PROS:
Graphics: Video Playback. This unit has remarkable graphics performance. The chipset in this unit produces amazing clarity and smoothness when streaming from Netflix, HULU or from a DVD. I have experienced no issues with the video quality of the unit.
Monitor: The 1080i Screen this unit comes with further enhances the viewing pleasure with amazingly sharp crisp color and clarity. I've yet to see any other netbook or laptop with a screen this nice.
Audio: You have to hear these speakers to believe it. I was floored at their ability to reproduce clear crisp sound and bass with no distortion even at louder volumes. Not a room filling experience, but you wont need headphones to listen to your music or watch a movie with this unit.
RAM: 3GB of RAM that this comes with is more than suffice to power it on the vast majority of productivity applications and multimedia. I however opted to upgrade it to the max of 8GB to further help the sometimes anemic APU get through tasks. It was worth the extra $45 for two 4GB sticks of Kingston RAM.
Gaming: The all important question for a lot of you out there. This will play back basic disc based games and the basic online games. Steam works well on it, games like TF2 had no issues with it, but you are not going to be zooming through games such as WoW or SL as the APU just does not have the power to handle that demand.
Appearance: Don't let the word (Mocha) fool you into thinking the entire device is coffee colored. This unit's visual design is a winner all around. The screen, keyboard and bottom of the unit are black like most laptops, the area surrounding the keyboard, the touch pad and speaker area are what is "mocha" colored, which is more of a deep and dark bronze color that is both subtle and visually appealing. It gives the unit a real look of class and that it's a lot higher priced than it is.
Keyboard & Touchpad: Win! The chicklet style of keys make typing a breeze on this laptop if you have small hands like me or huge hands like the rest of my family. The full keyboard along with the full number pad on the right side make it very nice to use. You wont have to get used to the layout of a cramped laptop keyboard and go hunting for keys on this unit. The touchpad is awesome, smooth to the touch, very responsive, supports multiple gestures and it's "palm proof" technology really works. Drag your hands across the pad and it will not register that as input, preventing you from making accidental input.
Case: The Ice cool technology really works, even after working this unit out hard core to see how far I could push it, the bottom of the case never got warm, the hand rest and keyboard area also never got warm, even in a room with a 82F temp. The fan is super quiet. it's lightweight and sturdy so you don't feel like you are going to break it by moving it around.
Battery: 8 hours easily. This was obtained from streaming a Netflix movie for 2 hours, playing around on Facebook games, video chat, google+ activity and then into web surfing for the remainder of the time. The battery also charged back up to 100% after just under two hours.
CONS:
Multitasking: Out of the box the unit is a bit anemic when it comes to multitasking. Adding more RAM does help this as do some of the suggestions at the end of this review. Once you iron it out, it tends to be acceptable, but if you are coming from a powerhouse computer, this one will drive you batty for awhile at it's response times.
Preinstalled ASUS Software I really don't know what they were thinking when they put on their own software. I know all manufacturers do this, but these programs were the entire reason the laptop out of the box was so sluggish. Some of them even when not running were hoarding 500MB worth of RAM, others had multiple instances of themselves running. The ASUS updater program that's supposed to update all your drivers should be removed immediately before it screws up your system totally. Mine decided to download drivers for the wrong unit and install them, which forced me to have to do a full recovery in order to get the unit working again. There is plenty of griping on ASUS's forums about the program and the suggestion there is to remove it.
Processor: While it is suffice for daily use, web surfing, emails, chats, streaming and the basics, it is not a power house nor a multi-tasker beyond a few low key programs at the same time. Otherwise it will start bogging down on you.
Overall, this is a nice unit with a lot of nice well thought out design features and quality construction. It is a good unit for a college student, high school student, casual web surfer, someone who just wants a laptop or for those who don't need massive computing power. Just do your research on the APU before you buy to see if this will handle what you want to do that I didn't cover in the review.
Suggestions: Remove the preinstalled ASUS software. None of it is mission critical, if you are worried that it may be, just look it up online or in ASUS's forums. Also when you get yours, check the hard drive partitions. Mine was....oh...screwed up at the factory for whatever reason and was partitioned into four partitions plus the recovery partition. I had to merge (easily done with Windows 7) all the partitions so I had only one partition on my drive (plus the recovery drive). Also since there is no physical media to recover this unit with. I strongly suggest making a recovery DVD after you get it all set up the way you want. That way if it dumps on you, you can use the iso to restore it without having to go through all the set up again, nor the over 600MB of Windows updates (yeah...that took awhile).
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I have been looking for a new laptop for a while now, and I happened to find this one on amazon. I couldn't find too many reviews on it, but based on the specs that I saw I decided to buy it. This turned out to be a great decision. I am in the middle of high school, so I need something that will last a little while, and perform pretty well. This easily does everything that I need, and also has a surprisingly good battery life. This was the one thing that I was weary about when I bought it, but the battery lasts a good 5 hours on average for me, doing basic tasks, and some video watching. Considering the price, this is probably the best laptop you can find, even though it is a little bit obscure. It runs quite fast for me, and has everything that I could need in a computer.Best Deals for ASUS A53U-XE2 15.6-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Mocha)
I had heard that Asus computers had a good reliability record despite having a low price. When this showed up as a special offer on the Kindle screen saver I took advantage of the chance to save forty dollars. It isn;t lightning fast. But it is a nice notebook with a big screen. It is not hot on my lap like other notebooks. All for $270. Big keyboard. Looks nice. Good to have a backup computer. No state tax, free shipping. I shop everywhere, then buy Amazon.Honest reviews on ASUS A53U-XE2 15.6-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Mocha)
Works well and is everything it is advertised to be. If you want to run more than one program, you may want to throw a little more ram in. all in all a great deal! Asus makes a quality product.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS A53U-XE2 15.6-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Mocha)
This laptop works great. Im not a real techie but i'm impressed with my asus laptop.Amazon was great to purchase this computer through. The whole purchase was flawless....
Thank you for a great experiance.....ASUS A53U-XE1 15.6-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Mocha)
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