A new Asus K42-F showed up on my doorstep a few days ago. I’m still getting used to it, but here are my thoughts so far.
I like:
- Windows 7. Lots of unnecessary little things, but overall this OS is worlds better than the Vista install I had used for a few days.
- Pretty darn quick. Running an i3 550m processor with 4GB of memory, Photoshop CS4 64bit has no issues, even when loaded pretty heavily.
- Comes with an OS partition and a storage partition. I usually setup my computers this way anyway, because eventually I’m going to mess up the OS enough to need to reinstall and I don’t like copy all my data when that happens. Another plus of Windows7 is that I can easily change the location of all the ‘Special’ folders that my profile uses to the storage drive, so documents/music/pictures etc. function just fine, but are safe in case of OS implosion.
- LOVE the touchpad so far. Normally these things are the bane of my laptop experience, but this little guy has a multi-touch interface which rocks. Click, scroll (horizontal and vertical) and right click can all be accomplished without using the ‘button’ at the base of the touchpad. It’s also textured, which I dig for no apparent reason.
- Nice and bright screen. Makes things look purdy.
I don’t like:
- Windows 7’s lockdown on administrative functions. Constant pop-ups for anything that requires any amount of system access. Easily fixed by activating the Administrator account and using that as your primary account. It’s just a hassle
- The finish on this machine is a magnet for fingerprints. It looks like I gave it to a six year old after they mangled a PB&J sandwich.
- The ridiculous amount of pre-installed software that took me about an hour to uninstall from the machine. From your usual MSOffice trial and Anti-virus trials, to the useless suite of ‘Asus Utilities’, there is enough bloatware on here to choke a horse.
- All the ports are located on the sides of the machine. This is a personal preference, I prefer them on the back. No real biggie.
- Only three USB ports. Realistically not a problem since I only generally have a mouse+flash drive plugged in. Some people might take exception to this though.
3 comments:
Congratulations! Is this a netbook or a regular laptop? I couldn't really tell from the link.
Looking to get a new toy for Steve in the next few months. Nice to hear positives and negatives from a tech-y point of view. Glad you like yours!
QD - This is a regular laptop, just a small one (14 inch). I needed the extra power for editing images, and figured I will generally have access to a power source so I won't need to worry about getting more than a few hours on a charge.
Melissa - :) OOOOooooo that lucky boy!
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