Pros: Low price, Core i5 CPU, 6 GB of upgradable RAM, 1 TB of storage.
Cons: 2 cell battery.
The notebook market has changed tremendously over the past few years. When previously it was unthinkable of someone to buy a quality laptop for less than $700, today that's what we would spend on a high end laptop. It's with this strategy that Asus came in and swept the market and today we're going to talk about one of its most appealing new notebooks; the Asus X555LA-BHI5N12.
This new addition to the Asus lineup stands out thanks to its mid range features and entry level price point. Amongst it's key features we've got a Core i5 CPU and 6 GB of RAM . Wanna know more? Then keep on reading to find out all there is to know (pros and cons included) in our review of the Asus X555LA-BHI5N12.
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Asus X555LA-BHI5N12: Reviewing an affordable and powerful laptop
Average Display and a Stylish Design
Lets cut right to it: there's nothing new and exciting when it comes to the Asus X555LA-BHI5N12's screen. It sports a standard 15.6 inch LED screen with a 1366 by 768 pixel resolution on a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Asus didn't reinvent the wheel here, it's your standard screen. If you're aiming for a high density screen to watch movies on high definition we would urge you to look at the Asus F555LA-AB31, it's cheaper, has less interesting components but it boosts a Full HD screen.
That said, the new Asus notebook does follow the norm here, most laptops within this price range do have your standard HD screen so there's nothing wrong with that and it definitely won't count as a con.
In terms of design, Asus hasn't strayed much from it's typical line of design. It's not an ultrabook but it's not especially heavy either with a weight of 5.07 pounds and a thickness factor of 1.02 inches. This is the norm within the 15 inch laptop market so we are neither glad nor disappointed by these numbers.
Moving on to Performance...
Without a good CPU and a good amount of RAM a pretty laptop is just paperweight. Asus knows this and that's why they paid more attention to the insides of this notebook then they did to the exteriors.
That said, the CPU is probably one of this laptops most attractive features. To be specific, the new model is running on a dual core i5 5200U model.
This is a standard 64 bit processor that consumes very little power (therefore increasing battery life), operates on 3 MB of cache and runs at a standard speed of 2.2 GHz that can reach a maximum of 2.8 GHz thanks to the turbo boost feature.
It's a previous generation processor (we are currently on the 6th generation Skylake line) but that's one of the reasons why this laptop is a bit cheaper then the models that integrate a Skylake chip. Honestly there's not much of a difference perfomance-wise between a 5th and 6th generation Core i5 so I wouldn't guard this as a deciding factor.
On the RAM side of things we've got 6 GB of DDR3L SDRAM running at 1600 MHz. It should be noted that you can increase the amount of RAM up to 12 GB if you so choose to. Personally I find 6 GB to be more then enough for a good multitasking experience but if you're really keen on having loads of RAM then you should know that that's not a problem with this model.
Finally, in regards to the graphics card on the Asus X555LA-BHI5N12, it's a swing and a miss. Asus doesn't specify the exact model of graphic card but we are to assume that it features an Intel HD Graphics 5000 due to the chip model.
That said, this is a UMA graphics card which means it's good for streaming movies, uploading videos, editing images and more basic stuff but it's not recommended for gaming or anything that takes the laptop onto the heavy graphics department.
All in all, this set of specs make it clear that the X555LA-BHI5N12 has been designed with a specific audience in mind. Students, home users and work users are the ones who will benefit the most from this model. "Power-users", on the other hand, might be better suited with a laptop that had dedicated graphics.
How many pictures can I store on this laptop? How much will its battery last?
As much as the key elements like CPU and RAM matter when it comes to picking out a laptop, many people focus their attentions towards other things like storage and battery life.
In this regard, the notebook at hand comes in with a 1 TB hard drive that runs at a standard 5400 rpm. We would personally recommend you upgrading towards flash storage because it's 10 times faster and it's really not that expensive these days. Specifically you can buy roughly 250 GB for less than $90 on Amazon.
As for how many images you can store on this laptop...If you consider that the OS occupies roughly 50 GB and that it comes with 1000 GB (not 1024 as it should) then we're talking about 950 GB of free storage space. 950 GB/ 5 MB= 194.500 pictures or roughly 1000 movies. Not too shabby...
Battery-wise, it boosts a 2 cell battery which should give us roughly 4 hours of battery life taking into account the CPU. However, as always, this will depend greatly on the use we give it.
Tell me about the connectivity
As we approach the closing lines in our X555LA-BHI5N12 review, it's time to take a peek at the connectivity side of things. To this point i'll say that the new notebook features 3 USB ports (2 USB 3.0 ports), a DVD reader, an ethernet port, Bluetooth 4.0, SD card reader, WiFi and all the standard connectivity options available.
The webcam, in this case, is a 0.3 megapixel model which, though not particularly good it's still good enough for skyping with your friends.
Wrapping things up: What's the final verdict?
We've made it to the finish line of our review of the Asus X555LA-BHI5N12 and we gotta say that overall we're pretty pleased with the laptop. Sure we would've appreciated a dedicated graphics card to go crazy with gaming and such but for most people this won't be a very noticeable feature.
All in all, for it's pretty tight price we're more then glad to recommend this laptop to our friends. Whether you're looking for an entry level laptop and don't mind spending a bit more money for something a bit better or just looking for a laptop that's future proof where you can expand the RAM as you move forth, the X555LA-BHI5N12 is a great option.
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