Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Main takeaway: I'm very pleased with the purchase overall and highly recommend it to anyone who needs a laptop for everyday usage. Remember especially that many people over-buy or get talked into things they don't need. The i3 in this system is more than capable of performing the majority of tasks most users will require of it. Gamers who need a video card capable of running the latest and greatest new releases will need to look elsewhere, but this laptop should be fine for anyone who will be mostly surfing the internet, watching streaming videos, listening to music, writing emails, working with word processing, etc. Remember that buying it with certain credit cards (American Express, Visa Signature, others?) will automatically double the manufacturer's 12 month warranty. Pros: - At $350 shipped, it's essentially a $300 laptop with specs appropriate to the price and a $50 full-HD 1080p screen. Maybe the market is moving to HD at this price point, but I doubt there are many systems out there with these specs/screen at this price. I was considering a Chromebook or the like, but for $100 (or less) I got a fully functional PC with a full HD screen. Wow. - Battery life after unpacking and charging overnight shows 4.5 hours on the battery saver setting. I suspect 3-4 hours is probably realistic once it's being used. - The screen looks great with a bit of light bleeding on the bottom edge of mine. It's only noticeable in a dark room while watching a dark movie, so I'm possibly being overly critical. Again, $350, and wow. The viewing angles are okay but I'm sure they'd look horrible if placed next to a $2000 laptop. - Not a touch screen. That may be in the "con" section for some, but I've got an ultrabook that I never, ever use the touchscreen on. I'm sort of glad this one doesn't have it in order to minimize failures and faults that could potentially be associated with it. - Touchpad - Most importantly, it doesn't appear to interfere with or affect typing. The left and right buttons are incorporated into the design and there is no edge between them. The buttons have a fairly loud click when used, although the touchpad can be used when a bit more silence is desired or required. - Keyboard feels good even though it doesn't have the tactile feedback I prefer. It's positioned well overall and is responsive. - Windows 10 will take some adjusting to, but I am fairly impressed with how quickly it boots even with the factory 5400RPM hard drive. - RAM has a hatch for easy upgrading (see photo), and there's an empty slot available to add another stick. Remove the little circular plug cover to expose a screw, then you can remove the cover. I've attached CPU-Z info and screengrabs of the RAM and SSD upgrades recommended by Crucial using their scanner. I'm not recommending or endorsing them, just offering the data in case anyone needs it or wants to cross reference with other drives/RAM that may fit. - The lid is plastic and textured very subtly, so no fingerprints. Cons: - Bare bones 4GB RAM and 500GB 5400RPM HDD, although I'm certain that's a large part of the reason they can sell at this price. - HDD is not easy to replace. There is a video on youtube titled "Asus F555L Disassembly for Hard Disk Replacement" that shows how, but it's not as easy as it could be, unfortunately. It appears that the lower cover is structural now, so be careful when you take it apart. - A bit of flex in the keyboard, but I don't think it's inappropriate for a laptop in this price range. - No discs for factory restore or option to create them with Asus software that I could find, so be sure to use the Windows backup option as soon as you receive the system. Search for "file history" and Backup and Restore (Windows 7).