Asus U36JC Laptop Review: Ultraportable Has Good Power and Features, but Little Polish

At a Glimpse

Expert's Rating

Pros

Packed with features
Attractive design

Cons

Many features are poorly explained
Touchpad buttons are most unclickable

Our Finding of fact

If you're more interested in power and features than in polish, this ultraportable laptop computer could be a good choice.

The Asus U36JC ultraportable laptop computer ($1000 as of May 23, 2020) has gobs of tangible benefits: good power from its forward-generation Core i5 C.P.U., slews of ports, and features such as a flying-first fashion that lets you browse the Web before you boot into Windows. Where the U36JC falls pull down is in the intangibles–utilities with cryptic explanations, for example, and a poorly designed touchpad.

By definition, ultraportable laptops are acknowledged to be shriveled and light, and the U36JC certainly delivers along thin, at just 0.75 edge thick. At 3.8 pounds, notwithstandin, it's fairly sound for an ultraportable. Nevertheless, the U36JC is seductive, with a graphite black-market magnesium-aluminum alloy human body.

The 2.53GHz Core i5 processor delivered a WorldBench 6 score of 111 in PCWorld Lab's performance benchmark examination. That's a congealed score for an ultraportable in its price range. And the laptop's switchable graphics with a discrete Nvidia GeForce 310M graphics card (the same circuit card used on the Asus U33Jc, which we reviewed endmost fall) produced stunning gaming scores for the class.

The U36JC has slews of connection options, including unity USB 3.0 and cardinal USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI connecter, and a VGA port.

Video looked great on the U36JC's 1366-by-768-pixel riddle–American Samoa long as I didn't take over a bright light behind me. The screen is highly glossy and meditative, so when I got to a dark scene in Kick-Piece of tail, the experience was a bit like looking in a mirror. But colors popped on the concealment, the laptop handled motion well, and the image still looked great when I looked at the screen from an extreme angle. The nicest matter I privy say about the laptop's safe is that it's just fine with decent headphones. The built-in speakers sound boxy and thin.

The keyboard on the U36JC mat up great. Its Chiclet-style keys had a fairly long go and supplied good feedback. The touchpad, on the other hand, was a revulsion show. Though it accepted gestures such equally a two-digitate scroll, I often had to recur the gesture before the notebook computer would respond. And the button beneath the trackpad is extremely difficult to use. Clicking it requires the force of a pneumatic hammer, and information technology's so narrow vertically that it's hard to receive by feel.

Asus has intoxicated the U36JC with lots of utilities. Some are clear and useful, but others are mysterious and undocumented. For illustrate, when I clicked on Asus VirtualCamera, nothing seemed to hap. I searched the Vane and by looking in forums with headings corresponding "Asus Virtual Camera: how does it work because when I click on it cypher happens," I found a page on Asus's site that claims that VirtualCamera permits live simultaneous videoconferencing with adequate to four people. The page doesn't draw how you'd make that happen with VirtualCamera, and the U36JC's electronic manual doesn't name the utility at every.

Asus's manual does mention Express Gate, a utility that boots into a simple Linux environment so that you can quickly fit e-mail or attend Facebook without booting ascending Windows. Just the remark consists of a reference book to the Express Gate User's Blue-collar, which isn't included on the U36JC. Even so, Convey Gate is somewhat intuitive. When the laptop is close, you can press the Express Gate key above the top left-handed niche of the keyboard. Inside about 10 seconds, I had wide a browser windowpane and started surfriding. The interface is utilitarian at the best–the windows, fonts, and show anomalies leave take you rachis to the days you spent working connected Windows 98. If all you need is a quick inbox break, Express Gate may comprise utilitarian, but most people today would just use their smartphones for this purpose.

For people who don't want to spend a good deal of money on an ultraportable, the Asus U36JC offers right power, an attractive test, and good connectivity. But don't have a bun in the oven to find the attention to detail and clear corroboration you'd get on more-expensive laptops. Too, acknowledged the terrible touchpad and button, you should buy in this laptop only you're voluntary to use it with a mouse.