Asus U36SD ultraportable laptop gets reviewed and hailed

The Asus U36SD is a 13.3 inch notebook that is currently available for pre order in Europe and the US and, thanks to tlbhd.com, we now have a review of this mainstream and a little more laptop. The U36SD is actually the successor of the U36JC, which has a similar design, but, of course, older hardware.

The U36SD has a Core i5, 2.3 GHZ processor, a glossy 13.3 inch, 1366 x 768 display,  6 GB of RAM (4 for the basic version), a 640 GB HDD and the Nvidia GT 520M video card, as well as Intel on board graphics. You can switch between the two in order to preserve battery using Optimus technology. The laptop has a pretty slim profile, 0.76 inch, being thinner than other 13.3 inch slim machines, like the Lenovo E220S and MacBook Pro, but failing to outmatch the MacBook Air or Samsung 9 Series.

The notebook’s magnesium chassis is a nice touch, being both sturdy and light. Less impressive is the glossy display and bezel, which will have to be cleaned quite often of smudges, stains and other. The keyboard is standard chiclet and has a plastic finish, which makes it a little noisy and causes some flex. As for performance, the Core i5 dual core processor (with 2.9 GHZ Turbo Boost), 6 GB of RAM and a newer Nvidia video card is a setup that should prove more than enough for most tasks, including gaming, video processing, HD playback and more.

The U36S has a magnesium chassis and matte finish

As for battery life, the tested unit was able to go for about 6 hours on a single charge, while in power saving mode, with Wireless off and working only with simple apps, like text editors. Anything more than that will make the battery meter go down much faster- running HD content with brightness at 80% will deplete the battery in about 4 hours.

The one major flaw of the notebook is that it gets hot pretty fast, but if you intend to keep it on a desk most of the time, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. The laptop will cost a little under $1000, with the base models being even cheaper. It’s not a bad price at all, but considering that right now everybody is thinking at Ultrabooks, offering “conventional” laptops at a lower price seems like the right move.

Update, the U36SD is now available in stores and it already got a small discount going, for around 950 bucks.

Stay tuned for a couple of demos and hands on videos with the U36SD. Enjoy.

Last updated: May 5, 2014 | Tags: Asus, Intel, powerful mini laptop

Adrian is in charge with the News here on AllAboutEEEPC.com, so if there's anything new around about EEE PCs, EEE Pads or other Asus portable gadgets, check out his posts, he'll write something about them. He's a Foreign Language Graduate and likes to blog about his passion: technology, in his spare time. More on the About page. See all posts by Adrian.