Asus F556UA-AB32 - Review 2022

The Asus F556UA-AB32 ($364.99) is a budget 15-inch desktop-replacement laptop with a expert feature set and above-average functioning for its price. It packs a 1080p brandish, a spacious 1TB difficult drive, and an abundance of ports, including USB-C, all impressive features for a laptop that costs less than $400. Its Intel Cadre i3 processor is a generation backside the Editors' Choice Acer Aspire Due east xv (E5-575-33BM), however, and its performance reflects it, if non to a deal-breaking caste. Still, the Asus AB32 is an impressive alternative and well worth considering.

Solid Design, Semi-Portable

At 1 by 15 by 10.1 inches (HWD) and 5.1 pounds, the AB32 is a typical size and weight for a fifteen-inch desktop-replacement laptop. It is a tad thinner than the Acer E 15, which measures 1.2 by 15 by 10.two inches and also weighs v.1 pounds. You can throw this laptop in a backpack to shuttle it across campus, or dorsum and along on the occasional commute, simply yous likely won't want to lug it effectually all the time. For greater portability in a budget laptop, you could become for a convertible hybrid like the Lenovo Yoga 710 (eleven"), which measures simply 0.vi by 11.one by 7.7 inches and weighs 2.3 pounds, though you'll take a hit on features (a smaller screen and keyboard and no optical bulldoze, for example), and to a bottom extent, functioning.

The touchpad and areas surrounding the AB32's keyboard are silver, while the keyboard and the rest of the laptop are night blue. The frame is plastic, just feels sturdy. The lid has a fine blueprint of concentric circles, with scoring reminiscent of the grooves on a tape album. The touchpad is quite responsive. The chiclet-mode keyboard is positioned rather far dorsum on the laptop from where my hands commonly residual, merely typing is polish and easy. Like most upkeep laptops, the AB32's keyboard lacks backlighting.

All This and HD Too

The 15.6-inch display has total HD (1,920-by-1,080) resolution, and both text and images are crisp and articulate. The Acer E 15 also has a full Hard disk screen, but unlike the AB32's, it'southward LED-backlit. OPPOSED TO WHAT OTHER THAN LED? Many screens on systems of this size and at this price are a 720p resolution, so the full HD screen hither is a prissy perk. Unlike the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 Series (3558) but like the Acer E xv, the AB32's display does non back up touch.

Audio quality is skilful, with minimal distortion from the built-in speakers, fifty-fifty with the volume turned all the way upwards. Not that the sound is particularly loud: Maximum volume is about average for a general-purpose laptop.

Connectivity options are abundant for a notebook at this cost. On the left side of the laptop are the power jack, an Ethernet jack, a VGA port, a USB three.0 port, a USB-C port, an HDMI port, and a slot for a Kensington lock. On the right side are an SD card reader (useful for expanding onboard storage), a headphone jack that doubles as an audio-in port, a USB 2.0 port, and an 8x DVD/RW drive. Connectivity is similar to the Dell and Acer models, simply the Dell subtracts the USB-C port while the Acer replaces i of the USB ii.0 ports with a USB 3.0 port and lacks the optical drive. The organization also features Bluetooth iv.i and 802.11ac for wireless connectivity and comes installed with Windows 10 Domicile. Asus includes a one-year warranty.

Budget Laptop With Multimedia Chops

The system is powered past a two.3GHz Intel Core i3-6100U processor with integrated Intel Hard disk Graphics 520, which is a generation behind the Acer East fifteen's ii.4GHz Intel Core i3-7100U Kaby Lake processor. Like the Dell 3558 and the Acer Due east xv, the AB32 has a spacious 1TB difficult drive that spins at five,400rpm—on the slow side, though common in budget laptops. Also typical in this price range is the AB32'south 4GB of retentiveness, the same every bit the Acer E 15. Although the Dell 3558 has more retentivity (6GB) than the AB32, this reward doesn't interpret to its test scores.

The AB32 performed well across the board in our testing. It scored ii,429 points on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional productivity exam, just short of both the Acer E 15 (ii,491 points) and the Dell 3558 (2,472 points). Multimedia examination results were as well strong for a upkeep laptop. The AB32 completed the Handbrake video-encoding test in 2 minutes, 54 seconds and the Photoshop test in five minutes, 56 seconds, and it scored 249 points on Cinebench. In both the Handbrake and Cinebench tests it was edged by the Acer Eastward 15 for the top score. In our Photoshop test, the AB32 was bested past the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series two-in-i (3179), which finished in v:02, and edged by the Acer E 15 (5:46).

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With its integrated graphics, I wouldn't expect the AB32 to be a potent gamer, then its scores on our gaming tests were no surprise. On both the Sky and Valley 3D gaming tests, the AB32 scored 17 frames per second (fps) at medium-quality settings, and 10fps and 9fps respectively at Ultra-quality settings. 30fps is considered to be the threshold for smooth gaming, so yous'll accept to dial down the resolution and graphics settings to play whatever titles on this automobile.

In our battery rundown test, the AB32 turned in an adequate vii hours, 31 minutes, although that'south still more than two hours shorter than the Acer East 15 (9:49). For actually long battery life (and enhanced portability) in a budget laptop, you lot may want to await to a smaller-screen laptop-tablet hybrid such as the 11-inch Asus Transformer Mini (14:14), although you may take a performance hitting as well as losing some features

A Solid-Value Desktop-Replacement

Selling at less than $400, the AB32 provides excellent value in a desktop-replacement laptop, offering full 1080p Hard disk resolution, a spacious hard bulldoze, a generous pick of ports, and handy features like a DVD/RW drive that are absent from nigh of today's upkeep laptops. The AB32 did a fine job in our multimedia testing and is a practiced choice for light-duty photo and video editing. Its battery life, though adequate, is unimpressive—the Editors' Choice Acer Aspire E 15 (E5-575-33BM) lasted more than two hours longer on a charge in our tests. Although the AB32 has well-nigh identical components as the E 15, its processor is 1 generation older and its performance scores slightly lower. Although the Acer Eastward fifteen is our Editors' Choice budget desktop-replacement laptop, the Asus F556UA-AB32 is as well an first-class choice, offer a good feature fix and solid performance at a modest price.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/laptops/16590/asus-f556ua-ab32

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