Asus Model Specs M50Vn, N50Vn, L50Vn

Hi,

Just new to this forum, I joined as I saw all the detailed info on all the models and hoped that you could help where Asus is failing me.

My problem is I am after either the M50Vn/N50Vn/L50Vn, but I cannot decide which one as Asus cannot tell me what models are available and what features each submodel does/does not include. This is for Australia, where we don't have the easy to understand A1/B1 etc submodels. I have found the Asus "pre-sales" people to be most unknowledgeable about their own products. They tell me to ask the distributors who tell me to ask Asus.

What I would like is (all do include Nvidia 9650M GT as it appears for the Vn model designation, though some websites conflict with the 9650M GS):
- 1440x900 screen (1280x800 is fine if LED)
- In built TV Tuner
- Remote for in-built TV Tuner
- S-Video In (can make do without it if no model available)
- BluRay (can make do without it if no model available)
- E-SATA (can make do without it if no model available)

Now, one Asus person says the M50Vn does have inbuilt Tv Tuner, the other says it does not and the remote is only for Media Center (not the TV tuner?).
Svideo In is an optional feature on all their brochures for the M50Vn.
The resolution of the N50Vn LED screen is unknown.

Could some knowledge people please let me know which Asus submodels (i.e. M50VN-AS013G) suit the above criteria. Thanks in advance!

 

L50Vm-C1 is the only model that has built-in TV tuner and only N and all NXX models comes with LED screen.

 

From Asus' website:

" Watch TV on the Notebook*
the M50Vn built-in Hybrid TV Tuner feature for wireless digital TV broadcasting and recording right out of the notebook. With this revolutionary digital technology, TV programs are watched without messy cables and even TVs! *Availability of this feature may vary in each region."

So maybe it's included?

 

Hi ken~
Do you know if the G50Vt-A1 is going to be the same color as the G50V? In other words, is it going to stay as orange or change to gray?

 

@ GenTechPC

Thanks for the info... interesting in the US that only one model may have it built-in when over all their product brochures it is everywhere like in Yenkaz's comment. Just a marketing gimmick? I wonder if there are any board members who have a built-in TV tuner.

@ Yenkaz

That is the whole problem, the statement "Availability of this feature may vary in each region" renders their brochure not very useful when they cannot say which model includes it. I am sure you agree that Asus should know their own models here as they appear to in the US.

If no one can answer, looks like I will wait till the N50Vn becomes available because that supposedly has in-built tv tuner, but could just be the same unknown as existing models.

 

Calgor,

Here is an Australian seller with the M50 and L50 listed http://www.asusnotebook.com.au/personal-entertainment-notebook.php. The sub-model numbers are listed for all machines. The models available are confusing as what is in the shops is different to what is on-line.

If you are interested in a model with a TV card, you have missed the M51. These are in JB HiFi and OfficeWorks. Most of the M51 models I have seen have a TV Card. And the top-line model has a blue-ray drive. I have an M51Sn and its predecessor F3Sv. Both of these have TVcards.

The remote control is a Media Center remote. But, Media Centre is used to control the TV Card, so the remote can be used for TV. I don't actually use it as the F3Sv doesn't have a built in IR port and USB dongle is supplied. Also, I generally use GB-PVR instead of Media Centre. It can use the remote, but again, I have never set it up.

David

 

why would asus put in a tv tuner in there laptop for the US when it may no longer work after feb 09. I do not think they put in digital tuners in the laptops.

 

It's supposed to be a hybrid tuner, meaning both analog and digital.

It seems the m50vn i recently bought in Europe doesn't feature it either.. Oh well, wasn't going to use it much and I can always reserve an USB-doogle for it.

 

@ davidfor

Thanks for that info about the remote... i guess media center is hooked up to use the tv tuner.

I have found the following 2 models which I think may have a built-in hybrid tv tuner (based on a high percentage - but not all - specs listing them as having such):

L50VN-AK004G (SWXGA+, BluRay, Built-in TV Tuner) - this appears to be the only common L50 model in Oz
M50VN-AS013G (WXGA+, SMulti, Built-In TV Tuner) - this appears to be the first M50VN model to be commonly available in Oz

However for both of these, I have seen none on display so no idea on the TV Tuner let alone the SVideo In. And Asus pre-sales I will call them again and ask them to give me an email on which exact model numbers have built-in tv tuner, so I can return it if it doesn't arrive with one.

These are others options which might have TV tuner:
M50VN-AK014G (WSXGA+, BluRay)
N50VN-FP024G (????, BluRay)

Thanks for all the responses so far. If anyone has any of the exact model numbers I have specified, please let me know what it actually includes. The m51 is a bit older and I would rather have a newer Nvidia 9650M GT gfx card with less chance of the heat cycle problems the older ones have.

 

N50Vn-C1S this one has caught my attention very rapidly.... Ken, the L50 series do not have LED backlight like the N series, right?

EDIT: Never mind, you already answered that....Kewl then...now I'm really confused...any news on a new U6V?

 

They always say that on pretty much every model, but North America version will not have TV Tuner.

It's confirmed the color will be black/orange.

 

Is there an ETA on these spiffy new NB's?

 

That put's me in the N50 camp then

 

15.4"
L50Vn-A1 - Available Now
L50Vn-B1 - Available Now
L50Vn-C1 - Available Now

N50Vn-A1B - Available Now
N50Vn-B1B - 1st week of November
N50Vn-C1S - 2nd week of November
N50Vn-C2S - 2nd week of November
N50Vn-C3S - 2nd week of November

14.1"
F80s-A1 - Available Now
N80Vn-A1 - Available Now
N80Vn-GP011C - 1st week of November

 

Hey all, I normally peruse the forums here a lot since deciding to upgrade to a laptop for my games since I'm travelling a lot these days, but this was the first post that I actually thought I could help by contributing to. I live in Australia too Calgor, and after doing a fair amount of research on the Asus models available I settled on the M50VN-AS013G as the best buy for me.

What it does have:-

* T9400 CPU
* NVidia 9650M GT 1GB Graphics card
* E-Sata
* TV Tuner card and remote
* WXGA+ (1440x900) screen that actually looks really good (Although the ambient light sensor can be annoying sometimes, but you can turn it off)
* 320GB Hitachi 5400rpm HDD
* 4GB Ram
and so on.... It all pretty generic.

It doesn't have the S-Video in that you are looking for, the port in the back of the laptop is blocked off, although I did get the cable in the box, heh.
Also, this model does not have Blu-ray.

The next closest model which has Blu-ray was the M50VN-AK014G which I was looking at, but prices on this have recently blown out. It used to be around 2175-2200, but now has moved upward of 2400 with the falling dollar. I got my AS013G for 1950, just use staticice and search it for best price.

I don't think any of the M50VN models that I looked at had S-Video in, Australia seems to be out of luck for that in the M50VN's. Other than the Blu-ray, the AK014G is almost identical, but has a 500GB HDD.

Also, they only have 32-bit vista oem, I'm upgrading mine to 64-bit tomorrow. This is a bit of an annoyance given the 4gb of ram they feature, but I've found it to be a great laptop so far.....

Hope this helps you mate.

 

@versanis

Hey thanks heaps for joining the forum to make the answer.

I had today decided to get the M50VN-AS013G (even though completely hopeless Asus pre-sales said it *does not* have a TV tuner, but you obviously have the actual laptop so your word is better than theirs, and also the trusty scorptec.com.au told me that it does).

However, no one in Melbourne has ever had this computer in stock, and so even the lower priced stores all told me that the price on website is incorrect and it is about $400 more expensive due to the falling dollar like you said. Apparently the store needs to already have it in stock to give the lower price.

So it is now $2400-$2450 dollars in a few stores.

Can you tell me which store on staticice you got it from, how long ago, and did it include the laptop bag and mouse? I will place the order as soon as I hear from you cos some of these online stores aren't so trustworthy.

I see Penta in NSW has it for $1945, and Ozdirect $1920.

Thanks!

 

Hey Calgor,

I picked mine up on the 24th October from Penta after I rang them and enquired about the AK014G, which they told me they had no stock on, had a 21 day wait and it was now $2407. I asked about the AS013G, and they said they had stock and the final price I paid was $1950, and it came in a sealed box with the mouse and laptop bag. It also had a coaxial connection for the TV, and a small antenna.

The guy I spoke to there was Adam Miller, he was very helpful and the service I received was very good. The best way I found to deal with them was to call them, the number there is 92111779. I couldn't really understand how the delivery from their site worked, so you'd probably want to call them to arrange it anyway (since you need to check stock and price as the website may be wrong).

Their website isn't the greatest, but the transaction was easy and everything went smoothly (I showed up a day earlier than I said I would to collect and they already had it in the shop 1 day after I placed my order on the 23rd).

Other things I've noticed with this laptop that I've found of note:-

The keyboard lag issue some peopel talk of with the M50Sv and the VM isn't present. The keyboard has a good amount of travel in it, so the first 3-4 time I used it I missed some key presses because I didn't push the key low enough but now I find it really good and it has no lag.

The mouse scroll function from the touchpad software doesn't input the same data as a wheel scroll on a mouse to the laptop. Only a minor annoyance, but I can't move the camera out without a mouse when I'm playing HommV (Probably also Nival's fault for failing to include key remapping or better alternate camera controls =P)

Nothing else of note yet, still sourcing the last few drivers for 64-bit vista.

Cheers,

Versanis

 

@ versanis

I couldn't wait just in case the price went up as it seemed to in the last week so I ordered from Ozdirect. But thanks for all the info, I will ask there if Ozdirect changes the price on me. Both them and Penta seem to have the same amount of bad/good reviews for cheap places with not enough staff for the orders. And Ozdirect is a drop shipper direct from supplier (I think Ingram for Asus) - the supplier has over 100 in stock which went down by 1 when I ordered. Anyhow, I should know by Monday/Tuesday when I should expect to receive it. It should be the same I expect (i.e. with bag and mouse) as they say all their products are standard retail package unless otherwise stated.

If I lived in Sydney, I would have gone down to Penta, but Ozdirect's online system seems more mature than Penta's.

Regarding the touchpad, I think it's synaptics so I would expect the controls to be similar to other synaptics touchpads.

btw, the AK014G also has the high-res 1680x1050 screen. But for me, that is too small for comfortable vision and almost all games will be hard to be fast enough for native res.

 

I'm going for 1440x900 in the N50 for that very reason....not that I'm getting old or anything, but my bifocals are driving me crazy

 

This is the second thread you mention your bifocals, theZoid. Now if I were a psychologist I may deduce some interesting things from that...

Luckily, I'm not.

/offtopic

 

LOL.....let's just say I'm too old to raise hell, and too young for retirement...

 

Hey Ken (from gentechpc)
I went to the gentech website, and noticed the 3dMark 06 of the 9650 on the n50vn was reported to be 4200, which is lower then the 9600m gt and 9650m gt values reported in this forum, and on notebookcheck.net. Is the video card underclocked on the n50vn? or is that a typo? or is there some reason for the low performance?

Thanks

 

I'm very intressted in the N50Vn and the M50Vn but I can't really deside on wich one to buy. Is there any differences in the spesifications apart from the LED screen on the N50 and does anyone know when the N50 comes to sweden (M50Vn got hear for some weeks ago)? By the way, have anyone found any review on any of these computers, and for those of you that have one of them what are your experience of it so far?

 

I've got an m50vn recently(Danish, called "scandinavian model" so it's probably the same version you'd get).

It's pretty cool and quiet when running normally, though you can hear the fan when doing intensive gaming(not surprising though..).
Screen is very reflexive, more then I expected, but the automatic backlight sensor settings helps allovate it in bright light(it is very responsive, in a good way)

Be warned; it catches fingerprints, really easily, having a cloth(comes with it) ready to qipr off the smudges if it bothers you.

It does not feature the TV-tuner, and I've had a decent experience doing some gaming with it(HL2, Fallout 3, Mass effect) ran smoothly, though the latter two had to make a few choices between fps and high settings, I guess I could do some benchmarks, I'll try firing up 3Dmark06, what's the preferred resolutions for tests with it?

Any other benchmark tools I should try?

Oh, It comes with a bad and a small mouse, really nice, but for some reason it has Vista 32-bit installed and not 64-bit as the specifications might say .

 

Thanks for a good and fast reply!
Don't really care that much about the Tv-tuner so that dosen't really matter.
What I'm intressted in is the noise level during just normal usage and during gaming. Have you by the way tried Crysis on it?

Some results from 3Dmark06 would be nice, try one in 1280*1024. Also nice with some benchmarks on the screen, and how many points do you get in the windows vista experience program?! How is the generall "overall" experience of the computer, build quality and so on?
Really appreciate some help with this!

Thanks

 

Give me a some hours and I'll write a mini-review.

 

Excellent!

 

I'll just post the review in it's own topic.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4108867#post4108867

 

Anyone who has the new N50Vn/Vc and could wright a small review about it? Or does any one know where to find a review?
And on the specs it says that it has a 512 mb 9650m gt, does anyone know if this is GDDR3 like in the zepto Nox?

 

I do have the N50Vn since a couple of days, pretty happy with it sofar, ofcourse there are some good and bad things about this notebook

Good: the 1280x800 LED screen is simply amazing, a real pleasure to look at, also love the keyboard which feels pretty solid. Bad: speakers, i've owned several notebooks from different manufacturers, but these "Altec Lansing" speakers sound truly the worst of them all - completely lacking depth and warmth. Also why put 4gb of ram inside and then ship the notebook with 32 bits Vista ? Right now I'm installing Vista Premium 64 bit...

Not sure about your question if the memory is GDDR3 or just DDR2/3. Anyway i will try to put some pictures online later on.

 

Awesome. I look forward to the pictures. I'm sure I read the specs that it is DDR2. But to be sure you can use some program to check. I forgot which program does it already. It's either PC tools or PC doctor.

 

Hey Geedude...

Just wondering if you've run the 3dmark 06 benchmark at 1280x1024, if so, what was your score?

 

@ideoteque85: i have both gpu-z and everest ultimate installed, but both do not support the mainboard and gpu yet

@goonieg: standard 3dmark06 score at 1280x800 is 4764 3dmarks (using nvidia forceware 178.24)

 

Nice! Look forward to a little review with some pics! Can you also try 3dMark06 in 1024*768? How is the noise-level when doing normal work on it and how is it when you game?
Ooh and how is the "Air-Ionizer"

 

Noise levels are pretty low, during normal Windows use the NV50 is very quiet, when running games the fans obviously become louder but still within acceptable limits. I didnt get disturbed by it anyway.

About this air-ionizer, ehm, really dunno what it exactly does. You can switch it on/off directly on the keyboard - but i cant hear/see any difference... Am i missing something or are we just fooled by some Asus marketing trick ?!

Hopefully tomorrow i will receive a Seagate Momentus 7200.3 harddisk, which will replace the factory installed 5400rpm Hitachi. A fresh install without the bloatware !




As you can see, is the 3.5mm audiojack located on the front, not the best position imho... If you dont like fingerprints on your notebook, stay away from the NV50, especially the front/cover easily attracts vingerprints.

 

Thanks for the pics Geedude. Is it just me or is the screen amazingly white? Looks awesome to me. Which model of the N50vn do you have?

Well the air ionizer is suppose to promote blood circulation to your brain by breathing in clean air. At least that is what I read from the ASUS site about it.Sounds like major BS to me.

How is the heat coming off from the laptop? Is it hotter on one side of the palm rest compared to the other?

 

seems like a nice laptop. I hate "platsicy" laptops though. Is there a premium model or some other design for this laptop??

Ideally a nice solid - sony vaio sz/z or dell xps finish would be nice. non fingerprint prone.

thanks for the help and the mini review

 

This one is the N50VN-FP001C (P8600/320gb/4gb/9650GT/Blueray), i think the whiteness on the picture is due to my lack of photographic skills But i have to admit that the LED screen is one best parts of this notebook, great colors and no backlightbleeding at all.

The N50VN stays pretty cool due to the 45nm Penryn architecture, idle temp of cpu is around 30, heat is dissipating from the back. The difference with my previous notebook (which had a AMD Turion X2) is quite big, this one would get pretty hot after running a few hours.

@jimmyb: you're right about the "plastic" look, i would have preffered a more solid finsih as well.

 

Great. Thanks.

 

When gaming, do the palm rests get very hot? This has been a problem for me with a few of my notebooks.

 

For those Ozzies out there, I just saw the N50VN-FP024G at JB Hifi eliz st melb, which can be had for $2638 (after discount request).

It has:
1280x800 LED, BluRay, TV tuner, 500GB, 9650M GT.
Not sure if it has a remote, as I could not see an IR port, possibly they could give a USB IR dongle.

I personally like the look of the M50VN better, but some may prefer the N50VN.

The LED screen looks awesome and very consistent, and compared with the M51 next to it that looked like it had bleeding especially around the bottom. I couldn't tell if it would blur for games or not (no one seems to mention this for LED backlit screens). Of course, this is in a well lit store so can't see everything with backlit probs, but I have heard the M51 is not so good.

Also, the palmrest felt a lot cooler than for example the HP dv5's in the store. I didn't mind the keys compared with the M50VN, either would suit me fine. What I don't like about the N50 is the power and lan on the side, as well as the headphone out the front.

 

Thanks Calgor the Vc model should be around or under $2200ish.
(The RRP was $1999 and $2499 before the dollar fell)

I'm considering the Vc and Vn models at the moment. I really don't like the 1280x800 screen res for that price though. Much happier if it was 1440x990 for example. I will check out the two JB stores to see it in the flesh hopefully this week.

 

Just got the M50VN today! Pretty quick!

It is pretty much just as expected (with TV tuner and laptop bag and mouse and remote). I thought screen might be better, but it looks pretty good (maybe I was expecting too much). It is better than my old laptops anyhow. Will check if it is AUO/CMO at some stage, what program shows this?

Only unexpected thing is they have blocked up the modem port, and there is no modem when I go into Control Panel. So an undocumented change there, possibly only for the M50VN series? The old manual goes on about Svideo In, but instead of that port there is an extra USB port, meaning the ESATA/USB combined port is changed to a ESATA only port.

Build quality is not as good as the business IBM and Toshiba laptops I've had, but is fine. I guess larger laptops feel more "squidgy" if you squeeze them. Speakers are great compared with what I am used to for laptops.

 

Glad to hear you like it Calgor.. Out of interest what did you pay?
I'm a little bit worried about quality and screen too.... But time will tell.

 

Out of further interest, Calgor, where did you buy it? my version did not have a tuner..

Which vista version (32/64) was preinstalled?

 

These are some sweet notebooks. Asus sure loves to pack a punch in their systems.

 

On my N50vn 32 bits Vista was installed, in the meantime i've upgraded the harddisk with a 320gb Seagate Momentus 7200.3 and installed Vista premium 64.

Vista feels much more responsive now - plus no more bloatware installed on the harddisk

 

$AU1936 including delivery from ozdirect.com.au, and they also as a surprise threw in approx $20 Bioshock game.

It came with Vista Ultimate 32bit. I understand that even all Asus laptops may only come with 32bit versions?

 

I have like 20 tabs open to compare the different model specs and prices, is it possible to get a tabular comparison of the different models and notebooks on your website?

edit: I'm really interested in the N50Vn with WSXGA+ LED screen... any review?

 

I'm really digging the L50Vn-C1, hope some reviews come out for it soon.