questions about this asus w5f

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=262626

does this have an upgrade to windows vista? also, will this be able to handle the aero interface in vista? thanks!

 

Starting with XP Home, you will have to pay a bit extra (around $70 I think) to get Vista Home Premium with the Aero interface. Upgrade program site is here:

http://event.asus.com/vistaupgrade/index_usa.htm

The GMA950 integrated graphics processor should handle Aero.

 

also, does that actual w5f come with any Microsoft office software? or would i have to buy it separately?

 

No Office, unfortunately. But it doesn't usually come as a standard feature with any laptop really. Dell, etc will let you add it as an (expensive) option.

A lot of times you can get MS Office Standard Student for a reduced price through your school. How reduced depends on the licensing deal the school has with MS. I would contact the IT department and ask about this before buying Office anywhere else.

There is also OpenOffice, a free, open source office suit which is available at www.openoffice.org. I have not used the latest versions but it should be suitable for basic tasks and importing/exporting basic MS Office documents.

 

oh okay. && how much does Office SBE usually run?

 

SBE? Small Business Edition? No idea. I've never actually bought Office...

 

oh okay. i think i would need it. need word,excel,powerpoint, etc.

 

SBE usually runs $350 I think. I may be wrong, as I have never paid for office since....1995.

I would recommend you look at the W5Fm at newegg.com as well. Even though it is more expensive, it has a faster processer, XP MCE, bigger hard drive, and the upgrade to Vista Home Premium edition.

 

Office Standard is Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Small Business Edition has more extra stuff for, well, small businesses. I doubt you would need anything more then Standard for school unless you're doing something relatively specialized. Again I would suggest contacting your IT department and seeing if you can get a copy at a reduced price from them; if not, Newegg, etc sell Office Standard Student for $130 or so if you can give them proof that you are a student.

The W5Fm is a bit more expensive... I actually hadn't been following the W5 series closely enough to see that it was actually available. You get a slightly faster CPU, slightly larger hard drive, and a free upgrade to Vista Home Premium/Aero:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834220111

 

Can you get the Office Standard Student with a free upgrade to Office 2007?

 

I don't know, I've never...uhm....purchased Office from retail. The best thing to do might be to wait a little while until you can just buy Office 2007 if that is what you want.

 

I doubt it - MS has never offered free upgrades to new versions of their regular software in the past that I can recall. Whether they offer discounts for MSO '07 upgraders remains to be seen; reviews of the RC software that I've read talk about the interface being nicer and somewhat more intuitive once you get used to it, without much in the way of substantive changes to the basic functionality parts of the software (Redmond tweaked the complex features more), so MS may need to offer incentives to the general public to get them to buy it if corporate sales lag. We'll see...