I was trying to find a Canadian distributor for the M6000N and I got linked to the ASI website. They call their model the 5715W. It doesn't seem to be an Asus as the ports don't match up. Ditto for the G556.
My only general impression of the R50 is the price. It has very nice specs, and IBM has a good reputation, but $6000(cdn) is way too steep for a lowly student such as myself.