Why You Can Trust CNET Asus K55VD review: Asus K55VD
The K55VD gives decent performance for the price, but the clickpad and battery life are left wanting.
Asus has long played well in the affordable laptop sector, bringing generally good build quality to an end of town that has traditionally tried to cut a few more corners than it should have.
Asus K55VD
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Connectivity
- USB 3.0: 2
- USB 2.0: 1
- Optical: DVD±RW
- Video: VGA, HDMI
- Ethernet: Gigabit
- Wireless: 2.4GHz 802.11n
Things are changing though, as prices trend ever downwards, with greater competition in the quality-for-affordable-price stakes. The K55VD still manages to hold its own, with a mix of bronze, faux-brushed metal, dark brown and black plastic that's worked well for it for quite some time.
Asus usually does a good job of balancing specs for price, and the K55VD is no different, featuring a Core i5 3210M @ 2.5GHz, 4GB RAM, a 750GB HDD and a GeForce GT 610M. You get a pair of USB 3.0 ports, a single USB 2.0 port, VGA, HDMI, gigabit Ethernet, headphone and microphone jacks, an SD card reader and a DVD&plusm; drive for your money, with 2.4GHz 802.11n but no Bluetooth. Only Acer's offering gives more bang for buck, and it's afforded extra wiggle room by using a last-generation CPU.
Keyboard use is pleasant enough, but the top-hinged clickpad on our sample was a little loose, bouncy and clacky, even when simply tapping. Right clicking, in particular, is annoying, as you have to make sure your finger is at the very bottom of the pad for it to actuate. Good thing, then, that the Elan pad included supports simultaneous double finger tapping as a substitute.
The TN, SEC-supplied, 1366x768 15.6-inch screen isn't anything special, lacking the vibrancy of the competing LG panels. That's not to say it's bad, just that, much like the audio on the K55VD, it doesn't rise above the pack. The latter is certainly serviceable, but you'll get better quality out of headphones.
Choose a benchmark: Handbrake | iTunes | Photoshop | Multimedia
Thanks to the third generation Core processor inside, Asus' laptop tussles with HP's Pavilion dm4 for pole position in the sub-AU$1000 category.
Gaming performance
 | ||
| Batman: Arkham Asylum | ||
| FPS | ||
| Max | Avg | Min |
| 71 | 55 | 22 |
| 1366x768, 0x AA, Detail level: Very low, PhysX off. | ||
 | ||
| Metro 2033 | ||
| FPS | ||
| Max | Avg | Min |
| 82 | 35 | 8 |
| 1366x768, DirectX 9, 0x AA, Quality: Low, PhysX: Off. | ||
 | ||
| The Witcher 2 | ||
| FPS | ||
| Max | Avg | Min |
| 15 | 11 | 7 |
| 1366x768, low spec. | ||
 | ||
| Skyrim | ||
| FPS | ||
| Max | Avg | Min |
| 46 | 31 | 24 |
| 1366x768, low detail. | ||
The GeForce GT 610M is most certainly not a gaming chip — even for, usually, forgiving games. Given that gaming only starts becoming feasible at the GeForce GT 630M level, there may as well be just Intel's HD Graphics in here, to save on cost.
While application performance is hot, battery life is dead ordinary on the K55VD. Sony and HP still look good though, riding the top of the charts.
Conclusion
The K55VD gives decent performance for the price, but the clickpad and battery life are left wanting.