Great building quality, good performance and
innovative design push the gorgeous Asus N56VM to the top of the Ivy Bridge
line.
Asus
N56VM
With a light Asus logo between dark metal
lid, the frame is harder than any plastic Asus laptop, this 15.6-inch laptop
brings back the feeling that it is worth.
With 2.75kg, it is not the lightest
15.6-inch model here, but the offset is the construction quality that can
prevent bomb. The dark metal lid is strong, and the area around the keyboard is
made of metal, the chassis is at the second position about stiffness,
after MacBook Pro. Even it's quite beautiful: the circles from the corners of
the keyboard bring back a bit attraction; it has elegant, simple design.
Take a look at the excellent keyboard, and you
will notice that Asus has decorated N56VM with Bang & Olufsen ICEpower
brand. At default settings, the speakers seem muffled, but if you dig into the
audio panel, Waves MaxxAudio improvements bring incredible improvement,
increased treble and bass. Another strange thing, Asus includes small subwoofer
in a box that has the size of a bottle of carbonated water. Plug this into the
speaker, bass provides warmer, more rounded sound. From the audio perspective,
N56VM has incredible ability.
The screen is also a visual party. It is
15.6-inch Full HD screen with impressive wide viewing angle and anti-glare
surface, helping prevent the reflections that cause distraction. The picture
quality is not as good as Sony VAIO E Series, but it only lose Dell Inspiron a
little. It's better than the competition with 357cd/m2 brightness, 566:1
contrast ratio adds to the stable color reproduction image to create bold,
attractive image.
Quad-core processors help N56VM achieve
0.95 results in our tests, it does not lack of power, but the graphics
performance is not as good as the best laptop. GeForce GT 630M GPUs achieves an
average frame rate of 18fps in the test, Crysis requires heavier and slower
than Inspiron and Samsung Series 5.
Big keyboard with the Scrabble-tile keys on
a metal border, there is no signs it is bent. Asus did well with the touchpad.
The right click with two fingers, pinch and zoom motion brings back natural
feeling, the touchpad is compressed with one strong click.
Big
keyboard with the Scrabble-tile keys on a metal border, there is no signs it is
bent.
There are some things to criticize in other
aspects. Blu-ray reading device is interesting at this price, 4 USB3 ports is a
plus, and 1 optical audio output will satisfy those who want to take that
perfect sound to external DAC or amplifier. When considering the power and the
screen, you will see that even battery life is also quite good with 5 hours 24
minutes of light use.
We rarely see a laptop that achieves
perfect balance, but Asus N56VM is close to it. With perfect sound, great
screen and good speed change, the winner in the Labs section this month is an
amazing comprehensive laptop.
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Info
·
Price: $870 ($1,045 including VAT)
·
Supplier: www.uk.insight.com
·
Test score: 0.95
·
Crysis (High): 18fps
·
Light use battery: 5 hours 24 minutes
Verdict
·
Performance: 5/6
·
Battery life: 3/6
·
Design and features: 5/6
·
Value: 5/6
·
Total: 5/6
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