What notebook is this? A6J?

I've been in search of a good notebook for about a month. And I'm now close to deciding between the Sony SZ, Sony FJ, and this Asus notebook I have stumbled upon. I'm not exactly sure what it is but it seems a very good deal. It might be a version of the Asus A6J or A6Jc.

The shop I saw it at call it the ASUS PRO60V1. These are the specs:
Core Duo T2300 (1.66)
1024 DDR2 (1 dimm)
"nVidia GeForce Go 7300 512MB Turbo Cache (256MB Dedicated with the ability to Turbo Cache an additional 256MB for graphics intensive applications)"
Lightscribe burner
80GB 5400RPM PATA drive
15.4" Active colourShine Screen with WXGA Resolution (1280 x 800)
Wifi b/g Bluetooth
4x USB
DVI
"Lithium-Ion 8 Cell, up to 5.0 Hours Battery Life"
XP Pro
3in1 card reader
1.3mp cam
2 year warranty
2.9kg

AUD $2100 (about USD $1560)

Now to me this seems a really good deal. For that price I have never seen such a gpu, cpu and ram in one notebook in Australia. Can anyone give me any advice on this notebook. Or explain to me any problems that this notebook may have. Thanks. Please excuse my ignorance.

 

sounds like it might be the a6jm (i think)

 

I think the A6j has the X1600...at least in certain markets...hmmm

A6jc praps...?

This is from Justin's news thread...

A6JC-Q029H: In Stock - 15.4" WXGA (1280 x 768)
•128mb Nvidia 7300 (256MB TC) - DVI/1.3mp cam/1.66ghz/1 x 1024mb DDR2 533/100gb 5400rpm / XP Home - $1,299

So hard to say due to the regional differences, but I bet Justin will know.

Looks pretty good otherwise...the proc is the the bottom end Core Duo, but it will be FINE unless you're doing cpu intensive work. I would have bought the W3j with it, so no worries.

My only thought is you may want to look into the company to make sure they're reputable. You know the old saying, if it's too good to be true...

 

Hmm ok thanks for the replies.

Any thoughts on this laptop compared to the Sony SZ15GP (AUD$3000)?

The Sony has the same CPU but the 7400 instead and less (512) ram. The real difference is that the SZ is almost half the weight, a lot smaller, more stylish, but $900 more! Is the price difference worth it? or should I stick with the Asus?

Another question...will the 7300 play games like BF2, AOEIII and Generals.
On the other hand, what games won't the 7300 play?

 

Personally - I'd go with the Asus...better bang for the buck and more RAM to boot (larger screen...etc)

With Sony you REALLY do pay more for the name and I don't think it's worth it, especially not for $900.

If you're willing to spend that much for the Sony, give a look to the Asus W3j...there's plenty of news on the forum regarding it. With the W3j you'll get a bigger screen than the Sony, a faster proc, more RAM, and a higher quality machine IMO. I'd give it the nod in the looks department too. I'm not sure the exactly AUD$$$ but it has to be close.

 

The W3J is awesome and yeh it would be close to the same price as the Sony SZ I'd think. But I'd say its going to be a while before the W3J is available in Australia.

You see, I'm going overseas on 30th June, which means I can buy a notebook without 10% tax. Which means I'll actually be paying about AUD$1890 for the Asus notebook (also, did I mention they give a $150 gift if I buy the Asus?).
Since it's likely the W3J won't be available in Australia before I leave I probably won't get it, firstly because I want to use a laptop for my travels, secondly I won't get the 10% reduced price if I buy the W3J after I get back. That is my dilemma...

 

I take it you're referring to this one? It's an Asus A6Jc.

It's probably not fair to compare this to the Sony SZ series, I think you'll find the Sony VGNFE15GP (the FE15) a closer match... I've seen it for ~$2100-2200 AUD, although it only ships with only 512MB of RAM. The FE is lighter and has a much nicer screen however.

 

Yes thats the one I was looking at, should have posted that site myself...

And yes you're right, the FE is more comparable. However, it does have less RAM, and it is advertised with 3 hours battery life but the review says it has 2 hours of battery life! This is compared to the Asus which according to the site has 5hours and according to other sources has 4. Additionally, I haven't seen the FE anywhere for less than AUD$2300.

 

I take it you're looking for a store in WA, or would you be happy ordering online? If ordering is OK, try a local search engine like staticice or shopferret to find a cheaper price.

I would take any manufacturers claims on battery life with a grain of salt... You may find that quoted figure is for lcd on lowest brightness, cpu underclocked, no optical drive use... and a prevailing tail wind to boot. Reviewers tend to be tougher in their criteria, hence the discrepancy. I've been looking at a lot of Core Duo notebooks the last few weeks and they all seem to have battery times in the 2.5-3.5 hour range.

That being said, the review may also be wrong. Does the reviewer in question know about (and has patched) the bug in WinXP's USB code that causes a major hit on battery life on Core Duo machines? If the review is from the last 6 weeks or so, then maybe... otherwise probably not. This is especially true for any model with an integrated webcam, since that camera is hooked up to your system by... you guessed it, USB.

In other words, you also have to take any reviews with a grain of salt.

 

Yeh I'm probably going to look for a store in WA. I don't really have a problem with ordering online but you see I'm going overseas on 30th June. So I'll have no GST (10% reduced). Now organising duty free may not be possible online. So I'll probably stick with buying from a store for this one. Also, if I need support for my notebook, stores are usually easier because you can just take it in, anyday.

And yes, the Asus and Sony notebooks I've looked at all have integrated webcams, so I'll have to look into that issue once I get my notebook.

 

I think Anandtech investigated that bug and showed that it wasn't just a Core Duo thing - happens on Pentium M notebooks too ...
yup - here's the article.
In any case, regardless of the bug, if there's a 2 hour difference in both advertised and observed battery life I think it's fair to say that difference exists regardless of the bug. True about the 'advertised' claims though - often a case of "oh, you can use this notebook for 10 hours!! --- provided you don't actually use it..." ..

About the laptop - the A6Jc is pretty nice; though I personally feel WXGA is a bit low for 15.4" notebooks .. if you don't have to buy right away, maybe consider an A8j? it's the little brother of the same laptop (14", so smaller and lighter), and yet has a better graphics card (7600)... can't go wrong, I think..

 

Ah, the A8Jm... It does look very nice. Problem is, it hasn't been released yet. Some local retailers are suggesting it's due out at the end of this month (April 30), although if this is based on an ETA by Synnex (the Australian distributor for Asus), it may not actually be available till mid-late May.

Oh, and it's going to be around $2800 AUD... quite a bit above the OP's budget.

Gotta admit though, the go7600 GPU in it will be very nice...

 

Hmm ok, any news about the W3J in Aus?

The A8J sounds good, I'll have to consider that I guess. Everytime I narrow my options down, I end up adding to them.

 

I think the Sony FE15GP is a better buy as it has a dual lamp screen which is the best i have ever seen on a laptop, similar to Toshiba Quasmio. I personally would pay more for the better screen, you can see it at any angle and bad viewing angles gets really annoying after about 5 minutes.

I know the Sony is available with 512 ram in Perth for $2300

Asus AJ6 is available from Computer cybershop in Perth with 1 gig ram for $2099

 

Do you know how the SonyFE15GP's video card compares to the Asus A6Jc's vid card? Also the Sony has poor battery life I believe...hmm tough choice.

 

The FE15 uses the go7400, so it should definitely be better than the go7300 in the Asus... As to battery life, the Sony seems to be on par with the more common Asus a6ja.

BigAl has a point, the screen on the FE15 is very, very nice.