Unboxing Asus S56-CM - A decent gaming laptop in Ultrabook body

[sabya]

Asus S56-CM - This is the among the latest offering from Asus in India.
This laptop comes at a street price of INR 38000.

Few things I forgot to emphasize on the video
1. Non Glare display - Its actually pretty good, the base model (without the dedicated graphics) has a glossy display plus the HD video playback is quite choppy. The viewing angles are tolerable but not that great
2. Completely forgot about the SD card reader located below the LED light array
3. This is a nice buy at the price point. There are similar specd machines from HP and Dell (Dell sports Radeon 8300M card but at 43K) but this one looks much more elegant then the lot IMHO.

The specifications are as follows

S56CM-XO177H

Core i3 (3rd Generation) 3217U, 1.8 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache - Not Haswell but none the less the latest offering
4 GB DDR3 1600Mhz , Expandable Upto 8 GB - Good enough for Gaming, DRAM Freq is also optimum
500 GB 5400 RPM, 24 GB mSSD (Only for Caching) - Pre-partitioned appropriately, SSD does wakes on the lappy in 2 Secs
SuperMulti DVD RW Drive with Dual Layer Support - Rare in a ultrabook, yet again this is INDIA
Windows 8, 64-bit - Living with it
15.6 inch, 1366 x 768 Pixel, HD Non-glare Display - Good for gaming and movies, Low res makes recent games playable
NVIDIA GT 635M 2GB - The showstopper here, Crysis 3, Tomb Raider, Sniper 2, DmC all running OK
HD Webcam - Could have been better
Touchpad, Standard Keyboard - Multitouch capable, handy in quite few occassions, keyboard is okay for gaming
Audio By SonicMaster - Nice crystal clear audio and its loud too, only hate the speaker location
Ethernet 10/100/1000 Base T -
WLan 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0 - Latest in connectivity (WiFi AC is still far away)
65 W AC Adapter, 4 cell - 6 cell would have been nice considering the dedicated graphics, looks elegant
2 x USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.0
RJ45 LAN HDMI Port VGA Multi Card Slot 1 x Combo Audio Jack

Weight 2.30 kg
Dimension 380 x 266 x 21 mm - Quite sleek
Color Black with brushed aluminum finish - No scratches, Keeps hands relatively cooler during long gameplay hours

Warranty 1 Year Domestic Warranty

_____________________________

Here Goes the Pics

Specs at a Glance
*i.imgur.com/h46QXQx.jpg

Lappy Closed
*i.imgur.com/tPawzjZ.jpg

Lappy Opened
*i.imgur.com/HxwZ3er.jpg

Win8 Lock Screen
*i.imgur.com/SzEXyjh.jpg

Win 8 Home Screen
*i.imgur.com/hkz5vvt.jpg

Win 8 Desktop Mode
*i.imgur.com/QVjQNDJ.jpg

Keyboard and Trackpad
*i.imgur.com/LyTnUHm.jpg

I/O Ports on the left
*i.imgur.com/nHDImI2.jpg

Dvd R/w and remaining i/o on the right
*i.imgur.com/98DL426.jpg

_____________________

Here goes the Video


Give your thoughts and feed back

Will run a few benchmarks and post them later

 

[nitheeshr]

nice..

 

[Extreme Gamer]

Not bad for 38k

But a GT640M would have sweetened the deal

 

[omega44-xt]

Good laptop for 38k...... Dell with that 8730M is not so good as 8730M < 630M

 

[ASHISH65]

Congo .Nice Laptop and good review.

 

[sabya]

Congo .Nice Laptop and good review.

Thank You very Much

Not bad for 38k

But a GT640M would have sweetened the deal

Yeah..Then again cant ask for everything..I wonder why the manufacturers dont think like us..BTW just finished tomb raider and Sniper 2..so guess 635M is ok for casual purposes if you dont mind the retro graphics quality in some cases

Good laptop for 38k...... Dell with that 8730M is not so good as 8730M < 630M

The dell model inspiron 14 is similarly priced but the inspiron 15 (with 8730M) is costly.
However the inspiron 14 (*configure.ap.dell.com/dellstore/co...id=inspiron-14-3421&c=in&l=en&s=dhs&cs=indhs1)
comes with 730M..Not a big fan of Dell and was not willing to sacrifice screen estate and looks (brushed Aluminium gives Mac'esqe' looks) in this case. However 730M is a better card based on Kepler architecture and should be considered if gaming is on the mind..I couldnt look away from the beauty of Asus design

nice..

Thanks man

 

[chintan786]

how is Asus After Sales service in India.

 

[Nerevarine]

how is the performance of U series i3 compared to normal i3 mobile ??

 

[sabya]

how is Asus After Sales service in India.

In that aspect I am seriously keeping my fingers crossed
I have had very nice experience with corsair (replaced a non working Ax1200 with a brand new Ax1200i )
So I am also hoping that asus will live up-to its reputation.

how is the performance of U series i3 compared to normal i3 mobile ??

Frankly I have not looked into that detail
However day to day work seems quite smooth (Probably due to ssd caching)
Games run without much hassle (Gt635)
Photoshop and adobe products load fast and works smooth
As for the battery goes its actually disappointing. The primary reason is the Win8 apps like mail,message n all keeps running in the background using wi-fi to refresh now and then. Problem is you cant set the interval for refresh, its pre-decided (Microsoft-Bad move). If you remove those option the battery life will definitely increase IMHO
I will do some CPU testing and post the results

 

[d6bmg]

Not intended to ruin your mood, but seriously, shelling out 38K for a i3 ultrabook isn't a good deal at all. At the end of the day, you won't get same performence of i5 from a i3.
While buying an ultrabook ~40K range, I5 should be one of the the compulsory choices.
(or maybe prices of Ultrabooks in India are way too high)

 

[sabya]

Not intended to ruin your mood, but seriously, shelling out 38K for a i3 ultrabook isn't a good deal at all. At the end of the day, you won't get same performence of i5 from a i3.
While buying an ultrabook ~40K range, I5 should be one of the the compulsory choices.
(or maybe prices of Ultrabooks in India are way too high)

Yeah I knew that when I purchased it. 3rd gen i5 with G-card was pretty high in the price-point and frankly the budget was already way overstretched. And the ultimate moto was for daily use with occasional casual gaming and looks. So had to sacrifice in some aspect. And of course a proper ultra-book is comparatively priced higher in India (Now might again increase as dollar prices are up)

 

[deepakkrishnan]

Can you let me know from where did you order this one???

 

[sabya]

Can you let me know from where did you order this one???

I did not order the laptop..Bought this from the ASUS Exclusive store (in Nehru Place, New Delhi).

 

[deepakkrishnan]

Oh ok .. thanks