ASUS PRO BU201 Review

ASUS has brought their PRO line of notebooks in the country to introduce itself as a provider for your business needs. With a tough competition against the popular ThinkPad laptops from Lenovo, the ASUS PRO notebooks have their own strength under its sleeves. Here’s our full review of the ASUS PRO BU201 business notebook.

Design and Construction

The BU201 is a business ultrabook that’s angular and simple to look at. The whole body of the notebook sports a matte black finish which is a good match for smart casual attire you’d be wearing for work.

Its display is a 12.5-inch IPS LCD with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels or full HD. The panel has good color reproduction and wide viewings angles, but it’s surrounded by a rather thick bezel. We have a webcam with its LED indicator along with the ambient light sensor and dual-array microphone.

On the front, we have a four LEDs for power, battery, hard drive and wireless indicators. There a Smart Card reader as well for companies who use such.

On the right side of the notebook, we have the SD card reader, two USB 3.0 ports, an ethernet jack, and a slot for securing your laptop with a Kensington lock.

To the left is the DC-in for charging, a USB 3.0 port with quick-charge function, good-old VGA port, Mini DisplayPort, and a combo jack for headphones. The holes on the sides of the USB port are just guides for the docking station which we initially thought it was for the passage of liquid since it has a spill-resistant keyboard.

Flipping the notebook to its back will show a neat bottom with vent holes and a release lock for the removable battery. Here are also the labels and serial numbers for the notebook, as well four rubber feet.

The keyboard of the BU201 is generally pleasant to use. I’m currently writing this article on it and my typing speed is faster than usual. Travel is good and the keys are tactile. ASUS has put in a track point (they call it SensePoint) in the middle similar to ThinkPads but it doesn’t offer click function, you’ll have to use the pair of the left and right keys just above the trackpad.

Speaking of the trackpad, its performance is okay although it doesn’t have dedicated buttons and clicks are executed by pressure on the lower left and right surface. We also have the fingerprint scanner beside the trackpad that uses a swipe-to-scan gesture.

The overall build of the notebook is superb. It feels solid and sturdy which would definitely stand some drops here and there thanks to the MIL-STD 810G military standard certification. The hinge is also worth noting here at it’s stiff yet can be adjusted easily with just a finger.

Next Page: Display and Multimedia / Operating System and Apps