[Review] ASUS K53SM-SX010D Notebook

[vipul619]

THREAD WILL TAKE TIME TO LOAD..

After lot of research and with the help of fellow TD members i finally purchased this laptop for 40000INR from Nehru Place, Delhi from an Authorized ASUS Outlet with accessories that include

• Budget USB Mouse
• 1 Year, 3 User Antivirus (N360), DAFUQ!
• Keyboard Guard
• Tricom Headset
• ASUS Backpack
• Cleaning Kit
• Driver Disc

Now i just had my 3MP Phone camera so all the images and videos that are below are much much better in reality..

PRODUCT DETAILS

Flipkart offers this model for 40200 without accessories.
Also buying a 40K+ product online didnt just seem safe to me..

ASUS K53SM -SX010D

PICS

As said, reality is better than pics.
The lappy comes in only one color i.e. Mocha Brown.
Elegant, but i would've loved a black color.









PORTS

As given in specs it has all those ports as mentioned.
You can see the placement below.
The USB Port with the blue thing inside is the USB 3.0





ACCESSORIES

Awesome Driver CD, installation is way easy.
Crap Antivirus
Fine Backpack
Nice and very light mouse
See no need for Keyboard cover
Havent tried headset or cleaning kit
Flexible keyboard for fun, not included..!!

Ordered from Ebay for 300INR

EBAY Link

Guy is a Power Seller, so was sure product would be good, and it is, but only for gaming. Keys are way too stiff for typing.

The charger is moderately heavy, but it does get hot sometimes.
The Blue LED looks great though.















WINDOWS RATING [TRIED ONLY ONCE]

Its
Processor - 7.0
RAM - 5.9
Stupid Aero Graphics - 5.0 [Lowest]
Woohoo Gaming Graphics - 6.7
HDD (5400RPM, what can you expect) - 5.9




PERSONAL REVIEW

Seen all the lookabouts.
Now here is what i think.
The laptop has matched my expectations.
So far i installed Ridge Racer Unbounded & Dirt Showdown on it and both ran on High settings without a hiccup. So MAIN GAMING PURPOSE FULFILLED!!

Now the sound was low, i knew that, surprisingly a bit of tweaks in Realtek control panel (equalizer to Rock, Environment to Living Room) did the trick.
Now sound is clear and enough to even watch british TV shows and understand what they are saying.
Sound is fully satisfying in gaming, but dont expect a Dolby Surround Sound which means while outside or with chattering people, you will need earplugs for media viewing, gaming wont need it though.
Now one strange thing is that sound kind of is mainly controlled by system only.
I mean i maxed out the sound on system, then played a video in WMP.
I was watching it on 40% volume.
I increased it to 100% and noticed like a 5-10% difference only.
So control the sound from function keys instead of the application for better usage.
You can see it here (bad quality though )
I increased the volume from 40 to 100 after almost 12sec in the video.



Since this is my first laptop, i dont know if the heating was fine or not.
While playing i didnt feel a thing on the keyboard or touchpad, but the vent (is on the left) was hottttt!! But then again i was playing on AC Supply not battery, so might have been more hot than usual.
While viewing stuff, or usual stuff it was Ice Cool.

Screen is bright enough to use outside with ease.

Keyboard surprisingly was a delight, its a chiclet keyboard instead of the mentioned standard keyboard, very delighted..

Touchpad is PERFECT, no more not less sensitive.

Battery is a doozy.
It will show you 2hr remaining on 90%, it will show 5hrs remaining on 70%.
So i guess if you use it for general purpose, it should last atleast 4-5hrs.
For gaming the usual 2-3hrs.

Thats it i guess.
if anyone has any questions, please do comment below..
Thank You once again to all the TD members who helped me HERE!!

[red dragon]

Love the blue glow!Congrats btw!

[sam]

try posting a few benchmark and for temperature try CPUID HWMonitor. Show show accurate system temperature. Asus Ice Cool. I love this tech.

[vipul619]

thnx red..

and sam
any links to benchmarking sites or tools?
i know of Antutu and Quadrant for Android but none for PC..

Also will try the temp. tool

[vds5344]

er try playing games like crysis bf3 and most awaited mp3 please try max payne 3. this machine is great just wanna know performance of 630m

[vipul619]

I cant play the games you listed, as i'm soon off to MBA College and downloading them will take ages with my connection.
Obviously wont buy them..
Will play some high end games though before i go.
And if you just want to know the performance of 630M
look at these..

Gameplays

[vds5344]

alright enjoy
keep playing

[sam]

and sam
any links to benchmarking sites or tools?
i know of Antutu and Quadrant for Android but none for PC..

try running games with Fraps in the background. will show the FPS in game.

also try Sandra Lite. Best all in one benchmark suite.

BTW you should have turned on more lights. The pictures looks dark not cause of 3MP camera but lack of proper light

[vipulgreattt]

WOW.. nice pics and description.. glad to see you're happy with purchase.. Can you please specifically give the battery backup without gaming.. & I mean without looking at the expected backup from the lappy and actually using it?

[vipul619]

it'll be quite hard to just use the lappy without gaming because my sole purpose of buying it was gaming, i dont know what else to do on it..

[SunE]

it'll be quite hard to just use the lappy without gaming because my sole purpose of buying it was gaming, i dont know what else to do on it..

Watch po.. eh movies and TV shows. Try watching Archer it's good.
Nice laptop though.

Now just need someone to say something about the After sales service

[vipul619]

lol, will try, currently viewing Awake, i guess i will watch 6-7 episodes in a row after full recharge (40min each).
And googled a lot about ASS, everyone seemed happy NOW, earlier ASUS ASS was handled by some Rashi Group, but now its in someone else's hand..

[vipulgreattt]

it'll be quite hard to just use the lappy without gaming because my sole purpose of buying it was gaming, i dont know what else to do on it..

lol... anyways..whenever you use it without gaming like browsing stuff and watching movies etc you can give the backup at that time

Have fun with that awesome machine

[s18000rpm]

Congrats.
I have same laptop but with gt540m

Tip: Use the Power4Gear (Fn + space) properly, when browsing or on lap/bed, use "Quiet" mode, only in this mode the lappy runs really cool & battery gives 5+ hours of backup.
Use 'Entertainment mode' for gaming, if its not enough, use High Perf mode.

one more thing, the lid will get scratched on its top edges (vertical sides) while carrying in bag. I have put PU Foam strip at that place

Important, DONT KEEP/USE ANY LIQUID NEAR KEYBOARD.
The CPU fan is exposed under the KB, & small vents are there for GPU.

If you clean the KB, spray the Cleaner (colin) on a clean cloth & then use it to wipe the KB clean.

[saswat23]

Nice purchase.
Quite impressed with the backpack

[vipul619]

thanks for the tips RPM, will take care of that.
Also yes, using the P4G feature, it really is great to manage easily.
Also the Elantech pointing software is great for managing shortcuts, feel very little need of USB mouse now except for gaming

And guys, managed to use the lappy without gaming.
So here's how it performed.

• Used it all the time on lap, no cooling pads, no hard surface.
• Since the time i switched it on, till the time the battery was out, i constantly [LITERALLY CONSTANTLY] kept copying stuff from my DVD collection on to the HDD.
• Along this i watched and watched 30 Rock today.
• Volume set on max (Both in WMP & System)
• Brightness set to 0
• Was using Battery Saving mode on Power4Gear, so it kind of sets Max CPU Usage to 60% instead of a 100%

So with this arrangement, the battery lasted 3 hours 40 minutes until it dropped to 10%
And i had to plug in the charger after 10% because this is new

The Laptop disables the sound after 10% battery, or atleast at Battery Saving mode..

And the temperature after this constant usage in a non-AC or cooler, simple ceiling fan room was,



So i guess its pretty good..
Or is it?

[vds5344]

with 540m ? Where? Please only gpu is stopping from buying this awesome lappy.

[Alien]

Congrats on your new laptop..

with 540m ? Where? Please only gpu is stopping from buying this awesome lappy.

540M and 630M are essentially same.. Previous models came with 540M. I think you are looking for one with 640M.

[vds5344]

oh 540 and 640 my mind is blank

[vipul619]

yes, 630 is just a renamed 540.
i also had heard about 3rd Gen ASUS lappies with 640M, but they had no approx release date so went ahead and bought this.
BTW, the keyboard protector is great, with it,typing feels even better..

[s18000rpm]

^dont use 'keyboard protector' while in High Performance, Entertainment mode.
As i mentioned, the Heat Sink fan is under the KB & it somewhat takes air from gaps around KB

[vipul619]

^ i looked quite a bit into it, seems like the new models dont have those vents now.
neither can i feel any air from the vents nor does the protector get any warm after keeping it on for hours.
the only hot place in the lappy is the left part around the vent.

[arjun123100]

^ i looked quite a bit into it, seems like the new models dont have those vents now.
neither can i feel any air from the vents nor does the protector get any warm after keeping it on for hours.
the only hot place in the lappy is the left part around the vent.

Hi bro,Congrats..Me too got the laptop for 39.5K..Laptop looks cool and works great..

[vipulgreattt]

thanks for the tips RPM, will take care of that.
Also yes, using the P4G feature, it really is great to manage easily.
Also the Elantech pointing software is great for managing shortcuts, feel very little need of USB mouse now except for gaming

And guys, managed to use the lappy without gaming.
So here's how it performed.

• Used it all the time on lap, no cooling pads, no hard surface.
• Since the time i switched it on, till the time the battery was out, i constantly [LITERALLY CONSTANTLY] kept copying stuff from my DVD collection on to the HDD.
• Along this i watched and watched 30 Rock today.
• Volume set on max (Both in WMP & System)
• Brightness set to 0
• Was using Battery Saving mode on Power4Gear, so it kind of sets Max CPU Usage to 60% instead of a 100%

So with this arrangement, the battery lasted 3 hours 40 minutes until it dropped to 10%
And i had to plug in the charger after 10% because this is new

The Laptop disables the sound after 10% battery, or atleast at Battery Saving mode..

And the temperature after this constant usage in a non-AC or cooler, simple ceiling fan room was,



So i guess its pretty good..
Or is it?

Thanks man.. Temperature seems pretty good and battery backup is also good..

Idk what to do. I definitely dont need laptop that badly now, as I kind of am managing on desktop. So may be its good idea to wait for 3rd gen ASUS. Anyways, i dont think they'll be in this range of 40k .. So still dont know what to do..

[vipul619]

Thanks man.. Temperature seems pretty good and battery backup is also good..

Idk what to do. I definitely dont need laptop that badly now, as I kind of am managing on desktop. So may be its good idea to wait for 3rd gen ASUS. Anyways, i dont think they'll be in this range of 40k .. So still dont know what to do..

For gaming, you need not wait, 630M is mooore than enough, will post videos soon with Fraps for some games.
Also 3rd and 2nd Gen wont have a massive difference, whatever difference there might be, the price difference would be exponential.
So unless you are waiting for Ultrabooks to lower down their prices, i dont see a point in waiting..

[vds5344]

i want mp3 benchmarks :'( how well does 640m perform?

[vipul619]

i want mp3 benchmarks :'( how well does 640m perform?

i guess you meant Max Payne 3.
Check this out

640M vs 630M Gaming Wise