ASUS U33Jc-A1 Bamboo series review
Look and feel
The U33Jc won’t appeal to fans of glossy plastics or aluminum, but those that like the look of dark wood and chrome accents will find the laptop to be rather stunning. Actually, there’s something about the smoky brown U33Jc that reminds us of a high end piece of furniture, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. While the smooth feeling dark wood only covers the lid and the palmrest, it seems to give the entire chassis a stronger feel than other ASUS systems we’ve reviewed.
However, while the rig has a really striking aesthetic, there’s no denying that we wish it were slimmer and lighter. The 1.2-inch thick and 4.5-pound chassis is a lot like the ASUS U30Jc in terms of size, but doesn’t have an optical drive. Seriously, we actually searched the system a few times for a drive – we just expected it would have one with its thicker base. We will admit, the entire system is quite a chunker compared to the Toshiba Portege R705, which we recently fell pretty hard for. The edges of the U33Jc are filled with two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 socket, an HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, microphone and headphone jack. A five-in-one card reader lives on the right side.
Like we said before, the U33Jc actually feels like one of the more solid laptops we’ve reviewed, save for its plastic chiclet keyboard. The matte keys just don’t blend well with the rest of the brushed aluminum deck, and in comparison to the rest of the machine, they just feel cheap. Don’t get us wrong — the keys are comfortable and didn’t require any adjustment on our part, though they do make a distinct ‘clicky’ sound. It’s also the type of keyboard you’d expect to have a backlight option, but there’s no inner glow hiding underneath the panel.
Conversely, the touchpad gets premium treatment, and ASUS has used a special in-mold decoration process along with a new integrated circuit with proper sensor capabilities to cover it in bamboo to match the rest of the palmrest. Sliding a finger over the smooth wood to navigate the desktop was a rather enjoyable experience, and the lovely-feeling texture of the pad makes up for the single mouse button. Oddly, it doesn’t support multitouch gestures, but the right side did function as a scroll strip.
The U33Jc’s 13.3-inch, 1,366 x 768-resolution display is bright, and streaming a 720p clip of Salt looked crisp. The display itself isn’t overly glossy, but the shiny bezel surrounding it makes the glossiness a bit more pronounced. It’s no surprise that we were not thrilled with the viewing angles – tilting the screen back made Angelina Jolie’s eyes blend in with the rest of her face. At least horizontal viewing angles were better. Like the Eee PC 1015PE and 1018P, the U33Jc has a latch for covering the 2-megapixel webcam – hey, after hearing about those kids in the Lower Merion school district we’d be happy to see all laptops with this small, helpful privacy feature. The speaker strip along the top of the keyboard produced decently loud and full sound when watching some clips and listening to Pandora.
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