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

Nice! That Sony screen looks terrible, very orange, indeed! But the U500 looks great! I"m very happy with mine so far! Even the fans don't bother me, I don't even notice them now.

 

In my country (and maybe on all Europe) 2 years warranty are required for law on all products.
Sorry but you can't think that everyone wants to change his notebook every year or every 4 months.
I don't discuss your choices, but I have different needs.

 

*Ka-Ching!*

 

I just did it but the result is strange. I do definitely see a difference with the eye but on the picture the violets look nearly identical. If you take a deeper look you will recognize that reds are much better than on the S15 but blues might be worse. Looks a bit more like cyan. Notebookcheck will tell us more detailed information pretty soon as they measure the color gamut.

Btw.: Asus told me to download and install the Intel Thermal Managment Tool to optimize the fan noise. Whatever that should be :-D

 

I was asked to elaborate on the fan noise a little.

Well, with a sound meter app I have on my Razr Maxx HD, it barely registers the noise.

1. I lay the phone on the keyboard with the mic over the spacebar, it registers 32-33 dB. That's basic ambient noise for my office.
2. I stand the phone against the screen with the mic in center, facing me: 34 dB
3. I stand the phone against the screen with the mic over the F2 key: 45 dB
4. Above the number keypad: 41 dB

The sides is where the fans are so it should be louder there. But it's totally subtle and I don't notice it unless I'm listening for it. I'm not doing any gaming so I'm sure it gets louder, but casual surfing/email, it's barely there. Yes, I can tell that it is the fans. Part of the problem is that it vents down and the laptop has rubber feet that props it up. So the sound i bouncing off the desk, making it louder than it really is.

 

I wasn't suggesting that you, or anyone else, should buy a new laptop every year. I was suggesting that if warranty is a concern, there are ways to get a longer warranty. Extended warranties in the US are commonplace. I do not know the conditions in EU but if you are planning to keep an expensive electronic device over two years, you should absolutely buy a warranty to protect your investment. That is my advice no matter who the manufacturer/retailer is.

 

Was the laptop connected to power or running on battery?

 

Plugged in. Screen at 100%. Outlook and Chrome running.

It's worth mentioning that the mic is at the bottom of the phone. So when I lay my phone against the screen, the mic is basically touching the mesh grill attached tot he screen.

 

What? I assume this is on the u500.

If I do the same test with the same app on my Galaxy Nexus, I get alot more.

1. 37-40db
2. 42-43db
3. 65db
4. 62-63db

The ambient sound in this room according to the app is 36-37db.

I wonder if the difference is in our phones capability of catching sound or our laptops fan noise...

f*ck.

Edit: You didnt install that Intel Thermal software, right? the fan levels was like this from the start? You have BIOS version 203?

 

bamaster, where from can you buy the U500 with an AmEx for a double warranty? Please advise

thanks for the notes on the noise!
very conflicting results between you two, though...

 

Que? I hope you were really tired when you wrote that? :O. The OCZ Vertex 4 doesn't use Sandforce controller it has it "own" OCZ controller: Indilinx Everest 2... But yes they had some firmware issues
but with the 1.5 update it is no problem anymore and I have used several Vertex 4 SSD:s with and without raid and have not ran into any problems... If you order a Vertex 4 today you should get the disk with
the firmware 1.5.

 

I do also have a Galaxy Nexus...which app did you use? I am on stock bios and did not install any thermal software. How the heck do I check the bios!? Win8 and UEFI confuses me A LOT to be honest...feeling like a noob :-(

 

I can see the you already got a reply regarding the OCZ and wich controller Vertex 4 uses but I am really curious how you can say that Indilinx Everest 2 is not a god controller? You have tested those SSD:s? I just wonder...

 

Go to play store and search for "Sound Meter" from developer Smart Tools. Can you please do the same test as I and bamaster did and report back? Would love a reply tonight if you have the time dont forget to measure the ambient volume in the room you are in. Most preferably go inside a room where there are no other electronics with fans and noise.

To enter BIOS, press F2 during first second of boot. Inside you should see the BIOS version. Most likely you got the 203 same as me when i got it.

 

Quoting myself.

I did another test with my HTC Trophy 7 in another room (where i had +5db ambient sound on the galaxy nexus), and it measures ALOT lower values.

1. 29-30db
2. 37-38db
3. 52-57db
4. 53-56db

I guess these phone apps for measuring decibel is not realiable at all. I am still bothered that bamaster's laptop might be less noisy than mine... and there's no way to find out..

EDIT: I compared ambient noise on both phones and there is a big difference;
galaxy nexus: 37-39db
htc trophy 7: 26-28db

 

It depends MASSIVELY on the phone which is used and the mic position in its case. Galaxy Nexus (Sound Meter App)

0. Ambient: 27db
1. 34db
2. 40db
3. 64db
4. 60db

Ambient does not change the results as long as long the measured noise/sound is louder ;-) Of course you cannot get lower than 37 if this is the ambient noise. My bios is V203 also. Idle noise still could be lower....

 

Yup these tests are not reliable.. let's hope for a notebookcheck review very soon.

Still bothers me that I cannot know for sure if my laptop is more noisy than others!

 

Quoting the bold part.

I see what you mean there, but when I lift my laptop off the table I can hear the fans even more. Easiest way to describe what im hearing is I can really hear the air flowing through the laptop. Still, it is lower when I put it down on the table.

Can anyone else confirm that the fan noise seems higher when you lift the laptop from the table? The sound is changing, but the air flow sound when you lift it seems higher than the sound made when having it on the table.

 

Whaaat!? I am checking HWinfo right now while running a game in the background. You would not believe what I do see right now:

While running a game:
It does only use one core and another one 50%:
One core is stable at 2793
Core 2-4 are jumping wildly between 1197 and 2793!?!? What is going on here???

In idle:
ALL cores run @ 2793 and sometimes one is jumping to 3092!?!?!? Whaaaaat?

 

This throttling have been confirmed by myself and others way back in the thread..

 

Throttling!? It did not get into normal speed at all!? It was not hot at all .... only 1 and a half cores were used.
AND
in idle the cores do not clock down at all and run in turbo mode all together!?! That cannot be right!

• Why is it clocking that high if 0 load is present? I would also keep turning at mid-speed if I was a fan in this case.
• Why is it always on turbo?
• Why is it never on normal clock?
• Why does it not clock lower than normal clock if there is NO load?

 

Are you sure there is no load, some background update?
Usen cpu-z to see a more correct speed and try to put the computer in energy saving to see if anything changes.

Energy savings should have by default around 80% max processor state that should put it at around 1.7 ghz

 

Weird.

Put on prime95 and they should stay at 2,7GHz all times. Put on prime95 and furmark at the same time and watch the throttling go!

Im on battery and I can see that it goes up and down for me aswell.. I have the same behavior as you just described. I just had not noticed it earlier.

 

Confirmed and I think that is perfectly normal BUT it is far from normal that my cores run in turbo without any load and I definitely can confirm that!?

Edit:
Ahhhh...Power4Gear tool was the root cause. I've set it to "power safe" now and it clocks down as expected BUT the nice thing is. It does not clock up any more...even if Prime is running

 

Well, I bought mine from Adorama.com, the UX51VZ model.
Asus Zenbook Prime UX51VZ-DH71 15.6" Notebook Computer UX51VZ-DH71

Wow, it looks like they increased the price again! I bought it for $1,799, then the next day they increased it to $1,849. Now it's $1,939!

The double warranty thing is a benefit of American Express, not the store you buy it from. I have the Platinum card, but I'm pretty certain it applies to all cards. Here's more info
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/content/card-benefits/extended-warranty.html

It only extends the warranty for one year. So in this case, it is double. But if the mfg warranty is 3 years, AmEx still only adds one year. Not bad!

You can also press Windows-X, then Command Prompt. Enter "msinfo32" and view your BIOS info there, too. I am on version 203, see here.

 

How are the fans now?

 

Yeah.. I wanted to order from Adorama but the site kept saying they don't have it stocked... and now the price is 100$ up and it still says they don't have it
Any other reputable stores? I'm not very familiar with the US online stores. I've only shopped from BestBuy and they don't have this.

Newegg carry it for 10$ more than Adorama and it says in stock - Newegg.com - Asus UX51VZ-DH71 Notebook - Intel Core i7 i7-3612QM 2.10 GHz
though the page is creepily lacking of any information about the laptop itself..
Xotic also have it for 1939$ and they offer to upgrade the RAM to 12GB for 70$ (seems a bit much). They seem to customize so much it kind of feels like they're opening the laptop and reselling it to you
I've also found it at The Nerds for 1913$... haven't ever heard about them either..

Thanks for the AmEx advice!

 

Not good. Same speed as before and still louder than in battery mode. Fan control clearly does something wrong in my opinion.

 

I did my best to get a quiet setting in my house. These are a little lower since my house is quieter than my office.

 

It was "out of stock" when I bought it. I called and they said they had a couple units at their distributor warehouse and it was drop shipped from there to me direct. If you want to order it from Adorama, call them. They might be able to do the same thing for you.

Also, there are other cards that offer this warranty benefit. Usually they are of the "platinum" variety. I have one from my credit union (local bank) and their card offers that benefit. Discover Card does it too. Check this out
Credit Cards With the Best Extended Warranties - NYTimes.com

 

I think it is not comparable if some other phone is used. We could check that by playing the same sound with the u500 speaker

 

omg... i never siad the u500 was faulty. i havent been keeping up to date with s15. I guess with win8 they putting in the new panel now. dw there is no color issues

 

Yes, but sound is relative. That's why the last photo is "ear distance" for me. Do the same with your phone. It's just a baseline. Not exactly scientific, I know. hah

 

Im not sure i get why people think there will be a issue in the future with the ssd's if they need to be replaced. They aren't widely available yet but i know samsung, toshiba, adata and sandisk make them and are becoming more and more common in ultra slim devices. They are refered to as blade ssd's but i doubt thats an official name.

 

Looking at the new pictures(U500), even your external LCD looks more RED than your external LCD on the previous comparison(S15) pictures.
So, probably something to do with the camera.

But still, even it(u500) doesn't look as RED as the external LCD, but the color are still ok and not way off, which is very acceptable.
This probably goes the same with the new model of S15, where it looks a lot better than before even if it is not as RED.

 

ASUS has used a proprietary connector, so even if this SSD form factor becomes ordinary you aren't able to replace it.
Moreover who knows if this form factor will become ordinary, have you tried to search for a Samsung 830 SSD mSata on retail market?
Even if mSata connection is enough usual you can't find it easily.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

Looking at those pictures are precisely how I felt about the UX51's screen-- accurate, but lacking in saturation. I do think that is fixable using a simple settings adjustment.

Mac, it seems ridiculous that for the same LG part number, some screens have the orangegate and some do not, but it is the truth. I had the HP Envy 15-3200 and it did NOT have the red orange issue meanwhile the S15 demo in a local store had a very prominent orangegate. Does anyone have a recent S15 that can confirm it?

My US model UX51 comes in on Friday, and I was told from Xotic that no DVD player is included. Hope I get the bag at least.

 

The pictures are just there to compare how the monitors show red. You can even modify it with fotoshop to make the red on the Eizo perfect and then you can compare the U500. I did not care about the white balace because I wanted to see just the difference.
Soon we will see which specs notebookcheck does measure on the display. I think I will not have to get a spyder pretty fast then.

I do expect the same (narrow) color gamut as the S15 shows but maybe the issue has been shiftet a bit into the blues :-/

@ all display tech pros in here
Do you expect that Asus will use the same panel in the touch version or must they use another panel? Is it possible that they use the same panel and "just" add another layer to get touch support?
Hint: Asus told us already that the touch version will be 0,3mm thicker.

 

Just hilarious.

 

Hey gang,

I just received my UX51VZ-DH71. What an amazing machine! The only sad thing, I am not getting any sound out of the left speaker at all. If I move the software equalizer all the way to the left no sound is produced whatsoever. If I leave it balanced, sound only comes out of the right hand speaker. Plugging in headphones produces sounds out of both headphone speakers. I was hoping this was a driver issue but that leads me to believe it isn't. Did any of you experience anything like this on your like-models?

This machine is PERFECT in every other way to me. I'd hate to have to go without it for who knows how long shipping it off already for repair. I'm hoping this may be a quick fix. Also, if anyone has any questions regarding the DH71 please let me know.

Thanks!

p.s. I am not hearing ANY fan noise that I see complaints of. Even under fairly heavy graphics/processor load. Shocked.

 

There we have it DvP, these guys versions probably are less noisy than our. Even if bamaster's phone might be very different calibrated than ours when they measure sound, we can still draw conclusions from his and our results.

For example, the difference from having the phone in the middle standing on the screen compared to the left is alot higher in our tests compared to his.

My test; middle = 43db, left side = 65db. The difference is 22db.
DvP's test; middle = 34db, left side = 64db. The dfifference is 24db.
damasters test; middle = 34db, left side = 45db. The difference is 11db.

I believe our fan noise is alot worse than damaster and akashaowner. Good luck to me explaining this to ASUS? :/

 

Under full load the noise is great! But in idle it is just too much.

Maybe we do find an app which is able to be calibrated!? Right now it is really hard to say how comparable these results are. db scale is not linear as you know.

 

I think you need professional equipment to calibrate it, not sure..
I know that the dB scale is not linear, but the difference is still higher than ours

I wonder if there is any way to measure fan speeds in RPM?

Edit: SpeedFan does not detect any fans. And there is no info in that simple BIOS shipped with the device.

 

Can you do a quick fan sound test?

1. Shut down the laptop entirely
2. Unplug it from power source
3. Boot it up. As soon as it gets power, the fans start. Listen very closely during the process of booting. As soon as the laptop shows the Windows 8 screen (when you press a button and then type in your password), my fans start going even faster.

Can you confirm this? The fan speeds/sound moves up a notch as soon as that screen appears.

 

Have you guys tried to turn the dedicated nvidia gpu off? I believe the fans have something to do with that...

Please check if it is possible to turn the dedicated gpu off, via BIOS or nvidias controlpanel-settings.

 

Yea, I can confirm that. But really just a notch. This could be solved by software and I would expect that the fan speed before windows appears is the minimum fan speed which is set in the bios. The guys from Computerbase told me that the fans might run slower in Ubuntu (Live Stick) which would also tell us that Windows drivers are pushing the fans even higher than defined in the bios.

 

Interesting...

Are you sure that they used a proprietary connector?

The Sound Meter free app is professionally calibrated for some devices.
The Sound Meter Pro paid app (the same that is integrated in Smart Tools) has been professionaly calibrated for some more devices.
If I open Smart Tools on my phone and go to the Sound Meter, in the integrated Manual it's written

There is also a built-in calibration feature, but you would need an audiometer
More info here.

 

Any of the current owners want do to a highly scientific fan noise test?

There is an app for Iphone that measures dB that an institute here in Sweden approves for use to measure sound levels in night clubs etc. If any of you other owners can get a hold of a Iphone 4/4s, we could both do a test with the same phone and app and compare our results. Most preferably bamaster/AkashaOwner or any other user that claims that the fan noise is low.


Edit:

Seeing Alflings post above, it would be sufficent if any of you who claims low fan noise can get a hold of a galaxy nexus or any other of those phones and test.

 

You don't need to worry so much, IMO. Surely, we all have the same components, even the same rinky-dinky fans. Of course, there can be individual variations, but it is highly unlikely they are as large as suggested by these measurements here.

A standardized test will soon reveal the noise output over at the usual review sites, but in the end the most important variable is already in your hands. What do your ears say? Is it acceptable to you, or not? Personally I think it could be a little less loud, but it's not loud enough to be a major pain either.

Sort of how I feel about the color gamut, as well.

 

"Personally I think it could be a little less loud, but it's not loud enough to be a major pain either." <- exactly how I would describe it aswell

You're probably right. Still, this was a very expensive unit and I cant help to get at least a bit paranoid when people describe their fan noise as lower than mine.