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

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

Comment

First impressions- amazing laptop. Plenty fast and great screen quality. I got the 17 inch model with gtx 1050. So far its able to handle all my games for long periods of time. The laptop is really light for its size and super thin. I think some of the bad reviews are user error. I find it hard to believe that even the most expensive and top brand laptops are getting bad reviews on here. So keep that in mind when researching. The screen is matte finish but dont let that deter you because it looks amazing and movies are crisp and vibrant. The keyboard is probably the most responsive one I have ever used. I have not had any overheating issues at all even during long game play. The fans are quite so not sure what the people who complained about that are talking about. This thing is a power house for the price. So far Id highly recommend. I will update later to see if any issues arose UPDATE ONE: Still awesome! Its been over a month and have had zero issues. I play a ton of games new and old without any overheating. Temp is steady the whole time. I call user error on most bad reviews. Just remember...most people are suuuuppperrr dumb with laptops and PCs and use misinformation that they received from their 10 year old to back up their claims haha!

Show more

Comment

This product stopped turning on after six weeks. Its a total brick. Asus was completely disinterested in resolving my complaint. I cannot recommend this product.

Show more

Comment

Love my new laptop! I bought it for work but ended up using it for gaming too. So far I have just tried Overwatch, but it has been able to play the game with graphics on "high" with a breeze. I saw some reviews saying the screen wasnt that great, I have to disagree and say it looks perfectly fine and much MUCH better than my previous HP laptop. The middle of the laptop does get very hot after playing for a while. I use an external fan underneath to help with that problem, though. As for work, I am a web developer so I need a really fast laptop with a lot of memory, and this does the job. Im able to download multiple things at once now and I only wait seconds compared to hours with my previous computer, so my productivity is up by a lot. Its also very light and thin so I can take it wherever I want and it doesnt weigh down my backpack very much. The battery life isnt as good as some other more expensive laptops, but I am still able to do some work for about 3 hours straight before plugging it in. I totally recommend this laptop for anyone looking at the more expensive equivalents, like MacBook pro or Lenovo Yoga. Its much more affordable but you still get all the important stuff. Yes, the battery life is shorter than some others and it does get a little hot while gaming, but you still get a really good value with all the other stuff.

Show more

Comment

Edit* (1/24/2018): Now that Amazon has actually published this review, here are a few edits and recaps [the original review is more thorough]: -Apparently I was mistaken: you have to purchase Windows 10 Pro separately if you want Pro, there is no free upgrade (at least none I could find). Otherwise W10 Home has remained satisfactory. It was always a fast OS, still is, programs open quickly, switching from one to another and between tabs is as seamless as on a desktop, and the power on-through-BIOS-to-login screen time is less than ten seconds, Id say. I dont know if Microsoft finally stopped making constant updates, but I havent noticed any update interruptions in the last 2 weeks. Maybe they decided to stop torturing people with forced updates. Maybe the laptop has be waking itself up in the middle of the night and installing while I sleep. IDK. -I am loving this Intel chip. Quite possibly the single component responsible for making this laptop deserving of 5 stars. I have NEVER had as good a laptop experience as this. You pay a premium for Intel, but Im content that you get the bang for your buck (I say this having only ever used AMD for desktops). Usually the CPU never gets over about 50-55 Centigrade during 1080p 60 fps video watching in Chrome and Firefox, and is often in the middle 40s to high 30s with simple tasks and when idle. Occasionally during multi-tasking it will spike as high as 66-68 Centigrade, but usually only for a second. The fan is rather obvious in sound, but unless youre watching really quiet video, you wont notice it when it does kick on, usually only above 50 degrees. ASUS and Intel say the 8550U goes up to 4.0 GHz, but I havent seen it go past 3.8-3.9 GHz on this unit. I have however seen it dip significantly below 1.8 GHz, as low as 1.15 GHz and even less than 1.0 GHz. Im unfamiliar if laptops normally do this to conserve power and extend the chips lifespan, but I imagine it does. Havent run into thermal throttling, but have discovered something else from Intels monitor; this does "current limit throttle", which is new to me. Maybe a limitation from the battery and amperage of the power supply even plugged in? Never heard of it before; it does occasionally throttle for a second, but not for extended periods even while under the same load. -The speakers are awesome. The onboard audio is very good in general, and I dont know if Id be able to tell the difference between it and my desktop SoundBlaster ZXR unless they were side by side with identical headphones. I recommend setting the "Audio Wizard" controller to the [Music] option and tweaking the bass and treble up a bit. I havent fiddled around with decibel modulation in the frequency options, but its there for anyone to use. The speakers are good enough to be from a TV. -Again, I emphasize that the keyboard is rather far set into the chassis, and it really isnt comfortable. I may invest in some wrist rests, small enough to fit on the laptop, I dont bother with the track pad. The keys are alright, a bit flat, but its a laptop, so Im not put off. If I want, I could always just plug in a USB keyboard and type in my lap. I use a USB mouse (Logitech G600) and havent had any glitches. -General I/O, system drivers, and other odds and ends are nicely hands off. No silly stuff like having to download Realtek ethernet drivers, a problem I had with an older ASUS motherboard. This unit has sufficient NVIDIA drivers, including GeForce Experience to get to the most recent drivers for the 1050; audio is good to go, wireless/bluetooth, etc etc. Im very glad ASUS has this stuff covered. -I still like the screen. Blacks are nice and black, a fact that makes a big difference. Nice colors, no flickering or tearing, no problems. I certainly hope that it lasts until this unit is hilariously obsolete. -One important note: I still have not tested any games, or anything else that would use the 1050. Im going to download a 13.5 GB game soon to both test the CPU and SSD a bit more, and eventually the 1050 graphics processor. Based on my experience with the 1060 desktop from EVGA, I dont think Ill be let down. At some point I also want to see if this unit can output 4K UHD (at 30 fps I assume?) like ASUS claims it can, and maybe even 1080p 144 Hz if I can turn off the built in display. -Probably one of the few annoying/bad things I can complain about is that the power button is placed right about the minus "-" key on the numpad, so its pretty easy to mistakenly hit it. All things said, Ive given it a new, but still tentative, 5 stars. Thanks for building a good machine, ASUS! Original review* (1/11/2018: So upfront I will say I dislike laptops. They often have terrible quality control from manufactures, they either overheat or perform poorly, and the batteries run dry like the Sahara. This purchase is one of the most nerve-wracking, extremely considered, over analyzed processes Ive ever had the (dis)pleasure of subjecting myself to. Looking at Dell battery recalls, HP costumer satisfaction holes, and yes, even lukewarm waters for ASUS and Acer laptops (usually due to QA conflicting with high prices)...I have been questing for a laptop that can satisfy the avarice of an enthusiast desktop user, me. My first two hour experience with this model has been....suspiciously equitable. To cover some of the basics: -Windows 10 Home, preinstalled, has not been horrible. I disabled everything I hate about W10 and deleted all that apps I didnt want within about ten or fifteen minutes. The OS is fast like it was when I used it a year or two ago on a desktop test. A+, most things considered. I still wish it would let me have a 40-50 character password for login. Maybe the free upgrade to Pro will get me there. That said, ASUS doesnt provide a physical copy. Lame, but whatever. Said more, there is almost no paperwork with this laptop; a warranty booklet and a short user guide. Straight to business I guess. -Herein lay my first issue, regarding the OS; there is no disk drive on this model. Not the be-all-end-all, I can probably copy Windows 8 to a flash drive and boot to it from BIOS if W10 starts driving me crazy......if I can figure out how to get to the ASUS BIOS....again, this is just 2 hours into using, so well see where things go. -Restarts/boots are quite fast for a laptop. Very appreciated. Programs are fast too. No annoying lagging when opening a program like on older laptops, particularly duo core models. Im liking my first experience with Intel. -My first "stress test" for any computer is as follows: as quickly as I can and as simultaneously as I can, install Chrome and Firefox, download and install new NVIDIA drivers and the requisite CPU overclocker/monitoring program (which, from Intel, I quite like first impressions), login to Chrome, sync, and watch a YouTube video in 1080p 60 FPS, open task manager and compare the CPU clock speeds to the monitoring utility program. All of this went very well. This Intel CPU is quadcore, has excellent low clock speeds, and hasnt gotten over 41-42 Centigrade during all of this stressing. Speeds in the task manager match those in the utility. So far so good. It feels like desktop performance, which is thrilling. -The screen: very nice. This 17" model is excellent; I like the color vibrance, the bright whites are intense, the blacks are very black (aside from a tiny bit of backlight leak in, so far as Ive noticed, the bottom left corner; this is not worse than my ASUS monitor, which I love, so no issue for me personally, after all, this isnt an OLED screen or anything), and the easy access to screen brightness is keyboard functional, very awesome. Windows 10 also has a color corrector option in the settings that reduces blue light and increases red light at night, I quite like it. On desktops I usually use the program f.lux for this, and for now they seem relatively similar in performance. ASUS also say this screen already has reduced blue light, so kudos. My eyes are saved! -In line with the keyboard brightness control, the general UI has been pleasant. The keys for now are unfamiliar, but Im typing this review on the laptop and it has been just fine. Given how verbose I am, its a good test of extended use. One negative is that the keyboard is set what must be approaching 4 inches into the width of the chassis, so my forearms arent comfortable to rest on it. The key presses however are fine, have a satisfying travel distance, and the backlit keyboard is a first for me; cant say as Ill get more use out of it than the lowest brightness setting. The trackpad is...a trackpad. I prefer a mouse. There are no "buttons", so I mush things a bit when trying to use it two handed/ two fingered, but if youre used to trackpads itll be no problem I suppose. -Moving onto IO. Its excellent, and one of the biggest factors into why I bought this model. Plenty of USB, SD, HDMI, and even a glorious ethernet jack, and a headphone/mic jack. The DC power jack isnt as solid feeling as I would like, but thats because Im used to power cords that plug into PSUs that weigh as much as this laptop. -Speaking of power, it seems quite well supplied on this unit; I havent run the battery down to 5% and then timed full charge, but ASUS boasts quick charging. Power players probably wont see past 3 hours of use on battery alone, I havent even played any games to test how power hungry the GTX 1050 is, but moderate use (just by my initial experience) probably spans into 5-6 hours, and I imagine 10-12 hours could be achieved with skilled power management and task stringency. I pulled the plug after full charge, and the battery estimate says I have almost 4 hours left after an hour already spent unplugged. Im very happy with this. For now, I suppose thats all Ill say. The unit is quiet, the fans are reasonable when the CPU is working, the HDD or something makes some soft clicking/chirping when working (though, thankfully, the OS and everything is installed on the SSD, which Im liking the speeds on), but its not really any different than the occasional noise I get from my desktop or have heard from a usual laptop. The unit is almost entirely cool to the touch, save for the bottom at the front and the top center at the front. I imagine thats where the CPU/GPU/heatsinks and pipes are. As I said to begin, I tend to dislike, even hate laptops. This ASUS however has been a wonderful experience thus far. Fast. Responsive. Quiet. Performing. Beautiful display. Oh, and yes, quite lovely onboard sound, at least through my Senheiser headphones. The speakers seem rather quiet, but I havent tested them at all, so Im probably mistaken about hat. 4 stars for first impressions. If it keeps up, Ill probably give this thing 5. I will update probably within a month.

Show more

Comment

It broke within 2 weeks. Needed a motherboard replacement. Had to call to have them send a shipping label because warranty only covers 1-way shipping. Also asked them to please do what they can, within reason to preserve the data. They did a motherboard replacement and sent it back without any data. Last I checked, a faulty motherboard doesnt wipe the hard drive. After this experience with terrible, pathetic customer service, this is the last time I every buy an ASUS laptop.

Show more

Comment

Pro: * Well put together, good aesthetics that makes this device feel on par with a similar Apple product * Heat management for standard usage is whisper quiet * Speakers have excellent power and clarity. * Its an ASUS laptop with a numeric pad that also has a numlock. My last ASUS laptop was some bizarre in that I paid extra to have a numeric pad but someone in design thought it was a good idea to not have a numeric lock... no idea. Anyway this has a numlock and life is good. Con: * This thing is obnoxiously loud when under load. There is a possibility it has a defect in the fan or it just maybe the fact that it is an ultra-thin laptop without sufficient space for cooling. * The touch pad by default cant handle two fingers touching it. So if you have one finger on the left click area while the other tries to move the cursor, it stops taking input.

Show more

Comment

I have had this for a little less than a week and here are my first impressions. This review if for the 17.3 inch Vivobook Pro N705UD-EH76. I am upgrading from a 17.3 HP Envy. I use this laptop primarily for work. First on the features. This weighs a little less that 5 lbs (yes I actually weighed it). It is not Windows Hello compatible and does not have a fingerprint reader. Neither of those features were important to me. It does a have matte screen which is something that was important to me. Much has been made of the keyboard, so let me address that. I took out my measuring tape and measured the keyboard from end to end and top to bottom. It is the exact same dimensions of the HP keyboard. What is different is that they compressed the 10 key numeric keypad. The number keys are narrower than what you would see on a 17.3 inch laptop. However, that also means the "standard" part of the keyboard is larger. Those keys are actually larger than typical. So if you dont input a lot of numbers, you will like the keyboard. If however you do a lot of spreadsheet work, you will not be happy with the keyboard layout. The keyboard is backlit and brightness is adjustable. The touchpad as many have indicated is Macbook style. I found the touchpad quick and responsive and intuitive to use. It is thin and light for 17 inch laptop. I would not describe the build as sturdy, but it is certainly not flimsy either. Update 6/13/18. Dead. Will only boot up into BIOS screen. Sending in for service. Changing rating to 1 star. As for performance, it the fastest laptop I have ever owned. This ships with Windows 10 Home, not Pro. Compared to the HP and Dell computers I have owned, I found the bloatware to be minimal. Like with most Windows laptops, it came with McAfee security suite pre-installed. So you may have to uninstall that if you are not a McAfee fan. Setup was relatively easy and uneventful. It took about an hour and half to load all of the Windows 10 updates. It has a 256GB SSD drive which powers the operating system. Boot up is quick, about 10 seconds. It has a 1Tb standard hard drive which is where I save my files. I cannot address the battery life, because I do not run it off the battery for extended periods of time. But I do not have high expectations for long battery life for 17 inch laptops. This is my first Asus laptop and so far I think this is an excellent value. I think it will difficult to find better performance and features at this price point. Will update if my opinion changes.

Show more

Comment

Called 3 times about not being able to delete McAfee. Always some overseas call center that want you to restart the computer until the problem goes away. 45 minutes on the phone 17 restarts later with nothing fixed!! Spent over 1k on a computer I cannot delete files from or install new software. Complete waste of money!!!! I had to pay someone to wipe the harddrive because of a ghost administrator. Another 400.00 spent on a new laptop! Asus has went down hill with customer service!!

Show more