Acer 8104 vs Asus Z71v: Why I made my decision

I suppose I wasn't the only one on this boat where Acer 8104 and Asus Z71V both caused me to ponder. After receiving about 5 or so messages on why I went with Asus Z71V, I decided to just post it and let everyone pitch in to discuss on the matter...

I had my eye set on the Acer 8104 since it was first annouced. After reading all the great reviews about them, analyzing every angle pictures of them, and seeing all the benchmarks out there about them, I decided to go with Asus Z71V.

My reaons for Asus Z71V:

1) I wanted a laptop where not everyone and their mother jump on the bandwagon yet. Acer have been overly popular since launch and too many people jumped on it, thus making it not "fresh".

2) I wanted something more "configurable". Asus gives me that option. The reason for this is I wanted 2GB of memory. With Acer I had to go with 8103, toss out the 512MB it comes with and buy two sticks of 1GB. Plus I wanted the 60GB 7200RPM drive. Again, have to toss out the 100GB from Acer and toss in the 7200RPM drive. It will end up too costly.

3) I wanted something as thin as possible, but at the same time give me the power I need. Asus was a bit thinner than Acer series, at the same time able to offer me the performance I need and wanted.

4) I have been using ATI for many years, I wanted something different. Asus comes with nVidia GO 6600, which in most cases perform a bit better than ATI X700. Thought some still say they are about neck to neck.

5) While the Acer 8104 design looked nice and I give them full credit for it, the design still was missing something. The front look of it with cover closed didn't look quite right to me. I didn't like where the speakers were situated at.

6) The Asus seems to have a better battery life due to their light sensor, which something I like. I use the laptop at night in bed and didn't want to alway adjust the light on the LCD each time I use it.

7) Asus come standards with 2 years warranty if purchase through www.proportable.com. Acer comes with only 1 and you have to purchase extra for additional year.

8) I wanted a clean system w/o all the junk software pre-installed. With Asus I could do that, with Acer I could not and would have to format the system to create my own recover disk.

Those were my reasons as to why I chose the Asus Z71v. I did strongly considered the Asus V6 model, however decided against it as I can not bare with myself spending that much money for "Style" and not being able to have the "function" long term. I felt the V6 model will grow out of its function quicker than the Z71V due to their limited video and again, back to #2 above it would be too costly for me if I wanted 2GB of memory on it and a different hard drive.

I hope my reasons would at least assist those who are pondering on the same matters as I did. Your reasons might be different than mine or you might still feel the Acer 8104 is a better deal. I totally agree with you on it, however I wasn't exactly in the mole for me.

Here is a refresher on the pictures

Acer 8104


Asus Z71V

--SPK

Laptop: TBD
My Website: http://www.smilepak.com

 

I made the same decision too and went for Z71V.
I also have the same specs:

1.86 Pentium-M
2GB Ram
60GB/7200rpm HitachiHDD
Dual-Layer DVD RW

cheers

 

can you comment on the size/weight differences between v6v and z71 ?
portability is the most important factor for me when deciding which one to buy and I don't really trust the specs Asus publish on their site.

thanks

 

Justin could comment on the spec of the V6. In the V6 thread he has confirmed the 0.9 thick is correct. However that is the thickness w/o footing.

More info in that thread.

Laptop: TBD
My Website: http://www.smilepak.com

 

I think it is clear that even allowing for a certain amount of inaccuracy in the listed specs on the ASUS site, the Z71v is going to be less portable than the V6. One is listed at 5.2lbs, the other at 6.6. I think it would be safe to say that once you get over 6lbs, you are out of the truly portable range, but it depends how much you are willing to lug around. If it's not something that you think would bother you, probably you are likely to get better specs in a heavier notebook, but if portability is really important to you, I'd have to say the Z71v is probably not what you want. HOwever, it is VERY customizable, which is nice - lots of options. If you think you can handle the weight, it sure does look like a nice machine!

Justin will have far better advice though!

 

If you carry a laptop in a backpack, you do not notice the weight.

 

Well, could you really even notice the weight between V6 -> under 6lbs and Z71V -> under 7lbs..

They are approx 1 - 1.5 (At most) weight apart from each other. Beside, give everyone an idea how much a V6 weigh, if you ever used an IBM T22 or T23 laptop, those are approx the same weight as the V6.

The Toshiba Tecra M2 is approx the same weight as the V6 as well, though I think the M2 is a small fraction heavier.

The Z71V is lighter than my Toshiba Satellite Pro series.

As portable, using a backpack, 1 lb won't be noticable.

Laptop: Asus Z71V From www.proportable.com
* Intel® Pentium® M 750 - 1.86GHz
* 2GB DDR2-533 Corsair
* Hitachi Travelstar 60GB 7200 RPM w/ 8MB Buffer
My Website: http://www.smilepak.com

 

Here is the spec of what I ordered, just in case you are wondering.

PROPortable's Asus Z71V Centrino Notebook
1. Intel® Pentium® M w/ 2MB Cache; 533MHz FSB - 750 - 1.86GHz
2. DDR2 533 so-Dimm - 2048 ddr2 533 (1024mb x 2) - Corsair (2GB DDR2!!)
3. Hard Drives 2.5" ATA100 - Hitachi Travelstar 60GB 7200 RPM w/ 8MB Buffer
4. Optical Drive - 8x DVD Dual Layer / Dual Format Burner (+/- R/RW)
5. Internal Wireless Card (Required for Centrino) - Intel PRO/2915 Wireless 802.11a/b/g MiniPCI
6. Warranties - 2 years parts & labor w/ 1 way paid shipping
Price: $2,083.14

Prices are subject to change w/o notice. So please check with them for current pricing. By the way, I believe the 2 years warranty is standard with proportable, not sure about other places. Some places is only 1 year warranty. Given the average price for additional warranty of $177.00, it give you an idea of the overall value.


Laptop: Asus Z71V From www.proportable.com
* Intel® Pentium® M 750 - 1.86GHz
* 2GB DDR2-533 Corsair
* Hitachi Travelstar 60GB 7200 RPM w/ 8MB Buffer
My Website: http://www.smilepak.com

 

Might be a dumb question, but how to bold fonts in a post? What that all html or did I miss a button somewhere?

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

 

smilepak, sounds like a well thought out decision to me. There are always going to be tradeoffs with any system. I think when spending that kind of cash on a laptop, serious consideration needs to be given to what will give you the most for your money and what will best fit your needs.

I'm not sold on the Acer 8100 anyway. Sure, it's a great value considering what you get. But, I've read about quite a few issues with that system as well. It makes you wonder if being first out of the gate with an X700 GPU, DVI, Bluetooth, etc. might have come at the expense of system stability and reliability. Value quickly loses its appeal once that starts happening.

I look forward to reading your review of the Z71V.

Justin, to do bold text put 'b' inside of left and right arrows <> before the text to be bolded and /b inside of left and right arrows after the text to be bolded. here's an example.

 

Justin-

why has the 60gb/7200rpm option disappeared in the pre-order for z71v .


is there a severe shortage of these drives ?

 

It's posted on our site.

Hitachi sent out an email this morning that told distributors not to expect drives before the end of June.

The distributors are still holding out hope that they'll have "some" but mid May.

Either way, it's too long of a wait and we're plumb out. we took them off the site because that kind of wait is too long for us to have a backorder on file.

Anyone who wants a system without a drive could contact me. If you think you can get one somewhere else, but still need a system, I could make a special order for a system minus a drive.

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