US W2P specs

I have been eagerly awaiting the US arrival of the W2P, and have started to see it listed on a couple of websites however, these are with the wsxga screen and regular dvd drive.

I'm only interested in the wuxga (1920x1200) screen & the HD DVD drive. Is this version available in the US. Can a US dealer do a custom order.

If not, does anyone know which overseas markets will have these (preferably one that uses a western keyboard....don't want Chinese or arabic keys) so that I can order it.

Thanks

 

Sorry buddy, but you won't get it from anyone in North America.

The US market can support a 17" media center at $2,500. The HD-DVD drive would have added $500 alone, and Asus feels WUXGA is too dense for a 17" in the market the W2 has here in the states, and would have added at least $100 more. This would have put the W2 at $3,100 at the very least and that wouldn't sell...... well it may have to you, and personally, I'd have one as well, but they have a hard time getting $2,500 out of this market for the W2, even though with the current specs and features it's worth a heck of a lot more... not to mention it's the finest built computer I've ever felt... the design is very minimalistic which I prefer, but certainly doesn't deduct points, that's for sure..... So you can see that a $3,000+ machine simply wouldn't work here at this time, at least on the level of sales Asus needs to bring the model in at this price....... They could bring in maybe 25% of what was planned, but then that price of $3,100 would probably be more like $3,300-3,400 - just because they're not getting the quantity pricing they need to keep it lower.

The specs of the US W2pb are of course listed on our site linked below:
http://www.proportable.com/detail.aspx?ID=136

 

Thanks for the info....Totally not your fault, but a ridiculous situation. Subsequent to your post I looked at the Australian & Singapore & UK markets to see who would be getting the 'decked' version. None of these appear to be either!!! It kind of begs the question as to whether this machine was ever going to be produced!!

I find this to be very misleading in that the product is announced globally (widely reported on Engadget, Gizmodo, reghardware etc. Their angle on it being that it is an HD laptop ) The US ASUS website lists the specs of the machine incl HD DVD and WUXGA. Yet it isn't going to be sold in that guise. ASUS US were useless in being able to provide any info, and it isn't possible to contact ASUS HQ via email, as clicking on the link brings up a support webform!!
This was going to be my first ASUS laptop purchase....it shouldn't be this hard to buy one!

 

Well, actually it's not that bad.... Asus actually hasn't started making any of the W2p's with that screen yet either from what I'm told. The old W2v has a WSXGA+ screen and it was great, but a little dim (most 17"ers were a year ago), but then this spring they brought in the W2j and Taiwan screwed up and sent us WXGA+ screens...... they bombed... we cancelled a guaranteed order for I think it was 75 systems and Asus got stuck with a ton and even with a $100 discount and then what turned into be another $200-300 in rebates, they still didn't move.

Long story short, those didn't sell because all of our customers wanted WSXGA+. I'm a resolution man myself, but I even think WUXGA is high on a 17".. I use 1920 x 1200 on my 23" desktop lcd and it's perfect for me as a heavy photoshop and 3d studio max guy...... so I'm not sure if I could really use it on something as *small* as a 17" (compared to the 23 obviously)....

Now, the only thing we had a chance of getting was the HD DVD drive, but when we found out the drive was $800 (compared to the $300 slot load 8x Super Multi drive), we even knew at $3,000 it would be too much for this market........ it would be great and worth it, but right now not enough people have the pockets for an HD DVD drive and then you have the whole format war that will hold more people up.

Let me tell you one thing about the places above that you mentioned as "misleading".... You only say that because you must think they're a "leading source" of information when it comes to this stuff and if you look through ALL of their sites, you'd be surprised at how much information is pulled from 3rd parties...... I myself had posts that were ripped right off this forum and given to those places by a "contributor" which is just another source...... I got it from Asus, someone took it from this forum, those places posted information that person gave them..... See where this is going?

Now, as for Asus' site, Taiwan controls all of the sites around the world and they update them. Some time about two years ago, they decided instead of posting the specs for the model that was going to be imported to that market, they'd put the general "what can be ordered" specs..... The "what can be ordered" specs are those that the US market decides on ordering and importing....which means there is only ONE version (99% of the time anyway), of the main model per market.

... and don't try to contact Taiwan... the US office (which is really the office for north america) has trouble talking with them and getting responses... so don't hold your breath. Asus' US support is fantastic.... but Asus is not a marketing company... they build for companies like Apple and Sony and Sharp..... basically the nicest electronics in the world are coming out of their factories.... but there is a reason more companies don't design, build and sell their own stuff... because you can't be good at everything. The way I've always looked at - they make great products and have great support..... their stuff is so good it rarely needs support anyway... but I certainly don't want them to have to add their marketing budget or their skilled phone operators to the cost of them....


I don't know if they makes sense for you... afterall you're a new guy to the forum... but I've been dealing with them for going on six years now and it never gets easier... In fact today Asus told me that basically the president of the US operations is the only one that is still with them from when we started..... so basically I feel like me and our guys do more training of the people at Asus on their own products then they do us.... it's not the best feeling in the world, but they make great stuff, so you've gotta give on the small things.... The marketing and knowledge on this stuff is more left up to us than it is Asus.

... and just for good measure, we have put a lot of time into making NBR the absolute finest Asus forum on the web... so you're in the right place... and welcome~

 

Justin
Thanks for the comprehensive posts, and you have certainly made NBR the defacto standard on the web for Asus info....One more question for you....Is it possible to order the laptop and then purchase the HD dvd drive for it afterwards as a spare part (I think I read in one of your posts it was @$800). Even though it isn't available in the pre installed systems is it available as a spare part... & could you source it for me.

Thanks

 

Yeah, well the biggest problem right now is that because it's so expensive the US office doesn't even want to import it right now. My suggestion to everyone though is that with the next updat eto the W2, which should be in July, by then the drives should come down enough to make it feasible on the model..... and at that time, we can certainly get you one. I'll tell you right now that to buy a W2p for $2,500 and then drop another $800 on an HD-DVD drive.... even though the system has HDMI out and it would be nice to output to your HD tv.. I'd suggest you wait a little bit on making the upgrade, but it's very easy and certainly something we do all the time on other models as newer versions get quicker, etc.

 

Sony and toshiba have the dvd or blue ray standard.
also dell has blue ray in the xps
But the part is interchangeable with any notebook.

When it reaches the market I could put one in my notebook. Most notebooks this is very easy it takes 2 screws.

This is too much money for a dvd hd player. I think its smarter to wait for the burner.