More Color Choices!!!, May 14, 2012

By 

H. Lin –

  

I would like to buy this computer if more color choices should be available. ASUS, please think aesthetically for diverse types of customers.

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]]> https://lap-tops.net/asus-u31sg-as31-13-3-inch-laptop-black/laptops/ultrabooks/#comment-45 R. Nielsen Wed, 23 May 2012 09:27:03 +0000 http://lap-tops.net/asus-u31sg-as31-13-3-inch-laptop-black/laptops/ultrabooks/#comment-45

Nice Compact Laptop, May 18, 2012

By 

R. Nielsen –

  

Day 1, initial thoughts:

I bought the Asus U31SG-AS31 after looking for a 12.1 to 14 inch lightweight laptop to supplement my desktop rig. I wanted something smallish, but larger than my old EEE 901, lightweight, good battery life, good general use performance, ability to go up to at least 8 GB RAM and easily replaceable hard drive. This fits the bill for me pretty well. I was debating between this and the U31SG-AS51 (a dual-core i5 with a slightly higher base clock speed); for me, the slight speed bump + Turbo wasn’t enough to justify the extra cost. I will soon dual boot this with some flavor of Linux, my preferred OS.

The top cover is brushed aluminum and quite the fingerprint magnet, it is not firm but should provide at least equal and probably better protection as a typical plastic case. The rest of the case is various types of black or gray plastic, very solid feeling. Right now, I have to use two hands to open the lid as the hinge provides enough friction to require a hand on lid and the other on the base. Overall, it feels like a good quality product for this price range.

Performance thus far seems good for the hardware. Booting and running off a 5400 RPM drive is going to be a bit slow. However, running apps are very responsive. Web pages loaded quickly while running a full system antivirus scan and building system restoration ISO images. It also never got hot directly on my lap nor was it loud while doing aforementioned stuff.

Pros:
+ Small, light, and thin. Doesn’t take up much room in my day bag.
+ User accesible/replaceable battery, RAM, hard drive.
+ Good bang for the buck.
+ Built in RJ45 port.
+ Built in HDMI & VGA ports.
+ Can expand to 8 GB RAM.
+ Built in SDCARD slot.
+ Track pad is textured, buttons are fairly quiet, pad can be tapped for left click, two-finger zoom, vertical/horizontal scroll by using right/bottom side of pad.
+ Came with Win 7 Premium 64-bit.
+ Nice keyboard. It is responsive and feels “right”, and I’m used to “natural” type keyboards on my home and work desktops.
+ I haven’t seen much bloatware yet, just an antivirus app.

Cons (nothing yet to take off a whole star, since I knew these when I purchased):
- Screen resolution is only 768 vertical.
- Glossy screen.
- Camera is only 0.3 MP.
- 5 stickers on the palm rest area.

Don’t cares:
~ No DVD drive.
~ No modem.
~ No serial port.

I’ll post an update in a week or two after some additional use and getting Linux on it.

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