Asus S56CA-DH51 15.6" Notebook, Intel Core i5-3317U 1.7 GHz, 6GB DDR3 RAM, 750GB 5400 rpm HDD + 24GB SSD, Windows 8 $550 + Free Shipping (Ebay Daily Deal)

I love these descriptions, there is no "Windows 8 Home Premium" version of Windows 8.

1366x768 resolution
More info:
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-S56CA-...B009AEVMH2

and before the whole which brand is more reliable flame wars and/or trolls start:
http://www.squaretrade.com/laptop...lity-1109/

I just bought this. I was looking for something Core i5 and fairly thin and light. Still has an optical drive which may come in handy. "Only" has a 4 cell battery, which according to some reviews lasts around 4.5 hours which is plenty for me.

Quote from holtzboy : I just bought this. I was looking for something Core i5 and fairly thin and light. Still has an optical drive which may come in handy. "Only" has a 4 cell battery, which according to some reviews lasts around 4.5 hours which is plenty for me.

That's pretty decent if it lasts for 4.5 hours. I wouldn't complain even if it lasts just 3 hours.

Well this is considered an "Ultrabook" since its 21mm thick. I don't know if that means the battery is in a different category as regular laptops/notebooks. I would think a 4 "cell" battery in a regular laptop wouldn't last 4+ hours.

What's with the "24GB SSD" drive? How does that work?

Can this play League of Legends?

Or World of Warcraft?

Or SC2?

Or Minecraft?

Quote from holtzboy : Well this is considered an "Ultrabook" since its 21mm thick. I don't know if that means the battery is in a different category as regular laptops/notebooks. I would think a 4 "cell" battery in a regular laptop wouldn't last 4+ hours.

It's an ultra-low voltage CPU. At full power, it consumes about half as much power as a normal laptop CPU. (17W TDP vs. 35W TDP) And with an integrated GPU, it's far more than twice as efficient as many laptops.

Quote from kameha5th : Can this play League of Legends? Or World of Warcraft? Or SC2? Or Minecraft?

Not SC2. WoW might work on lower settings. Minecraft should work at around 30 FPS be passable with "fewer" particles and a couple of other tweaks. You'll want a dedicated GPU for that kind of games that you want to play.

Quote from junhao123 : and before the whole which brand is more reliable flame wars and/or trolls start: http://www.squaretrade.com/laptop...lity-1109/

Dated November 2009. Wonder how reliable that report is in 2013.

Not 1600p??? Pfft I'll pass.. 15" needs a minimum of 1080p

Quote from holtzboy : Well this is considered an "Ultrabook" since its 21mm thick. I don't know if that means the battery is in a different category as regular laptops/notebooks. I would think a 4 "cell" battery in a regular laptop wouldn't last 4+ hours.

Asus claims their for cell batteries are like others 6 cell. I haven't tested it, but that's the reason you will see a lot of asus laptops with 4 cell batteries

Quote from junhao123 : 1366x768 resolution

This is pretty much all that needs be said. Perfectly fine resolution for a 12" device or people who don't have that great of vision or who pay $500 for a computer to just watch movies on, but not that great of a productivity tool.


Although I'd kind of argue that higher resolution makes it better for people with poor eyesight since the text will look much more sharp if it is enlarged to be the same size as the text at native resolution on a low-res screen.


The PC manufacturers will eventually get on board since Apple has been taking more market share these past few years with their retina displays.