Asus - 14" Laptop - 4GB Memory - 500GB Hard Drive - Matte Black

This is a great computer for internet and other basics, like writing, which is what I'd intended to use it for. Of course, I immediately replaced Windows 8 with Ubuntu when I got it, which has its own set of bugs, so I won't go into that, but, for the most part, it runs really well. It's also got a great display for watching videos, but the speakers leave something to be desired, so you're probably going to have to invest in some good external speakers or headphones. It could also use more USB ports, especially considering you need one if you want to hook up a CD/DVD drive, since it doesn't have one (that happens to be why it's super-light, too, which is actually one of my favorite features, considering I intended this to be the computer I took everywhere with me). The ethernet port is on the opposite side of the computer from the power cord, which is just awkward if you have wired internet, but not a problem if you use wifi. If you're concerned with the cleanliness of your computer, be warned that pretty much everything is going to show up on this, especially loads and loads of fingerprints. The only thing I find really annoying is the mouse. The buttons are part of the trackpad, so the cursor is constantly moving while you try to click. I also recommend disabling the "click by touch" feature right away, or you'll be constantly clicking on things you don't mean to click. It's workable and you get used to it after awhile, but I much prefer to have a separate trackpad.

I needed a lightweight, compact, fast laptop for my 15 year old high school student's use. It was to replace an aging Acer laptop that was very heavy and agonizingly slow. The total cost of this Asus X401U-BE20602Z from Best Buy, delivered to our door was $269.99 on sale. I used my American Express Card for the purchase because they automatically double the manufacture's one year warranty free of charge. Also purchased was a $69.99 Squaretrade service contract that covers drops, spills and hardware failure for 3 years from the date of purchase. No one in our family thought it looked cheap or flimsy and it feels as sturdy to me as another Asus laptop we own that costs more than twice as much. If you don't like the cover, you can always get a designer look laptop skin for $15 or less (one of my daughters opted for a Vera Bradley design for her $800 laptop). Since I read some reviews that said this machine is slow, I ran some tests myself, because I found speed not be a problem. I opened a large MS Excel spreadsheet, a large MS Word document and 4 chrome internet windows--all operated at the same time with no perceptible delay. Each internet window loaded in 1 to 2 seconds when opening sites such as Yahoo, Speedtest.net, WeatherChannel.com, Amazon.com, Bigcharts.com, etc. Several speed tests on Speedtest.net (with the above Excel, Word and 4 Chrome internet windows open) showed a typical download speed of 30.91 Mbps and upload speed of 4.3 Mbps (on a Charter Communications wireless home internet setup). This is basically similar to the speed I would get on my desktop computer that has more memory and a heavy duty processor. So, for $340 total my daughter has a very light weight highly portable compact laptop with a very nice screen display and good capability to handle her homework with a bunch of internet windows open at the same time (and it works fine for Netflix as well--unfortunately), with a 3 year total hardware and mishaps guarantee.

I'm very pleased so far with this laptop. I installed Classic Shell to bypass most of the Windows 8 weirdness (for me at least) and it works just fine. All the applications I've installed run without a hitch. I'm surprised that it will run some fairly modern games, although at reduced settings. I am a little confused as to how you would recover from a hard disk crash as there is no DVD player and the boot options appear limited. I also would've preferred that the power and Ethernet were on the same side as if you use both you're gonna have big wires sticking out. For the price it is an excellent choice.

I must say that all the other reviews give you a good indication of what to expect. It is definitely NOT lightning fast as some reviews mention. Maybe if you're coming from something that's 7 years old. My 4 or 5 year old Dell with 2 gig of RAM is much snappier. But I knew it was no speed demon when I bought it. For browsing, emails, word processing, etc. it's fine. My major complaint is the touch pad on a couple of levels. First off you can do stuff using two or three fingers, scroll, etc. It doesn't always work. It'll scroll then stop scrolling. It's very frustrating. The click function of the pad feels very mechanical and clunky. It also doesn't always respond to a tap. I don't know if it's a lag from the processor being busy doing background functions or just a poor quality touch pad. In either case it is the weakest point of what otherwise would be a decent, great priced, 14 inch laptop.

The laptop is useful and serves my day to day needs (check email and generate documents), but when I need to work with autocad or arcmap, it slows down and no longer serves my needs.

I bought this for my child entering High School. When shopping around for several weeks I can see were the extra hundred was saved. The outer shell is lower quality plastic and likely would not survive a fall. I decided on this product because if it broken I will not loose any sleep. It is not the household primary computer and will not impact my access to a computer if it is broken.

Bought this for use in a non-government organization for sending and receiving text messages in Africa. Set up was a breeze. screen resolution excellent and keyboard very good. May be a bit slow in loading programs and apps, but otherwise a solid buy. Price is lowest I've seen in the local area.

Great for online kids games. Our youngest uses it for roblox and minecraft, works perfect for that. It is slow if you are trying to do anything that requires processing power, that's not what this unit is for.