Lenovo Idealpad AMD Quad Core A6-4455M $299* (YMMV)

Quote from DuckSidious : And as for sucking when you're doing other than running mid range games, are you telling me that you notice the difference when you're typing on Word or working on Excel between a B series and an A6mobile, or reading a webpage, to the point where it becomes disappointing?

Absofreakinglutely. I can tell when I'm using an atom, a celeron, an i3, an i5 or an i7. I have every one of those, and I can tell you which one I'm using. The response time when opening an app, opening chrome with a dozen tabs, using the machine while doing ANYTHING else. Its pretty obvious to me.

And yep, used an a6 laptop. Felt like a dual core atom to me.

And also yep, I have seen i3 machines with a low end discrete gpu for under $300. Which would blow this out of the water.

Anyone doubtful? Go back and read all the threads from people buying e-350 and a6 laptops from the past year. The last 5-6 posts are almost always laden with buyers remorse.

Quote from sklar : Absofreakinglutely. I can tell when I'm using an atom, a celeron, an i3, an i5 or an i7. I have every one of those, and I can tell you which one I'm using. The response time when opening an app, opening chrome with a dozen tabs, using the machine while doing ANYTHING else. Its pretty obvious to me. And yep, used an a6 laptop. Felt like a dual core atom to me. And also yep, I have seen i3 machines with a low end discrete gpu for under $300. Which would blow this out of the water. Anyone doubtful? Go back and read all the threads from people buying e-350 and a6 laptops from the past year. The last 5-6 posts are almost always laden with buyers remorse.

let me know when you find an i3 at 14 inches and 4 lbs with a discrete gpu at $300.

and yes, there is always buyers remorse with anything when the buyer has different expectations. I can find you people with buyers remorse of i7s or Macbooks or BMWs or Atoms. I've also used Atoms and they get to the point of unusable when clogged up with windows crap and multiple windows/tabs open. It isn't as much of an issue on A6s. Have you ever tried running, oh, SC2 on an atom vs an a6. The atom is unplayable. The A6 can.

If they expected to run assassins 3 or skyrim on an E-350, of course they'll bang their heads. but that's more their fault for not knowing what a system is capable of or not.

My bad, a friend emailed me and said he could run SC2 on an atom.

Quote from sharjil333 : It seems like WIndows Defender is not as good as other software. However, anti-virus software have never really been very useful to me. Most of them have only detected viruses after they have already infected the PC.

Thanks, great info, repped.
My wife will not be doing anything crazy online, at least I will keep warning her, and with Firefox or Chrome running the browser, hopefully they will not let her visit some crazy sites.
I just don't want a resource hog running and trying to check every little file transfer. Are there stuff like extremely lightweight antivirus for this type of laptops? I don't want to get norton or kaspersky, as they already strain the i5s and i7s..

Quote from sklar : Absofreakinglutely. I can tell when I'm using an atom, a celeron, an i3, an i5 or an i7. I have every one of those, and I can tell you which one I'm using. The response time when opening an app, opening chrome with a dozen tabs, using the machine while doing ANYTHING else. Its pretty obvious to me. And yep, used an a6 laptop. Felt like a dual core atom to me. And also yep, I have seen i3 machines with a low end discrete gpu for under $300. Which would blow this out of the water. Anyone doubtful? Go back and read all the threads from people buying e-350 and a6 laptops from the past year. The last 5-6 posts are almost always laden with buyers remorse.

Wait, you are able to differentiate between an atom, celeron, i3, i5 or i7 just based on how fast Chrome opens? I have an i5 gaming desktop and also a Lenovo thinkpad x120e which comes with the amd e300 CPU. I surf, watch, youtube, listen to music and run Excel on both machines and there is not that much difference between the two when it comes to running everiday tasks unless I run a game or something that requires more CPU power. Most people don't *need* much more than an e-350 if all they are going to do is just surf the net and do other everday tasks. Now, what people *want* is a whole other story.

Quote from pablocordoba : Thanks, great info, repped. My wife will not be doing anything crazy online, at least I will keep warning her, and with Firefox or Chrome running the browser, hopefully they will not let her visit some crazy sites. I just don't want a resource hog running and trying to check every little file transfer. Are there stuff like extremely lightweight antivirus for this type of laptops? I don't want to get norton or kaspersky, as they already strain the i5s and i7s..

I have found Avg [avg.com] to be very light on resources, just checked and is only using 3k ram(which is nothing).
i had it for about 2 years nows and recommended them to 4 different people and they haven't had a virus yet.

On a different topic, in response to gtothep82
some of these intel fan boys are just delusional, sometimes they just bs it until they believe it.
i personally built a lot of systems and about 8/10 of the built are amd because is cheaper. Out of personal interest i would test the difference between them all the time in terms of speeds with tasks, timing both with my stopwatch(yes i carry one in my car all the time! for gym) and honestly amd is just as good as intel for everyday tasks.

Quote from TheHiddenOne : I have found Avg to be very light on resources, just checked and is only using 3k ram(which is nothing). i had it for about 2 years nows and recommended them to 4 different people and they haven't had a virus yet. On a different topic, in response to gtothep82 some of these intel fan boys are just delusional, sometimes they just bs it until they believe it. i personally built a lot of systems and about 8/10 of the built are amd because is cheaper. Out of personal interest i would test the difference between them all the time in terms of speeds with tasks, timing both with my stopwatch(yes i carry one in my car all the time! for gym) and honestly amd is just as good as intel for everyday tasks.

3k ram? Is that real? I used to use the avira in the past, that thing was OK.
honestly the only thing they need to catch are the major viruses anyway.
I will certainly look into avira, thanks a bunch! Rep.

We are trying to get together and complain to Staples about specs mistakes. Anyone joining?

Those who complained, take a look at this, the only major difference I see is the SSD.
Minor differences are backlit keyboard, bluetooth and win7, it is more than double at $700
http://www.buy.com/prod/toshiba-p...79904.html

Quote from pablocordoba : 3k ram? Is that real? I used to use the avira in the past, that thing was OK. honestly the only thing they need to catch are the major viruses anyway. I will certainly look into avira, thanks a bunch! Rep. We are trying to get together and complain to Staples about specs mistakes. Anyone joining?

Sure, I'll join.

Staples offered me a $25 coupon in response to the spec inaccuracies. Good company; rivals Amazon's customer service.

For anyone returning the "fake" quad core laptop, this is a possible alternative. I have Staples swap the $100 coupon, plus other discount available, making it $400, which is acceptable to me for a everyday use quad core machine with 6GB memory and 750 GB hard drive.

http://www.staples.com/HP-ENVY-dv...uct_985045

Quote from mstmp : For anyone returning the "fake" quad core laptop, this is a possible alternative. I have Staples swap the $100 coupon, plus other discount available, making it $400, which is acceptable to me for a everyday use quad core machine with 6GB memory and 750 GB hard drive. http://www.staples.com/HP-ENVY-dv...uct_985045

If we can get a $25 back, making subject laptop $275 effectively, I think it would still be a reasonable deal not to return it.

Quote from pablocordoba : If we can get a $25 back, making subject laptop $275 effectively, I think it would still be a reasonable deal not to return it.

I'll give that a try too and see if they give $25 back. And anand does say it's a good thing at $400, warts and all, so $275 is better: http://www.anandtech.com/show/651...le-guide/2

just tried with chat and calling in, neither offered $25 they said i could return it.