Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have considered purchasing this notebook for an older ailing Lenovo that has been very reliable for the last six years. I have read a lot of positive reviews and I have done a lot of research on this particular model. I have taken the time to go out to retail stores and physically look at this machine as well. If I purchased it, I would only buy it from Amazon.com as their customer service is incredible. Here is my counter take to all the positive reviews: (I think people should know some of the negatives as well before buying this product) Positives: A lot of bang for the buck - new Broadwell Intel i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, USB3 ports, HDMI output, etc., DVD writer and for a reasonable price. It's also a nice looking laptop and I like how they have textured the plastic to keep finger prints down. It's also nice that you get a 1 year accidental breakage warranty for free. More on the warranty later. #1: It has a 500GB 5400 Hard Drive. This is a crippling component for such an otherwise fast notebook. ASUS could have at least put in a 7200rpm drive for a few bucks more or even a hybrid SSD/HDD drive for just a little more. Many people don't realize it but you are typcially waiting on your hard drive to retrieve data most of the time. It doesn't matter how fast your processor is if it has to wait on a pokey hard drive all the time. The net is you end up with a poor performing laptop due to this one component. So you say, "no problem" just go out and buy a Solid State drive and replace it. Not so fast! First you can't get access to the hard drive without tearing the entire machine apart. What does it take to do this? First you need to remove all the screws from the bottom of the case. You then need to carefully pry open the plastic tabs around the case, (which is not for the faint of heart) Once that is done, you need to remove multiple ribbon cables from the keyboard. You then take out 4 screws and change out the hard drive. This might not be that difficult for a PC technician, but the average individual would never want to attempt this. So - in summary: By ASUS putting in a 5400rpm Hard Drive in this notebook is like putting wooden square wheels on a Ferrari. #2. The battery is not user reaplaceable either. Same proceedure as #1 above. We all know that laptop batteries only last so many discharge/charge cycles and they usually need to be replaced after a couple of years. Be ready to spend some big bucks to have the machine sent in or pay your local technician to change out the battery when it dies. This laptop also only uses a 2 cell battery (3700whr) which, I highly doubt, will give anywhere near 5 hours of useage that ASUS claims. They could have easily put in a larger battery if they wanted. They could have also made it user replaceable, like companies have been doing for the last decade. Oh, and did I mention that if you do go in and try to replace either of these components, ASUS says you void your warranty. (I verified this with ASUS directly) So - if you want to make the machine faster, you take the warranty on yourself. #3. Only 1 memory slot. Not a huge deal, as 8GB's is typically all anyone will need, but the machine is not utilizing dual memory channel mode which will have a small effect on performance. Also - forget about ever upgrading the memory beyond 8GB's with only one memory slot. You may not need more memory now, but as software keeps getting more bloated, you might in the future. #4. 1366x768 diplay panel. Not exactlly high resolution when other manufacturers are touting 1080P for almost the same price with much smaller screens. This is not just Asus, but all the manufacturers who are still making cheap low HD laptop displays when for a few bucks more they could be giving us a much better panel. #5. Keyboard has a lot of flex in it and users of previous models have complained that they keyboard quickly wears out. Only time will tell on this and your mileage will probably vary depending on what you have used in the past. #6. Trackpad is not very responsive and the left/right mouse buttons are on the same plane as the rest of the mouse pad. This makes the buttons difficult to press and use. Who decided that the old raised mouse buttons were bad on a trackpad? Once again, I'm sure this was cheaper to make. Unfortunately ASUS is not the only manufacturer who are doing these things on low to moderately priced notebooks.. They all are. Why are they doing this? To be more price competitive and make more profit. You can't blame them for this, but in the end, it's the consumer who is going to suffer. Is this a terrible notebook? No. I'm even thinking about keeping it, but I can upgrade the slow hard drive to an SSD and I can also replace the battery when it dies as I have been a professional PC technician in the past. I'm not happy about the display resolution or the trackpad, but at this price point, almost everything is a compromise. My only other choice is to pay more than $1000 to get a machine that is user serviceable and has a higher resolution display along with better keyboard and trackpad. This is my dilemma. Let me know your thoughts. Unfortunately, in my opinion laptop manufacturers are not making better laptops for the money. They are making disposable products in hopes that consumers will just throw them out and buy new ones. I think this is a very bad trend for the consumer. Update: July 26th 2015 I decided not to keep this laptop and instead, purchased the ASUS TP500LA which was also a mixed bag. First, when I received the laptop, there were was stuff loose inside of the machine. I took the bottom panel off and found two screws and a couple pieces of plastic loose inside the machine. It's a good thing they didn't short out anythingn on the motherboard. I'll post a review of that laptop later, but I'd give it the same rating as this computer. The trackpad is terrible on it and the high resolution screen is poor. It's sad how laptop manufacturers are no longer building quallity products these days.