Toshiba Satellite T115-S1100 11.6-Inch LED TruBrite Black/Grey Laptop - 8 Hours 22 Minutes of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Recently a Sony tx770p given to me had it's hard drive die on me after 2 months of really getting used to using the laptop. I have had my eye out for a long time for a replacement for it that would be comparable: 11.x screen, 1366 x 768 screen res, light weight, excellent battery life, excellent trackpad, and a particular type of keyboard that is similar to "chicklet style" but slightly different. Well, I finally found a replacement in the person of the Toshiba T115-S1100. Essentially it is a more-than-standard powerful netbook style computer.
Pro's:
1. Screen and size - LED backlit and "TruBright" ... lovely, crisp and clear! And 1366 x 768 screen resolution to boot, which is the minimum screen resolution I find actually usable when doing day to day things like browsing the internet and reading docs (both .pdf and word processing). It weighs roughly 3.5 lbs - nice and light on your shoulder as you carry it around!
2. Battery life - with everything turned off I have been able to get a little over 10 hours doing simple word processing or reading docs on this machine.
3. DDR3 RAM - the machine comes with a 2 gb chip in one slot, with another slot available to upgrade the memory. It maxes out at 4 gb. The ddr3 makes a noticeable difference in netbook level machines in my opinion.
4. Windows 7 Home - that is, a full installation of the OS, giving you way more options than Windows 7 Starter. The OS is only the 32 bit version, but it works fine considering the physical specs of the machine proper.
5. Keyboard - I personally really like the keyboard "style" used on this machine - there is spacing in between the keys a 'la "chicklet style", but the part of the keys you actually hit with your fingers are a teeny bit smaller than the bottom part of the keys, providing extra space and in general a sturdy feel when typing.
6. Trackpad - a pleasure to use. Responsive and just plain well made.
7. HDMI port - for those of you interested in such things this is a plus!
8. Web Cam - a 2 mp camera, a bit more for those of you who would use this than can be found on your average note/netbooks.
9. Intel 4500 graphics card - true, not that great, but still enough to use the hdmi port out and provide good battery life. Much more powerful than most offerings on netbooks in general.
10. ULV CPU - yes, it is single core and it is a Celeron (something many might associate with poor performance or "second rate"). However, the fact that it is an ULV means that not only is it good for battery life but it can actually crank out a fair amount of speed. This cpu runs at 1.3 ghz, 800mhz FSB, and has 2 mb of cache on it. Combine that with the ddr3 ram and a sata hard drive and you get quite a nice bit of speed for a machine its size and price.
11. Hard drive size - you get 250gb, whereas most netbook style machines give you a 160gb. Nice!
Cons:
1. Fingerprint Magnet - Argh! This thing (like many of the black colored machines produced today) attracts fingerprints to the outside of the machine and all around the outside of the screen proper. Frustrating.
2. No bluetooth - would have been a nice extra feature to add in. One should note, though, that built-in bluetooth is not an option on any of the Satellite T115 models available out there. It would be easy enough to get an external adapter though if it were really needed.
3. Mouse buttons - the mouse buttons used are "rocker style", that is, one button over the area that goes downwards on either side. I am not a fan of the rocker style buttons myself and find them difficult to use. Fortunately I had an external wireless mouse already.
4. Audio card - I have read accounts of people who have found the audio card far too weak to send noise out through the laptop speakers, although the sound through the headphones is quite fine. For me this is not an issue as I use it only with headphones. A simple "fix" for this is simply to uninstall the specific drivers for the audio card and opt for the microsoft standard drivers instead - they are reported to be a big improvement over sending sounds out of the speakers directly.
Middle-of-the-Road:
1. Heat control - it can get moderately warm when doing somewhat intensive tasks, like watching video files, for example. Nothing bad, but it is noticeable.
2. Wireless card - it is 802.11b/g rank only. This is kind of "for the par" on netbook style machines in general, but why not put in an N rank?
3. "Fusion" finish in Nova Black - the external decorations on the machine proper - it does not really excite me, but on the other hand it did not turn me off to considering to purchase the machine in general.
4. Indicator Lights - there are nine of them, and they are all on the front of the machine. If they were all active your machine would look like a small string of Christmas tree lights! :) Seriously though, it is not so bad, I simply prefer fewer indicator lights on a machine in general.
5. Standard port offerings - 3 usb 2.0 ports, mic/headphones jacks, sd card slot, vga out port, kensington lock, 10/100 ethernet.
6. USB sleep and charge - basically some software by which you can configure a certain device to draw a charge form the laptop while it is asleep. Not really something I can use or am interested in, but perhaps some may find it useful.
7. Overall Build - the machine is fairly sturdy and the screen and keyboard do not flex much at all. Good build in general overall from a "home line" product.
8. No optical drive - either internal or external. Again, I had one of these already, so this was not much of an issue, but to make dvd recovery discs you will need one.
****
Conclusion: Overall I must say that I am very satisfied with this little machine. It is an excellent replacement for me, basically a "super-powered netbook": that is, one that portability, connectivity and battery life of a netbook, yet has more options and "umph" than most offerings out there. For a little more cpu speed and wireless N you can pay $40 more or so and get the T115-S1105. For me, however, this machine more than does everything I would want it to do for its size and price.

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ASUS K50IJ-X8 15.6-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)(Re-wrote this review 12/6/09)
This is an excellent budget notebook with a 15.6" screen that's only 5.8 lbs. We just bought two for my wife's parents (don't buy it for 3D games, as it has integrated graphics, but office apps and browsing are fine).
Pros:
- T6600 Core 2 Duo (not the Pentium Dual Core, lower-end C2D, ULVs, or Atoms)
- Relatively quiet and light (5.8 lbs)
- Big hard drive (mine had a Seagate Momentus 5400.6)
- Screen has relatively good viewing angles, horizontal and vertical
- Pretty good fit and finish for a plastic casing (although there's a somewhat flimsy lid that is separate from the battery)
- 4 USB ports
- VGA output is crisp (to 1280x1024, didn't try bigger)
- I haven't noticed the palm rest getting warm at all ... but you're not playing 3D games are you?
- You can select one language during boot up that's set forever, that is, until you restore from the recovery partition. The first time I chose Traditional Chinese. Works great. I restored (press F9 at boot) and selected English. Works great, didn't need to put in DVDs, and all the software reappeared. I even choose the option to use one C:\ drive, instead of the default 60% C:, 40% D:.
- Opening the notebook casing is easy -- find the "electronic - hardware" version (not the "hardware" version) of the manual on Asus's web site (search for K50, then click Download, then Manuals). The hard drive is easily replaceable. Relatively clean layout so I can imagine blowing out dust bunnies will be easy.
- Includes Office Home & Student 2007 (Word/Excel/PowerPoint/OneNote) pre-installed WITHOUT a product key. It asks for that so I assume you just punch one in and everything's great.
- Includes a trial of Trend Micro Internet Security for antivirus protection pre-installed.
- Aside from the Asus utilities, relatively little bloatware
- Turned off all of Win7's eye candy. Don't need that.
- 1-year international warranty. Includes accident protection (register for this within 60 days on the Asus U.S. web site, and it's non-transferrable from the original owner). No paperwork on extending the warranty. We're trying our luck in case the computer breaks down in < 1 year and they give us a hassle about it being a gift and the warranty being valid.
Cons:
- A bit fat
- The screen has a blue tinge, just like with Asus's TN LCD displays. You get used to it though.
- Glossy screen (reflections), not matte
- Two-finger touchpad scrolling is too sensitive out of the box with Firefox (although it might be okay with IE). Turning it all the way down, it's fine.
- The numeric keypad uses smaller keys! Difficult to use for folks with big hands.
- The arrow keys don't have space around them (and actually the right arrow key is bumped into the numeric keypad section), so you need to learn where they are.
- The keyboard and touchpad are on the left side of the computer because of the numeric keypad. You quickly get used to that, though, so no biggie.
- The touchpad buttons require some pressure to click, but you get used to it.
- 4 GB maximum memory. Just 1 user-accessible memory slot which contains 2GB. No biggie.
- No DVI. No port replicator option with that option.
- No Bluetooth, FireWire, eSATA, ExpressCard/PCI Express slot
- Integrated Intel graphics (not for 3D gaming, but great for 2D apps)
- The T6600 doesn't support Windows 7's XP compatibility mode. Most of the Win7 Home Premium notebooks I've seen have a CPU which doesn't support XP mode. Only Win7 Professional and higher supports VT mode anyway. Does XP mode matter at all? I have no idea. Search the Internet for that.
- It doesn't wake up when you open the lid. It does sleep when you close the lid. Yes, I checked the settings. Tip: Change the close-lid behavior to Sleep instead of Hibernate for a faster sleep, but battery will drain faster.
Edit 12/10/09:
A few cons I've noticed:
- The two speakers are on the bottom of the notebook, at the front lip. You really need a hard surface to reflect the sound up to you. Definitely below average compared with other notebooks IMO.
- The Page Up / Down keys are above the numeric keypad -- way out of reach. It's an incredible hassle with Internet browsing.
- Remember how I wrote the graphics are good enough for 2D? If you watch a Yahoo! music video in full screen mode, that sucker will tear during fast motion. It's fine at the normal zoom level and with computers with discrete graphics.
- I'm always accidentally hitting the DVD eject button. Other notebooks I've used recess this button.

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The ASUS K50IJ-X8 versatile performance notebook - more notebook for your money The powerful, stylish and durable ASUS K50IJ-X8 delivers true multitasking performance at a bargain price. With the new ASUS K50IJ-X8, you get the exclusive ASUS Color Shine 15.6-inch LED HD widescreen, a rich media experience, Intel® Core™2 Duo speed, longer battery life, and an integrated suite of effortless mobile computing technologies. Plus, you are also covered by the most thoughtful notebook warranty package in the industry. The K50IJ-X8 is quintessentially practical and trendy. It is designed with Infusion styling that sets it apart from conventional notebook design, while a suite of innovative technologies provides effortless mobile computing capabilities from day to day. ASUS' 360 notebook warranty and Accidental Damage Warranty is icing on the cake. ASUS K50IJ-X8 notebooks come standard with a 1-Year Global Warranty and more*:
Thirty-days flawless display guarantee
Free two-way standard shipping
24-hour tech support seven days a week Plus ASUS Accidental Damage Protection: ASUS notebooks also come with a One Year Accidental Damage Warranty protecting the notebook from drops, fire, spills, and surge.**


Key Features

Powered by an Intel Core2 Duo Processor T6600 for versatile productivity
Extra bright 15.6-inch HD Color Shine LED-backlit widescreen (16:9) for immersive cinematic experience
ASUS Super Hybrid Engine for extended battery life1
4GB of DDR2 system memory for smooth computing with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit installed
500GB, 5,400rpm hard drive for fast, convenient storage and access to all your documents and multimedia
Built-in 802.11n wireless connectivity that enables 'real-time' video conferencing and Internet browsing
Integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam for connecting with your friends and family
Numeric Keyboard for easy number input of numbers
ASUS IceCool Technology provides a cool-to-the-touch palm rest
ASUS 360: 1 year global warranty and ASUS ADW: 1 year accidental damage warranty*

Learn More
Long Lasting HD Entertainment
Infusion of Beauty and Practicality
Extended Battery Life with ASUS Super Hybrid Engine
Connectivity, Communication, and Storage On The Move
More Multitasking Power with Less Power Consumption
ASUS Exclusive Windows 7 Features
ASUS 360* -- 1 Year Global Warranty
ASUS ADW* -- 1 Year Accidental Damage Warranty**
For PC's running Windows 7 Home Premium
Warranty
ASUS 360* (1 Years Global Warranty) + ASUS ADW* (1 Year Accidental Damage Warranty**) + Flawless Display Guarantee ASUS K50IJ-X8 comes with ASUS 360 (1 years global warranty), ADW (1 Year Accidental Damage Warranty*) and Flawless Display Guarantee. If the purchaser discovers one defective bright dot within 30 days of purchase, ASUS will replace the panel without cost to the purchaser.
What's in the Box
ASUS K50IJ-X8
AC Adapter
6 cell Battery Pack
Warranty Information Cards
Specifications
Operating System: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Display: 15.6-inch 16:9 Wide Format 1366x768 HD LED backlit Display
Intel Platform: Intel Core2 Duo T6600 Processor (2.2GHz)
Graphics: Embedded Intel GL40
Wireless: 802.11 B/G/N Wireless LAN
LAN: 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
Memory: 4GB DDR2-800
Storage: 500GB HDD (5400rpm drive)
Optical Drive: DVD Super Multi Double Layer
Camera: 1.3M Pixels with Auto-Focus
Audio: Built-in Azalia compliant audio chip, with 3D effect & full duplex
Speakers: Altec Lansing co-brand speakers featuring SRS Premium Sound
Microphone Built-in microphone
Card Reader: 3 in 1 card reader (SD/MMC/MS)
Input/Output: 1 x Microphone-in jack, 1 x Headphone-out jack(S/PDIF) 4 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x RJ45 LAN jack for LAN
Video Output: 1 x VGA port/Mini D-sub 15-pin
Keyboard: 19mm full size 88 Key with MS Windows function keys
Battery Pack: 6 cells (2900mAh)
Power Supply: Output: 16 V DC, 4.7 A, 90W / Input: 100~240 V AC, 50/60 Hz universal
Dimensions: 14.57 (W) x 10.08 (L) x 1.22~1.40 (H) inches
Weight: 5.73 lbs (with 6 cell battery pack) 1Subject to system configuration and user scenario *For notebooks purchased on or after Sept. 10, 2007. The ASUS 360 Notebook Service Program and Accidental Damage Warranty covers "ASUS" brand notebooks only, and does NOT extend to: "Built on ASUS," "ASMobile," "Powered by ASUS," the Eee PC, or some other models. These retailers are currently among the companies that do NOT participate in the ASUS 360 Notebook Service Program and Accidental Damage Warranty: Best Buy, MicroCenter, and The Source by CircuitCity in Canada. Limited of one claim per notebook for Accidental Damage Warranty. ASUS reserves the right to discontinue this program and to modify the terms and conditions thereof at any time. ASUS Accidental Damage Warranty Program starts from the date of your ASUS notebook purchase, when all the requirements are met. **One incident covered per notebook All specifications and terms are subject to change without notice. Please check with your supplier for exact offers on selected models. Products may not be available in all markets. Product may not be exactly as shown in photos. Celeron, Celeron Inside, Centrino, Centrino Inside, Core Inside, Intel, Intel Logo, Intel Atom, Intel Atom Inside, Intel Core, Intel Inside, Intel Inside Logo, Intel Viiv, Intel vPro, Itanium, Itanium Inside, Pentium, Pentium Inside, Viiv Inside, vPro Inside, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

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ASUS U35JC-A1 13.3-Inch Laptop - Silver Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've had this notebook for about 6 weeks now and am very happy with the notebook. It fits my needs of being a fairly powerful notebook, light, thin, and great battery life of 7-8 hours with wifi on.
Chassis: I don't have any creaks or squeaks after squeezing and pushing on the notebook. My indicator lights area doesn't squeak or have any openings like some of the other reviews I've read. I did notice some mild keyboard flex at the upper middle portion of the keyboard and the bezel around the keys have some moderate give. I never really cared about chassis flex much before, since my old dell 6000 has help up quite well to my abuse after 6 years. Some more design issues for the people who want to know. The battery is a bit loose, but it's locked in with the dual switches. I definitely love the aluminum lid, and understand the shift from plastics on higher end notebooks. The black bezel is a smudge magnet, but what bothers me more is that when the notebook is closed, a part of the black bezel is still exposed above the battery and keyboard. This black shiny plastic is more prone to scratches, which has happened to me with no drops or accidents. The screen also distorts near the webcam area and bottom of the screen when pressure is applied in the vicinity of those areas..more so in the middle.
Heat: The notebook runs relatively cool when not pushed under quiet office mode. The areas around the keyboard feel cool and underneath the notebook is comfortable on your lap. If one decides to leave it on high performance mode, then the notebook is definitely running much warmer. You can feel the heat on the palm rest, especially on the right side and heat is blowing heavily out of the side vent. But even on quiet office mode, a good amount of heat is blowing out of the left side vent. I do notice the heat a bit on my left leg because of this side vent though. The side vent is angled down and out, which I think kind of directs the heat on my left leg during on the lap use. I think it would be less bothersome if they directed the heat straight outward, instead of being angled downward.
Keyboard and Touchpad: I like the keyboard layout and feel. The keys are quiet to me and have good travel. I like the Power4Gear button on the top left and the Fn number keypad. On my old notebook, I had to hold down Fn, while on the Asus...you can press Fn and number lock to just more easily type numbers for data input. Moving the cursor around with the touchpad is fairly smooth and responsive. I enjoy using the multi gestures, especially the two finger touch. Great to open up new tabs in firefox. Also I'm starting to use the two finger tap for auto scrolling, which is smoother then two finger vertical scrolling. I still use the two finger vertical scroll, but sometimes it can be a bit finicky and jumpy. The 3 finger tap doesn't always register and noticed that if I spread my ring finger out more, it will register. The touchpad isn't massive like the macbook, so I find using the 3 finger tap is going to have a learning curve to properly leave the fingers spread apart and within the touchpad area. I don't use the rocker button much, but it really isn't that bad. It's soft in the middle and edges of the designated left and right buttons. It it stiff in the very middle of the whole rocker button, but I never clicked there in the first place. When i tested the button on the U43jc at best buy...I definitely thought it was too stiff. These buttons have a nice quiet tactile click with little resistance and travel. I honestly like the the buttons (button?, hehe) of this touchpad more so than my old Dell which had loud clicky buttons that had alot of travel. I also don't highlight text using the buttons. I use the double tap lock feature to highlight text. I was use to this feature on my old Dell.
LED screen: Beautiful colors and display to me, but the viewing angles are very narrow. I have my screen almost always tilted back to its maximum because I noticed that the colors don't wash out when viewing below the perpendicular plane of the screen. View angles from above really do stink though. The horizontal angles are good in that they don't affect the colors and image displayed, but the Glare in certain environments make it difficult to view. Trying to share the display with friends for photos and videos is not easily done with this screen. I see the screen is more for private/business use and it's fine for me. I rarely share whats on my screen to others, so I'll enjoy the beautiful image to myself.
CPU Whine: I agree with many other reviews from other sites that it does become less prominent the more you use it. It still comes in once in awhile, but I really don't hear it most of the time I use it at all. Even when I do notice it, as soon as I start typing and browsing the web with my clicks, I can't hear it anymore. I was first using only internet explorer because of what people said about the cpu whine arising with firefox, but I'm now happily using Firefox again with no complaints of the sound. I'm running it right now and hear no whine with 12 tabs open. I honestly hear the fan, but no high pitch whine, which would be more annoying.
Speakers: Sound is good for a notebook and loud, while on a table. These are crotch speakers and get muffled out on soft surfaces and if you're using the notebook on your lap. Carry around those nice headphones if you got some and are into audio quality.
Webcam: Convenient to have but low quality. Make sure you update the webcam driver from asus, because after I did my clean install, windows 7 installed a more recent driver that caused my webcam to record images upside down. The webcam doesn't handle low light conditions well and is not as clear or lag free as my logitech notebook pro cam. It's still a great convenient cam to have on the go though.
Some random head scratchers: On HDMI output to a 1080p tv, the out is actually larger than 1080p, so it causes every edge of the image to be cut off. Does that happen to anyone else? Even my desktop is cut, like the windows taskbar is only showing 1/4 of it. Sometimes my desktop widgets appear on top of my windows and I lose functionality of my power 4 gear button on the top left after waking my computer from sleep/hibernate. Love the button though, since it makes it really easy to switch quickly between different profiles to save battery or for brighter screens for videos.
Conclusion: I still love the notebook and would buy it again. It fits my needs perfectly of moderate gaming, thin, light, great battery life, and I hope reliability. The two year warranty with accidental is great. Plus with my credit card adding 1 more year of warranty, I'm set for 3 years. Also the price of this laptop can't really be beat in its class...I'll add that can be purchased in the United States. This notebook weighs 3.96 pounds with the battery and

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Thin & Light with the Power to Perform The slim, sleek 13.3-inch U35Jc-A1 has incredible features that take you far beyond standard entertainment notebooks. With the ASUS Super Hybrid Engine, battery life is maximized up to 10 hours1 between charges. Plus, the U35Jc-A1 can seamlessly turn on the NVIDIA GeForce 310M graphics via NVIDIA Optimus Technology for casual gaming and resource-demanding tasks and then automatically turns off the rest of the time – conserving battery life. Super size your multimedia with any HDMI-enabled HDTV that simplifies HD audio and video connectivity for a complete cinematic experience. The U35Jc-A1 is powered by the Intel Core i3 processor that's smarter and faster with Intel Hyper-Threading Technology for enhanced multitasking. And under 1-inch thick with a brushed aluminum finish, you can easily carry it with you without showing smudges or fingerprints. The U35Jc-A1 features Express Gate, Altec Lansing speakers, 4GB DDR3 system memory, 500GB hard drive, 0.3 megapixel webcam, and Windows 7 Home Premium.

Key Features
Up to 10 hours of battery life1 with ASUS Super Hybrid Engine that uses exclusive hardware and software to maximize battery life for the task at hand (Learn more)
Intel Core i3-370M processor gives you smarter multitasking performance(Learn more)
Slim, brushed aluminum design for easy, smudge-proof portability (Learn more)
13.3-inch LED-backlit HD display for crisp visuals without compromising battery (Learn more)
NVIDIA GeForce 310M graphics with 1GB DDR3 VRAM delivers great HD entertainment performance(Learn more)
NVIDIA Optimus Technology instantly switches between powerful NVIDIA and energy-efficient Intel graphics to save battery life (Learn more)
HDMI connectivity streams uncompressed HD audio and video to your HDTV or LCD via a single cable (Learn more)
Express Gate for instant access to Internet, music, Skype, and more

Learn More
Achieve More, Longer
The Power to Perform
The Complete On-the-Go Package
Intuitive User Control. Enhanced Connectivity.
ASUS Makes your Windows 7 Experience Better
ASUS 360 – The Most Comprehensive Care Package
ASUS Accidental Damage Warranty
What's in the Box
U35Jc-A1 Notebook
AC Adapter
8-Cell Battery Pack
Warranty Information Card
Specifications
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Display: 13.3-inch LED-backlit HD display (1366 x 768)
CPU: Intel Core i3-370M Processor (2.4 GHz)
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 310M with 1GB DDR3 VRAM + Intel HD Graphics
WLAN: 802.11 b/g/n (@ 2.4GHz)
LAN: 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
Memory: 4GB DDR3-1066 DRAM (expandable to 4GB)
Storage: 500GB 5400RPM hard drive
Optical: N/A
Camera: 0.3 Megapixel
Speakers: Altec Lansing speakers with SRS premium sound
Card Reader: 5-in-1 card reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS-Pro/XD)
Input/ Output: 1 x HDMI output 1 x Headphone-out jack 1 x Microphone-in jack 1 x VGA port 1 x RJ45 LAN Jack 3 x USB 2.0 ports
Battery: 8 cell 5600mAh battery (up to 10 hours of battery life1)
Dimensions: 12.9 x 9.28 x 0.6 ~ 0.98 –inches (W x D x H)
Weight: 3.74 lbs with 8 cell battery
Color: Silver
All specifications and terms are subject to change without notice. Please check with your supplier for exact offers on selected models. Products may not be available in all markets. Product may not be exactly as shown in photos. All trademarks are registered to their respective companies. ASUS shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. 1 Operation lifetime subject to product model, normal usage conditions and configurations. The estimated maximum battery life with MobileMark 2007 in reader mode. 2 Rated number 1 Windows-based PC maker in PCMag.com's Service & Reliability Report 2009. Rate number 1 PC brand according to SquareTrade, the leading direct-to-consumer warranty company (for more information visit http://www.squaretrade.com/pages/laptop-reliability-1109/ ). Rated number 1 reliable PC maker in Spring 2009's RESCUECOM report http://www.rescuecom.com/RESCUECOM269.html. 3 For notebooks purchased on or after Sept. 10, 2007. The ASUS 360 Notebook Service Program and Accidental Damage Warranty covers "ASUS" brand notebooks only, and does NOT extend to: "Built on ASUS", "ASMobile", "Powered by ASUS", the Eee PC, or some other models. These retailers are currently among the companies that do NOT participate in the ASUS 360 Notebook Service Program and Accidental Damage Warranty: Best Buy, MicroCenter, and The Source by Circuit City in Canada. Limit of one claim per notebook for Accidental Damage Warranty. ASUS reserves the right to discontinue this program and to modify the terms and conditions thereof at any time. ASUS Accidental Damage Warranty Program starts from the date of your ASUS notebook purchase, when all the requirements are met. Check your retailer for specific warranty information. One incident covered per notebook.

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ASUS UL30A-A2 Thin and Light 13-3-Inch Silver Laptop - 12 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Like the previous reviewer, I also pre-ordered the UL30A-A2 and it was delivered on October 22nd proper. (Kudos to amazon.com for such quick delivery!) I also have only had it for a day, but thus far these are my impressions:
Middle of the Road:
1. Lack of an Optical drive - either internal or external. While this may be an issue for some people, it is plenty easy to hook up an external optical drive to it. However buyers should keep a sharp eye out for which external drive they get. The cpu in this machine is an ultra low voltage processor, and some of the external optical drives out there that only run on the power of usb ports (1 or 2) will find that the UL30A-A2 does not crank sufficient power through the usb ports for many of the drives available. I fortunately had an external drive powered by only usb ports and one with an external power supply. The usb powered external drive I owned (a nu-esw860, which worked with an HP 8710w laptop) did not work, whereas the external power source usb drive (an dvd writer/cd burner from Iomega) worked fine.
2. The Touchpad and Mouse Buttons. While the touchpad is fine for me the mouse buttons actually consist of a single button that rocks back and forth. I find it a little awkward, but not unusable. In general I try to use an external mouse with laptops anyway.
3. DDR3 memory limitation. While the inclusion of DDR3 RAM is excellent in of itself purchasers should be aware that this model maxes out at 4gb of RAM - that is, the amount it sells with. No upgrades in this area of the machine. And since the machine sells with a 64 bit OS, which is not subject to the 3.5 gb RAM cap of 32 bit OS's, it kinda makes one wonder what Asus was thinking, especially with the video card potentially borrowing so much memory. That being said, other UL models DO come with an 8gb max and ship with 4gb of RAM, although usually those models use DDR2.
4. Keyboard. While I very much like the chicklet design of laptop keyboards my unit has noticeable (but not terrible) flex across the keyboard proper. For those of you who are used to the standard of the old IBM laptops this is a bit of a disappointment. But even though I thought it should be mentioned it is very easy to live with nonetheless.
5. Tiny power adapter. A very small adapter comes with the unit, and although I too have seen reviews (admittedly of the UL30A-A1 model) where the adapter got downright hot thus far my use of it has not achieved that. At worse it has been noticeably warm. Maybe a determining factor for the size of the adapter was to shave a few extra ounces off of the overall weight of carrying the machine and its accessories around?
6. Intel x4500 graphics card. Not the greatest of cards, but sufficient to the the job on a basic daily level. Likely chosen in part for purposes of battery life.
Negative:
1. No bluetooth. This was a disappointment for me, but there are models in the UL series that do come with bluetooth capability. In the end I opted for battery life over the bluetooth - a person could always get a usb bluetooth adapter if need be. Still - it would have been very convenient to have this.
2. Usually Asus's laptops come with a bag and a mouse, as the previous reviewer has mentioned. No such extra accessories came with my machine.
3. Internal Wireless Card. My unit was bundled with an Aetheros wireless card and only one of the two antennae was attached/active. I would presume that this was to reduce power consumption. For me personally it is not a problem, but I have heard many fellow users complain about its weak signal and limited range. It works - just not very strong or far-reaching. This has been a deterrent for some in considering to purchase this machine.
Positive:
1. Sturdy build, light weight. I am impressed by the general external build of so thin and light a laptop as this one - it is not super sturdy, like, say, the old IBM T40 series, but it is quite adequate. Kudos to Asus on this front!
2. Screen. It is a lovely and vibrant screen indeed - although potential buyers should be aware that it is the reflective screen.
3. Aesthetic Design. I personally think it is an attractive laptop as well. The same basic design comes in both silver and black. Looking only at pictures I thought the black looked slightly better of the two, but on receiving the UL30A-A2 (which is the silver model) I am quite satisfied with how it looks, and even impressed. Asus did a very good job on this one!
4. Cooling system. As advertised, Asus did an impressive job with this. The machine stays very, VERY cool when running. Even when doing high intensive cpu tasks the machine only heats up in a barely noticeable way.
5. HDMI Port. This is something I have seen many people ask about. Different models of the UL series either come with or omit the hdmi port. This hdmi port also is not of the sort that can also be used as a usb port.
6. Not a whole lot of bloatware. Mostly Asus programs - a few could be useful, like the power saving app, which I have not yet used. Mine came with a trial of Trend Micro antivirus and MS Office 2007 student level - both were easy enough to uninstall.
7. Windows 7. This is my first hands on look at the OS, and while it took a while to find my way around the thing, I have to say I am impressed, in particular by the power saving features and general speed improvement over Vista.
8. Battery Life. This was the deal breaker for me. The battery itself fits up very snugly to the overall design of the laptop, and the UL30A-A2 model was advertised (perhaps incorrectly) as having up to 16 hours of battery life. I put it through some initial tests and these are the rough figures I came up with:
Initial Battery Life Results:
When I make a power saving profile maximized for battery length (which means screen dimmed to lowest possible and wireless turned off) AND reduce the color from 32 bit to 16 bit this is what I got before shutting down the machine at 5% power - these are rough numbers only, mind you:
Playing .avi files and installing a fair size program: about 8 hours of battery life.
Playing .avi files only: about 10 - 10 1/2 hours of battery life.
Only word processing: about 13 - 13 1/2 hours battery life.
So, at least based on the first run of draining the battery life, while it does not live up to the 16 hours listed on amazon.com, it DOES do better than the advertised "up to 12 hours" for the other machines - but this is in extreme power saving mode.
Conclusion
Overall this is an ideal machine for me personally. I thought long and hard before choosing what my next laptop was going to be, and I am very satisfied with the result. I would recommend this machine to others who need long battery life with decent cpu strength and speed in their machine at the same time. For the record, the Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 cpu is very roughly the equivalent of an Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 and/or an AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-64.
I am hopeful that in the future Asus (or some third party) will make available larger power supplies and especially larger batteries! Then something like 16 hours of battery life could easily be reached with dedicated power saving settings (as opposed to ultra-extensive, as I did).

Click Here to see more reviews about: ASUS UL30A-A2 Thin and Light 13-3-Inch Silver Laptop - 12 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium)

Free yourself from power cords and start exploring with up to an amazing 12 hours of all-day battery life with the ASUS UL30A-A2, thanks to its Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor and 13.3-inch LED-backlit display, which combines vibrant visuals with advanced energy efficiency. This stylish, ultra-portable notebook features a brushed aluminum lid that not only looks magnificent, but also helps in maintaining its stylish exterior day after day. The UL30A also features a multi-gesture touchpad, which enables you to intuitively zoom in or out of pictures via pinching, or navigate up and down pages by sliding your finger.
Pre-installed with the Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium operating system (64-bit version), you'll be able to easily create a home network and share all of your favorite photos, videos, and music. Windows 7 is the easiest, fastest, and most engaging version of Windows yet. Better ways to find and manage files, like Jump Lists and improved taskbar previews, help you speed through everyday tasks. Windows 7 is designed for faster and more reliable performance, so your PC just works the way you want it to. (Learn more about Windows 7 Home Premium below.)

Experience FastBoot, the unique performance boost for Windows 7 made possible by ASUS's close partnership with Microsoft. With ASUS exclusive FastBoot technology, this Windows 7-enabled ASUS notebook starts up in a staggering 30 seconds.

Compact and under 1-inch thin, you can fit the UL30A virtually anywhere--freeing space for books, files, or whatever else you need to enjoy a spacious workspace. The UL30A includes Altec Lansing speakers plus SRS surround for a virtual home theater experience on the go, as well as an HDMI port for connecting to an HDTV at home. You'll be able to store all of your favorite applications, most important documents, and large video and audio libraries with the generous 500 GB hard drive. Other features include 4 GB of DDR3 RAM (maximum capacity), integrated webcam, Draft-N Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g/n), Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated video graphics, and multi-format memory card reader.









And where some PC manufacturers only offer 1 year of warranty service, the ASUS UL30A comes standard with a 2-year global ASUS 360 warranty as well as 1 year of Accidental Damage Warranty (ADW).



Key Features
High-gloss 13.3-inch LED-backlit HD high definition display with 1366 x 768 resolution (16:9 aspect ratio) that uses less energy and still gives you an immersive cinematic experience (Learn more)
Up to 12 hours of battery life from 8-cell battery (5600mAh)
Windows 7 Home Premium makes it easy to create a home network and share all of your favorite photos, videos, and music. And you can watch shows for free when and where you want with Internet TV on Windows Media Center. Get the best entertainment experience with Windows 7 Home Premium. (Learn more)
Get more features with Windows Anytime Upgrade. It's the best way to add features to Windows 7, takes as few as ten minutes, requires no software or downloads, and you'll keep your existing programs, files, and settings. Windows will walk you through the simple upgrade process.
Chiclet style keyboard and multi-touch trackpad for comfortable and intuitive use (Learn more)
ASUS IceCool Technology for cool-to-the-touch palm rest
Exclusive Express Gate feature enables ultra-fast boot so you can connect to the web in just 10 seconds
Energy efficient, dual core 1.3 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor with ultra-low voltage for extended battery life (Learn more)
500 GB SATA hard drive (5400 RPM)
4 GB of installed DDR3 RAM (1066 MHz; 2 x SODIMM slots; 4 GB maximum capacity)
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD integrated video processing
0.3-megapixel webcam for connecting with friends and family over video chats
ASUS SmartLogon facial recognition system detects your face and logs on automatically
Draft-N Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g/n)
HDMI high-definition audio/video output allows a single cable to transmit uncompressed high-definition video to your digital TV or LCD
Altec Lansing speakers enhanced with SRS Premium Sound for home theatre quality acoustics (Learn more)
ASUS Super Hybrid Engine for extended battery life
Dimensions: 12.9 x 9.28 x 0.98 inches (WxDxH)
Weight: 3.74 pounds (with battery
Warranty: 2 year global warranty and 1 year accidental damage warranty (Learn more)

Networking, Connectivity & Expansion With its integrated Draft-N Wi-Fi networking capabilities, this laptop provides up to five times the performance and twice the wireless range using 802.11n-compatible routers as you would with 802.11g networks. It's also backward compatible with 802.11b/g networks (commonly found at Wi-Fi hotspots and in older home routers). This notebook also provides Fast (10/100) Ethernet networking.

3 USB 2.0 ports for connecting a wide range of peripherals--from digital cameras to MP3 players
1 HDMI output for connecting to a compatible HDTV or home theater receiver for uncompressed digital audio and video via a single cable
Analog video output: 1 VGA
5-in-1 memory card reader compatible with Secure Digital (SD), MultiMedia Card (MMC), Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, and xD Picture Card
1 headphone jack (S/PDIF digital audio output), 1 microphone jack
10/100 Fast Ethernet

What's in the box This package contains the ASUS UL30A-A2 notebook PC, AC adapter, rechargeable 8-cell battery, and user manual

Learn More
High Definition That Doesn't Break the Bank The 13.3-inch LED-backlit display offers bright, vibrant visuals and advanced energy efficiency, and it has a high-definition resolution (1366 x 768) and 16:9 ratio display for watching movies and HDTV programming without annoying black bars. It's supported by an integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics processor for cinematic visual quality. Equipped with HDMI connectivity, you can easily stream media whether you're on the move or through an external display at home or in the office.
The UL30A is complemented with Altec Lansing speakers--30 percent more powerful compared to those found on conventional notebooks--and SRS premium surround sound, providing high-quality audio playback without the need to connect to external speakers. The angle of the speakers also allows audio to be "bounced" upwards from any surface to provide better amplification, delivering a wider frequency range, which in turn produces lower pitches that allow users to hear every reverberation of the drums, as well as every note in pitch perfect quality.



Windows 7 Home Premium makes it easy to create a home network and share all of your favorite photos, videos, and music. You can even watch, pause, rewind, and record TV. Get the best entertainment experience with Windows 7 Home Premium.



Jump Lists New in Windows 7, Jump Lists take you right to the documents, pictures, songs, or websites you turn to each day. To open a Jump List, just right-click a program icon on the Windows 7 taskbar. (You'll also find them on the Start menu.) What you see in a Jump List depends entirely on the program. The Jump List for Internet Explorer 8 shows frequently-viewed websites. Windows Media Player 12 lists commonly-played tunes. Your Jump List missing a favorite? You can "pin" whatever files you like there. Jump Lists don't just show shortcuts to files. Sometimes they also provide quick access to commands for things like composing new e‑mail messages or playing music.

Improved Windows Taskbar In Windows 7 you can "pin" favorite programs anywhere on the taskbar for easy access. Not crazy about the icon lineup? Now you can rearrange them any way you like by clicking and dragging. Finally, there are new ways to preview windows. Point to a taskbar icon to see a thumbnail preview of open files or programs. Then, move your mouse over a thumbnail to preview the window full-screen. You can even close windows from the thumbnail previews--a big time saver.

Snap Ever need to cut through a cluttered desktop and quickly focus on a single window? Just click a pane and give your mouse a shake. Every open window except that one instantly disappears. Jiggle again--and your windows are back.



Energy Efficient Intel Core 2 Duo ULV Processor Offering the latest in ultra-low voltage processing power, the dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 has a has a power consumption rating of just 10 watts and a 1.3 GHz speed that's paired with a fast 800 MHz front-side bus (FSB) and 3 MB L2 cache. (An L2, or secondary, cache temporarily stores data; and a larger L2 cache can help speed up your system's performance. The FSB carries data between the CPU and RAM, and a faster front-side bus will deliver better overall performance.)




Eye-Catching Sophistication Impress onlookers or complement any setting with the UL30A's brushed aluminum finish and high-class appeal. Simply opening the notebook you notice the interior casing around the display that brings the color to life so that time-after-time the UL30A shines with a brilliant, high-gloss finish. Plus, the chiclet style keyboard and spacious keys not only allow for a comfortable typing experience but also prevents dust buildup keeping it nice and clean every time you use it. Inspired by the light grace of a butterfly, the UL30A carries the hallmark contours and slim elegance that separate it from the typical cookie-cutter notebook with a true style of its own.
With ASUS IceCool Technology, you're ensured extended battery life and a cool-to-touch surface, so even after the longest computer sessions there's limited heat for optimized comfort. The palm rest area also makes your experience more enjoyable so you have plenty of space to place your hands while typing on the keyboard.



Industry Leading Customer Warranty Accidents Happen You have extra protection when they happen to your ASUS notebook purchased in the US or Canada. ASUS will fix it or replace it for you at no charge during the first year after purchase in the event of damage from accidental spills, drops, electrical surges, or fire.
Warranty covering accidental drops, spills, power surges, and fire damage
Target 3-business-day turnaround time for repair / replacement; not including receiving and shipping time
One-way shipping (from ASUS to the user) at no additional cost
24-hour toll-free phone support
One incident covered per notebook

Click here for more information about ASUS UL30A-A2 Thin and Light 13-3-Inch Silver Laptop - 12 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium)

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Acer Aspire Timeline AS3810TZ-4806 13.3-Inch Brushed Aluminum Laptop - Over 8 Hours of Battery Life Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've been using my 3810tz since July '09. It really is a nice laptop. Great size, decent performance.
However, the laptop has been recalled because of an overheating risk due to a manufacturer's defect.
With Acer, I get the privilege of paying for my own packing materials to ship something I depend on for work and school for 7-10 days. When I called Acer Support to handle the repair, I asked if there was someone to complain to about how the recall was handled (a voucher for packing material and something else to show that they understand that their mistake is costing me at least a week of work).
Some companies with bad service will at least listen to your complaints before ignoring them.
Acer won't even listen.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Acer Aspire Timeline AS3810TZ-4806 13.3-Inch Brushed Aluminum Laptop - Over 8 Hours of Battery Life


Acer Aspire Timeline 3810: All Thin, All Light, All DayAveraging more than 8 hours of battery life, the Acer Aspire Timeline notebook PC series makes "all day computing" a reality. You'll be able to remain productive as you work remotely from 9 to 5 without ever stopping to plug in and recharge, or keep yourself entertained throughout an entire coast–to-coast flight without worrying whether you'll make it to the end of your movie. The thin and light Timeline 3810 (model AS3810TZ-4806) is made for modern mobile work and play with its 3.5-pound weight and thin measurements--less than one-inch thin at its slimmest point and just over an inch at its thickest.
The high-definition, 13.3-inch CineCrystal LED backlit widescreen display (16:9 ratio) offers 33 percent more energy savings than traditional notebook screens. A Multi-Gesture Touchpad enables you to pinch, flick and swirl your fingers across the touchpad for more natural photo and video viewing as well as intuitive navigation of websites. The Multi-Gesture Touchpad allows you to scroll, zoom in and out and flip through web pages, photos, spreadsheets and more. An integrated Acer Crystal Eye webcam delivers smooth video streaming and high quality images for online chats and business video conferences, even in low-light situations.
Pre-installed with the Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium operating system (64-bit version), you'll be able to easily create a home network and share all of your favorite photos, videos, and music. Windows 7 is the easiest, fastest, and most engaging version of Windows yet. Better ways to find and manage files, like Jump Lists and improved taskbar previews, help you speed through everyday tasks. Windows 7 is designed for faster and more reliable performance, so your PC just works the way you want it to.

Key Features
13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display with 1366 x 768-pixel resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio and 200-nit high brightness
Energy efficient, 1.3 GHz Intel Pentium SU4100 processor with ultra-low voltage for extended battery life. The dual-core SU4100 has a has a power consumption rating of just 10 watts, a fast 800 MHz front-side bus (FSB), and 2 MB L2 cache.
320 GB hard drive
4 GB of installed RAM with 1066 MHz speed
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD with up to 1700 MB of shared video memory and support for DirectX 10 games.
Multi-gesture touchpad supports circular-motion scrolling, pinch-action zoom, and page flip. (Learn more)
Thermal-efficient cooling innovation ensures the notebook achieves comfortable skin temperature during use.
Crystal Eye webcam supports Acer PrimaLite technology, which consists of a premium sensor, firmware and lenses to provide superior video performance under low-light conditions. A built-in digital microphone helps keep background noise levels low and minimizes echoes.
Stereo speakers with Dolby Sound Room audio enhancement transforms the experience of movies, music, and games.
Draft-N Wi-Fi wireless networking (802.11a/b/g/n) with SignalUp technology for enhanced antenna efficiency
Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000)
5-in-1 memory card reader compatible with MultiMediaCard, Secure Digital card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO and xD-Picture Card
3 USB 2.0 ports for connecting a wide range of peripherals--from digital cameras to MP3 players.
HDMI port for connecting to a compatible HDTV or home theater receiver for uncompressed digital audio and video via a single cable. Also includes standard analog VGA video output.
Windows 7 Home Premium makes it easy to create a home network and share all of your favorite photos, videos, and music. And you can watch shows for free when and where you want with Internet TV on Windows Media Center. Get the best entertainment experience with Windows 7 Home Premium.
Get more features with Windows Anytime Upgrade. It's the best way to add features to Windows 7, takes as few as ten minutes, requires no software or downloads, and you'll keep your existing programs, files, and settings. Windows will walk you through the simple upgrade process.
Pre-loaded software includes Microsoft Works SE 9.0 for word processing and spreadsheet work. Enjoy a 60-day trial version of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007.
Over 8 hours of average battery life with included 6-cell battery (5600 mAh)
Dimensions: 12.7 x 9 x 1.1 inches (WxDxH)
Weight: 3.5 pounds
Warranty: One-year parts and labor limited warranty with concurrent International Traveler's Warranty

What's in the Box This package contains the Acer Aspire Timeline AS3810TZ-4806 notebook PC, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, AC adapter, and operating instructions
It also comes with the following software: McAfee Internet Security Suite (trial version); CyberLink PowerDVD; Google Toolbar; Acer Recovery Management; Acer GridVista; Microsoft Works; Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 Trial (60 days)
Learn More
The Multi-Gestured Aspire 1410

Click here for more information about Acer Aspire Timeline AS3810TZ-4806 13.3-Inch Brushed Aluminum Laptop - Over 8 Hours of Battery Life

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ASUS N61JV-X2 16-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Dark Brown) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)PROS:
On the initial setup, the laptop played a pretty cool Asus video that showed many "on" buttons forming various images. It made the purchase seem even more personal. Nice touch Asus. Here's a link: paste "ASUS Laptop Startup Video (2009 ASUS)(HD)" on Youtube. Watch in HD fullscreen to get the same feel. Yes simple things amaze me x_o.
My first impression of this laptop is its big size. I'm used to running a netbook, in terms of mobile pc. Examining the layout closely, the screen isn't the perpetrator here- the speaker adds roughly 2 inches to the width. Although this is easily forgiven once I heard the sound quality, which is similar to an HDTV's. This may make the laptop slightly bigger than regular 16in notebooks, but for an "entertainment"-advertised laptop, it was necessary.
I'm happy it has an eSATA port because this allowed me to couple my internal hard drives with a hard drive docking station (Thermaltake BlacX). Really helpful for storage and backups. The USB3.0 is a great addition as well. Makes it a bit more future-proof. As for the touchpad, my netbook had the same exact touchpad and I always turned it off because I was not a fan of it. Nothing beats a mouse!
Battery life depends on 4 settings through a power-managing software called Power4Gear. At "High Performance" setting, no power saving option is on and the battery life drains within 2 hours. The more balanced "Entertainment" setting, lasts 3 hours. With the power option set to "Quiet Office", the battery life lasts 4 hours. Lastly, the"Battery Saving" mode increases the battery life even longer. What it does is it disables your wallpaper, gadgets, autohides the taskbar, lowers brightness to 20% and sets every setting to maximum power savings. Of course the realtime battery life will be ultimately affected by what task you are doing.
In terms of performance, this thing packs a wallop! It will not beat a same-priced desktop, but what's important is portability. It's a great purchase for the performance. Although keep reading to learn about the current GPU driver as a caveat emptor. Another warning: I believe this was first advertised as having bluetooth. I can confirm that it does not. While this is not a deal breaker, I feel it should have been included being an entertainment laptop. Some of the pre-installed softwares are helpful, like the Power4Gear battery managing software and the Splendid Utility which enhances the screen's color/contrast/brightness settings with preset modes. The Cyberlink TrueTheater HD software is amazing. I popped in my "LotR: Fellowship of the Ring" DVD and with the smoothest playback settings (60FPS) and sharpest modes, it seemed like a whole new movie. I do not own a bluray player so I'm not used to this type of quality, but yes, it is better than any YouTube 1080p HD trailers or any HD channels I've seen.
Graphic Card Tests (Gaming):
All games were tested on the Geforce GT325m (Optimus driver version 189.07), running at 1366x768 native resolution, full screen, and with FRAPS frame counter benchmark. I wanted to keep it at native resolution to show the highest resolution capability of this GPU. Lowering resolution and some graphical settings will unquestionably increase the frame rates, but playing graphically-lush games is always a delight.
Batman Arkham Asylum: (Fight sequence VS 5 inmates at start of game)
Settings: VSync Off, Hardware PhysX Off, Detail level: Very High, 2xAnti-aliasing
Min FPS: 25, Avg FPS: 33 Max FPS : 50
Verdict: Smooth gameplay, lag-free.
--
Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare 2 : (Single Player: Heavy gun fight on "Act II: Hornet's Nest" level)
Settings: VSync On, All Graphic Settings On, All Textures set to Extra, 4xAnti-aliasing
Min FPS 30, Avg FPS 35, Max FPS 60 (Remember VSync caps this at screen's refresh rate, which is 60 in this case)
Verdict: Very playable considering it's at max in-game settings. Will experience some tiny lag spikes, which I also experienced on my desktop PC which has better specs than this laptop, so it must be the game.
--
Mass Effect 2: (Gun fights on mission to recruit Prof. Mordin)
Settings: VSync On, All graphic settings on except for Film Grain, 4xAnti-aliasing, 8xAnisotropic Filtering
Min FPS 24, Avg FPS 38, Max FPS 49
Verdict : Smooth gameplay. Some random lags but does not ruin the experience.
--
Crysis: (From game start all the way to "First Light" gun fights)
Test 1: VSync Off, Everything to Medium, No AA
Min FPS 19, Avg FPS 26, Max FPS 34
Verdict : Smooth gameplay, lag free even if the FPS results seem low. Graphic texture pop-ins on some of the vegetation, especially when using "maximum speed" boost.
Test 2: VSync Off, All graphic settings to medium, except for Texture and Shader at High. 2xAnti-Aliasing .
Min FPS 13, Avg FPS 16, Max FPS 20
Verdict : Clunky gameplay. With these settings, the texture looked sharper and much easier on the eyes, and while there are no dramatic lag spikes that will get you killed easily (it's a steady 15-16 frames on gun fights), the slow gameplay is quite noticeable.
Test 3: VSync Off, Everything to High except Shader to Medium, No AA
Min FPS 14, Avg FPS 22, Max FPS 29
Verdict : Smooth gameplay, but sometimes has that laggy feel to it. No jittering lag. Pretty impressive for the High setting- I guess Shader is what really stresses the framerates.
--
World of Warcraft: VSync off, Effects at Medium-High, Window Mode + Maximized option to properly scale the resolution
Test 1: Riding mount around Dalaran's North Bank steps with ~30 toons around me.
Min FPS 22, Avg FPS 33, Max FPS 39
Verdict: No lag
Test 2: Outside Dalaran, flying epic flight
Min 50, Avg 85, Max 150
Verdict: No lag
In instances, the gameplay is very smooth. Depending on the instance, some will be over 100FPS whereas the newer ones + raids, will be in the low 50s.
--
6008 pts in 3DMark06
--
10594 pts in 3DMark05
--
CONS:
Note: This part of the review will only be valid until Nvidia releases the proper Forceware drivers for the laptop's GPU. The GT 325m series is relatively new; NVidia has one official release for it on their website: Optimus Driver 189.07. This driver is not bad. As shown by the benchmarks, 3D gaming works well. But here's where things tend to get annoying: the Nvidia GPU, with its current drivers, rely on the Intel integrated graphics to handle screen scaling. Meaning if you connect this to a larger monitor, in my case an Acer 21.5" 1080P native res widescreen LCD, scaling works well when the GPU running is the Intel IGP, but when you switch to games, you are forced to use the 1080p resolution through the in-game settings, which will be taxing on the framerates. I know the native resolution of the laptop does not match the monitor's, but with the "normal" geforce drivers, scaling to fit the screen works well and allows the laptop's native res to stretch the image onto the monitor. My ASUS 1201n netbook does this easily through it's Nvidia Control Panel, with the same native res as this laptop. I hope NVidia releases this capability with the next driver update.
I still do not trust the current Nvidia driver for this GPU just yet. Once it is properly optimized and up to date, the fps will increase. I'll update this entry if the graphic drivers are updated through NVidia or some modding website.
NVidia Optimus: This technology sounds great but I'm having a little problem with it. See, when my laptop is plugged in, the Optimus technology works just fine: the intel switches to the nvidia GPU when loading a 3D game. But when I load a 3D game while this laptop is unplugged (regardless whether battery is full or low charge), the GPU does NOT switch. It stays on the Intel GPU and I get low framerates. This problem occurs even if I use "High Performance" mode on the power settings, even if my preferred GPU is NVidia, even if I assign the game profile to load with Nvidia GPU, even if I right click and "run with graphics processor: High performance Nvidia processor". I do notice that if I suddenly plug the laptop to the outlet, the frames will go up fast again (as if the Nvidia GPU was suddenly turned on). There needs to be a better software-based of forcing the GPU on since the NV Control Panel is faulty at this point. Isn't the whole point of Optimus to provide performance when necessary and lengthen battery life, when available? Here is NVidia's claim: "Watch a HD movie, surf the web or play top 3D games knowing that you'll get the long battery life you need and the performance you expect from NVIDIA." This technology should work even on battery, as stated there. I would like to know if this is just my laptop doing this- comment if you can help.
Update 1: there is a fix that works. Make sure your HDMI is in digital mode and not analog. This allows your monitor to do the scaling. Although, if you only have analog mode for HDMI, you can try using a DVI to HDMI cable. Or just wait for Nvidia to update the driver and you won't have to go through all this.
Update 2: March 15, 2010. Well it seems that Nvidia actually listened. I opened a technical ticket on their website and though I can't take credit for them actually solving this, I can tell you that they have put up a solution. New Optimus drivers are out on their website: version 189.42. The highlights of this release is eerily accurate to the issues I was having with my N61JV. It fixes the incompatibilities with the Intel IGP driver and corrects the Optimus Profile system. The sad news is I have already returned my N61JV almost 2 weeks before the...Read more›

Click Here to see more reviews about: ASUS N61JV-X2 16-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Dark Brown)

Expect an Encore The 16-inch N61Jv-X2 is masterfully crafted to deliver premium entertainment while on the go. Featuring the new Intel Core i5 processor and NVIDIA's GeForce® GT 325M graphics processing unit (GPU), featuring NVIDIA Optimus Technology, the N61Jv-X2 redefines mobile computing with the power of a desktop inside its elegant and portable design. Now with NVIDIA Optimus technology, the N61Jv seamlessly switches between the powerful GeForce GPU, and battery-saving integrated graphics engine depending on demands of the graphics processor- much like a hybrid car automatically switches depending on driving style. This multimedia powerhouse excels in entertainment with awe-inspiring HD playback on its brilliant 16-inch HD LED-backlit widescreen driven by NVIDIA GeForce Graphics for a flawless HD entertainment experience. Delight your senses with rich sound from the Altec Lansing speakers, enhanced by the unique SonicMaster design –an exclusive ASUS design that improves sound projection and quality. Plus, introduce yourself to the latest standard of USB with Superspeed USB 3.0, enabling faster transfer rates for USB 3.0-enabled peripherals – up to 10 times faster compared to USB 2.0. Enjoy your favorite HD movies, listen to hit songs, and experience the impressive visuals of the N61Jv-X2- the possibilities are virtually endless. The N61Jv-X2 boasts 4GB DDR3 system RAM, a chiclet keyboard, a multi-touch trackpad, a high-speed wireless 802.11n connectivity, a 500GB 7200 RPM hard drive, an HDMI connectivity, a 2.0MP webcam, and plenty of other convenient features.


Key Features

The new Intel Core i5-430M processor with Turbo Boost Technology for smart multitasking performance that adapts to your needs (Learn more)
Vivid 16-inch HD LED-backlit widescreen for an immersive cinematic experience (Learn more)
Powerful NVIDIA GeForce Graphics powered by GeForce GT 325M with 1GB VRAM for the latest multimedia and gaming enjoyment (Learn more)
NVIDIA Optimus Technology for automatic and seamless switching between powerful NVIDIA GeForce graphics and battery-saving integrated graphics engine (Learn more)
Altec Lansing speakers enhanced with SRS Premium Sound produce crisp, clear audio reproduction (Learn more)
ASUS SonicMaster design for more detailed and richer sound quality
500GB 7200RPM hard drive for fast, convenient storage and access to all your documents, music, videos, and photos
4GB of DDR3 RAM brings increased performance with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit pre-installed
Multi-touch trackpad lets you intuitively navigate through web pages, documents, and pictures (Learn more)
Chiclet keyboard with numeric keypad for increased typing precision (Learn more)
HDMI output for easy HD video and audio connectivity to your HDTV or LCD monitors with HDMI input
USB 3.0 Superspeed connectivity for up to 10x faster transfer speed than USB 2.0 (Learn more)
High-speed wireless N networking (802.11 b/g/n @ 2.4GHz) (Learn more)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit for a faster and more reliable operating system (Learn more)
ASUS Infusion Technology for scratch-resistant protection
2.0 megapixel webcam for video chatting with friends and family
1 year global warranty and 1 year Accidental Damage Warranty* (Learn more)

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Enhanced Connectivity
Head-turning Style and Intelligent Control
ASUS Makes Your Windows 7 Experience Better
F9 Key for Quick Recovery
ASUS 360 - Comprehensive Care Package Included
Accidents Happen
What's in the Box The entire ASUS N61Jv-X2 package contains a warranty information card, notebook, 6-cell battery pack, and AC Adapter.
ASUS N61Jv-X2 (Brown)
AC Adapter
6-cell Battery Pack
Warranty Information Card
Specifications
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Display: 16-inch HD LED-backlit Widescreen (1366 x 768)
CPU: Intel Core i5-430M processor 2.26 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.53 GHz
Graphics: NVIDIA Optimus-Enabled: NVIDIA GeForce GT 325M with 1GB DDR3 VRAM + Intel GMA HD
Wireless Data Network: 802.11 b/g/n (@ 2.4GHz)
LAN: 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
Memory: 4GB DDR3 (up to 8GB)
Storage: 500GB 7,200RPM hard drive
Optical Disc Drive: Super Multi DVD drive
Camera: 2.0 Megapixel
Speakers: Altec Lansing speakers with SRS premium sound
Microphone: Digital Array Microphone
Card Reader: : 1x 8-in- card reader (MMC/SD/Mini-SD/XD/Memory Stick/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS-Pro-Duo)
Input/Output: 1x HDMI output, 1x Headphone-out jack (SPDF support), 1x Microphone-in jack, 1x Express Card 34, 1x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert, 1x USB 3.0 port, 2x USB 2.0 ports, 1x E-SATA
Battery Pack: 6-Cell
Dimensions: 14.98 x 10.33 x 1.08 (W x D x H)
Weight: 6.38 lbs
Color: Brown † Rated number 1 Windows-based PC maker in PCMag.com's Service & Reliability Report 2009. Rate number 1 PC brand according to SquareTrade, the leading direct-to-consumer warranty company (for more information visit http://www.squaretrade.com/pages/laptop-reliability-1109/ ). * For notebooks purchased on or after Sept. 10, 2007. The ASUS 360 Notebook Service Program and Accidental Damage Warranty covers "ASUS" brand notebooks only, and does NOT extend to: "Built on ASUS," "ASMobile," "Powered by ASUS," the Eee PC, or some other models. These retailers are currently among the companies that do NOT participate in the ASUS 360 Notebook Service Program and Accidental Damage Warranty: Best Buy, MicroCenter, and The Source by CircuitCity in Canada. Limit of one claim per notebook for Accidental Damage Warranty. ASUS reserves the right to discontinue this program and to modify the terms and conditions thereof at any time. ASUS Accidental Damage Warranty Program starts from the date of your ASUS notebook purchase, when all the requirements are met. One incident covered per notebook. All specifications and terms are subject to change without notice. Please check with your supplier for exact offers on selected models. Products may not be available in all markets. Product may not be exactly as shown in photos. Celeron, Celeron Inside, Centrino, Centrino Inside, Core Inside, Intel, Intel Logo, Intel Atom, Intel Atom Inside, Intel Core, Intel Inside, Intel Inside Logo, Intel Viiv, Intel vPro, Itanium, Itanium Inside, Pentium, Pentium Inside, Viiv Inside, vPro Inside, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

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ASUS UL80Vt- A2 14-Inch Thin and Light Laptop (Silver) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)EDIT: An updated and revised review of this laptop can be found at over at Expert Laptop Review: [...]
I recently went on a laptop buying rampage and have ended up with the Dell Studio 14z, HP dm3z (L625 + Radeon 4330), and the Asus UL80VT-A1 in possession all at once. The first part of this review will focus solely on the Asus UL80VT-A1 and the second part of this review will compare it with my experience with the Dell Studio 14z and the HP dm3z.
ASUS UL80VT-A1 DETAILED REVIEW
First and foremost, let me say that I ordered the UL80VT-A1 because I thought it was simply an awesome idea to have switchable graphics in a laptop because you get excellent battery life + excellent performance when needed. There were no reviews of the UL80VT out when I purchased it, so I purchased the UL80VT-A1 from [...], which has a 100 percent refund on purchases just in case things didn't work out with me and the new lady.
While I was waiting to recieve the laptop in the mail, I read a review over at [...]. Oh boy, was I disappointed considering all the bad things the reviewer had to say about it (i.e. bad keyboard, bad track pad, horrible build quality, poor gaming performance). Needless to say, I had second thoughts about even opening up the Asus UL80VT-A1 because I didn't think it was worth my time considering the all the problems the reviewer had with his review model.
So that morning I got my HP dm3z in the mail and was really excited about how incredibly beautiful the laptop was. It is definitely sexier (in my opinion) than every other ultraportable out there, including the Macbook Pro 13" and HP Envy 13. I'll get to the dm3z a little later... either way, my first impression led me to believe that I'd probably be keeping the dm3z and just returning the Asus. When the Asus came in the mail, I wasn't even watching for it like I had been the dm3z. But I did take it upstairs and opened it up. (Unboxing video coming soon...)FIRST IMPRESSIONS
My first impression was astoundingly contradictory to review I had read. I picked it up, squeezed it, pushed on the keyboard, which had minimal flex that wasn't noticeable to me when typing. My other first impressions were just how well the trackpad worked. The two finger scroll worked flawlessly (though it isn't as smooth of a scroll as Apple's, it functions equally responsively and is just as useful).
GRAPHICS PERFORMANCE - Rating 9/10
Over the last view days, I've been taking the UL80VT-A1 out for spin in a series of gaming tests. The first game I tested was the ever popular Counter-Strike: Source. I was astounded by the computer's ability to put out 150 FPS in the stress test at native resolution of 1366x768. I had been expecting to get closer to 80-100 FPS. I then tested it with 4x AA on, and it resulted in 99 FPS, which is phenomenal considering that AA usually cripple weaker graphics cards like the Nvidia 210M.
I was eager to test out the UL80VT's performance in some of the latest games because of the previous review I had read that had denounced its ability to play modern games. I had recently purchased Batman: Arkham Asylum. I loaded it up with the default settings, which were set on Very High at native 1366x768 resolution. Game play was moderately smooth and playable, but it was also noticably choppy at times with those settings (26 FPS average in the video stress test), so I dropped the settings down to medium. This time the Asus got 40 FPS average in the video stress test, and the game play was perfectly playable and smooth.
I then downloaded Team Fortress 2. It has been known to give ultraportable gaming machines a tough time due to its high shader requirements. When playing, I averaged about 50-60 FPS at native resolution with everything on High with no AA. I noticed drops down to 30 FPS when in heavy action, but it was not too disruptive to game play. I don't think it went below 30 FPS during the time I played.
After hearing claims that Asus UL80VT could not run Need For Speed: Shift well. I downloaded the demo to see if these claims were true. Fortunately, they were not. I was able to achieve playable frame rates, though it was a little choopy with the default settings, which had the screen at 1024x768 resolution and everything else up in detail. I tried changing the settings, but after changing the settings to lower the resolution to 800x600, the game repeatedly gave me an error and crashed right as the race was about to start. Unfortunately, I was not able to do a formal test, but it was clear that the game was getting at least 30 FPS at 800x600 resolution with texture settings on High. I would expect the game to be very playable as long as you are content with 800x600 (or maybe slightly better res) and medium settings.
I also managed to squeeze in a little play time in Protoype, another recent game that was released earlier this year. It played very smoothly at the default 1280x720 (which was the max res for some reason) and on the default medium settings.
Another game I was able to try was Call of Duty: World at War, which has identical specs to the latest Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. People will be glad to know that I was able to achieve 35-40 FPS constant at native resolution 1366x768 with texture settings on "normal" (except for "shader settings" which I set to "low"). I also turned off all of the extra graphical features, which didn't make much of a difference in visuals anyway.
In conclusion regarding the gaming peformance of this ultraportable laptop, it has excellent performance and handles most modern games fluidly at native resolution.
BATTERY LIFE - Rating 10/10
Yesterday, I used the laptop for 3 hours early in the morning with wifi on and brightness up. Later that day, I used it for about 15 minutes running Batman: AA. I then used it about 7 hours more with brightness at about 20% (2.5 hours with wifi on and 4.5 with it off). In total the laptop lasted me 10.25 hours between a mixture of wifi, gaming, and note taking/paper writing. I was extremely happy to get this excellent of performance out of it. This was precisely what I was looking for in terms of battery life.
BUILD QUALITY - Rating 6/10
My initial impression was that the build quality was just average--not great, but nothing bad about it either, but now after having it for a couple days, I now agree with Charles' review about some of the issues with build quality. Yesterday morning when I was typing, I noticed that when I pressed down on the front edge of the left palm rest it squeaked annoyingly (it hadn't pressed down on this part of the laptop when it was on a hard surface yet because it had always been on my laptop up until this point).
I began squeezing the front edge and noticed that top part of the chassis isn't cemented to the bottom part of the chassis very well so that when you put pressure on it (such as when you rest your palm on it) it made a noise. I tried placing about an inch long piece of scotch tape across the part that was sqeaking, and the squeaking went away completely. It was disappointing to find this because it was the first issue with the build quality. Also, I now understand what Charles meant when he said that when he pressed in the center of the laptop it causes the bottom of the laptop to touch the surface it is resting on...
It's not if you press in the middle of the keyboard like I had thought Charles had said (my bad!!)... it's if you press on the trackpad buttons (like Charles had really said), he was right that you can feel the laptop touch the surface it is resting on, but the thing Charles was wrong about is that it isn't the bottom of the laptop touching the surface below it... it's a little "support peg/foot" that protrudes from the bottom of the laptop about 1/10" of an inch.
The overall chassis does flex a tad, but it is just the peg touching, and the peg is maybe moving 1/16" of an inch tops (probably less). So yes, the chassis does flex just a hair, but not as bad as the review makes it sound (I think the review should be updated with this information personally).
I am thinking about putting a drop of super glue on the edge of the left palm rest to keep it from squeaking. I'm pretty sure it would work without a hitch unless you put too much glue and then tried to take the casing apart and wasn't able to. I figure it wouldn't void the 1 year accidental warranty but maybe the 2 year standard warranty if they figured out what I did. I'm not sure though... I figure you can always "cut through" the glue so that the chassis can be opened if you needed to send it in for repairs.
I also noticed that the entire surface (including the aluminum top) acquires fingerprints. I was disappointed that the aluminum top also was prone to oils from my fingers.
HEAT MANAGEMENT - Rating 10/10
The heat on this bad-boy is hardly noticeable. I think more heat is generated because it is restricting the airflow over your lap more than anything. Whenever my lap started to feel a little warm, I would feel the bottom of the laptop but the bottom of the laptop never got hot. It was always just the fact that my legs weren't getting as much air to cool them down.
I was also able to play Batman:AA while on my lap just fine, though it was starting to be mildly uncomfortable by the time 30 mins rolled around. Still, as far as gaming on the lap goes, I think it would be doable, and far more doable than on any other laptop I have ever tried.
This laptop is by far the coolest running laptop I have ever owned (I've owned about 14 different laptops...). For this reason, I give it a 10/10 in heat management...Read more›

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ASUS U30JC-B1 13.3-Inch Laptop (Silver) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm one of those weird users who uses his laptop for 20 different things - taking notes at conferences, as a portable scanning workstation, occasional mobility gaming, doing work on planes/trains/occasional automobiles. The only thing I don't use it for (caveat to this review) is as a primary computer / desktop replacement. Essentially I wanted a netbook, but on some serious steroids. That's exactly what this is.
The 13.3 inch screen is a perfect size. It's not matte, but it's worked fine for me in a wide variety of settings. The keyboard is a mixed bag...there's some flex (more than my previous computer, a Sony Vaio S270), but it's perfectly fine for typing long documents. Videos play back perfectly at any resolution. And I thought the touchpad is perfectly fine and have no complaints, but I'm not a multitouch user. The system doesn't get hot at all, doesn't make much noise, and does whatever I throw at it. And the battery life is superb if you do a few common-sense things like lowering the display (and honestly, in many settings it's too bright unless turned down anyway).
A few notes (these don't detract from the score, but...)
* The unit is heavier than you'd guess from the side. It means it's solidly built, but it's not a featherweight at roughly 5 lbs.
* I wish the B1 had onboard bluetooth available on the ASUS U30JC-A2B 13.3-Inch Laptop (Silver), but for a $200 price difference it's not a big deal.
* I wish this came with a 500 GB rather than a 320 GB drive, and that they didn't partition separate OS and Data partitions.
But these are minor quibbles on a great laptop. Highly recommended.

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ASUS N61JQ-A1 16-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Dark Brown) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Just got this. Looked at it for a few days on [...] to get detailed specs and customer reviews before purchasing. I only bought it on amazon because the next day shipping was cheaper (about $[...]) and the computer itself was $[...] less on amazon.
Haven't pushed the pedal to the metal as far as ram, HDD, and CPU go. There is an overclocking speed (called Turbo Boost) that is automatic. With windows 7 (instaleld) the Turbo Boost app lets you see the CPU ramping up. It shows that the CPU rutinely goes up to 2.6 Ghz when opening an application (not very intensive work) so I am not sure how accurate the gadget is, but we'll see. When compared to what else is out there, this coputer has much more for your money and is actually cheaper than many laptops with less power/graphics capability/coolness. Look at the prices at Best Buy for an Core i3 laptop. They are nearly $1000 and don't have as much ram, video memory, or upgrade potential. This is a Core i7, much more powerful and is less than alot of the laptops out there. Plus, Asus has a 1 year accidental warranty. Tops!
Pros:
-Amazon said it would be Brown, mine was black when I got it. Brown is ugly anyway!
- You can create a recovery DVD to fix everything in the event you scrw something up. Also, has a bootup recovery option built in, so even if you don;t have the disks, it can be recovered.
- 1 year replacement/repair "i dropped it in a pool" warranty.
-Shipping. For the price of the computer, get the 30.00 next day. I order by 3:00PM on thursday and had the computer booted up at 3:15PM friday.
-Nice looking computer. Great sound. Great price. (You can get a lesser model without the i7 CPU from Best Buy for 999.00)
-USB 3.0 is nice touch. Cool touchpad with "gesture" recognition.
-I like the screen. The resolution is said to be a little low/poor for the machine, but I do not yet find it to be a problem. You can zoom in and out using the touchpad and gestureing, so if the icons look to big/small, you can change it up without messing with screen resolution. Basically, you can keep it in 1377x768 mode. HD screen looks good to me. Bright too.
-HDMI output! You can hook this thing up to your big ass HD flat screen.
- With Windows 7, some "gadgets" aka iphone style "apps" that can be installed to the desktop require 32bit. This computer has the 64bit Windows 7 so you have to do some playin around to get those gadgets to work. Pandora is one of those. However, you can have a applet for Pandor Radio on the desktop without needing an open internet explorer window. Cool!
- POwer saving one-touch button. NOt sure how effcient it is yet.
- So far, Windows 7 is not that bad. Yet. :)CONS:
- A lot of "bloatware" on this baby. You have to sort throught it all and see what you like/don;t like and uninstall whatever you can live without.
- At initial boot up, 80 processes running! Ouch. 33% of RAM in use. That's over a Gig. Trim down the fat and you should be good.
-The first time I launched the "See how cool this Asus computer is" demo, I needed to lower the volume. Whn I did so, the computer locked up, blaring a annoying sound. I had to hold th epower button for 4 sec to turn off manually. Not cool. After that though, all seems cool.
- The keyboard is a little cheap, has some play to it. Go to Best BUy and type on one of their floor models to see if it is bad for you or not. Not a deal breaker for me, but kinda lame. The "full size keyboard is not true, it is laptop sized with a number padd on the right. The arrow keys (if you play games or use spreadsheets) are small and you can easily miss them and hit the 0 or control key.
- With Windows 7, some "gadgets" aka iphone style "apps" that can be installed to the desktop require 32bit. This computer has the 64bit Windows 7 so you have to do some playin around to get those gadgets to work. Pandora is one of those. However, you can have a applet for Pandor Radio on the desktop without needing an open internet explorer window. Cool!
- A lot of Asus "this and that" programs to deal with. I uninstalled half of them.
BOTTOM LINE:
Buy it. Remove what you don't like. Great deal. If you were going to spend 800, drop an extra 2 bills and get this one. If you were going to spend 1200, save you money and get yourself a case for this one once you buy it.

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ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1201N-PU17-BK 12.1-Inch Black Netbook - 5 Hours of Battery Life Review

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(More customer reviews)As of the date of this review, the ASUS-1201N is the best netbook on the market today. This is my first netbook purchase, and I wanted a machine with the following characteristics;
-at least 2 GB of RAM
-graphics processor capable of playing 1080P media
-decent battery life (willing to sacrifice battery life for performance, since I'm usually close to a wall socket)
-Windows 7 Premium (offers improved battery life over Windows 7 Starter)
-11.6" to 12.1" size
-1366 x 768 resolution
-At least a 100 GB hard drive (SSD still too pricey and swapping out drives voids warranty)
First, a little background information. Thanks to restrictions by Intel and Microsoft, the number of high performance netbooks is quite small. The vast majority of netbooks have just 1 GB of ram, and are too small in size (most are in the 9-10" range). However, I settled on 4 possibilities, the ASUS EEE PC 1201N, Lenovo IdeaPad S12, HP Mini 311, and the Samsung N510. I immediately discounted the Samsung because of the high pricetag ($600). The remaining three all lacked one feature of the 1201N; dual core processors. The Asus is the only netbook to currently feature 1.6GHz Dual Core Intel Atom 330s. In general, the order of netbook processors is as follows;
Dual Core Atom 330s (found mostly on nettops) >> Atom N450 > Atom N280 > Atom N270 > Atom Z520
Since the Mini 311, Lenovo, and Asus were all comparably priced, I decided to go with the newer and more powerful Asus. I should also note that the HP Mini 311 only has the Nvidia Ion LE chipset, which is not DirectX 10 compatible, although it can be hacked to full Ion compatibility. However, I suspect that mainstream users are not interested in hacking their netbooks. I had also considered waiting until CES 2010 finished to get a glimpse of future netbooks. But, based on what has been revealed so far at CES, most of the future offerings will be just 10" netbooks with a single core N450, 1 GB RAM and a new Crystal HD Broadcom chip. At best, on parity with the 1201N, and probably marked into the $400 range when all optioned out. Ultimately, I decided that I wanted a netbook larger than 10".
The Amazon price for the 1201N was $482, which is at the high end of the netbook market. Why should I get this 1201N, when I can easily get a comparably priced CULV (Intel's Core 2 Ultra Low Voltage) light notebook with superior performance you ask? Well, the CULV performance is only superior with regard to the processor; GPU-wise, CULV equipped notebooks with Intel's integrated graphics GMA3150/4500MHD solutions are actually worse than the Nvidia Ion equipped 1201N. A CULV notebook with higher performance GPU would run you in the $800-1000 range. Asus has a CULV with Intel 4500MHD for about $600, but the Intel integrated graphics leaves much to be desired. As far as I know, there is no sub-$800 CULV with 9400M that weighs less than 4 lbs and is less than 13" and is ultra-mobile. The 1201N fills that gap.
Nvidia Ion (GeForce 9400M) >> Intel GMA3150 (PineTrail) and 4500MHD > Intel GMA950 >> Intel GMA500
I also thought about waiting for Nvidia's Ion2 platform to hit the market, but considering that it took Nvidia and the computer manufacturers close to one year to output a netbook to take advantage of the Ion, I decided to go ahead and make the purchase. The Ion gives you the capability to play *some* games; it definitely won't play Crysis! You'll most likely have to play at 800 x 600 resolution to get any sort of decent performance, but at least there's a capability. You probably won't be able to get past the loading screen on other netbooks. While Ion dings battery life, it in combination with the dual Atoms allows you to watch 1080P content while multi-tasking on the 1201N, previously unheard of in a netbook.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS of the 1201N: The size is perfect! I'm glad I didn't get a 10" netbook. It arrived pretty barebones; netbook, battery, charger, and a few software CDs. Initial impressions were very good; the glossy black cover actually seems pretty fingerprint resistant. Overall construction is very solid, be careful once you insert the battery pack, because it tips the center of mass very sharply. Make sure you have a tight grip- mine nearly slipped out of my hand. In addition, I thought the Velcro straps on the battery cords were a nice touch; they keep the wires tucked away more neatly than plastic zip ties. Some also complained of the hard drive being too noisy- I didn't notice anything unusual, just the steady hum of the hard drive that was mildly audible only if I placed my ear right on top of the keyboard. Air flow seems fine- after several hours of usage, the keyboard was still the same temperature, and the bottom was warm, but not hot.
KEYBOARD/TOUCHPAD: I really like the keyboard, and note, it is a full-size keyboard. Some online review sites thought it flexed a bit too much, but I didn't notice any flexing. The chiclet style keyboard appears to be very solidly made. I do have one minor complaint, whilst typing, my greasy wrists tend to leave imprints all over the nice glossy plastic wrist-rest. I have never used a dimpled one-button touchpad before, but it seems to work well. While the touchpad only has a single button/bar, it has independent left-and-right hand sides that can be depressed, effectively making it a 2-button touchpad. Those of you who don't like touchpads may want to invest in a USB mouse for convenience.
WINDOWS 7: Initial setup of Windows 7 took about 30-40 minutes; thereafter, boot time is about 30 seconds. There's not much bloatware pre-installed; basically only MS Works, Trend Micro Anti-Virus, MS Office Starter, Acrobat Reader, and a media-player. Response to keyboard and mouse inputs seems fast, I didn't notice any lagging. Minor quibble- how do I get the Windows Classic look in Windows 7?!
DISPLAY: As for the display, I like the glossy screen, it looks fantastic, and text is clear, sharp, and very legible. Before I purchased the netbook, I was bothered by the screen not being flush with the bezel in various promotional images. Now with the unit actually in hand, I don't really notice any aesthetic issues. The whole seashell design is very nicely done.
OTHER OBSERVATIONS: Maximum battery time with a full charge is about 5-6.5 hours, but that's with LCD brightness at 50%, battery saver, and very little user activity. The battery saver settings are easy to toggle, simply pressing Fn + spacebar cycles through the different choices. The hard drive is oddly partitioned into a c: drive with about 100 GB and a d: drive with about 125 GB. Note that Nvidia's ION chipset takes 250 MB of the 2 GB of RAM for its own usage.
1080P MEDIA: Aha, here's the juicy part! So I installed CoreAVC Professional, and disabled deblocking (which helped to offset some of the CPU load). I played a 1080P music video, and opened up Windows task manager. CPU utilization was at just 60%, and I was also able to open a MS Powerpoint file, an MS Word file, and play a 3D Chess game. The 1080P file played fine, with no hiccups. I was quite impressed by the multi-tasking in the 1201N. Battery life decreased a bit to roughly 4 hours, but I wasn't continuously playing high definition media.
Also, I can't stress how important it is to use CoreAVC Pro for decoding High Definition H.264 media; the 1201N can handle 1080P without CoreAVC (using ffdshow), but CPU utilization shoots up to ~ 90%. With CoreAVC and deblocking turned off, it goes down to 60%. CoreAVC really helps boost the 1201N's multi-tasking abilities, it's also not too expensive. I think Core AVC 2.0 is selling for about $8-$10.
Sorry ladies and gents, haven't gotten around to testing games on it yet.
OTHER THOUGHTS: Reliability wise, all the netbooks are about the same, which is to say, not very reliable. Well, at least ASUS isn't as bad as HP. I decided to do myself a favor and buy a Squaretrade Extended warranty for peace of mind.
CONCLUSION: In summary, should you get this 1201N? Well, it depends on your needs. But if having 8 hour+ battery performance isn't terribly important, and you want a well performing netbook with decent battery life, superior multimedia capabilities, and some gaming performance, then I strongly recommend the 1201N.
I want to also add that purchasing from Amazon for $480 with no tax and free shipping makes this deal much hotter than buying from newegg, wherein tax tips the price over $500.UPDATE (01/25/10): Engadget released their review today of the Dell Mini 10 with Broadcom Crystal HD hardware based accelerated netbook. All optioned out, with 1366x768 screen, the Dell Mini 10 comes to $425, which is actually quite close to the 1201N price-point. They noted that the Broadcom Crystal HD is ONLY capable of playing back 1080P WMV files media using Windows Media Player 11. For those of you who wish to use Quicktime, VLC, WMP Classic, or Flash 10.1 you're out of luck. MKV (matroskas), MOV, BLU-RAY DISCS, are **NOT** supported by the Broadcom Crystal HD chip, go figure. I know several other netbook manufacturers were considering using the Broadcom Crystal chip as well. The Dell Mini 10 also does not have an HDMI out, and the size is 2" smaller than the 1201N. Here, size makes a big difference.
So if you want any sort of 1080P playback utilizing a large range of input files while also maintaining multi-tasking at a sub-$500 price with reasonable battery life, the 1201N is the best option!
UPDATE (03/01/10): Engadget has reported on an updated, next-gen 1201PN model at this year's CeBIT. The Dual Atom...Read more›

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Go Beyond the Ordinary Pushing the envelope of conventional netbook performance, the Eee PC 1201N Seashell breaks from traditional standards to deliver premium HD entertainment on-the-go. With an ASUS Dedicated Graphics Engine (DGE) powered by revolutionary NVIDIA ION graphics and a dual-core Intel Atom processor never before seen in an Eee PC, this multimedia netbook delivers standout HD quality and multitasking efficiency with Windows 7 Home Premium. The Eee PC 1201N boasts a 12.1-inch HD widescreen, 750GB ASUS Hybrid Storage, full-size chiclet keyboard, stereo speakers, and other robust media features that let you enjoy rich entertainment in a thin-and-light, compact design. The Eee PC 1201N fits any situation.From its Eee core, it embodies the essence of traditional Eee PCs, "to learn, work, and play" –and takes it a step further. Learn The Eee PC 1201N is ideal for any learning environment. Its space-saving design and scratch-resistant Infusion finish combine to make it the perfect addition to today's mobile student's backpack.It's small enough to comfortably fit any desk with room to spare, but is still large enough for all your word processing and productivity needs.The Eee PC 1201N strikes a perfect balance between form and function. Work Tired of boring, bulky business laptops that keep dying throughout the day?The stylish Eee PC 1201N will help you re-discover office computing in a new light with its spacious full-size chiclet-style keyboard, ultra-slim design, and mobile efficiency.Stay unplugged longer through long meetings and power through work applications.Its multitasking dual core Atom processor handles multiple programs on the fly, and, with 750GB of hybrid storage, you get an incredible amount of space to hold your work files and documents. Play The Eee PC 1201N is one of the only netbooks equipped to handle casual gaming.With a dual core Atom processor and ASUS Dedicated Graphics Engine (DGE), powered by NVIDIA ION graphics, the Eee PC 1201N plays most of your favorite games on-the-go.Optimized for mobile prowess, it outlasts ordinary, less compact and less portable, gaming laptops.With the Eee PC 1201N, you can break free from under-powered netbooks and enter a new realm of netbook gaming.


Key Features

12.1-inch LED-backlit HD widescreen for HD-quality visuals wherever you are (Learn more)
ASUS Dedicated Graphics Engine (DGE) powered by NVIDIA ION graphics accelerator for a premium HD experience (Learn more)
Powered by an Intel Atom N330 dual-core processor for excellent multitasking Eee PC performance (Learn more)
HDMI connectivity for streaming Full HD video and digital sound to you HDTV or home theater (Learn more)
Built-in Wi-Fi N and Bluetooth 2.1 for wire-free surfing and entertainment (Learn more)
750GB Hybrid Storage: 250GB hard drive plus 500GB ASUS WebStorage* (Learn more)
2GB of DDR2 system memory for smooth computing with pre-loaded Windows 7 Home Premium (Learn more)
ASUS Super Hybrid Engine for extended battery life and boosted performance (Learn more)
Full-size chiclet keyboard for comfortable use (Learn more)
Multi-touch trackpad for intuitive control (Learn more)
Integrated webcam and microphone for video chatting with your friends and family
F9 easy recovery for convenient and easy system reinstallation
Warranty: 1 year global warranty and 30-day Flawless Display Guarantee: If a single bright dot is found, a free panel replacement is guaranteed within 30 days of original purchase

Learn More about the Eee PC 1201N
Immersive Multimedia Features
ASUS Dedicated Graphics Engine - Turn Up the Visuals
Dual-Core Processing Power With Enhanced Battery Life
Comfort on-the-go
Massive Storage for Your Media Library
Your Portable Work, Learn and Play Companion
Eee PC with Windows 7 –Life Made Easier
Customer Warranty –The Industry's Most Complete Netbook Care Package
1 year global warranty
30-Day Flawless Display Guarantee: If you discover one defective bright dot within 30 days of purchase, ASUS will replace the panel at no cost
6 months battery warranty
24/7 tech support
What's in the Box
Eee PC 1201N (black)
Power Adapter
User Manual
Warranty Card
Specifications
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium
Display: 12.1-inch LED-Backlit WXGA display (1366 x 768)
CPU: Intel Atom N330 Dual Core processor (1.6 GHz)
GPU: NVIDIA ION Graphics
Wireless Data Network: WLAN 802.11b/g/n (draft 2.4GHz n) and Bluetooth V2.1 + EDR
Memory: 2GB DDR2, 2 x SODIMM slot
Storage: 250GB HDD + 500GB ASUS WebStorage*
Camera: 0.3 megapixel
Audio: Hi-definition stereo speakers, high-definition audio CODEC, Microphone
Storage Cards: 2-in-1 MMC, SD(SDHC) flash card slot
Input/Output: 1 x VGA port (D-sub 15-pin for external monitor), 1 x HDMI, 3 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x LAN RJ-45, 2 x audio jacks (Headphone & Mic-in)
Battery Pack: 5 hours**, 6-cell Li-Ion battery†
Dimensions: 11.54 (W) x 8.11 (D) x 1.06~ 1.30 (H) inches
Weight: 3.22 lbs
Color: Black *Complimentary one-year 500GB ASUS WebStorage trial. Please visit www.asuswebstorage.com for more details. Specifications are subject to change without prior notice. Please visit www.asus.com for more information. **Operation lifetime subject to product model, normal usage conditions and configurations. For more information, please visit http://eeepc.asus.com/global/computing.html . The estimated maximum battery life in Windows 7 is measured with MobileMark 2007. † To recharge using the AC power adapter, power plug must be fully pushed into the power socket on the Eee PC until it clicks firmly into place. All specifications and terms are subject to change without notice. Please check with your supplier for exact offers on selected models. Products may not be available in all markets. Product may not be exactly as shown in images.

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