Asus U36JC-B1 Product reviews
Ratings
Category: Personal Computers
Brand: Asus
Model: U36JC-B1
Availability: Product availability may differ by country. In Stock (USA)
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Asus U36JC-B1 Product reviews
Asus U36JC-B1 Review by D. Keating (Maryland USA)
We bought the earlier model of this same notebook, but let me warn you about the Asus Product Recovery Disk for Windows, Drivers and Utilities.
There isn't one included with your notebook.
So you think, no big deal, Windows will make you one. When we got the notebook, the first thing we did was to spend a long time making the back up DVDs for product recovery. By the way, this is stupid -- it would be a LOT more efficient if they would just include one.
A few months after we bought it, the computer was damaged, and Asus has a one year accidental damage warranty. It was a huge hassle to get them to fix it, which required many phone calls even though as soon as we bought the computer we registered for that accidental damage warranty and had the email to prove they approved it.
Finally they agreed to fix it. They shipped it back to us with Linux installed!
So, we were not too worried, we would just reinstall Windows from those disks we made. Guess what? The disks could not reinstall Windows.
So we had to ship it back to them again so they could reinstall Windows. The computer was out of commission for a month.
We asked them for a product recovery disk that would work. They said, no. Make your own. Or pay us $50.
So we just bought a set for $59, $50 plus $9 shipping ($9 to mail a disk, another Asus ripoff). If Windows needs re installation again, we can't wait weeks for a product recovery disk to arrive.
The customer service is horrible and the lack of a product recovery disk is a real downside to this otherwise nice notebook.
Asus U36JC-B1 Review by absurd
Please think twice about buying this laptop. For me it turned into my worst computer purchase over the last fifteen years. And although Asus tries to pull the wool over your eyes with their warranty, their customer service reps and service technicians are just horrible, and dont even get me started on the quality of their product.
First the good (why it got the 1 star); the form factor on this laptop is pretty nice. Its very light, thin and portable. Thats about the only thing it has going for it.
The bad: Laptop runs extremely hot, and I mean EXTREMELY hot, even under light load. If you're male and are looking for a cheap alternative to a visectomy you should consider using this notebook in your lap for a few days. Under heavier load, the cooling system begin to strugle, the fans come on with a loud persistent whine, but the laptop continues to heat up, you can feel the heat radiating off the case. Im guessing its due to this heat problem that other components in the laptop began to fail.
The touchpad on the laptop is also pretty poor, its too large, and not sensitive enough. The left and right buttons are combined into a single long bar at the bottom of the touchpad. This creates a huge dead spot in the middle of the bar so you have to press on the very left or right in order to get it to click. Using two separate buttons instead of the one long bar would have made a huge difference. But thats what I've come to expect from Asus, just like the problem with the ethernet jack described in other reviews, Asus just doesnt seem to test their products very well.
This laptop also uses the older generation Intel chips, which are inferior in every way to the newer Sandy Bridge chipsets. It produces more heat, draws more power, all with inferior performance compared to the Sandy Bridge platform. Plainly, there are better, more reliable choices out there in the ultra portable notebook market.
After about four months of use, the screen began to fail on me. Im thinking probably due to the heat. The laptop was sent out for service under warranty, and after about a 1.5 weeks turn around time it came back. I unpacked it, and bam my WIFI lost all range, I need to stand next to my router to get any signal. I immediately guess that their sloppy service technicians unplugged the antenna from the WIFI card. I called the support number to complain and the battle began.
Their tech support people know nothing about computers, and Im guessing are instructed to not pass the phone to a manager for as long as possible. I explained to the rep that I just unpacked the laptop and the WIFI isnt working. Instead of using even a bit of common sense he beging reading the ***damn script on his screen. "Well, sir, the first thing I would recommend is we upgrade the drivers". I ask why would we need to update the drivers if my WIFI was working before I sent it for service and I just unpacked it. "You should go to our website and download the latest drivers" It goes on like this for forty minutes. Everytime I'd ask for a manager he would say one is not available right now. Finally I said forget it, find me a manager I will wait. I stay on the line for another 20 minutes waiting for the manager, finally I relent and upgrade the drivers. I know if wont do anything, but I'm hoping it will finaly get this dimwit to pass me to a manager. As expected nothing happens, and the dimwit says "Ok, sir, now we will have to do a system roll back". Thats where I lost it, told him to not speak anymore, not to read the damn script, just get me a manager. Another 15 minutes later the manager came on and gave me an RMA to send back the laptop. Another 1.5 weeks lost to turnaround time, back ups, restores etc...
My laptop came back from being serviced, and about 2 weeks later began to randomly shutdown. Again I call that most hated service number, this time around I didnt even entertain the phone jockeys and their scripts, just said you guys sold me a lemon and I need to speak to a manager. Twenty minutes later they came back and said all managers have left for the day, and that one of them will call back the next business day. No call came of course, I called again chased down a manager, demanded a replacement, explained that I use this laptop for my business and I cant afford weeks of downtime every month. I asked for a replacement, the manager said she will get back to me in 24-48hrs. So far its been over a week and no one has called and I dont expect them too either, their main purpose is to get you off the phone so you would eventually give up, or barring that just to pass you off to the next person in the chain.
Im in the market for new notebook. I can definetely say it will not be another Asus product. Their stuff is poorly built, they do not stand behind their product and the primary purpose of their support staff is to make it as unbearable as humanly possible to get something resolved. Im fairly sure that heat soak would eventually damage everyone of these laptops, and good luck getting help from Asus when that happens.
In conclusion; STAY AWAY from this thing if it all possible, the decent form factor is not enough to overcome low quality components, poor engineerig, sloppy technicians and horrible customer service.
Asus U36JC-B1 Review by JeFF Seven (East Coast)
This laptop is amazing. My girlfriend bought it for me for our two year anniversary, even though I picked it out after about a month or two of searching. I did my research looking for something to replace my 2009 13' Macbook Pro...which might have been a lemon or not(search for the HDD freezing issues on Mid -09's). Back to the laptop on hand. So far it is amazing. The material it is made out of feels premium and looks twice as nice. I tend to sweat all over the keys after long days of work/gaming/video watching and none of my finger prints seem to stick. You don't even get that semi greasy look on the palm rest. My aluminum Macbook Pro suffered greatly from my dirt and grim after only a few hours of use. I'll bullet point the break down so that I don't get into comparing much.
- Keyboard offers just the right amount of click without feeling cheap.
- Casing feels like a smooth,looks matte.
- Vents left hand side will blow warm air out at your palm. While noticeable at first, not really something that bothers since it is a quiet machine.
- Screen is high gloss, but coming from a glossy Macbook Pro it offers a bit less sheen than those. Over all not really a problem.
- Track pad is a bit wonky. It feels great don't get me wrong, but buttons are loud and clicky. Does not two finger scroll that well. Might just be the drivers I have uninstalled and reinstalled seems to have helped some. I might need to seek a modded firmware to get it working to my liking.
- USB 3.0 drive is wonderful. Very quick with usb thumb drives.
- Very light makes it feel a bit cheap, but the material of the casing and the power inside make the real difference.
In the end this laptops pros outweigh the cons. It is super thin and light...which almost makes it feel like a toy compared to the thick and heavy laptops out on the market. The magnesium casing makes up for it for being super resilient to scratches and dirt. It is a super fast machine. The battery gauges are very sensitive. Real world use anywhere from 4:30 to 7:44 on average with 40% brightness and light web browsing.
Graphics wise it will play older games on high with everything turned up no problem, tested Guild Wars/City of Heroes on Ultra *not quite everything on, but still ultra*/ Grand Theft Auto San Andreas/ Portal/ Mount and Blade Warband *maxed out completely* gave me 15 fps*/Champions online on very high gave me a playable game. I will further test the extent of the graphics so far it works well for what I like to play. Other than the track pad this laptop has been a dream. Very sturdy build, very fast computer, and I am very satisfied.
More Reviews...
ASUS U36JC-B1 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Laptop (Black):: Features
- 500GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM); No optical drive
- Intel Core i5-480M Processor
- Windows 7 Home Premium Operating System (64 bit) ;up to 9 hours of battery life
- 4GB of DDR3 1066MHz RAM (2x2GB, 2 slots)
- 13.3" HD LED Display, NV 310M 1G DDR3 + Intel GMA HD (Optimus Technology)
- Item Dimensions: 13 x 9 x 1 inches; 4 pounds
- Brand: Asus
- Model: U36JC-B1
- Product Type: Personal Computers
Asus U36JC-B1:Limited time offer!
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