Asus N550J - A review from work perspective!

Asus N550 review – Work perspective.

Hello everyone!

I wanted to share a small review for my Asus N550J. I usually do reviews for gaming laptops since those are my personal preference for computers, for personal use. Keywords, personal use! My work computer, an old but trusty Lenovo Thinkpad was on its last moments, and I wanted to make a good upgrade. I always liked Asus and MSIs computers so I thought of giving them a chance, and also because Lenovo can be more expensive depending on what you configure.

I was looking for something new, different and elegant. This is where the N550 caught my eye. A slim fully aluminum body that looked great, had good specs, good price and had a touchscreen? Hmm why not? This review is based on 6+ months of use, using it both in office, meetings, and field (I am a field engineer). GentechPC suggested me on these series, and after a couple of months debating, I took the plunge to buy this laptop as a test for my work needs. I couldn't be happier Thanks Ken!

The end result is quite a pleasant experience! The looks has become popular among some peers, it's performance unquestioned, functionality and battery life has been stellar, and the overall experience is very positive! I admit I was a bit skeptical at first, because the laptop does look frail, but so far it has held up good.

NOTE: Keep in mind that, as of this review, there are updated models of the N550, with a notable upgrade in GPU thanks to 850m. For some users, this means a nice upgrade in gaming prowress, but for users like me which use this for work, 750m is already powerful enough

Specs as configured!

Model: N550JV-DB72T
CPU: Intel Core i7-4700MQ
RAM: 8GB DDR 1600mhz
HDD: 256GB Intel SSD
GPU: nVidia GeForce GTX 750m DDR3
Screen: IPS 1920x1080 15.6 inch touchscreen
WiFi: Intel 7260 internal WiFi card

Screen – Viewing angles, precision of touch controls, brightness to use on workplace

Screen is outstanding. Sharpness, clarity, colors, brightness, all are very good. Viewing angles excellent and working so far with this screen has been a pleasure. Even using it in brightly lit areas, it has been a great performer.
From programming to typing reports and multimedia use, the screen is a major asset of this machine. Touchscreen controls are also quite useful. Especially when dealing with particular presentations or moving quickly from certain programs, and even read files and word type documents while scrolling the screen is very intuitive.

This is also quite possibly the best screen I have used in any computer so far. The quality is just excellent and I have 0 complaints about it. I wish all computers shipped with screens this good. The touchscreen is very responsive and you can tell windows 8 was made with touch devices in mind. This is the closest thing to a surface pro, while being a full fledged laptop, that I have ever used.

Definitely one of the best assets of this machine.

Keyboard – typing experience, No missed keybstrokes, great tactile feedback, functional backlight

The keyboard is great. I am accustomed to other types of keyboards like the steel series, but I have no problems with this one. No missing strokes, excellent tactile feedback per key typing, and backlight is serviceable at night easily. After a half a year of use at work and field, it has even remained quite clean and almost mint condition. No signs of wear and tear, and no failures of any kind.

Excellent keyboard implementation that helps me finish my reports of programming without issues. Not much else I can say. A great keyboard!

Sound – For meetings/conferences, skype, or general multimedia

Sound is a mixed bag. On one hand sound can be outstanding, and the external subwoofer does sound pretty good all in all. However, I think that speaker placement affects negatively the sound output. When I lift the laptop a bit, sound level increases dramatically, as well as overall quality and experience, so while the sound potential is great, the result is that sound performance is inconsistent depending on how you sit yourself, how the laptop is placed etc.

It’s both a hit and miss, but I am overall quite pleased with it. It would be less of a hassle if subwoofer was included in the laptop, but I am also aware that sound performance would be negatively affected.

Build quality – abuse for 6 months+, resistance against scratches etc.

I was worried about build quality from the get go. Not because it looks like a shoddy notebook, but because the profile is quite slim and light. The full aluminum body does feel strong but since it is quite light, it has a bit of flex, mostly the LCD lid. Yet, outside of the LCD, everything is very sturdy.

But after 6 months of use in the field, and having a couple of accidents where I stepped on top of the closed notebook (not full weight, mind you) and a couple of small drops, I am quite amazed at how it has held together perfectly. The brushed aluminum look is elegant but it is also quite scratchable, especially since I work outdoors constantly and concrete, asphalt and many other minerals just scrape the notebook…. I am surprised the laptop is still near mint condition sans some scratches.

The color/paint job, overall integrity if the chassis, the crystal frame of the touchscreen, are all near perfect condition! Being careful is important, but I am pleasantly surprised at how strong the notebook feels and performs after constant use in the field.

Definitely a well built laptop!

Batterylife

Thanks to optimus and Haswell, battery life is nothing short of amazing. I grew up with laptops that had 20 min batteries and slowly saw the raise in battery life. Before optimus, using powerful computers meant 1 hour of life. Thanks to optimus and improvements made with intel core processors, battery life greatly increased, to the point of having 4 cell batteries last up to 5 hours of use.

Battery life was of concern to me as I work long periods of time in the field, and sometimes I am not near any power outlet. 5 hours became plenty enough to finish most of my work, and rarely do I need two charges on a single day.

Performance in general – High power CPU, SSD and decent GPU can run the most demanding programs with ease.

This slim and elegant looking laptop packs a good punch in performance too. I don’t really do much gaming on this one as I have a much more powerful laptop for that, but it still holds its own, despite the GPU being DDR3. Newer models come with 850m which performs much better, making this an even sweeter deal. The CPU is very powerful and so far runs everything I throw at it, specially when programming. Running macros while having other programs perform tasks is not a problem and so far I have had 0 crashes or issues with speed.

Having plenty of processing power allows me to run multiple heavy programs without slowing down. And for those curious, it can run games decently. I guess the only downside of the GPU would be it's DDR3 interface, but it still has power to game casually easily, as well as run some heavy games on medium settings just fine.

Touchpad - What is this?!

Another mixed bag... This touchpad is both great, a blessing and a curse. On one hand, the size and gestures built in, does make productivity a cinch thanks to quick shorcuts, but what I still have yet to get used to: the buttons. This time around, the touchpad buttons are a part of the touchpad itself. Sort of like a mac. But more often than not, I have found myself missclicking. This is both angering at times, but for the most part it works. So size is excellent, responsive is great, but clicking accuracy is rough. I just might be using it wrong though haha

Unless I am in the field all day, I use a mouse, so this is one of the minor problems I find with the notebook.

Closing comments

What would I change, if it were up to me? These changes are a bit biased because of my work and activities but I would prefer the following (keep in mind, these are NOT complaints, but areas of improvements for my own use):

Stronger, thicker chassis. Flex is not of my liking, and while it has very minor flex, coming from other thicker laptops like Lenovo T series, I am used to stronger frames. Mind you, this one is no slouch and has held itself together perfectly, but nonetheless, a stronger frame would be welcome (so that I don't worry as much when I accidentally step on it ).

Longer battery life – 9 cell option for full day of work would be perfect. Luckily there are higher than 4 cells available, but even as it stands, 4 cells deliver amazing run time.

Different placement of speakers: diagonal-up would have served much better in terms of performance, but this is still an amazing performer, despite the missed opportunity of speaker placement.
And that’s it. GPU performance is adequate using medium range GPUs, and since new models come with quite more capable GPUs, I have 0 complaints here.

And.... just separate the touchpad buttons from the touchpad. Please

This is an amazing laptop, Core i7 quad core, plenty of RAM, high resolution outstanding touchscreen, great keyboard and near 5 hours of battery life make this a great all-rounder notebook. It can perform, last, and be extremely functional. I am 100% pleased with this notebook as a work computer and I am looking forward to the evolution of these N series.

Thanks for reading!

 

Yeah, my N550JV-DB72T is amazing. Can't believe I've been using it for almost a year now. Everyone compliments its looks, a few mistake it for a Macbook which is annoying. The distinctive silver keyboard and lit asus logo on the lid should be dead giveaways that this isn't a Mac.
The screen is amazing, everything looks great on it and the touchscreen is a future-proof benefit. I use it mostly for the charms bar and to switch between metro/desktop apps. Have had zero problems with the trackpad with even 3-finger gestures working sublimely.
Sound quality is off the roof. Only laptop I've seen with similar sound quality is the 2010 ( I think) dell xps 15 a friend has. Speaker placement is very important because of their location on the laptops chassis.
Only area I'd change is the gpu which has been addressed by the jk. The 750m is ok but struggles in more demanding games like Metro:Last Light. If only it had gddr5 memory.
All in all a very worthwhile laptop. I'm now an Asus convert and would consider an Asus laptop before any other brand.

 

Yeah! For the touchpad, everything works (gestures etc) but for some reason my clicking accuracy suffers from time to time haha, maybe its because I am used to not having my hand touch the button area, so it slightly moves as I touch the pad to click. It's more of an issue with form and how I use it which is why it is a minor issue all in all for me

Thanks for reading my review It's good to hear from satisfied owners. I agree with the GDDR5 comment though. I tried league of legends and if I pushed it to max it would drop fps when it got hectic a bit too much. droping to high and medium keeps it at 60 fps all the time.