Thanks to the rubberized coating on its magnesium-aluminum alloy case, it felt good in my hand. I also liked the looks of the bright chrome company logo and the touchpad's button. Overall, however, the Asus is a plain Jane compared to the design flair of the Lenovo and Dell machines.

With its large battery, the system weighs 3.8 lbs. -- 0.9 lbs. more than the IdeaPad, but still less than most 13-in. notebooks, which generally weigh between 4 and 5 lbs. Adding the AC adapter to the U36JC brings its travel weight to 4.5 lbs., more than a pound heavier than the IdeaPad.

Buried inside is the most powerful mix of components of these three thin systems. The model I tested is built around an Intel 460M Core i5 processor, which runs at 2.53 GHz -- roughly double the speed of the others -- for most tasks. Using Intel's TurboBoost technology, it can speed up to 2.8 GHz when needed. (Other configurations for the U36JC include a 2.53-GHz Core i3 or a 2.66-GHz Core i5.)

Unlike the others, the Asus has four operating modes -- High Performance, Entertainment Mode, Quiet Office and Battery Saving -- that use different component settings to match real-world scenarios. A handy button above the keyboard lets you cycle through the choices, but when a selection is made, the screen goes blank for an annoying six seconds as the changes take effect.

Like the others, the Asus comes with 4GB of memory and no DVD drive; the company doesn't sell a matching external drive but you could buy a third-party model if you need to read or write to CDs or DVDs. The system's is a step above that of the IdeaPad and Vostro, with a 500GB hard drive rather than a 320GB one. (Drives ranging from 250GB to 750GB are available.)