ASUS K53S Review

Performance

We recently pitted the ASUS K53S against a whole bunch of other notebooks priced around and under the Rs. 40,000 price mark. It was surprisingly faster than most of the notebooks in the test. The reason for this of course is the Sandy Bridge Core i5 processors, as compared to the other notebooks that come bundled with a slower and cheaper, Core i3 2350M or 2330M processor. 

One USB 3.0 port on the side of the K53S

The benefits are seen most in the CPU intensive tests, such as PC Mark, video encoding and file compression tests. PC Mark 7 throws up an overall score of 2140 points, as compared to other slower notebooks running the Core i3 2330M or 2350M processor, which got scores in the range of 1700 to 1900 points. Video encoding tests take roughly 111 seconds to complete as compared to 160 and 170 seconds on other notebooks. Graphics performance is impressive as well. The 3D Mark Vantage test reported an overall score of 14,113 as compared to 7500 points on notebooks running Intel’s integrated graphics solution. This additional graphics performance is handy for 3D modeling software and games.

The other side - audio connects and USB 2.0 ports

It’s not just the graphics and CPU subsystems that’s strong. The hard drive performance is also solid. The CrystalMark test for example, gave us read and write speeds of 98.72 and 98.1MB/s respectively, very impressive for notebook hard drives. Battery life is important for notebooks and you’ll be glad to know that the extra performance on the ASUS K53S doesn’t reduce battery life by a lot. In our CPU and GPU demanding battery test that has all the systems at close to full performance, the K53S managed to deliver a time of an hour and 42 minutes. Speaker and screen quality is better than the notebooks priced under Rs. 40,000.

Verdict and price in India

ASUS K53S - a good all rounder laptop

The ASUS K53S is a great product, if you’re willing to spend Rs. 44,999 on it. It’s also a great notebook, if you’re into multimedia applications and gaming on-the-go. The performance isn’t spectacular when it comes to gaming, so don’t expect to be gaming at ultra high quality settings. With medium settings, you’ll be able to play the games just fine. If you’re looking for a notebook for purely desktop applications, then you’ll be fine with something priced at under Rs. 40,000, but without a discrete graphics solution onboard.