Article index:

• 1 – Overview
• 2 – Gallery
• 3 – First Boot
• 4 – System Data: CPU + GPU
• 5 – Graphics Benchmarks
• 6 – Hard Drive Disk Benchmark
• 7 – Burn-in Test
• 8 – Battery Test
• 9 – Conclusion

9 – Conclusion

ASUS N550JK is a nice notebook. Here are the PROS and CONS:

PROS:

• 15.6-inch full HD anti-glare IPS panel
• Intel Core i7-4710HQ quad-core CPU
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M based on GM107M GPU (Maxwell architecture)
• the Bang & Olufsen sound system with its external subwoofer
• the metallic / aluminum design
• rather quiet at idle / 2D, tolerable noise under heavy GPU load

CONS:

• the touchpad: click buttons are not very well positioned. The Macbook Pro has a nearly perfect touchpad, just copy it! Fortunately there is a mouse in the bundle!
• the 1.5TB HDD: too slow for a modern notebook. I want a SSD!
• 8GB of memory: not a big problem, but 16GB would have been a plus!
• the DDR3 memory of GTX 850M: memory is slow compared to GDDR5
• battery lifetime: 2h30…

The last point is the blu-ray reader. Is it still useful today? The space of the reader could be better used for cooling or something else. And if a dvd/blu-ray reader is really necessary, just buy a separate reader on USB port. Or better: like the mouse or the bag, ASUS could add a separate blu-ray reader in the bundle!

With its Core i7, its GeForce GTX 850M, its fullHD panel and it great sound system, this notebook has many winning cards. But the slow HDD is not conceivable. So let’s wait for new models with SSD for the end of the year…

I would like to thank the computer hardware shop Internex for the ASUS N550J sample. Thanks guys!

Article index:

• 1 – Overview
• 2 – Gallery
• 3 – First Boot
• 4 – System Data: CPU + GPU
• 5 – Graphics Benchmarks
• 6 – Hard Drive Disk Benchmark
• 7 – Burn-in Test
• 8 – Battery Test
• 9 – Conclusion