A:AnswerThat little gray square is a fingerprint reader, you can program your fingerprint in so you can just swipe that instead of typing in a password for logging into the computer.
A:AnswerYou press the function button (fn button = the lowest row of keys, 2nd from left) and the f3 or f4 button.
f3 dims the light and is the 4th button on the upper left and f4 brightens it and is the 5th button on upper left.
A:AnswerBattery life for me so far has been very good for a laptop with this size screen. Haven't run it all the way down but got over 2 hours on the plane watching videos without hitting battery warning. I would recommend turning down screen brightness on battery though as this is not a small screen! :)
A:AnswerWe own a small business, and we love this Asus. Haven't had a Dell for a while, and haven't had a MacBook, but I have had Asus laptops for about 10 years now. I keep going back to them because they provide good value for the money and get daily heavy use from us and hold up well. We handle ours a lot during the day, and feel like the last one put up with abuse pretty good (still going, just was ready for a new one with backlit keys).. Last Asus laptop must've had some kind of sealed keyboard, cause we accidentally dumped water on it twice (literally cat's water bowl dumped over in it once), and it survived. We hope to not try that on this new one. :)
Really really think it was a great buy for the money. We've been watching the prices for touchscreen, 15.6" screen, Asus, backlit keys for a few years and the sale we got it on ($650) was not common on any site we could find. I'd had a tablet before (Dell) when tablets first came out, and wasn't that fond of it. However, this one is very smooth and intuitive. Flips modes easily and quickly, and the touchscreen is great. This is the first backlit keyboard we've had in a while, and are enjoying that also. I'd think it would be great for a student, although mine didn't come with MS Office, which we'll install soon. We don't do any games/gaming, so can't speak to that. But if you want basics with backlit keys (still a luxury in our book), and a tablet (which can be good for class notes and just about anything), then we'd recommend it. That being said, though, we've only had this particular one for 3 weeks.
A:AnswerVery good! That is exactly what I bought. at $649.95 Just make sure you check the power adapter and socket in the laptop. Mine is fine and the machine runs great. If you want more speed, have a SSD installed in it and have the Operating system cloned to it.
A:AnswerIt has two USB 3.0 ports on the right side, in front of the power connector, which is also backwards compatible with USB 2.0. It also has USB C Thunderbolt port.
I purchased a USB C hub that has a gigabit ethernet port, two USB 3.0 ports, an a USB C charging port.
A:AnswerThis model has on-processor graphics with shared video memory via Intel HD graphics. This means that it is an integrated graphics card, not a dedicated graphics card.
A:AnswerA buddy of mine has it and he is playing Resident Evil 7 with no issues. The frame rate dropped low but otherwise playable, adjust the settings and the frame rate gets a lot better.