Asus K45VM has powerful specs according to
price, good performance and heat elimination though design isn’t much
outstanding.
Asus
K45VM
As one of the first manufacturers that
released Ivy-Bridge chipped laptops, unlike Toshiba or Dell, Asus aimed at
hi-level segment with strongly-configured models. K45VM is a typical one, with Core
i7 chip and discrete graphic card.
In a particular price range, Asus K45VM may
be considered as the most powerful laptop at present. The product uses Intel
Core i7-3610QM processor (2.3GHz), 4GB of RAM, 750GB storage, Nvidia GF630 VGA
(2GB of DDR3 VRAM) and Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU. There’s also a 14inch
display plus 1,366x768pixel resolution.
RRP is $1,015.
Design
Simplicity
is K45VM’s prominence in design.
For K45VM, Asus focuses only on specs and quality.
This has been approved by the laptop’s appearance. The model shows glossy
finish having concave patterns which are commonly seen in budget products. The
model’s recognizable downsides are being common in look and easily getting
scratched and fingerprints. Besides, the device feels thick and heavy. Asus did
make bevels inside and outside of the model but users can still feel this
laptop’s fatness.
Concave
patterns lies on the top glossy finish.
Asus heightened the simplicity in internal design.
Below the screen is quite big logo of Asus. The bottom is divided into two
colors: black is for keyboard and upper audio system when light brown is for touch
pad and palm rest. The area, from fringe to keyboard, is gradually tacked to
make keyboard positioned at the same level of palm rest.
In
the right lie optical drive and USB 2.0 connector.
In
the left are ports for LAN, VGA, HDMI and USB 3.0.
The new Asus laptop is equipped with full
connectors. In the left edge are ports (LAN, VGA, HDMI and 2x USB 3.0) and quite
large heat outlets. In the right edge lie optical drive, USB 2.0 connector, and
headphone and microphone jacks. Placing VGA port and HDMI port closely indicated
that the manufacturer was very smart because both connectors are seldom used
simultaneously.
Well-qualified
keyboard with no backlight
Asus K45VM’s keyboard is commonly
Chiclet-typed. Typing adventure is quite short though key’s rebound is quite
good, giving smooth operation and comfortable feeling during long hours using. It’s
an upside that navigation keys are as big as common keys and Home/End/PgUp/PgDn
keys are separately function, suitable for users who regular browse webs.
Seamless
touchpad separates two mouse buttons by a simple line.
K45VM’s touchpad owns good quality. Asus didn’t
provide two separate mouse buttons but the manufacturer merged them into one
surface and used a small line for separation. Through practice, touchpad was
quite sensitive, without lagging as well as being not smooth during use. Sadly,
unlike the brand’s Zenbook, it doesn’t support multi-point (2 or 3 points)
sensitivity.
Screen
This
model bears common monitor with mid-class laptops.
Despite costing more than $1,000, this laptop
has commonly seen monitor: 14inch size and 1,366x768pixel resolution. Display
is quite clear though it still shows reflection when the laptop is back-lit. Beside,
brightness would decrease when the monitor is seen from side-ways angles yet
colors don’t change much.
Performance
Our tested model used Intel Core i7-3610QM
processor (2.3GHz), 4GB of RAM, 750GB storage, Nvidia GF630 VGA plus 3GB of
DDR3 VRAM and Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU. The Intel Core i7-3610QM chipset was built
on Ivy Bridge platform and 22nm structure. Though, there was no existing OS at
then so we installed Windows 7 Ultimate (64bit version) on the laptop to judge
its performance.
Marked
by Windows Experience Index
The laptop gained 5.1 points (based on
lowest score, graphics) when marked by Windows Experience Index. In detail, processor,
RAM, graphics, gaming graphics and primary hard disk got 7.6, 5.9, 5.1, 6.7 and
5.9, respectively.
Marked
by PC Mark Vantage
Marked by PC Mark Vantage, the device got
8,288 points. In detail, memory, gaming and HDD scored 5,228, 6,518 and 3,627, respectively.
Marked
by 3D Mark 06
With discrete graphic card plus 2GB of VRAM,
Asus K45VM scored 9,970 points when marked by 3D Mark 06. The result was quite
impressive for a laptop at 1,000-dollar price range.
Mark
the processor by Cinebech 11.5
We used Cinebench 11.5 to judge and test
OpenGL. As a result, processor gained 6.15 points and graphics reached an
average of 28.66 fps.
Mark
HDD by CrystalDiskMark
HDD’s
speed was at mediocre level,
K45VM’s HDD owned 750GB storage, with a
speed of 5,400rpm, manufactured by Hitachi. Transfer rate was measured at an
average of 75.6MB/s
Heat elimination
In
normal operation, the laptop’s temperature didn’t seem hot.
The
thick design and large heat outlets help Asus K45VM to eliminate heat well.
Asus K45VM may be criticized for it thick
case yet it is an upside allowing the laptop eliminate well. People who are
likely to pick this model are surely either gamers or users interested in
high-graphic programs. Thus, good heat elimination is the most important and
Asus was right to sacrifice appearance of K45VM for better heat elimination.
Temperature was rather low when the laptop
had been running games for 1 hour. The area (on the left) near heat outlets
were hottest one though it did affect as well as annoy users much.
Battery test
Battery
runtime was marked medium.
Meanwhile, in our test, we repeated a HD
720p movie endlessly, turned Wi-Fi off, used headphone instead of loudspeakers
at 70% volume (100% volume of Windows Media Player), 50% brightness and let the
laptop operate until it shut down itself (when there was 5% battery left).
Allotted time was 3 hours and 7 minutes.
Otherwise, we opened 10 web pages in Chrome
then let it automatically refresh after each 15 minutes, opened an online music
player then played music endlessly, used headphone instead of loudspeakers and
set volume at 70% and brightness at 50%. After that, we left the device run
until it shut down itself (5% battery left). Allotted time was 3 hours and 19 minutes.
Over 3hour runtime is similar to runtime of
common Sandy Bridge chipped laptops.
Sound
Altec
Lansing audio system
Asus K45VM’s audio system was manufactured
by Altec Lansing. It is a good point that treble is clear and decisive when bass
seems a little weaker, which was easily recognized on our test model. However, this
quality is too enough for such a below-25-meter-square room as well as gamers.
