Pros: Wonderful battery life, great screen, love the keyboard the trackpad isn't half bad (just not a fan of them in general) and the video card isn't bad.

Cons: Because of the switchable graphics, I wasn't able to update the nvidia drivers to the latest version. I had a few issues with the graphic drivers crashing during games and I couldn't try the latest versions. You have to grab the drivers from Asus only and they aren't updating these apparently.

Other Thoughts: Have had this laptop for around a year now and have replaced it with another model, but this one got handed down to my wife and is still working just fine. Have had no problems with it at all, with the exception of the above. A reboot normally fixed the graphics issue, so it was annoying but not a show stopper. My wife doesn't play games and will probably have it on the Intel graphics most of the time anyway.

I like Asus laptops and would buy another in a heartbeat.

Pros: Very lightweight and terrific battery life. I got this laptop for mobility and it has been perfect for that.

Cons: Unfortunately, the webcam is miserable. And it recently stopped working. It has come down to being a hardware failure and good luck getting ASUS to help you with service. Getting this thing returned to be repaired is more painful then finding a second job to buy a brand new laptop.

Other Thoughts: Bought this laptop for 2 reasons, the mobility which has been great, and the "amazing" warranty. But buyer beware, the warranty sounds good written on paper and policies but actually having the laptop repaired is a waste of time. Good luck to anyone who has to go through the maze of phone support and actually speak to someone. Then there is a chance the call will get "disconnected" magically during support. This happened 2 times in a row for me and is unacceptable after a 20 minute wait in a phone que.

Pros: The look and design is the only good thing about this junk.

Cons: I feel for the old banana in the tail pipe buying this so called "recertified" meaning "refurbished" meaning somebody elses broken piece of junk they sent back! what was I thinking! I wasn't! The batter dont last 12,10,or 8 hrs! maybe 4 or 5. Playing videos or music on this piece of junk has the sound card distorting and crashes the laptop EVERYTIME! BUYER BEWARE! NEVER BUY ANOTHER MANS JUNK! I KNOW I WILL NEVER DO SO MYSELF AGAIN! I did it with a 52" tv and paid the ultimate price and now again on this laptop. My "recertified" "refurbished" buying somebodies elses junk they turned in for a look a like "so called good deal" days is over! What a headache and waste of my money and time!

Other Thoughts: Dont say you havent been warned if you decide to lose your money on this junk.

Pros: -It runs games well enough ( i can run wow on ultra with like 20+ frames during everything but 25 man)

-Its light and fairly tough

-The battery is great if you know what your doing

-at 500 bucks its amazing

Cons: -Like previously mentioned the touch pad is a bit annoying but I use a razer mamba on it anyway and i just disable the touch pad(gaming is better with a mouse any way XP)

Other Thoughts: All in all its nice enough and totally worth 500 bucks. I work night shifts for my college and it make the night way better because i can game fairly well. Its not necessarily a high end gaming deal but the way it is built to function gets the job done. I love it!!

Pros: On paper, this laptop is a steal. Between the Core2 Duo and 210M it's enough to power any DirectX 9 game and a few DirectX 10/11 games including Starcraft 2 (though disappointingly not Civilization 5). With 4GB RAM it's also good enough to serve for occasional software development in full IDE's, though the smaller screen size does get in the way a little. The built-in speakers are actually pretty good for laptop speakers if you need to play something out loud.

Having integrated HDMI out (including audio) is great, no bumbling about when trying to use it as a video player.

Cons: The trackpad situation is horrible. It's far too close to the keyboard, and if your hands are on the larger side, you will constantly bump up against the trackpad when typing if you are like me and rest your palms. But that doesn't affect me much, as I don't use it for heavy typing, and I do appreciate the full-size keyboard with numpad.

Also, I am not a fan of glossy screens in general.

Other Thoughts: For the horsepower at this price, I'm happy to overlook the downsides. I've been running mine for nearly 6 months now and feel the same about it now as I did on day 2 - the flaws don't justify spending hundreds of $ more. You can solve the trackpad situation with a...mouse!

If you plan to run Linux (Ubuntu at least) on it, be aware that you will be restricted to the integrated Intel graphics chip - I was unable to find any way to enable the Nvidia add-on chip, it always caused X to fail.

Pros: Sleek, small, built in web cam, numpad, fast.
CONS: Touchpad, # of USB ports, speakers, system reliabilty.

Cons: Other thoughts:Ok, well since this is my second time writing this I will start with the cons. I absolutely hate the touchpad on this laptop. I have the "Palm sensitivity" turned all the way up so that while I am typing it doesn't recognize my palm and move the cursor messing with what I am typing (I'm typing this again because somehow is went back in the browser and when I went forward again this was all blank). I didn't think the number of USB ports would be a problem but I will be buying a hub now. The speakers are on the front pointed down so that the sound will reflect off your desk and to your ears, well I use this a lot in my lap and it doesn't reflect off my pants so well. The last con may be a bad Windows install (I am going to do a factory reformat here soon) or the PC itself but in the last 2 months that I have used this, I think it has crashed close to 20 times (both blue screen and total system lock up). My wife (who is a pro photographer) has also now lost some 50 pictures

Other Thoughts: that cannot be replaced due to a system freeze up while importing them.

The pros: I do like the size and style and the numpad is always a nicety. The dedicated video card does help a lot and makes the system run smoothly.

I had a heard a lot of great things about ASUS and that's why I bought this. But I won't be buying another one. I also won't be recommending it to anyone else.

Pros: This laptop is fast, don't be fooled by the CPU speed (1.3). It can be overclocked to 1.7ghz with Power4Gear. Even at 1.7ghz, some people are scared. Don't be, most people that own high end gaming Desktops/Laptops never even use their CPU to 100% load (While gaming). The dedicated Graphics card is amazing and does what it's suppose to do, L4D2 and WoW are spectacular.

-Fast
-Graphics
-Thin
-Sexy
-Ram
-Power Saver

Cons: After spectating the laptop, there are 2 dents in the Aluminum shield (Behind the Screen). You can clearly see it in the light or in the glare from the lights. I was very depressed when looking at it.

Also, I don't who (I'm expecting Newegg), but there was a few stains on it. I know it's refurbished, and it was probably repaired from who knows what. But the person who repaired it, please don't eat and fix things at the same time.

If anything get an alcohol cloth and wipe it down.

-2 Eggs for the dent and the irresponsible stains on it.

Other Thoughts: I bought this for school, and this is the best bang for buck laptop out there. If you plan on gaming, get a desktop. It'll save you the money. If you want to be mobile while playing games, you have to keep in mind that gaming laptops last no more than 2 hours without a charge.

Getting a laptop, then having to stay around an outlet every time doesn't make sense. It's meant for on the go.

Pros: This item came looking brand new. Well packaged. Looks good, and feels good. Very light. Nice design. Definitely recommend this laptop.

Cons: I cant seem to get the 12 hrs battery life as they claim it would. I get 5 to 6 hrs of battery life on a full charge. But that is definitely enough to get done what I need to get done. The key board is nice and big but some of the buttons are at different places on the board as other keyboards. Like the page up and down button, and delete, home and etc. But its just a little to get used to, nothing too big.

Other Thoughts: Overall this is a steal for the price. I dont mind the extra programs. I really liked the chess game that came with this laptop. I been looking for a good chess game for awhile and this one is really good! And some other programs as well. 2 thumbs up from me.

Pros: - Arrived in brand new condition
- Battery life (8 hrs on power saving mode)
- Hardware button to switch on and off the nvidia graphics chip
- Ability to overclock to 1.7ghz using turbo mode on Asus Power4Gear
- Good gaming performance on most modern games including TF2

Cons: Little sluggish on newer games, even on low settings. This was to be expected at this price point, but just mentioning it regardless.

Other Thoughts: I was shocked to get a decent gaming laptop for $500. Although it has trouble running newer games, it's great for the majority of games I play.

Pros: Lightweight, quick to boot, streamlined keyboard, okay for gaming (TF2 on lowest settings)

Cons: Hard drive stopped working after exactly one month, touchpad takes some getting used to

Other Thoughts: The widescreen makes this laptop feel pretty big - somehow I wasn't quite prepared for that. Like I mentioned above, the hard drive crapped out after a month and I'm still waiting to hear back on my RMA.