actually you can toggle between the function keys and shortcuts like brightness,volume etc making changes in BIOS settings or like in my dell laptop i use quickset program to change how my function keys behave.
My Computer
At a glance
Windows 8 Prointel i3 2.40 Ghz6 GB RAMIntegrated Intel HD
What's the difference between doing that (holding down the Fn key and pressing the appropriate function key) and normal typing, where you hold down the Shift key to temporarily switch between upper/lower case and to enter the symbols printed on the numeric keys?
My Computer
At a glance
Windows 8.1 Pro RTM x64Intel Core-i5-3570K 4-core @ 3.4GHz (Ivy Brid...4 x 4GB DDR3-1600 Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2...MSI GeForce GTX770 Gaming OC 2GB
4 x 4GB DDR3-1600 Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B (16GB)
Graphics Card(s)
MSI GeForce GTX770 Gaming OC 2GB
Sound Card
Realtek High Definition on board solution (ALC 898)
Monitor(s) Displays
ViewSonic VA1912w Widescreen (VGA)
Screen Resolution
1440x900
Hard Drives
OCZ Agility 3 SSD 120GB SATA III x2 (RAID 0)
Samsung HD501LJ 500GB SATA II x2
Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 1TB SATA II
Iomega 1.5TB Ext USB 2.0
WD 2.0TB Ext USB 3.0
There should be an ASUS HotKey utility on your laptop that enables you to switch these functions around. If not, downoad it from the Asus support website.