HP Pavilion g7-2240us 17.3-Inch Laptop Review

List Price: $629.99
Price: $514.08
You Save: $115.91 (18%)

Product Features
Intel Core i3-2370M 2.4 GHz (3 MB Cache)
6 GB DDR3
750 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
17.3-Inch Screen, Intel HD graphics 3000
Windows 8

Other Opinion

By Mike (Central, NJ)

When I would open & close the lid, the monitor would stay black for 3 - 10 seconds and flicker 3 - 5 times before the image would stay. This started the first day and progressively got worse. I had turned off all monitor and hard drive power settings (no sleep mode, hibernation, etc)., and checked to ensure all drivers (video, bios, etc) were up-to-date. With all software up-to-date, I then knew it was a hardware issues. I called HP and tech support who agreed it was a hardware issue and offered to repair it for free as it was 4 days old. I told them "no" and am returning it. Also, the DVD drive would start for no reason and the function keys didn't always work. The sound key and monitor brightness keys sometimes took multiple hits to work.

Edited on September 5....HP tech support has been nothing but fantastic. They bumped my call up to next level support and then emailed me and called me. I informed them of what fixes I tried, how they didn't work and it is a hardware issue, and I am just going to return it. They provided me with a coupon for an HP Store purchase for my troubles and hoped I would buy a HP again. They went out of their to try to make me happy (I wasn't upset, I understand that hardware issues will happen).

Lenovo G580 15.6-Inch (Glossy Brown IMR) (Glossy Brown IMR)Laptop Review

List Price: $549.99
Price: $499.99

Product Features
Intel Core i5 3210M 2.5 GHz (3 MB Cache)
4 GB DIMM
750 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
15.6-Inch Screen, Intel HD 4000 Graphics
Windows 8, 5-hour battery life
Glossy Brown IMR

Other Opinion

By Leigh

Got the computer in a timely mannor, thanks Amazon. Got it up and running, I was excited to try Windows 8. I was taking the leap. I like Windows 8 and after 5 minutes of getting used to the new interface it was working fine for me. We did buy this computer for our 14yr son and so it was his turn to have some fun. It worked well, very fast. Then day 2. He was playing his favorite game, and called me over because the computer was frozen. Could not do anything with it. Hard boot. No good. Used the "one key recovery" feature, to roll back to original settings. Came back up for a bit then, would not load Windows any more at all. Talked to the nice lady at Lenovo and she offered to send factory recovery disks at no charge. I will update this when we try to recover. Great computer, no so sure about the software, may need a few updates before Win 8 is perfect.

Update Dec 20th : Lenovo sent recovery disks. Attempted recovery with Lenovo on the phone to guide me. Did not work, the computer is going back to be repaired. Not too happy now, but cannot complain about the service, it was fine. I hope the machine works properly when it gets back, will update.

Update Jan 17th : Still waiting. They are replaceing the motherboard and do not have the correct one in stock at the repair center it is at, so they say, must come from China or something, not a very happy customer at this point.

Update Jan 29th : Lenovo is now not the company I would recomend

Update Feb 16th : Finally have the computer back. It is running well. Lennovo support was terrible giving mis-information and outright lies were told to us. According to the "Lenovo Depot Repair Center Repair Action Report" that came back with the machine, the repair was replace hard drive. The telephone support told us that the motherboard needed to be replaced and it was not available and that is why the repair was taking over 5 weeks. If it was jus t a HDD replacement it should have taken no time at all. There is no problem finding a HDD at a repair depot I would hope. I am a very unhappy customer Lenovo. I hope that some people will think twice about buying any product from you. As a small business owner, if something this bad happened, I would bend over backward to make sure my customer was happy in the end. No such thing with Lenovo. I asked maybe if they could put in an extra 4GB of ram to help make up for my inconvience, no reply. The only thing that really surprised me was that we actually got our computer back. Lenovo you need to seriously look at how you treat your customers.

Samsung Series 5 NP535U3C-A01US 13.3-Inch Laptop Review

Price: $749.00

Product Features
AMD 2.1 GHz Dual-Core A6-4455M Processor
4 GB DDR3 RAM
500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
13.3-Inch LED HD Screen, 1366x768
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

Other Opinion

By A. Pena

Pros:
- Very nice design, sleek and elegant (similar to macbook air)
- Light and portable
- Runs pretty smoothly, i.e. no lagging or delay when opening and running programs (from what I could tell during my short ownership)

Cons:

- Mine would overheat and crash, and became too hot to touch on the bottom side near the back. This made the laptop pretty useless, and I had to return it for a refund.
- Lots of bloatware (i.e. useless, pre-installed software). Just annoying to uninstall it.
- Ships with a recovery CD, despite the lack of CD drive on the laptop. You'll need an external CD drive, or be able to copy the CD contents to a bootable USB flash drive.

Important note: I strongly encourage anyone who still decides to buy this laptop (after all, mine might've been a single case of overheating) to first do a complete re-installation of Windows using the CD (or some other form of "stress testing") just to see if it can make it through the process. Mine couldn't, it would overheat during the process and crash. The last thing you want is to use it lightly for a few months, only to later find out it overheats during longer, more intense use. Try to test out everything on any new laptop you buy.

Sony VAIO S Series SVS1512ACXS 15.5-Inch Laptop Review

Price: $1,149.99 & FREE Super Saver Shipping

Product Features
Screen Size 15.5 inches
Max Screen Resolution 1366 pixels
Processor 2.2 GHz Core i7-3612QM
RAM 8 GB DDR3
Hard Drive 750 GB
Graphics Coprocessor NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M LE
Windows 8

Other Opinion

By some EE guy

My criteria for the laptop I wanted involved a conflicting set of specifications, which resulted in few options. Till this very day, I have yet to find another laptop being sold which comes as closely to matching my criteria as this one. Basically, I wanted a powerful machine I could be productive on, which was simultaneously light enough to carry around (and pretty enough to look at). After first buying a Dell XPS15 (L521x), and later deciding to return it, I have been very pleased with this laptop, especially after installing a SSD (Crucial M4 256GB, btw).

Pros:
Display quality - At 1080p, of the IPS sort, there's almost nothing negative that can be said about this display. Some users have noted that the reds appear orangish, but for me it wasn't noticeable. I may have been either lucky or this just wasn't high on my priority list. The colors are vivid and the viewing angles are spectacular - comparable to my Thinkpad X61 Tablet, which also had a high resolution IPS display. 1080p set the real bargains apart from the phonies (aka most ultrabooks and their pathetic weaksauce resolutions).

Dedicated graphics - GeForce GT 640m 1GB. While it uses the slower VDDR3, but gaming on this laptop (I play SC2) has been no problem for me. In addition, there is a bios mod floating around which doubles the speed of the GPU (from 500MHz to 900MHz, with no increase in temps or voltage), though the actual performance difference was not noticeable to me.

Backlit keyboard with numpad - I felt that the numpad was one of those infrequently used, but very necessary when needed devices, and this laptop comes with one. It was perhaps the largest factor in weeding out most laptop candidates from my consideration (judge me if you want). The keys are chicklet style, which was a first for me. Adapting to it wasn't that big of a deal.

Size and Weight - this is just about the lightest and thinnest laptop that had all three of the previous criteria. It is 4.4lbs and less than an inch thick. Previously, the Dell XPS15 was also less than an inch thick, but was 5.7lbs or more. In addition, the viewing angles on the Dell was quite a bit poorer.

Accessibility and Upgradability - the battery, hard drive, and one stick of RAM are easily accessed. This made it very convenient to upgrade to an SSD and to slap more memory in. Same thing can't be said about most ultrabooks. Ultrabooks = 150% marketing - 50% quality

Cons:
Battery life - this is the biggest deficiency for this laptop. I would have preferred it to be 5+ hours, but at <4 hours, it's ok, but not great. Had there been another laptop with all of the above with a longer battery life, then I may have gotten it. But, there wasn't.

Build quality - as most reviewers have noted, there is some flex in some areas like the screen and the keyboard. In comparison, the Dell was solid. It was a solid block of aluminium. However, I have never had a laptop go bad on me before (and I've owned more than 10 in the past), so I'm fairly confident that I can keep this laptop from breaking. However, this laptop does seem quite delicate. It's definitely not made from Thinkpad stuff, though the Thinkpad soft surface scratches easily.

Other:
Aesthetics - the design of the laptop is very nice. That's all there is to it. Sony is always good at looking good, but in the past they were charging too much for shoddy stuff. For this laptop, though, it seems to be quite a bargain. If there was something I needed to gripe about, it would be that the one I got (black) has a rather rough finish, compared to the silver.

Bonus software - now I wasn't expecting this. In the past, I would always do a fresh re-install of my computer as soon as I got it to rid myself of the bloatware. But, I kept the software for the Thinkpad, and have done the same for this laptop. It's not bad. What really surprised me was that Sony had preinstalled a "Inspiration Suite" software package that included audio and video editors. I just spent the last few days playing with it, and looking up the prices, it's around $100 of free, useful software.

As I surveyed the scene, I was primarily shocked that Sony was the only vendor that provided me a product for all my needs at a reasonable and affordable price (I got the whole thing Open Box for less than $1k - including the SSD, but even at $1k, it's still good). Sony used to be associated with charging a premium for the brand name, but it seems that with the way things have gone, they are getting more competitive again.

Edit: this laptop seems to be the updated version for Windows 8. I had gotten the Windows 7 version. It seems not much has changed, but the bios mod doesn't seem to work with the Windows 8 version. Another thing about Sony is that they like to lock things down. Another reason I have not liked buying their stuff. Guess I got lucky with this purchase which they just happened to leave the bios available for tinkering.

Toshiba Qosmio X875-Q7380 17.3-Inch Laptop Review

List Price: $1,479.99
Price: $1,199.99
You Save: $280.00 (19%)

Product Features
Intel® Core i7-3630QM Processor
12 GB DDR3
1000 GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive
17.3-Inch Screen, NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 670M with Optimus?, featuring 3GB of GDDR5 discrete graphics memory
Windows 8

Other Opinion

By Caleb J. Blankemeyer "Caleb" (Suwanee, GA USA)

I got this to replace my desktop that I just sold as I'll be needing a more portable solution for classes.

Upon arrival and initially removing it from the box I noticed that the back plate was improperly fitted. You heard me, there are 3 prongs that hold it in place. 2 of them weren't in their respective location and it was just hanging. I had to unscrew it, remove it, and put it back on for it to function normally. Yeah, that's a pretty bad scare for a "new" product. I highly doubt the product I received was new like advertised. There are scuff marks at some locations(by the webcam for one).

As for the pros and cons, here they are.

Pros:
- Affordable
- Best Bang for your Buck
- Sleek and Stylish

Cons:

- Heating Issues(where I rest my right palm it gets to near scalding and where I place my hand for moving the mouse the exhaust is poorly placed and pumps hot air on my hand)
- Bad Screen (colors are to whited out and bright!)
- Weird Touchpad, no hardware disable button.
- Speakers aren't worth anything

Conclusion:
If you're looking for an affordable laptop for gaming consider another brand. The 670m in this one isn't worth the tradeoff for getting a high quality product.

Acer 11.6" AO725-0687 Laptop Review

List Price: $379.99
Price: $299.95

Product Features
AMD Dual-Core C-70 accelerated processor,2GB DDR3 SDRAM, 320GB SATA hard drive
10/100Base-T Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN, 11.6" HD CineCrystal LED-backlit display, ATI Radeon HD 6290 Graphics with up to 256MB of dedicated system memory
Built-in webcam,5-in-1 memory card reader, ?1 x USB 3.0 port, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x headphone/speaker/line-out jack, 1 x microphone-in jack, 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet port, 1 x VGA port, 1 x HDMI port
Windows 8 64-bit,CineCrystal LED-backlit Display (1366 x 768)

Other Opinion

By Choice

With respect to design, form factor, weight, and the number of ports, this computer is excellent. Very easy to carry and has enough ports for everyday use. But when it comes to performance, the computer stutters and exhibits very irritating lag. It is slow and very weak in its ability to multitask. As much as I like aesthetics, it's hard for me to rate this computer high when it fumbles on the most important reason for buying a computer. There is really not much to right home about when it comes to performance. And of course I am not referring to any heavy duty task - just basic task of browsing, checking e-mails, using Facebook, etc. Performance must come first before beauty.

ASUS A54C-AB91 15.6-Inch Laptop Review

List Price: $449.00
Price: $399.99

Product Features
Intel Pentium B980 2.4 GHz Processor
4 GB DDR3
320 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
15.6-Inch Screen, Intel HD 3000 Graphics
Windows 8

Other Opinion

By Eric Jacobs (Adams, MA United States)

We purchased an Asus laptop (ModelX54C-BBK24) three months ago from Best Buy for a business project, along with a Geek Squad service contract, and are seriously dissatisfied with the results. About two months after the purchase, the computer stopped working. We took it into Best Buy for diagnosis and repair. The Geek Squad determined that the problem was a defective hard drive and its replacement was covered under Asus's warranty. We were informed, however, that we needed to provide "recovery discs" that would allow the hard drive to accept an operating system so that the computer would be operational; without these discs the computer, even with a new hard drive, would not work. Although Best Buy is an authorized service provider for Asus products, we were told that they had no access to Asus recovery discs, and it was our responsibility to provide them.

Inasmuch as we had not created these discs, an oversight on our part that does not void any explicit or implicit warranties (it is reasonable expectation on our part that a newly purchased computer will work longer than two months), or give excuse to Asus for manufacturing a shoddy product, it was necessary to contact Asus. We did so, and Asus was willing to sell us these necessary recovery discs for fifty dollars. So, to rectify their inability to manufacture a serviceable product, we were expected to pay approximately twenty percent of our purchase price to remedy Asus's manufacturing incompetence. In our view, this was an outrageous demand, an effort by Asus to turn their shoddy quality control into a profit center at our expense.

We contacted Asus Customer Support and for three days worth of telephone calls received apologies and excuses from representatives and supervisors; all were terribly sorry about the inconvenience, etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum, but showed no real effort on Asus's part to make good on their defective product, save for an offer to subtract $12.50 from the purchase price of the recovery discs. A mean spirited offer that we refused. In effect, unless we pay Asus a fee to rebuild our newly purchased computer, their corporate policies will effectively prevent us from using our property. Not a nice alternative and a terrible corporate policy that looks to avoid responsibility for the poor quality of their product, and demeans their customers by forcing them to subsidize Asus's corporate ineptitude, manufacturing incompetence and indifference to customer satisfaction.

We will never again buy an Asus computer and would advise other consumers to consider striking Asus products from any purchasing consideration. For our part, we will be filing a complaint against Asus with the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office.

Entry Level Dell Inspiron i14RN-1227BK 14-Inch Laptop

Price: $584.00

Product Features
Intel Core i3-2350M Processor 2.3GHz
6GB DIMM RAM
500GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
14-Inch Screen, Intel HD Graphics 3000
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Other Opinion

By zdeuyo

Ok lets break this laptop down and help you find out if you should buy this laptop.

Product Features

Intel Core i3-2350M Processor 2.3GHz
6GB DIMM RAM
500GB 5400RPM Hard Drive

Note: I3 processor at this price is not a good deal even with 6gb of RAM (4gb is what avg users use). The 5400rpm hard drive doesn't justify the price either.

14-Inch Screen, Intel HD Graphics 3000
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Note: 14 inches is a sweet spot between portability and screen size, but you will see that this laptop comes in at about 6.57lbs. Pretty heavy for a 14inch.

USB 2.0 Ports: 1
USB 3.0 Ports: 2

Note: this is good but an extra one would be better.

Battery Type: Nonstandard Battery (6-cell battery)
Wireless Type: 802.11bgn

Note: Wireless is standard. The battery...you can expect about 3-4 hours with normal usage.

Other:

Chiclet-style keyboard
Touchpad with integrated scrolling and gestures
VGA Output (Connect to another monitor or TV, non HD)

This is entry level to getting your feet wet with a laptop. For a first time laptop user that does not go with a Netbook, this is ok, but for about 50 to 100 dollars more you would get a much better laptop for your money.Ok lets break this laptop down and help you find out if you should buy this laptop.

Disapointing Dell Inspiron i14z-5000sLV 14-Inch Ultrabook

List Price: $799.99
Price: $559.99

Product Features
Color: Silver
Intel Core i5 3317U Processor 1.7GHz
6 GB DIMM RAM
500GB 5400 rpm SATA HDD and 32GB mSATA SSD
14-Inch Screen
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Other Opinion

By RP

From the very beginning started to have problems with the Internet connection. Sometimes it just disappears. It is not my wifi, because other two notebooks I have work perfectly well. Googled it and seems like a common problem on dell notebooks with Windows 7. I also find the touch-pad not very responsive: you have to hit it really hard in order to make a click. I tried to change that in the settings, but could not. Tried to contact the support service yesterday, but they were not very helpful. Very negative impressions so far. Stay away from it.

Update: the problem of internet connection was solved after contacting the support service. However, I still have problems with the touch pad. Although I managed to also solve the touch pad problem described above, it is still not very responsive and jittery. For some reason the clicklock or draglock (or I don't know what that function is called) activates by itself every time I start the machine. To deactivate it I just have to open and immediately close the mouse properties window. To avoid this problem I just use a regular mouse. I am also not very happy with the battery life. It doesn't last more than 3-4 hours with normal browsing.

The Good The Bad The ugly Toshiba Satellite L875D-S7343

List Price: $629.99
Price: $599.99

Product Features
AMD A-Series Quad-Core A10-4600M 3.2 GHz
6 GB DDR3
640 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
17.3-Inch Screen, AMD Radeon? HD 7660G
Windows 8

Other Opinion

By P. Riley

The good the bad the ugly
the good: fast computer good budget gaming graphics
the bad: The keyboard is garbage some buttons have to be pushed down harder than the rest press 4 corners 1 corner isn't imputing. The space bar is a pain.

HP Pavilion g7-2238nr 17.3-Inch Laptop Review

List Price: $599.99
Price: $439.99

Product Features
AMD A-Series Dual-Core A6-4400M 2.7 GHz (1 MB Cache)
4 GB DDR3
500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
17.3-Inch Screen
Windows 8, 3.15-hour battery life

Other Opinion

By David Valdez "David V" (Dumfries, VA)

Another Black Friday buyer here, first let me say what a great job Amazon customer support was when I had a small issue with billing and this order, top notch as always.

Anyways...

So I've owned the laptop for about 2 weeks now, the latter of which I've spent a considerable amount of time tinkering with various everyday tasks.

Let me begin with the OS, Windows 8 and it's relationship to the computer...

While I won't go into a personal review of the new Windows experience, which for the record I do mostly approve of, I will say this laptop does NOT have a Touch Screen, so you will be navigating with your track pad(more to come on that) or your mouse. Anyone who has used Windows 8 understands most of the new fancy changes were created with the idea of tablets in mind. By that I mean to say that getting around would be considerably easier with touch controls. That's not to say it isn't completely and totally usable with your mouse, just that technically it would be easier with touch. Personally I understood this going in, and it was a conscience choice not to get a touch screen as I'm not too keen on finger print smudges on what is replacing my primary machine. As a suggestion for someone looking for touch screen laptops, I would really look into one of the new flip style notebooks/ultrabooks, such as the lenovo yoga 13, where the computer pretty much converts to a tablet. One last thing I'll mention about the OS is the boot time is super fast (it doesn't actually shut down, but go to a kind of hibernate) Unless I have to restart I can be up and running in about or less than 20 seconds. For a fuller look into the actual pro's and con's of Windows 8 vs Windows 7 I'd check out engadget or cnet for in depth opinions.

*edit I should mention there is a fair amount of bloatware (software pre installed by the manufacturer) which is completely unnecessary (norton who?) but it is easy enough to uninstall, though time consuming that it is.

Next, the physical design/features...

By far the best thing the g7 has going for it is the beautiful screen and resolution. A beefy 17.3" and 1600 x 900 are nothing to scoff at when most budget laptops in this price range stick to the safe 1366x768 and 15ish". Again I say, it's simply perfect to sit down and enjoy family pictures, HD movies/tv, video games(more later), the real estate available also makes multi tasking with multiple programs open in the same screen completely doable without making sacrifices to what you see.

To go along with the screen the speakers are quite good as well, not blow you out of the water great, but I've heard a number of notebook speakers and these are certainly above better than average. Admittedly I am no audiophile, but I clearly hear the boom of a bassy explosion or the high's through pandora radio. Even with the lid closed, I can fill the room with music playing for a gathering.

The outer and inner shell are a glossy reflective black, which to some may be an inconvenience which could be a smudgy nightmare, it doesn't irk me much however, after a week of heavy use I haven't been bothered in the slight by it.

The keyboard is spacious with firm keys, layed out in a familiar manner with some usefull hoteys built into the "f" keys such as brightness, volume, play/pause. As far as keyboards I enjoy using this one, the keys have just the right amount of push to them and they are well spaced out.

Connections wise there is something to be desired, no bluetooth (get a bluetooth dongle for cheap) is a bit of a hit, but once more for the price I think I'll live. HDMI is on the left side and easy to get to, perfect for plugging into your TV or A/V receiver. The power connection is on the right back, with the actual plug being a straight long type, so you will need at least a couple inches on your right side if your sitting this on a desk. The cable and power brick also are acceptable lengths with a velcro strap and small clip for cable management.

The touch pad. So far my only real gripe with this machine is the touchpad. I'm not sure if it's a matter of software(synaptics) or RAM or I just don't know yet, but this pad has some issues. It is multi touch capable but the multi part simply does not work 100% of the time. No issues with simple one finger point and click(or tap) but when using gestures such as two finger scroll, two fingers anywhere can scroll horizontal or vertical, it will lock up and not be responsive for up to 2-3 seconds sometimes. There is a pinch to zoom which I inadvertently activate once in a while as I'm doing the two finger scroll as well. Two finger tap acts as a right click, unfortunately this has the same frequency of fail rate with the two finger slide, slightly less maybe but noticeable still. Obviously there is a problem with accuracy with multi touch, and I'm looking for a solution but for now there you go. I know it can be done right, I've used more than one mac with the multi gesture track pads and those have all worked perfect for me so we'll see, hopefully you can get some better software to fix it. The physical buttons, left and right click, work well enough, just as you'd expect, and a firm press and click.

Games...

I'm somewhat of a gamer, so of course I was extremely curious to what I could throw at this machine. It does has a dedicated card, AMD Radeon HD 7520G, it won't win any prize fights, but certainly should pull in some good bouts.

I loaded Diablo 3 and surprisingly it ran fairly well, with settings like textures at the highest but a few reductions in physics and lighting the game runs in full screen 1600x900 at about 20 fps average, and looks quite good doing so. You can lower some settings to improve your frame rate, but it's more than playable.

Starcraft 2 wasn't as successful, I can run it at high settings(ultra being higher) at about 20 fps as well, but that game will slow down as more units appear onscreen and the game progresses, and there can be a fair amount of things happening later in games, so you will likely have to turn down your graphic fidelity to get it playable.

Portal 2 looks fantastic and runs at the highest settings with a fluid gameplay, sorry I didn't get the fps for this one but it's smooth and fast as far as I can tell.

Less graphically intensive games such as Torchlight 2, Super Meat Boy, The Walking Dead all look perfect and run great. I did try the X-Com Enemy Unknown demo, but it didn't run quite well enough to try and get it working better.

I'll likely update this at a future date when I've tried some other games and report how they ran.

*Conclusion*

I feel as if I've been rambling for a while now and I may have lost some of my original thoughts but I'll summarize here real quick.

Biggest PROS~
Screen size and resolution 17.3" and 1600x900 pixels are above and beyond the call of duty for this price (currently $500 on amazon) Even better when I payed $420 on black friday week. Looks beautiful and crisp
Keyboard is spacious and quite comfortable
Battery Life( I think I forgot to mention this above) Listed as 3 hours, easily that running HD video and multi tasking in the background, more than enough for my needs
Plays recent video games, such as diablo 3, great and more than capable of less graphically intensive games such as torchlight 2

Biggest CONS~
TouchPad multi-touch simply doesn't work 100% of time. Could be software, will hopefully find a solution
No bluetooth, I can live with this however remembering the price, and you can find a good cheap dongle you can plug into one of your 3 USB's
(Not a huge CON, but the hardrive could be bigger, 500GB can fill up quite quickly these days)
Bloatware, but this almost doesn't count since everything comes with bloatware now, just find and delete it if you know what your're doing.

In my opinion, worth the buy alone for the screen size and resolution.
Hope this helps someone.

Nice Hardware, Awful Software Lenovo G580 15.6-Inch Laptop

List Price: $479.99
Price: $449.99

Product Features
Intel Core i3-3110M 2.4 GHz (3 MB Cache)
4 GB DIMM
500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
15.6-Inch Screen, Intel HD 4000 Graphics
Windows 8, 5-hour battery life

Other Opinion

By Sleepym

The laptop came from Amazon within a couple of days and was nicely packaged. The initial setup for the Lenovo was also nice. That is where nice ended.

The laptop shipped with a malware/spyware package called Nitro. Nitro blocked the Windows 8 updates. There were some Lenovo instructions that said to update Nitro but that crashed too. If you buy this laptop, the answer is easy: UNINSTALL NITRO immediately. It is some buggy emulation software that you will never need. You will also need to disable Nitro's spyware cousin, Nalpeiron. The instructions to do this are on the Lenovo Community Forum for Windows 8. Normally this would have caused me to rate it 1 Star but unfortunately all the laptop makers are taking payola to put spyware on your computer. You will probably have similar experiences with any other Windows machine.

Also, Windows 8 is a major change. Don't buy this for the non-computer savvy person in your family. Buy a Windows 7 PC for them while you still can. And remember, Windows 8 is built into the BIOS and you cannot downgrade even with a complete disk format.

And buy from Amazon because they will stick up for you in these sorry deals. Their hardware, Kindle, just works.

HP Pavilion g7-2010nr 17.3-Inch Hardware issue

List Price: $629.99
Price: $482.00

Product Features
Intel Core i3-2370M 2.4 GHz (3 MB Cache)
6 GB DDR3
750 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
17.3-Inch Screen, Intel HD graphics 3000
Windows 8

Other Opinion

By Mike (Central, NJ)

When I would open & close the lid, the monitor would stay black for 3 - 10 seconds and flicker 3 - 5 times before the image would stay. This started the first day and progressively got worse. I had turned off all monitor and hard drive power settings (no sleep mode, hibernation, etc)., and checked to ensure all drivers (video, bios, etc) were up-to-date. With all software up-to-date, I then knew it was a hardware issues. I called HP and tech support who agreed it was a hardware issue and offered to repair it for free as it was 4 days old. I told them "no" and am returning it. Also, the DVD drive would start for no reason and the function keys didn't always work. The sound key and monitor brightness keys sometimes took multiple hits to work.

Edited on September 5....HP tech support has been nothing but fantastic. They bumped my call up to next level support and then emailed me and called me. I informed them of what fixes I tried, how they didn't work and it is a hardware issue, and I am just going to return it. They provided me with a coupon for an HP Store purchase for my troubles and hoped I would buy a HP again. They went out of their to try to make me happy (I wasn't upset, I understand that hardware issues will happen).

Review ASUS S56CA-WH31 15.6-Inch Ultrabook

List Price: $699.99
Price: $499.99

Product Features
Style: Core i3
Intel Core i3-3217U 1.8 GHz
4 GB DDR3
500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive, 24 GB Solid-State Drive
15.6-Inch Screen, Intel GMA HD
Windows 8

Other Opinion

Many Caveats. Do your research and Decide Wisely!
By Amy Yeh

Pros:

Start-up is extremely fast with Instant On. 2-3 seconds.

A very modern-looking pc.

Affordable for those who cannot splurge on a more high-end ultrabook.

Cons:

CPU is i3, and not a more advanced version.

HDD is less than 444 GB! NOT 500 GB as described.

Poor viewing angle- unless you look at the screen face-on, the graphics aren't displayed right. This is problematic when watching videos.

POOR Graphics! HQ videos don't show up clearly, even though this is only a 15.6" screen. In fact, it's laughable that they are clearer on my 17" Toshiba Satellite laptop!

There are many restrictions as to what you can do. For ex, you can't save new programs where you want to save them (new programs under Program files). I keep getting error messages such as "contact the administrator for permission." I AM the administrator!

Windows Media player does not play DVDs on this computer. ASUS DVD, which is installed, delivers poor resolution playback. The pc won't let you download a different version of WMP to fix the problem. So you have to get something like VLC player.

Windows 8 is the newest thing, and while it's important to stay up-to-date, it really takes some getting used to. Read the manual that comes with the pc. It is very helpful!

Conclusion:

I have only owned this pc for a few days, and have discovered many problems with it. If you want a basic computer, you'll prbly be okay with it, but there ARE a lot of caveats. Definitely not for a gamer (I'm not one).

Okay, I hope that this review helps those of you considering the purchase of their first ultrabook. Happy shopping!

Re-packaged Dell Inspiron i15R-1633sLV 15.6-Inch Laptop

List Price: $609.99
Price: $459.99

Product Features
Intel Core i3-2370M 2.4 GHz
6 GB DDR3
750 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
15.6-Inch Screen
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Other Opinion

By mani

Bought this on Black Friday. The laptop was delivered on time. Even though it was supposed to be new, it is clearly re-packaged. You can see on the cardboard box where the original Factory tape was removed and it has been re-sealed with a generic packaging tape.

This might be acceptable if it was sold as refurbished or re-conditioned but definitely NOT for a new laptop. I wonder who opened the original Factory packaging (Security Tape).

I have decided to send the item back to Amazon. Unfortunately, all the Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals are gone and I've asked Amazon for a Replacement with the same model. The sad thing is that Amazon does not have it in stock any more and Customer Service cannot order a replacement for me. This is supposed to be a gift and I don't want the recipeient to think that it's a refurbished/reconditioned item.

Reading at the other 2 reviews, I am having second thoughts if I should really gift this Model.

Come on, you can do better ASUS Transformer TF300 T-B1-BL 10.1-Inch 32 GB Tablet

List Price: $399.99
Price: $348.79
You Save: $51.20 (13%)

Product Features
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
NVIDIA Tegra 3 Quad-Core Processor
10.1-inch LED screen
32GB SSD, 1 GB DIMM
GPS-enabled

Other Opinion

By Dave Kline

I really liked this tablet. It was fast, the price was right, the keyboard dock was interesting, but I returned all three. Tablet one had a stuck-on pixel close to the center of the screen. Tablet two appeared to have a foreign object stuck under the glass of the screen. Tablet three had a dead pixel near the center of the screen. Not good when one of the touted features is the display. I've always gathered that Asus was among the leaders in the Android tablet game, so I'm rather disappointed. I suppose I can try the Transformer Infinity when it comes out or the Google tablet that is rumored to be made by Asus and hope this is a problem with this particular model. Unfortunately, there isn't much comparable by other manufacturers and Asus is one of the only manufacturers making high performance Android tablets...I guess we'll see what happens.

Come on, Asus, you can do better. A $390 product should be right.

Short in More ways ASUS VivoBook X202E-DH31T

This IS a good value Windows 8 Netbook w/Touchscreen but to me it came short in more ways than one.
Considering the recent Tablets and Ultrabook creations by Asus, I was really looking forward to getting this one.
It finally arrived Nov-1-2012 but sadly, I ended up returning it on the following day.

Asus made the frame quite large for an 11.6" screen. I set it next to my 14" laptop and it's almost as big. A wide screen frame makes sense when you hold a tablet but not for a laptop.

Although it weighs in at 3.2lb, the size makes the leverage/tilt/moment feel much heavier than if it were smaller. Some may say it is well built. But to me it mostly felt like a heavy brick in my hand.

Then, the battery cannot be replaced easily. You will need to remove some 15 screws from the bottom cover to get to it.
Worse still, the battery is pretty small. 2 cell and only really good for 4-5 hours. A year from now it will hold only half that time. Asus equipped many recent tablets with twice as long lasting batteries. Why not here?

I did not find the spaced out keys particularly comfortable or with good feedback either.

The screen only goes back to a little past vertical, which is far from being able to lay it flat in case you wanted to turn the Netbook around (i.e. the keyboard is away from you) and access the touchscreen comfortably, in order to use the on-screen keyboard with non-English chars, or play games.
Considering that it comes with a touchscreen, how difficult was it for Asus to make the hinge go back 180 degrees making it incredibly more usable?

The screen itself is super glossy and reflective. Does not yield to best viewing experience if you have lights or bright windows in your back.

Also, when you put an SD card into the slot, it sticks out almost half an inch, which means you might hit it when carrying the laptop around.

Too many strikes and it was out - out the door and shipped back to the seller. Sorry Asus.

The coming 10.1"-10.6" Tablets with Windows 8 Pro will probably suit my needs much better. It might even be an Asus. They generally do make good products. btw, try slickdeals or other shopping sites for better prices
Patience is Golden.

Product Features
Intel Core i3-3217U 1.8 GHz Processor
4 GB DDR3
500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
11.6-Inch LED Touchscreen, Intel HD 4000 Graphics
Windows 8

Other perspective-Click Here

By Y. Z.

Overpriced Apple MacBook Pro MD212LL/A

Overpriced for what you get, unless you consider the Apple logo worth about $400.

Awesome machine if you are editing high resolution images. Otherwise, doesn't really offer much compelling new features/capabilities/power over a good quality PC notebook at half the price - and I own both Macs and PCs.

There's a screen resolution race going on the past year similar to the digital camera megapixel race. Makes for great looking specs, but practical benefits are seen in only a very few specific applications. Consider this, the average website is designed for a 1024x768 display, including Apple's website itself. Therefore the images used within the web page layouts of virtually all websites are sizes like 300x200 or 600x400 at most. All a super high resolution screen does is either a) make everything look tiny (especially on a 13" screen), or, b) cause the O/S and/or browser to basically have to scale everything up. In other words, a 600x400 photo on a blog post of a website looks no better on a $1,600 notebook than a $400 notebook with half the resolution. A super high resolution photo that takes up the entire screen would be another story.

Apple notebooks are beautiful and highly capable pieces of hardware, but at these prices, they are also essentially status symbols for users with deep pockets.

At this point in time, anything over 1080P HD movie resolution of 1920x1080 is pretty pointless for your average consumer. Just a bunch of numbers to brag about and charge more for.

Product Features
2.5 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz) with 3MB shared L3 cache
8 GB of 1600MHz DDR3L onboard memory
128 GB Flash Storage
13.3 inch LED-backlit Retina display, 2560-by-1600 native resolution, Intel HD Graphics 4000
Mac OS X Mountain Lion, 7 Hour Battery Life

Other perspective-Laptop

By Sam Bravern