Asus U50F-RBBAG05 user reviews

4.0 stars

"This is an excellent laptop and a great value" on February 23, 2010 by larry2028

Pros: I like the whole package, fully featured business type laptop with great performance and light weight.. at a GREAT price.

Cons: No cons really, for the price everything works better than what you normally get for that price.
1 big issue - date will not hold, jump ahead at random. This causes lots of certificate and access problem as most web services are Https now.

Summary: I am the Dir of an IT support unit, I see a LOT of laptops. This is a GREAT laptop. Add to that the price and it is also a GREAT value. ASUS recently rated tops for reliability.
NOTE: The date issue is a serious problem, hopefully I will see a fix posted, for now I can find no reference to it. But it is a bad mark on what is otherwise the best laptop for your money.

Battery Power can be quite good if you choose the long battery life power scheme when you are unplugged

5.0 stars

"Fix for tinny sound issues" on March 31, 2010 by muskateercnet

Pros: Perfect laptop except for the tinnt sound, even through Bose QC2 Headphones.

Cons: None now!!!

Summary: If I just had a backlit keyboard and a bit more battery life, this computer would be perfect. But that being sad, I love this you are experiancing tinny hollow sound as I was, I have the fix for th issue directly from ASUS and it works like a charm. Go into the control panel and delete the following two programs: Conexant Audio driver, and the SRS audio control. Reboot your machine. VOILA! full rich sound through you headphones. Thanks ASUS

Updated on Jul 9, 2010

Asus has supplied an updated driver that works correctly. So you will get the SRS control panel back, and the sound issue will be corrrected.

Updated on May 6, 2011

I now have a backlit keyboeard on my Asus U50f. If anyone is interested on how to do the mod, please let me know.

0.5 stars

"First and LAST ASUS I'll own, no matter how RMA ends." on July 28, 2010 by KB5otp

Pros: Pro: rubbery deck doesn't show fingerprints.

Cons: Cons: low quality keyboard; OEM load buggy; BIOS bad; battery SUCKS; RMA procedure worst I've experienced

Summary: Fought this thing for 6 weeks through two tech-help "fixes." Used recovery disks twice, re-flashed the BIOS, reloaded confirmed good software - all to no avail. Screen and cursor freeze, then lose cursor, then black screen with gray flashing characters (not numbers, not letters: undecipherable junk), then computer dies and reboots all on its own...over and over and over Bad device, bad customer support, labor intensive RMA procedure. When I had trouble with a Toshiba under warranty, they sent me a shipping box and took care of the trouble. ASUS made ME go find the FEDEX location and provide all the shipping/packing material - they did allow me a prepaid label (how generous). Shipped it off for warranty service yesterday - I'm have little hope and am going shopping again today for replacement. IF it comes back fixed for real, it goes to the desk and stays there as battery life is useless.

Bottom Line: do not buy ASUS; do not buy at Best Buy; do not expect help.

4.0 stars

"Excellent i3 powered laptop for the money" on July 23, 2010 by jrsheppa

Pros: Very fast and multi-tasks very well
Very good cooling system
Lightweight for its size
HDMI and eSATA

Cons: No backlit keypad (not that I expected it)
Casing shows fingerprints easily
Battery life is sub-par

Summary: I went into buying a new computer thinking I was definitely going to bite the bullet and buy a Mac desktop or Pro, even though they are unbelievably over priced. However, after doing some deal shopping I came along this Asus. Granted the price I paid for a refurb version ($400) is well under the MSRP and my review will reflect the value at the price I paid.

A little about me as a buyer: I hate the idea of desktop replacements so I wanted either something lighter weight or standard if I was getting a laptop. Therefore, if I decided to buy a laptop I wanted it to be portable enough for me not to feel encumbered. However, most of the time I just leave my computer on my coffee table so ultra portability was not high on my priority list.

First the negatives: Aesthetically, the laptop is relatively bland and attracts fingerprints like moths to a flame. The computer is very wide. The keys are really tough to see in a dark room, especially if the screen is on full brightness (which I do not recommend for power saving purposes). The battery life is poor. You can tweak it so that it gets more juice but the max it can get seems to be around 3.5 hours so if portability is a primary purchasing point, I do not recommend it.

Positives: There are a lot in my opinion. Hardware wise, this computer is good bang for the buck. 4GB RAM, 500GB HD, i3, with HDMI and eSATA puts this computer ahead of the curve for laptops in this price range.

Multi-tasking is a dream. I have been streaming video, downloading video from 2 other sources and running a DVD ripping program on top of iTunes and the internet and I have never had a hiccup. It also seems to run Apple programs well too.

For its size, it feels pretty light actually, but that is probably since most of the parts are plastic. One surprisingly nice feature was that the computer seems to run very cool, or at least has a very efficient cooling system. The Exhaust port is on the left side so the bottom as negligible to no temperature difference while running.

The screen is surprisingly vibrant and does a great job with color and contrast. It has a glossy finish, which I like better than matte. I think it is an excellent device on which to watch a movie. I have not had any problems with the speakers like some reviewers have mentioned. They are not as good as Apple but I thought they did a great job for a laptop (I usually listen with headphones though).

Finally, I was slightly worried in buying from Asus since a friend of mine said they do not have as good a reputation as some companies like Lenovo. I am glad to report so far that it has been a wonderful machine which has lived up to my expectations and even exceeded them in some areas. I was also happy to learn after the fact that Asus has one of the lowest fail rates among PCs

Hope this helps others decide.