Asus W7S-A1B thoughts please!

My Thinkpad idea is gone and over with because they can't have it ready for me for when I need it. Anyone have any experience with the W7S? My only concern is battery life and the fact that the RAM can only goto 1.5 GB...

 

Actually, you can put a 2GB stick of RAM into the open slot for a maximum of 2.5GB, which makes it better, but still limiting. Thats probably the only reason I have not yet purchased a W7 (I liked the 'J' last year, and the 'S' this year, but the RAM limitation is really killing me)

And I personally like the white model better (A1W)

 

I've considered buying this laptop as well, and the memory limitation was a huge minus. Everything else is awsome, though. I don't understand why they'd do such a thing.

One question that noone was able to answer me is how was the battery life? Does the nvidia video card take a lot of it?

 

I've got a W5 with 1.5GB ram, and really, from my previous notebook with 2GB of ram I've seen no difference at all.

if you were someone who had photoshop , deamweaver, freehand, indesign , illustrator all open at once then maybe you'd see a difference.

honest truth is that most people dont run very resource hungy apps, and amount of RAM is simply for bragging rights.

insane

 

I'm curious as to why everyone thinks the memory situation with the W7S is such a huge problem. Yes it limits your maximum memory capacity to 2.5GB, but Vista runs great even on 1.5GB (hell Vista runs just fine on my desktop system, and that thing is relatively ancient with an Athlon 64 3000+ single core CPU and 1GB of DDR-400). By the time 2.5GB isn't enough for day-to-day use, the W7S will be obsolete enough in other ways that you'll be looking for a new laptop. That having been said, I still agree that the way the memory is set up on the W7S is odd as hell, but obviously it didn't stop me from buying it.

As for my experiences with the W7S, I'll just list some quick pros and cons.

Pro:

+ Small and light, and generally less expensive than other laptops in the same class (~4 pounds, 13.3" screen, Santa Rosa platform).
+ Excellent performance, partly due to discrete 8400M G graphics with dedicated 128MB memory
+ Very, very quiet
+ Screen lighting is quite even compared to other laptops I've seen (including all three of my brother's Dell machines)
+ Solid build quality, the keyboard doesn't flex and the system just doesn't feel like it'll fall apart in your hands
+ Comes with a lot of accessories (two bags, Bluetooth wireless mouse, misc other doodads)

Con:

- Only one memory slot and built-in 512MB memory means upgrade options are limited. The maximum supported memory is 2.5GB, significantly less than many other laptops with two memory slots.
- Merely average battery life with included 6-cell battery. I get about 2:30-2:45 with wireless on just browsing the internet and other light tasks (i.e. word processing, etc.), subtract about 15 minutes if I'm listening to music and watching the occasional video on YouTube. Haven't tried watching a full DVD on battery power, but I'm going to try that sometime this week to see what it can do.
- 8400M G graphics system is not a powerful one. Though it supports DX10 in hardware, it is a low end discrete graphics solution and you shouldn't expect miracles in games. I get about 1800 in 3DMark05 with default settings, which is roughly equivalent to what I got on my old desktop system with a Radeon 9500 and Athlon XP @ 2.2GHz. It runs World of Warcraft decently and handles CS:S just fine, but you do not want to do any real gaming with it. (As a point of comparison, the 8400M GS in the Dell XPS M1330 is roughly 50-60% faster, but even then I wouldn't call it a gaming laptop.)
- The W7S does get a bit warm, especially at the exhaust vent on the right side. The keyboard/palmrest and underside never get uncomfortably warm, and the exhaust vent isn't something you'd burn yourself on, but it is warmer than other laptops I've used. This is the price you pay for the fact that the W7S is a really quiet laptop.

I think that about covers it.

 

Wait, isn't the 8400M G supposed to top 2000 in 3DMark 06, much less 05? Something is seriously wrong with your benchmarks....

 

3DMark06 score of 2000 for 8400 M G? Are you sure?

 

Agree with you mate, they're just asking too much

If you're not doing intensive tasks, 1.5GB is really more than enough.

 

No, what I wrote isn't a typo, and there's nothing wrong with that score either. 1800 in 3DMark 05 is what I'm getting, and that result is perfectly normal for the 8400M G.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

They're getting just under 2000 in 05 and about 1150 in 06, which is fairly close to my results. Remember, the 8400M series is the lowest end of the DX10 line, and the G in the W7S is the lowest end of that low end line. The 8400M used in the XPS M1330 and others like the Inspirion 1420/1520 is the GS, which as I mentioned earlier, is about 50-60% faster than the G but is still slow by gaming standards. Note that the 8400M G still blows integrated X3100 graphics out of the water.

Nobody's buying a 4-pound ultraportable to do serious gaming anyway. If you want to do any real gaming on a laptop you're going to want at least the 8600M GS (and preferably GT), and as far as I know you won't find that on any ultraportable laptop regardless of price.

 

Oh, I was thinking of the GS, sorry.

 

I have just got my ASUS W7S and I have written a full review of it including pictures and benchmarks, i'm just waiting for NotebookReview to reply so I can submit my review. Bear with me as I have just done a battery drain test and it lasted 2hr 32mins just sitting idle (wireless on, battery saving mode, 40% brightness). I think this is shorter than the battery life of the W7J.

I agree that the upgrade potential of the RAM is compromised with the onboard 512MB stick, lets say you upgrade to 2.5GB and that isn't enough so the next logical step is to slap a 4GB stick (if they even exist) to make 4.5GB of RAM. But unless you have a 64bit OS, most laptops with 32bit Vista would only support a max of 4GB.

I found 1.5GB to be enough even when playing games like BF2 but just now when I opened 50 photos in photoshop all my RAM was used up and I could hear the page file on my hard drive working; I see your point Vivek and I too will feel better with at least 2.5GB RAM.

As for the GeForce 8400M G it is ok for a laptop and here are my 3DMark results:
3DMark05: 1775


3DMark06: 1082

 

Unfortunatelly it isn't that simple... The chipset needs to be able to address all of the 4GB, else it will show as 2GB. Personally I don't think this will be the case and 2.5GB is the limit for this machine. It isn't bad, but it could be better.

 

Anyone know what the difference is between the W7S A1B and the B1B? Is it just the inclusion of another battery? Based on my shopping around, Canadacomputers.com has about a 200 dollar price difference and I am looking for alternatives to the vaunted V2S. Does this price increase make sense in terms of offerings?

Hmm, I glossed over the fact that the processor is upped by 0.2ghz and theres 0.5 more gigs of ram and more HD space, other than that... are there opinions I guess I am asking, is that worth a 200 dollar price premium?

 

The difference is in the CPU (2.2GHz v.s. 2.0GHz), installed RAM (1.5GB v.s. 1GB), hard drive (160GB v.s. 120GB), and battery (6-cell + 9-cell v.s. 6-cell). Given the mere $240 price difference ($1789 v.s. $1549), I think the B1B is the better deal.

Obviously this assumes you want the black one, since the B-spec is only available in black. If you want the white one, you have no choice except the A1W.

 

The Intel 965GM/PM chipset is able to address more than 4GB of memory, so it is actually that simple. And a 4GB stick of notebook RAM at this point isn't even on the market yet, regardless of price. For the first year after its introduction, it will be ungodly expensive, similar to the 2GB sticks last year.

The problem with the B1B is that its nearly the same price as some much nicer models, such as the V2S ($46 usd more expensive). The V2 isn't much heavier, but it offers a much more powerful graphics card (more than twice as fast) and no RAM limitations, plus other nice features.

 

Hmm, this is in an interesting point. I can get the W7S B1B now, for 1769, which ends up being in the neighbourhood of about 70-80 dollars cheaper (so sort of like 46 USD) than the V2S. The 64 000 dollar question, or in this case, the $46 dollar question is whether or not the stupid V2S will ever come out! Also I guess its a slightly bigger form factor

 

Right, the V2S is a better system if you're looking for maximum performance in a relatively small form factor. So it really depends on your requirements. For me, portability was the #1 factor above all else so the W7S made sense, but if you're willing to go up to 5lbs and step out of the "ultraportable" arena then the V2S is a very nice machine.

 

That is true... I did consider getting a V2S but there were 2 things that I considered, the first was size/weight as the V2 is bigger and heavier and wouldn't really be any improvement over my last laptop (weight-wise). The second was the availability and shipping date, which was very uncertain and I did require a laptop ASAP.

Anyways, I've had my W7S for a week now and I couldn't be happier. It's an awesome machine and delivers much more in terms of performance than what I thought it would. I'm not saying that it doesn't have its share of problem, but they are completely overshadowed by its good points.