Looking for input on the ASUS F8 Series F8Sp-X1

Couldn't find anything here about this. I have a few questions. This is my first laptop by the way.

Does it overheat much if I have it plugged in while gaming? Should I get a cheap cooler?

Does it have a sturdy feel to it?

Keyboard Sturdy?

How annoying is the fan blowing towards your mouse hand?

Should I choose another laptop around this price range? (newegg only please)


**Edit** Does this have like leather on it? Eww...

Thanks guys!

 

I don't know the particular model of F8 but some of the questions should be answered by the F8Sn/F8V reviews (see Info Booth). Specifically, build quality is the same because the build is the same (sturdy feel and keyboard); fan.

As to the heat, depends on the configuration. Again, check the reviews; if the configuration on your model is lower in specs than that in the reviews then it probably will heat up less.

 

I personally own the F8SP-X1

It's quite a bargain for a laptop at $999. I bought mine off Newegg.com and received it in about 4 days. It was also my first laptop but I did about two months worth of research before I made my final decision.

The laptop itself doesn't feel hot but it can get warm on left side of the palm rest area when you're playing game intensive games like COD4. The vent on the right side is decent if you're not playing any games, but generally, my mouse hand isn't right in front of the vent, which is near the back of the laptop. The air it exhausts isn't all that bad. You won't need a cooler at all.

The build quality is the same as all the other F8S* laptops since the main difference is the video card. The 1 gb vram ATI pretty much runs most games flawlessly. I can play team fortress 2 at max settings or near max settings with no lag. Keep in mind that despite the fact that it says it can run DirectX10 shaders, it's not a good idea to set your graphics settings as such. Sure, you'll see a difference in quality, but DirectX10 shaders are too demanding on a laptop with a midrange video card like the 3650 or 9500M gs. Case in point: I played Company of Heroes and it ran flawlessly on very high settings, but when I turned on the directx 10 shaders, performance lagged a bit when everything was kept on high or medium settings.

Some people feel that 1 gb of Vram may be a bit too much and that the ATI card won't be able to utilize it, but I disagree. The performance of the 3650 and the 9500M Gs are close as is. Reviewers say there's a slightly better performance over the 3650, but it's very small. From what I'm hearing, in a year or two, when more demanding games are put on the market and people with 9500m gs and 3650 cards are forced to turn off anti aliasing, the 1 gb of vram on the 3650 will come into play as a big factor. Regardless, the difference isn't exactly noteworthy betweent he 3650 and the 9500m gs.

The keyboard is comfortable, but as with any laptop keyboard, be sure your fingernail doesn't get stuck underneath a key or something. It's not exactly a problem for me. The keyboard also feels sturdy.

The laptop itself has a sturdy feel to it. No loud creaking or cracking noises of any sort. The hinge feels sturdy and works pretty much the same way like a Nintendo DS hinge opens or closes. Just to be safe though, I always pick up the laptop with two hands and on both sides of the laptop. I lso use both hands when opening the laptop. The size of the 14" is decent and it feels like a 14" laptop, even though it's a bit bigger than your normal 14" laptop (the top frame above the screen is longer in order to fit in the camera that swivels 180 degrees). Also, the weight is decent and I take it with me when I go to classes. The plastic around the keyboard doesn't look cheap since it's polished but keep in mind that the top of the laptop case is a fingerprint magnet. The case accessory that comes with it is decent, although not very attractive compared to $30-$50 cases.

The quality on the web camera is a bit laggy and not exactly impressive, but it's still better than the old webcam I have for my desktop. Picture quality is mediocre. Just don't expect it to act like a digital camera and you'll be fine.

The power button doesn't stick out and it's relatively firm, so I don't really see much of a possibility of accidentally pressing it when you're on Windows unless you press hard on the button itself.

The media buttons adjust (in order), the power modes, bluetooth, wi-fi, screen display (lighting), and a button that opens windows media center. I don't normally use the fingerprint scanner and the touchpad buttons make a licking noise that can be noticeable in a quiet room. The touchpad itself is very responsive and comfortable to use. You won't see it, but the right side of the touchpad and the bottom of the touchpad respectively allow for vertical and horizontal scrolling capability. If you want to turn off the touchpad, press FN + F9. You can adjust the volume settings via FN + F10, F11, F12.

The laptop itself has 5 USB ports, a decent DVD-R drive (can make a whirring sound when loading a disc, but not often), audio jacks on the left side towards the front, and video ports on the back. If you're using ethernet, it can be a pain to remove the ethernet cord on the back of the laptop since it can be hard to reach the ethernet cord tab. I rarely use the ethernet LAN connection since the N-network capability of the wi-fi is amazing. I purchased a D-Link wireless router for $50 at Best Buy and because of it, I've never had to hook up an ethernet cable on the laptop while at home. It also gives great ping rates on games (amazingly low ping for wi-fi).

The screen is a glossy display, but noticeably, not too glossy. Some may prefer a larger display than a 12800 x 800 display, but it doesn't bother me for laptop usage. You can always plug in your monitor if you're bothered by the resolution at home.

Vista itself is actually decent if you can ignore some of the bugs they're still working on. I was actually impressed by Vista and I hadn't even installed SP1 yet at the time. There's practically no bloatware installed in the laptop since the programs they have installed are programs that use the hot keys and some of the function keys. Aero pretty much runs flawlessly and there's still plenty of RAM to play games at great frame rates.

The laptop does not have leather on it at all. The other laptops around the price range are either 15.4" Asus with a 9500m gs instead or they cost $100 to $350 more for more processing power (which wasn't worth it in my opinion, since you can buy more stuff for your laptop instead or use that money for parts for a desktop pc that will run a game far better.