ASUS X72D/K72DR: Three Cores, No Waiting
by Dustin Sklavos on October 25, 2010 12:01 AM ESTAn Odd Value Proposition
To look at the ASUS X72D, you have to wonder who ASUS was gunning for with this build. The X72D seems aimed at basic users who just want decent all-around performance and an attractive if understated multimedia machine, and on that front we can say it's fairly successful. The Blu-ray reader, fast hard drive, and reasonably good screen are all signs that point to "yes" for this notebook, and with the HDMI port it can legitimately serve double duty as a media center for home users.
The problems start to creep in when performance metrics are taken into account. While it's true the X72D performs at least decently, seeing the Phenom II N830 in action starts to explain why most manufacturers are hesitant to send out AMD-based notebooks for reviews. The N830 isn't terrible, but at some points it even struggles to catch up with Intel's ultra low-voltage chips. At the same time, it draws substantially more power, and the chipset it's paired with only exacerbates things.
This only points to something that's been a continual problem for AMD for years now: they need to seriously step their game up in the mobile market. Intel is competing on power, price, and CPU performance, and with Sandy Bridge on the horizon, AMD's last foothold—integrated graphics performance—is going to disappear. AMD has their Bobcat, Bulldozer, and Llano cores all coming out next year, but for now we've got the old K10.5 designs and they're looking very long in the tooth.
Likewise, the Mobility Radeon HD 5470 just doesn't make sense—in general, and as a dedicated GPU here. The clock speed may be ramped up about as high as it can go, but that doesn't change the fact that the chip is still an underpowered dog incapable of offering a solid gaming experience even at 1366x768. Can you game on it? Yes. But I can push the 380 MHz Radeon HD 3200 in my ThinkPad X100e to deliver playable framerates in some of the games I play, so that's not really the point. The 5470 does not add enough value to justify its inclusion, and this is one point where ASUS could've done a lot better.
Of course, at the end of the day, the big question is price. Can ASUS deliver the X72D at a price point attractive enough to make up for its issues? Well, for starters, our unit is labeled the X72D, but you won't find it anywhere on ASUS's site or in retail (at least not in the US--it looks like the X72D might be a special European model). The K72Dr, on the other hand, is fairly easy to track down, and it's the same model less the Blu-ray and with a 5400 RPM hard drive. At $725 on NewEgg, you can make a fairly convincing case for it as a desktop replacement notebook. For Mom and Pop, I'd definitely choose it over competing Acer notebooks: build quality is better, and unless Mom's planning on fragging noobs in Modern Warfare 2 she's not liable to miss having a faster GPU. Finding the Blu-ray-equipped model is a lot harder, and the best price we've seen of around $950 online is frankly just too much.
And that's really what it's going to boil down to. This is a budget notebook in the performance and features arena, but it's well-built, flexible enough to handle most tasks, and ASUS' standard two-year warranty is still one of the best in the business. If you can find it for a good price—we think about $800 is right, including the BRD Combo drive—then it's definitely worthy of consideration.
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lammers42 - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
Would you guys at Anandtech stop screwing around with 6-cell 48Whr battery laptops that have larger than 14 inch screens. No matter what CPU and GPU combination are used, these laptops are crap and typically don't have over 2.5 hrs of battery life. I think the 6 cell 48Whr batteries have there place in <15.6 in laptops. In 15.6-16 inch laptops a minimum 6-cell 60Whr battery should be used and the jump to 17.3 inch should grant the use of a 9-cell battery.Batteries have battery curves and have different runtimes depending on the load put on the battery. Batteries from different manufactures with the same spec aren't the same, period. Maybe it would help to use a general purpose battery with special connector to connect to the laptops for the battery test life. I don't feel I can trust the relative battery life performance table as it is in its present state. Or just show the power consumed from the wall for the different idle, internet and multimedia testing. I think I would much rather see that and then I would know what battery to order when I purchase the laptop.
I wish the manufacturers wouldn't put the crappy 48Whr batteries in these > 15.6 inch laptops, but you can request them to only send those sizes to you.
lammers42 - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
Sorry, I meant to say that you can request the manufacturers to not send you those laptops that exceed 14 inch screens but still have a a 6-cell 48Whr battery or equivalent.JarredWalton - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
Many of the laptops we receive don't even have an option for a larger battery. Personally, I'm with you: 6-cell batteries should all be "extended capacity" 63Wh or so models. But we do check wear levels with HWmonitor and our "relative battery life" is at least something more to consider. The fact is, even if you have two laptops with the same specs and the same battery, BIOS tweaks and other power saving utilities can enable one manufacturer to offer superior battery life. ASUS' Power4Gear actually does quite well in that regards, but obviously pairing it up with a discrete-only GPU and a tri-core AMD CPU is far more than a 48Wh battery can handle.lammers42 - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
Seriously! I only know of one option out there to buy an AMD laptop with a decent battery (I'm not talking the extended runtime batteries that look like the laptop has a tumor growing out the back). Certain configurations of the DV7 comes with the 9-cell 93Whr battery that supposedly gives 5-7 hours of battery life but details are sketchy at best for the configuration tested. If you guys have a chance request the DV7-4060US and/or DV7-4170US. I'm sure there are a few of us here that would love to see the relative battery life of those laptops!JarredWalton - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
The HP Envy has been on request for months, so don't hold your breath for a DV7 to come our way! LOL. Funny thing is, we can get HP to send us their business laptops, but getting consumer laptops from them is like pulling teeth from a grizzly bear.Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - link
That's not true. At least the grizzly bear responds. ;)shady28 - Monday, November 8, 2010 - link
I have a hard time seeing why this laptop is being used to represent the AMD price / performance line.The K72DR is indeed an $850 laptop at NewEgg.
However, for $679 you can get an Acer with a phenom II x3 850 that's slightly faster, and with a Radeon 5650 GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
And, for $750, you can get an Acer 17.3" laptop with a quad core Phenom II 2.1Ghz with a Radeon 5650 : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
Clearly the K72DR is just not up to snuff compared to competition within Acer's own line.
I'd say either of the 2 laptops I listed above are a much better representative of what you can get for 650-750 $ using AMD, especially the Quad core AS7552G-6061,