ASUS U36S Review: Better Than A MacBook Pro ?

Review Summary:

The ASUS U36S is highly recommendable to those searching for a well-rounded portable notebook with good quality and lots of battery life.

Pros

Ultra-thin metal alloy chassis
Good keyboard and touchpad
8.5 hours of battery life
Two-year warranty standard

Cons

Glossy display creates reflections
Touchpad buttons could be quieter
Poor speakers

ASUS U36S Full Review: Better Than A MacBook Pro?

The ASUS U36S is a 13.3-inch ultraportable featuring a magnesium-aluminum chassis that weighs just 3.1 lbs. At just 0.75" thin and with over 8 hours of battery life, could this laptop be one of this year’s best buys? Here's a tip: Keep reading if you are thinking about buying a MacBook Pro for Christmas.

Build and Design

The ASUS U36S ($899.99) has a rather unsuspecting gray and black exterior. The surfaces of the notebook are made of a magnesium-aluminum alloy which is strong and extraordinarily light. The whole notebook including its large 8-cell battery weighs just 3.11 lbs. Additionally the notebook is exceptionally thin measuring just three quarters of an inch with the lid closed.

The build quality is excellent; the chassis is nearly inflexible and the lid has strong protection from the metal alloy backing. I like how the top of the chassis is molded from a single piece of metal alloy including the keyboard surround. Finally, the anti-glare properties of the metal alloy do not show fingerprints or dust and should resist scratches fairly well. The only area of the build quality that could use improvement is the screen bezel; the glossy plastic is difficult to keep clean as is the glossy screen surface.

Unlike many other metal-clad laptops (the ones with fruit logos on the lids), upgrading the RAM inside the U36S is easily accomplished by removing the user-serviceable panel on the bottom of the chassis. Getting to the hard drive is another matter; the whole chassis needs to be taken apart. This is a shame; I imagine a good number of customers will want to upgrade to an SSD or at least a faster hard drive.

Ports and Features
The ASUS U36S has a standard array of ports for a 13.3-inch notebook including a single USB 3.0 port. It does not have an internal optical drive, an ExpressCard slot, DisplayPort, or eSATA. All picture descriptions are listed from left to right.

Front: Air vents, speakers	Back: Battery pack
Left: Kensington Lock slot, AC power, VGA, 2x USB 2.0, cooling exhaust vent	Right: Headphone and microphone jacks, 1x USB 3.0, HDMI out, Ethernet

Screen and Speakers

The 13.3-inch display has a glossy/reflective surface and a 720p resolution (1366x768). The screen has no outstanding qualities. Brightness and contrast are about the same as any other sub-$1,000 notebook; viewing angles are fine horizontally but colors distort from above and below, as expected from a TN-type display. Color reproduction is substandard (as is the case for most notebook screens); everything looks a bit cold/cool with the default settings. Fortunately ASUS includes built-in color profiles; press the [Fn] key and [C] to switch between them. ASUS is the only mainstream notebook maker to include such a feature and it is certainly appreciated.

The screen resolution of 1366x768 is standard for this screen size. I prefer 1600x900 since it has more space to work with (more lines of text can be viewed on the screen without scrolling), however no 13.3" notebook offers it anywhere close to the U36S' price range. Finally, the screen's glossy surface increases clarity but acts like a mirror, creating reflections; for this reason I prefer anti-glare screens.

There are two stereo speakers located under the palm rest; they sound tinny and have no bass. The sound is muffled further when hands are placed over them for typing.

Keyboard and Touchpad

ASUS has modified its standard keyboard design for the U36S; the island/Chiclet-style keyboard is completely integrated into the single piece of metal alloy that makes up the top of the chassis. This keyboard is a significant improvement over the ones used on previous ASUS notebooks; it feels solid and has no flex. The keys have a flat surface and a granular texture that will likely wear shiny over time. The key travel (distance between pressed and un-pressed positions) is just right, more than other ASUS notebooks. Furthermore the keyboard is relatively quiet. Overall the only thing it's missing is backlighting; it continues to be a rarity in the notebook market.

The touchpad is appropriately sized. It has a smooth anti-glare surface and is easy to find by feel. Responsiveness and accuracy are as expected. The single touchpad button could use improvement; the pressure needed to produce a click is inconsistent depending where the button is pressed. Additionally the clicks are louder than they should be; people around you will know you are clicking. Lastly it has a reflective surface which always makes it look unclean.