Asus F8 with HD2600 real photo!!

Europe has it first....again Real pictures from PurePC.pl forum, enjoy

http://forum.purepc.pl/index.php?s=&showtopic=239461&view=findpost&p=2741384

Thanks to "pmp" for this pictures!!

BTW. Price is about 5400PLN ~ 1899$

 

Good find!

Anyone know of any automated Polish-English translators? XD

 

It wasn't too hard - I'm a moderator there

 

Cool. What's the golden connector in the bottom left of the back of the laptop (the third pic)?

 

I suppose it's TV tuner

 

...Tvtuner? That's not how an antenna looks like in sweden.

 

So have they actually shipped in Poland yet, or are these first-look reviews?

 

This guy told me that they should be available in couple of days, maybe this week maybe next one.

 

Just spotted this on google: link (translated link)

From that, it looks like a few units might be shipping in other places too.

 

No drivers for XP?!?!?! ;(

 

That 3dmark06 score appears to make this the fastest 14" notebook currently available in the world.

 

http://strony.aster.pl/pmpcfg/PC/ASUS_F8Sa/F8Sa_7.png 3dm06 @ stock

 

Wow. I love that that thread starts with a link to the "Which Asus model is this" thread.

 

I'd say that yellow connecter has something to do with an external aerial, much like is found on many cell phones for use in car hands free systems or in NAVMAN in car GPS systems for better coverage. does this model have built in GPS or EDGE/3g ?

 

That's what I thought.

 

http://product.enet.com.cn/xdpview189358_195064_1.html
http://product.enet.com.cn/xdpview189358_195066_1.html

I don't think it's GPS unless you need Media Center remote to operate

 

So......... Does this mean you are going to upgrade your W3J??

 

Sure!! ASAP!! It's almost W3j with everything that W3j never has: DVI, webcam, more USB ports, finger print reader. And even built quality should not be much worse.

 

But... the 3DMark06 in the F8 was run @ 1280x768 resolution?

Recently I studied a BenQ notebook (yes, it's not ASUS, but hey, just for comparison), i.e. the S41, it's a 14 incher (WXGA 1280x800 display) with a 8600 GS, it's 3DMark06 is around 2700-2800, some Chinese website shows even 3000. What do you think guys?

F8's features are unmatched, though

 

Does anyone know the materials of the F8? (bottom case, palm rest, screen cover)?

 

I'm guessing plastic. The underside (with port layout and fans) looks almost exactly like an A8.

 

Nice find, thanks mastha

And yea, the F8 was not dubbed to have any special materials, so We're all assuming its all ABS plastic.

 

Nice find! So I guess I will order the Vostro 1500, and if the F8 ships in the next 30 days, yay for me!

Thats a seriously nice 3DMark06 score, but I think the 8600GT will match that. I doubt the F8Sa will come to the states though, if it does, it will only be through Newegg. Heres to hoping its cheaper than the F8Sv!

 

here are the pics preserved as attachments for future reference...

(mastha212 please let me know if you or pmp would rather not have the images archived in this fashion)

also, it seems to me that the NVIDIA 8600 is gimped more often than not in the notebooks it appears in (few exceptions include the Asus G series and MBP?)...therefore, if given the choice right now, I'd much prefer the ATI based F8Sa over the NVIDIA F8Sv, but I have no idea if the U.S. will be receiving both versions...

 

Assuming the 8600GT won't be crippled, I'd take whichever comes out first . The HD2600 performs well enough IMO (this is solely based on those benches).

 

If you're referring to the use of DDR2 memory, it appears that the HD2600 is also "gimped" in that manner. The F8sa appears to use the DDR2 HD2600 (based on that benchmark and the know benches for the HD2600).

 

Fair call, I would if it was finished in brushed aluminium! I really don't like painted surfaces, they dont wear well.

and the HDD must have SATA and the travellers drawer (im using mine with twin 150gb drives) just imagine running 2x250gb drives in a 14" laptop!!!

mind you I just swapped my 1.83ghz DC for a 2.33ghz DC2 and just ordered a 2gb stick of RAM......

 

Hi mate, you mean twin 160gb?

 

160gb = 149gb if he's referring to that

 

True, very true....

 

I didn't know the F8 had a traveler's drawer?

Also, I've seen pictures where the F8 has a finger print scanner and others where it doesn't (e.g. link versus link). The spec on the ASUS global website doesn't state a finger print scanner. But I guess it does have one since pmr's F8 is an actual released version?
Some other things I was wondering about: is it confirmed that the F8 doesn't have eSATA and/or HDMI?

 

It doesn't have a travelers drawer IIRC, but I'm not 100% sure. I think they were referring to the W3. As for HDMI, it has DVI, technically you can get a DVI-> HDMI converter.

 

True. Though, a built-in HDMI would be a bit more elegant. Might there be some quality loss with an adapter too?
I wonder if it has eSATA? TBH, I'm more interested in this than HDMI. ASUS global doesn't list it in specs. I tried to look at pmp's pictures for a connector, but eSATA ports are so similar to USB it's difficult to tell (and it might even be a duo eSATA/USB port).
Also, it's very unlikely that the F8 will have a docking station interface, yeah?

All three of these (HDMI, eSATA and docking station) haven't been listed anywhere in F8 specs so I'm not getting my hopes up, but I just want to be concrete on what the F8 has.

 

DVI is compatible with HDMI, I got cable DVI-HDMI and it's without any converter.

 

holy smokes: http://product.enet.com.cn/xdpview189358_195081_1.html
if you look close enough the nvidia sticker say 8600M GT
so i'm guessing that the global specs were wrong? (since the websites in chinese and someone said NA will only get the gt)

yeah, and it is kinda of weird how it does have the thumb reader

Update: check out these close ups:
http://product.enet.com.cn/xdpview189358_195061_1.html
http://product.enet.com.cn/xdpview189358_195060_1.html

 

http://product.enet.com.cn/xdpview189358_195081_1.html
The thing I find most shocking about this picture (yes, even more shocking than 8600 GT) is that it's a British keyboard layout.
Did I say shocking? I mean, it's awesome!

 

anyone have any news on how the battery life is on the f8? does it have the problem some previous asus nb have had?

 

It might be the british model no?

I still like canadian (english and billingual, french is a QWERTY France keyboard) one better.

http://www.hooleon.com/miva/graphics/00000001/kb-0047-reg.jpg

Enter key is better that way And I don't like the "little" enter of the US keyboards

 

Hehe, sorry, I mean I'm happy with it being a British layout. Truthfully, I wasn't expecting ASUS to bring the F8 over here (to the UK), not any time soon anyway. But the news that there's a F8 model with a British keyboard kicking about gives hope that it will be brought here, and possibly soon.

 

the worst I had was in Moroco, they have french layout and also being arabic all your typing comes from right to left and is aligned on the right.....real nightmare for me

 

Yup. It's confirmed. The 8600GT on the F8Sv is only GDDR2

Brand: Qimonda
HTB18T256161BF-25

Linky link

 

I have no idea what's going on at this site - http://product.it168.com/detail/doc/167577/price.shtml?t=03246 - but I do know they have a great gallery of the F8Sa:

http://product.it168.com/detail/html/pic/0301/167577/1.shtml

 

any idea when will it be out in China or NA?

 

does anyone know what that cylinder shaped usb thing?

 

Just noticed on the following ASUS news item:
http://uk.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=8247
...that it says

Is this a mistake?

UPDATE:
ASUS global specs show up to 4Gb ( http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1592&l1=5&l2=26&l3=501&l4=0). This means there's yet another mistake in that news article (the other being that it states the Sv has a 8600GS, whereas it's generally expected to be 8600GT).

 

This laptop looks amazing, looks like an HP product, but better. My guess is that it will be all plastic, but nothing wrong with that, over 70+% of all notebooks are plastics anyways.

As for the battery life, the battery is 55 whr. According to the pictures provided. Meaning if your discharge rate is 25 watts, you will get 2 hours of battery life. If your discharge rate is 20 watts you will get 2 hours and 30 minutes.

The reason for this is because cooling dedicated graphics is difficult, thus the fans have to rev up, which consumes more power. In my opinion it is still worth getting either one of these once they come out.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

Some good tips there .
I'm curious about plastic versus other chassis materials (i.e the higher quality ones like aluminimum and magnesium [composites?]). What are the differences we can expect?
I know the alternative materials are certainly lighter than plastic, but are there any other factors? Do they have better durability? More scratch resistant?

 

Aluminum and/or magnesium alloy chassis are generally lighter, have better cooling properties and are more durable (in general at least, though a high quality carbon fibre plastic blend has the best durability in my opinion).

 

If I recall, plastic doesn't conduct heat as well, so on plastic, heat isn't felt as easily as on metals like aluminum or magnesium. However, that is only the case if the parts, like wristrest is purely metal and not plastic with a thin metal layer. In my case, the V6's keyboard bezel and wristrest area is pure brushed aluminum, so when the HD gets got, I can feel it.

 

While the metal does conduct heat, it does have much higher quality.