Okay so this laptop is truly awesome after 2 months of use (EDITED), the battery life is awesome, I was in a study group for college and some girl asked me "uh, oh! youre gonna need a outlet soon, right?" and I said "No, I have 30% left.....which means 3 hours!" The best charge I've gotten is about 9 1/2 hours, they're really not lying, just make sure you have it on power saver mode. I dont really see that much of a performance difference when it's on this setting.
This laptop is nothing described as in the other review giving it one star. Maybe manufacturing on that one went bad, but otherwise it is an excellent laptop. I just got it today though, but I wanted to save it from that horrible review, only bad things are the way oily fingerprints show up on the outside, but its better than having a cheapy glossy finish. So just wipe it off every so often. I will update this review in the time being as I use the laptop more.
EDITED:
Wow what a unique laptop, the bamboo finish, or shall I say wood!, is awesome. It may attract a little bit more oil from your fingers, but a great sacrifice instead of having to deal with a cheapy glossy finish on the wood. The laptop is fast, haven't noticed any glitches. The touchpad buttons are firm, not hard to push, I find that I am in more control and that I'm not accidentally pressing random things because of the sensitive buttons. The chiclet keyboard is awesome, way better than any other keyboard I've usedespecially the mac. The sound system is good, even better with headphones plugged in for some reason. Graphics....awesome. Numberpad--rare and convenient.....ASUS Expres AMAZING! its so cool is an alternate boot up option if you dont have time to wait and you can access all that you need to in literally 2 seconds, no joke at all. Way to stand out ASUS.
So this laptop is not only flashy and unique, but it's functionality is nothing but exceptional. So glad I trusted my instinct.
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The bamboo really gives the laptop a unique feel and is sure to impress your friends. The keyboard is pretty easy to type on and has a nice feel. I really like the multi-touch pad as well. You can use 1, 2 or 3 fingers. The trackpad buttons are pretty stiff, but you really don't need to use them once you learn to use multi-touch.
The system multitasks beautifully and runs very cold. You can't even hear the fan running with most tasks. The battery life is decent. I'll get about 4 or 5 hours in the normal power mode, but if I switch to the "super hybrid engine" I get closer to 8 or 9 hours.
I've had the system for 6 days now, and for the most part, the system runs beautifully. The biggest problem I've had so far is that the keyboard fn shortcuts are buggy. When I use the keyboard buttons to mute the sound, It won't become unmuted until after I restart the system. The volume buttons also randomly stopped working, so I had to go to the ASUS website and download new drivers, which fixed that problem.
I'll add updates if I run into any more problems.
New glitch: The headphone jack doesn't work. I reinstalled the drivers, but it didn't work. I seem to be having a lot of audio issues with this laptop.
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I have had this computer out of the box for about three days now. I like the look of the machine (it does not seem cheap as previous poster stated). Fast, keyboard is nice, high resolution camera is nice.
One problem to let people know about: It comes with some pre-loaded Oberon games (the Oberon Game Park). Unfortunately, Oberon has bad software and when you uninstall these games it causes a problem with the registry and affects a few other programs/functions.
My google chrome browser ceased to function and the audio hotkeys on the keyboard also stopped working. By reinstalling chrome and the audio and keyboard drivers, both problems were fixed. Just something to be aware of. If you don't mind having a few mediocre games on your computer it is nothing to worry about.
The machine itself is of high quality and runs well. It was easy to reinstall Windows to factory settings by hitting F9 at startup, something I appreciated when I was dealing with the software glitch.
Honest reviews on ASUS U53JC-C1 15.6-Inch Laptop (Bamboo)
Warning: This review is likely to undergo edits as time passes.
I've been using this laptop for 4 days now and here's my experience so far:
The good:
-Right off the bat, this thing is BEAUTIFUL. The pictures on amazon don't do it justice. They're too dark and don't really show off how nice the wood grain looks.
-The chiclet keyboard is responsive and comfortable.
-The touchpad is a very nice touch. People have complained about the button being hard to push, but they're probably used to having two separate buttons for right/left click. If you push toward the edge, clicking is very easy.
-It's very fast.
The bad:
-The numeric keypad doesn't really add anything. It just makes the right side of the keyboard feel pretty cramped.
-The screen, while great when viewed straight-on, has a very limited viewing angle.
-The HDMI port is okay as long as the machine stays perfectly still. A couple of small moves both caused it to disconnect the TV as an external monitor, resulting in a lag as it moved all windows back to the laptop's screen, then another lag as it rediscovered the TV, at which point I had to manually move all the windows back.
Other thoughts:
-The Express Gate is a cool idea in theory, but I don't really see a practical use for it. It doesn't take much time at all to just boot into Windows.
This notebook is vented on the left side and draws air through the bottom. If you plan to use it on your lap, it's a very good idea to invest in a lap desk to keep it elevated it puts out VERY hot air.
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So many things to give me smiles about this purchase.
1. I received my purchase the day after it shipped
2. The "packaging" of the ASUS was impressive. Computer was in a really nice box that was well padded and kept my purchase protected.
3. I really appreciated that all of the stickers (i.e intel, windows, etc.) were not applied directly to the computer and instead were applied to the protective plastic.
4. The computer was not loaded with a lot of unnecessary software.
5. Really like Windows7. Easily updated to Windows7 Pro. It is very intuitive.
6. Computer is quiet and does not run hot.
7. Battery is long lasting.
8. Start-up is less than a minute.
I've been using the computer for about a month and will update if I experience anything negative or have any problems with Asus directly.
