A:Answer We own a small business, and we love this Asus. Haven't had a Dell for a while, and haven't had a MacBook, but I have had Asus laptops for about 10 years now. I keep going back to them because they provide good value for the money and get daily heavy use from us and hold up well. We handle ours a lot during the day, and feel like the last one put up with abuse pretty good (still going, just was ready for a new one with backlit keys).. Last Asus laptop must've had some kind of sealed keyboard, cause we accidentally dumped water on it twice (literally cat's water bowl dumped over in it once), and it survived. We hope to not try that on this new one. :)
Really really think it was a great buy for the money. We've been watching the prices for touchscreen, 15.6" screen, Asus, backlit keys for a few years and the sale we got it on ($650) was not common on any site we could find. I'd had a tablet before (Dell) when tablets first came out, and wasn't that fond of it. However, this one is very smooth and intuitive. Flips modes easily and quickly, and the touchscreen is great. This is the first backlit keyboard we've had in a while, and are enjoying that also. I'd think it would be great for a student, although mine didn't come with MS Office, which we'll install soon. We don't do any games/gaming, so can't speak to that. But if you want basics with backlit keys (still a luxury in our book), and a tablet (which can be good for class notes and just about anything), then we'd recommend it. That being said, though, we've only had this particular one for 3 weeks.