We’ll I got a new Asus laptop last Friday. A8Jn. Core2Duo T5500, 1gig of ram, G-Force Go 7300. Yep, pretty powerful laptop. 14″ of LCD goodness too. Oh there is that MCE crap…. Ya, I am not impressed, but lets move on.

As for the hardware it is good enough, I guess. Seems a little lighter than my old Compaq… Not that it feels any different in my awesome school bag (it fits in the laptop compartment better than my old one). Few things of note. The keyboard on this laptop is the worse I’ve ever felt… Mushy, imprecise, wobbly Ok, then again I am spoiled on my awesome Microsoft keyboards. Touch pad is so-so too. Hey, at least the screen isn’t too bad. Oh, I forgot to mention it is a 14″ WIDESCREEN. 1280×800 resolution. I didn’t notice this before I bought, It has the 2 tiny speakers on the front ledge, right under your wrist. It doesn’t really make any tangible difference in sound. Oh, it has a lame webcam… I am sure there are just people lining up around the corner and dying to see my ugly mug while i use the laptop

For the software. Holy bloatware. As expected, the softwares installed are for the lowest common denominator. I couldn’t believe how much crap was pre-installed. In the end, I removed most of them and recovered 100meg just from startup. GJ Asus. MCE Traditional Chinese “Edition” was… well, not really an edition at all. It is just English version with a MUI applied. At least it was easy enough to revert it back to my familiar and preferred English UI. I still don’t see why people pay more for the MCE. XP Pro please. Well, at least the MCE will get me free upgrade to the Vista Premium.

Verdict: For ~1100 out the door with free 512meg upgrade to 1gig. Not a bad buy. There is that new Vaio that falls within a spitting distance of the price of this, and much higher quality. But that little Sony mark adds about 100 to the price tag, and a smaller 13″ screen (and no weigh deduction from being smaller….) It does look nice though

PS, stickers GALORE. Wow this thing came with enough stickers on it to make a ricer jealous
PPS, I really wanted a U5f. You know, one of those ultra-mobile laptops. But being the hardware junky that i am, I shudder at the fact that I will be paying more for a slower computer… Weight doesn’t make a big difference to me. Being the gargantuan Asian that i am, what’s an extra pound over my shoulder So ya, meh :ο~ I got me a big’um

When I get around to it. All I can say is…. Can I buy any more Asus stuff?