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Asus U36 Review

The U36J is Asus’s latest thin and light entry in the 13-inch ultraportable category. But unlike the other laptops in its category, the NVidia Optimus-touting Asus U36J didn’t save on processing power and packs an Intel Core i5 460M. See full review of the Asus U36 after the jump.


The U36J is pretty thin and light for a 13.3-inch laptop. At just 3.7lbs., it feels as light as my 12.1-inch Asus UL20FT. The thin profile only allows for the biggest port (the VGA port) enough room to fit from top to bottom of the body.

The lid comes in a matte finish and crawls right inside up to the palm rest area. It’s still prone to some slight smudges but not that much to be a bother.

The battery pack at the back protrudes downwards in a cylindrical shape which also serves as a stand to offer some ventilation. It’s rated at 5600mAh (83wH) and offers between 4 to 6 hours of battery life on a single full charge depending on the power mode.

The 13.3-inch display has a glossy finish but is crisp and bright. The standard resolution is in place — at only 1366×768 pixels — though I’d wish they’d offer something higher. The screen is prone to glare but that’s expected of glossy finish.

Keyboard lay-out is wide and comfortable with chiclet-type keys. Some of the keys are are smaller though, like the left Shift key and the Enter key (reverse L-shape but smaller) which can affect typing accuracy sometimes.

The trackpad is spacious, smooth and easy to use with the left and right click buttons separated by a biometric scanner (fingerprint scanner) in the middle.

Aside from the sleek form factor, the specs of the laptop seems pretty decent. The inclusion of the standard voltage Intel Core i5 460M running at 2.53GHz is a bit surprising since I’m used to seeing ULV processors (in the 1.2GHz to 1.73GHz range) in the thin and light category.Here’s the full list of specs, as indicated by Speccy:

Asus U36Jc
13.3-inch display @ 1366×768 pixels
Intel Core i5 460M @ 2.53GHz (2 cores, 4 threads, Turbo Boost 2.8GHz)
3GB DDR3 RAM
Nvidia GeForce 310M + Intel HD Graphics
500GB HDD
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
HDMI port
2 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x USB 3.0 port
3-1in-1 Card Reader
Fingerprint scanner
Webcam
Windows 7 Ultimate
8-cell Li-Ion battery 5600mAh

Laptop performance is above with the CPU getting a sub-score of 6.9 on Windows Experience Index while the GPU got a 5.8 sub-score on gaming.

Battery life is actually impressive — I’m getting around 4 hours on High Performance Mode and just over 6 hours on Power-Saving Mode, thanks to the 5600mAh (83wH) Li-Ion battery. Asus claims this unit can reach up to 10 hours of battery life at very optimized settings though I doubt that’s achievable in real world scenarios.

Asus sacrificed the ODD and dropped it from the unit in order to achieve the slim form factor. It’s a trade-off but something expected for its category. Would have been nice if they bundled an external ODD though.

The Asus U36J is a very capable laptop with very decent specs. It’s a good workhorse that’s also very portable and light to carry around (weighs 1.6kg and 19mm thin). We’re still not sure how much this rig would cost when it hits the market and have not really yet seen it yet in stores (my guess is north of Php35k).

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

38 Responses

  1. Avatar for pawn shops open on pawn shops open on says:

    Aw, this was an extremely good post. Spending some time and actual effort to make a
    top notch article… but what can I say… I procrastinate a whole
    lot and don’t manage to get anything done.

  2. Avatar for best gifts for a chef best gifts for a chef says:

    When I was 10 yrs old, I had a bake sale at church for the youth group I was in.The day of the sale my mother had to work, so I went through her cook book. I though Cream Puffs sounded cool. They rose to about 2 1/2 inches. I filled them with chocolate pudding. ( my only mistake ) Until then theonly pudding I had ever made was instant, The Cream Puffs came out beautifully. Everyone was compliment them, ( until the pudding started to melt in the afternoon sun of Florida ) I still had so much fuss made over me and my offering that I decide them and there that, Cooking Would be my Lifes Work. I have been at It for over 40 years now. My first restaurant job was as busboy at a chineese restaurant, but I spent so much time in the kithen that the cooks started to teach me how to use the Woks and make all kinds of different foods.

  3. Avatar for Chrystal Ziglar Chrystal Ziglar says:

    The subsequent time I learn a weblog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I imply, I do know it was my option to read, however I really thought youd have one thing interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you possibly can repair when you werent too busy looking for attention.

  4. Avatar for qwertyqaz qwertyqaz says:

    where is this available and how much?

    thanks

  5. Avatar for yococs yococs says:

    Hi just want to know if available na ba sa market natin ang U36?and if available saan makakahanap ng ganitong model?

  6. Avatar for Hannah Beltran Hannah Beltran says:

    bka paglabas nito sa market ang price niya 35k-57k…
    powerful specs!

  7. Avatar for flop flop says:

    meron na nito sa SG, around 1400 sgd… so mga 45k php

  8. Avatar for android26 android26 says:

    wala pa nga yan sa market, U35 pa lang meron with i3 cpu….may nakabili na ba nito?

    U31 din ok

  9. Avatar for Jasper Jasper says:

    Waiting for this too… Nag-ikot ako ng mga stores one weekend looking for this pero wala pa rin daw. Wala pa rin ba?

  10. Avatar for Gadgets Review Gadgets Review says:

    I’m one of those who are waiting for this sweet asus notebook.

    Ang slim grabe tulo laway.^_^

  11. Avatar for Ryan Ang Ryan Ang says:

    can we ask where were you able to get one? thanks :)

  12. Avatar for Miguel Miguel says:

    Yikes, the US SRP is $999
    http://www.amazon.com/U36JC-B1-Light-13-3-Inch-Laptop-Black/dp/B004LUU7E4/

  13. Avatar for chris palencia chris palencia says:

    where i can buy this?

  14. Avatar for paulkev09 paulkev09 says:

    This thing can surely kill every ultraportable laptops in terms of everything. Asus U36 rocks!

  15. Avatar for Abigail Abigail says:

    Very Pretty siya sir yuga, Kailan kaya ilabas sa market yan?

  16. Avatar for Nikulas Nikulas says:

    Gusto ko talaga ng mga ultraportable, kaya lang ang ma-mahal!

  17. Avatar for Sherwin Anthony Sherwin Anthony says:

    ganda ng u36 :)

  18. Avatar for Kyle Kyle says:

    Dami na akong nakikitang desktop replacement… isa na ito sa mga yun

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