Asus Zenbook NX500

Weird high? I ran each test 3 times and the results are an average of the runs, but they were all withing a few points of each other.

 

weird low. if you had your 850m running at 1150mhz, that's 860m performance right there. if you have the GDDR5 version then it should just perform like an 860m which is about 3500-3600 at stock

 

Hmm, maybe again some drivers issues? idk. I can however confirm that the GPU runs at 1150 mhz during 3DMark tests, I have a different print-screen with temps after doing exactly that. Again, from HWInfo and not from GPU-Z, but I doubt Hwinfo was wrong. I'll check with both GPU-Z and HWInfo in the future, but there's nothing more I could do now.

 

haha it's fine, people usually use gpuz because hwinfo is generic and displays too much details sometimes, but it's certainly fine.

with that said, nx500 still needs some work before a proper release and currently the cooling is very unsatisfactory. gx500 may be a significant difference with the grille on the bottom, but we'll have to see.

are you gonna get that as well?

 

@Mike: Forgot to ask. When you did your screen calibration, did you remember to select Wide gamut instead of normal gamut in the datacolor software? That might be why you got exactly 100% on sRGB while Asus got higher

 

I sure hope to get the GX500 as well, we'll see.

And yes, I did select the Wide gamut option.

 

Was very exited about this and now I'm disappointed. The keyboard is absolute fail.
Asus did something amazing with the UX301LA, not sure what's going on since...

 

@miketlb

Can you boot into Linux (Ubuntu would do) from a usb and see if native resolution is supported? I'm planning on paving it with Linux when I get it.

 

Since the unit is already returned, I doubt he can do this

 

So are there any other laptops with this display? and perhaps the same video card?

 

Sry, no, I already sent it back, but I'll keep this in mind for the future. Linux is not my thing, but I can try to see if certain laptops boot in Ubuntu.

 

A quick driver support report for linux would be great. In order of importance (at least for me) would be:

1. Display
2. Graphics Card
3. Sound
4. Touchpad
5. Brightness control for display
6. Brightness control for keyboard
7. Media key functionality

and any other functionality from the hardware like webcam, dvd drive...

I'm guessing you could drop by a linux meetup in your area when you have a new laptop and have those guys go to town on it.

Currently I have an Asus RoG g74sx-a which has Ubuntu 14.04 on it and everything works fine.

 

Mike,
Is there any way (or hope) that your feedback to Asus will get them to change the keys to be BLACK instead of Silver ?
Will they listen to reason and logic and make the change ?
I could forgive a lot of things, but not silver keys with a white backlight - what's the point ?
Are there any aftermarket black "overlays" that one could stick on the top of the keys later ?

 

@adymitruk I'll keep that in mind for my future review, thanks. Can I contact you on DM if I encounter any issues? Like I said, Linux is definitely not my thing right now

@ IceManKent No, they're clearly not going to change the keys on this version, but some resellers might offer a tweaked version with black keys. I know that there are a few ones in the US who perform custom modifications.

On the other hand, the GX500 will have black keys (on a black background) with red lightning, so maybe that approach is going to be better. Can't remember if I ever tested a laptop with red key illumination though, I wonder how that feels in a dark room.

 

Shouldn't the GX500 keyboard be a perfect fit? Seems like the same machine with some cosmetic changes and a higher binned GPU.

Mike: Thanks for the review! I sure hope there will be a version with matte or at least anti-glare screen.

 

Mike, In the video at 2:56 I noticed that at the bottom it says SATA 6 Gb/s, instead of PCIe. Why's that?

 

I would love to help! Please contact me. I'm also on Twitter under @adymitruk

In fact, I could help you with that test on any laptop you are testing. Also it would be good to have the chat on irc in the #ubuntu channel on freenode so others can chime in if there are problems that I can't solve.

I'm looking for a more portable laptop than my current giant rog. But needs to have killer dpi and colour rendition as I use it for photo post processing as well as software development. Hence why I stumbled on this forum...

 

EDIT: Apple had the same yield issues when the retina displays were introduced, so this is something that is to be expected with the 1st generation 4k displays

@MikeTLB
Awesome job on the review Mike!!

The Asus display seems to be the second iteration LQ156D1JX0 2 from Sharp.

The almost identical previous iteration LQ156D1JX01 on the Toshiba p50t has received mixed responses across the web criticizing low brightness, reflectiveness, average gamut, poor color calibration even though it is Technicolor certified.

SHARP LQ156D1JX01 Overview - Panelook.com

What I really like is that the display is a true 8 bit IPS display since the market is flooded with 6 bit ones and even worse TN panels. Almost all smartphones have had 8 bit IPS displays since the past couple of years.

Brightness on the Asus could have been better since its a glare type display. Average brightness is only 238 cd/m^2 from your review and max is 270 cd/m^2.

Sharp could be having yield issues since this is the first 4k 15.6 laptop display, and the second iteration seems to improve on brightness and gamut quite a bit, but still not as per the promised specifications of 330 cd/m^2 . Really wish the screen was matte without the touchscreen

 

Asus could at least learn from Lenovo and add an anti-reflective layer over the screen (like on the newest Carbon X1). It seems (from reading reviews) that the touch screen becomes almost usable with that however adding such film oneself isn't easy + that a professionally selected and applied film should give better results.

 

I'm personally not a big fan of the anti-reflective coating on the X1 Carbon. Yes, it reduces glare, but it also makes the image somewhat grainy, imh, and that's visible on white backgrounds (when browsing, working with texts). I think I'd rather have the glossy glass than that, I don't get my laptop out that often. Hopefully future such films won't have the same effect.

I wonder how good the anti-glare third party films are. They're hardly available over here and never saw any in action.

 

I am debating between this ultrabook and the Dell XPS 15 for a new laptop for college. My school starts around August 20, but I am willing to wait for the NX500 if it comes out before mid-Septemberish. I like the XPS a lot, except for some reason I can't stand the font used on the keyboard, and the XPS comes with a GT 750 instead of the GTX 850. Any other comparisons between these two laptops that I should consider?

I will mostly be using the laptop to browse the internet and take notes, with occasional gaming.

 

The XPS 15 is lighter than this Asus, thus easier to carry around, and has imh a nicer keyboard. However, there are many reports of its throttling problems, so you should google for those articles and see if that's something you're OK with or not.

 

speaking of throttling problems, I think I know why nx500 scored so low in the benchmarks now

in simple words, it throttled when running benchmarks

I know typically people may argue that it doesn't make any sense for the gpu to throttle when running benchmarks when it could stay at 1150mhz during double stress test

but, the reality is yes it did stay 1149mhz under double stress, but that is because cpu throttled to 800mhz already and because the gpu is bottlenecked by the cpu, it's not really under full load, more like 50% because of the poor cpu performance. when not under full load it's not hard to maintain 1149mhz

1149mhz on an 850m should already surpass a normal 860m, but benchmarks show it's still vastly inferior, all because it throttled back to default clock when under heavy load.

so yeah, nx500 has some serious throttling problems too as of now...

 

From what I have seen, heard and read Asus has managed to keep the CPU throttling to a minimal but you are - unfortunately - correct when you say that this laptop is going to have GPU thorttling issues as it seems that Asus has made the trade off of GPU performance in favour of CPU performance. How much this affects the buyer will depend on what the individual buyer wants, but its sad as this was really looking like the perfect laptop for me and no doubt some others as well. The only thing we can hope for is that these issues might be fixed in the offical release of the unit rather then the pre production units the current figures are based on.

 

If I don't plan to game for extended sessions or otherwise put the laptop under considerable stress, will the throttling issues of either computer really affect me? Does the NX500 have any significant hardware upgrades over the XPS besides the graphics card? And although this I understand this is a pretty vague question, is the difference between the 850 and 750 significant for a very occasional gamer? Last, has there been any recent update on a North America release date on the XPS? Thanks guys.

 

Did it throttle on battery or plugged in? and what was used to stress it?
Gaming does load your CPU maybe around 70ish percent whereas stresstest run at a 100% every second (although that is no excuse)
maybe it doesnt throttle in games?

3DMark 11: P4503;
3DMark 13: Cloud Gate –13047, Fire Strike – 3281, Fire Strike Extreme – 1618;

only the cloud gate benchmark is quite a lot lower, but all the other scores are about the same as any other GTX 850M (source notebookcheck)

Almost forgot, what about noise @ idle and @ load?

 

Graininess is part of how they work sadly, ideally the film should let all light emitted from the panel be undisturbed (okay - I'll allow some reduction in light intensity) but reflect incoming light in all directions. Sadly that seems to be impossible but I don't know anything about optics, maybe it could work somehow? However for all films I've seen there seem to be a direct connection between the anti-glare level with the blurring level. IMHO that isn't a huge problem as with a screen with a good backlight level one actually doesn't need a proper matte film but can use a reasonably anti-glare film instead.

YMMV and this is only from my experience. But I know that personally there is no way a glare screen will be allowed inside my daily use computers.

 

that's the problem, if asus really OC'd the 850m to 1149mhz like Mike reported, then it should perform even better than 860m, but now you are only getting a little bit higher than the DDR3 850M out there during benchmarks, so it had to be throttling

 

still no word on release date/pricing?

 

If you're using it for school, why not get the UX303LN? The 4K monitor will probably drain a lot of battery and give you a lot of frustation having to deal with software and text scaling. The UX303LN is bound to be cheaper, comes with a GT840M, and has a QHD+ resolution.

Even better, get a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet. Comes with full Windows so you can write reports, very portable being a tablet, and perfect for taking notes in class as it comes with a pen + OneNote and has much better battery life. You can also do light gaming on it.

The NX500 will be a very bad decision and I guarantee you will regret it.

http://youtu.be/vjRJde3Im1I?t=5m26s

 

I'd +1 the recommendations on the UX303LN and the Surface Pro 3. They're both great laptops. If you need, like really need, the dedicated 740m graphics, the Asus will definitely do it for you.

I wouldn't say you'd necessarily regret getting the NX500. We only have the review of a pre production unit, and I'm going to wait and see. It seems a lot of the problems the reviewer was encountering were due to throttling, and there's some room for tinkering in the software department before we get an actual release unit. It makes me cautious, but I'm still holding out hope for my next computer.

Meh, more driver issues about gaming at 4k. Here's hoping Asus is taking their sweet time by ironing out some of the bugs.

 

How can you possibly compare a surface pro 3 with this machine? It's about at 1/3th in terms of speed and has a 12" screen. It doesn't even have a keyboard (yeah it has one, but not one you can use for hours)

 

Did you not read my post? I wasn't comparing, I was recommending it because it suits his needs. "Even better, get a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet. Comes with full Windows so you can write reports, very portable being a tablet, and perfect for taking notes in class as it comes with a pen + OneNote and has much better battery life. You can also do light gaming on it."

 

How much will it cost and when willl it released in Europe? Does anyone know?

 

Probably end of September and expect 2000euro prices
too bad Razer doesnt offer the blade 14 in europe..

 

He was deciding between two 15+" notebooks. A 12" convertible or a 13" notebook are very different from that. You don't just anyhow decide to get a 13" instead cause the specs are rather comparable.

 

Anyway seems another bad release from ASUS (not the product, but the release itself)
Nobody knows when it will come, nobody knows an exact pricepoint it will sell, ...
ASUS REALLY sucks in releasing products. They announce it waaaaaaay (i should probably add even more aaaa to it) to early with all the glamour and glitter (April, in Milan),
why would someone wait A FULL 6 MONTHS, without knowing pricing or availability in your country.
I mean keep your mouth shut until you know people will be able to buy atleast one month from announcement. Because now, most people already forgot about it,
and when it will be available later on, maybe something better arrives from other companies.
They are lucky broadwell is delayed so Apple came with a refresh instead of a new retina (with maxwell) or they were dead

 

Just to update, for my school computer I ended up going with the XPS15. I am very happy with this computer, although you are right, for my uses, the 4k screen is a bit overkill and the scaling kills me. I am getting used to it though, and other than that I am largely pleased with it. I considered the 303 but a 15 inch screen was important to me.

 

Scaling will only improve in the future, but it's already quite good now.

 

Scaling sucks atm! Had a XPS15 and there are soooo many programs which are not optimized for that high resolution it's unbelievable!

 

From a ui perspective, scaling is ok but yes there are a lot of programs where it's pretty bad. It's going to take a while for those issues to get resolved and some may never get fixed. The only thing we can hope for is for Microsoft to add a pixel multiplier option in Windows 9. A third party program to do it would be nice too.

 

I was going to buy the NX500 as it had everything I wanted but the fact that I have no idea when it will be released or how much it will cost I couldn't plan ahead or continue to wait for information to arrive. So they lost my business.

It's a really stupid way of doing things. If you announce a product, announce a release date or pricing

 

Maybe they can release it when the first broadwell and 20nm GPU are out
/sarcasm

Anyway since no shops leak prices or availability yet, it don't think we can expect the NX500 any soon.
So bye bye

 

I'm with you. I keep looking for alternatives but I keep coming back to this. I'm considering the UX303LN but I think the screen is going to be a deal breaker. GX500 is black and non-touch, so it's still in the running but I prefer the NX500. The NX500 literally has everything I want and the only deal breaker will probably be the price. I really just want to know what the price is so I can decide now whether or not to look elsewhere.

I don't think these will be out till October honestly. The Zenbook infinity was slated for a Q3 launch last year and didn't actually hit US shelves until late November. Seeing as only EU shops have it for preorder, I'd say at least a month for them to have it in stock and another month for the US. Hope it's earlier but I'm not holding my breath.

Off topic, the only thing I really dislike about the NX500 is the keyboard. My Q550LF has the same type of keyboard but with a black palm rest. I think I can probably live with silver keys on a silver palm rest but I can speak from experience that the white backlighting is worthless. I think if I get this, the first thing I'll do is change the backlight color to either blue or red.

 

I got tired of waiting so I just picked a new XPS 15. It would have been nice to have the most up to date gpu but as I don't do much pc gaming it wasn't exactly a deal breaker and if the NX500 or an updated XPS 15 comes out in the next month or so then I'll just return this and pick up the new stuff.

But for now, I'm happy.

 

Two questions:
Since when is the GX non-touch? The Computex units clearly were touch (glossy, no outstanding bezel, people touched their screens). Secondly, how would you change backlight color?

 

Do you have any info saying they were touch? I've read through reviews and watched a lot of video. Nobody mentioned that it was touch. Interestingly enough, nobody mentioned it wasn't either.
Edit: if you look at Asus's computex specs they had on display, they mentioned touch on the nx500 but not the gx500. I would think they would have mentioned it if they made their first touch enabled rog laptop. I hope I'm wrong because I'd certainly take it.

If you take apart the laptop and split the keyboard, you'll see a white backlight panel similar to what's on a led monitor. If you place colored film on top of it, it will change the color from white to whatever you want. You lose a little brightness depending on what film you use.

 

It's a similar way you can do passively lit logos on the lid too.

 

Aah I see. But I wouldn't want to take apart a $1700-$2000 laptop. Too much at stake. $1000-$1200 I can stomach.

But then again, RED BACKLIGHT!

 

Actually, can anyone make any rough guesses of when we might see a Broadwell version of the NX500?

The laptop fits my wants well (though the silver keyboard is a poor idea) but I may or may not wait for a Broadwell version. I gather it'll be 2015 Broadwell comes out, but I have no idea of whether the sorts of chips the NX500 would use would come out so that it could be early in the year or more like the middle of the year and this will decide whether I wait or not.