Affordable 17.3-inch laptop. With the F75A, Asus offers a simple office notebook for around $480. Its 17.3-inch screen, Pentium processor, 500 GB HDD and Windows 8 are supposed to be sufficient for most users. Our review will show whether this claim is met.

Cheap 15.6-inch office laptops (those selling for $500 or less) are not hard to find. In the case of 17.3-inch notebooks, the market seems to be less saturated. Accordingly, Asus has now released such a device - the larger brother of the 15.6-inch Asus F55A which we have already reviewed. Both laptops do not just look the same; even their features are very similar. We have put the F75A to the acid test.

There is not only an optical resemblance between the F75A and its smaller brother: Stability is also the same. The base unit sags when pressure is applied to the area below the touchpad. The same holds true for the area to the left of the keyboard. At least, the casing seems to be rather torsion-resistant. It can only be twisted slightly. The lid behaves differently in this regard - it is very easy to bend. Also, the back side of the lid could have been sturdier . Its center can be forced to sag so strongly as to cause distortions on the screens. While the hinges may be prone to some bobbing, they are still capable of holding the display firmly in position. Thus, the lid cannot be opened with just one hand . Some issues with the build quality , e.g. a small gap between the DVD burner and the case, have to be accepted considering the price.

The F75A looks very much like the Asus F55A . Both devices sport a casing made of black plastic . Both the back side of the lid and the wrist rest are texturized so that they feel very slip-proof. The material used around the keyboard reminds us of brushed metal. We appreciate that Asus uses matte surfaces exclusively. Neither of its two competitors, the Satellite and the Akoya , employs anything else but plastic as well.

There is little difference with respect to connectivity between all three laptops which we compare. All of them offer a standard selection of ports and have at least one USB 3.0 port. Unfortunately, the ports of the F75A are awkwardly placed. All of them are positioned at the front half of the left side.

Communication

The Wi-Fi chip of the F75A is made by Realtek (RTL8188CE). It supports the Wi-Fi standards 802.11 b/g/n. We have no reason to complain about any reception issues, neither close to the router (approx. 3 m) nor two floors below (with 50% transmission power) does the connection get interrupted. The Gigabit Ethernet chip in our Asus laptop comes from Atheros (AR8161/8165). There is no Bluetooth support. The F75A features a built-in 0.3 megapixel webcam (640x480 pixels), which disappoints due to its mushy image quality.

Accessories

The F75A ships with the usual documents: A hardware manual and a small brochure with warranty information. In addition, there is a 30-page Windows 8 user manual.

Operating System and Recovery

Windows 8 (64 Bit) is preinstalled on the F75A, no Windows DVD is included. A downgrade to Windows 7 is still possible, since all necessary Windows 7 drivers can be found on the Asus website.

In order to repair the system in the case of a malfunction of Windows 8, the recovery system can be accessed by pressing the key combination F9 while the computer powers up. The user can choose between a system repair and resetting it to its delivery condition.

Maintenance

An opening of the maintenance hatch reveals the Wi-Fi module as well as the hard drive and the RAM module. The fan cannot be accessed. The F75A comes with just one memory bank which is not in use in our test device. Its 4 GB RAM is soldered directly to the motherboard. A test with an additional 4 GB module was successful and yielded smooth operation. In theory, the F75A could be equipped with up to 12 GB RAM, however, the Asus website states a maximum of 8 GB in total. We recommend installing a second RAM module since this allows the RAM to be used in dual channel mode, thus fully taking advantage of both CPU and GPU. A 4 GB module can be had for around $25 - $30.

Exchanging the hard drive should not be challenging. The retaining screws have to be loosened, whereupon the hard drive can be removed. Its cage can be attached to the new hard drive, which may then be inserted back into the device - that's it. The F75A is equipped with a 7 mm HDD, however, the hard drive cage is 11 mm high and can also accommodate conventional 9.5 mm HDDs.

Warranty

The F75A comes with 24 months of warranty, the same as the Medion laptop, while users of the Toshiba notebook get only 12 months. Warranty of the F75A can be extended to three years for around $100 - this has to be acquired and activated within the first 180 days after purchase.