Asus A555LF full Specification and Review

Asus is no stranger to the laptop world. The Taiwanese giant launched a bunch of new Windows 10-ready mainstream laptops earlier this month, and today, we’ll be testing its highest-end offering in the A-series, the A555LF. This laptop features an Intel Broadwell CPU and a discrete graphics card for that occasional gaming session. Let’s see if it’s worth your time and money.

Look and feel

The Asus A555LF is well put together and has pleasing aesthetics which makes it very presentable. The laptop is built primarily of plastic, which is of high quality, but we did notice some flex in the lid and the keyboard. Speaking of the lid, Asus has gone with a mosaic pattern which is really highlighted when light hits it. The finish is glossy brown and is a major fingerprint magnet.

Inside, we have a champagne tone for the palm rest and keyboard deck. The chiclet-style keyboard is comfortable to use and the keys are soft with good travel. You also get a full-sized numeric keypad. Above the keys, we have the power button towards the left and a ‘Sonic Master’ inscription on the right, which is Asus’s proprietary audio enhancement.

 The palm rest is generously proportioned and you get a large trackpad too. The latter has a smooth finish with minimal friction. Although the entire trackpad is clickable, the left and right click functions only work when you press the respective corners at the bottom. Also, as the trackpad and the rest of the unit are separate pieces, dirt and dust could accumulate in the gaps over time.
Specifications and software

The A555LF is powered by an Intel Core i5-5200U which is a dual-core CPU with speeds of up to 2.7GHz. There’s no Turbo Boost here but you do get Hyper-Threading. There’s a total of 8GB of DDR3 RAM in a dual-channel configuration; a 1TB hard disk (5400rpm); and an Nvidia GeForce 930M graphics card with its own 2GB of memory. Other specifications include Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0, Gigabit LAN, a VGA webcam, and a 2-cell Lithium polymer battery. The battery capacity might seem small but since this is Lithium Polymer, we should expect more runtime than a similar sized Lithium ion battery would provide. The non-HD webcam is a bit disappointing, especially if you’ll be video chatting a lot.

Asus ships the A555LF with Windows 10 Home 64-bit edition and bunch of its own as well as third-party applications. From Asus’s stable, we have Live Update, which will automatically look for latest drivers and software updates; Splendid Utility, which lets you change the display’s colour temperature; USB Charger Plus, which lets you charge mobile devices quicker when the laptop is on; WebStorage, which is Asus’s own cloud storage service; and WinFlash, which lets you update the BIOS if needed.

Asus also installs ‘GiftBox’ which is like a mini app store with special offers on paid apps. Finally, there’s Asus HiPost which is somewhat like Evernote but uses OneDrive to sync files between devices. You also get McAfee LiveSafe Internet Security (limited time subscription), a trial version of Microsoft Office 365, and 25GB of Dropbox space for six months.

Performance

The 15.6-inch display on the A555LF is just like any other you’ve seen in the budget laptop segment. The low resolution of 768×1366 means icons and text exhibit jagged edges. The screen is glossy making it very reflective in most situations. The viewing angles are not great either, so there’s a very small sweet spot where the picture looks like should. Anything beyond this results in either an underexposed or oversaturated picture.

Performance
The 15.6-inch display on the A555LF is just like any other you’ve seen in the budget laptop segment. The low resolution of 768×1366 means icons and text exhibit jagged edges. The screen is glossy making it very reflective in most situations. The viewing angles are not great either, so there’s a very small sweet spot where the picture looks like should. Anything beyond this results in either an underexposed or oversaturated picture.
Thanks to the decently powerful Core i5 and ample RAM, general performance is good. Applications run well and we didn’t have any issues with multi-tasking either. In our synthetic benchmarks, POVRay returned a trace time of 8 minutes and 12 seconds; 3DMark Fire Strike gave us an overall score of 1309; and PCMark 8 returned 2,988, 3,126 and 2,732 points for the Home, Creative and Work benchmark suites respectively.
As this laptop has a dedicated graphics card, we ran a variety of real world games to gauge its true potential. We started off with Crysis 3 and straight away bumped up the ‘System spec’ and ‘Texture resolution’ to high. We were averaging about 24FPS, which isn’t much, but the game was still manageable. Dialling some of the settings down to medium gave us a smother frame rate.

Verdict
You can find the Asus A555LF at a street price of Rs 48,999, which is not bad considering its performance. You can find similar options from other manufacturers around this price too but what sets Asus apart is the 2-year global warranty, when most others provide 1-year.

The A555LF has a few shortcomings such as the low-resolution screen and the plastic build, which is a little flimsy in some areas. We also wished Asus had used a slightly bigger battery and thrown in an HD webcam. On the plus side, the laptop has good aesthetics, a comfortable keyboard, decent casual gaming performance, and a very good set of speakers. This makes it a good mainstream option for those unwilling to breach the Rs 50,000 price barrier.

Price (MRP): Rs. 49,490

Pros

  • Two USB 3.0 ports
  • Good set of speakers
  • Pleasing aesthetics
  • 2 year global warranty

Cons

  • Low resolution display
  • Battery life could be better
  • Non-HD webcam

Ratings (Out of 5)
Design: 3.5
Display: 3
Performance: 3.5
Software: 3.5
Value for Money: 4
Overall: 3.5

Related Posts