Asus N55SF Review: Bright, Fast, and Booming

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Better-than-average screen and good
Good well-rounded performance, including along games

Cons

On the pricey side
Middling shelling life

Our Verdict

Excellent performance and multimedia features make this desktop replacement a nearly utopian student residence room companion.

Patc the Asus N55SF may not embody the speediest desktop replacement laptop that PCWorld has ever time-tested, it's tranquilize darn fast. It also offers moral gaming put rates, and delivers substantially better-than-moderate sound and video. At only $1249 (as of November 9, 2011), it's about a third the toll of top-performing desktop substitution laptops, too. Unless you need workstation muscle, IT should be on your short list.

The N55SF's WorldBench 6 score of 128, piece not record-place setting, is still real good, and about what you'd expect from an Intel Core i7-2630M processor and an Nvidia GeForce GT 555M GPU. The main differences between the N55SF and some of its faster, pricier rivals, such as the Dingle M6600, are that the CPU and GPU both sit a couple notches dispirited from the top of the scale and the GPU isn't workstation-class (put differently, OpenGL and CAD optimized). That said, you'll find games playable at any resolution and detail, unretentive of ultrahigh detail at 1920 by 1080.

The rest of the N55SF componentry includes 8GB of DDR3 computer storage and a 7200-rev, 750GB hard drive. The array of ports consists of two USB 3.0 connections, two USB 2.0 ports, VGA and HDMI video-down, and an SDHC/MultiMediaCard slot. The webcam is high-definition, and connectivity includes 802.11b/g/n wireless, gigabit ethernet, and Bluetooth 3.0.

The N55SF besides has a BD/DVD burner, which brings me to the 16-inch, 1920 by 1080, LED-backlit display: It does a supernatural job of displaying Blu-ray and other HD movies. It offers an passing sharp prototype, and is a heap brighter than average; you'll probably find yourself turning the brightness down several notches low-level most circumstances. The screen also provides an exceptionally wide viewing angle.

The input devices on the N55SF are both mesmerizing and a pleasure to use. The euphonous keyboard is nearly broad size, and has a better-than-average feel for. You'll find a full numeric keypad as well as a William Christopher Handy newspaper column of multimedia system keys at the left of the social unit that set aside you to start and stop playback, as healed as muffle the sound and raise/take down the volume. The power, Wi-Fi, and other switches also reside along the top row of keys. The concept of integrating all the buttons and switches into the keyboard works quite well.

Although the touchpad and buttons are the unchanged color and texture every bit the keyboard embellish, grooves along the edges delineate them both visually and tactilely. Some are nicely responsive. The semiglossy texture (if a texture could be said to be semiglossy) is quite enjoyably so.

The Bang and Olufsen ICEpower sound on the N55SF is exceptional, though you'll need to plug the included mini-subwoofer into its dedicated port to get the full know when hearing through speakers. The subwoofer adds the bass that's unremarkably missing from the vast majority of laptops; information technology's other particular to pack and carry, however, and IT isn't particularly svelte, albeit same light. Naturally, the N55SF is not a laptop you'll necessarily want to tote around a lot: It weighs 6.2 pounds, and battery life is sound for the class at 3 hours, 52 minutes.

A small part of the reason that the N55SF costs less than the competition is that it ships with the Home Premium version of Windows 7 instead of the Professional edition. That choice reinforces the laptop computer's envisioned purpose equally a PC/amusement box for dorms or small apartments, as does Asus's determination to bundle CyberLink MediaEspresso, PowerDVD, and PowerDirector, plus another medicine and video software. Asus also provides SonicMaster, an SRS-like bass, spatial, and frequency enhancer designed to help out with the audio, as well as to partly compensate for the lack of bass if you leave the subwoofer behind.

Asus backs the N55SF with a two-year guarantee, a nice privilege with any product. But then, the companion might take over incomprehensible a styling stake aside non rendering the smooth unit in semigloss: The top of the machine and the screen bezel are a full-gloss black that, in my eyes, cheapens the appeal of what is nigh decidedly non a floozy of a laptop.

The Asus N55SF will appeal to anyone WHO wants great performance also as a 1080p/Blu-ray motion picture viewer, a stereo, and a competent gaming machine in a svelte parcel. For the cost, you North Korean won't do improved.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/478116/asus_n55sf_bright_fast_and_booming.html

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