The notebook itself looks well-made, cover is easy on-and collapse, the entire plastic housing (including the palmrest etc., not just the cover) comes in glossy piano finish, so it is somewhat prone to fingerprints, however, draw the up not so much on as usual. A clear selling point for me is the "unclear" display, meaning it is a matte display without reflective contrast screen. Therefore, should there be generally no problem working with the NB in the summer on the balcony or. The display is 17.3 '' size and has a native resolution of 1.600x900. The keyboard is for NB conditions absolutely fine, tactile good, smooth writing is going well out of hand.
The keyboard keys are "embedded" in principle in the case, that is, there are virtually no gaps (otherwise float the buttons freely with spaces), each key has its own opening, to which it bears right plan. Advantage ... there are no crumbs accumulate underneath since just no cracks found where they could fall through. Very good. Due to the insufficient size of the NB there is also the additional number field to the right of the keyboard, as you know it from a PC keyboard.
Pre-installed is the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium with SP1. When you first start the installation automatically sets up that lasts - I habs not stopped to the Minute - about 30min. After that the system is fully operational, all drivers involved clean, the image resolution set correctly. Gratifying that little software is preinstalled rubbish, cleaning of useless things for me (as the 30-day Microsoft Office trial version) will fix vonstatten. As browser you can also find pre-installed Google Chrome in addition to the IE.
The hard disk is divided into 2 partitions, a ~ 50 GB recovery partition, the rest of the disk is the C: \ partition. There is also an extra recovery DVD case. With the Core i5, 8GB RAM and a very well-suited for HD video additional Nvidia chip (GT630M), the video and audio processing is now rapidly vonstatten. If you are limited to office activities or, for example. Surf the Internet, only the integrated Intel HD Graphics is automatically active. This ensures that the notebook in this mode acts absolutely whisper quiet, because this chip basically just to "Picture Show" is capable. Only if Nvidia is switched graphics or needs (for example, when video encoding or games) puts the fan going on and brings a clearly audible but still acceptable noise, but that should be obvious to everyone that heat from such a slim case does not lead out with large quiet fans can be. You can select in the graphics settings which graphics chip is to be active at which application or automate it. As far as I have experienced so far is automatically very well, but you can also assign certain applications manually one of the two graphics chips.
Theme games ... the integrated Intel HD chip is it largely useless, but the additional Nvidia GT630M graphics chip. But here one should remember that this is at best is a middle class solution, the latest games from in 2011 or 2012 usually run only with medium or even lower settings. But older titles (3-5 years or more) to run quite smoothly at high settings. Anyone who wants a powerful gaming notebook, which must double the price and then buy elsewhere. Here is a multimedia notebook with attached game compatibility, but games are not the core of the notebook.
WLAN I could not test, because I'm traveling with LAN. The built-in webcam not does not interest me, even the battery. The USB 3.0 ports I could not for lack of external USB 3.0 devices to test if they keep their promise, with USB 2.0 devices run at any rate easily.