ASUS U3 news

PortableOne just told me - U3s will NOT have the LED option.

 

U3S has integrated GPS function with an external antenna unit. GPS map software is also included. Can't comment on the battery time and LCD display just yet. EXcaliberPC is willing to offer a brand new U3S (pearl white) to a forum member at discounted price for review writing purpose with free second day air shipping. Please private message on here if you are interested, only one unit will be offered.

 

thanks for the reply...so U3S does navigation...i don't have a GPS on my car yet...that might be useful...

anyone know the total weight of U3S?
1.75kg = laptop(no LED) + 3 cell battery...
so what about laptop + 6 cell battery + power adaptor + external optical drive?

 

Yeah finally it is released i have been waiting for this one... too bad i live in Australia otherwise i'm willing to do the review.

When will the next batch arrived?

 

MMmmm, wish I had the cash to do so

Plus, I'm Canadian, so that makes things harder. I'll be looking forward to a review, the U3s has so many pros, and so many cons, it'd be interesting to see what the end opinion will be!

 

I won't make my order until i see the review...otherwise i will go for M1330 I already got the cash in my bank..

 

Indeed, the U3s has tons of selling points, but tons of weaknesses.

From what we know,

Pros
Price - $1699
Size - 13.3"
Weight
Aesthetics
GPS
GPU - 8400G
Leather
Freebie case, sleeve, mouse
GPS software

Cons
Battery life
Lack of OD
No LED screen
GPU - 8400G
Low res screen
Leather
512mb integrated RAM
1 free RAM slot

 

I just sold my A8JP as it had too many problems.
I already disappointed with Asus especially their after sale service in Australia.
I really like U3 but this time i'm too scared to pick Asus

 

Well, their A and F series is their budget consumer series, so it's not very well built or designed.

Their other series are usually better, but their track record for the past 16~ months have been pretty bad.

About two years ago, they were top of the market in price and build quality, but once the A8jm was released, the W3, V6, M6 and M7 discontinued, everything went downhill.

 

Asus U3 doesn't looks like popular machine?
No one is interested?

 

Its not that its not popular, but the fact that it's a pretty risky choice right now, considering what it offers, lacks and the obvious fact consumers can't just look at it in store.

 

EXcaliburPC

I'd be very interested if I knew the story behind the LCD backlighting for certain. If you can find this out, I'm sure we'd all like to know.

Also, can you tell us about the "matched" external optical drive?

How about the amount of "variants" That will be offered? U3S-XXX etc..

 

Good questions! The U3S does NOT have LED backlight panel that is half the width and 1/3 lighter than the traditional LCD panel, but the response time is still fairly quick and splendid color enhancement still works well based on our first sight.

We have not seen the actual matching external OD for the U3S yet, but the spec will look 8X DVDRW Super Multi Dual Layer available in both piano black and pearl white color. I'll see if we can get some pictures up for the OD drive soon.

U3 is a brand new notebook series, and U3S-A1B and U3S-A1W will be the only variants available at this time. Please feel free to raise any other questions that you might have. Thanks!

 

Instead of using Asus external OD can we use other brand OD?

 

Absolutely, if you don't need a matching color external OD from Asus, there are many choices out there for external OD with USB and/or 1394 firewire interface.

 

It looks like Portable One has the U3 listed on their website.

http://laptopsinc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=ASUSU

I notice that it has the hybrid graphics system I thought it would. This would save more in battery life than an LED backlit LCD anyway, and not having the LED backlit display definitely keeps the cost down. I'm anxious to see a review of this notebook.

 

The battery life is my main concern actually. My friend from Taiwan told me with the 6 cells battery by using high performance only can stay up to two hours +
if with the intel graphic card mode it can stay up to 3 hours only.
He got the white color with HSDPA version. I believe if using GPS it will be consumed more energy.
Anyway i really like U3 solid built quality of this notebook...

 

Yes I am very concerned by the battery life too... The U3 has the same 6-cell battery (4800mAh) as the V2 and the latter was criticized for its battery life (see review on this site). Also I heard that Asus, while still a great notebook manufacturer, is going down a little. It shows on the battery life but not on the manufacturing quality, but I might be wrong.

In any case I suggest the person who does the review of the U3 for this site spends much time figuring out the battery life under various circumstances.

 

Hi newbie here. But I would be really interested in doing a review. I would still buy this laptop, flaws included so I am willing to be the lab rat here. The problem being that I live in Canada. The PM I sent details of ways around this.

I own the z70va myself and this laptop looks alot more spiffy. I was a victim of the ASUS blackscreen problems (new drivers, reboots with windows sounds, but nothing visual even during bios start)and I need a new laptop now. It was not under warranty anymore and I tried safemode booting(holding key and plugging into 2nd screen, formating harddrive, taking apart to reset cmos, swapping with spare screen and etc and nothing It does give me a good reason to get a new LAPTOP . The only thing sad about my old laptop is alot of good components are now useless because they are not supported anymore(7200 rpm 100gb hd IDE, p 770M 2.13). Well I am going to turn the HD into an external backup so all is not lost. Might ebay the rest.

I need a laptop pretty soon as a result and would be able to report a review very soon too.

 

Then what you waiting for quickly order one from Excaliberpc.

 

I am waiting to see what the discount will be. If its big enough then I will get one. I am not expecting something huge but I am expecting something significant.

Otherwise I would just get one from Canada or wait to see it in a showroom of some sorts to pick it up. Hopefully they can get it here without me getting hit with duty and taxes, but thats a lottery. Basically I will get it here it at excalibur PC. If it is cheaper than canadian prices even if I was hit by duty and taxes. Since stuff in the US is cheaper than CANADA, this is definitely manageable.

Hopefully excaliburpc responds to my PM so we can get this show started.

update

Its looks like a review on here might be popping up very soon.