Finally a Review of the ASUS M6

Well Toms Hardware must be getting something from ASUS, cause they seem to be reviewing quite a few of their notebooks lattely!
Anyway with next to no info/reviews on this popular notebook model, there is now finally one.
http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/20040407/asus_m6000n-01.html

Enjoy !!!
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After having a good read of the review at toms I figured I would post my two cents worth.
First major issue is the screen on the 15.1" model. It seems that toms and a number of customers have been unhappy with the screen quality (light at bottom dark at top, average brightness and black range). From what I can tell from other forums, the 15.4" model has a better quality screen but how much better i don't know.
This is disappointing to me as the screen is a very important part of the notebook. And assuming that I'm normal person, my feeling is that those who are interested in a notebook with a good/high end GPU are also gonna want a decent screen for games, movies, graphic editing etc etc. I have heard that ASUS is working to fix the problem, which was apparently a bad batch of LCD screens from their supplier, and most people seem to be able to have gotten a replacement screen, but I would still like to see them offer ACE view on the M6 range.

Second point, I was disapointed to see that they had substantially reduced the clock speed on the 9600 (317 down from 400+). This ment that the ASUS came in last on most of the GPU benchmark tests. Not quite sure why they did this, perhaps they figured battery life/ heat were more important issues than performance in this notebook. It seems that ASUS may have figured their target market with the M6 were business people who want to do a bit of gaming. Unfortunately I want to do some gaming with a bit of business.

Overall, the benchmarks and review from toms left me feeling that the M6 was a good first try, its a good product which is well built, 2-3y warranty, and a good weight/performace/mobility balance. I'm still keen to get my hands on an M6 and to anyone else out their I would suggest going for a 15.4" version until ASUS fixes the problem with the screen on the 15" version. I'm also going to wait till June/July when the M1N is release and the dothan should be on offer, with the hope that ASUS may offer a new version of the M6 or the M1N with a 128Mb 9600pro (at full clock speed) or even a 9700, and hopefully ACE view or an improved screen.

Well that's enough dreaming and speaking crap for one day.
Would be keen to hear about anybody else's thourghts on these and other issues with the M6 notebook.
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The screen is a big deal for notebooks for sure, and I agree with your thoughts on the fact that this might just be growing pains for Asus as they are young in producing their own branded notebooks. I've talked to people from companies such as Palm and HP that have to deal with finding suppliers for LCD screens on PDAs and notebooks and they always have to contract with more than one supplier because of the risk that just going with one could cause a bottleneck in production. Because of this, they have to go with the lowest common denominator of spec quality for a screen (if one LCD supplier says they can meet x defect rate for certain specs and the other a worse y defect rate for certain specs then buyer has to bend and lower the specs quality so they can ensure low defect rate). Palm and Apple are examples of companies that have dealt with varying quality screens on the same product and thus angry consumers who demand they want an exchange for the same product but with a screen made by a different supplier. The Tungsten T2 Palm device has varying quality screens...it drives a consumer buggy because you of course feel screwed if you get a dimmer lesser quality screen.

Anyway, Asus will just have to find another supplier of screens and figure this game out and meanwhile consumers should go with the 15.4" screen as you suggest!

thanks for the analysis on the review from toms hardware.

 

I have the 15.1 (1400*1050) and am very happy with it. It's the second M6 i got (the first one had some defect pixels, which was replaced under the suppliers pixel-warranty), and both are ok as far as i'm concerned. It's true that the top of the screen is slightly darker, but no big deal. Also depends on the viewing angle: at some agles the effect is worse. I had to get used to the small character-size (previous laptop was a Dell 800*600 14 inch screen, and a 1024*768 dell).
The screen is very bright, which is very pleasant when working on our terrace [8D]