ASUS N53Jq - A complete entertainment powerhouse [Review]

The ASUS N53Jq is a feature-rich entertainment powerhouse with a Blu-ray drive and support for HDMI, USB 3.0, eSATA connectivity. A rich feature set coupled with a consistent performance across the synthetic benchmarks and game benchmarks makes it a decent buy at the price of Rs. 68,999.

Pros

• Solid build
• Ships with a Blu-ray drive
• Includes HDMI, USB 3.0 and e-SATA ports
• Good Performer

Cons

• Quite expensive
• Poor battery-life
• Mediocre keypad ergonomics

The ASUS N-series laptops have been in the spotlight ever since their pre-release announcement and the release of two of these high-powered multimedia laptops - N53Jg and N53Jq - further strengthened ASUS' stakes in the market. The inclusion of NVIDIA Optimus technology increases the battery-life, while also boosting the graphics performance in Turbo mode. The addition of Blu-ray drive in the place of a regular DVD +/-RW drive further promotes its entertainment value and the Express Gate technology provides web-surfing capabilities prior to booting into Windows, which is an exciting feature for the power users. However, the fast boot times powered by an Intel Core i7 processor will overshadow the necessity and usability factors of the Express gate technology to a great extent.

N53Jq (front view)

The ASUS N53Jq comes with a textured silver finish on the exteriors of the lid and is built like a tank with harder than normal plastic which has no chinks. With due credit to its heavy build, it weighs about 2.9 kilograms - a bit high for a non-gaming laptop. The matte black finish on the keypad and palm-rest provides a stark contrast with the silver coated speaker, while the glossy black finish on the screen bezel adds a touch of class to its design aesthetics.

N53Jq - ports on the left

The N53Jq incorporates a flat-key design with narrow ridged spacings between the keys. The cramped key-spacing affects the typing accuracy and speed due to incorrect inputs & jerky keys. We feel that a lot of space is being wasted for the palm-rest, which could have been used to extend the keypad layout and thereby eliminate the cramped key-spacing issue. Overall, the keypad ergonomics takes a hit owing to the lack of sufficient spacing and inconsistent tactile feedback.

N53Jq - ports on the right

The touchpad lacks in precision and responsiveness, which emphasizes the need for a mouse, and not just for gaming. The touchpad scroll-bar has been stripped off and substituted with gesture based scroll function using two fingers. It also supports pinch-zoom feature, which comes in handy while browsing web-pages and reading documents. Among other interesting features, it includes quick launch keys for volume control, mute, play/pause and power mode modifier. In addition, it includes dedicated on/off switches for Wi-Fi and integrated webcam. The N53Jq also comes with a USB 3.0 port, in addition to eSATA and HDMI ports, which makes it a complete entertainment powerhouse. A 720p HD LED monitor coupled with the presence of a Blu-ray drive further strengthens its claims for being a high-powered multimedia laptop.

Performance

The ASUS N53Jq blazes through most of the synthetic benchmarks without any sore points. The only notable exception being the 10.63 millisecond random access time taken during the hard drive test with SiSoft Sandra 2010 Pro benchmark, which is below par for such a powerful configuration. The other major drawback is the poor battery-life, which is expected of such a high-profile configuration.

The HD movie playback delivered crisp and vivid colours with excellent video reproduction. However, the sound reproduction isn't good enough and failed to deliver a pleasurable experience, especially with explosive sound effects. The game benchmarks with FarCry 2 & Doom 3 yielded vivid and impressive visuals with decent frame rates. Overall, the N53Jq is a decent multimedia performer across the board that also doubles up as a casual gaming laptop.

Our Take

The ASUS N53Jq is a feature-rich entertainment powerhouse with a Blu-ray drive and support for HDMI, USB 3.0, eSATA connectivity. The rich feature set is well complemented by a consistent performance across synthetic benchmarks and game benchmarks, with the exception of weak hard drive access time. The poor battery-life is another major drawback, which is almost a norm for such high-end configurations. Though the price tag of Rs. 68,999 is a bit expensive, the N53Jq still makes a decent buy with a powerful configuration and consistent performance.

Specifications: Processor: Intel Core i7 - 720QM; Memory: 10GB DDR3 1066MHz; Chipset: Intel HM55 Express; Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M; Hard drive: 500GB; Display: 15.6-inch 720p HD LED, Screen resolution: 1366 x 768; Weight: 2.9 Kilograms;

Ratings
Features: 7.5
Performance: 7
Build Quality: 7
Value for money: 6.5
Overall: 7

Brand	ASUS
Model	N53Jq
Price (MRP)	Rs. 68,999
Features
Component Specifications
Processor Model No	Intel Core i7 720QM
Processor Speed (MHz)	1600 MHz with Turbo boost up to 2800 MHz
RAM (MB)	10240
RAM Type	DDR3
Memory Speed (MHz)	up to 1066
Chipset	Intel HM55 Express
Graphics Solution	NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M
Dedicated Video Memory (Y / N)	Y
Dedicated Video Memory Size (in MB)	1024
Audio Chipset	Realtek High Definition Audio
HDD Size (GB)	500
Optical Drive Type / Speed	Blu-ray RW
Bundled OS	Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
Characteristics
Screen Size (Inches)	15.6
Type of LCD	720p HD
Screen Resolution (Native)	1366 x 768
Weight (Kg)	2.9
No of Ports (USB / FireWire)	2x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0 / None
Connectivity (LAN / Bluetooth / WiFi)	Y/Y/Y
Memory Card Reader (Y/N)	Y
Type of Memory Cards Supported	SD,MMC,MS,MS-Pro,MS-Duo
Inbuilt Webcam (Y/N)	Y
Build (So 10)
Body	7.5
Keypad	7
Lid, movables	6
Ergonomics
Keypad Tactile Feedback (So 10)	6
Key Layout & Usability (So 10)	5
Shortcut Keys/Switches (So 10)	7
Biometrics Login (Y/N)	N
WiFi On/Off Switch or Button (Y/N)	Y
Dedicated Bluetooth On/Off Switch or Button (Y/N)	N
Dedicated TouchPad On/Off Switch or Button (Y/N)	N
Performance
Synthetic Scores
PC Mark Vantage
TV & Movies Score	4248
Gaming Score	5722
Music Score	5722
Memory Score	3803
Productivity Score	5336
Communications Score	4212
HDD	3575
Overall Score	6250
SiSoft Sandra 2010 Pro
CPU Arithmetic (Dhrystone ALU/Whetstone iSSE3)	5069/3323
CPU Multi-Media (Integer x16 aSSE4.1/Floating x8 iSSE2)	9350/6962
HDD Index (MB/s)	75.32
Random Access Time (ms)	10.63
Memory bandwidth (Integer/floating) (MB/s)	14120/14200
3D Mark 2006
CPU Score	3156
Overall Score	7619
Maxon CineBench R11.5 (CPU Score)	2.96
Other tests
Battery Life Test (Minutes)	63
WiFi Signal Strength Test (Zone 1)	High
WiFi Signal Strength Test (Zone 2)	Medium
Real World Tests
Speaker Quality (So 10)	5.5
HD Movie Viewing (So 10)	7.5
WinRAR 3.9 (Compression / Decompression) (KB/s)	2101
Div X conversion .VOB to .Div X (default mode) (Sec)	N/A
File transfer Test (4 GB test file-sequential) (Sec)	95
File transfer Test (4 GB test file-assorted) (Sec)	131
PassMark Wireless Mon 3.0 Signal Strength	57.00%
PassMark Wireless Mon 3.0 bandwidth	54Mbps
Doom 3 (fps) (800x600, medium detail) with DirectX 9.0	167.1
FarCry 2 (fps) (1024x768, medium detail) with DirectX 9.0	54.34
Warranty (Years)	1 year

Contact: ASUS Technology Pvt. Ltd.
Phone: 18002090365
E-mail: helpline_west@asus.com
Website: www.asus.in
Price: Rs. 68,999