Review: ASUS N53SV

Desktop replacements have always been my laptop of choice. You can have all the skinny ultraportables and all the netbooks you want, I’m sticking with the notebook heavy-hitters. Sure, they’re significantly heavier than your typical notebook and you’re probably be working more muscle groups when you start lugging them around, but their higher number-crunching abilities and graphic processing prowess more than make up for their weight. The Asus N53SV is such a notebook.

The N53V is an example of Asus’ typical approach to making notebooks. The overall color scheme is a tasteful dark grey, with a bit of surface gradations that look similar to brushed aluminum across the lid. Unfortunately, the lid isn’t made of metal, but it’s a nice effect nonetheless.

There’s a large speaker grille near the top of the keyboard where the hinge is. Right below the speaker grille are shortcut buttons for a number of different things, including the power management key (which is also boots the Express Gate Cloud OS) and volume controls.

The keyboard is nice and big, and comes with a keypad on the right. The keys have enough travel and are extremely easy to use. The wrist rest has this nice, faux wood grain effect going on. The touchpad is the right size, though the mouse buttons use the single bar config without separators, which annoyed me to no end.

The left side of the notebook housed the HDMI and Ethernet port, along with 2 USB ports and an SD card slot.

The right side housed the optical drive, headphone and mic jacks and 2 more USB ports.

Hardware-wise, the N53SV is powered by an Intel Core i7-2630QM running at 2GHz, 4GB worth of DDR3 memory and the most important bit – an NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M graphics card. The N53SV is also armed with a built-in GPU courtesy of the Intel HD 3000 graphics that the machine switches to when you’re in power saver.

With such massive hardware, it wasn’t a big surprise that the N53SV managed to run my games without any problems, specifically my newest MMOG addiction World of Tanks. The combination of the Core i7 processor with the burly GT 540M GPU meant that the notebook is able to handle most mainstream and a few hardcore games at decent resolutions.
Another feature that Asus is touting with the N53SV is the Bang and Olufsen audio that’s integrated into the device, and with good reason – as the sound was definitely better than some of the other notebooks I’ve heard, and the N53SV is pretty damn loud, if anything.
Of course all that processing power comes at a price, namely decreased battery life. It’s pretty much the same for the N53SV, with the notebook on high performance the battery only lasted for about an hour and a half off the plug. It was only slightly better with powersaving on, at about 2 ½ hours.
But mobility isn’t the point of the N53SV. Processing power is, and that’s where the notebook excels. The Asus N53SV is a great buy for anyone looking for a notebook with a little bit of extra oomph in it. Unfortunately, the N53SV won’t be officially carried by Asus locally, so finding it is going to be a bit of a challenge. Thankfully there’s an alternative – a more compact and affordable version, the N43SL that will retail for 39,995.
What’s Hot:
Excellent audio
Powerful processor
Can handle mainstream and a bit of hardcore games

What’s Not:
Battery life is woefully low

Bottomline:
The N53SV is a great buy for people looking for a powerful notebook, that is if you can find it.
Buy meter: 8.5

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We sit down with Intel’s Shmuel (Mooly) Eden and talk tablets, smartphones and the future of netbooks

We managed to have sit down with Intel’s corporate vice president and general manager of the PC Client Group (PCCG), Shmuel (Mooly) Eden. We had a lot of burning questions on the heels of Intel’s entry into the tablet market, and what he thought of the current state of netbooks and their future in a world where tablets are becoming more and more of a threat to a category that Intel helped create.
John: Now that Intel has Atom powered tablets running Honeycomb and MeeGo, is this now your main push? Will you be abandoning netbooks altogether?
Shmuel: No, we are not abandoning the category, we are doing two things in parallel. First of all, we’re putting a huge amount of effort to catch up and be relevant in the tablet space. It’s a fact that Apple is running the space using an ARM solution, we believe that now that we are putting more effort on the ARM architecture we will have a solution which will be compelling. In parallel we are trying to continue the work on the netbook. The netbook is changing. It’s very interesting – Asus recently launched a netbook that’s priced at $199, and that’s totally different question. We never really tested the market’s elasticity. I believed when we started the netbook was aimed only at emerging markets, but then the netbook also went to the mature markets and I believe with the new price point there will be another opportunity to see where we are.
John: There’s a lot of people that are saying that the netbook is past its prime, that the tablets will kill the netbook. Do you think there’s space for both to co-exist?
Shmuel: I believe so for one reason, but only the future may tell. If Asus comes with a netbook that’s only $199, I don’t think there’s a touch tablet that can match $199. What can you match up with a netbook that’s only $199? A tablet that costs $499? So it’s left to be seen, the market will be dynamic and we’ll be seeing many form factors – by the way, how would you call a netbook with a touchscreen? (he gestures to the Eee Pad Transformer I brought to the interview)
John: A hybrid device, I guess.
And I believe we’ll be seeing many, many more hybrid devices. Left to be seen, I believe that the category itself, of the netbook, and I believe we spoke about it in our previous financial announcements. It’s left to be seen if it’s still relevant – some say the netbook disappeared but there’s still some OEM that still have plans for it – only the future will tell. But we’ll try to support both, and we’ll see how the category will adapt.
John: Intel will also be going into the mobile space. How much catching up will you have to do, because Qualcomm is already there and Nvidia is already making its mark with its Tegra 2 processor?
Now we are jumping into the third category. It’s a fact, and I’ll not hide it – we’re behind in some categories, but then we are leading in some categories. In smartphones the fact that we’re behind is true – there are many smartphones and I’m not there. I do have great teams of architects that are working around the clock; I have a great processor technology that the competition doesn’t have, and there’s no reason to believe that I won’t be able to close the gap. We have the UMG (ultra mobile group) which are focusing 100% of their time in order to make phones that I believe you will see soon. With the tablets, you’ll see some things and we’re working to improve our tablets as well.  We’ve got all intention to be very relevant in the traditional desktop and servers and we’ll definitely be very relevant in tablets and phones, and we don’t see any reason to believe we will not to be successful over there.

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Intel creates an ode to you via Museum of me Facebook app

Ever think of how your life would look like if someone dedicated a museum to it? No? Well, Intel has, and decided to make a Facebook app just like it. Intel’s Museum of Me takes information from your FB account and makes a virtual exhibit about your life. Of course, it’s all for their Core i5 processor pimpage, but the app is pretty cool nonetheless.

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Atom powered tablets running Honeycomb spotted, we have video

It’s not a big secret that Intel got a lot of catching up to do when it comes to tablets and smartphones. Qualcomm and NVIDIA is doing brisk business when it comes to selling chips that power smartphones and tablets, and saying that there’s a pile of money to be made in that particular space is like saying the sky is blue. To that end, Intel has shown several devices here at COMPUTEX running Honeycomb and MeeGo, most likely using Atom processors.

There’s a couple of devices on display, but to be honest they weren’t really running as smooth as we hoped. Then again, Intel’s managed to do this in a short amount of time, so it’s a minor nitpick. We’ve attached a video below.

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