Choosing a word to describe the ASUS X541S is rather easy – baseline.
The ASUS has very little that will drop your jaw when it comes to performance and overall the specifications are not what we would describe as awe inspiring.
What this plucky notebook does offer up is something much more important than raw performance – value.
Boasting a recommended retail price of R4 499, the X541S is cheaper than a mid-tier smartphone and if you’re a a student or a small business employee looking for a cheap work horse, this notebook might be perfect for you.
ASUS X541S review – Getting technical
So what do you get for your money?
Inside is a dual-core Intel Celeron N3060 CPU running at 1.6GHz though we saw it clocking 2.47GHz when we were demanding more from the CPU. This is coupled with 4GB of RAM and no discrete video card.
During an AIDA64 stress test we found the CPU temperature sitting at 53 degrees after 15minutes which is actually rather incredible especially since the CPU was running at 100% and never throttled once. At idle the CPU sits at 34 degrees.
Initially I thought the single intake and heat vent would struggle to kick out the heat it needed to but I was pleasantly surprised.
If you’re looking for raw performance then you are going to be disappointed.
The notebook also houses a singular 500GB hard drive running at 5400RPM which slows things down a bit. Usually I would recommend opening the notebook out and swapping the HDD for a faster solid state drive but the rear of the notebook proved rather difficult to remove so I won’t advise that here for fear of you terminating your warranty.
Outside of document editing, web browsing and document creation then the X541S is not suited for much else. We tried to load Hearthstone on it to test out its “gaming prowess” but we abandoned that pursuit after the client crashed multiple times.
There’s also the matter of the resolution. The display is manages to output a resolution of 1 366 x 768, something we haven’t seen since we connected an “HD Ready” display to a PC.
The image is serviceable but it’s far from great.
ASUS X541S – Missed connections
Sadly the threadbare specifications continue with the Wifi. Sure the notebook as support for the 802.11 bgn standard but the lack of 802.11ac support can be felt while downloading large files.
While transferring a file from a wired desktop to the notebook we saw peak transfer speeds of 2MB per second. Thankfully the X541S does have a gigabit ethernet port so you can use that if you require faster local connections.
While being able to reach the top of my 5Mbps internet line speed from any room in my house is nice, it doesn’t excuse the exclusion of ac Wifi. As I did mention you can plug in an ethernet cable but ac Wifi would have been a nice speed bump.
At this stage we hesitate to call the X541S’ singular USB Type-C port a saving grace but if you need a cheap notebook that offers the next generation of interface ports, the X541S has it. You’ll also find an optical drive (a rarity in notebooks these days), a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port, an HDMI connector as well as a VGA connector. For audio there is a combined headphone and microphone port while at the front there is an SD card reader.
ASUS X541S review – Battery
The notebook sports a 36Wh battery which we found to last around six and a half hours. This involved us setting the screen brightness to full, cranking the volume to 100 and watching a documentary on Netflix which we streamed using Wifi. It’s decent, especially in an office environment
Charging the X541S back to 100% will take you just under three hours.
ASUS X541S review – So is it worth it?
When it comes to notebooks such as this with the bare minimum in specifications I hesitate to recommend them but the X541S is different. With a recommended retail price of R4 499 this is incredibly good value for money if all you need is a PC to access the internet on, do a bit of work and maybe kick back and watch a movie or two at the end of the day.
Simply put this notebook is great for a small business although the absence of biometric authentication may irk some business owners.
Aside from that you have a bevy of interface ports, a decent track pad and a keyboard that I found rather pleasurable to type on. It’s no mechanical keyboard but the response of the keys is good.
All in all then the X541S is a low-powered notebook best suited in an office or school environment where not a lot of processing power is needed, and for the price, you’re going to struggle to find something this good.
[su_box title=”Asus X541S Specifications” box_color=”#f37021″]
CPU Intel Celeron (Braswell) N3060 @ 2.4GHz
Memory 4GB DDR3
Storage 500GB HDD (5400RPM)
Battery 36Wh
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 1GB
Optical Drive DVD
Interface USB 3.0, USB Type C, USB 2.0, HDMI, SD card reader, combo headphone and microphone port, VGA, LAN, Kensington Lock.
Wifi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth Yes
Operating System Windows 10 Home Single Language
Recommended Retail Price R4 499
[/su_box]
