Discussion thread on ASUS "power" portables - Hopes, Disappointments, Ideas

I think the whole discrete graphics and T7500 chip in the U6 is just silly. It's in the ultraportable category, so why not use integrated graphics and a L7500 chip instead?

Seems like Asus is trying to please users from different camps and just making a mess in the end. Not to say I'm not happy with my U3S, but I know a lot of people are upset at the battery life.

 

I kind of agree to this. It seems ASUS is diluting is efforts into producing a ton of different notebooks, and none of them is quite right to any given category of users (except the G1 and G2 which was very well targeted; it's clearly one of the most sold ASUS notebooks as a result).

I don't think this is a very productive strategy on their side. Read: they lose money because of this. And we don't get the notebooks we want.

But I don't see how this could be changed. Maybe the persons in charge of proposing new models don't really understand the needs of the market in the US and EU? I don't know.

 

Pulp has taken charge and purchased a F9dc, so far he's been positively surprised!

Thread here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=174538

 

I'm interested in hearing about the F9. Its definitely not worth it in the S form, since the W7S is the same price, but the Dc has a fantastic price.

 

You guys wanna see a weird A8? http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=5&l2=26&l3=270&l4=0&model=1847&modelmenu=2
A8Dc
AMD Turion+NVIDIA nForce® 630M+Intel GMAX3100

The A8Js was pretty well targeted as well. Lower price and size than the G1 with the same power.

 

It'll actually probably have an 8400M, the X3100 is just a typo, methinks. Btw, that link doesn't work.

 

Works for me. But 8400M makes more sense. Especially since tha'ts what F9Dc has.

 

But the battery life is dismal according to him

 

Well, its an Asus, it has an 8400M, and the AMD processor consumes more power than the Intel processors, so the battery life will be naturally even worse. Though, thats not really an excuse for pathetically bad battery life.

 

my only concern with asus so far is the battery life....if my 6 cell can last 3.5 hours....I'll be more than happy with my S96S

 

It won't even come close. You'll be lucky to get 2.5 hours out of it; even the 9 cell will barely hit 3.5 hours.

 

RKComputers has the S37S and S37E, with an optional 9 cell battery. Its supposedly in stock, so thats a good sign. Also interesting: its the S model, with a white exterior and gray interior, rather than the Z model, which has a black exterior and silver interior.

 

what's actually is going to be the difference between the Z and the S model?

 

I think its just the colour. It was thought earlier that the S model lacked a FP scanner, but the one at RKC obviously does have one, so evidently that was not correct. Other than that, I don't think there are any hardware differences.

 

Are either/both of them VBI?

 

I have no idea, to be honest. The only few VBI notebooks I know are the S96, S62, Compal HEL80, and Compal HGL30.