Asus U33jc
- Category: Notebook Computers
October 15, 2010
Editor's Rating
- Beautiful bamboo/aluminum design
- Solid performance
- Long battery life
- Many connectivity options
- Keyboard isn't as "clicky"
- Poor screen viewing angles
- Extremely glossy display
The Asus U33Jc is an eco-friendly laptop that is made of 15% bamboo and offers rock-solid performance to go with it. It has an Intel Core i3 CPU clocked at 2.4GHz, 4GB of RAM, and lots of connectivity options to choose from, including USB 3.0 and HDMI.
The body of the Asus U Series Bamboo laptops are made from an aluminum/bamboo mixture (15% bamboo according to Asus), which is eco-friendly. It also comes in 100% recyclable bamboo pulp packing material to further preserve the environment. The chassis feels quite sturdy and looks sleek too with a black finish amidst a dark wood paneling. It is classified as a thin & light ultraportable laptop as it measures 12.9 x 9.1 x 1.2-inches and weighs only 4 pounds.
Asus designed the black keyboard to be chiclet-style and is also recessed into the silver body too, which made for very quiet typing, but we must admit that the keys didn't have the "click" feeling that we wanted to when pressed. The keys are well-spaced and designed and the trackpad is also well-designed too. The trackpad and palm rests are inlayed into a bamboo panel.
The Asus U33Jc has a 13.3-inch LED backlit glossy display that is well...very glossy. It's so glossy that it makes it extremely difficult to use in bright daylight. The screen does look well when not in bright conditions, however, thanks to the 1366 x 768-HD resolution (720p) with an aspect ratio of 16:9. Colors were displayed with great accuracy and brightness. With that said, the viewing angles on this laptop's screen are pretty mediocre. Only slightly tilting the screen away from center causes color distortion.
Specifications of the Asus U33Jc include an Intel Core i3 370M (2.4GHz), 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 500GB (5400rpm) hard drive, and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. There is no optical drive on this unit, which can either be not a big deal for some or an instant turn-off for others. Asus offers two options for graphics inside this model, at the low-end a basic Intel HD graphics processor or for more performance, the nVidia GeForce 310M (1GB) GPU. The included nVidia Optimus software automatically uses the GPU that is most suitable for the applications currently running. This saves battery life and power use, but also provides that added "kick" when it's needed.
In terms of connectivity options, the Asus U33Jc offers many. Besides 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi as mentioned above, you also get Bluetooth 2.0 and Intel Wi-Di wireless display connectivity, which is becoming increasingly popular recently. On the right side of the device, you get two USB 2.0 ports, microphone/headphone jacks, Gigabit Ethernet, and a 5-in-1 media card reader. On the left includes VGA out, HDMI out, and a USB 3.0 port. There is also a 2.0-megapixel Web cam mounded atop the display.
Asus pre-installs a copy of Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) as well as its Asus Utilities, which includes a plethora of tools from Asus Live Update for driver/software updates to a Asus Data Security tool. Asus installs virtually zero bloatware on this laptop, which we find admirable.
Performance with the Asus U33Jc is quite impressive, especially when performing some processor-intensive tasks like video encoding and Adobe Photoshop use. Thanks to the ability to dynamically switch to the nVidia GeForce video processor inside, you can also use this laptop for some light 3D gaming with the game's graphic settings turned down slightly.
Battery life is quite impressive as well with the included battery. It give an average of about 7:30 hours, which is pretty impressive for an ultraportable.
Asus provides a 2-year limited hardware warranty with 24/7 tech support. There is also a 30 day Zero Bright Dot LCD warranty and a 1 year accidental damage warranty as well.
