I hate to start a new thread... but Some Merom's have hit shore and other systems now have rebates!

Ok, I would have liked to keep this in the "merom update" post, but I want to make sure no one misses this because it's actually a bit retroactive...

First, the W5F-G164H-A; W7J-3P076P; and A8FM-4P002H-A Merom models have hit shore (I know we're set to recieve ours on Thursday). Below are only the changes from the previous model:

**ALL MEROM Models are now going to come with a 2 Year Global Warranty w/ 30day Zero Bright Dot Warranty and a Carrying Case and Mouse..... Prices of the W5/W7/W3 will be staying the same, so the speed of the cpu is being lowered to compensate for the increase in extras...... Other models, however which are getting bigger upgrades, are going to have their prices raised a bit. Below are the three models that have been released from port and will be here in a day or so.

W5F-G164H-A: T5500 / 8x SuperMulti / $1,499

W7J-3P076P: T5500 / $1,499

A8FM-4P002H: T5500 / 100gb / $1,149

 

Also, there are going to be rebates which are retroactive to yesterday on various models and these rebates are in CONJUCTION with the Premium Protection Program which gives the customer an extra year warranty....

Below are the models and rebates available from 10/9 - 11/5:

A8F-H071H: $50
A8JM-H019H: $100
A7J-R009H: $200
F3F-AP007H: $100
F3JM-AP012P: $100
V6J-8022P: $200
W5F-G125H: $150
W7J-3P014P: $100
W2JB-Y007M: $250

 

hate to ask, but would you mind listing the specs? Can't find anything on those on your website or on the web

 

Yes... actually I would. I listed the only things that were changed on those models from the previous models which are on our site and everyone elses..... so take what was there, and just notice the changes above:

W5F: http://www.proportable.com/detail.aspx?ID=156

W7J: http://www.proportable.com/detail.aspx?ID=173

A8F: http://www.proportable.com/detail.aspx?ID=185

If there's something you can't get form there, then feel free to ask.

 

Did you get an R1F?

 

I have an R1F, but we didn't get a production shipment of them yet..... those aren't set to hit port until this time next week.

 

oh happy days for merom and rebates!

 

Does that mean the W3J is coming with a t7200?

 

Thanks for the useful info.

I was really hoping they'd upgrade the soldered memory in the W5F to 1GB so we could all run 2GB in dual channel on it and 4GB some day in Vista. *sigh*

 

Prices of the W5/W7/W3 will be staying the same, so the speed of the cpu is being lowered to compensate for the increase in extras...

So I guess not

 

Oh, sorry, didn't the see the W3 being mentioned there along with the W5 and W7.

 

What extras? The global warranty increase is all I can see. Did they at least move the CTRL key to the lower left?

 

If you look at my first post, the quote goes like this:

" MEROM Models are now going to come with a 2 Year Global Warranty w/ 30day Zero Bright Dot Warranty and a Carrying Case and Mouse..... Prices of the W5/W7/W3 will be staying the same, so the speed of the cpu is being lowered to compensate for the increase in extras...... "

The "extras" are in the prior sentence.

2 year Global Warranty
30 day Zero Bright Dot LCD Warranty
Carrying Case
Mouse

The above were not part of the current package.

So, with the price staying put at $1,799 - instead of going with a 2.0ghz Merom, they go with two steps down..... it all evens out, even if some people don't like it, you're still getting your moneys worth and some may even say you're getting more. The really difference in performance from the 1.6 to 2.0 ghz is fairly uneasy to see in anything other than benchmarks... but one can certainly see the benefits of those extras above.

 

The LCD policy is quite attractive now....every model, sweet!

 

Thanks for giving us this joyous news ProPortable.

Just one quick question, do you know what type of mouse we will be getting with the ensemble models? (W3J in particular)

 

Well, it makes those rebates extra sweet seeing as how I'd prefer the older faster processor to the extras.

Are all W5Fs white? I've seen picks of a black one.

 

Probrably all the same, some sort of Logitech ASUS rebranded mouse...

V270 perhaps?


Or the V400 series?!

 

*Insert prayer for a bluetooth mouse*

The v270 then would be the logical choice.

 

Not a clue actually..... and although I anticipated the warranty and carrying case, I didn't expect the mouse.... sort of pisses me off because as part of our member discount program, members either get a bt notebook mouse or a bt express card media player remote control...... My guess would be it's probably the inclusion of the same mouse we're offering..... which may very well make everyone go for the express card remote, but as of right now I do not know.

... It could USB, RF w/ a dongle, or Bluetooth... but it'll certainly be made by Logitech and be notebook sized. My guess is USB is out because that's only being used currently with the S6 (we've got the leather covered mice), and although I know it's a free included accessory.... if it's RF, I think they'd be dumb. The BT mouse isn't much more expensive now, especially since they wouldn't be including a dongle because the models all have bluetooth in them and losing that helps bring the cost to them down....... but we can never tell with Asus...... I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it were just a carrying case because they always refer to "carrying case and mouse" and then a "yes" or "no" per model..... I can certainly see them not picking up on this - although I have.

 

The retail version of what Logitech makes for Asus is the V270. I know that there are different model numbers for the Asus versions... I forget what the plan version is, but the black Lamborghini/Asus BT mouse is M/n: M-RBB93 .... as far as I can tell, it's idential to the V270 as I'm looking at both of them in my hands right now.

 

Any change to speculation on the a8js date? I mean there is a 11-09 coupon date I think you said, for the a8jm is that a better date now?

 

The rebates are all just a month long and to help get rid of the current stock. ETA for the A8js is "End of October" on todays sheets, but then again, the new W3 is listed as "End of October" as well... So the A8 got bumped back a couple weeks and the W3 got bumped forward... apparently.

To be honest with you, there used to be a person I trusted very much with all of this information and since he quit and took over the international notebook product manager gig at Gateway - I can't say things have been the same..... they come in when they come in, but the information is "good at the time".

Oh, but on a sad note, I'm super pissed off right now. I was just on a conference call with some of our guys here and Asus and there is a ever so slight problem........ After they told us that the A8fm/W5f/W7j merom's have officially arrived and our backorders were going to be filled...... higher ups and distributors with current stock got together and may very well be stopping the release.... don't even call bs, because I know and I already did - to them...... I don't think it'll stand because if they don't release the merom models now, they'll just sit around too and the new rebates on the current models should certainly push enough people who know they don't need 64bit, towards them..... So, we may need to wait until later tonight, or more likely tomorrow afternoon before we get an update, but apparently that shipment that should have left Asus today, didn't.... now it's a matter of when and if distribution has it's way, they won't be released until they've all sold their stock to other dealers...... I'll fill you in when I know more, and I know this is off the cuff, but I've still got them on the line and it's hard to think and type this stuff and understand what is going on.

... update in a bit.

 

Ok...... yeah, supposedly Asus said they're going to hold the models that came in today until the end of the month. They plan to use this to help get rid of the current models along with the help from the warranty promotion and rebates and eventually plan on making a release of all merom models at the end of the month, or first thing in November.

Personally, I'm sick of and fed up with with the bs that goes around and all the secrets and underhanded acts we've had to deal with over the last year or so. It's no wonder a lot of crappy people were fired and a lot of good people quit. There is certain information that isn't supposed to come out to the public. So, like a writter on LOST, certain information which Asus tells us can't be repeated is actually different from person to person... that way if that piece of information is released, Asus knows who the leaker is.... I can understand that to a point, but Asus doesn't want to deal with "you" as a consumer, and that's because they don't know how to deal with an end user.... but they lock themselves up to a point that is harmful to the future of the brand. They make great products and I'll be the first one to tell you that their products from cell phones to servers are all top of the line... and their warranties are great, but management down right blows. I know they're going to read this and call me, but it's pathetic. They don't do anything to back us up, so there is no reason we should do it differently. In fact, I've personally put more into marketing out of my own pocket in the first few years we were in business than Asus has over the last five.

Basically, the information becomes less and less credible to me and therefore more of a problem for me to repeat it. I want to keep everyone up to date and new stuff always gets me going, but in the end, whatever is coming is coming and we don't really have a say in the matter. Recently Asus stopped asking what sort of guarenteed purchases we could make for an ordered system and the Q4 incoming stock certainly shows the lack of that information as we all know we're going to be seriously understocked for the rest of the year and the Christmas season is looking bleak, not for lack of systems people will buy, but for lack of stock of those systems.

I'm about to the point of making our official policy that of a "wait and see" policy because we have no say in what's going to come in, it's going to come in when ever the hell it comes in, and stock probably won't keep us going for very long aftwards. In other words..... the products are still great, but there's a lot more that goes into it than just a great product and input from the dealers AND the consumers who are going to be buying them, needs to get back into the mix or else I can't see Asus really breaking through in this market.

 

First time post: Thanks for the updates, Justin--I look forward to hearing what's going to be happening with shipments. I think we've fallen victim to the fact that we do not have the market power to demand more accountability from Asus (like Walmart does with its suppliers). We put up with their shenanigans because their products are high quality.

 

There are about a million reasons that Asus is basically the only ODM of any computer equiptment that can brand and support their own sub culture of products........ Sony... huge companies like we all know and trust are basically marketing companies who have people like Asus design and make their products. They do that because then they can focus on the dealers and the consumers..... Asus has too much on their table and they're very unwilling to acknowledge that..... it's why they lost their best asset.

 

Well, whatever they are thinking...well who knows. All I can say is that these incentive are pretty good. If one knows how to play the court well, you can get a good deal!

Thanks Justin for the headsup and info.

 

I'm going crazy.

 

you are not the only one, sigh...this puts another twist on things. The w7j (non merom) and that new belkins dock still makes a pretty nice combo!

 

I'm going nuts thinking what Asus is doing to the W3J in the Merom model. YAGHHH.

Asus should make even MORE high end notebooks for all the size ranges.

 

Are you people really going crazy at the fact that Asus is using a 1.6ghz instead of a 2.0ghz in the newest model? I mean, you could all say that you'd pay the $200 difference, but not enough people would to make bringing it in realistic....... so in reality, you can really thank all those who would buy the model that is going to be brought in because with those those people, it may not be brought in at all.

... I know it's somewhat of a joke, but after reading it all the time, it's like Asus has some axe to grind with you as a consumer and they're trying to screw someone....... I don't know at what point in my life I got over that attitude - I think it wasn't till after grad school, but it's really unhealthy... take it from me

 

Asus are stalling with the release of the V1J in N.A, so they obviously hate me, how can you not see that Justin?

 

I hope the "higher ups & distributors" do read these posts because they would learn alot from their customers. I'm new here but have learned an awful lot from NBR.

1. The ASUS forum got my attention, now with 75k posts; 8k more than Dell, and more than the next to manufactures combined. Who are these guys...so I read on. This forum conviced me that I wanted an ASUS.

2. The distrubutors that comment in this forum really support ASUS. It is apparent that the respect is not mutual. Every customer wants to know when they can get the product they want and they deserve to be kept informed. I commend these distibutors as they are one reason why I want to buy an ASUS laptop and deserve much better support from ASUS.

3. It appears ASUS notebooks are marketed by recommendations. It also appears that the customers that buy them know their options with other manufacturers. If customers are waiting for specific capabilties, I don't think small incentives will move them to purchase current inventory. On the flip side though, the competition does have these capabilities and frustrated customers will purchase their systems. Every day ASUS waits releasing these models, another potential ASUS customer WILL purchase someone else's system. ASUS is well behind the competition in matching capabilities and I think in this business you need to capture the market quickly because new capabilities are only months away.

4. I see alot of posts with highly satisfied ASUS customers. Customer loyalty is extremely important. If you want repeat business take care of your current customers and they will come back with friends as well.

Brian

 

Im glad I can wait 'till the dust settles, maybe the right thing will happen with Santa Rosa. I can only hope.

 

I guess, its because people expect it to have 2.0ghz, the extra (3yrs?) warranty, mouse and case because we as human beings (general observation, not "human nature"), to put it as blunt as possible are kinda selfish. For the same price, of course. We (always) want more than what our money's worth. And, for myself, I am the most greedy, cheap, and money scrounger because I am an university student. But, by no means I am unreasonable . Nonetheless, I do like new/shiny/abundant items, .

You never know who lurks on the web...

 

I was reading this thread just now for the first time and getting more and more excited until I got to page 3. Sigh.

I know I'm getting repetitive, but has there been any word on new XP SKUs with Vista coupons or other plans? Our sister site TabletPCReview has also been reporting on it:

http://www.tabletpcreview.com/default.asp?newsID=592

 

Brian:
I am extremely pleased with the content of your first post as a official member of the community (note i didn't say "site")... I'm glad that some real thought was used on your part to get to the point you are today and I can assure you that whenever you make your first Asus purchase, you'll be more satisfied the month after you buy it than you were when you realized who Asus was and how could you have missed them all these years. Welcome to the forum and thank you for bringing this sort of commentary back to the forum.

In regards to how Asus treats us, I can handle myself and our company and I speak out on behalf of everyone (at least those who want action by don't want to bite the hand that feeds them)..... If Asus was providing some product that required a lifetime warranty or something like that, the end user could worry a bit more about the direction of management and how that could effect the company in the long term. When you're dealing with a product that is very high end, you don't need to worry about support so much as with some other things, but Asus still has great support (support that honestly doesn't like management either), but regardless, for Asus, they've made it close to two decades and are a huge company and your warranty will only be for a couple years or so. With that said, the worst thing that could happen is that Asus' notebook division implodes and your NEXT purchase may not be of an Asus system.... but I think N Korea may have a better chance of knocking Taiwan off the map by accident than something like this ever happening. The one reason we're still here is because they make great products and although that thread is wearing thin, we could stop selling Asus' products and condemn the actions they've taken, but in terms of computing products, as long as they continued to make them - I'd still be using them.

Mythless:
First of all, I know that all of us American's as a culture believe our beliefs are the beliefs of everyone else in the world... or at least should be..... It's the basis of what will eventually end the world... right? Anyway, you'd think, eventhough that's what "we" believe, "we" would be smart enough to realize that we're still getting our money's worth out of the purchase and either way, it's still 3-4 times more than we'll ever actually need over the life of the system. The "custom", "built on Asus", now "ASmobile" line was originally meant only for the US. Mainly because even if the present option was exactly what a US customer would actually buy, some study a few years ago showed that the customer would want something to be changed (like the cpu increased or whatever), and in that study no matter how the options were laid out, no one wanted what was presented. I don't remember if it was cars or computers or what, that had a lot of options, but it basically showed that "we" as a people are more "individual", but almost not in a good way.... more in the way of we don't want to be like the average because we think we're better than that. So a "standard package" is not something that someone would want if they think the things they do are more important or more taxing than "the average".

It's all a bunch of bs, but each and everyone of us knows what I'm talking about..... and those who can't see that probably just have it worse than the rest.

LT:
In regards to Vista, I get emails back and forth from about four to five people at Asus every day..... I ususally only don't get responses when it's about something that they have no idea about and one would assume that's only because they don't want to feel embarrassed..... well, usually I'll get a good response from at least half of the parties I question.... as of this evening, I haven't gotten a one back on the Vista question.. It's not good, but I'm sure that information just hasn't been decided by Taiwan.

 

Well thanks for your efforts anyways. I guess it's just back to more waiting then.

 

Oh no somehow I got mis interpreted.

Im going crazy waiting for the a8js release date.

Im within a half inch of getting a dell e1705 when I get paid friday. Its got a lot of good argument in its favor its just not what I want. Ill definitely be lurking here even closer pretty soon though becuase I need a laptop and I cant do without for unlimited unknown weeks.

Its a lot of money for me at the moment and my real life is waiting for this cue.

All you w3j people and your whatever it is 1.6 mhz cpu Im not even on your wavelength. Ill try to sympathize I suppose.... ;o)

 

You know I always read news bytes here on the site that lead me to believe Asus is coming to conquer america or something.

On this site Ive seen that asus is the worlds 3rd largest notebook maker overtaking wistron which is the company that makes acer travelmate....

Ive seen that its volume is up 30% this year..... all of that must jsut be europe and asia which they care about.

But none of thats whats happening in north america. In north america its pitiful the small amount they sell. I cant believe they have 1% of the market. Just something really wrong with them its obvious.

If an a8jm were in best buy next to the toshiba a105, ok, selling at full retail which is $250 more, no ones buying the toshiba a105. Circuit city wouldnt bother carrying it.

 

I can't imagine a single person who would trade an upgrade from 1.6 to 2.0 for a carrying bag and mouse. Even the warranty is "meh" because, ime, if the thing lasts past the first year with no problems it'll probably keep going for another six.

We can always, if we wish, buy a mouse and carrying bag (in fact it might even be nice to actually choose our OWN), but upgrading the processor on an Ensemble model is complicating.

I'll agree, though, that nobody will see any difference outside of a few seconds here or there opening apps or doing some crunching.

 

I agree with you stamar. I

don't understand why Asus is so unwilling to tackle the bustling and notebook hungry North American market. Just look at these forums, and I think most people here are from North America and Europe. Asus willingly ships a lot to Europe, but not North America. What gives?

 

I agree there's no need to wait as the rebates are enough to get old inventory flowing. I, personally, think this is an overreaction to the first gen Yonah models that made the Pentium M models pale in comparison so they hung around for a long time with just paltry $100 rebates being all that was offered as incentive not to go with an extra core and new, much faster architecture.

 

Oh ya well Im feeling this market force right now.

I mean technically, If I buy an e1705 I dont think asus cares because someone else is going to buy their a8js.

At least I hope thats what they think. But thats insane in itself because they should want my sale and theirs.

Wheres the greedy capitalist spirit in here? Thats whats wrong with america today!!! not enough greedy capitalists!!!!

Theyve got to honda this thing. forget about the unsold stock throw it in the river. See how many new people they can show their logo too.

You think Dell waits to sell unsold stock? Jeebus they own their own toxic dumpsite. Their old stock elimination period is something like 3 days. If that, their site will just show, would you like the new cool one or the old ass one for 200 off?

I mean and pretty soon they wont even sell you the old one at any price. Theyd burn a million of them and send a cloud all over texas.

 

Well, ASUStek's total profits that are from notebook sales are probrably like 3-5%, so that isn't necessarily on the top of their schedule, Mobos, GPU's and ODM probrably make up the 85% of totals, with PDAs, Cell phones, etc. rounding up the rest.

 

Point well taken and stated Justin.

Aren't we an interesting species, .

 

First off, the big difference is that America has Dell. Easy shopping, cheap prices, affordable extended warranties, 24/7 support. Not to mention they saturate the media with advertisements. There's just no way you're going to put a dent in them here. If somebody rose up like Dell has in Europe the EU would crap themselves, slap them with fines, force them to share a percentage of their profits with the other manufacturers, and take a urine sample for good measure.

Second of all, in stores, people are primarily looking at price. They line up 500 long on Black Friday for those lousy $400 Celeron notebooks. For anybody not inclined to just get a Dell and willing to spend more money, the decision is probably going to be made staring at the pretty aquarium screensavers, banging on the keyboards, and maybe playing a quick round of Hearts on the displays.

Or they go to the Apple Store ready to plunk down a couple grand on 7 pounds of personal identity.

So, ya, I'd say 1% is about the right number of American notebook purchasers with the funds and inquisitiveness to eventually end up at the conclusion that an Asus is right for them and I can't see that changing, (un?)fortunately.

 

I'd agree if we're talking about a FIRST notebook purchase, but people generally learn after the first Dell (or two) blows up on them 2 weeks out from the warranty and Dell tells them that the out of warranty repair is going to cost more than the notebook did. Then people start looking around and thinking in terms of quality. Sorry for the OT, by the way, I've been lurking the ASUS forum because I'm in the market for a new notebook and have decided it's going to be an Asus, just haven't picked which one yet.

 

Welcome to the club: I'm leaving Dell and Sony for Asus -just waiting on the A8Js...

 

Intel C2D T5600 1.83GHz 667MHz 2MB

Intel C2D T7200 2.0GHz 667MHz 4MB

I'm really saddened to see the W3j getting the former instead of the latter because there's a heated debate on one of the sites i read about the difference between the two and its not the .17GHz difference in speed but the 2MB cache the T5600 is missing. As of now, not much of the programs can take advantage of it but when 64bit programs comes in full swing, the difference in performance will begin to show itself unlike now.

I would gladly pay the extra $50, which is the price difference between the two, to get that speed/cache boost.

 

Do you have any new information on the W2P, PROPortable? In particular, will it retail above the current price of the W2JC due to the the HD-DVD drive (etc.)? Thanks

Edit: I expected, though certainly do not appreciate, Asus ****ing their customers around to ensure that customers buy overproduced/obsolete/old stock, but I didn't expect it to be quite so bad that their distributors enjoy the same treatment. I'll be damned if I am going to rush into a purchase simply because I have become tired of waiting, though