Asus ZenBook Pro UX501 Owner's Lounge

Nick work! I've same issue with my UX501vw, unfortunately I've returned the 950 Pro to the eBay seller now. I believe that this is a bug and Asus still can not figure it out!

 

Thinking about getting UX501VW over XPS15. I have some questions.
-Do you guys think UX501VW will last for 4 years ?
-Is it as buggy as the XPS 15?
-Also, why should i get UX501VW over XPS15 (apart from money)?
-And lastly do any of you use android studio ? If so, how long will the battery last when using it?/ Battery life on moderate use ?
-Finally, how portable is it while carrying to different places ?

Thanks in advance.

 

- It depends
- I've heard about some complains of XPS too
- My UX501vw installed a matte display, as a coding machine, UX501vw is better
- no idea
- XPS 15 is more portable than UX501vw, but not bad at all

 

-- I do believe that the VW will last at least 4 years, but of course much of that depends on how you treat it.

-- I believe that the Skylake processors combined with the 4k screen covers many of the issues you read about. These issues aren't exclusive to the Asus or Dell machines. I also believe that a 4k screen is an absolute waste of resources and is a royal pain in the butt to deal with on a daily basis, unless you are heavily into picture/video editing.

-- I think the Asus is a better deal for what you get. However, it's definitely larger than the XPS. But personally, I just don't like Dell products.

-- I don't know what Anroid Studio is, sorry. However, the battery is good, usually lasting me 4-6 hours for regular office apps and surfing. Games or any app that switches to nVidia graphics and/or pings the CPU and I'm gettinf 2-4 hours.

-- Mine fits, albeit snuggly, in a 15" laptop bag. Watch for dimensions when picking a bag/case, as the Asus VW is usually on the maximum size limitations of the bags out there.

 

How's the keyboard? I've read some negative things in reviews about it in regards to flex, key travel and it being off centered bc of the num pad on right. Can I get some real world feedback? Thanks!

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

No issues with keyboard flex,in my opinion. The fact that it's off center is also not an issue for me.
There does, however, seem to be an issue with the spacebar. Maybe it's the way I type, but maybe 1 time out of 10, the space wont register for me. Also, while it's nice to have a numeric keypad, the keys on it are way to narrow. (regular keys are fine). Key travel is "okay" for a chicklet board and the back-lighting is useless unless you are in a pitch black room. They should have made black keys with a white font.

 

i know one bug at least.... it won't do triple display reliably

 

it's funny, both the G501 and ux501 have useless keyboard. It's so hard to see the G501 keyboard's red letters, and it's so hard to see the ux501's white letters.

They should have swapped and given the ux501 the red letters instead, and the g501 the white letters.

 

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I can tell you that based on what I've read, the one MAJOR reason to get the VW over the JW are the vents they added to the back of the VW, which aren't there on the JW version. Those with the JW are complaining of overheating and even worse throttling issues than the VW. (For the record, I have the VW and have never had thermal issues).

Additionally, the JW uses the older Haswell processor architecture, while the VW uses the newer Skylake architecture.
However, Skylake has had it's growing pains, so if you do go with the VW, make sure you download all of the updated drivers for Intel and nVidia. They have hot fix drivers available for the issues Skylake was having. I've been running these drivers for about 4 months now and have never had one issue.

 

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JW has minidisplayport and older thunderbolt.

VW has usb-c and thunderbolt 3

VW still throttles a little bit, but the vents on the underside help

 

Just a warning for you UX501VW users regarding graphics drivers updates... I tried to update the Geforce drivers via the NVIDIA Geforce Experience app (from initial 353.84 to 365.10) and it failed to update but whats worse I am left with no Geforce drivers as it must have uninstalled them before failing to install the new ones. Asus website is undergoing maintenance so will have to wait before I can download from there.

News to me is that Windows 10 has System Restore disabled by default so I cannot rollback.

 

Hi Calgor,
You should go directly to NVIDIA's website and download the latest drivers there. No need to rely on ASUS to push out drivers. They're usually not current anyway.

 

Thanks yes Asus does not update them very often, I updated this from within the Nvidia recommended pestering app instead of their website. I ended up reinstalling Windows 10 (via Control Panel so it reinstalled all the Asus apps etc as per factory, and I could then enable System Restore to set an early restore point), except it failed to properly install the Nvidia Control Panel etc for some reason.

Solution I found was to uninstall GeForce Experience app then download the latest version of that app from Nvidia website. After that the Nvidia drivers seem to be working properly (left at factory 353.84). Who knows, it may have worked by reinstalling original laptop app version also. This app has been causing a lot of problems for some people including recently in May the exact problem I encountered (not exclusive to Asus laptop I gather), so I will not be using it to update the Nvidia drivers. I also note that other users also had problems with various Nvidia driver version updates earlier in this thread - it really does seem a bit unstable at the moment.

For users asking about how the UX501VW(-FI016T) is:
- Battery life: Good. I get around 5-6 hours with very light web use on the smaller battery version but that is because I set brightness to lowest-60% depending on time of day. Maybe gives an extra hour due to this. If you use an external screen and switch off the 4K display you may get more (untested).
- Matte 4K screen: Excellent. As per above easily bright enough for me with my low light preferences; usable outdoors. Interesting that panel ID is same LG LP156UD1-SPB1 as glossy touch screen versions. Scaling to a Full HD monitor is not that sharp as some others have mentioned, however this could be due to a combination overscan and underscan I am getting due to the HDMI "TV" connection. I use 250% scaling currently on 4K screen. Did not test colour accuracy.
- Keyboard: Very Good. Like the feel of the keys though not as good as proper desktop keyboard or older IBM laptops. Goes down slightly in center especially when pushed hard but I do not notice it as I do not type too hard. Backlight is not that clear on lowest setting but is fine on highest setting.
- Fit and finish: Very Good. Although not as good as MacBook Pro - no complaints; SD card slot is not going to cut me like some others
- Weight: Good. The smaller battery version is ~200 grams lighter at ~2.06kg so feels nimble to me
- Speakers: Ok. Very lacking in bass, but ok higher mids-treble. Downward facing speakers probably impacts sound clarity
- Camera: Poor. Very bad in low light. My decade old laptop is better
- Notes: Mic In is only mono, ethernet adapter supplied is only USB2 (not USB3 for gigabit), no bag supplied unlike some other models, "coil" noise is present
- Overall: Very Very Good. Very happy with the combination of features in this laptop, you can't have everything. Yet to test out its Thunderbolt abilities or high performance demanding tasks which I expect it to excel in

 

the camera sucks even when there's plenty of light. I have the table lamp pointed at my face, and it's still grainy

 

Hey guys!

I'm looking for a more powerful "ultrabook" for my more intensive programming class and the UX501VW has caught my eye. For the same specs, it is much cheaper than a XPS 15. However, I've been hearing a lot of bad things about ASUS and their history with hinges... Can someone confirm whether or not the UX501VW has the same hinge design as previous ASUS laptops (such as the UX303, UX32VD, etc.)?

Thanks!

 

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So this is strictly comparing my UX501VW 4K matte with the XPS 15 9550 in ways that personally matter to me.

-Very fingerprint resistant inner keyboard area
-Numpad
-3 instead of 2 USB 3.0 ports
-Better display response time(40ish vs 62 GTG) and I've had no problems with ghosting in games.
-Separate keys for home/pgup/pgdn, shortcut to calculator
-Lid can easily be opened with one hand
-Deeper keytravel
-Available with 4K and matte screen
-I've had very few software problems that isn't related to Windows 10
-Bigger battery(96 compared to 84Wh)
-Under load it's significantly quieter and I'd say very bearable. BUT It rarely ever goes below 2100rpm when idling(It's not loud but it's audible). I have coilwhine which can get annoying in quiet rooms, the fans slightly mask it, they completely mask it under load at a normal distance from the screen. can throttle under heavier loads since the fans don't really ramp up that high. Throttling can easily be fixed by undervolting the cpu, I'm using throttlestop. The 960M can still throttle very slightly under worst case scenarios but it's nothing I'd worry about. The good thing regarding the fan profile is that it doesn't randomly ramp up or down during normal use/gaming.

The XPS 15 is much smaller(70% of the UX501 in volume), bigger trackpad, has no soldered dim slots and is probably easier to take apart since you won't have to remove any rubber feet.

Other notes
The backlight on the UX501VW is pretty much useless(White backlight on silver keys) and having brightness at 1/3 actually makes it harder to see the keys than with the backlighting off. The flipside to this is since the keys are silver there's hardly any need for any backlight and I've never had a problem or missed it, even in pitch dark evironments unless the majority of the screen is black of course.

The build quality is good but it could definitely feel more premium and rigid. The matte screen, while it does a good job of scattering reflections it will also from time to time creek a bit when moving the hinge(which wobbles a bit, though not an issue on matte/non touch). My trackpad started "double clicking" in the lower left corner. The trackpad and hinge plastic cover isn't 100% centered. USB peripherals stick out more and feel quite loose compared to my desktop mobo(not in any way that impairs function) I'm probably being picky since this thing is so much cheaper than the XPS 15 and who knows, it might share some of these imperfections.

Keyboard flex is something that doesn't bother me, not really noticable unless you're looking for it. The numpad keys are a little cramped, so I have not yet adapted to use them without looking down occasionally. I really do like the keyboard though, haven't used a lot of laptop keyboard and I come from a ducky mechanical(brown) keyboard and my typing speed surprisingly went up.

Hope this was of help!

 

Thanks all for the information. Btw, Where are you guys getting the matte screen from ? Is it available in US ?

 

No worries, I live in sweden so unfortunately I don't know. FI020T is the model

 

I just don't want to invest $1500 into a laptop, only to have hinge problems with it in a year... That's unacceptable for a laptop this expensive...

Is this the start of a hinge issue? I've heard about really nasty hinge problems in the Zenbook series.

UX303 Hinge



UX501JW-DS71T Hinge


Based on the parts from laptopinventory, the UX303 and the UX501 use the same hinge and that scares the living hell out of me...



But then the teardown from this notebookcheck review has a completely different looking hinge. Can someone take a picture of how their hinge looks on the ux501vw?

 

If this is what you're referring to at 2:24

Not necessarily, however if the quality is poor then it's just a matter of time for it to become so loose that it can no longer support itself(have seen a DIY fix on another zenbook for this)

I could barely sleep after making my order, I mean there's so much that could go wrong.. I had already read about the hinge problem on other Asus laptops, didn't help in calming me down.

Did a quick google and things like this really scares me:
"One thing I'll say is that I have the original model of the Asus UX501 released around 2 years ago and the build quality did NOT hold up whatsoever past a year. The plastic covering the hinge broke off by itself about 6 months in, leaving the hinge ugly, exposed, and vulnerable. Asus support told me It would cost me over 300 dollars to fix the hing because they refused to simply send me a replacement part. They said I had to ship it to them, have them wipe the computer, then fix it, then send it back to me. I'm currently waiting on my XPS 15 to ship next week. Good riddance to Asus build quality."

I mean that's not the actual hinge that broke but still. Asus told me the same thing that if I wanted to fix my "double clicking" trackpad and some other things, I'd have to send it in for "service", that problem appeared after an hour or so of use. Who knows when I would of gotten it back, probably scratched. Sorry, I've had a few bad experiences in the past sending stuff back for "repair"...

Ironic thing is that I was looking at the XPS 15 too and while there's a lot of information about it there's also an amazing amount of trouble people are having. For example the 4K screen that would die within a month and I thought that would probably be pretty rare. Then later I found one "used"(completely new) that I was thinking of buying.
The seller sent me this.

 

What would be a good alternative to the UX501VW then? :/ I wanted something relatively light, but still powerful and I feel there aren't that many that fit the bill....

 

@ kpopsaranghaex3 May I say something? I am still not sure if one should avoid the UX501VW. For one, it certainly looks like the two hinges pictured in post 1322 are one and the same (with identical shadows, positions and signs of usage). That alone does not prove any bad quality on the UX501VW. Then, the video posted by kokonos shows the hinges being a bit loose, but does this automatically mean they are going to break? I have had wobbly non-touch displays, too, and they were good for years. And finally, if the hinges "usually" (or very often) created problems like extensive swinging or even breaking, would we not see much more negative user reviews on any given site? I didn't find that many, did you?
Now, any such case is one too much - but what i want to say is that, based on internet research only, it is hard to judge just how frequent these failures are.

 

That is not the same hinge in the VW, but it is no guarantee these plastic-epoxied-to-aluminum laptops won't fail on you.

Usually the hinges are perfectly fine. It's the dumb plastic they are mounted to that cracks because the plastic can't handle the torque of the hinges.

So either you lessen the tightness, reducing torque, and have you screen wobble like hell with every bump,
or you tighten the hinge, increase torque, and have it break off the plastic.

Here's what the VW hinges should look like.
I took mine apart. I'm more worried about the plastic mounting points glued to the aluminum lid shell. That's where it usually breaks

 

You are totally right. Before got my UX501vw, I was like XPS 15. But I'm a coder, I like deeper keytravel keyboard, matte screen and SSD + HD more. So I finally choose UX501vw. Very good post for buyers who hard to make a decision between UX501vw and XPS 15.

 

That is true, I have my now very old HP Pavilion dv6500 laying around which I used extensively when it was new after which I gave it away to someone else so it has been used a lot. Now I got it back a year ago to do some experimenting on it. The hinges on this thing has always been wobbly(still very stiff and impossible to open with one hand) but it still works like new. Oh and this thing is.. I believe 9 years old now.

Appreciate the time and effort for taking those pictures, I'm assuming that is also a model shipped with 1x8GB of RAM, correct? Anyway, let's hope for the best.

Then my effort was worthwhile. I'm carrying around all this information I wish I knew prior to purchase, might as well share it, right?

I can add that even though the XPS 15 is smaller, as a non laptop user I don't find the UX501VW to be big or bulky, I wouldn't want anything bigger in my lap but I have no problem taking it from place to place.

 

Thanks for the pictures! I had a UX32VD for about a year and I didn't notice any hinge weakness, so I hope I do well in the hinge lottery this time as well. I think I'm going to take the plunge. If I want to avoid tax in California, what would be a good place for purchasing the UX501VW? My current choice is B&H Photo since they are based in NY and also they accept returns with no restocking fee as long as all items in the box are returned.

 

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Hey guys, what other accessories would be cool to have with UX501VW? Do you guys know anything about a power bank/companion for this laptop ? I am purchasing from USA and I am getting the glossy screen (no matte )

 

Yes, it would be nice if there were some kind of overview over all configurations, but I guess that might not be in the interest of retailers....

The hardware really seems to be the same - maybe it is the keyboard layout? Most google results are from Germany for the first one, while the second one is mainly sold in Italy, apparently.

 

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Any thunderbolt 3 dock recommendation?

 

Has anyone removed windows 10 and installed windows 7 on this notebook (Asus Zenbook Pro ux501vw)? If so, how is it working and how is the situation with coil whine noise?
Thanks

 

There aren't any Windows 7 drivers on the ASUS website, so it probably wouldn't be a good idea to do that.

Also, would anyone recommend any good anti-glare/matte screen protectors for the ux501vw? I don't wanna pony up the extra $200 + tax for the XS74T and I don't really care for the extra 2GB of Vram as the current config will be more than enough for any mobile gaming I plan to do at 1080p.

 

Hey man, I wanted to ask you about coil whine noise on ux501vw - did you have it prior to bios update and if you did, how is it after the bios update?

 

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It's basic economics. When something becomes scarcer its price rises. As simple as that.

I encountered the same thing when I was choosing between the top configurations of the UX501JW and UX501VW. In the end I bought the former because I found the coil whine to be highly annoying for me...

And without needing to justify my purchase, apart from the higher power efficiency of the 6700 cpu, the 4750 isn't lacking in performance. In fact some benchmarks show the 4750 cpu to be the superior due to achieving higher frequencies because of the particularités of the tik-tok upgrade cycle of Intel.

 

Hello. I am planning to buy a UX501Jw (since the VW is not available in my country yet, and will probably be more expensive than the JW). My question is, can the JW with its mini displayport be connected to an external 4K display as a secondary monitor. I do a lot of photoediting and find a dual monitor configuration very usefull.

 

yes displayport supports one 4k @60.

 

Anyone have experience removing the bottom cover? I removed all the screws and the screws under the 2 rear rubber feet and I'm still having trouble removing the cover.

 

bottom cover is very tight fit. There are hooks in the rear, so you have to open from the front edge.

Ideally, if you can get very strong tape or a suction cup on the front edge, you can pull that edge up.
or maybe you can get a small hook under one of the screw holes on the front edge and pull up.

I was thinking about putting grease on the edges when I pulled the panel off.

 

Actually, it was because the corners of the bottom cover near the hinges were stuck. Idk how that happened, but I was able to remove the cover using some finesse.

On another note, does anyone know of any good matte screen protectors?
This screen is really reflective and a decent matte film would do wonders.

 

Does anybody have any experience with converting the UX501JW's ssd partition structure from GPT to the old MBR. Would it be possible ? I want to install third-party whole disk encryption on my new laptop that only works with MBR. Also, if I do a clean reinstall of windows, do I have to do anything to activate it again ? Where is the windows serial number located ?

 

serial number is built into the motherboard, so it's automatically activated

 

Hi,
Guys please help. I poured some liquid on the keyboard, and '\' key (below Backspace key) sticks now (no click sound) Is it possible to remove a key and clean it? If so, please tell me how Tried to google an instruction but w/o result. And I'm afraid to experiment myself.
Thanks in advance!

 

Hello again. I have received today my UX501JW. For the last two days, while I was waiting - I managed to do the seemingly impossible task of reading this UX501 Owner's Lounge completetly From page 1 to 135.

And somewhere along, I was seeing people posting all sorts of screencaptures, with some utilities that where showing things like "the maker and code number of the display used in their laptops". Can you please tell me, what are the programs one can use to find out things like this. Mine is a rather peculiar variant of the UX501JW , specifically UX501JW−FJ062T. I live in Romania, and I bought it from a local store. I would very much like to know some data about the dispaly maker, model, etc. Thank you in advance and I am gratefull for this forum's comunity.

Oh...and apologies if I made some gramatical mistakes, orsome phrases sound a bit unusual. I am rather good with english, but I'm not from an english speaking country, so I do my best.

 

Thank you very much for your reply.

 

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