Asus X502CA-HPD1104J-W, X502CA-HPD1104I-P, X502CA-HPD1104K-G $300 15.6″ Laptops

Asus X502CA-HPD1104J-W
On the image above is the Asus X502CA-HPD1104J-W, a newly released model from the budget-class 15.6-inch X502CA series, which is now available in the US market. Also, Asus debuted the pink X502CA-HPD1104I-P and green X502CA-HPD1104K-G, but they have the same specifications as the white version.

The colorful trio, priced at $300 each, sports the entry-level Intel Pentium 2117U dual-core 1.8GHz processors, which completes daily web surfing, social networking, and basic office productivity with ease, but struggles with hardware-demanding work such as high-resolution video and photo editing and especially 3D gaming. For comparisons sake, the 250-dollar Asus X502CA-BCL0901D model has the slower Celeron 1007U processor which scores ~1,450 PassMark processor test points, whereas the 2117U notches ~1,600. Both chips are still far behind the common i5-4200U used in $500+ notebooks. It has about 3,400 points.

To complement the system, Asus has included standard-size 4GB RAM and 500GB hard drive with Windows 8 pre-loaded, but the optical drive is missing on these machines. It has been omitted with a reason: to help slim design and light weight. The Asus X502CA-HPD1104J-W, X502CA-HPD1104I-P, and X502CA-HPD1104K-G are just 0.9″ thin, like they’re $1,000 ultrabooks. They weigh 4.4 pounds each. To remind you, the average 15.6″ laptop weighs about 5.3 pounds, so the X502CA can be carried around easy and has portability as its advantage over the competition. While we are at its design, it’s worth noting that the surfaces covering the components and LCD lid are made of matte plastics and that the area around the keyboard and trackpad is made of a single piece of plastics for a more streamlined and elegant look. Speaking of the input parts, the keyboard has chiclet keys without backlight, while the trackpad is a single-piece one, with integrated click buttons.

The laptops provide the common and expected 1366×768 resolution instead of full HD 1920×1080 and include stereo speakers, a 720p web camera, HDMI and VGA jacks for HDTV and external monitor connectivity, Wi-Fi and Ethernet LAN for getting you online, and three USB ports, up from two on the previous X501 series. Info on battery life is not available, but it is discouraging to see in the specs sheet that the battery is rated at 38 Whr, whereas thicker laptops often have 50+ Whr units. The good thing regarding power consumption is that the energy-efficient 2117U CPU consumes 17W, whereas the standard-thickness laptops usually have 35W CPUs.

You can order the Asus X502CA-HPD1104J-W, X502CA-HPD1104I-P, X502CA-HPD1104K-G via Best Buy, but before purchasing be sure you’ve checked out our Cyber Monday and Holiday laptop and tablet deals list.

Here we have more images of the white and pink models:

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