ASUS U36JC-B1 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

by Asus

• Intel Core i5 Processor 2.66GHz
• 4GB SO-DIMM RAM
• 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
• 13.3-Inch Screen, GeForce
• Windows 7 Home Premium, 9 hours Battery Life

Product Description

13.3" HD (1366 x768) (LED) / i5-480M / 4G DDR3 / NV 310M 1G DDR3 + Intel GMA HD (Optimus Technology) / 500G 7200 / No ODD / Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) / 802.11BGN / Bluetooth / VGA / HDMI / 1 USB 3.0 Port / 2 USB 2.0 Ports / 5-in-1 Card Reader / 0.3M Pixel / 8-cell 5600mAh / 2 Year Standard Warranty + 1 Year Accidental Damage Warranty

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 72 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars ASUS U36JC-B1 is a buy. Very good laptop. March 11, 2011

By Blackheart_Six

Amazon Verified Purchase

ASUS U36JC-B1 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

UPDATE: I still use this laptop every day. It is running great. The only failure is the rubber foot on the bottom came off, and the rubber strip on the battery started to peel off. I clipped it, and reseated. No issue now. It still runs great! I am very happy with my purchase!

Purpose: Home/Travel/Business Apps/Web/Graphics Editing/Macbook replacement

1 Star per Area/5 Stars Total

I am basing my review on my past uses of other laptops, and the major areas that are important to me. I've searched and looked for the model that has the features I need. For example, I don't deduct for lack of an optical drive, since I knew going in, the system didn't have an optical drive.

Star 1 - Build Quality
The body is rock solid. There is no creaking, twisting. It feels like a solid slab in your hands. The lid is very thin. Opens and closes smoothly. No binding in the hinges, or twisting. Little flexing in the display, but it is firm. The laptop is easy to carry and feels comfortable in your hand. The power brick is very small, 4"L x 1.5"W x 1.0"H. It is 2 parts, brick, and cord to the wall. Comes with a cable tie. Very little fan noise. Runs cool to warm, after use. But not hot. The battery has been through several charge/discharge cycles. The battery is fully charge and reports 9 hours and 44 minutes of life. Got about 6 - 7 hours of total usage before putting it back on the charger. So a full day of websurfing, and video playing, on and off. The surface is very nice, and easy to clean.

Star 2 - Ports
All ports are easy to access from the side of the system.... USB ports are easy to insert devices and oriented the correct way, so if the USB logo is up on the connector, then it inserts. The RJ45 ethernet port is defective. The cable will not lock in. I tested several cables, and all do the same thing. This needs to be corrected by ASUS, should not have passed QAQC. Luckly I will use the wifi for most network connections. But still a defect and needs to be fix.

Star 3 - Display/Web Camera
The display is clear and bright. Using in normal household lighting, I haven't had any issues with viewing screen, or viewing angles. Yes it is glossy, along with the bezel. Looks fine to me. Attracts finger prints on the bezel. Using a soft cloth, the display cleans up nicely. The web camera functions as expected for a 0.3 web camara. Not the greatest image, but acceptable for a web camara.

Star 4 - Keyboard/Trackpad
The keyboard is the large chicket style keys. The keyboard is nice to type on, with little keystroke errors. The keys feel tight, and offer nice resistance. Don't feel like they will pop off, or break. They do not have a loud tactile noise to them. I like the ASUS keyboard. The trackpad could be a little larger, but is pretty good. Hard surface. Tracks well. The single button though is very loud when pressing. Loud tactile clicking noise when pressing the trackpad bar. But feels very solid though like it will stand up to many clicks.

Star 5 - Software
The laptop is LOADED with crapware. They did partition the harddrive into a 100 GB C: and ~350 GB D: drives. I've already wiped it, and put on a clean install of Windows 7 pro. Much better. Make sure you install all the drivers. I downloaded them from the website. Boot time pre-wipe was 60 secs., after wipe, it's down to 40 secs. to the logon screen. 10 secs to hit the desktop after logging on. I'm old school, so I believe I paid for the license, so I want the disks. I miss the days when you got ALL the software on disk with the system. It does come with a drivers disk.

Overall I give it 4 of 5 stars. This is a very well built laptop, that does not seem like cheap plastic. The ethernet port is a defect and should not exist. They lose points for all the bloatware and the fact I went ahead and wiped the HDD. Companies know we don't want it, so don't load it. It's called crapware for a reason. The noisey trackpad button also is a turn off to me.

I hope you find this infomation useful. Remember you get what you pay for, and this review was completely free! Put in your pocket, or throw it on the floor, it don't matter to me! Read more ›

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Laptop if it weren't for. April 12, 2011

By JeFF Seven

Amazon Verified Purchase

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. Read more ›

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME Ultraportable Laptop March 11, 2011

By Kevin Yu

This laptop is amazingly light and thin. Weighing in at 3.74lbs it hides a hidden beast inside known as an i5 480M processor. Super nice finish except the glossy screen and glossy surrounding around the screen. The unit comes with a single 4GB stick of samsung ram @ 1066Mhz. I bought 2x4GB sticks of GSkill 1333Mhz ram from newegg because i thought the unit comes with 2x2GB sticks. Due to some odd limitation on the i5 processors the ram only shows up as 1066Mhz but i expected as much. Along with switching out the ram i also added in a OCZ Vertex 2 120GB. Taking apart the case is alot easier than it seems as long as you know what to do. The right and left click buttons on the mouse pad are connected together in a chromed plastic click which attracts finger prints like no other. The magnesium alloy finish is beautifully done. No backlit key board which is blah. The speakers are inside or near the mouse pad which is weird. The LED back lit screen can be amazingly bright when set on full brightness. Gaming is possible on low settings but if you are going to buy this you arent really looking for a gaming laptop so dont complain about the graphics.
Here is how to take the case apart to remove the HDD:
1. Remove the battery
2. Remove the screw for the cover covering the ram, using tweezers carefully remove the mouse pad and keyboard "plugs"
3. unscrew all the screws hidden by the battery which should be 4
4. remove the two exposed screws near the mouse pad (bottom of case)
5. Remove all 4 "rubber feet" to expose 4 "hidden" screws and unscrew the screws
6.... Carefully use a thin flathead screw driver to pry apart the the keyboard part of the case from the base of the case, (using a rubberized tipped flathead screwdriver is best as to not damage the case or cause nicks and scratches)
7. There is some two sided tape keeping the keyboard part to the base, so slowly lift the top part until the two separate.
8. The HDD should now be seen where you would put your right palm normally while typing.
9. There are five screws holding the HDD inside a retainment bracket to the board and bottom case, remove the screws and slowly pull the black plastic tab to remove the bracketed HDD from the base
10. Remove the 4 screws that attach the HDD to the retainment bracket and replace with new or reformated SDD
11. Start from step 10 and work backwards until you put the computer back together.
If you have any question regarding how to replace the drive you can email me, [e-mail] Read more ›