Asus N80Vn-GP011C: First Impressions/Review

Not sure why you would want a blu ray player on a laptop screen anyway. I use to sell HDTV's for Best Buy for over 5 years and 1080p resolution was really only meant for larger screens that lost the quality of high definition because the pixels were getting stretched too wide. Say you had a blu ray on this, with the screen resolution that is has, it would be a waste. Blu ray's are meant for 1920×1080 resolution screens and better audio quality of course. Even if you had 1920×1080 resolution on a 14" screen, you wouldn't notice a difference. Now unless you want the blue ray player to just pass through the HDMI output into a TV that would be different, but I'd bet that the HDMI output on that laptop wouldn't be the same quality. Or if you only have blu ray movies, I guess that would be a reason.

I have an additional question, the hard drive that comes with it is partitioned right? Any reason to reformat it into a single drive, any benifits?

 

Hello Everybody I have some question... How do you feel the noise level.. 1 to 10... (1 is Disturbing and 10 is like it where off) Want to know about the noise of the machine itself and when you are typing. (I'll be using Dragon but anyway jeje wanna know)

Also I want to know if it has a TV tuner and how it works???

People that have the other model with T5800 you feel it get unbearably hot or something... I want a centrino 2 computer, I dont know, I have the idea that it would last longer in be surpass by new softwares than the T5800... What do you think??

But now appears the Centrino 3 which its suppouse to be better but should we believe it???... That increase of performance is really needed?? Our computers will be obsolete in two years??? Too much Questions that Plato never give answers!!!

 

I know a few people whom have bought a blu-ray optical drive for their laptops for that very reason. It can be a cheaper alternative to buying a stand-alone blu-ray unit and saves space in your living room as well. However, I'm not sure why the quality would be any different. The HDMI port should be the same, but I guess I can see how a stand-alone blu-ray unit would be more efficient since it's only task is to decode HD videos. On the other hand, a laptop would probably be running multiple tasks, and adding another task (playing blu-ray movies) would put the extra load on the CPU and may even bottleneck performace.

As for the partitioned hard drive, are you referring to the hidden recovery partition? They do that because it's easier and faster for users to perform a system restore. You can always delete it if you wish, since recovery DVDs are usually included as well.

 

Exactly, whenever you add any component, from a device switch, to a receiver, the quality can only go down. This is especially the case with a component such as a laptop whose purpose is to not stream blu ray out of it's HDMI out, and has many other tasks running. It sounds like it would simply pass the signal through without change, but this is not the case. Some HDMI outputs can't even do 1080p, I know a few Samsung recievers that can't.

I wasn't sure if this had a 300gb drive that was partitioned into two 150gb drives or not. I know a few do.

Also another question, did those guys ever update the thread on there performance findings running Windows XP (and was it 64-bit?).

 

phew.. coming back after 2 days of Fallout3, assassin's creed and Pro Evo Soccer 2009. All on the highest settings. Mindblowing gaming experience. Simply remarkable what this notebook does when gaming! I haven't experienced anything like this before to be honest on a notebook!

 

Full specs!??! man, i wish i were in your shoes right now.. playing F3 and AC on full specs.. it'd chew through oblivion!! lol, and that would crash my G1!!
might need to pick up AC and F3 on the pc instead of the ps3.. add to RA3 ..which i still "can't" play .. grr @ this laptop!! lol

I predict my next big to be a N80Vn..
Well, as soon as it's announced here anyway, supposed to be next week (1st Dec week) that i was to email Elive.co.nz back about it..

can't wait!!

 

@iddy

Thr's a ASUS notebook which ships with the NVidia 9800.. that wud be even better

 

I want it for the same reasons I want it everywhere else-much better quality, and I can play the same discs I buy/rent everywhere.

And it's not a waste at all on this thing's screen. It's 1280x800, which is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY higher resolution than DVD.

Just so you know, Centrino is just a marketing term, not a CPU. That T5800 is, if I'm remembering right, Conroe rather than Penryn based, and probably does run a bit hotter as it's probably 65nm process rather than 45 (though it's also clocked slower which would help).

It's definitely adequate for most things. Even for gaming, the low end GPU is going to hold things back more than that CPU, though bumping up to the N80 model with that 2.4GHz Penryn (which is also higher end-more cache, faster FSB, etc.) certainly isn't a terrible idea.

 

Gah.. I just bought a 22" external monitor and it is flickering/shimmering. It is probably the an issue with the driver. Anyone having the same problems with an external monitor?

I checked the ASUS driver's page and there is only one Nvidia driver dated 8/27. I'll check when I get back to my laptop if it is the same version installed (at work now). Been reading the modded drivers by laptopvideo2go.com and it seems like the inf file for the 9650 GT is not supported yet or the majority of the 9+ series. Am I right about this?

I'm also open to any input on how I could fix this shimmering effect.

 

You should be able to just force the regular Nvidia reference drivers to install. You shouldn't need Laptopvideo2go for anything (Personally I'd rather just install the regular drivers unmodded-I don't know why I'd need a modded INF file).

 

Do you mean I should just install the Nvidia Widget and let it detect the new version?

Or should I use the ASUS version (Version V7.15.11.7623 ) on their website? I'm not even sure what my version is. I'll check when i get back from work.

Thanks for the reply btw.

 

No, I mean you can just download and instal Nvidia's normal reference drivers. You just do it through the device manager if I recall correctly. It'll claim it dosen't detect a driver for your device, but it works if you install it anyway (since it is a driver for the device, it just doesn't have the INF file telling it that).

 

Really?! is it 14" or 15" ..?
if it's 14 or below.. i might be waiting even longerer

 

You can think of it this way: 1280x800 on a 14" screen can play a lot more games with maxed settings for a longer time than 1440x900 on a 14". And when it comes to the point where the lappy can't pull off the current games anymore, it's probably time for an upgrade.

 

Its 15", that was the only issue I had with it which made me buy this one instead. Having carried around a 15" for a year, I was quite decided about never buying a 15" again. Ofcourse this 9800 thing tempted me a lot, but then I decided for good, screw the 15" And I'm delighted with this small, cute baby of mine

 

What notebook was this?!? Did it have an LED backlight? I don't care if it's 32", I just want LED and a good GPU

 

Thanks. But I kinda figured out the problem. This thread helped me. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=122920&page=4&highlight=lcd+monitor+flicker

Basically I changed the VGA cable with my old monitor and it worked. Apparently the one that came with my new monitor is not up to the standard. It would be interesting what would happen once I get my DVI-HDMI cable.

Thanks for the help. Preciate it.

I did a side by side comparison of the N80Vn and my old Thinkpad T42 and the ASUS is way larger. I think it is pretty big for a 14.1 and I think someone mentioned it somewhere. I couldn't imagine how big the N50Vn would be.

Overall I think the ASUS is larger by a good inch width wise and 1/4 inch height wise compared to the T42. I don't plan to carry it around. Well everyone have their own experience and I'm pretty sure I'll feel the same if I were in your shoe of going down from a 15" to a 14". =P

 

Actually how good or bad is the screen?

I hope for detailled informations. Cause the screen of a notebook is of such a importance.

Has it more than 220cd/m² ?

Has it good contrast? Viewing angle?

Ghosting etc.?

 

Okay, so my N80VN-A1 arrived today. I like it, but I'm having some weird behavior when running some tests. Neither Everest nor CPU-Z can identify my RAM. Both of them correctly say that I have two sticks of 2048mb each, but both of them also only report a total memory of 3072mb. Also, neither of them seems to be able to retrieve any of the details about the RAM, such as manufacturer, serial number, etc. In addition, my Windows Experience memory score was only 4.8, compared to ZMatin's 5.9, even though, as far as I know, there should be no difference between the RAM included in the GP011C and A1 models.
Furthermore, Everest was not able to ID my motherboard (although it could see my chipset).

Zmatin - How were you able to ID your RAM?

Does anyone have any idea what's going on with my computer?

 

Yer, i thought a little bit about that, which is one reason why I wanted a smaller screen.. hmm.. contradict myself from previous posts there, lol.. I want resolution, but don't want to push my system.. hmm..

Yer, I've had this G1 for a year and a bit (June 07) and it's supposed to be bigger than a normal 15.4"
Won't ever have a lappy over 15", and having that in itself would need alot of performance to make me buy it

Comparing the N80 to the G1, they're near the same width (left to right, N80 = 34cm G1 = 35.4cm). But the depth, the N80 is 2.3cm smaller (N80 = 26cm G1 = 28.3cm).

I think, all in all, the performance will be superb either way, especially downsizing from a 15" WSXGA+ 1650x1080 to a 14", without taking into account the cpu power or gpu improvement.. or the extra gig of RAM..
So, if I can get the 1440x9oo WXGA+ I'll go for it, but if not, I'll happily go with plain WXGA with improved performance

[measurements taken off Zmatin's N80 and my own G1]

 

WME was only 5.0, if you look more closely, and I have no idea how WME even calculates, so can't explain that. Did nothing special to ID my RAM. Not sure what Everest is, but I also used PCwizard to check my system. The discrepancy in amount of RAM is because of the 32-bit OS that has been coded to recognize that there is 4gb of ram, but can only utilize 3gb. This has been the basis of a lot of 64 vs 32 bit Vista, etc.

 

Yeah, you got the A1 instead of the GP, PWNAGE! ;P

 

SHAZAAM! No, but seriously - it might just be a small quirk in how its calculated. What're your detailed WME scores? The overall score is usually just the lowest score out of the bunch.

 

Oh! sorry, I meant to say that my Windows Experience memory score was only 4.8, compared to ZMatin's windows index memory score of 5.9.

Anyway, I have XP installed and running fine now, and PCWizard was able to identify all the details of my RAM, so I'm no longer worried at all. Thanks for your help!

 

How do you feel the keyboard??? Is it noisy???

 

Not noisy at all! But then, I don't recall ever hearing a laptop keyboard that was noisy. You mean "loud clicks" noisy?

 

The thing that stands out most to me is how incredibly bright the screen is on this computer! When I went back to my previous computer after using the N80VN for a few hours I thought there was something wrong with my old computer because it seemed so dim!

 

Yup! LED backlighting makes it REALLY hard to go back to CCFL. I remember seeing a coworker's HP, and the thing looked practically black next to the Macbook Pro I was playing with at the time.

For that, and some other reasons, I decided I'd never go back to CCFL. LED backlighting is an absolute requirement for me.

 

I'm looking to buy an asus N80VN since it seems to be one of the few 14" laptops with a powerful GPU and price around $1200 US. I just wanted to make sure the overall consensus is that people are happy. LED screen seems to be a huge plus. Is battery life quoted by ASUS accurate? How many hrs you guys getting with normal usage: websurfing, word doc? Also, are we allowed to discuss where to buy it? I've seen it at newegg but it's a 5400rpm harddrive. Gentechpc has option to upgrade to 7200 rpm. Any good deals around? I'm tight on cash so any $$ I can save would be great. Any known issues I should know about? Thanks.

 

Where can you buy a second AC adapter for these? Newegg doesn't sell them, and if I get one (basically if I get over being worried about the screen being CCFL...) I'd like to leave one adapter at work...

 

Check the adapter rating (Volts * Amps = Watts; You need to match the Volts and have at least as many Watts on the replacement). Then go to ASUS eStore and find an adapter that matches these specifications. For their recent computers I believe ASUS use 90W adapters.

 

Can someone tell me if this is ok: I used live.com to search asus n80. Next page with ebay link changes the search to only "n80" which doesn't have the laptop show up when ebay webpage opens. So if I change the search at that time to asus n80 (within ebay) to get the laptop does it still count? Is there a way I can know without paying if this is working?

Edit: never mind, got it working and confirmation page says 200 cashback. Cool deal for a sweet laptop.

 

Hey guys which do you think is the best laptop sleeve for the n80?? Belkin, Case Logic, Shinza ZeroShock III or another?? and why???

zmatin you recommend the Zeroshock III but the measures of the n80 aren't bigger than the inner comparment of the sleeve????

 

zeroshock III's 14 inch sleeves fit this laptop perfectly.

 

I stand by my recommendation of the Zeroshock III (the dimensions are a perfect fit, as evolution219 said already). Everything else out there is overpriced foam and fabrics and neoprene, whereas the Zeroshock material is actual shock absorbing (like a souped up memory foam i.e. tempurpedic, IMO).

Also, durability/battery-life update: Just traveled by plane cross country and the laptop was able to run for 3 hours (give or take a couple minutes) playing a movie file (not dvd/disc, mind you) on the battery saving mode and it looked and sounded great with no stuttering/out of sync audio. Also, the fact that the lid opens ~170 degrees came in really handy because the seats were so close that I couldn't watch the screen at a normal angle until I opened it all the way up and had it standing up propped against the seatback in front of me. Worked out great!

Also, on a sidenote, Minneapolis is a hole.

PS: @ Wolfpup: It's an LED screen! Stop worrying!

 

Wow, you had it leaning up on the seat in front!? ..Man that screen/lid's hinges must be tight!!
What was the screen brightness at..? just curious

 

Yeah, I was amazed at the hinges' strength. I was running it at 2 steps above minimum, mainly because it was plenty bright enough in the crowded cabin, and I didn't want little kids behind me catching detailed shots of the R-rated movie I was watching, haha.

 

No one has asked this yet, and I do plan on using this feature a lot. How is the wifi card, and has anyone tried using an air card (like Verizon's)? I'll be using this laptop a bunch in a car that I can park in random places and might be leeching off people's wireless network. I'm interested in the range and the strength, but I guess that really depends on the wireless router.

 

So I purchased the N80vm-gp last week, made use of the $200 back, ended up getting it for $959 free shipping, arrived friday, and I've been using it all weekend for a variety of things... L4D runs perfect for me settings cranked for example, also a lot of photoshop / audio work.. This is my first laptop, and I've mostly been using it hdmi out to a 24" lcd with wireless mouse and keyboard...
overall it destroys my 3 year old desktop pc, and I use a usb amp+dac for audio output anyway (the realtek onboard stuff works fine from testing, and the optical spdif is very handy).


The only complaint I have, is that the light bleed / light leak from the bottom of the laptop's LCD (along windows taskbar) is a kind of a letdown, on a solid black screen you will see a gradient starting at about halfway down the screen, going from mostly deep black to a faded washed out black at the bottom.

Is this a manufacturing flaw, or just how it is? I will have to compare in-store with other laptops..

 

lol
Man, I'm looking forward to those hinges! (jeez, I'm easy to please) and that screen, need something with a bit of oomph.

It's got the intel 5100 wireless card in it, which is basically the same as every recent laptop. But leeching is bad. This card though, being intel, most probably won't support the packet capturing neccessary to hack wireless encryption. Even running linux, I doubt there will be any chance of accessing a decent network.
I once tried to bash my college's wireless.. port scanning is the best you can do on the G1.. caused the school's entire system to crash.. they ended up having to hard-reset the server room once the thing went non-responsive
Disclaimer - Hacking is very very bad and using other people's internet is theft + illegal.. but port scanning, can lead to constructive chaos

but yer, i'm also interested in the range on this thing, should be decent imo

you're not supposed to look at blank screens.. sorry had to say it..!
but there should be ways of fixing this.. tightening the faceplate screws? gap filler? .. tried turing the brightness down.. that might do the trick..? hmm it is a bit sad though..
good to see that other than that it's suiting you're purpose and running as it should

 

Bought one through ebay today with cashback like many others and waiting for delivery. It's my first laptop purchase so I'm pretty excited. I hope Asus doesn't let me down. I had to avoid ebay stores based in california to avoid tax so it'll probably be a while before I get it. I think L4D will be my first purchase for it. I was debating getting for 360 but no need now.

 

So I think I'm going to get this laptop, but I'm going to get it from newegg. I know I can save money with the live cashback thing on ebay but I dont want to take a chance of getting burned.

edit: nevermind, just looked at asus' site and the place is one of their authorized sellers.

ordering now

 

I'm getting it from Newegg too if I get it, as at least I trust Newegg. I'd like a second AC adapter though, which Newegg doesn't offer.

I probably should just get this, but still nervous about it possibly being CCFL, and about Blu Ray possibly not working right

 

can anyone give me a how to for this live cashback thing? I cant figure it out. If I search n80, or asus n80, I dont get the laptop to come up, but if i search n80vn-gp011c it comes up, but no option for ebay

edit: NVM, got it working. All said and done, I got this laptop down to $859 with live cashback and an ebay 10% off coupon.

I had the choice to get it from authorized sellers in cali or in NY (I'm in ma) but chose cali since they had a much better feedback (I think the other one had 7 negatives, 5 neutrals in the past 6 months while the one in cali had like 1 negative, 1 neutral in the same time period). I wanted to get it by thanksgiving but oh well, if I can save $300 over the price of newegg I'll do it

 

Got one question what material the body made? is it plastic or aluminium?

 

I would guess plastic. But that's only a guess. I'll leave the owners make a definitive statement.

 

I just purchased this baby 10 minutes ago!!! I'm SOOO excited! My first laptop! Got it from the excaliburpc ebay store and used the live.com search and instantly got $200 back into my paypal account didn't have to wait 60 days; I did however use live.com to purchase a $70 car stereo and that live.com cash back does have to wait 60 days ;(

Anyway I am so hyped about this! I'll be going to the mountains on Saturday, so I am praying that it will get here before then. Any chance this will arrive in less than 5 days? For those that bought from ebay, what was the shipping time?

Okay, lets try posting this again without mentions of illegal practices... to respond to the qoute I guess I should have re-worded "leeching", I meant I was going to use the laptop in locations that have free commercial wifi spots, like Starbucks or the various car dealerships. Like I said before, I can't break the law while enforcing it (that was a hint that I don't break the law and my job is to enforce it, does that work E.B.E?)

 

I would like to point out that leeching, port scanning, cracking encryption are (I believe) all illegal and, in any case, their discussion is forbidden on these forums.

Thanks.

 

hey zmatin/any other N80 owners,

U guys having trouble playing 1080p HD videos on the P8600 N80 model? Are there any settings on the laptop/OS that need to be tweaked? I tried playing a 1080p HD video using VLC player. I tried other players too. Each time the video gets stuck while playing, seeking etc etc. Any help would be welcome.

 

I'm having problems with VLC on my desktop playing HD content so I'm wondering if maybe it's the program that is not that good.

I'm assuming you can't get credit for the coupon if you already made a purchase? I made the purchase yesterday and didn't realize the coupon existed until 1/2 hr after I made the payment. Feel really stupid as it'll cost me $100.