Although ASUS has become quite popular in the smartphone market after releasing several devices under its ZenFone series, the Taiwan-based consumer electronics company is primarily known for its laptops and PC components. The company offers laptops across every price point and the X555LJ is the latest addition to its laptop portfolio.
Apart from releasing a single model, ASUS has released several models under X555LJ offering different hardware components to cater to consumers with different budgets. We received the higher end X555LJ laptop for review and here is our opinion on the device.
The X555LJ comes with a textured finished polycarbonate top with a brushed aluminium finish. The lid feels pretty rugged with a premium finish. Happily, the lid is not prone to fingerprints or smudges easily. The inner portion features the island keyboard placed inside a silvery aluminium finish which is common in Apple Macbook laptops. Measuring 2.2kg, the laptop feels a little heavy for carrying around, more so if you have to carry it in your backpack all day long. Of course it weighs less than gaming laptops.
The X555LJ comes with a VGA port, one Ethernet RJ-45 port, one HDMI out port, 3.5mm audio out connector and a 2 USB 3.0 port on the left, while the right side houses USB 2.0 port, memory card reader and a DVD writer.
The ASUS X555LJ features a 15.6-inch display with a resolution count of 768x1366 pixels. The display offers crisp texts and icons with balanced colours. But we found the viewing angles a tad challenging. Our expectation was a little high from ASUS noticing the hardware specification of this device. At least a Full HD display would have helped in making it a complete performer.
Here is a special mention about the keyboard and touchpad of the ASUS X555LJ. The island style keyboard features raised keys with required space between each to avoid typing mistake. The sparse touchpad is also very helpful for gestures and clicks but featuring non-backlit keys in such a powerful laptop is a serious let down. We wish ASUS comes up with a backlit keyboard in the future edition.
On the hardware side, the X555LJ packs latest hardware for making the system a powerful performer. Our review unit came with the latest Intel Core i5 processor backed with a whopping 8GB DDR3 RAM memory. For graphics the laptop also packs NVIDIA GeForce 920M GPU which features 2GB RAM. The device also comes with 1TB built-in storage.
The ASUS X555LJ is an amazing performer while accomplishing day-to-day tasks like browsing internet, doing daily office or project work and so on. It also performs smoothly while watching movies, listening to music streams and podcasts or playing light weight games. We did not notice any frame drop either while playing graphic heavy games. With a score of 52424 in 3DMark and 3145 in PCMark 07, the ASUS X555LJ is capable of offering decent performance irrespective of whatever you throw at it.
In our test, the battery lasted somewhere around 3.5 hours in mixed usage which is acceptable for most of the users. However, the battery life fluctuates according to usage pattern and stays awake between 3 and 4 hours.
Overall, we found the ASUS X555LJ a well built laptop offering decent hardware; it is a perfect device for power users, graphic/video editors or amateur gamers for its overall performing capability. The device can also be a decent replacement for one's desktop.
However, at a price little less than Rs 50,000, there are a plethora of options available from ASUS and other vendors. If you are looking for a cheaper substitute, go for the other X555 model that comes with Core i3 processor and costs almost half the price of the ASUS X555LJ.
