Keyboard Quality/Battery Life?

Hi there,

As I consider my options for buying a laptop, one of the brands that has come up for me frequently is ASUS. I really like some of their offerings!

Two things are really important for me, though.

The first is the keyboard. I essentially have spatial or motor dysgraphia (can't remember which!), so the laptop will be a primary source of writing, communication, and even minor note taking. Therefore, it needs to be solidly constructed, at least mid-sized keys, and preferably with very little/no flex.

What I am wondering about ASUS laptops is the general feel of the keyboard and wether or not it would fit my needs. The two main brands I'm looking at are ASUS and IBM/Lenovo (IBM mostly for the famously good quality and keyboard). I like the keyboard on the 12" Powerbook I tried out and, since ASUS makes the 12" model, I was wondering - are the keyboards are similar?

The other major concern I have is battery life. I've heard mostly good things about ASUS laptops, but I think it would probably depend greatly on the configuration. Would anyone reading this mind posting their config and battery life doing normal activites? Also, please specify if you have wifi on or off during that period.

To anyone who even read this, thanks!

:asus:

 

I can't comment on the KB for any ASUS laptops other then the one's I've reviewed, but I got to say, behind the ThinkPads, the Keyboard for the Z70va/W2v are exceptional, no flex at ALL, except at the corners - but this is only when you press down hard. The only way the ThinkPad keyboards are better is that, they are a tad more shallow, but springs alot faster. The keyboard I'm tying on now, isn't as shallow but it bounces up alot faster.

The only reason I'm mentioning this is because one may have to press down harder to fully press down, which could take more energy.

Or I can be somehow ranting on an non-existant issue....

I can easily get 4 hours with WiFi on, browser surfing and word processing. The screen is at 30~ %. If I need to maximize battery life, screen on 10%, everything off but a a Text document+typing would wield just a tad over 5 hours.

 

Also no flex AT ALL on the Z63a... this is probably one of the strongest features of the Z63a.
I would agree that the IBM keyboards are still better... but the Asus keyboards definitely aren't far behind, if at all. Definitely very solid.

With wifi on and screen at 50%, I get around 4-4.5 hours of battery life... no undervolting on the processor with NHC or any other programs except the default Power4Gear.
With no wifi and screen dimmed even more... I'd probably easily get over 5 hours.

 

You're looking for a 12" system, but 12" notebooks are quite small to have a *perfect* keyboard...... going with a 14" widescreen like the Z63a would be a good move. It's small enough to be very mobile, but big enough to have quite a few options and a large battery for great battery life. A 14" widescreen is basically the height of a 12" regular ratio screen with the width of a 15" regular ratio. So you can take this on a flight and fit in the economy seats yet have the same size widescreen more playing that you would on a 15". It's a great size and format.

 

Thanks for the response! The Asus battery consumption and keyboard sound great! That definitely makes my choice harder, as now all the laptops I'm seriously looking at meet my primary requirements!

ProPortable:
No, I'm not looking for a 12" system. I was just commenting that the keyboard on the 12" Powerbook that was on display at a local store seemed very solid. I'm looking more for a 14.1"/15.4" laptop. Thanks for the advice on the 14" widescreen, though!

 

If you're looking for something for basic needs (ie: office type stuff rather than gaming), for a 14" regular ratio I'd suggest the Z61a.

 

No, I'll probably need something with a good amount of power. Although the office work is important, I also need it for stuff like programming and compiling. Perhaps the occasional game as well. I'm not a FPS player usually, but I do like something with a bit of oomph. Looking at CanadaSys (I'm from Canada), I really like the cheap but customizable Asus laptops. Since I can only really get a cheap thinkpad through Lenovo Express, this is a big plus in favour of Asus.

Once again, thank you for your advice. I really appreciate it when people can take the time to talk to us undecided people!

[edit] I should also point out that I definitely don't want a 17" media laptop and I also only need a drive to read DVDs, not write them. Write is nice, but not enough to spend extra $$ on it.

 

I dunno how coriolis gets those amazing battery life numbers...but i'm running a intel 2905, and 2ghz cpu with my z70va and haven't been able to break the 4 hour barrier with my screen at 10% and wifi off...Just ain't happening...although i think coriolis's battery has a slightly larger capacity than mine at 68k versus his 70k?

Hmm...how DO you get your battery life up so high coriolis?

oh, and the keyboard fo the z70va is great, infact...i like it more than my desktop keyboard, less travel and less energy used to type lol

 

I've undervolted it, turned fans to minimum.

I also used magic