When talking about my personal choices about laptops, I’m really a fan of small 13 inch laptops. Usually they have cool ultraportable design, much battery backup but max number of small laptops have an underpower processor and too many lack of features. Asus U36Jc-A1 is not among them who are using Intel Atom processor, instead Atom it have the power of Intel Core i5 processor! Now you may feel that, why I’m writing this review! Especially in this model, there are too many high-en features available like nVidia Optimus graphics, USB 3.0 etc. So you will never feel a “tiny” experience while using this “tiny” laptop! Design and Performance Asus U36JC is colored by raven black aliminum-magnesium alloy. Also this super sleek model is only 0.76 inch thick, too light in weight. Its palm rest is covered with a soft matte material, ASUS named it “nanometer coating”. The area near screen is made with glossy plastic. ASUS U36JC is quite larger than the previous generation U33JC but weights lighter (only 3.8 pounds where U33JC weighs 4.4 pounds). This laptop has a dimension of 12.9 x 9.28 x 0.76 inches, so it’s slightly larger than the Lenovo U260 (12.5 x 8.1 x 0.7 inches) and Samsung R700 (12.4 x 8.9 x 0.7 inches), which are from the best small notebooks! The U36JC's island-style black keyboard has the same look and layout as those on a number of Eee PC netbooks, from the 10-inch Eee PC 1015PN to the 12-inch Eee PC VX6. There's no flex at all, but the keys do feel a little stiff, which led us to a make a few more errors than usual while typing. We also wish the right Shift key were larger. Also, this U36JC model has a 3x2 inch touch pad, which has a pleasant matte surface that matches the palm rest and allows you to navigate the desktop with full ease of speed. No difficulties will be there while using the touch pad. The touch pad also supports gesture control such as pinch-to-zoom etc. The display contains of a 13.3 inch screen with 1266x768 resolutions. U36JC’s display has a strong viewing angle so that you can view every point clearly while maintaining an angle of 90 degrees! Some reflection related problem may occur while sitting in sunlight. The U36Jc can more than handle 1080p video. Whether playing a 1080p QuickTime movie, colors were rich, motion was smooth, and images were both sharp and noise-free. Unfortunately, the audio quality doesn't match the visuals. Both when we were playing a heavy metal song and a soft jazz tune, music sounded distant, monotone, and completely flat. The U36JC has a great communication deals, it contains of several ports. On the left side of the laptop you will find the adapter port, a VGA output, one HDMI and a USB 2.0 port. On the other side of the laptop, there is one headphone jack, one mic jack, a 5-in-one card reader, one USB 3.0, one USB 2.0 port and an Ethernet RJ45 jack. So, you are getting all type of commutation ports while using this laptop. Specifications CPU - Intel Core i5-460M mobile processor Operating System - Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) RAM - 4GB (Max 8 GB) Hard Disk - 500GB @ 7,200rpm SATA Display - 13.3 Inch @ 1366x768 px resoulation Optical Drive - None Graphics - Nvidia Optimus with Nvidia G310M Graphics / Intel HD Graphics @ 1GB Memory Battery Life – 7 Hours Wi-Fi - 802.11b/g/n (Atheros AR9285) Bluetooth - Bluetooth 2.1+EDR Touchpad Size - 3.25x2 inches Ports - Ethernet; HDMI; Headphone; Microphone; 1xUSB 3.0; VGA; 2xUSB 2.0 Card Reader - 5-in-1 card reader Dimension - 12.9 x 9.28 x .76 inches Weight - 3.8 pounds Problems with AsusU36JC Design Issue - The thin design is admirable and the chassis has a strong, lightweight feel, but the extra-thin body does have its compromises. You can actually see the internal circuit boards through venting grilles on the bottom--this isn't a laptop you want to accidentally place down on a small puddle. Also, the heat vent on the left side is pushed to the front, resulting in blasts of very warm air on your left palm while typing. Heat – The top surface of the ASUS U36Jc stayed relatively cool but its underside reached uncomfortably high temperatures. After playing a full-screen video for 15 minutes, the measured temperature of the touchpad is at a pleasant 85 degrees and the G and H keys at an acceptable 95 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the bottom measured a warm 105 degrees and, while playing World of Warcraft, it reached 110 degrees. We can consider temperatures below 95 degrees acceptable on the top surface of a notebook and temperatures of 100 degrees and below unpleasant but common for the bottom. However, this type of underside heat would make you think twice about placing the U36Jc on your lap while gaming. Optical Drive – You will not get any optical drive with this laptop. So, you have to depend on pen drives or memory cards for carrying data. Final Thoughts Thin magnesium-alloy frame; powerful Core i5 processor in a 13-inch laptop; Nvidia Optimus automatic-switching graphics; USB 3.0 port makes ASUS U36JC so powerful that everyone can like it. Also you are getting 7 hours continuous battery life while using the laptop, hence probably if you can handle the heating issues, then this “tiny” laptop will be great for you!
