A 5.5 inches phablet provided by Asus and was released in March of 2015. A smartphone with smooth performance and a clean feature-rich UI. Zenphone 2 is a really “strong” phone that can be compared to LG G4 and One Plus One. It is equipped with 4GB RAM(you can be very satisfied with that), 3000mAh non-removable battery and it’s dual SIM, but as I mention below be careful with that. Let’s see specifically what’s going on here.

1. Non- user replaceable battery
We can say with no doubt that a user replaceable battery is a strong advantage: when the battery is destroyed or you see that it started lacking compared to the initial condition that you bought it, you can easily replace it or change it whenever you want to if you need a more powerful battery or if is not functioning correctly. Or just remove the battery when your phone is stuck and needs to be restarted.

2. Don’t be fooled by 3000mAh battery
This point concerns again the battery but this time its energy charge. During Last year we have seen more and more phones with 3000mAh battery, a battery that we can characterize powerful of course. But there’s a thing, at every phone the battery differs. For example, the 3000mAh battery on One Plus One lasts longer than the battery of Asus Zenphone 2(users and reviews mentioned that its just an average battery). So if you notice on one phone which has for example 2500mAh battery that it lasts long, that does not mean that the same battery on other phone will last the same. That’s because battery efficiency depends on the interaction between hardware, software and the operating system.

3. Yes it’s Dual SIM, but be careful
Zenphone 2 is equipped with two ports for SIM, and you can easily switch from one to other, but there’s a problem. With the second SIM you cannot use 3G and 4G, but only 2G. Something that helped the appearance of a bunch of angry comments on the web, even if the phone generally is very good. In addition, many users faced some problems with the function of SIM ports.

4. Not the best camera quality
The 13MP rear camera of Asus Zenphone 2 is a bit overestimated and for sure it could be much better. Well, it’s not the worst but of course not the best. Camera on this phone lacks on details and struggles to focus when light conditions exist. Also, when sunlight exists, the pictures are oversaturated and under fluorescents lights, they are often blown out.

5. Dim and cheap look and feel
The phone has a bulky feel and it’s a bit heavy. Also, the back cover is not metal but plastic, it’s just painted to seem like metal. Moreover, after some drop tests, it is noticed that the back cover gets scratched and destroyed very easily. We can say this even from the first drop. So let’s say that you will need to buy a case for extra protection. At least it has a Gorilla Glass, I don’t say that it will survive to drops but we know that is very difficult to get scratched.

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If you are looking for a gaming laptop, Asus X553MA (15.6 inches) is not the solution. We are talking about a really cheap laptop, with the price to be below $300. Good for some basic operations but not for something more extreme. Let’s see what lacks.

1. Bad Display
Asus X553MA’s display is 1366×768 resolution, something common for that type of laptops. Also, after some tests, it showed that its contrast ratio was 416:1, something which is bad but we have seen and worse. In addition, some tests showed that colours in images lacked saturation and everything appeared washed out and lacking in contrast. Furthermore, backlighting was uneven with some backlight bleed noticeable at the bottom of the screen.

2. Two USB ports??
X553MA is equipped only with one USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0. That means that if you are using a mouse then directly you have to work with only one USB port, which is something really bad and annoying. I am pretty sure that everyone agrees that every notebook should include at least 3 or 4 ports. No they are not too many if you are using a mouse and your flash or external disc, which it’s something common.

3. Do not expect the best performance
Reviews and comments “burn” X553MA about its performance. A main reason about that is the limited amount of RAM, because when 4GB of RAM and almost 2 of them are occupied by the system and you are using at least one application that is a bit “heavy”, then you ran out of memory too quickly. Moreover, it comes with an Intel Celeron N2830 dual core processor which frequency variegated to 2.1GHz. Also, it is noticed that it is really slow when you are installing applications.

4. Caps Lock sign?
On X553MA there’s nothing that will inform you whenever caps lock is on or off, and I am pretty sure that for the most people this is really annoying. For some of you that point may sound a bit stupid but have you ever start writing and watching just the keyboard and not the text, and in the end you have written 10 lines of text and then you realized that all words are in uppercase? I am sure that some of you agree.

5. Build quality
According to users, the material of Asus X553MA is cheap, something that we expected if you notice the price. The internal chassis, from where the base meets the lid to the palm rests, has an incredible amount of flex and the keys and touch-pad are really bad. As some reviews mentioned, the keys periodically stopping working, for example you type half of what you need and you continuously have issues just using the keys.

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Asus N550JV is a beast. It is a very powerful notebook that can take heavy gaming and work. But even the best notebooks have problems that bother most of their users. Read our BadFive review to see if any of the Asus N550JV problems bother you as well.

1. HDD Is Too Slow

Asus N550JV ships with an HDD that is painfully slow. Most of the users of this laptop are frustrated with the performance of the HDD. It is just too slow for a laptop of this range. Luckily you can upgrade your HDD to an SSD to improve the performance and speed of this Notebook. For many of the users of this Notebook changing from HDD to an SSD was a must. Take a hint maybe?

2. Overheating

Asus N550JV has a redesigned cooling system that improves the overall heating performance from previous notebooks of Asus. The hot air from the laptop comes out from the back which could be a little annoying if you use this…well…on your lap!!! It has been reported that the top front of the laptop right above the keyboard gets too hot when you use your laptop excessively. It is so hot that you can’t touch it for longer than two seconds without feeling pain. So is this really a “lap” top?

3. Battery Life Is Moderate

We use the word moderate because it is debatable. We expected that such a notebook would have some battery issues. With a battery life of only four hours you can be the judge of that. Since it seems to be bothering a lot of users it made it to our BadFive list. Please note that the battery is not easily removable since you have to unscrew the bottom of the laptop to get to the battery.

4. Speakers Could Be Better

Asus N550JV has four speakers that are located at the bottom of the laptop, so part of the sound is going to the surface that the notebook is on. We really can’t understand this move from Asus. It doesn’t seem logical. Apparently it is not only us that think this since a large amount of the users complain that the audio gets noisy when the speakers are operating at a high volume.

5. Too Heavy

Last but not least comes the weight of the ASUS N550JV. Almost every user that has bought this laptop complains that it is simply too heavy. A notebook shouldn’t be this heavy. If you are planning on using this notebook just at your home you should be fine, otherwise good luck with the “heavy” lifting

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