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1/19/2011 10:36:00 pm
H-Q777
Design
The brown mocha frame seems very ordinary from a slight distance, but you can't fully appreciate the design until you put your hands on it. The plastic feels like synthetic leather, while the interior of the laptop is covered in aluminum—a nice play on two of the most commonly used materials in laptop designs. Though the design isn't the caliber of the aluminum-covered Apple 15-inch (Thunderbolt) and Dell XPS 15 (Sandy Bridge) ($1,785 direct, 4 stars), the K53E-B1 is a better looking laptop than the Samsung RF510-S01US ($750 street, 3.5 stars) and Dell Inspiron 15R-1847MRB ($730 list, 3.5 stars). At 5.8 pounds, it's only a few ounces heavier than the Apple 15-inch (5.5 lbs).
The brown mocha frame seems very ordinary from a slight distance, but you can't fully appreciate the design until you put your hands on it. The plastic feels like synthetic leather, while the interior of the laptop is covered in aluminum—a nice play on two of the most commonly used materials in laptop designs. Though the design isn't the caliber of the aluminum-covered Apple 15-inch (Thunderbolt) and Dell XPS 15 (Sandy Bridge) ($1,785 direct, 4 stars), the K53E-B1 is a better looking laptop than the Samsung RF510-S01US ($750 street, 3.5 stars) and Dell Inspiron 15R-1847MRB ($730 list, 3.5 stars). At 5.8 pounds, it's only a few ounces heavier than the Apple 15-inch (5.5 lbs).
The 15.6-inch widescreen is adequately bright, with good viewing angles. Its 1,366-by-768 resolution is boilerplate, although you'll rarely see anything higher at this price. By comparison, the Dell XPS 15 (1,920-by-1,080) and Apple MacBook Pro (1,680-by-1,050) offer high-resolution screens. The full size keyboard is better than some of Asus's other models, namely the Asus N53SV-A1($1,099 list, 4 stars). I didn't detect any flexing in the center of the keyboard, and the chiclet keys were as responsive as those of the Dell XPS 15 and MacBook Pro. The keyboard is accompanied by an adjacent numeric keypad, albeit one with half-size keys. Loud clicking noises from the mouse buttons are my only complaints about this laptop; they can be heard from the other side of the room.
Features
The feature set isn't going to blow you away, but it's adequate for a desktop replacement. It comes with three USB 2.0 ports; the Samsung RF510-S01US and Dell XPS 15 raised the bar with USB 3.0 ports, which transfers data at ten times the speed of USB 2.0. It has a dual layer DVD burner and an HDMI port, in case you want to connect the laptop to an HDTV to watch a Netflix DVD. The 640GB, 5,400rpm hard drive has more than enough storage for the average videophile. Pricier systems like the Dell XPS 15 and Asus N53SV-A1 come with faster spinning 750GB, 7,200rpm drives. There's a standard Webcam for video chatting, along with a media card slot in the front bezel.
The feature set isn't going to blow you away, but it's adequate for a desktop replacement. It comes with three USB 2.0 ports; the Samsung RF510-S01US and Dell XPS 15 raised the bar with USB 3.0 ports, which transfers data at ten times the speed of USB 2.0. It has a dual layer DVD burner and an HDMI port, in case you want to connect the laptop to an HDTV to watch a Netflix DVD. The 640GB, 5,400rpm hard drive has more than enough storage for the average videophile. Pricier systems like the Dell XPS 15 and Asus N53SV-A1 come with faster spinning 750GB, 7,200rpm drives. There's a standard Webcam for video chatting, along with a media card slot in the front bezel.
Performance
The laptop is equipped with a 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-2520M CPU, a dual-core processor based on Sandy Bridge architecture. Granted it's no match for the quad-core variants found in the Dell XPS 15, Apple 15-inch, and Asus N53SV-A1, but it'll easily blow past any previous-generation Core i5 competitor. Case in point: The K53E-B1 dominated the Samsung RF510-S01US and Dell 15R-1847MRB, which run on previous-gen Core processors, in every single one of our benchmark tests. On our Adobe Photoshop CS5 tests, the K53E-B1 scored 3 hours 51 minutes, its 6GB of DRR3 memory helping it power past the Apple MacBook Pro (3:58) and Dell XPS 15 (4:06). This is a ferocious video and photo editing laptop.
The laptop is equipped with a 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-2520M CPU, a dual-core processor based on Sandy Bridge architecture. Granted it's no match for the quad-core variants found in the Dell XPS 15, Apple 15-inch, and Asus N53SV-A1, but it'll easily blow past any previous-generation Core i5 competitor. Case in point: The K53E-B1 dominated the Samsung RF510-S01US and Dell 15R-1847MRB, which run on previous-gen Core processors, in every single one of our benchmark tests. On our Adobe Photoshop CS5 tests, the K53E-B1 scored 3 hours 51 minutes, its 6GB of DRR3 memory helping it power past the Apple MacBook Pro (3:58) and Dell XPS 15 (4:06). This is a ferocious video and photo editing laptop.All the Sandy Bridge laptops that have been tested thus far have powerful gaming chips. The K53E-B1 relies on integrated graphics, which, traditionally, have been written off in the gaming industry. But Sandy Bridge brings with it an integrated graphics chip that's many times more powerful (according to 3DMark06 and Crysis tests) than that of its predecessor, so it can handle many 3D games at base settings. If you want to max out every graphics detail, a discrete chip is still the way to go.
There are battery benefits that come with Sandy Bridge, although the K53E-B1's battery score of 6 hours 26 minutes in MobileMark 2007 wouldn't have been possible without a decent size battery (56WH). It's a bigger battery than the one found in the Samsung RF510 (48WH) and Dell Inspiron 15R (48WH), both of which scored 3:28 in the same test. More powerful laptops like the Dell XPS 15 (92WH, 6:58) and MacBook Pro (77.5WH, 6:43) temper their hardcore parts with much bigger batteries, yet their scores were only marginally better than the K53E-B1.
Rest assured the Asus K53E-B1 won't be the last desktop replacement with this kind of power and battery life. You will be seeing many other similar Intel Core processors and integrated graphics based on the Sandy Bridge architecture. Nevertheless, the K53E-B1 is priced accordingly, a solid performer, and beautifully designed. But the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) still rules this category.
by Cisco cheng pcmag
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