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

Asus don't seem big on putting their machines out to review sites it's true.

 

I also own this Asus N550jk-DS71T

i found that the keyboard keys are not raised at same level. Some keys are elavated high where the backlight passes through the sides. While others especially the "space bar" key is pressed down where half is already down. And the writing "letters" on them are dull.

Secondly, i had difficulty finding a wireless 2.4Ghz keyboard + mouse that works. The mouse works but the keyboard is not. I tried already 2 brands but both keyboards are not working and the mouse are working. Anybody experience the same issue. Or can you tell me which brand is compatible?

Hope you guys help. Thanks

 

I am just having the worst time with this darn thing.

I had decided to have my screen exchanged through Asus after receiving a defective replacement unit through Newegg. HUGE mistake.

I just received the "repaired" machine today. Not only was there a new bright mark on the screen (the reason I sent it in to begin with) they did a half-assed job reinstalling the screen hinge, so it's uneven and crooked. The BEST part was the panel itself was completely different from what the laptop originally came with. It has an awful yellow tinge to the entire picture. Even setting the color temperature all the way to cold on the splendid app did nothing for it. I can't believe they'd call this botched repair satisfactory.

Applied for a second RMA. Hopefully 4ths the charm. If they can't get it right this time then I'm done with Asus. I must have the worst luck here.

 

Sorry to hear that mate. you could have opted for whole laptop replacement instead of only screen replacement.

Goodluck

 

To your first issue, I also agree with you. But in my case the only key which I noticeably found not to be leveled was the Space bar; which is lower from left side.
Rest of keys seams to be normally leveled. But keyboard does its job reasonablly well and there's nothing to whine about but neither nothing to be astonished.
I would say that keyboard quailty is much much better than its rivals especially far better than HP laptops. Key drop is deep and provides good tactile feedback.
No flex during typing at all but backlit should have improved because if you use backlit on desk then you will definately see lots of glare from keyboard, also called light bleeding.
But no issue if you use backlit while using laptop on lap.But again from the price you get this thing lefts nothing to whine about.

To your second issue, both keyboard and mouse shold work fine. I suppose you paired keyboard before using it?
If nothing words then I would also install 3rd party bluetooth software ("bluesoleil" for instance).
But again any wireless keyboard/mouse should work fine together. Also try updating your bluetooth drivers.

 

overall i am happy with my purchase.

yes i believe both keyboard and mouse combo should work fine. unfortunately the keyboard is not working only the mouse (already tried 2 brands combo, i.e 1 usb 2.4Ghz for both the keyboard and mouse). the combo works on my other laptop, but on my asus n550jk only the mouse works . Everything else already updated. I am not using a bluetooth wireless because of lag during gaming.

Anybody tried a combo keyboard and mouse on their laptop? Which brand?

 

I see, Did you installed/updated drivers which came with your keyboard and mouse?

 

Does ASUS do that? Been outside of my 30-day window with Newegg for a little now. The ASUS rep told me they don't do full replacements. Thanks though.

 

What was the error code? I've seen this test failing with code 6C9AC2A4 "Serial number not detected, SeaTools did fail the drive" which doesn't sound serious.

Download Firmware

Regards

 

Yes a bit.
1. Make sure there is nothing under the battery
2. tighten the screws that holds the battery
3. When screwing on the back cover, start by screwing the screws in the back while pushing the back plate a bit forward. Repeat the process with the front end. The goal is to make the back plate bulge a little bit.

My crappy torx 5 screwdriver broke, so I cannot try other options at the moment.

 

Brand new laptop. Bottom is also bent. Looks like someone squeezed it. No wonder DVD doesn't close cleanly.

 

Couldn't really tell from the picture to see if it's bent or not.
But if it's DOA, then determine if it's caused by shipping, or manufacturing defect, and then proceed from there.

 

I've marked differences in gap between DVD and body with green circles. Now it should be obvious.

 

Time to return it.

Return it because the best buy models don't have that issue and no laptop should have a bent back! You got a bad one.

 

mine has a similar albeit diff location on dvd drive.. i didnt notice it and it doesnt bother me nor does it seem to have any issues with its actual use so im not going to return for antoher. this loose hanging dvd drive seems to be a common problem

 

I think it's a slightly less than common imperfection on the bezel attachment, or the body/chassis itself.
It's entirely up to you if you wish to exchange it or not.

 

Only new BIOS to come out since the release of this model N550JK which is

Version:

BIOS 207

Fixed bug that Panel brightness do not change during brightest stage 1 to 2.

Notebooks & Ultrabooks - N550JK - ASUS

Wonder what other changes are in the BIOS that have not been listed?

 

Mate, before posting, read, at least totally not carefully, the previous pages of the topic.

The bottom bent is one thing, but the gaps between the caddy and body are nothing of the ordinary in this model... All three units I worked with had the same defect...

It's not a defect, it's a feature .

 

When I receive my laptop it's normal to see bends on the bottom then part of the design?

 

I said that the bent is another thing .

 

I'm confused can you explain lol?

 

The gap between the optical drive caddy and laptop's body is nothing out of the ordinary in this specific model.

When it comes to the bent in the bottom cover - your unit must have been physically damaged and I'd return if it was in my case.

Hope it's clear now .

 

I see alright thanks buddy

 

OK. I am now ready to buy and am giving myself 24 hours to decide between two models that people on this forum will be familiar with. One is that Asus G750JS-RS71. That variation comes with 12 gig of memory, a 750gig 7200 rpm hard drive, a GTX870m with 3 gig of DDR5 memory, and of ccourse the 17 inch non-touch, anti glare screen (that seems to get good reviews). The other is an Asus n550jk-DB74T. That variation has the same CPU and same verison of Windows, but has 16 gig of memory, a 256gig SSD, and the GTX 850m graphics card with 2 gig of ddr3 memory, and of course the 15 inch touch screen that I believe gets pretty much rave review. Both are esactly the same price. Your thoughts?

I realize it depends on usage. I'm looking for a general purpose laptop that I can use for "normal" day to day tasks, watching dvds or streaming videos, and occasionally game playing. I'm not looking for a dedicated gaming laptop or in need of the best, but of course the ability to do that would be a nice benefit. My current laptop is 6 years old but it's a nice Dell and only about 5 pounds. I think I might like having the bigger 17 inch screen, but the added 5 pounds or so might be a killer. I don't plan to travel with it, but even just putting it on my lap for an hour or two might wear on my if it's a 10 pounder instead of a 5 pounder. And I know that anti-glare screens are popular, but for the life of me I don't know why unless you're using one outdoors. As a videophile I appreciate really good video and any "anti-glare" capability by its very nature reduces the quality of the video. Then there's the presence of left and right mouse buttons on the 750. Seems like a little deal, but it's what I'm used to andI hear bad things about the touch pads without dedicated L and R buttons.

That's a bit of a ramble but I wanted you to know my considerations so you can better give me any advice you might have.

 

You pretty much answered your own question lol.

The Asus n550jk has one of the best in class screen, and gives great battery life for the horse power it offers. The gtx 850m is no slouch either.

 

Do you need the 870M's power or are you ok with the 850M? Remember that, basically, the GPU cannot be upgraded.
Are you going for general overall speed? That 256 GB SSD will certainly help. Unless you need more internal storage...

I think, as the above poster said, you already have the answer you're looking for .

 

Is it still worth getting the N550JK today or are there better options? If so, which? I'm eyeing the N550JK because its slim, good enough to play games, has touchscreen, and looks nice with the silver.

 

Only better option is a MSI GS60 ghost pro. $300 premium though and less battery life. Also heating issues.

The y50 is a contender but has a crappy panel.

 

I just wanted to thank everyone here who shared helpful information or gave me some advice. After a few weeks of research i finally ordered a new laptop today. At least i made an informed choice. I hope it turns out to be a good one.

 

Which one did you order?

 

its back in stock at amazon for those who are interested, only 15.

 

Oops, Forget to mention that I bought the N550JK - DB74T. It's on sale at Costco right now. At least I know I can bring it back within 90 days with no questions asked if I have a problem with it.

 

Congratulations and enjoy your notebook for many years to come!

 

Is anyone expericencing an issue where laptop battery drains from 100% to 0% in a few hours, while computer is put to sleep? It happens if I put a laptop to sleep manually or I close the lid (it is set top put it in sleep). I also noticed that cpu and/or gpu fan was on while laptop was supposed to be sleeping. Any idea on how to find out what is causing this?

Thanks

 

Then it wasn't sleeping, because it's supposed to be off including the fans.
Also, the power LED should blinks as indication that it's sleeping.
You may need to check driver installation such as the chipset and graphics drivers.

 

Here's an odd story ... I ordered an N550JK-DB74T (with 16gb memory and the SSD already in it). Package arrived today. I opened looking forward to playing with my new N550, only to find the box contained a G750JS-RS71. I just checked my order. I ordered the right one, they just sent the wrong one. SInce I was having a hard time deciding between the two maybe fate is trying to tell me something here.

 

Wow, that literally scared me!

 

Hello,

First of all, i want to thank everybody. I read whole thread before buying n550.

Laptop came to me yesterday and i am very happy with it.

Laptop i have before n550 was HP G72, so i didn't have high standards for laptop.

For me, n550 has a great quality build, keyboard is excelent (it would be better if they are black keys, but its ok), sound is very good, screen is excelent.

I installed wolfenstein the new order just to test nvidia, and I played it on fullHD with medium specs.

After first day, I can say that I am pretty satisfied with laptop and if you have dillema, I would say buy it

Only thing that I have problem is blurry letters in some programs. In windows they are perfectly sharp, but for instance when I install Skype,BitTorrent,BSPlayer they are blurry.

Can anybody help me with this?


P.S. sorry for my english.

 

I'm actually not use to the resolution and found all text on programs and websites too small for my eyes. So i turned up windows text display size to medium. And that fixed the programs with fuzzy fonts, the utorrent one was bothering me a lot too. For some websites I've been viewing them at 110% in chrome.

 

Win 8.x by default scales up applications on high-DPI screens. If application is not ready for this, the results are blurry. You can disable scaling per application by right-clicking on link that starts the application, selecting "properties", then "compatibility" tab and then selecting "disable scaling for high-DPI". The names I wrote here may not be exact as I'm translating from non-English version.

 

Found it, thank you very much

There are still some things blurry, but at least arent applications that i use often

 

Guys I just received my laptop and so far it seems awesome but I noticed two issues that worry me.

First is that The green battery led is not bright. It is extremely dim and not as noticible as the red one.

Second, if I move the screen back and forth it flickers. But that is only when I move it to extreme angles and it does not happen all the time. God I Really hope I did not get a dud.

 

About status led, I agree with you. The green led for battery is extremely dim and for worst if you're running on low battery the red led doesn't blink when you put your laptop in sleep.
Only thing I find annoying is led in the power button which is extremely glare producing and hurts eyes in dark environment.

And for screen flicker, It doesn't happens to me to be honest so I can't conform it.

 

I swapped the DVD unit for a caddy and put in the stock HDD. In the slot where HDD was before, I put in an SSD. Everything works, but a constant noise is coming from where the HDD is. It's like it's constantly spinning, but the usage is at 0%. It's quite loud, so I wonder if anybody else has this problem.
Would swapping the SSD and HDD help, or is the DVD connected via SATA 2 only?

 

The hard drive is quite loud on the laptop to begin with.

Anyways, anyone know where the screen flex cable is? It think mine is loose.

 

So i don't know if anyone else is experiencing this, when i shudown the computer, it seems to shutdown completely, however when i push the power button, instead of starting, the screen lights up, shows the logo and then shutdowns. Then the next time i push the button it starts normally.... Very weird!

 

Been playing with my new N550JK - DB74T for the past few weeks, and I have two problems that hopefully others have solved. This is easily the best laptop I've ever owned, and it is just a few ticks shy of perfection for my needs.

• 
  Three finger swipe in Firefox does not work. It works in Chrome to go back and forward pages but not Firefox. I've googled a bit, but found no solutions. Just complaints of people with Asus laptops in general and swiping.
  

• 
  No sound on HDMI. I've seen it reference earlier in this thread, which claimed the latest drivers fixed it. I definitely have the latest driver but no sound via HDMI. Other laptops function no problem with the same cable/TV combo. I'm not sure of all the differences with this rev of the N550JK.
  

Thanks.

 

Guys I've noticed that the n550jk does not have as good as a screen as other Asus models. When it produces blue, it seems as if there are spaces between that blue color. Its pretty Damn annoying. There was another model at best buy (the Q something that looked like ours but black) created smooth looking blues without the space between pixel lines.

 

Well I've got one on the way, partly because of all the raves I've read about the screen. I guess I'll wait an see when it gets here. Due to a shipping error I also received a G750JS, so I'll be able to compare the two of them.

 

The display is pretty good, but when it comes to creating blue colors there is a noticible vertical line space between pictures. It is very weird and annoying. But I'm not sure if it is permanent since I heard it takes time for displays to set in.