Share Ipaqman's profile
Ipaqman
Ipaqman's stats
- Review count3
- Helpfulness votes40
- First reviewApril 26, 2014
- Last reviewApril 20, 2016
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating5
Reviews comments
- Review comment count0
- Helpfulness votes0
- First review commentNone
- Last review commentNone
- Featured review comments0
Questions
- Question count0
- Helpfulness votes0
- First questionNone
- Last questionNone
- Featured questions0
Answers
- Answer count0
- Helpfulness votes0
- First answerNone
- Last answerNone
- Featured answers0
- Best answers0
Ipaqman's Reviews
HP Spectre x360 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop: This versatile laptop's vivid HD touch screen and convertible design make it easy to enjoy your favorite shows and games in laptop or tablet mode. Connect to an external device via Bluetooth interface for simple streaming.
Customer Rating
5
Great 2 in 1 notebook PC
on April 20, 2016
Posted by: Ipaqman
from Mansfield MA
Verified Purchase:Yes
I spent weeks looking over the best notebook PCs available in 2016.
My spec list included great construction, touchscreen, convertible use (yoga like), great looks, at least 4 GB RAM, at least 128GB of SSD, bright full HD display, long battery life, lots of ports, and cost less than $1000.
This eliminated the Dell XPS 13 since it does not come in a touchscreen at the price.
The Yoga 900 was considered but it cost $150 extra and used non-metal construction.
The Yoga 900 was considered but it cost $150 extra and used non-metal construction.
I got the HP Spectre X360 with 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, and Intel I7 CPU for $999 on sale. I loved the looks, the screen, the full size USB 3.0 and HDMI ports. After almost two months of ownership, the Spectre still looks new.
The Yoga 900 is lighter but I think that the Spectre is more rugged. The Spectre is made of solid aluminum top and bottom. Every seam is tight. The SD card slot holds the whole card as opposed to the Yoga 900 with the SD card hanging half-way out when inserted. I leave a 128GB SD card in the Spectre as supplemental storage. This would be difficult to do with the Yoga 900. In SD card testing, I found that the Spectre allows the full read write speed of SD cards. All of my other PCs limit SD card speed to USB 2.0 speeds.
The three full size USB 3.0 ports allows the full speed copying of data between USB 3.0 external drives. With other PCs, the copying is limited by having to use at least one USB 2 port.
In two months, I have not encountered a blue screen of death. Battery life when browsing and doing email is usually over 8 hours. The Spectre will idle with screen on dim for almost 19 hours. High CPU loads will drop battery life severely.
My benchmark tests with PC Mark 7 and PC Mark 8 are comparable to the test results on online reviews. This is a fast machine. The screen is very bright and great for viewing videos. The NotebookCheck website has a very detailed review of this notebook.
My only nit with the Spectre is the ACPI support. It does not provide battery life calculations to programs like BatteryBar.
There are so many little details that are done well. The full size SD card slot, the full size ports, the recessed power switch (hard to accidentally push), the led light on the backlight key, the led light on the mute key, the right angle power plug, the glass smooth touchpad, the Chiral scrolling support, the left size exhaust vent, and the alignment of the function keys to the number keys (F5 is over 5) are some of them.
This is the best HP notebook I have owned.
My Best Buy number: 0044727956
My Best Buy number: 0044727956
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
+16points
16of 16voted this as helpful.
Capture clear conversations by using this Olympus digital voice recorder. With omnidirectional microphones for accurate recording from any position, an antirustle filter and a noise cancellation function, it's easy to obtain crisp sound, even from inside a shirt pocket. Compile meeting minutes quickly with this black Olympus digital voice recorder's transcription and dictation modes.
Customer Rating
5
Easy to carry and use pocket digital recorder
on April 20, 2016
Posted by: Ipaqman
from Mansfield MA
Verified Purchase:Yes
I had checked into various reviews of this pocket recorder. I decided to buy it at BestBuy knowing that I could return it if I was not satisfied.
I have been very pleased with the design of this pocket recorder. While in my pocket, a flick of the top switch will put it into record mode even though it might be locked. There are the normal controls one expects on a digital recorder. The only function that is missing is support for a memory card. There is 4GB of internal memory and you can move recordings from the recorder to your PC.
Overall, I am happy with my piurchase and the BestBuy experience.
My Best Buy number: 0044727956
My Best Buy number: 0044727956
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
+2points
2of 2voted this as helpful.
Only at Best BuyLenovo Yoga 2 13-59403750 Convertible 2-in-1 Laptop: Perfect for work, play and travel, this convertible laptop features a flip-and-fold design so you can operate it in laptop, tablet, tent and stand modes. Enjoy an incredible viewing experience with the Full HD multitouch display.Learn more about the New Windows ›
Posted by: Ipaqman
from Mansfield MA
Verified Purchase:Yes
My PC background includes laptops from Acer, Asus, Gateway, Sony, Toshiba, and IBM. The Yoga 2 13 is the best of the lot. My previous best notebook is the Portege R835 from BestBuy. My notebook search criteria included price, portability, quality build, flexible usage, battery life, vendor support rating, storage options, backlit well designed keyboard, full HD screen resolution, and a good CPU.
I chose the Yoga 2 13 over the Yoga 2 Pro for price, display, and storage. The Yoga 2 13 full HD display has better test numbers in contrast and color fidelity than the Y2Pro. The numbers include a color fidelity delta value of 3.2 compared to 7.6 for the Y2Pro (lower is better), a contrast ratio of 1350:1 compared to 730:1 for the Y2Pro (means colors stand out). The Y2 13 has a higher Windows Experience Index number of 5.3 compared to the Y2Pro's 4.6. The build is several months newer than the Y2Pro with fewer bugs and problems. To be fair, the Y2Pro is 8 ounces lighter and 2 mm thinner and has a quad HD display.
I have not encountered any problems in two weeks of ownership. Removing the included anti-virus improved performance.
The backlit keyboard is great. All of the normal keys and functions are single key presses including home, end, pgup, pgdn, vol+, vol-, mute, brightness+, brightness-. Other keyboards require FN+key to access pgup, vol+, and so on.
The thoughtful design includes a power button accessible in all modes (laptop/stand/tent/tablet), a screen orientation lock button, a hardware volume control, and a boot button. The boot button lets you boot up to a menu to select bios, boot device, and recovery. My other PCs require hitting a key at the right time during boot. With the Yoga shutdown, just press the boot button to get to the menu. In addition, I found a vibration notification feature by pressing the Windows start button. Nice feature.
The touchpad works well. There is an option to swap the scroll direction.
The touchscreen brightness ranges from barely readable at night to daytime brightness. There is an adaptive brightness function that works with the current brightness setting unlike the auto brightness of smartphones that overrides your brightness setting.
The build quality is excellent. The notebook feels solid. The keyboard does not flex during use. Pressing firmly on the back of the screen does not distort the display. The notebook edges are rubber coated. Painted edges tend to get scratched and worn. The AC adapter power cable is thicker than normal. The adapter is quite compact and charges the notebook very fast - less than 3 hours. The battery life is good. Normal web browsing battery life is 6 to 8 hours. Maximum battery life is 13 hours (minimum brightness and doing nothing).
Internet pictures of the Yoga 2 13 internals show an empty M.2 Sata SSD 80mm slot that can hold up to a 480GB SSD. Some owners have added a 240GB SSD in addition to their current 500GB hard drive. The internal 500GB drive is a WD drive that is 5mm in height. Do not expect to upgrade the hard drive any time soon. Consumer drives come in 9.5 mm and 7 mm sizes.
In one support survey, Lenovo rated second only to Apple in quality rating.
Minor nits would include having only 1 USB 3.0 port, an SD card slot that leaves the card sticking out, a short right shift key, a single backlit keyboard brightness level, and no RAM upgrade path.
I chose the Yoga 2 13 over the Yoga 2 Pro for price, display, and storage. The Yoga 2 13 full HD display has better test numbers in contrast and color fidelity than the Y2Pro. The numbers include a color fidelity delta value of 3.2 compared to 7.6 for the Y2Pro (lower is better), a contrast ratio of 1350:1 compared to 730:1 for the Y2Pro (means colors stand out). The Y2 13 has a higher Windows Experience Index number of 5.3 compared to the Y2Pro's 4.6. The build is several months newer than the Y2Pro with fewer bugs and problems. To be fair, the Y2Pro is 8 ounces lighter and 2 mm thinner and has a quad HD display.
I have not encountered any problems in two weeks of ownership. Removing the included anti-virus improved performance.
The backlit keyboard is great. All of the normal keys and functions are single key presses including home, end, pgup, pgdn, vol+, vol-, mute, brightness+, brightness-. Other keyboards require FN+key to access pgup, vol+, and so on.
The thoughtful design includes a power button accessible in all modes (laptop/stand/tent/tablet), a screen orientation lock button, a hardware volume control, and a boot button. The boot button lets you boot up to a menu to select bios, boot device, and recovery. My other PCs require hitting a key at the right time during boot. With the Yoga shutdown, just press the boot button to get to the menu. In addition, I found a vibration notification feature by pressing the Windows start button. Nice feature.
The touchpad works well. There is an option to swap the scroll direction.
The touchscreen brightness ranges from barely readable at night to daytime brightness. There is an adaptive brightness function that works with the current brightness setting unlike the auto brightness of smartphones that overrides your brightness setting.
The build quality is excellent. The notebook feels solid. The keyboard does not flex during use. Pressing firmly on the back of the screen does not distort the display. The notebook edges are rubber coated. Painted edges tend to get scratched and worn. The AC adapter power cable is thicker than normal. The adapter is quite compact and charges the notebook very fast - less than 3 hours. The battery life is good. Normal web browsing battery life is 6 to 8 hours. Maximum battery life is 13 hours (minimum brightness and doing nothing).
Internet pictures of the Yoga 2 13 internals show an empty M.2 Sata SSD 80mm slot that can hold up to a 480GB SSD. Some owners have added a 240GB SSD in addition to their current 500GB hard drive. The internal 500GB drive is a WD drive that is 5mm in height. Do not expect to upgrade the hard drive any time soon. Consumer drives come in 9.5 mm and 7 mm sizes.
In one support survey, Lenovo rated second only to Apple in quality rating.
Minor nits would include having only 1 USB 3.0 port, an SD card slot that leaves the card sticking out, a short right shift key, a single backlit keyboard brightness level, and no RAM upgrade path.
My Best Buy number: 0044727956
My Best Buy number: 0044727956
What's great about it: Display, keyboard, performance, build
What's not so great: Not enough ports
I would recommend this to a friend!
Display
5
Performance
5
Share this review:
+22points
22of 22voted this as helpful.
Ipaqman's Review Comments
Ipaqman has not submitted comments on any reviews.
Ipaqman's Questions
Ipaqman has not submitted any questions.
Ipaqman's Answers
Ipaqman has not submitted any answers.