Asus 55 3m laptop parameters. Asus X55S: a powerful laptop at a great price
ASUS has a very interesting type of laptops, it is called universal. What does this mean? In my opinion, a versatile laptop should take a small piece from each segment. It should be somewhat more powerful than a standard ultrabook, lighter than a gaming machine and have a longer battery life than the same gaming laptop. To be truly versatile, it must be 15 inches. This is exactly the size of a laptop when it (a laptop) can be carried with you, if necessary, and home computer he is able to replace without inconveniencing the user in terms of a small display. However, it turns out that a general-purpose laptop should not only be lighter than a gaming laptop, but also noticeably smaller and thinner. In addition to all of the above, it must have a significant set of various ports so that there are no connection problems. It's a funny mix, don't you think?
We will get acquainted with one of these laptops - ASUS K55D. This is a laptop with a screen diagonal of 15 inches, its weight is 2.3 kg. It is built on the AMD platform, has a quad-core processor with a very powerful video subsystem, and is not deprived of other functions inherent in home laptops. Its cost is about 19,000 rubles, which is very interesting. Let's study it in more detail in order to understand what kind of animal it is.
Notebook ASUS K55D
The laptop comes in a small cardboard box with a handle for easy transport. It weighs 2.3 kg (without power supply) - is it a lot or a little? Just right. Of course, it is felt in the hands, but if you need to carry a laptop, then this will not be a problem.
The laptop looks very harmonious. Its lid is decorated with subtle textures. There is nothing superfluous. Like a Christmas tree, the laptop does not shine, and this is very pleasing. In addition, it is not glossy, and therefore will not be forever dirty. I can’t call the laptop thin, but to say that it is thick (32 mm, including rubber feet) is also not a language to turn.
A modern laptop with excellent technical characteristics at a very "delicious" price. Competitors will not be sweet.
Asus X55S | Equipment
The laptop comes in a color box that shows the key points of testing a laptop. Inside the box were: the laptop itself, battery, charger, user manual, microfiber (to wipe the screen and case from dust), telephone wire, discs with software and branded ASUS mouse (small and very comfortable). Complete set is normal, except that the mouse pleased.
Asus X55S | Appearance and finish
The laptop is made with silver-black color. At first glance, one gets the feeling that this is a model for business people, but ASUS is positioning it as an entertainment one. The lid of the laptop is covered in silver, with reflective black on the bottom and top.
Everything inside is good, no frills. The screen frame is made of black plastic and looks somewhat simple, which is not typical for models of this level. The base looks much nicer - the keyboard is bordered by iridescent black, and the rest of the space is stylized as iron plastic. This creates the effect of completion and does not cause discomfort during work.
Infrequently, laptops on the AMD platform get into our laboratory. And, it seems, completely in vain. In the budget sector, a considerable number of interesting devices with Trinity processors have accumulated, combining affordable cost with low power consumption and decent graphics performance.
ASUS K55D is a full size laptop. It is equipped not only with a modern AMD processor, but also with a discrete graphics card Radeon HD 7470M and a terabyte hard drive, which allows us to consider the device as an inexpensive universal laptop, a multimedia replacement for a desktop.
Specifications
Appearance and ergonomics
Appearance ASUS K55D - discreet. Someone will call it too gray, even none. Partly it is. It is unlikely that lovers of glamorous things will see their potential laptop in this model. The dark brown plastic of the lid and bottom is really unimpressive in terms of aesthetics. But it is very practical thanks to the applied engraving: the owner does not have to constantly wipe the laptop to give it its original appearance.
The two halves of the laptop are connected by strong hinges that allow you to tilt the lid from the plane at a fairly large angle - about 148 degrees. Thus, this large laptop can be placed on your lap and work like that. By the way, it weighs 2.5 kilograms, which is good for a full-sized device with a discrete graphics card and an optical drive.
On the bottom you can see the battery and several grids of the cooling system for the release of hot air.
The battery is easy to remove, just push the two latches and pull towards you. The main radiator mesh is located on the left side of the ASUS K55D, VGA and HDMI connectors, RJ-45, and 2 USB 3.0 are quite densely placed next to it. On the other side of the grid, there was a place for the charger socket.
The right side sheltered an optical drive, USB 2.0 and audio jacks for a microphone and headphones. Ahead is a standard card reader.
The placement of the connectors is quite standard. I didn’t like only their too close proximity on the left side: it may turn out that USB devices will interfere with each other.
Display
ASUS K55D is equipped with a 15.6-inch LED-backlit screen with a resolution of 1366x768 pixels. The matrix here is TN, very simple and budget with an average color reproduction and brightness and small viewing angles. The last fact - alas! - somewhat eliminates the convenience of working with a laptop on your knees: even with a slight deviation in the angle of view, the colors on the screen are inverted.
However, given the budget laptop, there are no special claims to the matrix. That's when quite expensive models sin with such screens (which we periodically encounter), this is already unforgivable.
Keyboard
The keyboard made a double impression. On the one hand, despite the solid size, the keys seem too pressed against each other. And the point here is not that the keyboard is made in a fused style. Rather, it is that there is a digital block here, and everything that is located on the right is very compactified. In addition, the buttons here, as is often the case with inexpensive models, are distinguished by a viscous, not quite clear course. However, you can get used to it, and in a week I got used to typing quite freely. long texts. But the touchpad did not like. Although it is large, it is extremely uncomfortable and hard. I admit that the problem lies in a particular instance, since the recession of the touchpad into the case is slightly uneven.
Performance and system
The laptop is equipped with a quad-core processor A8-4500M with a native frequency of 1.9 GHz, 4 GB random access memory DDR3, AMD graphics cards Radeon HD 7470 and Radeon HD 7640G. This configuration contributes to the fast operation of the laptop. After we installed Windows 7 Ultimate on it (the computer is delivered “naked” to stores), we made sure that it works fast enough. PCMark 7 gave an average result of 1734 points, the score is operating system was low - 4.9. However, this score was the result of a "slack" desktop performance for Windows Aero, the rest of the indicators were kept at a decent level of 5.9, and the processor gave a good result of 6.6.
With graphics tests, everything is not bad at all: 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark 11 rated the system in performance mode at P3765 and P1158 points, respectively. This allows you to enjoy a variety of toys. I managed to play Deus Ex: Human Revolution on medium settings and I was satisfied.
A gigabyte hard drive in combination with an optical drive allows you to use a laptop as a video player with output via FullHD-image to big screen via HDMI. In general, in terms of performance, the laptop does not raise any remarks. It seemed to us that such a combination is very successful for a budget, but at the same time a quick solution. In addition, the laptop has an adequate and loud enough sound.
Autonomy, noise, heating
With the minimum brightness comfortable for reading, Wi-Fi turned on, the Battery Eater test read Hamlet in reading mode (yes, this is the book that the smart test "reads" by default!) for 4 hours 40 minutes, while during normal operation of the laptop it was enough three and a half hours. However, I do not rule out that a laptop out of the box with a healthy battery will work longer than our test sample. During performance tests, the left side of the keyboard got slightly warm, and moderately came out of the end adjacent to it. warm air. The noise of the laptop at the same time seemed insignificant to us. All this allows you to give the cooling system and noise a high rating.
Competitors
The laptop has a dime a dozen competitors, although if you're interested in the AMD platform with Trinity processors, their number is somewhat reduced. come to mind Lenovo IdeaPad Z575-A8 with an A8-3500M processor, which is somewhat worse than the hero of the review. But the competitor has a much more comfortable keyboard. Can compete with ASUS K55D and a variety of incarnations Acer Aspire V3 (for example, the V3 -551G closest to the hero of the review or the more productive V3-571G, which once visited our laboratory). Another competitor is the HP Pavilion dv6-6b06er, which has the same specs but a more refined look that you'll have to pay extra for.
Note: Specifications shown in the table may differ from the unit tested.
In the dry matter
Quite a decent solution for little money, ASUS K55D may appeal to those who need a productive universal laptop that replaces desktop computer for work, games (of course, not any, but very many) and entertainment. Such a typical student laptop, which is likely to last a long time and not break. Although it is difficult to call it exceptional, it has enough worthy competitors. Including those whose keyboard will be much more convenient.
3 reasons to buy ASUS K55D
- High performance;
- affordable cost;
- strong case and reliable assembly.
2 reasons not to buy ASUS K55D
- Small screen viewing angles;
- not the most comfortable keyboard and touchpad.
Each laptop manufacturer has successful models, and there are also unsuccessful ones. ASUS recently launched a very successful model on the market - Asus x55a. The model does not impress with its sky-high parameters or unrealistically stylish design. It is simply bought and bought very successfully. It is worth taking a closer look at this model, because the user audience is very rarely wrong.
The Asus x55a laptop is made in a strict, very concise design. It can be said that in appearance The gadget has found itself a minimalist style. There is nothing wrong with that, because the Asus x55a is a workhorse, not a desktop decoration. The case has a black color and is very pleasant to the touch - the surface is matte with an embossed texture. The matte surface is very pleasing, since the body does not collect fingerprints for a very, very long time. Although plastic is plastic for that - fingerprints still appear and are quite difficult to remove from the surface, the case is very durable and perfectly resists scratches.
Notebook size - 253x378x31 mm, weight - 2.48 kg. In terms of interfaces, the model is equipped with everything you need. On board there are a couple of USB ports (one 2.0, one 3.0), microphone and headphone jacks, LAN (RJ-45), VGA (D-Sub), HDMI. There is a card reader and an optical drive (DVD±RW DL). There were no creaks, backlashes or other remarks. The laptop is assembled soundly, the parts fit well, there are no gaps, the lid fits snugly to the body of the laptop.
The screen of the Asus x55a laptop can be called pretty good, it conveys the picture with high quality, the colors are very saturated and, at the same time, the shades are natural. The diagonal is 15.6 inches, the screen resolution is 1366 × 768 pixels (16:9 aspect ratio), the screen has LED backlight. The screen surface is glossy and this is the main disadvantage of the screen. On the street, the gloss begins to glare strongly, turning into a mirror. Viewing angles are not bad - 2 users can comfortably watch a movie from a laptop. Above the screen has a peephole 0.3 MPix camera for video calls.
Approaching the question of technical specifications, it should be noted that the Asus x55a is not a gaming laptop, it is rather designed for office, study or simple entertainment. So, under the body of the model lies a dual-core Intel processor Celeron B820 with clock frequency work 1.7 GHz (or B815 - 1.6 GHz). Therefore, you should not overload this computer with video processing, graphics, demanding games, or performing several tasks at once. But the Asus x55a laptop handles average tasks easily and naturally (photo processing, office applications, Internet surfing, Full HD video playback and simple games). RAM - 2 GB (DDR3 1333 MHz), Intel graphics card HD Graphics (for it is possible to play on this laptop thanks to the video card). Built-in video card, memory size - 769 MB (part of the system memory laptop). The RAM can be expanded up to 4 GB, but there is only one slot, so expansion is possible only by the “replacement” method, and not by “adding”. HDD Serial ATA 320~500 GB (5400 rpm).
The sound on Asus x55a is presented as speaker system ASUS SonicMaster and two speakers, the sound is very clear, the sound range is wide, the volume margin is decent, there is no extra noise.
The keyboard of this laptop deserves only flattering words - it is made very soundly, to the conscience - there are no deflections or annoying "clicks". You can find fault only with a small gap between the keys, but this is, precisely, a fault, this is not a drawback, you just need to get used to it. The touchpad is also not bad, the panel (large) does not have dedicated buttons, the entire area is working. You can work without a mouse very comfortably.
From wireless technologies data transmission models are represented by Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0. Everything works well, wifi module confidently seeks and holds nets. The battery capacity is 4400 mAh, with heavy work with a laptop, the battery will last for 3.5-4.0 hours.
The Asus x55a laptop is a very tempting offer, given its average price of 10-14 thousand rubles, it is quite difficult to remember five equal competitors at this price. The laptop suits a very wide audience both in terms of its parameters and its cost. An attempt to identify any significant shortcomings will fail. If we talk about minor shortcomings, then this is a small number of USB ports (2 pieces), a glossy display, an unusual keyboard, and, perhaps, that's all. All these shortcomings are more than covered by the low cost of the laptop. In any case, Asus has turned out to be a truly popular laptop, which cannot but be popular.
Screen resolution 1366x768 Number of processor cores 2 Type of video card built-in Type of hard drive HDD Weight 2.45 kg
