Is Lesance AS521AW an Asus S96J ?

I am planning on buying a new notebook from Japan. I came across this model named Lesance AS521AW sold by a Japanese company called PC-Koubou. According to this engadget news article some are saying that its an Asus S96J, I compared photos of both notebooks and they look identical in appearance, basic specifications are also similar: Intel Core (2) Duo with 945 express chipset and Radeon X1600. Lesance notebook costs around USD 1300 with a Core 2 Duo T5500, 1GB DDR2 533 Ram, Mobility Radeon X1600 256MB and 80GB 5400RPM disk and other standard features.

This is the cheapest X1600 Core 2 Duo I found here so far. Is it really manufactured by Asus? Can I expect the same level of build quality? I never would have even considered this unbranded notebook if it wasn’t for that engadget article.

 

well if we're going by the picture they provided then I'd say yes

 

More pictures from PC-koubou site (product page)
Link to product page (Sorry, its in Japanese)
Link to specifications (Japanese)

I can’t find any reference to S96J in Asus web site, no product page no downloads. I don’t exactly understand this made by Asus sold by others business. Who will provide support for this notebook? Like user manuals, BIOS updates etc?. Most probably I will get a Japanese driver CD and a Japanese manual with it, but what if I want to find English downloads? Will I have to depend on OEM drivers ?

Can I expect same parts / build quality compared to S96J ?

 

ASUS has two lines, an ENSEMBLE line where they sell it, and all warranty, issues, etc. go to them.

The barebone line is just barebones(empty casing of a notebook, with everything but CPU, HD, RAM, WiFi and at times BT) for notebooks, and the warranty, issues are dealed by the dealer/reseller. All inquiries go to the dealers, as ASUS do not consider the barebones a part of their 'notebooks'.

 

It must be.

Asus is excluded from selling notebooks that say asus in japan because of a contract with sony.

 

Now I am bit hesitant to consider this option. As I said before what about BIOS updates? From where does other S96J owners get their updates? For example here is a thread complaining about a screen/VGA issue, some say a BIOS update will(already has) fix it.

I am not good at Japanese yet as I am a foreigner studying here. From the looks of it I don’t see PC-koubou providing any downloads for their products.

I am also worried about English OS compatibility; some japanese domestic computer models (even from reputed manufacturers like Sony, Toshiba) are sometimes equipped with components that don’t have full featured English OS drivers. If barebones PCs are manufactured by Asus without wireless, BT and networking adapters, then there is a possibility that these Japanese resellers fitting them with Japanese network adapters that might not have English OS support. Also coming back to BIOS issue, if components vary from notebook to notebook, can there be a unified BIOS for all S96Js ? Is the BIOS only for motherboard like in desktops? If that is the case, then how can the video issue I mentioned above can be fixed with a BIOS update ?

So many questions, I know… only because I don’t feel like letting this deal slip since all the other branded notebooks with similar configuration costs at least $200 more.

 

http://www.notebookforums.com/post2418818.html#post2418818

That thread has the links to the BETA bios, BETA!!!

Final version has not yet been released.

 

Yeah. from the pics, it looks like the notebook is likely a Z96J or S96J. The X1600 makes it even more obvious.

If the screen is WSXGA+, then it's Z96J, otherwise the normal 1280x800 is S96J.