To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more

Asus X53E review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £500
inc VAT

The X53E's fast processor makes it a powerful laptop for the money, but it cuts too many corners to keep the price down

The Asus X53E is a Comet exclusive, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s a bargain-basement model, because it isn’t. It has Intel’s Core i7 processor inside it. It’s also a close cousin of the Asus K53SC, and it’s well built too, although Asus has cut some corners to keep the X53E’s cost down. There’s only 320GB of hard disk space, for example, and it doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card, which means it isn’t suitable for those who want to fire up a game now and then.

Asus X53E

It shares its chassis design with the slightly more expensive Asus K53SC, although its metallic-finish keyboard panel is a passionate red rather than the K53SC’s more staid brown. Also, it only has three USB ports, and none is of the faster USB3 variety, which is a shame. Instead of the K53SC’s dedicated Nvidia graphics chip, you have to rely on the Core i7’s integrated Intel graphics chip, which can decode HD video content but isn’t suitable for gaming. It only scored 14fps in our Dirt3 benchmark.

A cramped numberpad sits to the right of the keyboard, and we reckon Asus could have spread things out a bit more if it had added about a centimetre on each side of the keyboard. At least the layout is standard, with the Control key being situated in the bottom-left corner and the Function key being situated to its right, modifying the F1-F12 keys so that they activate shortcuts such as volume, brightness and Wi-Fi.

Asus X53E

There’s a bit of flex in the keyboard, but there’s not enough to dull feedback, which is amply provided by the keys themselves. Their light action has a definite bite at the top of the keystroke, and although their flat tops are a bit slippery, they’re well spaced, which means there’s less chance of hitting a neighbouring key by mistake.

A large and responsive touchpad provides cursor control. It doesn’t have scrolling areas, relying instead on two-fingered multi-touch gestures for both vertical and horizontal scrolling. Two large buttons sit underneath.

Pages: 1 2

Basic Specifications

Rating****
ProcessorIntel Core i7-2630QM
Processor clock speed2GHz
Memory4.00GB
Memory slots2
Memory slots free0
Maximum memory8GB
Size36x377x252mm
Weight2.6kg
SoundRealtek HD Audio
Pointing devicetouchpad

Display

Viewable size15.6 in
Native resolution1,366×768
Graphics ProcessorIntel HD Graphics 3000
Graphics/video portsVGA, HDMI
Graphics Memory192MB

Storage

Total storage capacity320GB
Optical drive typeDVD+/-RW +/-DL

Ports and Expansion

USB ports3
Bluetoothno
Wired network ports1x 10/100
Wireless networking support802.11n
PC Card slotsnone
Supported memory cardsSDHC, MMC, Memory Stick Pro/Duo, xD
Other portsminijack audio output, minijack microphone input

Miscellaneous

Carrying caseNo
Operating systemWindows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore optionrestore partition
Software includedMicrosoft Office 2010 Starter, CyberLink Power2Go v6

Buying Information

Warrantyone year RTB
Price£500
Detailshttp://uk.asus.com
Supplierhttp://www.comet.co.uk

Read more

Reviews