform really great! I have had several different models (Dell D430 and this HP NC2400). I like the NC2400 a little better because it has a DVD installed. Not that I need a DVD all the time but it is nice to have when you need it and you do not have to carry an external one with you everywhere. I have loaded Linux and Windows 7 on these machines and they are really fast with Linux (Linux Mint) and fast with Windows 7 32 bit.

For what these machines are they do their job really well. They are not Game machines, nor are they video edit machines. They are Great for Web, Word processing (writing reports) putting up a power point, and fit in almost any small case as they are only 12" screen. This one I am writing this review on has an 80GB HDD, a dual layer DVD (I may change it to a Btu-ray) It has a dual core 1.2GB CPU and 2GB RAM. Just fine for road use. Lightweight, Small form factor, easy to use and Windows 7 works like a champ on it. What more could you ask for? I have another unit on the way I purchased on Amazon.. HP Compaq Business nc2400 Notebook

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got it refurbished, the seller had not been accurate in many issues with delayed responses. i got it as a second laptop. the screen resolution is poor, keyboard is ok, good sound. it came with windows xp, poor battery life.

the only issue is that it is cheap and has a nice size with cd.

Reviews of Hp Pavilion 15.6" Laptop 4gb Memory 500gb Hard Drive AMD A6-4400m

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Fri, 2 Jan 2015 09:18:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

A friend needed a laptop and she picked this one as her first laptop. I showed her the basics and she was off on her own. She has had it a few months without a single problem or complaint :)

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Very good machine .... is fast everything works fine, I have to adapt to windows 8 but all in excellent condition

Buy Lifebook Ah562 15.6" Touchscreen with Windows 8, Intel® CoreTM

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Fri, 2 Jan 2015 08:15:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

I bought this laptop for my son. This is the first Windows laptop that we have bought in 2 years and our first foray into Windows 8. My last few laptops have been MacBooks, one of each of the last 3 generations. We decided to try a touch screen laptop as we thoroughly enjoy our tablets. This machine has been more than I had hoped. It's responsive and Windows 8 is extremely easy to use for basic operations that my son will be using it for. Easy set up, synch plug and go. No real hiccups so far. The screen is very nice and I am interested in how it will hold up as it ages. It's a little heavy but that suits his use just fine as he is not yet permitted to lug it out of the house. The keyboard is an almost odd size (coming from a new MacBook, the keys are much closer than the MB) but they keys feel solid. Also it's supposedly water resistant. I hope we really dont need to find out. The audio while not stellar (whiat laptop is?) is every bit as good as a Mac for general use. Who critically listens to anything on a lappy? Startup and restarts are reasonable far out performing the desktop that this machine is replacing (hard core custum built 3 years ago) so my son is happy. There are a ton of ports to use. We were going to use the second screen HDMI outs but the main user doesn't want to. Overall, we are very happy with this machine and it should serve us for the next few years.

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Discount Alienware M18X AM18X-6732BAA 18.4-Inch Laptop (Black)

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Fri, 2 Jan 2015 06:36:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

The only thing wrong with this computer is the processor, it says its the Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor (Quad-Core, 2.2GHz, 6MB Cache), but its actually the one right below it the Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor (Quad-Core, 2.0GHz, 6MB Cache). But other than that everything is correct in the description. Now if the processor is making you think twice, don't. I'm running Elder Scrolls Skyrim on High settings with no problem, Crysis 2 is also on High settings. I play these games with iTunes and many more applications open and have no problem (but I did upgrade my Ram to 16GB 1600MHz, so I should be able to have many applications open). The only thing I would have liked with this computer is a Blu-Ray player because the display is simply beautiful.

For $2000.00 you get more than what you pay for, it is a awesome computer and hasn't been able to handle anything I throw at it. This thing can beat most desktops, so you will be very happy with it.

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This is a Beautiful Laptop with much decorative lighting and is super fast. It is very

well made and very sturdy. The keyboard portion of the laptop itself is very well laid out, making for easy reaches. A Gamer I'm not. My theory in choosing this laptop is that a gamer laptop would contain all the "bells and whistles" that I'd like in a laptop. I was right! Great Laptop, and I'm TOTALLY PLEASED with my purchase!

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I bought an Alienware M17x in November of 2011, I loaded it up with a total cost of $5750. By March I expirenced power issues. The power adapter is plugged in but the system does not recognize the adapter. This causes the CPU to throttle back and run very slow. Dell has trouble shooted the problem over the phone, sent a technician out to replaced the mother board and adapter 5 times now. The problem still exists. They refuse to refund my money or exchange the system. Customer support says it is against policy to exchange unless I have the 4 repairs done within 30 days. Them being slow to dispatch technicians prevents 30 day policy to work in my favor. I did pay for the exteneded priemer warranty, which is now apparent to me that this was also a waste of my money. Search Google "Alienware M17x power issues". You will see I am not alone is the complaint.

Honest reviews on Alienware M18X AM18X-6732BAA 18.4-Inch Laptop (Black)

I have been a PC Gamer since the PC game was invented. I have owned a few computers in that time.

The Alienware Desktop and Laptop I own have been superb machines in every respect. The desktop I used for over 5 years playing Everquest on average 6 hours a night 5 nights a week and 10 hours every Saturday. I never had a single problem in all that time until the Hard drive gave up the ghost. I replaced it with an Alienware laptop because I had not upgraded a single thing in that desktop computer and it was a bit out of date. I have used the laptop for 2 years just as hard and not a hicuup.

I expect a good tax return this year and with some cash I have saved I am going to buy the baddest Alienware custom built from the Alienware Website.

I understand that most computers are made of the same basic components that are available. But how those components work together and the outstanding build quality in an Alienware is unmatched by few companies.

An Alienware is a reliable, well built piece of art.

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I will start by saying I have not purchased this exact laptop. However please read what I have to say before you shrug it off as someone who doesnt know what I'm talking about.

When looking for a powerhouse of a laptop like this there is one thing you should always concider. Am I getting the most bang for my buck? When it comes to Alienware you absolutly are NOT. Unless you are looking for a laptop that looks really cool that is. An example would be the Clevo P180HM for good bang for your buck. You can check out places like notebookreview. com for sellers as amazon doesnt have it(yet) or for information on the laptop itself. Long story short it has the exact same specs as this laptop except it also has 2 gforce 560m in SLI and the starting price before customization is under 2 grand. Yes folks thats right. 2 graphics cards in SLI, everything else the same and its about 4-600 dollars less depending on the retailer.

I am writing this to remind people to look around before you buy just because you know the name. Alienwares look awesome no doubt. However in most cases you are paying for the name and the looks. Even quality of build and specs can be gotten much cheaper with a lesser known name. Btw, Clevo is actually pretty well known in laptop enthusiest groups.

Cheap Apple MacBook Pro ME665LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop with Retina Display

noreply@blogger.com (comforters) — Fri, 2 Jan 2015 04:53:00 -0800

Customer Ratings:

I purchased the newest version (Early 2013) which had the upgrade to 16GB Ram and 512GB SSD.

The notebook is extremely fast. Computer seems solid, boots in 10-15 seconds from off, sleep to ready in 4-5 seconds. It opens programs in no time flat. It is not light as an air book, but still defiantly lighter than previous models. The screen is great, bright, and responsive. With heavy use I get about 5-5 1/2 hours of use on the battery.

Some peoples complaints are the new power adapter, I will agree with them, the new adapter sticks out further and gets knocked off a lot. Not having a dvd drive, not a big deal...I dont think i've used a dvd or cd in a computer in a few years! If I need to I will just have to purchase the external.

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I've never owned my own laptop (sure, I've been provided company laptops before but never actually had my own), and I'd just spent a lot of money on house repairs and I felt like I needed to get myself a little something. OK, a BIG something, but I'll be damned if it wasn't worth it. This is a marvelous device. Literally within two minutes of setting it up, I got an iMessage on the laptop which contained a video of my nephew which I clicked on and it started playing. I had to check around for cameras because I felt like I was in an Apple commercial. It just works. I really have nothing else I can say about it other than if you're in the market for a laptop and you can afford it, you might as well splurge. You won't be disappointed.

There was one little annoyance, though, which I thought was a problem at first but now that I know it's normal I guess I'm OK with it, and that is when the laptop wakes up from hibernation, sometimes it takes several seconds until it will let you enter your password and start using it. For that time period it looks as if it's just locked up. After some research it turns out this is because it saves everything in memory to the hard drive and the transfer of that information back to memory when waking up can take several seconds depending on what all it has to transfer. So, no big deal, I guess.

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I've been interested in IOS development for years (I've been a software engineer for over a decade). I finally buckled down & purchased a macbook pro, even though it's incredibly expensive by my standards. I purchased my macbook pro directly from Apple, but I thought I would go ahead & leave a review here on Amazon anyway.

Here's my thoughts on this device:

Pros

-it's very thin / sleek. everything is metal

-it's so thin it can't include a DVD / Blue-Ray (I had to get a super-drive for this)

-it's minimalistic; it has no number-pad, the keyboard is centered

-the battery life is amazing (vs other laptops I have used)

-if you're coming from linux or windows, you'll be amazed at how good the sleep function is (being able to close the laptop / open it & have it back running within a few seconds is incredibly convenient).

-the wireless seems to run faster than it does on my other notebooks

-i got a time-machine time-capsule / airport extreme -the automatic hourly / daily backups are convenient

-the retina display is amazing

-the power of this machine is amazing for an ultrabook / i.e. for such a thin device, it's amazing that you can get near-desktop power

Cons

-it's expensive, but i got apple care. only they can support the device, so i went ahead & got their support

everything on the device including the ram / flash storage, etc is soldered / glued in place. That means you can't upgrade this device, and this also means it's very difficult to repair

Honest reviews on Apple MacBook Pro ME665LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop with Retina Display

This is a fantastic laptop -very similar to MBA in feel but much more powerful. However, if you are a Windows 7 user via bootcamp like me, this Retina Display version may not be the best choice (ie you may want to choose the regular MacBook Pro instead). The maximum resolution of 2880 x 1800 will make everything in Windows 7 look tiny. You can try to blow the DPI resolution from 100% to 150% or even 200%, but if you do, things will not look perfect -ie certain things will look too big, certain things too small (relatively), certain pop-up windows have cut-off images, certain programs have cut-off menus, certain browser pages will have messed-up paragraphs etc. You can try the browser view enlargement but it still is a hassle and imperfect. The best way to fix this is reducing the display resolution to 1440 x 900 (ie making the pixel count a uniform half of the maximum). Now everything will look perfectly aligned in perfect proportions but now you are defeating the whole purpose of having bought the gorgeous 2880 x 1800 Retina Display (and paid 3 times normal laptop for that). If you reduce the resolution anywhere from the maximum of 2880 x 1800, you will see the screen dull, fuzzy and smeared -much more so than laptops with originally lower maximum resolutions.

As for Windows 8, I have not tried and I do not know. I would appreciate if someone who did let me know if it would work at 2880 x 1800 without the need to blow up the DPI resolution. If so, I will switch to Windows 8.

This is something you will not see in the beautiful world of "demos" displayed in your local Apple stores since they will only have Mac OSX on these computers. But many people use these machines for Windows as well in the real world, and in so doing the "wow" factor will be severely undermined. I just wanted to warn you, since I am already regretting my decision. Plus the regular MacBook Pro is easily expandable and upgradable; this is much harder since everything has been soldered into the motherboard including the ram and the SSD. I am now using this machine at 1440 x 900, hardly a Retina resolution. Dear Apple, if you see this, please save us the Window 7 users by giving us an update patch.

Having said all this, since the original purpose (presumably) of this machine is for OSX, I am giving it five stars.

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This is by far the best laptop I've ever owned. A 2.7GHz quad-core processor, 16GB RAM and (I opted cheap) 256GB flash storage makes for the fastest, smoothest computing experience I've ever seen! The design is superb, materials are by far the best in any computer, and the overall package blew me away. I've had powerbooks and macbook pros, but this is a whole new level. I love all the trackpad gestures, it makes operating the laptop very intuitive and easy. The display is incredible I can't wait to get photoshop and final cut up and running! No, it doesn't come with a CD/DVD drive and I'm glad it doesn't! Besides, you can get a usb one for pennies on the dollar now if you really need to have a physical disc (I have one lying around that I haven't used in ages). Yes, it's expensive, but I honestly don't foresee ever having to buy another laptop! I'm sure at some point I'll replace the flash memory, but maybe 6-7 years down the road, and 16GB RAM will hold me over forever!