2014 Asus N550JK -DS71T quick mini review and opinion so far

Received my N550JK yesterday afternoon and been playing with it last night and today and here are my short/quick findings so far.



Model is ASUS N550JK-DS71T and it comes with these spec as default
- Windows 8.1
- FULLHD 1920x1080 IPS Touchscreen model LG Philips LGD0323/LP156WF4-SPB1
- Intel Core i7-4700HQ Haswell
- Geforce GTX 850M DDR3 2GB Maxwell GM107M
- Intel HD Graphics 4600 w/ OPTIMUS
- 8GB DDR3 Hynix brand single stick
- 1TB HDD 5400RPM Seagate ST1000LM024
- Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 AC 2x2 - SURPRISE SURPRISE!!! Comes with the Intel 7260 AC as default instead of that crappy Atheros card that Asus use to put on most of their N and G series machines in the past. About damn time ASUS!!!
- DVD+R DL Optical Drive model MATADVD-RAM UJ8E2 S



OK I haven't tested all benchmarks and some recent games yet since everybody in the house seems to be using the bandwidth for the internet connection but I was able to download my favorite game to benchmark which is the very first Crysis Demo which I've used in the past with other notebooks and 3dmark11. The result will shock you and make your head spin even I couldn't believe it. The Maxwell ddr3 gtx 850m is way way faster than the ddr3 gt 650/750m about 50%-80% faster, about 25% faster than gddr5 750m/755m and about 15% faster than the GTX 760m when I had the Asus N56JR a few months back. The performance is very close to the GTX 765m, maybe the 765m is about 5-10% faster but you have to understand, this is the ddr3 version only of the 850m which is why it's very impressive.


3dmark11 score on two tries was 4,173 and 4,144 - Huge huge performance increased compared to ddr3 750m models which only scored between 2,200-2,600 in 3dmark11. This score is in the gtx 765m territory
- Max CPU temp was 81c and gpu 76c


Now the last one is Crysis Demo. I tested other notebooks in the past with this demo with all settings being the same 1080p/Medium settings standing on the same spot that way the fps is steady and remained there for 20-30 minutes shooting and reloading w/ fraps for frames per sec monitor to check for spiking/dips caused by throttling. I usually do this to check for throttling using gpu-z and msi afterburner graph analyzing the gpu usage, core clock, to see if it is normal or I see some up spike or down spike kinda like an ECG machine for the heart lol and HWinfo32 for temps and cpu clock.


Results
- Avg of 78-83 frames per sec at 1080p/medium settings
- Gpu usage is at 99% for 25 minutes and the graph at 99% gpu usage at a straight line. no spiking. Same with core clock and memory clock
- Max temp of 84c for cpu and 77c for gpu after 25 minutes. Remember the N550JV cpu throttles as soon as it hits 80-82c and goes all the way back down to 800mhz?, this one stayed all four cores at 3.1-3.2ghz and never dipped


Now the reason why I say that the gtx 850m Maxwell ( even it's only ddr3) is so much faster than the ddr3 750m and still faster than the gtx 760m and almost close to a gtx 765m is because I tested it with other laptops with the same condition/location.


- Asus G55VW w/ gtx 660m in 2011, 1080p/Med 58-60fps
- Clevo W230ST w/ gddr5 gtx 765m last year, 1080p/Med 80-84fps
- Razer 14 w/ gddr5 gtx 765m last year, 900p/Med 92-94fps ( obviously it'll be higher compared to W230ST since Razer 14 is only 900p)
- Asus N550JV-DS71 w/ ddr3 gt 750m last year, 1080p/Med 45-50fps
- Acer V7-482PG w/ ddr3 gt 750m last year, 1080p/Med 44-47 fps ( About the same fps as the N550JV but Acer only uses i5-4200u cpu)
- Lenovo Y410p w/ gddr5 gt 755m last year, 900p/Med 75-78fps
- Asus N56JR w/ gddr5 gtx 760m last year, 1080p/Med 75-79fps


I will do some more testing today and will also give you my pros/cons in regards to everything like keyboard, touchpad, audio quality, battery life etc...




Update: Redid 3dmark11 again and guess what? The points increased by 400 lol. All I did was uninstalled P4Ghybrid and restarted but I don't think it had anything to do with it. You be the judge. Here's a screenshot

 

Thanks for this mini review! It's hard to find any other reviews right now.

I was wondering, how does the front edge feel? Like if you rest your wrists while typing on the front edge, is it comfortable?

Currently I have a MacBook Pro from 2009 and it's edges are really sharp and always leave deep indents in my arm when I rest my wrists on the edge. Thanks!

Sent from my LG-D800 using Tapatalk

 

this is an outstanding machine.

can you try to overclock it?

 

Hello,

I am looking to buy the model with the new GTX 850M but after reading this forum, I am really afraid of not being able to play more than 30min without cpu and gpu throttling and overheating in general. Plus, there seems to be lots of driver problems.

What can you tell me about that? Has this new version been patched a bit?

 

If gaming for an extended period you could prop up the back of the machine to improve airflow.

 

This may be a stupid question, but I could not tell from the sparse specs on Amazon.
Does this exact model have a Blueray / DVD player?
I am asking about the exact model reviewed: ASUS N550JK-DS71T 15.6-Inch Laptop
And available here on Amazon: Amazon.com: ASUS N550JK-DS71T 15.6-Inch Laptop: Computers & Accessories

Thanks!

 

Can you please check latest gaming on it like BF3/4, NFS rivals etc on 1080p?
I'm soo eager to check the quality of 850m
Also display seams to same one as on N550JV, hows it quality at first glance?

 

Found some videos on youtube of BF4, Rivals, and Crysis 3 gameplay
Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtvGSXlgf6k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6rgGZVA3uo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kimSqaC01zA

 

how is fan on the idle? loud? silent complitly?

 

Hello there! Ok, so I got today my N550JK-CM174H. This one comes with a fullHD touchscreen, the GTX850m with 4gb vram, 8gb ram in one stick, and a 1tb 5400rpm HDD.

I can't say much about it because right now I'm still trying to get a clean installation of W8.1, which is proving to be way more cumbersome than expected, but here is some info:

- I'm quite disappointed with the underside case. Once I took it apart with extreme care (watch out, I cut my fingers deep and too easily with the aluminium!) to replace the HDD with an SSD and put it back, I noticed that the touchpad all of a sudden protruded a bit on the buttons area. This also makes the buttons extremely stiff, almost non usable. So I had to loosen the T5 screws on that side of the underside a bit. This sucks because now the case won't go right up to the edge of the underside which looks bad and lets the dust in, and while the screws are not loose, they might become so with some use. So I have to make a compromise between the two issues. Anyway, since I'll be upgrading the RAM as well, I'll try and take a better look next time I open it up. Maybe it's because of the battery pushing up the touchpad, maybe I just didn't fit the case well enough.

- The touchpad itself is a bit sucky. I still didn't have the time to tinker with it much, but many times as I was trying to left click, the cursor moved at the same time. I think this was one of the criticisms the n550jv got? Well, here it is again. Not too bad for me though since I always use a mouse.

- The spacebar seems a bit fiddly as well, it definitely doesn't have the same feel as the rest of the keys, which are comfortable enough. I'll have to try it thoroughly, it could be problematic.

- My wlan+bt card is not an intel as Benchmade reported! Instead it's an AzureWave AW-NB126H which sells for 6€ at eBay and looks like it features an Atheros 9485 chip. I'm attaching a photo proof. I don't know if this is good or bad as with the n550jv. If I see that it doesn't work well, I'll get an intel one... a quick google search brings up some results of users with that chip having problems.




As for the rest... well, I just booted to Windows once and the overall feel was great. But right now I'm not too amused due to all those small things. Hope they stay small. Will try and update soon with more thoughts! I'm sure it'll only get better from here.

 

Any chance you could download sisoft sandra and check if the dvd drive supports sata III? I'm thinking about replacing it with an ssd, possibly in raid 0

A guide:
http://www.ghacks.net/2012/12/28/find-out-if-your-pc-supports-sata-mode-3-0-6gbs/

 

@macrint sure, but first I gotta configure the whole system and applications so I can get work going, already lost way too much time. As soon as I have a moment I'll post more info.

Today I spent a good chunk of time trying to figure out why the hell I couldn't install almost any program. Guys, never let Windows Update download and install +40 updates all at once. Things get corrupted.

Also, for the people asking about fan noise and operation: on normal conditions (just browsing and being on the desktop, the only use I gave it so far) the laptop is pretty silent. But this is no macbook air, so don't let some reviews fool you - the noise is there, albeit very low. Not bothering at all. But it's not completely silent, and the fan is always on, even while idling. I don't plan on tweaking it with fan control apps, dunno if that would work.

Oh, and the screen is beautiful. Really. It was risky grabbing the glossy/touch enabled one, and maybe it'll me bother in some specific scenario, but oh boy, is it beautiful. I normally don't like glossy screens. And the touch stuff works simply great, very surprised about that even if I won't be using it much. I still didn't have the time to hardware calibrate it, let's see how that goes.

 

AGREE, Have had that happen in the past on stuff. I only do a few at a time because that also can let me narrow down any that cause issues cause I have had updates that just didnt work before and caused me problems and had to leave said update out.

I have the JV and love the screen. It is awesome!

Have you looked under the back cover to see what WiFi card it has? Issues with my JV might cause me to return it and buy the JK if I cant resolve them before my 30 day return windows runs out.

 

Could Anyone comment about temperatures when gaming?

 

@eBandit you have the wifi card info on the previous page. Even if it's an atheros, I still haven't noticed anything wrong. Again I still really haven't properly tested the system.

 

But why is it reported as being different by different people?

 

You can have different cards used depending on exact model or region.

 

Ok, I can confirm the atheros card is crap. Sitting 1.5 meters away from the router without anything in the way I didn't have all bars up. Getting an intel 7260 ASAP.

Edit: also, for those getting this system - go easy while driving the screws on the battery. If you leave them too deep it'll bump up the touchpad. So, leave them in that sweet spot where the pins on the mobo and the battery are perfectly making contact, and the screws won't get loose.

 

Over tightening any screw in a notebook is always asking for trouble.

 

Could you guys post some photos of laptop and screen please? There's not much on the internet.
Thank you

 

Thanks for the mini review. Is the screen display of your N550JK matte, or glossy?

Amazon product description for ASUS N550JK-DS71T says it is matte, but the laptop I received
looks glossy, since I can see myself in the background of screen.

Does anyone know where to get a ASUS N550JK-DS71T touch screen with matte display?
Would matte touchscreen work as good as glossy screen ?

 

Mine has a glossy touchscreen. As far as I know, you can't have a matte touchscreen. Your model should be matte... Can you see yourself crystal clear, or is it more of a blurry reflection?

Edit: sorry, I meant yours should be GLOSSY if it has a touchscreen!

 

Just writing little to help someone to decide

screen - glossy touch (moderately reflective, not worst one but not as matte one either), very good LDd0323 IPS, no grainy or dirty, and with bright colors

keyboard is good, no flex, silent, numpad little shrunk, about 4.4 mm from the edge 1 to 3 key, have not tested it thoroughly

Sound is moderate (I often use headphones) I expected much more from bang&olufsen speakers

BF 4 can be played on UTRA with 18 - 30 fps, 24 average
Crysis 3 can be played with high settings

Even when playing the fan is not distracting, no high pich sound - just whoosh air sound
but because I like the noiseless system on idle - office tasks I have tested Notebook Fancontrol (asus n550jv config) and turn the fan off. Temp on idle, office task, Youtube and webbrowsing kept between 48-55 noiseless. NOTE test it at your own risk

 

To answer some of the questions, DS71T model is glossy and a touchscreen FHD IPS LG panel. The wireless card is the Intel AC 7260. I was able to squeezed out 4hrs on the battery from 100% to 5% in balanced mode @ 40% brightness with continuous web browsing and light music playback. I no longer have it and had to return it because I wanted something dimensionally smaller/lighter in the 13-14" category.

Here are the PROS/CONS when I had it.

PROS
- Great IPS FHD Touchscreen display that is very clear and not grainy with deep blacks and good colors
- Excellent performance w/ i7 haswell quad and a surprisingly huge performance upgrade of the gpu from Kepler ddr3 gt 750m to Maxwell ddr3 850m for just $1,100 or less. 3dmark score of 4,600+
- No cpu throttle even when temps reached 84-85c compared to the JV model where it throttled in the early 80s centigrade.
- Dual fans are quiet with a slight whooshing breezy noise to it that is not annoying even when under load
- Great port selection x3 usb 3.0, hdmi port, card reader, DVD optical drive, webcam, rj45 ethernet port etc...
- This particular model has the intel AC 7260 dual band instead of the crappy atheros cards. Smooth continuous connection with no disconnects and high strength full bar signal anywhere around the house.
- Good build quality with cold metal aluminum feel to it
- Good keyboard layout with decent travel but has some cons and will include them at the cons section
- Touchpad is decent and it even has a two finger tap for right click


CONS
- Terrible Audio/Sound quality. There's something off about it and it's hard to explain. Even after playing with maxxx software and its settings and even turning it off it still didn't sound right. The Asus n56jr I had before had a good full rich audio quality.
- Keyboard in the WSAD area and above and under it has a grinding double wham click to it, like it's hitting something under when pressing a key. Hard to explain but you'll know what I'm talking about if you have this issue.



Although I don't have it no more since I need something smaller and more portable, for $1,100 or less with a quadcore cpu and a very good and capable new Maxwell gpu, a great FHD IPS display, this is definitely worth the money if you are looking for a 15" desktop replacement.

 

@macrint here goes the Sisoft Sandra info about the mainboard:

It looks like the SATA port (which I assume is the optical drive?) is only SATA I... Not too sure about that though, maybe someone can shed some light on that. Since I upgraded the internal hdd to an ssd I plan on moving the hdd to the optical drive. It's 5400rpm so it's not too fast to begin with, but still... will there be a bottleneck if it's really SATA I?

Also, looks like out of the 3 USB ports only one of them is USB 3.0 - wonder which one that is, I guess the one on the right side.

Finally, I totally agree with Benchmade - the audio quality is horrible. If you like to listen to music on the laptop through its internal speakers, you better look elsewhere. It sounds slightly distorted even at low volumes, and even though the subwoofer improves it a bit, overall it sounds muddy. Quite poor indeed, can't believe this is endorsed by Bang & Olufsen...

More caveats: as I'm writing this post, I notice that sometimes, some keystrokes are just ignored. Happens once every while and I'm not sure if it's just me not pushing the keys right or if it's somewhat limited by software or whatever... weird thing, I'll have to check further.

My left ctrl key is also a bit depressed on its left edge, nothing too serious since it works just right but yeah... build/assembly quality on the keyboard could be better.

Apart from those issues/caveats, the laptop is great. With the ssd it's blazing fast and responsive. It doesn't get hot at all (still didn't try gaming on it tho), it's quite silent even under load (rendering on Cinema 4D), and the screen is great. Oh yeah, almost forgot: I calibrated it yesterday and I'm impressed. DeltaE deviation < 1, only going up (~1.4) in very red tones. Factory calibration is a bit too much on the warm side, but after calibration it's very close to full sRGB. Very satisfied with that. If you don't do color critical work, you'll love the warmer tones anyway.

Ok, so there it is

 

Thanks! A bit strange that it only lists one port. From what I understand the JV version supports sata II on the dvd drive? Would be strange for this to be worse.

In any case i don't think even sata I would bottleneck a 5400rpm drive

 

Yeah, I understand JV was sata II... either way, installing a SSD on the optical drive is not recommended.

I just uninstalled the "asus keyboard filter" driver and it looks like the keyboard is less prone to miss keystrokes. But it still misses some, ocassionally. This is very weird, never happened to me on Windows, so I guess it's a hardware issue? It's a difficult thing to pinpoint, since maybe it's just me writing too fast and skipping them myself or, well, I don't know. If any of you have ever experienced anything like it please let me know!

 

Ok, so the missing keystrokes is a problem - I created a thread about it.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/750618-asus-n550jk-problem-missing-keystrokes.html

 

Hi, I'm a (light-weight) video games programmer, and I don't know which laptop, G56JR or N550JK, is suitable for me. I need a strong CPU and GPU, and some say GTX850M (GDDR3) is almost as powerful as GTX760M.
Could you please help me out: which should I choose? Thanks

 

If you need portability with performance go with ASUS 550JK as its light and thin. If you don't want portability then always go for desktop, they are the ultimate power house and even in half price than laptop you will get twice power or maybe more.

 

Thanks, but what about G56JR? Is this not good?

 

Not bad if you don't mind its kinda reddish design and weight and thickness, Its designed specially for gammers with better thermal system and anti-reflective display.

 

Just got one of these yesterday and have been fighting to try and install an SSD since then. This is my first experience with Windows 8 and it has resulted in a lot of cursing (some of it directed at tech "support"). I have my product key, which apparently I can't use to download the iso, so I'm looking for an alternative. As I understand it now, I can pay for Windows 8.1 Home AGAIN to get the discs, or... Actually that's the only option I've found. Unless someone knows if Asus Backtracker will work for a reinstall?

The actual hardware (with the exception of the crappy HD) seems really nice. Screen is gorgeous and build quality seems fine. I haven't noticed missed key strokes on this keyboard, but this was a huge problem with my last laptop, an N55SF--not sure what's going on with Asus keyboards. Sound does seem a little off... Maybe tinny is the right word? Once I got the right screwdriver (Torx 5) the back was easy to remove and I didn't have any trouble physically replacing the HD. Numpad is much better positioned than on the N55SF as well, making it feel more natural. I really like the feel of the touchpad, BUT it's set to use Windows 8 gestures so I did have to actually look at the user manual to relearn gestures for scrolling, etc. I wish the buttons weren't quite so stiff, but that might improve with time. So far I'm really happy with it, although I am a little biased (this is my 4th Asus in this general line up--G1 to G1s to N55SF to N550JK).

 

@Stella ... I feel your pain. Spent a whole day figuring it out. The key is embedded in your bios. You "just" need to download the iso for Windows 8.1 core in your preferred language (it has to be the core edition, not the "single language" one!), which is the version that came preinstalled. I don't have the link here right now, but search the mydigitallife forums for it. They have a thread with every iso and language pack available. Then, just burn to a dvd and install. It won't ask for a key, and it will auto activate.

It'd be very helpful if you could re-check the missing keystrokes thing once you have it installed, can't believe I'm the only one having that problem. Oh and if your touchpad buttons are too hard to press, just loosen the screws under it in the underside case a little bit, that worked for me.

Good luck!

Edit: here's the link - http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/47732-The-Windows-8-1-%28-amp-related%29-Repository (scroll down for the isos, check your language)

 

Thanks for the heads up on the iso file! I was trying to avoid illegal downloads because I haven't done that since college--crazy that I have to pirate software to use my legal software!! I got it running last night and was really impressed with the driver support. Everything basically worked just with the Windows install (which of course validated automatically), though I did get a few Asus utilities for touchpad, hot keys, etc. and updated graphics drivers. I did not get the Asus keyboard correct utility so I'll keep you posted on how typing goes.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

 

In my experience with Asus laptops, the Backtracker software will allow you to restore after you switch to an SSD.

 

@raptir, I'm not sure about restore to the same HD, but it did not allow me to load to a new HD. Generated an error on loading. Probably a Windows 8 thing--it seems so painful for reinstallation.

I've been doing a little typing this am and I still haven't noticed any key stroke loss. I'd say if you are having it, get it to Asus sooner rather than later; my N55SF just had it a little bit but it got worse and worse the older the laptop got.

Can't stress enough the difference the SSD makes! It's night and day from when I was using it with the original HD installed. It's absolutely worth all the hassle. Everything is so quick and smooth, and restarts are insanely fast. I forgot how much of a difference it made on my desktop when I got my first SSD.

 

Ah, that's a shame.

I'm looking at ordering this laptop, but I'm a little concerned about the feedback on the speakers. I currently have an HP Envy 15 that is great except for an audio issue. Sometimes the speakers sound great, but when playing a game it seems to have this awkward simulated 3d sound that causes it to cut one speaker out entirely for prolonged periods.

Are the speakers on this decent, or are they really bad? I would play with earbuds/headphones most of the time but I would like to be able to watch a movie with one other person.

 

The speakers are okay. I had to adapt a little bit as it was a different sound from my previous laptop but after using it for a bit I think they are better and definitely passable with the sub plugged in. They aren't unpleasant for me to listen to at all. I'm not an audiophile by any means but I do have excellent hearing.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

How are the temperatures? Any problem with it? I'm choosing between this one and Y510P sli version.

 

The SLI card on the Y510p hits 97C when gaming, so unless the N550JK catches fire I think it will be better.

 

I agree, but not everyone said that. Some say, it is not that hot at all, some say their y510p gets very hot. There must be a paste issue or something with those that go so high.

 

I've had my ASUS N550JK-DS71T fro about a week now and have had zero problems with it. I immediately replaced the HDD with an SSD and had no issues installing Win 8.1. I ordered an optical disk caddy and replaced the DVD with an extra mSATA that I put into an mSATA to SATA adapter and that is working fine as well.

I agree on the display - finding a bright, nice color gamut display on ANY notebook today can be challenge - the screen on this system is very very nice.

Last month I had purchased a Gigabyte P35K but ended up returning it - the display was FUGLY and the unit itself looked like a late '90s ThinkPad. I did manage to bench the 765M before though and here's how it compares to the the 850M (both systems have same CPU):

GTX850M

Cloud Gate 14172
Fire Strike 2852
Ice Storm 103568

GTX765M

Cloud Gate 9066
Fire Strike 2508
Ice Storm 47950


The 850M is definitely a better performing card.

My only complaint is the white back-light on silver keys. I'm a visual hunt and peck typist and in certain conditions it can be hard to see the letters on the keys.

I'm hoping to locate a compatible black key/back-lit Asus keyboard and just swap them out.

 

I wan't to buy this computer, but I'm unsure of what to do with an SSD.

Should I use the SSD (thinking of the Samsung 840 Evo 250gb) to replace the optical drive? Or should I use it to replace HDD and then then try to put the HDD in the optical drive? Or do I have to buy another SSD for that?

I just want to do this as price proficiently as possible and would really appreciate any help in this matter. Thank you!

 

Just to update, my boyfriend was watching a video with me tonight and said the sound is really good "for a laptop" and "sounds like listening to headphones." He didn't like it with the subwoofer at all though, said it sounded too deep. I trust his judgment better than mine on sound quality!

@BrettFavre, I just replaced the current HD with an SSD. For me, it seemed like the easiest option and I didn't have to buy a HD caddy for the optical drive. I'm not using the factory HD at all, although I might install it in an external enclosure at some point.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

Alright, as long as the speakers are "good," they don't need to be great.

One more question, is the battery removable?

 

Does anyone know if N550JK's panel is the same that N550JV's one?

 

Not like hot swapable but yes if you remove the bottom cover.

Must be same as JV hardware except just few upgrade like graphic card and wifi card.

Also I want to know that how far can GPU in this laptop can overclock?

 

Following a comment on gaminglaptopsjunky.com, it seems that Asus moved from LG to Samsung brand for the panel, but the affirmation isn't sourced for confirmation.
But it should be correct as the display seems to be pretty good, reading the comments here or on other sites, while, if I refer to the review of the N550JV made by notebookcheck.net, its panel is correct but nothing outstanding regarding the color space coverage. I hope they make soon a review of the new model.

 

What's the street price on this unit?? I just picked up a Q550L (Best Buy exclusive) and if it's in the ballpark on price, I think i'll get this instead.

Edit: 1099 on amazon.. i'm prime so win for me.. Just ordered it, will arrive on Monday.