Asus N550J Drivers Are Anywhere
Asus N550J 1080P Screen Upgrade
Asus N550J Portable Or Ultrabook

In return, the N550JK is pretty powerful, but it is still an entry-level performancegaming laptop.

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Asus N550J 1080P Screen Upgrade

It starts at 799 (around US1285, AU1465), the version reviewed, jumping up to 899 (around US1445, AU1650) if you go for the thoroughly worthwhile IPS 1080p screen upgrade.

There arent a great deal of capable machines at this price that can really handle all that much gaming, making this a pretty interesting laptop.

The MSI GX60, HP Envy 15 and Lenovo G710 are the key alternatives at the price.

All offer dedicated graphics cards for about 800 (around US1285, AU1465) but the nice, clean look and slightly higher-end GPU of the Asus N550JK will be a draw for many.

Asus N550J Portable Or Ultrabook

Starting at 800 (around US1285, AU1465), its not truly top-end, and its far too large to be considered particularly portable or Ultrabook-like.

This is a solid, practical laptop thats best suited to life on a desk.

Its not a laptop to try and show off in a coffee shop the 2.7kg weight would quickly earn you shoulder ache anyway.

We did try lugging it around for a day but the experience wasnt too pleasant.

However, the design is good, particularly considering that mid-range laptops often miss the mark on looks.

The Asus N550JKs lid is lightly brushed dark bluegrey aluminium.

Treated metal is one of Asus standard design calling cards, but the texture is much less pronounced and showy than it is in the Asus Zenbook Ultrabooks.

This is a pretty smart looking laptop Aluminium is used once again inside.

The entire keyboard top-plate is aluminium, with an anodised-style finish and a neat looking pattern of concentric circles of dots up top.

Initially it appears these are cut into the keyboard surround, but theyre actually raised.

Could we do without them Absolutely, but its just Asus attempt to stop the N550JK from plunging into real design anonymity.

Asus N550J Drivers Are Anywhere

They also help highlight the laptops Bang Olufsen speakers, not that the drivers are anywhere near this pattern.

Instead, the dots surround the power button and an Asus-specific button that brings up an Asus console app when in use.

Impressive build quality As with most laptops that care as much about the bottom line as looks, the underside of the Asus N550JK is plastic rather than metal.

Theres only a slight flex to the hand-rest part of the keyboard surround, and while were sure the aluminium shell isnt all that thick, its enough to give the laptop a higher-end feel.

While the sides taper smoothy bar a rough edge where metal meets plastic its still 28mm thick.

Add that to the considerable 2.7kg weight and you have a fairly chunky laptop.