Zenbook U500 Announced: 15.6" HD IPS, GT650M, Quad-Core i7...

Im worried about one thing, the battery.

on the one review made you can see on battery info that the battery has 13% wear which i would normally relate to a bad calibration made but since my sister's asus N55 came with a 56Wh battery with already 10% wear and as stayed like that for the past year, could asus be using second grade batteries on their computers?

@Kourosh and @Nipsen does your's asus n56 battery have any wear problem like this?

 

^they're using completely "normal" lithium ion cells. If you don't use the laptop at your cabin during the winter, let the laptop lie in the car overnight.. drop it in the sauna, that sort of thing -- it's going to have normal lithium ion battery wear. I.e., it's half cooked in 1.5years.

By all accounts, the u500 should have a lithium polymer battery. Which will in most cases have a "fall" in peak performance after a month or so, before stabilizing. Then it'll stay that way for the next ten years or so. I've been wondering if Asus was willing to manufacture some lithium polymer batteries for the n55/56 chassis. Since these laptops are coming in for likely battery replacement soon, and the rating is a bit low on the normal batteries anyway.. But no such luck. So you're stuck with lithium-ion batteries for the n-models, it seems.

Seriously.. asus could have swiped up the entirety of the cheap-top market if they did just a tiny few changes to the strategy here. But instead, they're making one extremely expensive premium laptop that won't sell instead. I've.. never understood how these people think. I guess I just don't sniff enough MacWorld or something..

Was there ever any suggestions made that the touch controls were intended to extend beyond the metro shell?

 

No, I wasn't saying that they won't respond to touch, just that programs whose user interface is not designed to be touch-friendly are still going to be a bit awkward to operate with touch, even in Windows 8. For those programs it will still be more convenient to use the mouse or trackpad.

 

^note that if, after some unknown and mysterious phenomenon, Microsoft decided to aim for replacing the window manager - thinking that that sounded good on paper. To replace the window-decorations and the window behaviour. For example things such as enabling swipes, pinches and zoom gestures for resize and reorder of windows. With overlay controls for moving windows after long finger point, etc. While maybe adding some extended desktop screen for spare space, along with zoom functions for pages and active windows by double-taps, that sort of thing. Then that would actually not be possible to do, without breaking every single windows-program made in the last 12 years.

Meaning that if you're moving past the kind of overlay/touch UI that Asus had up and running as a prototype well before the Eee came out, and into an actual program - then touch isn't going to help you. And to improve that would mean stripping the composite engine apart, and implementing functions for reordering objects and layouts - that for the most part simply don't exist in windows. While replacing the border functions, etc, actually wouldn't work or get you closer to a functional touch-based ui, since a finger isn't accurate enough in the first place, while snap-resizes are too inflexible. So for each of those functions, something would have to be implemented by the developers of the specific software. Towards a standard that MS hasn't been presenting.

Just in case someone thinks it's going to be implemented eventually. And that, say, a number of laptop manufacturers haven't wasted an unspeakable amount of money on touch-screens.

Of course. Maybe MS has just kept it a secret from everyone, and will surprise us all with a structurally and strategically compliant interface document at the release day. And explain that all programmers around the world had actually been given this fine document in advance, several months ago.

Not that any of this would stop Windows 8 from being the greatest blockbuster since the Wankel engine, of course.

 

How does the Samsung Series 9 15.6" sell? That's also priced pretty comparatively to the UX51, with a similar thin body and premium build. But the Asus has a full HD screen with a full voltage CPU. And that's not even before talking about having a respectable dGPU in there.

And that's the thing, for $2000, I can probably buy both an ultrabook for travel and a desktop for games. But I can't stand the thought of buying two computers for specific purposes over an "all-in-one" without significant compromises. No, the 650M won't blow away any benchmarks and won't run your favorite games at 60 FPS at the highest settings, but if you can run many recent titles at full res, high settings, at 30-40fps, it's satisfactory for the casual gamer who doesn't demand the best.

If the tech websites give it rave reviews and it doesn't have any glaring flaws (ahem.. XPS 15), it will sell. Especially if it is acclaimed as a true do-everything-reasonably-well laptop, it will sell.

 

Is the DD3 on the GPU official? In Xotic PC it says DD3. They are usually pretty legit.

 

No. Nothing is legit until ASUS comes out and posts all the official details.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

The crazy thing about the Series 9, for me, is that it includes only 128GB of storage. These days there isn't much you can do in 128GB - the OS will eat a chunk of it before you even start. And 4GB RAM??? So the machine must be intended as a second machine for someone who already has a main laptop or desktop - something you'd only use occasionally on the go and won't keep too much data on. I agree that having several portable devices for different purposes is a pain, unless they're for radically different purposes like a laptop and a cellphone. And the Series 9 is expensive for what it does.

What we're all looking for here is that highly portable computer that runs fast, has a Full HD screen and a decent keyboard, and is reasonably capable of gaming graphics. I intend to keep a couple of games on it for relaxation but mainly use it as a work machine. Frankly I'm amazed there aren't more machines aiming for that combination. And I'm surprised that when a company comes close, as Sony and Dell do, they don't rush to release updated models that fix known problems with their machines when that niche in the market is wide open. A well designed, generally capable lightweight computer should appeal to a lot of people, even if it is a bit on the pricey side.

But with a machine that shoots for so much, and with so many half-successes and failures from other companies, I feel it's more important than usual to wait for reviews before buying the UX51. Odd then that Asus haven't released any to reviewers, except that one preview model to that Mike guy. (I wonder what he did to get that.) I hope this isn't because they're struggling with overheating issues etc. If it behaves as well as it did in Mike's tests I'd probably still buy it, since I don't plan to game on it all the time.

 

That is still the early preview by MkeTLB linked to in the first post.The U500/UX51 previewed there is not a production model.

 

there are Samsung Series 9 that come with 8gb and 256GB btw

 

This quote is from Asus' press release: it's been written in late August, but they are words directly from Asus' mouth

 

Any more information regarding the ASUS conference tomorrow? When does it start? Is it going to be streamed or just have to wait for the news articles to come up? Anybody knows if they usually hand out laptops to reviewers so that they can publish reviews on the laptop itself before release at friday?

 

Here They say 2:00 p.m. in New York, but no words about streaming

 

But unfortunately still no full HD screen.
Though the HP Touchsmart XT Spectre does. This one does hold some promise. Excellent screen, good build quality etc.

 

Judging from pictures that IPS screen is hideously and definitely glossy!
It's likely quite bad for any outdoor use and not only.

Unluckily Asus chose for this event the same day as Apple's iPad Mini (and maybe new 13" MBP) unveiling, so I'm afraid it's the worst possible timing to have good media coverage and comments.
I suppose Asus fixed the date before they knew of Apple's event, of course.

 

I feel the exact opposite, I'm sick of PC manufacturers catering only to the budget crowd, I want to see some high end machines. As much as I don't like Apple, avoiding the low end market has worked for them. I don't think $2000 to $2500 is anywhere near extremely expensive either. Honestly for me the UX51 still falls short of high end, it has no thunderbolt or displayport (could be wrong about the later) only offers up to 8GB, no single 512 or 768GB SSD, lower MHz i7, and still only 1080p. Why was Apple able to include all these things back in June and here we are in almost November and all we have to get excited about is this moderatley specd Asus?

 

Those are both good points, imo. And I don't think anyone really protests the idea that the price-points on the Macs are strategically clever.

 

Most people don't use thunderbolt, so why paying an extra to Apple?
It's almost sure there won't be a mini display port, and here I agree with you: I don't use high-resolution external displays but I see its convenience for many people, and since it's as small as mini VGA Asus could have chosen mini display port.
Difference between frequency of 3610QM and 3612QM is really little to influence performance; on the other hand 3612QM has a max TDP wich is 22,2% lower than 3610QM, and this can make a true difference in heat production, battery life and dimensions of the AC adapter.
UX51 has a better GPU than MBP
max ram is 12GB : ok, MBP can have 16GB, but only for 200$ more (are 4GB a huge difference?)
I'm pretty sure you can sell the original drives and replace them with 2x512 GB if you really want to have more than 512 GB of SSD storage (can't see the purpose). Or you can put in a 512GB SSD and a huge HDD
I really can't see where a MBPr would be far better than the UX51.

 

The computers are very similar, but apple seems to have an edge in almost everything:
-display (subjective since there are people who prefer matte, still apple uses an anti-reflex treatment which is quite nice)
-processor
-gpu (overclocked gt 650m 900/1250Mhz)
-battery
-size
-weight
-quality? still to be seen
-memory 16gb LDDR3 1600 for who can afford
the biggest disadvantage seems to be the missing drives bay.

 

I still don't think that these differences are big enough to justify the price premium (but it's only my opinion), especially if someone plans to run Windows on it. I see it a very simple choice:
- Do you need Windows? UX51 (or UX52, we will se what difference there will be) is the best choice
- Do you need OSX? MBP is the best choice
- For you it's not important what OS you run? You definitely don't need a +2000$ machine

(Obviously those "you" are impersonal, not referring to anyone in particular)

 

For me,I am terrified of buying an Asus laptop due to the horror stories about their warranty services. Why should i have to be without a laptop for 1-2 months while they fix a faulty motherboard or wait for parts to come in?

say what you want about Dell but if my motherboard fails, they will send a guy over and he will swap it. Done.

Having said that, has there been any word on Best Buy carrying this? At least via BB i won't have to go to Asus.

 

Maybe in the past. It doesn't seem to be the same in these days
And you can activate next business day on-site service also with Asus if you need it: http://support.asus.com/PremiumCare/Services.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&svc=2

 

Not sure it's so clear. From what I understand, people typically end up using the Retina display at a vertical resolution of 900, where the advantage is reduced pixellation compared to a normal display, particularly on text. I have not tried a Retina display but I understand that if you diverge from this you lose image clarity. Having read that I find myself leaning towards the UX51's display since mostly I will be doing development in Windows, so it's important to me to show as much information on the screen as I can. If I get an effective vertical pixel count of 1080 on the UX51 at native resolution versus 900 on the rMBP, the UX51 is preferable. (Oh, and I do strongly prefer a matte screen.)

As for the graphics, yes, the rMBP's board runs at a faster clock speed than (we presume) the one in the UX51, but the UX51's has more graphics memory and the rMBP's is pushing more pixels. So the Asus has a better ratio of video memory to the number of pixels on the screen. And if you plan to do some Windows gaming (which I do) a laptop designed for Windows may be a safer bet for stability of drivers. Besides which, the rMBP is known to get very hot indeed when you tax it, and overclocking the GPU as Apple do may increase heat. If you want a cool portable laptop the one with the overclocked GPU may not be the best choice.

So it's not clear that either machine just obviously wins on these fronts.

 

The swedish site nordichardware.se claims that there are one m-sata slot and one regular 2.5" sata slot in the U500VZ.
Flera Windows 8-datorer listade i butik: Aspire S7, 540U3C och U500VZ - www.NHW.se

"In addition to the storage U500VZ equipped with a 128 gigabyte SSD via mSATA interface and there should be an available 2.5-inch space for either a mechanical hard drive or another SSD, according to information that nordichardware received."

 

Interesting. mSATA runs at SATA II speeds, I think (can anyone confirm or deny this?). So I wonder what to make of the sites that are offering dual SATA III drives as upgrades. Maybe those sites are just confused. I also wonder what to make of the RAID 0 configuration. The speed of the RAID array would be limited by the fact that it contained one drive running at SATA II speeds.

 

then why doesn't this have a bigger battery, isn't that what people always say to justify not having an OD? This laptop isn't exactly that light nor that thin,,,so if this is the route they took i am very interested in how it looks on the inside opened up

 

Well, on the plus side, they mention IPS, GDDR5, and a .77" thickness.

 

Very good point, although Apple has worked a lot on gaining "a premium hype" about their products which makes them worthy on the market side.

Well you may not, but the market says it is. Not only "the market", as it is basically a low end salary (sometimes it is even a very good one in many industrialized nations)

Ok, for the ports and the Ram (even though the difference is pretty much insignificant for most of users), about CPU, SSD and screen IMHO you are quite wrong. I mean, the difference for the CPU is insignificant at most (unless you are set to make the highest score on CPU tests), a 512 or 768 SSD costs millions for nothing (I would never store my data on a SSD) and a screen resolution higher than 1080p on a 15" is basically counter factual (afaik the retina doubles the dots in order to work..). If you need more than what this pc carries I'd suggest to go for a clevo/sager/etc, not thin and light and/or in case a small render farm (no idea, but judging by the components might be even cheaper).

 

Someone has defined rMBP as king of notebook... King of what?
Maybe it could be defined king of Facebook machines.
It true on paper its specs are very good, but it seems to have a serious throttling problem.
According to Notebookcheck review (yes, another time) when rMBP runs prime95 alone hits 104°C and it throttling to 1.2GHz.
Review Apple MacBook Pro 15 Retina 2.3 GHz Mid 2012 - Notebookcheck.net Reviews
You must consider that others notebooks that throttling in this test are running prime95+FurMark simultaneously and when you perform the full stress test on rMBP thanks to insufficient power supply it is able to stabilize its performance.

Someone consider Thunderbolt a plus, but why?
What kind of peripherals use thunderbolt? Maybe some external hard disks, but they need that speed? Absolutely not, unless you want use a RAID 0 of SSD like external hard disk, but this is a stupid solution and a great waste of money.
USB3.0 has half of bandwidth of Thunderbolt that is more than enough for every use and it is more flexible solution, you can use it for Mouse, Keyboard, Printer, Scanner, etc.

rMBP display is a good display not for its resolution (that could be a minus), but for others specs like contrast and SRGB coverage, and its angle view (it's a IPS display)

Battery: maybe under OSX is good, but when you use Windows you can't use Optimus so your autonomy is drastically reduced, so if you have intention to use principally as Windows Machine maybe this is not the right choice.

Today specs are only a part of equation, if the cooling system is insufficient some system with lower specs and lower price, but with better cooling system, can outperform the machine with better specs and higher price.

If you have read the L521X thread some user reported that the old version L502x outperforms the new version very easily and with big gap all this due to the ridiculous cooling system of L521X.

There are notebooks that perform stress test (Prime95+FurMark) without throttling for example:
Sony S15, Inspiron 15R SE, Gigabyte P2542G, Gigabyte U2442N and I'm enough sure that Envy 15 and 17 haven't any problem to perform stress test without throttling because I have seen that they can be overclocked very easy and without stability problem.

 

Returning to the subject of the thread.
I can't believe that someone is considering some option of some site as a real option (changing display, changing CPU, etc)
these options are not real and they are certainly errors.
Touchscreen display will not be there, this misunderstanding is born because ASUS has presented UX51VZ (aka U500VZ) together a other notebook with touchscreen display.
While on a notebook with small display this solution could have sense, certainly not have on a 15.6" display, in addiction you must consider that if touchscreen model exists it will have different display specs respect to the standard display, so maybe not IPS or FHD.

 

Every person has their needs, @zoot already showed that for himself the asus seem the better choice, for me not so much
the apple mbpr can game without throttling, so that's good enough for me, since its probably the most intensive think i will do, even my engineering programs don't stress it that much.
i sure would n´t mind a better cooling, but since that test was made with an high ambient temperature of 27.6 degrees after a stress test i don't think there is anything to worry about.

 

I repeat my earlier question, anybody knows if they usually give out laptops at these events to reviewers? I want a review before friday

 

I think mSATA is just a type of SATA connector, you can get it up to SATA III (see the new XPS 15).

 

For me it's enough clear that no mSATA connector is used specially if it is SATAII type, because we have already seen the prototype performance, and that performance indicates clearly that RAID0 is compost from 2XSATAIII SSD in fact sequential read was almost 1000MB/s and this is impossible to obtain if there is a SATAII SSD in RAID0.
If ASUS has sent a prototype to some reviewer, for me it means that hardware was already determined, maybe they could change something in BIOS or software supplied, but I don't think relevant change can happen.
Therefore GT650m is GDDR5 version, but maybe not everyone knows that GT650 with DDR3 has higher clock than GDDR5 version accordingly the performance are practically the same for both cards. The only GT650m that has higher clock (900MHz) and GDDR5 is the rMBP version and its clock is higher than GTX660m.

 

If I pay something I want the promised performance, therefore if laptop producers put a GT650m on a laptop then I want the GT650m performance.
I haven't reason to prefer a notebook with the GT650m with throttling instead of a laptop with GT640LE without throttling, maybe the performance is better GT640LE laptop and price could be lower.
As I said before, today the specs are only a part of equation, if you are comparing notebooks only with specs you're making a mistake.
Now with variable clock CPU/GPU depending of thermal dissipation cooling system it's a very important factor.

It's true, maybe many user don't notice the throttling, but this don't mean that there isn't.
If someone pays extra money for higher specs I think he wants higher performance or for you this is only a cool factor.
If a game doesn't go under 25/30 fps maybe you don't have notice of throttling, without throttling you could obtain 60 fps, you can say 30 fps it's enough, but for next game that performance could be enough (game it's only an example of heavy software).

 

fair enough, but then what should we focus on aside from specs in deciding ?

 

We need of forum like this, to hear the experience of early adopter and wait the serious reviews like those from Anandtech or Notebookcheck.

 

I agreed the cooling is very important, i would not want a computer that wouldn´t deliver the specs rated performance, but thats not the case of the mbpr.
Do you honestly think that the it should have had a 640m LE just so it could pass the extreme test?

this past year i have been playing on my sisters asus n55 with a gt 555m factory overclocked to 675MHz
had to disable turboboost so it wouldn't throttle and still the temperature stays at 95+ cpu and 85 gpu, no throttling what so ever.
Would the cooling been better dimensioned for a gt 540m sure, could i have played the same games the same way with it, no.

there is a reason turboboost is called that way, even sager now started to bios-disable turboobost when the graphics are on to reduce heat,
which i dont agree since people should have it as an option for programs that use more single thread performance with the gpu like autodesk inventor.

if you give me a similar computer with better cooling i would go for that, but since there isn´t any real life heat problems with it, i have no reasons not to consider it.

 

Gaming laptops 6 pounds and below do two things under stress. They either throttle or get hot enough to grill burgers and steaks. Like the Gigabyte P2542G which reaches an average of 47 degrees Celsius on the keyboard and palm rest, but has no throttling. I would rather have a throttling notebook than one catching on fire. High temperatures can cause damage to the laptop over time, and the throttling on the Retina isn't noticeable unless you are playing the most demanding of games. There is no doubt this notebook, the UX51VZ, will also throttle. Otherwise, the temperatures are going to burn the skin right off your fingertips.

 

I don't pretend a laptop that @100% of load on both CPU and GPU keeps turboboost active, but instead I pretend a laptop that keeps its base clock on CPU and GPU when it is @100% of load.
The problem of rMBP doesn't seem the GPU, because according of notebookcheck review without involving GPU, but only with 100% of load on CPU it hits incredible high temps (104°C), and I ask to myself what happen with 3720QM version...

Gigabyet U2442N is a ultrathin laptop with GT640m weights 1.6Kg and it doesn't throttling in stress test, Sony Vaio S15 weights as rMBP (2Kg) and it doesn't throttling in stress test.
If you think P2542G temps are dangerous what do you think of 104°C of rMBP?
If I want on Gigabyte P2542G I can disable turboboost through windows setting so I have a laptop with base clock, good temps and without throttling, but who has laptop that can't handle base clock @100% of load what does it do?

 

Anyone out there planning to take the plunge and come back to us with a review?

 

Not I, I'm buying after we get a bunch of reliable reviews and they bring out the revised CPU version. I'm not jumping on a new model again.

P.S. mSATA can be any SATA revision, including 3 (like the one on the L521x, which I've tested personally). I don't know why you would think it's limited to SATA 2. Based on currently known specs this thing could even have 2 mSATA connectors and nothing else. I kinda hope that it does, more room for cooling equipment.

 

Thanks for the clarification. That's good to know; I guess I was misinformed. In that case I too hope it has two mSATAs and a huge battery!

 

After about a month of use I'm at 4.1% wear level according to HWiNFO64. While word processing and light internet browsing, I can get my N56VZ-DS71 to last 5 hrs with these settings: cpu max: 50%, brightness 5/10, optical drive off.

 

So yeah, this thread cant endure a moment without being derailed.

Any more info from asus? last time I checked their site they were marking the display as only a FHD display, while clearly they marked all the UX series, just not the ux51, with ips displays

Well in terms of color reproduction it aint the best that we got, its still a 8 bit panel, so we win on the viewing angles only, sometimes thats not even a worth trade off, compared to the 95% aRGB TN panel.

 

I see. Life is good then. I have a microsoft arc touch which I use when I need to pack light so if cyberlink doesn't work well with touch, I could always turn to that. Myabe it would work just as well with a stylus?

Either way I always assumed that everything would work well with touch on windows 8. Meh.

 

I don't understand Asus: they are about to release a top class 15.6" notebook, like there aren't in the windows market, and they don't advertise it at all. They just care about the touchscreen crap. I hate fashion in technology

 

If I hadn't bought an UX31A for my wife, I'd probably bet on the UX51A for myself. There's a retailer in my city (Media Markt) which lets customers return any item for two weeks, even if for no reason, as long as it has not been misused.

Maybe someone which has a similar retailer nearby is willing to take that plunge, since they can return it if they don't like it.

 

that makes the most sense especially since they got rid of the ODD. I would be such a wasted opportunity if they didn't do this

 

Hi,

I'm a rMBP owner and I'm really interested by the asus U500 for various reasons.
But let me clarify one thing : I really trust notebookcheck but the temperature (104°C) that you quote based on their tests is pretty "theoretical".
I play a lot of game on my rMBP (SC 2, Diablo 3, the witcher 2), and I never go over 87° for GPU and 94° for CPU.
And, according to the FPS, the rMBP doesn't throttle, my FPS are pretty constants (variation of 4-5 FPS sometimes and, of course, it depends of the context).
I really hope that the U500 won't really throttle (I mean, a loss of 10-20 FPS).
Same, I really hope that asus will manage to give to this beauty a decent autonomy of 5-6 hours in typing mode with light surfing (read the verge, times, and notebook review)^^
I read the review of the website ultrabook and i'm pretty worried after their tests of the battery... so yes it's a prototype, but do you really think that the final product will do better?