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

that's the hd4000, not the nvidia

 

you right, it's GDDR5. I forgot to change to nVidia on GPUZ

 

Hi Guys,

Somebody in the owners thread mentioned that Asus might be actually listening if you send real wishes or complaints to them. Maybe it would be worth reporting the idle noise issue or that the machine throttles without any thermal reason. At least idle noise should be very easy to solve without drawbacks.

I'll definitely try it ;-)

 

If you the pictures then you can see the ODD, and no numeric keypad.
It seems they have jumbled many specs

 

I would imagine it should be a different model number if it has a different configuration.

 

Thank you for the information and yes this seems to be the IPS Panel with orange-gate problem compared to: LGD037E
See: Sony: Vaio S15 IPS screen, is it being fixed?
Or: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/636482-envy-15-ips-red-vs-orange-tally.html

Does you model has any problems displaying the color red?

 

I haven't check but I'll compare it with my 95% color gamut screen tonight.


Also the wireless card uses smaller mini-coax connector on UX5VZ so I don't think it's upgradable:

 

Got to handle one of these at a local store. It definitely is very thin, and less than 1 inch. No apparent build quality issues on the demo model.

The keyboard and touchpad were acceptable. In the store I didn't hear any fan noise but it's much louder in a public store than say your own home.

Windows 8 is a pain, I found so many tiles that came on the home screen to be completely useless for the productivity user.

I did my usual test in paint and felt that the red was definitely red. But all the colors in general did not seem to pop and red tiles in the Windows 8 home screen seemed to lack saturation. This was something I noticed with my HP ENVY 15 that had the same LG IPS screen and a quick saturation adjustment seemed to give the colors more pop.

 

which store did you get to play with it? I have been looking around and I can't find a demo model anywhere

thanks

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

 

Well, there are some pretty good high definition pictures up already on the Ultrabook review website; mine looks just like that in any case. I have not seen any build quality issues like some here were unfortunate to have (although seemingly minor). My trackpad is seated perfectly as far as I can tell, the laptop itself sits properly on all 4 on my desk, and there is no bulging at the back panel below the vents. No dead pixels or dents/scratches observed either... knock on wood that it stays that way.

Asus Zenbook U500 review / Asus UX51VZ - top notch 15 inch ultraportable

 

I meant for the dedicated GPU. But I guess you guys just fixed it to GDDR5.

 

My thought it was an error in the spec and picture. Sam's Club usually has slightly different model numbers and specifications for their products but in this case the model number is the standard US model. I'm trying to find a brick and mortar to both see and buy.

 

It's called J&R Computer World near the World Trade Center in Manhattan. They had it sitting there with the other Zenbooks, without even a name plate, description, or price. Guess ASUS really wants nobody to know about this one.

 

One would think they would advertise their top laptop as much as they can...Let's call it "unconventional marketing"!

 

May someone do that famous battery test playing FullHD movie with 50% brightness and subwoofer connected please? I'dappreciate it very much

 

Yeah, there are currently 3 owners of this machine who are visiting this thread. But none of them have written a quick review with some pros and cons or something like that, it seems that they are avoiding some questions... (?)

Maybe they have agreed on a secret deal with Asus ?

 

I believe they're just too busy playing with this beauty..Can you blame them?

 

Haha.. Alfing got it, we're just too busy playing around with it. It sure is a very good looking and snappy laptop. Soon enough there will be more professional reviews out there

There's a new youtube review up from GenTech: Asus UX51VZ Product Showcase & Benchmarks - YouTube

 

No I didn't do a backup but if it was possible to replace the SSDs I would keep the original disks as backup. HDClone is a good cloning software
if any wants to clone the HD.

 

GenTech (Ken), or anybody else, can you confirm if the US 128x2 model is indeed ADATA also? I noticed in your video you unboxed the 256x2 model, and it seems that those people who have purchased them in other countries and reported the SanDisk SSD purchased the 128x2 version. So trying to figure out if it's split by model, or by country.



By the way, for anybody looking for the Windows Experience Index score:



Score from GenTechPC, ASUS UX51VZ-XH71.

 

Great you-tube video! :thumbsup:
Did you already have time to compare it with your 95% color gamut screen?
Thx

 

No It wasn't a painful procedure, I have done this a millions time and I just think It's getting easier and easier with the new OS like Windows 8 and there was no problem with drivers, Windows has got almost all drivers and I downloaded beforehand all drivers from asus.com. For example you don't need to preload any SATA driver to find the disks.

I removed all the partitions and like you I'm not a big fan of the bundled software... .

 

I'm to very impressed by the temp of this machine! It is very cool... I'm sure it is a Swedish keyboard and Swedish Win 8, we ordered from the same place and mine is Swedish all the way...

 

Did you upgrade to Windows 8 Pro and if yes did you buy the full version or did you upgrade the existing Win 8 Installation on your laptop?
Is there any Product Code included in order that I can download the Windows 8 to a DVD before installing the system from scratch?
Thank you

 

No I have a MSDN subscriptions so I just downloaded the retail ver of Windows 8 Pro, the full version that is. No I did not ge a Product key in my Zenbook order. I did a Clean install and deleted the existing partitions.

 

If you descide to open the chassi up, don't forget the two screws behind the two rubber feets in the backend. . And yes the chassi is glued in the backend to so you must be careful when you open it up...

 

Wow! My six year old Dell XPS M1710 gets a higher desktop graphics score with its nVidia Geforce Go 7950GTX 512MB GFX.

 

I believe it measure HD4000, not GT650

 

So we can swap out one stick of RAM, from 4GB to 8GB. Any recommendations what RAM should I buy?

 

Makes sense. (I think)

 

Koeman, did you save the two recovery partitions before wiping them? If so, how did you do it? HDclone?

 

If it's less than $1,000, which is really wishful thinking, I'd buy it.

 

The price is double that... This is like saying if an iPad were $200 I'd buy it. Obviously any company selling their product at a big loss would increase the pool of people willing to buy it.

Yeah, basically the integrated graphics now perform as well as your old discrete graphics card. WEI is very crude, but allows you to get a quick idea for comparison. However, it shouldn't be used to come to the conclusion that your "desktop graphics" will be inferior now. When you don't need the increased graphics, the computer will use the integrated graphics. But when you do need it, the dedicated card will be used and will go way beyond your current graphics card.

 

Yes, I can confirm it does.

 

Hi there, I got a question about this. Does this "MSDN licence" include a key, or is it just a mean to download an iso image to use with your own product key? In other words, if I had a Win8 DVD or prepared an USB stick, would it be possible to do a clean install on the Zenbook (because the product key/licence is stored in UEFI or wherever and the setup automatically would identify it) or would I have to buy another Win8 licence, thus another product key, to get a clean install and get rid of bloatware?

 

Thanks for the reply.

The glue worries me, I dont want to break it any more than it already is.. Would you recommend me to send it in (I have backup laptops) or do it myself? I dont know anymore...

Did you get the feet back alright, with the glue that was originally put under them?

 

Anyone's got an idea of when the UX51VZ will be available in Italy?
I went today to a retail store who is supposed to run the official Asus store in Italy and the guy did not have any information.
Also, the product is not mentioned in any online store, not even as preorder. Strange enough amazon.it doesn't list it, while amazon.de does.

 

2.5" SATA connector is on the edge of motherboard, just in front of the two SSD connectors and memory chip is soldered next to the memory slot. There are two types of motherboard:

HM77 with RAID and two SSD slots
HM76 with 2.5" HDD and soldered memory chip.

 

Someone on HWupgrade wrote that he asked to Asus Italia and they answered that it will be available in genuary eek , no info about price! Can't believe! After 6 months without laptop I was ready to buy this!

 

Noooo! Can't wait until January. Unbelievable. I hope that info was wrong.
The guy in the store today promised to send me news on Monday upon having enquired his headquarters. I'll drop a post here if I get it.

 

I looked at the Asus U500 at Mediamarkt here in Sweden this evening. The machine was very well build, nice quality and it seemed to be cool during idle work. Fan noise was impossibly to hear but Mediamarkt is a noisy place Saturday afternoon. The sound when I played some music was not so loud, not so good and loud than many other computers. But again, this was not the best surroundings to test that.
The screen was really crisp. But the problem was the colors. They seemed to be oversaturated and it was a yellow cast. I wonder if this is possible to calibrate?
Even more annoying was the poor separation in the black-grey.
To test the black-grey I used the “Control panel” under “calibrate colors”. I do not have the English windows so I don´t have the exact right names. This is not the best test, but what I had in the shop to play with.
The man with a black blazer, a black shirt and a black X on the wall. It was impossible to differentiate all that black, it was homogenous black (wall-X-blazer-shirt, impossible to separate). The brightness was set to maximum, not at all better. This was a clear difference against the 13 inch IPS Zenbook from Asus which was good in that respect.
I wonder what the color gamut in the Asus U500 would be? Most high end full-HD laptops with TN-displays have better black-gray-separation.
Maybe this was just a bad example of this machine? But as I plan to use it for photography this is really important for me.
So, what do you say? Do you have problems with the yellow cast and bad color gamut?

 

If someone doesn't really want to wait then him could buy it from Amazon.de, but there would be a keyboard problem, because in Germany usually is used QWERTZ keyboard.

 

I hope that too! Thank you for keeping us updated!

 

U500/UX51 uses the same display used on Sony Vaio S15 and HP Envy 15.
So you can refer to reviews of these notebook to have an idea of performance of U500/UX51 display:

Review Sony Vaio SV-S1511X9E/B Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

HP Envy 15-3040nr Laptop Review - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

Well, the keyboard is really THE obstacle. It's not just the Z and Y, it's also about all the accents and umlauts, unfortunately. Nope, need an Italian keyboard, especially because of the premium price.

 

Is SATA connector presents only in HM76 motherboard type?
Are you saying that HM76 motherboard have both RAM dimm soldered?

 

Z/Y swapping is the principal problem.
I don't know if U500/UX51 sold from Amazon.de has German keyboard, for example Gigabyte P2542G sold from Amazon.de seems to have International keyboard QWERTY.

 

What?
MediaMarkt here in Sweden don't have this modell yet...

You probably played with the NV56...

 

Amazon.de declares that unless differently specified, keyboards have always German layout. As it doesn't specify anything, I fear the UX51VZ will have QWERTZ.

 

I'm a little disappointed of Asus choices, specially regarding storage part.

First of all, I hate when I must participate a lottery to find the best SSDs (ADATA over SANDISK)
for a premium price is appreciated a standard level on every notebook.

Second point, if Asus had inserted the possibility to replace SSD RAID 0 with a simple standard 2.5" SSD (or even with a standard mSATA SSD) for future upgrade or out of warranty repairs then most likely I would have bought one.

Third point, I think that this display could be acceptable on a 1300€ laptop, but I have many doubt that is acceptable on at least 1700€ laptop.

Fourth point, why is Asus is still selling U500/UX51 with 3612QM instead of 3632QM, all competitors have already upgraded their notebooks, another time it's not acceptable for a premium price laptop.