No looker, but power and usability are
easily up to scratch
You’re unlikely to find an Asus laptop to
match the Zenbook Prime in terms of style, but the Asus X501A ($600 inc. VAT)
is a capable family laptop for office work and multimedia use.
The white design is speckled with silver
squares and makes the laptop look different, but not exactly desirable. It’s
got a sort of ‘bathroom tile’ look to it.
Asus
X501A
Inside, the white chassis works well
against the black isolation style keys and black bezel. It’s more interesting
than your standard black, plastic construction but we’ve seen much better
looking kit from the Asus stable.
The good news is the usability is
excellent. The aforementioned keyboard has loads of space to it (there’s a
dedicated numeric keypad) and you’ll find yourself bashing out office reports,
emails and tweets with little fuss.
There’s also a more than generous trackpad
nestled underneath the keyboard with acres of space for your multi-touch gesturing.
And the integrated click buttons aren’t the stiff, difficult type we’re used
to.
Although the usability is good, the
performance here is average. The Asus X501A is built around an Intel Core
i3-2350M processor clocked at 2.3GHz backed by 4GB RAM. In an age of
third-generation chipsets, these specs don’t blaze quite as brightly as they
used to. That said, we don’t want to do the X501A a disservice - if you want
the basics such as web browsing, Facebook, crafting a PowerPoint presentation
or streaming video from the web, you’ll find no problems here.
General performance holds up well (we had
several programs running together sans lag) but visual activities like gaming
and advanced video editing are outside the scope of this laptop. The integrated
Intel HD Graphics card will handle older games and programs like Adobe
Photoshop - but loading up FIFA 13 will bring the X501A to a crunching halt.
Minor grumble
There are a couple of minor grumbles to
address with the X501A. Firstly, despite the 380 x 253 x 31mm dimensions,
there’s no optical drive. It’s hardly a stonewall requirement, but we’d still
like to have seen it. Next, with only two USB ports (the nippier one is 3.0)
you’re going to be limited in accessories and, lastly, storage space exists
only in the form of a meagre 320GB HDD.
Where the X501A manages to score some
points back is with the battery life. We ran the Battery Eater benchmark
program on top of looped high-definition video and the Asus managed to last a
respectable 189 minutes before powering down.
This battery life doesn’t put it at the
same level as an Ultrabook, but for a laptop of this price it’s still a
reasonable score. With some conservative use, you should be able to get up to
four hours with this machine.
If you plan on watching a lot of
high-definition video, you’re going to have to make do with 720p content. The
1,366 x 768 pixel resolution on the Asus X501A isn’t dense enough for Full HD
rendering, although for the most part the screen does hold up well. It’s fairly
bright, and has a Super TFT glossy coating that doesn’t cast as many irritating
reflections as we’ve seen on other laptops
The only caveat is that the bezel - the
plastic edge around the screen is thick and noticeable because the black
clashes with the white of the chassis.
Surprisingly the sound quality on this
laptop is above average. Benefitting from Altec Lansing integrated speakers;
the Asus X501A will give you punchy audio and a fair amount of volume. While
some laptops suffer from one-sided audio, the Asus definitely has a good stereo
balance to it that comes through when watching a film or listening to an album.
Software slowdown
As is often the case, there’s plenty of bloat
ware preloaded onto the Asus X501A. We have a love/hate relationship with bloat
ware. Occasionally it’s useful and if you’re new to computing, you will
appreciate the guidance and the preinstalled software that will help you set up
connections and manage programs. However, if you’re looking for your second or
third laptop then chances are you will already own better software, in which
case the pre-installed packages just gets in the way.
As
a family laptop this will take care of all your basic needs, from watching
movies and browsing social networks to running office programs and video
conferencing
It’s difficult to come down with a definite
yes/no decision on whether or not the Asus X501A constitutes a good purchase.
Its flaws are easy to pinpoint: low storage, poor connections, and uninspiring
design. But, conversely it offers good usability, basic performance and a
decent value for money.
As a family laptop this will take care of
all your basic needs, from watching movies and browsing social networks to
running office programs and video conferencing. However, there are much more
exciting things happening in the laptop world at the moment. Asus is forging
ahead with its Ultrabook range, and there are plenty of alternatives that will
offer you more bang for your buck.
If you’re set on the Asus X501A though,
then you won’t see it as a bad purchase. We would recommend trying it out at a
store where you can use the keyboard and trackpad for yourself as well as gage
the level of reflections on the screen. In short then, the Asus X501A is a
worthy everyday laptop that places value ahead of features and functionality.
What’s it best for
·
Web, mail & photos
·
HD, movies & TV
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Details
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Price:
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$600
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Key features
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OS:
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Windows 7 Home Premium
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Processor
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Intel Core Ì3-2350M 2.3GHz
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Memory:
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4GB
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Storage:
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320GB HDD
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Optical drive:
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None
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Screen size:
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15.6-inch
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Screen resolution:
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1,366 X 768
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Graphics:
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Intel HD Graphics 3000
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Weight:
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2.1 kg
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USB ports:
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2 (1 X 3.0)
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Test results
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Battery life (Mins):
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189
|
|
Performance:
|
8,171
|
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Gaming:
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3,619
|
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Verdict
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Value
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4/5
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Features
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3/5
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Performance
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2/5
|
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Total
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3/5
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