Aluminum "N" Test review of ASUS N550JV. ASUS N550JK is a “new old” player in the laptop market
The body is almost entirely made from aluminum, only the screen frame is plastic. It has a very good design, but minor flaws still there is. Firstly, when you press hard on the area of the front panel above the keyboard, the panel sags, but this does not interfere with everyday work. Secondly, the screen frame is very easily dented and produces disturbing crackling sounds - it is better to handle it with care. Thirdly, the screen cover is quite easy to bend, but it resists pressure quite well - distortions on the screen appear only with significant force. The lid can be opened with one hand if done smoothly, but the hinge is moderately tight - the screen does not wobble and easily holds any opening angle (max. about 150 degrees). Finally, the optical drive is not built in very well - the gaps are large, and the drive itself is slightly loose in its compartment.
Design laptop is very attractive- a silver aluminum front panel with concentric circles of gradually decreasing dots, a silver keyboard, a matte black screen frame, a black polished aluminum cover with a luminous Asus logo... It cannot be said that the laptop is striking in its originality, as gaming laptops Asus G-series, but Asus designers managed to avoid being a “copy of the MacBook,” although, of course, there are some similarities. To remove it, the laptop would have to be painted black, and this is the privilege of G-series laptops. In general, only a very inattentive person will confuse our N550 with a MacBook.
The bottom of the laptop is also aluminum and is secured with screws with a six-pointed star head. Even if you have an appropriate screwdriver, you should be careful - the metal of the screws is very soft and the head becomes deformed very quickly, so we do not recommend opening the laptop unless necessary. We strongly recommend that advanced users select normal Phillips screws that are compatible in size, and hide the standard ones somewhere more secure - what if the laptop has to be sent for service? There's no annoying warranty-voiding sticker, but it doesn't hurt to be on the safe side. After all the screws are unscrewed, the cover should be carefully pryed off with something sharp and all the latches should be opened one by one, and then removed. Can clean the cooling system(two fans), replace storage device (standard SATA bay, suitable for drives up to 9.5 mm thick), RAM (two SODIMM slots, in our configuration one is occupied) or module wireless communication. The battery is secured with three screws and connected to motherboard, in case of breakdown it can be replaced. You can also remove the optical drive (DVD or Blu-Ray, depending on configuration)- users who want to install an SSD, but leave HDD, we recommend replacing the drive with a special adapter that allows you to install second hard disk. There is no other option to install an SSD other than simply replacing the standard one. hard drive, no - there are no mSATA or M.2 slots on the motherboard.
The set of accessories is pleasing- it includes external subwoofer and a cable tie, and in some regions even a Bluetooth mouse. It's a pity that there is no special cloth for cleaning the case - fingerprints are very visible on the black cover.
Guarantee period, established by the manufacturer, is two years. When purchasing, make sure that the warranty card is filled out correctly.
Asus N550JK looks serious, strict and businesslike. The lid is covered with a dark aluminum plate, cool and pleasant to the touch. But, in our opinion, it is too thin, so it squeezes noticeably. The black side frames of the matte display are slightly rounded, the working panel is made in silver, but the bottom is again dark and covered with a solid plate, and does not allow easy access to the contents of the device.
The buttons on the Asus N550JK keyboard are made in the same color as the operating panel. The most remarkable thing about the keyboard is the two remote keys, from which points diverge like waves. At first you might think that these are speaker holes, but no, this is a design element, and the speakers are hidden at the bottom, right in front of the potential listener.
As already mentioned, the lid is pressed through, but it is fixed securely and opens by as much as 147 degrees, not a record, but not bad either. By the way, the lid is quite easily soiled and collects fingerprints. The build quality is good in our opinion. The materials used are aluminum and plastic. Only the case is pressed a little right under the display and under the keyboard, the latter is almost unnoticeable when typing. And the display itself is slightly pressed under the camera lens.
Dimensions and weight - 2.7
The Asus N550JK cannot be called portable. It has average dimensions and weight for its diagonal. The thickness of the case reaches 2.84 cm without taking into account the laptop legs. The weight of the device is 2385 grams, which is not so bad for such a powerful laptop. But the AsusN550JK charger is quite large and noticeably heavy - 573 grams. Carrying a laptop with such a charger with you is a dubious pleasure.
Keyboard
The Asus N550JK's keyboard will be a pleasure to use, but it will take some getting used to. The keys are pleasant to the touch, quite large and spaced apart from each other (island keyboard). Also available digital block, it will be unusual with him, and all because his keys have been reduced in size. When working with it, you can easily make a mistake and click in the wrong place where you originally wanted.
The key travel is quite long, the presses are very well recorded. The keyboard substrate does not press through when typing, only under pressure, and the buttons themselves make almost no noise. The arrow keys are not smaller, but they are not separated from the other keys in any way, which can affect fast-paced games. There is also a small feature - additional button above the Escape key, opposite the power button. With its help, you can call a special utility and assign some special value to the button.
Touchpad
Underneath a good keyboard is a good touchpad? In this case, we can say so. It is quite large in area - approx. 75 cm 2 for cursor manipulation. The touchpad surface is pleasant to the touch, it is sensitive even at the very edges. The touchpad is shifted to the left of the center of the case. There are no separate buttons, so we can say that this is a clickpad. The only negative is the hidden corner keys, which are quite difficult to press, even at the very bottom of the touchpad. Overall the touchpad is good, quiet and accurate.
Ports and interfaces - 5.0
Asus N550JK good set connectors. On the left side there is a power connector, a special connector for a subwoofer (in our case it comes included), network port, HDMI connector, mini Display Port, 2 USB 3.0 ports, the second with support for the USB charger function for charging mobile devices, Mini-Jack 3.5 mm and all this is approximately in the middle of the case. On the right are the card reader, USB 3.0, optical drive, and Kensington lock. On the front there are only status indicators. The list is quite impressive, the only negative is that the USB connector on the right side is too close to the user, and another USB 3.0 connector could be added. As always, there is Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi adapter(b/g/n).
Performance - 4.9
The Asus N550JK laptop showed some of the highest performance results for the first half of 2014 among the tested models. All this, of course, thanks to the powerful, modern “stuffing” of the laptop.
Asus N550JK is equipped with a quad-core processor Intel Core Haswell generation i7-4700HQ. The processor operates at a frequency of 2.4 GHz, Turbo Boost technology allows you to overclock the operating frequency to 3.4 GHz. As expected, Hyper-Threading technology is supported, allowing each core to process 2 streams of information. In the 3dmark06 (CPU) and Geekbench 2.4 benchmarks, it received an average of 6996 and 10321 points, respectively. In the Geekbench 3 benchmark, the processor has an average score of 11850 across several tests. In the Cinebench R15 benchmark, the laptop scores an average of 639 in the CPU performance test. The results are high, one of the best in our ranking for the first half of 2014.
As usual, we asked Windows system evaluate laptop performance:
The processor is powerful, but what about the graphics card? Everything is fine with it too - NVIDIA GeForce, with the “magic” letter X in the name - GTX 850M, memory type GDDR 5, good bus width - 128 Bit, high video memory frequency - up to 5000 MHz. In the 3dmark06 test, it scored an impressive 22254 points, which is higher than the MSI GE60 2PE Apache Pro with GTX850M graphics card. And in the 3dmark Fire Strike test we saw a more modest result - an average of 2771 points, in CloudGate - 14074, and in Ice Storm -104226 points. In the Cinebench R15 benchmark, it showed 91.08 fps in the graphics test - a high result and a smooth test scene.
In games everything is also good. In Crysis 3, it is better to lower the resolution to 1600x900 pixels and play quietly at high settings. Thief IV scared me at first low fps, but it was worth updating the drivers for the Asus N550JK video card and everything went smoothly with the native resolution, up to high settings. Online RPGs World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online run comfortably on ultra-high settings. Withcer II starts to slow down only on ultra-high graphics.
Information is stored on HDD disk capacity of 1000 GB and works with the SATA-III interface.
The Asus N550JK laptop pleased us with the test results; you can work and play games on it at most settings and with native Full HD resolution.
Display - 4.3
The Asus N550JK's display is also worthy of praise. Our tests showed that it is very good. It has Full HD resolution - 1920x1080 pixels, with a diagonal of 15.6 inches giving a ppi of 141 pixels per inch. These are very good results, but I would like more. In our opinion, Full HD resolution is more than enough for 13-inch laptops, and on 15-inch laptops, with this ppi, individual pixels are still visible.
The display can also please you because it is matte and at the same time quite bright. The color gamut is very good, almost completely covering the sRGB standard, the screen practically does not lie with color reproduction. The viewing angles are wide both horizontally and vertically, and can even compete with the viewing angles of tablets. The maximum measured brightness was 345 cd/m2, the result is brighter than average. The brightness distribution is 90%, almost uniform, and the contrast value is 936:1, of course, not a record, but more than decent. If we could increase the resolution further and add, for example, a touch screen, it would be just an excellent display.
Battery - 2.2
However, time battery life- clearly not the strength of the device. The battery of the Asus N550JK laptop showed poor results in our tests: 99 minutes in load mode and 6 hours 23 minutes in minimum load mode. The laptop allowed us to watch colorful Full HD video for almost 4 hours, which is not bad, but overall the results are not impressive. Charger Charges the laptop fully in 2 hours 20 minutes, which is quite a long time considering how quickly it runs out without mains power.
2 years ago 0
Screen + Powerful filling
2 years ago 0
For such money the configuration is excellent! (bought in 2014 for 31,000 rubles)
2 years ago 0
Performance - screen - metal body (except for the screen frame inside) - keyboard (quite solid)
2 years ago 0
All good
2 years ago 0
2 years ago 0
design, power
2 years ago 0
1. screen. It's probably better than Apple's Retina. 2. keyboard, the buttons are comfortable, pleasant to press, your fingers find the right keys themselves
2 years ago 0
Great screen, fast processor, good video card, affordable price.
2 years ago 0
1. Appearance. 2. With additional cooling, excellent performance.
2 years ago 0
hmm, nothing...
2 years ago 0
Slow hard drive
- Price
- Drivers
2 years ago 0
Win 8....solved by updating to 8.1 (even better than Win10) The main drawback is the metal case is made of “foil”; it gets scratched and dented (dents appear) from any touch. You can press hard with your fingernail and it looks good...
2 years ago 0
The screen gets warm (oo)
- the keyboard changes along with the cover
2 years ago 0
Windows 8, but due to a slightly ill-conceived cooling system, it is a little noisy.
2 years ago 0
Keyboard. Quality 2 points. Left Shift does not press on the right side of the button. It took half a year for the hand to learn to press it from the other edge.
HDD. I don’t know who thought of setting the screw to such a slow speed. It is so slow that if you turn on 5 torrents for downloading, the computer goes into a coma and never comes out of it. World of Tanks loads the map 10 seconds before the start of the battle. This is such a tough thing. You have to remove the CD and install an SSD screw.
Lid. Any hard object will scratch the lid. Within a year I turned into a homeless person. Also, a year later, the monitor began to wobble when unfolded - the mount had somehow become loose. It's a shame.
2 years ago 0
designed for Win8, which I’m not a fan of, but I don’t think this is a drawback, since you can find firewood for Win7
2 years ago 0
1. Overheats and reduces cooling performance. The system stability test in aida64 does not pass; after 5 seconds the discrete video card heats up to 80 Celsius and its driver reboots.
in StarCraft II, on the ultra settings it calmly displays 40-60 fps, then every 2-3 minutes it overheats and the fps drops to 2-5, for 10 seconds, then normal and so on in a circle.
2. The touchpad is placed crookedly. I took it to order, gave up, since I had only one laptop and I don’t use a touchpad and didn’t want to swear.
3. empty case, removed the bottom cover, put the SSD in place of the HDD and the HDD in place of the DVD. the bottom cover easily dents two millimeters deep in the center. You only need space to fit a DVD drive that no one needs.
4. ventilation: there are two fans, heat is removed to the rear torus
2 years ago 0
The Winchester is very slow for such a fast machine. A year later I stopped reading DVD-ROM discs.
2 years ago 0
1. The biggest disappointment with this laptop is the cooling system. When you open the laptop lid, it blocks the air intake and cold air almost never arrives.
2. For some reason, we have already replaced 3 HDDs from different companies and capacities, everything is starting to collapse.
3. Few USB connectors.
4. Shortcut buttons only work with Windows 8; none of them work with Windows 7.
5. The keyboard backlight is useless, it is too bright, it hurts the eyes in the dark, and it sticks out a lot on the sides of the buttons.
6. The speakers are located next to the touchpad with outputs on the front of the laptop, which is not very convenient if you work with the laptop not on a table.
2 years ago 0
Terrible touchpad.
Disgusting display (non-HD version).
Terrible keyboard quality.
Poor build quality of the rectifier.
Poor hinge quality
Slim aluminum body
New ASUS N series laptops are stylish appearance and high quality materials. The metal coating of the display lid with an illuminated ASUS logo and the “wavy” speaker grille will not leave anyone indifferent.
IPS display with wide viewing angles
The new N series laptops feature high-quality IPS displays. The matte finish ensures no glare and a high resolution(up to Full-HD) helps to obtain a clear image.
In addition to accurate color reproduction, N series laptops boast wide viewing angles of 178°.
SonicMaster
SonicMaster technology, developed jointly with Bang & Olufsen ICEpower, provides unprecedented mobile computers sound quality.
The new N series laptops feature a four-speaker audio system that delivers stunning surround sound. For a more realistic rendering low frequencies The device comes with an external subwoofer.
Four speakers
With a four-speaker built-in audio system, N Series laptops deliver more realistic spatial audio for movie buffs.
MaxxAudio Master
Professional products MaxxAudio Master audio processing, developed by Technical GRAMMY award-winning company Waves Audio, allows you to customize the sound of your audio system to your own taste.
Audio Wizard function
To customize the sound, use the Audio Wizard function, which offers you to choose one of five options for operating the audio system, each of which is ideal for a specific type of application (music, movies, games, etc.).
High performance and constant readiness to work
Behind high speed running any applications on this laptop is responsive Intel processor Core is fourth generation, and the discrete Nvidia GeForce graphics card ensures compatibility with the latest games with support for DirectX 11.
The exclusive Super Hybrid Engine II power management system allows this laptop to wake up from sleep mode in just a couple of seconds, and it can stay in sleep mode for up to 2 weeks without recharging. If the battery charge level drops below a certain level, all will be automatically saved open files to avoid data loss.
Highly efficient cooling system
The new N series laptops feature a highly efficient cooling system with dual fans, heat pipes and large ventilation grilles.
Thanks to the placement of ventilation holes in the rear of the case, the cooling system of this laptop works not only efficiently, but also with minimal noise.
USB 3.0 interface
Bandwidth The high-speed peripheral interface USB 3.0 is several times faster than the widely used USB 2.0. This means faster transfers of large files, which are most video and movie files. In addition, this laptop has the USB Charger+ function, which provides accelerated charging of mobile devices from a USB connector.
In the fourth quarter of 2013, another top-end laptop was presented to the world - Asus N550JV. Even today, the new product is still not inferior to modern devices in terms of performance and functionality. It is ideal for multimedia tasks, studying, etc.
Specifications
Appearance and Design
Asus N550JV has an attractive classic design. The lid is made entirely of aluminum with a wavy texture. On the back there is a backlit corporate logo.
The build quality is also pleasing, but the frame around the screen creaks when pressed.
The ergonomics of the gadget are excellent. The keyboard has LED backlight. When typing, the buttons do not make noise, but are pressed very hard.
Another issue is the touchpad, which is not the most strong point laptop. Touching has to be done with great effort (especially in the upper right and left corners).
Screen
The Asus N550JV boasts a 15.6″ screen with FHD resolution and IPS technology.
The picture quality is excellent: detail and color rendition are excellent. The backlight works very well (brightness within 277 cd/m2). 
The surface of the screen is matte, so there are no unpleasant reflections in the light. The viewing angles are excellent: about 180 degrees.
Performance
Under the hood is a top-end Intel Core I7 processor (fourth generation), a module random access memory 8 GB, powerful nVidia GeForce GT750M graphics chip.
This hardware allows you to play modern games, work with 3D modeling, watch Full-HD video, etc.
Basic interfaces and user experience
The manufacturer has equipped the device with the best audio system found among laptops. It is represented by 4 speakers and SonicMaster Premium and MaxxAudio technology.
There is also a 2.5 mm jack for connecting an external subwoofer.
In addition, there are connectors on board: HDMI, 3xUSB 3.0, mini Display Port, LAN, 3.5 mm. 
During operation, the Asus N550JV performed well, but there are some comments: The laptop gets very hot when running powerful applications.. Judging by consumer reviews, the device has the following disadvantages:
1) weak system cooling;
2) the touchpad does not always respond to touches;
3) poor build quality.
In our opinion, the new product from Asus deserves at least 7.5 points out of 10.