ASUS Lamborghini VX2 review

Just purchased the VX2, and it arrived today! Had a question to other VX2 owners. I purchased the black edition and it came with the yellow and black mouse. Dont know it that was a mistake or if that is correct. Any help would be appreciative.

 

obiwon1, that's a packing mistake. The mouse that came with my carbon fiber model is black and silver!

 

But I'm sure you will enjoy your VX2 anyway, it's one great lappy!

 

ubercool,

Does the VX2 come with LED backlight like Sony VAIO?

 

No, LED backlighting is the only thing that would make it perfect, forgetting that it needs a real OS, not Fista.

 

Thanks for your reply, that's a bit of a lemon consider it cost so much. But I can live with that

 

goddamn i want one of these but im finding it hard to justify this close to SR to be honest. its a lot of money whether you can afford it or not for a machine thats not the latest technology.

i know its not likely to make too much difference...but its always nice to get the latest stuff in your box when you buy new.

LED backlights aside, the next bad thing about this VX2 is simply its release date, it wasnt available to buy in the UK until recently and SR was around the corner then, SR is pretty much upon us now!

 

I know, and the black model *still* isn't here yet, and the resellers seem to be pretty vague about when it will be arriving here. I spoke to someone on London's Tottenham Court Road and they said they might not be here until July!!!! Other places seem to suggest "sometime this month", but no one seems to know for sure... Come on ASUS...

 

Question about the included bluetooth mouse...

How quickly will the lappy recognize that the mouse is on? I am currently using a Macbook Pro, but I need to run Vista with Aero and the MBP won't do this in Parallels. Ok, I actually need to run Vista with Aero and OS X.

Anyhow, the mighty mouse that Apple sells is a bluetooth mouse and I've never seen a PC mouse that works as smoothly and will get recognized as quickly as the mighty mouse. Turn on your laptop, double click your mouse, and the MBP has already connected to it.

Every PC bluetooth mouse I've used I have to "discover" every time I turn on the PC. PIA, big time.

Just wondering if the Asus is any better.

 

Same here, VX2 is not yet on sell in ASUS dealer at my town. Hope it's will come with Santa Rose in the coming two months time

 

Don't think Santa Rosa will be coming to the VX2 soon

http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/03/asus-announces-a7s-f3sv-f3sc-a8sc-and-w7s-santa-rosa-laptops

 

Those that were announced were only the tip of the iceberg...

Just be patient

 

ASUS must have gone mad if they think they can sell VX2 without refresh at a high price, let hope that's wont happen.

 

Here's another review of this lappy:

http://techgage.com/article/asus_lamborghini_vx2/

 

I saw the yellow VX2 for the first time today (in London). It looks absolutely amazing, and not as garish as I thought it would. I'm trying to decide now whether to get the yellow or black... buy or wait... I'm reliably informed that the black one will be available in the UK at the end of the May, but only 50 units will be available here. Now that is really limited edition.

 

just out of interest which shop did you see it? and how much was it? I am also interest in buying a VX2, the cheapest I have seen on-line is 1703 pounds including delivery.

 

I saw it in Platinum Solutions (HARP). However, the cheapest store price I could get on TCR was at yoyotech. They didn't have it in stock, but told me that they can order it no problem. The best they offered was 1720 (they couldn't match the on-line price you mention). I think I will get it from them after the holiday weekend...

 

Hi,

Long time viewer, first time poster.

Just recently bought an ASUS VX2 Black version. Its a lovely piece of gear, but I am yet to get used to Vista quirks There is something that concerns me thought, this is the powerpack used. If I leave it connected and charging/powering the notebook for more than 2 hours, the battery powerpack gets so hot that i cant actually touch it. After 3 hours the plastic starts to smell of burning. So its time to unplug it, and let the computer run off internal power and let the pack cool for 2 hours. I believe the pack is underrated for this notebook, or perhaps faulty?

@ubercool: is your powerpack also made by Delta Electronics?

 

Hm, yes it is, and it does get very hot, but it never emits a burning smell, that sounds worrisome. I would contact your dealer and have it replaced.

 

I agree. the power adapter for my Z71v is also made by Delta and also gets hot when charging, but it never makes any kind of burning smell.

 

Hi All,
Does anyone have the Hot swap sata caddy for the drive bay?
Has anyone tried if they can boot from this caddy as an option on bios?

Im thinking of getting this caddy to boot from winxp and run games. HDD will have better rpms compare to the stock HDD. What do you guys think of the idea ?

 

should be a problem, you could even do as far to use the ubuntu bootloader installed on your main hdd to tell the system to boot from the 2nd HD assuming that you're going to put linux on there.

The vista bootloader has become way more complicated than the XP one.

 

It is definately one of the nicest laptop on the market now, but I m not feeling its heavy weight. This is more like Bentley of Lappy, not Lambo!

May be ASUS & Lamborghini should consider making a GALLARDO SuperLeggera Notebook with ~13" screen, top end hardwares, <4lbs weight and I m sure many SZ owners will be switching to ASUS as well.

When will Audi make their laptops with Audi Space Frame technology? Or Toyota makes their lappy with the hybrid synergy drive system

 

All are coming, don't worry! I'm working on it!

 

If that comes true, I might transfer my SZ to my wife and get the Lambo (obviously not the Lambo on 4 wheels), I can only afford to get the Lambo lappy with 1 wheel.

Can I order that wheel in Gun Metal? Silver is boring!

 

OK, here's a long-awaited update. And much of it is not good news.

1. Vista -- There's no question in my mind that Vista is not suitable for mission-critical tasks. It simply is too "beta" in my view. Today, I had one of the worst situations ever. Hours before presenting. Computer won't boot up. Missing device it says. Did everything by the book. This cost $12 billion? I was able to recover. But not with ASUS disks. Those only let you "recover to the entire disk or partition!" (So say sayonara to all your data.) No, I was able to use a Vista Business disk to repair and, eventually, simply roll back my Vista Ultimate system to a version before the mayhem happened. Lesson: Get yourself any Vista install disk, so you can recover from guaranteed catastrophe.

2. VX2 -- It's such a nice piece of hardware, but after long-term use its deficiencies start to show up. For one, the right speaker now sounds completely distorted. Never experienced anything like that before. Could it be software? Why does the left speaker work then? And, yes, I've already reinstalled the sound driver three times. But more glaringly than that is the fact that the trackpad is suscept to inducing RSI, repetitive strain injury. The trackpad buttons are so hard to use that they eventually will inflict great damage to users of these Lambo's. I'm quite frankly very surprised that automotive engineers would not have made the "Recaro" seats of trackpads.

I was able to deal with this crisis because I now travel with two ASUS computers. My trusty W5F has now saved the day twice in two weeks!

Over and out. I'm sure this will help your decision one way or another.

 

BTW, I've decided to go back to Windows XP Pro. I have just about all the drivers and install utilities downloaded from the ASUS site. Does anyone know what all the hotfixes are for? And do I need those? Like the "hibernate button hotfix?" I guess it's a moot question. If they're there, I need them!

 

FYI, the buttons on my U1F were very hard to press as well. I wound up removing the palmrest and placing shims in-between the buttons and the switches. Problem solved.

 

My trackpad and buttons are the same surface, so such a solution is not an option! But I've come to learn and love my Bluetooth mouse! That's why I'm looking for the right driver for WinXP, I only have the Vista Bluetooth driver (I made a separate post asking anyone for advice).

 

My trackpad and buttons are the same surface as well. The problem with the buttons is that you have to press them hard to get them to depress far enough to reach the switches underneath. If you place a shim in-between the button and the switch you don't have to press the buttons as far to activate them. The U1 and VX2 have very similar touchpads/buttons.

 

Can you provide me with more info on how you did it? How did you remove the trackpad cover, for example, and what type of shims did you use? Thanks!

 

As an aside, I just want you all to know that this lappy has to go back to ASUS to be repaired because its unique sound system has disappeared and the right speaker sounds all distorted.

Of course, I found this out *after* I had gotten Windows XP up and running, including the aforementioned Bluetooth Vista driver, only to have to do a clean install of Vista, so ASUS wouldn't hassle me about the legitimacy of the problem.

 

Nice laptop,I whish they keep the hinges used in VX1 or V6V.

 

it's strange that I have just came across another site that mentioned the Right sided speaker on the Vx2 is faulty, I wondered whether this is a common fault with all Vx2 unless ubercool and Michael Tchong is the same person?
http://www.my-lappy.com/category/reviews/

 

hey all VX2 owners!!! even i bought a VX2 carbon black model from newegg.com but didnt get a warranty card. so if i want to claim my warranty in any other country how is it possible. did u get any warranty card?? and please share ur experiences with battery life. for me its

etertainment mode: 2:25 mins
battery saving mode: 2:50mins (with only word or excel)
battery saving mode: 2:30mins (with media player)
high performance: 1:50mins to 2:00mins (n less whn using media player)

how to diaognise my battery. really worried abt my battery life if ne one can help me with this???

 

Those battery life figure look good. If by diagnose you mean monitor you battery. Use NHC or Mobile Meter, they will both tell you the wear percentage of your battery.

What level of brightness did you use to attain those great battery life figures? And was BT and WIFI on?

 

no nothing was ON. but if i use my bluetooth mouse the battery is draining more rapidly which is obvious.

 

I have been trying to get an answer for this question. So can someone confirm that the VX2s really has buttons? or will it have thie same that ubercool describes? It looked like it was just another surface area of the touchpad and hence no switch.

If a flagship model has this sort of problem I will not buy it. Deal breaker.

Thx.

 

It's been a while since I used my VX2, it's long gone now, but it was one seamless surface if I recall correctly. All trackpad buttons should be as easy to press as on a Dell M1330, but not with as much travel.

 

What were your reasons for getting rid of it? I noticed you were unhappy about a few things but what finally did it?

Did you play games on it? how does it compare to your new dell?

THx.

 

Broken right speaker, poor Wi-Fi, auto-deleting Bluetooth drivers, and the fact that it was a portable heatsink that probably sterilized me are just a few of my nitpicks.

OTOH, it was the most beautifully finished lappy I've ever used, from leather mousepad to the carbon-fiber finish, it was top-notch. The next version with the Blu-ray Disc and other enhancements may be a better buy, but it has yet to surface.

 

Quick question for all you VX2 users. Can you run NHC and check to see if you have any battery wear?

The V1Jp uses the same battery and a number of us have been having excessive wear which seems to happen when the battery is mostly/completely discharged. It would be interesting to know if the problem is on the battery side or the laptop side. Thanks!

 

Sorry, no longer have the VX2, but I have both a regular battery plus a modular-bay battery for sale, which, of course, have been used very few times, so PM me if you're interested.

 

Not sure what normal is but my VX2 is at 26% wear level since April.

 

Okay, so we can blame the batteries unless they use the same charger design.

I'm inclined to think the chips on the batteries are badly designed OR the battery charger is not properly designed to deal with this kind of battery.

Meanwhile, the V1 modular battery seems to charge and discharge completely just fine...

 

i bought vx2 on 5th of may this year from USA. In the early stage i used to get 2hours 50mins in battery saving mode under normal usage conditions but nowadays not more 2hours in battery saving mode under same conditions. Have even mailed the people at Asus technical center but no reply up till now. This is the first time i bought a laptop and dont know how replacement works. If in case i want to replace the battery or anything else do i have to send the notebook to USA (as am in INDIA now) or can i get it done in INDIA itself??? Ur help will be valuable.... and my laptop was showing 31% wear level so i calibrated it through bios but then i got 33%wear have no clue what to do!!!!!!!

 

Asus is global and their notebooks carry a global warranty. just look up Asus India

 

The VX2 suffers from the battery wear problem, its quite unfortunate that such a beautiful laptops suffers from it.

You can read about this problem here.
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3537

With regards to RMA and what you need to do. Just RMA your battery, call Asus India, get an RMA number, do a crosship or send your battery first and they will send a replacement.