From Q & A to the Asus N50’s Webcam & Bluetooth
Before we take a further look into the specs of the N50 we interrupt our regular broadcast for a question from Karan who wants to know when the new Asus VX5 is going to be released in the UK and where to get one.
Although it’s slightly off topic I did some digging and the word on the grape vine (aka Google) is that the new VX5 is going to be released in August in the UK. No ideas on price yet or where to you can order one but I imagine any official Asus dealers will be able to order one for you. One thing is for sure they won’t come cheap and one will most likely need to be ordered for you unless you are very lucky and anyone actually stocks this beauty. I hope this answers your question.
Francis Bacon once said “A prudent question is one half of wisdom.”, so if you want your question answered on this blog (slightly off-topic is fine) just leave a comment to my blog postings and I will get back to you. But now we return to our regular broadcast.
As mentioned in my previous post, the N50 comes with plenty of memory, 4 GB DDR2 to be precise. The version of Windows Vista Home Premium installed on it, however, is 32bit. This means you effectively only get to use just over 3 GB of it. With memory prices this low and the positive marketing effect that 4 has over 3 (more is better after all) it makes sense, but in reality adds very little. In all fairness, unless you are really going to tax the machine with some serious Photoshop or video editing, I doubt you’ll ever notice the difference, but it allows you some headroom if you ever wanted to go 64bit.
On further reflection, I personally don’t really miss blu-ray that much, (catch my blu-ray musings in my previous post). Mainly as I don’t have any blu-ray discs, or a HD capable TV for that matter to link it to. If you do, you probably already have a blu-ray player so it won’t matter to you that the laptop doesn’t have one. With the price of the internal drives coming down so much in the last couple of months & with an eye to the future, it would have made a nice addition to a Personal Entertainment laptop, however, it does come with a perfectly respectable DVD-RW drive with Lightscribe technology.
If we look up from at the top of the screen we find some more great features like the built in microphone & webcam which shoots very decent video. Don’t expect world class cinematography but the 2 megapixel camera is more than sufficient for things like Skype, MSN or the occasional snap for your Facebook page. The coolest thing is that the software that comes with it also allows you to use it for logging into the machine using facial recognition. I guess when I try out the biometrics I’ll also have to see if the webcam can be fooled by a photo as well.
I’m personally not a major fan of webcams, especially on mobile devices, as you always have to wonder what’s going on behind you and if this is what you want other people to see. Call me paranoid, but the idea of Trojans activating them remotely without you knowing kind of gives me the creeps. Luckily the N50 does have an indicator light which shows you if the webcam is currently switched on. It also comes with a trial subscription to the latest version of the Norton Security Suite which should hopefully keep all the nasties at bay anyways.
If we look under the hood, the Asus N50 not only comes with a 802.11N compatible wireless card but it also has built in Bluetooth. Bluetooth has always been a bit hit and miss for me but on this laptop it’s performing amazingly well. The memory card reader is a bonus and can be very useful when, for example, you forgot the proprietary USB cable that came with your digital camera whilst you are on holiday (been there, done that..). The speakers in this laptop do require a special mention because as far as laptop speakers go they are very good and produce quite a decent amount of noise.
That’s it for now, next time I’ll have a look at the ergonomics of the N50.
