The Asus U38N-DS81T is a newly available laptop model in the US. Although Asus advertises it as a “thin and light 13.3-inch business laptop with a Full HD touch screen”, there’s no too much business features on it. Generally, the U38N is available with Windows 8 Pro version which is more suitable for business use, but the particular U38N-DS81T comes with standard Windows 8 edition.
It’s equipped with the AMD Trinity APU A8-4555M processor, which seems to be more aimed at multimedia than business use. For instance, full-blown business laptops are usually equipped with Intel vPro-compatible CPUs, providing some advanced enterprise-class system management and security features. The A8-4555M lacks these, but the chip is fairly capable of completing everyday office tasks like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint document creation. It’s also good for multimedia playback, thanks to a built-in HD video decoder. Of course, the 1080p touch-enabled display is a big plus in the entertainment department, but it also comes handy if you have a large spreadsheet to edit. For audio experience, the notebook provides stereo speakers backed by ASUS SonicMaster technology co-developed with Bang & Olufsen.
The Asus U38N-DS81T has 4GB of RAM memory, a 500GB hard disk, a 720p webcam, three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and mini VGA video ports, and audio headphone/mic combo jack, but has no optical drive.
The Asus U38N has been reviewed by Laptop Magazine, but an AMD A10-based version of it with a solid state drive. They found the laptop to be sleek thanks to its 0.7″ thin aluminum chassis. The high-quality display is also a plus, besides a comfortable chiclet keyboard with backlight. The downsides are short battery life of 3 hours and 40 minutes under web surfing via Wi-Fi, below-average computing performance, a “finicky touchpad”, and limited business features.
The U38N-DS81T can be found online via various retailers in the US for slightly less than $800.