I always go with ASUS motherboards in my PCs and they have always been reliable. Unfortunately that relates very little about their consumer mobile devices....
Yes I also read a lot of those (negative) reviews. But that's the thing with online reviews you get people on all sides. If you're looking for a $599-$799 build quality in a $349 device you're going to be disappointed but I read a number of reviews that also stated that for the performance and versatility you can't go wrong at this price point. So we'll see.
As I said I don't expect the build quality of this device to hold up for being ones primary laptop. But I'm thinking it could be fine for the laptop/tablet you throw in the backpack when traveling and/or consuming content from the couch.
Asus makes the Nexus 7 which is wildly popular but it's popular because of the price. It is a cheap device, is relatively easily damaged but the feel isn't that cheap. I have one of their monitors and it is fine - I'm not inclined to buy their PCs.
One problem is the similarity of their name to Acer.
My Asus zenbook prime ultrabook is great with the exception of the trackpad. I don't understand why windows laptops are so crappy with respect to MacBooks in this area.