Asus X555LJ-XX132H review: Office chops, with a dash of gaming

In an age of relentless miniaturization, the bastion of large devices seems to be a fading one: from desktops to full-sized laptops, there often needs to be a very good reason to get one these days. But there is a definite requirement for that added screen real estate--those large 15+ inch displays impart a computing experience that no ultrabook can, especially when it comes to serious gaming or visualization where big processing power couples well with a screen that lets you take it all in.

The Asus X555LJ is one such candidate: a 15.6-inch laptop that delivers a ‘full’ compute experience, complete with a full-sized keyboard and a separate numeric keypad, a 2.2GHz Intel Core i5 processor based on their Broadwell-U platform (the low power consumption variant,) 8GB of RAM clocked at 1,600MHz, and a capable Nvidia GeForce 920M graphics processor. These specifications slot it as a very suitable candidate for the likes of image processing or for a power home or office user. The laptop came pre-installed with 64-bit Windows 8.1 (which qualifies for the free upgrade to Windows 10.) Before we get to the performance, a look at the device itself.

A look around

The laptop itself is quite generic in its construction; the subtle print on the lid that opens to reveal a glossy screen, the chiclet keys and a generous touchpad. Full-sized laptops such as this do have a generous palm rest, which makes for comfortable typing. Also included is an integrated DVD Writer, 3 USB ports (two of which are the 3.0 variant,) HDMI and VGA display outputs, Gigabit Ethernet, a headphone socket and a microSD card reader. All of these par for the course.

The laptop weighs in at an unabashed 2.3 Kg, which is a tangible heft if you lift it regularly, but being a full-sized laptop it isn’t particularly heavier than what you’d otherwise find in this size class.

Performance

Packing an upper-middle specification set, the laptop fared well when we put it through its paces: it clocked a respectable 5,436 rating in 3DMark in the Cloud Gate test and 3613 in the PCMark 8 Work benchmark. These scores place the system in the upper-middle range of comparable laptop configurations, just below the level of gaming laptops.

The laptop uses a 37 W/Hr battery which, coupled with its low-voltage processor, delivered very good usage times. We easily clocked an average of a little over eight hours hours of uptime comprising of mixed usage including word processing, browsing, watching video etc.

Some of the key issues we had with the system were that high-gloss screen that unfortunately tends to pick up reflections all too easily during use (an annoying tube light in the background for example.) Also the power button is placed immediately above the Esc key and shaped exactly like it, which led to it being often hit accidentally, putting the computer to sleep unintentionally. Also, the 1366x768 resolution--usually prevalent on much smaller screens--seemed underwhelming given the system’s other beefy specifications. Especially on a screen this large, a higher resolution would undoubtedly have benefitted. Also the screen hinge didn’t appear to be solid--the slightest touch caused the screen to oscillate, which makes viewing the screen in something like a moving vehicle rather cumbersome..

If you’re in the market for a well spec’d laptop and don’t want to compromise on the large screen experience, this laptop delivers on performance. However the relatively low-resolution screen and the flimsy hinge is a downer. At this price, you may want to consider other options that balance the various system specifications better.

What we liked: Solid core specifications (processor/RAM/graphics)

What we didn’t: High-gloss screen annoyingly picks up reflections, screen resolution could have been higher and with a sturdier hinge