Asus A6Ne Questions

Before I get to my question I'll provide some history.

I'm going to college (Williams College) in the fall and I've been looking for a desktop replacement/mainstream notebook. After many months of looking, I narrowed my list down to the Toshiba M45 s265/331 or the Sony Vaio Fs640. I liked both the Toshiba and Sony b/c of their large screens and big hard drives. However the Toshiba felt flimsy when I saw it in Circuit City and had shoddy build quality. Plus I read that there has been some issues with the M45. Although I found the the design and build quality of the Sony to be superb, I thought that its price was too high and strongly disliked the fact that its Ram maxed out at 1 GB.

Since I'm American, I never heard of the Asus brand until today when I happend to notice this forum. To make a long story short, I discovered the Asus A6Ne and I think this is it. The A6Ne seems to be the perfect balance between the Toshiba and Sony: a large hard drive, great screen, low price, and excellent build quality.

Unfortunately, I cannot find many reviews of this specific model and would like to know if any one has either heard it, reviewed it, or owns it. Furthermore, I would also like to know if there is and reliability issues with the Asus brand in general.

Should I buy the A6Ne ($1150 @ newegg.com), settle on either the Toshiba or Sony, or keep looking?

 

If you don't mind old technology, go for it...... toshiba and sony don't really have much *new* out and especially at that price. It's a basic system and it's still a good quality....... but if you have some more money, I'd really suggest you look at something else.... from Asus.

 

I still have trouble understanding how Toshiba are getting away with their whole Satellite range. All of them have been like way you describe for years. Flimsy, flexing and plasticky. Horrible. (Some of the other Toshiba series are nice, though.)

Haven't tried an Asus A6Ne, but I have used another A6-series model. I've said in an earlier post that I think it's about a C+ grade chassis in the grand scheme of things, but given the price range and competition it will probably often be the best that is on offer. If it's the same screen on the A6Ne and A6U (Justin?), it is 'okay'. Nothing strikingly wrong with it, but nothing spectacular either.

As a non-gaming laptop on a budget I think the A6Ne should fit the bill nicely.

And BTW: When did Newegg start stocking Asus notebooks?

 

Yeah, both screens are the same........ They're just WXGA screens and they're certainly bottom of the line as far as what Asus offers, but if you're comparing it to other WXGA screens...... I'd put money on it being slightly better than anything else at that res.....

Even though the A6 chassis isn't the best Asus offers, it's certainly worth every penny. With that said, the keyboard's on Asus's larger computers are basically almost identical. So the feel of it isn't any different than anything else.... very solid.


.... what doesn't newegg sell?

 

truth be told, I actually fell upon the Asus notebook lineup much the way you described it. The first Asus notebook I came across was the A6Ne... I was initially looking on a really tight budget so in my opinion, the A6Ne came closest to what I wanted on a tight budget... then I saw the Z70 and Z71 series and told my budget to go to hell....

Anyways. If you all you're going for is a notebook that can do it all, I think the A6Ne will fit your needs perfectly while meeting a good budget. Regardless of if it's one of (if not THE) lowest entry in the notebook market from Asus, Asus is one of the manufacturers that will not skimp on quality, even on it's ugliest child =P (I mean that in the nicest way...). I don't really know much about the other two that you mentioned, but lower end Toshiba's never seemed to be very value efficient (ie expensive with cheap quality build) and Sony's are just not worth the price, but that's my opinion. I don't think you'll find much wrong with the A6Ne. If you do go with it, please do let us have a review, since as you mentioned, there really aren't that many of them.

I don't know if you've come across this one, but here's one of the de facto standard reviews I used to compare the A6Ne. Keep in mind that this is a European model review, so not everything may be exact:

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/review.php?reviewId=857

Hehe.... there was another review that I liked, but it was in Russian and I had to translate it using online translators and it was.... well it was interesting to read

 

True... In that price range, with those features, there really isn't much to choose from that can/will/may be better than the A6. There's the TravelMate 4101WLMi, and the HP dv4000 that's basically it. Don't particulary like the Acer, but it should be a bit faster (and somewhat more game-worthy) with the newer chipset and DDR2. (Some say it's noisy, though. Only seen that particular model in passing.) The build quality on the HP isn't as good or sleek as the Asus, but Bluetooth option and Expresscard is a plus. Not a bad office-type notebook at all.

Edit: Good mention on the keyboard. That's, after all, the component on a notebook that'll probably get the most use. Disregarded as a purchasing influence much too often. Always liked the Asus models I have used in that regard. Good response and no annoying flex on any of them. Also: The wide aspect 'inset' touchpad design that Asus has been employing lately is a joy to use. Looks good as well.

 

very true.... that's why I mentioned it. If you take care of any computer it should physically last....... programs really aren't getting that much more complicated these days and you're pretty safe for a few years, even with a medium configuration....... but the keyboard... that's something you use day in and day out and it's got to be good.

And about the wider touchpads.... great idea I thought too.... the old M6bne was sort of a pain to use because it didn't have that... but you can't really notice it unless you're using it next to a regular ratio M6ne......... but jumping to the new models, it seems to blend really well.

 

Thank you for the comments. Since I'm on a budget I think that I'll go ahead and purchase the A6Ne. I just would like just how old is the technology in the A6Ne and if I would be better off buying a barebones model?

 

More old than old. It's just using the prior generation Intel chipset. The improvements doesn't come into play that much on the low end, and on the upside the older chipset is less power hungry.

 

... .still better and newer than 80% of the notebooks on the market...... still great performance and battery life at a bargin basement price.

 

If the Asus z70a chassis better than the A6ne?

 

Yes. It's a step up. Somewhat lighter, sleeker, and with a modular bay.