A8JS: First Take

I just reeceived my A8JS from Milestone PC through the group buy program. I must say I was quite impressed with the service and communication. I originally was going to buy from ProPortable because of the extensive posting and assistance on the forums. However, 2 separate emails to them got no response, so I went in another direction. This is just my experience.

I'll try not to make this a duplicate of all the other reviews, so I'll just point out my specific items and some reiterations.

1. The DVD drive is very noisy, to the point where my wife asked me what that noise was from across the room. It doesn't do it consistently, so as long as it's just "spin up" noise I don't mind it too much.

2. Nice and light. Good overall feel. Build seems good. Nothing too fancy. I don't like the locking latch because it's hard to open the lid with one hand (press and pull up).

3. I like the keyboard a lot. Touchpad is fine, I don't see the deal with complaints about the tackiness or whatever. CTRL key switched is really messing with me right now, and probably will forever as I have to use a normal keyboard at work. It's too bad, because Asus got it right. You use the CTRL key WAY more than you use the FN key, and this helps get to cut/paste shortcuts without finger stretch...too bad all keyboards weren't like this.

4. No hard drive click, thankfully. I played Fear for about 90 minutes last night, had to turn some of the settings down (I'm running stock, deleted a little of the bloat, but not scrubbing) to mid-high to get it nice and smooth. Still looked great. Unlike my Dell XPS, the back right corner where the vid car didn't burn me. The exhaust was hot, but I put the laptop on bare skin and had no problem with it getting too hot for me.

5. Screen. If anything is annoying, this is it. The resolution and brightness are out of this world, but that's about where it leaves off. Here's what I don't like about the screen:

5a: The whites are not "milky". My Dell XPS has this REALLY bad. Look at a white background very carefully and see all the little colors in the screen. Move the window with the white background while looking at that movement carefully and you'll see these colors. My little Dell 700m is much better, almost perfect, while the big XPS is the worst I've seen.

5b: viewing angles are not average, they are terrible. None of my other laptops have had it this severe. I cannot get one angle where the colors are even across the entire screen due to the angle. That is really bad. If you position it just right, look in the lower right corner and move your head or the screen a little, you see how it's color/contrast are different than the middle of teh screen. C'mon....

5c: Light leakage and "ripples". I have a little of hte "black curtain" across the top of the screen in places that look like one spot is more pressed into the housing than another. You only see this on a black background. Also, I can't tell the deal with light leakage because the viewing angles are SO poor that I can't get the entire screen to look black anyway. No matter what position the screen is in, some parts (changing with angles) will look grayish.

Aside from the screen I love the machine. the problem is that I think buying a laptop is 70% LCD. That's what you're looking at the whole time. When doing normal tasks none of this really bothers me at the moment, but I'm worried that I won't be able to do any legitimate photo editing on this machine. I know you shouldn't use laptops for it anyway, but with some 3rd party color correction and a decent LCD you can get away with it. I can do it on my Dell 700m, but probably not the Asus (or any other laptop I have ever owned).

Oh well...it'll be a good work and gaming machine for a couple years, but not entirely what I was hoping for with all the hoopla. The screen is taking away some of that glory, mostly the viewing angles. Still a GREAT machine for the money.

-Ryan

 

good points - helpful for ppl looking for info, cheers mate

 

i had ripples on my w3j machine from milestonepc too...

i took to asus repair/service place and they replaces my screen and the ripple is gone.. not sure if we're talking about the same ripple.. mine was if you touched the screen it would ripple in 1 spot.

 

Thanks for the mini-mini review, rybocf!

 

Is this light leakage a legitimate reason to send the machine in to Asus for repair under warranty?

Further yet, is it a legitimate reason to return the machine and request that Asus pay the 15% restocking fee my vendor will charge?

 

I don't know if I can really answer that. Light leakage doesn't bother me much, but the perception of leakage due to the weird (poor) viewing angles is the worst aspect of this product by far.

Something tells me "viewing angle" isn't a legitimate warranty item. Don't get me wrong, this is still a good machine, and good value for the money. I couldn't find a better equipped 14" for gaming on the market, so I'm willing to put up with some issues like this. It's just a shame, because this has all the makings of world-beating product if not for (my person opinion) drawbacks of the LCD.

-Ryan

 

Heh I just have to repeat that my dvd drive is entirely silent. I cant even hear it i just installed oblivian.

What do you think this problem is? Is there a software setting difference or a manufacturing defect?

Enough people have mentioned that Id like to figure out the problem


as far as the screen I actually went to staples today and looked at a lot of popular models including

sony fe sony sz

hp 9000 hp 6000 toshiba p105

Its hard to say this clearly because it comes out of both sides of my mouth.

The a8js screen looks way better than any of them. So much brighter and clearer than even these 17 inch media notebooks.

The vertical viewing angle is world class bad. It couldnt even be on display in staples because all the looky loos would wear the hinges out . You literally have to move the screen to your eyes to see it perfect.

For instance as Im writing this i need the screen at one angle. If I get away from the keyboard and sit back in my chair the screen looks different. This is a change of oh.... 10 degrees. Left and right viewing angles are the same as all of the previous models if not better but basically the same
However they measure viewing angles the up down angle is something like 5 degrees.


I can change the colors by nodding my head. I dont know what sort of viewing angle is needed, but it has to be larger than the angles the human head can cover. lol

 

I have almost the same experience with rybocf. Everything is great except the LCD issue. light leakage is not significant due to the poor viewing angle, you cant get a perfect view point anyway. I may not complain about this point if the A8Js is my first laptop. But unfortunately, my previous laptop was also a Dell 700m, the screen looks perfect compared with A8Js......I really wish I can combine the screen of 700m and other hardwares of A8Js together.....

 

I also have the a8js and my dvd drive is silent too.

 

The DVD drive on my A8Js is loud, but only when it first spins up. After it settles down the sound doesn't bother me.

I've used LCDs that had a tight "sweet spot" -screen that almost drove me insane because I was constantly adjusting them. The A8Js is not one of those laptops -granted the vertical viewing angle could be better. But it's no worse than any of the Sony Vaio laptops that I've owned. The color and contrast is incredibly good for such a small display. IMHO if you want very wide viewing angles then you should buy a 17" wide screen laptop...

 

My A8js came in yesterday, its got the whole works. I am absolutely flabbergasted.

Its your T7200 version, with 2gb DDR2 667mhz.. etc etc.... but it has Bluetooth. My LCD doesnt leak light, the DVD drive hums a bit when it starts up but then its fine, i can basically claim it as being silent. Hard drive, no clicks.

Perhaps the issues raised are found in the brand of hard drives and disk drives used? My hard drive is a fujitsu and my disk drive is a matsus-h-i-t-a (non-attempt at blaspheming). Gotta love the taiwan version.

 

Stamar, your opinion is that A8Js screen is better than Sony Vaio FE's and SZ's screen ?
I'm going to love that because I had Vaio T and it's the same screen as in FE (only smaller) and I thought of him as a great screen. This means that I'm not going to be disappointed by A8Js screen.

 

a8js is way brighter and clearer contrast than the sony fe or sz screen.

I see each pixel, which is also smaller on this screen. Much sharper.

the vaio T screen I have no idea though.

The key measurement here is : the a8js screen is 220 nits and the screens for every single model in staples were 200 nits
even their top end model which is the toshiba p105 or hp 9000v that are around $2000 look just terrible ( not that most of you are in the market for those pos models)
And 1440 x 900 just looks way better.
All of the screens in staples are actually made by the same manufacturer as the a8js screen its auo optronics. Only the model used in our laptop is newer, basically better although the 17 inch has a lower response time and much better viewing angle.

It is just muddier and darker.



there is a different screen for the sony sz p which is led backlight. I havent even seen that one, but I bet it looks better than the a8js screen.

the sony sz was very cool. It is lighter and thinner by a little. It was on sale for 1400 too really a bargain. Id rather have my a8js but that model is way up there. I much prefer its chassis, very scratch and mar resistant as opposed to the a8js.