Model: ASUS N53J
Manufacturer: ASUS
Price: £750 or below
Availabilty: Available Now!
If you’ve been paying attention recently, you’ll understand that we at Sporkings love laptops. We’ve reviewed the very top end (price wise) of the spectrum, so we thought next we should take a look at something slightly more affordable.
The ASUS N53J sets out to prove that quality can be purchased at a lower price point, does it achieve this, or fall flat?
AESTHETICS: “Oooh Shiny” might be the first thing you’ll hear if you are with people when you open the box for the first time. The ASUS N53J is a rather slimline and lightweight laptop that is pleasing on the eye. It bulges slightly toward the rear due to the Bang and Olufson speaker and thus, looks slightly awkward from a side view.
Open it up though, and you are greeted with a very friendly looking keyboard and mouse, a beautiful looking screen and a huge, almost futuristic looking speaker bar. As mentioned, the ASUS is pretty lightweight, and certainly more mobile for that fact compared to more highly powered laptops out there. Whilst it’s not the best looking laptop ever to grace the market, it’s perfectly fine the way it is.
PERFORMANCE: The most apt thing to say about this laptop is that it will never let you down. Throughout our testing, the laptop didn’t crash once, which is always a good sign. Everything you might have come to expect from a modern day laptop is present and correct, with integrated webcam, built in wi-fi, everything is good to go right out of the box.
We used the ASUS to record one of the GodisaGeek podcasts, and it performed absolutely fine, the wi-fi card excelling, and afterwards, it never faltered during the editing process. Whilst not a powerhouse of a laptop, as mentioned before, this unit won’t let you down.
The Bang & Olufsen speaker bar is surely a selling point for this unit, and it sounds fantastic. It might take you by surprise how crystal clear and lovely it sounds at first, but all told, the trade-off between having a slightly bulkier speaker bar and having a superb quality audio performance is most definitely worth it.
Media wise, it comes equipped with a standard dvd player, which is a shame, as a blu-ray player combined with the built in wi-fi and the aforementioned Bang & Olufsen speaker bar, would mean you have a very capable media laptop right out of the box!
SPECIFICATIONS:
- Screen: 15.6″, 1366×768, glare, LED
- CPU: Intel Core i5-540M, 2,53 GHz, 3 MB cache, 3,06 GHz Turbo, 35 W TDP
- Chipset: Intel HM55
- RAM: 4 GB DDR3, 1066 MHz
- Integrated Video: Intel HD Graphics
- Dedicated Video: Nvidia GeForce GT 335M, 1 GHz, 1 GB VRAM
- HDD: 640 GB, 5.400 RPM, 8 MB buffer, Samsung
- Optical Drive: DVD RW
- Network: LAN, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth
- Connectors: 2 x USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.0, eSATA, HDMI, VGA, LAN, 2 x audio SonicMaster
- Battery: Li-polimer, 6 cells , 4.400 mAh, 48 Wh
- Dimensions: 391 x 266 x 29-39 mm
- Weight: 2,71 kg
VERDICT: If you are looking for a laptop to play the latest games with the highest possible specifications, you will almost certainly have to look elsewhere. It’s unfair to dismiss the N53J because of this though, as it isn’t marketed as a gaming laptop.
However, if you are looking for a decent laptop to use around the home or office, you could do a lot worse than the ASUS N53J. It won’t let you down when it comes to day-to-day tasks and procedures, even able to be used as a basic audio editing laptop. The Bang & Olufsen speaker bar is absolutely wonderful, and enhances the device no end, making it an excellent choice if you are looking for a laptop to play all manner of media on.
