ASUS N55SF Pro Reviews

f you are looking for an entertainment-focused laptop for less than £800, you could do a lot worse than the chunky Asus N55SF-S2276V. An impressive list of specifications is rounded off with strong performance and a very usable screen. Sound quality is also excellent.

The ASUS N55SF isn't without its faults - and battery life is chief among them - but it excels as a multimedia desktop replacement.

Fantastic performance and superb audio make this the ideal multimedia laptop

The Asus N55SF will appeal to anyone who wants great performance as well as a 1080p/Blu-ray movie viewer, a stereo system, and a competent gaming machine in a svelte package. For the price, you won't do better.

The ASUS N55S is a good value and a good buy. It has a great full HD display, good looks, and decent build quality. The performance is excellent; this notebook is more than capable of playing the latest games. Most of the cons for this notebook can be summed up as "could have been better" rather than simply "bad". The keyboard for example is pleasant to type on but has some layout issues; the touchpad works well but the buttons are too loud; finally, the speakers sound good but aren't particularly impressive. A definite downside is the fact that the N55S does not have a backlit keyboard like some similarly-priced competing notebooks. There are still many things to like about this notebook, including the two USB 3.0 ports, quiet cooling fan, and four hours of battery life. At $1,199 the N55S is an attractive multimedia notebook with solid specifications. It's worth mentioning the notebook comes with a two-year warranty standard.

At first glance, it's difficult to get a handle on exactly what type of laptop the Asus N55SF is. The powerful Core i7-2570QM processor, huge keyboard with numeric keypad and slab of speaker atop the keyboard suggest that it may be intended as a desktop replacement. But the weight and general lack of bulk suggest otherwise. When all's said and done, this is a out-and-out powerhouse of an entertainment laptop. There's Bang and Olufsen ICEPower audio, 6GB of memory and a Blu-ray drive hidden inside that hefty case.

Quad-core power, fast Nvidia graphics and Bang & Olufsen speakers, and all for a very good price

The Asus N55SF convinced in almost all exercises. The multimedia machine has a fast quad core CPU and a powerful Nvidia graphics that should even be enough for use with computer games. Users are on the safe side with a 750 GB hard disk and 8 GB of RAM. The highlight is the 15.6 inch, matt screen that can reproduce a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels (Full HD). The good brightness and good contrast fused with the matt and thus anti-reflective surface ensure an excellent picture. The additional, external subwoofer now finally forwards good basses, but only at home or in the office. The subwoofer only supplies little "boom" in open nature. Users have to get used to the unusual key layout (ESC key not in the upper left as usual), as well as the touchpad with only one rocker key. However, it gets precarious in view of a price of about 1200€. The same hardware is partly available for a lot less. But then, it won't have as good a display installed.

Most computer enthusiasts won’t want to buy this laptop. For those on the move, it’s too big and bulky. For those with a fetish for mobile performance, the ASUS G-series is a better choice thanks to the faster GPU. It’s important to remember, however, that the vast majority of consumers still buy 15.6” desktop replacements - computers that are meant to be a person’s only machine. These laptops are expected to handle everything. In this role, the ASUS N55 excels. It’s attractive, can handle both heavy productivity and 3D gaming, offers a beautiful 1080p display, and even has leading sound quality. While the price of over $1200 is high, it’s competitive considering everything that is made available here.

The Asus N55SF-A1 is one of the best-sounding desktop replacement laptops in the business, thanks to some fine audio tuning and speaker hardware from Bang & Olufsen ICEpower. Its internal parts even outperform most of its peers in speed and gaming tests.