Asus X550LA-SI50402W Cheap Laptop with Intel Core i5 CPU

Looking for a laptop with at least Intel Core i5 processor, but you’re on a tight budget? With a sub 500-dollar price, Asus X550LA-SI50402W is the cheapest one with an i5 CPU at the time of this writing. This 15.6-incher comes with the i5-4200U, a well known and widely spread chip used in so many laptop models and the popular Surface Pro 2 tablet. It’s actually a middle-of-the-road processor, but it appears to strike the best balance between performance and cost, from the average PC user’s point of view. All the routine web, office, and multimedia playback tasks run flawlessly on the i5-4200U and it also provides some muscle for video production and high-resolution photography editing. In addition, the embedded Intel HD 4400 graphics processing unit is able to make even the latest games playable. On lower graphics settings though.

Apart from the CPU, the Asus X550LA-SI50402W doesn’t offer anything special in terms of specifications. 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive you can find in almost every budget notebook, including those with 250-dollar price tags. The 4GB/500GB configuration is however absolutely sufficient for normal functioning of Windows 8 and apps, even with heavier multitasking and large movie and other files involved. As for the screen, it isn’t impressive either. The X550LA-SI50402W as same as the other X550LA Asus models has the usual 1366×768-pixel resolution. It lacks IPS wide viewing angle technology, but that’s expected at laptop’s price point. Touchscreen functionality isn’t supported, although it isn’t a high-end feature these days. Even many sub-300-dollar notebooks support it. So, for data input, you’ll have to rely on the notebook’s chiclet style keyboard with numeric pad and without backlight and trackpad with click buttons integrated in the surface.

The keyboard deck is done up in metallic-looking plastics, with subtle relief texture on it. The lid also looks like a metal surface, but it’s actually plastic with radiant texture. Thickness and weight of this model are average for the 15.6-inch budget category it belongs to. It measures 1.2″ high and weighs in at 5.1 pounds.

When you look at the notebook from the left profile, you’ll see a DVD burner optical drive and a USB 2.0 port. On the left side clustered are two USB 3.0 connectors, HDMI and VGA video jacks, Ethernet network port, audio combo jack, and power jack. The media card reader is located on the front lip of the laptop. Normally, there’s a built-in Wi-Fi module for wireless Internet connectivity. Bluetooth is missing.

The 4-cell lithium-ion battery in the X550LA-SI50402W has a capacity of 2600 mAh, but it isn’t known how long it lasts on a single charge.

To sum things up, this notebook is the cheapest one with an Intel i5 CPU, as already mentioned. Therefore, it’s the fastest one at its price point. So, if you wan’t to squeeze maximal performance from your next laptop purchase, the Asus X550LA-SI50402W is the way to go. On the other hand, if you allow yourself to spend more, there’s a plenty of better equipped alternatives. Let’s single out here the HP Envy 15-u010dx and Toshiba Radius P55W-B5220, as they are popular among laptop shoppers.