Apple iPad 2 MC916LL/A Tablet (64GB, Wifi, Black) NEWEST MODEL

External appearance and feel:

The iPad2 screen has a different feel from the Xoom screen - the iPad2 is a bit slicker, less likely to stick when moving short distances. The screen on the Xoom tends to show fingerprints more than the Ipad2 for some reason. Everyone in this family thinks that the iPad2 looks sharper than the Xoom.

Both weigh 1.6 lbs. Subjectively, the Xoom feels heavier than the Ipad2, but it's an illusion perhaps caused by it's slightly smaller size. UPDATE: I need to learn to use the scales - the Xoom is about 3 ounces heavier than the iPad2.

Both have a similar size screen, measured diagonally. But the aspect ratio is different - 4:3 for iPad2, 16:9 for Xoom. This means that the iPad2 actually has a larger viewing area, and this makes a real difference when scrolling through a web site. The iPad2 screen is brighter than the Xoom screen.

Hardware performance:

The Xoom feels a bit faster than the iPad2, and the specs show that it is faster. Both have dual core processors based on ARM designs. The Xoom seems to be able to handle graphics better than the iPad2. As far as connecting to Wifi networks, both seem to have this one down pat - they both just work.

User Interface:

The iPad2 is just like a big iPhone. Whether this good or bad is subjective. For me, it's good - polished, flexible and can be customized to my needs. The Xoom user interface is totally new, and unfortunately it shows - there are many rough edges. Some examples: moving icons around to group programs together is not intuitive and they keep moving back; you can see the first 5 applications running on the Xoom and select one, but the list doesn't scroll so applications that don't show in the list can't be selected; you can't close applications (except by a force quit that can lose data) as the Xoom decides when to quit an application; customization is possible but more difficult than the iPad2. In short, the Xoom user interface is a work in progress - great potential but currently quite flawed.

Operating System:

The iPad2 uses Apple's IOS. It works, but it uses cooperative multitasking which (in theory) is less effective than the full multitasking on the Xoom which uses a version of Google's Android designed for tablets. In practice, they both work fine and I doubt anyone would notice the difference.

Applications:

iPad2 has 70,000 apps available from the Apple App store and it also runs the 300,000 apps available for the iPhone. Xoom currently has around 60 apps and it can run Android phone apps (but they are stretched in one direction which makes them look strange). Some of the iPad2 applications are pretty impressive - GarageBand for example. There are many games on the iPad2, and just a few games made for the Xoom. If this doesn't improve quickly, the Xoom is sunk. After all, applications are generally the reason people buy these devices.

Browsing:

Because of the screen aspect ratio that I mentioned, I prefer browsing on the iPad2. The Xoom has Adobe Flash and the iPad2 doesn't, but so far I haven't come across a single instance where this has been an issue. I'm sure there are very many sites not compatible with iPad2, but I haven't browsed to one of them yet.

Camera:

I don't use the camera much, and I'm not really sure if either is better. In the family, the Xoom owner says the Xoom is better, the iPad2 owner says the iPad2. The Xoom has flash and iPad2 doesn't which is a win for Xoom, but the Xoom seems slower to take a picture.

Speakers:

The Xoom has two small speakers, iPad2 has one slightly larger speaker. The sound is somewhat better quality on the iPad2 and the Xoom cannot achieve the same volume as the iPad2. But they are both pretty poor - use earphones or an external speaker if you want decent audio.

Battery life:

Difficult for me to give an exact comparison, but based on family usage it seems the iPad2 has the edge here, but not by much.

Internal storage:

The Xoom has 1GB of RAM and 32 GB of flash storage. The iPad2 has 512MB of RAM and 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of flash storage - I bought the 64GB model.

External storage:

The Xoom has an external card slot that supports SD cards, but the software was not ready in time for the product release. The slot is inoperative until Motorola releases an operating system update. The iPad2 has no external storage support.

User Experience:

The iPad2 was up and running quite quickly. I connected the device to iTunes and it automatically updated to the latest version of the operating system. I was then able to select and download Apps immediately and start using them.

The Xoom was not so easy. For some reason, I was not able to install the latest version of Google Maps or Adobe Flash. I was able to download the apps, and the install process appeared to work without errors, but the new apps just were not installed. After some time trying I finally returned the Xoom back to the factory settings and started again, and this time both the installs worked. Of course, this wouldn't be a good solution if you had a ton of applications and/or data on the device.

Support:

Apple has their retail stores. You can get a huge amount of help from these stores from people whose only job is to support users. Both iPad2 and Xoom users have web sites available that support their products but you have to spend the time digging for the sites and digging through the sites. You can also purchase an Applecare support package which gives you a couple of years extra support for the iPad2.

Bottom line:

I believe the Xoom hardware may be slightly better than the iPad2 (apart from the screen aspect ratio and the speakers), but the software is terribly lacking. The Xoom was released FAR too early, it's just not ready for primetime.

If I had to pick just one, I'd pick the iPad2 - less hassle, apps for everything, better browsing experience, better support options. The Xoom needs less buggy software and more applications; it has potential but it's not there yet. And by the time it gets there, there will be something better available.

Apple iPad (First Generation) MB294LL/A Tablet (64GB, Wifi)

Apple iPad Wi-Fi is a magical and revolutionary product at an unbelievable price and the best way to experience the web, email, photos, and video.All of the built-in apps on iPad are designed from the ground up to take advantage of the large multi-touch screen and advanced capabilities of iPad. And they work in any orientation. So you can do things with these apps that you can't do on any other device.The high-resolution, 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS display on iPad is remarkably crisp and vivid. Which makes it perfect for web browsing, watching movies, or viewing photos. With iPad, there is no up or down. It's designed to show off your content in portrait or landscape orientation with every turn. And because it uses a display technology called IPS (in-plane switching), it has a wide viewing angle. So you can hold it almost any way you want and still get a brilliant picture, with excellent color and contrast.The multi-touch screen on iPad is based on the same revolutionary technology on iPhone. But the technology has been completely reengineered for the larger iPad surface, making it extremely precise and responsive. So whether you're zooming in on a map, flicking through your photos, or deleting an email, iPad responds with incredible accuracy. And it does just what you want it to.One of the first things you'll notice about iPad is how thin and light it is. The screen is 9.7 inches measured diagonally. So overall, it's slightly smaller than a magazine. You can use it anywhere. And a slight curve to the back makes it easy to pick up and comfortable to hold.With built-in 802.11n, iPad takes advantage of the fastest Wi-Fi networks. It automatically locates available Wi-Fi networks, which you can join with a few taps. iPad also comes with Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, letting you connect to devices like wireless headphones or the Apple wireless keyboard.

Apple iPad 2 MC979LL/A Tablet (16GB, Wifi, White) NEWEST MODEL

I have taught computer science at the college level for 26 years and have had computers with all kinds of operating systems. I don't own Apple stock and have never known anyone who works at Apple. I therefore have no connection to Apple.

I have had my iPad for about a month and read a fair number of reviews before I purchased, spent some time using one at the store, and thought about what I might use one for, in contrast to my laptop with which I am well satisfied. People too often think of computers in terms of hardware, the specs and looks, instead of the software and the functionality. You should ask yourself, "What will I use this for that solves a problem I would like to have solved?" Software is always more important than hardware, even though it is the hardware that makes an impression.

The iPad is not a laptop and is not principally a production computer, that is, a computer on which you are going to develop web pages, do serious graphics editing, or write a book. You could use your new Taurus to tow a trailer, but that is not what it is designed to do well. These things can increasingly be done on an iPad, but I don't believe they will ever be what it is best at. It is a portable media machine with an inviting touch interface that requires a somewhat different set of skills, which take a modest amount of time to learn. Surfing the web, checking email, watching movies, playing games, looking at new cars, reading the Economist magazine, all work better on an iPad than a laptop. It does these things very well indeed. There are now 80,000 apps for a wide variety of activities--given its design intent. The apps are either free or reasonably priced, so you can get a bunch from the "app store" for little investment. As with Amazon, you can see what other people think of an app before getting one.

This would be a splendid acquisition for small children, for teens deep into social networking, for an adult wanting to drop into the love seat for a quick look at what is happening in the world, for a senior citizen who wants a simple, inviting system with few hassles, to stay in touch with grandchildren. The iPad is not a light laptop; it is instead a different way to use computing to do a wide variety of consumption and communication--not principally production.

Apple MacBook Pro MC725LL/A 17-Inch Laptop

The new MacBook Pro (released in 2011) is one of the best computers you can currently buy. The recent hardware improvements have made it a top notch computer.

PROS: VERY fast, up to 8gb of RAM, execellent design, great battery life, great for photo and video editing

CONS: Price is too high, Soild state drives should be default at this price point, warrenty is below the indrustry standard

My only major complaints are the price (which is no shock - it's a Mac) and the overall package. For what Apple is charging you should really get at least a 256gb (if not 512) SS Drive included. That would make this one of the best computers available anywhere.

The hardware in this model doesn't just beat the previous versions is crushes them. In under 60 seconds you will be online. I've never owned a PC (or Mac) that loads that fast. The wireless connection is very fast as well. It seems like everything about this Mac is faster. One comparrison I can draw is the time it takes to rip a DVD to the hard drive. With my last MacBook Pro it normally took about 60 minutes to rip a full length movie. With this Mac it takes about 20 minutes.

Some computers have amazing specs. Some computers are sleek and sexy. No computer combines form and function like Apple does.

Samsung Series 5 3G Chromebook (Titan Silver)

Quick points:

- Yes, it DOES work offline. There are loads of apps and games that do work offline, and offline mode is coming to Gmail, Docs, and Calendar very soon (this summer)

- Web apps are nearing the usefulness of actual desktop apps

- The vast majority of people don't need Photoshop or Final Cut Pro, or a 4GHz processor

- Web apps are the future. They are compatible with any OS that has a browser, which is basically every OS

- Seems even more secure against viruses than a Mac

- No more paying for OS updates like you do with Mac or Windows

- Don't need antivirus software running all the time

- Open sourced OS is very technologically ethical, meaning more progress and more transparency in terms of what is going on inside OUR computers

- The browser was becoming an OS itself already for while, Google is just separating it

- Super fast start up time and long battery life are great pluses

- What about music/video offline? It can't do that with a web app RIGHT NOW (it almost certainly will in the future, but you can easily download any kind of media (yes it does have internal storage like some critic say it doesn't), or you can put media on a SD card from another computer and pop it into this when you cant to watch a movie on a plane or something

- the price IS very good. some people say it's too expensive for what it offers, citing the processor and the almost comparable price of a Windows PC. They are overlooking the fact that this has a solid state drive, which is a huge plus, that a PC running anti-virus software all the time slows down the processor, that most people don't NEED the desktop OS anymore, and a vast array of other reasons, including far superior build quality.

If you want to try this already extremely functional laptop, and are ready to jump into the future of operating systems, you can expect improvements in leaps and bounds very quickly, as Google will update everything in the background, and everything will get faster and better, and your experience will improve over time.

Apple MacBook Air MC505LL/A 11.6-Inch Laptop

I have been using PCs for years. Have a PC at work, figured I'd just do the same at home.

Bought a netbook - price was great - but the screen was small and it just never was easy to use. Gave it to my neice.

Bought a 17" laptop with Vista - I actually thought Vista was OK, and I loved being able to make the screen resolution larger - so it was very easy on my 52 year old eyes. But the thing was HEAVY. So big and bulky I would often leave it home when going on a trip. Also got real tired of having to run anti-virus software (and pay for it), and having glitches regularly with various types of software - adobe, the sync programs, etc. In addition, if I was in bed and wanted to check something real quick, it took 30 seconds or so to boot up, and then had a glitch where the screen wouldn't turn on, so I'd have to put it to sleep and wake it up again.

I bought an iPad, and the instant on was great, but after using the iPhone4 I didn't like the screen resolution. In addition, it was quite heavy for holding up to read, did not have a keyboard, and couldn't play Flash videos. Sold it.

So finally bought this little guy, and it really fits the bill. I thought the 11" screen would be too small, but for some reason it seems much bigger. I think it's because it is so easy to scroll up and down, back and forth using the touch pad. (On the PC, the scroll never became "unconscious" - it often seemed to distract me just enough to find the proper place to push on the touchpad). Maybe it's the resolution of the Air, maybe it's the fact that it is so small I can position it right where I want it to be.

It jumps to life right away, I love that. Easy to look stuff up, or send that one email, or whatever I want to do. (I think I have a little ADHD, so when I turn on my computer and it takes 60 seconds to get ready, I often forget why I turned it on!).

Acer Aspire TimelineX AS3830TG-6431 13.3-Inch Laptop (Cobalt Blue Aluminum)

Build Quality:

The laptop has a nice blue and silver color scheme going on, and for the most part it looks quite sleek and stylish. Obviously this depends on your tastes alone, but I've only met a few people who don't like the design. While the chassis is made of mainly plastic Acer has thankfully decided to opt out of shiny plastics, so the finish doesn't attract fingerprints (except for around the screen, that's still glossy plastic). One of the main problems I read about online as I was researching was that the palm rest and keyboard were very poor quality, but it seems fine to me. There is a little flex on the keyboard but I've seen much worse (dell notebooks). If you push down hard near the middle of the keyboard you get more flex than usual, but it's not to the point where I'm afraid the keyboard will break. I've typed this review on the keyboard and I'm doing pretty well (not as good as a mechanical keyboard, but still good). Keys are quiet, as are the touch pad buttons. The hinge feels strong out of the box, but I guess only time will tell if the quality holds up. The only qualm I have is that there is this small bit of rounded plastic on the bottom left that wiggles around a bit and makes a quiet hollow plastic noise. Maybe I can tighten a few screws to fix it.

Ports:

Standard display, with the inclusion of a USB 3.0 port, which will come in handy as faster flash drives begin to hit the market. I haven't tried any 3.0 devices on the port yet. HDMI and bluetooth are always nice, as well.

Hardware:

Seriously, for this price, what you get is amazing. After the Xbox deal, the laptop lands at around 600 dollars, and for that price, you get a dual-core sandy bridge processor, discrete GT 540m graphics, 4GB of DDR3 ram, and a 500GB (5400rpm...ugh) hard drive. The sandy bridge's quick sync feature is nice when transcoding video (I do quite a bit of that), and the discrete graphics is CUDA enabled, so it's even good for some light CAD modeling when I'm out and about. Battery lasts about 6.5 hours with medium brightness and wifi browsing, and probably about 3 hours when gaming. Speaking of gaming, you'll be able to play the latest games at native resolution at about medium quality. Older games should have no problem running on high. TF2 runs nicely on medium settings with 2xAA and 2xAS. I haven't had any problems with premature throttling, but it seems to be prevalent among other owners on forums, so look out for that.

Screen:

REFLECTIONS EVERYWHERE. It's a glossy screen, and it's average. Nowhere near an IPS panel or a MBP, but it's quite fine indoors. Outdoors...not so much.

Acer actually surprised me with this one. For 600 dollars you get a solidly built laptop with great specs. It's hard to find any other laptop which is 13.3" and under 800 dollars which has a sandy bridge processor, and discrete graphics. Asus has some, but they are more expensive and pack a weaker graphics card (520m). The first obvious comparison that comes to mind is the Macbook Pro, but with that 13" model, you're basically paying $600 extra, and losing the hard drive space upgrade and discrete graphics of any kind, which is vital for CAD or gaming. The MBP is even heavier. Obviously that extra money nets you a beautiful chassis and a nice screen, but the lack of discrete graphics is a major selling point for many people.

If you're looking for a cheap and light gaming and productivity laptop, give this laptop a try. If you can get past a fear of the Acer brand, you might be surprised.

Dell Inspiron N5030 iN5030-1723OBK 15.6-Inch Laptop (Obsidian Black)

                                                                                                                                                Specifications

• 15.6-inch high-definition LED-backlit display with 1366 x 768-pixel resolution for native HD 720p display. It also provides TrueLife high-gloss/anti-reflective technology, which features a sharp contrast finish that's well suited to immersive 3D games and watching videos.
• 2.3 GHz Intel Pentium T4500 dual-core processor with 1 MB L2 cache and 800 MHz front side bus (FSB).
• 320 GB SATA hard drive (5400 RPM)
• 4 GB of installed DDR3 RAM (1333 MHz)
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD with support for DirectX 10 games.
• 8x multi-format DVD drive supports reading/writing of CD-R/RW, DVD±R, DVD±RW, DVD±R DL, and DVD-RAM.
• Wireless-N Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) for ultra-fast connectivity to home and business networks (plus backwards compatibility with older wireless routers).
• Built-in stereo speakers with 2 watts of total power (1 x 2W)
• 0.3-megapixel webcam with single digital microphone.
• Touchpad with integrated scrolling and gestures
• 6-cell battery
• Measures 14.88 x 9.65 x 1.58 inches (WxDxH)
• Weighs 6.02 pounds
• Warranty: 1-year limited hardware warranty; 24/7 phone support

Connectivity & Expansion

• 3 USB 2.0 ports for connecting a wide range of peripherals--from digital cameras to MP3 players to external hard drives.
• Video output: 1 VGA
• Fast Ethernet (10/100)
• 3-in-1 memory card reader including compatibility with Secure Digital (SD/SDHC), Multi-Media Card (MMC), and Memory Stick (MS/MS Pro)
• 1 headphone, 1 microphone

ASUS A53U-XE1 15.6-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Mocha)

PROS:

Graphics: - Video Playback. This unit has remarkable graphics performance. The chipset in this unit produces amazing clarity and smoothness when streaming from Netflix, HULU or from a DVD. I have experienced no issues with the video quality of the unit.

Monitor: - The 1080i Screen this unit comes with further enhances the viewing pleasure with amazingly sharp crisp color and clarity. I've yet to see any other netbook or laptop with a screen this nice.

Audio: - You have to hear these speakers to believe it. I was floored at their ability to reproduce clear crisp sound and bass with no distortion even at louder volumes. Not a room filling experience, but you wont need headphones to listen to your music or watch a movie with this unit.

RAM: - 3GB of RAM that this comes with is more than suffice to power it on the vast majority of productivity applications and multimedia. I however opted to upgrade it to the max of 8GB to further help the sometimes anemic APU get through tasks. It was worth the extra $45 for two 4GB sticks of Kingston RAM.

Gaming: - The all important question for a lot of you out there. This will play back basic disc based games and the basic online games. Steam works well on it, games like TF2 had no issues with it, but you are not going to be zooming through games such as WoW or SL as the APU just does not have the power to handle that demand.

Appearance: - Don't let the word (Mocha) fool you into thinking the entire device is coffee colored. This unit's visual design is a winner all around. The screen, keyboard and bottom of the unit are black like most laptops, the area surrounding the keyboard, the touch pad and speaker area are what is "mocha" colored, which is more of a deep and dark bronze color that is both subtle and visually appealing. It gives the unit a real look of class and that it's a lot higher priced than it is.

Keyboard & Touchpad: - Win! The chicklet style of keys make typing a breeze on this laptop if you have small hands like me or huge hands like the rest of my family. The full keyboard along with the full number pad on the right side make it very nice to use. You wont have to get used to the layout of a cramped laptop keyboard and go hunting for keys on this unit. The touchpad is awesome, smooth to the touch, very responsive, supports multiple gestures and it's "palm proof" technology really works. Drag your hands across the pad and it will not register that as input, preventing you from making accidental input.

Case: The Ice cool technology really works, even after working this unit out hard core to see how far I could push it, the bottom of the case never got warm, the hand rest and keyboard area also never got warm, even in a room with a 82F temp. The fan is super quiet. it's lightweight and sturdy so you don't feel like you are going to break it by moving it around.

Battery: 8 hours easily. This was obtained from streaming a Netflix movie for 2 hours, playing around on Facebook games, video chat, google+ activity and then into web surfing for the remainder of the time. The battery also charged back up to 100% after just under two hours.

CONS:

Multitasking: - Out of the box the unit is a bit anemic when it comes to multitasking. Adding more RAM does help this as do some of the suggestions at the end of this review. Once you iron it out, it tends to be acceptable, but if you are coming from a powerhouse computer, this one will drive you batty for awhile at it's response times.

Acer Aspire TimelineX AS4830T-6642 14-Inch Laptop (Cobalt Blue Aluminum)

i have a Dell running Windows 7, but it is a few years old, and I wanted to try the new i5 chip. Last week I purchased a Lenovo, but it was too heavy, cost over $1k, and the optical drive didn't work. I don't really care about an optical drive, but it wasn't what I wanted, so I took the opportunity to return it without a fee. Then I looked on Amazon.

This computer was highly ranked, and although I have only had it a few hours, I concur. The only surprise I had was it DOES have an optical drive. No biggie, although I didn't want one. I watch movies online or load them into my itunes. We also have a portable drive, bought for my netbook.

Love the look of the computer (I always peel off the intel, windows and acer stickers). Love the responsive trackpad. Can't really talk about speed right now (making factory restore discs), but since my current laptop is a couple years old, I expect to be impressed. I was impressed with the price, too.

I was a little hesitant about the Acer brand, but I had an Acer netbook several years ago and it worked great (until I gave it to my daughter when I bought a tablet). I asked a computer repair person about reliability, and he said they were all about the same. Apple was even catching up. The reason is people who work for HP go to Apple, people from Apple go to Lenovo, etc. It really is a small world, even in computer manufacturing.

The computer is really thin (looks GREAT) and is tons lighter than my 15" Dell. The bloatwear was easy to remove, and once I got that recycle bin onto the task bar, I had a clean desktop.

Lenovo ThinkPad W520 427637U 15.6" LED Notebook - Core i7 i7-2720QM 2.2GHz

Not much more to say what the first reviewer hasnt already mentioned.

I used a Macbook Pro until now (which had - after < 2 years of use - enough bugs for 3 laptops - fan out of control, cd/dvd drive broken, etc.), and I dont regret switching to the W520 (I own a W520 for a month now). I am doing a lot of Matlab image processing on my laptop, and the performance as well as screen resolution / quality is great (upon purchase, Lenovo lets you choose between 3 different screens with different maximum resolutions - i chose the highest resolution - 1920 X 1080; also they let you choose between 2 different gpus). One unique thing to mention is that you have full control over which graphics processor (integrated vs. Nvidia gpu) your laptop uses when, and for which application separately - i think this is kind of new and unique.

The only thing that bothered me initially was Lenovo's trackpad, which doesnt come close to the comfort of my Macbook pad. Normal cursor control is ok, but e.g. two-finger scrolling is almost impossible. After my initial disappointment, I got really hooked to using the red lenovo track point. It takes one to two days to get used to it, but once you have the hang of it, it's much more convenient for cursor control, scrolling (instead of 2 - finger scrolling, one uses the middle button above the trackpad), etc. than the track pad. So - no complaints there. And if you want to do e.g. technical drawing, you may want to use a mouse in any case...

One thing more that took me a bit of patience to figure out was the fact that - by default - the operating system shuts down and 'unmounts' the physical cd drive when not in use. This is a good feature as it helps saving energy. However, it interferes with the installation and usage of virtual drives (e.g. Daemon tools). Anyway, I figured out that you can easily disable this CD drive - auto-shutdown option. So - if you have the money - stop looking. This is your machine.

ASUS G73SW-XA1 Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black)

I needed a newer notebook as that and my 4 yr old toshiba were long in the tooth. I was not looking for a gaming notebook, but as this is not much more money for a gaming notebook. Now this notebook is huge, view it as a desktop replacement. Asus has also improved and not having a ton of bloatware. It is pretty much remove from box, remove wrappers, place battery inside, and fire it up and get to work. I love the layout of it. awesome keyboard, straight forward approach.

It runs quiet, and doesnt require fiddling with the setup, such a relief these days.

If the P4 extreme alienware area 51m, was not a dead give away... I'm and old gamer. I was playing crush crumble and chomp and soldering 6502 microprocessors, when many of you were not even born lol.

I love how the hard drive is setup with the partitions that make sense. Just be sure and setup your games on the 500gb partition and installing them there.

All the normal issues with new computers I have not seen here. The manual is crap on real geeky useful information, but whose isnt these days. The designers think we are all idiots, which is mostly true, but give me useful info.. took me awhile to figure out which hdmi cable I need to hook this up to my 55in samsung.

So, If you are in the need for a decent gaming notebook, and are not worried about size, weight, or battery life.

You know who you are when you buy a 17in notebook which is a desktop replacement, and then post a 1 star review complaining about how heavy it is, blah blah.

HP Pavilion dv6-6190us Entertainment Notebook PC (Silver)

After a month of researching different laptops, the dv6-6190us laptop is the best laptop for the price out of any I could find for it's size, weight, and performance. I wanted a compact and portable powerhouse for college so I could both play games and work with ease. I will be a computer engineering major so having a reliable PC is extremely important to me. Although Amazon said it may take 4 weeks, it took only 1 week before the laptop was at my front door.

At first I was a little skeptical because I heard many reviews saying that AMD's new automatic switchable graphics feature doesn't turn on for OpenGL applications. As a result, software created by Adobe like Photoshop or older games like Minecraft will run slower than usual or not at all because the laptop will only use the intel graphics. However, since I do not use those type of programs I decided to take the risk because the features and performance were too great to pass. IF YOU ARE A HEAVY USER OF ADOBE OR OPENGL PRODUCTS, THIS PC IS NOT FOR YOU!!! I do expect AMD or HP to come out with a software fix eventually since this issue is present in pretty much all recent AMD switchable graphics.

Once I bought it, HP preloaded it with so much bloatware it slowed the computer down severely when I first started it. However, as an experienced computer user, I was able to disable many of the unnecessary add-ons and prevent useless startup programs from running and also uninstalled programs I knew I would never use. Some HP programs seemed like a complete waste of space and computer power such as the HP connection manager, especially since Windows 7 can help you connect perfectly fine. After all that, it runs incredibly well and boots up really fast.

Toshiba Qosmio X775-Q7272 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop (Fusion X2 Finish in Red Horizon)

This laptop, with the one of the best intel mobile processors available, one of the best graphic chips available and its fast, huge storage, is the ultimate gaming and entertainment solution. What makes it better than other gaming laptops is, firstly, its relatively reasonable price. It's probably the best machine $1400 can buy. Secondly, its design is a major advantage. It's not as monstrous or exaggerated as some other gaming laptops are, but it is just impressive and nice-looking.

It's really easy to use once you receive the product, it took 5 minutes of mine to boot and set the computer. It also comes with a good set of software, like Google Chrome or an activated 30-days Norton Internet Security. Furthermore, Toshiba's own set of software is also very useful. The PC health monitor shows you values like Fan Speed, CPU temperature,Battery Health, power consumption and HDD status.The eco utility gives you a power consumption graph and your "green score", your energy efficiency.

Apart from these, the gaming performance of the laptop seems very satisfying. I only had a chance to play Battlefield Bad Company 2 with it, but it was impressive. I set all the settings to the highest value possible and I had 32x antialiasing and 16x vsync, I played on 1600x900 resolution. The game was really fluent in both single and multiplayer modes and the display was really good.

One of the most important elements of such entertainment and gaming laptops is the audio and I must say the sound system of this laptop is quite satisfying. Toshiba's long-time partner harman/kardon is a very good sound hardware producer and their laptop speakers are as good as laptop speakers can be. Even though the subwoofer cannot handle high-volume deep-basses really good, still, it is more than enough for gaming and quite pleasing for music. I'm a Pink Floyd fan and even the most complex songs of the band sound really good until VERY high volume levels.

Apple MacBook Pro MC724LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop

I have been on a MacBook C2D 2.4 Ghz (with 6GB RAM) for the last 3 years and wanted to upgrade and the MB Air seemed to be the right way to go. Selling the iPad and the MacBook and getting the Air 13" w/ 4GB RAM and the 256GB SSD, to be precise. At the Apple store I realized the the MacBook Air (at this time) is really older technology in an amazing form factor, but I did not feel compelled to spend $1800 on pretty much the same CPU as I just had for 3 years already. Then the new MB Pro showed up, and after 72h with it I am super happy.

This MBPro with the new i7 2.7 Ghz CPU is about twice as fast as the 2008 MacBook I had. It scored 6800 points on Geekbench. Installing Office Mac 2011 and Adobe CS3 was super fast and I look forward to have VMWare Fusion running much better than on the older MacBook. I just watched the full iPad2 keynote (1h) over wireless on battery plus 1 hour of surfing, battery says 4h left, awesome! I already swapped the hard drive for a 320GB/7200 and in 6-12 month I might go SSD, but for now I stay with regular disks. There are some great 750GB /7200rpm drives now for about $100.

It's slick. I love the illuminated keyboard, finally on the smaller pro machine. The trackpad is awesome. The new LED screen is super crisp and bright. The new graphics HD 3000 chip is pretty good and enough for light Photoshop work. I can only recommend it. If you think MBP 13", go for the fastest CPU like this one (2.7 i7) and get all the rest of the upgrades later. Additional RAM is cheap these days and better HDD and soon the prices for the SSD will come down as well. Swapping the hard drive is easy and the same as will all the Pro models of the last 2 years or so. I can't wait to put like 500GB of SSD into this in 1-2 years and have it fly... Love this machine, best Mac ever (after PowerBook and 2 MacBooks).

Apple MacBook Pro MC721LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop

I thought I'd give one last update. Since people generally give reviews right after they receive a product, I think it would be great to give people an idea of how a product is running a month and a half into ownership

The first thing I would like to mention is lag time. A few times I've experienced considerable lag while trying to perform a few tasks. Once or twice it would happen while I was attempting to play a game. Or I'll attempt to switch out windows, and the infamous beach ball appears. What I would like to mention isn't about that lag itself but the performance AFTER it happens. Each time I experience this, I was tempted to press CTRL + ALT + DELETE (in typical Windows fashion) but after waiting a few seconds, my programs would run as usual. I don't have to restart or worry about my files being corrupted. No computer is without hiccups, but I would like to mention that this laptop is great at handling them. I no longer have to cross my fingers and close my eyes for five minutes while it reboots. It just works.

If you like creating short films or Youtube videos, the speed of creating and uploading films is incredibly fast and easy. After playing with iMovie and iPhoto, I'm glad they're additions to preinstalled programs. Although this isn't exactly a review of the laptop itself, I do enjoy the built in programs and how they easily integrate themselves with the Macbook Pro. The lack of bloatware is also very refreshing. When I first purchase a laptop, I spend the first hour or two attempting to delete free trials.

As someone who has used both PCs and Macs for the past decade, the choice really is up to the consumer. Honestly, I feel that both have very easy user interfaces and both are great for any project that might come up. Why did I choose a Mac over purchasing another PC? I think I was ready for something I wasn't used to in my own home. I've had two PC laptops that failed in less than two years of my persistent aggression. I also wanted impeccable design quality. I didn't want something that just looked good. I wanted it to be both functional and durable. It just so happened that the design for the Macbook Pro fits it all perfectly.