With the advent of numerous tablets featuring extremely compact form factors, the popularity of laptops seems to have taken a slight hit. At the same time, there are still many in the favor of the flapped mobile PC devices rather than the touch interface-enabled gizmos. Bigwigs like Acer, Asus, Sony and Lenovo have managed to churn out feature-rich notebooks that meet the requirements of today’s dynamic and progressive individuals. Asus has long been one of the dominant players in the market when it comes to pioneering stylish, yet functional laptops. The Asus N53SV featuring the 2nd generation Intel Core processor truly exudes elegance and combines top quality performance with affordability. So when it came knocking at our office door, these qualities compelled us to pen down an all inclusive review of the Asus N53SV laptop.
The N53SV arrived coupled with only the charger inside a chic and business-like black handbag. While removing the device from the case, we couldn’t help but notice the fact that it was actually quite bulky tipping the weighing scale at over 2.5kg. It exhibited a sophisticated design with a grey hued lid encompassing the Asus logo which was slightly off centre. This notebook does not incorporate any locking mechanism and we had to apply a bit of pressure to push open the lid. The first thing that caught our eyes was a colossal rectangular shaped metal speaker grill right below the lustrous widescreen. It incorporates a tasteful keypad layout with flattish keys which are quite the rage these days. The wrist rest has a pleasing wood-like design embracing its surface and the touch pad isn’t quite noticeable as it is camouflaged by the wrist rest. The shiny black metallic bar-style button meant for translating left and right click commands is placed right below the touch pad. We were quite impressed by the overall sturdy build of the device and the way its hinges held the screen to the rest of the chassis.
A few special media keys could be found above the keyboard for controlling the volume output. There is also a play/pause button for direct multimedia control and on/off switch is part of the same strip on the right edge. A mini cooling exhaust vent was placed on the right side along with an HDMI port, RJ45 LAN port, a 3-in-1 card reader slot and two USB 2.0 ports. The right side is doused with a DVD/CD loading tray, two more USB ports and microphone and audio S/PDIF terminals. The back edge houses a single charging input port for ease while juicing up the notebook along with a Kensington security slot and a VGA port. This portable PC booted after almost half a minute and we decided to check out the keypad. It provided us with much needed comfort while typing and the tactile feedback offered by these keys is really noteworthy.
Asus has sought to reduce unnecessary trouble while resorting to data entries or lengthy calculations by providing a committed numeric pad. We could glide our fingertips smoothly across the track pad surface without any glitches for better navigation control. The laptop boasts of a 15.6″ 16:9 full HD LED backlit display that employs Asus Splendid Video Intelligent technology. It proffers remarkable clarity courtesy 1366 x 768p resolution in any lighting condition including direct sunlight. Unlike most notebooks, this gadget blew us away with its amazing sound quality rendered by Bang & Olufsen ICEpower and it seemed just as good on connecting the earphones. The company deserves a pat on the back as the sound didn’t suffer any distortions and maintained its superior quality even when the volume was turned up to almost 95 percent. Overall, the N53SV can be safely said to have an excellent sound quality in comparison to other multimedia notebooks we’ve reviewed.
It is powered by the Intel Corei7 2630QM2GHz processor and runs on Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate OS for delivering enhanced performance on the device. The integrated Asus Lifeframe 2MP web camera presented us with good clarity when clicking pictures. The webcam came with exciting features like filters, frames, stamps and more to spruce up captured images. Even the video recording quality turned out to be fairly fine compare to other laptops. Since the gizmo doesn’t claim to be a gaming optimized machine, it can surely cater to casual gamers’ needs at least. It deploys an Nvidia GeForce GT 540M discrete graphics processing unit with 1GB DDR3 VRAM for satiating simple gaming requirements and for conveying smooth visuals. It offers users with options to change video image settings, however switching to and applying the Nvidia settings did not affect the general video quality at all. We could seamlessly multi-task between numerous programs like viewing a movie, working on word documents and clicking pictures without any time lag. Our web surfing experience was extremely impeccable as we could efficiently browse through multiple websites simultaneously sans any sluggish impediment.
However, we were quite disappointed with the battery life as it barely gave us around two and half hours of usage with one hour of movie watching and another one and half hour of multi-tasking in the Power4Gear Entertainment mode. Employing the alternate Power4Gear Battery Saving mode proffered us around five hours of battery life with the same usage pattern. So considering slightly above average usage, it manages to remain powered for only about three hours in entertainment mode and for about six hours in battery saving mode. When working on the device for a long time its base region gets moderately heated, while the upper wrist rest region starts becoming uncomfortably hotter.
To round it up, the Asus offering seamlessly combines elegance with high-end functionality. This portable PC is capable of appeasing both business as well as personal entertainment needs. It proffers excellent audio quality coupled with notable graphics and Intel’s latest 2nd generation core processors. But it faltered and tripped over when it came to the battery life. For all those tech savvy folks yearning to lay their hands on a feature-rich and chic laptop, the Asus N53SV seems like a worthy option. The notebook comes with a price tag of around Rs. 60,000 and manages to score a 9 out of 10 on our rating scale.
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