ASUS - Q524UQ 2-in-1 15.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 12GB Memory - 2TB Hard Drive - Chocolate Black

So far I've had this computer for about 3 weeks and I love it. I bought it mainly for the 2GB of dedicated graphics memory so I could play Blu Ray movies on my computer, but the rest of the specs were just too good to be true so I went with this laptop. I was hesitant to buy an Asus due to QC issues I'd read about in reviews from other websites on other Asus model laptops (ex. glitchy trackpad, weak hinges) but I'm happy to report that this computer has exceeded my expectations. The computer feels solid and the chassis doesn't bend much (if at all) when I pick it up, even with one hand. The hinges also feel sturdy. I was worried about durability since other Asus laptops have noted hinge issues, but these are made of a metal alloy according to the media preview I saw in-store. It's got a nice responsive touchscreen and the keyboard travel is perfect--not too shallow. Although, it feels better typing with the aftermarket silicone keyboard cover I purchased for it. You won't find one specifically marketed for the Q524U since this is a Best Buy only laptop (or so it seems), but I rolled the dice that Asus uses the same keyboard for almost all of their 15.6in laptops and the one I bought fits perfectly. Now to the two most important questions on everyones mind: should I upgrade my SSD and how? First of all, YES --- upgrade your hard drive NOW. This laptop has a dedicated graphics card, 12GB RAM, Intel i7 chipset and a flip mode to tablet touchscreen. I figured, why have all that and get throttled with a 5400rpm dinosaur of a hard drive? I swapped it out and this laptop just screams "performance" now. First of all, you'll want to do a clean install of Windows. It's not as bad as it seems. First connect a USB flash drive to the laptop after you've finished the initial setup. I used a 32gb drive but I believe 16gb will suffice. Next, look for the Media Creation Tool program. Follow the prompts to create a bootable disk that will allow you to do a full install of the OS. I believe I didn't choose to transfer any programs because I wanted as little bloatware as possible. Once the program is done, power down the laptop and take out the existing hard drive. When you've taken out the screws, open the base by loosening the edges and start the prying action from the back at the vents. Once the plate is off, swap the existing HDD for the SSD. Put everything back together and reattach the flash drive. The screen will begin taking you through the prompts again like it did when you initially turned on the computer out of the box with the HDD. Once you start seeing the same prompts from earlier, you're good to go. I bought the 3 year GeekSquad service and they would have done the swap at no extra cost, but I wanted to learn how to do this myself and I'm glad I did since I'd like to do this for future laptops I may own. GeekSquad did say that if I screwed things up, I could've brought it in to them to fix. Luckily I didn't need them at all and Windows 10 does make the process pretty easy, especially with the Media Creation Tool. I'm attaching an image of what my desktop looks like after the SSD swap clean install of Windows--notice the lack of bloatware. Note, the keyboard backlight didn't work after the clean install but everything else did. It's a pretty easy fix. Just go to the ASUS website, find this model in the product support page, then download and run the ATK packet. After that you should be able to turn the backlit keyboard on and off using the Fn + F3/F4 buttons. The computer will find and install the other drivers automatically as long as you're connected to the internet when you reinstall the OS. If I had to list any drawbacks, it's that it's not my preferred sizing. I wanted something in the 14" range but the base on the Q524U isn't egregiously huge (not having a CD/DVD drive helps) and it doesn't weigh all that much considering everything you're getting. I would STRONGLY recommend this computer to anyone needing a laptop upgrade, and now that it's $100 cheaper than when I bought it, I may recommend it to myself all over again!

This was the first laptop I bought, so I thouroughly researched different ones and finally chose this one. I am so glad I did! It is better than I could have imagined and will be perfect for when I start college next month. It is not too heavy, the colors are amazing (almost looks purple in some lights), the graphics are clear, the touch screen is very responsive, the backlit keyboard (which has different brightness levels) is amazing, and the laptop is very sturdy. The only little complaint that I can think of is the battery life. It only lasts a few hours without battery saving mode on. I wish it lasted longer, but it isn't too big of a deal since I typically have it plugged in while I'm using it, so I'm not going to take a star away for that. I definitely recommend this laptop! A big plus was that is was on sale, plus I got an extra $150 off for being a student, so I got it for $750

This is my first 2in1 and an ASUS product. I talked with several people regarding ASUS and positive reviews were given and it appears the days of the laptop will be a thing of the past so it was time to invest in the latest technology. I like the touch of the keyboard and backlight is soft light. It appears to operate as designed as I have had no issues to date and I have transferred almost 1TB of data manually. It was quick – quicker than if I had done a transfer with my backup cloud service. There is a data transfer available on the PC, but it appeared far more complicated than I wanted to deal with so I went with the familiar process to me. The SD card insert leaves the card extended from the PC where my experience has been that it normally will be flush. Not sure if this is a good thing or not – does make inserting/removing easier, but could possibly be inadvertently knocked. Since I am not a tech person, I cannot attest to the efficiency of all its claims, but it has worked fine for me. It claims 4 USB ports, but I only find 3 unless the HDMI is considered one which could be considered the fourth. It is totally dark color exterior and interior where I have in the past had light keyboard surfaces, but this has not been an issue for me. Graphics are clear, sharp and true to color and not distorted best that I can evaluate. Screen size is good for me in that I do lots of digital work with photos, etc. - anything smaller is great for weight, but smaller screen size is not as comfortable after an extended period of time. Contact with ASUS customer service was quick in response which was done via their 'help-contact us' process – have used once. Very trivial, but the ASUS screen when the unit is turned on is rather non-descrip and no color. It has a camera recognition at start up, but thus far has not recognized my image – and I don't know where to check on this. Overall, I am pleased with its performance and 2in1 features. In comparing features and price, it appeared to be the best value at a reasonable price. It was one of the few that had 2TB capacity which was my primary feature objective..

I have to knock off one star because there are a few nitpicky things that annoy me. When I saw this laptop on display in the store, I was immediately attracted to its unique coloring. Then upon closer inspection I noticed that it had a 2TB hard drive, so that really caught my attention. Those were two of the main selling points, and they have become two of my complaints as well. I'll get into that shortly. The third selling point was the graphics card. Here are some of the features, and my complaints, if any. 1. The main look of the laptop is what drew me in right away. The "chocolate" color almost looks purple in some kinds of light, which I think is awesome. I generally like the metal finish, but that brings me to my first gripe. This laptop is a major fingerprint magnet! The main areas affected are the handrest and the lid, but the trackpad also occasionally has fingerprint stains. It's not so bad there, but the prints on the handrest and lid drive me insane. The metal construction is good in general, though, and the laptop seems to be very sturdy. I have't used it in tablet mode yet, but those hinges look very strong. Also, there is very little give when I press the middle of the bottom of the screen below the Asus logo. On previous laptops, this area flexes a lot. 2. The hard drive is 2TB, which sounds great, but I didn't really consider the fact that it's just a normal 5400 rpm mechanical hard drive. Yes, it has a lot of storage, but it's pretty slow. I was hoping this computer would be fast because it's new and has a better processor than my previous computer, but there isn't much of a discernible difference in everyday tasks. 3. The trackpad is pretty touchy. It feels nice and smooth, but a lot of the time it "overshoots" the area I am trying to click. I have to take a few seconds adjusting the cursor to get it right on the spot I want to click. Also, as I mentioned in point 1 above, the trackpad is also somewhat of a fingerprint magnet. Since the trackpad is so touchy, I've been using my wired Logitech mouse most of the time. 4. The USB inputs are all USB 3 as far as I can tell, which is great. However, the listing says there are 4 USB 3 inputs and that isn't entirely true. One of the inputs is a USB 3.1, also known as USB C. It's small, similar to a micro USB. 5. The SD card reader is interesting. The card only needs to go in halfway instead of inserting all the way and clicking it in. I mostly like this because I find it difficult to make the card click in on other laptops. However, the fact that it's sticking out makes me a little nervous. Overall, though, I like that it doesn't have to go all the way in. 6. There is an external subwoofer. I was wondering what the little yellow input on the left side was, and it turned out to be for a small cylindrical external subwoofer. It kind of looks like a bluetooth speaker, but it's wired. I was disappointed to find out it has a small plug that can only fit into the yellow input on the laptop. It does considerably boost the audio, but I hate having to deal with this cylinder hanging around. The cord is pretty short, so when I'm sitting on the couch it doesn't reach to the seat to sit next to me, and the lapdesk I use is too small for it to fit. So I've not been using it much yet. Without it, the sound on this laptop is pretty mediocre. I've heard worse, but my past two laptops (Lenovo and Toshiba) were both better than this. 7. The graphics card is pretty sweet. I've never owned a computer with discrete graphics before, so I'm really loving the graphics card on this baby. I'm not a hardcore gamer, but I do play some graphics-intensive games occasionally, and this handles them like a boss. I was able to play SWTOR on the ultra setting with no problem. There is also a game creator program called GameGuru that used to be almost unplayable on my previous laptop. But it works great on this Asus. The graphics card also comes in handy with a couple of Adobe products that I use for my business. There is one small downside, which I will address in the next point. 8. This laptop can get really hot! (Especially when playing SWTOR on ultra for a couple of hours lol) Obviously it's going to be working hard when running graphics-intensive games or programs, so I'm not so surprised. I'm considering investing in a lapdesk that has fans in it. 9. Apparently this laptop has an IR camera. I was looking at the webcam and there are two more sensors, one on either side of the main camera. This kind of camera is supposed to be able to do cool stuff like analyze your face to make a 3D avatar, and also to block out the background of a video without having to use a green screen. However, I have not been able to figure out how to do either of those things yet. I guess the technology is new enough that there aren't really many programs that use it yet. The webcam itself is really great, though. Really nice and clear. Also, it is compatible with Windows Hello, though I haven't tried to use that yet. 10. This keyboard is awesome! I really love the way it feels. The keys are spaced comfortably, and there is enough travel for it to feel "real." My previous laptop, a Toshiba, had really flat keys and it was annoying to type on because it almost felt like they weren't pressing down at all. This laptop is 15.6 inches, which is big enough to have a numeric keypad on the right. I really like that. The keys are backlit, which is handy in some situations. One thing that is a little odd is the function keys (F1-F12) are actual function keys. They have secondary functions like sleep, airplane mode, backlight brightness/toggle, turning off the trackpad, and volume mute/down/up. The arrow keys have the secondary functions of play/pause, stop, forward and rewind for media control. The reason I say this is a little odd is I was used to having the function keys inverted on my previous Toshiba laptop. All of the secondary functions were activated by pressing the buttons, including media functions, and I had to press Fn to use F2 normally, etc. So mostly that's just a matter of getting used to the function keys working normally again. Otherwise, everything else about the keyboard is great. I'm a writer, so I type a lot, and I really like the feel of this keyboard when typing. I haven't felt the need of using my external keyboard at all. 11. The bluetooth will pair with my phone, but I can't send a file from my phone to the laptop. It keeps giving me some kind of error. I wouldn't be surprised if it's my phone's fault, though. (It's a Tracfone smartphone.) I don't have any other bluetooth devices to test. I haven't had a chance to try out the Widi, or the wireless AC yet, but when I do get to try them out I'll update this review. Overall, I like this laptop. Aside from a few nitpicky gripes, it works great.

My 4 year old Asus truck laptop finally bit the dust, Windows 10 did not help. So it was time to get a new one. I was looking at a couple of dual use laptops and didn't even realize that Asus had jumped in full force on that end. I needed a computer that could do multimedia decoding and also run all my business software. It only has a 940 Nvidia card in it but it still chews up stuff like finally archiving Star Wars Despecialized which can be pretty taxing. The only thing I changed was I bought a 1tb SSD to speed boot time. 2tb drive was only a 5400 rpm so boot was on the slow side. Changed to a pretty simple Sandisk Extreme 2.Super fast now! Did not need 2tb on board as I use external drives regularly. Also it is super light, has usb-c, thunderbolt and USB 3.0 ports. I almost forgot, newest 6th gen Intel I7. No Blu-ray drive but an LG external worked beautifully plug and play. One thing I wish it did have was drive access ports. I had to remove the whole back cover to replace the drive. It is metal so there is no worry about cracking it. One other thing to note is the takedown screws are torx bits so keep that in mind if SSD replacement enters your mind. Battery life can be on the shorter side but it is a dual use with a dedicated graphics card not on board. This is well worth the money as ASUS has always stood behind their products.

Needed a laptop for college and wanted something from Asus. This one had the best rating and I got it on sale for $800. I was a little irked a month later you could get for $750, but it happens. The touch screen is great! Makes it so convenient to click on things quickly. I like the keyboard as well and it's very comfortable to type with. The only thing is sometimes my right palm accidentally goes on the touch pad too much and the cursor moves. But maybe this goes away after getting used to the layout. It does take awhile to start up (~1 min), but I don't mind plan on upgrading to an SSD because I like the 2TB storage. The only real cons I found is the power key is so hard to press on sometimes. You have to really look at it and then press to make sure. Also, the whole laptop might look sleek, but it's a fingerprint magnet. I have to wipe it everyday or it starts to look too dirty. Maybe this is a plus though because it forces you to keep it clean. Battery life is also short. I found myself having to turn on battery saver so I can use it the whole day, but if you plan on bringing the charger everywhere I don't think it matters. This thing charges fast anyways (under an hour).

I am entering college in the fall as an engineering student, and while my school doesn't require me to own a computer (weird right?), I though it best to buy one for all my classes and for use to remote access lab computer to use CAD programs that I couldn't possibly afford to physically put on my own computer. I started out look at this computer, a Lenovo Y700 (Intel Core i7 + 16GB RAM), and an HP Envy (similar specs). The HP gave me great specs, but this PC and the Lenovo both had discrete graphics processors for a similar price to the other two. I opted to see them both in store and then I researched heavily online before purchasing this one. I decided to go with this one after I read horror stories online of the Lenovo dying after day one (I'm sure this isn't as common as the reviews would have me believe, but it scared me enough none-the-less). When I saw both in-store I gravitated to the sleek "premiem" gold and black metal design of this PC. I have to say it looks and feels great. The kdeyboard is responsive and easy to type on and the backlight is easily adjustable to any lighting condition. The computer feels very responsive all of the time and despite being a store-bought PC, it lacks most of the anooying bloatware that come standard with most modern PC's. The casing feels sturdy and well built, and the I/O is situated intelligently enough to feel normal when using in "tablet mode." The 3 USB ports + 1 thunderbolt port is a much appreciated jump from my lst computer. Audio is provided by Bang and Olufson's ICEpower, whatever that means. All I can say is that it is very, very flat audio until you plug in the included SonicMaster subwoofer, that makes the sound full and rich and doesn't take up too much space. Overall, the design of this PC is beautiful, the screen is great, the keyboard is responsive, and the only oversight (speakers) is fixed quite intelligently with the inluded SonicMaster subwoofer. This is a premium laptop, with premium specs, at a premium price, ad from a premium company. I have owned three Toshiba laptops, an HP, a Sumsung, an Acer, a Lenovo, and have had a Surface, and I feel that the quality in this computer easily surpasses all the others by a country mile. And I feel as if I had opted with one of the other two, that I wouldn't have gotten the same level of build-quality and specs for the price.

I am a college student, so I needed a laptop to get my work done and play some games like CS:GO and FIFA 16. Unfortunately, when I first bought this laptop, it turned out to be a lemon. In less than 24 hours, the laptop froze about 20 times, and there were about 50 instances of BSOD(Blue Screen of Death). So, I got it exchanged for this model again. It has been more than 72 hours and this laptop is running smooth as anything. So here is the detailed review: * Built quality of the laptop: This laptop is very sturdy and doesn't feel cheap from any angle. The hinge is also very sturdy. Can give any macbook a tough competition in terms of sturdiness. * Although, the laptop features a 5400rpm HDD, the boot time is less than 10 seconds and the last bios time was 3.9 secs. The HDD shouldn't be a problem unless your are doing any 4k editing stuff. *Keyboard: Typing on this laptop is a sheer pleasure. The keyboard feels like a replica of those in macbooks. Very satisfied with the laptop. *4K Videos: This laptop can handle 4K videos very smoothly. Watching 4k videos on this laptop is nice experience. *Tablet mode: Using this laptop as a tablet is kinda ok because this laptop is about 5 pounds. *Sound Quality: Without the subwoofer, the output sound is average. But after attaching the subwoofer, its sound feels alive. At full volume, you can easily host a party for 4-6 people. Battery Life: So far, I have found the baterry life to be very satisfying. It gives me about 5 hours without the power save mode and with power saver mode, it can easily give around 8 hours. *Precision Touchpad: This laptop comes with a precision touchpad and using it was a nice experience as well. Gaming: So far, I have only played CS:GO and this laptop very well handled the game with high settings. Overall: Very Satisfied with the laptop. At this price, this laptop is a no brainer.