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Official Laptops Review Thread

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a b D Laptop
October 13, 2010 10:03:05 PM

With all of the questions concerning the recommendation of laptops, we figured it would be a good idea to start a thread where members can review their new or old laptops to help others looking at the same models. Feel free to post your review of your current or even an old laptop that you may have liked or disliked for various reasons. Before writing your review though, post the following specs on your laptop (if you know):

-Brand:
-Model:
-Bought From/Price:
-OS:
-CPU:
-GPU:
-Resolution:
-RAM:
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…):
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation):
-Your Rating (out of 10):

Feel free to include any screen shots of benchmarks or of the laptop itself if you feel that they will contribute to the review. Also keep in mind that this thread IS NOT for questions. If you have a question, create a new thread with your question.

Thanks for contributing and helping other members of Tom’s find their perfect laptop!

More about : official laptops review thread

a b D Laptop
October 13, 2010 10:18:30 PM

I'll give everyone a short example of my current laptop:

-Brand: Toshiba
-Model: Satellite M305
-Bought From/Price: Best Buy for $700 (included extended warranty)
-OS: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit (Vista originally)
-CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T6400
-GPU: Intel 4 Series
-Resolution: 1280x800 (LCD)
-RAM: 4GB of DDR2 @ 800Mhz
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Internet, E-Mail, and Word Processing
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): High Performance Setting- 1.5 hours/Balanced Performance Setting- 2.5 hours
-Your Rating (out of 10): 7.8/10

I bought the Satellite for a casual use PC after my previous HP laptop died just after 1 year of use. My previous 2 laptops were HP's and did the same thing, so I decided to switch to a more reliable brand (in my opinion). Obviously, it isn't a power user's machine, but it gets the job done for my primary uses that include Internet related activities, e-mail, and word processing. For heavier usage programs and the occasional game I use my superior desktop (in comparison the laptop). It handles MS Office 2010 with ease and does a decent job with flash based video play back. The only improvement that I have made upon it was to install Windows 7 Pro (64 bit) when it was released, as well as the beta version before hand (I use it as a kind of "test machine" as well). It cools fairly well, as the T6400 usually sites in the low 30's (C) when idling and heats up to the upper 40's to lower 50's with heavy use (which is rare), i.e. it has never shut down due to heat related issues. The fans, like many laptops, can get a bit loud at times, but it is more than tolerable. Finally, the battery life is suitable for my needs, as it is usually plugged into the AC adapter.

My only issues with the M305 are the relatively low screen resolution and lack of brightness on the LCD (nothing noticeable to the untrained eye, but still annoying). I should also mention that perhaps due to a shoddy inverter or a loose connection, I'll get the occasional flickering of the LCD when I move it too quickly. Finally, like many newer design laptops, it comes with a very shiny case/coating, which is a finger print and whatever else you can imagine magnet. Otherwise than that though, it's a nice laptop, which for my use and needs is why I gave it a 7.8/10.
a b D Laptop
October 14, 2010 2:41:18 PM

-Brand: Dell
-Model: Studio 1555
-Bought From/Price: Dell for 1000
-OS: Windows 7 Pro (Came with Home Premium)
-CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo P8700
-GPU: ATI Radeon Mobility 4570
-Resolution: 1366x768 (LED-LCD)
-RAM: 4GB of DDR2 @ 800Mhz
-HDD: 320GB 7200RPM
-Usage: Web Browsing, H.264 playback, HDMI to TV, Some gaming, some video encoding/
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): High Performance Setting- Never tested ~1.5 - 2H?/Balanced Performance Setting- 3-3.5 hours. Extreme power saving ~4 Hours (WiFi off, core locked to 800Mhz undervolted to 0.875, Lowest brightness)
-Battery Capacity: 52Wh
-Your Rating (out of 10): 7.5/10

I bought this to replace an old Dell Inspiron 8600, which worked fine but wasnt up to the tasks I needed it to do. For what I wanted and its price Dell suprisingly had the best offering (I looked at Sager too). I will do some occasional gaming but not so much anymore but the 4570 is up to the task at lowered settings, while still giving me a good battery life. I often have a dozen or so tabs open at any one given time, while running my messaging client, remote desktop into another PC, and often doing H.264 playback (480,720,1080). I have had it stutter occasionally on H.264 1080p playback on my HDTV, which was solved by closing down everything I had running. Processor idles around 100F and loads to 160-170 (Prime95) I usually never have it pegged at 100% unless I am doing encoding. My laptop fan is pretty quiet compared to other laptops I have used but it is audible when it spins up. Power brick is nice and small compared to the previous laptops I have owned, and my older power bricks are compatiable with this one so I dont always have to carry an AC adapter with me.

My only complaints lie with the design. When the laptop is closedis pressure is put on the back of the screen the plastic easily bends, pushing the screen into the keyboard and will leave little indentations. (I just had it replaced because the warranty will be going in a few months, so I will have to be more careful when placing it in a bag). In my opinion there isnt enough of a seperation between the touchpad and the palmrests, when typing sometimes my palm will touch the touchpad and send my cursor flying and I end up typing somewhere where I dont want to be. Anther complaint I have is that like most laptops it is 16x9, I was really hoping to get a 16x10 as I need the extra vertical height in some cases. Also its a finger print magnet which is common for all laptops now whichI have just grown to ignore. And no overclocking/underclocking/BIOS undervolting

Other than thats its pretty solid it has unfortunately taken a few drops while in operation and still works fine. Would I reccommend this to others, probably but I'm sure there are better laptops where the screen wont hit the keys. But overall I am happy with my purchase, got a good deal as Core 2's were about to be replaced with the new Core i series. This is why I give this laptop a 7.5/10

buwish I added in 2 fields, Battery Capacity and HDD Size/Speed
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October 22, 2010 6:14:28 AM


-Brand: Sony
-Model: Vaio VGN-FW170J
-Bought From/Price: Best Buy $999 (Oct 2008) + $200 in recent upgrades
-OS: Win 7 Pro 64
-CPU: Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26 Ghz
-GPU: Intel m4500HD
-Resolution: 1600x900
-RAM: 8GB Corsair PC6400 800Mhz
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Everything but Gaming
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 1.5 - 3.5 hrs (after 3 years it is starting lose some charge)
-Your Rating (out of 10): 8/10 Lose 1 point for being old and 1 more for integrated graphics.

Bought this when the Centrino 2 platform was brand new the lower TDP P-series cpu's helped increase battery life and the ability to use 800mhz ram was a big plus. The price tag on my model was a little higher because out of the box I opted for a 320gb 7200rpm HDD instead of 5400rpm and a blue-ray drive with HDMI out. It has 2 different card readers , 1 for mmc/sd and another for memory stick ( sony). It has run everything I have thrown at it pretty well but recently I was itching for more power. Instead putting it out to pasture I switched the HD for an OCZ Agility 2 SSD and doubled the RAM from 4 -> 8gb . The old girl sprung right back to life with fresh OS install. I very often use the HDMI out to watch netflix or Hulu on My HDTV and ever since flash 10.1 it is buttery smooth. Best part about the Vaio line though is Keybaord. Individual keys with spaces in between and a great tactile feel.
Windows index numbers
Proc - 5.9
Ram - 5.9
Graphics - 3.5 :(  it plays blu-rays just fine though.
Disk - 7.7 :) 
a b D Laptop
December 15, 2010 8:26:43 PM

-Brand: eMachines (Acer)
-Model: E620-5885 (Aspire 5515)
-Bought From/Price: Tiger Direct/$310CAD
-OS: Originally Vista Home Basic but I got rid of that crap and put on XP Pro
-CPU: AMD Athlon 64 2650e 1.6GHz Single-Core
-GPU: ATi Radeon X1200
-Resolution: 1200x800
-Screen Size: 15.4"
-RAM: 2GB DDR2-667
-Hard Drive: 160GB WD SATA
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Internet, Office Apps, School, Multimedia
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 1.5hrs
-Your Rating (out of 10): 10

Yes, I gave it a rating of 10 because for my uses, this laptop is flawless. I bought it to replace my aging Dell Latitude C610 (which still works by the way) when I went away to university. This machine is by no means a powerhouse but considering the price I paid for it, it was the deal of the century for me. I have a philosophy that one must NEVER get a good laptop, just one that's good enough. Use a desktop build for all intensive programs like games. This laptop does all I ever needed it to and all I'd ever ask of a laptop. Now, of course, this laptop is not meant for gaming because the Radeon X1200 is (let's face it), primitive. However, like all GPUs it handles 2D functions like Video and Windows flawlessly. I have read that the X1200 also works perfectly smooth with Windows 7 Aero but I'm never going to put that on this machine I don't think. I can upgrade the RAM because although Acer did put only 2GB in this machine, it's a single 2GB stick so adding another is a piece of cake. Maybe then I'll try using Windows 7 but in all honesty, I like XP and I don't see much reason to use an OS that takes another 10GB away from my 160GB hard drive. The bottom line is that this laptop gives me the mobility I want, it was cheap, it's extremely reliable (no problems in 18 months) and does everything I could hope for except gaming. Even then, I still play old NES, Genesis, N64 and Mame ROMs on it and it does those just fine. For all newer games I have my Quad-Core gaming monster. That's why I gave it 10 out of 10, for someone who wants to flush money down the toilet for a gaming laptop, this is not for you. If you want it for simple internet use, multimedia and school/office applications, this computer could be your only home computer. My father and my aunt both have one and they are very happy with them. To sum it up, it's a glorified netbook with double the RAM, a REAL CPU, a DVD-RW drive, a big screen and ATi graphics. :sol: 
December 24, 2010 5:12:58 PM

Brand: Gateway
-Model: NV5321h
-Bought From/Price: Futureshop $600 CDN including taxes
-OS: Win 7 HP 64 bit
-CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 M300 2Ghz
-GPU: ATI HD4200
-Resolution: 1366x768
-Screen Size:15.6
-RAM: 4GB DDR2
-Hard Drive: 250GB
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): multimedia,some older games, Office stuff and 3D modeling and CAD with Eagle and Autocad 2010
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 2.5-3 hours
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9

Bought this laptop to replace an aging Compaq I had acquired as a stopgap when my original dual core Acer laptop started having issues a few years back. For the money I paid for it it's an amazing machine it's run everything I need it t., I play Quake Wars, the original F.E.A.R, the need for speed undergrounds and carbon and as I said do some light 3D modeling with 3D studio max and some light CAD with Eagle (electronics based board design CAD) and Autocad 2010. It's fast and snappy even when loading up large models and textures for gaming or CAD and with a 250GB HD it's more than enough portable space. Only gripe with it was that the hard drive (a Hitachi travelstar YEA I know *shudder*) died after only 8 months. Thankfully though Gateway tech support was great and replaced it for me including shipping time in 4 days (I posted a complete review of that in another thread in the Acer subforum).

Only gripe for me with this machine would be their useage of the absolute worst brand of hard drive known for high failure rates other than that I couldn't be happier and I know right after this generation was changed to the new chassis (happened about 3 months after I bought mine) That they switched away from Hitachi so they did learn from what happened with a lot of users.

Great machine for the money is the bottom line
December 30, 2010 7:56:01 AM

-Brand: Sony
-Model: Vaio VGN-AW350J
-Bought From/Price: Amazon.com $1400 (Dec 2009)
-OS: Win 7 Prem 64 (Original OS Windows Vista)
-CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 Processor (2.00GHz) FSB 1066 MHz,
-GPU: Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT Dedicated 512MB RAM
-Resolution:18.4-Inch XBRITE-Full HD Technology 1080P @ 60Hz HDMI Output
-RAM: 4GB DDR2 800 SDRAM (Max Supported 8GB)
-HD: 500GB SATA 5400rpm
-Optical Drive:Blu-Ray R/RW DVD+-R Double Layer / DVD±RW Drive
-Security:Biometric Fingerprint Sensor Platform Module (TPM) TCG Ver.1.2 compliant
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…)

Ok I baught this laptop to replace my HP that was 5 years old and it was time. I had $1500 to spend and wanted as big HD screen as I could get. Before you say other laptops are cheaper I'm partial to Sony products. I also was not educated on the diffrence between i7,i5 vs dual core but for the price I think I did well concidering screen size/resolution and all the other goodies.

Now do I like it? Yes very much. The speed is good, recently I went to Fry's and looked at some of the i7s and i5s I didn't see much diffrence in speed just doing normal stuff. I only have one complaint/warning. I got the free upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 and for anyone reading this the upgrade is not Windows 7 just a big crappy patch and was hard to instal/upgrade. After I finally got it done(Downloading the drivers from the Sony site sucked) my PC ran verry slow and was maxing out one of my CPUs with very little load. I took it to a near by Sony Style several times and got the run around, blaming it on the HD screen and the Blu-ray. So, I ended up taking matters into my own hands and calling Microsoft for a replacement full version of Win7( DL the drivers from the Sony site sucked again) then the Vaio was much faster and the CPUs can handel much more load, so the moral, don't trust the upgrade disks, later I was told the same thing by someone that had similer problems. One other thing the Vaio won't talk to my Sony Bravia 2 TV or my Playstation3 very well no big deal just thought they would be more plug and play thats all. Its pretty heavy too.

Overall I would say get one even for gaming. I'll be much better once I increese the ram to 8 GB and maybe change the HD to a faster one. Watching Blu-rays on it is awsome, gaming looks great, gets alittle choppy online when there is aot going on but thats why I have a Playstation3. The battery doesn't last very long but what can you expect with a 18.4 Xbrite HD screen. I do have a question. Sony stopped making the AW models, why havent the prices came down at all for the old ones new or used?
January 21, 2011 5:21:14 PM

-Brand: Lenovo
-Model: T500
-Bought From/Price: lenovo.com: $1900
-OS: shipped with Vista, now with Win7
-CPU: dual core 2.5ghz
-GPU: ATI ???
Intel integrated.
-Resolution: 1280x900
-RAM: 4GB
-HD: Intel 160gb SSD (added last month)
-Usage: PC replacement when I travel (games, development, web, chat, movies, music), otherwise it sits on my desk & runs ventrilo.

-Real World Battery Life:
According to the battery gauge: 7hrs -- this is while on the airplane with the networking shut off.
Actual use: 2hrs while playing lotro. ( we didnt realize it was unplugged until the low battery warning came up)
Normal use: 3-4hrs with websurfing and such

-Your Rating (out of 10): 9/10

Comments:
if you want an inexpensive (cheap) laptop - skip this one. If you want something that will last forever, a thinkpad is what you want. My previous thinkpad I got in 2001, and its still running. I expect this one to last 5+ years.
My only complaint is its not very light. I havent actually put it on a scale, but the laptop + case + power brick is about 7lbs. The switchable graphics were the main reason I got this thing. on the road or airplane, I activate the integrated chip and get really good battery life. When its time to start gaming - I switch to the ATI card and get very nice performance.


a b D Laptop
January 26, 2011 5:11:59 PM

-Brand: HP
-Model: Pavilion 3052nr
-Bought From/Price: Fry's 999$
-OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
-CPU: Intel Core i7 720QM
-GPU: ATI HD 5650
-Resolution: 1366x768
-RAM: 6GB 1333Mhz DDR3
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Gaming and some specidic sofwares(like Multisim)
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 90-110 mins
-Your Rating (out of 10): 7

This laptop feels sturdy and its solid built.The aluminium chasis feels expensive and this laptop looks a class apart from its category.

The webcam is cool and the HP supplied software is even bettter.The microphone is ok to good.The sound on the laptop is low.But its clear and feels nice.When using earphones thethe sound is awesome(the IDT control panel makes music much nicer and movies more cooler).The hard disk is faster(its supposed to be hell it is a 7200rpm hard disk).The computer is also fast thanks to 6GB DDR3 @ 1333MHz(its a 4Gb samsung one and a 2gb ramaxel one).

This laptop was purchased in a hurry (otherwise i would have purchased HP Envy 17, only 200$ more).As its price has gone down to 899$ i would consider it a good option.The only downside is that the screen resolution is low(1366x768) and the graphics card (HD 5650) is a bit old but good enough to play games at that resolution.I played COD:Black Ops at 1366x768 with all other settings to high and there was no problem.Also played the Battlefield Bad Company 2 with all settings high without a hitch.The temperature was 12 Celsius below the acceptable temp(acc to intel diagnostic tool) but it was hot on the top left side(i think the processor is there).

The keyboard keys placement are odd and it takes time to get used to it otherwise the keyboard is below average to average(tried holding control to crouch in battlefield and that finger pained as if it came from the battlefield).The touchpad is a strong contender for the worst touchpad ever made(try playing games with it).On the plus side to say the touchpad is multitouch and works only if it wishes to.

The OS pre-installed had some errors and the ever brilliant HP Support was not able to solve it(well actually it would have amazed me if they would have solved it) but anyway i gave them a try.I was unable to change the desktop background They were not able to solve it and PROMISED to send me an email regarding the solution but alas that promise was meant to be broken(Then when there customer review form came i wrote a long and VERY GOOD review for them and that agent is now trying to contact me via email for my solution but i have no intentions to give him a reply).And when i tried to earlier install the Battlefield and Batman:AA i got errors nobody was able to solve so i re-installed the OS and now they run smooth as ever.

HP Quickweb deserves a special mention.Its good and boots up quickly(approx 7 seconds........yes really i swear) and gets you online in no time.And the in built HP tools are cool.

The batterylife was advertised 5.15hours on amazon.<ref>http://www.amazon.com/HP-Pavilion-dv6-3052nr-15-6-Inch-...;/ref>But its hardly 2 hours as the i7 720qm doesnt have an in built graphics card and i7 is power hungary(i think advertisers wrote upto which means you can buy an optional 12cell battery for extra money,the battery coming with this is a 6cell battery so dont be fooled by battery life).


So if you have a mouse and a cooler(not necessary but be on a safer side and save yourself from HP "CUSTOMER CARE") this machine is a powerful and worth most of the money spent on it.This laptop has an i7,6gb ram,500gb 7200rpm hard disk,5650 and solid aluminium chasis so if you can live with its shortcomings go for it.

UPDATE 31/03/2012: After a year and 3 months with it all I can say is that the experience has been very bad.The problems have been sprouting up constantly without refusal to go away and HP reluctant to acknowledge the problem.I had no option but to buy the extended warranty.The motherboard,heat sink,wlan card,dvd rom etc have all been in trouble.My suggestion don't buy from HP even if it quite cheaper.That cheapness will cost you much more later on.
a b D Laptop
January 26, 2011 5:13:33 PM

And it also haves an fingerprint scanner
February 4, 2011 4:39:49 PM

-Brand: ASUS
-Model: G73JW-3DE (3D, 17.3" 1080P display)
-Bought From/Price: Amazon/$2K with extra pair of 3D Vision glasses
-OS: Win7 Home Premium 64-bit
-CPU: i7-740GM
-GPU: GTX-460M
-Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 120Hz
-RAM: 8GB DDR3
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Gaming/3D movies
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 2~2.5 hours on 8-cell LiOn battery
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9.5

Just got this about 10 days ago to replace my old Dell M1710 gaming laptop. This is one of Asus' "Republic of Gamers" laptops with the matte black finish that doesn't show fingerprints (unlike my wife's HP laptop from a year ago). Has a matte screen which does not show much glare (my "office" has a double-window facing south, behind my desk) and also doesn't show fingerprints (my 4-yr-old son often gets excited and touches the screen despite many reminders from me :p ).

Comes with very good speakers (for a laptop anyway), including a subwoofer and EAX 5.0 and an HDMI 1.4 port so you can hook it up to a 3D TV if you want immersive 3D gaming (or movies for that matter). However, the 17.3" 3D display is simply awesome - although this is my first 3D system so I have no experience to compare to, the gaming and movies are excellent, both 2D and 3D. Weight is only a bit over 8 lbs, quite light compared to the brick of a Dell (which has a 17" glossy screen and a burnt-out Nvidia 7900-GTX that I'm waiting on a replacement for due to the recent settlement). The Dell has a bit higher res - 1920 x 1200 - vs. the Asus 1920 x 1080, but then watching DVD's on the Dell leaves a band at the top and bottom of the screen anyway.

It also comes with a BD burner (haven't tried it yet, but burns DVDs OK), USB 3.0 (one) and 2.0 (3), variable brightness backlit keyboard with separate numeric keypad (good tactile feel although keys are smaller than a regular desktop keyboard). Storage is two hybrid 500GB/4GB SSD 7200rpm drives, which means Windows and apps load faster. Both the drives and the BD burner are very quiet in comparison to the Dell - great for watching movies.

I was going to wait for Asus to upgrade the CPU to the Sandy Bridge but now I'm glad I didn't :p . The quad-core i7 is plenty powerful for a laptop and the 460M GPU with 1.5GB of DDR5 VRAM is great for gaming. The laptop has 2 large exhaust ports on the backside so it stays pretty cool, even with it sitting on your lap (which Asus does not recommend). The Dell got too hot (not to mention heavy) sitting in my lap, so it was pretty inconvenient on flights - always had to fold down the seatback tray, then if some moron needed to get past me I had to do the economy-class tango to put things away.. Haven't tried the Asus on a flight yet but it should be much less of a problem with it on the lap instead of the tray. It also comes with an express boot utility which lets you bypass Win7 in case you want to check email, browse the internet, etc in a hurry.

I had been looking at Alienware and Sager and a few others and this seemed to be the most bang for the buck, esp. since I wanted to try 3D. This has a 2-yr warranty (incl. a 1 year warranty on accidental damage), zero bright pixel guarantee, 2-way free shipping on the warranty.

Cons - comes bloated with a load of crapware (although some of it actually looks interesting). Why put Windows Explorer 8 and Chrome on the same laptop? I can always use one to download the other.. Battery life is sufficient to game about a couple hours, or watch 3+ hours worth of BD movies on the BD drive - about the same as my Dell so this is probably not bad for a gaming laptop, but way short for overseas flights. Also, no OS reinstall disk - you have to make a backup image of the restore partition of the boot drive. Finally, although not a problem to me, the 802.11n Wifi card only comes with 2 antennas, so you're limited to 2.4GHz "N" according to one of the posters on Amazon.com. However he points out that for $15, you can buy a third antenna and install it yourself for true 5.0GHz connections. I guess if you're streaming 3D BD movies this might be important..
March 3, 2011 3:19:17 PM

-Brand: Dell
-Model:XPS M1530
-Bought used, traded a 1st gen macbook pro for it (total cost basically $0 since I traded for the macbook pro as well)
-OS: Win7 Ultimate 64 bit
-CPU: Core 2 Duo T9300
-GPU: Nvidia 8600m GT
-Resolution: 1280x800
-RAM: 4GB DDR2
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Gaming/3D modeling, internet and transcoding movies
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 2.5-3 hours on power saving with 6 cell battery
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9.0

Got this machine in a trade for a 1st gen macbook pro (which I got in a trade for some other stuff so essentially no monetary cost to me) It's nice and snappy with 7 ultimate on it. It's got all the nicesities like fingerprint scanner,slot loading optical drive and firewire. One of the nicest most sturdy laptops I've ever owned personally. Only thing I'd have to say for it is that the 8600m GT feels like it's a little slower than it should be even with updated drivers but maybe I'm simply expecting too much out of it. It does play Quake Wars on high at native res as well as BFBC2 at 1024x768 at high details or 1280x800 medium. I think the biggest bottlekneck may be my hard drive as it's a 5400rpm model.

With that said for a late 08 model laptop it's faster than the Gateway that I reviewd previously which I still own and use as my portable linux machine now.

I'd definitely buy another XPS if the budget permits. Great build quality amazing features and with the prices on them coming down into the realm of only slightly higher price than a basic laptop I figure why not.
April 12, 2011 7:46:01 PM

-Brand: ASUS
-Model: EEE 1000HE
-Bought From/Price: $400, from newegg
-OS: Debian 5/6
-CPU: Intel Atom N280 @ 1.67 GHZ
-GPU: Intel Integrated
-Resolution: 1024x600
-RAM: 2GB DDR2
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Note taking, general internet usage
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 6-7 hours after ~2 years
-Your Rating (out of 10): 7/10

Not very powerful, overheated whenever I would try to compile the gentoo kernel, but I believe that was my fault when I replaced the wireless NIC. It's pretty great for just general usage, but don't expect to be able to play anything other than small games ie torchlight on it.
April 17, 2011 3:36:47 PM

-Brand: Dell
-Model: E6510
-Bought From/Price: Wintronic computers (off lease) trade in of XPS M1530+250
-OS: Win 7 Ultimate
-CPU: Core i7 620m
-GPU: Nvidia NVV3100m
-Resolution: 1600x900
-RAM: 4GB DDR3
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Gaming,surfing the web,watching movies,3D rendering,photo and video editing
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 5.5 hours with 9 cell battery
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9/10

I picked this up in a trade and wasn't too sure basically on the graphics card as I'd looked all over and even saw a thread here that said it was basically a downclocked G310m with better drivers. So I know the guy that runs the local wintronic computers (they deal in off lease machines and I'll often buy from them for friends or whatever that want a better than compaq quality machine at a good price) I asked if I could load up BFBC2. He was like ok sure we can always restore it to factory if it doesn't work for you. So i loaded it up and cranked it up and that's what got me to plop down my trade+ cash. Seeing BFBC2 at 1600x900 on high everything (except for shadows) made me drool. It was running incredibly smoothly and I couldn't ask for better performance out of this machine honestly.

Now the rest of the review. On build quality I can't fault dell on this either. Aluminum lid and the bottom chassis looks to be made of high quality ABS plastic though it could be annodized aluminum I'm not exactly sure anyways either way it's got some heft and it's obvious that this machine was built to last. and to be a true mobile weapon for CAD or whatever else you may throw at it. Dell also chose a great screen on this machine it's a 1600x900 LED backlit 15.4 that's matte. Last but not least on the build front is the port selection well 4 USB2.0 ports,firewire,HDMI they've got it all covered.

Last but not least a closing paragraph on security features and general useability. Well on the security front it has a fingerprint scanner which after having one on my XPS M1530 I'm finding that it's a god send. I can easily have all my passwords stored in keypass and I swipe my finger over the reader and it retrieves the password for the particular site I'm on and it's whole database is encrypted with the hardware encryption offered by dell on this machine so 10/10 for security. As for general useability it performs flawlessly on EVERY front. Gaming at high resolutions check, rendering 3D stuff in Blender nice and fast check photoshopping and editing video with adobe CS5 check and let me tell ya boot up is :o  from a cold start to useable desktop is no more than I'd say 10-12 seconds. I'd heard SSD's were fast but holy **** this one is just brutal in it's speed

Only knock on this machine would be the weight. Granted the heft denotes the high build quality but damn for a 15.4 it's heavy. Ah well that's all relative I can still carry it all day with no strain it's just heavier than most other machines of it's size but then again they aren't built to such a high standard

overall 9/10 just minus one point for weight which really isn't an issue for me but may be for some people

April 19, 2011 9:08:11 PM

-Brand: Asus G73SW-A1
-Model: G73SW-A1
-Bought From/Price: xoticpc - 1800+
-OS: came with Win7H-prem, reloaded with ultimate
-CPU: SB -2630qm
-GPU: GT460
-Resolution: 1920x1080
-RAM: 8gb
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…):
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): - 1.5hours real loaded, casual use, 2.25
-Your Rating (out of 10): 7

The Good : super fast, 1.5 TB of drive ( pair of 750GB HDD!) - will be pulling one out and installing SSD. Great Display resolution, good cooling performance.Blu-Ray and HDMI, USB3, and did I say Sandy Bridge with GT460?

the Bad; excessively bulky even for a 17. lots of overhang that maybe could have been designed out. not faulting the weight, its a 17. maybe eliminating some wasted space could have biven a bigger battery..

The Ugly: the finish on this thing avoids fingerprints, but everything leaves a greasy-looking spot instead. the display is even extra-glarey for a glare-type display.

The experience: overall great, though the shipping delays nearly killed me. My last notebook was stolen and I was making do with an old Dothan convertible tablet from Fujitsu untill it came in. (on a side note, having to go back to that old guy reminded me how useful and usable it was. and why I am not a fan of Apple iPad- my 6 year plus old convertible Fujitsu was more usable than my co-worker's iPad.)
had to wipe and reload because of all the little crazy apps that came pre-installed. should not have to wade through all that krap on a " gaming" notebook.
as I had to reload, I figure why not go Ultimate? I bought a copy for my other laptop that was stolen, and it got stolen before I installed it. so..
Jury still out on non-game and CAD uses, as i still find myself reaching for the little unit to do a quick google instead of dragging the bulky beast out all the time..
Just got Dragon Age II, will update on that as I progress.
June 3, 2011 3:16:58 PM

-Brand: Dell
-Model:Vostro 3350
-Bought From/Price: Dell Small Business Site, $691
-OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
-CPU: Intel core i5 2410m
-GPU: Intel HD 3000
-Resolution: 13.3" 1366x768
-RAM: 4GB
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Office Apps and Internet primarily, I'm not much of a PC gamer
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 7 hours of actual use. This includes Wifi on, browsing, downloading files, typing documents, etc.
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9.5. The only thing I would change is a slightly higher screen resolution, 1600x900 would be nice.

Overall I'm extremely happy with this machine. Comes with backlit keyboard, LED backlit non-reflective matte screen, bluetooth, fingerprint scanner, webcam, chiclet island-style keyboard, multi-gesture touchpad, Centrino 1030 wireless adapter, and 8-cell battery. It weighs less than 5 pounds. Has a nice brushed metal appearance, is constructed of aluminum. 2 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB2.0/eSATA, HDMI out.

This is the perfect blend of mobility and power, the i5 2410m is snappy and quick. I dropped my Vertex 2 into this and did a clean install, my boot-up time is about 35 seconds to have Firefox open and functional. Probably the best feature is the battery life, I can work an entire day without needing to plug in.

For reference, Windows Experience Index:
Processor: 6.9
RAM: 5.9
Graphics: 4.6
Gaming graphics: 6.1
Hard disk: 7.5
a b D Laptop
July 11, 2011 2:28:00 AM

Brand: Asus
-Model: G73jh-RBBX05
-Bought From/Price: 850 USD
-OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64x
-CPU: Intel Core i7 720qm 1.6 GHz, turbo boost to 2.9 GHz (That was not a typo.)
-GPU: AMD Radeon 5870m 1GB GDDR5 700 MHz (Usually UC to 450 MHz)
-Resolution: 1600x900p (16:9)
-RAM: 6GB DDR3 667 MHz
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): I use it for everything... Gaming, school, programming, photoshop, video editing... I really work it hard, average 8 hours a day, every day.
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): Maximum 2 hours... Probably 1 hour 30 minutes...
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9.9

This has been an awesome laptop. I got it factory refurbished from BestBuy in December2010. And I've been using it 1/2 the day, every day, since... Some days 15 hours...
I have been extremely happy with it.. My only 2 problems where:
1. The touchpad:
I don't like touchpads, but it is a shame, Asus has the largest touchpad around (except for the Macbooks) and it is glitched... It doesn't bother me since I don't like doing anything without a proper mouse.
2. Heat, I had a bit of a heat issue not too long ago. I was a bit surprised considering that Asus was pretty prideful about the cooling features... I got the issue resolved in the end. I had a problem with the AMD GPU, it was heating up to 80C on idle... The solution was a repaste and a total cleanout of all the DUST. Those things get full pretty quickly... you need to stay on top of things on the maintenance side... otherwise your going to have to open it up... which is a pain.
The battery isn't strong, but I don't really care, I'm not traveling with this laptop anywhere, so, I took out the battery, stored it in a Ziplock bag, and I've been depending on the A/C adapter to power the laptop.
The graphics... is spectacular, the graphics is sufficient, I don't play a lot any more, but when I did, I was normally able to get high settings on just about every game... A few games where a bit of an issue, but it wasn't because the graphics card wasn’t' capable.
The laptop's build is top notch quality, we've had Dell's, Toshiba, and HP laptops. But by far, this has the best build quality. It is the most comfortable surface to rest your hands on and type. Not only is that the only feature of the rubberized surface, but I also like the idea of a laptop that finally has no finger prints.
The keyboard is also very good, I've had a good experience with it, I've had no lags, no flexing (even after the tape was removed from the bottom after the repaste of the thermal compound.)
They keyboard is backlight, and after using it, you'd ask yourself how could you ever have lived so long with a dull, plastic keyboard.
The audio is also something to look forward to, the EAX Audio 4.0 has really made a difference, the sounds are so realistic, and so 3D like, that gaming almost becomes a reality. Listening to music has been an even greater experience surprisingly, because the subwoofer just really adds a nice kick to music... the beat is alive, and the music sounds great. Although, I've experience issues in the past, of small stutters in the audio, it rarely happens, in fact the last time it happened was a couple of months ago... It hasn't bothered me enough to figure out a solution when it did occur.
The screen, the laptop has a 17.3" display, which I've been very happy with, I know that there was a lot of people frustrated with the AUO screens (which I'm assuming I have since it is a default BestBuy model) I've had no issues with it, it looks perfectly fine, and I don't really care about viewing angles etc... Although not an LED, it is very bright, I keep the brightness toned at 45% all the time.. It is... too bright for me.
Boot time's are usually around 1 min 30 seconds, but I do have a password, and my C partition is nearly full.
The outside ports are perfect for my needs, 4 USB ports is probably a good standard for my needs, although I haven't used all 4 at one time before.
Everything works perfectly, although, I haven't tested the Kensington lock, hdmi port, or the microphone port yet.
The DVD drive is great, opens DVDs instantly, burns surprisingly fast. And never locks up or any other issues. I've had no issues with playback, and I've been using the retired Nero 6 to burn DVDs, but it still works great.
On the screen, the webcam and microphone are a different story, the webcam is a 1.3 MP webcam, it works, just not well, not good enough for Skype or anything of the likes. The microphone is also a bit cheap, it picks up a lot of background noises, and yet the recording quality is choppy and normally a bit distorted. It works good for the most part though.

Now, I think the real major con, is the set-up, you will have to rip it apart of you want.. to ... for instance, clean the fans... the dust there gets packed extremely quickly, and it is very hard to clean it out, I'm investigating the possibility of removing the "dashboard" that covers the grill on the back, by unscrewing the nails in the battery compartment and the edges, to see if that will give me access to the fans enough to use a can of compressed air.
Asus did include a few smart programs, like Smartlogin, FancyBoot, Fastboot etc... They are neat little programs, but for instance, the SmartLogin, which utilizes the webcam as a method to log in- by recognizing your face, is a poor way of getting security, I'd rather use fingerprint reader... ( Which was not included)Mainly because, if you hold a picture of yourself up to the camera when your logging in, it will recognize the picture.. and you'll be able to log in, so... a secure password is probably much better.
Now, if I were able to change anything with the laptop, I'd probably want to get the GPU replaced with an Nvidia alternative.. which I can't but I'm fine as I am right now :) 

The laptop isn't 100% cool, it still idles at around 65 Degrees C after the thermal compound repaste with Artic Silver 5. But it isn't warm to the touch, and underclocking takes it down 5-8 degrees C.

I've been VERY happy with this laptop, I hope to keep it for 3-4 years.

Anyways, some people included this, so I decided to include my WEI scores also:


Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz 7.0
Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB 7.4
Graphics ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series 7.2
Gaming graphics 3802 MB Total available graphics memory 7.2
Primary hard disk 2GB Free (116GB Total) 5.9
(2 HDDs, 1 500 GB (Asus default), 1 640 GB (Added later on).


If I had the choice, I would upgrade to something better, but I'd still stick to the Asus G7 series... There are a lot of systems I haven't used before. But, because of my experience (or luck) with Asus' laptop. I'm going to stick to their R.O.G line.
July 13, 2011 7:24:10 PM

Brand: Alienware
Model: Area 51m-5790
Bought From: Direct from Alienware, $1600 in 2007
OS: Vista 32-bit
CPU: Core 2 Duo @ 2.0GHz
GPU: ATI mobility Radeon x1800
Resolution: 1920x1200
RAM: Bought with 1GB, replaced that with 2GB for $50 about a year later.
HDD: 80GB 5400 RPM Toshiba drive, later replaced with a 120GB drive.

Usage: Primarily gaming, also for generic use
Real World Battery Life: New, 2-3 hours. After three years of never running it from battery power: about 15 minutes.
Rating: 9.5/10 It had a minor overheating problem after a few years of use, otherwise, exactly what I wanted when I got it.

I got this laptop as essentially an all-purpose machine for college. Buying both a cheap laptop and a gaming desktop was out of my price range, so I went with a laptop I use mostly as an easier to move desktop. The goal was a system that could both handle games and general purpose use, without costing too much. The major reason I went with Alienware probably sounds odd to many here, but at the time it was the most cost-effective system out there given my budget. A similarly specced dell or gateway would've cost me about $400 more.

It's a very competent gaming machine, it could run oblivion when it came out, which was impressive for a laptop at the time. I haven't yet come across a game that isn't at least moderately playable at very low settings, probably because the CPU is still decent by modern standards. It seems the GPU is beginning to show its age much more obviously than the CPU.

Windows Vista was and still is a resource hog, but it runs without issues. Before swapping out the two 512mb sticks of ram it came with for 2 1gb sticks, the OS was a bit sluggish but still useable. After doing so, it's just as responsive as 7 is on a new pc. I haven't had any crashes or blue screens that aren't the result of games that are incompatible with the GPU series (and those are mostly older games)

Now to the system itself. Build quality is very good, but the system is also very heavy for a laptop, and rather large as well due to the 17'' screen and surronding bezel. Everything about the system is sturdy, and even after four years I've had no problems with the physical design. Accompanying the rather large size is a full keyboard, which is certainly a plus. It's pretty much your standard laptop keyboard, and even after years of use none of the keys are bad, stick, or are loose. I've almost never used the touchpad. It functions, and has buttons for left click and right click as well as a scroll bar area, but I prefer a mouse. The laptop only has four USB ports, but that's better than some laptops and worse than others. It has a DVI-out port for use with an external monitor, which is a lot more useful than I'd expected it to be. There's also a firewire port, SD card reader, and S-video port I've never used. The built-in wireless card works fine, although I almost always use a wired connection anyway. There's a convienient switch to disable wirless, which is helpful as Vista places priority on using avaliable wireless connections over wired connections for some mysterious reason. The built-in speakers sound no different to me than the external speakers I've been using more recently, and they haven't gone bad. It also has a built-in microphone, which functions without serious issues although it has a tendecy to pick up a bit of fan noise if used while the system is under strain.

The 1920x1200 screen is a big plus, as the 16:10 apsect ratio and glossy finish are hard to find in a laptop today and are nice to have. The high pixel density of a 17'' screen makes things very sharp. The screen has a quoted 16ms response time, but companies measure those differently today. I've never noticed ghosting.

Another important feature is how easy it is to work on. The HDD has it's own compartment which only requires removing three screws, and the secondary HDD bay and all the other internal components are easily accessed by removing a single panel. These systems seem to have been designed with working on them in mind.

Now to the minor problems I've had with it.

After a year or two of use, the system started overheating on hot days. The system is set to automatically shut down when the CPU hits 90 C, and while that works as intended the system was reaching that temperature in just under an hour on full load on hot days. It's simple to clean out the system, I just hadn't done so very often. All I really had to do was take off the back faceplate. I chose to go a little overboard and replace the thermal paste on the CPU and GPU as well (they share a single large heatsink assembly). That was a lot easier than I expected it to be, all that was required was removing the bottom faceplate and then taking out a few screws to remove the heatsink.

Customer support was very helpful, far more so than I had expected. Alienware at that time had a set of customer support forums much like the forums here, and they had several active support employees on them regularly.

The only other problem was one I mostly caused myself. I ran it exclusively from wall power for years, and so the battery isn't very useful anymore, only lasting around 15 minutes when it lasted a few hours new.

Overall:

Pros:
Very competent gaming machine, good monitor, solid build quality, easy to work on, good customer support. Nothing has failed or gone bad after four straight years as my only PC.

Cons:
Moderately expensive new, it's four years old, heavy and low battery life, inpractical to use on-the-go very often, and the company was eaten by dell a few years ago. I'd have a hard time reccommending Alienware now, as they no longer operate as an independent company.

That was longer than I meant it to be, considering that no one is likely to care much about a four year old system today anyway.

EDIT: Shortened it a bit. It doesn't need to be so long.
July 25, 2011 3:38:19 PM

-Brand: Samsung
-Model: Q530
-Bought From/Price: dabs.com/£600
-OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
-CPU: Intel Core i3 350M
-GPU: nVidia GT330M 1GB
-Resolution: 1366x768
-RAM: 4GB DDR3
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Gaming, Internet, Schoolwork
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 2/2 and a half hours browsing/schoolwork, 1 hour 10 minutes gaming
-Your Rating (out of 10): 8

I bought this laptop in order to replace an older one, also a Samsung (The R519). As I'm about to do game development for GCSE, I needed something with an dedicated card so I could work smoothly. An integrated card really wouldn't cut it here. So, I went laptop hunting, and eventually came up with this.

I think it's probably one of the best laptops for the price. The processor isn't that strong (Clocking in at 2.27GHz), but it does the job pretty well. Hyper-Threading gives you extra performance in multi-threaded apps too, which is good. I don't really do much work in CPU-intensive things, so it suits me. The only time I really need any processing grunt is when I'm compiling/building the levels. UDK has Lightmass, which is what really puts strain on the CPU. However, I can just link in my old laptop as well to give it a helping hand via Swarm, so I don't mind as much.

The GPU also works well. It can max out Crysis (Though it's only just about playable. On medium/high it runs flawlessly. Same of Crysis 2. You have to experiment around with things, really. It won't max out all games, so you kind of have to pick and choose what settings you can leave lower, and which ones you can raise. This doesn't take all that long, however. The 1GB of memory it gives you is often more than enough. It gives pretty nice frame-rates all round, and I don't think there's ever been a time where I've had to run any game on low, which is quite good.

The RAM gives just enough for game development. I plan on buying 8GB to put in here at some point (Lightmass itself can take up over 1GB sometimes, along with UDK itself), but you can definitely run on 4GB.

The keyboard gives a nice typing experience. It's a chiclet board, which some may not like, but I'm a big fan of it. It also manages to squeeze in a num-pad, which has come it handy when I can actually be bothered to use it. I've grown really accustomed to using the numbers along the top of the keyboard!

The battery life, however, does leave something to be desired. It tops out (Usually) at around 2 and a half hours. While this isn't particularly bad for me, because I'm rarely away from a power point when I have my laptop, but it could be a bit of a deal-breaker for some. If they had implemented Optimus, battery life probably could have been better.

The chassis is actually pretty slim, too. I don't know exactly measurements, but I don't think it's any thicker than around half an inch, which is pretty good. It also makes it pretty light as well, only coming in at around 2.37 kg. It's also surprisingly good cooling wise. I don't think you'd want to stick anything more intensive than the i3 in there, but as it is the whole thing stays really cool. I don't think I've ever gone above 80 degrees when running flat-out. It usually hovers around 75-78 when running flat-out.

Overall, this laptop is pretty damn good. It loses a few points through the battery life, and the processor isn't exactly the best around. However, for what it is, this laptop is great value for money. I'd definitely recommend it to all in the market for a new laptop!
a c 466 D Laptop
August 15, 2011 5:06:51 PM

-Brand: Lenovo
-Model: Y470
-Bought From/Price: Aprox. $771 w/ 2yr extended warranty & tax
-OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
-CPU: Core i5 2410M
-GPU: nVidia GT 550M (switchable)
-RAM: 4GG
-Resolution: 1366 x 768
-Screen Size: 14"
-Screen Type: TN Panel; Glossy
-Weight: 4.9lbs
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Some games, video encoding, internet
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 3.88 hours based on 8 timed actual use sessions
-Your Rating (out of 10): 5

----------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE - I decided to downgrade my original rating of 7.5 to 5. The reason is the high CPU temps and a cooling pad does not help. Installed GTA 4 to see how well the nVidia GT 550m can handle the game. It did fine, but the i5-2410m pushed 99C (worse than Crysis) which naturally cause the CPU to start throttling. I basically decided to disable Turbo Boost so that the CPU will not attempt to "overclock" itself and temps for the most part is around 85C. That kinda defeats the purpose of having Turbo Boost.
----------------------------------------------------------------------


This is my 2nd laptop. My first is my still functional IBM ThinkPad T40 from 2003; I would rate that laptop at 9.5 if I were to retroactively review it. I bought this laptop mainly as a toy and to perhaps bring it along with me if I were to go on vacation so that I would not have to rely on my Motorola Driod if I want to surf the net or research something when I'm away from home.

This is a short version of my review, a longer version can be found in the following thread. Any questions regarding this review should be posted in that thread since this thread is primarily only for user reviews.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/70694-35-lenovo-ideap...


DISPLAY AND SPEAKERS

The screen is a glossy TN panel and is very reflective. I don't really like glossy screen so I'll be buying a Green Onion anti-glare screen protector for this laptop. The 1366 x 768 resolution is standard for this size laptop. I don't recall seeing a 14" laptop with 1600 x 900 resolution in this price range. The bezel surrounding the screen is glossy black, and it simply loves fingerprints. The speakers are actually pretty good since they are JBLs. They are pretty loud at maximum volume and have a little bit of distortion starting at 80% volume, therefore I set it to no louder than 70% which is still loud enough.


KEYBOARD & TOUCHPAD

The keyboard is your typical chiclet-style keyboard that seems to be all the rage and is set against a light charcoal gray background. It is recessed into the laptop to prevent them from accidently touching / rubbing against th screen.

Above the keyboard are the power button and Onekey App button to restore OS on the left. To the right are touch sensitive mute, volume up, volume down, "Theater", and Thermal Management buttons. The "Theater" button can be used to set the screen and speakers to movie mode which basically darkens the screen a bit and makes the sound a bit more "surround sound-ish".

The touchpad is a little larger than what I am used. The touchpad itself is pretty responsive. The touchpad button is a single button. Not too crazy about it since you basically have to press the far left or the far right of the single button. Since it is flush aginast the surface of the laptop it is sometime difficult to know you are pressing the right spot without looking.


GRAPHICS CARD & GAMEPLAY

As gamer knows, it's kinda hard to play games if you don't have a good graphics card. This is especially important in a laptop since at least 98% of laptops sold do not allow you to upgrade the video card. The Y470 comes with a nVidia GT 550M which is an above average video card. The GT 550M can be switch on or off using the silver switch on the right side of the laptop's front edge. When the GT 550M is switched on, a white LED will come on. Switching the GT 550M off can help conserve battery power suppose.

I loaded Crysis just to test out the capablities of the the GT 550M. I allowed Crysis to automatically set everything to High Quality Graphics, then I started a game using the console command "r_displayinfo 1" to display the frame rates. While the game did run, it was not at a high frame rates. Frame rates did not manage to go any higher than 35FPS and it dipped as low as 17FPS, but frame rates generally ranged between 20 - 26FPS. It was playable enough. Anti-aliasing was set to 2x.

I switched all graphics settings to MEDIUM (anti-aliasing remained at 2x) and gameplay was a lot smoother. I highest frame rates was 55 frames per second, but mostly it has been 31FPS - 45FPS and the lowest frame rates probably dipped down to 25 from what I can remember.


HEAT

Under normal conditions, this laptop is quite cool and is pretty quiet. Using the Thermal Management button I mentioned earlier, I set it to "Efficient thermal dissipation" which basically means the fan speed changes depending on how hot the laptop gets. It is pretty much spinning a low speed unless I am encoding a video or playing a game. The palmrest can become warm, but never hot. So it is not uncomfortable using the laptop even after playing Crysis for over an hour. According to Core Temp 0.99.8, the CPU get's as hot as 93C while playing Crysis. However, I can put the laptop on my lap (bare skin) while I'm wearing shorts and it would just feel a warm immediately after playing Crysis. Using GPU-Z the nVidia GT 550M reached 61C.


BATTERY

Actual battery life is based on an average of eight measurements. I use a fully charged battery for typical web surfing, playing some music from time to time and watching a few youtube videos. Nothing too stressful or unusual for someone who is using a laptop away from home. I use a stopwatch on my Motorola Driod to time how long the battery last from the moment I press the power button to when the laptop goes into hibernation mode with only a 5% battery charge left. I used my wireless mouse as well. I got on average 3 hours and 53 minutes which is not bad I suppose.


SUMMARY

Overall the Lenovo Y470 is a good laptop, if long battery life is not too important. It is pretty good for games given the resolution of the screen. The laptop is comfortable to use even while playing games because it does not get hot, it just gets warm. The noise from the fan is usually drowned out by the sounds from the game so it is not annoying at all. However, a CPU running at 93C while playing Crysis is a concern.

The biggest disappoint is the touchpad. It's a little bigger than what I'm used to, but I can adapt to it eventually. The single button is not my idea of an ideal setup for a touchpad button. It takes more force to press down than I am used to and since it is flush with the palm rest of the laptop, it is a bit difficult to locate the button itself and the far corners where it takes the least amount of force to press down.
August 20, 2011 5:48:26 PM

-Brand: HP
-Model: Pavilion dv7t-6100
-Bought From/Price: hp.com - $1055 (including tax)
-OS: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
-CPU: Intel i5-2410M 2.3 Ghz
-GPU: Radeon HD6770M 2GB (switchable with Intel HD 3000)
-Resolution: 1920x1080p on a 17.3" display
-RAM: 6GB
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Gaming, DVD's, email, surfing, Office
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): I got the big 9-cell battery so on the HD graphics 7+hours (still listed 4+ hours after a 3 hour lunch), 3 hours using Radeon
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9.5/10


Got this baby as a replacement for a Toshiba P305 that was over 4 years old. It was a 17" laptop also with a 256mb ATI 3450 GPU.

I looked long and hard and was also pushing toward the big ASUS gamer, but got a deal on this.

DISPLAY AND SPEAKERS

The display is Great! I have the HD Anti-glare LED Good color and contrast, and even still looks good while dimmed under the "Battery" power plan at 60%. At least as good as my big desktop 23" ones. Sound is great, sure it's not the full theater surround sound, but I have yet to even need to turn the volume up past halfway, and there's no distortion that I've heard.

KEYBOARD & TOUCHPAD

With the keyboard moving toward what I've seen on the Sony laptops in the last years, it's still responsive and quiet. The one area that could use some improvement is the 4-arrow keys - they squished the up and down into smaller keys in the space one key, with the left and right being to the left and right at full size. There's plenty of surface area so that they could've pushed them down a bit and had a larger up and down keys. That's one of the small dings.

The touch pad is a bit large, but is responsive and easy to use. I don't use it very much, I always carry a mouse (Logitech Trackball), so I have it turned off most of the time. It does have a feature that does help eliminate palm and thumb touches from registering while you are typing (the main reason most people turn it off). While on, it's accepts all the normal and new type of commands a touchpad does. Some people say the "clicking" of the buttons is a little loud, but I haven't noticed any difference from any others. But it does always come on when you boot, unlike the Toshiba which remember what state it was in from when it was last shut down (I had it off 99% of the time). A quick double tap in the corner shuts it off, so it's not "that" hard to do, as with most using the Fn key and one of the F# keys.

GRAPHICS CARD & GAMEPLAY

I only play WoW and Rift and it runs those games just fine on High (with only Shadows on low - because I don't like 'em). With vertical sync disabled ~80+ fps in WoW and 40+ in Rift. The venting on the left side does get warm while playing, but I haven't played more than two hours and haven't had any slow downs. I don't plan on using the laptop for a raiding night, just for that inbetween game play while traveling. The switchable graphics are very seem-less and I can't even tell when they switch by the screen, just by the fan coming on for the venting.

HEAT

While playing the vent on the left side does get warm, but nothing unbearable. The left hand palm area also gets a little warm. Having the 9-cell battery I think does help, because it provides space under to let air flow.

SUMMARY

I'm glad I got this one and I hope it does last me at least four years like my last one. Even though this one is a little bigger than the Toshiba I had, it's actually lighter overall. Lots of connection ports, dual headphone plugs and an SD card reader also. It has room for two hard drives (if you don't order it with two, you will have to get the HD kit for $33), so you can store lots of movies and files for traveling. I also got the fingerprint reader. Works GREAT, and it will hold multiple different fingers, so you can set at least one from each hand. So nice not having to type in a password to log in!!!!
August 28, 2011 12:32:52 AM

Brand: ACER
Model: Aspire 5741G
Guarantee: 1 year
Purchased from: It was my BIRTHDAY PRESSY, although it goes for around 450~550 euros mark today (costed 100 euros more on July 2010)
OS: Windows 7 Premium x64
CPU: Intel Core i3 330M 2.13Ghz 3Mb L3 cache with Hyper-Threading technology
GPU: Geforce GT 320M/1Gb with CUDA & TurboCache technology
HDD: 320Gb
AUDIO: Realtek High Definition audio
Battery: 6 cell Li-ion
Screen: High definition 1366x768 15.6" LED technology FULL 1080p
Memory RAM: 4Gb DDR3 Epilson 1066Mhz
Connections/interfaces: multi memory card reader built-in, 1 x VGA, 3 x USB ports, 1 LAN Giga ethernet port, 1 x Kensington lock, 1 x HDMI port, Wi-Fi built in and a 1.3Mp web cam

Usage: Business purpose, general office applications, programming, CAD, even gaming, although not "extreme" gaming, Internet in general.

Its Core i3 32nm processor works very well for heavy duty calculations including video & audio compression, and with still alot of headroom to do other tasks simultaneously with virtually no sweat!

Its powerful nVidia Geforce GT320M does the job pretty well with sharp picture & graphics quality and reasonable DirectX 10 hardware acceleration with no problems at all for full DVD & Blu-Ray playback!

I'm pretty happy with this particular laptop, an all-in-one solution for any novice or professional. Why spend more on "top notch" laptops today?

Pros: Very good, affordable sturdy laptop with all you need for today's computing and multimedia in general
Cons: Only 1 year guarantee

Rating: 8/10


\/\/iZZkiD
Computer Programmer Analyst
a c 244 D Laptop
September 6, 2011 7:40:10 AM

Just got a new MBA 13".Will do a video review soon :) 
September 19, 2011 6:40:39 PM

My current laptop is a toshiba satellite (POS, but still works) I got from a best buy BF sale 4yrs ago for $220 (giving it to my father-in-law) with a 'free' printer, then I got an asus eeepc a year ago (a $250 mistake). I've been out of grad school for 3+ yrs so I am getting an HP Envy 17 for portable gaming (real) and writing scientific papers (excuse):
-Brand: HP
-Model: ENVY17
-Bought From/Price: HP/$1482 (inc. tax after upgrades)
-OS: Win 7 HP
-CPU: i7-2630QM
-GPU: HD6850 1gb ddr5
-Resolution: 1920 x 1080, 17.3"
-RAM: upgraded to 8gb
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): gaming, office apps, video playback/editing, internet, movies.
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): advertised/expected 2/1hr, but then again you don't run these dtr's purely off of battery power.
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9.0
WEI scores:
CPU: 7.4
RAM: 7.6
Graphics/Gaming: 7.1/7.1
Primary drive: 7.9 :) 

For $1168 (after discounts and before tax), this is an incredible machine. I replaced a 750gb seagate HDD 7200rpm with a m4 128gb SSD as the boot drive (the hdd goes back into the laptop once the drive caddy arrives) and a 2gb dimm with a 4gb that was on sale at newegg for $7 (after mir). It was ok before the upgrades, but now its friggin amazing. Loading applications and internet usage is on par with my gaming desktop. The sound is incredible for a pc, much less than a laptop, but then again I'm not much of an audiophile and never had a subwoofer on a laptop. Video playback/editing has not yet been attempted, but will soon. The lighted keyboard (full with number pad) is very nice and the feel of the slate keys has a very solid feel to it. The options on the keyboard make this laptop very user friendly. With upgrades the total for this laptop is $1380.

Now for the negatives (decreasing order). First and foremost, the obvious: the underpowered gpu- the 6850M. no choice here when it comes to the envy17 series, which makes me glad I didn't get the 3d upgrade, lest I'd be set up for a huge disappointment in 3d gaming (6850 with ddr5 not ddr3). I guess there's no flexibility in power as the 6870/6950M TDP is 50W as opposed to the 39W of the 6850M. Compared to the 5850M of the previous generation: same TDP, with about a 10% or more decrease in core/memory clocks, memory bw, and processing power (gflops). CCC was installed, but there was no option to oc the gpu. Now I'm stuck with the equivalent of a mediocre relative of a 5750 at 1080p. I would have gladly paid the premium for the option (within reason of course). For now, major gaming is done on the i5-2500k/6950 cf'd setup.
The second is the glare on the screen. Can be of annoyance, but manageable. Didn't think it was worth the $150 option and still don't. $50 maybe.
The third negative may depend on your luck. It was pretty difficult for me to remove the first cover (hdd) without yanking the cover after removing the two screws, which made the upgrading somewhat difficult. A youtube video showed the guy removing it with relative ease. So it maybe up to your particular envy17.

I will edit this review if anything new comes up.
September 27, 2011 8:08:00 PM

Brand: MSI
Model: GT627-218US
Bought From/Price: Newegg - $1299.99
OS: Win Vista - Upgraded to Windows 7 Professional
CPU: Core 2 Duo P8600 @ 2.4Ghz
GPU: Geforce 9800M GS 1GB DDR3
Resolution: 15.4 @ 1680x1050
RAM: 4 GB (2x2GB)
Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Gaming, School work, Programming
Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 4 hours of gaming enjoyment, 6-8 hours of typing/light network usage
Your Rating (out of 10): 8.8

This is one of the older ones with the bright red trim and gray/black brushed aluminum lid. For the most part it took whatever game I throw at it, though after a few problems I have went to just playing Civilization and such on it.

It's a sturdy build, and I am relatively rough on machines. In august I had, what I guess is a common problem for MSI laptops, the hinges stick on me while closing my lid, which in turn tore the red plastic mold screwed to the hingeplate to rip away from the aluminum frame. Other than that, from the numerous drops, and bumps from the many anime and gaming conventions, trips to work, trips across state on a bus, the other damage to it was the plastic around the grill covering the cpu heat sink chipped away.

I loved this machine. but with the damage to the frame it's no longer able to do what it was intended to do, which is be my portable gaming / student laptop. But I still haven't been able to find a laptop I am willing to replace it with. (Any suggestions would be welcome)
October 15, 2011 1:48:09 PM

Hi all, here goes :-0

-Brand: HP Pavilion DV6 Notebook PC
-Model: 6001ea ( white limited edition model??? )
-Bought From/Price: local Currys £429
-OS: Windows 7 64bit home Premium
-CPU: AMD Phenom 11 P960 Quad @ 1.8Ghz
-GPU: AMD HD 6470M and HD 4250 onboard
-Resolution: 1366x768 @ 60hz
-RAM: 4Gb Elpida DDR3 10600
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…):
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 1.5 - 2Hrs MAX!!!
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9 out of 10

Bought this as had not had a pc for well over a year; lost the will to live building my own gaming rigs so had an extended break.

In use this laptop is excellent; use for net, movies, odd document, some gaming and music.
The keyboard is excellent in use and being silver shines at night when only laptop for illumination ( mater stroke!!! ).
The display is excellently bright when using hi-performance gpu ( their blurb not mine :-), and not too dim ( but nice) when using on-board gpu.
Most days i have the tv dongle on News24 all day, the internet dongle on most times, listening to some tunes if tv is muted ( automatically displays subtitles, i love you Media Centre! ) while browsing the net; not really had any serious problems, a couple of freezes with browsers ( who does'nt? ) and the previously noted problem when taking power cord out and going onto battery.

The battery life is pretty average i suppose for this class of laptop with dedicated gpu, but still feels inefficient sometimes, especially if you have not charged before you leave the house, and no convient plug to charge when out. The only really frustrating thing is if you are watching a video or tv ( have dongle wich works well with bothe original software and Media Centre ) and you unplug power source then the switch to onboard graphics can cause app to crash, both Media Centre and Total Media do so. The switch from dedicated gpu to onboard involves a few black screens and a dimming of overall brightness, very quaint and feels totally retro now so no longer bugs me out :-)

The laptop feeds hdmi to tv without issues, the dvd-rw works as advertised, 4 usb2 ports, 2 either side, vga for you old scholl peeps, lan and front facing sd/mmc card reader.

One thing i am reall happy about is the Altec lansing sound system, obviously no real bass, but the presence is their if you know what i mean, but the overall sound is excellent, if a little bit tinny, though this will depend on the quality of source material as always.

Can not say enough good things about htis laptop, except for the ridiculous prices both Currys and HP want you to pay for their extended warrentys.

Being unemployed ( not going to tell you what occured so i could but this laptop :-) ), their prices are rubbish, £200 + for HP 2yrs and £269+ for 5yrs Currys. Either way, no bank account, so no joy!!! just does not work does it.

That aside, for light gaming ( currently playing HL2 and LPlanet again, as well as and then it moves, (( awesome game )) ), general internet use, productivity etc, this lapto is Perfect..... I must be mad!!!

Stayed away from laptops for ever,
October 15, 2011 2:11:49 PM

COME ON TOMS, I CAN EDIT MY OWN POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Hi all, here goes :-0

-Brand: HP Pavilion DV6 Notebook PC
-Model: 6001ea ( white limited edition model??? )
-Bought From/Price: local Currys £429
-OS: Windows 7 64bit home Premium
-CPU: AMD Phenom 11 P960 Quad @ 1.8Ghz
-GPU: AMD HD 6470M and HD 4250 onboard
-Resolution: 1366x768 @ 60hz
-RAM: 4Gb Elpida DDR3 10600
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…):
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 1.5 - 2Hrs MAX!!!
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9 out of 10

Bought this as had not had a pc for well over a year; lost the will to live building my own gaming rigs so had an extended break.

In use this laptop is excellent; use for net, movies, odd document, some gaming and music.
The keyboard is excellent in use and being silver shines at night when only laptop for illumination ( master stroke!!! ).

The display is excellently bright when using hi-performance gpu ( their blurb not mine :-), and not too dim ( but nice) when using on-board gpu.

Most days i have the tv dongle on News24 all day, the internet dongle on most times, listening to some tunes if tv is muted ( automatically displays subtitles, i love you Media Centre! ) while browsing the net; not really had any serious problems, a couple of freezes with browsers ( who does'nt? ) and the previously noted problem when taking power cord out and going onto battery.

The battery life is pretty average i suppose for this class of laptop with dedicated gpu, but still feels inefficient sometimes, especially if you have not charged before you leave the house, and no convient plug to charge when out.

The only really frustrating thing is if you are watching a video or tv ( have dongle which works well with both the original software and Media Centre ) and you unplug power source then the switch to onboard graphics can cause app to crash, both Media Centre and Total Media do so. The switch from dedicated gpu to onboard involves a few black screens and a dimming of overall brightness, very quaint and feels totally retro now so no longer bugs me out :-)

The laptop feeds hdmi to tv without issues, the dvd-rw works as advertised, 4 usb2 ports, 2 either side, vga for you old school peeps, lan and front facing sd/mmc card reader.

One thing i am reall happy about is the Altec lansing sound system, obviously no real bass, but the presence is their if you know what i mean, but the overall sound is excellent, ( if source material is tinny it will sound a little bit tinny, though this will depend on the quality of source material as always) and goes quite loud.

Can not say enough good things about this laptop, except for the ridiculous prices both Currys and HP want you to pay for their extended warrentys.

Being unemployed ( not going to tell you what occured so i could buy this laptop :-) ), their prices are rubbish, £200 + for HP 2yrs and £269+ for 5yrs Currys. Either way, no bank account, so no joy!!! just does not work does it.

That aside, for light gaming ( currently playing HL2 and LPlanet again, as well as And Then it Moves, (( awesome game )) ), general internet use, productivity etc, this laptop is Perfect..... I must be mad!!!

Stayed away from laptops for ever, being a hardcore overclocker, budget parts permitting :-); never liked or have really enjoyed supporting laptops ( IT support for ever! ), i have resolutely stayed away. I accept the usual CAVEATS, IF IT FAILS ( laptop or pc ) IT FAILS. Prices are now not to dissimilar to desktop parts so need not mortgage life to purchase replacement hdd!!!

One other thing, this mother is heavy ( 2.9Kg officially ), so really a desktop replacement, although if your like me, such a thing is not really a consideration, would carry to work if really wanted to, putting ALL THE NETTOP LITTLE GIRLS AND BOYS TO SHAME, you understand.

Excellent laptop, really happy with my purchase ( selling of soul ) and would definitely recommend to those who want a little reasonable gaming performance not constrained by on-board gpu. All other functions are excellent, especially the sound, makes such a difference.
October 21, 2011 3:33:01 PM

-Brand: Lenovo ThinkPad x121e
-Model: 3045
-Bought From/Price: local Currys 3500 nis ~= 950$
-OS: Windows 7 64bit home Premium
-CPU:Intel Core i3-2357M Processor (1.3GHz, 3MB L3, 1333MHz DDR3)
-GPU: intel HD Graphics (Sandy Bridge) onboard
-Resolution: 11.6" W HD (1366 x 768)LED, Anti-Glare.
-RAM: 4 GB DDR3 - 1333MHz (2 DIMM)
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): CAD, 3D, Graphics, Facebook/multimedia/email.
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 5-6 hours
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9 out of 10
Windows Experience Index 4.9 (Highest gaming 6.1 lowest processor 4.9 other values around 5.5)


IMPORTANT: I was looking for a small "cheap" lightweight but powerfull notebook. I didn't need it for direct work - just for showing my work done at home, on a laptop / projector in class.

I needed it to load medium complexity Sketchup models and CAD plans. I also wanted it to work with Revit and 3DS max that I want to learn in the future. Autodesk and Sketchup's site specificly stated that intel graphics are NOT recomended but since I need a cheap notebook and I wasn't planning on working on it - just viewing (And some facebook of course :D  ) I decided to take the risk.

First hands the x121e is simply Ugly. there is a nice smooth cover on top and the screen opens out in a wide beautiful and functional angel (but might not leave room for a large battery). On the coolness factor this one comes last, oh well it least it has both HDMI & VGA out are avilable - just what I needed.
The x121e is light weight and comfortably small in size, but extreamly fast with a good batter life (6 cell bat & I worked it hard for almost 6 hours strait without plugin it in with wifi on and connected). The keyboard layout is excelent & the keys are spread apart but easy to type. the tuchpad is awful! and uncomfortable at all (plus no sliding detection on the right side) but I'm pretty coordinated so I got used to it. after insalling all the above software (some are trials or the small light versions) it still takes the x121e about 1 minute from clicking the restart button to go thourgh boot and back to work again - FAST.

For the main course, The 3d applications:
sketchup & 3ds max - works o.k. loads complex files and rotates the model (rotating forces wireframe but redraws details back fast) - I loaded with foliage but hidden it for the rotating but even my friends more powerful laptops have trouble rotating models with foliage.
CAD & Revit - loads great! works smothly and redraws on rotate without too much issues.

in conclusion - although integrated graphics aren't recommended for 3d applications for the sake of viewing and rotating the model they are still o.k. I think even working on cad and revit is possible but didn't seriously try it yet.

I have been playing with it for a week now & I'm really satisfied with the x121e for now, I hope I will feel the same in a year or so.


I deducted just 1 point due to the really crappy small annoying tuchpad - I used better. I usually use the tuchpad and not a mouse so this is important but live-able.
October 28, 2011 6:57:42 AM

I just reviewed my HP Dv6-6135dx Here
November 10, 2011 5:13:39 PM

Brand: Samsung
Model: Rf-711 S02
Price: 800$
OS: Windows 7 64bit home Premium
CPU: i7 2630QM
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 540
Resolution 1600 x 900
Ram: 4gb
Usage: Multimedia, Gaming
Real world battery life: 1h load, 4-5 text writing
your rating: 2

The laptop was good when i first got it but after a 4 monds the problems came:

-dirt in the screen, some small brown spots.
-problems with the battery
-when i enable hyperthreading the laptop shut show me 8 threads, but instead it shows me four and sais this is a dualcore!
-when i burn a disk the disk won't play some of the song till the end.
The left speaker gives a lot less sound than the right one.

I think it's obvious that this is one problem machine.
Do not by this, if you look at the specifications you'd say that it's a lot for not that much money but you really don't wanna buy this one.
Go for something stronger and durabler than this ***.
February 6, 2012 1:30:49 AM

Two laptops here:
Sony Viao SA
Where: Sony Style Store
OS: Win 7 64bit Pro
CPU: i7 2620
GPU: AMD 6630
Resolution: 1366x768
RAM: 8GB Samsung. 4GB soldered, 4gb sodimm
Usage: Gaming, internet, ultraportable
Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 5 hours internal (internet only), 10 hours with slice
Your Rating (out of 10): 8

I was looking for a machine that was about MBP 13 in size and weight, found this beauty at the Sony Style store. It was a great machine while it lasted.

The i7 2620 performed as expected. The turbo mode was quite aggressive on this machine, keeping it between 3.0 and 3.1Ghz during Prime 95 testing. GPU switching was completely automatic, as it should be, though there was a switch to force the dedicated card if you needed it. GPU performance was equally as impressive. Easily tackling Fallout 3, WoW, and Portal 2 at the native resolution and high quality settings. When connected to an external monitor though, it wasn't quite up to par with 1080P displays.

Heat was also elegantly taken care of, by exhausting out the back of the machine. With the added slice, the machine could easily take in fresh air on any surface as well.

The screen was mediocre, but the anti-glare display was welcome.

The trackpad tracked very nicely, and was wonderfully smooth.

Sound was nothing special, I have heard better from laptops, but I have also heard much worse.

The best part about this machine was the complete lack of junkware. The only software installed was Windows, drivers, a tool bar and necessary software for the dvd burner and webcam. Nothing more.

The bad part: That machine lasted about a month. Then the CPU fan died. Upon taking back in for service, they took a month "waiting on parts". In this case, they decided to replace the entire motherboard. Eventually, they opted to give me my money back rather than send a new machine. That was well over a month after sending it in for service.
February 6, 2012 1:56:37 AM

Now the second machine:
The Lenovo W520
Where: Direct from Lenovo
OS: Win 7 64bit Home Prem
CPU: i7 2620
GPU: Nvidia Quadro 1000m
Resolution: 1920x1080
RAM: 6GB (1x4GB, 1x2GB)
Usage: Gaming, internet, movies
Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 4.5 hours internal
Your Rating (out of 10): 9

This was bought as a replacement to the above Sony. I couldn't find comparable, light performance machines.

The machine is solidly built, and carries an excellent feel to it. The keyboard is as expected from Lenovo, the best I have used on a laptop to date. The i7 2620 also performs as expected, easily making its way through any task I throw at it. Though the Turbo Boost does not seem to be as aggressive as I have seen elsewhere. The Quadro 1000m will overclock easily on this machine, though the only part that really needs it, is the vram. Bumped up about 75Mhz, the vram opens the card up nicely.

The display on this is amazing! Sitting next to my Samsung flat panel, and Acer panels, I can tell you up front, it is worth the extra money. The difference is astounding.

This machine can tackle most games at medium quality with no trouble, even at 1080P. I currently use it as my primary gaming machine for Skyrim, and for the most part it does extremely well. There are occasional hiccups that I cannot explain, but they appear to be related to the limited vram throughput. Overclocking the vram cleared this up significantly. Fallout 3 + NV run well under similar quality settings. Older games like half life 2 run well in high detail modes, at 1080P. No, it isn't setting performance records, but it won't do poorly either.

The touchpad tracks well enough, but has a slightly abrasive textured surface. Multi-touch gestures work well.

Movies look well on this machine, namely due to the impressive display, but sound is tiny. The little speakers just can't do the job.

The fan is a very nice, quality fan that makes little noise. Even at 4900RPM (using software to force it higher than rated), it stays manageable. Yes, you can hear it at 4900, no this isn't like the ThermalTake noisemakers of old. After replacing all the thermal paste with AS 5, the machine actually spends most of its time with the fan turned off completely, and sitting about 56C.

Overall, this is a great machine, I would recommend it to anyone. Buy direct though, and you can negotiate on the price a bit. Lenovo customer service has been terrific.
February 10, 2012 8:20:08 PM


-Brand: Medion
-Model: MD42100 (MIM2040)
-Released: 2005
-Bought From/Price: £429 new (Got mine as a hand-me-down)
-OS: Microsoft Windows XP
-CPU: 1.5GHz Intel Pentium M 1.5 "Banias" ("Upgraded" mine to a Pentium M 705 "Dothan")
-GPU: Intel Extreme Graphics 82852/82855 GM/GME
-Resolution: 1024x768
-RAM: 256mb (upgradeable to 2GB)
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): General browsing, programming
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): ~2-4
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9

When I was fist handed this laptop, I had no idea what it was. It wasn't a Dell or an HP laptop rather it was this odd brand known as "Medion". Now, when given an unknown brand for a laptop, I had no idea what to expect, the power management was fried, the hard drive crashed, the processor was so out of date that it came from an era where dual core was an idea on someone's page at Intel or AMD. However, this little laptop kept on surprising me, it's almost indestructibility and flexibility keep making me want to do anything but let it go.

First things first, this Laptop is German. Given the German's engineering expertise and history, I expected it to be overly complicated and frustrating to deal with. Lo' and behold, that wasn't the case at all. Access panels dot the other side of this laptop, easily identifying and marking exactly where everything is and providing exceptional experience with any sort of hardware tinkering. I have managed to replace almost every part of the laptop with minimal effort on my part. Even the mother board was changed in a matter of minutes with only two screws connecting the motherboard to the actual base of the laptop (The rest seal the motherboard to the palm rest. Believe me, I had to replace the motherboard for this thing after I realized the number my aunt did to the poor thing, well worth the $60 on eBay though.

The experience is typical Windows XP, nothing really new there except the Pentium M is a very powerful processor and deceptively so even for today. Good processor selection on their part, at the time and given it's price, 256MB of RAM was suitable for most users at the time. The laptop goes up to 2 GB which is absolutely perfect for what I do on it. The real downside to this laptop is the graphics. The Intel Integrated Graphics absolutely suck, bare bones 3D support and no chance of ever expanding that leaving it as a poor choice for those that game. Expected for an entry level laptop.

As shown in the photo, the experience working with the inputs is good but not memorable. It's good for what it does, and the European design gives it a fresh look. The keyboard is slightly off center than most laptops, leading me to type "S" when I meant "A" though a mild complaint. Fan noise is low and infrequent thanks to that Pentium M and the DVD drive is nice and zippy even if it does lack a DVD burner. The speakers are loud but cheesy, one of the few things I ding this for.

Given Medion's focus in the European market, support is lacking here in the 'States. The drivers are available online though for no cost, making a re-install a not so hellish process. In addition, a boot disk provided by Medion will re-install all of your drivers for you, a very nice innovative solution. Given this laptop's relative rarity, I was frustrated at the lacks of knowledge on the 'Net about it. This left me to blindly stumble around on support. Yet, it has proven itself to be a tough, reliable and flexible machine. You may want to put Medion on your list of computer companies to buy from, they build fantastic machines.
a b D Laptop
March 22, 2012 9:37:39 PM

I recently bought a new laptop. Here's the info:

Brand: Acer
Model: Aspire 5560-Sb401
Bought From: Tiger Direct
Price: $499CAD
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium x64
CPU: AMD A8-3500M
GPU: ATi Mobility Radeon HD 6620G
Resolution: 1366x768
RAM: 4GB DDR3-1333
Usage: Web browsing, Gaming, Music, Video (Movies)
Real World Battery Life: 4 hours
Rating: 10 out of 10
http://www.acer.ca/ac/en/CA/content/model/LX.RNW02.028
My first impression was how great the blue colour looked and I was just blown away by how fast this thing is and the fact that a $500 laptop can play Skyrim! This is the perfect all-around laptop and I couldn't be happier with it. It has more than enough CPU power so everything loads instantly. The Graphics on it are amazing (for a laptop) and I haven't discovered anything about it that I don't like. Battery life is great and it never gets hot! The display is phenomenal and the speakers are LOUD. For my purposes, it is more than perfect and far better than I expected or could have even hoped for for $500. :sol: 

Pics:
April 27, 2012 12:52:21 AM

-Brand: HP
-Model: dv6 6c35dx
-Bought From/Price: BestBuy $549.00
-OS: Windows 7 Home Premium / Windows 8 Consumer Preview (Dual boot)
-CPU: AMD A8-3520m
-GPU: AMD Radeon 6620G
-Resolution: 1366x768
-RAM: 6gb DDR3 1333mhz
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Mostly office work and some casual gaming
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 4-5 hours web browsing, 2 hours watching or streaming video, less then a hour gaming.
-Your Rating (out of 10): 8/10 Rating

I initially purchased it for $579, but the weekend after their website had it listed for $549. BestBuy refunded me the $30 simply handing them the receipt. Hard drive is kind of slow and clunky at times, I intend to replace mine with one of them Seagate Hybrid drives some time in the next few weeks. Otherwise the laptop has treated me well, boot time is still pretty quick even with the weak hard disk installed. Wanted to adjust the amount of RAM dedicated to the 6620G, how ever it seems it automatically adapts as needed. I've seen it bump up to as much as 1.2gb playing Civilization V, not sure what the cap is though. I do find that in any video games I play the first thing I have to turn down is shadow effects. If you're considering an AMD APU for gaming, I suggest finding something with dual graphics and an mx APU. The four speaker Beats Audio isn't half bad, sounds a lot better on head phones. (Shocker there, right?) The second audio out was surprising to me, but does come in handy.
June 8, 2012 9:50:12 AM

-Brand:Asus
-Model:K55 VM
-Bought From/Price: Flipkart.com/RS 54k or about a 1000$
-OS:WINDOWS 7 64 BIT SP 1
-CPU: I 7 3610QM AT 2.3GHZ
-GPU:GT 630M 2GB VRAM DDR3
-Resolution: 1366*768
-RAM: Gb
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): GAMING AT MEDIUM SETTINGS,SURFING
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): NORMAL VIDEO PLAY AT MEDIUM BRIGHTNESS -4hrs
-Your Rating (out of 10): 7


I have a 5400rpm hard disk and it has a write capability of 100MB/s.That renders the USB 3 port mute because it can never ever achieve it's max transfer rate, that is rather stupid.Performs well on most games ,gpu and cpu temp go upto 90 degrees under 100% load.Vram is never fully utilized ,in bf3 it used 510Mb. I must same the computer is rather powerful and packs a punch in the cpu department


Here is a link to good video review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ibYG3k4OmA
a b D Laptop
July 1, 2012 5:48:06 AM

-Brand: Sager/Clever
-Model: NP6110 (W110er)
-Size: 11.6"
-Bought From/Price: $999 flat
-OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
-CPU: Intel i7-3610QM (2.3 Ghz)
-GPU: nVidia GeForce GT 650M
-HDD: 500GB 7200 RPM
-Resolution: 1366 x 768 (720P)
-RAM: 8 GB DDR3 1600 (Can upgrade to 16 GB total)
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Gaming, business use, internet
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 1.5 to 2 hours gaming, 3 to 4 hours basic use
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9 out of 10

I've always been a huge fan of small laptops. Well, at least ever since I bought a massive 17" laptop back in 2004. Their portability was nice, but the winning factor was when people would see it and say to themselves "wow, that is a cool little laptop". One of the biggest problems with small laptops of the day, was cost and the lack of gaming power. Over the past several years, that has changed. Yet the real game changer, to me, is the introduction of the Sager NP6110 (AKA, the Clevo W110er).

At 11.6" and coming in at just under 4 pounds, this is THE little laptop that could. Powered by a quad-core monster and paired with a GeForce GT 650m, there isn't much this thing can't do. So begins the review.

Pros: Small and light, which is great for someone like me who likes to take a laptop on the go. Gaming is superb, as I can play Skyrim at Ultra resolution with the high-res texture pack with all options completely maxed out at smooth frames. For productivity, the laptop plows through all tasks I have thrown at it. The responsiveness of programs opening nearly twice as fast as my Intel E8400 @ 4 GHz all but wowed me. After all, I thought my desktop was more than fast enough at opening things. The ruberized texture on the lid and the mouse pad adds a nice look and a cool feel. The keyboard is comfortable to type on (I have small hands, so I'm a little biased there), as a chicklet keyboard. Each key as a nice tactile feel to it.

The screen, while small, is easy enough to look out without getting eye-strain. Speaking of the screen, its LED back lit, which is standard these days. But it is also very bright. At about 30% brightness, it beats my old laptop at 100% brightness. Needless to say, I keep it 40% brightness at most, and 25% for normal battery use. The laptop comes with two USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0, as well as a HDMI and VGA connectors and a all in one card reader. Laptop has limited upgradeability, but can take up to 16 GB of DDR3 RAM. The panel underneath the laptop can come off, giving 100% freedom to accessing all her internal organs. The sound comes across very nice (though I'm no audiophile) and clear.

Cons: This is a small, compact machine, and as such there is no optical drive. Not problem, as I bought a external one - but so far I have yet to of needed it. The laptop also gets very, very warm. It in no way comes close to being dangerously warm, but it is something that one should very seriously consider a cooling pad. The fan can get very loud when playing a game (like Skyrim) on max graphics. Eventually the fan bleeds over the sound of the game (though gaming with headphones helps). The screen has limited viewing angles, but they also seem to be a bit better than my old laptop. In a market when laptop battery life dominates at 6+ hours, this guy is a battery eater. In gaming, battery lasts little over 1.5 to 2 hours. In normal use, I get between 3 and 4 hours. Keep in mind the power of this thing. Its a Geometro with a Ferrari engine, so of course it's "gas life" is going to be paltry.

Nitpicks: The track-pad can get a little picky. If you hit it wrong, it will assume you are trying to scroll... even if you are toward the center of the pad. The standard Wi-Fi card seems to lose signal now and then, but I cannot confirm this as a fact as the router in the house I was in was downstairs in an office. The track-pad also has the rubberized coating on it. There is one very small area where the coating wasn't smoothed out like the rest, so it feels like my finger is running across a grain of sand. The webcam looks like it came out of a 2004 laptop, but it gets the job done well enough. The power brick is pretty large, but considering the hardware, it makes sense. No back-lit keyboard makes typing at night a bit more difficult, though luckily for me I can still type adequately in the dark. Finally, there is no cable management for the power unit after you pack it up. So the cord gets pretty messy quickly.

Conclusion: If you want a small and portable gaming laptop, the NP6110 is the one and only. Many times more powerful than the Alienware M11x (though not as cool looking I suppose), this little guy can power through any modern game at high to ultra settings. Battery life could have been better, but I'm not complaining, especially when I see how fast tasks are accomplished or how nice games look. This is the laptop I've been waiting for since 2004.

Edit: Double-Pro: There is not one piece of bloatware I could find on the laptop. At first I thought there were a few, but they all turned out to be part of the drivers for the sound and the webcam.

Edit 2: To the question about the battery, its pretty simple. Do not let your battery die all the way, charge it when it is half dead. Do not continue charging it after it is fully charged. This will extend the life of the battery. However, it is typical for batteries to die after a year or two, so its still nothing to worry about.
July 10, 2012 6:48:45 AM

Sahara
I bough it for $500
Used windows XP SP2
CPU was 1.6
HDD was 40 gig
RAM was 250
Usage - i used it for my projects most of the time

It couldnt browse internet because it was too slow but i loved that laptop to death,until it got stolen.
July 30, 2012 4:29:29 AM

-Brand: ASUS
-Model: K55VM-SX086D
-Bought From/Price: Local vendor, 54000 INR
-OS: came with FreeDOS, now has windows 7 ultimate and ubuntu 12
-CPU: 3rd gen core i7 3610qm
-GPU: nvidia 630m
-Resolution: 1366*768
-RAM: 8 GB @1600 Mhz
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Everything!!
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 5 hrs under battery saving and light-weight usage (reading a pdf for example)
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9
August 5, 2012 6:08:39 AM

-Brand: HP
-Model: G7Z-2100 CTO
-Bought From/Price: HP.com $678
-OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
-CPU: A10-4600M
-GPU: ATI 7660G + 7670M
-Resolution: 1600 by 900
-RAM: 4GB as purchased 8GB upgraded
-Usage: General usage Mild Gaming
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation):With Extended battery 3 to 4 Hours general usage 1 to 2 gaming.
-Your Rating (out of 10): 8.5


The HP G series Laptops are HP’s budget laptops, compared to the DV series they are lacking in the extras the DV’s have. The DVs generally have brushed aluminum finishes, Fingerprint readers, and beats audio. If these things are important to you then move on, if you're looking for computer, and don't care about these things, then the G7z is probably something worth looking at.

The looks:
It’s a pretty snazzy looking finish with the HP logo bottom right hand corner. It will shows the fingerprints, pretty easily. The inside of the computer is pretty nice, also it has a speaker bar, above the keyboard which I think makes a better listening experience. It has a full size keyboard with a number pad.

The HP experience:
Right off the bat, you notice the Bloatware. Just after you get the windows 7 configuration done, HP’s logo.exe program runs, while The HP setup Program loads (and it took a while). I have been working with computer for a long time, Yes I know I did not set up Norton Antivirus, I know my computer could get a virus. For the average user, or the computer clueless this process might be good.

The laptop comes with Dolby advanced sound, which is integrated audio with an decent set of audio drivers, and audio Control panel. The audio is made by IDT, the software control panel is nice. What makes it for me is built in equalizer, and it displays each channel's level when sound is being played. It also has, noise canceling, using the built in microphone for a better listening experience, something that Beatz Audio brags about.

Performance:

The AMD A10-4600M is the the Top end AMD mobile processor. It is equipped with, a 7660G, video card. Like all AMD processors there are more powerful Intel processors, but the A10 can hold its own, especially when you factor in the 7660G. When Gaming you want to balance the processor with graphics, with graphics being more important. The A10 Just does something Intel can’t, and that is Crossfire with the ATI 7670M. I think in this price point you probably won’t find a notebook that performs like this one. It won’t Perform like a top of the line Gaming notebook, but it will get the job done. Benchmarks below, overall for a Sub $700 notebook it plays games pretty well. You should Expect to play games and Medium-High settings. Batman Arkham City played would play well on Medium quality with 2X AA, where Just cause 2 in benchmarks got Playable FPS at High textures and 2X AA with Medium Shadow Detail. Whereas Dexues EX Human Revolution got on default settings got an average FPS 36.56 with a min of 25 and a max of 61, at full settings it got 18.37 average, and a max of 32, Fraps posted a minimum of 0 which I think was an error.

Bottom line:
Great performance for class, Good Audio and software to go with it.

Cons:
Laptop can run hot, the video 7670M runs about 80C while under load.

Other Thoughts:
Lacks some of the extras higher end models have. Performance in games is acceptable maybe even good, but not great. If you're not on a budget and want to game, pass this laptop up for one that has more muscle.


3dmark Vantage results:
Total: P5322
Graphics: 5936
CPU: 4061
http://3dmark.com/3dmv/4223979

3dMark 11 Results:
Total: P2011
Graphics: 2085
Physics: 2070
Combined: 1480
http://3dmark.com/3dm11/4044891

Game Bench Marks

Batman Arkham City
Full Supported settings
Maxium: 28
Average: 15
Very High Texture, High Tessellation, FXAA Medium, No motion blur, No ambient Occlusion
Maxium: 28
Minium: 16
Very High Texture, Normal Tessellation, FXAA Medium, No motion blur, No ambient Occlusion
Maxium: 32
Minium: 17
High Texture, Normal Tessellation, FXAA Low, No motion blur, No ambient Occlusion
Maxium: 32
Minium: 18


Just Cause 2
Texture High, Shadows High, AA 4X, Anisotropic Filtering 16 , Water Detail Very High, Object Detail Very High.
Average FPS: 19.57
Texture High, Shadows Medium, AA 2X, Anisotropic Filtering 8 , Water Detail Very High, Object Detail Very High.
Average FPS 24.25



Review Disclaimer This is a CTO laptop so this review is based off of the following configuration.


• sparkling black
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• AMD Quad-Core A10-4600M Accelerated Processor (3.2GHz/2.3GHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
• 1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7670M Discrete-Class Graphics
• FREE Upgrade to 4GB DDR3 System Memory (1Dimm)
• FREE Upgrade to 500GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
• Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word/Excel(R) only, No PowerPoint(R)/Outlook(R)
• No additional security software
• 17.3-inch diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1600 x 900)
• SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
• HP Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone




















August 19, 2012 5:44:16 AM

-Brand: HP
-Model: Pavillion DV6
-Bought From/Price:PC-World / £549
-OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
-CPU: Intel Core i3-2350m
-GPU: Nvidia Geforce GT630m
-Resolution: 1366 x 768 LED
-RAM: 4GB
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): Internet, Music. Will do gaming, just need games.
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 7 hours? I don't know but it sure is hell long
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9


This is an amazing laptop. I would recommend it to anyone who cannot afford a high end laptop.

The Screen is amazing, bright and colors

The Speed is great. I haven't had much time but its bonded.

The webcam can do nice pics and videos.

I like:
The nice keyboard.
The LED screen
The webcam and the software with it.
SimplePass
Setup was so easy

I dislike:
Sometimes the internets slightly slow


Overall, this was the perfect laptop for me, as its not expensive yet has lots of power and is awesome!
August 24, 2012 8:08:56 AM

-Brand: - Apple
-Model: -Apple MacBook Air MD224HN/A
-Bought From/Price: - shopbychoice.com / Rs. 72,900/- (after 2% off)
-OS: - Mac OS
-GPU:- Intel HD Graphics 4000
-Resolution: - 1366 x 768 Pixel
-RAM:- 4GB RAM
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…):- MagSafe 2 power port, SDXC card slot etc
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): - 5.0 Hours battery backup
-Your Rating (out of 10):- 8
September 9, 2012 3:46:11 PM

-Brand: Alienware
-Model: M14x
-Bought From/Price: used $900
-OS: Win 7 HP
-CPU: i7 2670qm
-GPU: Nvidia 555m
-Resolution: 1600x900
-RAM: 6GB
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): gaming,internet,music,photo and video editing and storage
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 4-5 hours with power options turned off and optimus enabled
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9


Bought this laptop used locally still had warranty on it until January and I got the original invoice with it as well showing the original purchase price of $1699 CDN. I paid the guy $900 and walked away happy. Snappy fast responsive system that's absolutely great for gaming and most other uses. Only real gripes are the weight seems high for a 14 incher and the trackpad scroll even with the zone setting being huge is hit or miss. With that in mind with the weight being high it's obvious this is meant to be a replacement for a desktop machine which is what it is for me. I upgraded from a Dell E6510 with a first gen i7 and 8GB of ram and an SSD to this machine. I did give up some things like the SSD and the ram is slightly lower, however with that said the 2nd gen chip and 1.5GB dedicated graphics more than make up for the slower boot times and slightly lower ram.

Getting more into the meat of the review first I'll talk about the screen it's a 1600x900 14.1 inch that seems very similar to a MBP display in taht it obviously has a piece of glass in front of the actual LCD itself which makes for a very nice crisp display without the annoying bezel. I really like this. Colours are wonderfully represented and all my photos and video look amazing not to mention games run beautifully with no ghosting or other effects so the response time is definitely there.

Next of course I'll talk about the keyboard which is one of the hallmarks of Alienware with the AlienFX backlighting. The backlighting is like a carnival ride on steroids very eye catching and it makes typing in not so well lit places an easy task. Backlighting of course also extends to the power button, Alienware logo on the bottom of the screen glass and around the trackpad as well as the front lights. It screams I'm expensive look at me and what I can do.

Now moving away from form and getting into function this thing has function in spades with almost every type of connector I can think of firewire, USB 3.0, BT ,HDMI and VGA, 10/100/1000 NIC it's just features as far as the eye can see on this little wonder.

Gaming performance of course what everyone is wondering is absolutely wonderful. Every game I have thrown at it including Crysis has run at the highest settings with complete fluidity. I couldn't be more pleased with it's performance in this regard. This is also my first experience with what most of you would consider a high end laptop.

To sum it all up for $900 with the warranty still in tact and having looked on ebay I think I scored a pretty good deal and I think this machine will serve me will for at least 2-3 years
October 12, 2012 5:46:26 AM

-Brand: Sager
-Model: NP9150T (15.4")
-Bought From/Price: www.sagernotebook.com / USD$1437 + tax
-OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
-CPU: Intel Core i7 3630QM
-GPU: Nvidia Geforce GT675M
-Resolution: 1920x1080 LED
-RAM: 2x4GB DDR3 1600
-Usage : PC like tasks: gaming, programming and whatever I need to do.
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): Not fully tested, but I'd say like 3 to 4 hours.
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9.5

I'd give it a perfect 10 if it not were for the glossy screen as default and tougher panels for the LED screen. They should use the mate one as default.

I ordered this notebook with an HDD bay instead of the ODD (BD ROM by default, I think) plus a second 500GB 7200 RPM slim HDD in it (main unit is the same, you can put an SSD and other cool stuff for the Intel storage thingy). It also came with a LED keyboard (numpad included) as default and with Onkyo speakers (integrated) that sound quite nice. Finger print reader, integrated web cam and regular multi touch mouse pad, plus stickers.

The body work of the notebook is quite nice as well. It's a matte finish across the whole body and doesn't weight a ton, but the power brick is quite big, it-s like 1/3 of the notebooks weight, haha.

The best of the notebook, by far, is that Sager is quite un-beatable in the price / perf ratio.

These are some pictures of it:





EDIT: Some Windows scores



EDIT2: New Windows score after the SSD upgrade:



Cheers!
January 4, 2013 8:44:58 PM

251205,1,374193 said:
With all of the questions concerning the recommendation of laptops, we figured it would be a good idea to start a thread where members can review their new or old laptops to help others looking at the same models. Feel free to post your review of your current or even an old laptop that you may have liked or disliked for various reasons. Before writing your review though, post the following specs on your laptop (if you know):

-Brand: Apple
-Model: Macbook Pro
-Bought From/Price: $1011
-OS: Max OS X, also have Win XP and Ubuntu loaded
-CPU: Intel i5 2.5Ghz dual core
-GPU: intel HD 4000
-Resolution: 1280 x 800
-RAM: 4GB
-Usage (Gaming, Internet, Office Apps, etc…): office/school work some photo editing
-Real World Battery Life (in your estimation): 6 hours, more if I rememberto close the lid when not in use.
-Your Rating (out of 10): 9.0, I'd say "10" but they use a "glossy" screen. If they added a dead-on zero reflective screen it would be a 10.

Some line to add to the this survey are...
1) "Build Quality". Some notebooks are made of cheap plastic and others are milled from a solid block of metal. And then everything between.
2) "cooling" some have anoying fans and some don't

The new Macbook has a solid aluminum body, it is not an aluminum skin. So they use the entire computer as a heat sink. It runs cold to the touch.

Another nice touch is the material used for the track pad, it's glass with a frosted surface

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