Friend skeptical about W3J

For the record, I already ordered the W3J and don't regret my decision one bit.

When I first decided it was time for me to get a laptop, the first one that caught my eye was the Acer TM8204, which combined elegant design with solid performance. However after spending some time on this board, I came to realize that the W3J would be a much better choice for that price range.

So I told my friend (who claims to be a computer expert) about my selection, and his reaction was that I was a fool to go with Asus, specially a core duo and that I should get a Centrino instead because it is much better on the battery. He said I was sacrificing battery life ans stability for gaming power.

He also mentioned something about bad ACPI or ATK drivers (due to his previous experience with an Asus barebone) and that the W3J would never last 3.5h unless in sleep mode and that it was too bulky. He then saw that it came with Power4gear which he called "the crappiest ACPI handling software" and lashed out at how I was doomed saying "ENJOY YOUR NEW LAPTOP!" and laughing.

Was I right to ignore his "advice"?

 

Yes, you were

No elaboration required.

 

He sounds like a nOOb to me.

 

...doesn't the Centrino brand also extend to Core Duo's? Oh wait, yes it does. Your friend sounds like he's one of those people that knows just enough to be certain in his beliefs without any actual knowledge of what's at stake. Very dangerous, indeed

 

Knowing the W3 series as I do, you certainly made a good choice and in a couple months you should look back and see how you feel about. My guess is that you'll think your friends advice wasn't right for you and either start to write off his computer advice in the future or set him straight......

Enjoy your new toy.

 

To comment on Pitabred (cool handle by the way) - they're exactly right.... seems like they have just enough information to BS their way through talking about computers to friends and family........ and that is indeed a dangerous line to walk....

 

Thanks for the responses guys. I started getting skeptical when he said something along the lines "buying a non-centrino notebook nowadays is like buying a vinyl player, stupid and useless".

 

You should be the one giving advice on computers, not him. Since you were smart enough to buy an Asus, you probabaly know more than him.

 

hehe, thanks. I do give my share of advice but since it was my first laptop I thought I'd get his opinion.. not worth much by the looks of it

 

Ditto that...... some people get offended at this, but they're usually the people who buy a dell or an hp and think it's the best thing on the face of the earth.... if you're smart enough to know what Asus does - from motherboards up... then you're the one who would be telling him what's going on. Seriously calling it a "non centrino" - the guy should have lost your respect right there..... The W3j is a Centrino Duo - what he may be referring to is either thinking for some strange reason that the W3 was either using an AMD cpu or a 4 year old Intel cpu.... or I guess he just doesn't know what centrino is in the first place (just trying to give him the benefit of the doubt).

 

Im wondering if he was just confused about what centrino really was...most people believe it only includes pentium m cpu's, so ill bet he thought the W3J had a Pentium m.

 

Exactly, he told me to go with a Dell or a Toshiba because they are much more stable and reliable. He then said I should go with an IBM and that the Lenovo Thinkpad T60 was the Rolls Royce of laptops.

 

Yeah... well if he can't appreciate your system now that you got it - then he doesn't know what's what unless someone else spoon feeds it to him.

 

heh there's a thread around here with justin's s4 and asus ensembles in the same sentence..still the only analogies that really work are acer's ferrari and asus's lambo..all others are a bit irrelevant or just a matter of personal opinion..thinkpads are the known for their keyboards and business use and dependability..not sure where the rolls part comes in

 

Almost got it, it should arrive tomorrow or the day after
Actually, he can't wait for me to get it so he can show me how crap the battery life will be.

EDIT: According to what I read it should be about 3.5h + 2h(with optical battery) so around 5.5 hours with wireless, is that about right?

 

2.5-3.5 hour battery life is perfectly average, and good for the power your getting, if he doesnt realize this, even after looking over your new notebook, hes dumber than i thought.

 

lol, better not show him this thread then, he'll go nuts

 

Na, go ahead n show this to him, maybe he'll learn something

 

Did he say this before or after the laptops started blowing up? LMAO!!!! And YES there have been recent Lenovos and Toshibas that have blown up. I am not sure if they were due to Sony batteries but I have yet to hear of an ASUS blowing up.


Then again that could be considered a feature! lol

 

Actualy, the laptops "blowing up" were due to Sony batteries, thats why recalls we done. BTW, they didnt blow up, they caught fire LOL. But Asus notebooks could too, since they use Sony batteries as well. EEk.

 

My battery life is around 2.5-3.5 hrs while doing menial tasks, not running the DVD drive, etc. It is 2-3 hrs when playing games. If its REALLY demanding, 1.5-2 hrs. All of these figures are with Bluetooth off, but Wireless radio turned ON! This is all on the stock battery. If you need more, you can stick in an additional Bay battery, for even MORE life (about 50% again more). This is excellent life, and is actually longer life than my Acer C110 Tablet (Pentium M 900 MHz, 512MB RAM).

Your friend needs to get with the 21st centry. Core Duos are just as efficient as the older Pentium M processors. The only Pentium M processors that are more efficient, are MUCH slower. The performance/power ratio is much better, and the Core Duo is more or less the next step of evolution of the Pentium M, and it's direct descendant.

If you want to know more about laptops, this forum is a great place of knowledge, but you can do further reading at www.mobilityguru.com to stay up to date on the latest in mobile computing.

 

I know this is due to Sony batteries. Specifically its because there was a couple of bad runs where the internal wall separating the chemicals were too thin an thus compromised. The batteries can blow up just sitting there.

In the end Apply got them ! LOL And yes some of them literally blew up with a true bang.

 

Chet, thanks for the info. What about the ACPI and ATK drivers he was talking about, anyone had any issues with those? He seems to hate Power4Gear a lot, lol

 

How can anyone say the sexiest notebook in the universe isn't any good? That guy needs a reality check! :/

 

Just received it this afternooon and all I have to say is: THANK GOD I DIDN'T LISTEN TO HIM!!

 

I can definately say dell E1705 1-2.5 hours. Asus W3J 2-3.75 hours you made an excellent choice. Tell that guy to get a job and help him when he needs his next computer. I actually have used Asus motherboards with excellent success for a long time. I decided to try the notebook and all I can say is mine is excellent. At factory settings it puts Dell under the table. I have only overclocked the Dell once and it won but never have I had to OC the Asus. I really am impressed.

 

Your friend's idea was good. To trick you into believing your lappy is crap and sell him for a cutthroat price. Poor execution though

Congrats and enjoy!

 

HAHA! I'm interested in what he says when you show him the battery life (and the sheer sexiness) of your laptop! You'll have to keep us posted.

 

Something interesting that i find weird for him to say if he calls himself a "computer expert".

He says Dell and Toshiba are the most stable? They have the worse (or not so good) ratings for build quality, design and customer service!

Plus, the only reason they're that cheap is because they use cheap stuff. Unlike top quality Asus.

 

I get 3+ hours consistently on the regular battery.
When I put in the OD battery, oh baby...

 

Another satisifed Asus owner. There's a reason the W3J lounge is 75+ pages long, LOL. I just love the design, it was well done, with attention to detail. Dell just cannot compare.

 

So any update as to what your friend has to say about you "crappy" W3J???

 

lol, he hasn't seen it yet but he still thinks the W3J (and all Asus laptops) are barebones and that the core duo isn't a centrino.

On another note I asked him what he thought about a 42" Plasma HDTV I wanted to buy, and he told me to get a 20" Dell monitor because it had a better resolution and to just sit closer to the TV

 

Wow... Just.... Wow..

I'd never listen to anything he said again.

The first ever Core Duo/Yonah battery life benchmarks I saw via a P-M were on the W5F vs the previous W5, and the battery life was BETTER on the newer platform/chipset (surprise surprise).

My dad had a series of 4 Toshiba laptops for work, and they all fell apart.

I guess the T60 would be a "Rolls Royce" if you want your laptop to look like a black brick... And not that hot for the price, IMHO.

People like that are dangerous...

 

Holy crap! lol Even my electronic illiterate girlfriend know better than your friend!!! :lol:

 

LOL... what a funny thread. I can't wait to see what your friend thinks/says when he finally sees your W3J.

The T series from Lenovo is a great line, though... there's no doubt about it. Not as sexy as any Asus, but a solid notebook nonetheless.

 

Its interesting as here in New Zealand people also have this idea that Asus make crap notebooks, untill they see/touch them. Their first comment is 'oh not asus'

Perhaps they are cunfussing them with acer.

I dont know who is spreading the rumars, but they are going around for some reason....

As for the poor ACPI implimentation, well there are buggs in the asus BIOS
s. You only need to extract the DSDT (i think its called) from the bios and you'll see that there are errors! I've mentioned this b4 but the A6km had 11 errors in the bios which my friend fixed to allow full control of ACPI functions under ubantu linux. (if you want to test your notebooks BIOS just follow the steps in the Advanced section over at www.pbus-167.com/nhc/nhc_advanced.htm#anchor_acpi_programming NHC website).

But great choice otherwise



Insane