Featured product: Asus X401 series notebooks

Ever used a netbook but find yourself limited or disappointed with the specifications over time? Is the 10-inch and 11.6-inch screen too small for you? Do you find your laptop kind of heavy? Ever wanted an ultrabook but find the price out of your budget range?

Asus may just have the notebook for you. Originally, announced and exhibited on June 2012, the X401 series of notebooks is targeted for consumers who believe in this Taiwanese computer manufacturer's quality and craftsmanship but looking for a budget-friendly model.

Asus Philippines has given the X401 series of notebooks the monicker of the "Slimbook".  And, yes, it is slim being only about an inch thick. It sports a 14-inch LED screen with current standard resolution of 1366x768. Despite its size, it actually only weighs a little less than 2 kilograms. The chassis has a nice metallic-like texture. It is still far from being an ultrabook but comes close.

The left side has a really long vent that allows heat to escape. The wrist and touchpad area is always cool, that you aren't distracted by the heat. The hottest area on top is actually the center of the keyboard but when I say hot, I only meant it as the area with the highest temperature you can feel. In reality, it is still even barely warm, you won't even notice the heat . Part of what contributes to the coolness is the way Asus laid out the inside of this notebook. Components that generally gives off the most heat are positioned strategically in a way that they won't affect each other.

What ports do we have available? On the left side, we have a USB 2.0, the AC adapter jack-in and the Kensington port. The grill you see is exhaust vent. Pretty minimal.

All the good stuff is located on the right side of the notebook. The audio port combines three functions: audio out, microphone in and headphone jack-in. I don't yet know how much of a big deal it is for some people to have two separate ports for audio in and out. Then, there's a USB 3.0 port for ultra-fast transfer with USB 3.0 devices. This makes for a total of only two USB ports. It would be nice to have one more USB port but that is probably if you are the type to use a mouse instead of a touchpad and you ended up having to use one of the ports. Nothing a USB hub can't fix. And then we have a HDMI port, a RJ-45 port, the card reader and VGA port.

You will notice the lack of an optical disc drive on either side. It is one sacrifice one must make for a cooler and lighter notebook. It is not nor does it have to be a big deal since flash drives now make for much more convenient method of transferring or copying files. The only time you will need an optical drive is when you need to install something from a CD/DVD or burn files onto optical discs, achievable with an external DVD drive. One simply needs to weigh if the lack of a built-in optical drive is an issue.

The series comes in two models: the X401A which feature an Intel processor and the X401U sporting an AMD processor. Currently for the Philippine market, the available X401A model is installed with a Pentium Ivy Bridge CPU, a 2GB DDR3 Sodimm memory and 500GB hard disk drive. X401U pretty much sports the same specifications but with a E2-1800 AMD CPU. Both models are subdivided into two sub-models: one with FreeDOS for its operating system and the other with a Windows 7 Home Basic (64-bit version). If you are the type who would like to use Windows as default operating system, spending about Php2,000 more for the latter sub-model will be better than putting up with a 32-bit Windows 7 Starter.

Expect models with Windows 8 operating system to come out next year. However, if you can't wait to upgrade, Windows 8 drivers are now available in Asus's support website. The X401 series comes in several different colors. The most prominent colors seem to be green and dark blue.

Call or visit our office for more information on how to order and purchase.