The ASUS K53TA-BBR6
This laptop is a god send. With a very tight budget even for a laptop with nothing but good battery life, this laptop was not only good for that but was able to fulfill everything I ever wanted in a laptop. It has its flaws, but they are very easy to overlook with what the laptop provides.
Specs:
Processor: AMD A6 3400m 1.4Ghz
GPU: HD 6720g2 (HD 6520g + HD 6650m w/ 1GB GDDR3)
RAM: 1x4GB Samsung RAM 1333Mhz (The highest speed the processor supports) Upgradable with an additional 4GB dimm
HDD: 500GB 5400rpm Seagate HDD
15.6" 1366x768 screen
Build Quality: 4/5
Like many that get the laptop say, "its better than expected", and I have to agree with that. The plastic that surrounds the laptop is hard and solid. The textured finish on the screen and palm rests is very nice not only for aesthetics but also for functionality, as it has a finish that would hide smudges and hairline scratches. So why not give the laptop a perfect score for how well built the laptop sounds? Its the small things. The laptop screen has some flex to it that gives it a slight cheap feeling, the left mouse button on the touchpad is higher than the right button as well as both button giving off a cheap clicking sound when pressed, and when I opened up the laptop two area's on the palmrest faceplate where the screws screw into fell apart/off.
Battery Life: 4.5/5
The battery life that this laptop provided was a massive turn on, and was exactly what I needed in a laptop. If you were to undervolt the laptop's A6 processor (It undervolts/overclocks like a BOSS), lower the brightness to the lowest setting, and do nothing but browse the web, you can get more than five hours out of this laptop! I personally got approximately 5 hours and 30 minutes out of it however people reported getting up to 6 hours from it! This is due to the laptop pulling as low as 10w from the battery with the very power efficient processor at idle. The high performance battery life that this laptop gets is what makes it feel like many other laptops. With the high performance battery preset, %50 brightness, and the processor overclocked to 2.2 Ghz with volts very similar to stock volts, I was able to get a little less than an hour and a half playing Portal 2. With the stock CPU clocks and volts as well as a different game, your results may vary (More or less, as Portal 2 isn't very demanding). What is also really impressive is that the laptops 6-cell battery is one of the smallest laptop batteries I've seen.
Performance: 4/5
CPU performance: 4/5
The AMD A6-3400m CPU performance at the stock clocks of 800mhz-1400mhz it is very weak. Weak as in barely enough to give you smooth internet browsing and is a very high bottleneck in gaming. So why give the processor a very generous score? Overcloackability potential. Not before you say anything hear me out first. The stock configuration that the processor comes with is very unusual and in a good way. Using a simple program usung K10stat which can be used in the OS, I was able to overclock the processor to 2 Ghz yet at the same time UNDERVOLT IT from 1.0375v to 1.0v! Since the temps were still only around 65*c, I was able to set my speed to 2.2 Ghz at a still low 1.0875v and stay under 75*c. Battery life was not seriously hurt since the voltage wasn't changed that much and I got a very nice performance boost. In benchmarks the A6 is about on par with an Intel i3 processor however when overclocked it can easily compete with Intel's i5's. I'm an Intel fanboy when it comes to desktop processor's however I have to hand it to AMD for a surprisingly powerful mobile processor.
GPU performance: 4/5
What makes this laptop a gaming laptop is the GPU's. yes that's right, there are two of these chips in the laptop. Combined with an already impressively performing AMD 6520g integrated processor (In the CPU die) is an AMD HD 6650m with 1GB of GDDR3 VRAM. AMD calls the combination "HD 6720g2". What's happening is the two GPU's are put into asymmetric crossfire and the outcome is much better performance, that of which rivals GPU's in laptops found in laptops selling for $800+. Here is a link to the GPU written by notebookcheck.net.
Unfortunately, with AMD's drivers which we all know are horrible when it comes to crossfire, you will get very mixed results. While I was able to play Assassins Creed 2 at the highest settings and get around 30fps which was expected, Battlefield 3 would give me a framerate in the teens (10-20). Disabling crossfiire and only running the game on the HD 6650m greatly increased framerate. The funny thing is that low-ultra settings with everything besides shadows which was always at low gave me the same framerate, maybe even better with high and ultra for some reason. AMD drivers are very unpredictable when it comes to these kinds of things. Overall, the driver problems are the only thing that keeps the GPU's from getting a flawless score.
Image Quality (Screen) 3.5/5
The screen is sub-par. It is the worst aspect of the laptop. While 1366x768 makes the GPU's be able to put more power into graphics settings than the resolution, compared to 1440p or even 1080p, the real estate that the resolution provides is like the new 800x600 for me. Its just too small. Unsurprisingly the screen also has horrendous viewing angles and the colors like with every cheap TN panel, look washed out and grainy with this specific model. There is good new however. It has been confirmed that the ASUS G53's 1920x1080 screen is compatible with this laptop, all that has to be replaced is the LCD cable which will run you another $20 if you find it. I just suggest you hook up the laptop to an external display via HDMI to see if games still run at acceptable framerates.
Expansion: 4/5
The expansion is quite good in this laptop for it's price category. With most graphics capable laptop that run slightly higher in terms of price, the laptop features an HDMI port as well as a VGA port in case your using this with a CRT or a projector. Both are located on the left side along with a USB 2.0, a USB 3.0, charge port, and last but not least Ethernet. I would also like to mention that the laptops exhaust is also conveniently placed on the same side. In the front there is an SD card as well as 6 indicator LED's under the touchpad. On the right side there is a headphone and microphone jack and a DVD drive that can do everything you'd expect from a DVD drive. There is nothing but the battery on the back. One thing I would've loved to see in a PCIe expansion slot for something like a better WiFi card or maybe even a sound card but the USB 3.0 and HDMI made up for it.
Overall: 4/5
I just cannot believe I am getting very nice gaming performance for the amount of money that I paid for this thing. Not only can I take notes in class with it but it doubles as a very capable transportable gaming rig, what's not to like?
Availability:
Unfortunately that is the only barrier. For $400 the laptop will be refurbished as I can't find it new anywhere for a very inflated price. Check your local bestbuy and see if they by any chance still have it new, you'll be able to snag it at that price. Newegg is selling a refurbished model on their ebay page for $420. I purchased mine off the site however it is out of stock once again.
Here are some helpful links for the laptop:
Laptop Newegg page
Notebookcheck.net GPU review
Notebookreview.com 300+ page discussion thread (Very helpful/must read)
Edited by CrazzyRussian - 5/1/12 at 5:17pm
My Baby
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My Baby
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The only ones availible were a broken one in San Diego and a floor model in New Jersey.
