Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm an IT professional, and have dealt with a few ASUS laptops, which I now prefer to Dell. If you take remove the 9 phillips screws on the bottom, you have access to some of the internal components. You will need to tug a little, as the case is still held in place by little plastic clippies all around. You might break a nail, so be careful. MEMORY: The memory is soldered into the board, so 4GB is all you will ever have. Period. DISK DRIVE: The HDD is a Hitachi HTS5450A7E380 (7mm 2.5") and can be replaced with another "Low Profile" 7mm SSD or HDD. You simply remove 3 screws that hold the cage in (the 4th screw is already removed from removing the back panel), remove the cage, remove 4 screws holding drive in cage, replace with a SATA II/III drive. (It is a SATA 3 6.0 GB/s connection). I recommend the Samsung 840 series, as they are 7mm 2.5" and very low on power usage. When you remove the old HDD, it has a plastic backing glued on it with two rubber foam strips. Don't worry with removing it from the old HDD. An SSD doesn't need the shock absorption and will be mounted securely with the screws. WIRELESS: The Atheros AR5B225 Half Mini PCIe WiFi/Bluetooth 4.0 module is replaceable. I am replacing mine with Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 so I can use WiDi and Dual Band Wifi. It was as easy as removing the two antenna wires from the Atheros, popping in new card, reattaching two antenna wires to the Intel 6235. BATTERY: The 5136 mAh 2 cell battery is replaceable, albeit proprietary. Not sure what this means for the future. MY GENERAL OPINION OF THE LAPTOP and Windows 8: I have been using Windows 8 at work for a bit, and as an OS, it's hard and confusing with a dual monitor desktop power user setup (as I have no need for the Metro interface there, and I feel like I'm fighting it). I had to tweak it to get my start menu back (Open source utility called "Classic Start"). However, with a touch screen laptop, it is very easy to use. I've been thoroughly been enjoying it as a tablet replacement. I admit, I did install an SSD in it, and it is SO much more responsive now (and shaved some ounces on weight as well has dropping at least a watt of power draw). I also have access to a Windows 8 volume license key, and mine is running Windows 8 Enterprise.