ASUS VivoBook Pro Thin & Light Laptop, 17.3" Full HD, Intel i7-8550U, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 256GB M.2 SSD + 1TB HDD, GeForce GTX 1050 4GB, Backlit KB, Windows 10 - N705UD-EH76, Star Gray, Casual Gaming

Comment

Well, Ive had it for a couple months now........and its really quite solid! Its for sure the fastest laptop Ive ever owned. It blows away my Macbook Pro 17". The lit keyboard is nicely designed, the keys have good feel to them. The only cons are: She can get hot if you push it, but the fans kick in and hold down the temps. Dont think Id buy it for a gaming laptop. And I had to do some tweeking on the display to get it how I wanted it. Also, I was going to add another 8 of memory.............BUT CANT. Youd have to crack the case to get to it.........so I just left it. Dont get me wrong, it runs insanely fast with 8 RAM............but I always want to upgrade things. So if you want 16 of RAM, youd better just buy the more expensive one that already has it.

Show more

Comment

I needed an upgrade to my aging Toshiba laptop. This computer seemed to check all the boxes, latest Intel processor, SSD C drive and standard 1T D drive, 17" display and 16G of memory. It arrived with Windows 10 Home. I have not been a fan of Windows 10 and frankly, have been avoiding it for some time now. But, with no drivers available for Windows 7 for this laptop I was stuck. Right off the bat, the problems started. First, when it would sit idle and go into hibernate mode, it would never come out. No amount of button pushing could wake it up. So, power cycle it to get it back and immediately disable hibernate mode. I purchased a license for Windows 10 Pro and upgraded the laptop. For a while it seemed like it was working fine but there were still occasional lockups. Finally, while I was away for the long weekend after the 4th of July the OS updated itself (it seems nearly impossible to stop that from happening with Win 10) and the computer became totally unstable. If would get to the login screen but soon after would black screen with a spinning mouse cursor. Sometimes you could log in and start working, but invariably the black screen would return causing you to potentially lose work. After much googling and trying to solve this issue the configuration got corrupted and it would no longer boot...not even to Safe Mode. I was unwilling to spend hours or days trying to recover this and get it to a stable point again. Nobody should have to do that. At this point I had had it with this thing. I needed a fast, reliable machine for work and this wasnt it. Fortunately, I was still within the 30 day window to return it, so I packed it up and sent it back. Too bad, really. When I was younger I would always use ASUS motherboards in the computers I built. But unfortunately, the combination of Win 10 and this computer was a match made in hell.

Show more

Comment

This was a highly rated unit on Amazon and on several review websites. We received the item and plugged it in to charge it up prior to the "first start." The white light came on the side (unit is charging/charged?) and I proceeded to push the on/off button. Nothing. Pushed again...nothing. Pushed and held for a while, then released...nothing. Contacted ASUS chat support, was told to 1) remove the charger, 2) hold the power button down for a full minute, 3) plug in the charger and "start normally" (emphasis mine). Nothing here worked. The next troubleshooting step was to "plug the computer into a different outlet." My next step was to contact "Superwoman Grace" at Amazon chat support and she arranged for a replacement. I will update this review after the replacement arrives...

Show more

Comment

Touch pad is absolute junk, often doesnt respond or behaves erratically. Makes this laptop useless as a laptop. Back and forth with ASUS customer support, they had me completely wipe it down and re-install everything (hours of work) but of course that didnt work. Now they say the only option is for me to box and ship it to them for a several weeks and again theyll likely wipe it down. After 20+ years of Dells, HPs and a couple IBMs I truly regret this purchase. Run, dont walk away from ASUS laptops.

Show more

Comment

0:15 0:00 This video is not intended for all audiences. What date were you born? January February March April May June July August September October November December 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1962 1961 1960 1959 1958 1957 1956 1955 1954 1953 1952 1951 1950 1949 1948 1947 1946 1945 1944 1943 1942 1941 1940 1939 1938 1937 1936 1935 1934 1933 1932 1931 1930 1929 1928 1927 1926 1925 1924 1923 1922 1921 1920 1919 1918 1917 1916 1915 1914 1913 1912 1911 1910 1909 1908 1907 1906 1905 1904 1903 1902 1901 1900 Submit Adobe Flash Player is required to watch this video. Install Flash Player Bought this laptop in September 2018 to replace a 4 year old HP Envy. Ive had great experiences with HP laptops but wanted to try something different this time. Right out of the box I noticed this laptop had an annoying buzz/distortion noise while playing audio/video and even when simply scrolling the mouse in a web browser. I spent a few weeks trying different fixes, upgrading & downgrading audio/display/chipset drivers, reloading the OS, adjusting sound profiles, adjusting power settings, etc and never could resolve the issue. Unfortunately I missed Amazons return window so I decided to send the laptop back to ASUS for warranty repair. The return shipping was about $35 via UPS but I figured it was better than dumping this thing on EBay at a $100-$200 loss. According to ASUS the laptop was repaired by replacing part #14008-02530900 (X705UQ_VECO_SPK_M_WIFI_ANTENNA). The laptop arrived back to me this afternoon and sadly the issue is still present with no improvement. Im not sure if it was actually tested before leaving the repair facility. I have included a video which demonstrates the noise while scrolling through a Facebook page. I would have given this product a 4 star rating if ASUS had fixed the audio issue. Instead it is getting 2 stars because I spent decent money to ship it back for repair and it was returned to me in the same condition. Aside from the audio issue it seems like a solid laptop and it performs well but it does have a few design flaws: 1) There are no capslock or numlock indicators on the keyboard. This may be trivial to many, but as a software developer I use that visual feedback to instantly know the state of my keys prior to typing. Im not a fan of the "lets start typing and see what we get" kind of thing. This is especially annoying in masked password fields; 2) the 10-key buttons are narrower than normal which makes them tricky to use; and 3) the speakers are on the bottom of the unit, so you have to tweak the EQ and raise the laptop off its surface in order to get a normal-ish sound. **Update 2018-12-15** Contacted ASUS support regarding the above-mentioned issue and arranged to send the laptop for repair a second time. They were kind enough to provide a prepaid shipping label this time. I just received the laptop back from the repair shop and it continues to have the same problem as before, maybe slightly worse now. I think its time to give up. I applaud ASUSs customer service efforts. They didnt give me any hassle during the returns. However at the end of the day, the problem has not been fixed after multiple trips to the repair shop so Im dropping this down to 1 star. Im not sure I trust the brand enough to accept a replacement unit (if they were to offer) so most likely I will try to sell this laptop and go back to HP or Dell.

Show more

Comment

My 9 yr old Asus was needing replaced. I was able to extend its life with a SSD to help increase speed but it was time. As some of my photoshop work became a bit more demanding. But I really wanted another Asus since mine had proven itself so durable. The value you get with this laptop is great. I really like everything about it, so ill hit the items I dont. - The track pad is a bit clunky at time, Its almost too big. I have to reach pretty far with my thumb to hit the left click. Also it feels like it sticks a bit. - The SD card slot - the SD card sticks out, it doesnt fully go into the computer. This makes it susceptible to getting bumped and disconnects, hopefully someday I dont lose images. - I generally leave my laptop plugged in all day, seldom moving. I was able to keep the battery on my old laptop in good shape by removing it and only using it for travel. Cant do that with this one. I anticipate the battery will need replaced many times over because of this. - I wish it had a CD write drive, but getting an external one wasnt a big deal. I knew this before i bought the computer. So not necessarily a product issue. I did upgrade the 1TB drive with a 1TB SSD. Wasnt really needed but I had one already so it made sense. Getting to it was a bit challenging but I understand thats the case with most new computers. Old laptops had access doors this one I had to lift up the keyboard to get to it. Bottom line this is a great computer though! when compared to what is available now a days.

Show more

Comment

I chose this laptop because wanted something of this size and power, and by golly it has those. The computer handles my game library nicely, I love the big screen and roomy keyboard, which I really needed on account of my big hands. The computer also looks and feels nice. Its light but doesnt feel at all flimsy. That said, its got some quality of life issues that just REALLY bum me out and are enough to make me wish Id gone with a different computer. First, the touch pad works fine almost all the time, but will sometimes just become altogether unresponsive. I can click, but it wont track my fingers movements. This might go on for about ten seconds before it starts doing its thing again. This might happen every one or two days. Its not game breaking, but it is enough that I dont want to leave home without a mouse if i can help it. Second, the speakers are placed in just the dumbest place possible. They are on the very bottom of the PC, right where the base ever so slightly curves towards the edge. This means that sound quality is fine, if a little quiet on a flat surface like a desk. But if I have it resting on my lap, couch, or bed then the sound is muffled. I am a laptop on couch kind of guy, so this makes for a problem for me. Mostly if Im watching a video I find that I want to tilt the base up, even on a desk, so that I can hear better. So while theres a lot going for this computer and the price point was nice, I really have so recommend going with something else unless youre using this as a true, semi-portable desktop replacement and will be keeping it in your office/workspace 80+% of the time.

Show more

Comment

***Update (glutton for punishment) I took a chance and gave this laptop one more shot. The third one I received is perfect and runs like a dream! Easily the best gaming laptop out there. Playing Black Desert Online and Guild Wars 2 both on high graphics settings with no issues whatsoever even on large groups Im still getting 60fps. My only gripe at this stage is how hard Asus made this laptop to upgrade. Id love to put an M2 1tb and a SSD data drive into this baby. Possibly upgrade to 32gb of memory at some point when the prices arent crazy (thank you BC farmers :() But, Im too scared to open it up to be honest. ***Update 2nd laptop received has exact same issues!!!! *** Received laptop not 24hrs ago and did all the usual updates, settings changes and everything. Was a beautiful laptop and was blown away by the quality then out of nowhere it starts getting sluggish so as anyone would I shut down and restarted it. Once restarted all I received was a blank black screen that even after 2hrs never went anywhere. Searching around online I found that this is a very common occurrence with Asus products. My only saving Grace was being able to find a keycode online that Asus uses in order to reboot the system to reload Windows. Luckily the reset everything but save my information worked as I could then copy off my valuable data and remove my account before sending it back. Asus used to be an industry leader now I fail to see how theyd even stack up to an emachines had they still existed! I have requested a replacement so, if anything gets better I will update this as soon as I can.

Show more

Comment

Ill start off by saying Ive been doing IT for a living for 15 years as a systems admin. I bought this vivobook to upgrade a razer blade stealth (2016) due to its inability to anything but extremely low impact games, and I wanted a large display. Overall satisfied with this purchase and upgrade. So, the reason I bought this over other models when looking was because its the latest generation i7 with the "U" designator which stands for "ultra low power" at the time of this posting (April 2018) There are other higher numbered intel i7s out there in the Kaby Lake - R generation, and they will be more powerful with more cores, but more power means higher temps. I feel you as a consumer need to find a balance between power and thermals if you want a pleasant experience. This was my chosen balance, I think it fairs extremely well. In addition to the processor, the GPU I feel is in the exact same "sweet spot" of thermals vs power as the processor. The MX150 in a lot of models while more powerful than just running the integrated intel graphics and is roughly half as powerful real life performance as the 1050. The 1050ti in a lot of models is about 25% more powerful as the normal 1050 but also has a higher TDP which means more power consumption and thermals. The result, fairly demanding middle of the road games run at 60fps @ 1080 with medium settings stutter free. Exactly what I was wanting, exactly what this is. So far, the only upgrade I did was to upgrade the SSD from the 256GB SATA M.2 SSD to a 512GB PCIE NVME M.2 SSD. The one I have is a Samsung 950 PRO. It took way too much research to find out that the motherboard is capable of running on this. In the Q and As even the manufacturer denies that it will run, saying only SATA M.2 is supported. But anyone coming across this review, can confirm NVME drives will run at full speed on at least the 17.3 version N705UD-EH76. If you do the upgrade to NVME or just wipe/reload windows, please ensure you at least get the intel drivers from ASUS support website. There are thermal framework drivers etc that if not installed will make your system fan seemingly lose its mind at random intervals and is pretty annoying. Also annoying is how absolutely batsh*t crazy the engineering was on the construction of this. I am actually docking 1 star for something most users will probably never experience, just because of how bad it is. If you do end up taking this laptop apart, you have to not only remove the keyboard portion to do any upgrades at all, but to access the SSD slot you will also have to completely disassemble and remove the entire motherboard, which is attached on one corner to the display hinge. To make matters worse, as a tech, when you take a part machines, the 1st thing you remove is the power to limit the chance of arching power from damaging components, but in this situation, you first remove 3 ribbon cables and the HDD before you can even access the battery. Anyway, rant, but this is by far one of the worst engineered internals of a laptop Ive ever worked on. I also broke the port on the ribbon connector which does not effect the functions of the cable, but it basically melted in pieces in my experienced hands, shame on you asus for cutting corners. I probably will not be digging into it again to repaste the CPU in which I originally planned on doing. The screen is nice, not fantastic, good viewing angles, decent color, nothing special, nothing bad. No excessive flex to the screen, it and the system seem rigid and feels like it should last. Keyboard also nice for typing, numberpad looks goofy because of how small it is, looks like they reused the 15in keyboard on the 17in model. Whatever, it works. The audio is excellent, not sure what people are going on about, for a laptop, the sound is rich, bass filled and loud, not tinny or shallow like most. Probably some of the best audio Ive gotten a chance to own in a laptop. I dont know, Im happy with it. Overall, the machine, when completely in 1 piece, runs like a dream. The system is extremely fast and responsive. The system externally remains cool under most office and media consumption tasks and only gets moderately warm under low / medium stress, under high stress it does get hot to the touch, but not terribly uncomfortable, the system thermally throttles like any turbo boost intel chip. The fans run audibly at low consumption and seemingly low temps, but arent horrible or super annoying, just not ideal. Other reviewers have never had a gaming laptop apparently, this behaves in line with basically every other gaming laptop Ive ever used. Pros ======== -great performance -good price/performance ratio -excellent build quality -excellent weight/thickness vs screen size Cons ======== -internal construction/layout/disassembly (OMG BAD! Shame on you ASUS!) -fan noise/RPM under low stress is too high, no way to adjust bios update did not fix either. -unclear specs (PCIE NVME is supported! Just not installed by default. No fingerprint reader) -questionable keyboard layout / size (number pad is too small/compact) UPDATE: 6 Months later and still going strong. Latest BIOS update seems to resolve the weird fan speed issues I was seening. Much more stable "active cooling ratio" no documentation on changes but it seems better anyway. I upgraded the wifi chip with a NGFF Intel wifi/BT combo card because of some dropped packets while gaming and my bluetooth audio was spotty. $25 upgrade and immediately resolved the problem with the realtek wifi. I also upgraded to a 2TB hybrid HDD because reasons... internals still hard to take apart and work around but at least those 2 parts were fairly easily accessible. Adding a star in hindsight because I feel my first review was a tad harsh, it really is a good laptop, my salty review was made almost directly after opening it up and saying "what the hell". Good job Asus, thanks.

Show more

Comment

Pros: +Great value for money, i7 8550u performs around 5% worse than i7 7700hq in all core situations while consuming MUCH less power (15W vs 45W). The single thread speeds and clockspeed of the i7 8550u are faster than i7 700hq though so it feels extremely snappy when doing normal stuff like word/powerpoint/web browsing (single core applications) +GTX 1050 just makes it even better +IO selection is great as long as you dont rely on thunderbolt. +Decent screen on the IPS model(core i7 8th gen) +++Very good and loud speakers which do not peak at all even when playing opera music. Bass is clear even for electro music which is really impressive. Little distortion (at 17inches its inexcusable for a laptop to have that). Not as good as macbook pro 2017 speakers but still way better than most windows laptops. +Heat is exhausted out the sides which are some distance away from the keyboard so the keyboard does not get hot. +keyboard is nice to type on and I could easily get up to 100wpm. +only a few bloatware, 10mins of uninstallation should do the trick Cons: -VERY bad battery life even with the more efficient i7 8550u, getting around 4.5 hours of normal web browsing on a full charge. I feel this is a design flaw rather than a compromise since most of the space inside the laptop is empty instead of being used for more battery capacity. EDIT TOOK A STAR OFF: I thermal tested the computer by stressing the i7 with folding@home, and on 100% load, the processor boosts up to 3.8ghz. However in just 10s it hits 90C/194F and throttles down to 3.1ghz so as to not damage itself. Thermal throttling of this level should not be present in a laptop this big and this is a HUGE performance drop. Furthermore ASUS, unlike most other laptop brands, places a "warranty void if broken" sticker on the cpu hotplate, so YOU CANNOT CHANGE THERMAL PASTE WITHOUT VOIDING THE WARRANTY.

Show more