Product Description

Not Just another Pretty Face
Smart, Reliable & Efficient
Featuring the latest AMD Dual-Core C-50 Accelerated Processor with AMD Radeon™ HD 4250 graphics, the A53U-XE1 easily handles multitasking and entertainment on its brilliant 15.6″ LED-backlit HD+ display. HDMI ready, supersize your high-definition media to an HDTV for up to 1080p visuals and 8 channel surround sound support. The A53U-XE1 is also engineered with ASUS IceCool technology with hairline brushed aluminum to maintain a low temperature on the keyboard and palm rest area for comfortable computing even after the longest sessions. Encased with an aluminum chassis, travel free with scratch-resistant, and smudge-resistant protection for robust durability day-in and day-out.
Key Features
- AMD Dual-Core C-50 Accelerated Processor with AMD Radeon™ HD 4250 graphics ensures responsive and energy-efficient performance
- ASUS Power4Gear optimizes system performance for increased performance and longer mobility
- IceCool Technology makes use of superior component engineering combined with the aluminum surface, keeps palm rest and typing surfaces cool
- ASUS Palm-Proof Technology prevents accidental input by intelligently distinguishing between palm and finger contact
- Altec Lansing speakers enhanced with SRS Premium Sound produce crisp, clear audio reproduction
Relax, ASUS Has You Covered
Ranked as the #1 most reliable PC brand by 3 independent sources1, readers and editors alike choose ASUS as their trusted notebook and netbook. ASUS tirelessly strives to exceed expectations of quality to ensure you an unmatched peace of mind every time you start your PC.
This notebook is also backed by the industry’s most comprehensive warranty.
1 Year ASUS Global Warranty
Offers a level of coverage that would add hundreds of dollars to the price of competing laptops:
- 1 year global warranty
- 30 day Flawless Display Guarantee
- 2-way free standard shipping
- 24/7 tech support
1 Year Accidental Damage Warranty
Whether your notebook is damaged by accidental spills, drops, electrical surges, or fire, ASUS will fix it or replace it for you during the first year after purchase.
- Covers accidental drops, spills, power surges, and fire damage
- Target 3 business day turnaround time for repair / replacement; not including receiving and shipping time
- 1-way shipping (from ASUS to the user) at no additional cost
- 24/7 toll-free phone support
What’s in the Box
- A53U-XE1
- AC Adapter
- 6 cell Battery Pack
- Warranty Information Card
Specifications
- Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
- Display: 15.6-inch HD display (1366 x 768)
- Processor: AMD Dual-Core C-50 Accelerated Processor
- Graphics: AMD Radeon™ HD 4250 graphics
- WLAN: 802.11 b/g/n (@ 2.4GHz)
- LAN: 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
- Memory: 3GB DDR3 SDRAM, 1 x SODIMM Sockets (up to 4GB)
- Storage: 320GB 5400RPM hard drive
- Optical Drive: Super Multi DVD drive
- Camera: 0.3 megapixel
- Speakers: Altec Lansing speakers
- Microphone: Microphone
- Card Reader: 5-in-1 card reader (SD, MMC, MS, MS PRO SDHC (SD2.0)
- Input / Output: 1 x Mic-in, 1 x Headphone-out, 1 x VGA port/Mini D-Sub 15-pin for external monitor, 1 x RJ-45 LAN, 3 x USB 2.0 ports
- Battery: 6 cell
- Dimensions: 15.2 x 10.2 x 1.4 –inches (W x D x H)
- Weight: 5.72lbs (with 6 cell battery)
- Color: Mocha
Product Review by Multifox
You do get more than you pay for here
Ok, lets get down to it for this unit. First of all make no mistake, this is not, and I repeat not a full blooded notebook or laptop. This is the next evolution in netbook. The description that Amazon has is a bit flawed and misleading in many ways which I have emailed them about. The “CPU” in this unit is actually AMD’s new APU series of chipset that combine the graphics card with the CPU creating the APU (Accelerated Processing Unit). While it is listed as a dual core, just remember that this is a dual core 1GHZ processor along the same lines as Intel’s Atom CPU. With that said I will get down to the pro’s and cons of this unit.
PROS:
Graphics: – Video Playback. This unit has remarkable graphics performance. The chipset in this unit produces amazing clarity and smoothness when streaming from Netflix, HULU or from a DVD. I have experienced no issues with the video quality of the unit.
Monitor: – The 1080i Screen this unit comes with further enhances the viewing pleasure with amazingly sharp crisp color and clarity. I’ve yet to see any other netbook or laptop with a screen this nice.
Audio: – You have to hear these speakers to believe it. I was floored at their ability to reproduce clear crisp sound and bass with no distortion even at louder volumes. Not a room filling experience, but you wont need headphones to listen to your music or watch a movie with this unit.
RAM: – 3GB of RAM that this comes with is more than suffice to power it on the vast majority of productivity applications and multimedia. I however opted to upgrade it to the max of 8GB to further help the sometimes anemic APU get through tasks. It was worth the extra $45 for two 4GB sticks of Kingston RAM.
Gaming: – The all important question for a lot of you out there. This will play back basic disc based games and the basic online games. Steam works well on it, games like TF2 had no issues with it, but you are not going to be zooming through games such as WoW or SL as the APU just does not have the power to handle that demand.
Appearance: – Don’t let the word (Mocha) fool you into thinking the entire device is coffee colored. This unit’s visual design is a winner all around. The screen, keyboard and bottom of the unit are black like most laptops, the area surrounding the keyboard, the touch pad and speaker area are what is “mocha” colored, which is more of a deep and dark bronze color that is both subtle and visually appealing. It gives the unit a real look of class and that it’s a lot higher priced than it is.
Keyboard & Touchpad: – Win! The chicklet style of keys make typing a breeze on this laptop if you have small hands like me or huge hands like the rest of my family. The full keyboard along with the full number pad on the right side make it very nice to use. You wont have to get used to the layout of a cramped laptop keyboard and go hunting for keys on this unit. The touchpad is awesome, smooth to the touch, very responsive, supports multiple gestures and it’s “palm proof” technology really works. Drag your hands across the pad and it will not register that as input, preventing you from making accidental input.
Case: The Ice cool technology really works, even after working this unit out hard core to see how far I could push it, the bottom of the case never got warm, the hand rest and keyboard area also never got warm, even in a room with a 82F temp. The fan is super quiet. it’s lightweight and sturdy so you don’t feel like you are going to break it by moving it around.
Battery: 8 hours easily. This was obtained from streaming a Netflix movie for 2 hours, playing around on Facebook games, video chat, google+ activity and then into web surfing for the remainder of the time. The battery also charged back up to 100% after just under two hours.
CONS:
Multitasking: – Out of the box the unit is a bit anemic when it comes to multitasking. Adding more RAM does help this as do some of the suggestions at the end of this review. Once you iron it out, it tends to be acceptable, but if you are coming from a powerhouse computer, this one will drive you batty for awhile at it’s response times.
Preinstalled ASUS Software – I really don’t know what they were thinking when they put on their own software. I know all manufacturers do this, but these programs were the entire reason the laptop out of the box was so sluggish. Some of them even when not running were hoarding 500MB worth of RAM, others had multiple instances of themselves running. The ASUS updater program that’s supposed to update all your drivers should be removed immediately before it screws up your system totally. Mine decided to download drivers for the wrong unit and install them, which forced me to have to do a full recovery in order to get the unit working again. There is plenty of griping on ASUS’s forums about the program and the suggestion there is to remove it.
Processor: – While it is suffice for daily use, web surfing, emails, chats, streaming and the basics, it is not a power house nor a multi-tasker beyond a few low key programs at the same time. Otherwise it will start bogging down on you.
Overall, this is a nice unit with a lot of nice well thought out design features and quality construction. It is a good unit for a college student, high school student, casual web surfer, someone who just wants a laptop or for those who don’t need massive computing power. Just do your research on the APU before you buy to see if this will handle what you want to do that I didn’t cover in the review.
Suggestions: – Remove the preinstalled ASUS software. None of it is mission critical, if you are worried that it may be, just look it up online or in ASUS’s forums. Also when you get yours, check the hard drive partitions. Mine was….oh…screwed up at the factory for whatever reason and was partitioned into four partitions plus the recovery partition. I had to merge (easily done with Windows 7) all the partitions so I had only one partition on my drive (plus the recovery drive). Also since there is no physical media to recover this unit with. I strongly suggest making a recovery DVD after you get it all set up the way you want. That way if it dumps on you, you can use the iso to restore it without having to go through all the set up again, nor the over 600MB of Windows updates (yeah…that took awhile).