For the price I paid, this laptop can't be beat. I applied for an Amazon Store Card while purchasing, which gave me a $40 instant credit, further knocking down the price.
This laptop is small and thin for a 15.6" screen (fits in my 14" laptop sleeve), very light (only 3.7 lbs), and fast (8th gen i5 and 8 GB RAM). As others have said, the only downside is the slow 5400 RPM 1 TB hard drive. As far as that goes, I have a trick to get around it if you're planning to install an SSD. Alternatively, I also have advice if you're planning to stick with the included hard drive. Here it goes.
If you're planning to upgrade to an SSD drive and already have the SSD drive in hand, then do this to avoid the slow hard drive headaches:
1. Boot up the new laptop for the 1st time.
2. While activating Windows, DO NOT connect to your WiFi.
3. After Windows fully starts up, install disk cloning software (Macrium Reflect, Acronis, etc.) from a USB flash drive. You can't download the disk cloning software because you are not connected to WiFi.
4. Shut down the laptop, open it up, and install your SSD drive.
5. Turn on the laptop again. Use the disk cloning software to clone the hard drive onto your SSD drive.
6. Turn off the laptop. At this point you have a choice. You can either boot into the BIOS to set your new SSD drive as the default boot drive while keeping the old hard drive installed, or you can just remove the old hard drive to force the laptop to boot off the new SSD.
7. Turn on the laptop and admire how awesomely fast it starts up from the lightning quick SSD! :-)
8. Now you can finally connect to your WiFi network and let Windows download and install all it's updates and security patches.
The reason I recommend doing this is because you don't want to let Windows try to download and install hundreds of MB's of updates and patches while running off the dog slow 1 TB hard drive. That would take a very long, long time. And the slow hard drive will be at 100% disk utilization for hours or days while it's trying to download and install all these Windows updates. As other people have said, the laptop will seem to freeze and be unresponsive during this time. But by upgrading to an SSD drive BEFORE letting the laptop download and install Windows updates, the fast SSD will make this process go A LOT FASTER.
And my tip for those people who don't plan to install an SSD drive and just keep using the included 1 TB hard drive:
1. After booting up the laptop for the 1st time, activate Windows, and connect to your WiFi.
2. Then leave the laptop on for a day or two and don't try to use it. Why? Because people have said it can take up to 2 days for the laptop to download and install all the Windows updates. Trying to use it during this time, with the hard drive utilization pegged at 100%, would be a exercise in frustration.
3. Then finally, after all the Windows updates have been downloaded and installed, reboot the laptop and use it as you wish. The laptop should be fairly speedy now after the initial slowness from the updates. Enjoy!
For $499 the laptop is a bargain, but you should only buy if you you plan to add an SSD in the near future.
Otherwise you cannot actually enjoy the strengths of this machine.
So given the $499 price tag
Pros:
+Light device with small footprint, far more portable than the usual 15.6 laptops
+Very good IPS matte FHD panel, zero reflections, almost zero light bleed, average brightness. You cannot find such display in laptops up to $750
+The colour is a beautiful grey and not purple as reviewed by other users
+Excellent specs with proper upgradeability, ( free m2 slot , memory can be increased compared to models with soldered modules)
+fingerprint sensor is accurate
Cons
-No computer is 2017 should be shipped with an HDD. This HDD makes the machine really slow,
Until the first round of boots/restarts and updates is competed you will think that you have bought a entry level celeron. The disk works full load and cannot cope, (it is fine for very basic tasks but you did not buy an 8250u for basic tasks).
-Keyboard is not that good, i fell that there is uneven uniformity in the button press and travel, and definitely some flex,
-power button next to delete button ? So you end up switch off while typing, (same button arrangement in many small form factor laptops.
-Caps lock without a led notification, not so clever,
Now the ssd part,
I got a Crucial mx300 m.2 ssd it comes with m2 crews and free acronis clone software
Installation needs patience and some proper tools.
1.carefully remove all screws including the 2x under the rear rubber pads
2. get a PLASTIC prying tool or a thin guitar pick and carefully lift the cover starting from an edge near one of the corners, do not use screwdriver or knife, you will damage the plastic,
3. with the help of your plastic tool unclip one be one all the platic clips,
4.remove cover and install the m2 ssd (face down for crucial) no extra force to snap in
5. get back the cover and do all the screws (3 different types of screws)
6 power the device pressing constantly F2 to enter bios, see that your ssd has been identified,
7 download the cloning software, acronis, macrium or other. Clone the disks (automated step by step process)
8 enter bios (F2 and power) and select m2 as first boot device
9 no trouble with windows licence, you can wipe the HDD via "disk managmenet
10 completely delete all the partitions of old HDD use Diskpart applications for the command line,
now you have a proper FAST machine with an extra 1TB storage drive, it is 5x faster in nominal terms but it feels 50x times faster in reality.
This is an excellent product once you add a solid state drive. I would recommend this one: Crucial MX300 275GB SATA M.2 (2280) Internal Solid State Drive - CT275MX300SSD4
Some tips:
~When you go to add it, make sure you remove all twelve screws on the backside. There are two underneath the screen side feet. There is one screw that is significantly longer than the others. There are two exceptionally small screws, remember where they go.
~Use a guitar pick or thin putty knife to disengage each of the clips holding the case together. You want to use some force but not too much force (where you'd break the clips). Do not use anything metal.
~To disengage the clips I would recommend moving left to right.
~The Crucial hard drive comes with a link to download a licensed version of Acronis True Image, which lets you clone the spinning drive to the SSD. It should also change your bios to boot to the SSD.
~Format the spinning drive after your cloning is successful.
I got this laptop an it took me a little to figure out the layout and disassembly of the back cover. Be careful with the rubber bumpers there are 2 screws underneath. The M.2 slot is SATA 3 (Cheap Bastards) not NVMe. Be careful how you insert the SSD drive. The 6 pin is on the right side of the slot. The screws on the back are different sizes so mark them where they belong. For a clean install, start the laptop with the original OS and let it register to Microsoft. Once is register as digital license wiped and install the new Fall creators OS. Don't use any sharp metal to pray the back cover it will break. I use a Crucial SSD and is working excellent. I put the link. Please don't mine mi spelling I don't give a human @ss. I put some pics for all you to check the location and installation of the SSD. Enjoy Crucial MX300 275GB M.2 (2280) Internal Solid State Drive - CT275MX300SSD4
Not sure why the guy gave a 1 star when he hasn't even purchased one, but got mine today. It does have an IPS screen, battery life is going strong, and no touch pad issues. For $499, you can't beat it. It's fast for what it is, will pop in a small SSD for the OS at some point possibly, but in no rush as it's not given me any lag or issues yet at all. Highly recommend, can't beat the price!
**PS the color in the photos is darker than it is in reality due to crappy lighting, so again pay no attention to Bob with his 1 star review on a laptop he doesn’t own. I added another photo with some better lighting. It is a grey laptop, not black **
Feature Product
- Powerful 8th Generation Intel Core i5-8250U 1.6GHz (Turbo up to 3.4GHz) processor
- 14.2" Wide, 0.8" Thin and portable footprint with 0.3" Nano edge bezel for a stunning 80% screen-to-body ratio
- 15.6" Anti-glare full HD display with ASUS splendid software enhancement
- 8GB DDR4 RAM and 1TB HDD
- Ergonomic chiclet keyboard with fingerprint sensor, Windows 10 Home
- Comprehensive connections including USB 3.1 Type-C (Gen1), USB 3.0, USB 2.0, and HDMI; Lightning-fast 802.11AC Wi-Fi keeps you connected through any congestion or interference
Description
The ASUS Vivo Book F510UA is the perfect combination of performance and function. The F510UA is a Windows 10 laptop powered by an 8th Generation Intel Core i5-8250U processor, 8GB DDR4 RAM, and ASUS Nano Edge display technology. It's the ideal laptop for daily computing and entertainment. 178 degree wide viewing angle.
Best laptop you can get for the price. Any laptops with everything this has will cost between 650-750 dollars and they won't even have all that this laptop has to offer, first I'm an IT I work on computers daily so getting an Asus (top 3 consumer laptop brand) at this price with these specs is all you need to know to buy it. This laptop has a 15.6 inch Full HD (1920x1080) display, yet fits in a 14 inch laptop sleeve, that in itself is awesome. The 8th gen core i5-8250u is a blazing fast SoC. Compared to last years core i5-7200u, the 8250u has 4 cores/8 threads instead of 2 cores/4 threads and its overall 56 percent faster. I'll let numbers speak for themselves, on Geekbench 4.2 this laptop scores 4000 on single core, 12,200 on multi core, and over 17,000 on computational using openCL. For those of you that have don't know what I'm talking about, I'll make it easy to understand, IT"S FAST! The display is brilliant, has the whitest whites and the blackest blacks, contrast is excellent and the colors are outstanding. This computer will also play all but the newest games on Full HD with ultra settings, this is something that you might find contrary to what some reviews have said about the core-i5-8250u, but it really does game great. The fingerprint scanner is something you rarely find on sub 1,000 dollar laptops and this one works perfectly turn it on, it boots up extremely fast at the login screen just press your finger to the reader which is on the top right of the trackpad and when it tells you hello your logged in. All in all from an IT's prospective this is the best dang laptop your going to find at this price and even above it, did I mention you can even add a second M.2 sata III ssd and it will using an Intel technology will see the HDD and the ssd as 1 drive and move all your most used content to the ssd for fast access and use the HDD for basic storage. I don't see the need to because it already boots dang near as fast as a lot of laptops with ssd's but that would speed it up even more. My only single complaint about this computer doesn't bother me much but it will bother regular users of this laptop and that's the fact that you have to take off the entire bottom of the laptop to access the HDD, to add the M.2 sata III ssd, and to add ram, this includes taking off the two back rubber feet to access screws under them. Don't let that get you down though its really not hard and the rubber feet just stick back on.
Definitely a steal at the price i bought this for.
Initial impression is that this thing is super light, almost 1/2 the weight of my Asus ux501vw but with the same screen dimensions. Hard drive is slow and definitely needs to be replaced by an SSD. I Bought an M2 gen 3 SSD, but it does not fit, appears that this is NVME. Also, popped off the back cover and added a 16gb stick in the empty slot. My guess is that this can handle 32gb, which makes it such a steal.
keyboard feels firm and no flex, screen is nice for the price range. Battery life doesn't seem to be more than 5 hours, but i expected that going in. Battery charger is super tiny and lightweight, which is an additional advantage vs the 1 lb brick that you have to lug around with the ux501vw.
Word of warning, the back cover is a PITA to take off, almost breaks the warranty on how difficult it was to remove.
Edit: it definitely supports 32gb ram as that is what i installed last night and it is running just fine. also the m2 slot is nvme, i just ordered one as my m2 gen3 ssd did not work due to the connector. if i can figure out how to post pics, i will do that shortly. This is a great deal!
Pros:
Extremely responsive
Looks premium
Price
Good sound quality
Cons:
Horrible keyboard flex
The max screen brightness isn't very bright
HDD instead of SSD
No backlit keyboard
Horrible light bleed from the top edge of the screen
No ventilation at bottom of laptop
The laptop looks beautiful and the 8th gen Intel core is a performance powerhouse.
The performance on this laptop is close to some $1,000+ laptops I've used. Battery life is about 5 hours of light to moderate use. The sound quality is better than most laptops at this price range. The laptop is a little bigger than I had hoped and heavier than I expected it to feel. To me back-lighting on a keyboard is a make or break so I might return the laptop though (bought It because I could have sworn I read it was backlit when I purchased it). Overall, Its a pretty good looking laptop that falls short of feeling truly premium (backlit keyboard, cheap quality screen, keyboard flex). However, the raw performance and excellent price more than make up for the faults, if you care more about those aspects.
Purchase this for my wife who has been using the same laptops for about 5 or 6 years now. I spent a long time looking through a lot of sites and local stores for a good laptop particularly with a good amount of RAM and processing power to handle video that she will be uploading and processing that she takes with a digital camcorder. At first the touch screen laptops caught my eye but then I realized Windows 10 isn't very suitable for touch like the Android operating system is so it's pretty much pointless and I think just more of a gimmick anyway in a laptop. I just opened it earlier today and my initial Impressions is that it is very attractive and very sturdy feeling and I love the screen which non reflective, it's very nice not looking into a reflective glossy screen for a change. Like many of the reviews state, there are a lot of updates that this laptop performs so far it's been updating itself for the past 8 hours and I expect it to continue to do so well into the night. However it's probably due to just the nature of the software and amount of updates available. I will be installing a solid state drive like many do however I don't feel it is necessary at all unless you plan on doing a lot of intense computing. I would say this is probably one of the best all around laptops you can get for your money in the under $1,000 price bracket. Also just so you know for some reason I was under the assumption that the case was aluminum at least the top part where the keyboard is and the monitor enclosure however it is not but it still feels very solid.
UPDATE: Just installed a Samsung 256GB m.2. Disassembly and install was easy with a guitar pick to pry open the bottom cover. Instally was a bit confused and stuck after booting up because even though bios showed the drive and the software detected it as well, it would not show up in windows but after some fiddling around trying different things it finally showed up as an unpartitioned drive so then I was able to clone the OS and changed the boot order in BIOS and now it's super fast. So with the added SSD it makes it around a 600 dollar laptop but you will have a hard time finding another laptop of equal specs for that price even since it has an 8th gen processor.
Used as bought, it is an OK laptop, but not great (probably a 3 star value). Most of the laptop is actually very good, but is held back by a 5400 rpm HDD. Not only is it a HDD, but its a slow one. Other than that its components are actually very good. I bought the laptop but also bought an SSD and some extra RAM, and the difference is night and day. Once the new SSD was set as the system disk, and the extra RAM was in place, you get a laptop that compares favorably with others worth two, three, or four times as much (with the exception of the graphics card, which is OK for regular use and light gaming, but will struggle with graphics intensive stuff).
I used:
WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB PC SSD - SATA III 6 Gb/s M.2 2280 Solid State Drive - WDS500G2B0B
Crucial 8GB Single DDR4 2400 MT/s (PC4-19200) DR x8 Unbuffered SODIMM 260-Pin Memory - CT8G4SFD824A
reimage the HDD onto the SSD and you're set.
The downsides?
- Keyboard isn't back-lit
- You get Windows Home instead of Pro
- No ethernet port (Not that I've used or needed one that I can recall)
- No CD/DVD reader (but who uses them nowadays anyway)
- You need to put your own AV solution in place (I do that anyway, so its not a problem for me)
- You have to do some tinkering to put it all together (I consider this an advantage, but that's just me)
The only real downsides are keyboard not being back-lit and it coming with Windows Home. For a premium laptop those are expected... for a 500 dollar laptop? I bought it two weeks ago and am still laughing myself to sleep over the purchase.
To all the low review writers for this product I would like to say THANK YOU FOR KEEPING THE PRICE DOWN!
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