I measured the battery run-down time of the ASUS A3500L with the help of Battery Eater Pro 2.30 at the maximum and minimal screen brightness settings in three test modes:

• Classical ?the system bears the maximum load;
• Reader’s test;
• DVD viewing test.

The results are tabled below:

You can get a nice battery life bonus by reducing the brightness of the notebook’s screen. At the minimal brightness it is even possible to read text, for example. So, by dropping the brightness to the minimum, you gain the following time bonus:

• 2 hours 36 minutes in the classic mode (this gives you a total of almost 7 hours of autonomous work!);
• 40 minutes in the reader’s mode.

The results of the Battery Eater Pro 2.30 test are presented in the following diagram:

You should agree that such a long battery life is a hefty bonus in the overall picture of advantages and shortcomings of this notebook.

Conclusion

So, the ASUS A3500L notebook is a budget model with good performance and excellent battery run-down time. It features an eye-pleasing exterior, good connectivity, ergonomics and functionality. On the downside, the system is rather slow in games and its four USB ports are all located on the rear panel ?I think at least one of them should have been placed on a side panel.

Overall, the ASUS A3500L is a good notebook with an appealing price/performance ratio; its price at the time of my writing this was $1045.

I hope this review have shown you that “inexpensive notebook?is not a synonym of “ugly-looking and sluggish computer?