Is it just me, or are Asus' new laptops knocking the ball out of the park?

Being a newbie to the world of Asus, I don't know much about their past product lines....

But it seems to me that with the introductions of the M50Sv-A1 & B1, the M51 series, and the F8Sn-C1, Asus is offering extremely appealing laptops with tremendous features and competitive pricing.

I'm very pleased with my M50Sv-A1--it is a great all-around laptop. The M51 line has similar features, but is scaled back in power. The F8Sn-C1 has the M50's power but not all the features, while in a 14".

Am I just being irrationally exuberant, or is Asus really doing a great job?

 

Well, the dell XPS ones are pretty good. LG has one the most asthestically appealing 15in laptops while Apple has the lightest the most featured-packed. There are also great thinkpads, which are very reliable, cool, quite, and fast. I'm just saying that there are too many great laptops out there to call asus exceptional

 

I'm thinking.... Irrationally Exuberant . But that's cause I'm dissapointed with Asus's lack of build quality and battery life.
Now Asus laptops are like any other consumer laptops, maybe a tad bit better. And They're business laptops are very meh.

Asus used to stand for uncompromising quality (look at the W3, and how many wanted it back). Hell, Even my old A8 had better battery life and better Screen support than my F8. And i'm getting sick of the fan noise.

 

The C90S is my first ASUS laptop but I've heard from other forum members that older models were very reliable and the build quality was also better.

I don't like ASUS's new "mainstream" product philosophy.
While they are still very competitively priced there have been a lot of bad units.
At the moment I think ASUS should spent more time on quality control than anything else.

 

Their qc is top notch. actually lowest rma rate out of all their competitors. their forum referrals are a majority of their sales so it is natural to see alot of people here with issues. Their c90s notebook was huge and is a barebone so it is natural to see the do it your selfers who know not how to do it them selves report an array of issues. to date from 2006 asus had one very major inherent issues with a popular prebuilt ensemble unit (the a8). the rest of their popular models in 2007 like g1, g2, w7, f8, u3, u6 have had very good luck. Also the vast majority of the dealers who sold c90 as a barebone or custom built did not take it upon them selves to test and diagnose issues that you find here http://btoforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=2063
The only field they need to improve in is their driver availability.

 

i think theres a difference here between reliability and build quality. its one that may not be as important as many make it. What eddie is saying, and has always said (mind you hes one of the few resellers who also deals with lenovo, so he has more reason than any to say "yeah there quality has dropped, get a thinkpad") is that what really matters about quality, the reliability and durability, is still there. If you buy an asus ensemble you can be confident in it being a reliable, long lasting product. However what many people, myself included have been complaining about since the .... well i place the start on the z96js models, is the cheaper feeling. Asus notebooks do not feel as sturdy, rigid, etc. as the older ones. You no longer pick one up and and go "damn these things are well built" like the earlier models. Also even on their business line, alot of the flash is gone, i still remember the first time i saw a w2 and was shocked by how well designed it was.
however well much of that warm fuzzy (damn this is a sexy, sturdy notebook) feeling is gone, the fact is they are still reliable.

On to the original point, i would agree with the OP, right now i have a hard time recomending anything else (This was not so earlier, this summer i set two friends up with sager branded compals, because i did not feel asus was competitive for the price). The newest wave of asus consumer models seem to match HP build quality, while still providing asus components and performance, combined with an amazing warranty with a great price. This warranty is the thing that really seals the deal for me in their price to value ratio. The business line still seems a bit lacking compaired to the old days, but products like the u3s hint that they are moving back to sturdier, sexier business models

 

Their battery life and their choice of batteries are still junk though, unfortunately.

 

for me there are 2 categories of quality
1. aesthetics. this is simply the way the notebook looks and feels. it has nothing to do with reliability
2. durability/reliability. this has nothing to do with aesthetics. the notebook can be the cheapest thing in the world and look like crap, smell like it, and feel like it but at the same time it can be rated as one of the most reliable notebooks ever made
I will give you 3 fine examples.
1. Asus ensemble w3j was a very hot model in 2006. It was sexy, sleek, nicely finished, no other competitor out in the same price and look and specs. it was our top popular model in 2006. 2 years later i can sefely say that it also has a very high durability and reliability rating with rma due to manufacturer defect almost none.
2. Asus barebone z96 or s96. also our most popular starting in 2006. the quality was low. crappy plastic, crappy feel, and flexy keyboard. some issues with software and bios (grainy screen which we diagnosed as an issue with bios before asus had their own conclusion), other then a few software bugs which were resolved quick this oogly cheap notebook turned out to be very reliable and durable. the only minor issue with it is a sucky heaphone jack which is prone to fail if "abused"
3. C90S. tis a barebone and so far outnumbers all other asus notebookes beabones and ensemble alike in volume. Its looks are ok. its feel is ok. Its cheap given its features. It has no shortage of complaints from users who built it them selves. We have had our own fair share of rma for it. Overall at the momemt i would rate it as reliable only if purchased from a dealer who specialized in it (like my self). other then that i would classify it as a lemon or lime. here is a list of why it is a lemon. http://btoforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=2063
so in reality if you wanted to get technical it is a good notebook once all the bugs are out however to someone who does not frequent this forum and has had the displeasure of buying as a barebone or from a dealer that does not specialize then it is definitely a lemon./

 

ye not too sure about their battery life. I definitely think their actual batteries are no different then the rest however the bios and acpi coding can greatly improve. I have been playing with lenovo for a while now. for the same 6 cell battery on an equally speced asus a lenovo would get about 20-30% better life however the performance is noticeably worse. I also found that asus factory state software is probably one of the poorest performers. it needs massive tweaking unlike lenovo which seems to work much faster out of the box. asus shoudl stop loading their machines with norton, disable windows defender and disable all their worthless apps like live update (which actually works NOW) and all the rest of the crap. throw all that on a folder on the desktop and call it "user optional soft" or whatever. i ve lost count of how many returns we have had from buyers that hate the performance. Asus products are top notch but their product management, software driver support and batteries are just lacking.

 

My biggest issue with asus software us that my recovery disk doesn't work. I just get a gigantic error screen. So I couldn't use it at all. I had to get a vista install disc from another party, install, use the serial, and then activate. It took a while to get that damn disc, so for a like a day or so, my brand new F8 was unusable.

On the other hand, the Asus U2e looks veeeeery promising. That's a gigantic move in the right direction.

 

i am pretty sure that is a very isolated case. we have used the same recovery on the f8 countless times when poeple ordered a 7200 rpm drive. never any problems

 

Yeah, I was sure as well. Otherwise, Asus would have problems. Still highly annoying.

 

there are a few reasons why the restore kit did not work for you
1. hardware defect. ram or hdd maybee
2. bad optical drive
3, bad media

 

Could be the HDD, as it makes weird noises. Though i've run a few chkdsks and no issues were found. Could also be bad media and optical drive (though a few other OS install discs worked).

But Back on Topic.

 

I appreciate those of you who have chimed in on the quality topic. You approached the issue from directions I had not thought about.

With the M50Sv-A1 being my first Asus, I was a little surprised that it did not have a more solid feel. However, I think that Eddie is correct that it really is well built.

One thing that may benefit those of us in the states with these new models is that most of them have been in Europe and Australia before coming here--at least reviews from those areas of the world appeared earlier than in the US.

 

I've got a G1s..and am really happy with it except for the fact it took 3 RMAs to get the screen fixed...but at least, I had no problems with dealing with the customer support. In fact, the 3rd time they pretty much just gave me a new notebook (replaced all of the case parts).

I think the new U6s, U3s, and U2s, are going in the right directions. I'm looking for a smaller laptop now since the G1s is pretty hefty...and the real only reason why I can't jump for any of the new Asus' right now is still because of lackluster battery life like everyone else has said. Otherwise, I think the models I listed above are pretty good quality.

 

I plan to get the larger battery for mine at a later date. That will put me at about 3 hours of easy run time.

 

Of course, but the fact still remains that a similar spec'ed notebook with a 6 cell will have the same battery life with an ASUS with a 9 cell, for example the U3s - The m1330 with a 3 cell has a bit less then a u3s with a 6 cell, and a SZ7 with a 6 cell has better battery life then it with a 9 cell.

 

Don't get me wrong. I agree with you that I would like to see Asus come out with longer battery life. With that said, for me performance, wow factor, screen appearance, and bells & whistles are of higher priority than battery life. I think Asus sacrifices battery life to attain these other qualities.

 

When people nag at the negative points of Asus, it's always about the battery life.. But as you just said, and as I have said to a number of people, Asus makes laptops with high performance and heaps of great features for a great price, they prioritise these aspects over battery life and portability. Well it seems they have with the newer models anyway.

I guess they are just aiming for users with the same aspect priority. I'm one of those users. And even when I plan to use my laptop on battery, it isn't for long. Well it can't be long with the laptop I have atm anyway haha. (under 30min now..battery is screwedd)


Anyway, deadmanwins, still enjoying your new M50Sv? Can't wait until I have enough money to possibly buy it !

 

See that's the problem. Other laptops with the same specs and battery (or even worse batteries) get better batterylife. The 2h max on my asus comes from lazyness in programming, not powerful parts.

 

Precisely .

And since (for me and a multitude of others, I expect) the purpose of a notebook is "portability" and, by extension, productivity potential for use away from a wall socket..... I have been (sadly) looking elsewhere as I consider a replacement for my beloved W3a, rather than be running the next electrical plug every 120 minutes (which will only shorten as the battery wears over time). I still get at least 3 hours (down from 4+ two years ago) on my undervolted W3, and I'm kind of used to that time frame .

 

I could Actually use my A8Js as a mobile computer. I got 2,5h-ish with more tahn 50% screen and wifi on, and could push it to 3,5Hours. I now barely get 2.

 

It may be that is exactly what needs to happen....if enough people buy other brands because of the battery issue, then Asus will figure out how to have longer lasting batteries.

Is there any other battery technology on the horizon for laptops that will provide longer life. I haven't looked at mine, but I'm assuming it's ni-cad.

Still, with the battery issue, I'm very happy with my purchase.

 

asus battery life suffers not because their batteries are bad. it is because they generally use dedicated vga cards, they usually use top of the line cpus, and their power4gear is not worth a dime. i am sure their acpi can use coding. the alternative is go with a less powerful notebook to get more battery life. but there is no question without a doubt they need to recode their acpi.

 

Anyone with a V6j could attest to that. Even the W3j Vista drivers absolutely suck. The computer won't auto switch screen brightness and more. I liked the Asus notebooks during the time of the V6 and W3, but even those had their issues. Unless some major things change, I won't buy another Asus.

 

Has anyone emailed asus and asked them to put some effort into the coding/software/acpi side of the house to improve battery life?

Maybe if they get enough emails, they'll notice...

 

Asus thinks that they are infallible. One day they will agree that there might be a problem, the next day they say its just your computer and say they just fix it. For now, its cheaper for them to shove this under the rug. Even if all Asus users here at NBR sent them an email, that would be a paper cut on the issue, we are look for more like a severed artery.

 

i agree

just wanted to point out that my z63a from march2006 easily broke 4hours with the 8cell battery, but with no dedicated card, it should have been closer to 6

however, 4hrs was already quite acceptable for the time; which is why the 2-3hrs they have now make me seriously consider a vaio instead

 

I think it is fair to say that vista does consume noticeably more battery life. on the same z63 vista would consume the battery faster
also upper management in asus does not read email. I do not feel it is the obligation of the people here to call them on this. it is their obligation to solve an issue that has previously been reported. i do believe they are working on it however their battery life per cell is acceptable for the level of performance you get. 1 hour per 3 cell is about what you see in a laptop with a high end cpu, a dedicated gpu and vista.
My dad has a 12" dell xps. low end cpu and low end gpu. It has xp on it. The 9 cell in it reports 5 -6 hours. On medium settings the actual usage i get is more like 4 hours just browsing and typing. This is a new laptop. Any reviewer would give the time shown in the battery meter as would I (5-6 hours) not the actual time which is 4 hours. Do i think that his 12" dell offers a cinsiderable improvement over a newer more powerful 12" asus? yes in terms of battery life but if compared to U6s the dell is vastly UNDERpowered. There are ways one can tweak their asus to show a whole hour extra of battery life without killing the display. would this be actual life? I doubt it. I think asus has to recode their power4gear and acpi. One thing they should include is a kill switch for bluetooth in the software. Another is a kill for the camera. Also kill some of the non essential ports for power saving. Here is an interesting read. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2860118#post2860118
Now this is on an older unit but i am pretty sure it will work for any laptop from asus.

 

Yes, I'm having a blast. I had worried about the WXGA+ graphics, but the screen and size of print have been no problem.

 

I'm surprised you let your dad use a Dell j/k... one of my friend has the xps m1210, and i find it find it quite good actually.