Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
Thats just the germany keyboard.... Asus makes about 10 different keyboards for every model.... mobile review had a UK keyboard which is still different from what we would have in the US... but it's the most simliar.
J
Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]
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I swear, you know pretty much everything about ASUS, Justin. [
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ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, Tohiba Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700 -
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I bought a W3 in London last night (from Micro Anvika). I was looking at a few machines and I'd mostly ruled this one out due to it being slightly older technology (not Sonoma and with an "old" 9700 mobility graphics card). But in the end I fell in love with it when I saw it.
It's very similar in spec to the Sony S2XP but a lot better value for money (I paid £1200 although I'm sure it will be cheaper once a few more places get it in stock). I've not used it much yet but a very quick few comments on what I like about it and any shortcomings:
The screen is superb. I'd say it's almost as good as the Sony X-Black but probably the Sony is just ahead. But this is close enough for it to not really be noticable unless you put the screens next to each other. It is nice and vibrant and has good contrast. My one concern about it was the amount of reflection in the shop: so much so that I almost went for another machine without the glossy screen. However, in use outside the shop (only indorrs, not used it outdoors yet) I don't have any problems with reflections.
The keyboard is also excellent. I just prefer my old IBM X23 keyboard but this is almost there. It's certainly a lot better than the average keyboard and much, much better than I was expecting. Importantly for me it has the page up/down/home/end keys on the right of the keyboard (which the SOny S2XP does not have) and also a full size enter key. There is a minute amount of flex if you press really hard but that's just me being fussy coming from an IBM. It's a very good keyboard overall and the amount of travel is spot on.
The hard drive is only 60gb which was a little below my desired 80gb or above. It's also disappointingly only a 4200 spin speed. I'm likely to replace this shortly as I want to dual boot with Linux too. But for most users it is plenty of space and it doesn't seem that slow. I had replaced the 4200 speed in my old IBM with a 7200 speed and the difference is noticable. Having said that, I think I'd probably just get a 5400 speed as they allow for larger capacity and a little less heat and power usage.
The touchpad I don't like. The buttons are a little too stiff and the pad itself seems to lock up occasionally when trying to use it to click on something. The sensitivity can be adjusted in Windows which has helped but it's still annoying me a little. It seems more like a driver issue as the pad itself does seem very responsive most of the time.
Battery life seems good. I haven't used it enough to drain it yet but I think I'll be looking at about 3 hours with medium usage (mostly browsing but also insalled quite a bit which uses the hard drive and so uses more power than normal).
I haven't yet tried playing games. I will tey a few at some point. I wanted reasonal graphics for occasional play but it's not going to be my main gaming machine.
The extra function buttons on the sides are great. According to the manual you can play CD's without turning the machine on (not tried it).
You get a reasonable quality carry case which has no markings on the outside. So it doesn't look that much like a notbook case (which is good so you don't get any unwanted attention).
Asus also bundle a free mouse. This was unexpectedly a wireless Logitech model which was a real bonus. Unfortunately they don't supply any batteries which I feel is a little cheap on a model of this price.
The machine itself looks fantastic. The lid is metallic with a very understated look which I like a *LOT*. The lid is catchless. Inside the palmrest is plastic (I was considering the V6 which was aluminium at this point). The LED's are all blue including the large power light on the rear side of the machine. I can't reiterate enough that this really does look and feel a very expensive piece of equipment. The build quality is superb. The lid opening is firm and the screen stays in place. It does not feel flimsy at all.
The machine doesn't get very hot (although I haven't used it foranything really streessful such as gaming) and the fan noise is very quiet. Only occasionally does the fan step up in speed. But it doesn't do this for very long and then just goes very quiet again.
The palmrests are absolutely covered with stickers. 5 of them. 2 of them are huge. I really hate companies doing that.
I've not opened it up yet but CPU-Z says the memory is two sticks of 256mb PC2700. I'll want to upgrade it to at least 1gb due to using it for software development. So that means throwing away one stick.
My model has the 1.7ghz processor, 60gb 4200 hdd, 56g WiFi, but no bluetooth (there is a button to activate this so it's obviously optional.
Asus supply a recovery disc rather than a WIndows XP Pro CD. It also comes bundled with quite a bit of software (forget what as I didn't install it), including Nero. The function buttons allow you to turn wifi on/off, adjust performance, turn bluetooth (optional) on/off, lauch a browser (gives me an error and haven't bothered to look into it) and turn the touch pad on/off. All very useful. The other edge function keys play a CD as mentioned earlier.
Summary:
Could do better = fewer stickers, only 60gb 4200 speed hdd, both memory slots taken, touchpad seems to not recognise clicks occasionally.
Very good = superb screen, lovely keyboard, useful function keys, looks and feels understated but expensive.
Overall = The best machine I've used. I no longer look at Powerbooks with envy []
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<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>
Summary:
Could do better = fewer stickers, only 60gb 4200 speed hdd, both memory slots taken, touchpad seems to not recognise clicks occasionally.
Very good = superb screen, lovely keyboard, useful function keys, looks and feels understated but expensive.
Overall = The best machine I've used. I no longer look at Powerbooks with envy []
<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>
The specs of my W3N are:
2Ghz Pm, 80GB 5400speed, only one slot taken (512MB upgraded to 1GB already)
So, actually, I own the version you wanted
I have already played some games (Doom3, HL2, SplinterCell:Chaos Theory Demo). The performance is great.
The display is really fantastic. Reflections are not noticeable during normal operation.
The design is great and built quality is very high.
I am using RightMark ClockUtility to dynamically clock the CPU. The CPU runs on 600Mhz and it steps higher when needed (very quick and unnoticeable). In addition RMCU can reduce the CPU CoreVoltage so the fan only runs occasionally
I love it...
BTW: If you want to see a nice flash site, take a look here:
http://event.asus.com/2005/notebooks/20050201/
JorlinLast edited by a moderator: May 8, 2015 -
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Why does the new Alvsio eqipped chipset still use the ATI 9700 GPU? Is that a typo? Still no sign of W3 in Hong Kong [
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THey'll probably hit the states sooner than Canada... I'm sad because of that.
BUt hey... as long it gets here soon []
ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, Tohiba Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700 -
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New ASUS W3N 14" + 9700 Released
Discussion in 'Asus' started by Underpantman, Jan 4, 2005.
