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A dedicated graphics card is a luxury not often seen in a budget laptop, but the Asus K53SC not only has an Nvidia GeForce GT 520MX fitted, but an Intel Core i5-2410M processor as well. It’s a dual-core model running at 2.3GHz and that, along with 4GB of RAM, powered the K53SC to a great overall score of 54 in our benchmarks.
Simply put, this laptop should be able to handle all but the most processor intensive tasks that you can throw at it.
Decent performance continues in games. Granted, Nvidia’s GT 520MX isn’t the fastest component, but a score of 29fps in our Dirt3 benchmark proved it to be fast enough to handle most games, although you may need to reduce some settings in more graphically intensive titles to run them at smooth frame rates. It’ll also speed up certain operations in applications that support GPU acceleration, such as Adobe Photoshop and, because of its beefier processor, the K53SC is one of the few laptops here that could be used for photo or video editing.
Battery life was around five-and-a-half hours, which is plenty for most of day’s work or the average commute. You’re more likely to use this laptop around the house, though, as you wouldn’t want to carry this laptop’s 2.6kg bulk around too often.
Although it’s not light, the K53SC is still attractive. With its slim profile, textured lid and metallic finish, it’s a smart-looking laptop, and it feels well-built too, apart from the keyboard which has a slight flex to it.
At first glance, the keyboard looks a bit cramped. Even though the keys are smaller than on a normal keyboard, Asus hasn’t used the entire width of the case and has placed a numberpad to the right. Thankfully, this hasn’t adversely affected the layout and we were glad to see the Control and Function keys in the correct positions, with the Function key working to modify the F1-12 keys, as we’d expect.
Despite having flat tops, the keys didn’t feel slippery or wobbly, and their action was light and crisp, providing excellent feedback. The large touchpad is responsive. Its two separate buttons have a light action, and are placed close to the edge of the case where your thumb naturally rests.
The K53SC’s stand-out feature is its screen, however. Like all laptop screens, it can be troublesome with vertical viewing angles, and its glossy finish is also liable to pick up reflections from light sources behind you. Once you tilt the screen to the right angle, however, it has the strongest colours and contrast in the group, having a bright and even backlight.
In fact, we had few gripes with the K53SC. We would have liked a fourth USB port, but the single USB3 port makes up for this. The speakers lacked bass, but were loud and clear enough for watching YouTube videos or making Skype calls. We’d also question why Asus has placed most of the K53SC’s ports towards the front of the case, especially on the right side where they’re more likely to interfere with an attached mouse.
None of these complaints is enough to spoil the K53SC’s all-round performance, however. With its fantastic screen, it wins a Best Buy. If you’re looking for a larger screen or better games performance, the Dell Inspiron 17R is a slightly better buy, though.
