New ASUS N550 Multimedia series, IPS panel ?

I just purchased this one Ineo Technology 2.5-Inch SATA I/II External Hard Drive Enclosure with Built-In USB 3.0 Cable (I-NA217U PLUS) and an 840 Pro 512GB SSD but I won't know if it works until I get them and the n550jv next week.

 

Hi spooky, just curious, what was the hangup with the OEM Win8 install?
Maybe the reseller would be able to help, as that's the path they use?

 

'Problem' might be the wrong term, hassle is probably a better term. Given that they ship with 0 media, getting the OS off the current drive and onto a new drive just ended up taking more time than it was worth for me, and I had an extra 8 upgrade and an extra win7 key lying around, so I figured forget it. I get the added bonus of a clean install with this route as well with this route. So, at the end of the day, it was easier for me to just use a separate 8 upgrade.

 

How would you say it's size/weight is compared to the N56? The N56 was bulky.

 

According to the specs at least, the n56 weighed 5.0lbs, and the n550 weight 5.9lbs

 

That is probably a later n56. The original with the 650m and FHD screen weighed around 6 pounds. On Best Buy's site it lists the n550 as 5.5 pounds (it also doesnt have it in stock), and reviews have mentioned it is sleeker than the n56. So I'm wondering what weight drop that translates into.

EDIT: Asus site listing 5.7 pounds for n550jv ( http://www.asus.com/us/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/N550JV/#specifications)

 

Even if the laptops weight was 1 pound different, I doubt you'd notice. It'll still be a bit heavy. Also I think the touch version will be a bit heavier as well. The weight is for the better, though, as this is mostly due to a bigger battery.

 

Yeah.. my n56vz feels light when put in my belkin evo backpack. Unless, i carry them with one hand then yes it is heavy. Just get a comfortable notebook backpack, it helps

 

Like ddonuts4 mentioned, it's 1920x1080 IPS screen. they probably got the wrong information from Asus. I don't think it's a watered down version since the model number are identical.

The CPU should be 4700HQ not 4702.

SSDs are already superior to rotating drives. So in real-world SATA 3 and STAT 2 with SSDs doesn't make much difference.

 

Yes, modern SATA III SSDs are faster, especially with small files if you buy the better brands, mostly it is down to generation, but for the most part getting the SSD part is the most important over HDD.

 

My question was a bit unclear,
Does the mobo chipset support sata 3?

 

Yes. Every recent laptop should support SATA 3.

Edit: If you are referring to the external hard drive enclosure mentioned here, it supports USB 3.0, which is almost as fast as SATA III, and you should notice no real difference with current SSDs.

 

Hi. Are you planning on using the external ssd and install windows and your main programs and then use the internal 1tb 5400 HD as storage. I'm getting my computer delivered sometime today. If its possible to use external ssd I wouldn't mind trying that instead of opening up and swapping the drives or maybe down the road I'd get rid of the optical drive and either buy external drive or figure how to mount the drive on my desktop and connect them to get the CD on the laptop. Let me know how it works out.

 

Please excuse me if my information is outdated, but last time I checked, windows will not let you install to an external drive. It doesn't matter if it's USB 3.0, 2.0, eSATA, or anything like that. You have to go through a complicated process such as the one here:
I haven't tried it myself, and I cannot recommend it, but here's the link anyways.

How to install and boot Windows on an external (USB) hard drive - TechSpot Forums

Edit: I found this. It's called windows to go, but its almost as hard to setup, and requires a much more expensive version of windows.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_To_Go

 

Just got the n550-db71, and I can say that the screen is a definite matte finish, although the screen is depressed from the bezel, like the n56. The q550, which should have the same touchscreen as the n550-db72t, is much glossier, although there is a little bit of a matte finish, but not enough to blur the glare.

 

I will put the SSD in the USB 3 external enclosure first so I can clone the HDD to the SSD. Then I swap the HDD and the SSD and use HDD as a storage and backup drive in the external enclosure. Hopefully without stripping the little screws while opening the bottom of the laptop. Reminds me to pickup a Torx T5 screwdriver.

 

Thanks for the info. I just got mine from adorama a few minutes ago. I hope its the same as every body else has received as far as the screen. The specs on the box however do say (FHD WV Slim (led) T.P. It doesn't mention IPS is that something you find in the computer settings or those that have purchased it does it show it listed on the box. I guess I'm going to go ahead and open no return policy at adorama once opened that sucks.

 

Look at the screen from a wide angle. If it stays clear, as opposed to washing out, then it's IPS. Wide viewing angle is a key characteristic of IPS screen and what drew me to this Asus Q501 I'm returning for the 550. IPS stands out in a crowd of LCD screen like a beacon of light in the night.

 

Does the n550jv-db1 have IPS screen? What is the hardware id of the lcd?

 

Search a bit in this topic and you will find it.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...ltimedia-series-ips-panel-11.html#post9290749

 

Both N550-DB71 and N550-DB72T uses same panel, the hardware ID is LDG0323 1920x1080 Full HD IPS. The only difference is the touchscreen version has a glass over the matte screen for touch panel.

 

Hi all,

So those of you who own the DB72T, how do you like it? I've got one one on reservation at Microcenter. I tried the Y510p and it was too big and too hot while gaming. Seems this laptop will be perfect for my needs of light gaming (Diablo III and BF3) as well as video editing tasks. Plus it has decent battery life as well as a very nice screen. My desktop is dying so I'll be coming from an Intel Q9550 with a Radeon 4850 512mb, which is well behind the 4700MQ in this laptop.

So how is Asus extended warranty service? I usually buy an extended warranty with every gaming laptop I buy, just for peace of mind. It has paid off twice. I know some people despise them, but I'm just curious if they are easy to deal with should an repair be necessary? I currently have a Lenovo X230T that I will replace with this Asus. I've been looking for a laptop with an IPS screen to match my X230T and this seems to be the winner.

Rob

 

I'm really happy with my purchase so far. I haven't tried any intense gaming because I've been doing casual gaming that uses touchscreen. I was going to buy mine at microcenter at first but Asus 15.6" Touch Screen Notebook Computer, Silver N550JV-DB72T priced match the computer for the same price saving me the tax and shipping as my local store was out. They were selling a 3yr Mack warranty for 125.00 that included accidental protection. I don't know how good it will be but when I called the company they don't do what Squaretrade does with the warranties once the money you basically insured it for has been spent your warranty is over. The only way they void their warranty is if they replace the computer for whatever reason then they would offer you an option to buy another warranty. I hope I don't ever have to use it but I thought it was money well spent in the event of circumstances. I think asus comes with 1yr ADP if you register within 60 days but I haven't registered my computer yet. Goodluck with your decision.

 

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna pick it up tomorrow and give it a go. I really like the build quality compared to the Y510p also so I think I'll be quite happy. I remember checking it out when I returned my Lenovo but kind of just made it an afterthought. I'm glad I read up on it more here.

 

Why put glass over a matte screen? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the matte coating? Is the touch screen glossy? Having a non-reflective, full HD IPS screen is the only real reason I want this particular laptop.

 

Because leaving the bare display for fingers would be inviting scratches and permanent marks, like all phones have gorilla glass.

 

So I picked up my N550 today but have a question about charging. I plugged in the adapter and the laptop started charging. I then unplugged it when it reached around 97%. After some time, I plugged it in again and it wouldn't charge. The battery had to drop below 85% for it to begin charging. The battery icon didn't even say it was plugged in, not charging, no power cord symbol..nothing......it simply did not recognize the adapter was plugged in at all until after it reached below 85%.

This seems odd to me. Once it starts charging it does reach 100% and continues to show that it's plugged in. But once I unplug it, it will not start to recahrge again until it goes below 85% or so. Does Asus use a special charging system or do I have a defective power brick/charging system in the laptop? It would seem that this could cause an issue if the laptop does not think it's plugged in, then it won't run at full performace due to the power plan switching to a battery mode if I am thinking correctly?

 

So are you stating that the matte touch screen has a glossy glass cover? That makes no sense...

 

I can confirm it does have a glossy display. Not sure if it's matte behind it or not but the front is glossy. I just picked mine up from Microcenter today. Almost reminds me of a Macbook Pro screen as far as looks and quality. It is IPS as well and 1080P Full HD. Viewing angles are great as well. It really is a great display if you can get used to the glare.

 

and this is why I would never get a touchscreen version...hate glossy

 

15.6" 16:9 HD (1366x768)/IPS FHD (1920x1080) LED Backlight Non-Glare LCD Panel

This is what's driving me nuts about this laptop: conflicting info regarding what it's specs are. The above was snipped from the Asus site. Grrrrr...

The various sites report HD but everyone here (who I believe) report specs that don't match what retailers are advertising. Guess I'll just have to role the dice and hope I get one that's FHD and matte.

 

I Haven't really been paying attention to whether it was charging or not charging when I had it plugged in. I will now to see if it does the same thing as yours. On the subject of battery's do the batteries now suffer from the memory effect like they used to several years ago. I don't really need to be on battery life that much but if I unplugged to use portable and only used 25% or less battery life am I hurting the battery to plug it back in when I get back or do I need to let it discharge till it says plug into charger. Thanks for any information anybody can provide.

 

I can tell you the Microcenter website lists it as "HD" 1366x768 however the actual box label says "FHD LED T.P." I assume the T.P. is for the touch panel indication..aka..touch screen. I have yet to see a plain matte screen available in the US. The display does have glare under office lights but I am getting used to it. My laptop also lists the hardware ID for the LCD as an LG panel like previous postings indicate.

Here are some examples of the glare....

 

What I do once or twice a week is drain the battery all the way down and charge it up. The rest of the time I leave it plugged in. I have had zero issues doing this with my X230T for over a year and the battery holds a full charge without any issues of capacity loss that I can recognize. I cannot say what is right or wrong when it comes to charging/discharging a battery as I read conflicting reports both ways on the interwebs.

 

Latest news tell this story and some manufacturers even reinforce this behaviour with software control.

Full discharge - charge is not good, but not exactly at the same time and this means that very often full charges will damage the battery as bad as a full cycle or a full discharge. This is why some have the option to limit the charge at 60-80% (like Lenovo). Asus has a different feature, it will not charge unless it drops under 95%. So far, at least with the Gs I had, this worked as well.

Use it on battery only when you have no other option. In the end, the batteries are consumables, keep that in mind.

 

Yes and their life is rated in charge and discharge cycles.

 

My box shows same thing and I got mine from Adorama.

 

So if I have to move computer to the other room and only use 10 to 20% battery life it would be better to plug it back in when I got back to charger then to discharge battery before recharging. My computer goes from the office where the charger is to the living room sometimes. Too lazy to keep unplugging the charger and plugging back in. Thanks again for everybody's information.

 

If you use 10%, you can stay where the charger is

If you use 20% and you really want to keep the battery healthy as much as possible, the best thing you can do is to charge it to 95 or so, disconnect the charger and connect it again. The battery should stop charging at this point. If you do full charges often, they will also damage the battery. But this takes things a bit too far. You know that "lazy" is not a cheap thing

 

Thanks for the pics! If I do buy one I guess it'll be the non-touch model.

 

Other than the downgraded graphics card, is the Best Buy version ( Asus 15.6" TouchScreen Laptop 8GB Memory 1TB Hard Drive Q550LF-BBI7T07 - Best Buy) the same in all other respects--I would like to check out the hardware/build quality on this device in person and I don't have a super close microcenter store. . . . ?

Thanks, N123

 

Your link appears to be for the Q550 model which appears to be similar in port layout and such. If it's all metal then it appears to be the same chassis as the N550. Can't be for certain though based on the pics alone in my opinion.

 

No. The Best Buy (Q550) version is dual core, the N550 is quad. The Q550 is touch screen, the N550 can be touch (which is glossy) or nontouch, which is matte. All are IPS. The Q550 has a nicer-looking keyboard, with silver keys against a dark background. The N550 keyboard is silver on silver, kinda bland looking. But that's not a very serious issue.

I bought the Best Buy version a few weeks ago. It's nice, but I'm going to return it to get the quad processor N550. I'm hoping Best Buy gets the N550 in stock in the next few weeks, before my 60-day return window with them closes. That's the main reason I buy from them. A 60-day no-questions return (if you're a Silver member) is pretty nice. Makes it easier for me to pull the trigger on big-ticket items knowing I can thoroughly check them out for two months. But if BB doesn't get the N550 in pretty soon, I'll give GenTech a try, even though their return window is only two weeks. I'll have them upgrade a N550JV-DB71 -- that's a quad-core, 8G ram, 1T 5400rpm, matte, nontouch, IPS screen, which starts at $969 -- to 16G RAM, 250G SSD + 750G 7200rpm HDD in the optical bay, which brings the price to ~$1,500.

I've been looking at new laptops for a few months. I don't game (much), but I need to be able to do some video and audio editing on the road. The N550JV-DB71 with its quad Haswell, discrete graphics, matte IPS, and the SSD/HDD + 16G RAM upgrades looks like the best deal to me. I bought the expensive UX51VZ-XH71, ~$2,300 with its twin 128G SSDs, but it was LOUD all the time, didn't have a Haswell, and I couldn't take the glossy touch screen, so I returned it. The Q550 is acceptably quiet, so I'm hoping the N550 won't be any louder.

 

FYI...

Sams Club here in Memphis had a touch-screen (glossy) version on display for those (like me) that want to do the touchy-feely thing before purchase (it is IPS). I wouldn't buy it from them though as theirs doesn't have descrete graphics and is $969!

It's very nice overall.

 

Has anyone bought the touch version from xoticpc? I wonder if it actually have a non glossy screen? I just asked them via email they said they do have a matte touch screen version.

 

Sadly, its next to impossible to get a matte touch screen. I highly doubt that Xotic has it.

 

The touch screen will need a protective layer of some kind.

 

They also sell the DB72T with discrete graphics online only and it's $1039.

ASUS 15.6" Touch Laptop Computer, Intel Core i7-4700HQ, 8GB Memory, 1TB Hard Drive - Sam's Club

 

That's a sweet deal. I'll hav to go back and play with it a bit more. Express shipping is only about $12 dollars plus local tax.

 

Im liking this laptop a lot and Im really considering getting it within the next few moths if not sooner. Can anyone comment on the 24gb ssd? Some places list it with the touchscreen model but Im guessing it is not included