Joined on 10/04/04
Just what I expected
Pros: I consider this to be one of the more attractive AiOs available, even nicer looking than the new gen of ASUS AiO. The keyboard has a numeric keypad. The touchscreen works very well. The machine is quiet. I am using both the HDMI in and out. Nicely specd machine, i5 + 8GB.
Cons: The mouse is a bit small, and the machine doesn't have built-in wireless. I had to use a USB wireless adaptor
Overall Review: This is the perfect PC for our kitchen nook. The i5 processor is more than it really needs, but I'm not complaining. Mine came in like-new shape, the keyboard and mouse were covered in protective plastic, and the display looked like new (no finger prints, etc)
Avoid.
Pros: Nice form factor, feels solid, good screen, good keyboard, large HDD.
Cons: The trackpad device failed. Reinstalling the driver isn't possible, because the system doesn't even 'see' the hardware device. I'm forced to work this out with the horrible ASUS support because the NewEgg warranty on computers is very bare bones-- no returns period, and no replacement after 30 days. (I bought this 45 days ago). Between work, my family, activities, and selling a house, I don't have the hours (or life force) to deal with this. Poor Battery Life: We were only getting around 4 hours from this supposed 11 hour battery, even running on the most efficient settings, dimmed display, powering down the HDD after 1 minute, turning off the BT radio, etc. Poor Performance: With only 1GB of RAM, the system is nearly paging to disk right after booting up (before starting a single application). Watching most video is not possible due to performance problems. Crummy Bloatware: The ASUS software is a joke ("Docking", etc.).
Overall Review: The trackpad problem seems common, and a common solution is to get an external mouse. Lugging around another piece of hardware sort of defeats the concept of a netbook for me. I'll invest no more than 5 hours for solving this with ASUS, then fixed or not, I'll sell it on CL for a loss, and replace it with either an ultra portable laptop, or maybe an android tablet. BTW, I'm a systems/infrastructure engineer by trade, and feel that my expectations for this netbook we're reasonable (no hardware failures, decent battery, enough power for basic web browsing, able to playback video).
As Expected / Suits Our Needs
Pros: Plays DVD-R (DVD backups) fine Provided strap works well enough to hook to our seats (V70, RX400h, MB R350)
Cons: Controls and wire jacks are in different places on each of the units, making it impossible to remember where what is for hooking up and changing volume. They should have placed these in the same place on both units. The auto power wire feels cheaply made
Overall Review: Bought these for trips, does well. It came poorly packed in a generic box with little documentation. The set looks new enough, no scratches or damage, but I could detect that the screens and bezel had been cleaned.
Speed Issues with my Video Camera
Pros: Generous capacity, known brand, inexpensive.
Cons: Speed issue.
Overall Review: I bought this for my Canon HF100 HD digital video camera, but the camera reports that this card isn't fast enough to record at the highest resolution/birate, so I have to step down a setting (from FXP to XP+) to record. I've been using a Transcend 16GB Class 6 card that I bought from NewEgg for the past year, and it's never had this problem (records at the highest bitrate fine), so needless to say, I'm disappointed in this supposed "Class 10" card.
Satisfied
Pros: Intuitive, simple, good help, online support for software as well as tax questions. Imported my 2008 Tax Cut data, this is useful for pre-populating forms and allows you to compare year over year filings. If you miss an entry, like a misplaced 1099, it shows up quickly. Installation and update was no problem on Win7.
Cons: None
Overall Review: A friend of mine completes her taxes each year using multiple online tax prep services, and then files with the one that gives her the best return. She said they're always different, though she hasn't looked into the nuts and bolts of why (this would drive me crazy). With that in mind, you never know if this software is giving the best possible return, or maybe a competing product will. I've just never taken the time to find out.
Great Remote
Pros: Easy to set up Easy to use (Help-Button wizard is nice for fixing coordination problems quickly and easily). Nice shape
Cons: The charging cradle and remote don't make contact very well.
Overall Review: Not really a gripe, but I would like to have the ability to tweak the macros, maybe via a "power user" screen in the programming interface. The tilt sensor in my remote stopped working after it was dropped on a hard floor about 200 times. Definitely not a fault of the remote.. my fault. The rest of the remote still works fine, good thing there is a "backlight" button. I love that I can add custom soft buttons from any device remote to 'activities' panels, (from multiple devices). You can specify what page and what order to place them. This is cool, because there are a lot of IR codes for my Mitsub. TV that aren't even on the remote that came with the TV. The Fios DVR box has 30 second skip, but the remotes don't have a button (at least when Fios was new). This remote solved that problem!