ASUS K50IJ-X8 15.6-Inch Laptop Review
December 16th, 2009
ASUS K50IJ-X8 15.6-Inch Black Versatile Entertainment Laptop Review from Customer. Capable value notebook, (Re-wrote this review 12/6/09)
This is an excellent budget notebook with a 15.6″ screen that’s only 5.8 lbs. We just bought two for my wife’s parents (don’t buy it for 3D games, as it has integrated graphics, but office apps and browsing are fine).
Pros:
- T6600 Core 2 Duo (not the Pentium Dual Core, lower-end C2D, ULVs, or Atoms)
- Relatively quiet and light (5.8 lbs)
- Big hard drive (mine had a Seagate Momentus 5400.6)
- Screen has relatively good viewing angles, horizontal and vertical
- Pretty good fit and finish for a plastic casing (although there’s a somewhat flimsy lid that is separate from the battery)
- 4 USB ports
- VGA output is crisp (to 1280×1024, didn’t try bigger)
- I haven’t noticed the palm rest getting warm at all … but you’re not playing 3D games are you?
- You can select one language during boot up that’s set forever, that is, until you restore from the recovery partition. The first time I chose Traditional Chinese. Works great. I restored (press F9 at boot) and selected English. Works great, didn’t need to put in DVDs, and all the software reappeared. I even choose the option to use one C: drive, instead of the default 60% C:, 40% D:.
- Opening the notebook casing is easy — find the “electronic – hardware” version (not the “hardware” version) of the manual on Asus’s web site (search for K50, then click Download, then Manuals). The hard drive is easily replaceable. Relatively clean layout so I can imagine blowing out dust bunnies will be easy.
- Includes Office Home & Student 2007 (Word/Excel/PowerPoint/OneNote) pre-installed WITHOUT a product key. It asks for that so I assume you just punch one in and everything’s great.
- Includes a trial of Trend Micro Internet Security for antivirus protection pre-installed.
- Aside from the Asus utilities, relatively little bloatware
- Turned off all of Win7’s eye candy. Don’t need that.
- 1-year international warranty. Includes accident protection (register for this within 60 days on the Asus U.S. web site, and it’s non-transferrable from the original owner). No paperwork on extending the warranty. We’re trying our luck in case the computer breaks down in < 1 year and they give us a hassle about it being a gift and the warranty being valid.
Cons:
- A bit fat
- The screen has a blue tinge, just like with Asus’s TN LCD displays. You get used to it though.
- Glossy screen (reflections), not matte
- Two-finger touchpad scrolling is too sensitive out of the box with Firefox (although it might be okay with IE). Turning it all the way down, it’s fine.
- The numeric keypad uses smaller keys! Difficult to use for folks with big hands.
- The arrow keys don’t have space around them (and actually the right arrow key is bumped into the numeric keypad section), so you need to learn where they are.
- The keyboard and touchpad are on the left side of the computer because of the numeric keypad. You quickly get used to that, though, so no biggie.
- The touchpad buttons require some pressure to click, but you get used to it.
- 4 GB maximum memory. Just 1 user-accessible memory slot which contains 2GB. No biggie.
- No DVI. No port replicator option with that option.
- No Bluetooth, FireWire, eSATA, ExpressCard/PCI Express slot
- Integrated Intel graphics (not for 3D gaming, but great for 2D apps)
- The T6600 doesn’t support Windows 7’s XP compatibility mode. Most of the Win7 Home Premium notebooks I’ve seen have a CPU which doesn’t support XP mode. Only Win7 Professional and higher supports VT mode anyway. Does XP mode matter at all? I have no idea. Search the Internet for that.
- It doesn’t wake up when you open the lid. It does sleep when you close the lid. Yes, I checked the settings. Tip: Change the close-lid behavior to Sleep instead of Hibernate for a faster sleep, but battery will drain faster.
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Tags: 3d Games, C Drive, Chinese Works, Dust Bunnies, Electronic Hardware, F9, Hardware Version, Micro Internet, Office Apps, Palm Rest, Plastic Casing, Product Key, Recovery Partition, Seagate Momentus, Trend Micro Internet Security, Usb Ports, Value Notebook, Versatile Entertainment, Vga Output, Web Site Search
