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

Cache memory chip 24-128GB

 

Nope. MediaMarkt in Barkarby, Stockholm got it today and immediately put it up. So, if you live in Stockholm you could go there tomorrow. They have N56 also if you want that one.
But you can´t get U500 (yet) in the internet shop.

 

those are msata, not sata.

 

He is speaking of HM76 version.
HM76 version has SSD cache soldered to motherboard so it's difficult to find a correct definition for its connection, but I imagine it uses a sata link.

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Im just saying that from the pic he posted that is a msata connection not sata

 

I think he was mentioning the unsoldered pins... seems sata to me

 

that could be it, its just missing the connector

 

Hello folks,

I read through this thread today as I am very interested in this notebook.
It seems to satisfy my every need performance-, and portability-wise.
I will buy it if a few concerns are straghtened out:

1. I need to dual-boot Linux/Win, did anyone succeed in doing this?

2. For anyone who has this beauty already:
Can you confirm (with a photo perhaps) that it is possible to boot in legacy BIOS?
Default booting should be in UEFI Boot mode, and I just want to make sure this machine has the option to change this.

As this is my first post, I would lke to thank everyone for the awesome thread!
You guys helped alot.

 

Can anyone confirm whether the US models with 2x128 GB are using the ADATA SSDs?

Also, do the US models come with a global warranty, North American warranty or just a US warranty?

Thanks in advance.

 

Right now I am struggling to even install Windows 7 in UEFI mode... the BIOS does not recognize USB3-enabled boot discs I created, and when I use a USB stick it produces some "error starting windows"... great. It's 1995 again and Windows 95 fails to understand the CD-ROM drive it is running from during install all over.

There is a setting for enabling UEFI secure boot, but by default this is already off. I have not spotted an option to turn UEFI off altogether, but maybe if you have an idea where it would be hidden or what it is typically named, I could search again. I'd be happy to have this crap disabled, to be honest.

 

I'm no fan of Apple, but, given the current pricing of this thing, can anyone highlight the advantages of this over a Macbook Pro Retina (with Windows 8 installed), because I'm struggling to see any real plus points of the Asus other than a proper keyboard with all the keys where they belong. For me the screen quality is hugely important, and I love my pixels, making the Retina display a massive draw, but I dislike Apple and have no interest in OS X. Still, I'm not one to cut off my nose to spite my face and from where I stand I can't help feeling the Macbook has the edge.

If Asus had put proper, upgradeable storage in this thing it might swing it back towards the Asus, a bit, but talk of proprietary mSATA(ish) storage leaves me cold. For a while I owned a Dell XPS 15 L521X, which was actually a great build and spec, but with a horrible screen. The storage option I picked for that was very canny, with a 1TB HDD for mass storage and a 128GB mSATA for caching and other fast storage needs. With Intel RST it worked really well, giving a terrific combination of speed, capacity and price. This stunt of Asus makes them no better than Apple as far as I can tell, and glued in components and a screen of questionable performance hardly improves matters.

I rally don't want to line Apple's pockets, and I was hoping the U500 would be the answer to my prayers, but it really seems not to be. What have I missed?

 

Update on the UEFI implementation: The BIOS does have a CSM (Compatibility Support Mode), which suggests it can boot in BIOS mode. I will look into this as I attempt to do an "old-fashioned" Win 7 install.

Update 2: I just succeeded in booting from a Windows 7 installation DVD using the CSM. It seems that one can wipe all GPT and UEFI related partitions and revert to the classic MBR setup. I have not yet done so, as I want to make a backup copy of the recovery partitions at least. The Asus AI recovery tool could not find the partitions...

So further updates to follow once I solve that backup problem.

 

Well my answer might be biased (although I try not to be), but I agree with you. I don't like OS X and the Apple mentality but here are the points that I see as an improvement.

1) It is a windows designed laptop. That means it will run at more optimal levels than an rMBP. Any missing drivers, and non optimal use of processors, graphics card will not drain the battery as much as it would on rMBP. It also has a keyboard layout designed for Win8. If the apple keyboard does not bother you while using Windows you can ignore this.

2) It has more memory on the graphics card. Twice as much. This will make it easier for me to game on it and get higher FPS and better graphics.

3) It is cooler. It has yet to be confirmed whether or not the BIOS is actively switching the cpu performance while gaming, but people have been reporting with highs of 85° while the rMBP has been reported to reach 95°-100°. All that under heavy load. But we really need more information to confirm this, but this looks to be what is happening.

4) The price. In Denmark, the price difference is much higher than in the states. USD price difference in the US is around 200. USD price difference in Denmark is around 650 USD. So I know this doesn't affect you but it does me, and maybe some others.

Now where they are unfortunately the same

1) Upgrade-ability. Special mSATA connectors, makes it hard for you to switch out the drives. The drives are very good though, and in the 512GB version, you have ADATA or something. The difference in performance of the hard drives for me is negligible. You can only go to 12 GB of ram but you are forced to choose between 8 and 16 for the rMBP. But, you CAN change the battery yourself, so after 3 years of use, the charge is minimal, you can go ahed and change the battery yourself. I think it is glued in the rMBP or at least very hard to change. Might be wrong about that but then you would have to go to the Apple store and get it changed (and we all know how cheap that is with out the AppleCare)

2) Build quality. I think. People here have been commenting on the great build quality, look and feel. But some purchasers have had a little hight difference. Nothing that you wouldn't find with rMBP owners. I haven't seen this computer yet. So maybe this could go Apple's way. Take this with a grain of salt.

Where apple is better

1) Screen. Many people say that the screen is better. We will have to listen to them, although I bet you I would not be able to tell the difference if they were running at the same resolution. Also, it can be a mess running Windows8 at maximum resolution in a retina screen, but I think some people have figured it out and are grown used to it.

2) Trackpad. Somehow Apple makes the best trackpad for 8 years now and no one seems to be able to reproduce those results. Weird.


Then it comes down to how they look and if that matters to you. This is also just my most important aspects. The difference isn't great, but a 650 USD price difference in Denmark and the fact that I don't like OS X or the rMBP makes this a no-brainer for me. Hopefully some people will correct me and or add to this list, since in no way is it the consensus or a finite list.

 

you can now buy the 768gb ssd adn the other sizes as well, for the rmbp at ifixit, it cost something north of 500, much cheaper than buying from apple directly or from owc.

regarding the kb, I dont have any problems with the layout, its going to be different for example to hit the windows key next to the space bar and for some the lack of a del button and some other support keys is a no no. its a personal preference see if you can or cannot adapt.

regarding running windows, its a plus not something that you are supposed to do 100% of your time. While I have fixed the gpu switching, its is still far from what is offered on the U500

Basically are you going to run windows 100% of your time? get the u500. if not the rmbp is a good buy,

1) mixed bags, but the drivers part is nill on this case its other stuff that makes your experience with windows less optimal. There are 2 missed things on windows regarding drivers for the macs, trackpads and optimus. The former is much worse on windows, the latter is solved if you know your way around some command lines.

2) it doesnt matter. with a gpu that wont support the settings needed for you to go for higher than 1080p gaming, it doesnt matter at all. now if we were talking about a 7970m or a 680m on those notebooks anything less than 2gb would give you less performance.

3) Depends asus locks the speed cpu, apple dont.

4) Apple can charge a lot, in Brazil it charges 2x as much as in the US for its products. The price here is significant buying decision

1.1) The drives used in the u500 were not even good by last years standard read this piece to know how different in terms of performance those are
AnandTech - The Intel SSD DC S3700 (200GB) Review

2.1) the quality of fit and finish of both products is good. Asus Q&A has been going down, that is visible on their zenbook line, the g line and some others. build quality for me is how they are going to stand a drop, spilled liquid and some other stuff that happens to you everyday, and neither will be good.

1.2) The screen on the rmbp is obviously better. Not that the screen on u500 aint good, it is. And not its not a mess using the full res on windows or OSX.

2.2) The thinkpad x1c appears to come forward to try to making something good and it has succeed. but the trackpad is an essential part of the experience, when i plug my mouse on OSX I feel limited and after awhile those gestures are natural to you in a very great way.

 

Thanks for the replies regarding the rMBP. FWIW I do not game and have no interest in gaming. I used an rMBP for a short time and ran the screen at full resolution, which I loved. Currently I have an old Dell XPS M1710 with 17" 1920x1200 display. I want more resolution, not less. Apart from bread and butter duties such as web browsing and Office stuff my primary interest, and the reason the screen is so important to me, is for photographic editing. I have no room for an external display so the laptop must be adequate for this purpose. I've been reading comments about the display on the Asus and it strikes me that it may not be the solution I seek. It may be better than most alternatives, but with the daft storage arrangements it seems in simple terms to be as crap as Apple's daft design.

In the UK the only option for the Asus is 2x128GB (Woefully inadequate) and at £1500 pretty darned expensive. Of course it is brand new at the moment, available from only one supplier, and I imagine prices will drop soon enough. But right now the entry level rMBP, also with 256GB SSD storage) can be had for £1535 from Amazon, and a copy of Windows 8 only costs £14.99, so on price they are very comparable. I just think that for the screen, the build and the after sales support the Apple would be well worth the extra £50.

Yes, there are other little pluses and minuses on either side, but looking at the big specs and special requirements (screen quality in my case) I'm struggling to find the Asus a compelling solution. And if the Asus screen isn't sensational then for my needs the Dell XPS 15 L521X offers a much better mix of technology and a much better price - just a really shonky screen.

 

First off, I have to say I agree with you both: i do not like apple and i do not like mac os x. I was planning to buy the u500, but I was disappointed to see that the CPU throttles almost immediately to 1.2 Ghz, as some owner here has stated. By doing that, it's not difficult to not overheat and stay within acceptable limits.

Apart from that, the main competitor for me is the rMBP. I actually have one currently for the weekend to test properly and make up my mind whether or not I like it.

My first findings are that the screen is absolutely amazing in osx. I also found many workarounds/fixes for the things i disliked in osx. I would probably virtualize windows to run the apps i need there the most: visual studio for one. I tried with windows 8 and the downside is that i couldnt really find a very satisfying view. Either its too small, or either its blurry. Although, in visual studio it mostly looks fine, so i may be able to live with it.

Yes, it was intended for windows, but that doesn't necessarily mean its better. Usually its all the same hardware manufacturers anyway. The battery perf on windows is indeed less, but it is still very much competitive with the asus.

The keyboard layout is absolutely no problem. At least not for me. I was able to download the macbook retina keyboard layout (french/switserland) and was able to install this in windows. Worked great .

That is true. Although gaming performance really needs to be benchmarked and not judged only on specs. If it throttles/overheats, then it is going to be a problem.

The people that reported 95° and higher all were advised to take back their macbook and have it replaced. I just read on the apple forums that it shouldn't get so hot. Apple easily takes it back apparently if that is the case and has it replaced with another one. I can tell one thing though: i kept the apple on my lap while doing intensive work and the heat never bothered me. Also the typing and rest palm areas were fine. And no annoying fan noise!

In regards to build quality: i can only say that the rMBP is amazing. I have a dell xps 1645 now and its a huge difference. It's also a lot ligher and pleasant to handle.

I haven't seen the asus with my own eyes yet. I plan to at least see that and feel the build quality for myself before i would order one. If it would have had replaceable harddrives , i would have bought one straight away, even with the throttling issues.

My major reason for not having bought a rMBP yet, is just that i doubt I'll ever be able to fully enjoy it because I'll always need windows for my programming work. I'm not a big fan of what microsoft did with windows 8, so it would have been a proper time to switch though.

I always was a big fan of microsoft and their products, but it's just sad that it's so hard to find a proper laptop that seems to have everything apple is offering. With dell selling crappy hardware, there's just a few brands to look to...

Maybe asus will fix the cpu issue with a bios upgrade, but the fan noise is also turning me off. Having fans run in idle mode should not be necessary.

 

I'm going from a rMBP to this ASUS for many of the same reasons listed here. I'm a Windows user and frankly am not enjoying the OSX experience. One thing to remember is that in Windows (I use Parallels) applications aren't optimized for Retina so everything looks a little pixelated. It's not a little obvious, it's very obvious. I've never tried to Bootcamp, but I imagine it's the same. I bought the base config with 16GB so that I can allocate 8GB to my VM and still have 8GB for OSX. That works well and I have zero issues running the two OS's at the same time. But I still find myself missing the Alt key and Ctrl key location.

Hardware wise, the rMBP is great. Build quality is the best I've seen. Battery life is fantastic. Browsing in Safari is beautiful. But even in native OSX, the display becomes an issue when taking screen shots. It takes everything at 144dpi, which means I have to resize them down to send in email attachments. If you save a normal 72dpi picture on your desktop, when previewing it, it is half sized.

I don't hate the rMBP, but I can't wait to sell it.

 

while the rmp doesnt have the best gamut out there nor color accuracy, its going to be better than the u500 screen.

No on bootcamp there is no pixelation. And there is an update to parallels that should have fixed that.

its best to bootcamp if you are doing any kind of intensive testing. VM serve for a very specific purpose.

For example one thing that I did on using a VM was to enlarge the screen space, meaning I have a mbp 13, and I can put a 1920*1200 res on a windows VM, so that what Im using right now. For anything more intensive I use the bootcamp partition, which is the same as the VM one, so no problems regarding files or anything like that.

 

I was able to a squeeze 4 hours of this PC while on battery and playing a 1080p video file on ~50% brightness, subwoofers plugged in and WIFI on (but no apparent application using it).
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...500vz-ux51vz-owners-lounge-5.html#post8937463

 

What is your recommendation for running windows 7/8? Bootcamp + native resolution and scale everythign to 168% or 200%?

I still have the rMBP for another day, so i can try this out if it gives the best results. I had assumed it would be the same as running fullscreen on vmware fusion for instance.

 

I use scaling of 150% thats your preference though and yes for anything intensive use bootcamp.

 

No. But I would use HDclone if I wanted to save them.

 

I also can confirm this.

 

Wow that is very impressive! It is the same if not better than the rMBP!

 

Well I Can't. Say If you should do it by yourself or not, it is up to you. . The feet is no problem, you just click them into place. If you look really close at the feet you should see that you Can stick in something flat and then carefully lift the feet up.

 

I'm curious to see if the RAID 0 partitions play nicely for a dual boot setup. I was thinking of creating a second partition and install Windows 7 and all my programs onto there and just keep Windows 8 to "learn".

It's going to be a whole freaking week since placing my order at Xotic. I'm kind of wondering what is taking so long to ship when I've added nothing but an external Blu ray drive.

 

I did a Battlefield 3 Singleplayer test with hwinfo64 logmode on, see http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...500vz-ux51vz-owners-lounge-7.html#post8938227.

 

OK I will talk to dustin and see what they would recommend me to do. If they want me to send it in I will, it's so expensive I dont want to risk anything

 

Nice test,
There is some throttling going around..

Could you do the same test with throttlestop turned on?
No need to change anything, just instal it and turn it on.

it used to be a solution for this problem on other asus laptops.

 

Any pointers on where to look for a better laptop display (for photography) than the rMBP in a powerful, modern (Ivy Bridge), 15-16" thin, light, stylish, robust, metal finish, with fast and roomy on board storage at a similar price or, indeed, any price?

If I have to compromise on any of the above in order to get that elusive screen, what else should I be looking at?

Thanks.

 

there isnt. you could look at the models that have the auo panel that is 95% gamut, the thinkpad w530, the clevos that are 15 can be configured with that panel, aside that you are entering workstation 10bit ips panels and those alone cost 1k and I think currently only the 8570w is packing those, there was a problem witht he m4600 panel

 

Thanks. I appreciate your insight. I've seen that AUO 95% gamut panel listed by a custom builder here in the UK. It only adds £79 to the price over a 1366x768 display. Details below for anyone interested. I'll be taking a closer look.

PCSPECIALIST - Laptop-computers, Laptops, Custom Laptops, Gaming Laptops, Buy Laptop

Plenty there to interest the gamers too.

 

yeah clevo models are known for their gaming prowess. The 7970m and 680m are over 200% in terms of performance gain over the 650m, thats nothing to sneeze at. problem is that they are much heavier, being 50% at it and much thicker as well, the battery life compared to the u500 is very close.

 

I don't need gaming at all. My photographic editor of choice is Adobe Lightroom, which doesn't even make use of dedicated GFX - at least it didn't when I had my Dell XPS 15 L521x for a short while. That might change with future releases, but even then I think something up to 650m would be ample. I'd rather retain a thin/light profile than have a big, fat lump. If I wanted overweight and pig ugly I could just get an Alienware machine.

 

the panels on the aw got a lot worse since the m17x r2. There is no more RGB+ LED display.

CS6 uses opencl. a AMD gpu would actually be better for you.

and I was commenting on what you said about gamers.

 

Wait til Samsung releases their 13 inch modell with 2560x144 screen resolution. That would be something special, but who knows when it will be available...

 

probably next year with haswell

 

Thats possible. But I want a laptop now, with good ips screen. Rmbp is good but i dont know how linux or freebsd would perform on that one...

 

not good. Its annoying to setup everything for linux in there. you know that OSX is unix, so unless you actually need that linux kernel, just go with the main OS.

 

yes, i know that osx is build on top of unix and i have nothing against it. For desktop use it probably is the best os out there. And i dont really "need" linux, but i like open source software and also to play with diffrent os's on one singel machine.

 

its not built on unix, its unix. there is a large difference between that. For example linux was built on unix long time ago, but now, there is a very large difference.

You can VM away, it will offer a good touchpad experience as well.

 

I don't think the 128GB SSD + 500GB HDD version will be release before the end of this year and I need a laptop before christmas so I guess I'll have to go for another laptop.

I found this as a replacement: A Sony VAIO S1512C.

• 15" LED 1920x1080 screen
• Intel®Core(TM)i7-3632QM,2,2GHz
• Windows 8 Pro
• 640 GB SATA (7200 rpm)
• 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3L-SDRAM
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M LE
• Battery with extended life.

This configuration costs €1.699, which is about US$2.159


Do you guys have any complete and thrustworty reviews of this laptop?
Any comment?

I think it's a pretty good alternative for the U500 except for the missing SSD's.

 

you can go and buy a SSD and put in there any 2.5'' will do.

and if you dont care about the odd you can put a caddy in there and have a HDD.

another thing that you can do is go to a store and check it out.

 

Not the i7 version, but a place to start - Sony VAIO S Series 15 (SVS15113FXB) Review | Multimedia Notebook Reviews

 

What is the gamut in U500? I read something that it was just 80% sRGB (i e sRB not aRGB). That sounds no good. Is it really so?
What about the yellow tint. It is possible to compensate with calibration of the screen?

 

What brand is best for SSD's?
What do you mean by ODD?

So I should just take the cheapest HDD possible in the configuration and then change it when I get the laptop?
Won't I lose my Windows 8, sorry if this is a stupid question, I'm not very technical with laptops.

 

This is a serious review about Sony S15 :

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Sony-Vaio-SV-S1511X9E-B-Notebook.80171.0.html

I imagine that the price that you have found is from Sony configurator.
I suggest to find some online retailer like Amazon.de the price for a similar configuration but with 1TB HDD and without additional battery is 1299€.


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Thanks

Yeah, it's from Sony configurator (w/o Student discount; 10%).

I took a look at the Amazon sites, they do have cheaper versions, but I'm pretty stubborn on getting that battery with extended battery life. As a student I'm always using it, on the train, in the class, at home also when I travel this comes in handy.
Too bad online retailers don't seem to sell those :s

 

its simple ready any review that talks about the screen of the s15 or the envy 15, and yes the panel doesnt have a good color accuracy nor color distribution

the best ssd models are the samsung 830, or 840 or 840 pro, and the crucial m4. 256gb is the best in terms of performance and bang for the buck (yes there is a variation when it comes to performance within the same models but with different capacities)

ODD is the DVD, if you dont need it you can get a caddy and install the ODD in there.

You can also buy the sheet battery from sony as well, you dont need to buy with the notebook.

 

Amazon.de: Einkaufsangebote: Sony Vaio SVS1512Z9EB.G4 39,4 cm (15,5 Zoll) Notebook (Intel Core i7 3632QM, 2,2GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, NVIDIA GT 640M, DVD, Win 8 Pro) schwarz

I think you can buy only battery long life on Sony site.