If you are looking for a budget laptop you will have probably come across the ASUS D550CA-RS31 15.6-Inch Laptop. We decided to give this laptop a go over and see what it’s all about.
ASUS D550CA-RS31 15.6-Inch Laptop Review
The Exterior
As with most budget laptops the ASUS D550CA-RS31 exterior case is more aimed toward function than style. The top cover comes with a basic weave texture finish with the chrome ASUS logo right in the middle. This finish is very much functional as it hides scratches and fingerprints very well. Once open we find the 15.6-inch glossy display surrounded by a matte black plastic rim with the integrated webcam in the middle of the top rim. The integrated microphone is placed on the left side of the webcam. A generously sized chrome ASUS logo fills the middle of the bottom rim.
The palmrest has the same weave texture as the top cover while the keyboard area simulates a brushed aluminum look making it look a bit more upmarket. This notebook gets the full size generously spaced chicklet style keyboard that has become standard on most laptops by now. The power button is located in the top left corner of the keyboard.
The large touch pad is located underneath the keyboard area and slightly offset for comfortable typing without interruptions.
The status LEDs and the Card reader are located on left side of the front edge of the laptop. The rest of the body is regular black plastic you tend to find on most devices.
The overall finish of the ASUS D550CA-RS31 is very long lasting and hardy. This finish makes this laptop capable of withstanding a lot of scratches and scuffs and still look good.
The Connectivity
The Connectivity of this ASUS is probably it’s lowpoint as all ports are on one side and it only features 2 USB Ports total.
This means they only have enough space on the left side for the standard Power port, Ethernet LAN port, a VGA-out, HDMI-out, 1 USB 2.0 Port, 1 USB 3.0 Port and the now standard Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack.
The right side of the body has the DVD Optical Drive and the Kensington Lock port.
On the inside it gets Wireless WiFi 802.11b/g/n connectivity. It lacks Bluetooth connectivity.
If you have plenty of external devices you wish to connect via USB you will need to get an external USB Hub for this laptop.
The Performance
The ASUS D550CA-RS31 comes equipped with a 3rd Generation Intel Core i3-3217U Processor running at 1.8 GHz, 6GB of DDR3 RAM and a 500GB HDD. This processor comes with the now well known Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics card.
The hardware of this device is from the previous generation and this leads to a better configuration for less money. The overall performance is average for this budget. The processor was and still is capable of doing all the everyday casual usage you may need, the 6GB RAM means you can run a full range of applications at the same time without any issues. The Intel HD 4000 was our favorite integrated video card for a while now at it was, indeed very much capable for its generation. Right now though it has become underpowered and can’t keep up with todays games. It is very much capable of running most older games but newer ones will most likely run at unplayable FPS, if they even run.
The 500GB HDD is average for this price range and is enough for most regular peoples needs.
The ASUS D550CA-RS31 comes with a 37WHrs, 4-cell Li-on Battery Pack promising up to 5 Hours of continuous computing. This laptop has a ULV processor with low energy consumption but some basic math and the relatively small battery pack say the 5 hours are a bit optimistic. You could expect around 4 Hours in real life if you don’t require many resources.
