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

If the viewing angles and quality are as good as everybody(and the guy on other page) have been saying, it really matters not, whether it's IPS, TNS, PLS, etc or not(officially).

Example video of screen: HP Envy dv6t Screen Demo and Review - YouTube

 

That does look pretty good.

 

17" laptops that are thin seem appealing but you should definitely check them out in person-- when I saw the Samsung 700Z7C at Best Buy, I was amazed how much footprint the thing takes up. Plus that throttles as well, as notebookcheck found out.

As far as the UX51 goes, I think the fan noise sounds like it's always on but somewhat bearable, which is a good thing. For the short time I had it, the ENVY 15 was pretty damn quiet except for gaming and quite unlike the Y470 that sounds like a mini hair dryer.

The verdict doesn't seem to be in on the red/orange though. The letters below the contrast bars look to be pretty red.

 

It's not so clear if throttle, because when I see 1.2GHz I see even a very low load on CPU and temps are very low (under 70°C on CPU).
This game seems optimized for dual core CPU, in fact only 2 cores have a significant load.

I repeat my suggestion, to perform some comparison with CPU performance to 99% (by Windows setting)

 

My 5 cents....

By far this is the best laptop I ever had and I have a lot of laptops Before this... Got this baby last week on friday. I must say I'm really impressed how
well built this machine is and I would call this a monster becasue of what is underneath, yes I have upgraded the ram to total 12GB
but the two SSD MSATA? from Sandisk seems not to be standard size but I will sure look it up.

I have also noticed other who think it is strange that asus doesen't have this on their web but zenbook.asus.com list the touch screen model.

The sound is truly Amazing and I have never Heard better speakers Before in a laptop, okey my last was Sony Vaio Z and the sound in the Vaio was terrible.

Before I decided to get the UX51VZ or U500VZ I looked at the Vaio S but It didn't feel right and I'm glad I made the right choice.

Cheers!

 

Any thoughts, why Vaio S didn't "feel right" to you? I'd highly appreciate this

 

Would you be prepared to open it up and see what the format of the SSDs is? And could you even take photographs of the internals for us?

 

Thank you very much for your opinion! Looking forward to reading more about the SSDs!
Does it come with the miniVGA-VGA adapter?

 

Feels far from premium (but looks quite nice), orange issue, terrible speakers, massive keyflex.....that was it from my standpoint. Nice machine apart from that. Really!

@ koeman
You upgraded the ram to 12GB already? By yourself? Did you open it already? THX for telling us your impressions. I am happy that sound is as good as expected. Always thought that I do not care that much about sound but the Sony S15 tought me something else. Damn this was hard My tablet had better sound.

 

This kinda throttling is not temperature related is power related, if you notice there is no other frequency besides 2800MHz and 1200 on the log, its throttling alright.
Hope your right about the 99% solving the problem...

Temperature wise this notebook is a king!

 

I did take some pics but they are not top quality, I can post them later. Becuse it is two SSDs in raid it seems to be the same format as one MSATA SSD.

 

Do you mean that the 2 SSDs together occupy, in total, the same space of an mSATA??

 

Ofc! I'm fast and I couldn't wait! ;-). I ordered the RAM at the same time I ordered the Zenbook but I did not expect to have the Zenbook that fast after I pressed the order button but that was an nice suprise...

But It was a bit tricky to open it up...

 

What do you mean by keyflex? Is the keyboard feeling uncomfortable while typing?

 

The first impression was that! :O. But maybe I'm wrong.... It looked kinda strange, like a mini MSATA drive.


Anyhow the spec of the SSD is: Sandisk SD5SE2-128G-1002E

Firmware ver: 10 04 00 HW:B

 

Check this out (07:05):
Sony VAIO S Series 15.5 Review Pt 1 Ivy Bridge 2012 - YouTube

Please check S15 thread or let us switch to PM to keep the thread closer to the real topic

 

No the miniVGA adapter was not included just the subwoofer but that is fine for me! . The speakers and the sound is top notch!

 

Have you seen something like this:


This picture was from UX21A notebookcheck review
Review Asus Zenbook Prime UX21A Ultrabook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews
So they have used a proprietary SSD like UX21A and this means none future upgrade is possible...

 

You sure there was no miniVGA - VGA, there was one in my box well hidden.

 

From where in Sweden did you get it?

 

Thank you very much! So at the moment there are 3 people here with the laptop: one from Normay, one from Denmark and one from Sweden...North Europe rocks! Hope it will come to Italy soon!

 

Some internal pics and the SSDs...

There you have it, seems also to be the case in yhe UX51VZ then...

 

This a really ban news, these SSDs are the same used on UX21A, so it's a proprietary connection (No mSATA) none future upgrade is possible.

 

Ofc we rock! lol. But I'm sure the rest of europe will follow soon but maybe there are more geeks in northern europe... ;-)

Datorer, Programvara, TV, Kameror, Smartphones, Kontorsmaterial mm | Dustin.se

Hmm I will check again but to be honest with you my main focus was on the Zenbook.

 

In this picture you can see that there is an empty space where SSD are located, I think this empty space + space occupied by SSDs were a 2.5"bay,
Even that part near to empty space, now occupied by battery seems a 2.5"bay, Maybe they have changed the original design to put a bigger battery...

 

I agree but total of 256 GB is okay but 512 GB had been very nice to have..... I did look at the ADATA SX300 mSATA SSD but now I can forget about it...

I Think so to! Because It looked strange that it was a 2.5" bay in there but early reviews of the Zenbook stated that the battery Life was not that good and the heating was a problem but I can't say it is a problem and the Zenbook is very cool. .

 

Can you guys check to see if the lid can be opened without holding the bottom? Like The Macs
Thanks

 

Can you check if the battery is really a 70 Whr?

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

Just one hand operation or more like a thumb action really.... .

 

Looking at those pictures it does seem like a 2.5" bay, maybe there is an adapter somewhere that could make it compatible?

 

Are those mini subwoofers on bottom? Two fans and a double heat pipe design is nice to see though.

 

Doesn't seem possible, the SSDs proprietary connectors are too much near to a possible 2.5"bay, also There is no mSATA or SATA connectors...

There aren't subwoofers internally at this notebook, instead there is one external subwoofer.

http://www.ultrabookreview.com/1948-asus-zenbook-u500-review/

 

Thx for the reply. In "worst case" you can still use an USB 3.0 docking station like "http://www.displaylink.com/shop/docks" which supports up to 2560x1600. Not the best solution but OK when you need to dock to an external monitor with a resolution > 1080p.

 

Somehow they had disclosed before an hybrid configuration, and the free space there could be an indication that it was possible before to put a 2.5" drive.. Just thinking, not really any hope left either.

 

1. I just read about people buying the latest UX32VD with Win8 and it did not include any serial key for Windows 8. Did you guys get one?

2. I dont think anybody asked this before, but are there any backlight bleed?

3. Koeman: The picture you took at the motherboard did not have any ram stick attached, i assume you removed it before you took the picture right?

Thanks!

 

Really disappointed that the SSD's are proprietary. I guess I will have to find something else

 

Like the Macbook Pro Reti.... oh wait..

 

where can I find some reliable information/release dates etc on this laptop. I'm not about to shuffle through 170 pages, but I've been googling for days and the best I've heard is november 8th by xotic pc? I'm looking to drop like 4 grand on this with upgrades, so I'd like to know as much about the laptop as I can.

here's what I got customized on xoticpc.... priced at $3,868.00. Would like to know some more about this laptop with that kind of money =)

ASUS UX51VZ-DH71
- FREE!! UPS GROUND SHIPPING (Use Coupon Code "FREESHIP" in Checkout - U.S. Only, Not Available to Alaska and Hawaii)
- 15.6" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Anti-Glare Screen w/ 95% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080) (SKU - X1R306)
- ASUS Zero Bright Dot (ZBD) 30 Day Pixel Guarantee - (Included on ASUS Standard NON-Upgraded Displays)
- XOTIC PC Professional Monitor Color Calibration w/ Spyder 3 Elite (Will add to Production Time) (Operating System is required) (XPC Service)
- 3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i7-3840QM (2.8GHz - 3.8GHz, 8MB Intel® Smart Cache, 45W Max TDP) (SKU – X2X319)
- IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU (Cools better than all Compounds) (XPC Service)
- nVidia GeForce GT 650M 2,048MB PCI-Express GDDR3 DX11 w/ Optimus Technology (SKU – X3R526)
- No Video Adapter
- No External Mobile Display
- 12GB DDR3 1600MHz [SKU-41814P] (Dual Channel Memory (1x4GB + 1x8GB SODIMMS))
- Standard Laptop Finish
- 512GB Samsung 840 Pro Series Solid State Drive (Up to Sequential Read 540MB/s - Write 520MB/s Serial-ATA III - 6GB/s) (SKU – X5X006)
- 256GB Samsung 840 Pro Series Solid State Drive (Up to Sequential Read 540MB/s - Write 520MB/s Serial-ATA III - 6GB/s) (SKU – X5X005)
- No Back Up Hard Drive
- NO External USB Optical Drive
- Internal 2-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC)
- No Back Up Software
- Bluetooth Included *With select wireless cards only* (See “Wireless Network” Section Below)
- Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 (3x3) (Includes 3rd Antenna) (Dual Band) (SKU - X8R053)
- No Network Accessory
- Integrated Digital Video Camera
- No TV Tuner
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- No Carrying Case
- Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- No Car Adapter
- No Spare AC Adapter
- No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- No Fingerprint Reader
- No Headset
- No External Keyboard
- No External Mouse
- No Notebook Cooler
- Yes, Redline Boost My Operating System (Operating System Required) (XPC Service)
- WINDOWS 8 Professional - 64-Bit
- Clean Windows Installation (Install drivers only - no bloatwares) (For factory installed OS only, not required if OS upgrade is selected) (XPC Service)
- No thanks, do not create backup recovery DVD's
- No Antivirus Essentials Software Bundle
- No Office Software
- No Software Bundle
- 1 Year ASUS GLOBAL OEM Warranty 24/7 Support / 1 Year North America (N.A.) Accidental Coverage (Accidental Requires Registration) (SKU - A9R101)
- No thanks, standard double boxed packaging is okay with my order
- No Outside of US Shipping Coverage
- Standard Production Time
- No Xotic PC Gear

 

XoticPC has taken away it's pre-order label, suggesting it now has the DH71 in stock. However, it still has a ton (too many?) of customizable options.

 

That has nothing to do with what I said... I'm not interested in a Mac and these Asus SSD's are not the same as the Mac's

 

Sorry to disappoint you but all those customization options are very likely (with ~99.99% certainty) total bullcrap. If you look just a few posts back, people posted pictures showing that the SSDs are non-interchangeable. Also, it's a question if the motherboard supports the CPU that you've chosen but even if it does, the battery and the AC adapter are probably too weak to power it, plus this laptop is too thin to be able to cool it properly, so if xotic actually put it in there, it would either throttle or melt the laptop. If you want such powerful hardware, just go with a Clevo/Sager. They're thick & ugly but it's just physically impossible to have all that hardware in such a small chassis as the UX51.

 

totally agree with DrNinja post... I really don't see this laptop being customized at all..


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

 

Yeah, at this point the only thing we can upgrade is RAM

 

I'll probably go for the rMBP after reading this. If you can't change the drives on the asus, then for me there's really no point to be buying this instead.

I can get a better cooling design, better ssd's and more ram on the mbp. Only pricewise it's a negative, but I don't care because I use this professionally and thus 3k is not a lot of money for something that I'm going to work on every day for the next 3 years.

 

Better SSD? Maybe
More RAM? Yes, 16GB (soldered-->huge money for upgrade) vs 12GB (user replaceable, if you actually use this amount....)
Better cooling design?? Where on Earth?? Mac's CPU reaches 105°C pretty easily, while this one doesn't go over 85°C with prime95!

 

The nvidia gpu has to stay at those temps of 70c ish because otherwise it throttles

It needs more tests, with more time. 20min aint enough for heat build up. But given that it comes with a 120w psu, it stands to reason that all the other 120w psus that are used in the 650m + i7 quad arent any better than this one, thus its not a lack of power that we are facing, but either heat or bios locks to avoid heat.

btw the SSD on the RMBP is better. Those sequential reads and writes are meaningless most of the time, the 4k to 16k depth queue for random writes and reads is what matters more.

Regarding the price of the upgrade to 16gb ram on the RMBP its actually a good price if you consider OEM prices, of course if you buy aftermarket you can save yourself 50 bucks, problem is you cant.

BTW dont quote notebookcheck on those results, they arent even making things standard anymore between the machines and the discussion regarding if the RMBP throttles has come and gone, thing is it doesnt throttle.

 

I didn't say it throttles, I said that its CPU reaches 105°C easily under stress, which is (from my point of view) dangerous for the components. And if this happens when it's brand new, let's wait some months when there's some dust in it and it will shut down while working. It would be better if it throttled at some point

 

SSD = I'll take the newer samsung models over the sandisks any time. It's already proven that they perform better.

Soldered = huge money for upgrade: either way i mentioned that I don't care about the price. 16GB is still better than 12. Money does not change that fact.

Better cooling design: I read topics that people can run their rMBP for 4 days straight at 100% without throttling. It never shuts down because of overheating and it keeps running perfectly. It's easy to not go over 85° if you throttle the cpu..

And then I didn't even mention the screen resolution and sturdy build quality. The only thing that makes me doubt is called mac os x.

 

I think the image retention on lg displays and dead pixels, yellow tintings on samsung displays should make you doubt too.

 

You better believe this doubt, aphidion.
After all it is 'The Salmon of Doubt' who has mentioned this doubt. You do not get to be the 'Salmon' of doubt just like that. 'Herring' of doubt, maybe, but not Salmon.