First Official pictures of North American W3v

The US version comes as follows...

1.86ghz
1x 512 mb ddr2 533
60gb/5400rpm pata hdd

1 x 8 cell (extra capacity) battery
1 x ac adapter
1 x s video to rca adapter
1 x wireless black logitech mouse
1 x carrying bag

then all of your software and drivers discs and so forth...

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by PROPortable

 

wouldn't it be at 266 if it's DDR533...[?]

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, Toshiba Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by PROPortable

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by AuroraS

 

We've shipped 4 W3's up to BC just this week..... Payment on all international orders is made via wire transfer, but it's not at hard as it sounds... so I guess the answer is yes.... you just have to email us... can't run that order through the site.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Wow... nice. You by any chance ship to Canada? I'm located in Richmond (near Vancouver), British Columbia.

 

right... I caught what you're throwing.... Asus had the oppurtunity to order the ram in whatever configuration they wanted. They were going to do just want they did on the V6 and I personally told them it's a waste becasue everyone wanted to upgrade out of the box..... Then they were going to go with one stick of ddr2 400... (becasue for them the 533 was still much more expensive)... but I said here.... the 400 and 533 is the same price and don't make it harder for these customers to get the performance they want... If the price has to go up a couple bucks a unit, so be it... But until I opened it up to confirm it, I knew there was a chance Taiwan screwed up... but it's 533 and the system is running it at 533...... the chipset supports it. Just like the V6.. eventually the V6 will come over the same way.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Okay, here are some quick first impressions of the W3V:

First off, it's sleeker and sexier than I had been expecting. The widescreen really affects the ratio of depth to width. even with the bright aluminum touchpad surround (sorry, coma.....) this is the best-looking laptop I've ever seen. Pretty blue lights. Ooooh!

Build quality: This puppy is solid! The battery clicks in and doesn't move around at all. The screen pops closed and is held firmly in place; when open, it doesn't wiggle at all, even when I'm moving the computer around. Pushing or pulling on one upper corner doesn't warp the screen like it does on most other notebooks I've seen, and there's no color deflection at all either when pushing/pulling on one corner or pressing on the lid.

Keyboard: I am a writer by trade, so 90% or more of my work with this laptop will be via the keyboard. I have never found a laptop keyboard I was completely satisfied with (although I have no experience with IBMs). Before I stumbled across the pre-order page for the W3V, I was very close to buying a Fujitsu s6231 because of good reviews of its keyboard, but was worried about the need for the function key to use Home and End. The W3V has all the keys dedicated, and it's almost as good as my Dell desktop's keyboard. Firm, good tactile response, not spongy or clicky. The ketboard alone is enough to justify this purchase for me.

Screen: Not a single dead/bright pixel, and man is this thing bright! I think it looks better than the Sony s-series screens. The reflectivity isn't a problem at all; if you focus on the surface you can definitely see it, but when you're reading/watching an image on the screen, it really disappears. And as far as viewing angle is concerned, I'm currently sitting at the old computer (I haven't set up the wireless router yet, so the W3V isn't online), about 80 degrees off dead-center of the W3V and 8 feet away, and I can still see the picture just fine. Vertical is also surprisingly good -- the colors shift to reverse (light areas become dark, dark areas become light) at about 45 degrees up or down, but the picture is still visible.

Heat: I haven't played around with power management yet (I'm currently conditioning the battery), but on AC power on the highest-performance setting, the right palm rest gets noticeably warm, though not at all uncomfortable, and certainly not hot. The bottom gets hot enough that I don't think I'd want it directly on my lap, but that's not a good way to use a laptop anyway, in spite of the terminology. There is plenty of hot air blowing out of the vents on the right side (the manual shows vent slots on the bottom, but they didn't make it into production for whatever reason), and the fan seemed to stay on pretty much the whole time. However, I didn't realize this until I happened to reach past the vent and felt the air -- the fan is practically silent; I had to put my ear close to the vent in order to hear it at all. The power brick, though, gets blazing hot. You'll probably want to let it cool down for a few minutes before shoving it into your bag next to the laptop. The heat may have something to do with the size -- the brick is ony 4-3/4 x 1-3/4 x 1-1/4 inches, and only weighs a couple of ounces. Running on battery power, it barely gets arm enough to notice, even on the bottom. For when I'm using this at home, I'll definitely get a cooler, though.

Sound: Yeah, I know, who ever actually listens to music on the built-in speakers? But I gave it a shot just to check them out, and I was surprised by them. Good volume and fidelity; they're a little short on bass response (gee, there's a big surprise....), but not enough to make them sound "tinny" -- just like you need to adjust the bass/treble ratio a bit. Still, at home I'll have external speakers plugged in. But on the road, I don't see any problem with lsitening to music or watching movies through the built-ins.

Haven't gotten around to loading any performance utilities or fully checking battery life yet, but I'll post that later if no one beats me to it.

 

hey Justin, a question for the W3, does it feel a lot mroe heavier than the W5??? or is it still acceptable???

 

barong - thank you for your initial review of the w3v. I find it very informative and a good initial feedback for this unit.

Does bottom gets hot only when using ac and not when using the battery? How do you find the 14" wide screen for your needs?

Are you planning to use it for gaming? If so, can you share us some feedbacks too? Congrats for your new toy and it is good to know you like it.

 

Filo--

I'm conditioning the battery right now -- it's been running the battery down for more than an hour and a half, and the bottom is warm enough that it'd probably make my knees sweat if I held it on my lap, but not at all hot enough that it would be uncomfortable to do so.

The screen is fantastic. I mostly do word-processing, but I also do a fair amount of work in InDesign and Illustrator/Photoshop (I'm a stone and wood sculptor in addition to being a writer), and my big complaint about the 17" 4:3 ratio screen with the Dell is that there isn't enough real estate for the design when a lot of palettes are open. I haven't loaded any of the design software on to the ASUS yet, but just looking at the screen, I can tell it's gonna be a lot better for that kind of work.

I don't do any gaming, so someone else will have to review that aspect. (I know, not gaming puts me in the definite minority here, doesn't it? [ ] )

 

does it feel more heavier than an W5... well.. a W5 is almost a pound lighter...... so I hope so.

If the question is more like.... is it worth it? ... then I'd have to say, aside from the camera and RF built into the W5..... 14" widescreen is much more useable...... I do like the W5's features, and it's perfect if you need the smallest screen possible, without dedicated graphics...... and yet all the connectivity on earth....

It's just hard to compare the two becasue they aren't in competition of each other... Even the V6 and W3 are hard enough for me to try to debate (although I can do it) ....

I guess the bottom line is.. yeah.. you can feel a pound difference, but we're still talking about like 3.8 pounds verses 4.7...... Do you know how many people think the Z71v at 6.6 pounds is light? ... a lot of people. So I think it's one of those arguments you can make, but no one can win.

Going from an S5 to an M5 (you can't feel much of a difference) ... from an M5 to a W5 (same thing) ... from a W3 to a V6 (you seems about the same... but W5 to W3... thats enough to feel it a bit.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

I just finished some benchmarks using 3D Mark 03 and 05 on my W3v.

Stock with 512mb @533mhz (x600@400core/250mem)
3Dmark 03:3022
3Dmark 05: 890

Stock with 1gb RAM @533mhz
3Dmark 03:3033
3Dmark 05: 923

x600 O' clocked using ATI Tool to confirm stability (470core/310mem)
3Dmark 03:3559
3Dmark 05:1015

 

...ok, here's my paris hilton.... thats hot

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by PROPortable

 

WoWer, how does WoW play on it? Getting decent framerates?

 

Paris that biatch is so hot... but that doesn't take away from the fact that she's a slut [|)]

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, Toshiba Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by barong

 

hey guys,

anyone have any issues with sparkling screen? If the reviews of this machine are consistently good, I'm definitely ordering one right away from Proportable!

 

Hi Justin,

just a quick question: wasn't the w3v coming with a 3 yr. warranty from Asus at some point? I could have sworn I read that somewhere, but now the proportable webpage definitely says 2 years..

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by jerrylin

 

OK... let me try to answer a few people at once.

1- the warranty is 2 years -- we talked about 3 because Asus said it was starting with the W3 upon release.. but then they pushed it back and it either starts may 1st... or something else is going on.... till they put it on their website, I'm not going to truly believe what notebooks it's going to cover and so forth... we'll have to wait on that.

2- My Paris reference was to the 3d mark scores and they fact that he did them.. it's very helpful.

3- the battery calibrater is for an old battery... like after a year or two, you run that and it'll charge your battery all the way up and then drain it all the way downa nd then do it again... and then it'll just consider that top end at FULL instead of say.. 80-90%... I've done it on older systems and it makes for a better understanding on the battery life over time. It basically doesn't give you more like... just takes the life you're getting and tells you that's 100% instead of thinking it's not charging all the way. At least thats what I've personally seen when I did it on a couple year old notebook.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Very sneaky...........

I discharged the battery fully last night (after a full 8-hour charge up) and then let it charge again overnight. With all power management disabled to keep the machine from hibernating, powering down the screen or hard drive, etc., and with the screen at full brightness, it ran 3 hours exactly on the battery.

I imagine when running on the battery and with power management, scereen at half or so brightness, etc., I'll run out of steam before the battery does.

 

right... thats exactly what I would have guessed...... with the powergear on, you can get up to 20% more life....

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by WoWer

 

So, the W3 hard drive comes partitioned into 2 FAT32 drives, but there is a utility called NTFS Converter or whatever on the desktop. Anyone know how this works, if it's a good idea to convert to HTFS, etc.? Will the Converter reformat the drive so I have to reinstall everything?

 

Didn't you email me about this today?

You can go from fat32 to ntsf, once...... and not the other way around. Tech TV explained this many times and you could search on g4.com I'm sure... I've done it and it'll function just as if you did it to begin with.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by PROPortable

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by PROPortable

 

[ ] I got a step ahead of you, eh?


Yeah.. it's hard to try to explain that to people... everyone has these own way of justifying the weight.. so it makes it difficult to describe it.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

right..... it's safe to do.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

WoWer, spend some more time playing and lemme know what you think, especially after you upgrade the RAM =)

 

Jerrylin, will do. I have the RAM installed but running those benchmarks last night took up a lot of time.

Proud ASUS W3V Owner

 

Justin and WoW, Thanks for the NTFS convert info. I'll give it a whirl tonight.

Kit, I wrote in another forum that with all the crap I carry around in my bag -- pens, paper, folders, etc. -- it probably adds up to 6 or 7 pounds on my back. So while 4 vs. 5 pounds for the laptop alone may be a difference of 25%, when it gets into my bag, your talking about the difference between 10 and 11 pounds, or only 10%. So unless you'll *only* be carrying the laptop and never anything else at all, that one pound inconsequential.

 

My W3V just came home, since I just checked the tracking page and my mom must've signed the package. But I'm at work till around 6...

Anyhow, about the partition thing, I think I'll just wipe the whole drive out and repartition everything again. ~15-20GB for C:, ~35-40GB for D:. I like mine fresh and clean [not even ASUS's installation is satisfying].

The driver CD comes with all the essentials that the W3V needs right? Else, I'd have to go download them off the ASUS website...

[l]ikwid.[f]uzion

 

Can someone comfirm their memory is running actually at 533Mhz(266Mhz) or 400Mhz(200Mhz) like my W3V does. You can do this by downloading CPU-Z at http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php This utility checks at what speed the memory is running, whether this in dual channel mode or not and what clockspeed the memory is rated. At this moment I've got 2x 512MB 533Mhz modules installed which only run at 400Mhz in dual channel mode instead of 533Mhz in dual channel mode. With one module installed the memory still runs at 400Mhz(single channel mode). I think this is very strange.

 

I did the NTSF convert and everything is running just fine.... the system needs to restart and convert the drive on boot up..... so you'll have to "ok" it with a "y" a couple times and then it'll tell you it'll convert on the next restart.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

I got you.... but usually when the memory is clocks down, that software won't pick up that the memory in the slot is faster than whatever the max speed in the slot is...... That's my experience from the past.

I think if anything a bios update could easily fix it.... but I'm not 100% sure we're looking at this right.

Any other way to check? All of these new board can handle 533 (except for the W5 which only clocks down because the onboard ram is 400).....

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Maybe there's an other utility that can check this. I'll try Sisoft Sandra.

I know that the chipset can handle the 533Mhz speed.

At the time I tested the clockspeed I had the notebook running at max performance, so the software wasn't clocking down the memory speed to save power/energy.

Maybe there is someone with a Asus V6V who can check the same thing.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by PROPortable

 

Right... I think you can redo it however you like.... the drivers are still on a seperate disc.


About the memory speed... I just ran the program on mine.... let me give you a break down because I'm not sure where on this thing you want me to look.

1... under timings on the memory tab: frequency is 199.5MHz

2... under max bandwidth in the SPD tab: PC4300 (266Mhz)

Those are the only two things I could find that you might be looking for.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

OK,

I left work early to come home to my new baby. All I can say is this: pictures do NOT justify the beauty of this machine. I was disappointed by the pictures I've seen earlier [since I wanted the dark W3V]. But when I took out my W3V from the box, it was like love at first sight. The build of this thing is BEAUTIFUL. No dead pixels either [at least I haven't seen yet]!

Anyhow, with the DVD drive and battery in, it doesn't feel that heavy at all [when I was expecting it to be heavy physically].

I'm currently reinstalling my own copy of Windows XP right now, with 3 partitions equally divided [one for Windows, one for my stored programs/documents, and one for Multimedia like MP3s, videos etc].

I'll try to post some pictures later, too busy adoring my little machine.

[l]ikwid.[f]uzion

 

I can check on basically any of the systems..... I've got my V6 here.... I could put 533 in it.. because it's still got the stock 266 in there now.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by LiKWiD FuZioN

 

.... maybe one for a backup of the 2nd partition.... another OS maybe?

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by eightone

 

I just weighed my W3V on the scale at the Post Office. It's 5 pounds, 9 ounces; the power brick and cords are 13.1 ounces.

Had it been advertised at this weight, I probably wouldn't have bought it, and gone with the Fujitsu 6231 instead. So I'm glad I didn't know ahead of time it was this heavy, 'cause there's no way I'm giving this up now! It's worth carrying around that extra pound.

It sure doesn't feel like 5-1/2 pounds........

 

... what post office is open at 11pm on a Thursday night?

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by PROPortable