Our friends who bought Asus N56VZ recently seem to be not too happy with the quality of they gear:

"PS. ASUS IS SERIOUSLY F***ED UP THE N56 IN MALAYSIA, GO GET LENOVO Y480/580 IF YOU DON'T WANT TO RISK GETTING A FAULTY LAPTOP." - http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/2386961

To be honest I almost ended up buying n56, but i bought Lenovo Y480 due to two reasons: budget, and mobility (N56 is a bit too big/heavy/bulky for me to lug it in and out everyday). for y480, it would almost be perfect if not for the glossy screen it has (compared to the matte display of n56).

Asus has a winner in N56VZ in terms of design - man, it IS beautiful. Compared with my new Lenovo, my colleague even thought I was still using my old HP 520 before I pointed it out to him - it is so ordinary looking. Unfortunately for Asus, they didn't backup a good design by QA. 

As for my Lenovo, it has a plain Jane outlook, but so far am very happy using it, will be even better if I move the hdd to dvd slot, and/or add a SSD...