Things i hate about my G50VT-X1

So i am satisfied with the computer, im content with it but there are 3 things that make me not love this computer.
1)The speakers are very low, max volume is half the volume of my gf's HP DV4
2)The Viewing angle on the screen is horrible i find myself always adjusting my screen or myself to see certain details.
3)EVEREYTIME i full screen an online video i lose my scrolling ability in my track pad.
4)(Not a big deal but still) Its so big for a 15" its just as big as my room mates 17" HP. If its going to be that big throw in a 17: screen.

I just had to vent these things really me off about this computer. Are there anything about this computer that you don't like?

 

Just seeing #2, unfortunately that's going to be a big problem on a LOT of laptop screens, as they use exclusively TN panels, and they usually have 160 degree viewing angles at BEST. It's normal if you're working on your laptop and sit up or slunch down to have to adjust your display.

 

I think these are the compromises you accept to get so much computer horsepower for so little money. ASUS certainly doesn't build them "thin & light" but to do so would cost a lot more in engineering & design, parts, and assembly. As for the screen it's definitely a "value" model, the A1 and A2 G50s have much better panels but they also cost significantly more money.

As for the volume try going into the BIOS and resetting it from the default 4 (I think) to something higher like 6 or 8; sometimes this can help. Best bet, however, is to invest in a good set of outboard speakers or headphones.

 

-Sometimes the Synaptics reverts to default settings on me, which is annoying.
-I also wish there was a dedicated Home/End key. Having to turn the NumPad on and off repeatedly is a little annoying.
-The numpad would be nicer if it had even a few millimeters of separation from the main keyboard.

Having said that, I have to say for the price, this notebook is amazing. It does beg for an external monitor, and it is chunky, but I love the numpad and dual hard drive setup in addition to all its performance perks. Built in overclocking is quite handy, and the machine runs cold. Plus, the OLED screen is programmable. It's totally engineered to be a budget gaming machine, and does an excellent job of doing just that.

 

4) This problem is carefully noted in the review for this model on NBR's website. In the future, when making such a large purchase, it would be wise to check such readily available information.

 

I'll bite...

1) The USB data transfer headphone interference. (common)
2) Bad vertical viewing angle. (common)
3) ESATA port is annoying forward-set, as I keep my ESATA hard drive behind my screen and the cable gets in the way.
4) Flimsy DVD drive, pushing the eject button flexes the whole faceplate so it often doesn't register.
5) WLAN switch easily desyncs from Vista and the Fn shortcut.
6) Speaker volume starts really low, yet the lowest volume setting using headphones starts off already loud.
7) GPU heatsink is not easily removable like on the CPU side.
8) "Republic of Gamers" sounds silly
9) BIOS seems screwed up so I can't turn down the volume of the boot-up explosion without losing sound in Vista.

Aside from those mostly minor issues, it's great.

 

The screen issue is one of the most troublesome, apart from that... you can live with the others.

 

I did do research and i was aware that it was bigger then a normal 15" but did not realize it was the same size as a 17"

I've heard this has helped people also, but for me the volume is the same weather its set to 0,1,4,8 all the same. =(

 

If you did not realise something, then you did not research closely enough. Manufacturers provide exact measurements on the dimensions and weight of their laptop models. What is there to "not realise"?

 

Why are you such a D*ck about it? Just let it go, it was bigger then i expected thats it.

 

Me too. I can't get the speakers to get louder no matter if I enable/disable the POST sound, enable/disable to pretty POST, adjust speaker volume in BIOS, the max volume is not any different in XP.

However head phones volume is great.


VIEWING ANGLE:: Well I got the -X6, you know, the 15.4" screen? The viewing angle is awesome on it.

As for the the large footprint of the laptop, it seems to hopefully provide better side impact protection for the screen?

 

I'll throw my .02 in, don't have the X1, but the A1 is more or less the same.

The volume adjustment in the BIOS seems to have no effect on the volume in Windows - setting it to 0 or 8 makes no difference as far as I can tell. I believe the BIOS setting is for the internal speaker beeps, or maybe just for the RoG explosion sound (no idea since I don't do quiet boot).

Might be particular to the X1's screen. No obvious issues with my A1, although I really dislike glossy screens and dream of the days when matte was the in-thing.

That's been addressed as an issue with the Flash program, and is probably applicable for any notebook.

I'd rather keep a 15" screen. Better battery life and going to a higher-res display means less performance out of the same video card.

My gripes:
1. Poor battery life. Yeah, it's not for road warriors, but I bet a little hard work on the ACPI might buy another 30 mins.
2. Nasty keyboard flex along the top portion. It leads to a loud popping sound every time I hit the Backspace key (I frequent this key a lot since I am a terrible typist).
3. Headphones-USB port interference.
4. RoG branding/styling. Too kiddy for me.

 

What??? Going to a higher-resolution is going to put more stress on the video card regardless. It doesn't matter if it's 1680x1050 at 15" or 22", it's still 1680 pixels by 1050 pixels. The lower the resolution the easier it is on the video card. Screen size has absolutely nothing to do with it.

 

Well it is only a 53 (11.1v * 4.8Amps) watt hour battery. Blame the battery not the computer... I get a bit over 1hour 45 minutes of usable time with moderate screen brightness, surfing the web and other non-strenuous stuff. I do wish that higher density battery packs were available (like a 9 cell equivalent capacity in a 6-cell form factor).

so that's a bit less than 30 watts of consumption (53 watt hours/ 1.75 +hours). Not bad. The video chipset and the screen are the power guzzlers on this laptop.

 

Not trying to be, just musing over how many people I come across who make the same mistake.

 

What I 'don't like' about my Asus G50vt-x6 (x1 with Processor+ Screen + hard drive difference between x1 and x6.)

1. Well, when it is at the max screen brightness, and then I unplug the laptop, the screen goes down in brightness by a notch or two. I press Fn+F6 but it is already at 'max'.
Yes, I have disabled the "LCD Power Saving" option in the BIOS from Enabled to Disabled, but it hasn't changed anything after a few cold boots even. I want max max brightness on battery!! Oh well, I will call tech support some time and get it straigtened out, I'll just say I have Vista instead of XP, so they can't blame software by chance.

2. Speaker volume in XP; No options in the BIOS modify the max volume in XP. I have been able to adjust the mixer the Realtek HD Audio Manager and tweaking up most frequency ranges and getting a volume increase that way, but it is still not as loud as it should be.

3. The battery lever closest to the fake Subwoofer on the bottomside is not spring loaded. That lever sometimes opens up in the laptop bag I have, and then the battery gets loose enough to cut power and the system dies in its sleep.

4. There is quite a bit of flex next to and on the webcam with some pressure from my thumb, same with the secondary LED.

But otherwise this laptop is awesome.

 

One q about the poor viewing angles:

Even though it's got a really shoddy vertical viewing angle, has anyone noticed that side to side the screen is on or above par for laptops?

 

That might be an easy one to fix. If you are using the Power4gear software, it has different profiles for battery and AC; screen brightness is one of the settings that can be tweaked.

I dislike this too. Haven't run into your problem, but I feel that they could have at least made the length of the battery levers longer to reduce the chance of an accident.

 

What driver version of the Reaktek HD do u have if you don't mind me asking. I downloaded the latest drivers from ASUS.COM but it does not have the EQ mixer option.

 

I dunno, but I can AIM or YIM it to you. username=danwat1234
I got is as a part of a large zip file that contains all the XP drivers and utilities (some or all of the utilities may work in Vista too). I forgot the link.

'Realtek High Definition Audio' version=5.10.0.5667

 

taking into consideration how much I've paid , the only thing I dislike is that everest showed me a few times battery wear lvl at 5-6% but then again it also showed me 0% ... I'm unsure so far oh and the fact that someday it will be obsolote :d

 

Oh yea, one other thing I don't like, though not necessarily about the laptop itself:

The charger Asus packages with it must be the shortest laptop charger known to man.

 

the reason the viewing angles suck is because you got the lesser model of the g50vt series

 

I'm getting the same thing via everest, but then the battery will charge to near 99.8% of its original capacity. I don't think it's very reliable for this Asus computer. I have a feeling this might be related to the way the battery charges itself--it's pretty smart and will let itself trickle down to 95% while plugged in before deciding to burn a charge cycle on getting it back to 100%. That's just awesome.

 

Nope, Power 4 Gear isn't installed. I'm running XP too.

Hmm, I was thinking it may not of been spring loaded just on my laptop, but I guess it was a design decision for some reason. Anybody else have a non-spring loaded battery lever next to the fake subwoofer?

 

A lot of laptops have this "feature," it's so that you don't need to use both hands to pull the switches while simultaneously pulling out the battery. One will always snap in and out of the locked position, the other will always be spring loaded.

 

i completely agree, the power brick is ridiculously huge and the cord short, sucks.