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Now that I've had my ASUS S5N for almost a year, I thought I'd do a follow-up review. It is going to be relatively short, because there are no problems to discuss. On to the review.

Problems: None. Like I just mentioned, I have not had a single problem with this notebook. No hardware or software issues.

Design: This notebook still turns heads and I am constantly amazed, when sitting in class with 93 other students who all have laptops, how much better designed it is. It puts those plastic gray Dells to shame. Even the Vaios by Sony can't compete. The light weight of 2.8lbs means a lot when you have a backpack full of heavy books. Also the layout of the USB and other ports is very practical.

Construction: I put it loose in my backpack with 4-5 law school books every day of the week. I ride my bike to class often, so it gets a good shake around in there. I think that's a testament to how well ASUS builds their ensemble notebooks.

Screen: This was one thing I thought I had an issue with. For awhile it seemed to be dimming, but I realized it was a graphics control issue and fixed it. No issues here - screen quality is great.

Battery life: I have both the 3-cell and 9-cell. All my classes have plugs, so I typically just plug it in (the power brick is tiny, so it's not a big deal to tote it around), but when I have to use battery life, it is stellar. The low profile 3-cell gets about 2.5 hours on moderate use while the 9-cell gets close to 7 hours.

Controls/Software: One minor annoyance I had when I first got the notebook is the placement of the CTRL/FN key, but I got used to it really fast and its fine now. The ASUS power management software is stellar - it truely does optimize battery life/performance for a variety of situations.

Retailer: I bought it from ProPortable. The buying experience was top notch. I still have their screenname on my buddy list and Justin from PP has helped me out on various occasions when I had general notebook questions or questions about my ASUS (the above mentioned screen issue). A+.

One downside; the white is hard to keep clean. It's also advantage because you end up keeping your notebook much cleaner than if it were black or gray.

That's all. Just thought I'd do that, since most people just do an initial review with no follow-up.

I'm glad your S5n still works great after the year mark! It's that Asus quality shining through.

thread moved to the review section

I got mine roughly a week or so before you, mine has been working great as well

-the extended battery makes it much heavier eh? I guess I got used to 2.8 and then all of a sudden I had to start using the big one because of a 3 hour lecture.

-i've had a few occasions where when you plug in the external cdrom drive and load a cd, windows would crash (blue screen/completely frozen). I'm not really sure what the problem is, I upgraded all the drivers and such. But it's not a common problem so no big deal.

-the 40gb that came with my factory version WAS too small... I ended up putting together a 160gb external one. All is good

do you guys have any pic's of your S5n's? I would love to see a white one up close, i purchased one of the few Black ones on the US market.

I have had mine for about a 3/4's of a year now, and i love it! its the best computer investment i have ever made. The only things i have done are, a stick or ram, and a 9 cell battery. I am also thinking about upgrading to a 7200 rpm drive but am worried about the effects on battery life since that is a major concern of mine (plus heat).

Any opinion on that subject would be great. Im glad to hear of some other S5n owners, i thought i was alone for a while.

Oh, and by the way, i have a different keyboard layout than you guys do....

Hmm, I've been thinking of buying one myself. Just going to wait a week or so if that U5 brings the prices down a bit?!

There should be more these 'After one year reviews' since in one year you can pretty much see the quality of your notebooks chassis etc...

thats very true, i havent yet had mine for a year, but it has held up really well under heavy use, about 12 hours a day 5 days a week typing.

Ok, I did order my S5A today, they bring it to me tomorrow!

I was little bit in beetween with that U5 and S5. Well, U5 is some 250$ more expensive and S5 comes with (among other stuff) two batteries, normal and longlife and U5 only with one, normal.

Does anybody know can you fit more memory to S5 than that 768Mb? You can fit more than in specs to some W5-series so why not S5? Just in case...

you can get a gig stick, i see a lot of retaliers now offer the S5n (well before it was discontinued) with the option of a gig stick. You were just limited in the past because they did not make anything larger than 512 in the Micro SO-DIM. But now that they gig stick is out im sure you could use it, the only problem is that the 256 in integrated, and if you get the 512 stick you would have to replace hte 512 stick with the gig stick because it has only one ram slot.

I was debating on whether or not i should wait until i could get a gig stick from the egg or somewhere, but in the specs it does not say it can support a gig, so i just though i would be on the safe side and just get a 512 stick. But i have heard that a lot of poeple are able to use the gig sticks.

You will enjoy your S5, make sure you take pictures of it! I want to see it! I love all the extra stuff it comes with, like hte mouse, optical drive, the screen cleaner, the two carrying cases, and all that stuff.

this is just a general question but the laptop i am interested is the Asus S5A. anywho, the question is regarding the 9v battery. do u plug it into the same slot as the less v. battery? how does it look? any pics??

the 9-cell battery does plug into the same spot as the regular 3-cell would; however, the 9-cell battery sticks out of the back about an inch or two...whereas the 3-cell sits flush against the back of the notebook.

thanks for the quick response! does anyone have any pictures? i can imagine what you just wrote, but i'd just like to see if it looks aesthetically ugly or if it looks fine. =)

no pics anyone?

7 hrs of battery?! wow!

thats some nice notebook. Yeah.

I purchased my S5n in April of '05 so i guess i should be up for a year review. Ill take some pictures later this week, i have the 9 cell battery so ill show you how it looks.