Asus Z70VA vs IBM T42/43 or Z60m

I am a die hard ThinkFan Never owned non IBM till date. However, it seems that several vendors might be catching up. If I have to order another laptop, I would consider the a T series with SXGA+, 7200rpm drive or a similar configed Z70VA due to the brand name of Asus (I am sure its better than Dell).

So how does a Z70VA compare with a T42/43 or a Z60m in terms of
* build quality
* reliability
* customer service

Of course, the Z70VA might win in terms of features, GPU etc and its priced lower. Does anyone own both an asus and a T series?

 

The build quality is very good, carbon fibre, not as strong as the magnesium on the T-series, but still very protective. They are quite reliable, however, IBM/Lenovo is quite quite ahead of the crowd.

As for CS, the z70va depends on the reseller and not ASUS, but with resellers like ProPortable and Geared2Play, expect great customer service!

I owned the T21(PIII 900mhz, 20gb HD, 256 RAM) for half a year, and converting from that to the z70va was quite a huge step, not only the screen resolution, but the keyboard was very similiar, just sans the fingerpointer. The KB is like the Tseries, but just a tad stiffer and a tad 'deeper'. But the t21 was in use for quite a few years...

 

you should ask yourself how much gaming you intend to do. neither IBM's have a great graphics card (or any if all)..

and by gaming i mean playing graphics intensive games like Doom 3, Farcry, etc..

other wise if it's not much of a priority..i think you SHOULDN'T consider the Asus Z70VA, and instead opt for the Z70V (with a lower gpu)..or even the Z70A. you'll save your self alot of money

 

Because ASUS doesn't sell you the Z70Va directly, customer service would rely solely on the reseller from which you buy from.

In terms of build quality... the Z70Va is almost as good as a Thinkpad; the keyboard on the Asus isn't as solid as on the T42/43...but then again, not many keyboards out there are as good as IBM keyboards. However, the chassis build, screen, and everything else should be just as good as the T series.
Reliability...I'd say they're about equal; both manufacturers make high quality machines worth just about every dollar you spend on them.

 

I can safely assume AuroraS is the slowest typer of the 3 of us

 

Poo on you coriolis! Maybe I was just reading the original post while you guys were already typing...

 

Thanks for the quick response.

I have dropped Thinkpads by mistake and nothing has ever happened to them. Can I expect that kind of reliability. Also are the Z70VA keyboards spill proof? Also my T42 is very silent. How is the Asus?

The main reason I am thinking about the Asus is that the display might be better than a thinkpad and thats important. I am not a gamer but I do run openGL programs

I hope someone who owns both can share his/her experience.

 

Ooohhh...

It's as spill proof as a Dell... Or at least I think so, since ASUS never said anything about that - And I ain't testing that out!

It does get somewhat loud by default, because it IS a x700 inside a 15.4" frame, but you can manually use SpeedFan and configure the fans to your likings.

I've dropped my z70va a few times, and it was ON, and god was I scared I just broke it. But so far it's been solid....Hope I never drop it again. I'll duct tape it to my waist or something

Hmm, openGL...I guess a Quadro on a IBM/Lenovo or even a Dell Latitude would also be an option..

 

My M6Ne (same chassis as Z70Va) dropped from the top of a tour bus cargo hold before ... (keep in mind it was inside of the stock carrying case) and nothing at all happened to it. No dents or anything... that's a ~7 foot drop!

 

Since we're on a topic about accidents, I've owned my z70va for about a month, and it's already gone through 4 drops...

1. Fell off my arms(I was carrying textbook/mouse/binder and a glass of OJ) while going up carpeted stairs, it was ON and landed on my slipper(Which had padding...errr, it looks like this:

but peach coloured. Hmmm - that was embarassing.) But good think it landed on the Optical Disk side and then fell flat.

2. It was in my Crumpler and someone knocked it off a table at school. I was going to tackle her, but I don't think that would of helped heh.

3. Was in sleeve, fell about a 3rd of a feet, caught it right when it hit the ground.

4. Not a drop but I was carrying it from my room to another room but I lost grip of it, but caught it in midair while it was running. No bad sectors on HD....yet