Review Asus X301A-RX005V Subnotebook

When hunting for bargain notebooks for beginners, we found the X301A-RX004V by Asus. This 13.3-inch notebook stands out from the crowd with its unusual white and black color scheme. With its price of only 399 Euros (~$516) (Pentium) or 450 Euros (~$582) (Core i3, test device), it is on the same level as Acer's Aspire V5-431 (14-inch), Asus U32U-RX004V (13.3-inch) or Lenovo's IdeaPad S300 (13.3-inch; device available, review will follow shortly). ASUS B23 battery

There are many 13 and 14-inch notebooks, but not many below the 500 Euros (~$647) mark. Will this 13-inch device stand out from the competition?

Optically, the contrast between matte, black plastic materials (chassis, frame) and sleek white surfaces works well. The finish - tiny silver squares that become bigger towards the edges - prevents fingerprints effectively. The frosted touchpad has a pleasant feel as well. ASUS B23E battery

All this, however, cannot take away from a firm but creaking chassis. This creaking noise appears when the notebook is lifted by one hand. The hinges are mounted rather loosely and make the lid wobble. The lid surface gives in slightly given a bit of pressure; the corners flex even without much force.

Due to the lack of maintenance flaps, users have to disassemble the entire device to exchange RAM or HDD. For the benefit of the lender, we avoided that rigmarole. On the other hand, it is surprising that the manufacturer did not create a rock solid chassis, in spite of doing without optical drive and flaps. The flexing of the keyboard is particularly disappointing. ASUS UX31 battery

Performance

This 13.3-inch notebook by Asus is equipped with an Intel Core i3-2350M (2 x 2.3 GHz). One version comes with a Pentium B960 (2 x 2.2 GHz), which makes the device 50 Euros (~$65) cheaper. The CPU belongs to the Sandy Bridge processor generation of 2010. Whether this makes it outdated will be evaluated in the chapter about the processor. ASUS ZenBook UX31 battery

Unlike the Core i5 and i7, the i3 does not have turbo boost, but at least it has hyperthreading (two virtual cores). The CPU energy consumption is, according to TDP, 35 Watts, of which the integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 and the DDR3 storage control (integrated 4 GB bar) scrape together 10 Watts. The hard drive is a 500 GB HDD by Hitachi running at 5400 RPM. ASUS ZenBook UX31A battery ASUS ZenBook UX31E battery ASUS UX31 Ultrabook battery ASUS UX31A Ultrabook battery ASUS UX31E Ultrabook battery

Processor
Is the Core i3-2350M the final word, or should the buyer save 50 Euros (~$65) and go for the Pentium version? We compared the computing performance in Cinebench R11.5 (Multi CPU). The benchmark calculates 2.17 points. A Pentium B960 makes 1.68 points (-23 %) at best. In battery mode, the performance of the CPU remains identical (R11.5: 2.17 points). Therefore the Pentium cannot be recommended.

The competitors Acer Aspire V5-431 (Celeron, -47 %), Asus U32U-RX004V (AMD E-450, -72 %) and Lenovo IdeaPad S300 (i3-2367M, -38 %) all perform less well. This, however, is important: Even an i5-3317U, used in the significantly more expensive 14-inch IdeaPad S400 (or in many ultrabooks), is only 10 % faster compared to our standard voltage CPU. Will this statement hold true for the overall system performance? ASUS Eee PC 1225 battery

System Performance

The PCMark Vantage calculates a score of 4,906 points, which is clearly above Aspire V5-431 (-26 %), Asus U32U (-67 %) and Lenovo IdeaPad S300 (-16 %). i5-3317U systems with a simple hard drive are only 18 to 20 % faster (IdeaPad S400 or Aspire S3-391). The PCMark 7 gives very similar results. The IdeaPad S300 does not win the comparison in spite of its small dedicated graphics solution. ASUS Eee PC 1225B battery

Temperature

The X301A remains nice and cool. In idle mode and under sporadic load (office use), the surface and most of the base plate remain lukewarm to warm. No area reaches the 40 degrees Celsius (104 °F) mark.

Under constant load, the temperatures increase point by point to up to 41 degrees (105.8 °F). There is not a trace of overheating. In this scenario (stress test, several hours), the standard clock of 2.3 GHz remains constant. With Solo CPU Stress in Prime95, the clock is around 2.3 GHz as well, but HWinfo says "throttling". As the frequency is in normal clock at all times, there can be no talk of throttling. A 3DMark 06 performed right after the stress test brought identical results. ASUS 1225B battery ASUS Eee PC 1225C battery

Speakers
Where are the stereo speakers? Hidden away under the wrist rest, they use the table, if existent, as the reflective surface for the sound pressure. That is why the sound turns nasty when the notebook is being carried. A carpet or the like makes it sound as if someone had hidden speakers under a blanket.

The ideal scenario on a table emphasizes mid-range sounds and neglects low sounds. There is no bass at all, and pitches are not presented in a differentiated way. To cut a long story short: This is the typical sound of notebook speakers, but without volume or character. Multimedia books usually come with a subwoofer, but this is not common in this price range. Asus K53JG battery Asus K53JN battery Asus K53JS battery

The volume can be turned on fully, but this does not make anything better, as high pitches come with a rattling noise. The small speakers produce a deafening noise, which is quite unusual for a 13.3-inch notebook. Music lovers should connect a headset or external speakers via the analog audio/microphone combination.

Battery Life

Energy Consumption

Asus K53JT battery The long battery life in idle mode (lowest brightness, energy-saving mode) is surprising at first sight (7 hours 50 minutes). The energy consumption in idle mode seems very low for a 13-inch device with 35 Watts TDP (standard voltage; 7 to 10 Watts). Other ultrabooks with the same form factor have very similar energy consumption though. Zenbook Prime UX31A (4 to 10 Watts) or Acer Aspire S5-391 (4.5 to 6.5) are even more economical. But most 13-inch ultrabooks are similar at 6 to 10 Watts (e. g. Fujitsu LifeBook UH572). The i3-2350M was already economical in the Sony Vaio SV-S1311G4E (6.7 to 11.5 Watts). Asus K53S battery

The stress test (Prime95, FurMark) raises energy consumption to the upper limit of 53 Watts. The small 65 Watts power supply unit is designed for this purpose and even has some capacity left for charging the battery at the same time. Due to the lower performance and the 17 Watts TDP, the competitors Aspire V5-431 (32 Watts), IdeaPad S300 (40 Watts), Asus U32U (33 Watts) or IdeaPad S400 (30 Watts) use less energy under full load. Asus K53S-SX085 battery

Battery Life
It does not depend on a few Watts more or less, the important thing in the end is the battery life, and this is very acceptable for this low cost notebook: the WLAN test (150 cd/m² luminance) ends after 4 hours 41 minutes. Also videos were played in that time. If used economically, the user might even get another hour.

The capacity of the removable battery is not even that great: 47 Watt hours. In the WLAN test, the competitor Aspire V5-431 only runs for three hours, which is due to the low battery capacity of 37 Wh. The Lenovo IdeaPad S400 with its 3 hours 18 minutes is not much better, which again is due to a 32 Wh battery. The HP ProBook 4530s-B0Y11EA with the same hardware (47 Watt hours) keeps going for 4 hours 20 minutes, which shows that Asus makes the most of its battery. Asus K53S-V1G battery

Verdict
The Asus X301A-RX005V gets noticed - however, not so much because of its positive qualities, but mainly because of its looks in white and black, matte surfaces, pleasant haptics without fingerprints and a cool case. Who needs anything else?

The user! Besides attractive looks, users need mobile qualities fit for working. Battery life with more than four hours (WLAN test) is great, but the reflecting screen with its mediocre brightness is not. OK, let's stay inside then. The noisy keyboard and the loud clicking of the touchpad annoy us as well. It is just not necessary as pressure point and key stroke are pleasant otherwise. The wobbly key depression ruins this impression again though. Asus K53SA battery

Emissions are similar: There is little waste heat, the noise of the fan is within limits, and the cooling system even turns off in idle mode. However, this perfect picture gets destroyed by a noisy rattling hard drive. This makes the notebook impossible to use in libraries.

The Asus X301A-RX005V could have been a good and inexpensive notebook, but the mentioned flaws prevent an unrestricted recommendation to buy. The competition (clearly below 500 Euros/~$647) with Aspire V5-431 (from 399 Euros/~$516), Asus U32U (from 470 Euros/~$60 and IdeaPad S300 (from 450 Euros/~$582) are not the icing on the cake of engineering either, but they have quiet hard drives. Unfortunately, the wobbly keyboard is also a problem of the AMD-based Asus U32U. None of the mentioned models feature a matte screen. Asus K53SC battery Asus K53SD battery Asus K53SE battery Asus K53SJ battery Asus K53SJ-SX216V battery Asus K53SN battery

Sony's Vaio SV-S1311G4E (13.3-inch) comes in smart white, with a higher quality chassis and much better input devices. The hardware is similar to Core i3, but significantly more expensive (850 Euros/~$1100).

Posted by: luckystar at 06:28 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 1589 words, total size 13 kb.