Ahmed Abdullah

If someone want the Asus with blue ray they should check ASUS N71JQ-A1 instead of ASUS N71JQ-X1.
Rating: 5 / 5

  Nathan M.

This is a bit long, but please read so that you know what to expect when you get the N71. I wish I had read something like this before buying.

I researched computers for weeks and weeks. I decided on an Asus because they didn’t seem to have any bad rumors floating around. They are new, their other product lines boast great reviews and high quality products. For example, I hear some brands have screens go out early, other brands have software problems, others are rumored to just be crap. Asus, however, didn’t seem to have any bad words being spread. So I decided on them and landed on the N71. This is not a cheap computer, and for spending this much I would have expected close to perfection.

So I ordered one, and the first thing I noticed was that the disk drive rattled dramatically. While installing software, the entire computer would shake and make a loud buzzing sound. This and a boot up error (not quite the blue screen of death, but similarly terrifying) when coming out of hibernation made me return it for a replacement. Amazon was great, they replaced it overnight and compensated for return shipping.

So I’m now on my second N71.

First thing…the quad core is not blowing me out of the water like I’d expect. It seems like it’s just a fast processor, not the remarkably stupendous speed that I’d expect from the current top of the line.

Second, I realized that the express gate feature isn’t as cool as I thought it would be. It’s an early 90s looking browser with little to no functionality.

Third, this amazing multi-touch touch pad is disappointing. I really had high expectations for it, how cool would it be to swipe three fingers to the right and switch applications, to swipe three fingers up and bring up My Computer, to scroll using two fingers (like on a Mac), etc, etc, etc. I was really excited about all these convenient features. The truth is that it’s about as responsive as a crappy touch screen cell phone (you’ll know exactly what I mean if you’ve played around with one of the first phones that came out to compete with the iPhone). Most of the time the multi-touch operation fails, you do the motion and nothing happens. The two finger scrolling is great (about the only feature that works well) but when you pause the screen jumps up and down very quickly, like it’s stuck between one tick up and one tick down on the vertical scrolling.

Lastly…the multimedia hard buttons are actually broken!! There is a “expressGate” button, Mute, Vol Down, Vol Up and Play/Pause button at the top of the keyboard. The Mute and Volume Up do not work, and the others I don’t use. So of the three buttons I’d use most (Vol Up, Vol Down and Mute)…only one of them works. This is really annoying and I don’t want to have to mess with returning it again since I’ve already got this computer all set up. I am going to call Asus to see if there is something I can do to fix it, but it looks to be a hardware problem which means I’m probably screwed (since I don’t want to have to mail the computer all over the country for a couple broken buttons).

So, sorry for the long review. All in all, I am completely UNDERWHELMED by this “priced close to top of the line” computer. But, it still does all the normal stuff you need a computer to do. It just comes standard with some constantly annoying things that make me regret the purchase, just not enough to return it and start my search over.

Rating: 2 / 5