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ASUS 1215N-PU27-SL 12.1-Inch Netbook
ASUS 1215N-PU27-SL 12.1-Inch Netbook
posted by abcnoonoi 1 day 19 hours 41 minutes ago
ASUS 1215N-PU27-SL 12.1-Inch Netbook (Silver) (Personal Computers) I have been a long time customer of ASUS, largely because they made reliable, durable computers and had good warranties that they honored quickly. I will never buy from ASUS again, and will strongly urge you to go elsewhere. I bought this computer at the beginning of August, and having been responsible for five other ASUS computers before, and three motherboards, all of which have been great, I was quite excited. To make a long story short, I sent it to ASUS a week later to fix a faulty hard drive. They sent it back, having just reformatted the hard drive without fixing the problem, and along the way the track pad had stopped working. A couple of days later, applying enough force to open the screen an inch, without dropping or sitting on it or causing any sort of trauma, the screen shattered. I called and was apologized to and told that it would be fixed, no problem. I send it in, and hear nothing for three weeks, and then am told that the screen is not covered by the warranty (though it is - a screen without a manufacturing defect will not break that way, and the internet is full of complaints from other people who had the same problem). Over the next two months, I called over a dozen times, sent a half dozen e-mails, twice was promised that a manager would call me back without ever hearing from them, was lied to repeatedly, was cursed at, was ignored, and was in every way mistreated. Eventually, it was only by repeatedly threatening a law suit for failure to meet the terms of the warranty that I could talk to someone in a position to do anything, and a week or so later I got an e-mail saying that "as a onetime courtesy for customer satisfaction" they would honor their warranty. Several weeks later I receive the computer and, lo and behold, they still have not fixed the track pad. I just got off the phone with them and am going to be sending it back for a third time. All told, I have spent about five hours on the phone with them being ignored and lied to, I have spent about $75 in shipping and handling to get the computer to them, and of the five months since I bought the computer, I've had it in my possession for less than three weeks. If you have any trouble with an ASUS product within the Amazon warranty period (a month, I think, for computers), send it to Amazon, because there is no guarantee that ASUS will care. .
Read more...ASUS Eee PC 1015PX-PU17-BK 10.1-Inch Netbook
ASUS Eee PC 1015PX-PU17-BK 10.1-Inch Netbook
posted by abcnoonoi 1 day 19 hours 44 minutes ago
ASUS Eee PC 1015PX-PU17-WT 10.1-Inch Netbook (White) (Personal Computers) Purchased: July 2011My expectations for a netbook were sufficiently low. I have been following the developments since MIT's Nicholas Negroponte first founded the One Laptop Per Child organization (OLPC), a few years ago. After donating a few netbooks through OLPC, I decided to get an adult netbook of my own. I wanted something light weight with a good size keyboard and efficient power management that would allow me to securely track my finances during extended trips. I preferred a netbook with the LINUX operating system. My companion insisted the netbook should be able to stream Netflix videos and the Rhapsody music service. Netflix requires the Silverlight software which only runs on the Windows operating system. I was leaning toward ASUS hardware due to their reputation for high quality. After a reasonable search, I settled on this ASUS/Windows machine. The netbook has a role, but it is still not intended to replacement a full size laptop. I am amazed at how close it comes to replacing a laptop. WHEN READING MY HIGHLY CRITICAL REVIEW, KEEP IN MIND, AFTER ALL THE SOFTWARE AND FIRMWARE UPDATES ARE IN PLACE YOU WILL BE REASONABLY PLEASED WITH THIS NETBOOK.Enough of my gibberish, let us get on with the review.I purchased the ASUS eee PC 1015-PX netbook, 2 GB of RAM, ASUS mouse, ASUS external DVD reader/writer, PC-to-TV video converter, and audio cables. THE GOOD:- The eee PC hardware: keyboard, screen, and basic build are excellent for a netbook.- Windows 7 Starter Edition is more than competent operating system for a Netbook. Once everything is updated it is a smooth running system with the familiar look and feel of your desktop.- Windows 7 Starter Edition can stream Netflix movies, Rhapsody music, Photo Shop pictures, and run most software in the Windows ecosystem. Videos and web content can be displayed from the netbook to a TV with a proper PC-to-TV converter.- Windows 7 Starter Edition is not a streamline and low maintenance operating system, but it is a familiar interface with a plethora of software choices. It is more than adequate for most netbook uses.THE BAD:- Windows 7 Starter Edition is basically a crippled version of Windows 7. It does not support reading/writing DVD's. Normally, I would not have a problem with this, except ASUS failed to supply a copy of the Windows installation software on external media, because Windows 7 Starter Edition can not read DVD's. Putting the Windows recovery files on CD-Rom is unthinkable - it would take approximately 30 CD's to store the 17GB of files.- Normally the major updates like Windows service packs are preinstalled on the PC's. The burden of installing the Windows 7 Service Pack#1 and prior updates is passed on to the customer. You will invest a lot of quality time getting Windows 7 up to date. - The only audio speaker is of poor quality compared to the rest of the hardware. Why ASUS decided to install one cheap speaker on otherwise very nice hardware is beyond me. The audio is very nice when using external stereo spearkers. Yes, this is the newer model and it still only has one speaker. Beware, the one audio port serves as both an audio-out and an audio-in port. A software switch determines whether it is in input or output mode.- The documentation attempts to cover several different netbook models on the same pages. It is frequently difficult to determine which model was being described. The user guide on the PC is slightly more informative than the paper booklet. ASUS online user forum is not helpful. Reading some of the responses to the customers pleas for help caused me to flinch. The forum moderators are very arrogant and belittled those lacking technical skills. THE UGLY (It may get a little technical):- There are no Windows 7 Starter Edition operating system DVD's included with this computer. If the recovery files on the hard drive are destroyed, you are out of luck. You must decide whether to purchase a +16GB thumb drive to backup the Starter Edition and recovery files or use that money to upgrade to the Home Edition and use your standard backup software - assuming you backup your current system. Keep in mind once the recovery software (ISO) is loaded on the thumb drive you can not use the self-booting drive to store any other files.- The installed BIOS version 1101 is horrible and caused a number of issues. The netbook had problems recognizing my external ASUS CD/DVD reader with the installed BIOS. The BIOS exhibited irratic behavior when attempting to access the BIOS setup panel. Following the instructions in the manual, the included system software directs you to the ASUS BIOS repositories on the internet, but ASUS no longer updates the firmware on the sites. In fact, the firmware in the BIOS repositories is older than the installed BIOS. Eventually, I found the latest BIOS (version 1301) on the ASUS support site. Be careful, blotching a BIOS flash can leave you with a non-working computer.
Read more...Acer Aspire One AOD257-1486 10.1-Inch Netbook
Acer Aspire One AOD257-1486 10.1-Inch Netbook
posted by abcnoonoi 1 day 19 hours 47 minutes ago
Acer Aspire One AOD257-1486 10.1-Inch Netbook (Espresso Black) (Personal Computers) Video streaming off the web is different from using the internals for watching videos. It is a play between CPU and GPU usage. Your little Aspire isn't choking on video streaming. It isn't set up for it. Please: 1) Right click on desktop 2) Click AMD Vision Engine Control Center 3) Click "Video Quality" under Video settings 4) Click "Other Video Settings" 5) Scroll down, click "Apply current video quality settings to Internet video"If you don't do this you have your CPU running at 100% ALL the time you are streaming. It's going to hiccup, especially if anything is running in the background. After you do this the load will be on your graphics card where it belongs. CPU will be down to 20%, where it belongs. .
Read more...ASUS Eee PC 1015PX-PU17-RD 10.1-Inch Netbook
ASUS Eee PC 1015PX-PU17-RD 10.1-Inch Netbook
posted by abcnoonoi 1 day 19 hours 49 minutes ago
ASUS Eee PC 1015PX-PU17-BU 10.1-Inch Netbook (Blue) (Personal Computers) I purchased this netbook for school (take notes, music, browse webs, light programming, travel...) Pros: - $300 is a good deal with dual-core processors, 3 USB ports, bluetooth. - I have zero problems installing Ubuntu 11.04 on this. Everything works perfectly out of the box. - The charger is small and portable (just like a cellphone's charger) - Upgrade the memory to 2GB makes it run a lot faster. (I purchased the Patriot 2GB [...]) - Battery life is long. So I don't need to bring the charger with me to school anymore. Cons: - Touchpad is small. The tracking speed is slow. I have it at max in the Mouse options, but it's still so slow that moving that moving my finger across the touchpad will only move the mouse halfway through the screen (unless you set the acceleration higher, which I personally don't like) - The mouseclick button is super LOUD and hard to press down. - Web browsing is slow. My friend has a single-core N455 1.66Hz netbook and his loads faster than this. Browsing with Chrome Canary(Windows) and Chromium(Ubuntu) will be the fastest in my case. - My netbook comes with only 1 left speaker, making the sound really small. If you are lucky you may get the newer version with 2 speakers each side. Other thoughts: - I gave it 4 stars, but with a lot of Cons because I don't expect a $300 netbook to be super fast, awesome multimedia. I can live with those problems. - Windows7 Starter is so bad that it makes any netbook come with it looks bad. - Using double-finger scrolling will works better then one-finger scrolling at the right edge. - Don't buy this netbook as your main computer. .
Read more...HP Mini 210-3070NR Netbook
HP Mini 210-3070NR Netbook
posted by abcnoonoi 1 day 19 hours 52 minutes ago
HP Mini 210-3070NR Netbook (Grey) (Personal Computers) I bought this Mini 210-3070nr to be in contact with my family using Skype. But the webcam and integrated microphone do not work. I've tried all methods including reinstalling the Windows, in order to solve the problems, but still not working. Temporary I am not in USA and the dealer in Europe cannot help me. HP Mini 210-3070NR Netbook (Grey) (Personal Computers) You have to go and get a Corsair CM3X2GSD1066 2GB PC3-8500 1066MHz DDR3 204-Pin SO-DIMM Laptop Memory and i garantee youll love this little machine and its the only memory unit that works if your using the windows 7 starter pack boosts the computer alot it also helps if you go to the computer properties menu then go to the avanced options and selecting the memory and unselecting automatic and putting in 1024mb min 2048mb max for a medium boost and 2036mb min 4072mb max for a large boost..
Read more...ASUS Eee PC 1015PX-SU17-BU 10.1-Inch Netbook
ASUS Eee PC 1015PX-SU17-BU 10.1-Inch Netbook
posted by abcnoonoi 1 day 19 hours 55 minutes ago
ASUS Eee PC 1015PX-SU17-BK 10.1-Inch Netbook - Black (Personal Computers) I liked the computer when it was working. Love the small size and battery life. Was able to get 5+ hours use on a charge with the right settings. I really liked how the wifi worked. It was able to connect and get a good signal at distances further then I would with any card in my desktop computer. The screen was also very nice. It was bright with no bad dots. When the computer worked, it worked well. After a few days of use and getting everything setup I tried to create a backup on a flash drive. During that process the computer stopped working and would no longer boot. It would power on but not boot or run bios setup. I sent it back to Asus for repair. They reinstalled the OS but put on Windows Starter instead of Windows Home Premium that it originally came with. With a trip coming up and not enough time to send it back in a second time we took the computer along and used it as is with Windows Starter. The computer worked for a few days on the trip then died again and would not boot. Very frustrating that when this problem happens that it is not possible to get into the bios setup. .
Read more...ASUS Eee PC 1001PXD-EU17-BK 10.1-Inch Netbook
ASUS Eee PC 1001PXD-EU17-BK 10.1-Inch Netbook
posted by abcnoonoi 1 day 19 hours 58 minutes ago
ASUS Eee PC 1001PXD-EU17-BU 10.1-Inch Netbook (Blue) (Personal Computers) I purchased this product for my "abroad" trips since it is small, light, fast and sturdy. Unfortunately the battery was defective and I was getting only 2 hours of battery time per charge even under the power save mode. I called Asus about the problem and they instructed me to send the battery (at my cost $28) back to them and they would send me back a new or refurbished battery. So for at least two weeks I will be traveling without my netbook. I am not sure I will use a "vendor" for my next purchase because ultimately I will have to deal with the company that produces the item. Lesson learned. Had the battery worked, the netbook is great! .
Read more...Toshiba NB505-N508BL 10.1-Inch Netbook
Toshiba NB505-N508BL 10.1-Inch Netbook
posted by abcnoonoi 1 day 20 hours 1 minute ago
Toshiba NB505-N508BL 10.1-Inch Netbook (Blue) (Personal Computers) I bought this computer a few weeks ago and so far my experience has been very positive. This netbook is solidly constructed and is ready to use out of the box. The keyboard isn't difficult to use and the trackpad is OK - a little oversensitive for my taste. Unlike many other systems it doesn't come with a lot of bloatware - trial versions of programs you don't want anyway. There is some, but almost all for arguably useful programs. The included Toshiba software seems well-designed even though I personally have no use for it. As for speed, the computer is powerful enough for a netbook, and will run net-based and home office applications smoothly. Of course, it falls short for more intense use like video editing, image processing or games - but then again, that's not what this computer is for. However, the Atom processor in this unit is on its way out, and for about $100 more you can get a netbook that is considerably faster. Nevertheless, or a solid, cheap, ultraportable computer, this is a good pick. Pros: * good keyboard * good battery life * nice, slim design * little bloatware, useful software included * solid build quality, looks like it will last Cons: * underwhelming sound (single speaker on the bottom) * slow CPU .
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