ASUS U36JC-B1 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Laptop (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)ASUS U36JC-B1 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Laptop (Black)
Purpose: Home/Travel/Business Apps/Web/Graphics Editing/Macbook replacement
1 Star per Area/5 Stars Total
I am basing my review on my past uses of other laptops, and the major areas that are important to me. I've searched and looked for the model that has the features I need. For example, I don't deduct for lack of an optical drive, since I knew going in, the system didn't have an optical drive.
Star 1 - Build Quality
The body is rock solid. There is no creaking, twisting. It feels like a solid slab in your hands. The lid is very thin. Opens and closes smoothly. No binding in the hinges, or twisting. Little flexing in the display, but it is firm. The laptop is easy to carry and feels comfortable in your hand. The power brick is very small, 4"L x 1.5"W x 1.0"H. It is 2 parts, brick, and cord to the wall. Comes with a cable tie. Very little fan noise. Runs cool to warm, after use. But not hot. The battery has been through several charge/discharge cycles. The battery is fully charge and reports 9 hours and 44 minutes of life. Got about 6 - 7 hours of total usage before putting it back on the charger. So a full day of websurfing, and video playing, on and off. The surface is very nice, and easy to clean.
Star 2 - Ports
All ports are easy to access from the side of the system. USB ports are easy to insert devices and oriented the correct way, so if the USB logo is up on the connector, then it inserts. The RJ45 ethernet port is defective. The cable will not lock in. I tested several cables, and all do the same thing. This needs to be corrected by ASUS, should not have passed QAQC. Luckly I will use the wifi for most network connections. But still a defect and needs to be fix.
Star 3 - Display/Web Camera
The display is clear and bright. Using in normal household lighting, I haven't had any issues with viewing screen, or viewing angles. Yes it is glossy, along with the bezel. Looks fine to me. Attracts finger prints on the bezel. Using a soft cloth, the display cleans up nicely. The web camera functions as expected for a 0.3 web camara. Not the greatest image, but acceptable for a web camara.
Star 4 - Keyboard/Trackpad
The keyboard is the large chicket style keys. The keyboard is nice to type on, with little keystroke errors. The keys feel tight, and offer nice resistance. Don't feel like they will pop off, or break. They do not have a loud tactile noise to them. I like the ASUS keyboard. The trackpad could be a little larger, but is pretty good. Hard surface. Tracks well. The single button though is very loud when pressing. Loud tactile clicking noise when pressing the trackpad bar. But feels very solid though like it will stand up to many clicks.
Star 5 - Software
The laptop is LOADED with crapware. They did partition the harddrive into a 100 GB C: and ~350 GB D: drives. I've already wiped it, and put on a clean install of Windows 7 pro. Much better. Make sure you install all the drivers. I downloaded them from the website. Boot time pre-wipe was 60 secs., after wipe, it's down to 40 secs. to the logon screen. 10 secs to hit the desktop after logging on. I'm old school, so I believe I paid for the license, so I want the disks. I miss the days when you got ALL the software on disk with the system. It does come with a drivers disk.
Overall I give it 4 of 5 stars. This is a very well built laptop, that does not seem like cheap plastic. The ethernet port is a defect and should not exist. They lose points for all the bloatware and the fact I went ahead and wiped the HDD. Companies know we don't want it, so don't load it. It's called crapware for a reason. The noisey trackpad button also is a turn off to me.
I hope you find this infomation useful. Remember you get what you pay for, and this review was completely free! Put in your pocket, or throw it on the floor, it don't matter to me!

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13.3" HD (1366 x768) (LED) / i5-480M / 4G DDR3 / NV 310M 1G DDR3 + Intel GMA HD (Optimus Technology) / 500G 7200 / No ODD / Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) / 802.11BGN / Bluetooth / VGA / HDMI / 1 USB 3.0 Port / 2 USB 2.0 Ports / 5-in-1 Card Reader / 0.3M Pixel / 8-cell 5600mAh / 2 Year Standard Warranty + 1 Year Accidental Damage Warranty

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