ASUS K55N-DS81 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

This is a review of the Asus laptop, not Windows 8. I'm a retired computer professional and I've had over a dozen different laptops over the years, from economy models to the top-of-the-line (so I have a large frame of reference). I'm really pleased with this laptop -it's a great value and I really don't need any more power or features for what I do these days. I use it mostly for web browsing, Office apps (Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint), Photoshop, iTunes management of a huge music library, and email. I'm "on my computer" over 8 hours a day. For those purposes, this laptop is serving me well at a great price. I looked at a lot of others in the same price range and decided on this one for these reasons: a good processor (I don't think I saw any faster ones in this price range), 500GB disk drive (I really don't need more space and I have larger external USB drives if I ever do), a decent integrated graphics adapter, 3 USB ports including USB 3.0, an HDMI port, VGA output for non-digital TVs and monitors (not found on many current laptops but it's still useful), DVD burner, a pretty long battery life, and a 1-year warranty on accidental drops and spills.

When I first started using the laptop, I was very impressed by the feel and the action of the keyboard and the brightness and clarity of the 15.6" screen. I was also pleased that it wasn't pre-loaded with a bunch of free-trial crap software (all I got rid of was the 30-day(?) free-trial McAfee anti-virus, which I replaced with AVG free edition). I added 4GB of Kingston memory for a total of 8GB RAM and so far I have no complaints about performance. (

Some buyers may want to know that the disk drive is formatted with C and D partitions, 186 GB and 258 GB in size, respectively. That's smart, but I wonder if non-technical users will ever even access and use the large D partition since all user files (My Documents, etc.), by default, are put on the C partition. On the D drive, I put all my music files, my thousands of digital photos, and other large data collections which I don't need to frequently access via the convenient user folders (My Documents, My Pictures, etc.). I think there's an additional recovery partition, but it doesn't appear in the file manager.

I have only a couple complaints. The left/right buttons at the bottom of the touchpad take a lot of pressure to make them click (probably intentional to avoid accidental clicking) and I don't like the feel of their action. I thought maybe I'd stop using a mouse and switch to using the touchpad only, but the feel of those buttons caused me to go back to my mouse within a few hours of use. The other complaint is that there's no LED indicator when Caps Lock or Numeric Lock is enabled on the keyboard, but that's a pretty minor issue. (UPDATE: I just discovered there *are* LEDs for Caps and Numeric lock -they are small green LEDs on the front left edge, next to some other LEDs like the disk activity LED).

So, I'm very pleased with this laptop and I think it's a tremendous value in its price range. No regrets on this purchase! Windows 8 is a different story and I'm not crazy about it, but I'm learning to adjust. I would prefer to have Windows 7 which was the best Windows OS to date. Windows 8 is not nearly as bad as many reviewers would have you believe. By creating my user account as a 'local user', ignoring the Start Screen that looks like a smart phone and only using the Windows desktop, it's very much like using Windows 7. You just have to find where they hid some things like the Start Menu (use Windows key + X combination). And so far, all the software I have (some of which is pretty old, like Office 2003), has installed without compatibility problems. I almost paid much more to get a laptop with Windows 7 instead of 8, based on all the negative comments, but I'm glad I didn't do that. The negative comments are overblown.

I did a lot of research before finally purchasing this laptop by ASUS. The biggest selling points for me were as follows:

ASUS 1 year "360 Notebook Warranty" including 1 year of Accidental Damage/Handling and a Limited 1 year manufacturer warranty.

The AMD A8 4500M APU is super speedy. If you're purchasing a laptop beware that the A6 4400 has a 1MB L2 cache while the A8 has a BIG 4MB L2 cache. While the dual core is rated at a higher frequency the quad core is capable of handling multiple data loads simultaneously much more efficiently.

The Radeon 7640G has 512mb dedicated memory and is capable to pull from the system resources. While this machine CANNOT run games at the highest settings it does an excellent job of being able to run MOST games at low-med settings with high FPS.

4gb ram upgradeable to 16gb.

Pros: Low Price point, 1 year ADH warranty, fast quad core cpu, 4mb L2 cache, fast HDD, fast boot option, instant on resume function2 second wake-up from sleep mode.

Cons: Poor viewing angles on screen, plastic shell/case,

Buy ASUS K55N-DS81 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Now

I doubted this laptop would perform that well given its $399 price tag. Incredibly I continue to be blown away by its superb performance, it has quickly become my favorite (of six) computers to use! Even though it's comprised of plastic, it's light weight and superior performance leave me wanting little. Even with 3D games, the performance continues to astound me given the low price I paid.

I bought a 16GB memory upgrade for $85 a week later and it has solidly placed this laptop at the top of my techy toys list. I am dumbfounded by the sheer performance of this low cost laptop.

Pros: low price, above average performance, memory up-gradable to 16GB and out performs my MacBook that cost $1300.

Cons: Made of plastic and does not have superman powers..

Read Best Reviews of ASUS K55N-DS81 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Here

I'm using this laptop mostly for internet browsing, work, and gaming. It does it all, more than I expected after a few weeks of owning it.

This laptop is fast. It's fast booting up, shutting down, loading programs, buffering videos, downloading, etc. Never had a problem. All the features: IceCool palm rests, SuperBatt Tech, InstantOn, and 5% AutoBackup work great. The InstantOn is my favorite, my other laptops and desktops are nowhere near as fast booting up and shutting off. The laptop will boot up to the start screen as long as it takes for you to sip a cup of coffee.

Win8 gets getting used to, many people like to complain about changes, but I have no major complaints. The only complaint I have is I was disappointed that there's no Microsoft Office installed. When I had to do work I was prompted to buy a CD key, not what I expected.

What I love the most is the gaming power of this laptop. You wouldn't expect much from an entry level priced laptop, but I'm playing Shogun 2 Total War on medium smoothly. With that being said, I'm already starting to fill up my hard drive downloading Steam games!

Want ASUS K55N-DS81 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black) Discount?

I'm re-writing this review to include a tutorial on how to fix up the laptop without voiding the warrantee. I'm upping it to 4 stars now that I've fixed it. The hardware is great, the software can be fixed.

Pros:

Great Hardware

Fast Processor

Big Video specs

Built in tutorial for windows 8

Comes with 50 GB cloud storage for 3 years

Cons:

Windows 8

The trackpad is awful (tutorial below reduces annoyance)

The wireless will drop out (tutorial below fixes)

Packed with bloatware (you can uninstall it)

Webcam sucks (mic is great though)

Small HD space

Performance expectations:

You will be able to play most games at max settings if the game was released prior to 2010. You will be able to play most new releases up to current day at reduced graphics settings. Applications will run at a reasonably high speed.

Hard Drive(s)

The laptop comes with two small 5400 RPM hard drives (C and D). The OS is installed to C, and D is empty. If you install your programs to drive D, you will get significant performance gains because your motherboard can process twin data streams at 100% capacity. YOU MUST DO THIS TO MAKE GAMES AND APPLICATIONS RUN SMOOTHLY.

Trackpad fix:

The built in drivers for the trackpad add "smoothing" effects and whatnot that make the trackpad even harder to use. They do not provide basic functions like turning off the trackpad.

Fix it:

1. Plug in a USB mouse

2. Download the Synaptics driver platform for mouse, windows 8 option.

3. Using the USB mouse, uninstall the trackpad drivers.

a. right click on the bottom left corner of desktop

b. in the context menu, select "device manager"

c. in the device manager, right click on the trackpad's controller, it is under "Mice and other pointing devices"

d. select "properties" from the drop down menu

e. select the "driver" tab

f. select "uninstall" and follow the on-screen instructions

4. Install the new synaptics drivers

5. You now have better mouse handling, and you can right-click the trackpad icon in the desktop tray, go to the "Device Settings" tab, and disable the trackpad.

6. Install touch-freeze

This will "stun" the mouse while you are typing, which will prevent accidental clicks from messing up your typing.

Wireless fix:

The built in drivers disable the wireless card on a regular basis in order to conserve power. You will need to replace the aetheros drivers with the most up-to-date drivers, and disable some features in the Realtek PCIe driver context menu.

1. Download the Aetheros drivers

download link:

site:

2. This package will install just fine. Follow the on-screen instructions.

3. Reboot.

4. Go to the device manager, select "network adapters," and right click "Qualcomm Atheros AR9485WB-EG Wireless Network Adapter"

5. Select "properties"

6. Select the "Power Management" tab

7. uncheck the box "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

8. Click "OK"

9. Go back to the device manager

10. Right click and slect properties on "Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller"

11. Go to the "advanced" tab

12. Modify the following Properties

Energy Efficient Ethernet> Disabled

Green Ethernet> Disabled

13. Go to the "Power Management" tab

14. unchcheck "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power

15. click "OK"

16. Enjoy stable internet.

Windows 8 Fix:

If you miss the traditional Windows layout, you can install a third party start button. I recommend this one:

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