ASUS U31SD-A1 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Laptop (Silver)

It took me a long time to find a laptop that met all of my criterion; good battery life, screen smaller than 14", discrete video, no optical drive, small form factor, but the U31SD fits the bill. The only other laptop that comes close that I can find is the Macbook Air, but until that gets refreshed, you are spending hundreds more on a laptop that is still using a core2duo, albeit in a much smaller case. Under light use I have easily hit 10 hrs of battery, and have even come close to five with intermittent gaming. I replaced the stock hard drive with an intel ssd, so it screams through boot-up and most applications. Despite somewhat negative reviews on Notebookcheck, the GT 520m has had no problem playing one or two year old games such as Left4Dead2 and Burnout Paradise at the native resolution with medium detail. The only knock against this laptop thus far is the case which, while by no means bad, is not as sleek as an 800 dollar laptop could be--the aluminum plates are just tacked on to a plastic body and have a rough edge in some areas. Also, Asus' naming scheme is a nightmare, and navigating their laptop section if you don't know the exact model you are looking for is laughably bad. Otherwise, a great laptop that suits my needs perfectly.

I spent around two or three weeks searching for specs and reading reviews in order to find a perfect laptop. My very first laptop was a Acer Extensa 5220 with Vista and only 2 GBs of RAM a nightmare in terms of portability and a terrible performer. So I really needed something I could rely on. In particular I was looking for a laptop ...

* that was portable (~ 2 kg).

* that was silent and cool.

* with a second generation i3 processor (for efficiency and power savings).

* with a discrete graphics card so I could run some of the newer games at least at medium settings.

* with a good looking case.

* ... with a great battery life! (7 hours or more)

Overall I have been very pleased. I found what I was looking for and maybe because I had an extremely crappy laptop I am more pleased than I should be, but for my needs it has been perfect. I have been especially happy with the battery life. It's really nice to have that kind of mobility, and it charges quite fast (expect 2½ hours to fully charge). It performs well enough though I haven't played any games newer than BF2 and Medieval 2.

The reason I give it 4 out of 5 is that it doesn't have a USB 3.0 port (though I understand the XA-1 has 3.0, but it's not available Denmark, yet) and the keyboard while excellent for typing shorter messages and navigating the system, fails utterly to support genuine typing comfortability. This has mostly to do with the vague-but-okay feedback, the slight flex in the keyboard and the sometimes associated strenuousness of typing input. Expect an error rate beyond average. It's not horrible, but I know could be much better and this is (the) one area where my previous vacuum cleaner... erh, laptop actually did a good job.

In all other respects it's just a really nice laptop. In retrospect I might have preferred to get the U36SD to get USB 3.0 and a slightly more powerful machine, but that would have meant another $200 or so.

Buy ASUS U31SD-A1 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Laptop (Silver) Now

I purchased this as a lightweight alternative to my current notebook. The battery life is 7+ hours consistently, and that is while watching video, or doing 3d modeling with in Maya or Max.

The GPU performance is on par with what you'd expect. It's an entry level card, but manages to handle all of my modeling needs. It plays games well too, but don't expect to have max settings on titles like BFBC2, or Mass Effect 2.

Overall, I'd highly recommend it if you are looking for a lightweight, powerful machine.

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Ever since I got this laptop I've been having so much problems with it. I really enjoy the lightness of this 13.3" Asus laptop but every time I turn it on, the screen flickers. The speakers are really bad because It lets out this really loud high pitch noise. In order to stop the noise, I have to keep shifting my laptop and the screen. If it really doesn't stop then I have to mute my laptop. Also, the speakers would often echo. I bought it four months ago and I was hoping for these problems to stop but it ended up getting worst. The quality of this laptop is not worth the price.

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I wanted a good (I mean, with good specs), Light and with a long battery life. This babe has everything. It`s well worth it, I use it at college at all times and it`s even lighter than most of my books that I need to carry.

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