Asus N50 Owners/Buyers Thread

The forums have seen an increase in the amount of N series posts, so i took the liberty to make a single thread to unite owners, buyers.

As i took the leap myself today. The Model i bought was the N50Vn-FP024G
The price i paid was $2450.00 AUD.

Intel Core2 Duo T9400 -2.53Ghz/6Mb/1066FSB
WXGA-LED 15.4" WLED Backlit Display @ 1200x800
Nvidia 1Gb 9650GT DDR2 Videocard
4Gb (2x2Gb) Dual Channel DDR2-800Mhz, CL6.
500Gb 5400RPM 2.5" Hitachi Hard Disk Drive
2x Blu-Ray Drive
Microsoft Vista Ultimate 32

First Impressions:

The N50Vn is large and has the full numeric keypad and almost feels like some of the 17" notebooks i was looking at. It's very quiet and heat is quite acceptable. Build quality seems ok, but nothing special... The vertical viewing angles on the LED screen are fairly average and certainly not as nice as the Mac, Dell and Vaio LED backlit screens i viewed, also disappointed i couldn't get a slightly higher res model screen with LED backlighting.

Asus should of loaded Vista x64 to utilize the 4Gb of ram by default, I'm about to reload to get rid of the pre-installed crap software with x64 version, but silly it doesn't come on the disc. The Asus SmartLogon using facial recognition for the 2.0Mp camera is as good as useless, but the fingerprint scanner worked without fuss.

The Mini-USB mouse and bag are nice free extras, but the external USB IR dongle for Hybrid TV Tuner is fairly silly, would be nice to see it built into the laptop itself. Also i would like an option for the N50Vn to have an LED Backlit Keyboard.

Battery Life was a pleasant surprise, using the Power4GO battery save options Vista reported about 4hours, obviously real-world results will be worse and will vary, but it's quite a bit better than i expected from Asus.

Performance:
I have run 3DMark06, WEI and GPU-Z, CPU-Z and CoreTemp: And have attached a few screenshots.

WEI: 5.0
3DMark06: 4740

I Will try Kubuntu/Vista x64 Dual boot setup shortly.

 

Just wondering, where did you get the laptop with your specs? I don't think I saw it on any US sellers

 

I'm in Australia, so the FP024G is an Australian model.
The C2S in the USA is fairly on par with mine only i have the LED WXGA Screen. The C2S in the USA has WSXGA non LED screen, apart from that they are the same spec wise.

In the US:

A1B - T5800
B1B - P8600
C1S - T9400,
C2S - T9400, BluRay, 500Gb HDD...
C3S - T9400,

 

Hi! Freakish,

I'm also digging into N50Vn and a little concerned about some problems reported on other ASUS laptops.... How do you feel about the speaker quality? Any crackles? Any noise in headphone while something is plugged in esata/usb?

Also, did you observe any keyboard lag?

Thanks a lot!

 

Yeah the Keyboard Lag issues concerned me too, when i was looking at Asus forums. But so far I have not observed any such issues on the N50.

The Speakers i have not given a good work out as yet, I'm currently loading Vista x64, But my feeling is they are fairly standard, not great and no match for 5 speaker and sub speaker setups found on some Toshibas etc, but not terrible either.

I know the Dell Studio is meant to suffer from 802.1 (B) wireless interference on their speakers which have crackle, i will try some experiments to see if i can replicate these issues on my N50 this arvo, and report back.

Currently my only problem is it seems there is no FingerPrint driver for x64.

 

Thanks! looking forward to your tests with it.

 

looking forward to this laptop,but by the time it reaches my country, it'll prob be next year

 

Think you could get us any good tabs on real-life gaming and the battery life?

And is that a media remote made for a card slot? Or is that just a weird shape in the last picture?

Like iubmartin, I'm digging this notebook .

 

Sorry for the delay..


The audio is fairly average as expected, 2xAltec Lansing Speakers, with Realtek HD audio, it's thin, tinny and lacks bass and volume. However for most general duties like light gaming, multimedia and movies/TV it had enough presence to do what it needs. I have not noticed any pops or static, or hiss etc.... Headphones, External Speakers and HDMI output are other audio options tested.

Red Alert 3 runs at "Ultra High" settings without issues with a decent amount of AA, and the temps were acceptable although i would like the fans to spin up a bit quicker.

I will do some more tests yet, especially on battery etc.. But my feeling is this model is likely to be one of the better battery performing Asus 15" models. I plan on testing my own aggressive settings fully and then comparing the "Power4Gear" software which undervolts etc, to see if the Asus software is worth loading. I can easily get 3 hours, But want to see if 4 is possible.

The keyboard is enjoyable to type on and Vista x64 works fine with all the included options work except the Webcam is upside down. The fingerprint scanner fails to recognize my fingerprints every other time..
And also the LED touch sensitive keys are not configurable, and cannot control anything except Windows Media Player. So no Mplayer or VLC, and they cannot be turned off to save battery. (It's the little things)

I really dislike the fact that the Bios only has options for booting from Bluray or HDD, and doesn't support the USB or card readers at all(until Windows has booted) my cheap netbooks does this without issue.

PS Yes the remote is meant to be expresscard sized....

 

The only thing that worries me about this laptop is the 1280x800 screen.

How are you finding this. Is the pictures still sharp when you are close to the screen?

How does blu-ray movies look on this notebook?

Thanks.

 

I'm thinking of purchasing the N50Vn-A1B but I'm somewhat on the fence about it as I haven't been keeping up with computers too much since I bought my last desktop about 4 years ago.

for the $950 pricetag from newegg, is there any major objections to it? from reading your post it seems that there doesn't seem to be any dealbreaking problems.

 

The N50Vn-A1B is Asus's newest line of notebooks with great specs and price/performance ratio. However, I'd recommend purchasing any Asus notebooks from an Asus reseller like GenTechPC instead of newegg simply because of the additional technical support they can offer if you run into any problems with your new notebook. Their prices are almost exactly the same if you include the shipping costs from newegg, but you'll get the extra layer of protection going with a reseller

 

okay, thanks for the input. Another question though, do you foresee a pricedrop in the next little while? like is gentech the kind of place that puts deals out on black friday, etc?

 

hey, i heard the N50v is a fingerprint magnet, if this true? and how is the performance on games and videos?

 

I can't imagine there will be a substantial price drop for black Friday. The prices are pretty much set by Asus and not by resellers, and Asus already has an ongoing promotion for several models. If there is a discount, it probably won't be anything significant (probably in the range of $10-$30).

I've had numerous fingerprint readers, and although they can attract fingerprints, it's not as noticeable as print on a glossy screen/surface. The reader itself is quite small.

 

okay, thank you david. That was my big concern, as I'm very impatient and would hate to see my impatience cost me a nice dinner. =P

 

Definitely from a reseller like GentechPC or XoticPC or Powernotebooks or the like...

 

Just got it this afternoon...Below is my first impression:

System specs:
N50Vn-C1s: T9400 2.53g 6mb L2/15.4" WXGA+ /4G/9650GT 1G/DVD super multi/320G 5400rpm

Pros:
1. Pretty fast!
2. I have done some light gaming (Flight Sim X with ultra high setting)....pretty smooth overall and no noticeable heat coming out...
3. The WXGA+ screen is very bright and clear...not sure how it compares to WXGA LED though...
4. The touchpad is very smooth and easy to use.
5. The fan is pretty quiet and efficient; hope it won't get louder and louder as it gets old.

Cons:
1. Awful speaker! It's worse than I expected! Now I'm thinking about getting an external speaker....
2. A little bit keyboard flex...but just fine...
3. Build quality is so so......found a little creaky noise near the left-hand side when pressed by hands
4. CPU whine? I heard some kind of high pitch noise from the top left bottom, but it's not disturbing unless you intentionally listen to it closely...

 

can anyone here verify iubmartin's problem's with the asus purchased? im concerned about build quality and the whining....

 

Agree on the build quality, it's fairly average and nothing special...(are Asus ever?) But i don't have any whining at all, completely silent for mine...
I have seen others report a whining noise on an M50 thread though recently.

 

One additional thing: I just realized last night that the color of my N50 is not like the one as advertised by Asus- brownish/gold. The one I got is "silver blue" (the official name), and it's really like iron gray which I prefer over the advertised one. So if you're planning to buy this one, you may tell the reseller what color you prefer..I guess...

 

Sometimes... see my signature for instance.

 

Some updates of my observation after playing around with my N50Vn for another two days:

1. The whole machine is very cool during and after gaming (Flight Sim X with high settings) as well as after running whole day long.
For those who are highly concerned about heat issue, this will be a good choice!

EDIT: It only gets a little warmer after long-time usage, but it's still very acceptable.

2. The keyboard is more like my iBook G4 that I bought 4 years ago. It's pretty good. However, the keyboard was not firmly installed when I got it (one of the latches didn't sit in), so that's why I felt some keyboard flex. I pushed a little bit so that the latch clicked and the keyboard firmly sat in. Now the keyboard is solid!

3. Viewing from a different angle (about 130 degrees) on white screen, the distribution of brightness is not so even. But viewing from the regular angle (right in front of the screen), the brightness is pretty much evenly distributed. Why doesn't ASUS use LED panel on all models of N50?

4. The creaky noise from the left-hand side seems to come from the shallow express card slot.

5. Again, the quality of the speaker is pretty poor. I don't know why Altec Lansing would have ever certified this speaker. I don't think this speaker is really manufactured by Altec Lansing. This quality really ruins their own reputation. But the Altec Lansing on G50Vt in BestBuy is much better than the one on N50Vn.

6. The battery life is about 2.5 hrs on energy saving mode while doing some web surfing and document processing.

 

My keyboard seems to have a slight rise or bubble towards the middle.
If you look at the "space bar" and right "alt" key there seems to be a larger gap than the rest of the keyboard, have you noticed anything similar?
I love the keyboard in general, just lacks the LED backlighting for night time typing.

Stupidity? I would of much preferred your res screen in LED form too.

Hmm, after you said this i seem to have a creek on the bottom left foot mount rubber grommit thinggy... If i press that it creeks a lot, I have the express card remote inside the express card slot. That doesn't seem to make a noise though.

I updated the Realtek HD drivers from Realtek website, and also changed a few settings in the Sound options, increased the bass by +2. But i agree they are thin and tinny, but i would mainly be using external speakers or headphones. But for the price you would expect more. As for Altec Lansing, I don't think they really produce outstanding laptop speakers anyway. I have a Compaq with similar ones, and it's slightly less impressive..

Hmm, I get a fair bit better result than that, but i optimized Vista x64, to work with minimal services, and no extra software and i also changed "PowerSaving Mode" to be more minimalistic than default, I also have the lower res LED screen which also may account for the differences.

They must be the exception to the rule..... It's not bad and performance wise i got what i paid for, but I do feel that Asus are box movers, and not really thinking a lot about design/build enough....

 

does this have a 9 cell battery

 

Sure does! But you'll have to purchase it as an extra.

 

Hey all, think I'll be getting an N50 next month.

Where would you guys say is the best place to order it from? I'd really prefer the silver/blue color, not the brown one.

 

Definitely do order from ebay to get the $200 cashback. If you got ebay 10% off coupon in email, you can use it on top of live.com cashback!

 

ASUS did not indicate the actual color for either model (N50Vn or N50Vc) until our store discovered that the N50Vn-CxS are only available in Light Silver Blue, not brown.

N50Vn-A1B (Bronze) - T5800 + WXGA (1280x800) LED + 250GB HDD + Super-Multi DVDRW
N50Vn-B1B (Bronze) - P8600 + WXGA+ (1440x900) + 320GB HDD + Super-Multi DVDRW
N50Vn-C1S (Light Silver Blue) - T9400 + WXGA+ (1440x900) + 320GB HDD + Super-Multi DVDRW
N50Vn-C2S (Light Silver Blue) - T9400 + WSXGA+ (1680x1050) + 500GB HDD + Super-Multi DVDRW
N50Vn-C3S (Light Silver Blue) - T9400 + WXGA+ (1440x900) + 320GB HD + Blu-Ray Disc Drive

All N50 notebooks are equipped with a GeForce 9650M GT 1GB graphics card.

 

Yeah that's the problem. All the CxS ones are over my budget, equipped with bigger HD's, and a T9400.

 

I installed the latest driver from Realtek, but somehow there's some sort of conflict with certain software. -_- So I uninstalled it, and now I'm using Microsoft's audio driver, which seems to make the speaker work better than the OEM driver! Now the speaker seems to be louder! Is it my illusion??

 

People complaining about the sound, have you tried configuring sound volume from BIOS? That at least was the issue with my G50, setting it to max volume did increase my sound output. Maybe N50 has a similar issue.

In the end, very few notebooks actually have superior sound, and most come at a higher pricepoint. Sound is not very loud in Asus notebooks, but it has good fidelity and overall quality.

I am surprised to see a 1000 point increase from my 9500M GS to 9650GT DDR2, it seems gaming wise it might be even more decent increase. Definetly a good mid range card.

 

Does anyone have any pics of their notebook? I like the look of the N50 in pics, but I feel like it might be too shiny in person. Any thoughts on the finish?

Also, if anyone has the WSXGA screen, how do you like it?

I was considering this notebook with a 7.2k HDD.

 

The finish is exactly like the N80. You can check out the pictures here.

Also, keep in mind that a higher capacity 5400 HDD will perform the same or even better than a 7200 HDD due to having a higher platter density

 

Yeah I was looking at going from a 320 5400rpm drive to a 320 7200rpm drive so it should definitely be faster (unless the 7.2k is split into 2 platters).

 

Well, if comparing same capacity drives, the the 7200 will definitely be faster
However, since you're planning to spend money on an additional drive, I think it would be better to opt for a 500gb 5400rpm since they are only about $10-$15 difference

 

So, does anybody have pictures as to where the battery goes? I got the n80 and it's perfect except i wouldn't mind an extra hour and a half battery life. Because the battery fits within frame entirely i'm assuming asus will not produce an extended battery that would bulge out of the bottom. I wouldn't mind having one but that's just me . If this thing can go 5 hours or so with regular office usage on a 9 cell battery, that would be perfect.

 

Unfortunately, there isn't an option for a higher capacity 9-cell battery. 6-cell is the only one available

 

A picture of the bottom of the N50 is in my first post of the thread, it shows the battery compartment open and empty.

I also noticed a weird battery issue today, for the last 24hours i decided to run the laptop without a battery installed, and just use the AC power. This worked ok, with the exception that without the battery Vista would always stop at the Windows Boot Manager screen, and requires a press of the enter key to actually load Vista, otherwise it just stays at the Bootmanager screen.

I put the battery back in and it always boots without user intervention.
I'm not sure if this is just an Asus thing or normal for Vista, but it's really annoying.

@Squads: I will post some more pics soon.. But yeah the top cover is gloss black for myself (wish my car was that shiny) so it does attract those fingerprints. I as yet still have the plastic covers on the screen and cover, as well as stickers. But it will get dirty quickly when i remove them.

 

sorry if this is kind of a silly question, but if I buy the N50Vn-A1B (from gentech PC) I'll most likely be bringing it to college with me. It'll come with a basic like.. microsoft works/office type program built-in that'll handle the school stuff right? and I don't mean wordpad/notepad I won't have to buy it afterwards?

also, for a budget semi-gaming laptop, that seems like a good deal eh? by semi-gaming I mean most likely just off and on playing cs:source, TF2, L4D and (I'll actually cry if somehow it manages to not be able to play this, however unlikely it is) Diablo III.

 

There was a Microsoft Office trial installed initially, but not much more.
If money is tight OpenOffice 3.0 is a free and easy install and is well featured.
I would also check out the size/weight before purchase, perhaps the N80 model with 14.1" screen and no numeric keypad is a better idea for college. I'm not sure i would like to travel a lot with my N50vn, It's certainly on the heavier larger level for 15" notebooks IMO.

So far I've only managed RA3 and Colonization, and both are handled on max settings with ease, I'm sure most source engine based stuff should be fine.
Diablo3 will certainly be playable one would imagine, but how well is anyones guess.

 

alright, I'll prolly give the openoffice dealy a shot, and if I realllly need it, I'm sure I can scrounge up the cash for a legit ms office/equivalent program, or can find someone to *ahem* acquire it from.


thats a good point about the size though, I didn't really think about it. I'll hit up best buy... not tomorrow definitely but the next day maybe and take a look at the size difference, I checked the weight and they're not too much more than a lb different (6.5 and 5.2) so that shouldn't be too noticeable I guess? unless with laptops that difference is way large.

it looks like the only difference aside from size is that the n50 has bluetooth and n80 has a bigger HD, how useful is bluetooth really? I haven't used it too much in the past. if someone could give a quick rundown as to the common uses of bluetooth that'd be fantastic.

 

Hehe, yeah OpenOffice is actually good enough for myself these days and has compatibility with MS office formats and standards, but doesn't have to be activated and include the typical MS bloat, which is often good for notebooks.

I just personally find it feels on the large size compared to other 15" models i looked at and another compaq i use is much lighter and especially the screen is a lot higher on the N50 despite being the same 15.4" size. Makes the compaq for example a lot easier to hold in one hand etc.. It would only bother me if i did tend to want to carry it daily however, than i myself would now looks at a 14.1" equiv.

I tried it just to test it for the first time with my mobile phone and for example i could hit play on my phone to play an mp3 and have the speakers on my laptop magically play the song without any wires in a decent LOS distance. I also could transfer files between them albeit much slower than USB. BT mice exist which would allow a small travel mouse without wires, (unlike the included USB mouse) is likely one of the most useful if that's your thing. Also devices like BT headphones etc are around too.

The novelty for myself washes off in about a second personally.
You could add it to any notebook such as N80 fairly easily via expresscard or USB dongle at a later date if it was a concern.

 

I notice when using GPUZ that my PCI-E bandwidth is listed as currently working @ x1 Mode and not x16. Can anyone else try downloading GPUZ or RivaTuner and tell me if they have the same issue.

My Picture here shows (9650): PCI-E 2.0 x16 @ x1
http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=26869&d=1226656239

Gentech M50 (9600) PCI-E 2.0 x16 @ x16
http://www.gentechpc.com/Asus/M50VM/9600-9500-GPUz.jpg

Anyway to tell if it's actually only running in X1 or it's just a bug in Vista x64 leading to the wrong info.

 

Shall we turn this into an "official" N50 owner's lounge and move it to the Lounges subforum?

 

I think i should of posted it there (sorry), although it seems this model is fairly unpopular so far. Doesn't seem like a lot of us owners exist.

Thought i would also let the thread know that an updated Bios has been released.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
BIOS 209
1. Update new EC Firmware 200018F.EC
2. Fix that noise generated after cold booting on ALC 663.
3. Fix: Unplug AC adapter, the system cannot enter S4 when battery capacity is 1%. The system will shutdown automatically when battery capacity is 0%.

ps. ATKHOTKEY ver. 1.0.0040 or later is required for item 3.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

PS... Does anyone have weird left "Ctrl" key, I've found i have to hit the Ctrl key repeatedly to often cut, copy, paste or undo (all Ctrl key combos) I'm wondering if it's faulty or some kind of feature? (Possibly from the ATK driver)

 

Just to warn users that there is no FLASH utility for x64. (Why Asus?)
So if you are running Vista x64, than you can not apply the Bios update.

Does anyone know if Asus have a 64bit Bios Updater utility?

 

There is a bios update utility built into my N50, although I'm not sure if this is a feature of the newer bios.

 

I just found this Forum and registered. Last night I ordered a N50Vn-A1B. There was a post I read, made good sense to me, about buying from a reseller, if only to have the benefit of Support. Well, its too late now, I ended up buying from Buy.com. It just happened that I found a listing of the prices, and since I had never used "buy.com", I got a $30 discount off the already low price of $962, with free shipping.

I have never had anything but a Desktop [ 3 Dells, use 2 daily ]. My 9-year-old son wanted a laptop/notebook for Xmas, and after researching I went with what I thought would be the best. I'll paste what I ordered.

I registered here 'cause I know I'll need some help.

ASUS N50Vn-A1B Notebook Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 (2.0GHz) Processor, 15.4" WXGA (1280x800) LED Display, 4GB DDR2 Memory, 250GB Hard Drive, DVD Super Multi Drive, NVIDIA GeForce 9650M GT 1GB (1024MB) Graphics Card, Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium

 

I think it should be there in older BIOSes. It's been there in most ASUS notebooks for a couple of years now.

I will move this thread to the Reviews and Owner Lounges subforum, and add a link to it in the Index and Info Booth when I first edit them next.