Asus X50V-AP023C Anyone have xperience with this?

I put this model on hold yesterday and need to decide tomorrow whether to buy it. I've spent two weeks doing intensive research on notebooks best suited to my needs (text and image editing), but only found the Asus yesterday. At first glance it seemed ideal. The price (849 euros/$US1145)
is good too, and less than half what I'd pay for the Dell 6400 I was looking at.

I'm looking at:
15.4" WXGA screen 1280 x 800
Intel Dual Core T2130 1.86 Ghz
RAM 2 GB
Cache memory 1024 KB
HD 160 GB (5400 rpm)/ 533 Mhz
Video Card ATI X2300 with 512 MB shared memory
6-cell Li-ion battery
In-built speakers
Camera
All the CD + DVD capabilities; Lightscribe integrated
System is Vista Home Premium and it has double boot capacity, so I can have it in English. Yippee! (I live in the Netherlands.)
It runs quietly
Nice keyboard, feels stable and comfortable to the touch
All set up for wireless/LAN
4 USB ports
2-year guarantee
Weight: 2.65kg
Dimensions: 36,5 x 26,2 x 3,5 cm

No Bluetooth
No numbers pad
No IEEE 1394
No IRDA

I have Microsoft Office 2003, so would install that. I understand it works fine with Vista.

If anyone has any experience - positive or negative - with this machine, I'd be pleased to hear about it.

Thanks!

Donna

 

I believe the x50 is also known as the F3 here, and the X51 is the F5, check on those.

Another option you may want to consider is the HP dv6500.

 

Thanks for that information, coriolis. Now I have another one (the HP) to think about. (-:

I'll also check the threads to see if anyone's using the Asus F3. I didn't realise it was actually the x50.

Donna

 

It's not the exact same model but it seems like a no frills low end model based on a very similiar chassis, it lacks the camera, BT, Firewire, among other things.

 

The HP dv6500 looks good as well. I'm just trying to find a price here in the Netherlands. If you were choosing between the Asus X50 and the HP, which do you think you'd go for, and why?

Donna

 

I personally have not seen nor used the x50 in person, but if its anything like the F3 or F5 series that are out, they are quite good consumer notebooks, inexpensive but sturdy and powerful. I too, can say that about the dv6500, it's one of my favorite retail notebooks since it's inexpensive but built very well(and looks nice to boot).

If possible, I'd really recommend you to see if you can find it in person(either notebooks) and see for yourself. It may be hard to do, but sites like this one tries to help the process go as easy as possible.

 

Thanks again for your input. I've seen and handled the X50, and it's very nice indeed. I'm hoping the dv6500 is also at the same shop (though I don't recall seeing it when I was there), so that I can compare them later today or tomorrow.

Donna