Although the other reviewers have mentioned the keyboard issue, I do not think any of them have done justice to how bad the keyboard is on this computer. The touch pad area is so static sensitive that I am constantly having to Ctrl-Z in order to reverse edit all kinds of bizarre stuff that happens to whatever text I am writing. You almost have to use an external keyboard with this machine. If it were not for Ctrl-Z, I would have returned the machine a long time ago. This machine was obviously not beta tested enough.
Granted, any machine with a touch pad has problems in this area. But this machine has a huge touch pad approximately 2.5"x4.5" big and is by far the worst one I have ever dealt with. You might think having a huge touch pad is a good thing until you have one. Believe me it is a liability, not an asset. You only have to get a fraction of an inch above it to activate it. You don't actually have to touch it. And when you do accidentally touch it, the format changes in MS Word, for example, can be really bizarre and extremely annoying.
It would not be so bad if you could adjust the touch pad sensitivity. Toshiba machines, for example, allow you to adjust the sensitivity. But no such parameter exists on this machine. Believe me, I have looked for it. Ideally I would like to be able to shut off the touch pad altogether, but the hardware management on this machine does not allow it.
My recommedation is that if you are planning to get this machine, plan on getting an external keyboard with it. ...And learn how to use Ctrl-Z. Other than the keyboard issue, it is really a good machine. It is fast and responsive. The screen is excellent. I have used it with an external monitor and am happy with the result. The resolution on the external monitor is not as high as I would like it to be, but I am not sure if it is the graphics card in the computer or the monitor itself that has limitations.
If you are looking for a laptop with portability, I do not recommend this machine. It is large and bulky. Although it is light for it's size, it is still a big machine. And when you hull this machine around, you have no choice but to use the awful keyboard. Carrying around an external keyboard just isn't practical. So if a low price point is important to you and you can live with the impracticality of the keyboard and awkward portability, then you might consider this machine. Otherwise, I would say look somewhere else.
Added later: I finally realized you can overcome a lot of the keyboard problems by putting the power supply (or some other similar sized object) under the back edge of the computer so as to jack up the back of the computer and tilt the plane of the keyboard. It makes a huge difference. The heels of your thumbs are much less likely to trigger the touch pad.
| Standing screen display size | 17 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Max Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 Pixels |
| Processor | 1.6 GHz core_i7 |
| RAM | 8 GB DDR3 |
| Memory Speed | 1.6 GHz |
| Hard Drive | 1 TB SATA |
| Graphics Coprocessor | ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 |
| Chipset Brand | ATI |
| Card Description | Dedicated |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 1000 MB |
| Wireless Type | 802.11bgn, 802.11b, 802.11b/g |
