Last Gadget Standing Nominee: Asus U36Jc-A1
Price: $999
The computing world is awash in powerful laptops. There are also more and more thin-and-light notebooks with 13″ screens. But 13″ thin-and-lights that are truly powerful? They’re still a rare breed. That’s what makes the Asus U36Jc-A1 intriguing: It looks like a typical 13-incher that emphasizes portability over potency, but it packs a standard-voltage Intel Core i5 CPU and Nvidia G310M discrete graphics. It also has Nvidia’s Optimus technology, which lets the system switch between the G310M and integrated graphics on the fly for better battery life–Asus says it can run up to nine hours on a charge.
The U36Jc-A1 has an aluminum-magnesium alloy shell, is .76″ thick, and weighs 3.4 pounds. Asus says it’ll go on sale on January 17th.
2 Comments
Read more:
Robin Raskin is a veteran tech journalist and founder of 
Harry McCracken is founder and editor of 
Patrick Houston been in media longer than he'd like you to know. He's held top positions at ZDNet (executive producer), CNET (editor-in-chief) and Yahoo (general manager). He joined NetShelter after being sold on its approach of bringing independently owned tech publishers together into a network greater than the sum of its parts.
Michael J. Miller is senior vice president for technology strategy at Ziff Brothers Investments, a private investment firm. Until late 2006, Miller was the Chief Content Officer for 
As the online editorial director and biggest geek at 
Joanna Stern is n editor at 
Dave Zatz is an early adopter who must get his hands on all sorts of gear. He’s particularly focused on time-shifting and place-shifting technologies, as well as newer methods of acquiring content. In addition to his writings on his own site, 
December 19th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
It sounds like the perfect thin and light, with one glaring (literally) exception: the shiny screen, which one initial reviewer has called "tragically glossy" — well, that's probably excessive, but I am wondering how a laptop that is specifically intended for traveling to airports, coffeehouses, and other places with bright and changeable lighting will deal with bright conditions. Well, it could always double as a shaving mirror . . .
December 19th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
The cool thing about these small screens is there's a win either way with graphics with these powerful GPUs (game-wise anyway). On one hand you can cram super-small pixels in the smaller space and get amazing picture and use the GPU to its fullest, or you can have bigger pixels but run games more smoothly. I'm surprised these machines have yet to take off.
Looks real good for the price.