Questions about U500VZ / UX51VZ

Couple of questions before getting this beast (U500VZ / UX51VZ):

1. Lots of complaints about fans noisy on idle. However, some comments that there was a firmware update for that issue, but no confirmation. Can someone confirm it? It's a decisive factor for me.
2. No DVI and DisplayPort?? uf.. what's the max. resolution that HDMI can output at least? is it above 1920x1080?
3. Cannot replace battery and hard drives?
4. Any upcoming competition (or existing)? Must be < 2.2kg and thin, 1920x1080, dedicated GPU and i7. Except Apple stuff, I couldn't find anything..

Thanks

 

I don't own a UX51 so I can't answer your first three questions, but as for competition, quite a few people, including myself, who were looking at the Zenbook are now focusing on the new Samsung Series 7 Chronos. It's just a bit over your weight requirement, at 2.4kg (compared to 2.2kg of the Zenbook) and a height of 22mm (compared to the 20mm of the Zenbook). It has a full blown quad core i7 (3635QM) and a AMD 2GB 8870M graphics card (Somewhere between Nvidia's 660m and 670m). Also has a 1080p touchscreen, with a superb 11 hour (idle) battery life and still considerably cheaper than either the Zenbook or Macbooks(exact values depending on where you're buying from). Only downside is that it has no SSD, but most users are replacing it by themselves.

The full thread is here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/702308-introducing-2013-series-7-chronos-amd-hd8870m.html
But you might be interested in this post comparing the Samsung Series 7 with the UX51VZ: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...es-7-chronos-amd-hd8870m-137.html#post9093359

 

I've checked it, looks good indeed!
However, I couldn't find anywhere to buy it, it's still not released, no?

 

It is released, depending on where you live. Your location says Belgium, and atleast 1 user bought this laptop from Fnac and had it delivered to Belgium:
Samsung NP770Z5E-S01FR - Fnac.com - Ordinateur portable
If you want, you can get in touch with pranktank who bought it from the above site and has created an owners thread for the laptop:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...unge-np770z5e-np780z5e-np870z5e-np880z5e.html

 

Ok, thanks.
I've checked it, looks a bit bulkier (but not much).
On the downside: HDisk is a disaster, but replaceable, but the U500 has two hard drive slots which is an advantage.
On the upside: GPU is better.
And a touchscreen.
Better battery life.

Did I miss something?

P.S. - it looks great

 

The hard drive slots of the Zenbook are proprietary and I'm fairly sure you can't replace them, whereas you can put a SSD into the Chronos and have a 1 tb external hard drive. Plus, it still ends up cheaper.

 

Yep, good point. I also thought about it.

 

To answer your HDMI question: Yes, it can output to 1080p and higher, but the resolution capability is relative to the refresh rate you have set in place. It can easily do 1080p at 60hz though.

 

I know that.
My question was specifically about that video card if it can do above 1080p (1920x1080), for example 2560 x 1440 at 60 Hz (my GT520M cannot for example)

 

It depends on both HDMI and the amount of VRAM on your video card. if your laptop is shipped with HDMI 1.3 or above you should have no problem for resolution of 2560 x 1440 at 60 Hz, however, if your video card only comes with 1GB VRAM or less which may not be enough to fill up the 2560 x1440 (3.686 million pixels) + your laptop screen at the same time.

Did you test it with external monitor only or you tested with external monitor + laptop screen?

 

I understand, that's why I specified the exact model of laptop my question is about, however your answer is a general one, while i would be interested to hear people who own the model and have experienced themselves that it works fine
I tested mine on external monitor + laptop screen.
I can try on external monitor only also, but as I was researching its not possible to achieve higher than 1920x1080 with GT 540 via HDMI.

 

I purchased a UX51VZ from the microsoft store. Had to travel to get it.

Has anyone figured out how to buy an asus extended warranty for this unit? If so where did you buy it and what product number was it?

Thanks in advance.

Fred

 

It's possible if you lower the resolution on laptop screen. The GT540M max resolution is 2560x1600 laptop screen and HDMI combined which is 4,096,000 pixels. if your laptop screen is set at 1920x1080 that will be 2,073,600 pixels and the remaining pixels it can support for HDMI is 2,022,400.

 

I tried to do output only to the monitor and it didn't work neither (then it should be even more available pixels, right?).

 

Hey Fred,

Extended warranties are typically sold by the retailer/reseller with Asus products. You might want to contact them and inquire about it.

Otherwise, you can refer to this page, which has a link at the bottom to contact an Asus sales rep for extended warranty info and purchasing.

 

what's the max resolution you are getting?

 

Very basic comparaison of new Chronos 7 ( nontouch) and ASUS UX51VZ-XH71

While the Chronos looks good from a specs standpoint as it very well should given its a full year newer duh!?! I find the fit and finish better on the ASUS as least the model of each I got to demo. The other thing is Samsung can be a real PITA when it comes to drivers etc. They control all the video card drivers etc. having been a users of there products for more than 20 yrs they are terrible when it comes to being timely with any kind of support for issues such as firmware updates. The fact the video drivers are all going to be handled custom thru them to be is a very bad thing regardless if you can find some work around. For me the other real thing that matters comparably for normal day to day use was battery life and there the new Chronos takes the cake no question. I do wonder though for strictly surfing and light use by turning off the NVida and only using the intel 4K how much life you gain. From my tests on other laptops those cards eat up some serious power. May be a non-factor I do not know.

But I will take dealing with ASUS over Samsung. It would likely still not have a fan update if this was a Samsung LOL. I am not a Samsung hater either as I said I have lots of their products. In this case I could easily wait for a couple months to get the full version of the Chronos here in the US but I really like the way the ASUS is put together.




Warranty Information and My Personal Review and Opinion on Options


Now maybe some can explain this one thing for me as the topic of warranty coverage came up. I can also help freddyk with at least some of the his question regarding extended and upgraded warranty coverage protection.

I see all over in the RMA and similar threads on other forums the fact some times getting repairs thru ASUS can take a while. Unless you are super lucky and live within easy driving distance of one of their repair centers its all mail in. So you are looking at a couple weeks when you count shipping time for most things.

Why do I not see any talk about ASUS's Premium Care packages? I can understand maybe for those outside the USA where coverage may not be good or even available. But here is the USA I can not understand why for a premium laptop like this and with all the talk about turn around times why it seems next to no one thinks to or chooses not to purchase ASUS's Next Business Day On Site Premium Care Warranty Upgrade as well as extensions on it as well as the Accidental Protection Warranty. The latter allows one claim per warranty year which I think for the cost they charge is more than fair.

I was able to purchase the upgraded 3 year extended Warranty + + 3 year On site Next Day. I just orders the my ASUS UX51VZ-XH71 512G model for $2243. I added to it the upgraded Premium Care Package mentioned here for $289. The whole thing including 2 day shipping tax tags etc.. $2575.40 Anything that would possibly need a repair after the first year is going to likely cost at least the price of that full warranty. Plus they come to me so no shipping times. Most likely from diagnosis they will have the part with them they need. Plus if I break it from dropping etc its covered as well. Compared to the costs from Dell, Toshiba the price seems very reasonable. Compared to Apple its a freak'n steal of a life time. Price for basic Apple Care $399 so $400 for 3 yrs. No ADP at all. They no longer offer any means of purchasing Apple Plus anymore. Looks like since Cook took over the helm its all about profit these days. Just look at how many are having issues getting the screwed up screens replaced. $400 and you have to mail it in or hope you live near a Apple store.

Anyways is there some reason why people I see posting on here in the warranty threads do not seem to even mention anything about the Premium Care from ASUS. Its main buyers are from businesses which to me means the service including the tech phone in for diagnoses is likely all a step up from typical warranty care. Much the way there is a EXTREME difference in care level from Dell between home and business support.

My guess is very few people may not even know they offer on site next day upgrades or premium care warranty service. My bases is that time and time again I see the comments "these are your only choices" Speaking of mail in or withing drop off distance to a service center. Maybe people know extended warranty but think its still just more of the same but do not know they can upgrade present warranty care to premium on site extending service time or not.

I can say one thing I really liked when I called ASUS thru the line dealing with the premium care warranty service. I was not on hold but maybe a minute. It had more to do with weird way there phone system works. It rings then sounds like a pickup but its not its then that you are in the cue but no music or anything. But not even a min later it rang again and I had a rep on the phone. This was someone in my country that spoke English as his first or primary language. He was not reading from a script. Had great customer relations presentation. Was not rushed or anything. Knew right off the answers to each of my questions as soon as I gave him the model number of the laptop I was asking about.

You do need to purchase the extended and premium care packages thru a authorized vendor. Do a search for premium care package will bring up a number of hits in google. But price shop as there is a HUGE variation between various dealers on pricing. The other thing I was told by the ASUS rep is to make absolutely sure you have given them (the vendor) your correct email info. The reason for this is they take your info about your laptop or product and send it electronically into ASUS who once they register it send you the owner a warranty certificate via email. YOU MUST KEEP THIS CERTIFICATE. That is your proof or receipt of care. It is was you will be asked for anytime you try to use the service.

I do think that certain upgraded services are only offered on certain models as well just as it is with other manf such as Lenovo. They have very different packages for Ideapad vs Thinkpad lines as well as vastly different costs. I think ASUS does not do much to market or advertise the Upgraded service outside of its commercial sales vendors. Not to mention the popular main stream vendors typical consumers are use to purchasing from either have there own warranty services they want you to buy such as Best Buy's Geek Squad or Amazon and other use Square deal where I am guessing they get a % which is a healthy amount. I can tell you after reading the fine print on those two services they are so not worth the cost compared to service rendered if they choose to follow the letter of the contract. BHPhoto is a huge online store many purchase ASUS from. They offer square deal which is not much of a deal IMO.

So before I purchased anything I did some serious research into various warranty coverages based on where I might be purchasing my new ASUS UX51VZ-XH71. The next few paragraphs is my review of what I found and my opinions. I fully understand other people may have other view points. These are mine and I expect them to be taken as such.

Square Trade maybe a good service for a item that has a crap or no warranty or for a used item but for a new item like a laptop with a warranty especially one like ASUS that offers ADP its a total joke. You have to pay for the time its under its own factory warrant but you get almost no extra coverage at all. This is right from Square Trades Policy info:

Get it there is no coverage added to stuff already covered. This means no 5 day turn around time nothing. So if you were to purchase say 1 yr you would basically pay $100 + and get nothing meaningful for it. They further state if you have issues and your Manf does not fix it SquareTrade MAY cover it for certain things but list none of them anywhere I could find. So I looked up price. Choose laptop. Choose 3 year which they claim is their best deal and of course it is as the whole first year is a total sham. For price coverage I chose $2K-$2.9K My cost for 3 yrs $499. What a joke. Here is the best part if they have to replace my laptop because of damage or not being able to get it fixed whatever. They consider the Warranty fully paid out. That's right you are done no more coverage its over. They cover a full laptop price so there are done. $500 for what could be just 1 ADP. claim. People rate this crap good I wonder what they are thinking. This goes down at least for new laptops as one of the most over priced worst warranty coverages ever IMO. At least for an ASUS.


Geek Squad. Well you know how Best Buy seems to do a great job on price matching? I thought it was actually fairly good AT FIRST. They will match Amazon, NewEgg, BHPhoto. Wow I figured this is great. They also said since most of the time they can not fix it in house they just give you a new laptop if they have it in the store or get it from the warehouse. All seems great to me. Then I started to dig a bit. Found out that any ASUS purchased from Best Buy does not get the ASUS ADP which is part of the normal warranty in the USA. Why is it? Because of Geek Squad that is why. Its almost makes it a grey market item. They pay ASUS far less per unit as ASUS discounts because they are removing the ADP. That is a huge cost in terms of warranty costs. This now means they have a huge up sell for the customer on accidental damage protection during the first year. OK not terrible but what about that price matching. Well its not apples to apple now is it. You are no longer getting the ADP so even if they match it if you had to buy it back it would cost you $100 or from Geek Square |$149 That $50 price match adjustment just became a loss.

On to that replacement lap top thing a few different sales reps told me from a few stores. Sounds great IF THEY DO IT. But that is not what the contract states. They can mail it off to have it worked on and you can be stuck basically waiting just as you would for the standard warranty. So @ $149 per year which includes the year its under warranty with ASUS but you have lost the ADP part in turn for Geek Square ADP that again adds that $149 to your price you are getting very little. So $149 x 3= $477 for a 3 yr warranty that you have to bring it in to likely have it mailed out to then have to come back to pick it up after its shipped back. How exactly is that better. Same thing as standard ASUS but now I have to drive to and from the store and deal with all that extra paper work and diagnostic. Not to mention have you seen the level of experience of Geek Square techs!?! I ran the internal IT dept for a very large online travel company and we had our own plus warranty coverage techs. What they were NOT was 16-18 yr techs without degrees. Now they do offer tech unlimited ADP claim coverage so there is no limit. So maybe that is a plus for some that treat there laptops like tough books I do not know. I for one am careful with mine and hope to never have to use that coverage but I want it just in case as I do USE my laptops in many places. Further at any time if they have to replace the laptop because they can not fix they the underwriter of the GeekSquad Warranty sets the value deprecation of each item. Thus they will only give you what that underwriter claims is the current street value of the laptop. So you could pay that money for the coverage and say you break the laptop at the end of the first year or say you get another year to year two. You are not going to get a replacement laptop. You are going to get a Best Buy Gift card for the perceived street value of that laptop as it is today. How would like to have they claim they can not fix your 10 month old $2300 laptop plus a few hundred in warranty service payments and then get a gift card for say $800. So they are going to make profit again off you as you can only spend it at BB. What a screw job. That way way different than hey if we can fix it we just give you a new one off the shelf. Maybe but for how long the first 90 days? The contract says nothing about that so its only words. Completely meaningless.

So far we have two services that you have to mail in in one case for sure and lets face it unless its a ram issue at the other as well. Neither gives you anything of worth in the first year and one is a bit of a bait and switch. They both at or close to $500 for 3 yrs for that privilege.


Here IMO is a huge part and may be a Gigantic thing to those that presently have there Zenbooks UX51VZ-XH71 and they are still covered under the factory warranty period:


For both Square Trade and Geek Squad you must purchase there warranty protection if you want the ADP within the first 16 days for Geek Squad and 30 days for Square Trade. This is both for the ADP or just general warranty coverage. So if you do not get it when its brand new forget it.



ASUS Premium Care Package with ADP (extended warranties and upgrades):

I found what I think is the full MSRP ASUS puts on it even though they do not sell it out right. $350 I was able to find it fro $289 and I will give the site where I purchased the laptop as coverage package from at the end.

You get the following:

Premium Care Support for Diagnosing (I think this is business class support)
3 Year full warranty coverage 100% on parts and labor.
3 Years Accidental Damage Protection (ADP) This is limited to 1 claim per year of coverage. Total of 3 ADP claims.
3 Years On site Repair for both Warranty and ADP.
3 years Next Day On site Service. I do know though its if that is feasible as it was even with Dells business onsite coverage as well. Sometimes times do not match up or the contracted Tech company has to wait for the part. But those parts according to ASUS ship from USA warehouses. (I am trying to include any variation I thought to ask about and am recalling here) So I am sure there is some feasible way you could have to wait on a part. But I think this is why certain laptops may be covered. I am not sure about this as I did not directly ask as the UX51VZ was covered I did not care much beyond that. But these parts are likely specifically stocked as lets face it you take care of your business customers if you want to keep them as such. These are considered business class laptops.

All of this for basically $300. Maybe its just me but this seems to be so much of a better deal I can not see why people IN the USA are not purchasing this. Again I am specifically speaking of owners in the USA a number of the warranties are specific to the USA only.

Another thing the descriptions you will find on various vendors is super confusing. What I did was went to ASUS Commercial Site and there they had a link to a PDF for Extended Warranty Options. Here is the link: ASUS Extended Warranty Options

I suggest you figure out which one you want there and then go to the site and pick it based on that specific number. Further I recommend you call ASUS and confirm it so there is no confusion on what you are getting. Basically the way they do it is first go off the length of your facotry warranty which for the Zenbook UX51 is 1 year. Then they add to if from there 1 yr 2 yr 3 yr. They then mention the total years it comes to which are them added together. They will then say local which is the normal warranty which was added then the full length of the ADP and then the addtion of the next day on site which is shortened in a number of places as NBD or ND or NB. Same goes on a number of vendor sites.

This is why I say figure out and confirm what you want then just be sure that what you are ordering has that manf part number. That is what matters as it is that which is going to ASUS and ASUS is the one sending you the certificate. SO if you get the part right regardless of whatever the Vendor has for description it will be correct.

If they get it wrong I spoke with one vendor and confirmed it. Its not a big deal they can cancel/destroy it and then re-issue the correct one and if there is a price difference credit or charge the difference.

Here is the best part of the ASUS warranty: Since it has the standard warranty from them already, you can purchase the upgraded warranty any time as long as the original factory warranty is still active. I am not sure how they handle a Best buy laptop purchase given it does not have the ADP from my understanding. Have to see how that goes. Not sure if I was mention it and just see if it goes thru. Worst case you do not have one year of it. So you would have only 2 claims you could file in 3 yrs. This is a large advantage over all the other extended warranty options. They would have already had to been purchased this one you have a full year to do so. So if you needed to save up as $2K is a lot for many people to drop at once another few hundred may not be possible all at once.

Lastly there is a actual 3 yr additional extension which would give you a total of 4 yrs full on site NBD ADP coverage. It seems to be around $100-$150 more for that last year which makes sense as the older they get the more chances of parts failing. I just wanted to mention it as some people may like to keep there laptops for many years.


I found the best deal on Provantage.com I checked their reviews and they had a very high 4-5 star average rating. They offer a full money back in the first 30 days on any of their products minus shipping which I think is fantastic. Everyone I spoke too spoke very good English with no hard to understand heavy accents. Were super helpful and very nice. It was my first time dealing with this company and I was very happy and impressed with the level of care I received. The sale person I spoke with had me put her name in the notes section so she could make sure it was handled properly even though I ordered online. She sent me a email when she saw the order come thru. It can not go thru automated as they have to review the warranty package and then get the serial number to the laptop once its pulled for you sale ticket.

I did not see the 4yr version on provantage but since they are a warranty distributor they can process it and I fairly certain. They would just need to work out the pricing. But I think it would still be more than $50 cheaper than MSRP. I think CDW lists there prices as all full MSRP pricing is my guess. That one was around $450 so my guess is it would be in the high $300 from provantage.


pcsuperstore.com also seems to sell the warranties at a discounted price as well.


Just remember you will need your serial and likely model number to order it and I suggest calling so that you can give them all this info other wise you may have to wait for a call from there when they start to process it. You could include that info in the notes section of the check out form though. Manf Model and serial number is what I think they will need to have.

Anyways I hope some may find this useful. For those that may still be under warranty and have already had issues and want to maybe make it easier than mailing it in as well as extended it you may want to look into this.

Oh I did see a global extension upgrade as well but that was from what I can tell a straight extension no upgraded services like on site or NBD. Sorry.

One other thing on the provantage site I do not like the way they titled the description of the UX51VZ-XH71 as far as hard drives goes. IN the title they list the actual hard drive size as in the one hard drive size. If you did not know the pricing or did not read the spec sheet tab you would likely think it was 256 total space when its really 512 same for the 128s. I meant to mention it to them but forgot so if anyone calls mention it and I plan to call later to day as well. It causes confusion not to mention possibly lost sales when they actually have some of the best pricing I have seen.


Cheers,

 

I cannot choose above 1920x1080, if I try to set a custom one, I tried 2560x1600 and it didn't work

 

geez TARM, I will need to take a holiday just to read your message

 

TARM, the review is much appreciated, although there are dedicated forums for that.

Asus Owner's Lounge and Reviews

Samsung forum

 

Yes. I realize that. It was actually not meant to be a review when I started. Was just going to comment about the asus warranty page. One thing lead to another and well...... oops. If it needs to be moved I am fine with that but I am not sure I can do that, likely a mod would need to.

 

Thanks Prostar, but Microsoft kind of screwed me, this was only available through their store. Asus does not sell directly I have been around the block with that one.

Fred

 

When I contacted them that is when I was directed to speak with a Vendor that sold the warranties and how I eventually ended up @ Provantage. One thing ASUS could really use is a revamp of its web site structure and over all design. Its terrible. Many documents are also conversion from Chinese which you find out when you go to copy them. They need much better descriptions as on the commercial site that I provided the link for to the warranty upgrades they are poorly explained.