Great Asus N55SL 15.6 inch Laptop (Intel Core i5 2430M 2.4GHz, 6GB RAM, 500GB HDD)

Fusing both classical and post-modern design, the Asus N series has been designed by David Lewis, and creates a unique mood of sophisticated elegance and modernity, featuring piano-gloss covers and polished metal frames. The new N series is also extremely user-focused, delivering comfortable soft-feel touchpads, fast-type keys with reinforced springs, and a smoothed-out integrated power button. This intelligent design and meticulous craftsmanship combine to embody a spirit of advanced computing and purely sensational simplicity.
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Co-developed with Bang & Olufsen ICEpower, ASUS SonicMaster technology brings an evolution of notebook design with an exclusive combination of advanced hardware and software to create an immersive audio experience. Improved and refined for the N series, it offers living audio with the most precise processing protocols and codecs, superior speaker construction and large resonance chambers for unforgettable enjoyment - it’s like going to a concert, the fidelity revitalises vocals and every sound comes to life through professional enhancement.

No more tinny notebook audio and noise distortion; welcome to an era of true hi-fi on a PC. The bundled SonicMaster subwoofer adds superb deep note performance for even better audio output.Acer Aspire 5750, HP CQ57-420EA, Fujitsu Lifebook A531 , Asus X401A-WX074V, Dell XPS 15.6 inch, Acer Aspire S3-391, Samsung NP-Q430-JSB1US, SONY VAIO E1511Q1E , Lenovo G580, Dell Inspiron Q17R, Dell Inspiron Q17R , Satellite C660-1J2, Acer Aspire V3-551 , Asus X54C-SX323V, Satellite P855 - 32G , Lenovo G570 , Lenovo G780 , Acer Aspire 5551, HP g6-1369ea , Samsung RV510 , HP dv6-2112sa, Dell Alienware M14x, Asus K53U, HP Pavilion g6-2027sa, Sony SV-E14A2C5E, Sony SV-S1311C5E , HP g6-2033sa, MacBook 13.3, Acer Aspire 5750G, HP Pavilion g6-1303sa, Apple 11 inch , Apple MacBook Pro, Lenovo Ideapad U410 , Packard Bell Easynote, Lenovo L520, HP g6-1251sa , Apple MacBook Air, Satellite U840W-107 , Satellite Z830-10T, Apple MacBook White , Sony SV-E1511C5E, Sony VPCEH3B1E W, Samsung Series 3, Compaq Presario CQ61-401SA , Samsung Series 3, Acer Aspire 8930G, Acer Aspire S3 , Acer Aspire Timeline, Acer Aspire 5250, HP g6-1202sa, Apple MacBook Pro, ACER NX.V7PEK.003, Toshiba Satellite L750-1XF, Acer Aspire S3, HP dm3-1020EA, Compaq CQ56-102SA, Sony SVS1512X9EB.CEK , Acer Aspire V5-531,

I've had this desktop replacement (although it replaced a netbook!)for several months now. I compared ALL of the laptops at the time on laptopchecker and other sites and this had the best specs for the price. The best part of it is the graphics chip. I play Arma 2 at the highest settings with no lag. The keyboard requires a slightly higher wrist position otherwise you will make more errors while typing. However, once you get the hang of it it types really well.

There are two gripes I have about this laptop. Firstly, the wi-fi connection sometimes drops after coming out of sleep mode. Whether this is an issue with the Intel Wireless-N 1030 adapter or some software issues I don't know. Once it's on it doesn't fail.

The second issue luckily has a really simple fix. Within a few weeks I had kind of worn the surface plastic from the trackpad, in the place where it gets used the most. To my finger this made it a little bit uncomfortable, hot and 'staticky'. I just went to a mobile phone shop and bought a generic scratch cover for a smartphone, cut it to size and stuck it to the trackpad. It's now really comfortable and slick. Consequently I'm now a crack shot with the DMR on Arma!Asus UX31A-R4003V, Lenovo G580, Lenovo B570, Acer Aspire S3, GARMIN Oregon 450T , Satellite Pro C850-10Z, Dell Latitude E4300, HeidePC HPMS1762-680M, Lenovo Essential G570, Samsung Series 3 , Sony TX5MN W , Satellite Pro C660-21E, Acer TravelMate 5744, Apple MacBook Pro , Acer Aspire V5-571, HP ProBook 6560b , Samsung Series 9, HP dv3-2230EA, Lenovo ThinkPad T430s, Zoostorm 7877-0904, Satellite Pro P300-28L, Satellite U940, Asus K73, Satellite L730-10U , Acer Aspire S3, Samsung RV520, Satellite C660-21Q , HP ProBook 6560b, Samsung Series 7, GIGABYTE 9WU2442V0, Lenovo G770, Dell Latitude E6420, Lenovo Ideapad U410, HP dv6-6b55sa, Apple MacBook Pro, HP g6-1359ea, Packard Bell NX.BYMEK., Acer Aspire V3-771G , Acer Aspire 5740-334G32Bn, Samsung Series 5, Acer Aspire M3-581TG, Asus K53E, Samsung Series 3, Toshiba Satellite Z930, Packard Bell NX.BWTEK, Acer Aspire Ethos 5951G, Samsung 400B4B, ASUS G75VW, Lenovo G550 , Acer Aspire Timeline, Acer Aspire 5755G , Dell Inspiron 15 , HP TM2-2050EA, Acer Aspire V5, ASUS X53U-SX173V, New Apple Macbook Pro

To sum up, this laptop is spectacular for the price. If you want something that's flawless, get an Alienware or ROG, if you can afford it.

I decided it was time to go back to a laptop as I felt my custom-build desktop occupied far too much space.

I had already decided to reconfigure my home network to a NAS solution with medai streaming so masses of HDD space was not a massive issue
and I felt the 750GB HDD on the N55SL was enough

It had to be fast enough as my desktop was an Intel i7-2600k Sandybridge with 16GB RAM and multiple HDD's.
The screen had to be good as I use Photoshop for editing digital images as I previously used a 24" HD monitor
so it had a lot to live up to.

I read lots and lots of reviews and decided the N55SL-2019V was the one for me
Now, it was never going to be able to keep up with my desktop(unless I spent over £2k on a laptop) but it had to run the applications
I wanted to use easily and without delay.
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It had to be able to run Photoshop, MS Office, Nero, Sony Vegas Video Studio and I wanted a Bluray drive too.

I had a look at it at a local retailer and, after