The Asus K55VD offered by online stores at prices starting at about $890 - a hefty price for a 15.6 inch laptop. This price puts the high expectation on the part of performance, quality, features and service. Whether the Asus K55VD can meet the expectations is demonstrated by our Asus computer review.
Asus has launched the Asus K55VD Laptop as the successor to the Asus K53. The K55VD is a powerful all-round laptop, based on Intel's latest processor generation "Ivy Bridge". Equipped with a quad-core processor (Intel Core i7-3610QM), a graphics chip of the middle class (Nvidia GeForce GT 610M), 6 GB of RAM and a hard drive (Hitachi Travelstar 5K750), which offers much storage space (750 GB), it should more than enough to runs most applications.
The Housing of Asus K55VD Laptop
Unlike the Asus Zenbook series, the Asus K55VD Laptop’s housing consists predominantly of plastic. Only the hand rest is made of metal like the Asus U32. This is where the K55VD differs from its predecessor. Its body consisted mostly of metal. Both the lid and the bottom of the laptop were equipped with a texture that prevents fingerprints on the device or largely reduced.
A large flap on the bottom one has access to the hard disk, memory, and the WLAN module. On the fan you have no access. The flap is held by two screws.
The stability of the housing is satisfactory. The finish is fine. The hinges keep the display stable. All in all, one can speak of a good, stable housing. However, due to the plastic material, the Asus K55VD Laptop seems almost a little cheap - but this is in the eye of the beholder.
Asus K55VD Laptop’s Equipments
On the left side of the Asus K55VD Laptop you can see a VGA, an HDMI output, and the RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port as well as 2 USB 3.0 slots. On the right you will find the microphone jack and headphone jack. Also, a third USB port is to be found there - but this only corresponds to the USB 2.0 standard.
At the front there is access to the memory card reader. It is protected by a dummy SD card from contamination. The reader only supports SD and MMC cards. This is the expected standard. More and more laptops only support these types of memory cards. This is understandable, since the SD card has set itself against almost all other types of memory cards.
In terms of communication links, the Asus K55VD Laptop offers even less than standard fare. There are a Gigabit Ethernet connection and a Wi-Fi module. The WLAN module supports the 802.11b/g/n standards.
Input Devices
The Asus K55VD Laptop is equipped with a chiclet keyboard. A numeric keypad is available. The main keys are of a size of 15mm x 15mm, the F keys of 13mm x 9mm, the number pad keys of 12mm x 15mm. The key spacing is 4 mm. The key size and key spacing make a comfortable writing.
The Asus K55VD Laptop sports a click pad. It is a touchpad without separate mouse buttons. In the bottom of the touchpad (about 12 mm in height) Asus separates the right and the left mouse button from each other by a colored marker.
The touchpad is 7.3 cm x 10.4 cm which is very large. The fingers can comfortably glide over the surface of the touchpad. Here, the touchpad is very sensitive. Therefore, it happens often in the beginning, that the user triggers a mouse, although the mouse cursor should be moved. Drag and drop works fine.
Display
Asus built into the K55VD a 15.6-inch display with a resolution of 1366x768 pixels. The display achieves an average brightness of about 192 cd / m². The lighting is fairly evenly with 89 percent. The contrast ratio of 183:1 falls with not very good. The black level is at 1.08 cd / m² in the midfield. Black is black and not in shades of gray.
The viewing angles of the screen could be better. Slight changes in the vertical viewing angle already lead to the collapse of the picture. In the horizontal direction, the image is stable.
Performance
The Asus K55VD Laptop is a representative of "all" class. The built-in processor and graphics chip to qualify the device for gaming, video editing and DVD playback.
Asus K55VD Laptop uses an Intel Core i7-3610QM processor. The Core i7-3610QM is a representative from Intel's latest processor generation "Ivy Bridge". It has four cores. The CPU is regularly operated at speeds up to 2.3 GHz. When needed it can be overclocked to 3.3 GHz (Intel Turbo Boost). However, only one core at 3.3 GHz can be accelerated.
The processor provides more than enough power for all application scenarios. In the various scenarios such as the Cinebench test the Asus K55VD Laptop is practically on a par with other laptops that featuring the Core i7-3610QM.
The Asus laptop runs smoothly and applications load quickly. The PCMark test results confirm this impression.
Asus has included a Hitachi Travelstar 5K750, which operates at 5400 revolutions per minute and offers 750 gigabytes of storage capacity.
HD Tune and CrystalDiskMark certify the hard disk a rather average speed. Also, the Windows 7 performance index makes the hard drive as the weakest link in the chain. Here, Asus should have been clearly put on a faster model. A hard drive that operates at 7200 revolutions would have been better. A higher Windows 7 Experience Index PCMark and better results would have resulted from it.
The Asus K55VD laptop is equipped with two graphics chips: the built-in Core i7 processor Intel HD 4000 graphics chip, the Nvidia GeForce GT 610M separate graphics chip with 2 GB of RAM. Both GPUs support DirectX 11
The laptop uses Nvidia's "Optimus" technology, ie The GeForce GT 610M graphics chip is used only when the integrated Intel GMA 4000 graphics chip does not provide enough power. This switching is done automatically in the background. In addition, the Optimus technology helps extend battery life.
The GeForce GT 610M graphics chip is assigned to the middle class and thus should provide enough power to pose to computer games smoothly.
Like all the graphics chips from Nvidia GeForce GT 610M also supports the NVIDIA "CUDA" technology. This makes it possible to use the computing power of graphics chips for other things than the graphics output. This allows the GPU to accelerate, for example the conversion of video into the H.264 format.
Noise and Temperature
Despite its powerful components, the Asus K55VD Laptop is quiet silent. Only under load, the fan can be loud. For a device with quad-core processor and mid-range graphics card, the measured values are more than fine.
The Asus K55VD was designed for the Asus-own "IceCool" design. Thus, a comfortable work can be achieved thanks to cool palm rest. The temperatures are on both sides of the base unit well below 30 ° C. Under load the temperatures are soaring. It can, however, continue to work with the Asus laptop, because the temperatures are still on top in the green zone. On the other hand, the lower it gets warm, even hot in some areas.
Unfortunately, during our stress tests, the Asus laptop has shut down repeatedly. This occurred only in the absolute full-load test (the benchmarks "FurMark" and "Prime 95" running at the same time) and not in normal operation (including running a game).
Speaker and Battery Performance
Asus built into the K55VD speakers Altec Lansing. The sound here is voluminous but a little dull.
For a laptop with quad-core processor and graphics chip, the device comes to good battery life.
In practical WLAN test a battery charge filed for a period of 3:44. This test websites are called automatically by a script in 40 second intervals. This is the energy saving profile is active and the display brightness set to about 150 cd / m².
In a similar term, it brings the laptop in the DVD test. The laptop was in this case by 3:36 - that is the average length of two feature films. The DVD-test checks how long can DVDs be played on a single charge. Here, the wireless modules (WLAN, Bluetooth) are turned off and set the display to maximum brightness. It is used for the energy saving profile, or a higher profile (if the DVD does not play smoothly).
Conclusion on Asus K55VD Laptop Review
The Asus K55VD Laptop is a solid all-round laptop. It provides enough power for all possible application scenarios - including video editing and computer games. With the Intel Core i7-3610QM processor, the device has also always a little computing power reserve.
Asus K55VD Laptop is a very good laptop at a good price. But a few blunders prevent this: First there were the mediocre display, the slow hard drive, and the lack of a Blu Ray drive.
Title Post: Asus K55VD Laptop Reviewed
Rating: 100% based on 3109 ratings. 5 user reviews.
Author: onSquid
Thank You for Visiting Asus Zenbook Fans
Rating: 100% based on 3109 ratings. 5 user reviews.
Author: onSquid
Thank You for Visiting Asus Zenbook Fans
