Initial A8F review

I thought I would write an initial review of the Asus A8F, which I received a few days ago. It seems in North America the A8 model of choice is the A8Jm (also in general the board seems to be dominated by people from North America). In the UK we have a choice of the A8Jc or the A8F.

The A8Jc comes with the GeoForce 7300 graphics card, while the A8F comes with the Intel 950 integrated graphics card. Now many of you are probably asking why get a laptop without a dedicated graphics card? Answer, I don’t game, so graphics card is not important to me.

OK, why did I get an A8F? My previous laptop was a Dell 6000, which I had owned for about a year. It did a good job and is in great condition. However it is just a bit too big and bulky. A change in circumstances means I’m required to go on the road about once a month and the Dell was proving just a bit bulky. I have been looking at Asus for a little while, mainly due to the rave reviews on their build quality.

Specs:

- Dual Core T2300
- 512 MB Ram (upgraded to 1GB)
- 80 GB 5400 RPM Hitachi hard drive
- 14 inch widescreen
- DVD writer
- Wireless, infrared and Bluetooth
- 2 year global warranty.

So the main difference between the A8Jc and the A8F is the graphics card, the installed RAM (A8Jc comes with 1GB 533Mhz as standard) and HDD speed (A8Jc comes with 4,200 RPM).

Naturally the A8F was cheaper because of the graphics card and less RAM. I paid a total of £620 including shipping (note I don’t have to pay and sales tax because of where I live, so people buying in the UK need to add another 17.5%). The A8Jc would have worked out at about £680 delivered. However I was wanting the 5400 RPM HDD. I could have bought the A8Jc and changed the HDD to a faster one, however that would have invalidated the warranty, so decided against.

I bought another 512MB of RAM for £27. I was under the impression that the installed RAM would be 533Mhz so bought that. However, once running diagnostics, its showing as 667Mhz. Luckily the retailer that I bought the RAM from is willing to exchange.

The A8F is based on the same chasis as the other A8’s, so most of you will have seen loads of photos. I will get to taking some photos myself at some point.

Initial views of the laptop? Well it looks very nice. Much nicer than my Dell. However I didn’t purchase the laptop for looks, but for functionality. Size wise, it actually isn’t that much smaller than the Dell (which I found a bit surprising). It is thinner though. Also it is much lighter, which I am very happy about. The screen border is quite thick, but this may be due to the mounted webcam.

The screen is of the glossy variety. it’s a very nice screen. I know many people have talked about the quality of screens, etc. I’m not too fussed by that. However the glossy screen is very nice. I was worried about glare, but have not really noticed. I have already smudged it a bit. How do I clean it?

The keyboard does have a bit of flex, but a lot less than my Dell. As some have already commented, there is a bit of flex on the left hand side. This is the scase with me as well. The layout of the keyboard is a bit “squashed”, however this is probably because I was used to the larger layout of the Dell. I’m sure I will get used to the keyboard. The swapping of the Function and Control keys, noticed, but got over it in about 1 minute.

The track pad and buttons, looks nice. However am very disappointed with the track pad. There is a lot of drag, and it is not “smooth”. Also the scroller on the side is a bit of a pain to use. I find the whole track pad to be very unresponsive. I can increase the speed in the settings, however it means when I connect my mouse, I have no control over the mouse. The one looking button thing looks nice. I find I have to press the button a bit hard though. The track pad isn’t dead on centre, but instead a bit to the left. This means when I’m typing, occasionally my left palm will rub on the track pad leading the cursor to wonder. Again prefer the Dell buttons. Also for some reason I am always getting an error message each time I try entering the Synaptics settings in the “Mouse” in the control panel.

The speakers are not that bad for laptop speakers, which are at the front of the laptop. They are about on par with the Dell ones (which again for laptop speakers were pretty good). No base, however they do the job. Plugging in my external speakers naturally makes a difference.

There are the Hcontrol buttons up top for Power4Gear, Bluetooth, wireless, Splendid and Instant On (which I will come to later).

The build in mic and webcam are nice additions. Webcam does the job, although for some reason I can’t adjust the brightness settings in MSN Messenger. Also the mic is pretty good. This saves having to plug in my headset for VOIP and Skype.

There are loads of connection options. On the left we have Express Card, SPIF / headphones, mic, USB, DVD Drive and SD card slot. At the back we have Kensington lock, modem, Ethernet, SVGA, DVI, USB x 2 and power connector (which I find quite tight getting the cable in). To the right we have the cooling fan and USB x 2. Quite impressed by the number of USB slots and the fact they are spread around the laptop.

Asus bundle a small amount of software, which I’m sure you are all aware of. I also got a Works CD, which BTW was not pre installed. The HDD came in two partitions, both as FAT32. However there is a pre installed application to convert them to NTFS, which I did. Of the bundled software I’m running Power4Gear (and maybe Splendid) from startup. I have installed some of the software, can’t remember what though.

Yes, Instant On does not work. The manual claims it does. I press the Instant On button, it loads Windows and then loads Asus DVD. Front of the laptop has three lights together: hard driver, caps lock and instant on light. When you load up using the Instant On button, this light goes on. Really Asus need to sort out the situation here.

On another note, the supplied manual is rubbish. It is tiny (about 30 pages in total) and gives very limited information. Again I compare this the Dell manual, which was very useful and provided so much more information.

The laptop comes with various Cds including a Windows XP, drivers, Nero, Works and various Asus software. The cables provided are a modem cable and SVGA connector (but for some reason no network cable). You also get an optical wired mouse and a laptop bag. I think the bag looks great and very stylish, nothing like a laptop bag.

OK, its about 2.30 in the morning now and I’m very tired. I will update hopefully tomorrow after I’ve had some sleep.

 

Hey.. to get the Synaptics settings working, download the drivers from the Synaptics site.... the ASUS supplied one seems to have this error on all A8 models...

 

Cheers, that solved that problem.

Also allowed me to alther the scroll are.

However still find the keypad pretty unresponsive.


Also in general an finding the A8F to be unresponsive and slow in general. I find my Dell (which is Centrino 1.73 Ghz) to be "snappier" even though its not dual core.

I have read the slow start up thread, so am going to use various suggestions to try and speed things up. However at present it takes about two minutes to load windows up and I seem to have 50 odd processes running (as opposed to 30 with the Dell). I have not installed anything over what I have on the Dell (in fact I have less installed on teh A8F).

However, hopefully the various tweaks should sort out the problems.

 

Pin,

Excellent start...Thanks for the heads up about the memory.... I was thinking of going 2Gb but will wait and see how urs runs with 1Gb.

But me thinks you should get some sleep and stop playing with your new toy! ;-) Let me know when you have done a battery test, really interested to see the difference with the integrated graphics.

Also be interested to see how the bluetooth is working. I currently use my PCMCIA bluetooth with my phone, mouse and headset for skype etc. Dont want to loose that.

It would also be great to know how the external video is? I do a lot of presentation work and would like to use both the SVGA and DVI.

A little concerned aout you comments on the trackpad but use my BT Mouse so would only use the pad on the plane etc.

Thanks and look forward to the next installment....

 

Woah.. 2 minutes to load Windows? doesn't sound right....

And the trackpad does take a bit getting used to..... at first I felt the drag was quite annoying, but after awhile it seems more responsive....

 

2 min to load window sounds wrong. I was myself very impressed with the A8Js startup time. Now I slowed mine down a bit because of a whole lot of gui enhancements aka crystal xp and avedesk that i installed and have all these things running on my dekstop. But its still less than 2.

I am thinking you can remove some of the asus stuff that comes pre-installed. net4switch and what not. Oh and if you haven't already get rid of norton and then check your startup time.

The first thing i did when i started my laptop on the way home from milestonepc while in the car with 30% battery was uninstall norton .

 

After running the various tweaks, start up has come down to about 30 to 40 seconds, so much more of an improvement!

Don't worry, Norton out, did that quickly (AVG and Zone Alarm installed).

Taken out most of the Asus software, apart from Power4Gear. BTW should I run Spendid at start up?

Also is there a way of turning off bluetooth at start up (i.e. choose to run it when i want to)?

Oh PI calculation done in 1min 24sec.

 

ya get rid of splendid its totally stupid and get rid of the sticker as well

start>>>run>>>msconfig >>> startup tab

and get rid of bluetooth from there.

 

Re bluetooth, I've only got a bluetooth phone, but it seems to work fine, so no worries there for me.

Already did that, was just checking to see if it was required or not!

 

Pin,

Does the DVI work? I though it was only the dedicated graphics models that had DVI?

What model DVD RW DL is included?

Will have to keep track of all the changes you ar making for when/if I get mine.

Was going to do a clean XP Pro or XP MCE install so its just what to add rather than remove ;-).

 

Excellent review pin. Glad you cut the start up time aswell, I disabled bluetooth and modem and wireless switcher (it doesnt work with disbaled bluetooth or windows wireless config). Use windows to manage wireless - it does as good a job as intel pro/wireless but uses 5-6 fewer processes.

 

Yes I thought so also because in Asus official website they don't mention DVI in the specs.

If that's true they have wrong information on Asus official web page or missing information

Have you tested the DVI on A8F?

hyperlink to Asus A8F specs from official site.

But if you click the enlargement button on that web page you get small browser window on which there is flash presentation (Explorex) about the notebook, there you can see the optional dvi-d port on A8F same in other A8 models expect A8H, on A8H there is no picture about DVI port. So according to that flash presentation there on that web page there is also dvd-d port on A8F as in A8Jx models alltough specs don't mentioned it.

Maybe I buy A8F because gaming is not important for me and A8Jx models have not yet arrived to Finland.

No mention about A8Jx yet (I mean specs and so on) on scandinavian or nordic official Asus sites, Some norwegian and swedish web shops sell those but not any shop here in Finland.

 

Re DVI.

There is a dvi port. Have not tried it yet. Just got home. Slightly drunk. Will try it in a day or two. But there is a DVI port.

 

Well guys, I have royally messed up my laptop and will have to send it to Asus to try and fix (therefore I can tell you what they support is like in the UK).

Basically, as I've already posted on another thread, got a Memory stick duo card stuck there (its still stuck). I also tried opening up the laptop from the back. However for some reason the casing didn't fit exactly, as a result a couple of the screws won't screw back on. This means the keyboard is loose along with one of the screen hinges.

Oh, and I majorily scratched the front of the laptop.

I have spoken to Asus and got my RMA number, so will be sending it back. I will probably get charged as well (which is fair enough as its my fault).

 

Hard lines Pin, One of the guys in our office put a MS Duo in the MS reader in his laptop but we managed to get it out with the office managers eyebrow tweezers ;-).
I hope you get it sorted soon and more hope they dont charge you an arm and a leg for it...

 

eesh! talk about bad luck. Hope you get it all sorted.

 

Yep, the IT guys at work tried that, but no luck.

Oh well.

 

Just an update. Got just under four hours battery. That was set at battery saving with Power4Gear, bluetooth off, 13% screen brightness, 25% processor performance, wireless on. Used mainly for internet, skype, msn and voip.

Oh, also heat. It does heat up a bit, but no way near as much as my Dell.

 

Another update. I got it wrong, there is no DVI port. I got it confused with the VGA port.

Sorry about any confusion caused.

 

wow no DVI now thats very interesting thanks for keeping us upto date pin. I am testing the battery on my a8jm rt now same settings as u. Brightness on the 2nd last notch when using FN + F6. Everything else is the same, 25% proc speed with wifi on. Temp at 48 - 50 degrees. At 50 fan starts spinning. Lets see what happens rt now windows says 3:15min of battery left. I started at 6:52 so its been just under 20 min.

 

Eh... u guys really can get more than 3 hours? I've never been able to get more than 3 hours while having wireless on and surfing.... but then again, I didn't limit the processor speed... how are you guys limiting the processor speed? Just P4G?

 

Yup just p4g on battery saving mode with cpu at 25% thats it.

This is the first time im running my battery down completely to test it hehe and so far looking good should easily get 3hrs and have abt 10 min to spare

woooooooot!!!!!!

 

Nah.. even with P4G on battery saving... I can't seem to get a full 3 hours with wifi on... makes me wonder if I got an inferior battery

 

i dont know :S hehe i hardly ever use mine on battery it just stays plugged in for days at a time. So my battery wear i think is on 1% or so, maybe that has something to do with it :S

 

I may also try the undervolting, as suggested in the stickie.

Yes, was using Power4Gear settings.

Oh, one other thing. The speakers on the laptop, the loudness is a bit poor. Cranking it up to the highest volume is still poor (again esp compared to the Inspiron 6000).

 

Undervolting doesn't help battery life too much in Core Duo's because Intel locked the minimum voltage at 0.95 (which our lowest multiplier is usually already set to)... so the only way it can help battery life is if you use CPU at near 75%-100% all the time (you can undervolt the highest multiplier by quite a bit... my T2400 was set at 1.263, and now I've got it stable at 1.025).

But undervolting does reduce the heat by a few degrees I noticed...

 

and you were undervolting with RM clock hmmm... will definitely explore it a bit more next week after my final exam is done

 

Just an update re returns with Asus in the UK. On Tuesday contacted Asus (it seems the call gets diverted to the Netherlands). The guy said speak to your retailer. I spoke to my retailer, they said speak to Asus. So I went back to Asus.

Asus agreed to have a look at the computer and emailed me a form to fill out. Filled it out and later I got the RMA and a number to contact to arrange delivery (note its an 0871 number, guys in the UK know what that means).

Spoke to the RMA people (CRC Group) on Weds. Had few issues re getting the parcel back to them (because I live offshore, but my guarnatee is covered by the UK service station).

Eventually arranged for a courier and said it would be collected on Thurs. They asked me to make sure everything was boxed up properly and provide the various forms along with a photocopy of the receipt.

Get a call on Thurs saying a mess up with the courier company and would have to arrange with a new courier company (UPS). They arranged for a tracking number and faxed it over to me and told me to contact UPS directly to arrange pick up (gave me a national number). UPS UK, told me to contact their local Jersey depot, which I did!

They arranged pick up for today, and it has now been picked up!

CRC say the turn around is about 7 to 10 working days.

I found CRC good to deal with, and now have a direct line number to them and they will inform me of any updates re fixing the computer.

Luckily I have not sold my Dell yet, so back to the Dell for a little while.

 

so how is working on the dell feel as compared to the a8j ?

 

Truthfully, I do like the Dell mainly because of the touchpad, which is so so much more better.

I did get used to the Asus touchpad, esp after Darrick's suggestions.

Overall though the Asus is better, but the Dell is still nice. I was used to the Dell keyboard (I'm sure I will get used to the Asus keyboard, so not too bothered). Also the Dell has been completely optimised, so it runs at maximum efficiency, I was still paying around with optimising my Asus. Also I liked the Dell in built speakers and media buttons.

However the Asus feels much lighter and runs cooler. The keboard feels a bit better on the Asus as well. The build quality was a bit better on the Asus and it looked nicer.

But bottom line is I prefer the Asus, but still think the Dell is quite a decent machine.

 

Just an update on getting the laptop fixed (which it still has not been). The laptop was picked up on 11th. It did not arrive to CRC until last Tuesday (15th, partly because of all the air problems).

Called CRC up today and was told that the laptop has been booked in for repair but the engineer has not had a look at it yet but will hopefully do so some time this week. I was told the reason for it not being looked at yet was because they were so busy. They are still quoting a turn around of 7 to 10 working days.

 

Another update. Called CRC today, the laptop is ready to be shipped out (finally!!) They say they have fixed everything (I wonder if I get my MS Duo card back which caused all the hasstle in the first place!!)

However due to it being a bank holiday in the UK this weekend, probably won't get it back until Weds at the earliest :-(

 

Well another update.

Either CRC or UPS (courier company) have gone and lost the laptop!! Neither of them can find it and they are blaming each other.

This has turned into a disaster. I got the laptop begining of August, got about 5 days usage out of it and then it went into repair. Since then have not used it.

 

true but u might be getting a new one now

 

Nope, not my luck. CRC originally said they shipped it out last Friday. They, however, have now located the laptop, it never left their building.

It will now get shipped out this afternoon, and they are sending it by standard courier, i.e. it will take between 3 to 5 working days to arrive.

Naturally I am very annoyed by all of this.

I've lodged a complaint with CRC and will be writing in and also contacting Asus.

This has turned into a complete farce. I wish I hadn't bothered purchasing this Asus. At least with Dell, if anything went wrong they were very efficient in fixing and dealing with turn around.

 

Sorry but can we get this back on topic, thanks!

 

How is what I have said going OT? One part of buying my laptop was the warranty period and the level of service, and I'm sure others purchase goods partly based on the warranty services provided.

Anyway, I have finally got my Asus back. It arrived today. I will have a play with it tonight and see if all is fixed.

CRC did actually give me a call yesterday to explain why sending the machine back had been delayed so badly.

 

Well, got the lappie back home and opened it up.

The memory card reader doesn't work at all, the card won't latch into the reader.

Also when you close the lid, the lid is raised on both sides, before it was slightly raised on just one side.

Oh well, back to CRC tomorrow.

 

wow thats terrible...i feel for u dude. I would be totally pissed too. Let's hope this time around its better service

 

Thanks for the support.

As an update, have been in correspondence with the manager at CRC, who was just as p*ssed as me.

They are going to have to take the unit back again naturally. They have agreed to offer me compensation, he suggested a free 512MB RAM, however I had already bought that! Instead they will give me monetary compensation (amount not known yet). They are trying to arrange a courier today to pick up the laptop and they will expediate the repairs.

In the meantime they will try and sort out a loan computer while my laptop is fixed.

Oh, and they didn't send back my memory card (however I presume it would have been damaged in them trying to get it out of the laptop)!!

 

it shouldnt have they would simply take out the card reader and cracked it open to get ur memory card out. Its good the CRC is atleast making an effort to take care of you, if they actually do a good job at it, then it shows they are atleast proactive to take care of such apparent failure at basic customer service and help the customer out.

Im really impressed with the loan a laptop offer. More than any of the major oems.

 

Now that I have direct contact with the manager at CRC, he's moving things along and is making sure there won't be any more mess ups.

The loan computer was actually my suggestion, but CRC were very willing to offer it.

Anyway the nightmare continues (not Asus's or CRC's fault BTW). CRC arranged for UPS to pick up the unit on Weds on an express service. I called UPS up on Weds and was told it was too late to get onto the Weds flight back to the mainland, so they would pick it up on Thurs so it would be on Thursday's flight (therefore arriving to CRC on Friday).

Well unit gets picked on on Thurs afternoon and am informed it will be on the evening flight etc. Check the tracking system online today and an error is showing, so I call UPS and am informed the unit didn't make it onto yesterday's flight, as it got picked up too late (although I was assured thah it would leave the island on Thursday) and has left today (therefore arriving at CRC on Friday).

I was hoping to have been able to take the laptop on my trip to the states next week, but that looks more and more unlikely.

This unit is completely jinxed. I have wasted so much time chasing Asus, CRC and various couriers to sort out the problems.

 

pin, just to let you know that i'm now expert in removing memory stick duo cards especially on toshiba and asus card readers - it beats the hell out of me why people actually do such things when its evident that having something smaller stuck into the slot will mean difficulty to remove later. i've never done so on mine but countless friends made the mistake before.

just takes a bit of patience, a very powerful torch/light source and two paperclips and 20 mins of work

 

In hindsight this is what I wished I had done

 

Another update on the ongoing saga.

CRC arranged to pick up the faulty unit on Weds 6 Sept by overnight service. However thanks to the poor, poor service by UPS it did not get to CRC until yesterday (i.e. 4 business days later).

CRC have had a look at the unit and are not sure how long it will take to repair as they may need parts from Asus directly (and the parts come from Asus's factory in the Netherlands), so a loan unit was dispatched today. It should hopefully arrive tomorrow.

 

Loan computer arrived today. Very quick service from DHL (note to self, next time insist on using DHL).

 

I feel your pain, pin. My 11 week old ASUS notebook has been at the service centre for the last 8 of those weeks. I have no idea when I'll get it back - ASUS/CRC are hopeless. I should have asked for a loaner!

 

Ah, so I'm not the only one!!

Yep its really sucky. Seems you are in the same boat as me.

I would get in contact with them and ask why its taking so long to get your laptop fixed.

Mine still has not come back, they are waiting for parts from the Netherlands (and have been for over a week).

 

i wonder what's happening with PIN. Feel sorry for him

 

Hi

I'm still around, but the A8F still isn't.

I have my loaner (its been sitting in my office for a few weeks still packed up). However I had to take it home this week, as I've put my Dell on ebay and it will be gone by the end of the week.

Re the A8F, CRC as still waiting for spare parts from the Netherlands, however no ETA. I have been assured I am entitled to some monetary compensation, the amount though has not been confirmed.

The loaner is an M600 (or something like that). Its a very nice loaner at that. It looks nice and the built quality is great. The speakers are fantastic and the touchpad is very nice to use. Only problem is the battery doesn't seem to work so can only use the laptop when connected to the mains.