Buy ASUS U36SD-DH51 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Laptop (Black)

Customer Ratings:

I purchased this laptop after reading thousands of reviews. I wanted something light (7h), small and powerful (>intel i5). I was considering other options like Acer S3, asus UX31, sony vaio SB/SA series and Toshiba Portege R835.

S3I am not a fan of Acer and it came with the SDD which I found too small.

UX31It is really good and nice but it has less connectors and was too expensive. Not sure if it can be upgraded.

VaioI was about to buy it, but it was thicker and heavier and the battery was not so good. It had the option of the docking station though.

R835I read it had issues with fan noises and with excessive heating. But it was lighter than U36sd and had a cd-rom drive.

Finally I decided to go for the Asus u36SD + an hybrid SSD/HDD Seagate Momentus XTSeagate Momentus XT 500 GB 2.5 Inch Solid State Hybrid Drive ST95005620AS .

This machine as it stands is very good. It is light, long battery (8:30h in saving bat mode, but if you use video media it is near 4:30h), and powerful. The only downside is the HDD that comes originally, it is a 5600rpm and for my taste it is too slow. I wanted a faster HDD, but SDD are too small in storage size or too expensive. So, I went for an hybrid SSD/HDD (Seagate momentus).

Changing the HDD is not difficult if you are a bit skilled and there are many tutorial videos on youtube that show you how to do it. You have to open the computer because the hatch under the laptop only gives access to the RAM memory. But, as I say, it is not difficult and the change is really worth. The speed increase is very noticeable from the very first moment.

The laptop is very quite, no issues with fan noises or excess of heat. The keyboard is chiclet style and very comfortable. Also the mouse is multitouch and works very good.

Clearly the down side of the computer is the screen. It is not the best screen in the world. It is shiny LCD but it is not the worse either (toshiba is worse). If you compare it with a MacBook Air... it is just a quite bad screen. If you are gonna use the laptop mainly outdoors, just buy a Mac Air or UX31 which also has a really good screen. However, for normal use indoors and seldom times outdoors it is ok. Actually, I don't think that working with a 13" screen is nice, so I just plug it to a desktop screen and it works great for me. But, as I said, if I need to use inside it is good and and enough. In addition, ASUS provides an utility that makes colors more vivid and a better contrast.

Just a note, I use it inside and have the brightness at 50-60%.

Note: it has a 2 year worldwide warranty not 1 year as it is stated in the specifications.

It comes with 4gb of RAM in one slot. I bought and extra 4gb last week, and the difference in normal use performance almost did not change. However, to handle heavy tasks it is now better. But a regular user does not need the 8gb. 4 is enough.

All in all, I am delighted with the laptop and I do recommend it specially if you combine with a 7200rpm HDD or an hybrid one, even an SSD.

I give it 4 stars because I consider that 5 stars is perfection and this item is still improvable, i.e. screen and HDD. For all the rest it is perfect.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

I've been using this U36SD-DH51 for the last couple weeks, and I love it. It is thin, light and fast. The battery life for regular stuff like web browsing, even with the screen brightness up, is about 7 hours (though I fully expect that to wane as the battery ages). The case and the keyboard feel solid, and typing is comfortable.

I replaced the stock hard drive with an Intel 520 Series 120 GB Solid-State Drive in about 20 minutes without any problems (search the web for "how to open an ASUS u36"). The laptop went from moderately fast to ludicrous speed.

I bought this laptop for the discrete graphics, so that I could test and debug CUDA software from the coffee shop instead of my office. The GT520M won't be winning any speed contests, but if you need NVidia graphics in a lightweight laptop, it's a great buy. If you don't need discrete graphics but want the speed of an SSD, then look for "ultrabooks" or their ilk -there are quite a few out now.

Best Deals for ASUS U36SD-DH51 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Laptop (Black)

I got the equivalent U36SD-A1. I love the construction and speed of this computer. It is a little heavier than an Ultrabook or Macbook-air. But, you get the benefit of a fully powered i5 even running at 3.0GHz well ventilated. I think this is the way to go. The ultrabook doesn't make a lot of sense to me when it is only running at 1.7GHz. I can really run anything I want on this little dynamite with great response. It is even better after I put in a Sandy Force SSD.

Honest reviews on ASUS U36SD-DH51 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Laptop (Black)

I have previously owned an ASUS ultra thin and light notebook before this one, so I can personally say that I am very satisfied with their build quality. Build quality is top notch. However, this particular model U36S does not allow you to exchange hard drives easily because there are NO accessible compartment at the bottom!

I bought with a crappy 640GB drive and wanted to exchange it for an Intel 320 SSD, no luck. There are many user comments on the web stating the same problem.

I am too worried about the warranty and messing up the notebook to go thru the painful dissasembly. This is the only CON i can think of. Everything else is great.

This is still a 5 star product in my eye becuase of the great build quality.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS U36SD-DH51 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Laptop (Black)

I love the design the compact and lightweight material... the only thing i didn't like was windows 7, it made the machine kinda slow.

i upgraded to windows 8 and its so fast and reliable....