2014 Asus N550JK -DS71T quick mini review and opinion so far

There are a few rare black versions of this laptop with black keyboard and red backlight, same as the ROG version.

I find the silver keys with the clear tranparent letters very hard to see, even worse in a dark room when using the backlight.

Does anyone know where I can buy a replacement keyboard for the N550JK in black with red backlight?

 

Guys, how do you flashing new BIOS? Are you using Windows BIOS flash utility or something else?

 

Download & install ASUS Flash.
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/Apps_for_Win8.1/WinFlash/Winflash_Win81_64_VER2420.zip
Download BIOS ROM, and unzip it.
Use ASUS Flash utility to navigate to the BIOS ROM file and proceed with flash.

 

Thank you. Hope it will pass successfully, i don't want new brick.

 

Show me a link where you found it for only $1250. The cheapest one I can find is $1350, and has the same 850M that the N550JK does.

 

You know I have been trying to find it again and I'm not having any luck? Possibly that the seller who sold it is not selling it on Amazon anymore?

 

BIOS update flash succesful.And now,i have to change my pants.

 

There's been a lot of talk about 2GB vs 4GB VRAM here.
So I want to ask which would be faster: i5 4200H + 850M 2GB DDR3 (Asus N550JK) or i5-4210U + 850M 4GB (Acer V5-573G)?
Thanks

 

I just got this laptop - It's great, but I also noticed that the buttons on the touchpad was a bit hard. I did some investigation, and it turns up, that the bottom cover of the laptop pushes on the battery, that again pushes on the touchpad, making the buttons hard to press. Can someone else verify this?
Easy to test:
0. test touchpad buttons (should be a bit hard - most the right side of right button)
1. remove back cover
2. remove battery
3. test touchpad buttons (should be perfect)

It looks like a design flaw, and I'm considering returning it.

 

Should not make a difference because they are both gddr3. On the other hand the it 4200H should the 4200U because it is a quad core.

 

logically this seams right, however I don't think this should be a problem after you get a wireless mouse which is way better choice than any touchpads available.
And about buttons, They very less uses and their function is easily replaced by fingers gestures.

 

I find most touch pads suck and on the go, wireless mouse is amazing and they can be had for only $20. Also this is a touch screen, i found it very convenient for browsing pdf files, zooming and scrolling made super easy

 

Has anyone here owned both a Lenovo Y510p / Y50 and this Asus? How do they compare (especially the keyboard)?

 

The last Lenovo Y series that had a keyboard so good that it was a stand out feature was the Y560P (best keyboard I've ever had on a laptop). Since then they have been basically the same chiclet style keyboards that everyone uses. The Asus is no better or worse than the Lenovo. While I don't have a Y50 I did play with one while I was at Microcenter and didn't really see much difference except the red backlight was a bit gaudy in my opinion.

 

One more question
Do all i5 versions weight 2.4kg (5.3 pounds)?
This review says so, but the model doesn't match the one I'm planning on buying and I can't find any information about weight anywhere.

 

I've seen 5.3 to 6 pounds depeding on model. I think the touch screens are the heavier versions.

 

definately, glass used in touchscreen laptops are not soo advanced yet and they are considerably heavy and weak.

 

I searched the thread but didn't see it mentioned, how is the IDLE power consumption of the N55JK?

As you can read from this review: Asus N550JK-CN109H Notebook Review - NotebookCheck.net Reviews
while idle the Asus uses about twice as much power as it's equally equipped rivals.

Did Asus address this issue with a patch? Doesn anybody have a power meter to check if this is still an issue?

Regards
minos

 

if u you a battery discharges itself ? 1% per day

 

Tho I don't care about power consumption in the idle but you can always have control over your CPU voltage and frequency which can allow you full control over power management using Intel Extreme Tunning Utility (XTU). Apart from it, I don't see it affecting any user in any way.

Yes, It'a normal. Battery can discharge itselfe depending on the temperate and secenario.

 

Figured out how to loosen it a bit? I know wireless mouse will solve problem, but I mostly use it on my lap,and just feel annoyed with this. I have to use 2 fingers actually to make it click.

 

Does anybody know what the letters in the end of the model number mean? I've seen N550JK - ****H/T/D.

 

yea I know what you mean, this sucks, mine discharges at about 7% per day.

Even 1% is not normal. I would not expect to turn it on after just 30 days and the charge to be down to 70% from a full charge.

None of my other laptops discharge at any substantial rate when full shut down off.

Only thing you can do is leave plugged in (not exactly practical and cant store is away in bag etc.), which cant be good, as will have to keep cycling charging way to often.

 

If you search the thread you might find an answer somewhere. Hope this helps.

 

God I want to buy this laptop but it's out of stock on Amazon. Or at least they say it will take weeks to ship. No one in the US has it except for newegg but they charge more and ship slower.

 

Did you check MicroCenter? Looks like they have a couple in stock at the Cincinnati store at least. Not sure what S/H goes for, I bought mine in the store.

Edit: Looks like standard shipping is $20 and Overnight will set you back $60.

 

I live too far from the nearest micro center store. How long does Amazon usually take to restock?

 

The website lists 2-4 weeks for orders but they may never stock them again. I'm guessing orders will be drop shipped from the manufacturer. And I didn't figure you were close to a MicroCenter but they do ship for a reasonable price.

 

Asus must be nearing the end of their parts supply for this model. They usually take the same chassis and motherboard but swap in more modern cpu, GPU and screen and rebrand it as a different model.

 

Very possible. They've used the same chassis for several N550 and N56 models already. They may be ready for a change.

 

Seriously they just had it in stock a week ago!

So your saying that a newer model is coming out? How long do you think until it comes out?

 

Guys it's sounding like the n550jk is an old model or something. Should I not buy it and instead wait for the New release if any?

 

You will likely have to wait a while still as Asus gives no indication that something new is coming.

My prediction is that we will see something almost exactly the same (no broad well for at least another tweak cycle) with a slightly thinner frame and possibly WiFi AC across all models. Oh and the new 2.5ghz CPU (4712hq?) Instead of 2.4. Nothing to wait for but if you can't get stock now you may just have to be patient.

 

Office depot has it stocked but it takes them 15 days to ship. God I don't really wanna wait anymore.

 

Nothing they come out with in the near future is going to be much of an increase in speeds. Here's hoping that this time next year though we'll have some nice new Skylake core CPU's with DDR4. Fingers Crossed.

 

i actually got mine from amazon last week, they had about 20 in stock and it all sold out within 2 days. They added another 20 few days later and that went away real quick as well. Just keep checking! mines working flawlessly with none of the typical complaints, aside from battery discharge i have not looked into.

 

Maybe I should order it now and I will get it once they get it in stock?

 

theyll definitely ship yours as soon as they come into stock if you order now. i actually ordered mine when it wasnt in stock, i got lucky and 2 days later they had shipment in. amazon also doesnt charge you until they ship the item. i hope that helps you make a decision

 

You think I should order asap?

 

One word of caution about the Ghost (and all other MSI gaming laptops using the Steel Series keyboard). There is a very common defect with the design of the spacebar key. They only put one pressure sensor in the middle of the key and since it's so wide it doesn't always register spacebar clicks especially if you use your thumb and click it on the left or right side (which is very common while typing).

I had the experience first hand with an MSI laptop that I bought and returned about a year ago. Many other people seem to be having the same problem. Do a quick Google search and see for yourself.

Here is the post I created on this forum at that time:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/msi/736703-gs70-stealth-spacebar-issue-showstopper.html


When I returned the laptop about a year ago I even sent MSI an email explaining the flaw and one of their technical representatives told me directly that they were aware of the issue. It's been a year now and I still see people complaining!

You might get lucky and get one that doesn't have the issue and I suppose it's up to you to decide if you can live with it. Personally, i could not but that's too bad because I love everything else about the MSI laptops.

Jan

 

I wasn't aware of any replacement for the N550JK. I did Google searches after I read your post and I also backtracked this thread about 5 pages and didn't see anything regarding a replacement model. Can you please elaborate?

Thank you.

 

I'm not getting a gs60 ghost pro anymore. It's too expensive lol

 

I doubt that there will be any fanfare if it is a slightly tweaked variant. Likely one of the replacements will be the n551 (there is a thread for it in the same section)

 

I am going to sell mine, since I can't return. I had installed samsung evo ssd 256gb and all is fine, but its been just sitting since 2 month. I am still just using my old laptop and will get something smaller.

 

Amazon says they have 1 in stock this morning...

 

continue to discharge 1% per day


unscrew the bottom cover is the loss of warranty?

 

OK. It appears I thought about this too long. I'm wondering if any of you have any experience with the Toshiba P50T or P55T 4K laptops? They don't have the more common graphics cards that gamers use, but gaming is only an added benefit on my laptop. I've still got a desktop as my primary computer. What I want is a really high powered work and multi media machine. Any thoughts on those Toshiba's which cost about the same as the N550JK with increased memory and the SSD already installed.

 

I think you should head over to the what notebook should I buy sub forum.

 

Good suggestion. But the alternative to the Toshiba that I'm really interested in is the N550JK. So I thought I'd get more people intimately familiar with it in this thread than the general comparison thread.

 

I feel like Toshiba (and to a lesser extent Asus) hasn't got there act together in terms of educating the consumer on their products. Here in Canada they have a big presence through London Drugs (think of a smaller b+h photo) but you never hear of their models being reviewed or compared to anyone else's. This is opposed to Lenovo who has a huge presence across multiple consumer styles in the laptop market. I'd never even heard of the Asus N series until I found out they were a top seller among online enthusiast computer stores