ASUS U33JC-A1 Review
No matter such as a laptop-inspired design, chances are it is either shiny or textured plastic, or, in some cases superior, aluminum or magnesium. There is nothing wrong with that, but there is certainly scope for creativity around the margins, and that is exactly what Asus brings to the table in the new Asus U33Jc-A1. The 13-inch laptop is partially clad in real bamboo, creating a unique upscale look and feel, that we find very appealing, our Mid-Century Modern design taste. Beyond the look and feel, the Intel Core i3 system also works in some useful features, including Intel’s Wireless Display Technology (for beaming the video output to an external display) and a discrete GPU Nvidia 310M.
Although the U33J-A1 is thin, it is not nearly thin enough to the loss of an optical drive, nor to justify a rare move for a 13-inch laptop. But if you think you can survive without one, this is one of the sharpest-looking laptop we’ve seen this year.
The most notable feature on the physical U33J-A1 bamboo is its chassis with the accent. The back of the lid and palm rest of the interior, along with the touchpad itself, are all covered with a thin layer of wood. Asus says it spent so much time in the right direction, to the bamboo is bound to the system in order to avoid the splitting, buckling or warping, and the final product truly flawless. The dark wood looks great, feels good under your fingers and look makes this a very upscale system.
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The rest of the body is shiny black plastic and brushed metal is gray and the whole package feels solid and robust, and probably stand up to heavy traffic abuse. The keyboard is the typical style of the island, Asus, with shallow, widely spaced keys. The all-important right shift key is slightly reduced, but we appreciate the stand-page-up and page down buttons on the right side of the keyboard.
The touchpad is in the same strip of bamboo from which built the rest of the palm rest. The surface of the wood works well as a touch pad, although it lacks the multi-touch gestures, in most current laptops. However, it is impressive that even with the wood surface, the touchpad is responsive and as precise as with any we tried. Below the touch pad is a thin ball roll to the left and right mouse buttons. Also covered in bamboo, it is too small, easy to use.
The Asus U33J-A1 includes more than its fair share of pre-loaded software, which by its own web cam and display recruitment advertising links to apps for Skype, eBay and others. The most interesting is the Asus Control deck, which has found the typical dock-list of applications and settings on systems from Dell or Apple, and turns it into a 3D-scrolling overlay, rotating each category (brightness, power settings, etc .) in the foreground by clicking on the up or down arrow keys. It is very tactile, but probably not something you use all the time on had.
The 13.3-inch display has a 1366 x 768 pixel native resolution, which is typical for almost every current laptop screen 11 to 15 inches. It is a good middle ground, the play you have enough space on the screen and 720p video content natively without text and icons too small to see. Though still bright, the screen on the U33J-A1 is not glare-inducing like many we’ve seen. Directly above the display, has a Web Cam 2.0MP an on off switch, which physically covers the lens when in the OFF position.
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Most of the expected ports and connections, visit the Asus U33J-A1 – including Bluetooth, which are found something of a rarity lately – and we were pleasantly surprised to also find a USB 3.0 port (you tell from the blue pin connector). Its practical application can be used for smaller yet more compatible devices are available, but USB 3.0 provides better throughput for data and more power for USB-connected hardware.
Like other newer laptops with Intel’s Core i3 processor, is Asus U33J-A1 a capable musician, and in fact was a bit faster in our benchmark tests than many comparable systems. In general, the Intel Core i3 the right mix of performance, price and size for attractive portable notebook under $ 1,000. That is, we have run in some occasional cooling to the system, usually during the implementation of Windows mundane tasks – but between Wireless Display, the graphics switching Optimus and Asus’ own custom dashboard applications, there are a lot of background processes comes at a time.
The Nvidia GeForce 310M graphics chip is the usual mainstream election took place in today’s non-gaming laptops, and works well for basic 3D tasks. In Unreal Tournament 3 on X720 1280-pixel resolution, we got a respectable 46.8 frames per second, but do not expect to play the latest games with graphic display setting cranked all the way up. Coupled with Optimus graphics switching technology from Nvidia, the GPU 310M can turn itself off automatically when needed and will, should, as it does not affect battery life.
Asus includes a power management utility called “Super Hybrid Engine, with many of its laptops, including this one, which allows easy access to under the hood power profile options. Ran even without fine-tuning the settings for a better battery life, the U33J-A1 for 4 Play for hours and 8 minutes in our video playback battery drain – a very good result for a mainstream 13-inch laptop. However, Apple’s notebook is still the champ of 13-inch battery life, runs more than two additional hours on the same test.
