This review is from: ASUS N53SM-ES72 15.6-Inch Laptop (Silver Aluminum) (Personal Computers)
UPDATE 5/13/12:
It’s been about 6 weeks of owning 4 of these. I am no IT guy or self proclaimed computer genius guru; I just like to know how my equipment works and how to make it better so I tend to be more technical then most users. There is a wealth of information in the comments section and if you read thru it may find the answer to help decide if this is right for you. Other than some driver issues and fine tuning the software environment the way I want it to be, this laptop has been a dream. The build quality, hardware and user interface has been above average for this PC. Access to the HDD and RAM make it easy to upgrade those components when you get ready. Its short comings I knew going in like I wish it had a lighted keyboard, bigger battery and GDDR5 VRAM and GTX Nvidia but that hasn’t kept me from being completely satisfied with my usage.
I have learned there is a constant buyer’s battle between waiting for the price to drop and wanting the latest greatest available. Overall, given the current choices and prices at time of writing, this is the only way to go for this type of PC.
Since you are right on the cusp of seeing the new Intel Ivy Bridge processors hit the market and debating if you should take the plunge on an `old’ 2ng gen Sandy Bridge, here is my take on it. From what I have learned the Ivy Bridge is not a significant change, same clock speed, same number of cores. There are obviously some changes but not enough to make the difference in performance seem like night and day. There is one BIG difference though and that is it costs Intel much less to produce but they charge more. What does this mean? Bigger profits for Intel. Since Intel no longer has competition from AMD they have leaned back in their porch rockers smoking their cigars and padding their pockets. Just my take on it, yours may be different.
Cheers
End update
This review is for the N53SM-ES72 (not ES71). The difference is the ES71 comes with a 500GB drive while the ES72 has the 750GB drive. I also beleive the ES71 has been name changed to DS71. If you are not confused yet Asus will make sure you are soon. For those complaining of no BluRay the N53SM has that option for more dollars. RS72, (N53SM-RS72), would be one model with BluRay for around 200$ more. Also pay attention as the N53SM comes in many-many variations. If you go to the Asus site (Asus global not USA), and search for N53SM you will find all the different ways it can be built.
Nvidia Geforce GT 630M with 2 GB DDR3 VRAM (slightly modified GT 540M, 96 shaders)Optimus enabled no 3D Vision feature.
15.6 inch LED LCD HD at 1920 x 1080, matte finish, approx 250-300nit brightness 72% NTSC
750 GB 7200 RPM HDD (Seagate Momentus 2.5 inch SATA II 9.5mm thick 3Gb/s 16Mb Cache)SATA REV-3 (SATA III 6Gb/s) ready
Bluetooth v3.0
USB 3.0 SuperSpeed x 1
USB 2.0 x 3
It’s important to note the Intel i7-2670QM supports 16GB RAM (32GB with Windows Pro/Ult upgrade) but not all configurations will have all 4 ram slots. For example the Asus N55 series uses the Intel i7-2670QM but only has 2 slots for a max of 8GB RAM. Other manufactures do this too. I just wanted to caution those thinking if it has the Intel 2670QM that you would automatically have 4 ram slots. That is what makes this N53SM such a great value.
Before I powered it on I installed 16GB 1600MHz matched ram. I ditched the 4 GB stick and 2 GB stick of Hynix ram. Technically you could just add 2 4GB sticks in the empty slots for a total of 14 GB but that would give you a mixed set and not really ideal. Since RAM is pretty cheap these days you can add 16GB matched set for under 90 dollars. I remember just a couple years ago when this much RAM would set you back 1,500$.
Asus builds a pretty good product. The hardware is impressive while the design and execution is sexy, functional and economical. Now comes the cost savings. More plasticky then I would have liked. Plastic frame adds to weight but keeps cost down I’m sure. With edge to edge screens now and small components would have liked to see a more compact architecture. It feels like it should be a 17 inch laptop. Keyboard is adequate, (non lighted), and mouse pad not as slick as my Asus 13 inch model. Weight is on the higher end of the spectrum for this size laptop, 6.4 lbs by itself and over 8 lbs with ac adapter. It can get very tiring if you have it actually sitting in your lap on a couch. Also don’t plan on lugging this brick all over campus unless you have arms of steel,…
This review is from: ASUS N53SM-ES72 15.6-Inch Laptop (Silver Aluminum) (Personal Computers)
I ordered one of these from Amazon on and spent a good deal of time the first night on the phone with Asus tech support trying to get everything working smoothly before I installed all my software. I paid for overnight shipping since I needed it for work (photo editing and a bit of video editing).
It arrived nicely packed and other than a few software glitches (that Asus was able to help with) it seemed great. The small problems I had were all corrected with some easy help from Asus and the machine is now running perfectly – I did have to uninstall a few drivers and then reinstall them but that was very easy (I’m not a computer engineer, so the tech support was a huge help).
I’ve owned 5 or 6 laptops in the past 10 years and this is by far the best in every way…I don’t just mean it’s faster and more advanced; I expected that since computers get better all the time. But the build quality is so much better than the Toshiba and HP and Dell computers I had and the value on a dollar for dollar basis is by far the best – I paid a LOT more for a couple of the other machines I had and they felt like toys compared to this.
I was surprised reading some of the other reviews – (even though every single review so far has given the machine 5 stars)….one said it was “cheap” because it didn’t have a metal bottom – while I suppose it’s likely that it is less expensive to manufacture the laptop with an all plastic case, there are all kinds and qualities of plastic just as there are with metals. The top has an aluminum cover but I’d be very surprised if it isn’t just a thin cover over a plastic casing. The aluminum may look nicer, but I don’t know that it makes the case any “better” – good plastics are very strong and cheap metals can be very brittle and dent easily. Almost all of today’s modern handguns use plastic frames so obviously they are extremely strong – my guess is that Asus used a good quality plastic in the construction of this laptop. But I guess only time will tell….my most recent laptop (before this Asus) is a Toshiba with what seemed to be very solid metal hinges for the screen, but one of them broke and before I could get it repaired, it led to exposed wires and ultimately to a short circuit – which caused some smoke and a blank screen. Just having an estimate would have cost me more than the machine is worth, so I just removed the hard drive and am in the process of transferring any data I want saved to another external drive. So looks can be deceiving and really anything made or designed by humans can (and eventually will) fail. It did last for around 5 years, so I got my money’s worth – but it in no way had the quality feel of this Asus.
Other comments I found to be questionable (from my perspective) were about the keyboard “flex” – I don’t find that at all – it will flex, but only under a lot of intentional pressure. I really have to TRY and press way harder than I ever would in normal or even hard use to get any visible degree of flex at all.
One person said his or her battery only lasted one hour. This laptop has a power selection button (hardware) with four different settings – that is separate from the normal Microsoft “Windows Mobility” setting (although it may use the same software and just add a fourth mode to the three that Microsoft includes) – but having a hardware button makes it fast and easy to change modes and I have to think it’s more effective since when the laptop is not plugged in and you set it for the “power saving” mode it switches the wallpaper to what I imagine is a less demanding graphic…(plugged in it keeps the same wallpaper in the “power saving” mode).
The same button that toggles between battery modes will also start the computer up (if it’s completely off) in some kind of Linux OS – so if you need to just check email or do something that doesn’t require loading Windows, it will start in about 5 seconds. It isn’t something I’ve used other than to see what it’s about – it obviously doesn’t have a video driver and the graphics look pretty weird, but I guess it’s a useful feature if you are in a hurry to do something quickly and don’t need to open Windows.
While that one person said they only got one hour using the battery, I have to believe it’s a defective battery and would be covered under warranty. I have found that just using the laptop for surfing the net and using MS Word, I get about 3 hours using the highest power setting and 5 hours using the “power saving” mode – (I could probably get a bit more but I plug it in when I get the message telling me that I’m down to 10% of the battery’s capacity). I only ran it down to zero once – and that was accidentally when I didn’t realize the plug came loose and I had turned on the “defrag” utility thinking it was plugged in.
The transformer is a bit large, but it was a gross exaggeration to say it’s almost as large as the laptop…
Asus N53SM-ES71. I believe this item as released on Dec 2011 which is fairly new. At the price of $913.99 this comes with the top quality components. Definitively a high value laptop.
Cons: - LCD screen bezel is a bit large and can easily leave finger prints - AC power adapter is huge! - no Blu-ray drive to go with 1080p screen - speakers are not that loud (but sounds very good in quiet surroundings)
Authors bio is coming up shortly. 
excellent but not perfect,
UPDATE 5/13/12:
It’s been about 6 weeks of owning 4 of these. I am no IT guy or self proclaimed computer genius guru; I just like to know how my equipment works and how to make it better so I tend to be more technical then most users. There is a wealth of information in the comments section and if you read thru it may find the answer to help decide if this is right for you. Other than some driver issues and fine tuning the software environment the way I want it to be, this laptop has been a dream. The build quality, hardware and user interface has been above average for this PC. Access to the HDD and RAM make it easy to upgrade those components when you get ready. Its short comings I knew going in like I wish it had a lighted keyboard, bigger battery and GDDR5 VRAM and GTX Nvidia but that hasn’t kept me from being completely satisfied with my usage.
I have learned there is a constant buyer’s battle between waiting for the price to drop and wanting the latest greatest available. Overall, given the current choices and prices at time of writing, this is the only way to go for this type of PC.
Since you are right on the cusp of seeing the new Intel Ivy Bridge processors hit the market and debating if you should take the plunge on an `old’ 2ng gen Sandy Bridge, here is my take on it. From what I have learned the Ivy Bridge is not a significant change, same clock speed, same number of cores. There are obviously some changes but not enough to make the difference in performance seem like night and day. There is one BIG difference though and that is it costs Intel much less to produce but they charge more. What does this mean? Bigger profits for Intel. Since Intel no longer has competition from AMD they have leaned back in their porch rockers smoking their cigars and padding their pockets. Just my take on it, yours may be different.
Cheers
End update
This review is for the N53SM-ES72 (not ES71). The difference is the ES71 comes with a 500GB drive while the ES72 has the 750GB drive. I also beleive the ES71 has been name changed to DS71. If you are not confused yet Asus will make sure you are soon. For those complaining of no BluRay the N53SM has that option for more dollars. RS72, (N53SM-RS72), would be one model with BluRay for around 200$ more. Also pay attention as the N53SM comes in many-many variations. If you go to the Asus site (Asus global not USA), and search for N53SM you will find all the different ways it can be built.
Here are the confirmed specs of the ES72:
Intel Core i7-2670QM quad core @ 2.2GHz 6MB L3 Cache burst frequency @ 3.1GHz
6GB DDR3 1333MHz RAM–Hynix branded latency 9-9-9-24. 4 slots total, 2 slots filled 16GB total,
(32GB w/8GB sticks & win7 Pro/Ultimate upgrade)
Nvidia Geforce GT 630M with 2 GB DDR3 VRAM (slightly modified GT 540M, 96 shaders)Optimus enabled no 3D Vision feature.
15.6 inch LED LCD HD at 1920 x 1080, matte finish, approx 250-300nit brightness 72% NTSC
750 GB 7200 RPM HDD (Seagate Momentus 2.5 inch SATA II 9.5mm thick 3Gb/s 16Mb Cache)SATA REV-3 (SATA III 6Gb/s) ready
Bluetooth v3.0
USB 3.0 SuperSpeed x 1
USB 2.0 x 3
It’s important to note the Intel i7-2670QM supports 16GB RAM (32GB with Windows Pro/Ult upgrade) but not all configurations will have all 4 ram slots. For example the Asus N55 series uses the Intel i7-2670QM but only has 2 slots for a max of 8GB RAM. Other manufactures do this too. I just wanted to caution those thinking if it has the Intel 2670QM that you would automatically have 4 ram slots. That is what makes this N53SM such a great value.
Before I powered it on I installed 16GB 1600MHz matched ram. I ditched the 4 GB stick and 2 GB stick of Hynix ram. Technically you could just add 2 4GB sticks in the empty slots for a total of 14 GB but that would give you a mixed set and not really ideal. Since RAM is pretty cheap these days you can add 16GB matched set for under 90 dollars. I remember just a couple years ago when this much RAM would set you back 1,500$.
Asus builds a pretty good product. The hardware is impressive while the design and execution is sexy, functional and economical. Now comes the cost savings. More plasticky then I would have liked. Plastic frame adds to weight but keeps cost down I’m sure. With edge to edge screens now and small components would have liked to see a more compact architecture. It feels like it should be a 17 inch laptop. Keyboard is adequate, (non lighted), and mouse pad not as slick as my Asus 13 inch model. Weight is on the higher end of the spectrum for this size laptop, 6.4 lbs by itself and over 8 lbs with ac adapter. It can get very tiring if you have it actually sitting in your lap on a couch. Also don’t plan on lugging this brick all over campus unless you have arms of steel,…
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|Best bang for the buck by far!,
I ordered one of these from Amazon on and spent a good deal of time the first night on the phone with Asus tech support trying to get everything working smoothly before I installed all my software. I paid for overnight shipping since I needed it for work (photo editing and a bit of video editing).
It arrived nicely packed and other than a few software glitches (that Asus was able to help with) it seemed great. The small problems I had were all corrected with some easy help from Asus and the machine is now running perfectly – I did have to uninstall a few drivers and then reinstall them but that was very easy (I’m not a computer engineer, so the tech support was a huge help).
I’ve owned 5 or 6 laptops in the past 10 years and this is by far the best in every way…I don’t just mean it’s faster and more advanced; I expected that since computers get better all the time. But the build quality is so much better than the Toshiba and HP and Dell computers I had and the value on a dollar for dollar basis is by far the best – I paid a LOT more for a couple of the other machines I had and they felt like toys compared to this.
I was surprised reading some of the other reviews – (even though every single review so far has given the machine 5 stars)….one said it was “cheap” because it didn’t have a metal bottom – while I suppose it’s likely that it is less expensive to manufacture the laptop with an all plastic case, there are all kinds and qualities of plastic just as there are with metals. The top has an aluminum cover but I’d be very surprised if it isn’t just a thin cover over a plastic casing. The aluminum may look nicer, but I don’t know that it makes the case any “better” – good plastics are very strong and cheap metals can be very brittle and dent easily. Almost all of today’s modern handguns use plastic frames so obviously they are extremely strong – my guess is that Asus used a good quality plastic in the construction of this laptop. But I guess only time will tell….my most recent laptop (before this Asus) is a Toshiba with what seemed to be very solid metal hinges for the screen, but one of them broke and before I could get it repaired, it led to exposed wires and ultimately to a short circuit – which caused some smoke and a blank screen. Just having an estimate would have cost me more than the machine is worth, so I just removed the hard drive and am in the process of transferring any data I want saved to another external drive. So looks can be deceiving and really anything made or designed by humans can (and eventually will) fail. It did last for around 5 years, so I got my money’s worth – but it in no way had the quality feel of this Asus.
Other comments I found to be questionable (from my perspective) were about the keyboard “flex” – I don’t find that at all – it will flex, but only under a lot of intentional pressure. I really have to TRY and press way harder than I ever would in normal or even hard use to get any visible degree of flex at all.
One person said his or her battery only lasted one hour. This laptop has a power selection button (hardware) with four different settings – that is separate from the normal Microsoft “Windows Mobility” setting (although it may use the same software and just add a fourth mode to the three that Microsoft includes) – but having a hardware button makes it fast and easy to change modes and I have to think it’s more effective since when the laptop is not plugged in and you set it for the “power saving” mode it switches the wallpaper to what I imagine is a less demanding graphic…(plugged in it keeps the same wallpaper in the “power saving” mode).
The same button that toggles between battery modes will also start the computer up (if it’s completely off) in some kind of Linux OS – so if you need to just check email or do something that doesn’t require loading Windows, it will start in about 5 seconds. It isn’t something I’ve used other than to see what it’s about – it obviously doesn’t have a video driver and the graphics look pretty weird, but I guess it’s a useful feature if you are in a hurry to do something quickly and don’t need to open Windows.
While that one person said they only got one hour using the battery, I have to believe it’s a defective battery and would be covered under warranty. I have found that just using the laptop for surfing the net and using MS Word, I get about 3 hours using the highest power setting and 5 hours using the “power saving” mode – (I could probably get a bit more but I plug it in when I get the message telling me that I’m down to 10% of the battery’s capacity). I only ran it down to zero once – and that was accidentally when I didn’t realize the plug came loose and I had turned on the “defrag” utility thinking it was plugged in.
The transformer is a bit large, but it was a gross exaggeration to say it’s almost as large as the laptop…
Read more
Was this review helpful to you?
|Big bang for your bucks,
Asus N53SM-ES71. I believe this item as released on Dec 2011 which is fairly new. At the price of $913.99 this comes with the top quality components. Definitively a high value laptop.
Pros:
- 1080p screen
- numpad
- quad core
- discrete graphic
- great battery life, 4-5 hours on battery saving mode.
Cons:
- LCD screen bezel is a bit large and can easily leave finger prints
- AC power adapter is huge!
- no Blu-ray drive to go with 1080p screen
- speakers are not that loud (but sounds very good in quiet surroundings)
UPDATE:
Switched out the original keyboard with this NEW ASUS K52 K52DE K52DR K52J K52JE Black N53 N61V N60 N61J N61 laptop U.S. Version keyboard and I am loving this laptop!
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