Info and some photos of some new Asus models

The V1JP is pretty similar in performance to the W3 :\

 

Uh, yeah, but it's a 15.4" laptop, hence he said he'll have to go to 15.4" for the performance he was looking for.

 

Right, which is why I'm recommending it to him.

 

Right... but I currently do own a V1J... I experienced it to be somewhat too big for carrying around all day long...

 

lmao! that fan bay is huuuuuge! thats one phat a$$!! i wonder what internals actually demand that level of cooling? I havent ever seen that on a laptop before not even SLI laptops!

 

I think the c90 uses a desktop processor so thats probably why it needs that much cooling.

 

Hey Milestonepc,

Is the optical drive on the Z37 removeable? Is there an HDMI output for the Z37? Will there be a all black Z37?

Is the W5 getting the Santa Rosa upgrade? I'm guessing the optical drive for the W5 is still not removeable?

Is the U1 getting the Santa Rosa upgrade?

 

The picture of the Z37S says it has a Nvidia N88M-SE; I don't think that is a 7700. Take a look at these driver patch notes:

So the video card in the Z37 differs from the model number of the 7700. The patch notes also list it as a G86 (Geforce 8600?)

 

g84 is 8600, g86 is 8500. I don't think there is an 8400.

 

The mobile G86 might be an 8400..

 

I wonder if the 8400 would be any faster than the 7700. I guess if the NB8M-SE is the lowest of the 3 of them that would make it a little faster than a 7300/7400, that would make sense considering the size of the z37s.

 

Argh, the school term in Thailand starts in mid-May . . . I guess I'll have to wait T-T

 

Based on the reviews of the 8600's popping up today, I wouldn't be too hopeful. The 8600s aren't that much better than the 7600's, especially in older games so I doubt a low end 8xxx series will do much against a 7700.

 

Yea i think theres gona be confusion again just like the old "is the go7300 faster than the go6800 cos is a new model" question.

 

Hey Milestone, why'd you have to do that? Huh? Not all of us are great at upgrading notebooks especially the video cards. Hopefully Asus will offer it with the barebone and video card seperately and together for those of us who can't upgrade video cards. Otherwise, very very nice deal you've got goin on with Asus. Definitely diggin the pictures as well. So uh, do you think I could get a C90 with 2.4Ghz, 2Gb RAM, 8600, home premium, and a 2-year warranty, for about $1500-$1600?

P.S. sorry if that made you mad I didn't mean to

 

I think that if the Z37 and the C90 will have the the go 8600 gpus that they'll perform better in next-generation games like Crysis because they're DX10.

 

Well, well! I like the idea behind the C90... BUT:
1.
another plastic job by a manufacturer which makes the APPLE MB+P
ASUS can do better than that. They could use a nice Alloy body, maybe a bit bigger than the apple form factor, AND it could be ANODIZED in any color for very little money, thats where the upgrade should start
2.
Why on earth does ASUS offer a PASSIVE Matrix screen??? In this day and age unacceptable as there are serious quality drawbacks...
3.
The scratch pad is too small.
4.
And finally the design is inside out, the bottom just looks like any cheap plastic job. Bad design. It is typically Taiwanese thinking. Good components thrown into a badly designed box.

So here is my assessment: A good idea badly realized!

 

You do realize the price difference, it won't a hundred dollars, it'll be a few hundred dollars. Their current price point makes it a very sweet deal, anymore, it'd make users look away to other options.

 

3. Scratch pad? for kitties?

 

What?! Passive-matrix? What are you smoking? The C90 has a gorgeous TFT Transflective screen? What do you think this is 1998? anyhow, on to your more legitimate complaints:
You realise the whole box (especially the bottom) was designed specially to promote upgradibility while maintaining excellent heat management? It looks beautiful to anyone who appreciates good engineering. And if you have ever held an Asus whitebook, you know that they feel solid as a rock. If you want silly anodized colors or pastel vinyls, get a dell or a sony. The C90 is a great idea, well realised. Lastly, you should try handling a fair amount of plastics before bashing all of them. Some plastics feel more sturdy than the metal parts of other notebooks (*cough* Vaio *cough*) and Asus uses them.

EDIT: Just for posterity, if you don't believe me about the screen, enter these characters into google: N154Z1-L02

 

Totally agree with Alex. He pretty much summed up my feelings. I am an Asus fanboy so I guess it bugs me when people bash on Asus (especially the laptop I will own later this month) but regardless passive screen? Do some research before you make statements. Random statements (whether true or false) without any basis of argument just bother me, though I respect your comments about it "being a cheap plastic job" since it is your opinion. In response to that I say why make something out of metal therefore making it significantly heavier and relatively more expensive when plastic does a great job? Whether you believe it or not we are living in the "plastic age" and plastic is as important if not more than metals. I suppose you want your laptop to be made of tungsten carbide or something similar so your laptop is as resilient and tough as the master chief (who weighs over 2 tons) in my avatar ?

 

In response to IKEpod:

1. Yes, its plastic. That keeps it at a lower weight (for the size) and keeps the costs down. This thing has essentially identical performance to the Clevo D900C in everything but graphics performance, and it costs and weighs more than double the C90. Granted, the Clevo has a much larger screen, but still. Also, the C90 costs less and is more powerful than Asus G1s, and it weighs the same even though its larger.

2. Passive matrix? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot my friend. This has the same screen as the G1s afaik, which means a high resolution, high brightness, overall brilliant screen.

3. I think you mean touchpad (scratch pads are things used by cats, as lunateck said). And the touchpad on this looks pretty decent sized to me.

4. "Typically Taiwanese thinking." One, that alliteration (weird) and two thats a horribly broad, sweeping, and incorrect generalization. Now for the aesthetics of the bottom of the laptop: the only laptops whose undersides look 'good' are those by Apple and some Sony Vaios. Everything else is cheap black plastic with little form and mostly designed to serve the purposes of cooling and accessibility of parts. Especially on the C90, this is true, since everything is optimized for easier upgradeability: CPU, GPU, RAM, HDD, etc; and the CPU and GPU have a large heat output. This is why in addition to the extra vents, there is an array of fans on the back of the notebook. Besides, how often do you gaze at the bottom of your laptop? I can (kinda) understand about the lid and stuff, but the bottom? No one looks at the bottom of a laptop.....

This coming from a guy that really doesn't care for the C90

 

So, I need to hear it one more time. This notebook will actually be out next week?

I had never seen these pictures until this angry guy brought the thread back up form a months ago. Thanks angry guy! These picture makes it look even more attractive to me. I never realized the lid was so shiny.

The idea of getting it simple now, but then getting a TV tuner for my brithday, and then depening on how it looks, maybe HD-DVD or Blue-Ray for Christmas. My only major complaint is, unlike the G1S and such, Fn is the furthes left, when I'd prefer Ctrl there. (EDIT)That, and if it had a P965 or P35 chipset, so we could use 1333MHz and Peneryn processors. I guess the current Conroes will be fine for a while, though.

Man, I cna't stres how much I hope this is a success. I want to see graphics upgrades for years to come.

 

Penryn is supposedly possible on 945 chipset. Intel has already SEMI-confirmed this. Thing is if it is possible in a laptop due to room and other restrictions. Besides price of penryn will be very high since its new, if I will be able to buy an upgrade for my c90 or a new desktop I would wait for nehalem coming out in 2009 which will be far better then penryn. Then you can get nehalem or lowered prices on penryn due to nehalem.

 

but nehalem won't be compatible with 945 at all, will it? At least that is what I thought.

 

I don't think Penryn is even compatible with 945. It may be different for the desktops, but for the mobile line, Penryn will be compatible with 965 only, and that too with a BIOS update. After that, Montevina gets its own platform and chipset (mobile version of Bearlake, I think). Plus, when Intel gave a preview of the Penryn chips, they had to specially modify the BadAxe2 motherboards to support Penryn, which means that the newer 975X chipset doesn't appear to support Penryn as they are currently. This makes it highly unlikely that the old 945 chipset will support it.

 

A nice sleek shell like a MBP would run below 50 bucks a piece. Because an exo skeleton design has less material it would weigh in less then the plastic body we can (unfortunately) anticipate...

Specification
Processor & Cache Memory

Supports Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme processor up to X6800, 4MB L2 Cache, 2.93GHz, 1066 MHz FSB
Support Operating System

Supports Windows® Vista™ Home, Premium, Ultimate, Business edition
Chipset

Intel® 945 G Chipset + ICH7
Main Memory

2 SO-DIMM Sockets for Expansion Up to 3GB
Support up to 3GB Dual Channel DDRII 800MHz SDRAM
Video Graphics & Memory

NVIDIA Mobile PCI Express Module up to GeForce 8600M GT 256MB/512MB
Display

Up to WSXGA+(1680x1050) Color Shine 15.4'' LCD
Hard Drive

Supports 2.5" 9.5mm SATA HDD
80/100/120/160GB: supports 5400/7200RPM
Thermal

fan-control & multi-heat pipe thermal module
Optical Drive

5.25” 12.7 mm 8X / 24x24x10x(max.), support DVD Combo, DVD Super-Multi, HD DVD and Blu-ray Drive
Video Camera

2.0 Mega pixels rotate CMOS Camera with Face tracking function
Card Reader

8-in-1 MMC/SD/Mini-SD/XD/MS/MS-Pro/MS-Duo/MS-Pro-Duo
Fax/Modem/LAN/WLAN

Built-in 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN
Integrated V.92 MDC Fax/Modem w/ Azalia Ver 2.1 compliant 802.11 a/b/g/n
Optional built-in Bluetooth® V2.0+EDR
Interface

1* e-SATA Connector
1*HDMI
1* D-Sub VGA Port
1* Headphone-out Jack(SPDIF)
1* Microphone-in Jack
1* RJ11 Modem Jack
1* RJ45 LAN Jack
3* USB 2.0 Ports
1* TV-Out (S-video/Composite Video)
1* IEEE 1394
1*MCX connector for TV-RF
1*Express Card 34 / 54 Support
Audio

Built-in Azalia Compliant Audio Chip
Built-in high quality speakers and 2 internal microphones
Keyboard

19 mm full size with MS-Windows function keys
2.5mm travel
Vista K/B Start Button
Hot Keys

Power, Turbo Gear, Internet, Email, Touchpad Lock
AC Adapter

Output : 19V DC, 4.73A, 90W
Input : 100~240V AC, 50/60Hz Universal
Battery Pack & Life

Li-Ion 6 cells: 4800mAh, 53W (removable): 4.5 hours run-down life
Smart Battery, 2.5hrs Quick charge 95% (Power Off) / 4hrs (Power On)
Dimension & Weight

367 mm x 268 mm x 34~44 mm (W x D x H), ~3.1 kg (W/6 cell battery)
Supplied Accessories

Built-in Bluetooth V2.0+EDR
Finger Print Recognition+TPM 1.2 (Trust Platform Module)
Hybrid TV Tuner (Minicard interface) Wireless Mouse/ Carrying bag



About the display. According to the specs at the ASUS website, the model comes with a LCD(!), not TFT display. But it makes no diff, since you can choose your own (right?).

 

And unfortunately an exoskeleton design has it own flaw. There ll be not enuf air flowing around inside the case because the skeleton has block some air path. But i do get ur point. And later it ll come down to the assembling part, which if u have more parts, the more it ll cost u to assemble to stuff.

But in the end, i think Asus wants to save any penny that there is.

Edit: Alloy chassis is good since they are more recyclable than plastic shells. It ll be great if they do have alloy chassis but the cost will be too high for us to bare.

 

Hey VIVEK,
thanks. As for the, ahem, "scratch pad", it was supposed to be funny. Apart from that I never use these, instead have always favored my Logitech trackball.

And as to Taiwanese thinking: I live many years in China and know... ASUS makes good products, including the APPLE books. Why they couldn't come up with a better solution than cheap plastic is beyond me, given that the C90 can be upgraded, therefore has to look good as it stays with the owner longer. Plastic deteriorates, the paint job on plastic just scratches easier (even if you care).
Pity.

Last, but not least: look t the specs I posted. It says clearly LCD, not TFT display. LCD is passive, and yes I looked it up. SO, friends, ASUS gives you a barbone with a cheap display, so they can charge for your dream display.

 

You can extrude metal in wondrous forms , so no problem to come up with something better than plastic.
AND, think about the live span of an upgradeable laptop. I think we would pay a bit more for a longer lasting and looking exterior... right?

 

I know, but you need more steps for molding alloy (including hardness enhancement and cooling time) compared to plastic injection, which takes about 1 step and less than 30 seconds for a case.

Well, there is an Asus exoskeleton notebook, it's call the Asus EcoBook. Unfortunately the internal component is not upgradable.

Edi: I do agree that we should have some upgradeable notebook with alloy chassis from asus.

 

Uhhh Apple? They didnt do much. Sony helped them originally design the macbook and uhh Asus makes almost ALL of their hardware. And compare a macbook pro to the c90 and the price difference will be apparent. Also look at the poll on these forums about which brand has the best looking laptops which many people voted in and you will see Asus is #1 trailed closely by Sony and those that didnt vote Asus many noted that Asus was in their top 2 or 3 so I guess your the only one who feels the produce "cheap" laptops.

And secondly like I wrote in my other post do not post random information which you know nothing about. Are you one of those people who just like saying random stuff to start arguments and get attention? LCD is a broad term and TFT is a different type of LCD but IT IS STILL AN LCD. Its like a pen but wait its a fountain pen, ITS STILL A PEN!! Also TFT LCD is an ACTIVE MATRIX SCREEN! I honestly think you don't know what any of these terms mean and you couldn't even tell me exactly the difference is between an active and passive matrix screen. Regardless I get mad when people post random information which they have not researched (though you claimed to have done). I am not one to get mad when someone says "the c90 sucks" but when someone says "the c90 has a passive matrix screen" which is a downright false statement, yeah that pisses me off.

Last but not least nowadays TFTs are so prominent most companies don't even list them as TFT LCDs but just say LCDs.

 

Well, Quanta makes the majority of MacBooks now since ASUS's shipment was cut(due to the fact they didn't slow down on their own branded notebooks).

And it won't be just $50. Compare the amounts of notebooks ASUS sells(specific models not ASUS as whole) compared to Apple, like the MBP. The ratio is overwhelming, I'm sure they'll make only 2000-3000 between release and the end of the year. There are at least half a million MBPs out there, if not more. The end results meaning cost rice:build will not be the same, nowhere close to being similar.

 

Actually, i have to admit that i dun know the difference between TFT and LCD too... but i do know the difference between Plasma and LCD...
Go google now..

Edit: I give up... i still dun get wat does it mean..

 

I am far from being funny, but wouldn't mention the passive matrix deal, if I hadn't read bout the C90, researched the specs and was appalled when reading that the display was passive. Hope I can dig this up again. Of course I agree with you, that most all displays today are TFT, and that was the reason I got electric.
ASUS is, without doubt, one of the best manufacturers of hardware, and everyone here knows they make the APPLE's. That is exactly the reason I wonder why they do not build on their vast experience with Alloy materials, or Carbon fiber...
The question of cost is secondary, because I believethe live span of the C90 exceeds that of a normal plastic job, plus has to "endure" being upgraded. The only parts I upgraded so far on my (very normal) LENOVO is RAM 1.25(maxed) and a 160GB HDD. The graphics card is a laugh, but I live with it until I decide on my next buy.
I opted on a 17" MBP, 2.4Gig core 2 duo, 256MB graphics, and a fast 160 Gig HDD. BUT, I kind of like the idea of a TAYLOR MADE laptop and look for something of lasting value, aside from just power.
You are right, I am only using computers since 1985, installed the first computer network in my company in 88. I'm NOT a computer engineer, but a user. As such I have survided numerous crashes caused by "experts", haha.

 

Plastic last forever... u do know that, don't you.
Carbon Fiber are not the best construction material for notebooks since they are bad at heat conducting and more$ is needed to produce them. Alloy, as i said would raise the cost, Asus might not have big enuf facility to do that. And the alloy series like the W and V doesn't come cheap (not because how much material they need but depends on how much work must be applied into the steel to make it into a chassis).

 

Attention all, I am about to get a little more agitated than usual.

Dig this up fool: the damn C90 QVL!!

Now scroll your ignorant self down to " 15.4" WSXGA+ (1680x1050)"
You see that number? N154Z1-L02? That is the EXACT screen that will be on the computer. Note as well it is the ONLY WSXGA+ (which is the NA default) on the list.
Now look here.
A reputable screen retailer selling the "N154Z1-L02." Now scroll down to "Type" or use your browser's search function if you are having trouble "digging up" that word.
Let me go ahead and quote it for everyone:

I'm with forerunner, if you aren't going to do proper research then at least don't try to make ignorant statements like that in an argument.
Veritas, my ass. Harvard would be ashamed to see its banner under your name.

 

Calm down alex, no need to use such hard words..

 

IKEpod... look

Every brand of laptops uses LCD, and the same type of LCD's (SAMSUNG, LG, CMO, Chungwa, and AUO). All of these are LCD's, the only thing that defers is the color depth and viewing angles, oh yeah now the LED backlight.

Even so, LED backlight doesn’t mean that the LCD is better. You can have a LCD with limited viewing angles and a LED backlight. LED just helps Power consumption and brightness.

You can checkout in these forums the LCD part No. that the C90 has, and you will confirm that is on of the best (if not the best) 15.4 WSXGA+ LCD's. This is the best LCD I’ve seen. I still have to see a LED one, but it would probably be just brighter.

The cheap LCD's you mention are actually the ones with low resolutions, limited viewing angles, and low color contrast. The LCD manufacturers actually sell these cheaper.

And regarding the construction material.... Dude c90 has a different customer target than apple.... It’s a different niche.

 

Being a longtime ASUS fan I recently aquired a Z237S w/Dual Cent 2Ghz CPU, 3Gb/667 Mhz dual-channel RAM, SATA3 7200 RPM drive, Vista OS. Nice construction, sleek design, fast (my friends who run RAID are impressed), no problems with Vista-this product extends the tradition of ASUS quality.

 

Hi, welcome to the forums. Glad you enjoy your purchase.

 

I get it. You're of course right. Thanks........ BUT I still want a glossy TFT screen, and that is probably an active matrix one... right?

 

LUNATEK please... QUANTA & ASUSTEK make APPLE ALU laptops. Both are big companies
OK, I have to say it again.
1) Plastic is cheap, plus it can formed any way we please... However, it doesn't look good after a few years, especially if it is painted And since the c90 is meant to last longer than a normal laptop, PLASTIC is just not good enough.
2) Carbon is expensive, but good, also can be brought into any form, but more difficult to do, and at higher cost.
3) Extruded AL-ALLOY (exosceleton) is NOT expensive when compared, but lasts very looong. APPLE has reasons to use AL.

In conclusion: I ask all here to consider the advantage of an Aluminum body.
Aluminum COULD be anodized in almost any color (if you are patient enough to wait for a custom job - and it is very cheap to do), always provided it is done BEFORE the hardware is entered into the body

Even if the cost for an aluminum shell is raising the overall price by 30 US$ I would buy one in a heartbeat. The C90 is PLASTIC, read the post here, where someone already has a crack in one...

CIAO friends