my w3j arrived. first impressions

So my w3j just arrived an hour ago and I am pleasantly suprised by the built quality and the fact that besides a messenger bag I also got a spare 8 cell battery. Nice one Asus !

Running 3dmark05 out of the box gives me a nice score of 3914. I'll reformat this machine anyway and will try again when I am done reinstalling XP.

Good things so far:
Extra battery
Nice messenger bag
Extra keys on the side of the keyboard
Built quality

Bad:
The screen is nice, but needs the right angle to look at.
Heat on the right side when running 3dmark05 is unpleasant


---added minireview---
Overview and Introduction

Only 5 days after ordering my Asus W3J notebook arrived. The model I ordered here in the Netherlands has the

following specs;

-Intel Core Duo T2400 (1.83Ghz)
-80 Gb 5400 rpm Harddisk
-ATI x1600 videocard 256Mb (512 Mb hypermemory)
-2x 512Mb DDR 553 memory, the standard configuration only had 1x512Mb.
-14" WXGA (1280x760) TFT Crystal Shine
-XP Home (I allready had a XP pro license)
-3x USB 2.0 / Firewire / Bluetooth S-video / Express Card/Gigabit LAN
-53 Mbps WLAN
-8 cells and an extra 4 cell battery
-Asus Messenger Bag, Bluetooth mouse and 256 Mb USB Stick

My 1,5 year old laptop (an Open 1557) was having some problems with his TFT and offcourse I wanted a Duo Core machine. For my new laptop I wanted a light one, because of a recent back injury. As an avid gamer a decent videocard was a must.

The Asus with it x1600 videocard and weighing only 2 kilo's fitted this profile nicely.

It took me several weeks to make up my mind but the reputation of Asus and the good reviews of the w3j finally persuaded me to buy one from a dutch laptop reseller called laptops4u.nl. It the whole packages mentioned above in the specifications costs me 1711,50 euro thats about $2305. Considering that this is an feature loaded dual core machine from Asus I found this a pretty good deal.

The machine feels very soldid and has indeed the Asus build quality you hear about so much. No plastic or cheap feeling as was the case with my previous Aopen notebook. Also the looks of this notebook are stylish and professional but ofcourse thats just my personal opionion.

My first worry after unpacked the notebook was dead pixels, even with the Asus warranty it isnt a good signal if the TFT screen isnt 100%. After running some test programs my worries seemed unnecessary as the screen and all its pixel where fine. The screen is nice and bright but I have to admit that when compared side by side to an 17" dell inspiron 9400 or and 15" inspiron 6400, the Dell laptop does seem a bit better, but only slightly.

The 1280x760 resolution suits me fine, having worked with higher resolution screens this one doesnt feel too small or pixelated at all. Some more heavy duty photoshop sessions are needed to confirm this in the long run.

The speakers are a bit of a let down, granted they are several steps beyond and above the utter **** in my old notebook but I wont be playing a load of music with these either. They are oke, but nothing more than that.

Being a core duo machine with a ati x1600 aboard it is a very was notebook. For its small size and weight it packs a punch and it allready scored 4172 points with the 3dmark05 benchmark. I have a feeling that this can be pushed higher with a bit of GPU overclocking. Running Oblivion in its native resolution of 1280x760 with bloom on and 2x AA proofed certainly a playable configuration.


More information and pictures following this weekend (hopefully)

---3dmark05 update---
after toying around with it for the last two days it was time for some more 3dmark05 madness and I overclocked my x1600 to 490/490.

This upped the 3dmark score of the w3j to 4719 points !

 

Congrats! Another happy w3j owner!! BTW I see that you are from Netherlands - I was there couple of days ago on Queens Day - it was AWSOME!!

 

Gefeliciteerd man!

Any pics?

 

Extra battery you luckey dog!

 

Guess you bought from laptops4u?

 

Back after a reinstall of XP with the omega drivers and some other minor tweaks. Now it gives me a score of 4172 in 3dmark05 without overclocking. Not bad!

Yes, it was ordered monday from laptops4u.nl and it arrived friday. Great and speedy service!

I'll try to make some proper pictures with my camera this weekend and post them here. (can't do much anyway outdoors atm, recovering from a broken back)

 

congrats! you dutch get some nice extra stuff!, I remember last year, some one from the Netherlands got something similar with his w3v. EnjoY!

 

What was the price in USD?

 

The standard model is approx 2100 USD

 

And what means standard? His laptop is standard or not?

 

W3j is $1,799 in the US - maybe you're asking for the conversion costs though?

 

Intel Core Duo T2400 (1.83Ghz; 2Mb L2 Cache; 667Mhz FSB)
80Gb harddisk 5400RPM
512Mb DDR2 553 (1 x 512)
4* DVD SuperMulti Drive Dual Layer (Hot Swappable)/ 4-in-1 cardreader
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 256MB (512MB with Hypermemory)
14" WXGA (1280 x 768) TFT Color & Crystal Shine
3 x USB 2.0, 1 x S-Video TV Out, 1 x Firewire, 1 x Express Card, Gigabit LAN
Windows XP Prof NL/UK/FR
Internal W-LAN 54Mbps (3945abg)/ Bluetooth 2.0
2 year pick up & return warranty (Within the Netherlands only; abroad: carry in)
1 x 8-cells + 1 x 4-cells Li-Ion battery
1 x Free bag, Bluetooth Mouse and 256MB Memorystick

 

Price: €1649 = $2103

€1,- = USD 1.27
$1,- = EUR 0.78

 

Hmm.. so compared to you guys i notice...

You: 1x512 mb
NA: 2x512 mb

You: 80gig 5400 RPM
NA: 100 gig 4600 RPM?

You: 1 x 8 cell && 1 x 4 cell batt
NA: 1x8 cell batt

You: free bag + memory stick
NA: nothing!

lucky

 

NA is supposed to come with 100 gig 5400 RPM hard drive. If it doesn't, we are all going to throw fits and I think Justin will be leading the way.

 

Nice, can't wait for a review!

Enjoy your laptop

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

I had been reading rumors here and Notebookforums that NA is coming with a 4x00 RPM hard drive. I hpoe you're right though... I know we're getting a PATA drive which i dont mind too much. pretty sure it should still run World of Warcraft decently

 

question....What do you mean the Dell's screens were superior? The MAIN reason I will be buying the W3J is that it has, as described here, a beautiful glossy screen.

Can you have 2 documents open comfortably next to each other with that resolution?

 

^ Dell screens on average seem to be higher resolution...from everything I read though they're not that great - have a lot of light leakage leading to non-uniform lighting. I haven't seen any of their real new models...from a purely "number" standpoint, their resolutions (and by proxy, screens) look a lot better.

 

Tay,

I did a comparison with two actual dell notebooks we have in the same office, and the 15" dell inspiron 6400 and the 19" dell inspiron 9400 screen is a bit better IMHO, maybe it is the higher resolution on them. I'm NOT saying my w3j TFT is lousy, it's a very nice and you wont be disappointed I'm sure.

 

The W3j screen will be bright and vivid.But as a screen compared to others in only mediocre. Very limited viewing angle makes watching dvds very hard and any photoshop work. the res is decent but you cannot open two windows side by side. Maybe 1 and 1/4 windows.

 

It's hard to compare screens that are of such different sizes. Both Inspirons will have higher resolutions (and aspect ratios, too, I think), but the W3J has the highest resolution currently available for 14" widescreens. From various posts it sounds like, for a WXGA 14", the W3J screen is pretty nice in terms of brightness, contrast, picture quality, and lack of flaws (i.e., stuck pixels, lamp bleeds, etc.). The viewing angle problem is really the only real concern that I've noticed.

 

The highest resolution for a 14.1" widescreen is dell's D620, which is 1440 x 900

 

I'm also thinking of buying this machine @ laptops4u.nl. But I was wondering, you got 2 batteries? the 4 and the 8 cell, but they are both for the 'regular' battery opening. So its not the swappable battery you can put in the DVD slot?

And could you post some of your battery times here? under different types of usage. thnx in advance.

And how bad would you describe the screen? Is it possible to sit 0.5m from the screen and move your head without the colors or brightness changing?

 

Flex - the W3j has a battery for the media drive...

 

But the initial, original battery isnt, right? It's the long one, that is placed in the back, right?

I know that you can order a different battery for the media/swappable drive, and I was wondering if that extra battery that came with the laptop @ laptops4u.nl is a regular one or a swapable/media-drive one?

The adv. of the swappable one would be that you increase your timespan in which you can work, the disav. of having another regular one, is that you have to shutdown your laptop to install the second.

 

congrats man!

 

Very nice! I'm probably going to be buying a W2J (gotta have 17") and this thread has really given me some unbiased insight on what to expect. How quiet are the fans?

 

Just got a W3J too, after some detailed comparison between the V6J and V3J (the Acer Ferrari 4005 was an option but aborted due 2 its heavy sized n lower graphic card specifications), I chose W3J for its higher C/P value and a slightly more mobiled size(14" WXGA vs 15.1"SXGA).

Specifications of the 2 from where I'm from:

W3J V6J
CPU T2300(1.66GHz)<-> T2400(1.83GHz)
Graphic ATI X1600(hypermemory512mb) <-> NVidia 7400(turbocatch 512mb) Memory 1G DDR2 1G DDR2 <->
HDD 100GB <-> 100GB
Screen 14" WXGA <-> 15.1" SXGA
Weight 2.5KG <-> 2.49KG
Price USD$1,455 <-> USD$1,845


Rookie for NBs since this one is my first, and here's a rookie's question: how'd you overclock the ATIX1600 or Duo CPU as mentioned? thx!

 

down ati omega drivers and try to increase ur clock speed 5 mhz at a time until u get artifacts (white spots on screen) then u turn down a notch.

 

zevlog,

where did you get a listing price of the w3j for only #1455 USD?!

 

Set 510/510 with Omega's , I think it's the highest core/mem you can set for this machine. Ofcourse no artifacts etc. Also you may want to check Ati Tool to OC. And for the price - maybe it's without tax.

 

Bought it in Taipei, tax included, maybe coz Asus is a home manufacturer. Acers & Thinkpads are about the same prices here too. Jap manufactured ones are slightly more expensive. And my package doesnt include an extra 4 cell battery. Just a basic bluetooth optical mouse V270 + bag & software,2yrs warranty. Wanted to, but couldnt bargain more from the sales dude... Tks guys for the omega driver tip.

 

And what score you got in 3dmarks?!

 

We can order two versions here in Europe.

The W3J-H001P, which is the model the OP ordered or the W3J-H008P (100GB 5400PRM harddrive and 2x512MB ram).

 

Are heat and battery life (prob. shouldn't be gaming on battery anyway) basically the only drawback to upping the clock speeds (provided your not getting artifacts...etc.)?

If so I wonder why Asus didn't kick them up a notch to begin with...seems considerably underclocked.

 

even though it's cheaper in TW, they used the 1.66ghz processor while the US use the 1.83ghz processor.

 

Back to the screen issue. If someone could take the W3J outside and let us know how the screen looks I'd appreciate it. I know it will not be great, but I just need to know if you can still see the screen and read text. My Dell i8600 is impossible to use at ALL outside. I'm going to buy the W3J, W7J or if I have too the A8jm offered by p1 with the transreflective screen (+$399). I much prefer one of the W's, but need something that is usable outside.

 

You ask - you have
The pictures are not great but as you can see screen is quite readable even in direct sun (this bright reflecs is sun actually )





P.S. Sorry about the dust and fingers on screen but I was already late to doctor so pictures were taken extremaly fast

@TheUndertow : heat and battery life are only drawbacks IMO, can't imagine what else. And about core/mems clocks. I think stock clocks are 100% safe for system, overclocking them to higher rates may causes that it will be "only" 98% safe so the manufacturer don't want to take risk. That's how I see it.

 

mastha212, you the man. Thanks, I think I'm finally convinced to buy the W3J. One other question, will the W7J have the screen?

 

Hi Mastha212, when you installed omega driver on your w3j, is the display driver says M56 something like that instead of ATI X1600 under your Display Adapter in control panel? is this correct?

 

Yes, that's correct. Also if you're using ATI Tool when you select Find Max Core the screen may turn all black that's nothing, it still will be working. But don't believe in result it will find - in my case program gone to over 580 MHz on core but this is WAAAY to much, 510/510 is max.

 

Does anybody knows is laptops4u.nl sells notebooks autside the Netherlands?

 

Does it get much hotter/louder if you set the clockspeed to 510/510? And how much does it effect the battery time?

Edit: Going to get my W3j in about three hours.

 

^ WHAT!! From where? Not N.A. I take it. LUCKY.

 

Sweden. I got it now! Amazing machine. Installed my own copy of XP Pro. Feels better that way.
If someone has any questions regarding the machine I can answer it... tomorrow. Going to sleep now...

 

Hehe all answers have been given

 

Hehe. But I have a question. I can't manage to get my V270 to initialize. Have installed the latest BT-drivers from Asus.com and the bluetooth is online but it doesn't find the mouse. Anyone else has this problem?

Edit: Solved it!

 

Let me guess - you didn't turn the mouse on?

 

Hey Mastha - w/ your ATI kicked up a notch, do you notice that the battery life is worse when doing light tasks - surfing, word processing...etc.?