17" Asus laptops - discussion

I've recently decided that 17" is an option for me, since I won't be moving my laptop around too much. However, Asus does not seem to have much of a choice in this category. There is the reasonable A7J, with very decent specs and DVI for a good price, and the expensive W2J, with similar specs and a price almost $1000 more.

Why is there such a huge price difference? The processor is a bit faster, 512Mb more RAM, slightly better screen and lighter/better quality chassis on the W2J. Is this worth a grand?

Why is Asus not releasing any more large multimedia laptops? There seems to be a decent market for them for other brands, i.e. HP's ZD series and Dell's 9000. Is it just that Asus buyers gravitate towards more technical and portable notebooks, as opposed to multimedia behemoths?

 

When I was shopping for a desktop replacement, I also thought of the same issue. I guess with Asus laptops you're paying for aesthetics and build more so than what it actually has.

For instance, I was looking at i think the Z83V or something. It had a 17" widescreen but only had a measly ATI x700 for about 1800$ after taxes/shipping. The Dell 9300 at the time had a GF6800 Go and was priced to at most 1500$ shipped. My gripe at the time was the Inspirons' case werent really pleasing (and still arent). So instead I stumbled onto the Sager (Clevo) 5720. The build was fantastic, though I think the LCD isnt as good as many other brands out there. The cost of this after shipping was 2200$ and it included a GF7800 too.

Don't get me wrong, I like Asus notebooks. They have everything you look for. But when you purchase one you sacrifice some performance for the nice aesthetics it has to offer. I think Asus is targetting the audience where looks of the chassis makes a huge difference in the choice to buy or not. I'm one of those and that's why I'm eagerly waiting for the W3J to come out

 

I have a w2v and it was worth every penny. yeah there are cheaper notebooks. But honestly this thing is beautiful and the build quality is amazing. dells are **** i dont even know why people buy them. sagers are nice though.

 

agreed, i am a asus fan when it comes to the build quality!

 

If you're a serious gamer, and need a mobile gaming unit I would say go Sager and go Dell if money is a concern and you want bargain basement pricing.

If you want a nice balance of everything with top notch build quality and aesthetics/style, go with Asus.

 

In addition, the W2 has a TV-card, which isn't important to me, but to many it might be... The screen is not just 'slightly' better, it's quite a lot better.

 

Does that mean that the A7J screen isn't that great in general? Or is it decent, but not as good compared to the awesomeness of W2J?

Finally, are there any more 17"s coming from Asus in the next few months? I want the insides of the A7J with the screen and chassis of a Z70Va.

 

I have never seen the A7J screen but for the money it seems to be a great laptop. I am interested to see the sager dual cores when they come out as well they have some nice machines. May not be as pretty as asus but the build quality is sure there. Asus needs to come out with a v6 series 17 in thats like sub 7lbs with a dvi port and that would be perfect i think.

 

heh yeah sager's imo tend to be more "beastly" machines. lots of power in a not so elegant shell, but still pretty good quality. asus machines are more elegant and for that they sacrifice some power. if u're looking for a true desktop replacement i would look at sager...but that's just my opinion.

 

As Shampoo said, do not look to ASUS for 17" high end gaming and performance laptops...

The 17" ASUS laptops are just style and design stuff, with a nice big 17", there are none with a higher graphics card than the X1600... which should be put into 15.4" and W3J.

Sager and Dell have been making HIT 17" high end gaming machines... no doubt if you want one, look to those brands. If you want a stylish 17" look to ASUS and Fujitsu.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

When it comes to me, I am a freak for a good looking machine. The w2j is possibly the hottest laptop I have ever seen in my life. It is very thin, light and has a nearly perfect 17" laptop setup. For my liking it is well worth the intimidating cost.

 

G2S-A1 user here.

Perfect, and the design in a bit flashy for me, but I got it because it was built for gaming and that build quality was better than the iRack's. <<

Only gripe with me is the lack of dedicated volume buttons. Seriously, Fn keys are annoying! I'd like a whole line of dedicated buttons instead of silly keys attached to the F keys. And a number pad.

I do admit that it does turn some heads though, although now I would personally go for the Sager 2090 if I wasn't so blown away by the overflow of reviews with good build quality and reliability with ASUS.

 

What about the PowerPro 2:38 from Powernotebooks?
http://www.powernotebooks.com/category.php?catId=25#id1753

I ordered one and I thought it was beautiful. I hated to send it back but I do a lot of traveling and decided that it was just way too big for me to carry on the road.
It had a beautiful screen and I thought good specs for what I paid ($1750ish). Just a thought.

I ended up ordering a CompalIFL90 from Powernotebooks.

 

theres an older one ... the asus z84j it basically a multimedia machine with a a nice screen and 4.1 speaker setup (yup even subwoofer) not a high end gaming laptop though (it comes with a Geforce 7700 512mb) i should come to be around $1500 so its pretty cheap

 

The Z84 had an MXM slot, and it was upgradable to the 7900GS and x1900XT.

As for current models, ASUS's flagship W2 and G2 are the ENSEMBLE notebooks, and they should have 17" barebones out by the end of the year, at least 2.

 

What?!
Really? i dint know you could put these cards in the z84.... has anyone done this?

 

no man... Z84j is nice.. but upgrading gfx card will cause some over heat problem. No one did it yet. Only one guy try to do it, but i don't think he's able to boot windows up on his 7900GS. BIOS won't take that card.

However order from excaliberpc.com will give you Z84J with 7700 card. which is decent card for games.

The think i like about Z84J is it's has bluetooth webcam and a DVD drive. So i dont' have to spend that extra bucks for dvd rive.