Asus F8 with HD2600 real photo!!

Anyone know if "scratch
resistant In-Mold Decoration (IMD)" is anything special to the F8, or is it standard on ASUS budget lines (i.e. just a gimmick)?.

 

A chinese review of the F8Sa (ATI version) just popped up today:
Original page: http://digi.163.com/07/0907/11/3NPJ7KL10016192R.html
Auto-translated (lots of amusing engrish inside): http://translate.google.com/transla.../11/3NPJ7KL10016192R.html&hl=en&safe=off&sa=G

There's a LOT of pictures. And damn, it's a nice looking laptop. Also has some in-game shots and FPS.
4.7 overall WEI score. 3,120 3dMark06 score. 5,739 3dMark05 score.

 

That 3dmark06 score was at 1280 by 768 resolution, though

 

Thats because the F8 can't do 1280x1024...The screen res just isn't high enough.

And that scratch resistant IMD thing is essentially just HP's Imprint finish copied by Asus. (EDIT: they even mention that in the linked Chinese review) Thats a good thing, since it really works on HPs (whether Asus has done it right remains to be seen, but I expect it to) aside from picking up a lot of fingerprints.

5.8lbs is really heavy for a 14" notebook. The 15" MBP is lighter....

Hehe, Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift playing in a few of the screen caps...I like the taste of this reviewer: FnF Tokyo Drift and NFS Carbon

The performance seems to be awesome, with the HD2600 outgunning the 8600GT by a little. I want to see benches of the Sv though, to make sure.

 

3100 in 1024x768 would give like 2800 in 1280x1024 no?

I don't know about the F8SV but the F3SV (8600MGS) scores 2000 in 1280x1024.

But how can it it 3000 with 900 in the SM2 test and 1400 in the SM3 one? (I'm well seeing right?)

But a 2600, even being the GS competitor, has a strong advantage: it is NOT physically crippled like the GS.

The GS is more like an overclocked 8400M GT

 

Har en likadan, man får använda adapter

Bästa att ta det på svengelska med antar jag..

You have to use an adaptor.

 

Eye, fellow swede. Hur gillar du forumet? Gillar inte riktigt att skriva svenska på engelskt forum

Oh, so desu ka. I understand. Hey, is the F8 out in sweden? Where did you get it?

 

This help at all fabarati?

http://prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?p=215990

 

Ohh, my mistake!

I don't have a F8.

But my G2S has the same connector wich is the antenna in.

 

Thanks plageclochard. It wasn't there the last time I checked.

@ flraer. Ok. That's good to know.

 

hmm interesting review of f8sv linked here in another thread shows something not very optimistic... battery life...

http://digitalne.centrum.cz/cz/clan...rova-vybava-namerili-jsme-asus-prekvapil.aspx

it's in czech, so you might have to use google translator. let's just skip to the important part:
Výdrž na baterii: 1:49 hodin (kancelářská práce), 1:03 hodin (multimédia)
which basically means: 1h49m on office work (word, excel, mail, a bit of networking/webbrowsing), 1h3m on dvd playback... THAT'S NOT EVEN 1 WHOLE MOVIE!!

hope f8sa gets better battery life, or the term "mobility" would be nonsense for this notebooks' line...

 

Hmm, like The F3Sv.

 

damn, does it mean that asus started to make immobile wireless desktop sitters on power-cable leash? that's weird... notebooks should be more portable than that, shouldn't they?

 

The F8 looks like an obvious replacement to the W3J, although it appears to have been downgraded to a F series (lower quality materials), agree???

I would much rather have a replacement to the W3J built to the standard of their W or V series laptops... mind you I do have a personal preference for brushed aluminium over paint any day.

 

well, lower quality, bad battery life, 15" weight - doesn't look like a good replacement for w3j

 

i'd say no battery life at all. it's more of a ups strengthened lighter pc

 

EXACTLY.... I just dont get it..... well I suppose if they dont sell, hopefully they will learn.

 

I'm personally still interested in the F8Sa/F8Sv. Having smaller dimensions (as in a 14" chassis) matters more to be than the weight which, even though it is absurdly heavy for a 14", is still lighter than the majority of 15"ers (the Samsung X65 being one of the few that comes to mind). I'm not really intending to use it off power, but just lugging it between places where it'll have AC-power (Uni, term-time house, and permanent house).
I guess maybe I'm naive. What does everyone think - is the reason you'd buy a 14" mostly to expect a lesser weight? Or is it for the smaller footprint?

As for built quality, then yeah, it won't match any of the non-budget lines (e.g. V, W, etc). But from what i've read, it does seem like the F8's quality is above that of the average F or A?

 

That battery life sounds like a joke, I will check it as soon as I get my F8 but I have feeling that there must be mistake. 1h with DVD? OMG C90 under full stres got 45 minutes

 

That battery life doesn't seem quite right. The GPU power difference between the 8600GT and the HD2600 shouldn't be enough to reduce battery life by over an hour.

And this isn't a replacement for the W3, its a replacement for the A8Js, with a highly improved hinge design similar to the W3 bamboo hinge. Asus, please bring back the W3, with a 16:10 ratio screen and Santa Rosa/DX10 internals....

 

I don't even care about the 16:10 resolution. Just bring back W3 with santa rosa/dx10.

 

Yea, W3 - the best 14" there was.

 

The regular HD2600 should perform on par with the 8600 GT. The power reduction comes from the fact that the HD2600 is built on a 65nm process whilst the 9600 GT is built on a 90nm process.

 

More like the ultimate laptop: small, lightweight, powerful, well built, purrty.

 

9600GT (from Nvidia)? It's out!?..... I want one!

 

He did a typo lol.
And I think it's 80nm but still.

WE haven't seen any game benchmarks yet though so we only assume by 3dmark score.

A 500/450 (HP's underclocked GDDR3 edition) hd2600 scores 3300 with a T7500

 

We've seen FEAR benchmarks and such for the HD2600.

 

the f8sa (hd2600) 3dmarks are higher than the zepto 6625w's (8600 gt)!!!!!
i hope the 8600 gt f8 marks are on par with the hd2600, or imma have to find a way to get the hd2600 version.

 

Look at the resolutions of those tests. The Zepto was run at 1280x1024 while the F8sa was run at 1280x768. Thus that Zepto is actually more powerful (according to 3dmark06 at least) than the F8sa.

 

We are still waiting

 

Here's a fairer comparison. (Pulled from the Zepto 6224W review, assuming it's running at 1280x768 or 1440x900)

http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/25266.jpg

If it's 1280x768 resolution, the 8600GT on this 14" notebook slightly edges out the HD 2600, which is negligible. Either ways, it seems that both GPUs are very capable of gaming.

 

The HD2600 aint a XT, so it's not an apple to apple comparison also... but the greatest confusion of all is, would a XT fit a 15.4"?

 

I still have a hard time seeing why people assume that the HD2600xt is a competitor to the 8600M-GT. It's not. The HD2600 is the direct competitor to the 8600M-GT, both in lineup, and advertising, and performance.

 

Does it make any difference with the extra few fps? I see no reason in not getting the HD2600 if it comes out cheaper. Not to mention that the HD2600 has UVD which gives it an advantage in video playback.

 

Exactly, HD2600 is about twice as good as GF when it comes to HD movies playback. This is the reason why I;m happy that in Poland there will be ATI version of F8

 

If I miss something than I'm sorry but I got confirmation that this connector IS a TV tuner, exactly LiteON TVT1060. And it's in standard, not as an option.

BTW. Sorry for double post

 

Does it have the removeable dvd bay and the multimedia buttons on the side too?

 

And I have my hard time seeing why people assume that the 2600 was design to compete with the 8600M GT.

There is only 2 HD2600, the normal and the XT, same goes to the 8600M, except the name aint XT. And till now, i never saw any ads or something that says the HD2600 is design SPECIFICLY to compete with the 8600M GT. Anyway, it is a bad comparison since there aint much ATI HD2600 or to say even XT notebooks out there.

 

It is as strong as it so...

Or we could say, the X1950 were designed to kick the ass of the 7800GTX but ends up being the competitor of the 7900...

 

You can't really go by the name of the cards, since nVidia decided to make the 8600M-GS with only 16 stream processors. It's a cut down card. The two high end nVidia DX10 mobile gpu's based on the G84m core are the 8700M-GT and the 8600M-GT, with the former being a suped-up, OC'd version of the latter. Similarly, ATI has two high end mobile GPU's based on the M76 core, and they are the HD2600XT and the HD2600, with the former again being a suped-up, OC'd version of the latter. And the advertising I was talking about is the advertising on ATI's site, where it has the descriptions of what the two cards are designed for.

But your right, until we see more HD2600XT and HD2600 notebooks with in depth reviews, we won't know for sure how they stack up.

 

i found this review of the F8-SA:

translated link

 

exhaust on the right-hand side....hard drive on left palm rest/battery on right palm rest.

terrible design

 

All asus notebooks are like tat..

 

Why do people have a problem with exhaust on the right side? I'm right-handed, have an A8 and use a mouse. I've never had a issue with the fan. I mean, why the hell would i have my hand there? That's just under the screen, which is not comfortable. And it just feels weird.

 

Yea, I can't really imagine having a problem with that kind of thing, though I can't say for sure since both of my laptops have had the exhaust on the left side. Its not like its superheated gas or something, just warm air....

 

Every notebook I've owned, including my G1s, has had the vent on the left. I don't like the hard drive being vertical on the right side of the computer though, it makes the keyboard warm and the palm rest warmer.

 

Good for winter times.

 

Ok, so here's how a Right fan exhause setup looks like.


And HDD isn't a problem. For me anyways, on a A8. I really don't think it will be on a F8, since the plastic's thicker (or so it seemed when I played around with one).

 

There are easy ways to change that...

Like a folded business card.

 

What I meant was that you don't use the mouse in the fan area.