Asus N550JK Owners Lounge

Hi everyone!

I'm not an owner of this particular system (yet), but I would like to hear from people who have it. What are your impressions so far? How does it compare to the N550JV?



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I've been looking for a DTR laptop for a few months now to replace my Toshiba A665 and after lengthy research I decided on the N550JV. The new N550JK was then released in early April and this introduced yet another decision point for me. After another round of quick research - thanks in part to this forum - I was leaning on N550JK. Last weekend's $50 price drop sealed the deal and placed an order with amazon on Saturday. I also ordered the Samsung EVO 500GB SSD; a USB flash drive (recovery backup); and, a set of torx screwdrivers.

The laptop comes preinstalled with Windows 8.1 and so there's no need to perform the 8 --> 8.1 upgrade.

As first order of business after setting up accounts and firing up windows, I prepared for the SSD swap. I'd postponed the creation of the USB recovery image after the SSD installation but I think this was a mistake in retrospect. The Samsung drive comes with Data Migration software to clone the hard drive. This process was fairly straight-forward but there really is no way to verify other than to install the drive and pray that it worked.

The removal of the back cover is pretty straight-forward. Just watch out for sharp edges, I cut myself running my index finger along the edge to prop it open. There's also a little bit of wiggling needed at the corner where the power connection is located. In addition to T5 torx (to remove the back cover) you also need phillips head screwdriver to remove the 10 screws that hold the various contraptions to keep the hard drive sturdy.

When you put the cover back on, be careful not to over-torque the T5 screws.

With the SSD installed, cold-boot from power down takes less than 6 seconds. The process went smoothly or so I thought. As next order of business, I proceeded to create the USB flash recovery image. But, I was hit with the "couldn't locate the files to copy the recovery partition" error. When I researched this, I got a couple of possible causes: 1) the cloning process 2) Need 32GB instead of 16GB (really?!?!) for creating 64-bit recovery image; the USB I used was a 16GB one.

The laptop indeed has the new Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 card. My next issue was with really horrible download/upload speeds with this card. Apparently, my N-router was not configured correctly and after changing the value of the wireless 'mode' to 'Upto 300Mbps' I got full connectivity with healthy upload/download speeds.

Overall, I'm really happy and satisfied with this laptop. Now that I've installed Lightroom and PS5, I'm all set for a lengthy session of image editing.

Let me know if you have any specific questions.

 

Do you have any issue while typing on the keyboard? I saw that on the forum but no real answers yet.

Also, what do you think of the build quality?

Also do you find it hot when running full load? What about throttling?

 

Yes, I do see an issue with the keyboard where not all strokes are registered. This was especially annoying when I had to type passwords to various sites for the first time from this laptop.

Well, I can confirm that the back cover is also aluminum, with sharp edges too as I have a cut on my finger to prove it Kidding aside, this laptop seems to be well put together and I expect it to last me a few years.

I haven't had the opportunity to really stress it. I don't plan on playing any games; just photo and video editing.

 

How does the palm rest feel? On my current MacBook Pro it is quite sharp, and it leaves red grooves in my arms if I rest my wrists on it. Thanks for telling us what you think!

 

Argh, I want to buy this computer for entertainment but also for programming and an unresponsive keyboard is quite a deal breaker...

 

mehhhhhhh, me too! :|

 

I have this notebook and I have not even noticed this issue. I read about it here, but I have no idea what the posters meant. There some keyboard driver refresh on the Asus site, maybe I installed it out of the box, so it has never been a problem for me.

 

Allright. What's your exact model? Asus N550JK-....?

Thanks for your answers.

Edit : I also had a question about the battery life. How long does it last when wi-fi surfing?

 

Just for reference, there's a much longer thread here with lots of info already: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...k-ds71t-quick-mini-review-opinion-so-far.html

 

Asus N550JK-CN069D

Hmm.... my estimate is about 4.5-5 hours, but I have never actually run it dry....

 

Bought a n550jk-cm080h that comes with a 256gb ssd disk and blueray drive from the factory. Feels like a great notebook, but havent done that much with it.

 

I dont understand. How could you make a usb flash drive after you had installed the ssd? Also did you use the migration software or not?
I have a EVO 248 gb ssd, but im unsure how to preceed with getting a USB flash drive with the operating system from the asus. Also do you need all the other partitions that is on the factory hdd ?

 

Ah... what a hassle... I actually read your post, just before I attempted to change my Harddrive in the N550JK to a SSD... So I made a Recovery USB Flash before the work.
I then had the audacity, to expect boot sequence to be assigned to ports rather than Hardware IDs, as I used a HDD Caddy, and replaced the BluRay Drive with the original HDD.
When it started up, I then removed the OS Partition on the old HDD, which caused a crash, as it actually booted from the old HDD instead of the SSD.
No biggie, I thought... removed the old HDD again, and tried a reboot - but the SSD was not bootable anymore... ok... I have my recovery flash - I'll just boot with that, and restore Windows on the SSD, no?
No. I tried any and every trick I found on the internet. I could not recover from the flash... either the partition was missing (although registered as C) or it was not big enough (original HDD was 1TB, while the SSD was 500GB).
Ok... removed SSD, put back orginal HDD, recovered from HDD, all fine... shrunk OS Partition (but forgot to re-do the recovery flash at this point, as I was beginning to become frustrated), redid the SSD copy, booted from that, installed the HDD while running, removed all Partitions on the HDD and successfully now have a plain Data HDD... but despite my SSD having recovery Partitions, I cannot create a recovery flash as some "files are missing"... lol... I think I'll just extract the Windows Serial, and find an ISO next time. As a long time user of Windows (since 2.0) I am not a friend of 8.1 yet...

 

A recovery usb doesn't actually contain the Windows files. You will have to download a copy from a file sharing service. I can tell you from experience that neither Microsoft nor Asus will help you reinstall Windows. You have to resort to some sketchy file downloading to get it done unless you have access to cds.

The only convenient part is the Windows key is in your BIOS so you don't have to have that. Just use the iso file and the program from Microsoft that lets you create a bootable usb from the iso file.

 

This laptop is pretty solid but i've been wondering about this.



8gb vram??

 

I can't imagine that that is even remotely possible in this laptop, it must just be the program misreading the information from the hardware.

 

Must be a glitch caused by Optimus.

 

I'll see your 8 and raise 4.



Screenshot is made using N550JV and running dxdiag with nvidia gpu as designated GPU selected via context menu (run with graphics processor...). System memory is 16GB.

Running dxdiag with default option shows a vram of 1792MB for HD 4600.

 

I am seeing a bunch of differemt n560jk .. submodels .. where can i find the difference between them ?

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The only way I know is just to compare the specs. All of them use the same frame (although some have a black deck while others have silver) but different markets have different hardware components.

 

For example a shop here in malta offered to get me n550jk cj375h .. is there a better one ? And its touchscreen right ? Because i cannot find onkine what the last code means or provides to compare

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