Strengths: Very big screen. Full QWERTY with num pad. Built in wireless, sound, battery, and display options. Cheap. Fast Processor. A lot of RAM.

Weaknesses: Very Heavy compared to other laptops, not comfortable to hold for long period of time on lap.

Summary: After using this laptop extensively I love all of its features for the price that I got it for. I got it on clearance at staples and it really just works. It has all the ports that you need to do daily work as well as svideo output to do other things. The laptop has a large footprint that you can't help but notice. It runs well and I can't really compare it to other laptops because it does the same as any laptop with 1.6ghz 2gb ram but it just has a very large screen and full keyboard ( including num pad) for typing.

Strengths: screen size.

Weaknesses: none so far

Summary: This particular model comes in at least 2 flavors - one comes with Pioneer dvdrw and synaptics touchpad, the other one comes with optiarc...(made by sony) dvdrw and apls touchpad. I don't know about the difference between dvdrws, but alps toucpad has problems. You can be typing a document and for no reason your focus would move to a differnt part of a document or even a different application.. Seems like alps touchad is too sensitive and it captures a click even when you don't touch it. So, in short, laptop is great, but try to get the one with synaptics touchpad.

Strengths: 2gb, 160hd, core 2 duo

Weaknesses: none

Summary: This is one of the best PCs if you are on the budget and want a 17" screen. It's very powerfull and the only thing I wish was better is the video card. Not that it's bad, but there are better out there. Core 2 duo with 2GB of RAM and SATA hard drive makes windows vista fly. there's no need to downgrade to XP for performance reasons.

Strengths: value

Weaknesses: build quality

Summary: Excellent notebook for the money. Screen is very bright. All internal components seem to be pretty good. 2GB RAM makes Vista usable.Case quality is not that great though. I feel a little bump on the speaker cover.

Strengths: Nice big screenSoft/quiet keyboard2GB of ram

Weaknesses: Thicker than other 17" laptop (compared to HP)keyboard feels a little flimsy

Summary: I bought a sony vaio 15.4" 1.6 dual-core and this laptop on the same day. I decided to keep this laptop because of the big 17" screen, more ram, and a faster cpu. The sony seems to have a better screen in terms of color and brightness; however this one wasn't that far off since the screen was made by samsung. The price difference was about $150, so I thought it was worth it. I decided to downgrade the OS to XP Pro and the performance blew Vista away. I was able to install all the necessary drivers for XP and everything was working perfectly. Vista was ok, but I have been using XP for so long and couldn't stand the new OS.

Strengths: Nice big screenSoft/quiet keyboard2GB of ram

Weaknesses: Thicker than other 17" laptop (compared to HP)keyboard feels a little flimsy

Summary: I bought a sony vaio 15.4" 1.6 dual-core and this laptop on the same day. I decided to keep this laptop because of the big 17" screen, more ram, and a faster cpu. The sony seems to have a better screen in terms of color and brightness; however this one wasn't that far off since the screen was made by samsung. The price difference was about $150, so I thought it was worth it. I decided to downgrade the OS to XP Pro and the performance blew Vista away. I was able to install all the necessary drivers for XP and everything was working perfectly. Vista was ok, but I have been using XP for so long and couldn't stand the new OS.