ASUS U33Jc-A1: Not Bad for Bamboo!

"Pandas, East Asia, wood. Nope, 'laptop' hasn't ever been on the list of words we typically associate with 'bamboo,' but ASUS sure has us willing to tack it on with the introduction of its U Bamboo Series. The company's newest 13-inch U33Jc is covered in one of the most durable and recyclable materials on earth, and its internals are made of equally strong parts."

When I think of laptop construction material, I generally don't think of bamboo. ASUS has made this strong, performing laptop with the lid and the palm rest made of real bamboo. Take that, competitors, with your all-plastic construction! This strong 4.5-pound performer looks good, and with chrome accents and wood it resembles a fine piece of furniture. Unfortunately, the plastic chiclet (island) keyboard is only an adequate performer. No backlighting.

On the performance side: excellent graphics performance except with 3D games, pretty fast, but reports say that the processor is underclocked, and that slower memory is used than in its predecessor, the U30jc. Battery life, at five hours (6:47 in Laptop's Battery Rundown Test), is very good, and Intel's WiDi (wireless display) technology is onboard, allowing (with the addition of a $99 NetGear Net2TV adapter) content to be beamed to a flat screen TV. WiDi is not recommended for gaming or using as an second monitor, as there is a measurable (3 second) lag as content is moved. ExpressGate Cloud instant-on OS is present, and accessed by a button press, but this version is slower than previous versions. All in all, a top performer for $999.