Asus: The Crapware Con

Posted on 29 Oct 2009 at 14:27

Asus’ software suite was one of the least intrusive, especially when it came to boot times. Even with crapware activated, our machine booted in less than 90 seconds: more than twice as fast as the Sony.

The software hardly hampered performance, with the machine dropping from 0.98 without crapware activated to 0.96 running clean – a far better result than the HP and Sony machines.

While Asus eschewed the large media suites, its software was still full of surprises. FancyStart can customise the laptop’s booting process, changing the background image and sounds, and the Asus Splendid Utility boasts six preset profiles, loading up ideal settings for watching movies and playing games. Google’s Picasa, CyberLink’s DVD Suite and Norton Internet Security were also included.

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The hard disk footprint was relatively frugal, with the bundled software taking up only 589MB of space. Memory footprint was reasonably low too, with the base level of 831MB rising to 1GB when every piece of software was loaded – a figure lower than five of the other laptops here.

Asus’ bundle is proof that a small number of useful applications are far more valuable than lots of gimmick-ridden rubbish.