The ASUS A55VD-AB71 is simply overall an EXCELLENT laptop once you get past one or two minor inconveniences. I bought this to replace my one year old Gateway NV55S04u 15.6-Inch Laptop that I also got from Amazon in 2011. My personal policy is to replace laptops within two years of usage but after seeing this ASUS A55VD and the specs it had I decided to break my custom and make it a one year deal. This is my very first time purchasing an ASUS product as I was skeptical about the brand at first since the name is never really mentioned in regular advertising campaigns in comparison to its rivals such as Acer, Gateway, HP-Compaq, Dell, etc. I have only had it for roughly a week but so far so good.The good parts about the ASUS A55VD are the blazing fast Core i7 processor, the large 750GB hard drive and the IceCool Palm Rest. I was a little perturbed when I saw that the hard drive was split into two parts, a C: drive and a D: drive; the latter being for data only. While I understand this is for protective means in case of data loss or corruption I didn't find it necessary in my case since I don't believe in filling up laptop hard drive spaces as it causes eventual slowdowns. That being said I used the Windows 7 in-built Computer Management tool to merge the partitions together. I prefer it that way overall.
The memory of 6GB that it came with normally would be sufficient for the average user in conjunction with the Core i7 processor but my personal rule of thumb is to ALWAYS max out computer memory....or get as close to the maximum as one can comfortably afford so I purchased the Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory (CMSX8GX3M2A1600C9) kit at the same time and installed it. The system works like a dream no matter what task you "ask" it to do with this boost.
I usually have the laptop on for 8 or more hours plugged in a day so far and the heat levels are pretty moderate. I can keep it on my lap for quite some time and it doesn't get noticeably hot at all. Even at the bottom of it so kudos to ASUS for an excellent dissipating design. The lower right side of the laptop adjacent to the touchpad does get slightly warm when it's on for several hours but it's not enough to be an issue of discomfort for the right hand when resting on it.
There were two things I were disappointed with however the volume of the Realtek HD in-built speakers and the hybrid graphics of Intel HD4000/Nvidia 610M. Firstly, the speakers were allegedly to be Altec Lansing according to the info on the Amazon website but that is not the case. The speakers also sound so low even at their maximum that you'd swear something was wrong with your hearing and that you were prematurely going deaf. Even with adjustments made with the Realtek HD Audio Manager the sound increase was next to negligible. Thankfully, however, my years of gained pc skills reminded me that I could use external software to enhance the sound quality. For all those interested you can purchase DFX Audio Enhancer and SRS Audio Essentials. The combination of both have my volume levels for both music and movies operating at desired output levels....as far as laptops go at any rate.
Secondly, in regards to the graphics card, in no way was it mentioned on the Amazon site that the graphics would be a combination of Intel HD4000 and Nvidia 610M. It only lists the Nvidia. This disappointed me as I prefer dedicated graphics over embedded ones since the latter eats up part of the ram. Fortunately it seems to only consume 115MB of my 8GB ram. This isn't a deal breaker by any means BUT buyers should always know EXACTLY what they are getting before making a purchase. I will accept no excuse in regards to this from Amazon or ASUS.
Overall the ASUS A55VD-AB71 is a raging beast of a laptop. Just keep in mind that some tinkering has to be done to get it to perform at the optimum levels most enthusiasts and/or gamers are looking for when making a purchase of $700 to $900. Personally I got it at $729 which for a laptop this powerful is a real bargain.
UPDATE December 7, 2012: I decided to test the waters after doing some searches online about it and put in two sticks of 8gb each Corsair 16 GB (2x8 GB) DDR3 1600MHz (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory CMSO16GX3M2A1600C11 and they took. The ASUS A55VD-AB71's Intel Core i7-processor and chipset can take 16GB of ram as indicated on the Intel website DESPITE the fact the ASUS website says a MAXIMUM of 8GB only. COMPLETELY INCORRECT!!! This will be a welcome update to those who are music, video and graphic artist professionals. I am loving this laptop more and more now.
Buy ASUS A55VD-AB71 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Now
I have several Asus products and have always been happy and satisfied with them...until now. The touchpad jumps around, the Asus power manager interferes constantly regardless of the settings, video only wants to run on the internal graphics (one reason I bought it was for the external graphics) once it hibernates it locks up, sometimes to the point the battery needs pulled.I sent it in for warranty and they received it 10/31. I got it back 11/27. They kept saying parts were on order. The laptop actually broke about 10/15 but it took about 2 weeks to get the paperwork all in order to their liking. Let me tell you, save every scrap you can showing where it was bought and when. They try every trick possible to deny warranty. First they wouldnt recognize Amazon as a retailer, then the receipt didn't have the correct info, then the serial number wasn't in the system, then no one could find any records. Each time takes a day, then you have to call back for a 30min hold.
Since I got the laptop back, it still does the software quirks but I have adapted myself to them. If this is the quality Asus now makes, I am very disappointed. I guess they will slap their label on anything to make a buck.
Read Best Reviews of ASUS A55VD-AB71 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Here
This is a very, very good laptop for the price. But I wasn't absolutely blown away by it, so 4 stars it is.Pros: Extremely fast for a laptop. the i7 is brutal. I rendered 30 minutes of 1080p video in 15 minutes. (that's insane)
Dead Silent, and minimal noise even when you are maxing out the system.
The "Ice Cold" Technology really works. For the majority of the time, the entire laptop is cool to the touch. Sometimes the area directly behind the cooling fan will be a little warm when doing some major processing or gaming.
The laptop overall feels very sturdy. The keyboard is GREAT. I was a little worried about it being too small, but don't worry about it. They somehow make it work, and I can type just as well as any other computer if not better.
CONS: I can't really be mad about it, because it is as advertised. but....
The Graphics Card (NVIDIA 610M-2GB) Is very, "eh..." Definitely an Entry Level graphics card. For reference, I can play Amnesia: The Dark Descent on the highest settings. Spec-ops: The Line and XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and Star Wars: The Old Republic on Medium/medium-low settings. Games like Planetside 2 and Skyrim are barely playable at the lowest setting. Any higher than that, and you're out of luck.
The screen resolution is not very good. The 1366 x 768 (or something like that) can't show all that much detail. You can tell when something is in HD or not, but honestly it doesn't make that much difference. I would recommend hooking up to an HDTV with an HDMI cord when doing anything that requires you to see specific details. (Graphic design, movie making, photo editing, etc.)
Other: Here's my opinion on Windows 8; Just give it a week and you'll learn to really like it. That is, if you aren't into any heavy mods to any games or files. While I feel windows 8 is more utilitarian in it's use, if you are a hardcore computer user who needs to modify the system, I would recommend sticking with Windows 7. Unless you want the additional specs that come with the Windows 8 version, then just degrade after.
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I have used this computer for about a month prior to writing this review.When my 10 yr old Sony notebook died I decided to buy a replacement and spent 5 weeks researching for the best one for a reasonable price. It came down to this one and a similar model at Tiger Direct. I had bought a ASUS Nexus 7 inch tablet for my autistic grandson and was really impressed with it. All I can saw is that this ASUS notebook is a really great computer and I have no complaints with it. I don't have any problems with the touch pad now that I have gotten used to it nor have any problems with the display going dim as reported in some reviews. The touch pad has several features that are different than what I have used on other notebooks. The user manual and the eManual (on the desktop) describe all of the touch pads features. The full function keyboard is a nice feature on a notebook of this size and battery life seems to very good as well. The computer is quiet, runs cool and the sound from the speakers when placed on a hard surface is better than any other laptop/notebook that I have used (several job furnished computers). The computer is really fast and the windows performance score does not do it justice. The low score is due to a 5400 RPM hard drive. I decided to do a computation intensive test using the 4 cores in parallel on a CFD analysis program and compare the results with the same program run on an 3.2 giga Hz AMD Pheneon II quad core Desktop computer. This notebook completed the analysis in 1925 seconds vs. 2805 on the desktop. I do wish that it came with a backlit keyboard.
Windows 8 is a bit of a beast to get used to and the biggest complaint is that it is an OS to fit multiple purposes which made it more difficult to figure out compared to all of the previous evolutions since the beginning of time (Windows). I eventually got comfortable using win8 even though I have to drag the hand from the top of the screen to the bottom to close a program (my biggest complaint). I see this as leading to carpal tunnel problems. My first smart phone had a windows OS and I hated it. Since I started using Android OS smart phones and Linux OS, I have become disenchanted with Microsoft. I managed to get Ubuntu Linux 12.10 installed and use it more than win 8. and still have to use win8 for some applications. I do like some of the security features of win8 compared to 7 and removed the free trial version of McAfee to install windows defender.
I would suggest that anyyone who purchases this computer review the documentation that comes with it as it has helped me tremendously.
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