90% set to buy Asus F3Jv - final questions

found this beauty through posting my FAQ on the buying forum, big thanks to everyone's suggestions.

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Asus_F3Jp_Laptop_F3JV-AP033M/version-1.asp


although i'm satisfied about the specs and features, i just wanted to know what the keyboard felt like to use. I'm going to use the laptop for 2D animation, sound editing, some gaming but also for writing, so I wanted to know how comfortable it was to type on for prolonged periods.

I like the satisfying old click of my grotty desktop and also have a wrist support on my desk so it doesn't get tiring. I've never had a laptop before. how will i fair on the F3Jv?

I have no idea where I could try one out, plus I need to buy ASAP, so I'm hoping for some experienced opinions from you guys

also are there any negatives to the system I should be aware of?

 

I believe that the UK magazine "What Laptop?" recently looked at the F3Jv, and they rated the keyboard quite highly.

 

good stuff, if they like it then hopefully i should too!

do you know what else they said about the f3jv actually?

 

just found their review actually

http://blog.whatlaptop.co.uk/page/whatlaptop?entry=asus_f3jv_reviewed

i've ordered it and will read the full review in the magazine when in comes out.

i've got to say i got it for over a hundred pounds less than what they say it is...

 

ASUS generally has quality components. As far as I'm concerned they're up there with Lenovo/IBM atop all other notebook manufacturers.

 

You will like it, I got one for my girlfriend at xmas, I cant believe I nearly brought a dell, the screen on this is much better and the keyboard is very nice, it ha s abit more screen than my W3J and this review.... what more can I say.......

I must say that I have subscribed to this magazinr for 2 years and recently Asus Laptops have returned the fastest Mobilemark test result ever seen by whatlaptop, R1 then recently the W2, by far the most consistant high performer!

 

cheers for posting the review, saves me having to stand around in whsmiths

the f3jv arrived today and so far i'm pretty pleased. it is indeed a lovely machine, the screen is a pleasure. i opened windows media centre and this video of people playing billiards appeared which was in itself was pretty weird but the quality of the picture was fantastic.
i'm yet to really test it with a game. the most recent game i own is 6 years old (startopia), and although it looked great, its probably not a real test of what this machine is capable of.
now i'm working on getting rid of all the annoying bloatware, so i logged on to see what other people have said about it.

best news though is i switched on the wireless switch and it immediately picked up 2 open networks in my house. free internet =

 

Having read the review of this in What Laptop this month, I've been searching 'tinternet to try to find one, but I can't find any F3Jvs which have the same resolution as that specified in the mag (1680 x 1050). They all seem to be 1280 x 800.

Anyone actually managed to find the same (presumably newer) model which is reviewed in the mag (issue 95)

Cheers,

Tim.

 

I have been looking for this hi-res model for a couple of weeks with no luck) after spotting a preview of the review you mention in the What Laptop blog. It is available in other countries but probably only from the Tottenham Court Road address mentioned in the review (Platinum Solutions - a website but no webstore). My guess is that they are grey imports. I meant to phone them today but work got the better of me. I'll try tomorrow and report back

 

I would love to get that one if it had 2.0Ghz Duo2 and 2Gigs of ram

I can't make my mind up

 

Are you guys in the UK? I have actually been down to Platinum Solutions on several occasions I work near Oxford circus, anyhow the guy in there is very useful and in tems of reputable shops down there it is one of the better ones, and no they dont have aweb store, but best thing is they normally have most models on display, so you can go down and compare in person, they have the best range of Asus laptops in London, but best to ring them first to make sure they have that model in stock, ps take cash you can probabaly get a discount

if you go down the building is actually labelled HARP

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=73134

 

Thanks for the heads-up. Yes, I am in the UK ( must set my flag) but quite a long way from London. I have bought from Tottenham Court Road in the past but not for a few years and I am out of touch with who is who, so the first hand experience is very useful. I'll give them a call tomorrow. I guess they are a shop and they shift pre-configured machines. If so, that is a bit of a shame as I would have liked to have beefed up the spec in a couple of areas (mem to 2Gb, possibly a larger disk, but 120Gb isn't bad) but I can always do the mem myself.

I am not too fussed about the processor upgrade - a 15% or so improvement with a 2GHz chip but with all else (3D, mem speed, disk speed) staying the same would result in an average performance boost much lower than that, maybe only 5% or so (unless you're really into 2D or numerical crunching)..

 

Yeah because I work 10 mins walk from there, I go down quite often there are a few places that sell asus, Micro Anvita also stock Asus, but only 1 or 2 models where as platinum solutions have really geared up to sell Asus, they seem to have a good supply and stock a wide range of models. have a chat with them about the config, I cant remember, they will deffinately upgrade HDD and RAM but be ware what most places charge you for a HDD upgrade is about 80-90% of the cost of a new drive! if you are not to worried about processor, I would buy with current spec, and upgrade the RAM and HDD yourself (save some cash and then you have a second HDD for external storage), just keep the original ram and hdd so if you need to send it back for service under warantee you can swap the original parts back in, job done!

 

Well, the plot thickens. I gave Platinum Solutions a call and they said that the What Laptop review had a typo and that the screen was really WXGA. Now that is interesting as not only does the screen resolution appear several times (as both WXSGA+ and 1680 * 1050) but it also gets a special mention as "higher than most machines on test". Platinum confirms that other countries can have this model, but not the UK "to prevent conflict with other models in the UK market".

Hmmm.

So, which of the following is correct...

1. The review was not conducted locally, but bought in from another country (unlikely as other machines were UK spec).
2. The review was conducted locally, but using a machine sourced elsewhere.
3. The review was conducted locally, using a machine obtained from Platinum but (for whatever reason) they can no longer provide that machine (grey import? Asus objected?)
4. The review contained multiple mistakes.

I was mentally committed to this machine, but this whole experience has put me off Asus, so I'm going to look elsewhere.

 

Well I brought my girlfriend the F3JM and it has a lower res screen, but it is of excelent quality and very bright, I was going to get a Dell which had a higher res screen, but once I saw the dell, even though it had a higher res it was very washed out and had poor light leakage.

I would contact what laptop, sometimes if manufacturers post laptops for review they have be able to deliver that spec and price for a monthe or so after the review???? otherwise it is false advertising? dont quote me on that.

that is my biggest annoyance from Asus, is that they do not give you the choice to configure, it took me 8 months until Asus released a laptop with the config that ticked all my boxes (W3J) they wer lucky no competitor was close in that time frame, otherwise I would have purchased another brand.

But remember even with current specs Asus have broken the fastest score for mobile mark 3 times over the last 6 months, and I have been reading what laptop for 2.5 years now, i havent seen any other brands perform as consistantly high as Asus laptops.

 

I intend to contact the magazine as something odd has happened. I'll provide feeback here if/when I get an answer.

The V1J does get close to what I was looking for and may be the reason for the his-res F3Jv not being sold here. It is quite a bit more expensive, some of that being down to 2Gb memory and a bigger disk (both of which I would have gone for anyway) and other more business-oriented enhancements (which I probably wouldn't).

 

I emailed the reviews editor this morning, who is slightly concerned by the apparent lack of availability of the review model, and promised to get back to me once he's had a reply himself from Asus.

I hope he has good news...

 

Yeah I hate Asus's dictatorship approach to distribution, they should let the public choose, personally I would have paid more for a higher spec system... at least let us choose..........

Enough ranting... let us know what the outcome is.

 

Right then, Alex Bentley, the What Laptop reviews editor, has had word back from Asus who confirm that the exact specification they reviewed should definitely be available in the UK. They are also checking with their main product managers to confirm 100% and find some stockists.

It's sounding better....

(Many thanks to Alex at What Laptop, by the way - very speedy responses and doing his best to help out. Great service !)

Tim.

 

What about the p model that has the higher resolution, better graphics and a core 2 duo 2gig?

 

Sorry, but at least here in Australia the F3Jv is the lesser specced machine. It has the T5600 Core 2 Duo, Radeon X1700, WXGA display and an 80GB HDD.

 

Do you have a specific model number for that specification, though ? As with the F3Jv I can't find a particular model with the WSXGA screen etc.

 

The F3Jv-AK001P in Australia has the T7200 C2D, GO 7600, WSXGA+ (same CMO screen as the G1) and a 120 GB 5400 HDD

 

That's the one I want. Just need a free flight to Oz.

 

Thanks to Mendip (and others here) for beginning to get to the bottom of this. I too have spent the past week trying to track down a UK [online] source which has a F3J "v" or "p" version with WSXGA+ but as with others had no success.

Slight side line - Personally I don't think Asus help themselves (or more correctly potential customers) by providing what seems an endless list of product codes for "minor" differences in specs, [is there a "definitive" list of what these products codes are, and mean?], let alone then apparently restricting some models in some markets!!

Anyway it seems we are where we are, and hopefully Mendip will hear back on precise confirmation of the UK position and importantly where the UK suppliers are!

Cheers

PDP

 

Yes, I had an email from Alex the other day saying he was still waiting for a reply from Asus, and would chase them again. Perhaps they're trying to fathom out their bizarrely intricate product codes themselves !

 

Thanks for the update Mendip.

I had a response from a reseller yesterday which indicated that Asus have indicated to them that they do not have any f3 series with high resolutions coming to the UK but that they would keep me updated. So further support that there is a disconnect between Asus and the suppliers!!

I've asked the reseller whether they can bring any pressure to bear in their capacity as a reseller, but don't hold out much hope that this will be taken onboard.

PDP

 

I think I am going to give up waiting and get a V1J. If you could build up the review model F3 to the V1 spec, you;d get reasonably close to the price. Other option is a G1, but I don't think I'd be able to get that out of my kids' hands.

 

Good point! especially as at the moment one can't be certain what the pricing for F3J WSXGA+ units would be going forward, even if available. I think reasonable to expect that they will be more expensive and so you might as well look at a G1 if heading towards these specs.

Conversely at personal level it has for me given me the opportunity to have a rethink, and consider whether this is a classic getting caught up in the hype situation, and questioning whether I really need a higher res screen in the first place when really looking for a laptop that will be driving external monitors (in different locations) most of the time.

All part of the "research" we all do!!!

Now off to find a F3J bargain.....

PDP

 

I purchased my F3JV this past Sunday evening (Feb. 25th), and just received it yesterday evening (March 1st). I love it.

If you'd like to see the specs & my detailed thoughts on it, please see this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=108204

I'd definitely buy another, and I certainly recommend it to anyone with the same needs/wants listed in my thread.

 

Just bought a V1J. Unfortunately I left it just too late to get an XP version. I found one site that showed stock, bought it but got a phone call at the end of the day saying that they had stock at the beginning of the day, but my order was too far down the list. There must have been a rush when folks realised that the XP version was running out. So, I'm getting Vista Business rather than XP and paying extra for it (the XP version was about £80 cheaper and came with the free Vista Upgrade). I did want Vista (eventually) so maybe I just need to convince myself I have saved more than £80 worth of time.

The other issue is that I really wanted Home Premium and I didn't want the security extras In Business. So it looks like I'll be taking the upgrade to Ultimate. Shame there isn't a way to jump across the family, rather than only going up. That'll be another £80 or so. I wonder if it will be worth it?

 

Oooh, plumped for the V1J, eh ? I must say, I am sorely tempted. Would love to hear what the screen is like when you've received yours, particularly the viewing angles. (I'm a bit obsessed with screens, it's a curse).

The WSXGA resolution, T7200, X1700 and 2 gig of ram are very tasty looking.

 

Well the screen on my girlfriends F3 is very good likewise the screen on my W3J is also very good, better viewing angles then my friends A8Js.

PS I went for a wander down to Totenham court road yesterday and couldnt find any high res F3's, all wxga, also Harp have moved for refitting, further down the road. i didnt have time to go and find them, I was looking for car audio.

Any reply from Alex?

 

Not yet, I'm afraid. He's still waiting to hear, in turn, from Asus. I'm not holding out much hope now.