Some laptops are meant to be a replacement for a desktop PC. The Asus X555LJ falls squarely in that category, but does it have enough to justify a Rs. 50,000 price tag? Specs: 15.6-inch screen (1366x768 pixels) | 2.2GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 5200U processor | 8GB DDR3 RAM | Nvidia GeForce 920M graphics card with 2GB RAM | 1TB HDD | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI, VGA out, Ethernet port, 2xUSB 3.0, 1xUSB 2.0 | Webcam | 8x DVD Writer | 2-cell battery | Full-size keyboard with numeric keypad | Windows 8.1 (Upgradable to Windows 10) Price: Rs. 48,999 Rating: 2.5/5 Give it to me straight: What's good, what's bad? The good stuff: The X555LJ's performance is smooth and has no major issues, thanks to the i5 processor and 8GB of RAM. You won't be complaining about anything for regular usage, whether it's office work, casual gaming, or multimedia. However, you can't use this for professional needs, like video editing. And hey, it has an optical drive! That's not something you see these days. The bad stuff: The battery life of the X555LJ barely lasts 4 hours, usually dying at around 3.5 hours. Also, the screen has poor viewing angles. Tilt it a little either side of the perfect angle and the colours get washed out. Is the decated digraphics card good enough for gaming? Well, it depends. The X555LJ is good enough to run games from a few years ago at max settings, but not for the latest games. Battlefield 4 needed to be set to medium settings, while GTA V struggled to run smoothly with Chrome and a few other programs open in the background. And the screen has HD resolution, not FullHD, so you won't be seeing fine details there. Is it too big and heavy to use as a laptop? Yes, it definitely is. At 2.2kgs, this Asus device feels too heavy to carry around as a work+home laptop, so it's definitely a desktop replacement that doesn't move around too much. Should you buy it? The Asus X555LJ with the Core i5 processor and 8GB RAM costs almost Rs. 50,000, which it is definitely not worth. At that price, the Asus Zenbook UX305 (read our review) is a far better purchase, and with it around, you shouldn't even consider the X555LJ. However, the X555LJ has another model, with a Core i3 processor and 4GB RAM, which costs Rs. 28,000. All the other hardware remains the same. And at that price, it seems like a pretty good laptop for users who want to replace their desktop.
