Gaming Laptops are  still counted under too expensive category and out of reach for most consumer who can’t afford the big budget. Today we review an entry level Gaming Laptop from Asus i.e. Asus R510J which is priced at Rs. 69,990 for Indian market, which still looks a bit high if you are marketing a laptop as entry level. Before we proceed, let’s check out the Hardware specifications of the Asus R510J Gaming Laptop.

asus R510J

Hardware Specifications

  • Screen: 15.6 inch with Full HD i.e. 1920 x 1080 resolution
  • CPU: 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 4720HQ,
  • GPU: 2 GB NVIDIA GeForce 950M
  • RAM: 8GB DDR3 L
  • Storage: 1 TB Hard disk drive, NO SSD
  • Operating System: Windows 10
  • Weight: 2.4 kg
  • Dimensions: 25.1 x 38 x 3.2 cm
  • Optical drive: DVD-RW
  • Ports: 1 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3.0, VGA, HDMI, Ethernet, Headphones

In terms of design and build quality, R510J Gaming Laptop doesn’t impress us that much. This is big 15.6 inch laptop with full-sized keyboard with the numerical keypad and a big track-pad. The top lid is glossy with Mayan pattern on it and even inside to give it a unique look. But it is a fingerprint magnet and you can easily see that in some of the images taken by us.

The laptop is heavy just like conventional laptops and weighs 2.4 kg. We expected it to be a bit lighter considering the price of almost 70K. It also comes with a DVD-RW drive which is rarely used these days, but is provided for use with Game CD/DVDs. Overall the build is sturdy when you consider it as a gaming laptop, yet there is so much that can be done with the design.

The 15.6 inch LED back-lit display comes with Full HD resolution with good color reproduction and balance. The viewing angles are not that good, yet good enough for a single user.

The keyboard is great when it comes to typing, ut we do miss the back-lit feature of keyboard. Backlit keyboard is a good addition to a gaming laptop and hopefully Asus adds it in their future models priced in same range. Position of some of the keys like the arrow keys is odd and you may feel that specially while playing games which uses those keys.

Asus R510J Gaming Laptop is powered by Intel Core i7 4720HQ (Broadwell) processor with 8GB DDR3L RAM along with a 2 GB NVIDIA GeForce 950M GPU which makes it a power house for entry-level gaming. We expected an SSD instead of HDD as it comes with  1 TB Hard disk drive and hence a takes a bit time for usual activities like boot-up, in-spite of an impressive hardware.

It comes with connectivity options such as  2 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB 2.0 port, a headphone/microphone combo jack, LAN, HDMI and VGA port. It also comes with a VGA webcam which is quite odd, considering that even most of the entry-level laptops come with an D webcam.

The laptop gave a PCMark 8 score of 3190 points which is great and it performed great without any issues under normal day to today uses. It performed well thru some of the games that we played such as Tomb Raider and Medal of Honor Pacific Assault. We at Avinashtech are not big gamers and hence didn’t play too many games. Also considering the size of games these days and limited an=mount of time available with the review unit, it’s not easy to install and play each game.

It is powered by Windows 10 operating system which is great in terms of user experience and performance, yet ASUS choose to load it with some bloatware which in our opinion could have been avoided on an expensive laptop.

The battery life is just what you get in normal laptop i.e 2-3 hours depending on how you are using the laptop. If you play heavy intensive games continuously, it wont last more than 2- 2.25 hrs but under normal use it will last up to 2.5-3 hours.

PROS:

  • Impressive hardware and performance
  • Above average gaming performance
  • Good keyboard

CONS:

  • Odd keyboard colours
  • average battery life
  • VGA webcam
  • No back-lit keyboard
  • Heavy to carry
  • bloatware bundled

Conclusion

At a price of Rs. 69,990, Asus R510J Gaming Laptop does appear a bit expensive, yet with an impressive hardware with full-HD gaming performance, anti-glare display it does offer itself as one of the entry-level laptops. With a better design, lighter weight and by fixing some of the shortcomings at a bit lower price, this could have been a killer deal.