We all know that Asus is one of the best manufacturers of multimedia laptops, like Asus G551 , ASUS K501lx-eb71 or Asus F554LA WS71 laptop, and one of the latest models is Asus N551. As its name suggests, we are talking about a minor update of N550, but the Taiwanese manufacturer has managed to improve some elements so that the buyers can take in consideration an acquisition on. Even if the design remained almost the same, there are some interesting changes in the screen, cooling and sound. When we made the test we had one of the top versions of this laptop, with the following Asus N551 specs : Intel Core i7 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850 video card and 16 GB RAM, we invite you to read the review to find out what is new about Asus N551.

What is Asus N551 ?

Asus N551 is a multimedia laptop, with a 15″ screen, addressed to a varied segment of users. The notebook is useful for both office-type activities, as well as music and movies, and games, obviously within limits imposed by Asus N551 specs.

Asus N551 Specs

Screen	15.6 inch, 1920 x 1080 px resolution, IPS, matte, non-touch
Processor	Intel Haswell Core i7-4710HQ
Chipset	Intel HM86
Video	integrated Intel 4600 HD and dedicated Nvidia 850M 2GB DDR3 graphics
Memory	16 GB DDR3
Hard-disk	1 TB 5400 rpm HDD + 24 GB SSD
Connectivity	Wireless N, Gigabit Lan, Bluetooth 4.0
Ports	3 x USB 3.0, HDMI, mini DisplayPort, LAN, card-reader, webcam
Baterry	56 Wh, removable
Operating system	Windows 8.1
Size	383 x 259 x 33 mm
Weight	about 2.6 kg (5.73 pounds)

Asus N551 Video Review

If you do not have time to read all the details of this review, we invite you to watch the video below, which covers the essential elements of the laptop. For more complete information, however we recommend you to read the review in the text version.

What we like about Asus N551 ?

As we used at Asus N series multimedia laptops, the lid-cover for N551 is made of aluminum and includes Asus logo lighting at an intensity rather average, suitable for most situations. However, Asus has adopted a Zenbook specific design and integrated the famous concentric circles on the surface of the lid.

Instead, the back is made of plastic, The sides of the device are made of plastic too. On the left is the cooling system, and on the right you can find the optical drive. This design change, to the detriment of the N550 that fully used aluminum has the advantage of allowing easier access to internal components. In addition, the air is discharged through the solid matrices located on the left side, and this is the reason why the connectors moved closer to the front of the device.

Inside the laptop, I noticed a generous space for palmrest and for the areas around the keyboard. At the bottom, below the trackpad, there are several status LEDs. The screen is attached to the rest of the laptop by two solid hinges, as compared with the single long hinge of its predecessor N550, which keeps a fixed display and enable it to tilt about 130 °, a good value for this type of product.
From Asus N551 specs we may see that the screen itself is an IPS with a diagonal of 15.6 “and 1920 × 1080 pixels resolution. Its appearance quickly reveals that it’s a touchscreen, but the advantage is its high readability in sunlight.

The panel’s quality of Asus N551 is good to very good, whether we are talking about color reproduction, clarity and brightness. Moreover, the dry figures of benchmark  reveals this:

However, it is important to note that for accurate color reproduction, you must enter the Asus Splendid application and select Normal mode instead of the default Vivid mode, that overloads colors. Also, change the zoom level of the Windows fonts from 125% to 100%, because by default Third-party applications will look blurred.

Enjoyable experience is assured by a quality keyboard and integrated trackpad on Asus N551. The keyboard has rigid keys that provides excellent feedback and a pleasant experience when writing texts, without the need for an adjustment period. 

The trackpad made of glass works well and provides a good accuracy as correct answer gestures, taps and swipes, even if clicks are a bit stiff and noisy.

Asus N551 worked successfully on our requests from ordinary tasks such as internet browsing and editing Office documents to software like Photoshop and various other applications. The laptop is doing well in games too, with the right Asus N551 specs of course. For example, games like Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider or Metro: Last Light ran fluent at FullHD resolution with details set to Very High or Ultimate. You can easily compare it with Asus ROG GX500, that we wrote about on techwarn.com.

What we didn’t liked

Asus N551 specs are not perfect, but its flaws are rather minor.
Dimensions and weight are a little higher than usually found in this class, while the power button is located uninspired in the top right of the keyboard, where usually the End key is, which can cause accidental presses. Also NumPad is quite small, and the arrow keys are quite narrow, while the backlight is somewhat useless due to lack of contrast with the rest of the hardware: the light is white, but faded because of the silver keyboard and keys. Some of you may not appreciate the new design that uses no plastic on the underside, considering it like a step back comparatively with N550 model, more slender and made entirely of aluminum. Also Wi-Fi signal quality is good just next to the router. At a distance of about 7 meters from the source and separated by two walls, the rate is about two times lower than the one recorded near the router, an element that can become annoying if you use your laptop frequently in other rooms of the house.

Unfortunately, Asus opted for a 56 Wh battery, not strong enough according to Asus N551 specs. Therefore, the autonomy reaches about 4 hours for a regular use in Balance Mode, which requires only 50% brightness and backlight off. Also, if you like to see FullHD movies on the go, you will enjoy this experience about 4 hours, if Wi-Fi is turned off and use the Power Saving mode. When playing games the autonomy hardly exceeds one hour.
On the other hand, you can easily remove the battery from the notebook, something that many of you will appreciate.

Asus N551 price

The Asus N551 specs we tested will be available with 8GB RAM instead of 16 GB RAM. The Asus N551 price for this version is be about $1200.
If you need a better speed with better Asus N551 specs, you can choose the top configuration, which benefits a SSD of 256 GB and 16 GB RAM. The Asus N551 price for this version is about $1500 .
Finally, there is a basic version for users with a low budget, receiving a dual-core Intel Core i5-4200H CPU at 2.8 GHz , 1TB HDD and 8 GB RAM. The Asus N551 price for this version is about $1100 .