Review: Asus U31JG Lightweight Laptop

The $800 Asus U31JG ultraportable laptop offers good performance, great battery life and discrete graphics card, but falls down on viewing angles and glare from the screen and the "mediocre" keyboard and trackpad.

"The Asus U31JG, designed for urban professionals on the move, boasts a stylish brushed-aluminum finish that coats the lid and wraps around the black plastic keyboard. It's not just a fashion statement either: The aluminum trim reinforces the plastic chassis, creating a sturdy ultraportable laptop that packs enough power to play games and run your presentations while remaining light enough for you to carry on your daily commute.

The compact 4.2-pound case (5.3 pounds with the power adapter) contains an Intel Core i3-380M CPU running at 2.53GHz, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and a 500GB hard drive. Upgrade options are available for both the CPU and the memory, though anyone willing to shell out more than the $800 retail price (as of April 12, 2011) of the Asus U31JG for improved performance should probably consider upgrading to a more expensive ultraportable such as the Lenovo ThinkPad X220."