ASUS W3N Review

Greets.
Well, I have my Asus W3N about two weeks ago, and I thought it would be nice to tell my personal experience.

Well, my ASUS W3N00H is:
Centrino 1.6
9700 64mb
60GB Hdd 4200RPM
2x256
DVD-DL Burner
ColorShine display


Looks:
Well, this must be one of the finest notebooks to look at. Very stylish, and compact. The blue power button is also very nice, so is the color. Quality wise, it is very solid and with good materials. One bad thing is that I can notice the place where the white stamps were, after I remove them.

Performance:
Performance wise, it is quite on par with similiar notebooks. 10500 3DMark01, and I find it fast for what I use to do with it (web browsing, messenger, office, php programming). ATI 9700, unlike in the M6, has Powerplay on this one!

Display:
Well, it is good but Sony's X-black2 (the one in the FS series) is light-years better that this. This screen is like a mirror, when I'm lit (for example, when I have a window on my side). Outdoors, I can't see nothing besides myself. X-Black's has more light and less reflection. I can tell you that with a X-Black side-by-side with this, this screen seems like it is off. Screen response is fast althought. Vertical angle is VERY BAD!
It is a good screen, but I'm a bit disapointed because of the reflection and vertical angle.
PS: I'm just comparing it with xblack (dual-lamp) because it is commonly a frequent asked question: is colorshine better then x-black?. It is a very good screen, besides it's very narrow vertical angle. It is ALOT better then a normal tft, like the one in the classic W1.

Connectivity:
Wireless signal is fine. Bluetooth signal strength is not that good. Can only connect to my phone (6630) if it stays 2 meters away. More than that, bye bye conection.

Noise:
Well, fan kicks in (2500RPM) too often. IF the temp rises from 50 degree, fan kicks in, and is noticiable if I'm on a quiet room. Heat wise, notebooks keeps at 45/55 degree. One bad point is that I can feel the hot air comming from the fan hole, because it is directed to the right hand. Other thing is that notebook get's hot on the upside, in the keyboard and on the right hand rest. I'm not very happy with this effect, but it is not alot heat... Just a bit.

Battery life:
3.30 Hour with screen brightness at maximum. More if I use 50% brightness (+4h).

Acessories:
Well, thumbs up for ASUS in this one. A bag and a wireless mouse was included. The mouse is a Logitech Notebook Wireless, and it is fine (but not as fine as my old Microsoft Wireless Optical Notebook mouse). WindowsXP pro was bundled, but for me it was a bad thing as I have a corporate license over it, so, I payed some money for a thing I didn't need. Lots of software included too.

Bottom line:
It is a stylish notebook, but with some flaws, and a little overpriced. Mine costed 1600 Euro, and with 1450 I could buy one acer with a X600 128, 80GB Hdd and 2.0 Ghz sonoma. I was not on the bulky side, so I need to buy this one, as this is the only 14' notebook sold here, with a decent vidcard.
Screen let me disapointed, as well as the noise and the heat issue. Other than that, great and quality notebook it is.

 

I'm fairly certain the W3N model was put out to find some of these flaws before the W3V was made. I'd like some other people's opinion on the W3n and A screen though because that is the first I've heard of such a bad experience.... and the demos I've seen have a nicer screen than you are experiencing... I don't know if something is different or what... but I'm sorry you're having this problem. One of the biggest things I can say between the sony x-brite on and the color shine is that the asus has less of a reflection because of the coating and thus not quite the same colors of the sony... it's sort of a compromise to not have such a high reflection, but the colors are good. I wish there was a way to find out exactly what the model and make of your screen is....

Can other people internationally with the W3 post some of their comments about the N and A models... fan and screen wise are what I think are important in regards to the W3v model that we'll be getting here.

Thanks for the low down.. you broke it down very nicely.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Greets.
Well, a friend of mine came with his new FS series SONY and I was totally owned.
Screen is so different, SONY one is a lot more bright, and less reflective (and the extra brightness aids this too, as it masks the reflection).
Well, I and my friend went outdoors (because I thought I would win that test) and once again, ASUS screen showed alot more reflection. I can't see a thing with the screen outdoors, but I can see alot with the FS screen.
But my W1N screen is totally owned by the W3N screen.
W3N's is a good screen, just not as good (well, I would say 20% as good as) SONY's x-black2. And the vertical angle is very narrow too. But the response time is vary good, and Sony one is noticeable slower.

 

Oh, isn't the FS much bigger? You've got to compare apples to apples... Asus' 15" ace view on the L5 owns everything on the face of the earth.... but screen size has a lot to do with it.

If the FS isn't 15" or bigger.. I apoligize.. but I seem to remeber the F series being the big ones...

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by rjtd

 

ProPortable: Yes, the fs is 15 inches. I'm just comparing W3N to it, because lot of people tend to compare the ASus ColourShine display with the X-Black display. In my opinion, (and my friends) Xblack is alot better than this one.

FiloD: I think I would buy it anyway, beacause it is the only affordable 14' laptop that is sold here, with this specs.

 

oh no... you should.. what I'm saying is that I see a difference between the W5 and W3 and the new screen that is going to be on the new W1.... they get better as you go up in size...... but even the W5 is really good for a 12"..... thats all I'm saying.. I know sony doesn't have a 14" widescreen.. but 14" widescreen compared toa 15.1" standard screen or a 15.4" widescreen is much much harder....

especially..... what res is the FS? The W3 is WXGA..... but to have the same size pixels that are on the W3..... you would need a WSXGA+ 15.4" widescreen or a UXGA 15.1" standard screen.....

If you have a 15.1" that is even SXGA, on the glaretype screens, it looks much better..... it's something about the size of the pixels when combined with that glare coating.... i know it's hard to size the pixels..... but if you can do it in photoshop...... you might get an idea.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

May I ask why instead of acknowledging my point, you just went and totally changed around that previous post? It almost seems like you changed it to make it sound better to fit your point...... Although we're still not comparing apples to apples....

The W1's screen is great, but you can't compare it to a glaretype screen of the same size... let alone trying to compare it down to a 14" widescreen... a 14" widescreen is a lot smaller than at 15.4"...... There is a greater size difference bettwen 14 wide and 15.4" wide than between 15.4 wide and 17 wide... althought you're thinking it's just about an inch and a half both ways... you have compare apples to apples.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

I've got an idea.. can you take a picture of your W3 with your W1?.... maybe even against that sony of your friends? That would be great for us and would allow everyone to see the difference... might also get more people to talk about how you can't compare that screen to the ones much bigger..

If you want to compare a 14" widescren to something that would have close to the same viewing angles and brightness and stuff... a 12" standard screen would be fine....... compare it to a 12" sony with xbrite.... that would be the closest thing to try to compare..... it would be better than even a 13.3" widescreen actually..

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Have you noticed that you replied 3 times to deny something everybody knows, xblack is much better than colorshine, the 13.3 from sony s series is smaller than 14.1 from asus w3 and is even better than the 15.4 from the sony fs series (just to invalidate your point of view).

Come on Proportable, there is nothing wrong that Asus can't provide a screen better than Sony that became famous because of the quality of the screens they build (tfts, lcds, crts, whatever) as Asus are famous after the motherboards they build.

 

i don't care about that.... when you see that there is a new post in a thread.. it's just a pain to start looking back and then figuring out what was changed and so on.... I think unless you have the LAST post.... it makes it harder to keep up with the thread... ... because just now I had to go up and see what the heck you just changed.. when if you just made a new post it would be ok.

Do you have a digital camera that you can put into manual mode? If you do, taking a picture of the w3 next to your w1 next to your buddy's vaio would make EVERYONE see the difference.

I have a picture from this summer....... i'm going to look for it.. I took three of my laptops to show the quality of the screens... I took an M6ne, a W1n, and an L5gm...... The W1 screen was better than the M6, but the L5 was better than all of them... and you could see it very easily in the picture..... let me look for it... I think I took it in May/June...... but it demos what I'd like to see.. and it shows off the differences very well.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Well, I think it is a not important the comparision between screens.

FACT 1: Horizontal viewing angle: 45º (after that, screens goes negative)
FACT 2: Vertical viewing angle: 1º (after that, top becomes dark or bottom becomes very brigh. At 20º you should see all negative)

I think this resumes what I think about the screen. I just edited my post, to clarify why I compared it with Xblack [ ]
Maybe I can take some pictures, but we would not get the full picture, right?

BTW, I saw a HP brightview DV1100 at a store, and it really does not show me this viewing angles nor reflection. But well, it all depends of what is shown in the screen, and the light in the room so, as I didn't have the chance to test it with the same conditions as W3 I cant be precise here.

PS: WHites don't go negative too quickly, but less brighter colors became greyish and we can see what color they are. For example, the Blueish Login screen of windowsXP became grey at more than 45º horizontal. If i look a little underside the screen, the top Dark blue just becomes black...

 

And by the way, you should know that ASUS also has the CrystalShine displays.
They are the brighter ones, and W5N has both crystalshine and colourshine.
Mybe what you saw was one CrystalShine+ColourShine display and not the display that is installed on European W3N.

 

wow - take pictures and prove it. Don't get on my back because I'm requesting apples to apples.... I'm starting to wonder what's going on there in portugal...

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

oh crap.. we're going to judge this on what you can do with your camera phone? [ ] ..... If you can make any of the screen's look good with that... i'll be impressed... Let me look for that picture because I think I'll have to do it again shortly with all the new notebooks..

- by the way... when I see you make a post... I don't think you just correct typos... so i'm rereading it and then trying to see if what I said to respond to it, is still correct.. never mind, I guess I do the same thing sometimes... I just thought your edits did seem to have some new info that I didn't read before..

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Ok. I will try to do that.
Jorlin already has complained about the viewing angles, so as Mobile-review, that told exactly what I sayed here.
Screen very reflective, narrow viewing angles and not on par with x-blacks.
The fact is that the xblack, with it's dual-lamp, is alot more bright. It is also less reflective, and the reflections is on a blueish tone, so you don't see all the details of what's reflected.
I don't know if it is because of the size or what is the reason. The fact is that the xblack screen just feels better.
But a fact is:
Colors will go greyish or black at more than 1º vertical or 45º horizontal.
(I'm talking about the model sold here in Portugal)

 

And don't get me wrong.
I already said it is a good screen. Whites are white and blacks are black.
I'm only talking about some facts... I don't know why you are so anoyed with it.
I saw both screens at the exact same location with the same ambient light, and both indoors and outdoors.
I think the X-black is better, but with slower response. It is my thinking. Anybody can think otherwise.

 

"Asus sold the W3n's to countries actually willing to buy "yesterdays" components"

Oh come on, you don't think that Europe is retarded right? Germany was the first with W3N following the rest of the continent, now Germany and Holland (at least) has the W3V. What does US already has? M6?

You do write these nonsense things ...

 

Right, I'm familiar with all the screens.. I just don't know if they are using them one place and not anything.

The W5 is "color shine" - which is a glaretype ..... and "crystal shine" - which is high brightness..

The V6 is "crystal shine" - which is just the high brightness... and a regular matte lcd panel.

The W3 is "color shine" - which is glaretype.... but I don't see anything in the official specs that show anything about the brightness or "cystal shine"......... but Asus says there is only two new screens...... the V6 has just the high brightness but not the glaretype...... but the ones with the glaretype are both supposed to be high brightness as well..... it's not one or the other..... so the W5 and W3 have the same technology...... and basically a lot like the V6 screen, but with the glare coating for richer colors. The V6 is matte because it's meant for a professional office type person who is doing a lot of typing... not really graphics work.... explains the reason that unit is standard screen and not widescreen -..

Anyway, I'm going to see what my response from my buddy at Asus is. He is the only one who actually has the final US spec - final production units to compare. I've seen demos, but I'm not aloud to base my comments on that because things change....

The only thing that bothers me is.. Asus' US site list the V6 as a "color shine" display.. I called them to tell them I've seen color shine and I've seen crystal shine.. it's a crystal shine... Some people has told me.. well Asus' site says this... but I'm like.. we've got the units and only one spec came to north america... asus' site is wrong... you can't trust what's written on there.

But, the difference between the W3n, W3a, and W3v..... I don't get it.... I say a W3v demo that everything was still being worked out on it... the screen.. the chassis material... regardless of the motherboard differences..... but even at that time, the W3n was already out... I'm wondering if they rushed the W3n's out the door... I mean, look at it this way...... the W3n didn't even start production until after sonoma was already out.. what... a week or two? Asus sold the W3n's to countries actually willing to buy "yesterdays" components. I'm just kind of iffy and I'm thinking you are 100% right... you are looking at yours... I doubt it's limited to just you... but what if your model got something other than what they are going to use on the W3v? time will tell, but from what I saw, I feel we're not even in the same ballpark..

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

You don't need to read backwards, as I only correct some typos.
I will take some pictures of it, and I will make a small video that shows the viewing angles. But I can only use my 6630 phone, so, you will say that it is inaccurate.
I don't want to start a war. Screen quality is a subjective thing.

 

rjtd, não vale a pena, o tipo é casmurro, tudo o que é Asus é fenomenal, o resto ... este forum é o negócio dele.

 

WTF? We have the M6.. big deal...... we've had the M6 for 16 months now.. it's not like it just showed up dude.

You just bought a W3n. The W3n is made with an old chipset and wasn't even produced until after sonoma was released --- not annoucned.. but released... sonoma laptops were pouring out before that W3n started getting boxed up.

So, do I think Europe is retarded? NO, I don't... I don't think RJ is retarded either, but he just bought a notebook that was made with an old chipset after the new chipset was released.... so if you are calling him retarded (which your comment implies) then I think you own him an apoligy.

But how the hell can you sit there and try to argue over the fact that peole bought the W3n..... within the last month.. it's not like this came out in September or something (that would be understandable)... but people bought them from Asus officies in whatever countries they sold them... and those offices bought them from taiwan... taiwan doesn't just sent them to them. So those offices thought... humm.. people will buy these, so we'll buy them.... If there wasn't a market for them, they wouldn't have been made. This isn't something to argue over, it's just a fact. If you're going to flame this thread too, I'll have to get my NR forum pose to get my back.... I just have to whistle for them... lol... I just don't know how to whistle in type...... I don't think any group of letters really work... I guess I just have to go like this [whistle for my backup]

OMG, I'm addicted.... help!

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Well, this is a review of the W3N model, not W3V.
Nobody here can say nothing about W3V as it is not even out.
I will work some videos out so that I can make my point.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by rjtd

 

And this is the same screenshot from different locations:

http://ricardoduarte.planetaclix.pt/imagens/angle-infront.jpg
http://ricardoduarte.planetaclix.pt/imagens/angle-b.jpg
http://ricardoduarte.planetaclix.pt/imagens/angle-v.jpg
http://ricardoduarte.planetaclix.pt/imagens/angle-h.jpg

angle-infront.jpg is the picture taken with 0 tilt. The colors are all fine, blacks are black.
Look at the angle-b image. The image is with colors all messed up, and as you can see the foto is not taken at a very narrow angle. The colors start to get this way as long as I have more than 1 degree of vertical tilt from the screen.
Angle-h shows the black is now almost white. This effect start to appear at aprox 45 degree from the monitor.

ASUS W3N (personal)
ASUS W1N (office)
TOSHIBA M200 TABLET PC

 

by the way, you can already find the Asus W2 in some german shops, it wheights 3.5 Kg after all, much more than the 3.1 from the LG LW70 and the 2.9 from the Samsung M40, both with 17' LCDs

 

... i was beeing ironic with M6, my wish was that you opened your eyes and "hey, they always have the notebooks before we do" and no i didn't call rjtd retarded because he bought w3n, in fact i may buy one too, we know that sonoma is not much improvement in performance and is much less battery time so many still think dothan is right for them. I saw someone who went to a lot of shops asking for a sony s2xp with dothan and you know something...all those shops had the new sonoma s3xp.

 

I'm sorry. But I thought that the "world" pictures are more elucidative. The photoshoped photos are still there, on the previous posts (I posted 2 posts with pictures).
The problem with this W3N is that there is no perfect sweetspot.
I've experienced this same problema on my previous notebook, but it was a low quality ACER one...

 

Right... with the initial reviews saying sonoma wasn't much better.. but used more battery life, I too thought I'd see if I could get Asus to import me a W3n..... So we're on the same page....

I know what you're saying about you wanting the sony and they ended up only having the new model...... right? Well I'm not saying the entire culture is screwed up...... but Asus wouldn't have ordered them into your area if there wasn't a market for it. Basically, what the US said was this: After November of 04, we are not going to bring in another 855 based notebook... because they won't continue to sell...... and after January, they stopped bringing in shipments of the current 855 models.. like the M6/M5/S5/W1...... but they wouldn't bring in an all new model because Intel was going to announce sonoma and no one in the US would buy the laptop...... But on the other hand...... dell, ibm, sony, gateway, etc... they are all still selling the 855 units... they still have huge stock of them I'm sure... on tv.. thats all you see and they tell people it's the newest thing..... (99% of americans are completely dumb when it comes to that... they hear it's the best and they buy it)...

But for due to the market Asus has here in the US (small, in the know people)...... it wouldn't fly and they didn't want to be stuck with stock they couldn't sell.

I think I can end this by saying...... we know that the W3n was sold in a few countries..... it was only a dumb move if no one bought them because they were waiting for the sonoma model...... but people did buy them... a few in this forum, right? So I think we're way the heck off topic and there isn't much of a point to what either of us are saying ........ so I'm done with this.

But what the hell are you talking about when you quoted: "hey, they always have the notebooks before we do" ???????? I don't know if it's your english or what, but all I can say is WTF? I can't answer that. But I can try to guess what you mean.

Either.....
1. you either think I claim to get everything in the world first at my company.... I don't.... but as far as north america goes, I certainly do.... we might get barebones at the same time as other dealers..... but pocket pcs and asus branded notebooks, I am certain of it. Infact, if what you were saying was true... I know this is a notebook forum, but the 730w's...... we got the first 400 in the entire world back before christmas.. that's a hard cold fact that you can google..... we had people in taiwan wondering why the hell they didn't have them yet..

Or.....
2. Europe and Asia (for the most part) get the newest tech first..... on a whole, yes... Asus changes things up sometimes and one time the US might get something first...... then the next time, Italy gets something first........ then Taiwan with another product.... I'm not quite sure where you might have been going there..... but I think it's about them getting the W3n, when we're waiting for the W3v....but still not sure I get it...... was it that I said our model might me better than what he got? I mean, on a normal notebook run, every couple months they might upgrade the optical drive, screen res, video card....... so who is to say that after the W3n run.. then the W3a run.... that the W3v would be produced anything but better? Ever think that the w3n was made to get out and get reviews... so maybe they could take those reviews and fix future W3a and W3v units? I do and it's apparent to everyone that it's something that is done everyday. If people complained about it and reviews said it sucked.... they don't go and start a totally new production of a newer model with which would have the same problems. People complained about the M6n 15.1" SXGA screen on some of those units... when the M6ne was made, instead of using 3 companies to supply them with screens, they cut one out becasue although the "specs" were as bid..... the units made with that one companies screen was more yellow... this is something a lot of the people in the forum can relate to.


DONE.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Well, I take some lousy photos just to show my point.
I hope ProP does not kick on the quality. It is just to show the angles of the monitor, not the quality of his colors.

http://ricardoduarte.planetaclix.pt/imagens/vertical-angle.jpg
http://ricardoduarte.planetaclix.pt/imagens/horizontal-angle.jpg

 

RJ, put those original p-shoped photos back up........ those showed what you were talking about much better than the pictures you just posted..... the ones you just posted don't show me anything....... for those pictures to tell me something, they actually do need to be a higher quality because you might be able to see what you're talking about.... but to anyone else, that doesn't do it justice..

Atleast with those side by sides you did, you can compare in one photo what normal is.. and what 45 degrees is...... if you just show 45 degrees..... how are we supposed to tell how bad it gets? Know what I mean..... ?

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

damn dude.... you did actually totally change your post that time..... thats why I quoted you... you even changed the pictures I just looked and and I liked those.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Actually I think Asus ships first to Europe because it sells much more here

 

I never needed a digital camera...
The screen has a sweetspot, but a small tilt makes the picture not perfect (eg.: too dark on top or too bright on bottom). Horizontal angle is not great, but is not an issue (at least, if there is not a crowd that is watching a movie with you).

Just one more (but I think I make my point)
http://ricardoduarte.planetaclix.pt/imagens/angle-v3.jpg

 

http://ricardoduarte.planetaclix.pt/imagens/angle-v2.jpg

 

well where you see the screen as "normal" is the sweet spot. If I were you, if you have that bad of a screen, I'd take it back.... I mean the way you talk about it, the notebook is nice, but the screen is just unusable or something... every screen has a sweet spot, some are larger than others.... but square in front of it.... at 90 degrees horizontally and 90 degrees vertically..... the screen is as good as it can possibly get.... if you can't call that a sweet spot, then your screen blows. If your screen blows, it doesn't matter what the notebook does, but you can't use it.

I think your camera might not pick up the differences between the W3 and W1.. just because to take that pic, you'd have to be further away.. and that camera doesn't seem to be doing the job, even up close.... so just might be even worse trying to the comparison..... but come on.. you have new pretty new notebooks.. and a tablet....... and you don't have a better digital camera?

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Maybe I'm just too picky.
This screen owns the W1N in brightness and color reproduction.
W1N screen owns this one in respect to viewing angles.
Sony's owns this one in brightness and reflection, but is slower than colorshine...
This owns my previous Acer 4002, but acer was cheap.
M200 owns this one in size and resolution, but looses because of the "rugged coating" of the screen.
Well, there is not such thing as the perfect laptop.

 

Yeah... refresh rate is a big deal.

But, there is a sweet spot.. a 14" widescreen notebook is a more "personal" notebook than a 15.4" or a 17"..... 15.4" is borderline for watching movies with a more than one person... 14" is much smaller. Thats why viewing angles on a smaller size screen kind of boggles my mind. The technology limits them.. but at the same time... the smaller you get, the closer you are to the screen and the more precisely you use the system...

What I'm saying is.... on the w3, do you use it in any direction other than say within.... 15 degrees to either side of 90 degrees? Most likely no because you wouldn't be able to type... At the same time.. when you are typing, the notebook is in one place, and your neck doesn't usually get longer and shorter and change the angle you are viewing the notebook at, vertically..... So, thats what the hinge is for.. depending on if you place the notebook on your legs.... or on a table...... or up at neck level.... you adjust the screen back and forth to be in your sweet spot, or atleast that would be normal..

The only time viewing angle becomes a problem.. is when you say.. set up the notebook for how you sit in the seat at your desk... then you get up and do something... then come back to the desk and stand next to the chair to maybe reply to an IM, or a forum thread like this...... In that case, you have your notebook set up for one place... and you are to the left and above the sweetspot..... you might not want to move the screen back and forth, because you'll be sitting down shortly..... but then it is bothersome... did I not hit that nail right on the head? Most everyone in this forum has a notebook of some time.... and everyone can read what I said and then try it themselves and see what I mean.... If you want to get down even further to a 12" widescreen, or a 10" widescreen..... or better yet a 3.7" widescreen (like Asus's 730 pocket pc)..... your angles become less and less the smaller you go.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by rjtd

 

Way to change the subject Den - [ ]

Yeah, he mentioned that... if you look above.... I think we need more people overseas with the unit to confirm, but he did to a review up top. One thing I find funny when I look up top is that he's happy about the unit staying cool..... but the fan kicks on top much, and he can feel the hot air coming out the one side.....

All I can say to that is... you may be picky.... but what the heck is it going to be? The components get hot... the system is using an intel cpu... a hitachi hard drive..... etc...... general stuff that gets hot.. period... the notebook cools it well which is the best you can hope for. I know, that you know that the air has to go someplace.... so we can agree on that..... but it can't go down (that would be uncomfortable when on your lap... hence... laptop)..... It can't come out the back, because of the battery and hinge design with no ports or room on the back...... The exhaust can't blow out the top because heat blowing out there could hurt the screen.. not to mention your palms getting sweaty........

so it's got to go either the left or right side...... The left side has the dvd drive, so no room over there....... the cpu is closest to the right side..... so it's put there..... god forbid.


Also, I did notice this when I took apart my V6.... the bluetooth doesn't really have a seperate antenna.... which may account for the distance you can get..... but on a laptop.... bluetooth is meant to do stuff like connect to your phone and headset.... keyboard and mouse..... etc... I know bluetooth has a range of 10 meters or so at best.... but when you think about your computer, is there anything you can do bluetooth wise that you could be more than 6 1/2 feet away? I'd be the first to say... ah... a bluetooth keyboard..... sit away from the computer... but at mor then 6 1/2 feet... you can't see the screen. On my cell phone, I like that I can get about 30 feet away from my phone with my headset..... but... I see the only limitation to that bluetooth is using skype.... But I think the bt in the notebook was made for connections mainly while using the notebook... like having a headset, while typing...... or a mouse... just so you don't have a wire..... or your phone... which is in your pocket... etc.

I like figuring out uses for stuff like this... so i'm not getting down on you... I just thinking about how things are used and then put it up for other people to think... nah.. or... yeah, that is how i really use it. Because with your comment... the "average person" would be like... ah.. i need 30 feet..... thats the best.. but then ask them what they'd use it for and they'd go.... ah... doooooo...ummm....

Have a good night.....

J

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by PROPortable

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by decumcp

 

Greets.
ProPortable: It would be wiser for them to put the fan on the left side, as people usually are right handed and use the mouse on the right side. What do we do on the left side? Nothing. So, we would notice less the hot air coming from a vent. DVD could be right side. They only have to mirror the design. There is nothing that make it impossible to align components in another way.
Perosnally I'm not bothered with the low range bluetooth, but the range is short. I only say that. People who expect a 10meters range would be disapointed with this one.
I know Display Angles are not so problematic if you use your PC on the work, but someone who is planning on buying this one for watching videos would thank me for making him aware of this issue.
Heat wise, ASUS W1N has the same components, but does not heat on the keyboard area. I know thigs heat up, but this one heats on the top side, and on the right. Some notebooks mask the heat, and only get hot on the underside. You would not get burnt, but it is a fact. I don't know if it is important, but, it annoyes me a little. So I think I should talk about it.
Now anyone can judge if it is important or not for him. That is the point of a review.
I think I'm not doing some biased review. The notebook has it's strenghts, and I like it alot. But it has some flaws. They may not bother you, but they can bother someone who spits 1600€ for it and then finds out it is not the perfect notebook for his needs.

 

I don't want to come in here and say, take the keyboard off of both units and see what seperates the keyboard from the cpu area.... but the W1 is a much bigger machine and it's sucking air and pushing are in more places..... With the W3 your'e concentrating that exhaust a little more and you have a tighter area with the same type video card.

My best conclusion, just knowing where the video card is on the W1 ---- almost up at the very top of the keyboard.... and mostly under that top lip.... thats ok... on the w3, the video card should be much lower down, which might make it directly under the keyboard. The cpu shouldn't be whats heating that up, because of it's location and the way it's cooled.... however, the gpu should be connected to the same heatpipe or at least a similiar one that is cooled by the same one...

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Hi all,

Just wanted to know if anyone has been able to test the 8x DVD burner on the W3 yet. On other forums, people are having trouble burning anywhere past 4x on DVD-R and are ok on DVD+R. I believe it is a Panasonic/Mat****a UJ-831D. DVD burning is very important for my decision to buy the W3V here in the States!

Also, I have pulled up some updated (March 2005) spec sheets on the 915PM chipset that says in their 2 early steppings of there ICH-6 (B1 and B2 steppings) there were some problems that were fixed in their release of the C0 stepping. This may be technical for some, but I pose this question due to ASUS releasing one of the first laptops with this new chipset. Therefore, may be one of the initial steppings of the ICH-6 chip. All details can be found on intel's website (downloadable pdf).

Thanks,
--Gary

 

Gary -

Pull up the specs on that Panasonic drive....... It doesn't burn everything at 8x.....

8x DVD Dual Format / Dual Layer

CD read: 24x
DVD read: 8x
CD-R: 24x
CD-RW: 10x
DVD-R: 8x
DVD-RW: 4x
DVD+R: 8x
DVD+RW: 4x

Now, I'm not sure what people have gotten overseas.. but the W1 has a Pioneer drive, which technically has the same specs, but I think is a slightly nicer drive. It's my undertanding the pioneer drive is what is being used in the W1/W2/W3... The Panasonic is un the barebone units.. Z8 series, M6 series, Z7 series.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Good to know,

Thanks Justin,

I'll sleep a little better tonight knowing that a Pioneer drive may be in the W3V instead!

--Gary

 

I don't know for sure, it was in the demo..

I know what people saying about the Panasonic, but truthfully, I'm not sure poeple are 100% positive about what they are doing.....

For instance, some discs just don't work.. period..... then some people don't know what format they are trying to burn.... the RW's are going to be 4, the R's are going to be 8, the dual layer's I think burn differently too.

The point is... for a laptop right now.. the panasonic and pioneer drives that we are talking about are the best drives you can get in a laptop right now, handsdown.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Justin, you should just leave this topic alone. It is making you look like you are desparate to defend your product when you don't need to. The W3N isn't the laptop that is coming over here and the final judgement will be coming then. I know you want sales to increase and I think it is safe to assume that they will.

To prove that I'm not an Asus or proportable fanboy- I waited and waited and waited for info on the W3V. I started to read the reviews on the W3N and I decided to buy a Fujitsu S7010D instead about 1 week ago (currently waiting for delivery). Main reason isn't the screen (although I think the XBrite screen will still be superior (as it will to the Fujitsu's)) it was all the complaints about heat and noise. I don't need a dedicated video card so I didn't want to pay or have the downsides to the improved graphics (heat and noise). Plus I heard the complaint of the vent on the right side from every review and that is really the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. The screen, even if it isn't up to par to Sony's XBrite will still be VERY nice I'm sure. The Asus will be a very nice notebook. However, I think the Fujitsu is a better buy if you don't need a dedicated video card because it is cheaper, thinner, lighter, cooler running temp, quieter and the screen is proven to be on par with XBrite's. I still come here to check out the new Asus W3V info and I hope that it will be a solid notebook for the rest of you.

But back on topic, I would leave this topic alone. You are fighting a losing battle on a product that isn't coming to the US.

 

Vit,

Well I thank you for the compliment..

I know what you're saying and I think the same thing. What bothers me is that I know Asus' quality and have been rediscovering it for 5 years now. I never like to see someone unhappy with their system and I do want to know where the problem comes from and discover if it is a certain screen or whatever... because honestly, if it's a certian screen company that they are using and one is bad and the other is good, Asus' US office would like to know that, because we would want to order the better one. At the same time, I'm not going to let you persons opinion in another country ruin an entire model for us here in the US without some cold hard facts and comparisons. Anyone can come in here and say this model is crap and do little more and that is enough for some people to say..... oh well, maybe this isn't so hot after all. I say the same thing when people in Europe bash Asus for service like repairs and stuff...... because then that translates to people telling us they heard Asus is bad with this and that.... when in the US, they are a totally seperate entity and they are dealing with US customers, who are very demanding of service and the best products.

So, if I can help and find a problem... then thats what I'm here for. If I feel something is being treated unfairly, whether just on location or because I know the product isn't what it's saying it is, yes, I have stake in these computers and that's no secret.... but I also have a reputation to leave up like the things people say about us over at reseller ratings....

I am better than this and so is the W3v.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]