Okay first thing first. I did not actually buy this computer from Amazon, I purchased it from a Microsoft retail store and it is actually not a U36SD-A1 but a U36SD-RBK5 but as far as I can tell the only difference is the RBK5 does not come with built in bluetooth. No big deal for me.
For those of you who don't feel like reading all of the following, I'll summarize this review into pros and cons.
PROS:
Awesome build quality
Thin
Decent track pad
Dedicated graphics
No optical drive
Cons:
Glossy bezel
No backlit keyboad
Sub par screen for this category
The build quality is very nice throughout the entire laptop. There is little to no flexing in any part of the keyboard or palm rest and the entire body has a really nice feel to it. Asus claims it has a "nanometer coating" and a "magnesium aluminum" frame, I'm not sure what a nanometer coating is but it feels nice and does seem to resist fingerprints pretty decently. I am slightly worried about how scratch resistant the coating will be, but I guess only time will tell how strong it really is. The only thing I don't like about the body of this laptop is the glossy bezel. How hard would it have been to extend this awesome feeling material to the relatively thin bezel around the screen? The glossy material is the only thing that looks cheap on this computer..
This laptop is awesomely thin. It's the first thing every one I've shown it has pointed out. It's not as thin as a MacBook Air or the Samsung Series 9 but I couldn't imagine anyone thinking this beauty was fat. You can't tell from any of the pictures posted, but the included 8 cell battery sticks out about 3/8" from the bottom of the laptop. It actually props the computer up at a nice angle so it doesn't bother me. Overall I'm really pleased with the design of this computer.
The keyboard is pretty nice as well. Not much to say about it, if you've used a chicklet keyboard before than you pretty much know what youre getting. I would've loved to see a backlit keyboard option, but I guess sacrifices had to be made in order to keep this form factor.
The trackpad appears to have the same nanometer coating as the rest of the body, albeit a slightly slipperier version. It feels good and is fairly large. One tweak I stumbled upon is a little program that enables two finger scrolling. Two finger scrolling is one of the few things I'm envious about on my friends' macs so finding a way to enable it (and enable it well) was pretty exciting for me. It should be noted that the trackpad, by default, has the typical scrolling area on the right hand side, but I found this to be a little difficult to use sometimes and happily ditched it for two finger scrolling.
The screen is reasonably sharp and colors come out just okay but I wish the resolution was slightly higher and I kind of expect a laptop in mid 2011 to come with something better. I mean my Dell m1330 I bought 3 years ago has the same resolution! Come on Asus, at least offer a nicer screen as an upgrade option...
I haven't had any issues with the performance yet, but then again I wouldn't expect any with what I've used it for thus far. It runs perfectly fine with half a dozen or so tabs open in chrome plus utorrent running in the background and vlc playing a 720p movie. I haven't tried any video editing or gaming yet on it but for day to day use it will definitely not disappoint. I'm thankful to have a dedicated graphics card as my last laptop did not. I'm not a huge gamer but I think it should be able to run most modern games with the detail turned down a little at a reasonable frame rate.
Battery life is respectable. I've been getting around 4-5 hours with the brightness cranked all the way up while browsing the internet and watching the occasional video. Turn down the brightness a little bit and it could easily last another hour or so.
One final note is the lack of an optical drive. A lot of people may be hesitant because of this, but this was actually a requirement for me while I was searching for a new computer. For most people I know and myself the optical drive goes largely unused. In the three years I owned my old laptop I used the optical drive maybe 4-5 times. I see no reason in lugging it around everyday if I hardly ever use it. I bought an external usb optical drive on sale from fry's for $30, so if I ever need to install a program from a dvd then I'll still be okay. Physical media like CD are quickly become obsolete and I for one am glad to see them go.
So to wrap it up I really love this laptop. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a thin 13.3" computer at a reasonable price. Plus if youre a student (like me) and purchase this computer in the month you get a free xbox 360 if you buy it from a participating store!
Leave a comment if you want me to go into detail about any other feature of this computer. I'd be glad to help!
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
Asus U36sd-A1, is one of the best laptops I have ever seen or felt. This piece of awesomeness is fast, sturdy and thinner than any other laptop in this category (excluding samsung which is overly priced). The solid metallic feel is great and fun to carry it around in one hand.
I decided to buy this after researching for over 2 weeks. Only competitor to this laptop worth trying is Toshiba Portege R830 series. But it has negative remarks for the cooling system they brag about but not sure how genuine the remarks are.
I have had a Toshiba before which lasted for 5 years without a glitch but it's time to try something new.
Asus, being the first in most reliable laptops (second being Toshiba), there's no chance I could avoid trying Asus this time. I bought this piece from gentechpc, configured to 6GB RAM. It has a nice little button at the top left corner which allows you to change performance modes (high performance, battery saving, entertainment mode, quiet office mode) which is a cool feature.
Optimus technology changes the graphic card access between nvidia and in house intel graphic cards, saving power. I have only heard about this feature but believe me it's really great seeing it practically.
One full charge gave me 7hrs of battery life with battery saving mode and 4hrs of battery with high performance mode. I tested Video editing (mpeg encoding) for speed, heat and noise. Encoding was fast, but it got little hotter and noise negligible. Playing 1080p videos for an hour may make it hot but compared to other laptops (macbook pro, toshiba portege which my friends own), it's less.
Chiclet Keyboard feel is great and all keys are easily accessible. You know, ctrl, end, home keys in some laptops are annoying.
Browsing is fun, can't get better than this. It has a usb3 which I never tested for video cos I think there's no receiver yet in the market. 4.8Gb/s transfer rate would definitely be good to see.
Only cons are speakers, price and optical drive but if you are willing to spend 30 bucks for external dvd/cd drive, then you are good to go. I personally go with latest tech and I think optical drive is obsolete but for blu-ray burners.
I think price is reasonable compared to its competitors (vaio, toshiba{if configured}, lenovo/thinkpad) with similar form factor.
To maintain this form factor I can imagine the placement of low powered speakers. But, the inbuilt 5.1 soundblaster card makes your headset or external speaker experience great.
All-in-all you gotta experience it! I would definitely recommend this laptop to Tech enthusiasts cos there's much to explore.
Best Deals for ASUS U36SD-A1 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Laptop (Black)
I bought this laptop from a local Microsoft Store yesterday after stumbling upon an external link Amazon gave on this page. THIS was the laptop I had been waiting 9 months for since the U36JC debut. Felt like I just had a baby.. so joyous!
Anyway, as I unveiled it, I was impressed on how THIN the body was while having an AMAZINGLY solid frame. The laptop base does not bend if you hold it at any of the corners! It definitely does not feel like cheap plastic (probably because it really IS made of lightweight metal) & has a classy satin feel to it. It has a fingerprint-repelling nano-coating seemingly all over the body too. It is also so light for having such a powerful processor + graphics card. My computer friend was right to have me wait/hold out until this came out. I was tempted with HPs, Sonys, Acers but from his repair experience on so many laptops, those were all junk! (HPs were decent in the middle but still the construction felt cheap/plastic).
Such a powerful [Sandy Bridge] processor in such a solid body with such a thin profile has finally become a dream come true. Portability without the sacrifice of quality & power.. such is the legendary motherboard manufacturer ASUS!
GREAT JOB ASUS!!!
Kai
Honest reviews on ASUS U36SD-A1 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Laptop (Black)
I am writing this review because I am simply blown away by how amazing this laptop is, and if anyone out there is on the fence about this one, then TLDR: buy it.
Pros:
Dedicated GPU
Battery Life is amazing
Super light weight and thin
The over-all design is beautiful (magnesium alloy!!)
Keyboard is lovely
Asus Quality is top notch
Specs are great
Screen is beautiful
Cons:
No backlit keyboard
Can get super hot when over-clocked and graphics card running
No optical drive (I have yet to see this as a problem, but will mention it)
The lame glossy screen bezel
Battery makes it -justa little tough to slide into a regular 13" laptop case.
Lame speakers
So I will go through the cons (I feel like I've covered them all, but message me and I will attempt to cover any those you feel I missed) and examine them item by item
CONS
No Backlit Keyboard: This really is a semi killer, especially for those who are looking for a super-portable game laptop. Especially since the keys are black, in the dark (unless you are a true gamer and you have the keyboard already memorized lol) its a pretty big con. But for the 90% other things you do with the U36, this will be a minor inconvenience, but it would just be that extra icing on the cake. ::sigh:: maybe the u37 (which I am set on buying btw)
Hot: Let us be honest, when the laptop is set to high performance, and you are chugging away on the graphics card, this is a serious issue. If you are in a lan party, your team mate to the left of you will experience some severe discomfort. Of course, it is just a side effect of having not only an amazing CPU and GPU, but built in overclocking as well. Also, the heat management system (which is a beauty to behold, if you decide to open her up) is very effective. It draws away the heat from the keyboard and blows it out on the left side of your laptop, right below the 2 usb ports. I have actually used to the excessive heat to keep snacks warm (I don't really see this as a huge plus, but if its there, might as well use it), and warming my fingers when I'm a bit chilly, but otherwise this is just something that you will have to deal with. Avoid blocking the heat sink exhaust: your laptop will rapidly get warm, and it will blow on your hands as well. Sweaty fingers are not a plus in long rounds of gaming. On a design note, I wish they could have had the exhaust ports pointing to the rear of the laptop, similar to the way the ASUS stealth accomplishes it. PS, lan card is located on bottom right, and this can get a little hot too, but never a big as a problem as it was on my old dell, which got right uncomfortable to use.
No optical drive: In a world of google docs, drop box, deamon tools, and flash drives, I see this as a minor inconvenience at the most, pretty much a non issue in my daily use. Yes it requires you to know a little bit about data manipulation and installation, but honestly... if you are technologically inept, why are you even looking at such a high spec'd, dedicated GPU laptop in the first place? I see this as extra weight I don't have to lug around, and a moving part my battery doesn't need to power.
Screen Bezel: as I will mention later, almost every part of this laptop is crafted with an eye both to practicality and aesthetics. But the bezel to the screen" WTF Asus? It is a nasty black glossy plastic, which holds smudges, fingerprints, and when your laptop screen is in semi-direct sunlight, will glare the funk out of you. More magnesium! Sheesh. Or at least matte black plastic cover the rest of the body. :P
Battery: the 8 cell battery included with the u36 (or 6 cell... different models may have different batteries included) juts out quite a bit. You do have an option to go with the 4 cell as well from the ASUS website, which is almost flush with body, but your battery life will suffer accordingly. I do like the fact that the battery acts as a stand for better keyboard usage and screen viewing, but if you are buying the 13" macbook cases (which are the most popular and hence cheapest and with the most diversity), you will want once that fits "looser" on the macbooks, because a flush 13" case will be a strain for the u36 to get into, owing to the larger battery depth. Buyers beware.
Lame Speaker: The built in speakers that just out from the front of the laptop are lame. No other way around it. Sounds like its coming from a tin can, no base, nothing impressive. HOWEVER, the built in sound card running the audio ports are AMAZING. Solution, when viewing with more people then headphones can handle, us some speakers (I rock a set of HP usb speakers, and the sound card makes them sound AMAZING).
PROS:
Dedicated GPU: The dedicated NVIDIA 520 graphics card was one of the biggest selling points for me when contemplating this laptop. I am an avid gamer, and needed something that could run the gamut of Low spec'd online MOBA's like League of Legends and World of Tanks, while also being able to kick it up a notch and run Starcraft II Deus Ex, Skyrim, Modern Warfare 3. It also runs Medieval Total War, Starcraft: Brood War, Sins of the Solar Empire, Dragon Seige, etc just fine. The "Super Hybrid Engine" works like a charm, able to hinder the CPU to a manageable usage when away from the power cord for a while (I don't bring my power cord to my work shifts or college classes, preferring to keep the laptop on "Quiet Office" mode"), but when it comes to game time, at a press of the button my Laptop is ready to shred some 3d polygon effects. The combination of light weight/ Awesome Batter / and Dedicated GPU is an awesome trifecta.
Battery Life: 8 hours on battery saving (low CPU cycles, screen set to dim, no GPU usage, no or low sounds, using Office or surfing the web). I find that I usually get about 6 hours of "practical usage", meaning I might go to faster CPU cycles when checking out a video or loading a mess of tabs on chrome (doing research for school of course ;), as well as medium brightness on the screen (squinting is bad) and rather heavy Wireless usage, maybe being plugged in to a projector to make a presentation, Spotify running in the background while I am typing. Etc. Basically being your normal semi ADD college student living life. The ability to switch between usage, and the convenient "use the power button as a hibernate button" is very useful. The laptop starts up quickly (good ASUS bloatware management plus windows 7), so don't fear to keep it slept from walking to class to another, or even if you know you aren't going to be touching your laptop for awhile in class: quizes, taking notes, tired of checking facebook in calculos (lol). BUT the best aspect of the awesome ASUS battery, is that if needs be, I can put in a couple hours of intense gaming time if my clan and I feel the need to play a few rounds of League of Legends between class periods. Yes, 2 hours, full specs, graphics doing its thing. Its a nice option, when you know that you won't be punishing the battery the rest of the day. I once watched two Harry Potter movies (2 and 3), and realized that I had watched both movies without plugging in: I had brought out the charger, but never connected. TLDR on the battery: runs like its netbook cousins, with also the ability to do some intensive game if needs be.
Weight: I'm a college student, I'm walking around all day, and I don't got cubby holes, a home room, and I sure as heck ain't gonna roll a bag around like I'm in an airport. The U36 has a permanent home in the laptop holder in the comfortable Burton backpack, and everything else my hectic college day needs fits comfortably with it. It was a struggle before to be lugging my over-sized dell, and my unnecessarily heavy acer before that. Sometimes I swear the u36 isn't even there (oh no!), but I open my bag up, and there she is, ready for action. Like I said before about the trifecta, Dedicated GPU / Battery life / Light weight allows the u36 to be a very adaptable and mobile solution to a myriad of technological needs. Portable word processor. Mobile gaming rig. Media center. Just your regular old laptop. Business Commuters will also appreciate the minimal weight as well (though might care less about the GPU;), but as mentioned before, the battery is a heavy hitter (has to be to do all the powering it does). Also, being able to hold up your laptop with one hand if in an awkward sitting situation is just something you'd never be able to do with any other semi-gaming rig.
Asus Design: I have been a fan of the Asus design model for quite sometime. My netbook is an ASUS. My android tablet is an ASUS. And now my Primary Laptop is one. You can come to expect solid design with the Asus lines, with both software and hardware. Most asus bloatware is easy to remove, and I feel like most of the essential ones run very reliably. Track pad software, power management software, hybrid processor software, all very dependable. The physical design is very industrial and practical but very beautiful as well. Matte black with glowing blue lights is the motiff, and I still sometimes just stop to look at my laptop and think "Beautiful". The Aluminum Magnesium alloy used for the screen shell allows the screen to be lighter and thinner, and the matte black plastic used for the rest of it is ideal as well. BTW little plug: Aluminum Magnesium sounds cool, and feels amazing. I want ASUS to create a unibody style laptop using this material. I am in love with it, and it is smudge and scratch resistant, as well as having a high tensil to weight ratio. I love the Chiclets style keyboard, though I am somewhat bugged by a lack of right FN Buttons (I adapted) plus having "home/pg up/pg dn/ and end" on the right side of the keyboard is unfortunate. I'd rather those be FN arrow keys, instead of the useless Windows Media Player keys that replaced them. The Media hot keys cannot be reassigned to other programs btw. Fail on that Asus. But other then those small quirks (I am a creative writing minor, so I spend a lot of time banging out papers) it is a beautiful and well laptop. I have read reviews that claim that the track pad is of inferior quality compared to other laptop lines in its category, but I admit I usually use a portable mouse (gamer), and this is the most responsive and accurate track pad I have used intensively (the one on my Dell was hopeless). Other things worth mention. Built in webcam is respectable (might be great for all I know, I just needed it for skype). Keyboard has no flex, keyboard is a joy to type on. usb ports are just a little shallower then normal, meaning that usb devices stick out just a little, which is a little weird. USB 3.0 is an awesome blessing, soon becoming a norm. Power cable uses a 90 bent on the left side of the laptop, meaning running the wire behind the laptop, around to the right side, and dropping it below from the left side are all viable options (Dell, why you use a straight wire running from the right side, ACER, who you use a bent from the back? DUMB DUMB design choices). Bluetooth is reliable and is one button accessible. Same with wireless card (n by the way). HDMI port seems like a natural choice on the upper right hand side, VGA port on the left upper side. built in card reader and audio in and out on the middle of the right side. It is obvious that ASUS did not just slap the ports on randomly, but thought of the logical use these would go through, and placed them logistically and ergonomically. Only gripe. Audio ports on the same side as the mouse is a little odd, but either use a bent 90 cord, or use bluetooth. The other choice would have been the fire hot exhaust grill, so I am grateful for that (sorry left handers, that will be an issue). NOTE ASUS: Move vent to back of unit. Somehow.
Specs: For under 1k, the specs of the U36 are really competitive. I hate throwing around the word "macbook killer", but one cannot help but think that this was ASUS's goal in the design of this laptop. Combined with all the features mentioned above, the u36 (I feel) holds it ground, and fills the same niche, as the macbook pro. Think what you will, but since this is my review, I will state my personal predilections on the matter: I dislike the mac OS, and I like the adaptability and control of both software and hardware that the windows platform offers. I don't own an ipod, nor an iphone or ipad, I hate the itunes player, and I dislike the mac marketing image (I feel the hardware is great, but macs try to appeal to hipsters and "fight against big corporations" crowd while being the biggest corporation out there). Ever since the departure of Jobs from the Apple corporation, I have found very little saving grace in the company as a whole, except for selling over priced trendy items. Preaching done. The asus specs are great, does the job, and the ram is upgradable from the onboard 4gb to the 8gb (ironically, it uses the same ram as the macbook, so it is plentiful, cheap, and reliable). Think of it as comparable to a 13" macbook in terms of performance, but with gaming power running natively, and without having to join the icult. i52410m, 2.3GHZ. 640 GBs of HDD.
Screen: Lets be honest, the screen is physically "half" the laptop, so it is a big deal, and I love the one on the U36. It has amazing viewing angles, 1366 by 768 native resolution is quite mint. Yes, some laptops in the same class have better resolution, but lets be honest: its a 13" screen, how much more are you going to push it. If you are using this primarily to feed to a HD tv... um why? Better way to spend 900 dollars bud. Between Asus giving me a better resolution, but also adding another 200 dollars to the equation, I saw pass. Colors are vibrant, and with the Hybrid Super Engine and the Nvidia 520, videos and games come out clean. More plugs for the Aluminum Magnesium (sigh).
BOTTOM LINE: Why did I just spend the last hour writing a review for this laptop? Because I think it is the best purchase I have made in a very long time. In the interim period, I have been streaming music as well as running my screen on bright, and still got ::checking:: 5 hours of battery left. Its been powered up for the last 2 hours already. It has not been turned off for the past 2 days and 23 hours, and it is stable and smooth still. It has run the gamut of projecting a math presentation, watching videos, writing a 10 page paper, heavy internet surfing, video streaming, rounds of online and offline gaming, spotify listening, and a little bit of skype thrown in as well. The unit is stable and well made, and with specs that are competitive, extremely so when considering its weight range. Size, spec, weight, and battery life make it optimal for a very mobile college student that probably doesn't have a permanent work desk, and most likely does most his homework in front of the tv on the couch anyway. Also, being able to use it in classrooms that have the claustrophobic chair and table combos is a great plus. Plus, rocking the HD videos or GPU intensive games in whichever random lounge or room you are in without having to grab your power cord is just a dream. So, if you aren't a big fan of the macbook, but need comparable specs, weight, and construction value, the Asus u36SD really is your baby of choice.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS U36SD-A1 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Laptop (Black)
This is an amazing little machine. I've owned a lot of notebooks over the past 15 years and though we've had it for only a week this one is probably already my favorite. It's basically the first notebook I've had that doesn't require any compromises.
Most important points:
Ultraportable. 3.5 pounds, only .75 inches thick. It's literally only a bit larger than an actual spiral notebook, and about the weight of a small textbook. It's basically as portable as any netbook or MacBook Air.
Powerful. iCore 5 sandy-bridge processor is state of the art and a significant advance over the previous generation. While there are a few more powerful processors out there, this one will handle everything you throw at it, including video encoding and editing. It also has a dedicated GPU and video RAM which means it's good for playing almost any PC game you want at good frame rates (even if you can't use all the highest settings).
Endurance. We are finally seeing all-day level battery life in powerful laptops and the U36SD is a good example. My wife and I have been getting about 7-8 hours of life on it while doing standard work with full brightness on.
These are the most important considerations for notebooks, as far as I'm concerned. If you never plan on moving your computer, get a desktop and save tons of money, but if you really want a notebook, then size and weight should be very important factors. It's amazing to find netbook like portability and battery endurance in a notebook that could be a desktop replacement machine for an avid PC gamer.
Other Pros:
1376x768 resolution is pretty much standard on 15" laptop screens, but again can be found here in a much more portable package.
Nice build quality. Not as nice as the Mac uni-body, but not far behind either. Feels tight, well constructed.
Textured metal case. Pleasing to the touch, stays relatively clean and finger print free, minimal flex to machine.
Nice keyboard and track pad. Both are big and pleasing to use. Chicklet style keys.
I have a few caveats on the machine as well. Obviously it lacks an optical drive which is a minor inconvenience at times, but also means you are not lugging it around all the time. The Toshiba x835 notebook is very similar to the U36SD, the main difference being they have kept the optical drive, but left out the dedicated GPU. For my money you can always get an external optical drive for only 25 bucks but you'll never be able to get a dedicated GPU added, so the U36SD makes more sense, but some may prefer the optical drive.
Other Cons:
Big power brick. I've seen bigger (that's what she said), but really for such a thoughtfully designed machine to have included such a clunky accessory seems like ASUS tripped as they were crossing the finish line. Apple obviously is way ahead of PC makers in this category.
No back-lit keyboard. Definitely would be nice for typing in low-light situations
Minor annoyances: Bloatware, and did not come with 2 finger scroll turned on. Was able to fix both situations, but it was a bit annoying. One piece of bloatware requests that we insert a DVD-R into the drive to backup windows, which is clearly not well thought-out on a machine that has no optical drive. The glossy screen reduces the viewing angle of the picture a bit.
None of this is enough to take away any stars, however. The notebook is simply too good at the most important considerations. The only thing I cannot comment on is how long it will last as we have only had it for a week now, but so far, we are very happy with it.
