ASUS Z35F or Z62F

Hi all. If I buy an asus, which one of these laptops would be best? I need to carry it to school everyday and I will be doing a little flying with it over the years, so build quality is very important. I do not have alot of extra money but I'm willing to invest in something I'm sure will last 3-4years. My only concern with the Z35F is the 13.3" screen. Will this be too small to work on? I do not have an extra monitor where I am studying but might buy one if I can get a good price. Thanks all.

William Sim

 

it you're flying with it the z35f is probably the better choice..it is just slightly lighter..and with the 9cell it should get some crazy batter life..6+ hours

 

z35f. I'm working on a 13.3" w7j and it's fine. Portability will be one of your main concerns if you take it to school often.

 

I know a guy who works on his 12" notebook for almost 8 hours a day... he's looking to get an 8" flybook! 13.3 is more than enough room for you standard uses... What do you plan on doing anyways?

 

I plan on doing some fortran and c++ programming. I will be running matlab, maple and office. I also use photoshop to do some photo editing.

 

You could always pop into a brick 'n mortar store like Comp USA or Circuit City to compare screen sizes. Both the new Macbook and the Sony SZ have the 13.3" screens and there are plenty of 14" options to check out side-by-side. I personally find the proportions of a 13-incher much more pleasing.

 

if you're going on looks then teh z35f is definitnely the looker of the 2

 

Thx for your advice. I've ordered the Z35F from milestonePC.com yesterday. They called this morning to say they're shipping it later today . Should arrive here by mon or tues, next week.

 

Hi all. Just got my Z35F from milestonePC.com . I'm very happy with the build quality and screen size. Thanks for your advice. My specs: T2300, 1GB ram, and a HDD.
I'm not sure about the HDD at the moment. I originally ordered a 60GB Seagate 5400RPM but they called the next day to tell me they didnt have it in stock but said they had a Hitachi 7200RPM 60GB for $30 more. I paid the price difference but they didnt install the Hitachi, they installed a 5400RPM 60GB Western Digital w/o telling me . Now I'm trying to find out what they have in stock so I can buy a different HD and send them back this one . I only hope they agree to this. From what I've heard their customer service is pretty good.

 

Both would be good for traveling as I've traveled with both smaller and larger models and mainly have used a W3 for traveling over the last year and have used a W7 for the last couple months....... Between the Z35 and Z62, there aren't many differences except for the Z62 having a camera and two full so-dimms for a total of 2gb of memory if needed. The Z35 has bluetooth and 512mb onboard which would limit you to 1.5gb (still a ton based on what you'll ever need).

 

z35f hands down. I dont even know why 13.3" nb have not replaced 14" with the same resolution already. Its just so much better in every aspect aside from the camera. Smaller, lighter, more portable and the screen size is negligible. Both in the same class...

 

Ok. I'm happy now. MilestonePC has agreed to send me the HDD I want and I will send the WD HDD back . I can say that their customer service is very good. They are quick to handle orders and reply to any concerns.

 

can you take some pictures for me? what are your overall impressions? also, could you take a picture of the trackpad with an object on it that would give me an idea of size, like a quarter or something?

 

My overall impressions: Strong and good quality build with good looks. The laptop feels very solid. There is little light leakage near the bottom and the lighting is uneven on low brightness. Everything performs well. I've attached a few pics.

 

Is the hard drive SATA or PATA? Just wondering.

 

both z35 and z62f are pata

 

How significant is pata vs sata to a laptop? I've been looking at both the z35 and z62f, but I am thinking I would want sata for performance reasons.

 

While there might be a slight performance difference I don't think it should be a deal breaker. At least it isn't for me.

pbrane83, how the heat build up on your Z35f, bottom and touch pad / wrist rest area.

 

I've worked with both many times and built tons of each. They are both excellent machines and you really can't go wrong with either.

My personal choice is the Z62F. I'm a huge fan of the Asus built in webcam notebooks. In my experience even people who didn't think they'd use this feature end up loving it after a very short time. It's too bad the Z35 doesn't offer this.

The Z35 also only has only ONE memory slot. It comes with 512mb built in that you can't remove. The Z62F has open SODIMM memory slots.

LAN: The Z35 has 10/100mbit LAN. The Z62F has 10/100/1000Mbit lan. If you will have access to a gigabit switch, the speed advantage the Z62F offers is HUGE.

PCMCIA vs ExpressCard. The Z35 uses an ExpressCard slot (the wide one). The Z62F uses the older PCCard slot. Right now there aren't many ExpressCard devices out there, so if you use a Sierra Wireless card or similar, it won't work onthe Z35. But more and more devices in ExpressCard format are being announced, so it will only be a matter of time until PCCard is dead.

Size: Both units are very small. Yes, the Z35F is smaller, but after having lugged both of them around the office frequently, and even across the city, I don't notice any differences.

In theory the smaller screen on the Z35F results in better battery life. In practice, I've found no difference between the two machines.

Building/Servicing parts: both units are simple to work with. Building either are equally easy.

 

CK99 makes some excellent points. From my perspective however, I would choose the z35f for many of the reasons stated by Eddie from btoTECH. The 13.3" form factor just feels right, and though the z62 is a solid chassis and an excellent machine, the 14" widescreens are a little oddly shaped imo, and the weight and size is slightly better in the z35f.

 

The bottom and right wrist rest area get noticaby warm after a few hours of use but doesnt reach the point where it becomes uncomfortable.

 

That's good. How about noise? Is anything particularly noisy on it?

 

The noise from the cd-rom was a little excessive at times, until I found I can control the speed and thus the noise. The fan is very, very quiet.

 

Just wonder that the noise will not be from the cdrom without any running cd. Normally, the fan's noise will come out when the cpu temperature is high. If the fan is quiet, it is not running because cpu fan will not run all the time if the temp is not very high.
Cheers