Pros: The price is great for the amount of quality hardware in this machine. The GPU runs like a beast... when you can get it to work.

Cons: If you're not tech savvy you're going to have a bad time. There is a huge problem with the N56JR that ASUS refuses to address. If you aren't up to date on your computer lingo you won't really know know what I'm talking about. I'll try to describe it the best way I can for everyone to understand. The way a motherboard talks to certain pieces of hardware attached to it is through software called drivers. Drivers need to be up to date all the time for your machine to run as quickly and efficiently as possible. This machine ships out with a very respectable graphics card (or GPU). The chipset manufacturer (Nvidia) comes out with drivers for the 760M ALLLLLL the time. However, the Nvidia drivers will not detect the graphics card. ASUS (like many other companies) adapt the GPU to their own standards. ASUS hasn't come out with a driver since the 311.XX series. Nvidia has already released up to a 335.XX series of drivers. Normally this wouldn't actually be a problem. Running hardware on an old driver doesn't mean it won't work. It just means that it won't run as well as it could. The real problem is that for some reason Windows 8 refuses to use the GPU to play games, watching videos, editing, and all that happy jazz. Instead, Windows 8 will only use the Integrated Intel HD 4000 Graphics accelerator. This is a HUGE problem since that GPU that causes this laptop to cost so much more than one without a dedicate GPU is just sitting inside your frame rotting away. I had to upgrade my BIOS, completely wipe away all of the software attached to the card from the factory, reroll the driver, and finally update to a 335.XX series driver. And the kicker... the 335.XX driver isn't even from ASUS! It's a user adapted driver taken from the Nvidia release. I'm not a tech guru, but I build my own computers for friends and myself in my spare time so I know my way around some of this stuff. It took me QUITE a long time to figure all of this because of the scarcity of information about the problems with the N56JR on the internet. Good luck if you buy this laptop. It took me hours and hours to get the GPU to work.