This 15.6 inch tft color screen laptop is powered by the Intel Pentium Quad Core N3540(2.16 Ghz) processor, uses 4 Gb of ddr 3 ram clocked at 1600mhz and is priced around 22k.
The laptop is nothing exceptional but for the price point I feel its a great value for money product .Not Many laptops these days will offer both 4gb and include a DVD drive at this price .
hardware specs:
You would obviously expect a bluetooth and wifi enabled device which it is . We also expect to see at least 1 hdmi port and 1 usb 3.0 port which again it has .
We also have 2 more usb 2.0 ports .With the hard disk drive @ 500gb and pre-installed licensed version of windows 8.1 the device does not disappoint . Lets not forget most lappies/ notebooks now ship with either DOS or UBUNTU these days as the licensed version of windows 8.1 alone costs upwards of 7.5 k
Yesterday I upgraded to windows 10 and the experience is still quite smooth, the multi-tasking isn’t all that bad and the machine remains quite responsive . I must say i’m too convinced that everyone should upgrade to a windows 10 as long as the hardware supports it, its a big big technology leap .
One also gets a 2 in 1 card slot, a Super Multi DVD, a 3.5 mm audio out port and built in speakers along with an inbuilt mic; I think that’s everything one needs. Of course we should also expect the RJ45 port which it surely has for a wired internet connection using the lan cat5/ 6 cable .
Though the quality of the webcam which is vga, the mic and the speakers is quite ordinary just like the build quality of the laptop is . But we should not expect too much at this price and I feel Asus has really done a very decent job of combining very good specs at a low price .
The touchpad is smooth, large enough and works as expected and so is the chiclet style keyboard big, nice and spaced out, though it’s a little flimsy and kind of elevated in the centre area and gives you the feel of - "hey! the keys might pop out ."
The warranty is 1 Year Global In-site Warranty against manufacturing defects only .
pros:
very quick boot up
windows 8.1 pre-installed upgradable to windows 10(one heck of an awesome upgrade)
Super multi DVD drive
usb 3.0 x 1
An impressive battery backup @4-5 hours with moderate use(Its dropped to 2 hours 45m after about an year .)
cons
flimsy keyboard and ordinary build quality.
at 2.4 kilos it’s neither too slim or too light.
The inbuilt mic / speakers and Vga cam are quite ordinary, the speaker max volume output isn’t loud enough. The mics noise cancellation is poor and the cam displays very pixelated output
The TFT screen is fine if you are sitting right in front but becomes fuzzy and dull from angles .
Every hardware component is encased and hence user -inaccessible including the battery .
Verdict- It’s a buy though not a compulsive one . Those on a budget should definitely eye this one . It’s almost a must to have an additional separate web cam / sound system/ external microphone headset .i personally like the F & D mini sound bar that can be table as well as wall mounted . The LX-3000 from Microsoft is recommended for recording and listening to audio . While the former cost me an addition 650 INr the former 1850 INR.
I use the LX-3000 for recording my youtube videos FYI. My webcam is the logitech C270 HD since the inbuilt fails to deliver quality.