small w7j review

carcal_to, thanks so much for great, in-depth, battery life testing.

DOES ANYONE KNOW why the battery life on the W7J is so terrible compared to the Z62f 6-cell (~4.5 hours at low settings) and the Z33ae 6-cell (~5 hours) ???

The Z33ae is a Pentium M which is supposed to use More power than the Core-duo and it uses DDR 1 which is supposed to use MORE power than DDR2.

What gives? Newer laptop, newer componentry, newer platform, lousy battery life!?!?!?!

 

One the video card. draws at least 30 minutes battery life. even the w3v really only gets 3.5 hours with an 8cell. also the core duo is more powereffcient under load. so at lower speeds it wont make much difference.

 

Yep it is a two way switch, hold it up and volume goes up type of thing, and it's NOT annoying to answer the other person's question, it's actually VERY useful..

However!.. the speakers it controls are pretty Crappy!.. The speakers are below the scren and there's not much space in there, so they must be TINY! They sound very bad.. probably the worst speakers I've heard in a while.. oh well! it's still somewhat listenable to if you got nothing else. I just use my Grado headphones ..

As for the crappy battery life.. maybe a smaller/lower speed hard drive would help? I don't know if big/small hard drive makes any difference? Also, remember, this laptop is FAST, you'll get the work done faster so you don't need as much battery..

 

3 way switch? you can press to mute.

 

Nice! Didn't figure that out.. I was too lazy to even open the manual.

How is your touchpad Linsook? Mine seems to have stopped getting sticky for some unknown reason.. maybe the surface had to wear out a bit..

Also do you get a hot spot to the immediately to right of the touchpad, for about an inch? I wonder why just that spot gets the warmest..

 

it's still sticky for me if my fingers are moist.

ya it gets warm to the right of the touchpad, its the harddrive someone said in another thread and the cpu you is directly above that.

 

Quote of the Month, maybe the Year.

This is exactly what people should be thinking when deciding on what laptop to choose.

Don't care about what others think is good, or bad, within reason of course, because if you don't know anything then it is a good idea to learn a bit first from others. Then decide on what you NEED, then voila pick a laptop.

Rep points for you alteredagain~!!!!!

 

I just hooked up my 20.1" LCD to my W7J.. what a disappointment!! (I need good screen quality as I design websites, and I just like a nice screen)

I'm considering selling the laptop again.. even Macbook has DVI out..
The VGA out is totally useless for me.. text is all washed out, colors are all weird.. wow.. It's either I'm stuck with 13.3" or sell..

I was so concerned with other specs, I never realized DVI would be one of the most important for me...Ouch!

Looks like the 12" Travelmate 3012 which I was originally considering does have DVI... *Sigh*..
What was Asus thinking leaving dvi out....

 

ya the vga and svideo out are pretty bad.

 

Umm, the A8jm has DVI out, and isn't that much bigger than the w7 .

 

its been mentioned before, but check with your credit card holder. i used a visa card to order my w7j and all you have to do is register it with visa's warrenty/protection program and you get an extended year through them (you do have to have a certain type of visa i believe, just call your customer service number and ask). its more of a hassle then to buy one from a reseller but it will also save you $200!

 

Thanks for the repy, I will definitely look into the whole Visa warranty thing. I went ahead and purchased the notebook through powernotebooks.com. It should be arriving within the next week sometime. I will let you guys know what I think of it when it arrives.

 

has to be platinum or gold card or something. So I gotta ask my dad if i can borrow his

 

Mine is just a normal one--no platinum or gold--and it doubles my manufacture warranty on everything I buy.

 

Hi guys,
I just joined this forum after reading all 17 pages of this interesting topic.
Thanks for everyones input, u guys have been a great help.
My problem, like that of many others is deciding between the w7j and the sony SZ but I have a specific model of the SZ that I am considering.

Needed some quick advice on this, basically have 3 questions :

Should I go for W7J or Sony SZ240 (1.83 duo, 1 GB Ram, 80 GB HDD) ??

Price difference I am getting :-
W7J = US$ 1500/-
SZ240 = US$ 1710/-

Since there isnt much of a price difference there what do you guys suggest?

Also there is a second query I have. I noticed that the SZ series is now coming in 2 weights.... there is the SZ240 which is 4.1 pounds and then thereis the SZ250 and above models which are 3.7 pounds but have the same specs, however the latter are more expensive.

Having said that, if I were willing to leave the cost issue out is it better to buy a SZ240 or an SZ250 considering the fact that there is a 400 gram difference in weight.

Also if you guys know of any place that I may get these laptops cheaper ONLINE please let me know. Appreciate your help. Regards.

 

bump... queries above please

 

my personal subjective opinion (only had the w7, not the sz):
W7J looks better, probably better keyboard
SZ better weight, battery-life (from what i read so far)

didn't you just answer that yourself? if cost doesn't matter, take the lighter one ;-).

 

go with the sony..
it's not much lighter,.. 4.07 compared to 4.12 for the W7J,
but the sony is capable of docking and you'd get DVI-D output,.. W7J you're stuck on VGA.
Also better battery life is great. personally I dont like the sony keyboard, but you can get used to it if you need more battery and DVI.

 

well in addition to weight....sz models at and above 250 are the premium version which have the black carbon fiber case...which is infinitely better looking than the standard sz silver case....but i dont think u can ignore the fact that the 250 will be at least 2000 dollars...

sadly i dont have a answer to your situation since im in the same boat....i dont know if an hour of batt life, marginal gains in weight and size are worth 500 dollars (im not considering the non premium sz)

 

i know !!!! thats exactly what I was thinking... making the decision is soooo difficult... i think after several days of research I have finally made up my mind to buy the Asus W7J instead of the sony SZ... i can use the money left over to buy other things like accessories and a nice digital camera... me eyes on the canon S3

 

Sim, try to see a W7J before you buy it...
see if you like the screen...

 

i myself was on the same boat, and i couldnt justify the cost of a premium sz. i would take s w7j over a normal sz anyday, but when compared to a premium the sz wins hands down but the cost couldnt be justified in my mind. so here i am with a w7j and well satisfied.

 

As various posters have mentioned, please try out the keyboard. The screens are comparable and the w7j is not ugly by any means. For me anyway, the key factors were:

1) Keyboard
2) Linux Compatibility
3) Service

I dislike the Sony keyboard - it's virtually the opposite of the IBM keyboard and that's something which was not ok with me.

I've been using the w7j for a couple of days and it looks to be a great laptop

 

Yep it is a great laptop...
I decided that I need to go smaller and with DVI so I decided to sell mine...
It's still for sale if anyone's interested.

 

Hey, Carcal_to, what are you looking at that is smaller with DVI? Are there any 13.3" notebooks with DVI?

 

sony keyboard for the newer models like sz25/28 may not seem to fit many users cause it gives a feeling of very flat keyboard.

 

there is only one notebook that has dvi that is 13.3 that i know of. the macbook. i have never seen a smaller notebook with dvi.

 

When is the 9 cell battery available?

 

I have heard late August.

 

Hmm if it's around $150, i should probably just get a W3J then eh?