Asus does not cease to amaze its fans - first the most productive mobile device in the world, then a transformer netbook, and now a laptop in the Asus X553MA ultra-thin case. The reviews of the owners of this device are both positive and negative in nature, so this article has to figure out what are the disadvantages and advantages of a laptop. And at the same time, conduct a full review of the news so that the reader can draw their own conclusions about it.
Plagiarism or own innovation
Externally, the device is very similar to an Air Mac Book laptop , especially if the Asus X553MA in question is white. The same ultra-thin body, light weight, strict keyboard and large touchpad. The similarities end there, because, in addition to appearance, there are many other criteria: build quality, case material, technical specifications and installed components.
In general, it is impossible to blame the Taiwanese manufacturer for plagiarism, because more often the opposite is happening. Asus introduces the new technology, and it is immediately used by all competitors, as was the case with GPS-navigators, which were first installed on handheld personal computers, or with an innovative cooling system on motherboards and video adapters. In any case, this resemblance to an expensive American brand can be considered an accident and will no longer return to this issue.
First acquaintance with the new product
Asus is very fond of surprising its fans, therefore, when they first meet, the user will really like the package: it is bright and looks very beautiful, it can even overshadow any New Year's gift. However, the manufacturer was not surprised by the complete set: the device itself, the instruction manual and the charger. The lack of driver disks did not appeal to many owners who purchased the Asus X553MA laptop, judging by their negative reviews.
But if you take a mobile computer in your hands, all the negativity immediately develops into positive emotions. At the first acquaintance, the owner may have the impression that the device was created personally for him. The strict style of the case, screen and keyboard does not repel at all, but rather attracts the eye, I want to quickly turn on the device and enjoy its work.
Build quality
In the media on the build quality of the Asus X553MA laptop, owner reviews and reviews by independent experts are a bit controversial. In the production we used very high-quality plastic, which does not creak and does not emit extraneous sounds during deformation - this is confirmed by both experts and owners. However, there are complaints from users about the cover of the laptop, the fastening of which is too rigid. If the owner of the device is a girl, then it will cost her considerable effort to open the laptop in the first months of work.
There is a negative owners and the location of components inside the laptop. To clean the device from dust, even a professional will have to sweat, it is so difficult to get to the basic components. However, most owners believe that the compactness of the laptop is much higher priority than dust cleaning, which, incidentally, should be done only in the Asus service center.
The main component of any laptop
In addition to appearance, most buyers believe that a laptop should have a decent screen. IT experts consider this statement true, because work or leisure behind a mobile device requires you to look at the screen. However, for the Asus X553MA laptop, a screen review is unlikely to add pride to the owner.
The problem lies in the fact that the manufacturer installed a matrix with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels per inch in the 15-inch TN device. This is a real mockery of the user, because ultra-thin devices are positioned in business class, which means a priori must have a high-quality IPS matrix. Yes, and for a 15-inch screen with an aspect ratio of 16: 9, a resolution of 1920 x 1080 dpi would be better.
The installed matrix, although it has the old technology, but it provides color reproduction with decent, very close to MVA quality. This also affects the viewing angles, which are expanded horizontally. The overall picture is complemented by LED backlighting, which perfectly copes with any glare of the screen and allows you to see the natural black color.
Keyboard and touchpad
The appearance of the keyboard naturally resembles the famous Mac Book Air. All the keys are completely separated from each other, and at first glance it seems that some buttons are missing. The thing is that the Asus X553MA laptop has a truncated Enter key, which creates a visual shortage. In fact, the keyboard of the mobile device is full-sized and will please all businessmen with the presence of a digital block, which many manufacturers try to get rid of, replacing it with multimedia buttons. The buttons, although short, are stiff enough, so any click will be noticeable.
The huge touchpad at first glance is deprived of scrolling up and down and function buttons, however this is deceptive. The control keys are simply at the touchpad level, which, incidentally, supports multi-touch. This means that together with the installed Windows 8 operating system, the user will be able to use all available gestures, both on smartphones and tablets.
Connection Ports and Interfaces
The DVD-RW drive, which left the market for several years, showed all owners of computers and laptops that storing important data on flash drives is completely unsafe, so owners of the Asus X553MA Black laptop will be glad that their device is equipped with an optical drive, which is located on the right side of the device.
On the other hand, the manufacturer placed connectors for connecting audio devices (headphones and a microphone), a card reader, two USB ports, a network connector (RJ-45) and two video outputs (D-Sub and HDMI). The presence of analog video output was met negatively by some users, because this is, in fact, the last century. However, many IT experts claim that the Russian market has plenty of devices that cannot be connected without this interface. The connector for connecting the charger is also located on the left side of the laptop.
The sound system in the device does not stand out anything special: the speakers are located under the working panel on the front end of the laptop. In complete silence at a volume of 30-60%, the sound is magnificent, quite loud and does not rattle. However, when there is extraneous noise or an increase in volume, the picture deteriorates sharply.
Very strange move of the manufacturer
It’s clear that for the Asus X553MA ultra-thin laptop, the performance characteristics should definitely be ideal compared to similar devices from competitors. However, not everything is so rosy here. On the one hand, the manufacturer installed a powerful Pentium processor with four cores and provided the system with 8 gigabytes of RAM. But on the other - an integrated video adapter and a 1.5 TB magnetic hard drive.
Following the logic, it is easier to install a Asus X553MA Pentium with two cores on a laptop, replace the magnetic drive with an SSD drive, which is less susceptible to loads when moving a mobile device. And the speed of work will be an order of magnitude higher. Game lovers are indignant over the integrated adapter. Was it really impossible to install a simple discrete graphics card?
Office plankton?
Judging by the numerous reviews of the owners, the Asus X553MA laptop, the price of which is significantly lower than all competitors in the niche of ultra-light devices (16,000 rubles), is more suitable for a business class where high performance is required for operation of demanding applications (office, analytical calculations, terminal services, web )
High system performance is able to cope with graphic programs and video editors, however, designers obviously will not like the color rendering, which will be of very poor quality due to the installed TN matrix. It is clear that for Asus X553MA the price was in the first place, but such a parsimony of the manufacturer simply pushes potential buyers away from the laptop.
No need to think that game lovers this device is not suitable. Before buying, you need to familiarize yourself with the requirements for your favorite toys. If the emphasis is on processor performance and RAM, then an ultra-thin laptop will allow you to run the application without any problems. Of course, the user will not get the maximum graphic effects, but he can play (in the same "DotA").
Problems and solutions
Disappointing about the laptop Asus X553MA reviews of owners who decided to install the old operating system (Windows 7). The manufacturer has disabled hardware support for obsolete Microsoft products. The problem is solved by removing the hard drive from the laptop, installing it in another device, followed by the installation of the operating system. After installation, the drive returns to its native laptop. However, with the release of Windows 10, this procedure is meaningless, because the new system is much more productive than legacy Microsoft products.
Owners will not like the camera installed in the laptop - 0.3 megapixels, which clearly refers to the technologies of the last century. The situation can be corrected only by purchasing an independent device. The catch also awaits the owner with the processor, which is defined as Pentium in the system. But when disassembling the laptop on the surface of the processor, you can see the inscription Intel Atom N3530.
Finally
If you study the reviews on the Asus X553MA laptop, you can come to a rather strange conclusion - the manufacturer wanted to position it for all niches in the market, but this did not work out for him. Due to the integrated video system, a powerful device is not suitable for game lovers. The low-quality screen will not appeal to video editors, designers and all creative personalities. Serious businessmen prefer expensive devices, and students choose cheaper ones. There are still home users who need a stylish laptop to work with the Internet and multimedia - the device was created specifically for this segment!