ASUS G50V Preview, Photos and Benchmarks

Yes the extra cover. The G50 does have a glossy screen just not that high contract plastic over that is not part of the LCD on the M1710. And the screen is DAMN nice I just would like to have a cover that would keep my 5 year old from poking it

The G50 is better when it comes to reflection than the M1710. The Dell is like the Sony where reflections can be a pain with the right/wrong angle. The G50 does not suffer from this.

How would you want me to test the battery? Load 3dmark and let it run on the battery till it dies or just let it sit there?

 

Both ways would be good. 3dmark would give the minimum time, and if you maybe do something like word processing with the brightness turned down, that would give a good indication of the maximum time.

 

My battery tests benchmarks for my reviews are like this:

The coffe shop guy - Web Browsing + Media Player with music playing. A good middle line battery life that lets you know how long you can hang out without a power plug and get some work done and entertain yourself.

The 6 piece suite guy - Power save mode, brightness down with word processing, excell, or similar open and in use. Gives a good max life figure.

The guy who needs a desktop - Gaming/Overclock mode going into a 3dgame and try to shoot some people in the head. The lowest life possible usually 20 minutes or less and there is no reason to be doing this without being plugged in, but people still always insist on knowing how long they can game without power.

 

MFontenot, do you think it's sized decently enough for me to lug it around to class every day? I know it's kind of big...I'm just wondering if it's somewhat convenient to carry around.

I'm going from a 14.1" Dell Inspiron to a 15" Toshiba weighing 7.7 lbs to this thing so I'd imagine it's a big difference from both of those.

Oh and can you please comment on the noise this laptop produces while doing regular tasks like web surfing, word processing, etc. and while it's under load in gaming? Thanks!

 

will the X1, A1 and A2 be the only models? will they release something with a slightly lower processor? If they put a p8400 in there and shave off like $100~ it would be just perfect

 

^^ I doubt they will release another model.

 

Doc Z I am not going to lie to you, this is a big laptop. I mean if you sit down on top of my closed M1710 all you see is a 1.25 of the Dell sticking out the back. They are both 15.5 wide, the Dell is 2.25 high when closed, the G50 is a little under 2 at its thickest. The G50v is 10.25 deep and the Dell is 11.5. The Dell is much heavier and the powerblock is bigger. The G50 feels a lot lighter in my hands though but in a backpack I bet they are close.

So if your looking for light then NO the G50 is not a featherbook but NO gaming laptop is. I think this is the BEST of the lighter gaming laptops. And very high on my list of desktop replacements.

 

Can you turn off all of the blue led lights on the back? I mean, im sure they will get annoying after a while and i plan to use it in college and in class so i don't want them to be a distraction

 

Hmm I see. I think I may get it anyway lol. What about the noise?

 

I wanted to ask that same question. It looks way better with the topcase completely black!

Any info about that?

 

They could've been photo shots from a design concept which have changed in the market version. I'm going to assume the live shots are correct and say the orange strip is there in the G50v-A1/B1. Which is Ok; I don't particularly mind the orange strips around the laptop.

 

You can turn off every led except the Asus G series logo backlight on the the back of the screen.

 

The fan runs pretty quiet and the optical drive doesn't make much noise during movie playback.

The orange stipe is there indeed on the topcase and around the notebook.
http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/9414/97251415zz9.jpg

Yes, via Direct Console 2.0. These are the options for LED lights: Interactive Mode, Power Saving Mode, Fancy Mode and Advance Mode (Always on, By CPU loading, By Fan Speed). The options for lighting behavior: Light off, Light on, Flash twice/sec, and Flash frequency increase along with event loading.

 

Any indication of battery life?
Also; would it be possible to get the exact model # from the battery?

All in all, looks like a good purchase; I've preordered one already, and can't wait for Excaliber to give me a ring and tell me it's in!

 

what about the intel turbo memory is it version 2 and how big is it please

 

Intel Turbo Memory is 2GB in Montevina (Robson?), but I don't think it comes with the G50v.

 

Is it possible to upgrade to ddr3 memory in the future?

 

No. DDR2 and DDR3 memory modules are physically different and will not be compatible with each other.

 

Haha you and me seem to be in the same boat- Im looking into getting a thin and light laptop but there are barely any that can do much with power.
The P300 was the only one, and I dislike the fact that its CPU has only 3MB cache.

With that in mind- I thikn to myself do I save some money AND get a huge performance upgrade at the cost of carrying 2-3 pounds more. (this thing is only 6.5 comparing to 3.5-4 pounds of most thin and light laptops.

The Voodoo envy 133 is 3.76 pounds which isnt taht light for the thinnest laptop in the world.

 

I'm not complaining about small L2. I've got a mere 1024kB on mine still. Everything available today is better than mine (except the atoms & ULV procs maybe)

 

hi guys, i like this G50V-A2, so which web site do u guys recommand me to order from? anyway i'm living in Singapore.

 

xoticpc.com does a good job of customizations

 

@EXcaliberPC - I have questioned Engineering Sample (ES) units to ASUS to which they have stated that they haven't sent out G50V "ES" Samples. The specs appear to be identical to what Best Buy is selling. I assume this is where the machine originated from?

 

I assume the same actually, and I can confirm with other Asus dealers that they were told officially there is no such thing as an engineering sample nor were any sent to anybody.

Nothing against EXcaliberPC but just be upfront about it and say "review of the G50V-X1" as dishonestly only hurts in the long run. If my judgment is wrong and you really do have some sort of ES that nobody else has, that happens to be exactly the same one that best buy sells which has almost nothing in common with the real models due in about a week, then I apologize.

 

I can confirm that the Asus product manager in NA said Asus never sent an "engineering sample" of the G50V to any reseller (I didn't want to be the first to say it, but I guess the secrets out). I think excaliberPC owes us an explanation.

 

Perhaps if we don't get one I think retracting my preorder from then is in line. In this case another, more honest retailer, deserves my almost $1900 after tax.

 

Ok I don't think its that big of a deal... it's one sentence that says it's an engineering sample. I just assumed he made a mistake and it was just the one from BestBuy (which it obviously is).

 

The machine was indeed served as a sample unit and the specs looks similar to the best buy model but not exactly. The machine we tested has Vista Ultimate and the some components might not have been used in the actual unit. I hope this clarified why we stated the unit is an ES unit. It actually says SAMPLE on the SERIAL NUMBER LABEL.

We never stated that this is an actual review for the G50V or any model associated with it, please look at the title again, it says "Preview" for G50V. We posted this thread to keep users informed with the very basic knowledge we can provide as a store. As a member of our company, I have no choice but to take a photo of the serial number on the back of the machine to show it to you that we are not here to make things up. We are really fortunate to have you participating in our threads and your input is still much appreciated.

I don't mean to correct you in any way, but we know the rules on here. The last thing we want is to overstate or exaggerate things that we are not even sure of. You have your contacts over at ASUS, but we as a reseller may not share the same sources, therefore I don't think it's fair to judget our store using the info your contacts know. The explanation is probably needed as long as the users who participated this thread find the info helpful.

 

Excaliber laid down the pwn.

 

QFT. You should all feel ashamed.

 

No I dont feel ashamed, nor should he have taken any insult to our claims. It was one of those situations that was so cloudy that we needed this information.

What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger right EXcalibur?

 

My bad EXcaliberPC. I guess the rep we deal with wasn't familiar with PR sample?

 

No worries, guys! We do what we can here. Thanks!

 

You are absolutely right. Looking forward to your review as well. Thanks!

 

I quite agree; some information came to light that needed to be cleared up. Glad that it was.

Any idea of the battery model number or ETA of the notebook? I need to purchase an extended battery for college.

 

The notebook is in stock now, but ASUS has not responded to our request about the battery model number. The 9 cell battery for the M50 works on the G50 series, but we can't say that officially until ASUS states that in writing. Thanks!

 

So this laptop is available for purchase? What's the price?

 

$1639-$1699 for the A1 model and $1839-$1899 for the A2. Please check resellers website for more details.

 

Can somebody confirm the G9700M GT doesnt suffer from the heating malfunction of the 8600-8700? Known as G86/G92 Fiasco

 

It does not that issue is related to the 8000 series cores, the 9000's are unaffected, and many of the laptops that host the 8000's should have a bios update to fix it.

 

The bios update does nothing except change the temps that the fan spins up at.

 

Yeah and that was the whole problem, they had the thermal specs wrong and were running the cards hotter than they should have been, so the fans need to come on sooner and run at a higher speed.

 

Thought it was a manufacturing issue, and the bios update was merely a stopgap measure.

 

The bios update helps the cards stay cooler, but does not "fix" the problem, it just helps the longevity of the card.

 

The problem is that the card cannot handle several temperature fluctuations. Its due to the die packaging material being weaker than it should be. The BIOS lengthens the amount of time it takes for the GPU to heat up, though it doesn't completely fix the problem.

 

Hmm thats news to me. I only heard that they were running hotter than they were supposed to.

 

That appears to be a side affect, from what I've seen.

 

Wht kaiser has said is correct.
We've digressed far from the topic, but I do hope NVidia has fixed its fabrication techniques for the 9xxx series.

 

hi guys am new to NBR. I am realy interested in G50-A1. Actualy i am from india and my frnd is visiting U.S next month so i will ask him to bring this one for. What i wanted to ask is what additional taxes are applicable in U.S that i will have to pay above the 1639-1699$ base price of A1's..

 

Great thread guys!

I have been looking at the Dell XPS 1530 for a couple months now, then ran across the ASUS G50Vm-X1 at Best Buy this weekend for $1,250. This peaked my interest, so I knew if I came here I could find out more information. Sure enough, I now know about the G50V! It looks like this thing will easily out-perform even the best configured 1530.

Does anyone know if this will be carried by Newegg or Best Buy? I only ask because I like to take advantage of the financing option (with no interest charges) available from some of the major retailers.