ASUS Q501LA-BBI5T03 Intel Core i5 4200U (1.60GHz) 6GB Memory 750GB HDD 15.6" Touchscreen Notebook Windows 8 64-Bit B GRADE

Pros: Great materials, fantastic touch screen, and just an all out nice machine. Plus, my wife is happy :)

Cons: Windows 8.1 :). Had to undo a setting that Windows 8.1 performed when I upgraded the machine from Windows 8 to 8.1. The touchscreen became disabled because of a power setting. Annoying, but other than that, all is good.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

It's great to know that your wife is happy with the great material and fantastic touchcreen on the laptop. I do understand your concern regarding the touchscreen stop working after upgrading to WINDOWS 8.1. Please verify if the video driver is the most current version and please enable it in the Control Panel, Device Manager. Should you need further assistance, please email me at cl-rodel@asus.com and write down service# N140717518 on the subject line.

Thank you for choosing an ASUS product.

Regards,

Rodel
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Fast and smooth.
Arrived new.
Awesome
Excellent 1080p screen and really responsive slim touchscreen. It's not cheap like some HP, Acer, and Dell screens.
Great backlit effect on keyboard.
Love the metal feel of it (top and keyboard area and sides) and smooth matte plastic in the bottom.
Sounds quality and speakers are fine, but sometimes you need to "cup" the speakers to have a better "quality" since the sound just goes out the bottom and away from you. Wish they were on top. They're not as loud as Sony or Dell laptops.

Cons: I don't like that Asus doesn't allow us to change volume, brightness, and other FN settings without pressing the FN button on the keyboard. Really annoying considering the fact that volume is on the right end of the keyboard instead of being around the f1 - f3, so I can't reach it with one hand.
Not the best keyboard but it was fine. I prefer my Lenovo T500 keyboard.
No optical drive but it's ok, I can use an external one.

Other Thoughts: Been using it for about 2 weeks now. I received the laptop new even though I noticed it said refurbished. I checked the life of the hard drive and it was only around 160 hours, so whoever used it only did for a week or so. It looked exactly brand-new, no blemish anywhere. I do not have any issue with the laptop itself, everything works perfect. It even smelled and still smells brand-new:)

I received the model with the Atheros card but it's working fine since I'm close to the router. It never drops connection.

I had to lower the Intel Display Color contrast from 50 to 42 to make it look more natural and to be able to see the details.

Overall: awesome laptop, can't get a 1080p touchscreen for that price anywhere else.


Btw. I love Newegg's shipping methods! it took about 30 hours to get my notebook using the ground shipping method (that's if I order between Monday and Thursday).

Pros: Wins 8, Touchscreen, I5, 6gb of mem.
I was a little nervous of buying a B-grade refurbished lappy from newegg but it has been great. I got it for my wife since her old laptop kicked the bucket and it was a good choice. She has been playing minecraft and sims3 with no problem. MC fps of 60+ on maxed settings. It also looks great and the battery has been lasting about 5 hours Got it for $450

Cons: It gets hot. ASUS makes good stuff so I trust it but bro.. this gets kind of hot. It hurt her leg while playing minecraft but to be honest all laptops get just as hot as this one but being aluminum is sort of makes it feel hotter and the ventilation is not that great. The exhaust vents to the screen which is odd. No disc drive either. Oh and windows had an update issue which took me a couple of hours to fix but that is a windows issue. It also had a few little scratches on the sides. Just being picky

Other Thoughts: I love this thing. I think it was a very economical and wise choice.

Pros: 1. Screen quality/size
2. Backlit keyboard
3. Touchscreen
4. large HDD
5. Battery life
6. Sturdy

Cons: 1. squeaky space-bar
2. HDD not SSD
3. Battery has been used
4. Few scratches

Other Thoughts: Firstly, I would like to say this has been an awesome upgrade from my other laptop. My old laptop had under an hour battery, the speakers blew out, and part of the screen shorted out... It was time for an upgrade.

When I saw the key layout, I thought it was a bad idea that the power key was located on the keyboard. I figured I would be prone to accidentally powering off the laptop (I am a meh typer) . Turns out this is not an issue for me.

I have read some reviews talking about this being a fingerprint magnet. It is in a different way. I don't consider this a con or anything, because the fingerprints are more of just dark marks that go away after you let it set. I imagine this will build after some ware and tear. I just rub the spot with my hand and it goes away.

Now for the positive:
I am very surprised to say this, I actually like the touchscreen. I thought I would never use it, however, when I am being lazy in bed it is nice to treat this similar to a tablet. The touchscreen definitely makes Windows 8 a little more bearable. Also, the screen is 1080p and looks beautiful. I am coming from a 768 display so this is another upgrade.

I have wanted a backlit keyboard for awhile so I am very happy with this feature. The lighting has a couple of levels. I recommend turning it off during the day. It makes it harder to read the keys. Again, I need to glance at the keyboard to re-orientate myself.

The battery on this has impressed so far. I can go easily 4+ hours on the web with my screen brightness up. The battery icon in the taskbar has estimated 5.5 hours of life. I have only had this a couple of days so I will get a better feel for how long the battery will hold up.

Overall build quality of this laptop seems rock solid, aside from the squeaky key. Not flimsy at all.

Now on to the annoying...
The spacebar squeaks. At first, this seemed like a minor inconvenience. However, this has grown irritating. I will pop the key off later and see if I can fix it.

The battery has been used. To be more specific, there are 666 charge cycles on the battery. I thought this was going to be a factory refurbished model, with little to no use. The battery report seems to say otherwise and says that the battery is at 96% wear level. This along with the squeaky key is the reason why I am docking this an egg.

There are 3 scratches on the top and bottom. I know I am buying B Grade refurb but I was hoping to have no scratches. The keyboard and screen are flawless aside from the squeaky key.

There are two versions with the same model number. 1 with a bad wifi card and an empty msata slot. The other has a great wifi card and no msata slot. I got the latter. I believe it is 5Ghz which is cool, but I was hoping to run SSD and HDD dual.

Recommendation:
I whole heartedly feel like this laptop was a solid buy. I got it for $490. For all the features you get and the rock solid build, you cannot beat this deal. I am overall very ha

Pros: - Sleek Design
- Slim, light for 15.6"
- 1080p IPS Display: you cannot find a better screen for the price on any other laptop, let alone 15.6'
- Decent specs, expandable memory
- B Grade came looking brand new!

Cons: - 5400RPM Drive: Not super slow, but slow enough to be an annoyance
- Different WiFi adapters in same model: some get Atheros with mSata and no WiDi, others get an Intel WiDi with no mSata on same model
- Keyboard is laid out...interestingly. Takes some getting used to
- Finger Print magnet
- Keyboard does miss some keystrokes

Other Thoughts: For $519.99, you can replace the 2GB DDR3 stick with an 8GB and the drive with an SSD for sub-$700. Simply not laptop can compete with 12GB, SSD, 1080p IPS, Slim, i5-4200u specs at that price