Asus W3J Pics and benchmarks etc

I'm pretty sure that the ProPortable images show a UK keyboard...
the North American version will have a US keyboard layout..

 

On UK keyboard, Shift-3 = £ whereas it is, if my memory is correct, # on the US keyboard. On the UK keyboard the # is over next to the enter key. \ and / may also have moved. Overall, there is one more key. You can use keyboard remapping software to change the keys back to what you want (or maybe you can simply tell Windows it is US keyboard).

Once back in US you could buy a US W3 keyboard as a spare part and fit it.

John

 

Thanks John,

for a second there I thought because the image had a pound, Euro and dollar symbols that they may have had one layout for both.

I use a UK layout at work and my current laptop is US layout, but noticed how ASUS cram all the page up and down buttons down the right side and shorten the shift keys, its just all a bit crammed, the 12'' layout seems more spacious to me. I was wondering how different the US layout is, anyone have any pictures they could post so I could check?

But it does sound like there is minimal difference anyway.

Cheers

 

Looking at the photo of a US W3V keyboard at http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/9705.jpg I can see that the enter key is a completely different shape between the US and UK keyboards and also the left shift key on the UK keyboard is much smaller because the \ key has taken part of the space. Both keyboards have the same arrangement for the Home, End, etc keys.

John

 

Kingdavids, sorry to pile on the million demands from forum users, but I was hoping you would run a few battery tests under slightly different conditions.

First, battery life while (a) running a DVD, (b) at a brightness that's good enough for watching even dark DVDs, a la the Matrix, and (c) with wireless, Bluetooth, and all other software turned OFF.

Second, battery life while (a) running MS Word and/or Adobe PDF and/or other normal office software, (b) also running iTunes or something for music, (c) at a screen brightness good enough for office work (probably lower than with DVDs), and (d) with wireless OFF but Bluetooth ON.

Lastly, battery life while listening to music without booting to Windows (I'd ask about watching a DVD w/o booting Windows, but I think the W3J only permits music -- correct me if I'm wrong).

It's a lot of tests, I know, but I'm hoping these will be useful tests for everyone. I travel a lot for business, and these are the things that I think most business travelers do with their laptops all the time while on planes, trains, etc. And the DVD one is particularly interesting to me since obviously an optical bay battery is useless if you're watching a DVD.

Thanks a lot for everything you've posted thus far. You've been a really great help!

 

Well, for the optical battery beeing useless for dvd's, you could just rip the dvd to the HD...then you use up less power as well...
But, I understand that may be a hastle for some...

 

Were u at Tottenham Court Road? Which shop? Price? thanks

 

The one on Proportable is a W3V it says so right above it in huge red lettering.


*Pictures below show the W3v. The W3j will use the same chassis and coloring but may still vary slightly.

 

Yeah it was Platinum Solutions 237 Tottenham Court Road, price was the standard £1,395?? something like that (I dont think prices vary that much with ASUS) but it is worth going to the bank and getting cash out, because the cash price is £1,275 and you dont have to pay for posatge! and because I am going to the US in two weeks I can claim my VAT back making it effectively £1096, but once converted to USD is still £1096 GBP = $1,911 USD, still more expensive than the states.

 

So what your essentially telling me is that if i pay by CC the price will be £1395 but if i pay cash its £ 1275?? Interesting. Did they have the W3J on display?

Do note that the VAT refund is actually 11% not 17.5% .. sellers usually try to dodge people this way.. so if u do plan on buying it ask then the exact % which will be refunded.. i get VAT refunds all the time since im always travelling between pakistan and the uk and its 11% only.

 

Do note that the VAT refund is actually 11% not 17.5% .. sellers usually try to dodge people this way.. so if u do plan on buying it ask then the exact % which will be refunded.. .[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the heads up about the VAT, I am heading down again tomorow to check on a few things I will confirm the price, as at the time I didnt think it would be cheaper, so didnt take too much notice, although I am quite certain about the £1275 cash

Stock wise, he had one left it was on display, looks nice, was good to pick it up and take a close look, he has more ariving tomorrow.

 

alright id really appreciate it if u could do me a small favour.. check the ram whether its 533mhz or 667? Also whether the HD is SATA or PATA?
cheers

 

I know for sure it is 1 GB, 667mhz RAM and I am 95% sure it is PATA I dont think the W3J supports SATA.

 

Hmm .. PATA is quite a bit slow as opposed to SATA.. and i think prob PATA will become obselete in the near future.. maybe i can swap it afterwards with a SATA but u mentioned it wont be supported by the lappy..what do u guys think?

 

SATA hasn't show itself to be much faster than PATA in notebooks. Check out Danny's benchmark sticky. The real speed boost comes from going with a 7200rpm drive over the standard 5400.
Jay

 

to add another spanner in the works, as it happens I read a review a few weeks ago in a PC Pro mag here un the UK, it compared the Seagate Momentus 5400 rpm drive against a Hitachi 7200rpm drive, and basically the Seagate had such quich seek time (12ms) so it actually performed the same as the 7200 Hitachi drive on random access, and the Hitachi only just streatched ahead on sustained data transfer.

Personally, I am going with a 5400rpm Seagate (less power consumption, and great performance) Also Segate have new perpendicular drives, check them out.

http://news.com.com/Seagate+cranks+up+notebook+drives+to+160GB/2100-1015_3-6027414.html

 

what kind of heat difference are we talker about here? was thinking of trying to find 10000 rpm raptor drive just for fun was curious if that would drastically increase the heat (I know it definately will decrease battery life)

 

Getting more and more envious of KingDavid as May crawls closer slowly, ever so slowly...

 

I'm like REALLY hoping that I see a message or get an email saying it was received ahead of schedule...blah blah blah

 

Yeah i'm also hoping that the W3J is delivered early because i'm going to my parents house on April 28. I was hoping i'd have it by then, so i could show it off to my bro.

 

Maybe if I quit checking the boards 5 times a day May will come sooner?

 

As far as i know, you cant get 10,000 rpm notebook drives

 

I am passing the time with this.

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/dell2405/index.htm

It will be here friday. On a side note I am almost more excited about this monitor than the W3J (almost).

 

I think seagate makes a 10k 2.5" drive.. however it's got a SCA connector on it, haven't seen that many laptops with SCSI interfaces

 

excited about w3j!!!!

 

ah well, just curious.... how about that bluetooth? anyone know if it can suport that new video streaming?

 

The W3J has the latest Bluetooth 2 with edr, which means you can stream audio to headsets, I have never heard of streaming video over bluetooth??

 

was wondering..
if i got a friend to go over to the UK for me to get the w3j, can I get it tax free?
if so, how much tax would be deducted?

and if he takes it out of the box and said that he brought it along with him when hes back in my country's airport, he doesn't have to pay my country's tax right?

umm.. sorry.. not very clear on these stuff..
^^;;

 

Joy, that may work, but your better off just waiting.. 1.5 weeks or soo.

You gotta remember the UK is sooo expensive!

Unless you really need ur W3J now, then i dunno. I say just wait. Everyone else is!

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

Early reviews suggest to me that the W3J may not be for me. I don't do intense gaming and need more battery life. the screen size is perfect but less weight would be nice.
Any suggestions on an alternative Asus model would be appreciated.

 

The uh....ummm.... doh! I forgot the name. It has a 13.3 inch screen, core duo, and a 7400 and is an Asus (not the Sony SZ).

 

Probrably the W7?

 

I guess, isn't that 7300? Maybe I made it up. Sorry about that, don't listen to me. (except my apology, listen to that, don't listen to the rest of it, unless its true, then listen).

 

haha.. i forgot to mention, I'm not from the US, Im from Singapore.

Ours will only be here around May.
The news we've heard is that it'll prolly cost around 3.4k to 3.5k..
So I was thinking it'll prolly be cheaper to get it from the UK, get it tax free..
^^

 

oh!! ic, i din't even read ur location..it even says singapore, lol... ohwell.

Hmm.. interesting, check if anyone US retailers will send it to singapore, and then check if any UK retailers can.

Im sure the US prices will be about 100-200$ USD cheaper than the UK one...which will save you some of ur money..

I really suggest you wait 1.5 weeks, tho, because there's only one person on the forum who has it, and we need more news!!! lol

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

Pictures don't work!!!

 

Ahhhhhh... one quick question.

So there ISN'T a virtual mouse clicking thing?? Is it still depressable (and clicks?) I was hoping it would be the new kind that rumors were going around about it being touch and whatnot, etc. (I'm new so don't flame me)

Can anyone explain the mouse? Or let me know if it's just a plain 'ol mouse as any laptop?

 

It's a single rectangular button with two touch sensors (for lack of a better word) - it looks very close to a normal mouse except that there's not a pronounceable line down to separate the two buttons. There is a small sliver of light to identify the separation.

If you look on the Asus Global website, you can see it on the W3j.

 

So no more clicking sound right? Doesn't depress? (Sorry if I'm annoying)
That sounds awesome though!! Touch is great.

 

Hehe.. thx for the suggestion Mystic. =)
Yeah, I'll be waiting for a while longer, but just wanna source out any other options that I have..
=P

 

I've read the reviews and have the Hitachi 7200RPM drive, its really fast!! it just lost to my 80gig 7200rpm DESKTOP 3.5" drive in HDtune benchmark. And if you look at the power consumption, there is only very very little difference as the faster the drive the less time it has to move the heads...

yes the seagate are faster for I/O performance, but get left behind in the read/write tests. All depends what kind of stuff you do on ur lappy. I got mine for $293 NZ

* EDIT* ahh someone just did a nice little mini review:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2884
insane

 

Joy... if i m not wrong, singapore has no import tax. so it will be cheaper to get it locally (electronics is cheap in s'pore) than say us or uk(pound = x3)

btw, where did you hear that w3j will arrive in may?? all the shops i asked knows nuts about it.... lol.

 

Justin from Proportable.com keeps us updated. The W3J's new ETA is around the 8-10 of May. Remember its still ETA that means it can change.

 

singapore prices shud be cheaper than uk/europe prices, but there's no way we can beat US/Canadian prices. notebook is so much more common there, while in Singapore we're just getting started, imho.

Anyway, it was the asus distributor who said on the phone that it'll be coming early may (soonest), but cant confirmed when or whether V6J will come. Anyhoot..

wonder if the fact kingdavids isnt posting anything else thus far a sign that everything is all good with the w3j, or he's been too preoccupied dealing with its problems. *cross fingers*

 

I don't plan to order one till late May or early June. You guys think they will have them in stock by then? or would they still be fulfilling advance orders still? :?

 

I think in the UK Asus are still not that well known, so I think there will be stock, the guy I spoke to today said he had plenty, but if you want give him a call...

+44 (0)20 7636 6500 Peter Chu, is the guy who sells the Asus laptops.

 

sorry i forgot to add that i'm in California, US.

 

ooooooooops

 

Got it got got it !!!!!!! So glad I live in Europe!!!
W3 R O C K S!!!