Mar 27 2011, 05:13 AM, updated 15y ago
So here is my review
Specs ~ http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=x8kw5iLRkgwTkczK
Picture ~ http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-N...ok.43709.0.html (although its says SV but it has the same build design as the SN)
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Ok so lets start with the appearance
At 1st look,dam is awesome and it looks so heavy cause of the usage of metalic meterials....by the looks. To my surprise, its actually quite light for a 15 inch. Compared to the y560p, the N53SN is lighter. The adapter is also slightly lighter. This laptop seriously have a nice and sleek design. It looks so clean,simple and elegant specially the sides. I really like the curves at sides
.Also I would like to comment bout the screen.....the tension is really strong. Although you cant open it with one hand, but when your carrying, there wont be a gap between the keyboard and screen unlike some laptops. Also the lid can be open till around 120 degrees. Might be a slight drawback as most laptop can open until 140 degrees or more.
I would also like to point out that this screen is really amazing. Looking at it from different angles.....there is not much washout.
Moving on to the speakers
The speaker is by Bang & Olufsen. I never heard of this brand before till i watch the movie The Devil Wears Prada which shows all those high fashion stuff and B&O is in it???
. The speakers really looks nice on the laptop...seriously. But there is a problem........its not a very good speaker. Compare it to the y560p JBL speakers and other laptop speakers, the Sonic Master software does not make much of a diff. Only a little. Plus when the Surround option is highest, you can hear some distortion on the speakers which is really really obvious. The bass also sucks. Its not deep and rich enough. This laptop really should use a subwoofer since its almost design to perfection.Now on to the keyboard and touchpad
Many website review says the keyboard sucks, but IMO, the keyboard is ok except the F1,F2... and the right side of the keyboard. I cant really diff shape F4, F5 and F8 with F9 cause there is no divider!!!! Also looking at the arrow keys, its looks like its being force inside there. Whenever i want to press right button i will sure mistakenly press 0. But anyway adding the Number pad is a big bonus plus touching the keyboard feels really nice.
As for the touchpad.....its really really sensitive but the button sucks. But thats what USB mouse is for right??? The left and right button needs alot of force to press. And sometimes i mistakenly press the middle, which does not do anythin, Because there is no bloody divider!!!!. I heard that Asus is famous for having one of the worst touchpad btw. But still theres multigesture
Dam i really miss the y560p keyboard and touchpad. Honestly Lenovo has the best keyboard...and maybe touchpad.
And on the crappy preloaded software
Honestly i got to say Asus is really dumb for putting to much software. To boot up to windows almost took me 3 minutes to startup and thats before i delete any drivers of software. Not only that i just delete some unnesecery software and suddenly....poof my ATK driver and Asus Splendid etc is gone. This is crap man. 1st time stating up the laptop and it takes dam long. I thought Asus is famous for having fast boot up time.
Seriously when you get this laptop, reformat it to factory default and don't think twice like I did. After installing SP1 i lazy wan reformat d.
Oh yea.....there is no DirectX software but full of other crappy software so please rmb to download it from Microsoft.
Anyway im not done reviewing yet as I still have not try it on heavy games, bettery life, temps, etc so stay tune
Added on March 27, 2011, 5:15 am
So just now I Installed DirectX 11.....even though i ran dxdiag and it says the laptop already had DirectX11. I guess Asus really did screw up the preload softwares.
Anyway, moving on to benchmark and temps.
Tried on Lost Planet 2 with AA 4x everything high except directX 11. 1st benchmark DirectX11 is medium and 2nd is low.
I think this game should run at DirectX11 low with AA off and texture medium. Also i would like to point out bout the speakers during gaming. Its ok la like a normal speakers but no surround sound during gaming even though Sonic Master is on
. Connect to my Sonic Gear Tatoo Duo 3 even way better laAlso i want to share with you guys one thing i find weird. On the Lenovo Y560P, Windows Experience Index was 5.9 but on the Asus N53SN was 5.6
Big difference. The N53SN has same specs with the y560p but a better GPU and lesser HDD space and still 5.6?????
Anyway i tried Black Ops and it run smooth with everything highest
Ok now on to the battery life on High Performance Mode
I would say its way better than the y560p. The N53sn can last for 2hours 40min while web browsing, windows background in slide show every 10 sec, brightness 40%, CPU meter pair with core temp monitoring gadget and disk drive monitoring gadgets. Its 40min more than the y560p!!!! This is the benefit of having intel's GPU. Unlike the y560p which cannot switch
. Btw its running on battery in High Performance mode. I have not try on Battery Saving Mode but you can expect it to last longer than 2hours 40min la. As for charging time, I would say 1% for every 1min. You do the maths
As requested by cowithgun I did a benchmark on Final Fantasy online and its quite smooth and it ran on Nv.
Battery Life on Battery Saving Mode
On the battery saving mode, guess what......it can last around 4 hours 30 min till 5 hours!!!! No joke
When i did this test, there are few monitoring gadgets running the whole time, 30% brightness and web browsing btw. Not sure whether will do much diff. If it does, then can last more than 5hours!!!! Seriously this laptop is really long lasting if you put it on Battery Saving Mode and it packs alot of power when you need it.
On battery saving mode, windows background is change to an Asus wallpaper which only consists of black and white. Plus no slide show. Besides that the windows taskbar is not transparent but invisible(only appears when you move your mouse to where the taskbar suppose to be). Also I think in this mode, the CPU is limit to a few percent so it wont use alot of "juice"
I really can't believe it, few changes can make more than 2hours diff
Edit : Longest battery I archive with N53SN ~ 5 Hours 15 Minute
Just for those of you who were worried that the preloaded software cause too much trouble, just reformat everything to factory default and delete those program you think you won't be using. Also remember to use Asus Fast Boot to delay some programs on startup. Follow all these steps and you will get this boot up time like I did
For Asus N53 owners, this a guide to decrease boot up time
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This post has been edited by Trance4eva: May 8 2011, 01:15 PM
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