ASUS N50 Laptop

After reading Kye’s review of the ASUS N10 sub-notebook, I was a bit worried about how good my experience would be with the ASUS N50, a more mainstream design machine with the following specs:

• 2Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 Processor
• 320GB Hard Disk Drive
• 3GB DDR2 Memory
• 512MB nVidia GeForce 9300m GS
• 15.4” WXGA (2800×800 pixels) LED screen
• 2x Blu-Ray player
• 802.11n, Bluetooth, HDMI, VGA, eSATA, Line in, Line out, Firewire 400, card reader, 3xUSB, webcam, biometric finger print scanner, air ioniser

Two things really stick out from this roundup, and they have to be the 2x Blu-Ray Player and the Air Ioniser; so let’s look at what these bring to the machine.

Blu-Ray has been around for a couple of years now, and anyone who has a PS3 has been able to play them since they took them out of the box, but until recently Blu-Ray drives in laptops were a commodity only a few could afford (often adding over £300 to the retail price). The N50 sits in the new class of mid spec machines that bring you High Definition entertainment on the move. But there is one big problem with the blu-ray on this machine: the screen is only capable of 720p, not the full fledged 1080p that we have come to expect from new HD televisions. Although this is slightly overcome by the presence of an HDMI port, is does mean you can’t enjoy the full benefits of high definition on the move.

The next is the Air Ioniser, and even I am confused as to its presence on the machine. This is a slight oddity in the computer world, fitting something designed to improve the air quality around the machine. I can only assume that it is designed to improve your work area, but we will wait to see how it stands up to a lecture hall on a hot day. Ah, there is one very special thing I forgot about: this machine uses facial recognition.

Yep, you heard me right, this machine can use facial recognition to log you in to your account. It uses the camera in the top bezel of the screen, and we do have to say that we have had mixed results. Whilst we have had it work, we have more often had it ignore our faces and need us to type in a password or swipe our finger.

But enough of the specs and features of the N50, what I think we all want to know is how it performs in the real world.

If I am to be frank with you, the N50 took what seemed to be an age to boot. At times I thought that it would be a good opportunity to make a cup of tea, whilst waiting for it to boot. It could be that the sample we received was clogged up by lots of other people using it, or it could just be it takes half a lifetime to boot.

Once booted the machine is quite nippy, loading applications with respectable speed. Making the use of it as a primary machine more bearable. However, this quickness was hindered at times by the touch sensitive controls, which would sometimes require 3 or 4 presses to get to work (a pain when trying to mute the music when the phone rings).

Gaming performance with the machine is what I would expect from the spec, it could run mid-specced games (such as Dawn of War 2, Supreme Commander, etc) quite well at medium graphics quality. Although this rules the machine out as a true gaming rig, this is not where it is aimed. More being thrust at the mainstream user, and people who work on the go.

This meaning to its existence can be seen in the battery life stats, with the N50 being able to last just over 3 hours on battery power. For a machine like this, this is brilliant, as it makes it useable on a long train journey, during a lecture, or even in a car. Mix this with the blu-ray drive and you have a good candidate for a machine that will keep you entertained when travelling, or away from the mains.

Unfortunately, we were unable to benchmark the machine, as we spent far too much time trying out the facial recognition if we are honest. So these figures are not here for this machine, but we are quite willing to tell you that they can be seen over here at Register Hardware.

In conclusion, the N50 represents the main stream branch of ASUS’s notebook computers. IT brings you the sort of spec and speed you expect for this price, with the added bonus of a Blu-ray drive and Air ioniser (if it is a bonus). Although this is hindered at times by long boot times, and unresponsive touch controls. It leads to a good all round machine that will be perfect for those who need to work on the go.

All in all, bitcolumns give the Asus N50 a score of 3/5.