Asus V2Je discussion

First I want to mention one thing, some posters / resellers talked about the 2nd battery for the optical bay for this model, it doesn't look like it supports this feature, only 2 main batteries, 6-cell and 9-cell. We are working on the review and it will be finished soon.

Here are some pictures first:
































Busy with the review

 

Can't wait.

 

Thats a seriously good looking notebook. A pity it isn't as sleek and doesn't have the power of the W3....

No optical bay battery is a pretty bad oversight...Thats another feature this one drops over the W3, plus that bamboo hinge, which was really cool...

 

Its a nice notebook, but no V6j. Oh Well.

 

The side view looks fat. Has the height been increased for some reason?

 

The review unit had a slide lock to remove the battery, like the V1 and W3, etc... Our retail versions won't be here till Monday or so, but all of the documentation still shows a modular bay... They could have changed it, but not sure why they would... although at the time, only a 6 cell was going to be included with the system.... so who knows.

 

The actual unit on my hand is: 1x6-cell battery plus 1x9-cell battery, no latch to hold the optical bay battery / optical drive, ( instead of the latch for easy swap, it has 2 screws to hold the optical drive ), when I pull out the optical drive, inside the bay,it only has one conection interface for the optical drive, nothing for the battery.

 

Humm, they did change things up then... I wonder why...

 

That's wayy to thick for a 14" notebook...

 

.. no it's not... it's basically as thick as the W3... at the very back it's 1/10" thicker, but it's thinner in the front t han the W3 was...

 

It is about the same height with V1J, when put them side by side, the rear part of V1 is slightly higher, the front part of V2 is slightly higher, but both difference is minor.

When I put W3J and V1J side my side, It got the same result as above; the rear part of W3J is slightly higher, the front part of V2 is slightly higher, but both difference is minor. That means for V2J is flatter, the W3J and V1 is more tilted, but they are all about at the same thickness.

 

The only physical problem I forsee is that you couldn't use the 9 cell battery on the docking station because it pops out from the back a bit...

 

Is the web-cam really 3 megapixel?

 

It is 1.3M, not 3M, but you can rotate it facing you or facing front, the one on V1J is not rotatable.

 

Thanks, coz i read here before that V2 come with 3megapixel webcam.

 

The V2 is a business notebook. Most people traveling internationally don't need an X1600 for their trip across the Pacific Ocean.

 

Now the V2Je review is up:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=112978

 

Yup, agree with you.
We dun need a one V2 (size) fit all notebook, but at least let there be a V2 variant that has a gamer's video card like X1600.

V2__ with X1600, etc. for gamers + quality & built lovers, and
V2Je for business user.

Anyway, V2Je with X1450 seems to be "neither here nor there" to me. A business user can do with Intel GMA, since they are usually running office applications and video clips. Juz my 2 cents.

 

I wonder if the gpu for the v1j is compatible with the v2j. Or the vx2 for that matter.

would really like to see the owners take a picture.

There arent many v2j owners but theres a lot of v1j owners, you would think onw could take a picture of the gpu.

Probably when they upgrade the ram

 

The battery life is absolutely abysmal, based on reading Milestone's review.

A 9-cell and a 14.1" screen with a low-end dedicated graphics chip should pull 5 hours easily.

I am concerned that the last generation of Pentium-M was the peak in terms of battery life for Asus models, and they no longer consider this an important feature.

 

Same concern; the horrid battery life pretty much took that out of contention as my next laptop.

 

I was really looking to the V2 as a potential replacement for my Z33... But 3 hours on a 9-cell just kills it for me. I can still do ~6.5 on my Z33 on a comfortable brightness.

Do ATI's Vista drivers do PowerNow? Would it be possible for Milestone to install XP and see if the battery life is better with XP drivers for the 1450?

 

I've said this a few times before, but the V2Je is a disappointment after the W3J... larger because of the camera, poorer GPU, a little worse build quality, and on top of it all no modular bay.

So, no, the laptop that takes W3J's position as the best 14" ASUS hasn't arrived yet... nor has the one which takes V6Js as the best 15"-laptop-in-a-14"-package-size... I'm still happy with my V6J, just like Caleb.

 

you gotta love the brushed aluminum. :yes:

 

I just received my V2JE and my first impressions are great. However, I wish to do a clean vista install before i start the real testing. If I use the recovery cd which came with the laptop, it still install all the other crap. Does anyone know how I can do a real clean Vista install and still use the license I got with my V2JE?

 

I would really love to buy a business-style laptop from Asus. I have a V6J now but find for business work, the glossy screen gets in the way. Basically I am sold on the overwhelming quality of my Asus, but I still want to replace it with something with a matte screen. When I first heard about the V2JE I was excited because initial reports seemed to indicate that the screen would be matte. However looking at today's review that it obviously not the case in NA.

I would love it if Asus could release one--just one--ensemble model in North America that had a matte screen. I realize that glossy is what most people are looking for here, but the business lines from the other major vendors (Dell Latitudes, Thinkpads, HP business models) all favor or at least still offer matte screens, so there must be some demand. (And I agree with the sentiment that using GMA 950 makes sense for most business users, who would rather get battery life than high graphics performance--even in the Vista era.)

PS I've tried privacy filters with poor results. Perhaps portableone will allow the V2JE to be modded with their TrioView screen... but now we're starting to get expensive.

 

I do love the brushed Aluminum. I was using my old HP this weekend (my mom's now), and the plastic just doesn't do it for me. It isn't a nice to feel, and it gets so dirty, and its so hard to clean. Why, why would you want that?

Pavlova - Sorry to hear about your dislike for the Glossy Screen. I love it on my V6j. Sometimes it has some reflections, but overall, I am very very happy with this screen.

 

My V6J has a matte finish (European version) and I like it better than glossy, even though brightness is poorer due to that.

 

EBE, jealous of your matte V6J! And yeah, Caleb, it's not like its a bad screen at all. It's really quite good. I don't want to give anyone the impression that it's lame or anything. It just doesn't work for me in a lot of offices (I'm a consultant so I'm constantly in and out of tons of different offices)... if I'm near a window the reflections give me a headache after a long day or work. I guess I can't prove that it's from the reflections, but it really seems like it, and I never had any problem when I had a matte screen (up to 9 months ago or so). Seems like there must be enough people that feel similarly to warrant at least one non-glossy Asus model in NA. Maybe sometime soon....

 

The Taiwan version of the V2je is a matte screen

I probably will end up selling mine when I get back to the United States. i love the build/design but this notebook doesn't really suit me, especially since I won't be using 3.5g capability.

I still can't find my perfect laptop...

I've gone from HP, 17" Macbook Pro, Asus A8JS, Asus V2Je, and now I'm gonna be looking for something else..

(i am crazy and have buyer's remorse )

 

Just finished the call with Asus, I asked if he has the plan to give the optical bay battery option in the future, he said he was thinking about the same thing, will most likely add this feature in the future.

I told him about the 9-cell battery only has 3+ hour life, he was also a little surprised, he said he will do a test on it.

Right now I am using the fully charged 9-cell battery V2Je to type, will update you guys agian once the battery is low to see the 2nd test report.

I also mentioned the complaint on X1450 video card. He said this was designed to be a business model, he will not do it like A8Js, has a few models to be chosen by customers on this one, to have higher video card will make it too expensive.

 

So what does your second test suggest? Anxious to know, I recommended this model to several people

 

This is what I just posted under the review forum under the review discussion, you will see the answers.

 

This makes me feel better! *Hugs his W3J*

 

Thanks a lot. That's indeed very disappointing battery performance, given that you used it at mid-brightness.

Gawd, I like to use my notebooks at full brightness all the time, and even so, my W5F will do more than four hours on one charge (it used to do five when the nine-cell was new).

I'll be very curious to hear what you learn from your XP experience. My sense is that it will be much more acceptable. It might be the way to go for me too, since I'm anxious to upgrade my W5F, although what I really want is a Lambo!

 

This is sad.

Not directing at anyone..... Asus always seems to use this "it would be too expensive" excuse. I remembered that they used the same excuse on why W3J did not come with a stock T7200 or above. Well, I see alot of forumers complaining about it and if Asus did perform some market survey, they will know what consumers are looking for. It juz seems puzzling, IMHO.

Well, in the case of W3J, it will be easy to overcome since CPU are widely available on the market. But for V2Je, things are getting tricky since GPU are not that readily available.

True that V2Je will cost more if it is coupled with better GPU solutions, but I think there will still be people who will be willing to purchase V2Je that comes with better GPU. It's not as if people have a fixed amount on how much a laptop should cost without factoring in the specs. Else how will Asus expect laptops like V1, W2, VX2 etc. to sell.

One of the reason why a product does not sell is the product does not have what a consumer is looking for. I seriously hope Asus will surf this forum, do their market survey here and do some re-planning for a V2 refresh.

Juz some ranting & my $0.02. Knew that MilestonePC is his trying best to convey our messages too. Cheers.

 

Awww . .. They put the X1700 in the V1Jp, didn't they?

Besides X1450 with that kind of battery life is . . . ahhh . . . sad T-T

 

maybe it is just me, but i think that notebooks without the integrated -bulky webcam look much better, anyone else think so also...?

 

Definitely.

 

Man... Just look at the new lambo, great looking laptop that would have looked MUCH BETTER if they dropped the stupid eye-sore webcam....

they have to offer two choices for these laptops, with or without webcam....

 

I rarely use the webcam, but I'm sure many video chatters enjoy it, so what's good for goose is not good for the gander!

 

May be come Santa Rose ASUS will upgrade to X2600 (it's cheaper than X2700)

 

What if you tried a battery life test after disabling the webcam, maybe that can get you another 20 mins.

 

I don't think the webcam turns on unless you open the program that accompanies the webcam. That's how I've seen it work on other laptops with webcams, but I have no clue how Asus programmed their webcams.

 

Vista and XP won't make any major differnce on battery performance. I did a test on Asus V2J notebook, under the same way of use with the same unit(mid brightness, wireless on, internet browsing, word processing, with external USB optical mouse), 9-cell battery, Vista got 3 hours 5 mins, XP Pro got 3 hours 15 mins.

 

Shucks, that's not significantly better. And you could probably get closer to XP's performance by turning Aero off too.

I guess I have no choice but to go Lambo! Aw, that sux!

 

I would also like to see the battery results after the webcam has been disabled. I remember reading an article that the webcam draws battery even though it is not being used. This was the case for the W7j under xp (was warm to the touch eventhough not in use). Maybe its the same for the V2je.

The V2je looks so good, please don't let it be a "lemon" due to its battery life.

 

The laptop is very good,but it'll be much better if :
a) there was an NO-VISTA option.(IMO the little battery life is caused by this thing - just a useless,pretty OS I must add)
b) the keyboard didn't have this much flex.
c) the laptop could have the choice of a better GPU.[Whatever you, say nothing will fill the place of W3J, neither V2 or V1 or A8 ]

 

Has Asus fixed the "BIOS identifying the wrong battery life so it looks like heavy battery drain problem?" Just wondering if the V2 is suffering the same problem as the V1.

 

I'm quite sure they haven't fixed anything in that direction. It's a matter of luck; the V2 might or might not suffer from the issue. The W3J doesn't suffer from it and was released at the same time as the V6J.