Asus U36S preview and hands-on(video)

The U36S is a new mini laptop from Asus and was quietly released in a couple of European countries a couple of weeks ago. It’s basically the same build and design we had on the U36J, but packing some more serious hardware, namely the Intel Sandy Bridge platform.

The 13.3 inch laptop is pretty slim, although not quite light, but it’s a price you’ll have to pay if you want to enjoy a Sandy Bridge processor and the fire power that comes with it.

In comparison with the Asus Eee Pad Transformer 10 inch tablet, the U36S is about 3 times thicker, which is very convenient for a laptop, I might say. The laptop has a magnesium finish on the lid, which is light, resistant and quite appealing to the eye; the same textured and sombre looking finish is to be found around the keyboard and on the palm rests.

Ports wise, there are USB 2.0 ports, audio jack, VGA slot, HDMI, card reader and a USB 3.0 port as well. The full size keyboard is made from plastic, but the keys have a rubber like finish which makes them a little less noisy that standard keys on most laptops. The track pad has a rugged finish which is useful for smooth control, while the two mouse buttons are clearly separated, albeit a little noisy for my taste.

About three times thicker than a tablet. Not quite bad.

The 1366 x 768 screen has a glossy finish and the bezel around it has a similar finish, so this won’t be the top choice if you’re intending to spend a lot of time outside. Hardware wise, the U36S we’ve got comes with a low power Core i5 CPU, running at 2.7 GHZ, 6 GB of RAM and a 640 GB hard disk drive, this being one of the configurations you can opt for when buying this 13.3 inch laptop. The 6 cell battery is said to run for about 4-5 hours in normal use.

Video preview is just after the break, check it out for more info about the Asus U36S, which should be available in a bunch of European countries by now. As for pricing, it’s hard to pinpoint an exact tag, considering the fact that you can customize it in terms of CPU, RAM and HDD, but the top configuration should not exceed $1.000 when the laptop will finally make its way to the American market. The review will follow soon here on the website, so check back in the next couple of days.

Update: Here’s the review for the Asus U36SD / U36S, check it out for more details.

Tags: Asus laptops, Intel Sandy Bridge

Last updated: March 29, 2012 | Published: June 30th, 2011 | See the comments or add yours!