Asus M5200N

Hiya all,

Im thinking about getting the Asus M5200N, does anyone have one of these, if so can they give me a review please?

Also has anyone had any major problems with Asus laptops or have they been happy with their purchase?

I'll appreciate any opinions you have.

Thanks!

Kitty [ ]

 

Here is the only review on the net that I found:

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/asus-m5n/

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Fujitsu S6210: 1.6Ghz PM ~ 768MB RAM ~ 60GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
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here's another one: http://www.cs.duke.edu/~reynolds/m5n-review.html

 

some more:

http://www.leog.net/fujp_forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4766

http://www.leog.net/fujp_forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4078 (s5n, very similar to m5n)

 

Thanks for the links, I'll check them out.

But does anyone actually own a Asus M5200N? I would really like to hear what they think of their laptop.

And whether if anyone has had any major problems with Asus? or are they quite a good brand to buy?

Kitty [ ]

 

the last 2 links are discussions of actual owners of the M5N and S5N

 

I bought Asus M5200N a month ago for $1418. My configuration:

- Intel Centrino M Dothan 735 1.7GHz
- 256MB DDR 333 PC2700
- 60GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
- 3-Cell Battery pack
- Integrated Intel Centrino BG2200 802.11b/g Wireless LAN

It is a great notebook: light, fast, good looking. I was looking for small notebook with built-in DVD drive and M5N has better features than others. The only bad thing is that I got a screen with one dead pixel. From other reviews on WWW dead pixels look pretty common (http://www.cs.duke.edu/~reynolds/m5n-review.html writes about two dead pixels).

I installed both Linux Fedora2 and WindowsXP. In case of Windows new BIOS from Asus web page was neccessary to enable Dothan power savings features, and Linux needed some kernel tweaking.

I have just added 9-cell battery (3-cell is small and light but lasts less than 2h) and I am considering adding more memory.

 

great! congratulations man! that's a great price for that! check out newegg.com, they've got the 512MB module for the notebook for 163 dollars. best price i've seen for that

 

Hi cc178

I heard that the 9-cell battery sticks out a bit.

How much does it stick out?
How much heavier is it with the 9-cell one?

Anyone find a good place that sells the 6-cell one?

Thanks!

 

6-cell batteries are all i can find here in the philippines [ ] i'll get myself one of those [ ]

 

I recieved my M5200N today. It's my first laptop. I'm quite impressed. It looks really nice. it feels solid I guess; like my father's BenQ Joybook 5000. the "rimless" touchpad really is pretty cool looking, although my thumb sometimes brushes against it when typing... There is ONE stuck PIXEL!!! right in the middle of the screen pretty much... ARGH... o well though. It's green and is nearly impossible to see against a white background...

I got it through ASI ( www.asimobile.com ) with a Pentium 725, 512 total ram, and a 9cell batt which is still backordered. I bought a seagate 40gb HD 5400RPM 8MB cache off ebay, and the lappy cost around $1320 total I think. It comes with a 1 yr warantee against part defects or something, and a 3 yr labor guarantee. An upgrade to 3 yrs parts costs an additional $100

ASI does free 2-day shipping (they have struck some sort of deal with Intel apparently... I donno if all companies do this for Intel based notebooks, but they seem to do it [ ]) I had ordered the laptop last wed, and got it today. [ ]

I donno what else to say, I'll get pics and post them on my server later. Feel free to ask any questions, I'll try my best to answer them.

O YEA. on the touchpad. the surface of the touchpad is a bit rough. There is one particular like "spike" on it that I keep brushing over. I guess it'll wear down with normal use and whatnot... but just an observation.

And it doesn't include a mouse like some other countries do... although staples has the wireless Logitech notebook mouse onsale this week for 30 (which i'm going to pricematch to OfficeMax who sells it for 50) [8D] The bag is pretty neat. Its really slim, has a pocket inside made just to fit the M5N, and it has pockets galore. The main compartment has 1 main zippered area, and 2 smaller ones. the padded laptop holder area thing. and a pouch for the AC adapter or other small items. The zippered area on the front of the bag has a cell phone holder, a small pouch, 2 pen holder pouches, and a keychain. Im planning to use this as a sleeve, and i'll put this into a messenger bag or a backpack.

ok ok I must leave. The end.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Makunouchi

 

hey cc178 - thanks for the pic... it does stick out quite a bit.
6-cell would be a good compromise... lucky you soccerjoe5 [ ]

thanks for the update daforce007 - I'm leaning towards getting one.
I hope that the dead pixel problem isn't widespread.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by daforce007

 

Thanks for all the info! Its been good to read it all.

I am thinking of getting one myself now but is kind of indecisive between the Samsung X05 which has:

Intel Pentium M 1.5 GHz
512 MB
30 GB
DVD/CDRW
Lithium Ion 2 hour(s)
Intel 855GM Graphics Controller
1 Year Manufacturers Warranty

This is a 14 inch and weighs 2kg. It'll cost £899.

And of course there is the Asus M5200N with

Intel® Pentium® M 1.3GHz
256MB
30GB
DVD rewriter
48WHr battery pack 5.2 Hrs run-down life
Embedded Intel 855GME internal graphics
Yes - 2 Year Collect & Return Warranty

And this weighs 1.55kg and costs £983.83.

I have no idea which I want. I mean, I cant really tell whether the specs are good for the price for the Asus.

I'd appreciate any comments about this! [ ]

Thanks!

Kitty [ ]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by daforce007

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by daforce007

but if you watch movies and such... it'll easily be noticed :-<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

Thanks for the pics. They are good. I see what you mean about the dead pixel though I can see it too!

Can you tell me what the display is please, e.g. is it a 18 bit colour with a XGA (1024 x 768) display?

Kitty []

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by kitty

 

daforce007 - can you tell me whether you think the fan is noisy and whether the notebook gets hot quickly or relatively easy please?

Thanks!

Kitty [ ]

 

Hi,

Can someone tell me the laptop's weight with the bigger battery???
Thanks

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by kitty

 

man. Last night I played Quake 3 Arena on the M5N and it got HOT HOT HOT. the surface for the most part was fine, my wrists/hands didnt have any trouble b/c of the heat. but the CPU reached temps of 76C... so my friend let me use his notebook cooler (which was great. it was the antec one), and i turned down the power settings (from max to the second highest) and it ran around 64C then... which is still too hot in my books. So i'm gonna put in some arctic silver5 right now...

**UPDATE**

ok i just cleaned off all the old thermal junk, and put in some arctic silver 5, and played around in quake3 a bit running max power settings, and it only reached temps of 63C [8D] and this is without a notebook cooler. so about 10C diff. i'm happy. I'm sure itll be even better once i get the cooler.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by daforce007

 

Hi,its me again

Can someone tell me the laptop's weight with the bigger battery???
Thanks

 

hey guys i got a quesiton. So far im pretty impressed with the spec of the M5200n. And according some of you guys i can get it from 1toppc.com which i think i might do that along with some add ons. My question is if i do this, would i still have Asus's original 1 year warrity? Or will the warrity be void?? and question to some M5200n ownder. What are some of your specs and the price with it?? and i know this is kinda dumb but what exactly are barebone laptops? (i know what barebone pc's are)

 

Hi everyone who wish to buy M5200N
This is my review after I have it since last month.

Good side-
This is quite cool laptop overall. Especially How think it gets with the prices it is at.
I got 1 dead pixel at bit lower off the center of the screen, it's also green. as the other said so.
Playing Games can get the laptop hot, but i guess its due to the compactness of all the component it has. so, not much complaint to it.
This is my configuration:

Pentium Centrino (or Pentium M) 1.5 Dothan 2MB lvl 2 cache
256 on board ram
40 Gig Toshiba 4200rpm
dvd/cdrw combo drive.
Windows XP tablet edition (off from internet) with Sp2 on

My complaint is that the ram its using is hard to get or i should say $$ to get them. It use 172pin Microdimm and not So-Dimm. So be prepare to pay more for ram. I'm planning to get 512 to the existing that would give to 768MB. It can upgrades to 2.0Dothan but it is still pricey tho'.
It didn't came with the Logitech Wireless Mouse. I got myself a Macally dotmouse whihch has a blue light on the top which match the power button blue light.
The bag that came with it is exactly the same as the other guy describe very useful. (and i got myself a Gap notebook spongee bag as well..)
The 3cell battery that it came with it is not quite lasting. Should absoluetly get the 9cell battery which in most store backordered.

I live in Canada btw.

 

Hi everyone,

Here's my five cents of M5N experience. First of, somebody asked for weight figures: here they are. This is with a DVD burner, 512 MB RAM and 60GB HD, Dothan 725 1.6GHz.
M5N with 3 cell: 1.6kg
M5N with 6 cell: 1.74kg
M5N with 9 cell: 1.9kg

I have the Asus for about 2 weeks now, and I love it. Although I expected a black one I got a white/pearlisch one instead. Beautifull. Much better than the black one. Resembles the iBook slightly.
The keyboard is really nice, (white too) it has a very small powersupply, and the integrated wireless card seems very good although I don't use wireless as yet. It does pick up a lot of AP's.

Don't expect too much support from Asus with Linux, they officially don't support it. I'm quoting here. Don't expect support with dual boot from Asus, that's pushing the limit as well for the laptop.

Other than that, no regrets what so ever. It is also about the only Intel based 12" notebook on the market that has an integrated CD or DVD burner/player.
What don't I like: there are no leds for capslock and numlock. You're best option is to get a systray application that shows the status of those buttons. I also don't like the location of the home and end button which are Fn-left and Fn-right. So, since I don't use the right-menu button (located between the right ALT and CTRL) I changed my keyboard layout slightly so that home and end are on either side of the cursor keys.

I would reccomend this notebook to anyone. It's small, its light, it performs well, the 12.1" screensize is big enough to work well with, the keyboard types nice, the mousepad is very nice too and at least the white one looks very good.

BTW, I got this notebook in Australia. Specs: 1.6GHz Dothan 725, 512MB, 60GB, 3/6/9 cell battery, USB travelmouse, pouch, carrybag for just under AU$ 3500.

Cheers!

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Olgie

 

hey cc178 where did you get your laptop from??

 

Hi,

Olgie:

Don't expect too much support from Asus with Linux, they officially don't support it. I'm quoting here. Don't expect support with dual boot from Asus, that's pushing the limit as well for the laptop.

can we install linux?? It works well? Its because I´m a computer programmer and linux its my way of life at work

 

Ogie,

Can you tell me where u brought the M5Ne in Australia, a friend of mine probably can it for me over there, as I reside in Canada. Do you have the phone # as well, I would like to call them direclty.

Also, is it that the Asus using a new CPU called Dothan, what is the difference between this and the previous one?

Thanks.

 

Where can I purchase the 6-cell battery in the US?

Also, these guys claim to have a 1 GB memory chip for this notebook.

http://www.memoryx.net/asm5mme.html

Has anyone tried this?

Keefe

 

Wait a sec, I thought Asus M5200N only support up to 756Mb?? What is going on here? It even says on the official asus webiste

http://usa.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=M5200N%20Series&langs=09

it max out at 756.....weird...

 

Hi ShinChan82,

You won't get support from Asus installing Linux, like I said, they officially don't support it.
I tried Suse 9.1 the other day, and it initially went fine until I ended up not getting the NIC working anymore. It worked at first, and now it is activated, but doesn't actually turn the card on. There's also no link on the switch. I had a problem with X as well, but was able to fix that. After that I tried Fedora Core 2, but have a problem with X again. Doesn't detect the video properly and just shows a green screen. Still working on that. The NIC seems to be fine though.
I'm gonna try Gentoo this week as well, maybe that works better.

Rookie,
I bought the M5N in Victoria: http://www.vgcomputing.com.au


Cheers!

 

For anybody who's interested: I got Fedora Core 2 (kernel 2.6.5) working on my Asus M5N lappie. Initially I had problems with Suse 9.1 (kernel 2.6.4) where I couldn't get X working, and later had problems with the NIC (which wouldn't activate properly anymore).
Fedora worked almost out of the box. NIC worked right away, just no X, only got a green screen. As Fedora defaults to runlevel 5 we had to telnet to my lappie, kill the X process and set the default runlevel to 3.
After that, setting the video card to "vesa" in the xorg.conf file instead of the "i850" card it thought it had fixed the problem.
Now comes a time of tuning and playing....

Cheers!

 

olgie, i wanted to know your configurations. i want the M5N in pearl white. i heard the intel centrino 1.7 GHz comes in pearl white. is that what you have?

 

Thanks, Olgie

 

Hi sharonathan,

My lappie is a 1.6GHz M5N. The 1.5GHz is (in Australia) appearantly only available in black. I didn't ask if the 1.6 is also available in black, but I have my doubts. From what I understand from other people in this thread, the pearl white is not available around the globe. I must say that I do like the color though. My previous lappie (a Dell Inspiron) was dark grey, the white M5N is very refreshing. Even the keyboard is white...

Cheers.

 

yep the 1.6 is available in black too

hmm i got a question..

what is the little grill on the bottom between the hdd cover and the left speaker is ??

cos when iam using battery is makes a noise like zzzzinggg and if i set the cpu power to 100% it will make the noise up...

but its almost not hearable if i set the cpu at 32%

also even when iam using battery my fan never turns off it just ran at 1300 rpm eventhough the temp shows 33-35c

is this normal or ....

 

hey all you guys i finally ordered mine,

my specs are

1.6 or 1.7 centrino dothan
im not sure i tihnk it has a dvd burner it is a pearl white coloured one, and 512 meg of ram 60 gig hard drive

i got mine for about 2600 Australian dollars
i got mine at cost price though
but if you guys are wanting to buy one in australia there are plenty of places that sell them for cheap

i dont tihnk that place that olgie gave out was the cheapest if you look around there should plenty of cheaper stores in australia.

 

I finally got mine too (regular black M5N 1.7 Dothan)

Had a dead pixel but they changed the LCD for me.

Anyone finding that the 3-cell battery only lasts 1.5 hours? I got a 9-cell one as well... too bad no 6-cell available locally.

Makunouchi

 

yea...im gonna agree with the battery issue. the 3-cell one only last for about 1:30 hours...not very good at all can't even finish a movie with that. So yea i think i might go purchase a 9-cell battery..but it's gonna look rather ugly since it sticks out the back...

 

any m5n owners in Los Angeles? I got a barebone laptop and a cpu, pluged it in, doesn't work. So I need another laptop to check whether it's the laptop or the cpu that is not working. If anyone could help me that'd be awesome, I checked out many comp shops and nobody could help me. Hope to hear from somebody soon.

Best,
Alexey

 

yea same here...it seems like fan never stops no matter if im using battery or AC. It does seems like it's running slower...but as for stoping? never,seems annoying from time...but oh well as long as it work that's all.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'> Originally posted by n1ghtFLY


hmm i got a question..

even when iam using battery my fan never turns off it just ran at 1300 rpm eventhough the temp shows 33-35c

is this normal or ....
<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

have M5200N
same here fan is never off even in battery mode - cpu temp 31-35c
seems like another ASUS fan problem?

 

does any one have pictures of the
white pearl version??
I've looked every where and i cant find it

 

Below is a link to an image of the M5np in Pearl.

http://www.proportable.com/images/pearlm5np.jpg

Let me also give you a little lesson. The difference between the M5n and M5np is a slightly bigger keyboard (big improvement for most people). The Pearl M5np is only available commercially in China and and Germany and is sold just like the S5n is sold here... as one or two different configurations. Unlike in the US how the M5 can be configured in any way you please.

We do have a handful of pearl chassis' for the M5 that we use for personal use and for giveaways, but as I said, they have not been and will not be avaialble in pearl period. Whether configurable or complete.

The although the M5 isn't going anywhere, the W5 is coming out in about a month and a half. It's similiar to the S5/M5 and may come to the US in pearl color. It has a built in drive like the M5, but will have a widescreen 12" lcd and a built in digital camera. The only problem I see is that the widescreen doesn't shrink the form factor at all, you just have a wide aspect screen, which is roughly only a little wider, but much shorter. In the space saved, there is a large bezel at the top in which a camera is placed.

J

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

 

Hmmmm...just bought an M5n, kinda wish I waited to hear the specs on the W5 though! Here is a pic of the W5 as Proportable described:

http://www.yesky.com/imagesnew/hardware/0119/w59.jpg

Then again, I really dig the M5n and could always add a camera [ ]

 

Right... as you can see in that picture, the form factor is the same as the current M5... there are a few changes, but it's about the same size. On the M5, the screen fits a lot better... you don't have that large bezel at the top. The camera is a novelty, and there are some nice features on the W5, but on a whole there is a reason the M5 isn't going anywhere...

J

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

 

Just to add something...

My extended battery for the M5np showed up today...woo that's a big battery! It kinda gets rid of the whole small form factor thing and brings the weight up my old Averatec 3200, but at roughly 6 hours of cordlessness it still feels overall quite nice.

Got it for a good price too at $91 plus a couple for shipping.