The focus of this article is the budget mobile device ASUS X554LJ. Owner reviews assure that this laptop, along 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 affordable price is a priority for buyers with a small budget.
First meeting
Let the device be inexpensive, but the manufacturer packed it in a branded box in the form of a convenient case with a plastic handle for easy portability. The box is very dense, so you should not worry about the contents during transportation. Like all budget devices of the manufacturer, the ASUS X554LJ laptop has a simple package: the gadget itself, a charger, instructions and driver disks. It is better not to throw away the packaging from the laptop, since the warranty card contains a clause obliging the owner to provide the entire device for service in a complete set,including box.
For some modifications of the device that are sold without a licensed operating system, there is a Windows 10 system recovery disc in the box. Naturally, it is a trial, after 30 days of operation it is recommended to purchase a license.
Look and build quality
Let the laptop belong to the budget class, but ASUS, unlike its competitors, decided that its appearance should be attractive. Firstly, the mobile device for its 15 inches is very compact and lightweight - this applies to all modifications of the ASUS X554LJ. Black plastic in the manufacture of the laptop case was used very high quality. When trying to deform the device, there is not even a hint of squeaks. Although the lid opens with little effort, it works silently.
Judging by the reviews of the owners, the matte finish of both the entire body and the plastic frame around the screen is embarrassing - they are very easily soiled, easily attract dust and collect fingerprints. Fans of cleanliness should always carry a special rag with them to eliminate dirt on the body of a mobile device.
Pledge of Low Value
When the owner of the ASUS X554LJ laptop is turned on for the first time, the review begins with the display. You can spend hours talking about the low quality of outdated TN + Film matrices, but it is thanks to this technology that the mobile device has a low cost. Widescreen with 16:9 aspect ratio and 1366x768 resolutiondots per inch, it looks somehow poor, but, as practice shows, this is quite enough for entertainment and work.
And if this laptop has obvious problems with color reproduction (it definitely won’t work for design and creative work), then the viewing angles are in order, because the manufacturer installed LED backlighting. Its presence is very clearly visible when working in nature - the backlight eliminates sun glare on the laptop display. It is worth noting that the LED backlight also partially solves the problems with black color and its shades, at least in dynamic scenes of multimedia and games, this is noticeable (you can distinguish objects, and not observe a gray spot).
Interfaces and connectors
But by the presence of interfaces, it is very difficult to call the budget mobile device ASUS X554LJ. The review of the connectors located on the side panels of the laptop gives the impression that the user is facing at least a representative of the business class. The most important component is present - a DVD burner, which was abandoned a few years ago, but decided to install again due to high reliability (data storage up to 100 years, versus 8 years on SSD and Flash media). It is located on the right panel along with a card reader, one USB 2.0 port and a combined interface for connecting headphones and a microphone.
The left panel is no less interesting: a power connector, an RJ-45 network connector, an analog D-Sub output (more popular than digital interfaces in Russia), an HDMI output and two USB 3.0 slots. By the way, in this device, when installing the operating systemWindows USB 3.0 ports do not see the USB 3.0 boot sector from flash drives, so many owners are very happy that the manufacturer has installed one USB 2.0 port on the right panel.
Control panel
The presence of a full-size keyboard in a 15-inch device can hardly surprise anyone now, but the presence of a numeric keypad can. It is also full, the buttons are large, which eliminates accidental pressing of the wrong key that you need (convenient for blind typing). Examining the keyboard in detail, you can find a strange resemblance in appearance to MacBook devices - separate square buttons with low travel and easy feedback. Even the identical roundness of the corners and lettering are present in the ASUS X554LJ laptop. Reviews of the owners note that the symbols are inconveniently applied. Everything is marked with white paint, and it will be difficult for the average user to navigate between Cyrillic and Latin.
But the installed touchpad is great. It is huge, very sensitive and non-staining. It is a pity that the manufacturer did not provide it with a multi-touch function, then there would be no price for it. Working with the touch pad is a pleasure, and if you need to turn it off during operation, you can do this using the function key, which is very convenient.
Multimedia Center
A high-quality audio system has always been absent in a budget device, but the entire line of ASUS X554LJ XO220H laptops has changed the impression of cheap gadgets for the better. The sound is decent, it seems that the entire keyboard is a stereo system. And if you useproprietary equalizer, which is supplied on one of the disks in the package, you can achieve surround sound 5.1.
The explanation is quite simple: the manufacturer installed the chips that are used to create gaming-class sound cards of the Xonar series. It is clear that not the board itself, but only its elements, however, such an innovation brought the budget laptop to a high level in terms of sound quality. It is very pleasant to play games, watch movies and listen to music from a mobile device in decent quality.
Being serious about performance
It is worth noting that the most productive processor was chosen for the ASUS X554LJ laptop - Core i5, from Intel. Apparently, the designers thought that the Core i7 modification would take the gadget out of 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, you can not only run high-performance games, but also play them at minimum settings.
The weak link in such a system is a magnetic hard drive, which, although it works on the SATA III interface, but the spindle speed is limited to 5400 rpm. The situation can be corrected by installing an SSD drive, which, as tests show, increases system performance by 35%. For example, you will be able to play World of Tanks at minimum settings with a stable 35-42 frames per second.
Baby with character
For those buyers who wantsave money on a purchase, you should look at the cheapest device ASUS X554LJ (i3 5005U). It is easy to guess that the system has a less efficient Core i3 processor running at 2000 MHz. And this does not mean at all that the platform for productive applications will be weak. The dual core baby does a great job.
The performance of the system is guaranteed by the same components that are installed in a more expensive version with a quad-core ASUS X554LJ i5 processor. A rather strange decision by the manufacturer in creating a line of their devices: the filling is identical, and the only difference is in the processors.
Attempt to carve out a business class niche
Modification ASUS X554LJ 90NB08I8-M06800 undoubtedly should be of interest to potential buyers who are looking for a device in the business class. The manufacturer made this gadget from 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, you will have to pay about 5,000 rubles (when compared with black models). But it's worth it, because outwardly the novelty looks presentable. Such a device on the manager's desk will clearly emphasize his status. Of course, upon closer examination, a cheap LCD screen matrix and a keyboard with function keys immediately indicate that the laptop belongs to the budget class. But here it is up to the owner to decide for what purposes he needs a gadget in white color.
Wireless interfaces and additional features
Standardthe Wi-Fi module that supports 802.11bgn technologies is not satisfactory. Everything works stably on the native drivers that come with the device. A nice addition is the presence of a Bluetooth 4.0 module. Data transmission, high-definition wireless audio, tethering and other functions are also under the power of this technology.
All additional functionality (multimedia control, wireless interfaces, screen, touchpad and similar settings) is controlled from the keyboard. The manufacturer placed the adjustment on the "F1 - F12" buttons, setting the correspondence using the "Fn" function key on the device's keyboard. But 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 take out 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 air flow in the laptop. They can operate at high speeds, but their rotation does not cause extraneous noise, which indicates high-quality components in the production of the ASUS X554LJ laptop cooling system. Owner reviews note that the cooler block itself is available for each user. It is enough just to remove the bottom cover to clean not only the coolers, but also the processor along with the chips on the motherboard from dust.
In order to remove the cooling system, you only need to remove the protective screen that presses the fansto the motherboard and is held in place by four screws. Removing the bottom cover does not invalidate the warranty, so dusting your laptop yourself will save you money and spend it on something more useful than a paid service at a service center.
Work autonomy
Notebook ASUS X554LJ has a small battery capacity (2600 mAh), but it is enough to operate the device from a single charge for three hours. The serious statement of the manufacturer is confirmed by some features of the system:
- efficient processor can work in power saving mode (when watching video or browsing the Internet, consumption is 15 W);
- Discrete idle video adapter shuts down, transferring control to integrated video platform;
- on four gigabytes of memory, the system disables the paging file, which means that the hard drive also does not work.
In their reviews, the owners note the fact that the laptop can work on a single charge and 4.5 hours, but for this you need to turn off all wireless interfaces and reduce the screen brightness and sound volume to 70 percent. It is worth noting that the four-cell battery is prone to memory effect. Therefore, it is recommended to discharge the tanks to 3-5% at least once a week (applies to those users who are used to working on constant charging from the network).
Device upgrade
Quite incomprehensible things are with the installation of additional DDR3 memory modules to increase system performance. The manufacturer stated in hisspecifications that the ASUS X554LJ XO518H laptop only supports 4 GB of RAM. However, upon parsing, it turns out that two DDR3 slots are occupied by two 2 GB modules. If you replace them with two identical 8 GB memory sticks, you will find that the system works fine with 16 GB of RAM. What's the catch is not clear, but the result will definitely please all owners.
Modernization is also recommended for the hard drive, because it is it that turns out to be the weak link in the system when launching productive games. The standard form factor of 2.5 inches for a hard drive allows you to install any SSD drive of the appropriate size available on the market. Naturally, for high-quality and stable operation of the video adapter, you need to take care of the latest Nvidia drivers.
In closing
In general, the reviews of the owners of the ASUS X554LJ laptop are positive. An inexpensive gadget (25,000 rubles) from the budget class, which is equipped with quite productive components (processor, video card). The mobile device of this series is very popular among students and home users who decide to upgrade outdated equipment. Very economical in terms of energy saving, the system has a high performance in operation. And the absence of noise, high-quality sound, the presence of various multimedia interfaces only contribute to ease of use.
