ASUS A53Z-ES61 Notebook AMD A-Series A6-3420M(1.5GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW AMD Radeon HD 6520G

Pros: Light, but still pretty sturdy.
Screen looks fine to my eyes, for what it is.
AMD APU has plenty of power.
Good battery life (over 4 hours when surfing).
Fast DVD burner.
Not very bloated.
Keyboard is not chiclet-style.

Cons: I hate the keyboard and touchpad (see below).
Hard drive is SLOW.
Glossy screen.
One 4GB stick of PC3-10700.

Other Thoughts: This would be a great computer with a few tweaks, ergonomics aside. For starters, the 5400 rpm drive needs to go. It's clearly the weak spot here. Additionally, only one of the two RAM slots is populated, and it's filled with cheap, slow RAM. Two immediate upgrades necessary.

The screen has low resolution and is glossy, which is par for laptops of this price. I'll live with it considering the performance-per-dollar I'm getting. It still beats the heck out of using a tablet. It's also very light but reasonably sturdy. The screen hinges have plenty of resistance and the whole machine feels well-constructed, despite the use of plastic.

The touchpad is finicky and needs adjustment. You can accomplish this through the Elan software accessible via mouse settings. It's nice to be able to turn the various features on and off, like the two- and three-finger options. The touchpad is MUCH easier to live with after these adjustments, but I still feel like it is too big. I don't understand why modern laptops now have such giant touchpads. It's also not recessed very much, which combines with its size to make it an easy target for accidental touches. Sometimes I'm trying to move the mouse with my one hand and it doesn't work, because I'm imperceptibly touching the pad with my other hand.

I can't stand the keyboard. I appreciate the fact that it has standard-sized arrow keys, but they are sandwiched between a bunch of other keys. They should be drawn down away from the rest of the keys, just like on older laptops. I hate the trend of current laptops where all the keys are arranged in a neat little rectangle. Additionally, the keys are all flat squares which makes it harder to type accurately. I'm somewhat at a loss to understand why laptop manufacturers bother squeezing a number pad onto 15" models when they're not positioned well enough to be useful anyway. At least the keys aren't chiclets.

Overall, I think this is a great laptop for the money, and I trust it will last a long time. I wish it had a better keyboard and touchpad, the only two real drawbacks. Other than that, you are getting great value for the money.

Pros: overall performance
nice keyboard and mousepad
decent display

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: performs well. excellent video performance for an integrated graphics chip

Pros: It was on sale for $379.99 when I got it. Very little bloatware. The chassis feels slick and fingerprint proof. It doesn't warm up on my lap while watching videos or doing anything intensive. Webcam is good enough. Asus bundled software is useful like winflash which allows for easy bios updating.

Cons: LCD viewing angle isn't that good at 45 degrees from the right and left. The colors are bright but some aren't accurate when I was watching some Youtube videos. For the price it's ok.

Other Thoughts: Wish it was on sale again. It would be perfect if the resolution was 1600 x 900 for a budget labtop under $600.

Pros: -Powerful A6 3420 APU
-Can run most new games at low settings
-Sleek Design
-Sturdy Build

Cons: -Bad Screen
-Bad Speakers
-Keyboard is difficult to type on (though very high quality).

Other Thoughts: I got this PC for only $370.00 on sale a about a week ago, and it's been great for that price. My only major gripe is the screen, which is pretty awful. The colors are washy, and the resolution is painfully low, but it does get the job done.

Now that it's up to its old price, I'd look around for the other deals, but if you can get it for under $400.00, it's a steal.

Pros: Processor has "turbo" so don't let 1.5GHz worry you
QUAD CORE! not just hyperthreaded
ASUS quality
Good feel
windows 7, not windows 8
windows 7x64
lots of memory, 4g of DDR3
Not loaded full of bloatware like most laptops so you don't have to reinstall windows when you get it.
500Gig HD
VGA & HDMI output
1 YEAR ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE WARRANTY! WOW!

Cons: SATA 2, not SATA 3 HDD controller
5400 RPM hard drive, but still relatively fast computer
You'll have to hunt and look for where all the preinstalled software and trials are. There isn't much, but there's not an icon for each program on the desktop. Office is under Start>All Programs and at the top list, not in folders. Other things like the DVD burning suite are under the ASUS folder so dig and you'll find some jewels.

Other Thoughts: Reading the specs about this laptop scared me because the processor is only 1.5 GHz. Bur another reviewer said it was fast so I took the chance. I used Black Box to check the speeds and it shows the processor jumps to 2.4 GHz under load. Even the feel of it is faster than my 2 GHz Turion x2. And it's a quad core with graphics integrated into the processor so video should be faster. So far, it has met my expectations, which were pretty high, being a teckie and all.... SDG...

Pros: Tough to beat Asus quality.
Breeze to set up.
Powerful computer for the money.
I can play most games on medium to high settings with nothing altered.
Easily overclockable.
Can play almost any game at high to ultra settings when overclocked.
Can be underclocked and made into a cafe web surfing champ.
Num Pad is always a plus.
Very cool pc even with a heavy load.
I would buy this computer over and over again.

Cons: Everything is already installed but needs to be setup.
No supplied back up discs.
Smudges a bit to easily, maybe because i was greasy.

Other Thoughts: Asus creates, in my opinion, the best laptops and can give you high end quality and capabilities on a ramen budget.

Pros: It's inexpensive, the keyboard is above average for a laptop of this cost, and it really does stay cool to the touch.

Cons: The left trackpad button is difficult to press, it's loud*, and it gets stuck extremely easily. The right trackpad button doesn't have this issue. It's not worth the hassle of going through the returns process for this, but it definitely soured my purchase and makes the unit a lot less fun to use. Oh well.

* The noise it makes is incredible, actually. Even if I accidentally touch it without pressing it, it makes a remarkably loud clicking sound (much louder than if I tap my *fingernail* on the trackpad itself. It sounds like a loud children's toy.

Other Thoughts: Overall, I can't recommend this laptop due to the issue I described. Left-clicking is an important part of using Windows, and every time I left-click, I'm reminded about this unit's poor construction.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that the design did not fit your needs. You said that the left trackpad gets stuck easily. Have you tried getting some rubbing alcohol and using a q-tip and swab around that area. May just be some type of stick residue.

I believe you just have to break in the trackpad button in due time the button won't be as noisy.

When did you purchase the unit. If you purchase the unit within 30 days and you are not satisfied with this model there are many other models to choose from.

Please reply with reference# C1042-2089. You can email me at cl-jeffrey@asus.com. ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Fast everything.
500GB hard drive.
Accidental damage warranty.
Solid look and feel.
Good keyboard and touchpad.
Aluminum deck stays cool.
USB 3 port plus 2x USB 2 ports, HDMI plus VGA out

Cons: None at this price.

Other Thoughts: The A6 quad processor runs everything I have thrown at it with ease and without heat.

The graphics are very good, rivaling some dedicated cards.

The speakers are typical for notebooks, but sound much better if you set the EQ to Powerful.

Minimal shovelware, but the Trend AV had to go in favor of MS Security Essentials.

The notebook seems noticeably faster once the Asus Webstorage app is removed.

Pros: The price

Cons: I just bought this yesterday, and now it's another $50 off. What wonderful timing. :(

Pros: (The opinions on this hardware as follows are based on having put a retail version of Windows 7 on the machine, as that's the first thing I did to it! But the Windows 7 which came on it seemed cleaner than most other retail machines) -~ The unit is very responsive! the quad core processor even though only 1.5GHz outranks some of the faster dual cores.. From the little gaming ive done on this thing, it handles WoW, and Diable 3 even to an extent but dont count on anything awesome, just having something other than basic graphics is great. Screen is bright and the keys are nice! I nearly bought this for $525.99 until Newegg dropped it by $100.... and i still would'a paid for it for that much! but at 429.99 this piece of hardware is a steal!... all around wonderful, so far the battery life is decent. The USB 3.0 is also seeming to be a standard for most hardware, this laptop has only one but i don't see much 3.0 hardware out just yet anyways, a plus if you've got a USB 3.0 external drive!!

Cons: Lets just say, the speakers are probably the first and last negative point I seemed to notice, other than that this thing is all good to go... Handles all i've thrown at it so far very decently.