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[Review] Asus X550ZA-WB11 - High end Specs at a Mid-range Price


Pros: Quad-core AMD A10 CPU, 8 GB of RAM, 1 TB of internal storage, great price/spec ratio (see price here).
Cons: Hard Drive instead of an SSD, Integrated GPU (shared graphics).


Asus is a very popular brand in the mid-range laptop market, and while most of their laptops pack intel components in their insides, there are still quite a few that use AMD technologies. One of them is the Asus X550ZA-WB11, a powerful machine with a quad-core processor, 8 GB of RAM and a tight price tag (check availability at Amazon here).

It also has an excellent 1 TB hard drive and a very elegant design, making it a great device for both office and personal use. If you want to know all of the technical details, then come with us because we’re about to start our in-depth review of the Asus X550ZA-WB11, as well as it's pros and cons.

Dell Inspiron 15 3000 Review, Performance on a Budget

Image by PC World

Pros Cons
  • 5th gen Intel Core i3 processor
  • 4 GB of RAM
  • 500 GB of internal storage.
  • low price (check pricing here)
  • Hard drive instead of an SSD.
  • Integrated GPU (shared graphics).


Most mid-range laptops have to sacrifice their looks and most of the quality of their builds to ensure that the price is at its lowest, but that never seemed to be a problem for Dell. The north-american company has always managed to make attractive and powerful mid-range machines, and the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 is no exception.

To sum it up, the Inspiron 3000 comes with 4 GB of RAM, 500 GB of internal storage and a pretty powerful dual-core Intel i3 processor. And the best part, it has one of prettiest designs of the mid-range market. If you want to know more about it, then walk with us as we review the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 with it's pros and cons to help you decide if it's worth your money.


What do clients think? Read All 125+ Customer Reviews

Full Review of the Dell Inspiron 15 3000


Screen & First impressions


Despite having an all-black, relatively simple design, the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 manages to stand out from its competitors. 

Maybe it’s the weight distribution between the screen and the rest of the laptop (meaning that screen is way thinner than the lower part of the device) or maybe it’s just the textured finish on the outside (an outside which also has super attractive squared corners, unlike most rounded laptops that flood the market today).

I don’t know exactly why, but the Inspiron 15 3000 is simply easier on the eyes than most of the mid-range laptops we've reviewed so far. 

The 15.6-inch screen is pretty good as well, packing an HD (1366x768p) resolution. It’s big enough for most multitasking needs and good enough for watching high-definition movies. Also, it’s very thin when compared to the lower part of the laptop, meaning that it shouldn’t be that hard to open the laptop with one hand (like you can do with a MacBook Air, for example)

If you still want a higher resolution or just a bigger display, you can simply connect the laptop to your TV or monitor through the HDMI port. Another advantage of the design is the big keyboard with an integrated numpad, something particularly useful for people that writes for a living.

CPU, RAM & Graphics


Moving on with our review of the Dell Inspiron 15 3000, the truth is, it's a very powerful machine for its price. In the processing department, it comes with a 5th generation, Broadwell based Intel i3 processor that packs 2 cores, 4 sub-processing threads (2 per core), 3 MB of cache, a 64 bit architecture and a clock speed of 2.0 GHz.

Along with that CPU, you’ll find 4 GB of DDR3L SDRAM running at 1600 MHz. Said memory is single channel and it will work at its maximum capacity all the time thanks to the 64 bit architecture of the CPU.

The Intel HD 5500 graphics card has to share its memory with the CPU, so it will not be as powerful as a dedicated GPU. Nevertheless, it’s still good enough for  video and photo editing (because that depends more on the CPU cores and RAM memory) as well as some casual gaming (League of Legends, Dota 2, Counter Strike: GO and many other popular games run just fine as long as you tweak the visual quality a bit).

Basically, with this set of specs you get as much bang for your buck as possible within this price range.

Storage & Battery life


I know I wrote in the beginning that the lack of an SSD is a disadvantage, but at this price range it all depends on what you’re planning to use the laptop for. If what you want is to quickly transfer huge files between multiple drives, an SSD is definitely your best choice, but the thing is that not many people need that.

What most people need, though, is enough internal storage for them to not carry around an external drive everywhere they go, and that just couldn’t have been possible with an SSD (unless you're willing to fork over 1K, of course).

That’s why I’m glad that Dell chose a 500 GB hard disk drive (HDD) instead of an SSD that would have provided, at best, 32 GB of flash memory storage. The good thing is that you still have one USB 3.0 port if you want to connect an external SSD drive.

When it comes to battery life, the new Dell budget laptop brings us a 40 watts-hours, 4-cell battery capable of handling between 4 and 5 hours of mid-to-heavy use, which is more than enough for the average user.

Connectivity & Extras


The best extras we can point out to in this case are its DVD/CD optical drive and the “facial-recognition compatible webcam” (according to Dell). This, along with the big keyboard and screen, make for a very good work/study laptop.

As far as ports go, this model comes in with two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, one HDMI port, one headphone/microphone jack, one SD card reader and an ethernet port for your wired LAN connections. Regarding the wireless connections, you’ll find WiFI (802.11 b/g/n) and Bluetooth (v4.0) compatibility.

It comes with Windows 8.1 out of the box, but Windows 10 is already available as a free update (at least until mid-2016) so you’ll have the latest software versions for the next few years without any extra charge.

Veredict : Is it worth it?


Wrapping up our review of the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 pros and cons, we gotta say; it's an A+ in our book. I mean, aside from being a very attractive budget laptop, Dell managed to cram into a $380 machine a Core i3 processor, 500 GB of storage, 4 GB of RAM and a pretty nifty Intel HD 5500 graphics card.

All in all, dare we say; we're looking at one of the best budget laptops in the market. That said, besides being in love with this laptop's design you might wanna also check out the Asus F555LA-AB31 which also brings a Full HD display to the table. Is it better? Hard to say, either way both are great options and neither will let you down.




Asus F554LA-WS52 Review, Core i5 and 8 GB of RAM at a low end price


Pros Cons
  • Shared graphics memory (integrated GPU).
  • Hard Drive instead of an SSD.

Despite how much I love low-end laptops like the Chromebooks and the upcoming Cloudbooks (which are pretty much just chromebooks with Windows 10), sometimes we just need something more powerful. You might also like: Asus F555LA-AB31 The Ultimate Windows 10 Laptop 

Sometimes we just need something like the Asus F554LA-WS52, a laptop with solid internal specs, a very classy and good-looking design, and a low end price tag (check availability here) that won’t drain our bank account. Now, without further ado, let us begin with our in-depth review of the Asus F554LA-WS52.

[Review] Toshiba Satellite C55-B5161, what All budget Laptops Should Look like


Pros Cons
  • 15.6-inch display.
  • 4 GB of RAM.
  • Dual Core Intel Celeron Processor.
  • 500 GB of internal storage.
  • 5 Hour Battery Life
  • Budget price(check availability here)
  • HDD instead of an SSD.
  • Integrated GPU (shared graphics)

School time is almost here and most new (and not so new) students are looking for a cheap, reliable laptop that offers the best bang for their buck. And while there are plenty of cheap laptops in the market, most of them aren't as attractive as the Toshiba Satellite C55-B5161 we're covering today

All in all, we're talking about a 15 inch laptop with 500 GB of storage, dual core processor and a very budget-conscious price point click here to see the price. Wanna know more? Then keep on reading and dive into our Toshiba Satellite C55-B5161 in depth review.

Asus K501LX-EB71 Review of a High end Laptop at a Mid Range Price

Asus K501LX-EB71

ProsCons
  • 5th generation Intel Core i7 CPU.
  • Dedicated GeForce GTX 950M graphics card.
  • 8 GB of RAM
  • 256 GB SSD instead of an HDD
  • 1080p, 15.6-inch screen.
  • Mid range price (check pricing & availability here)
  • Only 256GB of internal storage (SSD).
  • Dual-core CPU 

Choosing a high-end laptop is very tricky, because some of them are better for video editing, others for gaming and others offer a better balance between design and internal hardware; but they all cost roughly around the same, so how are we supposed to choose? Which is better? Which is worth buying?

Well, if what you want is a high-end laptop with good specs that doesn’t sacrifice the thinness of the device (or at least not nearly as much as other laptops), then the Asus K501LX-EB71 is an excellent choice, especially if you consider the price point, at least by the time we wrote this post, you can check the price here. 

If you wanna know more about this device, then keep reading because we’re about to start our in-depth review of the Asus K501LX-EB71.

Moto G (2015) VS Galaxy Grand Prime Comparison Review

Moto G 2015 VS Galaxy Grand Prime Comparison

So you've been browsing around the smartphone market, nothing serious, just casual browsing, and you're down to two options; the Moto G 2015 3rd Generation and the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime.

You let yourself be seduced by the look and feel of the Galaxy Smartphone but in your heart of hearts you're pretty sure the Moto G will be a better fit for you. You still haven't come to a decision on which one is better though so you've come here and boy have you arrived at the right spot. So get ready, buckle up and be prepared to be amazed by this in depth comparison review of the Moto G 2015 VS Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime.


[Review] Asus F555LA-AB31 The Ultimate Windows 10 Laptop



Pros Cons
  • 500 GB Hard Drive 



With the launch of Windows 10 there are several manufacturers scrambling to give us great laptops at affordable prices with the new OS already installed. However, few have offered such a great price/spec relationship as the Asus F555LA-AB31 we're going to talk about today.  

The Asus F555LA-AB31 is an excellent mid-range laptop with a 5th generation Intel Core i3 CPU, 4 GB of RAM and the latest iteration of Windows (Windows 10) for an extremely competitive price point (click here to see the price). However, its most interesting feature (for the price) is that it comes with a Full HD (1920x1080p) screen.


Meizu M2 Note Pros and Cons, Best and Worst Features


Meizu has made quite a name for themselves over the last couple of years. At first, the company only sold their phones in mainland China, however, recently they've started to take on an expansion which has brought their smartphones to countries all over the world, the US included.

With this in mind and with the recent launch of the popular Meizu M2 Note. Today we're going to delve into the pros and the cons of this smartphone to help you make the most informed decision possible. Priced at roughly $150-160 on Amazon, the smartphone is bound to have some weak points attached to it. Therefore and without further ado; let's get into the Meizu M2 Note Pros and Cons. ¿Ready?