Refresh of M series soon?

I was looking around for laptops recently and the M50 series really caught my eye. However, during my latenight research I remember reading that there might be a refresh of the M50's in the next couple of months and to hold off a little longer, is this true? I thought they were pretty new?

Is there an Intel/platform update nearing thats not really specific to the M series?

I'm just about ready to pull the trigger on a M50Sv-B1 for the following uses:

Car GPS (additional stuff to purchase of course)
Mobile gaming
Lots of random web surfing and some video chat
Mobile movie watching
Blue-Ray player i can hookup to my HDTV via HDMI


It seems to me that this laptop is the ideal candidate for that mix of desires... the only thing stopping me is a possible refresh in the next, ohh, coulple months. If this is a bogus rumor, then i think i'll have to pull the trigger.

Thanks for any input you gurus

 

Nothing will be refreshed until after Montevina officially launches in a few weeks, and reports are that Intel won't even have large quantities of the chipsets to OEMs for production until sometime in August.

Historically over the past 3 years, Asus is slower than others in updating their models when a new platform is launched, and then takes 1-3 months to gradually work their way through the complete product line, starting with those that are the oldest in terms of their last updates. Bottom line, expect Asus updates to trickle in over the Aug-Oct timeframe; I wouldn't expect the M50 to be one of the early ones necessarily.

Best and only advice when buying notebooks -- it's ok to wait if you can, but buy when you have the need.... there is *always* something better waiting around the corner 3-4 months down the road.

One other bit of advice regarding the GPS - spend the money on the accessories you're talking about and buy a dedicated unit from Garmin, TomTom etc. Even the cheap ones (<$200) are going to outperform the Asus system and you don't have a 15" notebook with all the other GPS cables etc lying all over the passenger seat, which isn't really safe to look at while you're driving. GPS for a notebook is a gimmick, usable only if you have a passenger running it.

 

Thanks for the update/suggestion!

What'll be the advantages of Montevina over the current version?

 

Maybe this helps?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montevina#Montevina_platform_.282008.29

 

Thx! Rep added for you and ClearSkies!

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the T9XXX and T8XXX Intel processors are Penryn dies. So Intel Centrino 2 technology is mainly a new chipset and a new wireless card (includes more N standard tech, such as WiMax or maybe fully N Standard, which may be the reasons behind the holdup).

If this is the case, why wait? Apart from the obvious new wireless card and hopefully better chipset. It seams more like a marketing thing from Intel to me!

 

The chipset brings a few new things to the table, however ( see here @ Wiki as linked above by E.B.E.) which will make it functionally superior to SantaRosa. Whether that is important for a given person, he/she has to decide.