V1J is a Go

I know there's an older V1J thread, but it's getting a bit long so I thought this deserved a new thread.

The V1J site is now officially up.

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=5&l2=24&l3=0&model=1300&modelmenu=1

Lot's of nice pictures and a pyramid.

Anyways, what caught my eye was no official recognition of Merom support in the specs page yet, although they do list the 2.33GHz Yonah now. WXGA and WSXGA+ options. They also list both IDE and SATA HDD support. It also has a spill-proof keyboard like other newer models. They list a 2.7kg weight with travel drawer, hopefully the weight with optical drive isn't too much heavier. They no longer list 4GB RAM support anymore though.

Now for availability to actually start.

Edit: Forgot the "+" in WSXGA+.

 

NOOOO, no merom...yet, but hopefully the price will be lower than the expected $2k.

 

d@mn that looks hot..and i like the docking station + modular bay..its like a bigger W3J...i like the dvi as well

 

That docking station looks sweet. I might have to give the W7J to my mother and grab the V1J

 

yeah still have to find that extra $2k though -_-

 

The screen resolutions offered in most notebooks still dont make sense to me. 1280x800 might be slightly big since its the size offered on all the 13" and 14". 1680x1050 might be too small for many. Why no 1440x900 which would be ideal for most, right in the middle?

 

interesting that the macbook pro is the only one with that res. for 15.4..it'd be nice to have more options but they usually drive up the cost..and we're all about lower costs for notebooks right?

 

Yep, Apple doesn't even give a choice on screen resolution yet they happen to select the same resolution for each screen size that I would want. They're just far and above everyone else. I think part of the problem may be a disconnect between the China/Taiwan offices where these notebooks are designed and the western consumer. You can get a 17" notebook with 1440x900, 1680x1050, or 1920x1200, but on a 15.4" the only options are 1280x800 or 1680x1050. Huh?

In any case, the V1J still looks like it will be one of the best available, I just hope it comes in $1.9-2.1k

 

I think I've lost count, but is this the fourth ASUS notebook with a 15.4" and x1600 graphics? The question, "Why?", is all I can think of.

 

I think the MR X1xxx series were released before nVidia's Go 7xxx series so a lot more models use ATI's. I think ATI's are probably a bit more power efficient too. However, it seems there are a lot more Go 7400s and Go 7600s on the market now than before so nVidia is probably offering nice price breaks. The Go 7600 also comes with 512MB dedicated RAM which is a nice marketing tool. I'm betting now that AMD is acquiring ATI we're going to see a lot more nVidia GPUs in Intel platforms.

I'm going to wait for Apple to release it's new Macbook Pros before I make a final decision. I believe they have a MacWorld next week. Seeing how Apple is Intel's favourite partner now, they'll probably get first Merom availability too. Their probably under pressure from Intel on the ATI issue so I'm expecting a Go 7600 with 512MB dedicated. Hopefully they fix those heat issues though.

 

Very sexy notebook indeed...

 

It's out here in the Netherlands as well. However, I am first going to check the resolution of 1680 prior to buying it. I really don't know whether I personally find it too small.

Also, might be worth it to wait one-two more months for Merom.

 

Man you guys are just getting plain lucky...
Speaking of the Netherlands, we saw a guy from your region not too long ago in the States.
You may know him... goes by the name of Mr. Corsten.

 

Corsten, I don't know Corsten. I rather prefer Tiesto. Do you know him? He also made a soundtrack for Pirates of The Caribbean II.

 

Ah yes, Mr. TrainWreck...
Much rather prefer Corsten's performances to Tiesto's.
Corsten seems to show more love for his listeners...
Currently waiting on the video from our last show in Denver to post: http://www.ipartytv.net/

[/offtopic]

 

Listed at retailers in the UK @ £1229.00 inc tax. However coming soon???

http://www.nexus13.com/productcart/pc/viewCat_P.asp?idCategory=188 & class=

 

Does anyone know if it's supposed to come with the dock or what the dock is going to cost?

 

It's not included, nor do I have a clue on what it is going to cost. However, why would you so necessarily need a docking station? What are the benefits of it?

 

I'm sure the dock wouldn't be included...how else are they going to make more money? Lol, anyway, the V1J does look pretty cool indeed. Nice and thin!

 

I'm not really sure. I can assume one advantage would be not needing a mini DVI adapter or cable. Other than that unless you hook up several external devices when you use your notebook as a desktop replacement, like USB keyboard/mouse/external HD, anything with a parallel port like a printer, it probably isn't useful at all.

 

any ideas as to when this is going to be released for sale in the states???

 

Just spoke with one of the biggest Asus high street dealers in
London..estimated arrival is the third week of August...price around £1400... and this is the T2500 version im talking about with 2 GB ram... not bad... cant wait..

 

Is that with or without VAT?

 

With VAT (Inclusive of all Taxes)...

 

If my calculations are correct, £1400 = $2670 U.S.

Of course, we won't know the actual price until it's available in the U.S. Still, if the V1J costs anywhere near $2600, it'll price itself well out of reach for many, if not most, U.S. consumers.

 

Watch this thread for US pricing:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=68877&page=4

 

Oh snap! spill proof keyboard! drool.

 

Converting UK prices with VAT directly to Dollars almost always over estimates the price when it gets to the US. I would just sit and wait. There's no need to panic.

 

There's a lot of talk in here about pricing and all of this..... It's really not that big of a deal. At this point, we're not going to see the V1 here in the states until they put a Merom cpu in it....... which means I'd expect it sometime in the middle of September at best. Considering Taiwan has confirmed the WSXGA+ screen for the model, the US is certainly going to be bringing it in. Now, in terms of price.... it's going to fit between the V6 and the W2.... Pricing is based on configuration and Asus is going to need this model to fit dollar wise, between the two. I think $2,000 - $2,100 would be appropriate for this unit with say a 2.0 / 1 x 1gb / 100gb 5400 sata.... considering it's features compared to the other models...... It certainly won't be the same price or more than the W2 and it certainly won't cost less than the V6..... Those two things are dead on guarentees.... from there, they've got plenty of room to play with, but I wouldn't get all worried about it just yet because I think we can all agree that this is a long overdue notebook by Asus, and yet when it comes out it's not going to seem dated....... it's exactly what a lot of people have been wanting and Asus has listened...... The docking station alone is enough for Asus to actually overprice this unit if they wanted to, but I know they're not going to.........

 

heh. Only eyesore is the webcam's mount/frame. Would much prefer ones that dont protrude out as much, thats why i dont like the w7j as well. I also prefer the v6's series hinge instead , as it appears both of them dont seem to use the back for any ports anyways.

But spill proof keyboard looks good, but i've adapted to not bring drinks near a notebook anyways..

 

huh, i rather like the look of the protruding camera esp on the vij it looks cooler than the flat ones like on the a8jm and the z96j

 

It's definitely feature packed, it has almost everything covering business and multimedia features. Only thing business users might miss would be the lack of a trackpoint.

Not all that lightweight if the specs are right, almost 6lb without optical drive, so ~6.4lb with an optical drive. It does have a pretty hefty 77Wh standard battery, and Asus hasn't abandoned the modular bay!

 

Look what I've just found:

ASUS V1J 15.4"WSXGA+
ATI X1600
Core2 Duo T7200
2 GB
120GB
http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.asp?sku=324292

Only €150,- more expensive than the T2400 model.
However this store is (overall) extremely expensive as the T2400 V1J is priced at €2,118.15 while it it's only €1560,- in the Netherlands.

According to the Swedish website they'll have it in stock within 15 days. The W2J equiped with a T7400 will be in stock within 30 days.

Makes it worth it for me to wait another 15/30 days.

 

thats strange I thought the core duo ones were coming to Europe in 15 days not the core 2 duo... interesting...

 

**** I should have just waited for this.....its perrrrrrrrfect(almost lol) Will definitely buy the merom V1J as soon as its out. Now who wants to buy my W3J???

 

Well, that's what I initially also thought, but it's already been released in Germany (or stores are being supplied this week), same applies for NL and several other European countries.

The date this Swedish shop states might be not fully correct, but I assume we can expect them to arrive here within a very short period of time. Personally, I think it will be the end of August. Wouldn't be surprised to see the W1J also get released around then.

PS I have found other web stores also listening this particular Core 2 Duo model (Norwegian and Polish)
Edit: Gonna call the Dutch ASUS Hotline tomorrow to verify this information.

 

Do you guys think the docking station would work for the W3J? If so.. would it cause a bottleneck on the monitor when playing video games like a universal docking station (b/c of usb connection)???? Or does it not use a usb connection to connect?? I know this is a hard question. We probably need Justin on this one.

 

No, it won't. The dock requires a large proprietary connector located on the bottom of the laptop.

 

Hi all, first post.

A question: Is there an optical out-connector onboard? If not, how would I get 5.1 sound of this thing to my amp? Shopping for an htpc slash workhorse.

 

Great, finally news for my possible future laptop...hadda wait exactly 1 full year to find this. LOL.

15.4" High Res.
X1600
Modular Bay (very nice for more battery life, which I NEED)
DVI port (might get a new TV, since my 16 year old Sony is dieing)

Great specs, can't wait till I see this in real life, and see what the North American Production model and price.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

Heheh I'm waiting for halve a year now. First I wanted to buy the W1J which should have been released months ago , but lately I heard someone saying they'll wait till Merom is available and release it then. This might be pretty true as it's only weeks away.

However, the V1J is lighter and to be honest, I like it better now than the W1J.
Few questions though.

Whom has experience with the 1680 res. on a 15.4 screen? I've heard many people say it's actually too small to read!?
Why would you buy a docking station, what are the actual benefits of it?
The build quality. Does anyone have a clue on what we can compare the V1J with. It's not carbon fire... but I assume the build quility should be comparable to the W3 and/or V6.

 

Empulse.. Tiesto..... ahhh I have some good Tiesto sets, although my fave is Paul Van Dyke, anyhow back to this thread...

I have been subscribed to What Laptop in the UK for a couple of years now, it is an excellent magazine with consistant reviews and benchmarks, check out their first look review of the VX1 not bad.......

I have other Asus reviews I might post, one excellent review of the W3V

Ps sorry about the poor quality, I was in a rush to leave work, so was a quick photo.

 

Esentially the VX1 chassis is the same as the V6, but with a fancy Lamborghini painted lid.

 

I'm fine with WSXGA+ on 15.4", that's what i'm using now on my Z70Va. You really have to go try out a high resolution screen yourself to see if you can handle it.

I'm surprise so many people don't know what a docking station would be useful for. You have the docking station at home/work/etc. with all your peripherals connected to it. You have an AC adapter just for the docking station, and one on the go so you don't need to unplug and wrap the cables just to leave the house. When you come back you just dock it. No need to plug in the AC adapter, plug in an external monitor, plug in USB/parallel/serial devices, or plug in your external speakers.

What makes docking stations uncommon is the price, it's probably gonna be around $150US and for a lot of people that's just not worth it.

 

I've personally played around with the ASUS Z70va, ASUS Z70va and LG S1. All have WSXGA+ matte or glossy screens.

The first thing I noticed was the increase in realestate, everything is beautifully sharp and clear.

It was not too small for me, I could read everything, but you may want to compare a WSXGA+ vs a WXGA for yourself.

All three laptops ability to scale to lower resolutions were good.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

so the docking station availability makes this model worth more?

but wait, I thought docking stations were pretty much un-needed, unwanted, and worthless?



hey, c'mon, ya gotta agree you left yourself open for that one

so what other models are going to offer a docking station?

BTW - I see Kensington has a new universal docking station that has video - claimed to do 1280x1024 24 bit - better than Targus etc but still pretty worthless - if I'm using a docking station its because I have a decent monitor, that gonna do much higher resolution than that ...

if nothing else do something that uses the darn expresscard slot as the docking interface - pretty simple actually, fits all models, has enough capability to get decent resolutions etc - still a hassle compared to a well designed doc base but better than nothing

 

I wish Asus would finally release this model... I've been patiently waiting to compare it to a Macbook Pro, but if Apple announces a MBP with Merom before this thing even see's the light of day, Asus may lose a sale

 

You think so? I disagree.

In my opinion the V1J is looking much better, it's cheaper, it has better specs, the screen res. in specific, and it will be released very soon. In most European countries it will be available in stores the coming days. I remember the W3J was 4-6 weeks earlier available than in the US. So let's say midway/end of September, but then you probably have a Merom based V1J .

 

I agree with you. So far not many models can support WSXGA(1680x1050) except Z96J and non Centrino Duo such as Z70VA, Z71V. Most of them build-in delicated video, the users would like to choose WSXGA resolution if their expectation of resolution is high and see more range on the screen. I hope that lastest model are coming soon whatever they are a ensemable or build-on Asus models.
Cheers

 

now when you are talking about screens, do you know if ASUS has any plans to launch notebooks with dual lamps, a solution like Sonys Xbrite?