Dissapointed in Asus recently

I have to say, i'm less than excited about Asus's performance lately. Nothing they've got out seems innovative or sleek or attention grabbing. Just more of the same. New graphics/processor in the same package. I was really hoping for something like a w3j with longer battery, thinner package, led backlighting, etc. Maybe i'm just being too critical? Anyone else have an opinion (or a shimmer of hope) ?

EDIT: And i've got to say that the return to the typical hing style vs the w7 of the w3 is a big dissapointment to me.

What type of things would you guys like to see them implement? Anyone know of anything coming down the pipeline?

 

I've only had this G1 for about a year, so I'm not looking to upgrade anytime soon. But yeah, innovation is good. Thinner, lighter, more powerful, with longer battery life. Who wouldn't want those things?

 

yah, i could really use an extra hour or two on my battery life, 2 hours isnt quite enough at school all day and if my battery's performance is going to decrease (like they all do eventually) its guna get even worse...

 

battery life for me. 2hrs and and quick battery wear is a big problem w/ asus notebooks. THey really need to work on the battery life. The dells atleast get 3hrs on the notebooks

 

They're pinning a lot of their future in the notebook segment on the C90s, the G series, and I giess the f series as the bread-and-butter lineup.

I actually see a lot of potential in the C90s not just from a consumer customization standpoint but from asus themselves. Now whether or not they will do anything remains to be seen but yeah, I can see what you're getting t with a lack of new ideas. Keep in mind though that Asus is still a smaller company that lacks the huge bankrolls that companies like Dell and HP have to throw around. I mean to dell, whats 5 million on R&D? They make how many millions a year in bulk sales? Same with companies like sony and toshiba who do things besides make computers, they can take money from other operations and put it into the computer area if they need to. So while it is upsetting at the lack of some innovation, keep this into perspective form their point of view.

 

Perhaps its just perception and point of view. isnt the c90 an innovation by itself ? This is the first laptop that offers a great degree of user accessibility and customization. Well, i guess it is logical to assume that as technology improves, the mobile PC will become more and more like the desktop pc scenario... and most probably more people would be more interested in tinkering with their laptops.

 

I'm just dissappointed that we still haven't heard news about the others in the C80/C90 series..especially the C91

 

Not the only one here, there are many people, most of which are previous ASUS users(mostly from the pre-A8 generation) who love the brand cause of the quality of notebooks, back then of course.

Now, they're pushing harder for inexpensive and overall average quality notebooks which are produced and sold in much larger quantities. Back then notebooks only came in shipments of less then a hundred at a time, which preserved the 'exclusivity' and 'quality' of the machines then. Now, well....

 

Well they are a business and are doing well from themselves. I'm still content to see overall build quality is good. They are looking to expand and grow and their numbers don't lie they are booming.

 

I understand what you're saying about the c90 and I do agree. However, from my standpoint, its styling and construction looks more the way of Acer's lines. NO, I have not held or played with it, but just from the photos... The Asus EEE is also innovative, but, well...I'll skip my negative thoughts on its shortcoming as I have made them known in other threads.


EDIT: I realize i'm being hard on Asus, but I hold them to a high standard.

 

I'm going to say this, and probably catch a lot of flack for it, but oh well...

I think that the "gaming" notebooks has hurt Asus a lot. Asus when I came around was producing computers like the V6, W3, and W2. All of those are iconic as quality Asus notebooks. I have owned both V6j and the W3j, and I can tell you that they are quality. However, at that time, Asus started to introduce gaming notebooks, and they sell. So now, Asus wants to sell as many of those as they can, at the cost of their quality and name. I won't buy Asus again. There is nothing worth buying from them, and further they won't fix the problems in their notebooks. I like the computers I have, but in the future, something else, probably ThinkPad.

 

Well do you mind sharing what quality issues you think the G series have? And in all honesty, every company has a quality issue with their product at some point or another, it's just a part of continuously growing as a company. Now continuously having problems is a sign of poor testing and development but from my experience with my C90s I've only heard of issues not experienced any myself besides windows problems but that's microsoft's problem.

Having owned an HP desktop and having REAL quality issues I'd have to say that any problems you've had pale compared to the problems of most name-brand companies. My old pavilion desktop burned through 3 hard drives, a dvd player, 2 power supplies, needed a complete reinstall of windows on the second and third drive at least twice, has had ram fail, had the video module fail...the computer that is in the HP case is not an HP. Why my parents didn't buy a new one for the price of all the parts is beyond me but trust me when I say that I know what quality issues are and asus doesn't have them. I used to own an asus desktop board as well as a soyo and a systemax and the only one that gave me any problems was my systemax and that was my fault for OCing too high. I've owned an asus desktop and loved it now I'm on an asus laptop and loving it. I can't think of owning any other laptop brand now.

 

I'll go out on the limb with Caleb and agree here, with the caveat that I'm waiting to see how the new F8 shakes out. The V1/2 series hasn't lived up to the hype before their launch, the U series is a niche product that is nearly as small as the S6, and the W5/7 are likely nearing EOL within a year. The unfortunate fact is that the G series is not a gaming notebook when compared to the performance the other more traditional gaming units from Clevo and Sager, and shoot me I just don't get their colored keys and blinky lights; I also think the C series is way too small a niche market that I'll wager they will drop within 18 months.

Back when I also came into Asus in the Z70/W3 days it truly was quality, but when my turn comes up in a year or two I'm not sure I'm staying in the Asus camp, which is a sad admission to make on my part.

I will also don my asbestos undies now.

 

When I first came in, Asus was pushing the M6 (Or was it the m5?). One of the first to use CF. It was the first time I ever really wanted a notebook. As I have said in my previous posts, the newer lines seem like something Acer would produce. Acer CAN make nice notebooks, but when I see large chunks of gray plastic, I think Acer.


I'd honestly like to see them have a line that was Macbook Pro in status. Aluminum, carbon fiber, LED, etc. Not the entire product line, just a high end notebook or two that would be desirable for more than pink leather.

 

Comparison to a mbp? MBPs are just overpriced and are nothing theres nothing incredible about them except their price. They do have rather good battery life though. I compared my c90s screen to my friends mbps led and in all honesty it is nothing that incredible. His screen is slightly brighter than mine and it really doesnt produce a better quality image.

Clearskies the g1 is gaming. The sagers and clevos you are referring to are 17 inchs and are much bigger. The sager only has an ifl90 which doesnt give as much performance as the g1. You can't compare 17 inches to 15.4s.
I see your point about a few notebooks but how can a company expand by selling 1,2 or even 4 notebooks. They are trying to fill more niches and expand just like any company.

 

To be perfectly honest, I have no interest in whether or not it looks better. It's the power savings I want. I do agree the MBP is overpriced, but it's unique and although I hate that apple owners buy for this reason, stylish.

 

No I meant the LED producing a better image. Power savings sure but that has to do with Mac OS too compared to using a windows os. Looks are subjective but they are not attractive to me. I hardly find it unique just like ipods, the fact that everyone owns one and thinks its a status symbol makes it even less appealing.

 

I love the look of my C90s. It has a nice shiny top. Smooth edges with a simple design scheme, and that awesome turbo engine advertises its performance. The fact that I got it for 1500 dollars and it outperforms any other 1500$ notebook was what sold me though. Looks and even value are subjective however. I value the amount of performance per dollar I get more than battery life or looks. People who buy macbooks value the looks and os more than performance in games.

And to the people who say there's bad quality in the Asus lineup: Examples please! If they're there, they're there and you can prove them. But just saying 'They have bad quality" doesn't make it so. I might not particularly like dells but I have not had a bad experience them outside of a public use setting where god knows how many people have beat on the poor thing. I personally found them to be overpriced when ordering my laptop and I didn't see the need to spend the big dollar for the XPS. But that's just my opinion.

 

^Totally agree. You and I have the same "bang for the buck" philosophy. Even if Asus's quality was bad I would put Asus's bad quality on par with dell's good quality notebooks.

 

Notebooks I've owned prior to my Asus were Thinkpads and business class models from Toshiba & HP. Overall I'm very satisfied though I did expect a bit better than 2 hrs. of battery life from a 12.1" notebook, especially with one that has a battery that sticks out the back I've even managed to undervolt the CPU using RMClock, from .800V down to .675V in Power Saving mode, but that bought me maybe 15 mins. more tops.

 

=D cheer up guys, we are pushing the technology to its limit and pushing it through, well if we arent satisfied we can always make our own company XD!! ... but for me Asus still is pretty good, well, comparing to other companies, Asus still has the lead, a big lead. Innovation comes standard, you can always send an mail to asus and suggest XD .... or become one of their hardware engineers and make one =D ... for me, the C90s is a big leap in the notebook industry, and pretty satisfied, not 100% at the shipping from my reseller, but the notebook from how I see it, its awsome! ... when we don't like it, we mod it =D, just waiting for companies to give us new notebooks are boring~ a lot of the innovations on notebooks are from previous modders~ and comparing to other companies, asus is still quiet good, so if we are suppose to be dissapointed, we should be dissapointed at the whole notebook industry, rather then Asus =D

 

I agree that we should be disappointed with the entire notebook industry, but there are innovators, and Asus is one of them. This is why we are disappointed in them. They are willing to try new things, implement new technologies, and produce concepts that are different. You can't build another story on a house that has a weak foundation though. Asus should focus on designing notebooks with better battery life and cooling, not how many features and ports they can pack in. Maybe we expect too much because Asus set the bar too high.

 

well i guess, we have our own reasons for buying laptops. Some go for the looks, some go for gaming performance, some go for build quality, some go for the " best bang for the buck ". Its IMPOSSIBLE for any company to meet all these requirements... ( or even if they can have all of these, u'll end up with a notebook that is at least 5000$ )

Its unfair to be disappointed in ASUS for not fitting each person's perfect idea for a notebook. Innovation wise, ASUS' attempt to make a hybrid desktop/notebook PC could be considered revolutionary.

 

I'm pretty sure that Dell and HP have already done that, so it isn't really innovation.

 

Yes dell made one - it's called the XPS that sucked balls. It was the one with the detatchable keyboard and fancy screen...and a really ****ty processor, probably no battery life, and cost more than a desktop and laptop combined...

innovation was the C90s - still no battery life but damn is this thing fast. Combine that with the whiteboard philosiphy and I think even asus can benefit from this platform. Think about it - if we can improve outright preformance, what's stopping some creative modders from making some changes that will increase battery life like replacing the turbo engine with a turbo battery? Or maybe taking the webcam off and instead making a mini-display screen? Or how about different case bottoms like maybe one with a built-in cooler or one that angles the laptop up like a desktop? I feel like the future is in my hands when I'm using this beast.

 

True, but when it comes to the mainstream consumer this doesn't matter...

 

I would agree with you, but Asus actually makes a notebook (sometimes many) for every single market segment. They've done well with some, and not so well with others. They try too hard to please everyone.

 

^ Thats what most companies do. You expand your market. Its only natural.

 

I think that is a terrible way to look at how Asus should work. If you want raw performance, it is easy to mod those parts, but is takes degrees in engineering to make a webcam into a small display. That isn't something that 99.9% of the computer enthusiasts will ever be able to do. Asus needs to provide that, not faster processors, since 99% of the enthusiasts can do that.

 

Do most companies have 20+ different notebooks on the market at any given time? Let me list the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I'm not going to include different models of the same notebook, but I will include different notebooks in the same series.

VX2, V1, V2, W2, R1, F9, F8, G1, G2, U1, U3, W7, C90, S6, and many more

 

I agree, there is nothing special being the the only 15.4" notebook with an LED backlit screen and packing in a core2 duo with a DDR3 8600gt in a 14.1" x 9.6" x 1.0" 5.4 lb chassy with a 4+ hour battery life...

 

^ yes there is special about it being over 1k more than my c90 and providing less performance. Like I said its a great machine, just not a great machine for its price. Its LED is nothing fantastic and its batteyr life is not that great when compared to a g1 which performs better than it.

Also most notebooks have a core 2duo and having an 8600 is standard for it (hell even 14 inches have 8600 gts in them). Also the dimensions aren't that impressive though its weight is. My c90s dimensions are 14.4 x 10.5 x 1.3. Yes its bigger but not drastically.

The OS has alot to do with the battery life actually and if you ran windows on it that battery life would shrink so its rather due to the os than the laptop itself.

 

Your quoting old models. There are only a few in each department that are the current models.

Tablet is R1
13.3- U series, U1, U3
14-A8, V2S
15.4-C90, G1, V1, F3
17-g2 series. W2

Yeah and most are quality products. I would say none of those products are terrible. If you break it down my market it has only 2-3 lines of notebooks.

 

Well after building a z96j for my dad, I was dead set on buying an ASUS for myself for college. However their lineup just simply sucked for a college student and it seems like Asus is always 2 + months later than their ETA's. Asus machines seem to be getting bulkier, are having more battery issues, and what happened to using quality materials? I would have been all over a santa rosa w3j. As for performance, it is just a part of functionality. a c90 gives you a 1/4 of the battery life of a MBP and is a good deal bulkier. About the 8600 gt's being standard, well it seems like the MBP and the Asus G1 seem to be the only ones not castrated by ddr2 memory. And as for the LED screen not offering an improvement, I can tell you it is much sharper and brighter than the screen on the z96j.

I do not regret getting a MBP. Its closest competitor on the ASUS side is the g1s which provides half the battery life is considerably bulkier and IMO is fugly. Including educational discounts, the MBP even came out to be slightly cheaper. And coming from a windows user, I have really grown to like OSX even though at first I did not intend to use it much.

 

The only old models I mentioned are the S6 and W7S (even though it's not old). There's a page on the Asus website that breaks down their current notebooks by display size. I count sixteen, and that doesn't include their whitebooks. They also don't list a number of recent notebooks that are still in good supply such as the VX2S, R1F, and W7S.

The Hp 8510p uses a HD2600 with DDR3 memory, and it is almost as thin and light as a MBP.

 

Then again, the looks for the G1s are really subjective... I love it, and I really dislike the Apple Macbook/Mac Pro looks... They're almost too simple and the macbook looks childish to me... I do agree with the battery life though, but then again the G1s is a gaming machine....so should we expect more?

 

C90 also has gddr3.
My point was you were saying it was touting a core2duo and an 8600 and my point was thats standard now.

 

but not standard in a comparably sized package with a comparable battery life. what makes the MBP stand out is that it packs all of this while being one of the lightest and smallest 15.4" notebooks.

what other notebook packs an LED backlit screen, a core2 duo and a DDR3 8600gt in a 14.1" x 9.6" x 1.0" 5.4 lb chassy with a 4+ hour battery life? none! So to say that there isn't anything special about it but a high price is absurd.

 

Yes obviously its battery life is better which is the only advantage of the LED because its screen was not better than my c90s. Hell if it didnt have a better battery life and magnesium alloy then what would the huge price tag be good for.

But like I said alot of the battery life has to do with mac os. Regardless yes it has more battery life. If it didn't have any pros than no-one would buy it. Like I said I'm not denying its a good machine, but I just find its not not a great value.

 

hehe, Chris loves touting their dimensions around, as does Apple. I love their ads that say something about it being a 1 inch powerful notebook...the C90 is 1.3...ah, .3 inches changed my life.

Anyways, I don't know what Asus used to be like in terms of build quality for laptops, but I am a proud owner of the C90S and I love it. I've only owned a Inspiron 9300 before this, but have been around and used other laptops that my friends and family has used, and I really don't see that much of a difference in build quality.

Four hours of battery life is great, but it's not needed for everyone. The only reason I've used my laptop on its battery so far is to drain it, and recharge it so it doesn't rapidly lose charge; and yes, I am a college student.

I know it's simple, and basic, but if you're not happy with Asus anymore...don't buy from them. They've apparently changed and well, maybe your view of them should change with it.

 

I've been quite happy with my G2S and U3S. The build quality on both are excellent, not to mention they look much better than my Thinkpad.

I'll give Apple props for design, but besides longer battery life, their notebooks just don't have enough features for me. The U3S just puts the MacBook to shame (HDMI, eSATA, GPS, switchable graphics, 802.11n, modem, memory card reader, express card slot, lighter weight, etc...) for the same price. So what if the MB runs longer on battery?

MBP may have comparable features to other Asus models, but the price premium is not justifiable IMO.

 

After reading some of these responses, I may have to expand my horizons in relation to Asus notebooks and look into some of their other lines to settle for what I want. Maybe my disappointment stems from the wish for a thinner w3j with better battery life, higher res screen and led backlighting. I mean, i'll be honest, that would be my ideal computer. I might not even mind if they removed the optical drive and made it external (as long as it was provided when purchased). If they could squeak 4 hours of the battery, i'd be ecstatic. The 2.5 it does now with Vista just doesn't seem to cut it for me. I try not to run my computers down below 40% battery to save the battery from hard use, so my 'real' world battery times are not nearly what I could get from them.

I can't explain why, but notebooks that have big thick bezels around their LCDs drive me nuts, which, again, is one of the reasons I love the w3j. I'll take a second look at the c90 line and vx line, but the battery issues I keep seeing posts about scare me.

 

Your battery should be fine when discharged down to 3-5%, as long as it's working properly. Even 0% shouldn't harm it, but with the recent ASUS battery problems I don't advise it since the firmware could be buggy.

I completely agree. Looks like wasted space. I have no use for webcams, either.

 

@havand - Don't expect more than 1.5 hours MAX battery life for the C90. It is a definite desktop replacement. I'd advise you to look elsewhere in the Asus line for better mobility but if you want a feature rich desktop replacement for ~1500$ then get yourself a C90. I, and many others, purchased from gentech ( http://1toppc.com) and I couldn't be happier with what I got.

If you want great battery life - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220180 this model is said to get ~4 hours of battery life and has decent specs. Not nearly a G series or a C90s but it will get you through the day with ease.

 

Well, the trick comes when trying to game on the laptop and get decent battery life. Sony may have been onto something with their dual graphics cards scheme. I use my laptop in the living room 90% of the time, but like to be able to take it places (friend's houses, etc) when I want. I use it as my main computer, so it needs some oomph. If I was willing to give up some gaming abilities, I would PROBABLY move to a (I know) Dell XPS1330 or something of the sort for battery life, etc. I know a lot of people hate Dell and I understand. I've worked on them too. I think their laptops are real hit or miss. Some are fantastic for the price and some just arn't.

I completely see the point of a DTR for people that would occasionally like to take their machine with them or for people that move a lot and only have a suitcase, etc for planes. But for a lot of people, I never really got the point. College students, it seems great for, but for many, eh.

This makes me think I should probably revive my desktop for gaming and milk my w3j til it dies.

 

I could never understand why so many folks go crazy about the W3J. The posts I've read by fans all talk about the great build quality, but Asus killed the line because the build quality wasn't that great- they kept overheating, and I've seen more than a few posts detailing that. Move on, people!

okay, now that I've got that out of the way, I tend to agree with those who say the brand is expanding. Asus still makes good high-quality notebooks (U, V, VX, W series) but they now also make a lot more low and midrange notebooks, so getting a really good notebook requires more than just picking anything made by the brand. From what I've read, Asus still is one of the best in interior build quality, by which I mean how the components are arranged inside the chassis, and how accessible and reliable they are. Yes, Asus notebooks have had problems with battery life, but if you compare specs, so has almost every other company. The few that don't seem to have battery life troubles (Apple and Panasonic) charge about a grand more for the privilege of owning their notebooks. Overall, I still think the company is better than average and I still plan on my next computer being an Asus.

 

I will agree about the heat. This thing shoots out a jetstream of hot air right at my hand while using a mouse. I've never had it 'overheat', but the fan kicks on a LOT and is LOUD.

 

Well said!

 

High res screen and LED just isn't available right now, from any manufacturer. The closest you'd get to something thin and light from Asus would probably be the U3S, but it's equiped with a 8400M, so may not be powerful enough for your gaming needs. Non-Asus alternatives would be Dell M1330 or Sony SZ6.

For gaming, your best bet is to find a notebook that has digital output of some sort (DVI/HDMI) and is equiped with a fast enough GPU for the games you want to play, and just plug it into a LCD or HDTV for gaming. Just keep in mind that thin and light and gaming tend not to mix very well.

 

Forerunner, i had a chance to play with a MBP (w/ bootcamp) for a business trip and its a dream to use. Unfortunately like you said its priced way out of the reasonable range (~2600). The C90 is fantastic performance bang/buck, with the slightly dubious claim of future upgradeability, but there are other huge factors that go into a notebook. Apple does do many things that other companies don't that are notable considering its overall power class (i.e. 8600gt, core2 duo)

1. 5.6lbs for 15"... this is utterly fantastic, esp. vs. the C90 behemoth (played with one of those recently too)

2. Less than 1" thin... again, ridiculous that nobody else can get thinner than 1.3" for a 15" notebook. (i think the V series and the HP business class) might be close. The A8 series needs to take a page from this book.

3. Design purity.. hard to quantify, but if you flip over a mbp and look at the bottom, you can see what i mean over a standard windows notebook from dell, asus, hp, lenovo...etc. Its apparent in the ports on the sides, the cooling vents in the back, even the way the latch swings down automatically when you close the top. Compare this to the ugly-as-sin quasi modo cooling mechanism sticking out of the back of the C90

Asus needs to step up its game... Soon people will realize that "gaming" laptops are preying on consumer's bling factor vs real performance/$/lb/watt. (who the F--- wants extra, power sapping LED's and color stripes??) I advocate they should start with the immediate release of a W3J successor with high end GFX specs and a slim, clean external design. I'll gladly pay $1500-1700 for one of those. That's the same price as a high end lenovo t61p Asus... a high margin business according to my chat with lenovo mgmt at an investor conference. Hey Asus, Are you guys listening?

Sometimes people have to change their perceptions as to what is and isn't possible from their favorite companies due to technological limits, but unfortunately apple has demonstrated what IS possible.... and since there is no credible competition, they can afford to charge an arm and a leg for it. Besides who makes apple laptops anyways? compal? wistron? inventec? they're all the same taiwanese/chinese companies.. there's no special sauce in there except the design considerations going in. So yes, i'm not buying an asus this cycle despite the great experience i've had with them in the past since they've completely dropped the ball in meeting my needs.

ok sorry for the long rant, I'm just saying that asus's current lineup doesn't follow the design aspirations of its previous line, which is strange to me. Maybe building the laptop I'm dreaming of would just cannibalize the G or C series too much, which boils it down to a business decision that F---'s the customer. Good one Asus.. make the laptops fatter and more blinky and charge more premium please kthxbai