W7S, why so little discussion?

After reading A LOT of reviews and everything I can about the w7s I finally took the plunge and purchased one (B1B Model). I will be picking it up in a few hours, hopefully the build quality will meet to my expectations. I really don't mind the 2.5gig ram limit, first thing I do with the laptop is install windows xp so ram isn't a major issue. I would have waited for the U3 but the lack of optical drive turned me off + the wait, the gps function intrigued me but I would rather buy an external bluetooth gps unit and use that in my car with the laptop.

 

The W5 doesn't have all that great battery life either. Plus, its running an older platform that has already been discontinued. Just get the W7. It looks better as well (imo) and will have MUCH better performance, especially for Vista.

 

Ok I got the laptop and I must say its fantastic aside from the heat. I installed windows xp and got the drivers working, its blazing fast now.

I have one issue, I want to install Power4 Gear extreme for battery management but I can only find Power4 Gear that works on xp. Is there anyway to make extreme work on xp. Or are there any one battery management programs that are better?
thanks.

 

I'm using W7j, with Power4Gear in Vista Ultimate 32bit.
There are some alternate,
1. NHC (notebook hardware control)
2. RightMark

 

Has anyone tried using a dock for the w7s? I was thinking about getting the V2s just because it also has a docking station, but I like the portability of the w7s. I've never tried using a dock before, but my impression is that third-party docks might not work as well.

 

http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/notebooks/0,39050489,39241557p-2,00.htm

4 hours plus is not bad battery life at all and considering that a non extended battery was used it becomes even more impressive for the w5f.

 

I installed XP Pro on my W7S and I'll tell you what, its like having a whole different laptop. I've gained a full hour of battery life (Up to 3:05 with wifi on, from 1:45 in Vista. Now that is improvement!), running much cooler and quieter. This gives me a little bit of hope that this thing is capable of more. It has probably been asked before but... is anybody out there ever going to carry the white high capacity battery for the W7S?

 

3 hours w/ XP Pro, that's a good news.

It's been available since day one, the part number that you need to search for is 90-NHQ1B2000. (9 cell in white color)

 

Thank you very much. I never would of considered the 9 cell had I not hit 3 hours with XP. I was getting pretty jumbled results searching for "Asus W7S AND White 9Cell" on google. If I can get just 30 minutes more (would like to go to four hours). The trade off in weight will be worth it to me.

 

How much does the W7s with a 9 cell weigh?

Edit: 4.8 lbs

 

It seems like the differences between the B1B and the A1B models cause a shorter battery life, and they may affect heat as well. Is it the processor or the hard drive? I notice in the B2B and B2W versions they keep the faster processor T7500, but they downgrade the hard drive from a 160 GB 5400 RPM (in the B1B) to a 120 GB 5400 RPM.

Reviewers and users have commented that the notebook gets especially hot on the right palm rest. The hard drive is directly underneath that spot, right? I wonder if a cooler hard drive would help with the heat issue.

Does your W7S get uncomfortably hot? Where is it the hottest? Can you keep it on your lap? Is it like that all the time?

 

I've got a B1B with the 160GB hdd. The hottest spot is on the right hand palm rest, right on top of the hdd. I belive it gets hotter there due to the hdd, since, like you said, there's where it sits. I don't know if you can reduce the heat by switching to a smaller hdd but it would be interesting to see how it is affected if you change it to a ssd. I actually thought about this and don't have $400.00 laying around to spend on a ssd, but I'm seriously considering it as soon as they drop further down in price (and increase in size).

In my opinion it doesn't get uncomfortably hot, but it gets very hot. In the end of the day (laptop turned on all day long) I can feel the heat just by hovering my hand about a finger's width from the laptop. I never left it on my lap for more than 15 mins, on battery mode (cooler since I leave it on battery saving mode).

There was a post by Metamorphical in the previous page saying that the laptop is running cooler and lasting longer on battery by using XP instead of vista. I'll try that sometime, since vista is getting on my nerves...

 

I use mine in my lap all the time without any issues. Often I do this with cloth pajama bottoms. <<;

Honestly the base of this laptop is probably slightly cooler than my old Dell Inspiron 6000's.

I don't find this unconfortable at all. The right palm rest does get warm and is definately the hotest part of the notebook. Really both palm rests do get warm. But never uncomfortably so. I don't feel a cooler would be needed. I do have the A1W (Not that color should make a difference in heat) with the T7300 and the 120Hb HDD. I don't think the fast processor and bigger HDD (Particularly since both at 5400rpm HDDs) would be cause a significant difference in heat.

When I had Vista on mine it was still usable in my lap.

 

I appreciate the input. This notebook is definitely at the top of my list.