The Asus K501J SX108A is a laptop that is not built on looks but is all about performance on a budget. Mainly aimed towards business-class executives, the K501J features a glossy outer shell that is prone to fingerprints and scratches. Nevertheless the shell seems strong and sturdy enough to even withstand a fall. The laptop features a 15.6-inch screen along with a full sized keyboard with a number pad. The keys are large enough and are decently spaced so that they don't impede typing. The only problem here lies with the badly placed arrow keys that border with the number pad keys making them tricky to use. The touch pad on the other hand is good with an average set of buttons.

This laptop might not be a head turner for most of us but underneath the hood the K501J is powered by Intel's dual core T6400 processor running at 2 GHz. That's not the only positive aspect of the laptop. The Asus K501J comes with a beefy 320 GB hard drive that will take care of your storage needs, along with 4 G8 of DDR2 RAM in dual channel mode. Wireless connectivity is offered via the 802.11n Wi-Fi; something that you normally don't see in a budget laptop. Our laptop battery test returned a decent life of approximately three hours. If your usage is mostly on MS Office applications you can expect it to be powered on for a little more than three hours.

The sound quality of the K501J is good but it will need to be kept on a flat surface to enjoy its crisp and loud sound. Connectivity is taken care of by four USB ports, line-in and line-out jacks, a card reader, a webcam and a VGA port. The laptop comes bundled with the Asus Data Security Manager that allows you to encrypt important files, videos and music. You are also provided with Copy Protect software that gives you the option of locking your CD/DVD drive, external storage device and network drive.

FOR: Decent build quality and performance, good battery life.

AGAINST: Badly placed arrow keys.

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