Dell Inspiron i3531-1200BK 15.6-Inch Laptop

CUSTOMER REVIEW



This is no I7 laptop, let's just get that straight. But, it makes a good second back up laptop for me. I'm using it to write this review right now. I ordered mine from dell, at the time it was cheaper than amazon, and dell had them in stock. I did remove the hard drive and replaced it with an SSD I had laying around which helped speed it up considerably. It is a bit laggy at times, but overall it is usable and better than I would have expected for this price range.



Here are the pros as I see them:

-The price, the price, the price

-The weight is much lighter than my I7 high end laptop

-Battery lasts 5-7.5 hours depending on use, many Windows laptops in this price range only last 3 hours so this is a huge advantage.

-The battery is user replaceable, which you can't take for granted anymore in a laptop. Press two buttons and it pops right out!

-Many laptops recently make it very hard to get access to the RAM and Harddrive for upgrades. Several dells require you to completely disassemble the entire laptop to get to the hard drive including removing the screen, motherboard, track pad etc. Which is a huge pet peave of mine. This laptop has an access panel on the bottom to access the RAM and HD which is great!

-A large 15.6 inch screen for a great price

-This CPU doesn't run hot at all and has decent performance for the price.

-It runs so cool it doesn't even have a fan at all!

-Keyboard has a number pad, many don't in this price range.

-Keyboard feels nice and doesn't feel too cheap, we will see with time though how it holds up.

-Trackpad works good, buttons are loud when clicked though.

-Nice to have a Windows laptop for this price, I like chromebooks but I can't connect to my at home Samba server from a chromebook so I gravitate to Windows.



Cons:

-There are the obvious ones like no USB 3, no Bluetooth, no wired ethernet, no CD/DVD Drive. But in this price range I'm ok with that. I have an external USB CD/DVD that I used to install Office on it so that wasn't an issue for me.

-Windows 8.1, is better than 8.0 but if you have never used it before there is a learning curve for sure compared to Windows 7/Vista

-Not blazing fast but you can't expect that from any pc in this price range.

-Case feels cheap, it creaks and groans when I pick it up by a corner.

-The quality of the video is pretty low, but once again it is usable for watching youtube, netflix videos, etc. Just is less sharp than my high end laptop and can be a tad laggy occasionally.



Would I recommend this??? Depends on your needs. If you are on a tight budget and are a light PC user who wants to use it just for basic web surfing, Word Processing, and light youtube/netflix watching this will work fine for most people



If you are a high end, heavy user, I'd only use this as a backup laptop. I would not be happy with this as my primary laptop personally since I'm a very heavy user.



If you are a gamer, you of course know enough to not even look at this laptop as an option.



Upgrade possibilities: If you know what you are doing upgrading the hard drive to an SSD will help it feel more useable. Also, I have not done so yet, but my understanding is that you can upgrade this to 8GB of ram which could help too. It only has one slot for ram so you will have to remove the stock 4gb and replace it with an 8GB. Make sure to get the DDR3L (The L stands for low voltage). You want the 1.35 volt not 1.5 it may work with the 1.5 but will run hotter and use more battery. The laptop comes with 1333mhz ram, but I think 1600mhz will work and run faster. Take this with a grain of salt as have not tried it yet, but I believe the following RAM will work, and this is the type I plan to try upgrading to someday.



http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Technology-1600MHz-PC3-12800-KVR16LS11/dp/B00CQ35HBQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1402328644&sr=8-2&keywords=8GB+DDR3+1600MHz+sodimm+DDR3L



Update 6/23/14: I did buy and install the 8gb of Ram above. It works great, but it does down clock the ram to 1333mhz as the CPU won't handle 1600mhz speeds. But, the 1600mhz 1.35v ram does work great in here. It feels even snappier now. Between the SSD I installed and the 8gb of ram this computer is very usable and fairly snappy for most tasks. The only time I see the video and cpu lagging a bit is if I am on a webpage with heavy adobe flash usage on it. But, right now I have two browsers open and about 30 browser tabs open with now slowdown. I'm still quite happy with this laptop for the money. It is just important to throttle your expectations, this can't be compared to an Intel I7 CPU $1000 laptop, but it is good for basic web browsing!



Update 8/22/14 I noticed several people that complained about the performance realized if they removed the demo anti virus and crapware that it runs better. I reinstalled windows from scratch from my USB DVD when I put in the SSD so I effectively removed all of the crapware by reinstalling and only putting the essential drivers back on. That is probably why mine runs much faster and better than some of the reviewers. I would remove the anti virus and just use the built in windows 8.1 antivirus as that is less cpu and memory intensive. Then uninstall of the other factory junk, like wild tangent games, toolbars etc. If you don't want to do that manually in the past I used a free utility called PC Decrapifier that automated the cleanup and worked pretty good. Also, you might need to change your power saving settings to be less restrictive so it is optimized more for speed. Hope that helps...



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Acer C720 Chromebook (11.6-Inch, 2GB)

CUSTOMER REVIEW



I have an Acer C720 ($199) and an Acer C720P ($299) and both are amazing machines. If you dont mind plunking down the extra $100 for the touchscreen then go for it but really you will do fine without it and save yourself $100 especially if you are buying these as gifts like I did for others in my family.



Here is a list of the APPS I use on both and it runs them fast and flawlessly:

Facebook, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Chrome Remote Desktop (flawlessly connects to my Windows 7 laptop and I can run any windows program remotely with ease and flawlessly connects to my Office Desktop and I can access all my office records which is key since i am a family doc), Google Cloud Print (easily prints documents to all the printers i have set up), MyBible, Kindle, Twitter, Hootsuite, Weatherbug, Netflix, Pandora, YouTube, Google+ photos (automatically puts all my photos taken on my Iphone over to my chromebook), RUNS ALL WEBSITES INCLUDING BANKING WEBSITES and my mobile hospital app FLAWLESSLY WITH CHROME (including adobe flash player sites which my Ipad and Iphone still wont run)



The only CONS i can find so far are no SKYPE app.....If you want to do video calls then need to use GOOGLE HANGOUTS which is much less intuitive than skype....and you CANNOT hook a printer directly to a chromebook but you can use google cloud print to print easily...needs wifi connection to do most things (this is really not a problem for me as i am always connected and they have developed a number of apps that work when not connected including document writer and email offline



Battery Life Amazing! almost 8hrs of use!

Touchscreen good but not like an Ipad (can't use your fingers to zoom in with pinch)

Touchpad very good! (and really dont need the touchscreen because touchpad works so good)

Keyboard very solid,

Can use any wireless mouse with it. (Ipad still cant utilize a mouse)

Screen brightness great.

Sound adequate but a bit tinny

USB port charges devices and can use flash drives to move and transfer files (another thing I still cant do with my Ipad)

2 years free of 100GB Google Drive (this saves you $120 right there)

12 free wifi passes while on planes (i dont fly much but still a nice convenience and saves you the $10 or so connection fee)

Free virus protection



All in all a great economical way to access the internet with ease and lightning speed and do 95% of what most people use a personal computer for this day and age.



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Dell Inspiron i3531-1200BK 15.6-Inch Laptop

CUSTOMER REVIEW



This is no I7 laptop, let's just get that straight. But, it makes a good second back up laptop for me. I'm using it to write this review right now. I ordered mine from dell, at the time it was cheaper than amazon, and dell had them in stock. I did remove the hard drive and replaced it with an SSD I had laying around which helped speed it up considerably. It is a bit laggy at times, but overall it is usable and better than I would have expected for this price range.



Here are the pros as I see them:

-The price, the price, the price

-The weight is much lighter than my I7 high end laptop

-Battery lasts 5-7.5 hours depending on use, many Windows laptops in this price range only last 3 hours so this is a huge advantage.

-The battery is user replaceable, which you can't take for granted anymore in a laptop. Press two buttons and it pops right out!

-Many laptops recently make it very hard to get access to the RAM and Harddrive for upgrades. Several dells require you to completely disassemble the entire laptop to get to the hard drive including removing the screen, motherboard, track pad etc. Which is a huge pet peave of mine. This laptop has an access panel on the bottom to access the RAM and HD which is great!

-A large 15.6 inch screen for a great price

-This CPU doesn't run hot at all and has decent performance for the price.

-It runs so cool it doesn't even have a fan at all!

-Keyboard has a number pad, many don't in this price range.

-Keyboard feels nice and doesn't feel too cheap, we will see with time though how it holds up.

-Trackpad works good, buttons are loud when clicked though.

-Nice to have a Windows laptop for this price, I like chromebooks but I can't connect to my at home Samba server from a chromebook so I gravitate to Windows.



Cons:

-There are the obvious ones like no USB 3, no Bluetooth, no wired ethernet, no CD/DVD Drive. But in this price range I'm ok with that. I have an external USB CD/DVD that I used to install Office on it so that wasn't an issue for me.

-Windows 8.1, is better than 8.0 but if you have never used it before there is a learning curve for sure compared to Windows 7/Vista

-Not blazing fast but you can't expect that from any pc in this price range.

-Case feels cheap, it creaks and groans when I pick it up by a corner.

-The quality of the video is pretty low, but once again it is usable for watching youtube, netflix videos, etc. Just is less sharp than my high end laptop and can be a tad laggy occasionally.



Would I recommend this??? Depends on your needs. If you are on a tight budget and are a light PC user who wants to use it just for basic web surfing, Word Processing, and light youtube/netflix watching this will work fine for most people



If you are a high end, heavy user, I'd only use this as a backup laptop. I would not be happy with this as my primary laptop personally since I'm a very heavy user.



If you are a gamer, you of course know enough to not even look at this laptop as an option.



Upgrade possibilities: If you know what you are doing upgrading the hard drive to an SSD will help it feel more useable. Also, I have not done so yet, but my understanding is that you can upgrade this to 8GB of ram which could help too. It only has one slot for ram so you will have to remove the stock 4gb and replace it with an 8GB. Make sure to get the DDR3L (The L stands for low voltage). You want the 1.35 volt not 1.5 it may work with the 1.5 but will run hotter and use more battery. The laptop comes with 1333mhz ram, but I think 1600mhz will work and run faster. Take this with a grain of salt as have not tried it yet, but I believe the following RAM will work, and this is the type I plan to try upgrading to someday.



http://ift.tt/1x7G9yp



Update 6/23/14: I did buy and install the 8gb of Ram above. It works great, but it does down clock the ram to 1333mhz as the CPU won't handle 1600mhz speeds. But, the 1600mhz 1.35v ram does work great in here. It feels even snappier now. Between the SSD I installed and the 8gb of ram this computer is very usable and fairly snappy for most tasks. The only time I see the video and cpu lagging a bit is if I am on a webpage with heavy adobe flash usage on it. But, right now I have two browsers open and about 30 browser tabs open with now slowdown. I'm still quite happy with this laptop for the money. It is just important to throttle your expectations, this can't be compared to an Intel I7 CPU $1000 laptop, but it is good for basic web browsing!



Update 8/22/14 I noticed several people that complained about the performance realized if they removed the demo anti virus and crapware that it runs better. I reinstalled windows from scratch from my USB DVD when I put in the SSD so I effectively removed all of the crapware by reinstalling and only putting the essential drivers back on. That is probably why mine runs much faster and better than some of the reviewers. I would remove the anti virus and just use the built in windows 8.1 antivirus as that is less cpu and memory intensive. Then uninstall of the other factory junk, like wild tangent games, toolbars etc. If you don't want to do that manually in the past I used a free utility called PC Decrapifier that automated the cleanup and worked pretty good. Also, you might need to change your power saving settings to be less restrictive so it is optimized more for speed. Hope that helps...



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HP Celeron 14-q070nr 1.4GHz 4GB 16GB SSD, White (Certified Refurbished)

CUSTOMER REVIEW



This laptop feels like it should cost more than it does. I am used to a MacBook Pro and bought this for a camping trip. It turns out I like it far more than I would have thought. The speed of operation is fast, the screen is sharp and the colors bright. The angle of view is narrower than my MacBook but that's easily adjusted.



The 4 gig or ram is nice to have, the 32 gig of SSD storage is OK, but I have not really found much use for it. This truly is nothing more than a browser. Chrome is pretty full featured and when used with the variety of plug-ins and the Google suite of products, you should have all that you need. Even for editing photos, there are browser based editors that are quite good operating from the cloud.



The downside of this notebook is the keyboard is a little less responsive, the keys are bigger and require me to think about where my fingers go, also the keys are not backlit which is a luxury I have come to expect with my MacBook.



Overall, a great purchase and I would buy it again.



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HP Celeron 1.4GHz 4GB 32 GB SSD, White (Certified Refurbished)

CUSTOMER REVIEW



A good catch during lightning deals.

For its reputable brand, I think it is worth to get for a general surfing lappy for kids, adults and old people at home.

Although refurbished but it is as good as new.



My daughter fancy colored ones, therefore she bought the following:

http://ift.tt/1qUlT3n



Cheers!



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Acer C720 Chromebook (11.6-Inch, 2GB)

CUSTOMER REVIEW



I have an Acer C720 ($199) and an Acer C720P ($299) and both are amazing machines. If you dont mind plunking down the extra $100 for the touchscreen then go for it but really you will do fine without it and save yourself $100 especially if you are buying these as gifts like I did for others in my family.



Here is a list of the APPS I use on both and it runs them fast and flawlessly:

Facebook, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Chrome Remote Desktop (flawlessly connects to my Windows 7 laptop and I can run any windows program remotely with ease and flawlessly connects to my Office Desktop and I can access all my office records which is key since i am a family doc), Google Cloud Print (easily prints documents to all the printers i have set up), MyBible, Kindle, Twitter, Hootsuite, Weatherbug, Netflix, Pandora, YouTube, Google+ photos (automatically puts all my photos taken on my Iphone over to my chromebook), RUNS ALL WEBSITES INCLUDING BANKING WEBSITES and my mobile hospital app FLAWLESSLY WITH CHROME (including adobe flash player sites which my Ipad and Iphone still wont run)



The only CONS i can find so far are no SKYPE app.....If you want to do video calls then need to use GOOGLE HANGOUTS which is much less intuitive than skype....and you CANNOT hook a printer directly to a chromebook but you can use google cloud print to print easily...needs wifi connection to do most things (this is really not a problem for me as i am always connected and they have developed a number of apps that work when not connected including document writer and email offline



Battery Life Amazing! almost 8hrs of use!

Touchscreen good but not like an Ipad (can't use your fingers to zoom in with pinch)

Touchpad very good! (and really dont need the touchscreen because touchpad works so good)

Keyboard very solid,

Can use any wireless mouse with it. (Ipad still cant utilize a mouse)

Screen brightness great.

Sound adequate but a bit tinny

USB port charges devices and can use flash drives to move and transfer files (another thing I still cant do with my Ipad)

2 years free of 100GB Google Drive (this saves you $120 right there)

12 free wifi passes while on planes (i dont fly much but still a nice convenience and saves you the $10 or so connection fee)

Free virus protection



All in all a great economical way to access the internet with ease and lightning speed and do 95% of what most people use a personal computer for this day and age.



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ASUS 15.6-Inch HD Dual-Core 2.16GHz Laptop, 500GB

CUSTOMER REVIEW



This is a nice budget laptop for students and/or people just looking for something to do basic computer tasks. I'm a student, and although I already have a nice custom-built desktop computer that I do most of my work on, I felt like I would benefit from having something portable to have in-class or while hanging out on campus.



This is, obviously, not a laptop for gaming. Out of curiosity I installed Skyrim on it and surprisingly it did run the game on low settings (albeit not with ideal fps) and it ran Minecraft fairly well (minor stuttering from time to time--but still definitely playable). If you're buying a laptop with the intention of gaming or any other intensive computer tasks I would highly recommend you look into the $500+ price range for a laptop with more capable specs.



In my case, it runs all the programs I needed it for: Visual Studio 2013, Eclipse, and other IDE's run perfectly fine. Word and other Office 2013 programs run perfectly fine. Browsing the internet with Chrome is perfect. Streaming HD video or playing a 1080p movie file is perfect. Unity3D (a game engine) and Blender (3d animation software) run acceptably. For $250 I really can't ask for anything more.



Pros:



Price: $250 for a brand new full featured Windows 8.1 laptop is insane. I would recommend one of these over a similarly priced Chromebook any day.



Extremely lightweight: I was surprised when I took it out of the box at how little it weighed for the size--very easy to carry.



Quiet and stays really cool: Even while testing out the gaming I didn't notice any sound from fans and even after using it for a while it didn't feel warm at all.



Nice design: Not a flashy laptop, just clean and non-descript aesthetics. Doesn't look like a high-end laptop but also doesn't look like a budget one. I like the textured matte plastic on the back. Screen hinge feels solid with not much play.



No optical drive: I know for some this is a con--but I can't even remember the last time I used a CD/DVD and would much rather have the savings on weight, power consumption, and cost. If you need to format and reinstall the OS or something just make a bootable USB stick (very easy to do).



Nice screen: The screen is bright with decent contrast and a 1366x768 resolution that's pretty much the standard for this size of laptop (at least until you get to the $600+ price range). I don't think it is LED backlit but it does its job well.



Nice keyboard with a number pad: If you're doing office work or programming it's pretty much essential to have a keyboard with a num pad. The keyboard as a whole is decent, no complaints except there's just the tiniest bit of rattling noise when tapping away. The trackpad is offset so that your hands don't rest on it when typing in a normal position.



Cons:



Not upgrade friendly: There's no easy way to access the RAM, HDD, or even the battery. Although I really didn't have any intention of upgrading it so it's not a huge deal. This laptop is what it is and the slow-ish processor with low-end integrated graphics will always be this computer's bottleneck. If I need a faster laptop I'd rather just save the upgrade money to buy a new laptop.



Power cord input is very snug: I guess this could be a pro, but where the power cord plugs into the laptop is so snug and secure that if you (or a pet) tripped over the cord it would certainly pull the laptop off the table before it came out. Makes me a little wary.



No light for caps-lock or num-lock: It has a power/charging light and an HDD activity light on the front and that's it. Wish it had an indication light for caps lock and num lock. Also, it sometimes doesn't seem to remember if num-lock is on when waking up from sleep etc. I find myself having to reactivate num-lock even though I'm positive I didn't deactivate it.



Trackpad buttons: The left-click and right-click on the trackpad are a little hard to press for my taste and they are kind of noisy. Using the Asus Smart-gesture or whatever it's called makes it where you can just tap/double tap (or tap with both fingers to right-click) the trackpad to avoid using the buttons at all which seems like a better alternative.



All in all it's a decent and capable budget-friendly laptop with only a few minor gripes. I would definitely recommend it.



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Dell Inspiron i3531-1200BK 15.6-Inch Laptop

CUSTOMER REVIEW



This is no I7 laptop, let's just get that straight. But, it makes a good second back up laptop for me. I'm using it to write this review right now. I ordered mine from dell, at the time it was cheaper than amazon, and dell had them in stock. I did remove the hard drive and replaced it with an SSD I had laying around which helped speed it up considerably. It is a bit laggy at times, but overall it is usable and better than I would have expected for this price range.



Here are the pros as I see them:

-The price, the price, the price

-The weight is much lighter than my I7 high end laptop

-Battery lasts 5-7.5 hours depending on use, many Windows laptops in this price range only last 3 hours so this is a huge advantage.

-The battery is user replaceable, which you can't take for granted anymore in a laptop. Press two buttons and it pops right out!

-Many laptops recently make it very hard to get access to the RAM and Harddrive for upgrades. Several dells require you to completely disassemble the entire laptop to get to the hard drive including removing the screen, motherboard, track pad etc. Which is a huge pet peave of mine. This laptop has an access panel on the bottom to access the RAM and HD which is great!

-A large 15.6 inch screen for a great price

-This CPU doesn't run hot at all and has decent performance for the price.

-It runs so cool it doesn't even have a fan at all!

-Keyboard has a number pad, many don't in this price range.

-Keyboard feels nice and doesn't feel too cheap, we will see with time though how it holds up.

-Trackpad works good, buttons are loud when clicked though.

-Nice to have a Windows laptop for this price, I like chromebooks but I can't connect to my at home Samba server from a chromebook so I gravitate to Windows.



Cons:

-There are the obvious ones like no USB 3, no Bluetooth, no wired ethernet, no CD/DVD Drive. But in this price range I'm ok with that. I have an external USB CD/DVD that I used to install Office on it so that wasn't an issue for me.

-Windows 8.1, is better than 8.0 but if you have never used it before there is a learning curve for sure compared to Windows 7/Vista

-Not blazing fast but you can't expect that from any pc in this price range.

-Case feels cheap, it creaks and groans when I pick it up by a corner.

-The quality of the video is pretty low, but once again it is usable for watching youtube, netflix videos, etc. Just is less sharp than my high end laptop and can be a tad laggy occasionally.



Would I recommend this??? Depends on your needs. If you are on a tight budget and are a light PC user who wants to use it just for basic web surfing, Word Processing, and light youtube/netflix watching this will work fine for most people



If you are a high end, heavy user, I'd only use this as a backup laptop. I would not be happy with this as my primary laptop personally since I'm a very heavy user.



If you are a gamer, you of course know enough to not even look at this laptop as an option.



Upgrade possibilities: If you know what you are doing upgrading the hard drive to an SSD will help it feel more useable. Also, I have not done so yet, but my understanding is that you can upgrade this to 8GB of ram which could help too. It only has one slot for ram so you will have to remove the stock 4gb and replace it with an 8GB. Make sure to get the DDR3L (The L stands for low voltage). You want the 1.35 volt not 1.5 it may work with the 1.5 but will run hotter and use more battery. The laptop comes with 1333mhz ram, but I think 1600mhz will work and run faster. Take this with a grain of salt as have not tried it yet, but I believe the following RAM will work, and this is the type I plan to try upgrading to someday.



http://ift.tt/1x7G9yp



Update 6/23/14: I did buy and install the 8gb of Ram above. It works great, but it does down clock the ram to 1333mhz as the CPU won't handle 1600mhz speeds. But, the 1600mhz 1.35v ram does work great in here. It feels even snappier now. Between the SSD I installed and the 8gb of ram this computer is very usable and fairly snappy for most tasks. The only time I see the video and cpu lagging a bit is if I am on a webpage with heavy adobe flash usage on it. But, right now I have two browsers open and about 30 browser tabs open with now slowdown. I'm still quite happy with this laptop for the money. It is just important to throttle your expectations, this can't be compared to an Intel I7 CPU $1000 laptop, but it is good for basic web browsing!



Update 8/22/14 I noticed several people that complained about the performance realized if they removed the demo anti virus and crapware that it runs better. I reinstalled windows from scratch from my USB DVD when I put in the SSD so I effectively removed all of the crapware by reinstalling and only putting the essential drivers back on. That is probably why mine runs much faster and better than some of the reviewers. I would remove the anti virus and just use the built in windows 8.1 antivirus as that is less cpu and memory intensive. Then uninstall of the other factory junk, like wild tangent games, toolbars etc. If you don't want to do that manually in the past I used a free utility called PC Decrapifier that automated the cleanup and worked pretty good. Also, you might need to change your power saving settings to be less restrictive so it is optimized more for speed. Hope that helps...



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Asus X551MAV-RCLN06 15.6" Laptop PC - Intel Celeron N2830 Processor 2.16GHz 4GB Memory 500GB Hard Drive DVD±RW/CD-RW Webcam Windows 8.1 64-bit, Black

Product Description

Latest Generation Intel Dual-Core Baytrail N2830 2.16 GHz (turbo to 2.41 GHz). 4GB DDR3 Memory / 500GB Hard Drive (5400 RPM) / Mobile Intel HD graphics 15.6" LED-backlit TFT high-definition widescreen display, 1366 x 768 native resolution. Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW / 0.3 MP Webcam & Microphone / 1 USB 3.0 port and 1 USB 2.0 ports / Digital media reader (Supports Secure Digital format.) Windows 8.1 64-bit / WLAN 802.11b/g/n / Built-in 10/100 Ethernet LAN






CUSTOMER REVIEW



This is an excellent entry-level laptop with decent performance, a nice bright screen, and a light footprint at about 5 pounds. It also has a smaller a/c adapter sort of like an iPad instead of the older style "bricks" which is nice - I'm surprised it's taking manufacturers so long to copy Apple's lead in the small a/c adapter area. The keyboard does feel exceedingly cheap (much cheaper than my $299 HP Chromebook) and the entire keyboard vibrates as you are typing. If you push down on the "G" key with normal force, you will see that entire part of the keyboard (T,F,H,V,B) sink in which is a little disconcerting. The keyboard is definitely the weak link in this system. ALSO, it pays you to shop around.... there is a major price war going on and I was able to buy this at a local office supply chain which matched the price at the big box electronics store down the street....both of which were significantly less than the current price here on Amazon. ONE MORE TIP: There are two models of this computer that are identical EXCEPT one has a DVD player and one does not. As of this writing the one without has been hovering around $200 and the one with the DVD player is around $220. It is very easy to get them confused as they have the same box and almost the same model number, so be sure to look for the full model number when you are searching: X551MAV-RCLN06. Both boxes will say "X551" in big letters but you have to read the small print next to the serial number to make sure you are getting the correct one. I ordered this one and was shipped the non-DVD drive unit by an Amazon seller and had to return it.



Wow, this keyboard is really cheap.. I'm typing this review on it and it keeps dropping letters as I type. I will update this review as I'm concerned if it's this bad in week one it will not last.



Pro's and Con's...



Pro's:

- Price

- Basic black, not stylish but doesn't scream "cheap"... just looks like a basic laptop

- Great screen - bright, good resolution

- Fast enough for word processing and internet surfing. This is obviously not a gaming computer.

- Small profile a/c adapter brick, one piece

- NO bloatware preinstalled.... no "Click on this for Ebay" links or trial versions of bad virus software

- Really fast boot... 2-4 seconds

- Windows 8 not so bad once you install free utility called "Classic Shell" which makes start button etc work like Windows 7

- Major price war going on with this computer, so you will get a good deal

- USB ports, one of which is 3.0, also HDMI out and ethernet connections. Everything you could need.

- DVD player / writer, works well... still need one of these.



Con's:



- Touchpad sensitivity.... way too sensitive and I've searched all the ASUS gesture configurations and there seems to be NO adjustment for sensitivity. Google ASUS touchpad sensitivity and there are major threads on this so clearly a significant issue that ASUS is not effectively addressing.

- Keyboard. Exceedingly cheap. OMG. As I type this it sounds like a rock rolling around on a dashboard of a car as you drive it. The whole thing shakes and shimmies. I think I can live with this but will update this review if I can't. Try it out at local store first if you can.



For me, the pro's outweigh the con's, with a lingering concern about the keyboard. If there is interest, I will update this review as I use this system more, but overall I think it's a good one and I will end up keeping it.



Hope this helps!

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Acer C720 Chromebook (11.6-Inch, 2GB)

CUSTOMER REVIEW



I have an Acer C720 ($199) and an Acer C720P ($299) and both are amazing machines. If you dont mind plunking down the extra $100 for the touchscreen then go for it but really you will do fine without it and save yourself $100 especially if you are buying these as gifts like I did for others in my family.



Here is a list of the APPS I use on both and it runs them fast and flawlessly:

Facebook, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Chrome Remote Desktop (flawlessly connects to my Windows 7 laptop and I can run any windows program remotely with ease and flawlessly connects to my Office Desktop and I can access all my office records which is key since i am a family doc), Google Cloud Print (easily prints documents to all the printers i have set up), MyBible, Kindle, Twitter, Hootsuite, Weatherbug, Netflix, Pandora, YouTube, Google+ photos (automatically puts all my photos taken on my Iphone over to my chromebook), RUNS ALL WEBSITES INCLUDING BANKING WEBSITES and my mobile hospital app FLAWLESSLY WITH CHROME (including adobe flash player sites which my Ipad and Iphone still wont run)



The only CONS i can find so far are no SKYPE app.....If you want to do video calls then need to use GOOGLE HANGOUTS which is much less intuitive than skype....and you CANNOT hook a printer directly to a chromebook but you can use google cloud print to print easily...needs wifi connection to do most things (this is really not a problem for me as i am always connected and they have developed a number of apps that work when not connected including document writer and email offline



Battery Life Amazing! almost 8hrs of use!

Touchscreen good but not like an Ipad (can't use your fingers to zoom in with pinch)

Touchpad very good! (and really dont need the touchscreen because touchpad works so good)

Keyboard very solid,

Can use any wireless mouse with it. (Ipad still cant utilize a mouse)

Screen brightness great.

Sound adequate but a bit tinny

USB port charges devices and can use flash drives to move and transfer files (another thing I still cant do with my Ipad)

2 years free of 100GB Google Drive (this saves you $120 right there)

12 free wifi passes while on planes (i dont fly much but still a nice convenience and saves you the $10 or so connection fee)

Free virus protection



All in all a great economical way to access the internet with ease and lightning speed and do 95% of what most people use a personal computer for this day and age.



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ASUS 15.6-Inch HD Dual-Core 2.16GHz Laptop, 500GB

CUSTOMER REVIEW



This is a nice budget laptop for students and/or people just looking for something to do basic computer tasks. I'm a student, and although I already have a nice custom-built desktop computer that I do most of my work on, I felt like I would benefit from having something portable to have in-class or while hanging out on campus.



This is, obviously, not a laptop for gaming. Out of curiosity I installed Skyrim on it and surprisingly it did run the game on low settings (albeit not with ideal fps) and it ran Minecraft fairly well (minor stuttering from time to time--but still definitely playable). If you're buying a laptop with the intention of gaming or any other intensive computer tasks I would highly recommend you look into the $500+ price range for a laptop with more capable specs.



In my case, it runs all the programs I needed it for: Visual Studio 2013, Eclipse, and other IDE's run perfectly fine. Word and other Office 2013 programs run perfectly fine. Browsing the internet with Chrome is perfect. Streaming HD video or playing a 1080p movie file is perfect. Unity3D (a game engine) and Blender (3d animation software) run acceptably. For $250 I really can't ask for anything more.



Pros:



Price: $250 for a brand new full featured Windows 8.1 laptop is insane. I would recommend one of these over a similarly priced Chromebook any day.



Extremely lightweight: I was surprised when I took it out of the box at how little it weighed for the size--very easy to carry.



Quiet and stays really cool: Even while testing out the gaming I didn't notice any sound from fans and even after using it for a while it didn't feel warm at all.



Nice design: Not a flashy laptop, just clean and non-descript aesthetics. Doesn't look like a high-end laptop but also doesn't look like a budget one. I like the textured matte plastic on the back. Screen hinge feels solid with not much play.



No optical drive: I know for some this is a con--but I can't even remember the last time I used a CD/DVD and would much rather have the savings on weight, power consumption, and cost. If you need to format and reinstall the OS or something just make a bootable USB stick (very easy to do).



Nice screen: The screen is bright with decent contrast and a 1366x768 resolution that's pretty much the standard for this size of laptop (at least until you get to the $600+ price range). I don't think it is LED backlit but it does its job well.



Nice keyboard with a number pad: If you're doing office work or programming it's pretty much essential to have a keyboard with a num pad. The keyboard as a whole is decent, no complaints except there's just the tiniest bit of rattling noise when tapping away. The trackpad is offset so that your hands don't rest on it when typing in a normal position.



Cons:



Not upgrade friendly: There's no easy way to access the RAM, HDD, or even the battery. Although I really didn't have any intention of upgrading it so it's not a huge deal. This laptop is what it is and the slow-ish processor with low-end integrated graphics will always be this computer's bottleneck. If I need a faster laptop I'd rather just save the upgrade money to buy a new laptop.



Power cord input is very snug: I guess this could be a pro, but where the power cord plugs into the laptop is so snug and secure that if you (or a pet) tripped over the cord it would certainly pull the laptop off the table before it came out. Makes me a little wary.



No light for caps-lock or num-lock: It has a power/charging light and an HDD activity light on the front and that's it. Wish it had an indication light for caps lock and num lock. Also, it sometimes doesn't seem to remember if num-lock is on when waking up from sleep etc. I find myself having to reactivate num-lock even though I'm positive I didn't deactivate it.



Trackpad buttons: The left-click and right-click on the trackpad are a little hard to press for my taste and they are kind of noisy. Using the Asus Smart-gesture or whatever it's called makes it where you can just tap/double tap (or tap with both fingers to right-click) the trackpad to avoid using the buttons at all which seems like a better alternative.



All in all it's a decent and capable budget-friendly laptop with only a few minor gripes. I would definitely recommend it.



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ASUS 15.6-Inch HD Dual-Core 2.16GHz Laptop, 500GB

CUSTOMER REVIEW



This is a nice budget laptop for students and/or people just looking for something to do basic computer tasks. I'm a student, and although I already have a nice custom-built desktop computer that I do most of my work on, I felt like I would benefit from having something portable to have in-class or while hanging out on campus.



This is, obviously, not a laptop for gaming. Out of curiosity I installed Skyrim on it and surprisingly it did run the game on low settings (albeit not with ideal fps) and it ran Minecraft fairly well (minor stuttering from time to time--but still definitely playable). If you're buying a laptop with the intention of gaming or any other intensive computer tasks I would highly recommend you look into the $500+ price range for a laptop with more capable specs.



In my case, it runs all the programs I needed it for: Visual Studio 2013, Eclipse, and other IDE's run perfectly fine. Word and other Office 2013 programs run perfectly fine. Browsing the internet with Chrome is perfect. Streaming HD video or playing a 1080p movie file is perfect. Unity3D (a game engine) and Blender (3d animation software) run acceptably. For $250 I really can't ask for anything more.



Pros:



Price: $250 for a brand new full featured Windows 8.1 laptop is insane. I would recommend one of these over a similarly priced Chromebook any day.



Extremely lightweight: I was surprised when I took it out of the box at how little it weighed for the size--very easy to carry.



Quiet and stays really cool: Even while testing out the gaming I didn't notice any sound from fans and even after using it for a while it didn't feel warm at all.



Nice design: Not a flashy laptop, just clean and non-descript aesthetics. Doesn't look like a high-end laptop but also doesn't look like a budget one. I like the textured matte plastic on the back. Screen hinge feels solid with not much play.



No optical drive: I know for some this is a con--but I can't even remember the last time I used a CD/DVD and would much rather have the savings on weight, power consumption, and cost. If you need to format and reinstall the OS or something just make a bootable USB stick (very easy to do).



Nice screen: The screen is bright with decent contrast and a 1366x768 resolution that's pretty much the standard for this size of laptop (at least until you get to the $600+ price range). I don't think it is LED backlit but it does its job well.



Nice keyboard with a number pad: If you're doing office work or programming it's pretty much essential to have a keyboard with a num pad. The keyboard as a whole is decent, no complaints except there's just the tiniest bit of rattling noise when tapping away. The trackpad is offset so that your hands don't rest on it when typing in a normal position.



Cons:



Not upgrade friendly: There's no easy way to access the RAM, HDD, or even the battery. Although I really didn't have any intention of upgrading it so it's not a huge deal. This laptop is what it is and the slow-ish processor with low-end integrated graphics will always be this computer's bottleneck. If I need a faster laptop I'd rather just save the upgrade money to buy a new laptop.



Power cord input is very snug: I guess this could be a pro, but where the power cord plugs into the laptop is so snug and secure that if you (or a pet) tripped over the cord it would certainly pull the laptop off the table before it came out. Makes me a little wary.



No light for caps-lock or num-lock: It has a power/charging light and an HDD activity light on the front and that's it. Wish it had an indication light for caps lock and num lock. Also, it sometimes doesn't seem to remember if num-lock is on when waking up from sleep etc. I find myself having to reactivate num-lock even though I'm positive I didn't deactivate it.



Trackpad buttons: The left-click and right-click on the trackpad are a little hard to press for my taste and they are kind of noisy. Using the Asus Smart-gesture or whatever it's called makes it where you can just tap/double tap (or tap with both fingers to right-click) the trackpad to avoid using the buttons at all which seems like a better alternative.



All in all it's a decent and capable budget-friendly laptop with only a few minor gripes. I would definitely recommend it.



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Acer C720 Chromebook (11.6-Inch, 2GB)

CUSTOMER REVIEW



I have an Acer C720 ($199) and an Acer C720P ($299) and both are amazing machines. If you dont mind plunking down the extra $100 for the touchscreen then go for it but really you will do fine without it and save yourself $100 especially if you are buying these as gifts like I did for others in my family.



Here is a list of the APPS I use on both and it runs them fast and flawlessly:

Facebook, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Chrome Remote Desktop (flawlessly connects to my Windows 7 laptop and I can run any windows program remotely with ease and flawlessly connects to my Office Desktop and I can access all my office records which is key since i am a family doc), Google Cloud Print (easily prints documents to all the printers i have set up), MyBible, Kindle, Twitter, Hootsuite, Weatherbug, Netflix, Pandora, YouTube, Google+ photos (automatically puts all my photos taken on my Iphone over to my chromebook), RUNS ALL WEBSITES INCLUDING BANKING WEBSITES and my mobile hospital app FLAWLESSLY WITH CHROME (including adobe flash player sites which my Ipad and Iphone still wont run)



The only CONS i can find so far are no SKYPE app.....If you want to do video calls then need to use GOOGLE HANGOUTS which is much less intuitive than skype....and you CANNOT hook a printer directly to a chromebook but you can use google cloud print to print easily...needs wifi connection to do most things (this is really not a problem for me as i am always connected and they have developed a number of apps that work when not connected including document writer and email offline



Battery Life Amazing! almost 8hrs of use!

Touchscreen good but not like an Ipad (can't use your fingers to zoom in with pinch)

Touchpad very good! (and really dont need the touchscreen because touchpad works so good)

Keyboard very solid,

Can use any wireless mouse with it. (Ipad still cant utilize a mouse)

Screen brightness great.

Sound adequate but a bit tinny

USB port charges devices and can use flash drives to move and transfer files (another thing I still cant do with my Ipad)

2 years free of 100GB Google Drive (this saves you $120 right there)

12 free wifi passes while on planes (i dont fly much but still a nice convenience and saves you the $10 or so connection fee)

Free virus protection



All in all a great economical way to access the internet with ease and lightning speed and do 95% of what most people use a personal computer for this day and age.



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Dell Inspiron i3531-1200BK 15.6-Inch Laptop

CUSTOMER REVIEW



This is no I7 laptop, let's just get that straight. But, it makes a good second back up laptop for me. I'm using it to write this review right now. I ordered mine from dell, at the time it was cheaper than amazon, and dell had them in stock. I did remove the hard drive and replaced it with an SSD I had laying around which helped speed it up considerably. It is a bit laggy at times, but overall it is usable and better than I would have expected for this price range.



Here are the pros as I see them:

-The price, the price, the price

-The weight is much lighter than my I7 high end laptop

-Battery lasts 5-7.5 hours depending on use, many Windows laptops in this price range only last 3 hours so this is a huge advantage.

-The battery is user replaceable, which you can't take for granted anymore in a laptop. Press two buttons and it pops right out!

-Many laptops recently make it very hard to get access to the RAM and Harddrive for upgrades. Several dells require you to completely disassemble the entire laptop to get to the hard drive including removing the screen, motherboard, track pad etc. Which is a huge pet peave of mine. This laptop has an access panel on the bottom to access the RAM and HD which is great!

-A large 15.6 inch screen for a great price

-This CPU doesn't run hot at all and has decent performance for the price.

-It runs so cool it doesn't even have a fan at all!

-Keyboard has a number pad, many don't in this price range.

-Keyboard feels nice and doesn't feel too cheap, we will see with time though how it holds up.

-Trackpad works good, buttons are loud when clicked though.

-Nice to have a Windows laptop for this price, I like chromebooks but I can't connect to my at home Samba server from a chromebook so I gravitate to Windows.



Cons:

-There are the obvious ones like no USB 3, no Bluetooth, no wired ethernet, no CD/DVD Drive. But in this price range I'm ok with that. I have an external USB CD/DVD that I used to install Office on it so that wasn't an issue for me.

-Windows 8.1, is better than 8.0 but if you have never used it before there is a learning curve for sure compared to Windows 7/Vista

-Not blazing fast but you can't expect that from any pc in this price range.

-Case feels cheap, it creaks and groans when I pick it up by a corner.

-The quality of the video is pretty low, but once again it is usable for watching youtube, netflix videos, etc. Just is less sharp than my high end laptop and can be a tad laggy occasionally.



Would I recommend this??? Depends on your needs. If you are on a tight budget and are a light PC user who wants to use it just for basic web surfing, Word Processing, and light youtube/netflix watching this will work fine for most people



If you are a high end, heavy user, I'd only use this as a backup laptop. I would not be happy with this as my primary laptop personally since I'm a very heavy user.



If you are a gamer, you of course know enough to not even look at this laptop as an option.



Upgrade possibilities: If you know what you are doing upgrading the hard drive to an SSD will help it feel more useable. Also, I have not done so yet, but my understanding is that you can upgrade this to 8GB of ram which could help too. It only has one slot for ram so you will have to remove the stock 4gb and replace it with an 8GB. Make sure to get the DDR3L (The L stands for low voltage). You want the 1.35 volt not 1.5 it may work with the 1.5 but will run hotter and use more battery. The laptop comes with 1333mhz ram, but I think 1600mhz will work and run faster. Take this with a grain of salt as have not tried it yet, but I believe the following RAM will work, and this is the type I plan to try upgrading to someday.



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Update 6/23/14: I did buy and install the 8gb of Ram above. It works great, but it does down clock the ram to 1333mhz as the CPU won't handle 1600mhz speeds. But, the 1600mhz 1.35v ram does work great in here. It feels even snappier now. Between the SSD I installed and the 8gb of ram this computer is very usable and fairly snappy for most tasks. The only time I see the video and cpu lagging a bit is if I am on a webpage with heavy adobe flash usage on it. But, right now I have two browsers open and about 30 browser tabs open with now slowdown. I'm still quite happy with this laptop for the money. It is just important to throttle your expectations, this can't be compared to an Intel I7 CPU $1000 laptop, but it is good for basic web browsing!



Update 8/22/14 I noticed several people that complained about the performance realized if they removed the demo anti virus and crapware that it runs better. I reinstalled windows from scratch from my USB DVD when I put in the SSD so I effectively removed all of the crapware by reinstalling and only putting the essential drivers back on. That is probably why mine runs much faster and better than some of the reviewers. I would remove the anti virus and just use the built in windows 8.1 antivirus as that is less cpu and memory intensive. Then uninstall of the other factory junk, like wild tangent games, toolbars etc. If you don't want to do that manually in the past I used a free utility called PC Decrapifier that automated the cleanup and worked pretty good. Also, you might need to change your power saving settings to be less restrictive so it is optimized more for speed. Hope that helps...



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Acer Aspire ES1-511-C59V 15.6-Inch Laptop (Diamond Black)

CUSTOMER REVIEW



Okay, I just gotta unleash a quick rant based on a few reviews I read on here about this PC:



Be a responsible buyer and READ the description of what's included to make sure you're buying something you really want. Too many complain about "oh, this didn't come with so-and-so, I'm so pissed off". If you read the info about the item, you probably wouldn't have a problem. That's why the seller takes the time to post what you need to know. Second, if you want a laptop that performs like a $10,000 laptop, then go out and BUY a $10,000 laptop rather than buying one for $250 and complaining about it for being cheap in reviews. I mean, common sense seems to be a lost skill in our society, it's a shame.



Now I feel better...moving on to my review!



I'm a college student and was looking for a cheap laptop to help me with school as well as other casual things like watching videos, emailing, and watching Netflix. I just received this recently and I'm already in love with it! The laptop is very lightweight and the perfect size. It's my first time using Windows 8 after years of using XP and Windows 7 so I'm still getting a feel for the software. All I needed was a computer that could handle my daily activities online, nothing fancy or overpriced and this Acer fits all my needs. You can't beat a laptop for under $250, it's a great deal!



A few quick things: There is only one numerical pad at the top, none on the side of the letters like other computers. There's also no CD drive so you'll have to buy an external drive, use a flash drive, or download certain programs you need. Other than that, this laptop is perfect and I'm glad I got it. If you need a standard entry-level laptop for casual to moderate use, you can't go wrong with this one.



BIG TIP as of 8/2/2014: I found a way to make the tiny sound speakers sound better! Go to the audio icon in the right-hand corner. LEFT-CLICK and go to PLAYBACK DEVICES. LEFT-CLICK on SPEAKERS and click on PROPERTIES. Go to ENHANCEMENTS tab and click box next to LOUDNESS EQUALIZATION. That should make the laptop sound much louder and fuller. Enjoy!



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ASUS 15.6-Inch HD Dual-Core 2.16GHz Laptop, 500GB

CUSTOMER REVIEW



This is a nice budget laptop for students and/or people just looking for something to do basic computer tasks. I'm a student, and although I already have a nice custom-built desktop computer that I do most of my work on, I felt like I would benefit from having something portable to have in-class or while hanging out on campus.



This is, obviously, not a laptop for gaming. Out of curiosity I installed Skyrim on it and surprisingly it did run the game on low settings (albeit not with ideal fps) and it ran Minecraft fairly well (minor stuttering from time to time--but still definitely playable). If you're buying a laptop with the intention of gaming or any other intensive computer tasks I would highly recommend you look into the $500+ price range for a laptop with more capable specs.



In my case, it runs all the programs I needed it for: Visual Studio 2013, Eclipse, and other IDE's run perfectly fine. Word and other Office 2013 programs run perfectly fine. Browsing the internet with Chrome is perfect. Streaming HD video or playing a 1080p movie file is perfect. Unity3D (a game engine) and Blender (3d animation software) run acceptably. For $250 I really can't ask for anything more.



Pros:



Price: $250 for a brand new full featured Windows 8.1 laptop is insane. I would recommend one of these over a similarly priced Chromebook any day.



Extremely lightweight: I was surprised when I took it out of the box at how little it weighed for the size--very easy to carry.



Quiet and stays really cool: Even while testing out the gaming I didn't notice any sound from fans and even after using it for a while it didn't feel warm at all.



Nice design: Not a flashy laptop, just clean and non-descript aesthetics. Doesn't look like a high-end laptop but also doesn't look like a budget one. I like the textured matte plastic on the back. Screen hinge feels solid with not much play.



No optical drive: I know for some this is a con--but I can't even remember the last time I used a CD/DVD and would much rather have the savings on weight, power consumption, and cost. If you need to format and reinstall the OS or something just make a bootable USB stick (very easy to do).



Nice screen: The screen is bright with decent contrast and a 1366x768 resolution that's pretty much the standard for this size of laptop (at least until you get to the $600+ price range). I don't think it is LED backlit but it does its job well.



Nice keyboard with a number pad: If you're doing office work or programming it's pretty much essential to have a keyboard with a num pad. The keyboard as a whole is decent, no complaints except there's just the tiniest bit of rattling noise when tapping away. The trackpad is offset so that your hands don't rest on it when typing in a normal position.



Cons:



Not upgrade friendly: There's no easy way to access the RAM, HDD, or even the battery. Although I really didn't have any intention of upgrading it so it's not a huge deal. This laptop is what it is and the slow-ish processor with low-end integrated graphics will always be this computer's bottleneck. If I need a faster laptop I'd rather just save the upgrade money to buy a new laptop.



Power cord input is very snug: I guess this could be a pro, but where the power cord plugs into the laptop is so snug and secure that if you (or a pet) tripped over the cord it would certainly pull the laptop off the table before it came out. Makes me a little wary.



No light for caps-lock or num-lock: It has a power/charging light and an HDD activity light on the front and that's it. Wish it had an indication light for caps lock and num lock. Also, it sometimes doesn't seem to remember if num-lock is on when waking up from sleep etc. I find myself having to reactivate num-lock even though I'm positive I didn't deactivate it.



Trackpad buttons: The left-click and right-click on the trackpad are a little hard to press for my taste and they are kind of noisy. Using the Asus Smart-gesture or whatever it's called makes it where you can just tap/double tap (or tap with both fingers to right-click) the trackpad to avoid using the buttons at all which seems like a better alternative.



All in all it's a decent and capable budget-friendly laptop with only a few minor gripes. I would definitely recommend it.



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ASUS 15.6-Inch HD Dual-Core 2.16GHz Laptop, 500GB

CUSTOMER REVIEW



This is a nice budget laptop for students and/or people just looking for something to do basic computer tasks. I'm a student, and although I already have a nice custom-built desktop computer that I do most of my work on, I felt like I would benefit from having something portable to have in-class or while hanging out on campus.



This is, obviously, not a laptop for gaming. Out of curiosity I installed Skyrim on it and surprisingly it did run the game on low settings (albeit not with ideal fps) and it ran Minecraft fairly well (minor stuttering from time to time--but still definitely playable). If you're buying a laptop with the intention of gaming or any other intensive computer tasks I would highly recommend you look into the $500+ price range for a laptop with more capable specs.



In my case, it runs all the programs I needed it for: Visual Studio 2013, Eclipse, and other IDE's run perfectly fine. Word and other Office 2013 programs run perfectly fine. Browsing the internet with Chrome is perfect. Streaming HD video or playing a 1080p movie file is perfect. Unity3D (a game engine) and Blender (3d animation software) run acceptably. For $250 I really can't ask for anything more.



Pros:



Price: $250 for a brand new full featured Windows 8.1 laptop is insane. I would recommend one of these over a similarly priced Chromebook any day.



Extremely lightweight: I was surprised when I took it out of the box at how little it weighed for the size--very easy to carry.



Quiet and stays really cool: Even while testing out the gaming I didn't notice any sound from fans and even after using it for a while it didn't feel warm at all.



Nice design: Not a flashy laptop, just clean and non-descript aesthetics. Doesn't look like a high-end laptop but also doesn't look like a budget one. I like the textured matte plastic on the back. Screen hinge feels solid with not much play.



No optical drive: I know for some this is a con--but I can't even remember the last time I used a CD/DVD and would much rather have the savings on weight, power consumption, and cost. If you need to format and reinstall the OS or something just make a bootable USB stick (very easy to do).



Nice screen: The screen is bright with decent contrast and a 1366x768 resolution that's pretty much the standard for this size of laptop (at least until you get to the $600+ price range). I don't think it is LED backlit but it does its job well.



Nice keyboard with a number pad: If you're doing office work or programming it's pretty much essential to have a keyboard with a num pad. The keyboard as a whole is decent, no complaints except there's just the tiniest bit of rattling noise when tapping away. The trackpad is offset so that your hands don't rest on it when typing in a normal position.



Cons:



Not upgrade friendly: There's no easy way to access the RAM, HDD, or even the battery. Although I really didn't have any intention of upgrading it so it's not a huge deal. This laptop is what it is and the slow-ish processor with low-end integrated graphics will always be this computer's bottleneck. If I need a faster laptop I'd rather just save the upgrade money to buy a new laptop.



Power cord input is very snug: I guess this could be a pro, but where the power cord plugs into the laptop is so snug and secure that if you (or a pet) tripped over the cord it would certainly pull the laptop off the table before it came out. Makes me a little wary.



No light for caps-lock or num-lock: It has a power/charging light and an HDD activity light on the front and that's it. Wish it had an indication light for caps lock and num lock. Also, it sometimes doesn't seem to remember if num-lock is on when waking up from sleep etc. I find myself having to reactivate num-lock even though I'm positive I didn't deactivate it.



Trackpad buttons: The left-click and right-click on the trackpad are a little hard to press for my taste and they are kind of noisy. Using the Asus Smart-gesture or whatever it's called makes it where you can just tap/double tap (or tap with both fingers to right-click) the trackpad to avoid using the buttons at all which seems like a better alternative.



All in all it's a decent and capable budget-friendly laptop with only a few minor gripes. I would definitely recommend it.



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