Laptop ASUS X554LJ: reviews, review, specs

In the focus of this article - budget mobile device ASUS X554LJ. Responses of owners assure that this laptop is on par with high performance has a very attractive price (25-30 thousand rubles, depending on the modification). The gadget will be of interest to both students and office workers, because it is the affordable cost in priority for buyers with a small budget.

First meeting

Let the device and inexpensive, but the manufacturer packed it in a branded box in the form of a convenient case with a plastic handle for easy transfer. The box is very dense, so you should not worry about the contents during transportation. Like all budget devices of the manufacturer, ASUS X554LJ laptop has a simple complete set: the gadget itself, the charger, the instruction and disks with drivers. It is better not to discard the packaging from the laptop, as in the warranty card there is an item obliging the owner to provide the entire device with the complete set including the box.

For some modifications of the device, which are sold without a licensed operating system, there is a disk for restoring the Windows 10 system in the box. Naturally, it is a trial drive, after 30 days of operation it is recommended to purchase a license.

Appearance and build quality

Let the laptop and belongs to the budget class, but the manufacturers of ASUS, in contrast to competitors, decided that its appearance should be attractive. First, the mobile device for its 15 inches is very compact and light - it applies to all modifications of the ASUS X554LJ. Black plastic used in the manufacture of the laptop was very high quality. When trying to deform the device there is not even a hint of squeaks. The lid though opens with a little effort, but it works silently.

Judging by the feedback of the owners, it confuses the matte coating of the whole case and the plastic frame around the screen - they are very brandy, easily attract dust and collect fingerprints. Fans of cleanliness should always carry a special rag to clean up the dirt on the mobile device.

A pledge of low cost

When you first turn on the notebook owner ASUS X554LJ, the review begins with the display. For hours we can talk about the low quality of obsolete TN + Film matrices, but it is thanks to this technology that the mobile device is of low cost. A widescreen screen with a 16: 9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1366x768 dots per inch, looks somehow poor, but as practice shows, this is quite enough for entertainment and work.

And if the color of this laptop has obvious problems (for design and creative work, it just does not work), then with viewing angles is complete order, because the manufacturer has installed LED-backlight. Its presence is very noticeable when working in nature - the backlight eliminates the sun glare on the laptop display. It should be noted that LED-backlight also partially solves problems with black color and its hues, at least in dynamic multimedia and games scenes it is noticeable (you can distinguish objects, and not observe a gray spot).

Interfaces and connectors

But the presence of interfaces is very difficult to call a budget mobile device ASUS X554LJ. Overview of the connectors located on the side panels of the laptop, gives the feeling that the user is at least a representative of the business class. There is the most important component - the writing drive DVD, which was abandoned several years ago, but again decided to install because of high reliability (data storage up to 100 years, against 8 years on SSD and Flash media). It was located on the right panel along with the card reader, one USB 2.0 port and a combined interface for connecting headphones and a microphone.

The left panel is not less interesting: power connector, network connector RJ-45, analog output D-Sub (in Russia is more popular than digital interfaces), HDMI-output and two slots USB 3.0. By the way, in this device when installing the Windows operating system from flash drives, USB 3.0 ports do not see the boot sector of the flash drive, so many owners are very pleased that the manufacturer has installed one USB 2.0 port on the right panel.

Remote Control

The presence of a full-size keyboard in a 15-inch device now hardly anyone can be surprised, but the presence of a digital unit is possible. It is also full, the buttons are large, which eliminates accidental pressing of the wrong key (it is convenient for a blind dialing method). Considering in detail the keyboard, you can find a strange similarity of appearance with the devices of the MacBook - separate square buttons with a small stroke and easy return. Even the identical rounded corners and lettering are present in the ASUS X554LJ laptop. The owners' comments indicate that the symbols are inconvenient. Everything is marked with white paint, and it will not be easy for a normal user to navigate between the Cyrillic alphabet and the Latin alphabet.

But the installed touchpad is great. It is huge, very sensitive and not bright. It is a pity that the manufacturer did not provide it with a multitouch function, then he would not have had the price. It's a pleasure to work with a touch pad, and if you need to turn it off during operation, you can do it with a function key, which is very convenient.

Multimedia center

A quality audio system in the budget device was always missing, but the whole line of ASUS X554LJ XO220H notebooks changed the impression of cheap gadgets for the better. Sound worthy, it seems that the entire keyboard is a stereo. And if you use a proprietary equalizer, which is delivered on one of the discs in the bundle, you can achieve 5.1 surround sound.

The explanation is quite simple: the manufacturer installed the chips, which are used to create sound cards of the game class of the Xonar series. It is clear that not the board itself, but only its elements, but this innovation has brought a budget laptop to the sound quality to a high level. Play games, watch movies and listen to music from your mobile device in a decent quality is very nice.

A serious approach to productivity

It should be noted that the most productive processor was chosen for the laptop ASUS X554LJ - Core i5, from Intel. Apparently the designers thought that the modification of Core i7 will bring the gadget out of the budget class devices. And, as practice shows, complete with a discrete video adapter GeForce 920M (sometimes there are modifications of 950M) and 4 GB of RAM, it is possible not only to launch productive games, but also play them at minimal settings.

A weak link in such a system is a magnetic hard disk, which, although running on the SATA III interface, but the spindle rotation speed is limited to 5400 rpm. The situation can fix the installation of SSD-drive, which, as shown by testing, increases system performance by 35%. For example, in the "World of tanks" will be able to play on the minimum settings with a stable 35-42 frames per second.

Kid with a character

Those buyers who want to save on buying, it is worth looking at the cheapest device ASUS X554LJ (i3 5005U). It's easy to guess that the system has a less efficient Core i3 processor running at 2000 MHz. And this does not mean that the platform for productive applications will be weak. The dual-core kid copes with the tasks perfectly.

The performance of the system is guaranteed by the same components that are installed in a more expensive modification with a quad-core ASUS X554LJ i5 processor. Quite a strange decision of the manufacturer to create a line of their devices: the filling is identical, and the difference is only in the processors.

Trying to take a niche business class

The modification of the ASUS X554LJ 90NB08I8-M06800 undoubtedly should interest potential buyers who are looking for a device in the business class. This manufacturer made the gadget from a very high-quality white plastic, providing it with all the productive components that are installed in other models of the line. For an elegant white color will have to pay about 5000 rubles (if you compare with the black models). But it's worth it, because the outward appearance looks very presentable. Such a device on the manager's desk clearly emphasizes his status. Of course, with a detailed examination, a cheap LCD matrix and a keyboard with function keys immediately give out the laptop's belonging to a budget class. But there is already the owner to decide for what purposes he needs a gadget in white color.

Wireless interfaces and additional functions

The standard Wi-Fi module that supports 802.11bgn technology does not cause any complaints. Everything works stably on native drivers that come with the device. A nice addition is the presence of a Bluetooth module, working on the standard 4.0. Data transmission, wireless high-definition audio, modem and other functions are also possible by this technology.

All additional functionality (multimedia management, wireless interfaces, screen, touchpad and similar settings) is controlled from the keyboard. The manufacturer placed the adjustment on the buttons "F1 - F12", by matching the function key "Fn" on the device keyboard. But after all, in the ASUS X554LJ XO220H laptop there is quite a lot of free space between the display and the keyboard unit, it was possible to render the function keys separately - the owners note in their reviews.

Cooling system

The cooling system deserves special attention. Two small coolers are responsible for the circulation of airflow in the laptop. They know how to work at high speeds, but their rotation does not cause outside noise, which indicates the quality components in the cooling system of the ASUS X554LJ laptop. The owners' feedback notes that the cooler unit itself is available for each user. It is enough to remove the bottom cover to clean dust from not only the coolers, but also the processor along with the chips on the motherboard.

In order to remove the cooling system, you need to remove only the protective screen, which presses the fans to the motherboard and is held by four screws. Removing the bottom cover does not invalidate the warranty, so cleaning the laptop of your own dust will save you money and spend it on something more useful than paying for a service in the service center.

Autonomy of work

Notebook ASUS X554LJ has a small battery capacity (2600 mAh), but it is enough to operate the device from one charge for three hours. A serious statement of the manufacturer is confirmed by certain features of the system:

• The economical processor can work in the energy saving mode (when watching video or working on the Internet, the consumption is 15 W);
• Discrete video adapter without load is turned off, transferring control to the integrated video platform;
• On four gigabytes of memory, the system disables the paging file, which means that the hard disk also does not work.

In their responses, the owners note the fact that the laptop can work on one charge and 4.5 hours, but for this it is necessary to disable all wireless interfaces and reduce the brightness of the screen and the volume of sound up to 70 percent. It is worth noting that the four-section battery is prone to memory effect. Therefore, it is recommended to discharge the capacities to 3-5% at least once a week (concerns those users who are accustomed to working on constant charging from the network).

Upgrading the device

Quite incomprehensible things are with the installation of additional DDR3 memory modules to increase system performance. The manufacturer said in its specification that the ASUS X554LJ XO518H supports only 4 GB of RAM. However, when parsing, it is found that two DDR3 slots are occupied by two 2 GB modules. If you replace them with two identical 8-gigabyte memory slots, you'll find that the system works fine for 16 GB of RAM. In what a dirty trick, it is not clear, but the result will please all owners unequivocally.

Modernization is recommended to subject and hard drive, because it turns out to be a weak link in the system when launching productive games. The standard form factor of 2.5 inches for the hard drive allows you to install any available SSD in the market of the appropriate size. Naturally, for a quality and stable operation of the video adapter, you need to take care of the availability of fresh Nvidia drivers.

Finally

In general, the laptop ASUS X554LJ reviews of the owners are positive. Inexpensive gadget (25 000 rubles) from the budget class, which has a fairly productive components (processor, video card). The mobile device of this series is very popular among students and home users who decided to upgrade the outdated technology. A very economical energy saving system has high performance in operation. And the lack of noise, high-quality sound, the presence of various multimedia interfaces only contribute to ease of use.