Asus K60IJ-RBLX05 – Affordable 16-inch

Pros

The Asus K60IJ-RBLX05 has is a compact system considering the fact that it is a 16 inch laptop and also has a large screen.

Cons

The Asus K60IJ-RBLX05 has got a mediocre battery life and underpowered processor.

Introduction

There is a huge perception in the market that getting a laptop means compromising in one way or the other. So, let’s check the Asus K60IJ-RBLX05 and see how true it is. The K60IJ is a 16 inch laptop, with 320 GB hard drive and is priced $499, up to now everything sounds too good to be true, isn’t it? So where exactly are the problems?

If you also are wondering on this question then here’s the deal, in case of Asus K60IJ-RBLX05 the main problem is its processor. Rather than the conventional Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Asus K60IJ comes with a dual-core Pentium processor and although this processor is a lot better than some of the single-core processors such he Celeron or Atom, but still the serious computing tasks remain a question here. But if you are looking at the size of the system and wants to get an affordable large sized laptop then this isn’t a bad deal at all, though, the trade-offs should be kept in mind all the time.

Design

One of the frequent change that takes place in Asus laptops is their design, and in comparison to any other manufacturer’s system in the market, the Asus laptops gets the maximum design iteration. In a way the mainstream machine from company keeps changing its color like Chameleon. The latest entrant from Asus is the K60IJ, which has design identical to Asus’ “Seashell” line Eee PC Netbooks launched recently. Like the Seashell line, the Asus K60IJ has got a catchy look, but in comparison to it this is a little chunky and compact.

The modest and shiny of the system continues inside the laptop around the keyboard, number pad, and surrounding the edges of the inset 16 x 9 lustrous screen. The keyboard of the system has slightly concave keys and is almost flat; this gives the feel of a tapered keyboard. The tying on the system is pretty comfortable, without any sort of problems. The system doesn’t have any dedicated media buttons or any other dedicated buttons other than function-combination keys and power button. It’s nice to use the function-combination unless the media bar of the system is not exceptionally designed. The touchpad for the system is a shiny and a little buried rectangle, emulating some of the feel of the Eee PC touch pads. Though, some of the users don’t like using shinny touchpad, but as we have seen even worse touchpad, we didn’t have any problems here. The mouse buttons positioned underneath the touchpad are comfortably sized and feels great.

The Asus K60IJ’s 16 inch slick LED backlit screen has native resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels and has high-quality brightness. As the width of K60IJ is in fact a little more than the compact, in comparison to some other, the screen looks surprisingly large, although in actual it is not and even doesn’t have a full-HD 1080p resolution. The system has got Altec Lansing speakers positioned at the bottom of the front of the laptop, and sounds sufficient. Also there is a 1.3-megapixel Webcam located at the top of the screen of Asus K60IJ, which according to us is a nice inclusion.

The Asus K60IJ also has four USB 2.0 jacks, apart from an SD card reader. Although, the USB 2.0 is just where it should be, but the lack of HDMI and other connectivity options is really surprising. The system comes with 320GB hard drive and 4GB of DDR2 RAM, which is appreciable configuration for a 16 inch basic mainstream laptop, which the Asus K60IJ is.

System Configuration

Price: $449.99
Manufacturer: Asus
Part Number: K60IJ-RBLX05
Notebook type: Thin-and-light
OS Provided: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition
Software: Drivers & Utilities, CyberLink Power2Go, Microsoft Office 2007 (60 days trial) and Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0

Display Type: 16 in TFT active matrix
Processor: 2.1 GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core T4300
System weight: 5.7 lbs
Dimensions (W x D x H): 14.6 x 10.1 x 1.4 inches
RAM: 4GB, DDR2 667 MHz
Built-in Devices: Speaker and Wireless LAN antenna
Supported flash memory cards: Memory Stick, SD Memory Card and MultiMediaCard
Graphics Processor / Vendor: Intel GMA 4500M Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0
Features: Camera, 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN and Facial recognition
Input device type: Keyboard and Touchpad
Audio: Headphone/Microphone jacks, Stereo Speakers
Optical Drive: DVD burner
Environmental standards: EPA Energy Star
Battery: 6 Cell Lithium-ion

Performance

The Intel T4300 processor of Asus K60IJ handles all the basic tasks really well and flashes video streaming. Even in our multitasking tests the Asus K60IJ performed better than average multitasking systems, but still the performance was way behind the high end notebooks in the market. If you are just coming out from a Celeron, then this system definitely can be a huge boost for you, but still we will recommend you to go for a Core 2 Duo laptop, especially considering the fact that the Core 2 Duo laptops are easily available in the very same price range.

But the good thing here is that the overall performance rating for Asus K60IJ comes as good, and you won’t have any problems with it, unless you are not subjecting it to any heavy multitasking.

Support

The Asus K60IJ-RBLX05 comes with standard two-year global and one-year accidental warranty from Asus. The support can also be accessed through Web and E-mail. Asus’ web site now is easy to access, but still is not perfect for accessing the support effortlessly. The support can also be obtained through a toll-free number directing to for tech support, from7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. PST on Monday to Friday.

Word from the Experts

The Asus K60IJ-RBLX05 clearly is a budget laptop with huge 16-inch screen, though the system is mussing the processing features and thump which if you want can get by paying a little extra amount.