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

Yes, understood what you're trying to show.
Just explaining the differences of your previous and current pictures, so that people won't compare it directly between both, but just focus on the comparison made on the new pictures.

I do agree that it looks much better. Even the new S15 does too.

I would also get the U500 if I don't care about the price and were to choose between the two(U500 or S15).

 

Just look at this thread where is OCZ Vertex 4 comparing with Crucial M4 or Samsung 830.
A power user will like more P/E cycles/endurance, even if will not come close to 20GB/day. I have 446GB host writes in 389 hours, I have a second HDD for big data (VM or video), without HDD I will have double host-writes.

 

I will get a Spyder 4 Pro and calibrate both for a proper comparison Hope that there will be no Windows 8 (driver) issues.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...500vz-ux51vz-owners-lounge-9.html#post8943327

 

Asus U500VZ/UX51VZ uses the same SSD model used on UX21A and
these infos are coming from UX21A review of noteboookcheck:
Review Asus Zenbook Prime UX21A Ultrabook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

It seems that everyone is ignoring what DVP has said about BLUE issue on U500.

Unfortunately, at this moment for new S15 with Windows8 BIOS Mod is still not working.

@Amal77 can I ask if with MSI afterburner is possible to obtain the same overclock level of BIOS Mod on Sony S15?

 

LOL UX51vz is really not that loud in Ubuntu. Idle noise of the left fan reduced by 5db. Noise on the space bar by 3db. So the OS and its drivers are also related and NOT ONLY the bios. Still....they could run slower.

 

Interesting! I will test this later today from a USB stick.

 

Looks the exact same as the old mac book air ssd to me. Asus dont make ssd's so creating a proprietary connection is of no advantage to them

 

I'm not sure about the new Model of the S15.
As for the Windows 7 model, it cannot be OC at all with any OC tools out there, even Nvidia Inspector.
Even if it is able to OC using MSI AB, you will only be able to increase it to a max of 135MHz by default.
So, default clock is 500MHz + 135MHz = 635MHz only.
While on BIOS MOD, it can easily go to 1000MHz.
I've been using the 1000MHz MOD for almost 4 months now, with stress test, heavy gaming, and so on, without any issue, and hopefully it stays like that.

Currently still an on going investigation on the Windows 8 model BIOS MOD.

At the moment, to be safe, and if you have the money, the U500 is the safest choice.
But offcourse, that is if you don't mind about the things you've mentioned(SSD upgradeability, etc).

 

No advantage?
If it break or you want upgrade the system storage, where do you buy others SSDs? Only from Asus and the price is outrageous, because Asus can recharge the price to gain something.
asusparts.eu charges 385 Euros (~$495) for the 256 GB SSD.

 

I am in close contact with Computerbase.de and they are preparing a review as I mentioned already. They figured out that the fans run slower in Ubuntu but still a bit too loud there. They agree that the problem must be in both bios and Windows drivers as the issue is present without Win OS also but still a bit better. Looks like they are in close contact to Asus and mentioned that it seems that they are fiddling with different settings or trying to find the root cause.

Update:
Asus confirmed that they are working on a new bios version. CB cannot wait with the review but maybe we will be able to read an official statement about fan speeds from Asus there.

 

@the owners:

How do you guys find the SSD performance. If you come from another SSD laptop, does the Sandisk perform bad also on this machine?

 

Bad? No....you won't feel the benchmark results anyway and this is no file server which needs 50.000 iops. It boots in about 14 seconds and launches apps rocket fast. Is that enough for you ;-) Even if 4k benches looks not so great it feels as fast as it could and there is no way that it could respond quicker in real-life situations.

 

Thank you DvP!

 

they use apparently the same drives in all zenbooks, its a proprietary connector, last years zenbooks you could change the drives for the ones that apple made, or from owc, which was an advantage, we have to wait and see the pin out

yes its actually awful. the 4k results are the ones that matter, sequential reads and writes are the least used file allocation protocol used in windows, actually in all OSes. Its going to be faster than the HDDs, its not going to be on par with last years ssds, dont imagine the ones released this year. Or even the sc3700, the best out there.

 

I thought the Macbook Pro Retinas are getting around 500MB/s read/writes, no?

I think my UX51VZ is just as fast as my rMBP. Being used to the speed of the Macbook for the last several months, I was worried the Asus would be slower. It is not... not to me. I'm certain there are some SSD's that benchmark faster. But to me, this is blazing fast. Waking up from sleep is almost instant!

 

Faster then HDDs....yes, quite a bit 10-15 times faster in 4k
WD Black 2TB:
http://dawfreak.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/4000mb_thumb.jpg?w=284&h=256

 

This is pretty much how I feel about the UX31A I bought a month ago. While the main user has been my wife, my own experience with it is that it is very fast.

 

German notebookcheck review is online:
Test Asus Zenbook UX51VZ (U500VZ) Notebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests

Color gamut does not look that good....as expected. They complain about idle noise and are impressed by the cooling system apart from that. Hardly any throttling in real-life. We should have written the review

Definitely better gamut than S15(11) btw.....I am happy that I sent this one back.
Left: S15...............Right: U500

 

Read through the thread and saw a lot of complaints about price, just peeping in and saying that the Gigabyte U2442V with 650m is now for preorder on ExcaliberPc for 1250$. ETA: Nov.30

 

Yep! Looks like it's pretty accurate with what the owners have said. Accurate screen but not an impressive color range. But for everyone concerned about throttling, I want to paste the bing-translated part below:

Similar to the XPS 15 or the MacBook Pro 15 retina even the UX51VZ of CPU- throttling will not be spared. For simultaneous load with Prime95 and FurMark, the processor throttles periodically all four cores at 1.2 GHzto jump back again on its base clock speed of 2.1 GHz . Reason: already from about 80 degrees Celsius core temperature begins the notebook, to reduce the clock speed for safety reasons. The graphics card is not affected, and keeps their maximum time stable at around 70 degrees Celsius. In real programs and games, throttling is hardly a problem, so we want to evaluate cooling under the stroke as short, but adequate.

 

double........

 

I have to add the Envy 15 test (before HP changed calibration to fix orangegate)
HP Envy 15-3040nr Laptop Review - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

Sony S15______Asus U500VZ_____HP ENVY 15-3040nr
View attachment 87313 View attachment 87312 View attachment 87311

As you can see the Envy 15 with full orangegate (before HP changed calibration to fix orangegate and same panel of S15 and U500) has better color coverage than others.
Unfortunately even with the same panel on the same laptop there may be a noticeable difference in this test.

 

If you switch back and forth you will see that they have nearly identical coverage. It is just a bit shifted...away from the reds ;-)

Another important part of the review:

Translation: The UX51 consumes more power under full load (3d mark: 74W and stress test 90W) than the rMBP (68W/77W) and the XPS 15(49W/80W) BUT it shows also the least throttling of all 3 notebooks!

BTW: If notebookcheck would not complain that much about the idle noise this would have received some of the best scores ever!!! And they are right -> ASUS FIX THAT and be happy that it is such a stupid minor issue Idle temps are close to funny...27° maximum. Another thing....the notebook would comsume less energy if the fans run slower

I am still impressed how Sony squeezes almost the same battery life out of a 49WH battery!?

 

if you look at the right up corner, the asus is in the red field and the hp and sony are in the orenge one.

they seem to have lowered the saturation on the red in order to seem red to us, so instead of looking a bright orange-red it now looks like a dark red, they (LG) just calibrated the display to do this, not really an improved in color space, but a better calibration

 

I remember that rMBP consumes more than that on Prime95+ Furmark:

The 2 notebooks (rMBP and XPS15) that you are using to compare with U500, are not the best for throttling comparison.
XPS 15 L521X is the worst in class.

 

Who is "you"? Take any other machine which is as slim/big and powerful....choose at will

 

Has anybody tried using the mini-VGA port as a mini-displayport? Notebookcheck.net mentions it as a mini-DisplayPort in their review.

 

They are just wrong and will correct the article. In their own forum they confirmed that already and also said another thing very clearly again: The fans are unnecessarily loud which is very annoying. They contacted Asus and will update the article if there are any news or updates. I am pretty sure that Asus must react if every reviewer contacts them about the same complaint.

 

Yeah, annoying when something so peripheral is keeping me from buying.

 

I believe its a toshiba designed connection

 

I'm speaking of Notebookcheck
They know which are the concurrents, for example Sony S15, strangely they have forgotten it in throttling comparison (They must consider the best in class not the worst in class).
It hasn't any CPU throttling, while performing stress test, it works @2.1GHz, test performed in a room with almost 25°C.
I find a little ridiculous that the shameful XPS15 has a total score of 85% while U500 only 86%,
it seems that they may have to revise something in the system of scoring.

Room temperature for rMBP review was 27.6°C, for XPS15 review was 26.6°C while for U500 is 21.2°
No one has considered room temperature, instead this a very important factor.

Noise level: I find a little strange that a gaming notebook like Gigabyte P2542G can be quieter in idle than U500 and they have practically the same noise level under full load

Also, you (now "you" is for DVP) have considered only the idle temp on external case (27°C), but U500 hits almost 60°C @full load on external case in a room with 21.8°C, what happen in a room with 28°C? rMBP in a room with 27.6°C hits 50°C on chassis, even the faulty XPS15 does better in this sector 56.5°C in a room with 26.6°C.

 

@ [-Mac-]
You are completely right ;-) I just can say that I will never use full load when the notebook is placed on my lap.

@ All
The more I use the UX51 the more I get impressed by the screen and my SPVA Eizo is always side by side. I just watched a movie and I also took a look at many of my photos. Even if that does not really match the results from notebookcheck (and normally I am really picky about the screen) I do have to say that the colors are very well saturated and that black levels are hugely impressive. No idea why I do get such a different impression to the measured data but it just looks really nice. I am still thinking about Spyder checking the screen to validate. In this case I would definitely keep you up to date.

 

When I saw the screen of U-500 it was a yellow cast over the screen. The green in leaves was not correct, more like yellow-green. Maybe a bad no of this computer?

 

@ Perisoreus
The gamut measured by notebookcheck would explain that green is not that perfectly saturated. If I had to choose any color which is probably a bit worse on this panel I would also go for green.

 

can one of u link me to the notebookcheck review? i cant seem to locate where u getting the stuff from

 

Test Asus Zenbook UX51VZ (U500VZ) Notebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests

German only so far.

 

looks good now if it wasn't so damn expensive i would sell my envy chip in a bit more and buy it. sigh first world problems... to get the nexus 4 or to sell the envy and money for phone for u500 :|

 

It seems that in Italy we could have the touch version before than others countries:

ALEX.IT NOTEBOOK ASUS UX51VZ-CM061P TOUCH

Asus Ux51vz-cm061p 15,6'' Touch UX51VZ-CM061P- Yeppon

NB ASUS UX51VZ-CM061P TOUCH

This version is called ASUS UX51VZ-CM061P TOUCH, so it uses even Windows 8 Pro
and have 3612QM + 8GB ram + 2X128GB, No DVD burner.
Price is still rising... This version start from 1830€, but it even hits 1930€.

 

Sigh... Just waiting, waiting, waiting for the touch version in the US...

 

Updated list:

UX51VZ-CN021H - 3612, 500GB HDD - cn

U500VZ-CN012H - 3612, 500GB HDD + 24GB SSD - balkans

U500VZ-CN038H - 3612, 500GB HDD + 128GB SSD - ua
UX51VZ-CN056H - 3632, 500GB HDD + 128GB SSD - jp
UX51VZ-CN066H - 3632, 500GB HDD + 128GB SSD - ro

UX51VZ-CN023H - 3612, 2x128 - ch
UX51VZ-CN025H - 3612, 2x128 - pl
U500VZ-CN032H - 3612, 2x128 - uk
UX51VZ-CN036H - 3612, 2x128 - de
U500VZ-CN046H - 3612, 2x128 - north europe
UX51VZ-CM054H - 3632, 2x128 - cn
U500VZ-DH71 - 3612, 2x128 - us

UX51VZ-CM039P - 3632, 2x128, 8Pro, Touch - za
UX51VZ-CM061P - 3612, 2x128, 8Pro, Touch - it

UX51VZ-CN035H - 3612, 2x256 - de
UX51VZ-CM043H - 3632, 2x256 - jp
U500VZ-CM064H - 3632, 2x256 - es
U500VZ-XH71 - 3612, 2x256, 8Pro - us
U500VZ-CM055H - 3632, 2x256, Touch - hu

UX51VZ-CM042P - 3632, 2x256, 8Pro, Touch - cz
U500VZ-CM055P - 3632, 2x256, 8Pro, Touch - pt
UX51VZ-CM062P - 3612, 2x256, 8Pro, Touch - it

 

Hi guys,

May I ask where or how you do read out the display model? Thank you very much!

Did you find that in HWinfo or in the device manager (hardwareID)?

Update:
The UX51 which has been tested @ Notebookcheck does have the LGD0323 panel and mine either. So Asus is really using different panels :-/ I've read that the LGD037F is the newer one and eventually it is also better.

 

My current laptop is an Asus g73, and while a fantastic laptop, the way the battery life on that degraded really has me worried about the quality of batteries Asus uses. Now granted that was a thoroughly gaming laptop which probably stresses the battery to no end the few times i did use it on battery, but never experienced a similar problem with HP for example.

My question to recent Asus owners, and especially in their ultrabooks (if different) is how is the quality of the battery they use and is significant degradation noticed before 1.5 - 2 years?

 

I have the LGD0323.

 

And we are missing all data about the LGD037F panel. Black levels? Gamut? Contrast? Better? It makes also no sense to spyder test my UX51 now :-( The question is....would it be even possible to get one with the other display in Germany? Is it maybe used in the 512gb version? Many open questions right now....

The computerbase guys told me that they are finished with the review. I expect that they will publish it pretty soon.

EDIT:
Notebookcheck wrote in the Forum that asus recommends to uninstall Power4Gear Software to get the fans moving slower. I expect the same results as in Linux then (left fan 5db more silent). Can anybody verify that? I cannot do it until today in the evening.

EDIT2:
Can a mobile i7 processor not deactivate un-used cores? I always thought that this should be possible.

 

I uninstalled Power4Gear, but I was stupid enough not to measure the dB before and after, and honestly I don't notice any diffenrence - maybe a little less noisy.

 

On the other hand, we don't have an idea of when we will be able to buy a non-touch version (IF we ever will...)

 

The U500VZ-CN032H in the UK actually has a 3517U

 

Krayziehustler was referring to his HP ENVY DV6 72xx, until now all the U500 use the same LG IPS panel LGD0323.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

Just an update on my chassi problem (maybe not very interesting to you).

As I said earlier in thread my chassi was not assembled correctly and there was a gap that was ugly. I talked to my supplier (Dustin) and they will send me a new unit today which I will have tomorrow, and I will send the old one back next week. Very good support.

I sure hope there is no other issues with the new laptop since mine was good except this gap.

 

Use the time when you do have both at home to check and compare fan noise and take a look if both do have the same panel...if possible ;-)