Bad Experience ACER Aspire One AO722-0473

Price: $345.99

AMD C Series Processor 1GHz
2GB DDR3 RAM
320GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
11.6-Inch Screen, AMD Radeon HD 6290
Windows 7 Home Premium, 7 hours Battery Life

Other Opinion

By Pharmboy (North Carolina)

Please read the follow up, after this paragraph: Bought for a gift, but I went in and setup, cleaned up junk and updated first so I got a little experience with it. For a netbook, it has very good power. Didn't ship with too much junk software, and overall feel of keyboard is good. The only gripe is that there is only ONE RAM slot, so I had to yank the 2gb out to put in the 4gb stick (23 bucks here on amazon). It has a space for the second chip, but not the holder. It did boot up slowly on the first run and updates were slower than a regular computer, but running the web and basic tasks were better than any other netbook I've worked with. The gigabit ethernet port is a nice touch, and Wifi worked perfectly. The larger screen is a plus, making it somewhere between a netbook and a small laptop (closer to a netbook) in performance, size and feel. Good choice for someone who wants a "baby laptop" and finds 8" netbooks too small.
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Follow up: The screen quit working, but it works with an external monitor, two months old. Ok, it happens, just inconvenient. So I go to their website, fill out the form for a warranty claim and wait. Couple days later, I check up and it was closed out, no explanation. Can't call them, so I "chat" online with a tech, who basically tells me that they thought I must have cracked the screen so it wouldn't be covered, so they just closed the claim with no notification or explanation to me. They made me send TWO different photos of the unit, to prove I wasn't lying, all while in chat. Now, I'm an IT manager with over two decades experience, and I'm familiar with how to properly debug a system and fill out a warranty claim. This was a case of simply closing the claim hoping I would just buy another cheap system from them. IE: The company must be telling employees that this is the preferred way to deal with warranty on network: deny, then accept. Long story short, they are going to fix it, they are paying all transportation, and I am not likely to ever buy an Acer product again. Do not buy.

Freezes often iBuyPower GAMER POWER AM699 Desktop

List Price: $699.99
Price: $599.99

Product Features
AMD fx_series_quad_core_fx_4100|#FX-Series Quad-Core FX-4100 Processor 3.6 GHz ( cache)
8GB DDR3
1000 GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive
AMD Radeon 6670 1GB
Windows 8

Other Opinion

By AlisonG

We really love the look of this, and it seems to work well, except for the fact it freezes at least 2-3 times every time we use it. A simple reboot fixes it, but it can get frustrating.

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!

No wireless N disappointing HP Pavilion g6-2132nr 15.6-Inch Laptop

List Price: $499.99
Price: $429.99

Product Features
AMD A-Series Dual-Core A6-4400M 2.7 GHz (1 MB Cache)
4 GB SDRAM
640 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
15.6-Inch Screen, AMD Radeon HD 7520 G Discrete-Class
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, 7-hour battery life

Other Opinion

By Aaron Kaminski

I don't have a lot to complain about with this machine. The price was right, I like the numeric keypad on the right hand side, and after pumping in some more RAM the performance is OK. However, I have to ding this two stars because the wireless adapter it comes with does not support wireless N. I'm just kind of stunned that in this day and age a new laptop would ship without that ability. I'll have to move large files around my network using my old laptop after transferring it from this new one via a wired connection. Thankfully I don't have to do it that much, but if you need N capabilities, keep on searching.

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.