Asus S400CA-DB51T 14″ Touchscreen Laptop (Specs Review)

ASUS S400CA-DB51T

The Asus S400CA-DB51T is a 14-inch notebook with a touchscreen display. It belongs to the thin-and-light notebook category. The S400CA-DB51T isn’t advertised as an ultrabook, but it has all ultrabook-class components and thinness, measuring 0.8″ in profile.

Hardware hidden inside the sleek aluminum chassis consists of the Intel Core i5-3337U dual-core processor with Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics, 6GB of DDR3 memory, and a hybrid storage solution. For storage the notebook uses a traditional mechanic 500GB hard drive combined with a 24GB solid state drive. The SSD part is used for making the notebook boot up faster and have faster response times when running Windows 8 and apps.

The mentioned i5-3337U is a 3rd Generation “Ivy Bridge” Intel Core chip, so with a purchase of the Asus S400CA-DB51T you don’t get the latest 4th Gen “Haswell” processing technology. The latter provides a greater power efficiency, but in terms of computing speed, the 3rd and 4th Gen chips are very similar. They’re good for everyday routine web, multimedia, and office tasks, plus they have some potential for multimedia creation.

Intel Core i5-3337U Benchmark

An exception in similarity between the two generations is integrated graphics performance, with the newer Intel HD 4400 being significantly faster, but still not passing the gaming-class threshold. For those who multitask a lot, the included RAM amount of 6GB comes handy and is sufficient for even the most demanding tasks.

The S400CA-DB51T doesn’t shine when it comes to the screen resolution. It’s 1,366-by-768 pixels, which could have been at least 1,600-by-900 (like on the Lenovo U430) for decent space on Windows desktop and sharpness of picture. On the positive side, the display is touch-enabled so you can interact with the laptop in a modern way.

Another way is the old school typing and trackpad navigation. The notebook has a chiclet keyboard, which sadly has no backlight, and a large trackpad with integrated click buttons.

The laptop has a 720p web camera and stereo speakers. Connectivity and networking features include three USB ports (one at 3.0 speed), HDMI and VGA video output ports, an SD card reader, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Gigabit LAN.

Asus claims the battery life lasts “up to 5 hours” on a single charge, which sounds realistic, considering the 44 Whrs battery capacity, internal components, and screen size.

Design-wise, this nice looking and fairly light 4.4-pound laptop resembles the look of the MacBook Air to a certain extent. The area around the keyboard and trackpad is made of silver-colored aluminum, while the lid is made of dark gray aluminum, with brushed texture.

The S400CA-DB51T can be found for slightly under $700 on the US market. It’s not an expensive price, but keep in mind that the already mentioned U430 by Lenovo offers a 4th Gen i5 CPU, higher-screen resolution, and keyboard backlight for $700. If you want a slightly larger or smaller screen size, you can check out newly released 13.3-inch Asus Q301LA-BHI5T02 and 15.6-inch S500CA-SI30401U.

For a detailed review of the Asus S400CA, you can visit Notebook Check. The reviewed unit had somewhat different components, but basically it’s the same laptop as the S400CA-DB51T.

S400CA-DB51T Right

ASUS S400CA-DB51T Left

Back

Asus S400CA-DB51T Specifications

  • Display: 14″ multi-touch 1,366-by-768px resolution
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-3337U “Ivy Bridge” dual-core ultra-low voltage, clock speed of 1.8GHz-2.7GHz, 3MB L3 cache
  • Graphics: Intel HD 4000 integrated
  • Memory: 6GB DDR3 at 1,600MHz
  • Storage: 500GB HDD at 5,400 rpm + 24GB SSD
  • Optical drive: None
  • Webcam: HD
  • Audio: Stereo speakers, SonicMaster Lite sound technology
  • Network: 802.11b/g/n Wireless, Gigabit LAN, Bluetooth 4.0
  • Input: Keyboard with chiclet keys, no backlight, multi-touch touchpad
  • Ports and Slots: 1 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, 1 x HDMI, 1 x VGA, SD card reader
  • Battery: 44 Whrs Polymer battery, “up to 5 hours” battery life
  • Dimensions: 0.8″ x 13.3″ x 9.4″
  • Weight: 4.4 pounds
  • OS: Windows 8
  • Warranty: 1-year

Leave a Comment