ASUS X501A-WH01 Notebook Intel Celeron B820(1.7GHz) 15.6" 2GB Memory 320GB HDD 5400rpm Intel HD Graphics

Pros: Decent for social networking.
Mostly everything is ready to use.

Cons: *Windows 8 makes it laggy, had to put windows 7 on it for smoothness.
*Bloatware(What new pc doesn't have this?)
* Not recommended to try gaming on(all though I tried) lags to hell.

Other Thoughts: Fairly useful for inexperienced laptop users.

Pros: Cheap, Light, Good for travel, has USB3 and is decently sturdy,

Cons: Access to internal components is easy, but requires removal of mainboard to change RAM. You will probably want to grab a 4GB or 8GB stick to throw in ($40-$50).

Other Thoughts: So I got this for travel as I'm moving to the UK and will be travelling Europe. The only issue I've had (and this will cause me to send it in to Asus for repair) is that the touchpad has issues. Just holding your finger down causes the cursor to jerk all over the place. This is hardware related as it happens in Win8 and Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10 and 13.04.

All in all - I'd recommend this as a cheap laptop for travel - throw Ubuntu 13.04 (runs the best) on it with Unity 2D set as your default (run in terminal: sudo sed -i 's/user-session=ubuntu/user-session=ubuntu-2d/g' /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf ). Though (as an Asus fan) I'm rather dissappointed in the touchpad. This will be my first Asus product to be sent for repair, and I hope it's handled well.

Manufacturer Response:

Greetings Jake,

Thank you for sharing your review. We value all of our customers' feedback and this is no exception. I am sorry that your computer's touch pad has issues. You mentioned you sent it into repair, is everything working with the computer now? Our repair center is usually pretty good about getting repaired laptops back to our customers quickly; I hope that this happened in your case. Should you need further assistance, please let me know by email. My email is cl-mark@asus.com. Have a splendid day!

Regards,

Mark
ASUS Customer Loyatly

Pros: None: Have Tech Certs to back-up this statement

Cons: Windows 8 requires more installed memory than is supplied with this unit and in order to upgrade you must "crack" the case and remove quite a few components to do so. This unit has constantly crashed and I had to take it out of inventory because of loop back issues and the lack of DVD. (My fault for not checking specs more closely).

Other Thoughts: Tried reformatting hard drive in an external enclosure and installing Windows7 to no avail. (Microsoft problem, not Newegg). Will not order another laptop with Windows 8 installed unless it has the ability to be overwritten to Windows 7. Let's get our act together Microsoft; after having issues with Vista you finally had a stable O/S with Win 7. Leave well enough alone!!

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that you are not liking windows 8. If you have a windows 7 installation disc, here is a link below if you want to downgrade.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230587&Tpk=F55U-NH21

Just go to the feedback tab and it's the second review from the bottom.

If you have any questions or comments you can email me again at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey

Pros: Long battery life. Quiet keyboard. Fast. Running cold. Loud speakers. USB3. HDMI.

Cons: For that price none.

Other Thoughts: Bought open box. Was little worry. My experience with refurbished laptops not great. But with price tag like a Chromebook and warranty was no question. Uninstall all Asus bloatware and McAfee. Install Windows update, AVG, reinstall smart gesture from Asus website. Computer just fly. Toch pad sensitive and gesture works same as my Mac Pro. Wi-Fi works perfect. Windows 8 not to bad. I had more trouble to get use Apple. Think about installing more ram and SSD. But that will add around $150. For that price can buy $400 laptop with i5. Works good anyway. Have no problem if kids brake it. Same price like Chromebook but can install any application. Actually can install Chrome OS on USB and have both OS.

Pros: Nice color

Cons: Do NOT buy this laptop. Windows 8 does NOT work with RAM it comes with. The company might not take it back either.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that you are having issues with the RAM inside the notebook. If you are still under the return policy with newegg, I suggest you return the unit for an exchange. If you are past the return policy with new egg, then you will have to send the notebook in for service so we can resolve your issue.

If you have any questions or comments you can email me again at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: lightweight. keyboard and lcd are great/ Touchpad responds nicely.

Cons: Windows 8 is making EVERYTHING I try to do take 10X as long as it should.

Other Thoughts: I haven't exactly had time to review this item but I can tell you while physically the lap top is great as far as weight, dimensions goes I can't help but feel Windows 8 is just bogging everything down.

When I initially opened the machine and set it up everything was fine. I was able to bring over my programs and some documents without issue.

However as I use the machine I find that it is starting to lag quite a big and causing some in-browser plug-ins(Shockwave, Flash, etc) to crash. I have also come to notice that the Windows environment in general is laggy and very frustrating to get around. I tried sharing photos with my family from a weekend vacation and the photos app that Windows 8 has makes things very slow and daunting. I will be looking to contact Asus directly to see if this issue can be resolved without me having to return the lap top.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that windows 8 is slowing down your notebook.

If you believe the photo app is not performing to it's full potential, here is a link below to hopefully resolve your issue.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-IN/windows-8/what-troubleshoot-problems-app

If you have any questions or comments you can email me again at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: light, doesn't get hot, quiet

Cons: - lousy screen with blue-ish tint. All text(and overall experience) gets blurred as soon as you turn font smoothing off
- lousy touchpad, reacts even worse if you turn off "enhanced precision" in mouse setting in Windows. Poorly designed touchpad buttons result in fake mouse movement.
- would've been much better keyboard without an attempt to fit in numpad portion of the keyboard.

Other Thoughts: Experience gets worsen by limitations of new Windows 8 desktop.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that you are not satisified with your purchase. Regarding the touchpad, here is a link below that will help resolve your issue. Make sure you also update the ATKACPI under utilities.

http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&s=416&m=X501A&os=&hashedid=bElKv0iivw8Ltkzg

If you have any questions or comments you can email me again at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Is very light, can be transported easily everywhere, usb 3.0 very nice, hdmi out in 720p, cool temps, fast boot in win 8, good widescreen display, multi touch muosepad.

Cons: Only 2g ram ,means not installing office, Photoshop or any ram demanding program. For upgrading the Ram need to almost take apart mother board since is located under the keyboard, if doing so be veeeeery careful since any extra force will bend, brake or disconnect any hard to reach cable , trust me on this one. And only use one slot of RAM, just ONE, uno, 1,,,keep this in mind. CPU runs cool but is not strong enough for multitasking. Getting in Bios was a PAIN since win 8 change a lot I decided to leave everything intact and no OC for now. No dvd reader sometimes is a pain if someone needs to burn something on disk to share info or back up purposes.

Other Thoughts: I got this "Laptop" for $250 in black friday and was a terrific buy since I only wanted one for my wife to surf the net and look at facebook, youtube and download knitting patterns and stuff. After the upgrade in Ram I was really into this notebook since it was more responsive and multitasking. Now I used it more than She hahahha I take it to work to do some paperwork in office, download movies and watch them in 720p.

Pros: * Lightweight
* Nice screen; bright and crisp
* Cheap
* Fairly quick for the specs

Cons: * No optical drive
* Awful keyboard
* Upgrades are not for the timid

* The biggest issues:

1. The touchpad stopped working almost immediately. Popped it apart and found the cable disconnected. Stopped working again, but on this visit inside the machine, the cable was plugged in. It is spotty, at best.

2. Machine is now intermittently shutting down.

People say you get what you pay for, but I would expect to get a functioning laptop no matter how little it cost.

Other Thoughts: Don't buy this if you plan on upgrading it but are not experienced with laptop repair. This one is a bit of a pain, especially the RAM.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that the touchpad stopped working. Sounds like you will have to send the unit in for service. They may charge you for the repairs however if there are any signs of tampering with the notebook.

If you have any questions or comments you can email me again at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: 1 gbe lan, light, streams netflix just fine

Cons: hard to upgrade

Other Thoughts: As for upgrades.

To get started remove the battery and all the screws on the back. Turn it over, open the screen, and starting from the back you need to slowly pry off the keyboard by snapping it out. From there you can clearly see the hard drive which can easily be replaced.

To get to the memory you need to remove the mobo (5 or 6 screws) which I tried but it wouldn't come out easily and I didn't want to destroy the laptop. I may try again but this is not easy. The ribbon connectors are very small and I'm not sure how they are even held in place. There were moments when I thought I was stuck and thinking I would need more competent help to use the laptop again.

There are videos on youtube showing how to remove the keyboard.