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

Does anyone have color calibration settings for non-touch matte panel? Out of the box calibration is hilariously bad. Gamma, greyscale, contrast, they all seem off to me, especially white tones are incredibly disturbing. I tried playing with calibration settings but i guess its impossible to get it right without proffesional equipment. This is really dissapointing after reading so much nice things about the screen

I did a clean install from stick and it is all fine, no partitions or migration software needed. You can just get the iso and use the universal usb installer.

 

I got off the phone with them a little while ago. The guy I talked to couldn't estimate the charges because the computer isn't in stock and not even up for back-order. I guess he was going to do what you did and put one in the cart to estimate. He did suggest that I call back tomorrow so someone else could "release one" temporarily to find out the charges. Whatever.

What worries me is that he said the 550JK isn't even up for back-order. I hope you have more luck than I did!

 

Hmm I was putting much hope on B&H! That means they don't expect it by the middle of june as stated on their website??

Here I am jumping from one feet to another, wondering if I should just cancel the order or not... I actually live at about 1h from the border, I'm seriously considering having it shipped there from another source!

 

What version of the iso? "You have either of these versions installed Windows 8.1 Single Language x64 GA ISO or Windows 8.1 core & pro x64 GA ISO."

 

I too am waiting for a calibration setting. RGB values seem odd and there is a problem with gamma but i don't know anything about calibration.

 

Just got my 550JK the other day and did a fresh Win 8.1 install on an SSD today

here's a dumb question, are there any options for the touchpad that let you register a middle mouse button click?
I'm not seeing it anywhere in the Asus drivers but my old N61 had a GREAT SYnaptec touchpad that let you do all kinds of things

 

Just got my 550JK the other day and did a fresh Win 8.1 install on an SSD today

here's a dumb question, are there any options for the touchpad that let you register a middle mouse button click?
I'm not seeing it anywhere in the Asus drivers but my old N61 had a GREAT SYnaptec touchpad that let you do all kinds of things

 

The current touchpad manufacturer used by ASUS is called Elantech, and it does not offer such function.
Moreover, the feature could be patented by Synaptics.

 

Well, my order from directcanada apparently shipped on friday. They told me i still have the possibility of a full refund, i just need to refuse the package when it arrives... So i probably have a few days to make up my mind... Anyone has the matte screen? How do you find it?

 

I seen the N550JK-DB71-CA in person at ME and the matte screen looks good to me. The colors however do not pop out quite as much as on the glossy touchscreen that was on the asus zenbook that I used to have, but obviously screen glare is handled far better on the N550JK. I couldn't detect any serious flaws, but I only looked at the screen for about 10 minutes.

But since I like matte screens more then glossy screens I actually decided to order the G550JK at NCIX instead of waiting to get one at B&H photo.

 

Thanks for the info, i think ill go check out in the big box stores to see the difference myself.

 

N550JK CM174H COLOR PROFILE

Ok guys, I'm sharing my freshly calibrated monitor's color profile here hoping it'll be useful for someone since a couple people already asked for some help.

IMPORTANT: This color profile is provided as-is. Even if you have a N550JK, your panel may wildly differ from mine! So if your monitor looks worse with this profile, that's too bad

I calibrated with a white point target of 6500K. And a luminance of 120cd/m2. Brightness in the laptop must be at 48% for accuracy, which is one of the stops using the fn + brigthness key (but NOT the middle one!). Check with your advanced energy settings under 'screen', you can set it there for battery + AC and not touch it afterwards. If you use the quick access keys anytime, note that it will automatically change your settings in the current energy plan!!!

Quick way to check if the profile will work for you or not and proceed accordingly:
- Download the attached zip, uncompress it into c:\windows\system32\spool\drivers\color
- Download the freeware "Displayprofile" by X-Rite from DisplayProfile Freeware for Windows NA. This program lets you instantly load any color profile available in Windows.
- Open the program, select the color profile there ("Monitor_10-06-2014_6500.icc")
- Like it? Go to Windows' color settings, set it as a default. Learn how to do that here: Stop Losing Display Calibration with Windows 7 - Laszlo Pusztai
- Don't like it? Just re-select the default sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile, exit the program, and delete the profile from the directory we copied it to previously.

Download the profile:
View attachment Monitor_10-06-2014_6500.zip

Edit: If you use this, please let me know if it gives you a more neutral color than before, very curious about it!

 

Hi Folks,

Just bought one of these as over the past weekend my ancient Dell XP desktop bucked the kicket. I read this thread and many other sources and had been eyeing it for a long time, but that was the final push to purchase.

My chief concern now is backing up the Windows install which apparently with 8/8.1 is quite different.

I've researched many guides like this one but I want to know more about the "Backtracker" utility Asus provides here (under Utilities after you select the only option available for OS - 8.1). How is it different from the standard Windows USB creation? Am I reading that right that it wants a 64GB or larger USB? And how reliable is it?

I want to do this right so if I run into problems I can be safer. It's been a long time since I had a brand-new machine and this is my first laptop to boot.

 

Anyone who has opened the back: Any tips? Are their clips? I've seen the video online and the guy just kinda prys at it. I'm looking for tips so I don't break anything.

Anyone who has cloned the HD onto a SSD: How much space did it take on the new SSD?

Anyone who has put a clean 8.1 install on a SSD: How much space did it take? Is there a particular version of Windows 8.1 we need to use? Does it grab the key from the bios or we need to find it with some software? What other drivers had to be isntalled after the clean install?
Thanks,

 

No tricks to it. Once you're removed the screws it should pop off with a little bit of pressure.

When you clone a HDD to a SSD it will take up the exact same space. However we strongly suggest you just do a clean install on the SSD as the two different drives write to sectors differently. We hear about a lot of issues when cloning that way and in the end they just do a clean install anyway.

You do need to use a OEM version of 8.1 to do the install for the key to work properly. You'll pretty much want to install all the drivers from the disc. Install the Chipset driver first then Nvidia, then in any order you'd like.

 

Thank you for sharing this but as you said, unfortunately, it didn't really help. It gave me a disturbing blue hue. Luckily asus splendid software kinda helped, its not definitely not ideal but at least i can look at the monitor without getting annoyed now.

 

Yep, all panels need their own calibration, so using another's profile is a shot in the dark.

 

@redq ugh, sorry to hear that! It was definitely a shot in the dark, but worth a shot anyway. Hope it is useful for somebody else!

 

Hey, how are your keyboard issues these days? I posted in your other thread but never heard back.

 

After going through a lot of laptops the last couple of days, I think I have decided for the N550JK (competitors were the Dell 15-7535 and MSI GE60). I use it for studying, multimedia and gaming (e.g. Skyrim, The Witcher 2 and whenever a Steam sale is around the corner dragging me away from the consoles..), too.

There's a lot of different configurations available at a retailer here in Germany and I wanted to ask a couple of questions:

1) What is the maximum SSD capacity available? A press release said 256 GB. This is about as much storage as I currently have on my Dell Inspiron 15R-SE (which is on a HDD though), and games won't get any smaller. 500 GB SSD is very expensive, but then I guess SSD IS worth it, isn't it? Thank you for clarifying.

2) Do you think 8->16 GB RAM for memory and 2->4 GB for the GTX 850M are worth it? It's about 100 € more.

I tend to favour a 256 GB (or if available 500) SSD, 2 GB for the GTX 850M and 16 GB memory. But I'm not a technic expert, that's why I was going to ask.
(This is the German online shop I was looking at: Notebook PC Shop - Notebooks & Laptops günstig bei notebooksbilliger.de)

I was contemplating to not spend more than around 1200 € in total, so it might actually be close...

 

Thanks, Ill check that.

Look under the item price to see who it is sold and shipped by, also on the right there may be more options for sellers, some items are sold by amazon and some are sold by a third party but shipped by amazon and some are third party sold and shipped. It always shows you. 30 day return window, but they can charge you fees if the return is something other than their fault or defective unit.

I have emails saved confirming that they told me that I can open the back to change the RAM, swap out the HDD for an SSD and even change the keyboard back-light color if I want and not affect my warranty at all.

I did not have the problem on the JV model with windows 8 but do on my JK model with 8.1, but I believe we discussed this in a previous post and how to fix it. But I have yet to find a fix for all programs because some you cannot access the compatibility for. Several things I still have the problem and there are no options to Disable DPI virtualization.

Many do, I do! My Glossy laptop blows away with richer color that just pops better than any matte screen it has been put next to including my new 1080P 22" matte samsung TV, as well as all laptops I have compared it side by side to. I know none of the screens were the same in all other aspects but it still just looks better. Only reason I would want matte is if using outside or always in very well lit rooms. But I don't have glare issues in my room with lights on anyway.

Just need a T5 Torx bit. Mine didn't just come off after removing the screws. I couldn't find my little plastic pry-bar for removing device backs and was too lazy to get my body trim plastic tools from the garage and used my finger, well my hand slid and it cut my finger deep, so remember the bottom cover edges are thin and can be sharp. I knew they were sharp but didn't think my hand would slip.... duh....

 

Sorry, didn't notice! Yeah, my keystrokes issue is still there. Just posted in the other thread. It can't be I'm the only one with it!

Other than that though, pretty happy with the laptop.

 

If i install the windows iso on a usb, do i need to disable secure boot to boot from it?

How do i change what the pc use to boot from?

 

Battery Removal and Storage:

A while ago, I drained the battery to 40%. Manufacturers usually store batteries at this level of percentage capacity for minimal degradation.
Wrapped it in tissue and plastic (to prevent moisture build-up) then shove it into the refrigerator (not freezer).

Before you mock me, I want you to know that I use my laptop as a desktop replacement so it is always on the PC table. To protect the battery and prolong it's life cycle, I decided to remove and store it. I can easily put it back anyways. I didn't find any battery management pre-installed (except for the < 95% charge initiation) so I decided to push through.

Note: No warranty stickers. Easy to remove - use Phillips screw driver.

I might have done something wrong so comments or suggestions to my move's impact on the battery are welcome.

 

SATA Connections:

Can anyone verify what SATA are in the motherboard: (1) connected to the HDD (2) connected to the ODD
Is this correct:
1. HDD which supports SATA 3 is connected to the a SATA 3 Port in the motherboard
2. ODD which supports SATA 1 is connected to the other SATA 3 Port in the motherboard

* SATA 3 = 6Gb/s and SATA 1= 1.5Gb/s

I used HWiNFO. If you can provide a hardware printscreen from another program that would be great

 

What is the version of your driver now? 337.88?

 

Your optical drive will only support SATA 1.

 

Me? Yeah GeForce 337.88 Driver (5/26/2014)

My main question was what SATA ports are in the motherboard. If the ODD supports SATA 1, does this automatically mean that the SATA it is connected to the motherboard is also just SATA 1? I don't think that's the case.

 

I cancelled my n550jk order from DirectCanada because of the matte screen but just wanted to say the customer service was very good with them, and fast shipping as well. I didn't expect much from some other reviews online but for my order everything was nice easy and fast, and they accepted to give me a full refund without any questions.

 

I had a very pleasant exchange with the person I talked to on phone support a couple weeks ago. He helped me to the best of his ability and certainly left me with a good impression of the company.

But... I'm still going the B&H route by the looks of it, for the touchscreen version.

 

I did a clean install, but little confused which one of these driverser i need:
Notebooks & Ultrabooks - N550JK - ASUS

There are 5 different under the wireless category do i need all? same question under the bluetooth category.

 

I've just received N550JK-DB7 (black color).
I found the left and right edges of the screen are sharp (not as smooth as the top of the screen).
I can definitely feel the skin is scrapping on the edges!

Is it normal or a defect?

 

i have used this model for less than a month now and I only tried gaming with it this week.
I tried to play war thunder and it plavs very well, the graphics wouldn't be maxed but the experience of playing it in a portable computer like this is great.

my concern is I have no idea if the fans work while it is under load, when playing I don't hear any fan sound (which i have experienced on other computers) yet the temperature seems to be normal, it also doesnt get extremely hot (unlike lenovo or msi models) even under operating in summer room temperature, 30-34 C.

I got the black one and it is a nice experience, i recommend to change the hdd because it restricts unleashing the computer's true performance.

Screen (1080p Matte IPS)-
+ Great vibrant colors and viewing angles, high contrast.
- 1080p

Keyboard (Chiclet with keylight)
+ includes numpad, responsive, has many functions, doesn't get hot while in load
- takes time to get used to because of the positioning of arrow keys and crowded key arrangements

touchpad (this ones a surprise for me, i was thinking about buying the touchscreen one but backed off because the smart gesture in touchpad gets the things done for windows 8)
+ smart gesture, one finger for mouse, two finger scrolling, zoom, three fingers for functions
- nothing really, unlike any other brands that take touchpad for granted (because they want us to buy mouse/ touchscreens), this ones out of their leagues

processor (i7-4700hq)
nothing to explain here, gets the job done, doesn't lag/ freeze

video card (gtx 850m 4gb)
a surprise from the x50 family, it can game modern titles medium to high settings and can ultra 2010-2012 ones
good if you game casually and just cares about gameplay and temperatures

connections
3X USB 3.0 (SiSofware sandra is wrong, which tells this has 1x USB 3.0 and 2x USB 2.0)
qualcomm atheros card (not really crappy but not that great) - need to upgrade drivers, can have limited range
webcam 720p latency is high but has a great lighting control
HDMI, lan, 1x headphone jack, SD MMC reader, microphone (beside webcam)

battery life
2-4 hours browsing
1-2 hours gaming
it is recommended to game plugged in because the video card throttles unplugged.

hdd
the main bottleneck, stock hdd may slow the system startup to a minute, it is recommended to replace it in the hdd slot and place the hdd in the odd slot.

sound quality
good but not that great, subwoofer helps.

overall
+ great multimedia laptop for watching movies or playing music
+ ergonomics and build design
+ modern connectivity
+ high powered processor
+ discrete gpu enables gaming on the go
+ keyboard can handle word processing tasks
+ nice keypad (enables touchscreen windows 8 experience)

- poor battery life
- asus bloatwares
- fingerprint magnet
- 1080p
- stock hdd
- network card (qualcomm atheros)
- heavy
- limited upgrade-ability

recommended to people that wants professional design without sacrificing computing power, who wants multimedia looking laptop with gaming laptop potentials, who wants to have a gaming laptop without the ugly touchpad and build thickness.

I was considering heavily the y510p and ge60 pro models but chose this because of the thermals and build appearance.
watch your eye for the y50 and the n551 which has gtx 860m and 4k graphics

 

While I play Guild Wars 2 or video chat I can definitely hear the fans on mine (I have the silver American version), and it gets quite warm up closer to the monitor, even hot I would say. Haven't actually monitored the temps though, I guess I should do that.

Is it uncomfortable to touch above the keyboard close to the screen on yours after a bit of gaming? Also I think my fans don't run properly at low speeds, they sort of click up higher, then lower again, then click higher, and this repeats. Can anyone recommend a fan control app that I could try?

Thanks!

 

The ODD itself is SATA 1. The SATA port on the MB is SATA 3. It steps down for the slower drive and will go back to full speed if a full speed drive is connected to it.

 

Just thought I would add my 2¢. Typing this on my Asus N550JK-DS71T.

I've had similar experiences with gaming. Works well with medium settings and the fans are dead quiet. If you want to hear the fans scream just run Furmark for a few minutes. (I have the silver model BTW)

My version has the glossy screen. Colors are extremely sharp and vibrant. Great for video and image editing. Glare hasn't been a problem at all, even under the fluorescent lighting at work. I don't think that 1080p is necessarily a bad thing either. I use a much higher resolution on my desktop but can imagine how hard it would push the video card.

Definitely a little crowded on the numpad/arrow key side. Other than that it is quite comfortable to use and is a vast improvement over my old Lenovo Y560P that didn't include a numpad at all. The back lighting is extremely useful in low light conditions but with the silver keys it's better to leave it off in a bright room.

Touchpad is responsive and functions well. I use a mouse almost exclusively though so my opinion probably matters little here. I also have the touch screen version and it works very well. No dead spots and responds quickly and accurately.

Not much to add here. Good CPU for the price.

I have the 2gb version but ot still seems to handle everything I throw at it without too much problem.

The only thing I have to add here is the fact that my laptop came with the INTEL 7260HMW Wi-Fi card instead of the Atheros card. This gives 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac up to 1200 mbps. If you have an AC router it is definitely worth having this card. They can be had for ~$30 so if your laptop didn't come with one you might think about picking one up.

My battery life is similar but I have ran into one issue. Twice I've had the charging circuit freak out for some unknown reason. Presumably the leveling circuit on the cells is programmed to be extremely conservative with the fail-safe. It will quit charging and the charge light will blink orange. The laptop will continue to operate on battery until it's drained and works normally on A/C power otherwise. The fix was to hold the power button down until it quits flashing (about 7-10 secs). This resets the charging circuit and everything goes back to normal.

HDD is very slow. 5400 rpm is worthless in a system this fast. I replaced it with the Samsung 830 256gb out of my old laptop. The 1tb 5400 RPM will eventually find its way into an external enclosure for backups.

Sounds a bit tinny but the sub-woofer definitely helps. Best sounding laptop sound I've ever heard but I still would use headphones or earbuds for listening to music.

I agree with most of the above but I have to add a few caveats. The battery life is as good or better than similarly spec'ed and priced laptops from other manufacturers.
The network card is easily swapped out if you are stuck with the Atheros card. I recommend the Intel 7260HMW
Stock HDD sucks but we all know that going in. I had my laptop cracked open the same day I got it swapping in my SSD.
The weight is very manageable. It actually weighs quite a bit less than my old Y560P
Is just as upgradeable as most laptops.

Windows 8 on the other hand is a terrible monstrosity and an affront to computer users everywhere. I attempted to like it. I tried very hard. I added a start menu and tweaked it like all the websites say to do (why is so hard to make Windows 8 usable). Finally I gave up and installed Linux Mint 17. I fought with driver issues in Linux for several days. I got everything working properly except the video cards. I had them mostly working but I think the whole Optimus thing is just a bit too new. Intel drivers worked great but I couldn't solve 32-bit library issues with the Nvidia drivers.

In the end I broke down and bought a copy of Windows 7. Most of the Windows 8 drivers on the Asus website work without a problem with a couple of exceptions. The Intel drivers (Network, Chipset, Video) you will have to get straight from Intel. The Nvidia Drivers I didn't try, just got the newest ones from Nvidia. The hardest one to find was the touchpad drivers/software. It works out of the box but you won't get touch gestures without the software. Just do a search for Elantech Windows 7 drivers and that'll take care of that.

So far I've been very impressed by this laptop. I hope it lasts me many years.

 

Will N/G550JK-DS71 be able to play NFS Rivals,GTA IV , GTA V when it's out ,Call of Duty Ghosts and maybe Watch Dogs at 1080p resolution?
I don't want AA but details should be high atleast...
or should I wait for the G551 since Y50 has a bad screen?

one more question , playing in a lower resolution (say 1366x768) on a 1080p screen will make things look weird?

 

I happen to have Watch_Dogs. Here are some benchmarks to give you an idea of what you can expect.

Below are the graphics settings it chooses with the auto-detect option.


60 second benchmark shows the following...
2014-06-15 14:47:07 - Watch_Dogs
Frames: 1491 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 24.850 - Min: 22 - Max: 31
It's playable at that level but slowdowns will be inevitable.

I set everything to low...

And frame rates are much improved. You shouldn't have any issues here.
2014-06-15 14:52:37 - Watch_Dogs
Frames: 3368 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 56.133 - Min: 50 - Max: 68

In Game Screenshot on Custom (High)


In Game Screenshot on Low


Low settings are a little darker and distant objects are not as clear but still very good looking game.

I did the same benchmark on my desktop with the same high settings as the first benchmark above just for comparison. My desktop has a Core i7 4770k and an Nvidia 780ti.
2014-06-15 15:50:27 - Watch_Dogs
Frames: 5630- Time: 60000ms - Avg: 93.833 - Min: 75 - Max: 113

It's a GPU hungry game so I wouldn't expect miracles from a laptop.

 

Oh btw...
No, playing in a lower resolution doesn't look weird. Plays just fine. Although all of my benchmarks were done at 1080P.

 

Thank you very much for your reply..
I was playing NFS hot pursuit on my PC (It's an i3 with a Geforce 210 so can't play anything more than that) at 1366x768..I changed the resolution to check how it looks but at 1080p car looked really weird..really wide and all..same happened for 1024x768 and 800x600..but if it doesn't happen in a 1080p that's good..
I don't mind playing in lower resolutions (1600x900 or something)..I don't think GTX850M ddr3 can play most games in 1080p ..
I was just worried about things looking abnormal..thank you again

 

You shouldn't have had a problem going from 1366x768 to 1920x1080 unless your graphics card just couldn't take it and was displaying artifacts. Just keep in mind that you're better off sticking with the same aspect ratio. 1920x1080 is a 16:9 aspect ratio, so any resolution that maintains that ratio will give you the best quality (1024×576, 1280×720, 1366×768, 1600×900, 1920×1080, 2048×1152, 2560×1440). Changing aspect ratios on most computers should cause you to get the letterbox effect (black bars on the sides and/or top and bottom to fill space), but some will stretch the image to fill the screen. This can look horribly bad. If you like I can try to fire up Watch_Dogs at 1366x768 and see if it is more playable with higher settings. If it were me though I'd just find a happy medium between high and low that doesn't drop me below 25 fps and stay at full resolution.

 

Thank you again! yeah most probably it was the Graphics card...
I think I'll be happy with medium settings too...I have never used mSAA , Vsync and stuff since I never had a Graphic card strong enough..so I probably won't use them anyway..
I still wish there was a Laptop in this price range with a ddr5 850m or 860m since Y50's screen turned out to be a deal breaker..

I think I'm better off with Asus..thank you for taking the time to reply..

 

Can any owner confirm if your screen's frame edges are the same? Thx!

 

yep same. it is "sharp" where the plastic bezel meets the aluminum cover - the edge of aluminum part is making it "sharp".
haven't touched this part of the laptop before. i don't know what scenario you'll likely do so. maybe while cleaning the unit?

not sure if same goes with the silver version

 

Hello everyone!
I'm really interested in this laptop, there's one thing that I don't like about this laptop: the battery!
So I have some questions for the owners: How is the battery doing in this laptop? I think that the heat (specially while gaming) will damage the sealed-in battery...?
Can some one tell us his experience with this type of battery?
Thank you!

 

I consistently get 4+ hours of battery life during normal usage. This is obviously dramatically reduced during gaming, I would never game on this thing without plugging in. The Nvidia card running full tilt will kill the battery in less than 2 hours.

I wouldn't worry too much about the heat. The battery is located in the front of the laptop under the touch pad area. CPU and GPU are located towards the back with heat pipes and two fans directing hot air out of the vents under the hinge. Xotic PC did an infrared heat map during their video review with the laptop under stress test.. As you can see below, the area the battery sits in is in no danger from the heat generated.

 

So...what is the difference between this and the G550JK aside from the screen and aesthetics?

 

Besides the screen (glossy on N550JK and matte on G550JK), I'm pretty sure the G uses a 750GB HDD 7200RPM, wich I personally think is a better option. The Asus site shows options between 1TB/750GB and 5400/7200RPM, but on Xotic the default is the 750GB 7200RPM, so I'm guessing that's how other retailers will have it. In the US, at least.

Don't know if picking based on the HDD is a good decision, though, as it can be changed later.

Edit: One other thing I forgot to mention. Xotic says it has an Intel i7-4710HQ, but the Asus site lists the same as the N, the Intel® Core™ i7 4700HQ Processor. So I don't really know who's right on that one. You can check the same links above!

 

no, the keyboard actually doesn't change temperatures while gaming, but the portion between the screen and keyboard does (it gets really hot). I didn't have any experience with it's fan, no clicking no revving, and honestly i barely hear the sound of the fan while doing anything, i can say that because when i first used this laptop (days after i bought it) it revved up the fans and span a 100% (the laptop vibrated and the sound is obvious) but after that I haven't heard it in gaming nor in browsing.

 

Huh, well good to hear at least my temps are normal. I'm a bit sad about the fans, but I'll probably just let asus know about the issue, and if the fan ever breaks past warranty I have the issue logged from before