ASUS K53E laptop review

The ASUS K53E is a surprisingly reasonably-priced laptop with an understated look and agreeable performance. But is it worth including in the shortlist for your new all-round laptop?

What we like best

Depending on customisation, you can equip the ASUS K53E with a number of different processors and RAM ranges, but even if you plump for an Intel Core i5 and 4Gb RAM, you’re still unlikely to pay more than £450.

This affordability in connection with a decent CPU is a very important point in today’s market and sets the K53E apart from other mid-range laptops.

The ASUS K53E is not made for cutting-edge gaming, but it handles multiple browser tabs and media editing software use without major hiccups nor lag.

The touchpad allows for multitouch gestures and also has two very distinct, large mouse buttons. The keyboard is surrounded by brown aluminium, which is unlike most laptops we’ve looked at in the last few months, but has a certain leftfield charm to it. This part of the laptop feels reassuringly solid and is scratch-proof to boot.

The keys on said keyboard are isolated nicely and of a reasonable size, but there is no backlight and a slight lack of feedback. There is, however, a numeric pad.

Battery life with the K53E is surprisingly good – at heavy use, it lasts for about 1 hour 20 minutes without being hooked up to external power, so it’ll be just the ticket for continuous writing or video playback (as long as these activities are carried out to the exclusion of any other tasks).

What we like least

The look, probably inevitably for a laptop at this wallet-friendly price, is somewhat cheap. Dark plastic dominates the design, which might put off users more accustomed to sleek brushed metal finishes.

This means that there is a fair degree of yield when applying pressure to the lid, but admittedly not to the extent that we thought it wouldn’t be safe to take it out of the office.

There are three USB 2.0 ports, but no eSATA or even USB 3.0 options, which is disappointing despite the inclusion of VGA and HDMI ports and an optical drive.

Screen brightness is a letdown, and its resolution of 1366 x 768 means film snobs might sneer at the lack of quality during video playback.