Ahhhh W7J not available in UK till Sept/Oct. But Barebones are!

I have just come of the phone with a UK ASUS supplier who now informs me that they will not have W7J/F's until late September possibly early October!

As my requirement is a insurance claim I do not think the insurers will wait until then so I will need to make a choice soon. Also not sure if the ASUS Dealer I spoke to is a supplier to the claims assessor who must supply the laptop!

They did however tell me that they can supply ASUS and Compal Barebones notebooks which I was not aware you could get here.

This leaves me with the following choices;

1. Asus A8F-H043H, upgrade to 2Gb and hope the extra battery life is worth not having an separate graphics card?
2. ASUS A8Jc-H002H, with 1024MB (512x2) expensive upgrade and GeForce 7300 256M Turbo Cache and hope the battery life is not to bad.
3. Get a Z62J/F S62J/F and spec up the way I want, gain SATA HD but loose Bluetooth?
4. Get a Compal HGL30 which definitely includes Bluetooth but looks ?

Or perhaps I should just get an abacus and a notepad!

 

Which supplier is this, and where can u get the HGL-30 from in the uk - as i am very interested!!!!!

 

Bump

As above, I too would like to know about the HGL-30

Why keep secrets between friends?

 

do tell us the seller!

The Z62J is reviewed here. Its a barebone system which might suit you well.

 

Where can you get the barebones from? The only Asus bareboner in the UK I was aware of was nexus13, but it seems recently they have taken off their barebones from their website (plus they wouldn't ship to the channel islands).

Edit: I think there is another retailer, but don't know details.

Re Compal, again which retailer sells them in the UK?

Re bluetooth, you could get a bluetooth usb dongle?

 

Why are you saying this would be an expensive upgrade? As for battery life, I reckon you would get about 3 hours 15 on the A8Jc, which isn't all that bad.

 

Sorry Guys was never a secret. I just put about a hundred things into google looking for a W7F in the uk and did a little digging. Was going to get some more details before posting but.....

The supplier is Nexus 13 http://www.nexus13.com/productcart/pc/mainindex.asp.

There is also http://www.microtronicauk.com/notebooks.htm who I am trying to set up an account with as my company is a reseller of system solutions. They suggested I do this. They are new to Compal but have done Built on ASUS for a while. Indeed this may be where Nexus gets them from?

The Barbones/Built on ASUS part of their website is being reconstructed but if you call (and wait a long time for an answer) you can ask as I did.

He quoted me around £350 for a Z62F (verbally).

Asus BB available now, Compal soon after but supplier has no stock showing on thier internal ordering system.

The guy I spoke to said they were shifting about 30 ASUS machines a day. A8F's and A8jc's mainly although some W3J's also.

Sounded like an OK guy, but remember I only spoke to him once and do not know anything more than the google find about the company.

Hope it of help to you all and not a bum steer. If it helps perhaps you can up my rep ;-), if its a wind up by them dont shoot the messenger.

I get to talk to the insurance firm in the morning so wish me luck.

 

Nope, have heard of Nexus 13. Have spoken to them in the past as well. However they were being very difficult about taking off VAT for Channel Island shipements and never returned my calls, so I gave up with them.

You know the £350 is just for the barebone right, it will start adding up once you put on processor, ram, etc.

Also the warranty will be with Nexus13 rather than Asus.

 

Pin,

As I said I have little or no experience so you input is valuable...

I did realise the £350 was for just the barebone, I should have made that clearer.

Not sure if a BB is the way to go but I do quire like the idea of the Compal HGL30. Could go Memron from the start also ).

May take the other route if I can set up a reseller path....

 

Forgot to mention, have you looked at the Rock Pegasus 330 as a 13.3 inch alternative. For a 14.1 inch alternative, have you looked at the Zepto notebooks?

There are also the Dells - Inspiron 640m or the Latidude D620 (14 inchers) or the XPS m1210 (12 incher).

Evesham now offer a 14 incher.

 

You did already point me in the direction of those Pin.

Been looking at the Dell 640and D620 which I belevie haveBluetooth but cannot find a reference to it on the Dell UK site. It does however have excellent battery life!

The Rock 330 does not have a bluetooth option or a webcam does appear to be a good package.

I like the idea of the Zepto but the battery life is poor.

I may just end up sticking with the A8F as a good alrounder but I wish it had an extended/cheaper battery (only seen them at about £100ish?).

To confuse the situation further work has just offered me a new laptop and I can buy the W7F, or Compal as they are in the USA.... Ahhhhhh

 

Woops, forgot I had already steered you in that direction!!

I did consider the Rock as my first starting point. Re webcam, nice addition, but I don't think it should be a deal breaker.

Can you not use a bluetooth dongle?

Re Dells, I'm pretty sure you can add bluetooth as an option.

However I did like the A8F (waiting for it to be picked up for repair at the moment!!)

 

Pin,

I am a very lazy man at heart thus;

I have a bluetooth dongle but never use it because its too much trouble to keep plugging in and out. I then got a Bluetooth PCMCIA but it sticks out and got damaged....

I have a webcam, and a headset but they are never attached when you need to use them, and I cant be bothered to go get them out of my laptop case.

I currently use a bluetooth headet with a Zoom PCMCIA Bluetooth 2.0 card for all my VOIP/Skype stuff and its great... If I can go built in with the Bluetooth and Webcam perhpas my family will get to see more of me when I travel (which is lots).

Found the bluetooth add section for the dells but the 1210 is just not my cup of tea (but I have never seen one in the flesh). Like the 9cell batteries for the dells also....

I do use the video on my 3G phone (am I the only one who does) but its pretty bad quality to be honest and when you are on a 3 week business trip round the world then its nice if the family does not forget what you look like ;-).

To be honest if it was not for the fact its an insurance claim I would just buy it next time I am in the USA or Asia and get the W7F or the Compal....

 

Some sony models are thin and light and have webcam/mic and bluetooth. Check out the Sz, FJ, FS and FE models.

 

I understand where you are coming from re webcam, its a nice little addtion and something else you don't have to carry when travelling.

Again same goes for the dongle, etc. Nice to have it all built in.

I did think about buying the lapotp from the States. A few things did deter me though. Power supply and keyboard would be different, but not too big a thing. It was more of the what if something goes wrong issue. If bought in the UK, you would be protected due to UK consumer laws against the retailer and also have a warranty back up. Also remember if buying in the States the global warranty is only one year, while in the UK its 2 years (I reckon the cost of the extra year is about £100).

 

Rock laptops are rediculously overpriced for what you get