Edit- battery life is lasting me about 4hrs and 25 mins. With basic apps running such as iTunes and internet surfing. This notebook is still the best thing I’ve seen around. I was lucky enough to purchase it for 599 during the black friday sale. But amazon still has a great price and more than worth the value!

Edit 12/4/09- I have to disagree about the review about the keyboard. I was able to type 3 papers very efficiently and had no typos. It feels very comfortable. I don’t use the number pad. I’m not an accountant and don’t have a need to use the number pad like its a calculator. Some people might need it. I do not.

As for Windows 7 being a unstable system. I totally disagree. I’ve built all my desktops since I’ve gotten into PC gaming and windows 7 by far surpasses any OS i’ve used. XP is way to basic for my taste and Vista was a compatibility nightmare. I’ve ran windows updates already and it was flawless, boot up is literally half of what I’m used to on a desktop. As for upgrade options. No not really. This is a notebook not a desktop. 4gb is more than enough to do most things and as for the hard drive 500g is pretty massive. My desktop has 3TB, but thats mostly for storage.

Con: The speakers sound great. However, when the laptop is on your lap the sound isn’t as clear, but this is to be expected. If the laptop is on a desk or whatever it sounds great. Altec Landsing speakers are pretty amazing.

The touch pad took a few moments to get used too, but besides that great product.

TO the supposed “THE REAL REVIEW Only 100% Truthful Reviews”

“My ASUS was DOA and it was a rather bad experience…..AMZN saved the day. Feel free to read my review on my ASUS that is now dead and buried and sent back after 15 hours of ownership and that 15 hours was a NIGHTMARE!” November 16th 2009.

“Customer support was a joke…14 hours on the phone with these guys and all I can say if if they are the best, I dont want to experience the worst….. I am very sorry I rolled the dice with ASUS but very thankful I bought from AMZN as they do a great job of resolving things for customers which is why I will continue to give AMZN my business….” December 4th 2009.

Are you kidding me man? Stop writing reviews to hear yourself speak. At least show a shimmer of intelligence in what you say. Yes, I’m sure the laptop that you just purchased actually through off sparks lol. What person would spend 14 hours on customer service than buy another one and spend another 15 hours on the phone????Are you just that unlucky? Or do you believe that a laptop is some sort of hockey puck? Bottom line is this laptop is excellent for the price you pay and people don’t need to see your crap reviews that obviously are bias and EXTREMELY EXAGGERATED!

This is a well priced budget notebook for my wife’s parents, but for her or my needs we’re willing to spend a couple hundred more for a thinner version without the numeric keypad. I think the parents are going to attach an external keyboard anyway (that’s what I’d do).

Pros:

- T6600 Core 2 Duo (not the Pentium Dual Core or the lower-end C2D)

- Relatively quiet and light (5.8 lbs)

- Big hard drive

- Screen has relatively good viewing angles

- Reasonable fit and finish for a plastic casing (although there’s a somewhat flimsy feeling lid that you need to pop open to change the battery, I suspect people won’t really be doing that)

- 4 USB ports

- VGA output is crisp (to 1280×1024, didn’t try bigger)

- You can select one language during boot up that’s set forever (unless maybe you restore from the restore partition). We chose Traditional Chinese.

- 1-year international warranty. Includes accident protection. No paperwork on extending the warranty (although it might be on one of the CDs).

Cons:

- A bit fat

- The screen has a blue tinge, just like with Asus’s TN LCD displays. Latitudes, Fujitsu’s, MacBooks, external non-TN monitors I’ve used over the years — all have better color.

- Two-finger touchpad scrolling is frustrating to use (too sensitive, doesn’t work all the time)

- The numeric keypad uses smaller keys! Difficult to use for folks with big hands.

- Keyboard in general: I don’t think the ergonomics are good at all. You balance the notebook on your lap or on a table, but you’re typing on the left side. There’s no gap between the arrow keys and the right side of the keyboard, so you have to learn where they are, instead of going by touch.

- Just 1 memory slot — 4 GB maximum, which this computer already has. No big deal.

- I don’t see an access panel for upgrading the drive. You probably have to open the whole case and search for a YouTube video.

- No DVI. No port replicator option with that option.

- No Bluetooth, FireWire, eSATA, ExpressCard/PCI slot

- Integrated Intel graphics (not for 3D gaming, but great for 2D apps)

- Nothing compares to the aluminum MacBook / MacBook Pro in terms of how good it feels on your lap or on your bed, as well as the screen and keyboard quality. But it’s expensive relative to these $400-700 notebooks, and it doesn’t run Windows (add $120 for Windows OEM Home Premium that you can dual boot on the MacBook, $50-80 for VMware Fusion / Parallels if you want to run both at the same time, $50 for the anti-glare, and $250-350 for two years extra warranty). We use a 1st gen aluminum MacBook for browsing the Internet wherever around the apartment.

- I’m not a big fan of Windows 7 … I won’t be upgrading my current WinXP notebook for a while. (Personally I’m saving my money for a MacBook Pro one day.)

Dont you dare insult me like that..EVERYTHING I POSTED is 100% TRUTHFUL…..EVERYTHING!! You dont like it, then dont read it…but dont you dare tell me what to post or not post or claim I am somehow lying….Or just want hear myself talk..I have plenty of positive reviews out there…I CALL IT AS I SEE IT, JUST AS I DID WITH ASUS!

Well, I guess I am eating my words…ASUS rated at the top for reliability and customer service.

Mine arrived and had serious issues. Customer support was a joke…14 hours on the phone with these guys and all I can say if if they are the best, I dont want to experience the worst…..

Wont go in to too many details as I am pressed for time….Needless to say, this has already been returned to amzn and amzn saved the day for me.

The unit seemed very cheaply made…dvd drive was dead….power cord was sparking when plugged in…lousy viewing angles….no backlit keyboard makes this BLACK keyboard impossible to see…..got a zillion error messages..one after another after another….ASUS Customer service was clueless…I think I knew more about things then they did..plus, they had me doing full system recoveries, promising me if we get disconnected they will call me right back…got disconnected 4 times and nobody ever called me back…The next rep would simply say the last rep was wrong….What nightmare…the computer was junk and the customer service was a serious joke.

I am eating my words now as I saw ASUS rated very highly and spoke up about it…..but I will never go near an asus product ever again. Even without the many issues, I was not impressed with anything about it..keyboard hard to navigate…touch pad was a joke and a real pain….the thing just plain sucked in every possible way I can think of…..But like any electronic device, you roll the dice and take your chances…I am very sorry I rolled the dice with ASUS but very thankful I bought from AMZN as they do a great job of resolving things for customers which is why I will continue to give AMZN my business….

Good luck to those that do….