A8Js - is it really worth it?

I doubted a bit about buying this laptop till the point I ruled him out of my considerations.... the causes, the fact that people were bad-mouthing it's screen hinges, build quality and the fact that the native resolution would suck for games and so on..... But seeing what the market as to offer I find myself sighing for A8Js specs and price......it's just a great piece of machinery....

So the question is are there real problems with this baby? WHAT Is THE DEAL WITH THE HINGES? Is the tuning down ( for gaming purposes ) of the resolution majorly afecting gaming experience? What about build quality ( i'm kinda freakish on my standards)? AM I GOING TO REGRET BUYING IT IN SOME MANNER?

connoiseurs and owners....PLEASE I NEED FEEDBACK......er....thanks

 

The A8Js is a good laptop. It's build quality is above Dell and HP in my opinion. It offers a a lot for the money, and there will be some tradeoffs. I bet for every A8Jm owner with hinge problems there are 5 (or more) that have no hinge problems. Don't let the problems of a few owners become the next internet hysteria.

The biggest peeve I have is the DVD drive. If it was quieter I would be happier. Otherwise the notebook runs extremely cool, especially when considering whats inside, has a good screen with an awesome resolution, a good keyboard, tons of usb ports, dvi out, and a card reader. What more could you want?

 

I agree with the dvd drive, its like a mini jet taking off lol but really I love this laptop. I'm a gamer, and I've been playing BF2142 since I got this baby, and it handles it like a dream. No stutters or anything. I also haven't had any lose hinges but one thing that did happen is that my z button popped off because of my long gaming sessions. All I had to do was pop it back in no biggie.

 

The question really shouldn't be "is the A8js really worth it?"... because it's obviously worth it......plus some...... The real question should be: how much of a value is the A8js? The fact of the matter is - you're getting what you pay for with any Asus notebook. You will NEVER get that perfect notebook...... Either the specs will be lower than you want, or the price will be too high, or the build will be horrible, or it'll weigh too much, or the battery will be too small..... In the case of the A8, it's got a smaller battery and an "average" build with a blah design. Not that you're looking at the W3, but the W3 would cost $2,300 ($700 more than the A8js) if the W3 has the same configuration - cpu, gpu, etc.... It *should* speak to the cost of a good build with money put into it's design and materials....

Again, it doesn't make the A8js bad - not in the least - it just shows that it lacks something over the W3 which just means it's not going to be the "best" at everything. The A8js was designed to appeal to those dell and hp buyers who would relate to high power at a decent cost...... It's better than what they have to offer, but not EVERYTHING Asus is known for. In my opinion it's also designed to help us show off a difference like that between the W3 and A8 and sort of explain how those differences add up to the overall value....... it's something we had a hard time doing when we didn't have a model in the lineup to directly make the comparisons..... but is certainly needed to show them off.

Help you any... or just confuse you more?

 

polaroidofmars and Kinetik when did u get your notebooks? And what kind of degeneration have they outgone? (if there is one, except the dvd drive)

thanks for the feed back.....

 

I dont know is it worth or not.I living in Norway today i must go and pick up my Asus A8Js and i should pay 2400 $. Yes it is so expensive in Europe and other world exept USA

I hope it is the most powerfull nootebook that i have here in my country by the same price.But i hope its should be great if someone can show more pictures and video test.So i hope we can get more information when i get this nootebook.

 

I wouldn't worry overly much about the A8Js screen being too much for the GPU... technically the 1440x900 screen is smaller than the 1280x1024 which is common on most 17-19" monitors.

 

It is literally the cutting edge in laptops on planet earth.

Other than a 17 inch there is nothing on the market that can match the performance on the a8js at any price....

and It is also $1600 us.

Its really what it seems like. Its better than it seems its pretty much the best value on the market.

I just played nwn2 and auto detect put everything to max with anisotropic all shadows etc at 1440 x 900

all of the games ive played have a 1440 x 900 option its a common resolution. Your concern is only going to come into play with older games ....

like say counterstrike source or something. play cs source in a 1024 x 768 window then and browse the internet while your bored.

Ive had no problems with games, only that playing games in widescreen is way better than standard screen. And all the games Ive played were in max settings

I still need to take on the heavy games like oblivian and fear though.

right now a window of nwn2 is running while im typing this and its maxed out, shiny water shadows and crap and its going 60 fps.

 

I've played the FEAR and PREY demos, and this machine handeled them well at the native resolution. If you want high res and MAXIMUM graphics settings on the newest games, buy as desktop. If you want high res and PRETTY HIGH graphics settings, this is a good laptop for that.

I'll always prefer smoothness in performance over graphical extras, so in that regard this lappy can run everything you throw at it smoothly if you adjust graphics settings.

As for the build, its great. I was playing around on somone 'sE1505 dell, ew... They may hold up well but they feel pretty janky.

 

Look at the price and specs of A8Js, it is absolutely a good buy. Asus is running rebate for A8Jm and F3Jm, because they don't move, I think one of the big reason is A8Js is too good to be true, nobody is buying A8Jm and F3Jm now.

I had a meeting with Asus sales yesterday, I gave me a proposal, they sent it to PM already for consideration. It is: Start ASAP, add Bluetooth on A8Js, raise up the price by $50, allot of buyers will be happy, we are happy, Asus is happy( because of BT chip is very cheap for them, Asus will have better profit ), in the same time A8Js will give less presure to these rebate models in their warehouse. Hope you guys are not against my proposal, hope Asus NA will listen.

 

Hopefully they will listen. Adding Bluetooth will probably, most likely increase their sales and profits. This kind of reminds me of a dicussion I had in class...

 

one of the added values is the fact that the store in wich i'm buying it, guaranteed me that model came with BT, wich is GREAT!!!!

I believe here in europe we have that perk..... or i might be mistaken.-.. and if somebody could clarify that fact for me it would be dandy!!!1

location Portugal - price of the A8Js-1,600,00eur
thanks for the replies!

 

I believe Asus only drops the BT module for notebooks sold in North America. Every Asus I've looked at here in Australia has had it.

 

w3j has bluetooth


ivan of portable one explained that the reason they dont add bluetooth, even though it would cost them pennies per machine, is that the north american warranty service center cant service it.

It is something along those lines something to do with warranty service

 

stamar do u have BT on yours? And How did u get it to overclock? Doesn't that give your gpu a shorter life expectancy? ( i'm clueless about these themes) do u recommed overclocking?