| Rating | Where to buy |
 | Amazon.com *Same or similar item |
Asus A53Z-AS61 looks great with the coffee color body and black keyboard, which is soft and responsive. The Altek Lensing speaker above the keyboard outputs nice, clear sound. The touchpad is conveniently located almost in the middle, so your palm does not accidentally get on it and ruin what you are working on.
Design and features
Asus A53Z features HDMI on left, DVD R/W on right, card reader on front and USB 3.0, 2.0 ports on left and right panel. The audio-out ports are located on the right panel.
Asus A53Z-AS61 comes with pre-installed Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. It sports AMD 1.5GHz A6 3420M processor. It is a quad-core processor, and it belongs to A-series processors manufactured by AMD. So, do not be worried about the less appealing 1.5GHz speed rating. It is still blazing fast for your day-to-day tasks. Asus A53Z offers the highest capacity hard drive in a laptop priced below $400.
It comes with 750 GB hard disk. Sadly, the hard disk has a 5400 rpm rating. Nevertheless, that does not make it a poor hard disk. It still managed to score 5.4 on Windows 7 experience index. The built-in 4GB RAM gave Asus A53z the boost to perform fast, and smooth on a 64-bit operating system.
Asus A53Z-AS61 features onboard ATI HD 6520G graphics chipset. The onboard ATI HD 6520G is good enough to run programs such as Adobe CS5 or playing less graphics-intensive games and enjoying HD video.
Performance
The display was bright and crisp. The high resolution made tiny fonts appear nicely. It had a soothing effect on our eyes. Asus A53Z’s Wi-Fi reception is very good. The webcam and microphone led to nice video chatting experience. We could use it on battery for about 3 hours.
| Pros | Cons |
| The best laptop you can get at $400. Quad-core 1.5 GHz AMD A6 processor, 750 GB HD, ATI HD 6520G graphics, 4 GB RAM, USB 3.0 port. | The Hard Disk could have 7200 rpm. |
Overall, according to our research, no other laptop priced below $400, has as many features as Asus A53Z offers. It offers the best hardware, a very fashionable look, and nice performance at a very affordable price. We highly recommend Asus A53Z-AS61 15.6 inch laptop. You might also like our post on Best laptops under $500.
Specifications
Screen Size: 15.6 inches
Max Resolution: 1366×768 pixels
Processor: AMD 1.4 GHz Quad-Core A6-3420M
RAM: 4 GB DIMM
Hard Drive: 750 GB SATA
Graphics Coprocessor: ATI HD 6520G
Wireless Type: 802.11bgn
USB 2.0 Ports: 2
USB 3.0 Ports: 1
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Weight: 5.7 pounds
Dimensions: 15.12 X 1.40 X 10.12 inches
Color Mocha
Optical Drive: DL DVD RW/CD-RW