Asus AiO A5 (A5402) 2023 review: One PC for all your needs

When it comes to PCs and laptops, user requirements have changed drastically in the past couple of years. In the pre-covid era, a PC or laptop at home had limited utility. But that changed during the pandemic when everyone started working from home and the moderately powered PCs started handling the bulk of the workload and educational requirements. The working situation in the post-pandemic era is more of an extension of what we have already experienced at the time of the pandemic. PCs at homes are now handling everything from the daily work requirements to study sessions to gaming sessions over the weekends. In an ideal world, we would use three different PCs for these use cases. But in the real-world things are a little less complicated than that and we use a single PC for all these scenarios and more. This is where Asus’s A5 series All-in-One (AiO) PC comes into picture.

The Asus AiO A5 (A5402) 2023 was launched to meet the diverse set of requirements of students, family and entrepreneurs. It comes with a bunch of features such as a more functional design, latest connectivity features and a bigger screen that are enough to make it an all-rounder. But does it live up to the hype? We will try to answer that and more in the detailed review below.

But, before we get into the details, let’s take a quick look at the specifications:

ASUS AiO A5 (A5402) 2023: Specifications

Display: With 23.8-inch FHD IPS touchscreen display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, 250 nits of peak brightness, 100 percent sRGB colour gamut
Processor: 13th Gen Intel Core i5-1340P
Graphics: Integrated Intel UHD graphics
RAM: 16GB of DDR4 RAM
Storage: 512GB of PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage
OS: Windows 11 Home
Webcam: 720p HD webcam with physical privacy shutter
Audio: Stereo speakers with woofer, array microphone
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
Accessories: Wireless keyboard and wireless optical mouse
Colours: Black
Price: Starts at Rs 94,990

Image: Shweta Ganjoo/Techlusive

Asus AiO A5 (A5402) 2023: Design

Design is one of the most important aspects of the Asus AiO A5 (A5402) 2023. Most AiOs available in the market have a fairly straight forward design – a giant screen that sits on top of a stand, a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse. A lot of times, the stand is not adjustable and so is the screen. This is where Asus’s newest AiO takes a lead over the competition in the market. Its adjustable stand offers a range of movements enabling users to adjust the screen as per their convenience. You can rotate the screen and the stand along the vertical axis. You can move the screen up and down the stand. In addition to that you can also tilt the screen forward and backwards to get the most comfortable viewing position. Apart from this, you can also place the screen in a vertical position. This freedom to adjust the screen and the stand makes up for quite a comfortable and a customised viewing experience. It also helps when more than one person is taking notes from the screen.

Now, the Asus AiO A5 (A5402) 2023 isn’t exactly a light-weight machine. It weighs around 9Kgs and you can feel all that weight when you are adjusting that screen as per your comfort. But what aids the entire process is how smoothly the screen glides on the stand and screws at the back. Sure, you can feel the weight while making all the adjustments, but the movement is also very smooth, which adds to the overall experience.

Aside from the stand, the Asus AiO A5 (A5402) 2023 comes with a bundle of ports for connectivity. It has a Thunderbolt 4 port, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type-C) port, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, SD card reader, and a 3.5mm audio jack on the side of the back panel and two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, an RJ45 Ethernet port, an HDMI in 1.4 port and an HDMI out 2.1b port at the back. While all of this is fine, what is difficult to reach is the power button. Most PCs have their power button on the top right corner of the chassis or at the bottom right corner. In some cases, it’s located at the bottom right corner of the chassis right in the front. However, the power button of the Asus AiO A5 (A5402) 2023 is hidden on the side of the back panel of the screen, which makes it quite confusing to reach out to, more so if you are new to the machine. Sadly, it doesn’t exactly get easy to reach to even if you have spent weeks with it.

Coming to the audio and video part of things, the speaker grille is located at the bottom of the display and webcam is at the top in a separate module that sits on top of the chassis. What I like about this webcam is the physical privacy shutter that Asus has included at the back of the webcam. It’s a feature that the company has borrowed from its premium laptops, and it makes working from home a whole lot stress free. But again, this camera shutter isn’t exactly located at an easy to find-location.

Overall, design is definitely one of the standout features of this AiO and it makes it easier for anyone to use it.

Image: Shweta Ganjoo/Techlusive

Asus AiO A5 (A5402) 2023: Display

Next comes the display.

The Asus AiO A5 (A5402) 2023 comes with a gigantic 23.8-inch touchscreen display with thin bezels on all four sides. Asus says that this AIO offers 88 percent of screen-to-body and 178-degree of viewing angle which is wide enough for three people to go through the contents of the screen quite comfortably. And if that’s not enough you can always tilt the screen in your direction.

In usage, Asus’ new AIO comes with a bright and vibrant display that is quite comfortable to use even when you are staring at it for a long duration. This is in part thanks to features such as the anti-glare coating and TÜV Rheinland certification that reduce low blue-light emissions ensuring less strain on the eyes. The colours are on point and they are adequate for both your work requirements and your weekend movie marathons.

A large part of my day goes in staring at the screen (not blankly of course!), reading and typing and during my time with the AIO I found the giant screen of this AIO quite comfortable to use, especially while reading. It’s easy to get used to it despite some of the hard-to-reach buttons. The screen is also good for watching movies occasionally.

What adds to the overall proposition is that this AiO comes with a touchscreen panel, which means that you can also use it as a whiteboard while giving a presentation during a meeting.

Asus AiO A5 (A5402) 2023: Performance

Lastly, the performance.

The Asus AiO A5 (A5402) 2023, as mentioned before, is powered by the 13th-Gen Intel Core P-series processor. While it is not the fastest processor in Intel’s 13th-gen family processor it is more than capable of handling OTT streaming, daily workloads, which includes office productivity software, and photo and video-editing software, with ease.

I used this AiO as my daily driver and during my time with it worked smoothly without showing any signs of slowdown or hiccup. As mentioned before, a large part of my time goes in reading and writing. Occasionally, I attend meetings virtually (thank god, for hybrid working) and use a bunch of image editing software in my day-to-day work routine – all of which the Asus AiO A5 (A5402) 2023 handled perfectly.

On the audio front, it has a speaker grille at the bottom of the chassis that is powered by a smart amp. In addition to that it features support for various technologies such as Dolby Atmos and two-way AI-powered noise cancellation, which comes in handy during meetings and conference calls. It is also loud and clear enough for a binge-watching session over a weekend. It’s also sufficiently loud if you have some friends over and you want to have a Sufi night in your room.

Webcam, on the other hand, remains somewhat of a neglected area, as is the case with most laptops and PCs. You get an HD + IR camera module with this AiO, which is enhanced by the company’s AiSense camera technology that offers features such as background blur, lightning correction, gaze correction, motion tracking and the Asus 3D Noise Reduction. Simply put, the webcam has some utilitarian features that make working from home quite easy but there’s always some room for improvement, and this is definitely one of them.

Moving on to the keyboard, Asus ships a full-size wireless keyboard in the box with this AiO, which is moderately comfortable to use but nothing out of the ordinary. The spread of the keyboard is such that it takes some time getting used to, especially if you are used to working on a smaller sized laptop, and it doesn’t come with soft-touch keys, something that you expect from a PC costing almost a lakh.

Should you buy the Asus AiO A5 (A5402) 2023 or not?

In one word: Yes. If you are looking for a family PC for a variety of use cases, including work and studying, the Asus AiO A5 is worth investing in. Its versatile design is capable of handling almost all of your work-related needs and some more. It has a vibrant touchscreen display with an efficient processor and a party-ready speaker system. Add to that a smart webcam that respects your privacy. Sure, there is room for improvement, and it isn’t exactly cheap, but if you need a one-device solution for most of your and your family’s needs, the Asus AiO A5 (A5402) is worth the consideration.