ASUS Vivobook K570ZD Casual Gaming Laptop, 15.6” Full HD IPS Level, AMD Quad Core Ryzen 5 2500U CPU, GeForce GTX 1050, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, Fingerprint Reader, Backlit KB, Windows 10 – K570ZD-ES51

Comment

(CLARIFICATION: This review is specifically for the K570UD-ES76, which includes the i7 processor & 16gigs of RAM. Dont let the 2 & 3 star reviews fool you: most of those that Ive seen are for the i5 processor version, and thats an entirely different computer for all intents and purposes. Also, the pictures Ive included are after 3 months of use; my keyboard has a dust-cover over it.) My first (and only) ever laptop was the ASUS K55A-DB51, so that is technically my only point of reference for comparison. Considering that the K55A lasted the better part of 5 years, I decided to stick with ASUS upon deciding to get a new laptop. (I should note that my K55A is still perfectly functional: the reason for the upgrade is that 1] 5 years of wear & tear as a college student have taken their toll, and 2] the software can no longer keep up with my work.) Heres the basic comparison: K55A - i5-3210M Processor, 8Gb RAM, Intel HD 4000 Graphics, Windows 7. K570UD - i7-8550U Processor, 16Gb RAM, Geforce 1050 GTX Graphics, Windows 10 Definitely an upgrade. As of 6/30/2018, it has been two whole days since I received the K570UD, and it is a world of difference in comparison! I will be judging the laptop overall by Software, Interface & Connection, and Casing & Durability. Software: 4.8 / 5 Immediately upon finishing the basic setup I put the software on this laptop to the test, using several games to push the software as hard as I could. The first thing I fired up was Wargamings World of Warships (Set to Medium graphic settings w/ 4x anti-aliasing; my K55A could handle it on Low graphics), while simultaneously downloading & Installing about 6 different other games via Steam, while also playing a YouTube playlist in the background. I had 2 web browsers open (including the one with YouTube) during this time (Google Chrome & Firefox: Sorry Edge, but your predecessor makes it hard for me to trust you). I ran the machine for a good three hours this way. During that time I hit 60% memory usage on average with occasional bursts to 100%, but it never slowed my laptop down or interrupted my gameplay. The GPU usage never went above 78%, so I am confident that I could set the graphics on World of Warships even higher if I wanted to. The CPU was all over the place, hitting 100% several times every other minute or so, which caused very brief (no more than 1 second) hiccups in gameplay, but I hardly even noticed them. If I did this on my K55A, it would punch me in the face right before it blew up in my face... The fact that I was actually on Power Saving mode (didnt realize that until after this little test) makes this even more impressive to me! I also ran SolidWorks (one of my engineering programs) on a separate (and more realistic of my intended use) test, and it ran flawlessly. Interface & Connection: 3.8 / 5 There are two USB ports and an audio-jack on the left side. The right side has one USB, a USB-C (never used one of those before), an HDMI port, an Ethernet port, and a Micro-SD slot (as well as the charging port). Very similar to the layout on the K55A, except its in reverse (On the K55A most of the ports are on the left side vs the right). This layout actually makes it slightly inconvenient since Im right-handed, and if I have an Ethernet cable plugged in it gets in the way of my mouse when I use it. Of course if youre left handed, this shouldnt be a problem, and even then its not so inconvenient as to be unworkable. The thumb scanner is easy enough to use if set up properly. Another rather curious issue is the absence of indicator lights for the CAPS Lock, Scroll Lock, and Num-Lock keys. I dont know why they would exclude them, but it makes it difficult to know if they are on or not. During my little "test" there were some minor heating issues near the back of the laptop, but the rest of the keyboard and pad stayed cool throughout the test. Casing & Durability: 4.6 / 5 (Updated) My K55A went through a lot in 5 years, and still runs quite nicely. That said, I cant vouch for the K570UDs long term durability quite yet. Since I am a Mechanical Engineer, I can at least give some pointers. The casing over the keyboard appears to be aluminum; the rest is plastic. The case covering the screen is slightly flexible, but not enough for me to worry. 11 screws secure the bottom cover, and all eleven need to be removed to reach the inside components. (I kind of miss the K55A setup here: that one has a panel that when removed gives access to all up-gradable components, and only required two screws be removed.) The heating vents are all in the back of the laptop, which I dont mind. (Its actually nice not having a heating vent toasting my left hand anymore). Overall, Id say its more durable than my old K55A, so I expect to get a good 3-4 years of use out of it as long as I take care of it. UPDATE - 9/17/18: After three months, I am quite impressed by how well my K570UD has held up. The only problem I have encountered is that the bezel near the back has developed minor wear, likely from rubbing against the inside of the backpack I carry it in (My backpack has a slot specifically for a laptop). Its minor enough that Im not too concerned, but I have now included pictures. Conclusion: I bought this knowing that it was not the "best of the best" out there. I spent a good 3 months researching various laptops before I decided on this one, and even then only after researching the K570UD for a good 2 weeks. As such, I was aware of what to expect long before I had even bought it, and so far I have yet to encounter anything that I didnt expect. ASUS likes to strive for excellence, and I think they did so here. My criteria were very simple: I wanted a laptop that was more than capable of handling my school work, and better than my K55A in all specs. The K570UD is not the best, but it is more than enough to handle anything outside of VR. If youre like me and looking for an upgrade from an older laptop, then this is a fantastic machine to upgrade to! If youre a PC gamer and want to play games but you dont really care about 4K graphics, this machine will get the job done! And if youre a college student that wants a good laptop that can handle hefty programs, then I can also recommend this to you! I cannot recommend this to you if you: Want only the absolute best. Want to take over the world (unless its a game world, then maybe). Want a laptop that is also a Swiss army knife. Literally. Are on a budget of under $1,000. Are actually shopping for shoes and you have no idea how you got here. Thus, my rating is 5/5 stars for personal satisfaction, 4.55/5 stars for meeting/exceeding expectations. I will update this review as I see fit. P.S. A lot of reviews Ive seen mentioned dings & pits on the screen. I had no such issues, so if you encounter that I would suggest you contact customer support or the folks at Amazon, and Id bet they can sort you out. -UPDATE - 7/19/18: I have encountered an issue that warrants a heads up I believe. The computer still works great, but I have repeatedly had issues with WiFi connection; whenever my computer wakes up from sleep or hibernation, it seems to have increased difficulty locating or finding connections. Right-clicking on the WiFi icon and activating the troubleshooter usually fixes this problem (Usually the troubleshooter just resets the WiFi connection/receiver). Once it does connect, its smooth sailing and connection all the way, so this is mostly a minor inconvenience. I havent determined if this is hardware or software related, so I wont change the score on my review until I determine that.- UPDATE - 9/17/18: Thank you to those who responded in regards to the WiFi issues. Ive confirmed that its a Windows problem, so my score remains unchanged. I want to add that most of the issues I had (few as they may be) have been traced to Windows, and not the computer itself. I also added pictures showing my laptop 3 months later.

Show more

Comment

Recently, I picked up the i7 version with 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD. I wanted a laptop that could be primarily used for working in Illustrator, Photoshop, and other Adobe CC apps, but could also play some games. It was also important to me that it could be run off a battery for web browsing, email, writing, etc. at places like coffee shops and airports. So far this has been able to do all of those things decently well. The monitor is okay, there is a kind of dot pattern/matrix that you can see if you look closely. Im not sure if it is from the matte coating, or has something to do with the internal workings of the screen itself, but it doesnt really bother me. In Photoshop it seems workable so far, well see when I have to paint in light yellows, blues, pinks. I dont expect it will be that bad. I had an older Dell XPS 15z laptop in the past that had a much stronger pattern that was visible and I was able to do work on it just fine. For gaming, Overwatch worked fine out of the gate at medium settings. However, at High Graphics, the laptop would shut off after about 15 minutes or so. I checked the temps using Open Hardware Monitor and the CPU and GPU were hitting the high 90s C. I ended up lowering the max CPU settings in Power Options to 75%, and setting the graphics in Overwatch to Low and now the CPU is at 65°C and GPU around 69°C peaking out under max load (btw - Overwatchs Low settings still look great). Everything is working well now. Hearthstone and Civ 5 ran great without any modifications necessary. The heating problems are not uncommon for alot of gaming laptops from what Ive seen during my research, even some of the bulkier ones. As long as you set things up properly then you should be fine. Which is a bit annoying, but for me isnt the end of the world. I like that this laptop is relatively light and portable. The battery life seems pretty good and will easily last 3-4 hours at a coffee shop or library (if not gaming). It doesnt seem bulky at all to me. Most of the other gaming laptops in this price range that I saw were bulky and not portable. It has the features I wanted, and Im happy with it. Oh and just to mention: mine had the right i7 8th gen sticker.

Show more

Comment

good design, but.......yellowish screen....most importantly, Network adapter has a big problem. The network adapter started to fail keeping wifi connection in 2 weeks after I bought this laptop. I spent a lot of time to fix this problem, including asking Asus Service Center, I followed all the solutions I could try, all failed. I sent this laptop to Asus Service Center 3 times for the repair, and none of these repair were effective more than one week.....Basically I hardly used this laptop even 4 month passed after the purchase.. and I currently sent this laptop to the Asus Service Center *(This is 4th sending my laptop...). Today I received email that they want me to pay more than $500 dollars to repair. This is total nonsense. 4 months of suffering. If I bought other brands laptop at this price, I would be very happy. Here is my advice: Dont buy it. If you are unfortunate, you basically cannot use the laptop( I mean wifi...but no doubt that wifi is very very important) If you already decided to buy it, I hope your laptop does not have any problem...

Show more

Comment

This computer runs well -- However -- the Realtek 8822BE Wi-Fi is an unfortunate choice... as of 4/6/19 any of the 2024 series of drivers will result in frequent connection stalls, requiring a reconnect. This is affecting every vendor using the 8822BE including Lenovo and HP. There is a reason that ASUS still posts the 2023 series of drivers, problem is that Microsoft will come along and update them through Windows Update, so you have to install the 2023 series and then disable driver updates from Microsoft. If you have Win10 Pro you can use Group Policy editor to just disable driver updates for Wi-Fi. The driver downloads for this model at the ASUS website list a bunch of Wi-Fi drivers with Intel at the top... dont assume you will get a model with Intel.

Show more

Comment

After about a month, everything seems OK, but not great. Here is a run down. Keyboard not as good of a layout as my old Toshiba (both 15.6" formats). The basic keyboard (Caps Lock to Enter) is close to the same width (ASUS=282.9mm vs Toshiba=278.9mm), but ASUS has a little wider "frame" around the keyboard so this ends up with number pad section having a full column fewer of keys. This layout requires you basically need to either keep toggling the "Num Lock" key to be able to use the page up/dn keys vs the number keys whereas on the Toshiba they had an extra column / more keys allowing for dedicated page up/dn, home & end keys in addition to being able to toggle the "Num Lock" key to make the (apparently standard) 7=home, etc... So with the Toshiba, you virtually always kept the Num Lock key on VS with the ASUS I usually keep it off and only switch it on when doing lots of arithmetic. And this ASUS only has 2 whopping indicator lights: #1 for computer being on/off and #2 for if you are charging ... none of which you can see if the lid is closed. The Toshiba had them on the front edge so you could always see them, plus an indicator light showing how much hard drive action was going on as well as colored Cap Lock and Num Lock indicator lights on the keys so you could tell what state they were in. Very handy ... vs this computer where you do get a message that comes up if you are typing a blind password, but that is it. Even after trying to adjust it, this touchpad and its pseudo left & right mouse key buttons dont work as well. I think the biggest issue is that instead of actual left/right buttons, this has touch pad areas that double as buttons but if you finger moves at all while trying to push a button, the cursor can move and you miss your target. At first it seemed like the single audio jack that is supposed to be for both microphone and remote speakers/headphones didnt work unless you physically pushed the plug into the hole, but it disengaged as soon as you let go. But then I figured out you just needed to push it in much harder than Ive needed to with any other such jack. This seems to be a running theme with this computer. While the AC adapter plugs into the computer normally, the connection between the wall cord and the AC-to-DC converter that then goes off to the computer is a super tight fit and the USB ports even seem tighter than usual as well. And while the computer is relatively it this has the heaviest AC-to-DC converter that Ive ever seen. So while I like the lightness, improved battery life, lighted keys, speed and increased disk space, the issues above lead me to only giving 3 stars.

Show more

Comment

ASUS makes some of the best computers on the market, and this is no exception. If you are upgrading from a mid-level PC, you will notice a substantial difference. This is a premium PC, one of ASUSs higher-end models (along with the ZenBook). It comes with an SSD (for the OS), an HDD (for storage), 16GB RAM, and an Intel i7 processor, and a NVIDIA GTX 1050 4 GB GPU. This laptop is more than capable of handling most business needs. It can effortlessly run multiple RAM-intensive programs and its read/write times are pretty good. I mainly use this PC for development and it can Eclipse, Firefox, and another program or two with no decrease in speed. The keyboard is backlit, and feels great. Typing is very comfortable and the premium feel of the laptop becomes very apparent here. Another feature which elicits the premium feel of the laptop is the 15.6" FHD display. The graphics on this PC are amazing. If you are coming from another PC with similar specs, you may not notice the difference, but upgrading from a PC at half the price of this one, it becomes very noticeable. This laptop is also very light. While obviously not as light as, say, a MacBook Air, it is still easily under five pounds and can be carried around under your arm or in a backpack with no problem. The fingerprint scanner isnt the best, and is more of a gimmick. Its nice to be able to unlock the PC with your finger, but its really not much faster than typing a password or PIN. Ive had it say it cannot recognize my fingerprint, only to tell me that fingerprint is already added when I try to add it as a new one. This PC also is not for anything other than casual gaming, but if you want to game intensively, you probably would be looking for other PC anyway. This is a great laptop and if you need a PC for business, development, or even just streaming/browsing, look no further.

Show more

Comment

I was looking for a laptop that can handle mutable actions that would fit into my life style and Asus fit the bill. For business the ram power and storage was great and the speed is awesome. The SSD storage and sound production module fits perfect connected to my high end sound system using JRiver media. The size and weight for traveling is great. I wish the charger adapter was as smaller. Battery time is also great. For now I believe my selection was great.

Show more

Comment

EDIT: After prolonged (3+ hours continuous) use running a game (FFXIV in particular) on high laptop setting, I can give this a thumbs up for casual to semi-hardcore gaming use. The game runs smoothly and the laptop has not overheated. It gets a little warm on the bottom but hardly noticeable, it has very good ventilation with a quiet fan. Also, the battery which I stated lasts 2-6 hours on my previous review, lasted me 8 hours on class note-taking on customized battery saver plan. --- If youre looking to do some hardcore gaming, this laptop is not for you. You get just about what you would expect from an i7 1050 laptop. I bought this to use with school -- taking notes, net surfing, streaming videos (Netflix and lectures), and the occasional casual gaming -- and it works well for that purpose. The battery lasts anywhere from 2-6 hours depending on my level of usage. It is also very thin and light for a laptop of this size. It is not built to last physically however, the material looks really cool and sturdy but really feels like cheap plastic. I am expecting it to last maybe a couple of years before I move onto another device. I like that it has all the ports I need (HDMI, USB-C, microSD, etc.) and has a numpad, and most importantly I love that the ctrl key is on the left side of the fn key and the accent colour is pretty. Oh and by the way, the AC adapter is a freaking brick (literally, about the size of a Nintendo 3DS).

Show more

Comment

Buying this laptop was a mistake. Its not that its a bad machine, but I can only afford a $1,000. or $1,100. which is pushing it, computer maybe about once every 5 years or longer, so I cant afford to make a mistake. My bad luck began In the span of just 2 days when the HDDs on both my laptop, a Lenovo Y510p, a heck of a laptop, I bought in either 2013 or 2014), AND my old desktop Dell, a 2010 model, died. What were the odds of that happening? With the new SSD HDs and other components, like the much more powerful RAM, Video Cards, & CPUs, collectively making my machines obsolete, it was a no brainer to upgrade versus fixing the Dell for sure and the decision about the Y510p was harder but upgrading finally was my decision. This was my first time in about 25 years that I had absolutely no computer access. The reality of just how much technology has changed my life and how dependent I had become on it really hit home. I honestly had never thought about that before. It is hard for me to describe how I felt. Out of touch? Blind? Those and more. What hurts the most though was losing ALL my precious familys photos, and other precious things. I live alone, and instead of spending money on a costly exterior backup HD, I made each machine the others backup. Somewhat "down," I left for the local library to use one of its computers to buy my next one. My mission was simple, to find the laptop that gave me the most bang for the buck. I could only afford X amount. So I searched and searched and after a good 2-3 hours of intensive searching, with my eye strained to the max, I felt this one was the one. I was wrong. I should have rested my eyeballs and researched later on or come back the next day. I was well aware that rushing like this could cost me big time. It did. I got a good machine, no doubt about it, at a good price, but in one of the nooks and crannies I didnt look was Le Machine. A machine that cost the same amount but was a full generation better in almost every category, for exactly the same price. Ill call it Le Machine. For example, Le Machine had a GTX 1060 video card versus this ones GTX 1050. It had the CPU i7-850 CPU (The best CPU before the prices becomes ridiculous.) vs. this ones i7-8550u and most importantly I overlooked for me, a very headache prone person due to eye strain, the Le Machine had an anti-glare screen. I was naive at this point. I honestly thought all computer screens came with anti-glare materials. This one must be kind of glossy. It fries my eyeballs if the lighting and other adjustments arent just right in 1 to 2 hours which always triggers a headache, most of the time a migraine. Consequently, I can only use it for an hour here and an hour there. Ive heard that there are some good anti-glare films I can put on my 15.6" screen (If anyone can give me the name of a good one, I would appreciate that tremendously.). Finally there are two or three other things, like the HDD s RPM is 7200 vs. this ones 5400, & several other less important, but still important, things that make Le Machine clearly superior. Ive made my point so Ill wrap my review up. I got a good machine but could have gotten a better one for no additional cost. I included the tax and shipping as well. As they say, Live & Learn, and NEVER, NEVER RUSH Into Buying Something That You Barely Can Afford Without Thoroughly Doing Your Homework. I was impatient and liken my purchase to a Lexus with no bells and whistles, while I could have had a Lexus with many, not all, but many of the bells & whistles. Undoubtedly I would have spotted my dream with just a few more hours of research. So, I will fix the glare problem and will enjoy my lesser demanding video games with the GTX 1050, and the less able i7-8550u, but when I see my better games sitting there and not being able to play hem, it hurts. Ill somehow locate all the lost family photos. This hurts the most, but that was just a one in a million type thing, but it still sticks in my craw. Several articles have pointed out just how much superior the GTX 1060 is. I find the difference shocking, and the techs rave about the capabilities of the i7-8750 CPU when the price of it is factored in. As they say, Live & Learn. Ill survive. Everything is relative and if you look at the big picture, Im pretty darn lucky to be able to afford a machine as good as this one. Looking at the big picture, and putting things into their proper perspective, many people on this planet, not just in Africa & Asia, will never even use never mind own a computer, and that includes a lot of poor folks in America as well. The bottom line is that Im still am a very fortunate person.

Show more

Comment

I bought this laptop for law school and at first, I loved it. The display is fantastic, its lightweight considering the screen size, and the battery life is great for what I need. Its so, so close to what I was looking for. So close. Except every time I plug anything into it, the wifi disappears. Not just disconnects, but actually disappears. The system doesnt even recognize that a wifi card exists. It comes back on when it feels like it, usually a day or two later. Keep in mind, this is every time I plug anything in. So on a good day, when Ive got wifi, I better hope the battery stays charged long enough for me to finish my research because the second I connect the power adapter, the internets gone. I wasted my money on this laptop. Dont waste yours.

Show more