Asus N61 Owners Lounge

Well apparently it is coming out this month, so why not start one?

 

I'm not exactly sure when/if the N61 will be available in the US market, but I just saw one in Taiwan earlier today. From what the sales person told me, it came out in Taiwan just 3 days ago.

Here's some pictures I took from my iphone (apologies for the blurry images):











Other notes: One feature that struck me most is the smooth matte palm rest similar to the G51 series. It's a nice deviation from the typical glossy material found in other N series. Since Asus is currently marketing the N61 as a multimedia notebook that sports Altec Lansing stereo speakers and SRS Premium Sound, I specifically asked the sales person to play a couple mp3s so I could sample the quality of the speakers; unfortunately, the audio quality isn't anything to boost about. It's certainly above average, with clear crisp treble even on max volume, but like most notebook speakers, the lack of bass significantly hinders any audiophile's audio experience.

Despite the glossy screen, the screen quality is excellent. Still images and videos were sharp and vivid, less some reflection from the store's fluorescent lights. The screen doesn't suffer from distortions caused by pressure being applied from the back and the screen hinges are tight which limits the screen wobble to a minimum.

The chicklet-style keyboard is very pleasant to use and suffers less flex than other chicklet keyboards used in other Asus notebooks such as the G51 and the new U series.

Although I was not able to run any benchmarks, the combination of the P8700 CPU, the GT 240M and 4GB of DDR3 ram should be more than enough for any multimedia users and even casual gamers. The N61 is equipped with the PM45 Express Chipset +ICH9M which technically should be able to support 8GB of ram, however, when I asked if the unit can in fact support 8GB of ram, I was given a firm "no-way" answer from the sales man.

The touchpad on the N61 is quite user-friendly. Borrowing Apple's multi-gesture innovations, the gestures were pretty intuitive.

Like any ideal multimedia notebook, the N61 has good selection of ports. From your standard USB and audio ports, to eSATA and HDMI, the N61 has them all.

Price: NT $36000 or ~$1110 USD before bargaining (note that in Taiwan, bargaining for a notebook purchase is expected. Also note that Asus notebooks sold in Taiwan tend to be slightly more expensive than in the US).

 

WOW! That looks really nice. I love the way the speakers look. Very classy +Rep

Anyways, that is a good price for that side of the world. Its good to hear the keyboard was good, i was expecting it to be good and i was right.

Its also good to hear that the speakers are above average because the speakers in laptops now are worse then they were before. Something that i think needs to be fixed sooner then later.

 

HOORAY!! Video Via GentechPC is available. Looks good.

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Looks good. I am waiting to see some reviews of the N61VN!

Thinking of getting this one ASUS N61VN-JX039C

CPU Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 2,8Ghz (1066Mhz) 6MB
Mobile Intel® PM45 Express Chipset +ICH9M
4GB DDR3 1066MHz exp. a 8GB
16" 16:9 WXGA Color-Shine LED Glare-type (1366x768)
nVIDIA® GeForce® GT 240M 1024MB GDDR3 VRAM
500GB 5400rpm SATA
Webcam 1.3 MegaPixels
DVD Super Multi
6 cells: 4800 mAh

Too bad the HDD isn't 7200rpm, but my real fear is about all the complaints Asus is getting, almost seems all their laptops end up broken.

 

What?! Broken Asus's? From who? I haven't heard any complaints on there recent models.

The hard drive isn't much of a big deal, scoop up a good one on Newegg and then just install once you order it.

Its a pretty good value for the money

 

You are right, that on more recent models, there aren't that much people with problems... still it makes someone think before giving 1600$. Here in Portugal there are 3 guy with this laptop and they seem really happy..

 

that n61 in the video haves a diffrent keyboard.

and i thought the sceen is frameless.

which model haves the sony style keyboard and frameless display?

 

Hm, $1600 in you country eh? Are you sure its this model? I know there are more then one of these models available in other parts of the world if i am not mistaken.

^^^ I dont think the model you are talking about is coming to America, at this time(Or ever). That is the one with the Quad Core i believe.

 

If you don't believe me, http://informatica.hcosta.pt/product_info.php/cPath/36_37/products_id/4073

1099€ = 1618.5567$

Why? Is is that much more then in the USA?

 

from what I can tell thats 400$ more expensive than the model posted by David. which has a .3ghz slower CPU.

 

The US model is only slightly over $1,000 thats why i thought you were making a mistake. Then again the exchange is different in every country.

 

The big problem here are the taxes.... Still i want to get one! Just waiting to see what new things are coming out with Win7

 

Yeah, you might want to wait until its fully available with 7

 

BUMP.

Lots of availability!!

Keyboard on the N61VN-A1 and A2 looks like chiclet style!!

!!!!!!!!!!

 

Awesome, i knew they would have it from the Asus magazine that David posted.

 

Anyone have any ideas as to when the Asus N61VN-JX078V will become available? I really wanna get one of those, though I'll be upgrading the HD to 7200RPM

 

Probably by year end(If that helps)

 

Hi, I'm new to the forums, but I thought I'd let everyone know that I just ordered an N61VN-A1 with the Q9000 2.0ghz Quad Core, and am eagerly awaiting its arrival. Although I'm somewhat nervous that the relatively low clockspeed of my processor will result in bottlenecking. Should I have opted for a different CPU? I ordered through xotic, and would have had to pay something like 300 more for the 2.8ghz Core 2 Duo... or I could have chosen something else from the N series, but I really wanted the DDR3 RAM and VRAM.

 

Any idea when the Windows 7 model is going to be released? I'm still having trouble deciding whether or not to buy this or the Sony VAIO FW-55. Some helps please? Thanks.

 

are there any reviews from this one or the N71? I kinda prefer the N71 but can only find spec information. Also i would like to see more pictures from the white version I wish there was an aluminum version those are even nicer.

 

Hi

did you get it ?

Any review ?

thanks

 

It's coming tomorrow or Thursday... can't wait! I've heard absolutely no buzz about this thing though, which is kind of irritating. I wish I could see at least 1 review so I could feel a little better about my purchase, but I'll be sure to give, at the very least, some initial impressions about the unit once it arrives and I get it up and running. Maybe, just maybe, I'll post some pictures if I'm not feeling too lazy. And if people want to tell me which utilities to use, I can do benchmarks.

 

^^ Reviews will start coming out, you will see

 

Just wanted to let everyone know that I received my N61-VN-a1 today! I'm getting it set up right now--let me know what sorts of questions you have about the unit.

 

does it have a frameless screen and a Chiclet keyboard?

because the video red dragon posted didnt have a Chiclet keyboard.

but in the asus video it does and said it have a frameless screen and a Chiclet keyboard.

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The unit does indeed have a chiclet style keyboard, which feels fantastic. Overall build quality seems to be pretty good and the unit is quite sturdy. The "weak" point (It's hardly much of a weak point, to be honest) on the unit seems to be the area where the speakers are housed--it feels like, if I pulled hard enough, I could yank it off, but overall I'm quite satisfied. The palm rests also have a matte finish which makes them resistant to fingerprints and comfortable to rest on. The touchpad, however, is a bit frustrating--it's a bit oversensitive (I keep accidentally hitting it while typing), and there is only 1 mouse button with a left and right side which seems to work adequately, but we'll see how that holds up over time. And yes, the screen is frameless. I haven't tested speaker quality yet, as I've been using external speakers, but I'll likely weigh in on them and other elements once I've had the laptop for a while.

I haven't run any benchmarks, but I have the following Windows Experience Index Scores:

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9000 @ 2.00GHz 7.0
Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB 7.0
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M 6.4
Gaming graphics 2815 MB Total available graphics memory 6.4
Primary hard disk 261GB Free (283GB Total) 5.9

Another thing to note: the laptop is extremely quiet--near silent even--when doing normal everyday computing, and temperatures seem quite low. I haven't done any gaming yet, but again, I'll let you guys know when and if I post more detailed impressions. All in all, it seems like a pretty good machine.

 

Congrats man!

This is a great machine enjoy it. Ill be interested in hearing more about this from you

What do you think about the screen quality?

 

Which color did you buy the laptop? I am intrested to see how the white one looks like. I am a bit done with the regular black. I kinda prefer aluminum tho

 

heee haa !

Got mine from :

http://www.cendirect.com/main_en/tech_specs_NF5624498.html

Cie based in Quebec (Can)


$1254 and took 12 hrs to get it by mail !

they received 82 2 days ago, only 43 left

So far its a very nice beast for the price !

 

Erwin, my laptop is black with a brown top. It looks great . I'm disappointed by the resolution-- 1366x768 just isn't enough screen real estate in my opinion--but as far as I can tell, screen quality is good. This is my first HD quality laptop screen, what should I be looking for to determine quality?

I did my first gaming test with Igneous, a free game with pretty good graphics, and it ran perfectly, but I haven't gotten around to downloading/trying out any of the common benchmark titles.

 

Thats why i want the 17 inch that one has 1600x900 resolution. How is the battery performance? You like the keyboard?

 

I haven't tested the battery life, but the keyboard is a dream. I'm freaking in love with this thing. The only thing I don't like about it is the apparent tendency of the shift key to deactivate slightly slowly leading to TExt LIke THis.

By the way, I've now tested out Mass Effect and Portal on this machine, and both work very well, even on high settings as far as I can tell. I have no idea whether these represent benchmark titles, but I certainly couldn't run them on my old Lenovo T60 with an Intel Chipset.... However, I have noticed that Portal has a ridiculous problem with turning my character causing different portions of the screen to desync (1/3 of the screen is on one frame, the next third on another, the last third is like the top). I am sure there is a way to fix that, but I'm not really up on how to tweak graphics settings ingame, so...

I'm playing the "First Slice" demo version of the game on Steam, and I'm pretty sure it's just a software issue.

 

Hm good to see that this is a good mid range card. I figured it would be pretty solid. Also @ 1366 you can run most games at high

 

Could anyone tell me how many DVD's have you got from the box? Using mine a couple of days I decided to setup win 7 ultimate. I made a clean install and now I am missing a couple of software: the cyberlink ones. I have 3 DVDs. one is the recovery, the other Asus drivers and utilities, and the 3d Cyberlinks burning software. No PowerDVD nor Asus's video stuf, espresso etc. How am I going to find these? That Cyberlink software should have come together, no? Thanx

 

hello quazeal,

could u test the battery life of your notebook?
I hasitate to choose between the quad q9000 and the duo T9600. I will be use it for photoediting, designing (adobe photoshop, InDesign, etc). And i would like to know the battery life with q9000 quad core. I heard that the quad cpu "eat lot of energy", but i could not find any exact info about battery times...

thanks for your help and information...

anybody here who have an n61vn with t9600 cpu?

 

Try Asus website. Maybe you can download the software straight from there.

 

Hi guys,
I'm thinking about buying Asus N61, but I'm a bit worried about problems Nvidia GPUs and chipsets had recently. Since N61 has a GT 220M graphics card, I was wondering if these cards are OK. Eg. no overheating issues or manufacturing defects that would cause motherboard and/or GPU to fail prematurely.

Thanks

 

Anyone using Acronis True Image Home 2010? I use this to backup my computers. It even works with my eeePC 1008HA. N61 stops the restore operation at boot screen. I tried to boot with Acronis boot CD, same consequence. It tries to load then it stops and capslock blinks endlessly.

 

that looks cool xD

 

Very Curious about battery on 16" and 17" also..... Does the keyboard light up ?

 

Yes this one is backlit.

 

Any heating issues with N61? Can you hear the fan(s) on light load, eg. browsing the Net? What's the idle temperature for CPU after few hours of work (in HWMonitor)? Thanks

 

Red I think your Hot....... !!

I want to here more about the N61.... Come on people share your experiences. I want to know. Right now I have my mind set on this one but, Want to know if any issues. Is it fast ! Can it hand heavy loads ! Can it stream videos online - example play youtube videos with out interference !

I can't find many reviews on this one - I'm in the market for a powerful notebook with decent battery life and I think this is the one?

 

I just got an N71. Don't see a group for it yet.

Initial impressions: Speed surfing the web from my wifi is super fast. Screen is awesome. Sound is very good too for a laptop. Boots up pretty fast. Has some utilities that can boot without starting windows.

Still feeling my way around Win 7 and copying stuff from my old pc as I get time.

 

dpbhoosier.... Thanks for some news .... I take it you like your N71... How is the battery (hours unplugged.) Does it heat up under heavy loads while being plugged in..... Also can it play/watch streaming videos over the net with out having any buffering pauses ? Have you played any games on it without issues ? I am not a gamer but like to play every once in a while !

I was wanting the N71 but, thought I would get better battery with the N61... I have a 17 inch Dell that will only last an hour unplugged. and the dam thing is slow too !

 

Are there XP drivers for N61? It seems there are non on asus website.

 

dpbhoosier..... Maybe you can help me out again...... It may not seem too important to others but, I would like to know if your keyboard is a backlit keyboard.... I work at a fire department and would like to have my keys lit up and dim the screen so I do not bug the other guys sitting on the lazyboys next to me while watching tv at night !

I can't for the life of me find any info on this... I guess it doesn't exist.... ??

Please share more info on yours..... from someone that owns one... I'm tired of reading and looking at the same pictures on the net while I wait for a store nearby to get one.. I want this one but do not know 100% if it's the right one !

 

To quickly answer a couple concerns.

Keys are not back lit on my N71. I wish they were too. Maybe there's a cheap wireless backlit keyboard out there you could kind of lay on top of the fixed keyboard?

Last night I tested the battery out a bit. I'd estimate around 1 hr 45 min before needing plugged in again. I watched you tube, did an ipod sync, surfed web, etc. Watching streaming video on this thing is darn near tv quality imho. I haven't tried blu-ray yet. Maybe this weekend.

Regarding heat, it was not noticeably hot nor is the fan loud. Of course this is relative to household noise not a library.

So far seems like I made the right choice.

 

the lack of a backlit keyboard is a killer for me...=(