ASUS M50S multimedia laptop seen in the wild

Ooh, shiny! ASUS' CES-announced M50S has finally found its way out of whatever lair it has been tucked away in, and thankfully, the shutterbugs over at PC Perspective snapped a few shots for the world to see. Initial impressions are that it should handle most gaming needs with ease, yet won't destroy your back when toting it from LAN party to LAN party. The built-in Blu-ray burner and multi-function trackpad are quite nice, too. Hit up the read link for the full preview -- a bona fide review should be following shortly.

[Thanks, Ryan]

[Rohit Kapur @ May 1st 2008 9:56AM]

I just purchased the M50S by Asus on Newegg last week, but it's a different configuration. Still, I have to say, the prices that Asus offers for its laptops is brilliant. While I was browsing in the market, any similar laptops by Dell or Lenovo or Sony were always far more expensive than the Asus one. Plus, the one year accidental damage warranty is pretty amazing too. It almost makes me paranoid that there must be some catch that I'm missing.

All in all, it's a lovely laptop (I can comment on both, because the exterior is the same).

[Richard Lai @ May 1st 2008 10:01AM]

How is the speaker quality? I noticed that Asus is starting to put Altec Lansing speakers into their laptops - very kind of them. I believe the M50 series does have them.

And does the LCD suffer from the old grainy problem?

[Rohit Kapur @ May 1st 2008 10:05AM]

The speakers are decent, though I wouldn't go as far as to say that they nullify the need for external ones if you'd like to use this laptop a lot for entertainment purposes.

The screen is alright. It's not the best quality in the world, but for the price, it's pretty decent. I don't know about the previous problems that you mentioned, but this one's as fine as it's gonna get, I think.

Here's the Newegg page if anyone wants to have a look at the specs and read other, "proper" reviews by people who bought it. This is NOT a page for the M50S mentioned in this article; it's for the configuration I purchased.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220307

[Richard Lai @ May 1st 2008 10:21AM]

The grainy issue I mentioned earlier is to do with the 6-bit LCD panels, where the whites tend to look dirty and grainy. I believe MacBooks and some Dell laptops had this problem too.

[Dahk @ May 1st 2008 7:50PM]

About the trackpad, it looks kinda small and kind of deeply embossed. Is that the case? I have a huge gripe about the trackpads on the old Dells and the Toshibas where they implemented all those trackpad features too.

I will admit, I'm a big fan of MBA's MASSIVE trackpad.

[bob @ May 1st 2008 10:01AM]

oo, oo, I just spotted a gap where they could fit another sticker!! oh, thats the trackpad.

[Tony @ May 1st 2008 10:54AM]

hahaha! Damn, I found that rather amusing! :-)

[iofthestorm @ May 1st 2008 12:01PM]

Actually, it looks like they've already got some sort of sticker on the trackpad. Also, that was hilarious.

[Richard Lai @ May 1st 2008 12:26PM]

Hair dryer is the answer.

And no, there are no stickers on the trackpad.

[Ninjakamster @ May 1st 2008 10:02AM]

Its already been reviewed over at notebookreview.com guys.

[Richard Lai @ May 1st 2008 10:06AM]

I didn't know the laptops are handcrafted.

[Richard Lai @ May 1st 2008 10:38AM]

OK my reply was for the original first post regarding sweatshops, but it has been removed since. Now I look silly. :p

[Geir E @ May 1st 2008 10:25AM]

I have to say, I bet if you hired a team of monkeys, they wouldn't be able to make an uglier laptop. But that is what you get for being cheap. At least it has good value, which for probably most people count most.

[Lein @ May 1st 2008 10:34AM]

Exactly how is it ugly?

I assume you know how to remove decals from a computer, right?

[Karl Viklund @ May 1st 2008 10:34AM]

I see it too. Is on that picture.

[RasvenousManChild @ May 1st 2008 10:56AM]

Should read: Blu-ray disc reader / DVD burner, not Blu-Ray burner...

[senyl @ May 1st 2008 11:00AM]

I gotta say, I love the "Ooh, shiny!" reference

[Good_Bytes @ May 1st 2008 11:53AM]

I don't like it, there is a lack of stickers!
Stickers makes me feel special :(

[Andrew @ May 1st 2008 12:25PM]

Umm.. I don't see any mention of gigabit ethernet. How cheap are companies to provide that in a laptop now? The price between that and 10/100 is negligible.

Really sad to see that Apple has been putting it in ALL it's computers for the last 5 or so years.

[Anders @ May 1st 2008 1:04PM]

http://www.notebooksrus.com.au/Notebook/Asus-M50SA-asus-m50sa-AK009G-.aspx

Nice try, Apple Fanboy.

[Andrew @ May 1st 2008 3:12PM]

so where in TFA does it show that?

[coffeeisgood @ May 1st 2008 12:39PM]

didn't think the air had gigabit ethernet...

[Andrew @ May 1st 2008 12:59PM]

one computer in their lineup of mac Minis, Macbooks, Macbook pros, iBooks, Powerbooks, iMacs.. Lenovo is the only other company that I can think of that puts it in most of their notebooks

[Noel @ May 1st 2008 1:37PM]

Nice baby wipes in the background..LOL

[phanbouy @ May 1st 2008 2:38PM]

nothing says hygiene like a glossy screen

[Schfelzerberg @ May 1st 2008 3:20PM]

Meh. This has been available here for a couple of weeks now. 2.5 Ghz Penryn C2D, 320 GB hard drive, 3 GB of RAM, Geforce 9500M GS 512 MB, 1440x900 screen, and all the other typical stuff for 70K Php (around $1400).

[FC @ May 1st 2008 5:19PM]

I got the M50SA from newegg when they had it on sale... with shipping it came to $1466. 2.5ghz penryn, 1680x1050, 4gb, hitachi 500gb, ati 3650 1gb... i couldnt pass it up for that price since ive been needing a new laptop.

[Cristian @ May 1st 2008 5:26PM]

Seen in the wild? I thought it was available for a while now... at least that's what NCIX.com says. It's been selling like hotcakes, and I got mine last week. It's a fantastic piece of machinery =D.
The configuration I got was the M50SV, which has an HD-DVD and BluRay drive, 250 GB, 3 GB RAM, and a T8100 CPU. Oh, and the nVidia 9500M GS for the graphics. I love it!