Garmin nüvi 3490LMT 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Lifetime Maps and Traffic

Garmin nüvi 3490LMT 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Lifetime Maps and Traffic..

Grab Now Garmin nüvi 3490LMT 4.3-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Lifetime Maps and Traffic By Garmin

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318 of 336 people found the following review helpful.
Almost didn't get this great unit... but so glad I did
By Michael
I presently have the Nuvi 3790 and almost didn't go for this new unit. I am now glad I did. I have a number of trips all over in the next few weeks and was anxious to get this unit before they began. Had it pre-ordered on Amazon, they sent me a note that it was shipping and then it didn't and got delayed, so I got it elsewhere.

Registering the unit was a breeze. No problem for my Garmin communicator to recognize the unit and ask me if I wanted to register it. Went smoothly. I also loaded safety camera poi's from a third party and that went well too. I use web-updater usually as I can control what gets updated. I had an issue with the 3790 and it had to be replaced (with a refurbished unit). I would NOT load their map updater. I want to be in control of what gets updated. Just my two cents worth of experience.

A word of caution, you have to spend some time drilling down all the menu options, since you have a lot of control over what you want displayed on the screen. The three default buttons seemed fine at first, but I changed one of them ... left the traffic and mute button and changed the stop route button to where to. It seemed to me easier to hit the button to choose a via point than hit a button twice. My personal preference. You can eliminate all the shortcut buttons if you want. I like the idea of them on the screen though.

Speaking of via points, I like how this unit handles them. You can add a lot of them on the way. And you can reorder them as to how you get to them and in what order. Not sure if it optimizes the routing for them, but I suspect it doesn't. I like this approach and control.

I also love the idea of having your favorite poi's or saved destinations available as shortcuts on the where to menu. Reminds me of Magellan -- I have had a few of them in the past -- but like Garmin better.

I also like being able to select what poi's you would like to see pop up on the screen as you travel. Reminds me of my Navigons years ago. Really enjoyed seeing for instance a McDonald's near my travels and just driving in its direction when I had a Navigon 7100 and 7200.

I was concerned that the new user interface was taking away things from me. I love info and the ability to control it. And while the dashboards need some work I found the default one seems to work for me at this point the best. I expect Garmin will update these along the way. I have pretty much what info I had before available to me and even more.

When you calculate a route you are often given a number of options. This happens on the 3790 as well, but it is easier to use on the 3490. Again it reminds me of Navigon. I was sad to see them leave the US market, but Garmin has caught up with their great ideas.

On the first leg of my trip I had the 3790 and 3490 set up side by side. The 3490 got going faster than the 3790. Both had been turned on and had acquired signals the day before, so it was an equal comparison when I pushed both on buttons at the same time. I was well on my way with the 3490 when the 3790 kicked in.

I also noticed more lane assist screens on the 3490 than the 3790. I had read that street info wasn't as prevalent as the 3790, but I selected the more detail option and haven't really noticed much difference.

I have found lane assist to be invaluable. I also like how junction views look with photo real pictures and now sharing the screen and staying on the screen until you get there. Much better approach than a few seconds for a pop up covering the whole screen in the past.

Arrival times always vary. It's hard for any GPS to take into account traffic lights and construction on regular streets. UPS years ago programmed their computers to eliminate left turns as much as possible to save gas and time. They save lots and lots of money. It makes sense if you think about it.

Also, this is the first Garmin unit I have owned that does not say, "recalculating" when a route is being recalculated. It got to be annoying at times. This unit just recalculates with no notice. I also found the voice command feature to be a bit more responsive and accurate than the 3790.

I suspect that one reason the 3400 and 3700 series are not live like the 1695 is its size. No room for the receiver. I did enjoy the live feature and Google search on the 1695 I had, but it's a trade off for the great size.

This is a very compact unit. It's actually the 3790 unit size, but a fraction heavier, just a fraction. I love this size because I carry it in my shirt pocket when out of the car. Garmin has a perfect case just designed for the 3400 and 3700 series. I would urge you to get it. It's available on Amazon for a bit cheaper than the retail price. Garmin Carrying Case nüvi 37xx Series

While it first seemed to me to be an incremental upgrade, I have found the 3490 to be faster, easier to use and with more info options. Make sure you spend time going through all the options. Many things you may think aren't there or can't be changed actually are there and can be changed.

Very worthwhile investment.

10/22/11 Update ------ In the last week I have been to various parts of Central Florida and the Chicago area. I have found the Voice Command feature much better than the Nuvi 3790. More sensitive and better accuracy. Also, when on a route and you are looking for a POI you have the option of looking for it near you, along your route or at your destination. And you can use your voice to choose which option. Much better feature upgrade.

When you are arriving at your destination you know get an alert bar with a parking option. The bar is replaced shortly with a new button on the screen with a P. So now you can easily choose to look for a parking garage, etc. Of course this only happens in areas where there are parking options and would not pop up in a residential area.

Traffic is so far for me hit or miss. I do not like that the traffic button stays green even if there is no signal being received. Very confusing. When it works I like that you get an alert bar at the top telling you of traffic and as with the parking alert above, it gets replaced with an icon of the traffic issue that counts down the mileage to the incident. Nice feature. Also if along the way the Nuvi finds an alternate route that saves time it gives you an alert so you can see the options and change to that routing. Again a nice feature.

Great new unit and I am more convinced that I made a good choice in going with this unit.

11/4/11 Update ----- Garmin issued a software update that improved map drawing, corrected a routing error when going through tunnels, and improved traffic performance, among a number of fixes. One obvious fix is that the green traffic icon now shows gray when not receiving traffic info, which is a real great update. But as I discovered it just means the traffic receiver is not attached. It still shows green when the receiver is attached but not receiving info - not a good thing. Traffic of course is dependent on your area. I have used many such services including Garmin's NuLink, at times with other units side by side. They all are great sometimes, not so great other times. This HD approach is the latest and so far I have had no major issues. Again, keeping in mind that traffic is not always 100%, even those live traffic reporters report a problem in an area I am in and it's not there any more (so much for real-time, live coverage). But when I was on 495 around Washington, DC, it was spot on with delays and location of start and end. Not bad at all.

286 of 307 people found the following review helpful.
Visually stunning, great features, but......traffic is poor
By Jackson
The unit looks great, it has very vivid graphics with sharp detail. The navigation features seem good, although it does work a bit differently than other Garmin units I own, so I am working through a learning curve. The "Voice Command" feature is GREAT. It has lots of functionality, and recognizes my voice commands very nearly flawlessly, available commands and options are presented to you on each screen so you don't have to memorize options, it's a CLEAR winner of a feature. The mounting system is easy to use and well designed (I own a Tomtom unit as well, which has a horrible mount system, so this comment is actually important to frustrated Tomtom users). Routing speed is fast (another clear advantage over my tomtom). There are lots of other options I haven't even begun to play with, like Exit Services, points of interest, customizable buttons on the screen, multiple destination routing, and on and on.

So what's not to love? In a word - TRAFFIC. Or the lack of it. And the advertised "HD Traffic" (whatever that means) was one of the main reasons I bought the unit. I live and work in the Pittsburgh, PA area, and normally drive up and down the turnpike (I-76) to/from work. My tomtom receives the traditional NAVTEQ traffic signal for the entire route at full strength. The first 3490LMT I bought never picked up the traffic signal on that route, not once. I called Garmin tech support, they ended up suggesting I return it for another, which I did. The second 3490LMT got a SNIFF of traffic the next day, for about 60 seconds, then gone again. To check it, on the way home I actually detoured through downtown, and sure enough, it finally began picking up signal, although never at full strength that I noticed. The NAVTEQ signal my tomtom picks up without issue is not even registering with the Garmin, much less any of the sexy "update every 60 second traffic" features. Maybe it was supposed to say "updates FOR 60 seconds" not "EVERY 60 seconds." Har har.

So....I'm at a loss as to whether to keep it or return it. I would rate everything but the traffic a solid 5 stars. I rate the traffic a solid 1 star. You can make up your mind how important that feature is to you. For me, I paid a premium price for the unit, with a lot of value deriving from the traffic feature, and without it I'm very disappointed.

UPDATE 26 Oct 2011: I ended up returning the unit. I really did like everything about it except the anemic traffic a lot, and tried to talk myself into not wanting the traffic feature. But in the end I decided that only having a traffic signal for the few blocks surrounding the downtown Pittsburgh area was just too silly - Pittsburgh does actually have a lot of traffice outside those few blocks - and it had to go back. I see other reviews complaining about the traffic as well. I'll wait, and if Garmin releases a new production run with an updated receiver I'll consider buying then. Until then I'll plod along with my Tomtom, which annoys me more every day it seems, heh...

74 of 79 people found the following review helpful.
Digital 3D Traffic doesn't work properly
By Mark Denne
I live in LA. So for obvious reasons, high quality and up-to-date real-time traffic information is important to me. I purchased this unit to replace a Garmin 3790, which had proved disappointing. The 3790 uses Garmin's "3D Traffic" service which receives traffic data over standard FM radio. It updated too slowly. Sometimes it would take as long as 20 minutes after switch-on before its traffic data was fully loaded. And this delay meant I would often get told about a traffic back-up too late to do anything about it. Also, 3D Traffic is only good for freeway information. So if you opt to avoid conjestion by switching to a surface street, you don't know if that route is also conjested until you get there.

The great thing about the 3490 is that it comes with "Digital 3D Traffic". This uses HD radio which transmits traffic data much more quickly. The 3490 usually tells me its traffic information is up to date within just a couple of minutes of being switched on. In addition, it gives me traffic information about major surface streets, not just the freeways.

There's lots to like about the Garmin 3490. It's slim, fast and intuitive. I especially like the way that I can key in a destination address by giving the street number and street name first (instead of city first). Before I even enter the city name, it's already worked out which cities have that street number and name. Most of the time, I don't even have to enter the city - it's already worked it out. And unlike many other GPS devices I've tried, it has reliable Point of Interest data, so I can find anything from a furniture store to a theme park very quickly.

But the 3490 has two critical flaws. And for me they're show-stoppers. They're both related to the Digital 3D Traffic functionality.

The first is that the reception of Digital 3D Traffic data is disappointingly poor. For example, today I drove from San Diego to Burbank and I had no traffic updates for 26 minutes from just north of San Clemente until just before the Euclid Avenue intersection on I5. That's a long time not to have any updates. A lot can happen on I5 in 26 minutes! And this lack of reception isn't happening out in the desert, it's happening in Orange County. The HD receiver was perfectly positioned on the dash of the car throughout this time. Not good. But, to be fair, HD radio reception isn't Garmin's problem. So although the gaps in coverage are annoying, I can't fault Garmin for them. But I can definitely fault Garmin for the second flaw.

The device has a color-coded traffic indicator that shows up in the Maps view. When it's green it indicates no traffic on route. When it's yellow it indicates there's problem ahead but it's not serious enough to require a re-route. You can click on the indicator to see where the problem is and how long your delay is predicted to be. When it's red, it indicates a serious traffic problem ahead. The 3490 will either re-route you automatically (and tell you it's doing that) or you can click on the red indicator and choose a suggested alternative route by hand. All very reasonable you may think. So if you're driving along a freeway and the traffic indicator stays green you can relax and feel confident that you're not about to run into a major freeway backup - right? Wrong! And the reason is very simple. The unit also shows the green indicator when it has no traffic data. Which is exactly what happened to me today.

So to my annoyance, I came across a backup on I5 in Tustin, just after the I5 - I405 split. If the 3490 had told me there was a backup on I5, I could have easily diverted to the 405. Exactly the kind of decision that I expect a real-time traffic GPS to help me make. But I made the mistake of believing the green traffic indicator. And you can't trust it. Sometimes it means there's no traffic data, and sometimes it means there's no traffic. Those two are very different conditions. If only the unit would do something like gray-out the traffic indicator to indicate "no data" it wouldn't be so bad. At least I'd then know to check the traffic channel on the radio, or I could ask a passenger to look at SigAlert or GoogleMaps. But the way it works right now, the green traffic indicator is misleading and therefore ultimately annoying.

I need a device that gives me reliable continuous real-time traffic data in metropolitan areas. And I need a device that I can trust when it says there is no traffic en-route. Unfortunately the Garmin 3490LMT doesn't do either of those reliably, so it isn't the device for me. I'm returning mine tomorrow.

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Garmin nüvi 42LM 4.3-Inch Portable Vehicle GPS with Lifetime Maps (US)

Garmin nüvi 42LM 4.3-Inch Portable Vehicle GPS with Lifetime Maps (US)..

Grab Now Garmin nüvi 42LM 4.3-Inch Portable Vehicle GPS with Lifetime Maps (US) By Garmin

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124 of 124 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent GPS
By Manoranjan
I have had this GPS for 1.5 months now and it has been excellent so far. I upgraded from my old Garmin Nuvi 885 and my thoughts are below:

Satellite:
* It is really fast to acquire a GPS satellite. Most of the time in less than a couple of seconds. I took this GPS on a trip to Myrtle Beach from Pittsburgh and it has always been fast in acquiring satellites.

Screen and screen navigation:
* I went with the 4.3 inch over the 5 inch version because I dont really see a reason to pay the extra $20 for an additional 0.7".
* The screen is not as good as the current smart phones but very responsive for a GPS. It is much better compared to my 885.
* The GPS is fast and very responsive. No lags when moving across different screens.

Map updates:
* The map updates are pretty good. I have updated it once now and the process was very smooth.
* This is my first GPS with lifetime maps. I have read reviews of other GPS where people complain about space issues when updating maps. This has 4GB space and the maps take about 2GB so lot of free space for future updates.

Compatibility with garmin mount:
* I had the garmin friction dash mount that I bought for my old GPS and it works perfectly with that. The dash mount is awesome and you can find it here:
Garmin Portable Friction Mount - Frustration Free Packaging

Summary:
An excellent GPS for the price.

92 of 100 people found the following review helpful.
Best one so far
By Nicholas Vendetti
This is my 3rd Garmin, the best one I've owned so far. Much better than the 40 LM, which I hated, and my older nuvi that locked up and died after a few years left in the car daily. Meaning, hot and cold killed it, my bad. Its better than my cars service, much better. Its cost is easy to take and it's just enough to make life easier and not enough to break the bank. It speed limit reminder is very helpful, a nice touch. For my needs its perfect. Its clear, clean and user friendly. It sound is great and directions quick and accurate. The online support is very good as is Garmins custormer service. In my mind, for my need of a simple GPS this is the best bang for the buck. There are other higher end GPS units but for me this is perfect hence 5 star. Settings are user friendly and making it more personal is easy. Its size is also perfect for my needs. Reception, so far, has been flawless.

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful.
Mostly useful with a few quirks
By B. E. Watts
Bought this, my first GPS, to take on a solo trip where I wouldn't have someone else in the car to read maps or a smart phone to me, and I'm glad I did. Driving around an unfamiliar area, having to find various businesses and locations along the twisty roads of Boston suburbs, it was very useful. If you don't take the turn (either by accident or on purpose) that the device wants you to, it quickly recalculates and gives you a new route. Sometimes found instructions confusing when moving through expressway exchanges at highway speeds, but when I did the wrong thing, as I say, she gave me new directions.
The not so good: Very frustrating out of the box. No manual with the device, of course. When I plugged it in and registered the device, I assumed there would be a link right there to the manual for the device I was registering (wouldn't that make sense?). But no. I found a place to search for manuals on the Garmin web site, but it didn't provide one for my device. Eventually figured out by trial and error how to download and open up the Garmin Express program on my computer, which as it turns out, is where you find a way to download a manual. And once you open up the manual--guess what--there are instructions on how to do what I had just had to figure out how to do by myself to get to the manual. What is wrong with people who design and sell products? Do they want their customers' first experience with their products to be a frustrating waste of time? Does it ever occur to them to hand the box with their product to someone outside the company and say, "here, use this," and see what happens?

One glitch with the actual operation of the GPS: Three times when I have not taken the turn I was instructed to take, the GPS has tried to direct me to turn into a one-way street going the wrong way. Ooops.

But, overall I'm happy with the product.

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Canon PowerShot SX280 12MP Digital Camera with 20x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 3-Inch LCD (Red)

Canon PowerShot SX280 12MP Digital Camera with 20x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 3-Inch LCD (Red)..

GET Canon PowerShot SX280 12MP Digital Camera with 20x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 3-Inch LCD (Red) By Canon

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297 of 305 people found the following review helpful.
Great Camera! Love the Wireless!
By Telemachus
I've had a number of PowerShot cameras. Really impressed with the picture quality of the camera and the overall speed. Colors and picture quality are quite good and the low-light performance is superior. The previous review focuses nicely on the picture quality, so I wil stick with the human factors.

Manual control and adjustment are simple to master, so you won't need to rely on the automatic settings. My only concern with the camera is hat the wifi settings are difficult to set up. I'm pretty good with wireless technologies and it took me quite awhile to figure it out. Make sure you run the set up disk. Unlike many other consumer wireless gadgets, this one requires that you run the setup software. Couldn't just turn on the camera and connect it to the router. As much as it pains me to say this, I should've read the directions prior to jumping in to try to set it up! :-)

Once it's setup, it works great. I've been transferring files to iphone, ipad, and laptop; and transferring to the Canon Image site. All directly from the camera. Even emailed my wife a link to a photo directly from the camera. Camera IS a bit of a battery hog, but I was expecting it.

Update: Since I concentrated on human factors in my review, I thought I would weigh in on flash location interfering with handhold
position. Personally, I didn't notice it until I read the other reviews. I've had other cameras with pop up flashes, so I think I just automatically adjusted to it. That said, I can see how it would annoy some people. The flash is located in the front left-hand corner of the camera, but there IS sufficient space behind the flash to place your finger. Could be a problem if you have large hands, I suppose.. Motor is also strong enough to remind me to move it when it pops up.

----------------------------
Update 20 May:: There is a glitch that's been widely reported that shows that the battery is drained when in video mode. This is a glitch in the indicator, not the actual battery life. Cannon has acknowledged the problem and is working on a fix. Expect the next firmware update to address the issue.
-----------------------------
Update 5 June: New Firmware Released Today!! Details Firmware Version 1.0.2.0 incorporates the following fixes and improvements:

1. Increases the duration of movie shooting by 20% in cases where the optical zoom is used compared to cameras running Firmware Version 1.0.0.0 or Firmware Version 1.0.1.0 through a reduction in the power consumption of the optical zoom.

*Time under default camera settings, when normal operations are performed, such as shooting, pausing, turning the camera on and off, and zooming. (based on conditions established by Canon).
-Under some shooting conditions, the recording time may be shorter than mentioned above.
-Recording time with a fully charged battery.

2. Fixes a phenomenon with cameras running firmware version 1.0.0.0, in which the low battery level warning is prematurely displayed while shooting in movie mode.

Firmware Version 1.0.2.0 is for cameras with firmware Version 1.0.1.0 or Version 1.0.0.0. If the camera's firmware is already Version 1.0.2.0, it is not necessary to update the firmware. Please note that, once the camera is updated to the latest version, it cannot be restored to a previous

I installed it with no problems.

443 of 462 people found the following review helpful.
A Great Campact Camera
By Just Another Reviewer
Enough said about how good this compact camera is in the other reviews. Only two quick comments: It is an excellent compact zoom camera complimentary to my SLR camera/lens collection on the road for quick shots (photo & video) without lens changing. Case Logic DCB-302 Compact Case provides good protection and a perfect fit with room for extra battery and SD card.

Update 5/8/2013: Per Canon technical support, the battery inside the camera cannot be charged via USB port like your cell phone when connecting to PC or outside USB power source.

Update 5/13/2013: When using "AUTO" on the dial as well as ""AUTO" ISO" in "P", "Tv" and "Av", the ISO is automatically selected from 80 to 1600, not to 3200 or 6400. To manually select ISO 3200 or 6400 in "P", "Tv" and "Av", you need to select "FUNC. SET" and then choose the 3200 or 6400 under the"ISO" list.

Update 5/19/2013 The flashing "low battery" warning in the video mode is indeed a design fault of the battery indicator not the battery itself. With a freshly charged battery, I can take either around 200 photos or about 30 minutes video (1080p 30fps). The low battery warning comes in about 2 minutes into the video shooting after some zooming.

Update 5/20/2013 Per Canon technical support, Canon is trying to resolve this "low battery" warning issue in the video mode. Decided to return this wonderful camera. Will buy it when the issue is resolved.

Update 6/5/2013 Canon just published a firmware update for SX280 to fix the low battery warning issue in the video mode at this web link: ([...] Click on "Drivers & Software". Select your computer's Operating System and OS Version. Click on "Firmware". Download the firmware zip file and unzip the file. Follow the instruction in the PDF file to update the firmware.

Update 6/7/2013 I repurchased a new SX280 with the hope that the low battery warning issue has been fixed by this firmware update. I updated the new camera to the new firmware 1.0.2.0 from 1.0.1.0 following the procedure in the PDF file. The premature low battery warning in the video mode for the updated SX280 has improved but not fixed.

260 of 274 people found the following review helpful.
Terrific Camera Overall
By J. Malinsky
Hi there

I've replied to a few reviews of this product before choosing to write my own, while keeping in mind everyone's opinions (especially about the battery) thus far.

Out of the way, I too noticed "problems" when shooting video on a not-fully charged battery. I put the word in quotes, because in my experience/view, it's really a software problem that can be fixed with an upcoming firmware update. It just flashes red prematurely, and you can certainly repeat steps to have that happen consistently. Also, you'll only get about 30 minutes or so of 1920/60fps HD video per charge (keep in mind the battery will likely be flashing red most of the time). But keep in mind, its really just a bug. When you power up your camera, the true charge is shown on the indicator.

I took the camera with me today to shoot a typical days worth of exciting things with my kids. I took about 35 photos, and a combined 7 minutes of full HD/1920/60fps video. I also transferred a few images wirelessly to my Android phone. After all that, my battery is still showing as fully charged and does not do the 'premature red battery' even if i take it to video. So that seems like a decent day for me, and it doesn't show a dent (and rightly so). I'll just have to remember to charge the battery fully before I take it out.

In the end, I do recommend the camera because of what I bought it for: excellent, truly best-in-class images from a camera under $400. This camera is my '2nd' camera, for times when I don't feel like dragging my DSLR around. The images aren't as good as a DSLR (no surprise) but they are by far the best images I've taken with a point-and-shoot. The 20x optical zoom is truly incredible, and the true/natural Image Stabilization (*not* digital) is fantastic: you can actually take a 20x zoomed picture without it being blurry! Not only that, the IS during video shooting makes it smooth-as-silk on playback, especially in truly stunning 60fps mode. Shutter-lag isn't as good as a DSLR (because the concept doesnt exist with mirrors), but it's miles ahead of my last 2011 P&S and also faster than my 2013 smartphone camera.

I can see why the video/battery issue is so frustrating: the video from this thing is truly amazing (stereo, Image Stabilization, and did I mention 1920 and 60fps yet??!) and you *want* to shoot a ton with it. It's also in ultra-convenient mp4 format right out-of-the-camera. And it does a superb job of focusing as you zoom on video (my older p&s wouldn't let me zoom in video mode at all). But if video is really your mojo, get a camcorder for the same price and be happy. If you're after stills, or shooting video "shorts", this is your bet. And hopefully the short-ish battery on video will make better videographers out of people by forcing them to cut down on the extra crap they shoot that nobody watches anyways :)

Touching on a few remaining things: I love that the camera has a metal body, love its hefty weight (remember when cameras felt like cameras and not TV remotes?) and dig the wireless. I'm not a GPS guy because the privacy issue freaks me out, so I don't run the GPS. As mentioned by other reviewers, the wireless is a bit tricky to set up if you want to go camera->computer wirelessly - you'll have to run the software on the CD (it retrieves the latest version from the net automatically). The easiest set-up is camera->smartphone; as long as they're on the same network, transfers are easy. If there's no wireless where you're shooting, you can actually use the camera as an access point itself and connect your smartphone/tablet to the *camera's* network. Keep in mind that the wireless transfer is *not* eye-fi: you have to *select* the images you want to send, after they've been shot (photos aren't automatically transferred wirelessly as you shoot). Believe it or not, you can actually tweet from the camera itself. That being said, I think the omission of Flickr is a drag, but perhaps that's because they are pushing their own "Canon Image Gateway" service for photo sharing/storage.

Also, I appreciate the restraint in megapixels... the filesizes and document sizes are realistic and appropriate for people who aren't blowing photos up to large dimensions. Focusing on image quality instead of megapixel count is a much welcomed approach in my opinion, and I hope the ridiculous megapixel race slows down in order to focus on the sensor quality/lenses that can be crammed into a P&S size camera.

Also, coming from DSLR world, I'm actually pretty happy with the amount of customization offered. The manual (on the CD only) is chock full of information, including how to use the self-timer in "wink" mode (wink to take the shot!!). All modes I shoot on (M/AV/TV/P) offer *center only* focus. I haven't seen that mentioned too often, but that is *exactly* what I like - in fact the first thing I do on my DSLRs/new cameras is turn off the 'smart autofocus' to use center-point only). It means you might have to take a moment to frame the shot you want (focus then frame), but to me it cuts down on silly camera "intelligent" errors when it focuses on things with contrast instead of the content that matters.

I don't find the position of the pop-up flash an issue; my finger fits behind it. Also, consider that the pop-up flash reduces red-eye quite significantly by being further away from the lens. Not only that, but this camera is *great* in low-light for a point-and-shoot - ease up on the flash and enjoy the great new processor!

This camera does exactly what I want it to do, and does it *really well*, but if I was planning on a day of really heavy shooting with video, I'd buy a spare battery. And I'm looking forward to a firmware update!

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Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 13.3-Inch Convertible 2 in 1 Touchscreen Ultrabook (Gray)

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 13.3-Inch Convertible 2 in 1 Touchscreen Ultrabook (Gray)..

GET Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 13.3-Inch Convertible 2 in 1 Touchscreen Ultrabook (Gray) By Lenovo

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187 of 191 people found the following review helpful.
Great laptop/ultrabook.
By Lapenne
I got this after a real Odyssey searching for a new ultrabook. I owned the Samsung series 9, np900x3c, and my girlfriend has a Macbook Air (MBA), so I can also compare them to the Yoga.

At this price, the Yoga is a great product if:

- you want a great quality ultrabook (parts are solid and well made and it is not as fragile as the Samsung 9).

It is not as light as others but unless you really need an ultraportable (like the Samsung 9) then the Yoga fares well as it weights just 0.3 lbs more than the MBA although it is a little bigger.

About the latter, it is sturdier in some sense than both the MBA and Samsung. The MBA actually delivers a good solid feeling (the Series 9 not much so, I felt like you can break it easily, especially the hinges of the screen) but I feel like I could drop the Yoga without having to say goodbye to it. I believe this is in Lenovo spirit, their laptop are renowned to be sturdy and long-lasting.

- good quality control (my first the Samsung 9 came with a dead pixel, the second one had a crappy trackpad which selects things at random while you move the cursor and statics from the speakers and audio output!).

- a great touchscreen, also in terms of quality of the LCD display (IPS with decent resolution). Notice that touchscreens reduce battery performance. The Samsung 9 has a brighter screen and more battery life, especially compared if you use the screen at the same level of brightness. That was a drawback for the Yoga to me, because I don't care about the touchscreen. However, overall, considering features and design, quality control, and price (!!) the Yoga wins easily.

- a good keyboard. It is not as good as the X1 Carbon, but it definitely beats the MBA (which has a decent keyboard but shallower than the Yoga) and wins hands down the Series 9 (stiff, shallow and noisy).

IT IS RELLY A GREAT ULTRABOOK FOR THE PRICE with the competition out there at the moment.

You can also upgrade the RAM and SSD easily enough (especially the RAM, it's trivial).

What I would like to see improved in the future, in order of importance, are:

- battery life! If you use 80-85% brightness and use it constantly (I mostly browse, type quite a bit -- coding for example -- and listening to some music) you might even wipe it in just 4 hours. That's not awesome. The Series 9 would last 1 hour longer. However, the battery is decent, don't let yourself down because of this. The OS and features drains the battery, the MBA would last 3 hours if it had a touchscreen like this and was running Win 8!

- more brightness and bigger screen (the MBA has a slightly bigger screen but worse resolution and quality, that's for sure).

- An even better keyboard, like the X1 Carbon thinkpad (with the nipple please!)

- I would prefer a metal case in terms of design. It would make it just awesome.

- Back-lit keyboard.

NOTE: I don't use the touchscreen much but the factor forms are really useful. Many times you are in a vehicle, or on the plane, or in a situation where you need to bend the laptop and use it with the screen closer to you, taking up less space and such. It is really useful! I love to use it on the couch and bed as tablet (otherwise a little heavy). Even if you don't love the touchscreen and would rather have a better battery life and lighter product (like I do), the Yoga still wins to such product like MBA and Samsung 9 because of its features and quality, for that competitive price!

151 of 160 people found the following review helpful.
Here's the truth
By P. Stephen
I read enough reviews on Amazon and other places to justify me having to write one here. First things first, I am an IT guy, so between hardware, software and networking it's easier for me to figure things out, so keep that in mind when reading the review.

As all of the other reviewers said, there are some known quirks with this computer. Yes, the hinges let the screen wobble a bit. I have a Dell XPS 13 and the screen doesn't wobble at all, but this one does. It's not a big deal. Secondly, yes, the keyboard is different. The keys don't appear to be as deep as other keyboards, so when pressing them down it isn't as much as a confirmed response back from the pc. That being said, I don't have a single problem typing on it outside of the backspace key being small. A few hours later and it's fine. The mouse is perfect fine for me. I actually prefer it over my Dell mouse. There are times when the tapping or click of the mouse doesn't respond, but it isn't to the point of annoyance. You can two finger scroll, two finger right click, pinch, zoom, etc all with it. I actually do like it.

The one I wanted to spend a little bit of time on is the wireless card. This thing is 2.4 ghz only. It's speed is limited to 150 mbps. My pc out of the box didn't have any driver issues, but for some reason when I installed the latest driver from the lenovo site, I couldn't get online anymore, so I had to rollback that driver. There is a combination of bad drivers, software and network requirements needed to make this thing work. Again, out of the box I was only able to connect at 65 mbps on my cisco frontier router. My xps 13 connects at 300 mbps. Obviously this is a Lenovo issue. What I did was turn off the suspend mode for the wireless card, then set my router to channel 11, upper threshold with 40 mhz width. That poppped me back up to 150 mbps on the wireless card. Unfortunately it took me about 3 to 4 hours with all the troubleshooting to get the answer.

The good. The screen is exceptional. The icons are glorious and it's even better in tablet mode. I'm not sure if the colors are right given that the white background has a bit of wash in it (like on this page), but when I look at this screen and then go back to my XPS 13, you can clearly see the difference. Tablet mode is also good and I was initially worried about the keyboard being on the bottom, but it's actually not a big deal at all. What I didn't like was when you have the pc in presentation mode (bent back 75%), the keyboard and mouse aren't turned off like they are in tablet mode, so you have to put it on a flat surface or it will start going nuts.

In summary, I'm not sure the pc is worth the $899 asking price that Amazon has it for considering all the tweaks that have to be done to it, but at a lower price, this computer may be worth the money. It's fast, the screen is gorgeous and the battery lasts a decent amount of time. Hopefully this review helps as all the other ones on Amazon did help me.

**Update 7/1/13**

Well, I must have been premature in my review. There are a few things wrong with this laptop I can't get over:
1) The fan runs constantly and it gets too hot. I literally start sweating with it on my lap if I'm watching a movie or using something intense like adobe flash player
2) The keyboard is absolutely terrible. The keys stick and aren't firm enough. Moreover, the flex in the keyboard itself makes it even worse to type. It feels like the engineers at Lenovo only typed on this laptop standing up, because the keyboard is virtually useless on the lap.
3) While the wifi card works, it has to be the lowest end possible. I only get 130mbps while my dell xps 12 gets 300 with ease. The data transfer rate is 10x on the XPS and in order to get those speeds, I have to plug in the Lenovo to a usb-to-ethernet adapter. At first I was willing to accept this issue, but after using the pc in a hotel with weak wifi connections, it wasn't worth it.

The pc is going back to Amazon as we speak. What a shame, because if they fixed the fan and spent a few more $$ on the keyboard/wifi, this pc would sell like hotcakes...

118 of 124 people found the following review helpful.
Best convertible laptop currently on the market
By ENDY
The Yoga 13 is an excellent computer, which works (almost) exactly as it should (with one minor wifi fix). My real rating would be 4.5 stars, but I'm rounding up because this is a 1st-Generation device, so small bugs are usually common. I've compared it extensively with the Dell XPS 12 and opted to keep the Yoga 13, even though I got the Dell for the same price ($1,000 for a Dell-refurbished unit + a coupon).

Design (9 out of 10)
The 360 hinge works as it should, with one minor complaint. The screen is a little bit "bouncy" when you have the laptop open at all and try to write on it with a stylus, which means you need to either have the screen "open" all the way and flat on a surface or you need to stabilize it with your other hand to use a stylus well. The Dell XPS 12 hinge does not have this same problem. However, overall, I slightly prefer the Yoga 13 design to the Dell XPS 12 design. In fact, I now find it silly to have a laptop with a touch screen that doesn't open all the way. The double joint feature that allows the fold back really can't cost more than $20 or $30; every laptop should have it. The criticism about the keys being exposed is blown way out of proportion. It feels a little funny at first, but that's it. Don't set your laptop down on a dirty, wet, or sticky surface and the keyboard will be just fine.

The one main advantage of the Dell XPS 12 design is that you can leave the base completely stationary and flip the screen. If the laptop is plugged in, this is handy. Still, the flip screen design on the Dell feels a little gimmicky (although it's still a fine alternative design to the Yoga 13 and much better than the Twist, in my opinion).

The overall feel of the Yoga is nice. It is not "premium" like the Dell XPS 12 carbon fiber, but it's not worth paying extra money for a slightly nicer texture, in my opinion. I actually prefer the interior texture on the Yoga 13 -- very comfortable typing handrests that don't get cold or hot.

Screen (9 out of 10)
The screen looks very nice; the 1600x900 resolution works very well for a 13 inch screen. Side by side with the Dell XPS 12's 1080p, it's clear that the Dell has a better-looking screen. However, the resolution on the Dell is a bit high for a 12 inch screen, which means you need to increase font sizes for most text to be readable without squinting.

Touch/Tablet mode (10 out of 10)
This is where the Yoga 13 demolishes the Dell. If you plan to use a stylus and are considering the Dell please read this, since I've not seen it come up in any reviews. The Dell XPS 12 is unusable in stylus mode. I tried two different Dell units with the exact same results: jagged lines, missed lines, and illegible text if I tried to write anything small. This occurred in every program (One Note, Word, Corel Draw, Note Anytime), and 6 hours with tech support could not fix it (new OS, new drivers, etc.). The Yoga 13, on the hand, works quite well (although I would pay an extra $150 for a active stylus with digitizer -- Lenovo, are you listening?).

Tablet mode has worked great, with no problems. With the Dell, I had problems with auto-rotate and auto-keyboard pop-up failing to work on two different Dell units. The only fix was a complete re-install of windows.

For some who have noted that there is sometimes a lag in the touch screen if you haven't used it for a while, follow these steps (found on a message board):

- Open device manager
- Expand Human Interface Devices
At the bottom of the HID list are two devices labeled "USB Input Device" On my system, the one we're concerned with is the second one, so the last item in the list, but just to make sure it's the right one:

- Open the device properties
- Click the Details tab
- In the drop down menu, select Hardware Ids
The one we want will say USB\VID_04F3&PID_000A on the second line

- Move to the Power Management tab
- Uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

Keyboard/Trackpad (9 out of 10)
Trackpad is great (I updated to latest drivers). Not sure what the mixed reviews are about. The Dell XPS 12 was not good. Keyboard on the Yoga is also great. I liked the feel of the Dell's keyboard a bit more, but I've had no missed keys on the Yoga.

I don't understand the criticism of lack of keyboard backlight. I've never had a scenario where I needed keyboard backlighting. In completely dark room, the computer screen illuminates the keyboard enough to see the keys. But if you really love keyboard backlighting, be aware that the Yoga 13 doesn't have it!

Wifi (7 out of 10)
While it sounds like some people are having bigger problems with wifi, my failure-to-reconnect on log-on issue was solved with this simple fix: Go to Device Manager (Charms Bar --> search for "Device Manager" in settings), Go to Network Adapter, Right Click on the RealTek, Click on Advanced Tab, Then set Selective Suspend to "Disabled."

Since I did that, I've had zero problems. It annoys me that Lenovo could ship a product that needs a fix for wifi that automatically reconnects at log-on, but the range issues people have been reporting are non-existent for me. In fact, for both my home network and work network, I have 3-4 bars of wifi in places where my Dell XPS 12 had 1-2 bars and would fail to connect at times. Since my fix, I've had zero wifi problems in the past 3 weeks.

Ports/Other Features (10 out of 10)
I like the full-size HDMI port. While DisplayPorts might be the future, everything in my house has HDMI (and HDMI to DVI cables are $6 on Amazon, if you have a monitor without HDMI). No VGA port, though, which is fine for me since it is no longer 2005.

SD card slot is nice. Seems silly that Dell left it out of the XPS 12.

Expandable SSD slot is amazing. I have a 128GB Yoga now, but it's nice knowing I'll be able to add a second SSD in the future as prices drop (see YouTube for instructions). Also, I plan to expand to 8GB of ram, although I've had no problems with 4GB for the time being.

Not happy about the charger (the unique style means I have to pay top dollar for a replacement, since I like to have two), but it works fine.

Final Thoughts
The upcoming Helix could rival the Yoga in terms of design (detachable screen, 10 hours of batter life, stylus), but if you're like me and do a decent amount of typing, an 11-inch screen is just too small. The Yoga 13's 13-inch screen is just right for productivity, and in tablet mode works really well on your lap. No, you can't hold it with one hand comfortably, but you can prop it up in a variety of ways. I find the 9-11 inch tablet size to be nice, but also too large for one-handed use. I hope the next version of the Yoga has an active stylus.

See all 193 customer reviews...More...

Acer Aspire S7-392-9890 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Crystal White)

Acer Aspire S7-392-9890 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Crystal White)..

Buy Acer Aspire S7-392-9890 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Crystal White) By Acer

Most helpful customer reviews

412 of 435 people found the following review helpful.
[Updated-Windows 8.1] Exceeded My Expectations and the speakers....
By YingWei
Last Updated December 09, 2013 [Windows 8.1 review]
==============================
Reason for purchase:
==============================
Been waiting almost a year now for Haswell to come out after leaks were given online, and it meets and exceeds my expectation through and through. I was looking for a replacement for my 3-year old Acer TimelineX laptop and decided I'm not going to go cheap when it came to buying a laptop since I was tired of flimsy screen that feel like they'll break if pressed in the middle. It was either the Acer S7, the Asus Zenbook Infinity, or Samsung Ativ Book Plus HD for my replacement laptop. Chose the S7 over the Zenbook Infinity and Ativ Book for 3 reasons:

1) This is Acer's third iteration of the S7 compared to Asus Zenbook Infinity which will be it's first. First generations for new designs usually have more kinks/issues that I'm trying to avoid when I'm paying over $1000+ for a laptop, you'd expect it to be flawless to an extent.

2) Owned an Acer and Asus laptop before, and Acer always knew what they were doing when it came to power efficiency versus Asus which for some reason or another has issues with power consumption levels. (this is from my experience)

3) Samsung decided not to increase the max ram amount to 8GB, which is shame since ram is crucial in multitasking especially for apps on windows 8

======
Pros:
======
--Battery Life!: just doing regular task like checking emails and browsing online at 70% brightness I was able to get 8-9 hours! which is amazing, this is why I waited for Haswell =) (assuming if you have 99% battery at start)

--Boot Time: Switching from an HDD on windows 7 to an SSD on windows 8 was mind blowing, from 2-4 minutes to only 2-4 seconds just made me love this laptop more than I already do. Albeit windows 8 is cheating a bit with their hybrid shutdown design, overall this is what I was expecting.

--Design: thin and light, ergonomic to feel albeit I was expecting a smoother finish on the edges but overall I don't know if there is another laptop that looks this good.

--Case: I was surprised that Acer included a leather case that really makes this laptop look like a fashion statement a plus for me, one less thing to buy =)

======
Cons:
======
--No adapters: I was surprised that Acer didn't include an ethernet dongle like they did with previous versions of this laptop which was disappointing since I need it for when I use the laptop at work

--Bloatware: this is typical but Acer like any other company included sponsored apps and their own homebrew apps of their own.

--Speakers: speakers are located on sides of the laptop near the bottom so the sound comes out muffled but I'm a headphone type person so this doesn't bother me much.

====================================
Answers to questions asked/ Updates
====================================
--Fan: the fan doesn't make a peep even on huge overload of online gaming which was surprising but the laptop does heat up at the rear end of laptop (hinge area) if you block the vents on the bottom.

=====================Update: July 18, 2013 (Day 3 with Laptop)=====================

--Cooling: when the manufacturer said to avoid blocking the vents they meant it, the laptop started to get moderately hot. Although granted I was running a lot of adobe software (photoshop, illustrator, dreamweaver, fireworks, etc...) the laptop fan didn't make any noise which was good. Just needed to remember that this isn't a desktop.

--Vent location: air enters and exits on the back bottom vents that stretches across the entire back (below the hinge side).

--SSD Space: 195GB are available after you remove most of the bloatware.

--Battery During Heavy Use: When I was running the laptop with Adobe Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and fireworks I was able to get to 6hours and 13 minutes of constant runtime which was awesome to me as a website developer on the go.

--Battery life (100% brightness): around 7 hours if at 99% full battery (please note the S7 comes with an automatic sensor like your smartphone to adjust brightness so the battery will last longer, automatically on by default)

=====================Updated: July 19, 2013 (Day 4 with Laptop)=====================

--Changed from 4 to 5 stars, decided 1 star off for speakers didn't make sense when it's an ultrabook and I use my headphones most of the time.

--Updated some of my statements on battery life, this was after bloatware was removed and I had Kaspersky 2013 and skydrive desktop app always running in the background, automatic updates and scans does drain the battery faster (no breaks)

--Automatic Brightness: to turn off automatic brightness control panel->Edit Plan Setting-> Change Advance Power Setting (clickable text)->Display(header)-> Enable Adaptive Brightness-> choose off or on

--Battery Life (w/ automatic Brightness off): at 100% brightness the battery lasted at ~6-7 hours just browsing the web, watching videos ~5/6 depending if your running videos on 1080p or 720p.

--Touchpad: very responsive and customizable, recommend you adjust everything on the touchpad so you get the most out of the multi-gestures

--Screen Resolution: spending a couple hours watching videos on this laptop was superb and I can't imagine switching. Colors were crisp and clear, a huge gap in clarity from my old laptop's resolution (720p)

--Keyboard Layout: a bit weird at first but the organization is pretty convenient where all the hotkeys are easier to reach and alot faster than a tradition keyboard.

--Backlit Keyboard: awesome feature that only enhanced the laptop, the brightness is adjustable/turns on automatically when it gets dark which was convenient

--Webcam: resolution is at .9megapixel which is pretty low but the sensors on the webcam are top notch especially at night, I thought SONY were the only ones with night sensors for their webcams but Acer actually implemented their own variation or they outsourced w/ sony which is awesome. I was able to see my face clearly in a pitch black room no lighting except the laptop screen.

=====================Updated: July 21, 2013 (Day 6 with Laptop)=====================

--Wireless Signal: the Intel Dual-band 7260 + Bluetooth 4.0 for some reason started to act up by dropping signals in 5 bar areas, fixed issue by uninstalling the driver, and reinstalling the driver available from Acer's Support page.

--To download driver: go to Acer US -> click on "Support" tab -> click "Driver & Manuals" icon w/ wrench & hammer -> type "Aspire S7-392" in search by model text box & search (looks like nothing loaded but bottom of the page changed with list of drivers) -> look for "Wireless LAN Driver" -> click "Download" -> extract file using Winrar or Z-zip -> click "Drivers" folder -> click "win8" folder -> double click "DPInst64.exe" to install the driver (do this after driver is uninstalled and make sure Intel PROSet/Wireless software is NOT installed on the computer)

--To uninstall the driver: go to control panel -> Network and Sharing Center -> Change Adaptor Settings (left menu) -> right-click network card icon -> properties -> click "Configure" -> click "Driver" tab -> click "uninstall" driver

=====================Updated: July 22, 2013 (Day 7 with Laptop)=====================
--Updated Wireless Card issue from previous update.

--SSD Drive Info: 2X 128GB SSD (Formatted in Raid 0) from Kingston using Intel Trimming Technology

=====================Updated: July 31, 2013 (Day 16 with Laptop)=====================
--Updated Reason for Purchase, Touchpad comment, Wireless Card Comment & Cooling Comment

--Screen Protector: unnecessary since touch-screen is scratch resistant

--Maintenance: used Philips SVC1116F/27 LCD, LED and Plasma Screen Cleaner to clean both sides of the laptop once or twice a weeks to make the glass clean and clear =)

--Touchpad Software: Synaptic v8.1 Clickpad multi-gesture touchpad, similar to the apple touchpad.

--Warranty: Amazon sells the version with a 2-year limited Warranty

--Screen Resolution: Amazon sells the 1920X1080 version, the 2560x1440 isn't sold in the United States

--Dolby Home Theatre v4: at first I thought this was just the speaker version but it's actually an audio software built into the laptop that allows you to easily change the amplitude and clarity of sound for both the speakers and headphones, you can also save customized settings in the extra slots a plus for me since I'm an audiophile =)

--Ram: 8GB of ram is a necessity for any ultrabook and Acer finally understood that, no more memory dump issues since there's enough ram for running all my programs at once =)

=====================Updated: August 5, 2013 (Day 21 with Laptop)=====================

--After 3 weeks with the laptop, I'm glad I purchased this machine, never have to wait for the laptop to start-up since it's instant, working with adobe software (illustrator, photoshop, dreamweaver, etc...) hasn't been more seamless, and the build of the laptop couldn't be better, solid aluminum at its finest =)

--Only complaint now is the power button which should have been placed on the keyboard side of the laptop. Having the button on the side is really not smart since grabbing the laptop on its side can result in accidental pressing (happened to me a couple times), easy fix though is to change the properties of the button to do nothing, it'll still turn on the laptop when it's shutdown :)

--To change button properties: go to "Control Panel" -> click "Power Options" (icon with battery & plug) -> on left side menu click "Choose what the power buttons do" -> change the setting for "When I press the power button" to desired setting for both columns (Battery and when plugged) -> click "Save Changes"

=====================Updated: August 14, 2013 (Day 30 with Laptop)=====================
--A month has past since I got the laptop and I have to say I don't regret being one of the first few people who bought this laptop when it came out at retail price $1649. At first I had wireless issues but found out last week it was my router that kept dropping the signal on me, fixed it with the ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router. Now I'm developing programs and websites faster than ever. My old laptop would crash on me every other day so having a laptop that probably won't ever crash on me is huge relief also.

--One thing I do recommend that everyone get with this laptop is a cooling stand such as the Cooler Master NotePal ErgoStand II - Adjustable Laptop Cooling Stand with LED Light Strip for three reasons.
----1) Although the twin fan 2nd generation is whisper quiet that does come with a cost as the hinge area does get somewhat hot.
----2) Laptops are faster when they are cooled so your benefiting by making the computer consistently fast =)
----3) Having a laptop stand helps with posture and fatigue so you aren't constantly bending your neck and back :)

=====================Updated: September 15, 2013 (Day 61 with Laptop)=====================
--2 whole months have passed and I'm still loving the laptop as I did the first time I received it. You really can't beat instant startup after shutting down, I've come to rely on this feature too much lol. I haven't had any recent issues, everything has been running so smoothly. The wireless issue hasn't occurred at all after switching routers which I'm thankful for.

--Availability: Based on the trend for the past 2 months, Amazon usually receives a new shipment every week (on a Sunday normally). When they do run out they post an estimated "3 to 4 weeks" shipping but this is a worst case scenario if there were too many orders placed (probably the holidays is when this is true).

=====================Updated: October 17, 2013 (Day 93 with Laptop)=====================
--Windows 8.1 update was simple, updated through the Microsoft App Store Icon. Should be the first icon you see when you open the app, if you don't see it please update your computer to the latest windows 8 update then go back to the Store App Icon.
--Update is ~3.6GB and took ~10-15mins to install, make sure power adaptor is plugged in and don't have any external usb or dongles hooked up otherwise the update will not install, learned the hard way =(
--One thing I noticed, got ~5-10GB in space back from the OS since Windows 8.1 is way smaller than Windows 8
--Defragmenting actually started to trim the SSD compared on Windows 8
--Customizing startup to launch with Desktop Mode was easy, just need to adjust a setting on the Taskbar properties under "Navigation"
--Hibernate mode issue of sometimes turning back on by itself got fixed
--Drivers seem to work a lot better mainly wifi, got better signal than usual in most areas
--Battery life increased a tad ~10-20min since apps are more efficient/ updated

=====================Updated: November 17, 2013 (Day 123 with Laptop Windows 8.1)========
--If brightness setting doesn't work, it's an indication that there is an update and you will have to restart the computer to get brightness setting back. It's annoying sometimes but it does make sure your system is always up to date.
--Acer also released an updated version of the wireless card driver for Win 8.1, so now all wifi issues are non-existent. If you experience any wifi issues, manually download and update the driver from Acers support page.
--I've been quiet vocal on how the speakers for the S7 has been the downside to the machine but after updating to Win 8.1 and reinstalling the realtek audio driver from Acer's support page. The speakers now sound a lot clearer and crisper, but maybe this is because of my cooling stand also but the sound is literally surround sound when I change the sound mode on the Dolby Home Theatre to Movie mode. (You can change the sound profile by going the Dolby Home Theater program in the minimized icons on the taskbar)

=====================Updated: December 09, 2013 (Day 145 with Laptop Windows 8.1)========
--After a couple weeks with the improved speaker software, I've figured that in order to get the surround sound feel you have to put the volume at minimum %80 or higher otherwise the sound will sound muffled like it did before but otherwise, you feel immersed in the movie or videos you watch with this laptop. One reason I figured was that ~80% the audio software starts to mega amplifies the sound in a good way making the speakers sound clearer than they were before. I don't exactly how but they did the amplifying but it made me love this laptop even more :D

================================================
Will update regularly or as questions are asked
================================================

141 of 157 people found the following review helpful.
Returning (BEWARE Fundamental Hardware Issue)
By Scott Reisig
While certainly a beautiful product, the hardware has a specific issue where it is thought the grounding plate can easily become jostled resulting in the laptop randomly shutting down. The issue was detailed extensively on Acer's support forum for last's year (Ivy Bridge based) S7. Apparently Acer DID NOT fix the flaw for this Haswell based S7. The original thread discovering the issue is here:

[...]

I bought this device for my fiance's use for medical school. She was very delicate to the machine with simple non-computational intensive tasks. The machine started to randomly shut down within the first week or so. When contacting Acer and going through their troubleshooting scenarios, they realized (as I already had) that it was not a software issue, but a hardware one. It was arranged to have the ultrabook sent to their facilities in Texas for repair. The outrageous part here was Acer has the audacity to ask that I PURCHASE A SHIPPING BOX AND PAY FOR THE SHIPPING! Due to the time constraints of my fiance's need for a computer, I shipped the ultrabook overnight delivery hoping to reduce the turnaround time. Total cost to shipping with insurance (valuing the device at $1600) $145..........................

Days go by, calling Acer to get a more specific status other than (received, in repair, etc.) is futile. We finally received the ultrabook 8 days later. The paperwork stated they needed to "reseat the motherboard and update the BIOS" but it did not specify what exactly was the issue. With my fiance happy that it's back, all is well (even though I'm still ticked I needed to pay for the shipping of a brand new defective product). Within another week.....the issue is back...lovely.......

Calling Acer, this time not interested in runarounds, I state the device is defective. Not surprisingly they wanted me to PAY AND SHIP it back to them. I instead demanded that they send a brand new S7 (non-refurbished which many manufactures sneakily do) to me. Once I confirmed the new ultrabook is non-defective, I will send back the defective device. Of course Acer would not do such a thing. You know, the common customer service required for any PC vendor. I asked to speak with the supervisor, was told they were busy and will call me back in 30 minutes. No call...........

Frustrated I call Amazon. Explained the situation (the ultrabook was 8 days past its return period). Amazon agreed to allow me to return the device and provide a refund. This is exactly why I'm a Amazon customer. Fantastic customer service. Acer not so much. Defective products happen from time to time, but making the customer pay out of pocket and waste their time is NOT customer service, it's garbage.

Acer did manage to call me back 8 hours later "ready to talk". I informed them I will be returning the device to Amazon and getting my refund. The supervisor said "Sorry", then click.......

214 of 244 people found the following review helpful.
Great new Haswell Ultrabook with a few glaring flaws
By J. McMahon
I have a short, but demanding list of requirements in a laptop. I regularly travel internationally and I use my laptop for both normal office tasks and high-performance processing.

My list is:
Lightweight, 13 or less, 3lb or less, full HD screen or better, Core i7 CPU, 8GB RAM or more, 256GB SSD+, good battery life ~5+ hours. I'm unwilling to budge on any of these items. This makes for a very short list of potential laptops. In 2011, ONLY the Sony Vaio Z (my current laptop) offered all these features, but is getting long in the tooth. This year, there are more options, and the Acer S7 appears to be an attractive one.

Pros:

Battery life. 6-8 hours under normal WiFi, 60-80% brightness, browser, video playback, Outlook usage. Typcial business usage.Battery life is great, as I believe it will be on many/most Haswell-powered lightweight Ultrabooks. I'm pretty confident they could slap the new chipset and CPU into last years' hardware and nearly double battery life. It's amazing. But that's nothing specific to this laptop. The new Sony Vaio Pro 11/13 also see the same battery benefits.

Fan. This system is silent. Even under load, the system occasionally got warm, but was always extremely quiet, the fans were imperceptible.

SSD speed. Amazing read speeds, middling write speeds. Has 2x 128GB Kingston SSD's in a RAID0. Now that Intel's RST supports TRIM in RAID, these SSD's should last plenty long even in a RAID. Boot times and load times were good as expected. I'd expect the same kind of performance with any other Haswell laptops with SSD's.

Build quality. Looks nice. Feels premium, solid, and tough. No flex, no screen wobble, which is big for a touchscreen laptop. Unfortunately, the edges of the screen are quite sharp, which seems strange and unnecessary.

Screen. A good quality, good color, full-HD screen. Has some minor light bleed at the corners, but is only visible on full black. I'd hoped to see the model with the 2560x1440 screen, but it appears this isn't available yet.

Speakers. I've seen other reviewers knock the speakers. Coming from the horrific speakers on the Vaio Z, anything is a step up. I found the speakers to be reasonably good, with the note that they do face down from the front edge of the laptop. This means if you have it on a hard surface you'll get good sound, but on a soft surface or on a lap, the sound may be muffled.

Leather case is neat and attractive.

Cons:

Keyboard. Tactile feedback is good, keypress depth is good, backlight is nice, BUT... The keys don't consistently register unless pressed down from the center. That is to say, if you're used to touch-typing on another keyboard and you try to use this one, you'll regularly have to go back to re-press keys that aren't registering. Here's what's happening, if you press a key, but don't press in the center, the key goes down far enough that the tactile feel would have you think it's registered. That's to say you actual feel and hear the "click" of the keypress, without the key registering. This alone was a deal-breaker for me. Maybe it's something that can be fixed in software somehow, maybe by making the keyboard more sensitive to these "partial" presses, but this made typing on this laptop irritating and unwieldy. I fear this is a hardware design issue that would be unfixable. I suppose I could have persisted to try to ensure I press each key hard and perfectly in the center, but I was too frustrated to try.

Other haven't had the same problem, so it is possible my unit was defective, but still, the experience was bad enough that I wouldn't want to try again.

Clickpad. Yet another new generation of touchpad that seems worse than previous generations. I don't know why touchpad technology seems to be going downhill, but this seems like a good example. The pad feels just like a Macbook touchpad, but without the great driver implementation that Apple has. It's a single piece of material, with no physical left or right-click buttons. It looks nice, but that's the end of the similarities. It's reactive and sensitive as well as adjustable. Despite all the configuration options, I couldn't get the touchpad to work in a way that felt natural and for this reason found it uncomfortable to use the touchpad much of the time.

Here's the problem:
When clicking, whether by pressing where pointing to click, or by pressing the lower left corner of the pad to click at the same time as pointing, the cursor would often move slightly, meaning that I would often have to try two or three times to click accurately if I was trying to click on something small. If you turn off scaling, 1920x1080 on a 13" screen means everything is pretty small...Usually these types of touchpads (I've used plenty) have a designated dead area near the bottom that you can use to left or right click without that touch being factored into the overall cursor motion. This did not appear to be the case and was not configurable. I tried to hunt down newer drivers, even trying some non-Acer drivers, but was unable to resolve this. Maybe I use the trackpad differently than others, I typically use two fingers, one to point and another to click.

The Apple touchpad/clickpad is smart enough not to use a second touch to change the location of the cursor allowing you to use a finger for clicking and holding without it moving the cursor. It does this without needing a dedicated click area. Also, the Apple touchpad features the ability to touch the pad with two fingers to right click at the current location, negating the need for a right click area. This touchpad does not have this feature.

Lack of F-keys. The laptop has no dedicated F-keys (F1, F2, F3, etc...). Instead it uses the number keys along with the Fn button. This is fine as long as you don't use these regularly (Alt+F4 for instance). I do use them regularly, so I found this annoying. I'd rather them be small than nonexistent. I assume these keys were done away with to make room for the S7's cooling, which is admittedly excellent.

Although relatively light, the laptop seemed heavy for it's size. I'm coming from a Vaio Z, so maybe the step up in weight from carbon fiber is noticeable to me where it wouldn't be to to others.

The power power on the laptop and the corresponding plug were tiny. I was afraid that it might get bent. The laptop gives off a quiet beep when the power is connected, which is nice, but the plug does not stay very securely. I suppose given the battery life, most users might unplug this laptop before using.

Cover and screen are fingerprint magnets. But I suppose that's to be expected of glass. It made me wish the screen wasn't a touch screen, so I would want to avoid touching it.

Bloatware. As is the norm on most laptops these days, Windows is chock full of Acer's "helpful" programs. Unfortunately, it's difficult to tell which programs actually serve some kind of purpose and which don't.

WiFi performance with the dual band Intel 7260 was initially AWFUL. That's to say 20% signal strength on this laptop next to my Vaio Z with the older Intel WiFi card at 90%. I was amazed to see this from an Intel WiFi card, which I normally find to be exemplary. I managed to dig up a new driver that was not yet available from Intel's site and was able to achieve normal WiFi performance.

Battery. Although battery life was great, the battery showed 5% wear after a week of usage! This is as shown by BatteryBar. Most of my laptops stay under 5% until well over a year of usage. The high wear right off the bat with a 5% loss in capacity was very concerning as to the quality of the battery in the S7.

Conclusion:

In the end, I wanted to love it, but the keyboard and the touchpad were too painful to use for an extended period of time and I ended up returning it. As always, Amazon returns and customer service are excellent.

Next on my list is the Asus Zenbook Infinity, which should have the higher-res screen the US-spec S7 lacks. Gorilla Glass 3 instead of 2 on the lid, and will ship with Windows 8.1, meaning they may already have worked out the 8.1 driver issues we're bound to see with laptops like the S7 that are released just months before 8.1 is released. Fingers crossed.

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Canon PowerShot S110 12MP Digital Camera with 3-Inch LCD (Black)

Canon PowerShot S110 12MP Digital Camera with 3-Inch LCD (Black)..

Grab Now Canon PowerShot S110 12MP Digital Camera with 3-Inch LCD (Black) By Canon

Most helpful customer reviews

339 of 373 people found the following review helpful.
So Much Canon Goodness Packed Into This Tiny Fella!
By Marc Jordan
As we all know, Canon's S90 - S100 models have pretty much set the bar in The Advanced Point And Shoot market for the last 4 1/2 yrs... Until recently ( With the advent of The Sony RX100). Canon sales more cameras than almost all other brands combined, this does not indicate, however; that they are the best in all categories, but that they are either the best over all, or at least in the top 5 for most classes of cameras.

I have owned many Canon Cameras and printers over the years, and I have been very happy with most of them, but I also place a lot of stock in fellow Amazon customer's reviews. For many months, I noticed that every other review, or updated one, for The Powershot S100 indicated a nasty lens error. That said, this time around researching advanced P&S's, I decided to see what other Brands such as: Nikon, Fuji, Panny and Sony were offering... What I found was this, Other brands have really took notice of The Canon S and SX line's success and or offering very stiff competition!

Sony has, IMHO, set the New Standard with the almost perfect Advanced P&S, The RX100. My coworker owns one, and it stomps all others in this now crowded class! Only problem is that it cost over $650.00, but the image quality, and low light rendering are truely amazing! Needless to say, Sony discounts its products about as often as Apple discounts its products... NEVER! The Panny Lumix LX5 and LX7, Nikon P300 and P310 and Fuji X10, are all now offering very good to excellent image quality in this class. You saw correct! I did include The Nikon Coolpix P310! Nikon has really stepped their game up with The Coolpix Line, in fact; this was the only model that came close to The Canon S100 and S110's Bang-For-Your-Buck. Price, it is $200 less than Canon S110, $450 less than The Sony RX100, while offering excellent I.Q., pocketabillity, low light performance and manual controls... Sans Raw mode. Came so close to getting The Nikon P310, before you judge me, just take a gander at the online sample shots of this camera!

In the end, I came back to The Canon S110. Chose The newer S110 over The S100 in the hopes of avoiding The Lens Error (Fingers Crossed). So happy with this camera! The S110 looks identical to The S100, but let me tell you, Canon has made some huge improvements with The 110. Canon has improved upon the sensor and auto focus speed of this model, added usable ISO, WiFi and touchscreen functionallity. Low light performance is a lot like that of The S95 and S100 combined. Allow me to explain. Sometimes The S100's colors would be a little off in low light, casting an orangish hue... as if shot in sepia. The Powershot S95 rendered sharp, detailed and very accurate colors in lowlight, but the lens was a bit slow under these conditions. I don't know what Canon did, but there is almost zero lag in AF, despite others claim that this is a slower lens or sensor than its predecessors. Color, contrast and sharpness are spot on! I predict that the next S model will have a larger sensor to be competitive with The Sony RX100's lowlight performance, but until then, I have to say that the S110 is very close in low light image quallity and will surpass the Sony, although at the cost of a higher price point and perhaps a larger form factor because of the larger sensor.

Battery life has never been an issue with me, because I rarely took over 100 pictures in a day and never used GPS tagging or logging. I also rarely shoot video clips longer than 10 min. in a day,also buy cheap aftermarket Batt.s as back-up. Canon's addition of WiFi to The S-Line is really cool and useful; I use it way more than I thought I would! It is implemented very well with this camera, much smoother and faster than using Eye-Fi's top of the line card... That's an $80 dollar value right there! Lol Also, I already own a Canon SX-230HS and many extra batteries. The S110 uses the same battery ( NBL-5) as The SX-230. Yes! Winning! WiFi connection with your smartphone or iPhone is almost instantaneous, once the App. is opened on the device, or printer turned on. GPS functions are combined with these WiFi transmissions between your phone and camera, and they are thus also instantanious.

The WiFi operates very efficently, and a cool, bright, blue LED lights up on the top of the camera when it is connected. It flashes when busy. The Camera asks if you would like to geotag or log your location while connected to your phone or computer. It is a 2 second affair, so GPS no longer drains your battery. Built-in GPS and Eye-Fi cards do not work nearly as seemless as this! I had issues when first setting this connection up, because I thought I could bypass the step where you connect the Camera to a computer via USB cable and run software CD... You have to do this step! I think you may have to also Register your S110 for it to properly set up initial WiFi.
Touchscreen: Very Responsive, and can be adjusted.... Nuff said on that.

CONS: The things I don't like about The Canon Powershot S110 are pretty much all ergonomically based. These things are true of the entire S series, and perhaps the indicative of the entire Class of these type cameras. They are not easily handled or operated... even on Auto! EXAMPLE: A friend, family memb., or pedestrian says, "Hey, YOUR NAME HERE, I noticed you are taking everyone else's picture, would you like me to take yours with the group?" You have to explain that this really tiny, hard to press button turns the camera ON. When it turns on be careful, because the flash is going to come up over here. If you want to zoom in it's the tiny switch here next to the shutter button. Now, you only want to press the shutter button halfway to compose the shot... it'll beep when ready, then you push it all the way down to take the shot. See? Some ergonomic issues have gotten better with this version of The "S".... others the same or worse. 1. Front grip is gone. 2. As on all The S Models, power button is way too small and recessed. 3.Mode wheel blocks index finger from shutter button. 4.Flash makes camera hard to handle with left hand. 5. if touchscreen shutter is on, camera will take picture if finger contacts screen before you are ready. I guess some things have to be sacrificed for a small form factor, but I feel comfortable giving anyone my Canon Elph 300HS and it is the smallest P&S ever produced!

There is no loud knocking noise when zooming in video, but there is a slight wherling sound when I zoom in video. Hard to notice and can only be heard when passage is very quiet during playback, but it's there... none the less. Wish Canon would get that worked out. All and all EXCELLENT IMAGE QUALITY and cool added features, deffinately recommended! The White is very cool looking and although glossy does not show prints as much as I had anticipated. The Black/Mat is sleek and modern looking like a stealth plane.... was a hard decision to make! UPDATE: Have now taken close to 400 shots. Still going strong! There are a few points that I should add to my review. Some I forgot, and some are new discoveries.

1. Wifi connection.: I own a Huawi Glory/Mercury Android smartphone which is still running Gingerbread. The S110 connects flawlessly with this phone, but what I found out is, you must be near an open WiFi network or hot spot for it to work. The Camera's Wifi will not work over 3G or tethered to your phones mobile hotspot. Also, The S110's WiFi will not connect wirelessly to Windows7 Basic,Starter or any OS older, such as XP or Vista. It won't work on Macs older than OSX 10 or whatever Apple's answer for Windows 7 was. I was told by a Canon Rep. that it works well with full versions of Windows 7, and extremely well with Windows 8. We will see. Waiting for Black Fri. to snag a Windows8 computer.

2. Touchscreen Shutter: Amazingly, the touchscreen functionallity of The S110

has really impressed my friends and family. It really comes in handy when I

give The S-110 to someone, in order to get in the picture myself or for

some one to swipe through the pictures, using their finger to preview.

3. Price Point: I purchased The Powershot S110 for $390 used, and it came

new, in box with all contents still sealed in plastic. Nice! The main reason

I purchased the S110 over the S100 was it was only $38 dollars more at that

time, and I felt that was a small Diff. to pay to hopefully avoid The Lens

Error. I really am happy with this little camera. The functions and menues

are very easy and quick to access with the lens ring and touchscreen. Before

I was using Auto way too much... Now, I am truely learning, in a fun easy way

about F-stops, apperature, ISO, white balance, shutter speed, etc. Things

that I already kinda knew about with my Eos T3 and even my S95, but seemed

to much trouble or laborious, are now fun and easily implemented to play

around with. I am having, "A Ha moments," where I think aaah, that's why

that turned

out good or bad with my DSLR... The S-110 is the perfect learning tool to

whip out of your pocket, purse, or Camera Case and start learning and capt-

uring. I also played around with The Canon G15 and G1X. Salesman at camera

store told me that G15 used pretty much the same sensor,lens and processor

as The Canon S100 and S110. The Powershot G1X really impressed me with its

image quality though; seemingly better than even the more expensive, Sony RX

100! I understood why when he told me it had an SLR sized sensor. The G1X is

a beast, though! Holding it, it felt the size and weight of my T3 without the

lens! Way too large, but may be Canon's answer to The New Sony, Panny, Fuji

and Olympias in this class. He offered it to me at the same price as the G15

$550 plus Uncle Sam's cut (Tax), but it still was more than I could afford.

So here I am. A happy S110 owner. Lol

76 of 82 people found the following review helpful.
Touch screen and other thoughts
By Peacefrog
Been using my new white S110 for a few days now and my initial impressions are:

Build Quality - Very good, nicely finished has the look and feel of a quality product

Features: Touch screen is responsive, AF is speedy even in low light, knurled front ring makes adjustments easy and fast, typically good, easy-to-follow menu system and initial setup. LCD is bright and visible even in Florida sunlight. Auto white balance seems pretty good. The Auto function works surprisingly well choosing a scene mode and applying image parameters. With the Auto mode, I have not witnessed any unexpected blown-out highlights and shadow detail is pretty good. Image stabilization appears to work very well, perhaps 3 stops worth. Conversely, wireless setup is a monster nightmare that involves Canon Gateway, registering, modifying your network settings and then just maybe it will work. After almost 30 minutes of tinkering, I was able to transfer 16 photos to my laptop but it took almost 15 minutes to accomplish the transfer. Much easier to just use a card reader and then upload photos to social media sites, email, etc. Canon has not made this feature user-friendly. I will not be using the wireless capability.

Image Quality: Very good up to 800 ISO - little noise, good detail, and color. 1600 is still good. 3200 perhaps for small prints only.

Overall: Good camera; however, Canon's engineers made the wireless curse-worthy. Build quality, image quality, handling, ergonomics are all above average. My only caveat involves the price...kind of pricey for a couple of features over the S100. If you can find an S100 with a serial number above 42xxx (infamous lens error problem), you'll have basically the same camera as the S110 sans the touch screen and the wireless features at a much less expensive cost. I plan to keep my S110 since it is so very pocket-able, fast, and puts out very decent images especially at lower ISO levels. Canon states that the S110 has a newly designed lens. I am just hoping they have rectified the frequent lens error problem of the S100. Time will tell.

139 of 159 people found the following review helpful.
You'll Regret Purchasing This Camera
By Zero Cool
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RB2DMHJRNA9WD While the S110 has great features, it suffers from the fatal lens error that has become synonymous with Canon's Powershot S line of cameras. This Powershot S110 failed with a lens error during a family vacation - leaving me with just my lousy smartphone camera. I had it for only 20 days when it failed.

I've owned the S10, S80, S95, and now this S110. With the exception of the S95, ever single model has had a lens error. Until now I've just dealt with it (returned / repaired) because of the excellent image quality and features. I can no longer ignore these lens issues and I will no longer be buying Canon cameras. Frankly, I feel like kind of a fool for giving Canon so many chances.

Do yourself a favor and search for Powershot lens errors. Most importantly, don't ignore what you find! This is a great camera when it works - which is why there are so many 5 star reviews. Read the 1 star reviews to get an idea how common the lens error is - then decide if you want to take a chance on this camera.

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ASUS Zenbook UX301LA-DH71T 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Blue)

ASUS Zenbook UX301LA-DH71T 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Blue)..

Buy ASUS Zenbook UX301LA-DH71T 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Blue) By Asus

Most helpful customer reviews

71 of 71 people found the following review helpful.
A quality product
By Ryan Mulligan
This ultrabook is fantastic.

Beautiful, solid, light build.
Extremely quick computing.
Minimal bloatware.
Finally, a GREAT trackpad on a laptop that isn't an Apple product.

--The i7 4558U processor (2.8GHz) is worth the extra money, as it's much faster than the i7 4500 (1.8GHz) or i5 4200 (1.6GHz)
--The 8GB of DDRL3 RAM really help boost performance over other ultrabooks housing only 4GB, especially when multitaksing.
--The integrated Iris 5100 graphics are actually capable of running fairly intense programs, newer games like Skyrim, for example, though only on low graphics settings. Still, it's impressive for an integrated unit.
--The SSD's in RAID are incredibly quick, and really help cut down boot time to just about 10 seconds from cold. I'm up and running in no time.
--The battery life is actually 8 hours or more on normal use. Way to go Haswell processor. You're not an energy sink.
--At just over 3 pounds, this laptop is so light, and remarkably thin.

I've had it for a week, and there is nothing I can complain about, and I feel I'm rather picky about my electronics.

If you have the money, and are frustrated about how it seems many ultrabooks have to compromise in some area, this is a stellar laptop.

--UPDATE--
I've had this ultrabook for about four weeks now, and unfortunately, I noticed a small linear scratch on the lid. I bring this up because the GorillaGlass3 covering the lid is reported to be nearly scratch-proof against anything but sand. I've been very careful with this laptop, carrying it in a case whenever I transport it, and I was hoping it would be more scratch resistant than it's shaping up to be. Still, this is an excellent product, and I'm still impressed by its outstanding performance.

--Update--
After 5 months, I am still extremely satisfied with this ultrabook. I can work through an entire day at school on a single battery charge, and not sacrifice performance. This thing hasn't slowed down at all. And for those of you that care, it'll produce fluent framerates for games like Skyrim (High textures, no antialiasing,) Deus Ex: Human Revolution (High settings,) and Mass Effect 3 on ultra graphics settings. Light, fast, powerful, this is still the laptop I had hoped for five months ago.

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful.
A premium ultrabook from every perspective.
By Doug Colt
After extensive research, I narrowed my ultrabook choice down to the Zenbook UX301 or the Samsung Book 9 Plus. They both have very similar specs, but ultimately I chose the Asus for the following reasons:

1) Better processor and graphics. You get the 2.8 ghz i7 with Iris graphics. The Samsung only offers the lower-tier 1.8 Ghz without Iris.

2) Better wi-fi. The Asus has the newest-generation ac wireless. Samsung is still a generation behind.

3) Seemingly better build quality, but this is largely a wash.

4) 30-day zero dead pixel guarantee. When you've got screens with as many millions of pixels as these have, that's a nice thing to have! (My screen was flawless though).

5) Some nice add ons. The Asus comes with an included ethernet dongle and an included mini display port/VGA dongle.

6) I feel silly saying it, but a bit of cache. The Asus is generally more difficult to find and there are fewer of them out in the wild.

I have been very impressed with this machine so far. It truly is gorgeous. The build quality appears to be very good. I could not identify any manufacturing flaws, and the whole thing feels rock solid. The keyboard is excellent, as is the trackpad. Very little bloatware. Screen was perfect. I've been impressed with the performance and I'm still testing the battery life. I'll update my review once I've had a chance to test it further.

This is expensive indeed, but it oozes premium ultrabook from all corners.

UPDATE:

After using this machine for the last two months I remain very satisfied. The performance has been excellent and the gorilla glass really seems to stand up to scratches. The exterior continues to look brand new.

I haven't experienced any technical issues with any of the hardware. The keyboard remains very pleasant to use and the trackpad is really outstanding. On par with anything that Apple puts out.

I have received many compliments on the quality and clarity of the screen.

Battery life has generally been very good. With typical internet use and medium brightness, I'm getting 7-9 hours on average. The battery also charges very quickly, which is a nice bonus.

One minor annoyance has to do with Windows and not the hardware. The resolution on the screen is so high that you will want to use the Windows interface to increase font and icon sizes in almost all cases. This works fine, except when you need to use the machine for remote access (such as through a VPN or using a vmWare client). The increase in font and icon sizes does not carry through to a remote session, so you will end up with microscopic icons. The solution is that you have to change your screen resolution before logging into a remote session. This isn't a huge deal but it's a bit of an annoyance. Again, however, this is a Windows 8 issue and not an ASUS issue.

All in all I am extremely impressed with this ultrabook.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
ASUS has a winner on their hands for those willing to pay the premium price to own.
By Jonathan
I've been waiting for this ultrabook to release since the start of the fall semester. Well, it's definitely been worth the wait. The computer boots up insanely fast due to the RAID 0 SSD configuration. It is not bogged down by a ton of bloatware either. The only changes I've made so far were to uninstall McAfee for Norton 2014 (since I had one license left).

One minor gripe I have is the drive partitioning. I would have preferred one partition to how ASUS partitioned the drive into C: (OS) and D: (DATA) in addition to smaller recovery partitions, but I am not taking a star off for that. If it was that big a deal, somebody could (through software) change the partitions however they liked. I was able to merge the C: and D: drive partitions into one C: partition using 3rd party software.

The high resolution screen is very nice. The look, feel, and portability of this laptop are second to none. I look forward to using this high quality ultrabook for a long time.

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