Introducing the ASUS K52Dr - Phenom with 3 cores under our moon

"It's spring, I'm jumping out of the house, my boyfriend is waiting for me..." - Yes, it doesn't sound quite like that, but the point is that it really is spring, and we can finally say goodbye to winter, I'm really looking forward to the start of this year's carp fishing season.

In the spring, life usually starts in the hardware market, now it's no different, we get different test stuff. The subject of this article is again an ASUS notebook, this time served with AMD guts. Perhaps its most interesting feature is the triple-core Phenom II processor roaring in the engine room, but more on the hardware parts later. Don’t rush so far ahead, first look at the machine from the outside, which is called the ASUS K52Dr.

The ASUS K Series is not unfamiliar to us, it is generally characterized by a pleasant, simple design and mid-range hardware build, as this family strives to be available to customers at an affordable price.

Back in August 2009, the ASUS K70IO visited us and convinced us that it was a pleasant reception. The shape, the exterior, hasn’t changed much since then, it’s simple and great, the kind you would expect for that price.

ASUS K70IO from August 2009

We always say the external judgment is subjective, it is an eternal sentence. Overall, I like the brown, glossy plastic surfaces of the machine, I think the designers got the most out of the possibilities, and the look of the machine is restrained but elegant. The cover is decorated with the standard ASUS logo, the design of the surface is the same as the other plastic parts of the machine.

On the left side of the machine you will find the Kensington lock, the cooling system outlet, the VGA and HDMI outputs, as well as two USB 2.0, headphone outputs and a microphone input.

So there’s not much left on the right side of the K52Dr, including the charger connector, RJ45 LAN port, SD-MMC-MS card reader, an additional USB and an optical drive, in this case a traditional DVD burner.

It is no longer worth looking for additional connectors at the back of the housing, nor at the beginning. Here a long ventilation grille extends crosswise.

When you open your machine, you get the look of a 15,6 ″, 16: 9 aspect ratio, traditional LCD display. The panel is glossy in nature, as is the black frame surrounding it, with the ASUS branding at the bottom and the 0,3 megapixel webcam at the top. The bottom page starts with Altec Lansing speakers. Not bad quality, not a noname beep, but miracles should not be expected from him. The power button is located on the right side of the notebook, right next to it is an LED that glows white during operation. 

The wide keys on the soft, black keyboard ensure comfortable use even when typing for extended periods of time, and the gaps between the keys are filled so dust and dirt can't get in. Another good news is that the keyboard also has a full-fledged numeric pad, which also serves our convenience.

The brownish, sparkling, glittering surfaces surrounding the keyboard are the same as those seen on the cover, and the touchpad is made of one, except for the key that replaces the mouse buttons, which consists of a piece of chrome-plated plastic. The touchpad can be controlled (scrolling, zooming in and out) similarly to the technology presented on the ASUS N53SN with various multitouch finger combinations:

Below this you will find the information LEDs of the machine, six in number: operating status, battery status, storage activity, WLAN status, Num Lock, Caps Lock.

We are already familiar with the exterior and connectors of the ASUS K52Dr, let's see what the hardware can do!