Monthly Archives: September 2012

I’ve had a week to experience this laptop. I’m not exactly happy. I don’t normally return items, but this one is going back. The main thing I’m not happy with is the processor. It has an AMD A8-4500m processor. It was advertised as a quad core, but this is only a simulated quad core. It was also listed as 3.0GHz. Windows says it’s a 1.9GHz in it’s system listing. It has Turbo Core, which is supposed to bring it up to 2.8GHz, but it’s still a 1.9. It shouldn’t have to be overclocked to get the advertised speed. Using AMD Overdrive to examine my actual clock, it’s getting 2.3 MAX no matter what I do. It’s not even as good as an Intel i3! I love AMD, but this makes me question my brand loyalty. How can you put something like this out with the competition of an i5 being standard these days?

My old laptop had a 1.8GHz, solid. It also only had 2GB of RAM. This new one has 6, but really, it’s not obvious where it counts.

The only things that I love about this computer are the things that should be standard on any computer – a working headphone jack and fan for example.

I do like the backlit keyboard. That’s spiffy as hell. But apparently, I can’t have that and the 17 inch screen that I am so used to. This is a 15.6 inch wide screen, too rectangular for my tastes. I’ve lost too much real estate vertically with this smaller screen.

The Beats audio is very nice. I like the placement of the USB ports. But I’m not thrilled about it and that’s enough not to keep it.