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Asus X53Z review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £369
inc VAT

Not quite the bargain it initially appears to be, but the X53Z is still a good buy for anyone on a tight budget

Asus is renowned for products that offer great value for money, but even we were surprised when we read the specification for its latest budget laptop. Despite its 15in screen, 500GB hard disk and dual-core processor, the very inexpensive X53Z isn’t going to break the bank. If you’re looking for a laptop that covers all the basics, the X53Z could be the laptop for you.

Asus X53Z

An AMD Llano A4 processor provides its desktop power, so the X53Z isn’t immensely fast, and even though its 1.9GHz dual-core chip can reach 2.5GHz using AMD’s Turbo Core feature, it only managed an overall score of 23 in our multimedia benchmarks. We could run everyday applications smoothly, and we even ran several at the same time thanks to its 6GB of RAM, but more CPU-intensive applications slow the system down.

Its graphics performance is also average, despite its integrated GPU supporting DirectX 11 and sharing plenty of system RAM. The Radeon 6480G could only manage 16.4fps in our demanding Dirt 3 test, which proves that you’ll need to reduce extra detail settings, such as anti-aliasing, if you want to achieve a playable frame rate. Older games should still be playable, though.

It might not be the fastest performer, but the X53Z certainly surprised us with its excellent battery life, and it even managed to last over seven hours in our light-use test, despite having a power-draining 15in screen. If you stick to simple tasks, such as word processing or web browsing, you should be able to last nearly a whole working day away from the mains.

Asus X53Z

The X53Z coped reasonably well in everyday use thanks to its comfortable keyboard. The full-size keys are very tightly grouped, but are still large enough that we rarely made any typing mistakes. There’s room for a numerical keypad and each key has plenty of bounce. We also appreciated the large touchpad, which has two physical buttons located directly beneath it. They have plenty of tactile feedback, so we were always sure that our clicks had registered.

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Basic Specifications

Rating****
ProcessorAMD A4-3300
Processor clock speed1.9GHz
Memory6.00GB
Memory slots2
Memory slots free0
Maximum memory8GB
Size34x378x253mm
Weight2.6kg
SoundRealtek HD Audio
Pointing devicetouchpad

Display

Viewable size15.6 in
Native resolution1,366×768
Graphics ProcessorAMD Radeon 6480G
Graphics/video portsHDMI, VGA
Graphics Memory1,024MB

Storage

Total storage capacity500GB
Optical drive typeDVD+/-RW +/-DL

Ports and Expansion

USB ports3
Bluetoothyes
Wired network ports1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support802.11n
PC Card slotsnone
Supported memory cardsSDHC, MMC, Memory Stick Pro
Other portsminijack audio output, minijack microphone input, 1x USB3

Miscellaneous

Carrying caseNo
Operating systemWindows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore optionrestore partition
Software includedMicrosoft Office 2010 Starter Edition
Optional extrasnone

Buying Information

Warrantyone year RTB
Price£369
Detailswww.asus.com
Supplierhttp://www.ebuyer.com

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