2 comments about Sony VAIO VGN-CR409E/P 14.1-inch Laptop (1.73 GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core T2370 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium).

1. I have to return this item because I think for me there License Agreement is outrageous SO PLEASE READ THERE LICENSE AGREEMENT PLEASE READ IT. Before Agreeing
   I like the product but the license agreement is outrageous



2. I purchased this laptop because of the style, the sony brand, and I was impressed with my families vaio's, and i'm very pleased I did! One thing to start with is the price, it is very good and competitive (I did look around) also the screen looks so bright and the picture is fantastic. I have grown ever fond of sony in the past couple of years but only recently have I been this happy with them. Everything I have ever bought with the name sony on it has lived up to my ever growing expectations, this laptop is no exception. If you are looking around for a laptop I would advise to give sony's modles a look, they have such style and class in there design, and are packed with features and nice layouts. This is a great laptop, I am happy I bought it.

3 comments about Toshiba Satellite A305-S6861 15.4-inch Laptop (2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium) Black.

1. I got this laptop yesterday (from amazon.com) in fact I am on it right now writing this review.
   The laptop is great for the price, you aren't going to find laptops with this type of configuration very often for the price.
   I thought the screen was going to seem smaller, but thankfully it seems just the right size. The laptop isn't that heavy, but could be lighter. It advertises that the hard drive size is 320gigs, but mine says that it is only 296. Called toshiba about it,and the guy I spoke with didnt really know what he was talking about. (thought it was the operating system, but it says that I only have 267 gigs free...and there isnt anything that could be possibly taking up that much harddrive (50 gigs total if it really is 320, but I dont think it actually is)
   Comes with an insane amount of bloatware.
   It gets pretty warm pretty fast, and the battery only lasts about 1hr 50 min on the "balanced" power plan (balanced, power saver, and high performance are the power plan options) but will depend on what you are doing of course.
   Runs pretty smoothly, easy to connect to the internet, easy-as-pie setup, and again, great for the price.
   The FM tuner requires an external antenna (included) that you plug in in order for it to work. It sticks out the side about 4-5inches tall. Annoying, so I dont use it.
   Webcam is decent, but not so good if the light is behind you, it will black you out. Speakers are alright, but pretty much NO bass whatsoever. But you cant really expect much from laptop speakers, even if they are harman/kardon.
   The sleep feature is great. The touch pad is vey VERY sensitive, so it sometimes will think your clicking when you aren't.
   Overall I love this laptop, there could be some improvements, but nothing is really perfect.
   I would recommended it to other people for sure



2. I purchased my Satellite elsewhere, but thought it deserved a good review here because of how awesome it is. For the price, in the $[...] range, you'll be hard pressed to find a better laptop for media intensive duties (and general use as well).
   
   The system boasts an Intel Core 2 Duo processor based on the Centrino architecture (meaning it's designed to run well in mobile computers), an incredible 4GB of Ram running at above average speeds and a mobile graphics processor with it's own dedicated memory rather than a cheap chip that sucks the life out of the laptop's own processor and memory.
   
   Anyway: Onto the good stuff...
   
   Pros:
   - Keys are really responsive and you can really feel every key stoke (they click softy and go down a decent amount unlike other laptops where you can barely feel them move and they don't make a sound).
   - Speakers are much louder than the typical laptop, easily twice as loud as my old Acer, and contrary to the earlier reviewer, they do have a decent amount of Bass output, just nothing that an actual subwoofer (however small) can't easily out perform. They're also located on top above the keyboard, rather than on the bottom, so the sound quality is much better overall.
   - Display is crystal clear, bright and free of any deficiencies. Also has a bit more tilt range than my Acer before it becomes hard to view at an angle.
   - Very nice light scheme on the laptop to show the status of various hardware or shortcuts, rather than using the typical yellow and green blinking lights.
   - Runs Windows Vista 64bit edition, great for future proofing they system, great for taking advantage of the 64bit processor under the hood and able to run pretty much any program you could run in XP or Vista 32bit with no problems. I'm running games from the early XP era with no difficulty.
   - Excellent gaming performance for yesterday's awesome hit titles as well as today's games with average demands. Plays games like Everquest 2, WoW, Halo 2, Sins of a Solar Empire, etc with no problems as long as you keep your settings realistic because systems twice as expensive as this one will have trouble playing the game as well if you set everything to ultra quality.
   
   Cons:
   - Has a glossy "Fusion Finish" coat on it that picks up all manner of fingerprints, so it isn't the prettiest laptop once used.
   - As the previous reviewer mentioned, the track pad is ultra sensitive and it often grabs things on screen while I'm just mousing over/past them. I use a wireless mouse so it doesn't really bother me much.
   - 4 USB ports are a good addition, too bad they're on located on the sides (2 per). This means if you have anything attatched to it, you have all manner of crap sticking out the sides. My Acer had 3 in the rear so as to keep stuff out of my way, especially while sitting on my lap, and just one on the side for quick and easy access (thumbdrive for example).
   - Like the USB ports the power port just HAS to be on the side as well, rather than the rear) leading to more crap sticking out the side and in my case the cord has to lay across my legs while I'm using it at home because the outlet is on the other side of the laptop.
   - Bloatware, eh yes it has a good amount, but most of it is off by default and the rest of it can be turned off in msconfig or uninstalled from the control panel without a fuss.
   
   All in all the great Pro's far outweigh the superficial Con's.
   I would definitely recommend it to any kind of user really, except for the ones who have a lot of USB devices and limited desk space. Really a great bargain, one you don't often find for this price. Will serve you well for several years, just like any well configured (hardware wise) computer will.



3. This one has an older CPU but that's not going to slow you down. This laptop has excellent sound and very neat way hot to control the sound volume. There is a separate rotating button on the front side which let you control the sound anytime irrespective of if the OS has been loaded or not.
   I didn't like the surface finish. TOSHIBA made it glare probably to match the screen :) This way the laptop surface serves also like an excellent fingertips collector.

1 comments about HP Pavilion DV4-1020US 14.1" Laptop (2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium) Black.

1. Good laptop. The only thing missing is a blue ray dvd rom and bluetooth to make it worthwhile.

5 comments about Sony VAIO VGN-CR520E/R 14.1-inch Laptop (2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 Processor, 3 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) Red.

1. Got this laptop for three weeks now and had blue screen or IE shutdown everytime when I used it - will return and will never buy sony again.



2. This computer is pretty, compact, and light. It's a great computer, but I'm a little disappointed with the sound. This product was created with entertainment capabilities highly prioritized into its design. They clearly missed the mark with the sound quality as it is very low even at the loudest setting, and there is no "depth" in the sounds -- all mids practically. Also, the wi-fi is not as robust as I would like. Beyond those two issues, this product is spectacular.



3. I have had this computer for about 3 days. I love it! When setting up I didn't have one issue. (There was only 3 steps, nobody should have an issue). I read other reviews and see people were having problems with windows, well Sony has always worked for me in the past. So much that I have bought a Sony TV and camcorder. I do however love my Canon digital camera that takes an SD card, which is another plus with this computer, it has a slot not just for Sony memory sticks but SD cards as well so I don't have to use the USB. AWESOME! I like the graphics and screen brightness. This computer even has very girly cute preset backgrounds which I thought was a nice touch seeing as anyone that would buy a pink vaio would probably want girly backgrounds as well. I just wish the viewing screen was a little larger.
   Everything is super fast on this computer. I have a dell Desktop and even when that was new wasn't this fast. I like the keyboard. Doesn't stick or anything and makes typing easy. The only suggestion I could make is having the keys light up for when you want to type in the dark... I guess I'm spoiled from my desktops Saitek Eclipse Illuminated Keyboard.
   Anyhow, another draw back about this computer that is MAJOR is the sound. I saw other comments on how the sound sucks, IT DOES. So I went back and looked at what the company said about the sound, I noticed they didn't write anything. I understand why, it's nothing to brag about. I haven't watched a movie on my laptop yet but have listened to music and I'd rather play it from my portable dvd player that links to my ipod. It had to be very quite in my room to even here anything on it at FULL volume. Overall though, if you want a cute, fast, compact, light computer, this is it. If you're looking for something to blast music, this is NOT it.



4. I am extremely happy with the product. No issues so far...everything is in perfect condition...I would most definitely recommend this product to anyone looking for great performance and storage on a great laptop...
   
   Thanks
   
   Kelvin



5. I ordered this Vaio (in grey) from Amazon over a month ago when it was offered as a Gold Box item. His Compaq mini-tower had died two months prior and I thought a laptop would make more sense for him now.
   
   I am not going to go into the technical mumbo-jumbo because you can see the specs posted in the product description section. Suffices to say that it is adequately supplied with memory, has sufficient disk storage and comes with... hmmm... Vista.
   
   On the computer itself, it is a true laptop, meaning that it's not a TOO large mini-super-computer-emulator but not too small either. The display looks great. The keyboard is only adequate. This model does not come with a mouse so, if you don't want to depend on the little touchpad, make sure you have a USB mouse handy.
   
   Installation... well you turn it on and it works. As it is always the case with 'consumer' computers, as soon as you turn it on, you are bombarded with tons of tutorials and various pre-installed trashware/bloatware - the usual suspects: AOL, Macaffee, Adobe, Norton... It took me a couple of hours to clean it up and leave only the stuff that was not on a 'trial' base and get rid of all the well-meaning spyware.
   
   So, after cleanup, we got ourselves a nice, Wi-Fi enabled, AOL/Explorer/Macaffee/Norton-free little laptop that my son loves using for his personal entertainment and for the occasional school homework - Microsoft Works comes pre-installed for that.
   
   Battery life appears to be adequate but the battery is relatively slow to charge - I guess you can't have everything at the same time.
   
   On the 'cool' factor. The laptop comes equipped with a built-in camera almost invisible, it plays DVDs and, of course it has a microphone. My kid also likes the text-to-speech capability but he's telling me that the computer is more often wrong than right when interpreting his words. The cool stuff that DOES work is the fingerprint authentication. You provide the computer your fingerprints and you no longer need to enter username/password ever again. You simply slide your finger (any finger) over the reader and, you're authenticated.
   
   I never had to call the Sony customer service, so I can't comment on that. I am very much a do-it-yourself type when it comes to computer (never on cars).
   
   Overall rating: I am satisfied with the the laptop but the keyboard could have been better.

3 comments about Sony VAIO VGN-CR410E/L 14.1-inch Laptop (1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 Processor, 3 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium) Blue.

1. I bought this laptop thinking it would be fast, but the only thing that was fast was the salesman's talking. Don't waste your money on this. The mouse clicks when it's not supposed, doesn't respond when you do click, it disappears and goes to the opposite side of the page without warning.
   
   It takes forever to load pages, but I blame that in part on Vista. When you click on the internet, 3 tabs open up, so you have to reconfigure everything so only one page pops up and even then, it takes a while.
   
   CompUSA has closed in Tulsa, is it any surprise? I just wish it were open so I could tear that salesman a new place for the sun to shine.
   
   I really regret having bought it, and the Sony Vaio pc isn't much better. I got it in 06, they still only had the 05 models and because I bought it in 06, the warranty wasn't valid and I had to pay for tech support. Talk about a disatisfied customer!
   
   I'd heard good things about the Vaios, but, having experienced them, I'd say those comments had to have been their own sales team.



2. I can't really tell one laptop from the next, but when I needed a new laptop,he told me to get this one. It works great, runs fast and I love the color. It comes with a trial of spysweep, which hubby said was so good that I bought a 2 year subscription.



3. I hesitated buying this laptop because of some negative reviews, but decided to go for the 3GB, 250 hard drive configuration after pricing similar laptops at this price range that I tried to configure. I'm very satisfied. It runs Vista well with plenty of power along with as many applications as I throw at it. Start up was easy and simple. It's light, sleek and stylish and so much easier to lift than my old laptop!
   
   Watching DVD's are a pleasure, although I use headphones to get the best sound. I can hear a movie, however, if I put the laptop about five feet away or so, but headphones really bring out the best of the sound. Vista was easy to learn and I like its features. I can't emphasize enough how easy this was to take out of the box, set up and start work on. There are plenty of tutorials for learning Vista, but I found it pretty easy coming from Windows XP, which was a relief since I need to get right to work. No connection problems, found my network immediately. The screen is a nice size and although this is not a gaming laptop due to integrated graphics, the graphics are quite nice for watching videos, etc. If you want to play games, do some reading about what games integrated graphic cards will play first.
   
   The only negative: bloatware, which I have had on other laptops as well. I could have configured one without it, but would have paid so much for the T8100 processor that it wasn't worth it. Would have been five stars without the bloatware and if it had a discrete graphics card and better sound, but at this price, I'm very satisfied.

2 comments about Sony VAIO VGN-CR409E/T 14.1-inch Laptop (1.73 GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core T2370 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium).

1. I have to return this item because I think for me there License Agreement is outrageous SO PLEASE READ THERE LICENSE AGREEMENT PLEASE READ IT. Before Agreeing
   I like the product but the license agreement is outrageous



2. I purchased this laptop because of the style, the sony brand, and I was impressed with my families vaio's, and i'm very pleased I did! One thing to start with is the price, it is very good and competitive (I did look around) also the screen looks so bright and the picture is fantastic. I have grown ever fond of sony in the past couple of years but only recently have I been this happy with them. Everything I have ever bought with the name sony on it has lived up to my ever growing expectations, this laptop is no exception. If you are looking around for a laptop I would advise to give sony's modles a look, they have such style and class in there design, and are packed with features and nice layouts. This is a great laptop, I am happy I bought it.

1 comments about Toshiba Satellite A305D-S6851 15.4-inch Laptop (2.0 GHz AMD Turion X2 RM-70 Processor, 3 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium).

1. I bought this item for my brother who is enjoying it alot! Delivery was very prompt I received the item sooner than expected which I believe can be attributed to excellent customer service. Thanks you!

5 comments about Sony VAIO VGN-SR140E/B 13.3" Laptop (2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 Processor, 3 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) Black.

1. This laptop suffers from several expected and unexpected (features). First, it costs about twice what it should, compared to its competition. There is only one widescreen screen resolution available, anything else is just distortion. Don't buy this unless you have young eyes or expect to wear maginfying glass spectacles. Surprisingly, there is a lot of plastic in this case - they want you to believe its all metal but the bottom is plastic and quite flimsy. Sony has loaded it with a ton of useless software. Vista uses 1 gig of ram to start up - don't think of ordering this with less than 2 gigs. Ah, Vista, its really too bad that you can't get this laptop with XP as Vista is the most bloated piece of junk Microsoft has ever designed. My company is still able to order Lenovo laptops with XP and will, until absolutely forced to go to Vista.



2. I bought this laptop for replacement of my broken Dell Inspiron 700M. I really like this laptop so far.
   
   This laptop is nicely constructed and it is lighter than my Dell. This laptop is mostly made up of plastic and only the keyboard area are metallic. I am not sure what kind of metal did Sony used, maybe magnesium alloy as what they have claimed on their advertisement. The keyboard is really nice, it doesn't flex like many other laptops and it is very quite.
   
   The machine remains very cool even thought you have your setting on maximum performance. It might generate little bit of heat on palm rest area, but it won't bothers you like my Dell. The fan is always on, however it doesn't make a lot of noise.
   
   The screen on this laptop is best I have seen so far. It is very bright and sharp. You can adjust the resolution if you think 1280X800 pixels are too small for you. there are 4 different of resolution you can change to.
   
   



3. I bought this laptop for college, and it's the best laptop i have used so far!
   First off, I have to say that this laptop runs VERY cool and quiet, even when gaming. My laptop temperature never went over 60C even when i was gaming, and I can barely hear the fan even when the laptop is under stress.
   This laptop is FAST, It loads programs super fast, and it can multitask very well, I usually have more than 10 programs opened at the same time (firefox, aim, msn, yim, skype, itunes, outlook, photoshop cs3, etc), and this laptop has had no problems handling that.
   This is laptop also gives you easy access to the RAM and the Harddrive, so it would be really easy if you want to upgrade the RAM or the harddrive(or a SSD) later on.
   The screen is very bright and vibrant! I usually have to turn the brightness down a bit, because it hurts my eyes at full brightness.
   The keyboard is very unique and easy to type on, and the laptop has a large and responsive trackpad, a fingerprint reader, you can use the fingerprint reader to log in to windows, websites, im programs, etc. very convieient.
   The battery life usually lasts around 4 hours for under normal use, like web browser, word processing, etc
   This laptop is very light, just a little over 4lbs, very easy to carry around.
   its a really good looking laptop
   when im at school, people would always be like wow that's a really great looking laptop.
   The built quality is excellent, the cover and the palmrest area are made out of magnesium, but there are some flex on the right palm rest area, and on the screen, but not a big deal at all.
   
   Pros:
   solid performance
   excellent screen
   great looking
   light
   excellent battery life
   cool/quiet running
   mode switch
   built in 1.3mp camera, and mic
   
   Cons:
   lousy speakers!!!
   flex at some parts of the laptop
   part of the laptop is made out of plastic
   came loaded with bloastwares



4. I bought the Sony VAIO VGN-SR140E/B 13.3 inch notebook after 4 years with my old Acer laptop. The Acer was bulky and ran pretty hot, so this time I decided to get myself something more compact, since I want to be able to comfortably hold it on my lap. I have to say that I'm very pleased with this notebook.
   
   This VAIO is very small and light. It weighs something like 4 lbs. Besides being compact and light, I also like the fact that it doesn't run hot. It stays cool pretty much all the time. The fans are very quiet and barely noticable, even when they spool up (which happens once every two days, if that). The design of the notebook is very nice. I wish it had more USB slots, but there's always some trade offs with a compact notebook. The biggest drawback is that the screen is on the small size. If you have bad vision you'll have a hard time with the screen resolution. Unfortunately the screen resolution can only be adjusted in such a way that it looks like absolute crap if it's anything other than the native resolution. I'm not a computer wiz, so I don't know how else to explain it. Personally, the 13.3 inch screen works out fine for me.
   
   Other than that, it runs Vista without any problems. I haven't experienced any slowdowns so far. Overall, I'm very pleased with my purchase. For those looking to buy one of the 13.3 inch VAIOs, make sure that you are Ok with the screen size, because it may be a little too small for some people.



5. I've been using Fijutsu's Lifebooks for years so when this arrived, I was disappointed to find that I hadn't bought a compact laptop but in fact a regular sized heavy laptop. It is slightly smaller than large laptops but not small enough to make much difference, and it's far heavier than the two pound laptops I'm used to.
   
   The screen looks excellent. It's bright and has great accurate color. The keyboard is full sized with plenty of space between the keys. The CPU is very fast as is the hard disk. This is the first laptop I've owned that had enough CPU, memory and a screen accurate enough to edit pictures and do color correction. The speakers are good although a lot of sound seems to be coming out of the bottom of the laptop.
   
   The laptop does have a fan which isn't noisy but is certainly not silent. The laptop runs very cool but a warm laptop has never bothered me. There is a lack of USB outputs (only two) and there is no HDMI out, only an old VGA. It does have an SD slot as well as a slot for Sony's beloved Memory Stick, probably for the Sony employees who have to use them. The trackpad buttons are strangely noisy but they give you good feedback. Battery life is acceptable but nothing outstanding. There are lots of "mode" buttons that some may find useful but I have yet to push any of them.
   
   Sony is known for loading their laptops with every mediocre bit of software available and they don't disappoint here. Allocate some time to remove a lot of poorly-written junk that will extend your boot time, fill your memory and clutter your screen.
   
   What's especially annoying is that there is a very powerful Intel graphics chip inside, however the DVD application Sony gives you isn't compatible with it -- the hardware acceleration options are disabled. It turns out you have to purchase one of two DVD players that are compatible with the chip's MPEG acceleration (called Clear Video; check Intel's web site). Of course most people aren't going to know this so they'll run their battery down watching a DVD with the free software-only player. Even those who know about the graphics chip won't feel like buying a special player when they already got one with the laptop. Why can't Sony include applications made for the very hardware you've just paid for?
   
   And I agree with those who say that Vista is a tremendous burden on the system. You can forget about using the first gigabyte of memory for applications because Vista needs that just to boot up. Unfortunately no Linux distributions support the graphics chip yet but support for it has been checked into freedesktop.org so it's on the way.

2 comments about Toshiba Satellite A305-S6857 15.4-inch Laptop (2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium) Black.

1. I really liked the style of this laptop. That was what made me interested right off the bat. I liked how Toshiba fused the black and gray together.
   
   The second thing that sealed the deal for me was the 4 gigs of ram that comes in this laptop. I was also very happy to see a 320 gig hard drive, too.
   
   The sound quality of this laptop is very outstanding compared to most laptops. You can turn up what ever it is you're listening to at a comfortable level and not have your speakers crack.
   
   The built in web cam is a nice feature, also.
   
   Overall, I would recommend this laptop to any college student.



2. This is my third Toshiba laptop in 6 years. I love to trade up. My first Toshiba laptop is still in use! This one is fantastic! FOUR gig of RAM was a big plus, along with the webcam and the neat USB SLEEP and CHARGE port for charging Ipods etc if the computer is plugged in but turned off.
   The screen is sharp and clear with no glare. The keyboard is very comfortable and I love the smooth-surface touchpad...no room for grit and grime to settle in the edges. The battery life seems to be three hours plus! The only negative is getting rid of all the free/trial software.
   This is a wonderful computer. I was able to get it for $649 (with $200 mail-in rebate). Family and friends have had DELL and Gateway, but my Toshiba's have always been outstanding.

5 comments about Toshiba Satellite X205-SLI5 17-inch Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 Processor, 3 GB RAM, 320 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium).

1. My daily driver is a tiny VAIO TXN17P - I really like it - it is my fifth in the 10.25 inch screen series - I treat it like a blackberry - it goes everywhere with me - it is lightweight.
   
   And that is also its problem - just short of the performance I need for some creative work.
   
   So I bought the Toshiba Satellite X205 SLI6 so I had a powerful machine, dedicated to work I mostly do at home, but "luggable" for when I want the freedom to move around.
   
   First I should say that the machine came out of the box and worked perfectly in all regards from the start. It is a work of art - nice to touch and nice to look at.
   
   I'm not that much of a "gamer", so I can't help by reviewing the machine's potential for that use
   
   For me, it is dedicated to the Adobe CS3 suite and to MS Visual Studio. I use its monitor and when it is in its normal place a VS 21 inch side by side in dual screen mode. The graphics on both are fast and stunning for my work.
   
   As to performance, I have a love/hate relationship with Norton 360. I believe it does a really good job protecting me, but at the same time, even though I've done lots of configuration to improve performance, it hurts a lot on my little VAIO. So you can see how I'd use that as a subjective benchmark on the Toshiba. The result? I don't even notice it running and I have not tuned it. I rate it at 100 nortstones.
   
   I do have a couple of complaints. I'm sure this first item is my bad for no doing due diligence, but I had thought that the T9300 processor was 64bit, I knew the machine was configure with 3GB, but also had seen the spec that it could go to 4GB, so I made the assumption that I'd be getting a 64bit Vista OS. Not true - it is 32bit. It is not that I need 64bit desperately, but (still assuming it could be upgraded), I was really expecting to get a machine that I didn't need to do all the driver upgrades and so forth for.
   
   The second complaint is with the power brick. It is a whopping 2 pounds and draws 180W. I'm afraid to use my 130W iGo to charge it. And another Toshiba adapter is $85.
   
   Overall, a good value. Hope this was helpful.



2. This is my fourth Toshiba laptop, and I have always found them to be stable and hard-working machines. They are reliable and I've never had a single hardware problem in 6 years. That said, Toshibas are usually weighty and can be slower than comparable laptops. This time around, I needed more speed and better graphics, and chose the 17" X205-SLI5. It's configured as a gaming computer with Nvidia drivers, and handles my high speed applications with confidence. I didn't need the surround-sound speakers or subwoofer, but having watched a DVD on this laptop, I'm now sold on them. The Vista operating system is much ado about nothing. It's like a ramped up XP, and you can easily disable the annoying windows animation. I ordered through Amazon, and the computer was sold and shipped by J&R with no problems. One minor complaint is that the touch pad "button mode" toggle is on the touchpad itself. Frequently I find myself accidentally toggled into that mode, which is irritating. I have not found a way to disable this feature, so am living with it as is. Also, this model is heavy even by Toshiba's standards, but I knew that when I ordered this computer. So I give it a solid four stars and a high recommendation.



3. If you want a desktop PC sitting in your lap, get this. If you want a laptop PC, don't get this. You may think like I did, "Oh, it can't be that big. And, it's a laptop, so I can use it anywhere."
   
   Not. You can't easily lift it with one hand. Once you put it down somewhere, you'll need to be motivated to take it somewhere else.
   
   Do yourself a favor and invest in some killer hardware for your desktop.



4. If you're reading this review right now, then chances are you want to make sure you are making the right choice.
   Let me assure you, if you're planning on purchasing a Toshiba laptop, you are not.
   
   Please, google "toshiba laptop complaints" and get the REAL reviews.
   As for my input...
   this is a conversation that took place in an authorized toshiba shipping store:
   me: "Man, let me tell you something... NEVER buy a Toshiba laptop."
   clerk: "With the ammount of them that we ship back every month, I never would."
   
   ..just in case you were wondering how many laptops this authorized postal service receives from customer and ships out for repair every month - "..about 30" is the answer that I got
   
   Good luck.



5. I purchased the x205-s9810 back in July to replace a Dell Inspiron I had. I did it primarily to play WOW and get more than 12 FPS ;-). I haven't tried any other heavy duty games like Crysis or anything, although I hear that it runs very well with it. (I did try Star Wars Galaxies, but that game's graphics suck anyway....)
   
   Pros:
   
   [...]
   
   Ports: All major inputs and outputs (6 USB, HDMI, etc...).
   
   Touch Pad: Touch pad is very cool (especially the volume control).
   
   Keyboard: Keyboard layout rocks. Ilove the silver matte finish.
   
   Speakers: the Sound!!! WOW. Best sound out of a laptop I've heard.
   
   Media keys and camera are a cool feature. Overall aesthetics are nice.
   
   OS: Vista is fine if you turn off all the annoying admin pop-ups, configure the windows and views, etc... I've only ran into problems doing heavy networking, WebDav, etc.. But then again, it's not for business, but pleasure and gaming.
   
   Fingerprint Scanner: I use this everyday to log in. Very nice feature.
   
   Cons:
   These are MINOR cons (and why I gave it 4 stars; wish they had 1/2 stars....):
   
   Glossy Finish: As others have said the glossy finish, both on the monitor and cover, grab finger prints like nobody's business. BUT did I buy it for looks? No. So that's not a big deal to me. I wouldn't pass this computer up just beacause of looks...
   
   Fans: The fans blow out to the right and left. This means that if you use a mouse a lot (like I do), your hand will burn up in no time. I have resorted to taping a piece of folded paper to the right side to deflect the heat away. This heat really only comes into play when you're gaming. They should have made the fans blow out the back instead.
   
   DVD Drive: I've only used the DVD drive once to install something and it was VERY loud; vibrated like crazy. I'll have to try another soon to get a better idea. The laptop was, however, sitting on a stand at a 30 deg. angle so that might have had something to do with it.
   
   Standby: For some reason, every now and then, when I put the unit on standby, and try and unplug a USB device, it shuts down. Now, this is probably my fault due to the pulling of the USB device andnot stopping it first. If I pull it out first, and then put it on stand by, everything is fine.
   
   Power Brick: Yep...it's a brick. Heavy and hot especially when gaming. BUT AGAIN, what do you expect from a gaming laptop! Doesn't bother me a bit.
   
   Weight: Heavy, heavy, heavy. But I don't care as I would expect that from a gaming laptop. Not a big deal to me. I'm not a wimp so I can handle carrying it around the house and to the local gaming coffee house.
   
   Conclsions:
   For the money and features, and especially if you're a casual gamer, this is the best gaming laptop on the market so far. If you are a intermediate to advanced computer user, the computer will end up working like a charm once you configure Vista like you need it (I had bought a copy of XP in case Vista was as bad as people said, but I didn't need it). I am very happy with the laptop so far.