M50vm

First of all Thank you Ken from GenTech for all help and shipping M50VM pretty fast. I wanted to post my initial observations:

The box wasn’t sealed, but I am assuming it’s because 8GB SSD was put there.

Design, love it!

Lots of stickers all over the place.

Build quality excellent

Screen: Excellent vivid colors, there is a dedicated button to switch different modes, but brightness… let down as expected from 200 cd/m2 panel, it will probably not going to be suitable for outdoors. I am also concerned about contrast. I need a good screen so I don't put a lot of eye strain on my eyes. Anyone knows how to disable auto brightness feature?

 

Hope you keep it longer than your other recent purchases.

 

I just got mine from the UPS guy!

Loving it.

I like how they packed it haha.

Edit: Review to come later when I get a chance to play with it.

 

Fn + a disables the light sensor. It greatly increases the brightness of the screen. It seemed like even in a pitch black room the light sensor would throttle the brightness down from full. I wonder if the light sensor is picking up light from the screen and that is effecting how it sets brightness.

 

hmm, the sensor is pretty close to the screen and the other LED's, although you'd think they'd take that into account. As long as you can disable it thats fine I guess.

As for GenTech, I plan on ordering mine from there also within the next couple of days. They seem great, Ken answered 101 of my questions.

 

thank you, disabled auto brightness and things seemed to be improved.

I didn't notice any key lag so far...

 

I didn't either originally because I wasn't doing any heavy typing, but even just using AIM is kind of tough due to the lag.

edit: Hmm, actually looks like I was missing keystrokes due to my hand touching the touch pad. Being careful about not touching it led to me not missing any. I wonder if this is the route of the problem for other people and they just never realized it?

 

so far the screen looks above average on Asus, it will not blow your mind, but it's not a disappointment either like I had with new HPs. I saw them at BestBuy and though brightness/contrast was just horrible. It looks like HP been reusing the same screens for that past 5 years

Other then the screen I didn't pay much attention to the rest of the notebooks. It looks stylish, although it's bit thick and heavy for 15". I previous had Sony FZ it had the best form factor for 15" laptop. I can hear fan running and I am in my office now with 5 Dell desktops around

 

Finally, got a chance to play a little more with this wonderful laptop...

I'll start with screen... which is still above average, but I think I can live with it. It's not as bright as my previous FZ HiColor, but it does have good colors and enough brightness for indoor use.

The speed of the system is excellent, I am finally happy that I can edit real HD stuff without chopiness. I have Canon HF100 camera that produces true 1080p images and my previous FZ system with T7500 2.2Ghz /4GB ram wasn't handling it very well, this 2.53 /4GB ram handles it just perfect.

Heat... it doesn't get hot even while extended use for general browsing. After about an hour of playing with the system I've been encoding HD files for 10 mins and the system did not get hot at all, it does feel a bit warm, but nothing to be concerend about.

Keyboard.... I consider myself a fast typer and I am typing this mini review on the M50 and I did not notice any keyboard lag, or maybe I am not as fast as some of you?

Speakers... well I am a little disappointed, I thought Altec Lansing speaker will be great, but while they are clear they are not loud at all, not to mention there is no builtin subwoofer. My previous system Acer 5920G had excellent speakers, although display was lacking.


Overall, this is an excellent system and I do not regret getting one!

 

Sounds great, makes me feel even better about the fact that I just ordered mine. Can't wait for it to get here and start messing around with it. Good to hear about the keyboard too (maybe it's just some M50s that are having this issue?). Well, have fun with your new laptop (hope you keep it longer than those you have listed).

 

I reformatted mine with Vista Ultimate 64 bit. I also tried typing a paragraph with the keyboard on it.. No lag? Everything came out perfect for me.


Having some problems with the touchpad though. Installed the driver by Fn + F9 won't lock or unlock the touchpad. Also how do I switch to Multimedia Mode? Don't I tap that "MODE" on the touchpad? Nothing happens. I don't have that Synaptics Pointing Devide anymore... I tried reinstalling the "Touchpad Drivers" but nothing..


As of right now I'm loving the laptop. As to the comment about the screen, it is perfect to me. I didn't expect it to be this bright though. No need to worry now.

 

Found in BIOS speakers volume was set to 4, I changed it to 8, but didn't notice any difference.

I owned Asus 4-5 years ago and I remember clearly I had issue with arrow keys, I don't know how to explain it, but they didn't feel right like the rest of the keyboard and amazingly same type of issue on this Asus as well. It's not a big deal, but I am surprised to see the same issue, where clicking those keys doesn't feel right.

Just discovered face recognition login and I thought it was quite an awesome feature. I never liked biometric login due to inconsistancy, but face recognition doing this job just great so far.

Not sure about your issue, could be drivers?

 

I don't know.. Can you look in Control Panel and see if you have a Synaptics Pointing Device icon? I had it before I reformatted.. Installed the drivers through the disk. No go.

 

It's not there, but it is in Programs & Features...

btw, found out that camera gets really hot if left on for a while. Also, has anyone tried to login with a picture of yourself?

 

Weird.. It's not there. Drivers are installed too.. and reinstalled twice.

Does the multimedia touchpad work for you?

And nope.. Haven't played with camera yet. Trying to get drivers to work still.

Edit: I found the problem.. I install the drivers.. but they don't stay installed??

 

Klas and Blizzie good to hear the lag is not there... Klas do you have the 32 bit version of Windows vista running??? Just wondering?

Also how hot does it get??? Thanks guys.

Klas would you still recommend the Sony FW over this or are you satisfied with this purchase?

 

Sitting idle in Windows it's pretty cool. A tiny bit of heat being blown out the side but other than that nothing. It's quite silent too.

 

Awesome... To hear... Congratulations Blizzie! I'm going to order by Monday. Its my first time ordering online. So I am really scared.

 

I will congratulate myself when I get my pointing device/touchpad to work..
Driver installs.. but then when I reboot. It says uninstalled.

Edit: I tried installing using the installer itself instead of the ASUS software. It says install failed.. Error. I'm using the 64 bit version too..

 

Try to uninstall the driver and then reboot the laptop... Then install the driver again and see if it works. Good luck.

 

I'm not sure what your problem is, but mine works in 64 bit vista right from the CD. Maybe it comes from one of the hotkey or media applications, not the driver?

 

I got a driver from Synaptics website.. which is the generic ones. But now the Touchpad Lock works. The scroll at the right side of touchpad also works.

How do I switch to Multimedia Mode? To use those buttons on the touchpad? Hitting "MODE" does nothing?

 

That should do it, it does on mine. Try installing some of the utilities on the disk.

 

I installed everything except Adobe Reader and Norton.
Maybe this Synaptics Driver doesn't work... Looks like I need the ASUS one which won't install.

Edit: Omg it works... I tried installing in safe mode and finally works! Some PC tech I am.. didn't think of it before.

 

Awesome man. Congratulations!!!