Pros: Laptop started out good.

Cons: More problems show up over time. Audio crackles and goes out. DVD drive doesn't work. Will have to throw this laptop away soon.

Pros: Less expensive than other brands
Good specs
Looks Good

Cons: Very glossy/reflective screen
Terrible Speakers
Terrible Warranty

Other Thoughts: I wanted to hold off on writing a review until I had a chance to use it for a few months. Overall, the actual laptop is quite nice both in aesthetics and performance. I have not yet had the screen issue that most people had experienced, hopefully I never will. Unfortunately, there are 2 significant issues with the laptop.

1. The speakers are simply horrible! I know that they are supposed to be great but they are NOT. Not only is the sound quality comparable to that of a 10-year-old Dell but immediately you can tell that the sound is louder from the left side of the system than from the right. Apparently this is "normal" as it is meant to be listened to from a distance like a "boom box"...or some Malarkey like that.

2. After about 2 months, the power adapter (power brick) started to cut in & out randomly. Sometimes while playing a game it will click off for a second and then click back on. I tried to see if Asus would just send me a new power adapter ( I would return the defective adapter once I received the replacement) but they would not. Asus wanted me to send the entire system back to them. I immediately refused and am now using another power adapter that I had from an old Asus laptop. It seems to work just fine.

Overall, it's a nice machine, when it works, but I would gladly pay a little extra for a Dell, next time, so that I would not have to deal with Asus' ridiculously outdated warranty process. It's just not worth it!

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Gameboy,

It's good to know that you like both the aesthetics and system performance of the laptop. I certainly understand your concern regarding the quality of the audio. Please try to update the audio driver if the unit is running with an older version. Also, for better listening pleasure, I recommend using a headset or a good set of external speaker systems. Should you need further assistance, please email me at cl-rodel@asus.com and write down service# N150380645 on the subject line.

Thank you for choosing an ASUS product.

Regards,

Rodel
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: See my previous review

Cons: Over the last two weeks, my N550JK has developed a loose audio jack and have to position the headphone plug in *just* the right spot to get the audio to work. This is such a frustrating development, given how much I've enjoyed this laptop up to now.

I've been searching around a bit to see if there was some kind of simple fix I was missing for this and have discovered that many other people have had this problem, which really sucks. This shows that ASUS may have a quality control issue with this particular laptop, or a significant design flaw.

I've also learned the easiest fix is to re-solder the pins of the jack on the motherboard, if the issue is a broken one. The worst-case scenario is to have to completely remove the jack by heating up the solder pins until the jack releases, then solder in a new one. And this is on the main motherboard; the online tutorials state this doesn't have a separate board for some of the connectors. But I'm hesitant to try and do such a fix on my own.

My concern is that a damaged audio jack, even while under warranty, will get rejected by ASUS as 'normal wear and tear.' Lucky me.

Other Thoughts: So, overall, still a pretty great laptop, but an easily-loosened audio port, a rather critical part of a laptop's functionality, means losing 2 eggs.

I *really* wanted to love this thing, but I just can't.

Pros: Sleek
Fast
SSD
RAM
Build Quality
Speakers
Best specs for the price

Cons: Well display failed on me after 2 months of minimum usage . I take care of my stuff, i have been handling with utmost care. And NOTE, this is my second ASUS laptop, the first one i bought, a refurbished one and was dead right out of the box(No Display) , i returned that one bought this one Brand New. Was working wonderfully until Yesterday.

Hooked it up to my external Monitor ( which is ASUS as well.)through the Display port to HDMI . I get the display on my external Monitor.

Other Thoughts: I like ASUS , but two display failures .well.. for sure my Next one is NOT ASUS. i have the Iron egg protection so will be getting a full refund.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Pavan,

I definitely agree with you that the specification of the laptop are good and the system performance is great, too. I certainly understand your disappointment with the display failing after a couple of months. You may need to try running System Restore in order to revert the system to the last known good configuration or do a PC Refresh if System Restore didn't resolve the display issue. If the problem persists and you need further assistance sending the laptop in for warranty service, please email me at cl-rodel@asus.com and write down service# N150177083 on the subject line.

Thank you for choosing an ASUS product.

Regards,

Rodel
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Size

Cons: Right off, the backlit keyboard is the worst I have ever had. You have to be looking pretty much straight down on it to see the keys the lighted keys. Then after only having the unit less than three months, the touchscreen went out. Then the computer died completely. I had read a blog on how to do a hard start and reboot the computer, no luck. However when doing this it is necessary to remove the internal battery as it does not have an external one. So, in removing it, 4 of the screws stripped out and my only option was to drill them out. I did not hurt the unit in anyway.
I then called Asus Customer Support and explained the situation. I was given an RA number and will be sending it back next week. I explained I had tried to do a restart and had 4 screws strip out on me. She said if I damaged the unit in anyway it would void the warranty. I will let everyone know how this turns out.
Finally, I really am not interested in letting Asus see the information I have on my hard drive. Personal data, work data, client data and the like is on it. I requested to keep the hard drives and explained the situation but was informed that they would need the hard drives. I find that difficult to believe.

I am going to attempt to get all my personal data of the Asus and then send it into repair. If they warranty it, great, if they do not because of 4 stripped screws, I will never buy an Asus again and will buy a MAC.

I will keep you posted as to their decision.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you. All ASUS products undergo intensive quality control testing and inspections, these are isolated cases. ASUS provides warranty for the laptop in order to fix or repair any isolated factory escape defect. If you need further assistance after receiving the unit from warranty service, please email me at cl-rodel@asus.com and write down service# N150123266 on the subject line.

Thank you for choosing an ASUS product.

Regards,

Rodel
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Excellent laptop for everyday use and light gaming.

Solid construction, great screen, and the keyboard is awesome. The graphics can handle everything I've thrown at it thus far, Battlefield 3 on high settings.

I picked this over another Asus model since this has the wireless AC and IPS touchscreen. Sure beats the Lenovo y50 as well since this has a built-in CD drive.

For $1,199, this laptop is a great deal for the specs.

Cons: The touchpad isn't the best, nor is the Asus touchbad software. On the second day of ownership, the Asus software disabled my touchpad for unknown reasons, so I had to uninstall it by using the touch screen. I since reinstalled with the version from the website and I haven't had any issues yet.

Windows 8 is meh, but whatever.

Other Thoughts: Excellent laptop for the price

Pros: Glossy screen, good specs, was fast when I first got it (turned it on exactly one week ago).

Cons: Windows 8. Not great with games, even though sold as gaming computer. Laptop broke down after one week, cannot get Windows to boot.

Other Thoughts: I will be returning this to Newegg and will not buy another ASUS.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

I'm sorry to hear if the laptop failed to bootup after a week. A recent WINDOWS Update might have been unsuccessful and corrupted the system registry. If the system can still bootup in Safe Mode, please try to run System Restore in order to revert the system to the last known good configuration. If you need further assistance, please email me at cl-rodel@asus.com and write down service# N141235820 on the subject line.

Thank you for choosing an ASUS product.

Regards,

Rodel
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Keyboard is smooth to use; I didn't need much time to adjust
Speakers are indeed quite loud for a laptop
Touchscreen is very responsive; works very well
Trackpad is large; very responsive
Lightweight for a gaming laptop; I carry it with me to campus every day without a problem; just small enough to slide in my backpack's laptop pocket
Charges very quickly; maybe I was just too used to a slow charger
Boots all the way up freakishly fast; it genuinely takes five seconds - consistently; the "2-second from sleep" promise is true to its word as well
Pleasantly thin for a gaming laptop
Aesthetically pleasing!
Handled newer games on high graphics settings. I get a little bit of lag on "ultra" settings in some games like Starcraft 2, but I can play ultra on slightly older games like Dragon Age 1 & 2 without any problems at all. Outside of games, the laptop is always nice and speedy.

Cons: A little plastic chip in the port where the little subwoofer plugs in broke on the very first day. It wouldn't work, so I was jiggling it about trying to see if it would work; it didn't, so I pulled it out (it seemed very carefully) and out came the little plastic chip. Interestingly enough, that's when the sub started working... The sub itself isn't very impressive. I always have good computer speakers plugged into the laptop when I want good bass.

If I close the lid to make the laptop sleep instead of pressing the power button, the touchscreen will disable automatically. I can only turn it back on by going to "troubleshoot" in the device manager. Very interesting problem... but when I figured it out it was easy to avoid.

The power brick is quite large; I understand it's probably necessary for this good of a laptop. Just a bit heavy is all.

This shouldn't seem like a big deal, but... as I found mentioned in another review, it is surprisingly annoying how the caps lock light is on the front of the laptop so you have to "peel back" to see it. Also, there is no numlock light; not a big deal, but I wish it had one.

Like most laptops nowadays, the SSD is partitioned. I've never been a fan of partitions.

There was some bloatware on the laptop when I first got it. Some, especially ASUS system programs, I kept. Others were quite unnecessary so they were removed. BAM.

A Blu-Ray drive would have been nice...

Other Thoughts: The sound quality of the speakers is highly dependent on your ability to fiddle with the tuners. I don't worry about it too much since I'm usually using the externals. Your sound experience depends on you; the speakers themselves are quite capable, especially for loudness.

I think this model is a much better option than the original N550JK model. The full 16 GB memory and the slightly better CPU were worth the investment in my eyes.

Battery life is average; much better than I would have expected for a gaming laptop. With the screen brightness down and just using browsers, office, email, etc., I can get three hours out of the battery. More like 2 if I'm gaming, which I pretty much never do unless I'm plugged in anyway.

I wanted to keep the laptop for a while before doing a review so I could make sure nothing would magically go wrong after the first few weeks. Besides the cons I noticed from the very first, no "surprise" problems have come to light.

Pros: This laptop's computing power is basically on par with the 15-inch MacBook Pro, for about $1000 less! The only area where this thing feels lag is when I'm doing heavy 3D rendering for 3D print jobs at work, but even the more powerful processors with comparable RAM we have in our desktops at work start lagging on the same tasks.

Cons: It is a little heavier than my previous laptop - an ultrabook - but that's to be expected. And the battery life, at roughly 3 hours of normal use, is definitely a negative (the only thing that really bothers me about this thing). And WIndows 8.1 has some serious issues that can't even be overcome by having a touch screen.

Other Thoughts: I haven't really used the disc drive and fully intend to swap it out for an hd caddy and throw in another SSD to expand the available disc space.

As for comparisons to that MacBook Pro, I guess that $1000 buys you a non-touchscreen Retina (which is, admittedly, beautiful) and a longer battery life. Definitely worth the trade-offs.

Pros: Great specs...

Cons: Didn't work on arrival. Had to contact ASUS support to determine that the screen wasn't going to come on. Had to return to Neweggg

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

I apologize if the laptop didn't work upon arrival. All ASUS products undergo intensive quality control testing and inspections, this is an isolated case. ASUS provides warranty for the laptop in order to fix or repair any isolated factory escape defect. If you need further assistance, please email me at cl-rodel@asus.com and write down service# N140935407 on the subject line.

Thank you for choosing an ASUS product.

Regards,

Rodel
ASUS Customer Loyalty