laptop Archives - Page 14 of 18

Review: HP 15-ay011nr 15.6″ Full-HD Laptop

Posted on October 24, 2017

Mid-range laptops keep getting better while prices are lower than ever, and that’s a great thing for consumers.

I recently had the opportunity to check out the HP 15-ay011nr 15.6″ Full-HD Laptop, a powerful new mid-range machine that offers plenty of bang for the computing buck.

The heart of this laptop is its powerful Intel Core i5 6200U, 2.3GHz, Dual-Core CPU and 8GB of RAM. This is a potent combination that makes Windows 10 really fly, and I found this to be one of the fastest sub-$500 laptops that I’ve used to date. [Read more…]

Q&A: Is it normal for a laptop’s screen to dim when you unplug the charger?

Posted on June 15, 2017

Question from Charlene: My friend bought a new Dell laptop a couple of months ago but she hates it because she can’t get used to Windows 10.

She went and found another laptop with Windows 8.1 on it and she offered to sell me the one with Windows 10 for half what she paid for it.

The problem is the screen dims every time you unplug the charger and I’m afraid something might be wrong with it. She says it’s normal for a laptop to dim the screen when the charger is unplugged, but my old laptop never did that.

I have two questions for you. First, do you think something’s wrong with this laptop, or is this normal?

And second, if there’s something wrong with it, will Dell fix it for me under the warranty even though I’m not the person that bought it?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Review: HP Spectre 13.3 Ultrabook Laptop

Posted on May 31, 2017

When it comes to laptops these days, thin is in – as in the thinner the better!

The problem is, as laptops become thinner, sacrifices must often be made in terms of performance, features and connectivity.

With their new Spectre 13.3 Ultrabook, HP has managed to create one of the thinnest laptops ever without sacrificing much of anything at all! [Read more…]

Why you shouldn’t believe that new study claiming manufacturers fib about their laptops’ battery lives

Posted on April 5, 2017

The folks at Which? claim that a new study they conducted shows that most manufacturers overstate the battery life of their laptops by huge margins (by hours instead of minutes).

I don’t believe that to be accurate, and I’ll explain why.

Which? says they tested a slew of laptop models by several major manufacturers by using them to continually access the Internet over Wi-Fi or watching videos until the battery goes from fully charged to completely empty.

The conclusion they drew from the results of those tests is that most manufacturers are overstating their laptops’ battery lives by as much as 50%. In other words, they are basically saying the manufacturers are fibbing to their customers.

I believe that conclusion is flawed because the study was apparently conducted under the assumption that most laptop owners use their machines in one of those two ways. Well, most users don’t. [Read more…]

Review: Toshiba Satellite C55-C5241 15.6 Inch Laptop

Posted on December 26, 2016

toshiba-satellite-c55-c5241-laptop Windows 10 laptops have now firmly taken over the market and I’ve had the opportunity to check a number of them out.

Today I’m going to tell you about the sleek new Toshiba Satellite C55-C5241 that I recently took for a spin.

This laptop comes equipped with a bright 15.6-inch widescreen HD 1366×768 TruBrite display, a powerful 2.2 GHz Core i5-5200U CPU, 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 RAM and a spacious 1TB hard drive. That all adds up to plenty of power for most anyone who isn’t into competitive gaming. [Read more…]