Symetrikal's S96J Journal

It's weird but the palmrest and touchpad get warmer under a light load or when the machine is idle. Right now I'm running Prime95 which is a stress test and the palmrest feels cool, even though the temps are 64 degrees C-CPU and 45 degrees C-HD. Maybe I should just get speedfan and control fanspeed myself.

 

Nice review, just read it for the first time. I'm really considering getting this laptop for college now. May not look as good as the w3j, but atleast no one will want to steal it (until they see the performance hehe).

btw, where did you find out it's pronounced ahh-soos?

 

what happened to the promised juicy stuff? it's like waiting for a steak now... >_>. the s96J seems comparable to the a8jm alot so i want to see the juices flowing.

 

I watched a ASUS commercial someone gave a link to for the W2 series and the narrator kept saying "ah-SOOS". How did you pronounce it? A-sys? like me?

Sorry Gusto I have been working alot. The Gaming reviews are definately coming tomorrow. Check back. I will cover Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and Warcraft 3 for the first wave of games. Later will come Tomb Raider: Legend, and World of Warcraft.

 

yeah its supposed to be pronunced as "ah-seuss". but "A-sys" sounds so much better!

 

yeah i've always said A-Sys. sounds better IMO

 

I always pronounced it "as-uhss" because Asus comes from Pegasus so I'd think it'd be pronounced the same.. just without the "Peg"

 

its suppose to be like what these reputable ppl say, ASUS (pronounced [ˈeɪsʊs] or [ˈeɪsəs])

 

I say is Ay-sus ^^

 

^ Coming from my Tawaineese friend I just asked today, its actually AH-SOOS.

 

Updated with gaming performance, including Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

 

Oblivion does recognize the x1600. You are using a non-supported driver.

 

This is concerning... Do you mean that they just dont support the wide-screen or the lower res?

If it's a matter of the widescreen, I'm not worried, it seems that almost all of the new laptops on the market are going wide, so I expect that the "support" for this format will catch up pretty quick.

If it is the lower resolution, then I'm worried. I like the 1280x800 better than Super or Ultra res for word processing and things where I need to see the desktop and toolbar, which is why I actually liked the S96J better than the Z, but if games won't support this lower resolution that's a big problem. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

 

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/index.php

Here's where you'll all games and how to make them support WIDESCREEN RESOLUTIONS

BTW, awsome review of the games!, great you got the webcam to work, to me the pics look good.

Awsome notebook, runs relatively cool while gaming.

GJ!

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

Your thinking is exactly right, soon everything will catch up and 1280x800 will become a more popular resolution alternative. As for now, it's not that big of a deal. 1280x960 resolutions work good for wallpapers, and like MG's link, there's ways to make games display 1280x800. I was just commenting that from owning a s96j, WXGA users have to take an extra step most of the time to get correct native resolution, whether that's downloading a tool for games or scaling a 1600x1200 wallpaper. No biggie, gurl. Sometimes I'm surprised too, for example I started playing Ragnarok Online again, a small MMORPG with 2-D sprites in a 3-D world. It reminds me of Supernintendo RPG's like chrono trigger. I was shocked when I saw 1280x800 as a supported resolution.

 

wait wait, im a bit confused... does that mean the WSXGA+ is more supported in terms of its resolution, as compared to the WXGA??

 

Maybe, since most LCD desktop monitors don't come in WXGA.

 

if u look around the WXGA is starting to become relatively popular on widescreen 14-15' laptops, esspecially for ppl who dont need that extra realestate (ppl who rnt using their notebooks as gaming/photo editing/graphics design machines)but still want a good resolution with a relatively "readable" screen (for word processing..etc) because of the whole "it's better to keep ure screen on it's native resolution" (which i totally agree with) where the extra cost for upgrading to a WSXGA+ could be used to upgrade something else.

That said.... i read somewhere that laptops (in general) make up 43% of the total PC market sales....that's a number that cant be taken lightly.

so let's do the math here.....

WXGA......increasing popualrity [in an already high (14-15') segment of the notebook market]

notebooks.....almost half of the total PC sales this year.

So as long as their is a marketing strategy for selling these games i think we can say there's still hope in seeing a 1280X800 option in the games to come!!!!

LET'S KEEP OUR FINGERS CROSSED!!

 

yeah to a certain degree there are more widescreen resolutions that a games like than do not like.

For example:

WSXGA+ is prolly the most popular widescreen format
WXGA is also very popular for low res.
but WXGA+ very few games even recognize this resolution =\ (MBP)

nonetheless, i don't care, cos we have the widescreenforum and everything you need is right there

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

yay, game reviews^^ awesome that they work and all. Webcam quality isn't bad at all. I think you've got me sold on my decision to get one of these, palmrest warmness aside

 

can you take some clearer pics for the s96j?

 

ok that is a samsung screen

Im not keeping all this info at my fingertips. I think some e1505s have samsung screens as well. If someone thinks they look different its possible they are lower ms response time screens.
its stats say nothing special about it, it would be a very standard screen type. not the ultra brite or what not that samsung makes.

16 ms would game ok. Its better than many but i think standard for ones coming out right now.

i would want a 12ms screen ideally but they really dont sell them on laptops so Im not sure thats even fair mentioning.

 

gezundtide.

 

Thread updated with 2 week checkback and CD-Drive Issue addressed.

 

haha "ah-soos" was what i heard on the tech support phone line..and i was wondering if i heard wrong. This is simliar to how people think "Sager" is pronounced.

 

I pronounce it "Say-grr", but its probably "Sah-Gayer".. gayer.. lol

 

It is actually either Say-jrr (like Sage brush) or Say-Gr depending on who answers the phone. We say the Sage brush one.

 

the screen is made by auo optronics

what is strange is that call letter comes up on google and samsung comes up

but its a different company, a taiwanese lcd manufacturer

there must have been some cross marketing or something but i am correcting myself.

this exact screen shows up on the e1505 but is described much more negatively.

 

I heard the e1505 screen is not so bad. I like my screen alot, even though it doesn't have "splendid technology".

 

in the e1505s case the negative reviews are how many you have to send back because the screen leaks backlight, which have to do with its installation.


its put together on a larger scale.

 

this is such a long forum that im not sure if this was covered yet, but is there any light leakgue or uneven light distribution on the screen?

 

I don't notice any in the week and a half that I've had mine.

 

me neither.. the screen is lit very uniformly, but there is the tiniest amount of screen ghosting when exiting full screen programs. Almost unnoticable.

 

how "almost unnoticable?" Is there a way you could take an accurate picture to show the ghost? (i'm not even sure if you'd be able to accurately document this) but...

 

If you're that anal about screen leakage (wanting measurements for "almost unnoticeable") and ghosting, then stick with a CRT.

 

Pretty much what hyperluminous said. It's not a big deal at all. It shouldn't even weigh on your decision to get this laptop. I also noticed my bottom right corner has a dark spot. but, i never look there anyway.

 

Mine does have a fair amount of light leakage accross the bottom. Its quite visible as XP loads.

 

None that I can notice

 

I have a little on the lower left side. Bothers me not in the slightest.

 

Just wanna say, this is the best buy laptop I have seen in a long time Hope to be proud owner of one soon... :=) Thank you for this journal, it really helped