Asus is the synonym of value for money when it comes to choosing laptops. Their latest K50IJ series is a full size budget notebook but has enough power to please those who are looking for a laptop with decent performance. If you are not expecting much from this budget priced laptop, then you’ll be surprised to see what you get for the amount of money spent on it. But does this laptop has enough performance to be really considered as an excellent desktop replacement. We have made a review to find the answer. Have a go.
Design
On the outside the new K50IJ looks nothing flashy or creative with its design. It looks very much ‘laptop’ish’ and its full size build and about six pound weight is not suitable for carrying around with. However, the build quality does not feel very cheap. The quality of the plastics used to make it feels very good and there is no flex under pressure. Overall, the build quality is good enough for use within your house but not rugged enough to be carried around everyday in your backpack.
Performance
The standard system comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 Processor clocking at 2.1 GHz and a whopping 4GB of single card RAM. There are no more slots for expanding the RAM but I think you won’t be needing that as the 4GB RAM would be enough for loading all your applications for the few years to come. Performance of the system was way above the competitors like HP Pavilion DV2 which falls in its price range. It handles resource hungry Windows Vista with ease and constantly switching between multiple tabs in internet browser was no problem when there was a video being encoded and music playing in the background. The 5400 rpm 250GB HDD also has good enough performance.
Display
The display is a 15.6 inch high definition panel with 1366 X 768 Pixels resolution. Colors and contrast of the display was really good with good and even spread brightness with LED backlighting. The vertical viewing angles were average with colors beginning to wash out if seen from above and a bit inverted when seen from below. The horizontal angles were, on the other hand, far superior. You can share this screen with a couple of your friends while watching a movie on its screen.
Graphics
To our disappointment the system comes with a Intel X4500M integrated graphics rather than using a dedicated nVidia Graphics. Although the graphics provides enough performance for rendering using Photoshop CS4 or playing 1080p full HD movies without any jerks, it is underpowered for any serious 3D gaming.
Keyboard
The keyboard is very good with nice and large keys with good spacing between the keys. The feedback of the keys were also very good. The only thing we can expect from this keyboard is the presence of any sort of backlighting under the keys.
TouchPad
The touchpad is large and very comfortable to use. The buttons are also large and have audible clicks when pressed. There is also multitouch capabilities which doesn’t work well like many other touchpads with multitouch systems. Also, the touchpad lacks some response while moving the cursor at high speeds.
Ports
The notebook has all the necessary ports but we would have liked some more ports on this device. There is a headphone and microphone jack, 2 USB Ports, VGA Out, Ethernet and power jack on the right and an optical drive and two more USB port on the left. There is a 3-in-1 memory card slot in the front and dual Kensington lock slot in back. Overall, the port selection is barely minimal and we would have liked an HDMI Port, a FireWire Port, eSATA Port, Express Card Slot in this laptop which are found on most other 15 inch laptops these days.
Audio
We are really impressed with the sound quality of that the Altec Lansing Speakers delivered. The speakers delivered good sound without distortions and both the high and low end of the music was clear. The only thing we can suggest to a laptop of this size is a dedicated subwoofer to boost those bass range sounds.
Battery
The system comes with a six cell battery which is only enough to power the system for four hours with normal usage in power saver mode. In high workload expect the system to run about two and a half hours, Clearly, the system doesn’t have enough battery capacity to be carried out without the charger.
Price
It is available with standard configuration under $700. This pricing is really competitive to grasp the market of budget full size notebooks.
Pros
- Full size 15 inch display with nice color and brightness
- Good full sized keyboard
- Good Performance at an affordable price
- Good Subtle Design
Cons
- Barely Minimal Ports
- Upgradeability is limited
- TouchPad Response not good at high speed movement of cursor
- Integrated Graphics not good enough for any 3D gaming
Conclusion
If you are happy with its ports and won’t need to upgrade the system anytime soon, you won’t find any better performer than Asus K50IJ in its price range. If you can spend a few bucks more, the HP Pavilion DV2 will give better gaming performance and with some more you’ll get another great performer like Dell Studio 15.At the end of the day, the Asus K50IJ is a good laptop providing the value for the money and nothing more.
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