Asus U6S

I first read about the U6S right after ordering my F9S. Both are pretty similar in terms of specs but the U6S looks so much nicer. I'm guessing the build on the U6S is of higher quality as well.

Is there any information on when the U6S will be available in the US? Also, how much will it retail for?

Thanks,
RA

 

I thought that the U6 wasn't listed as having an integrated optical drive, as in the U3?

US pricing was listed in the December PC World ad layout, but my mag's at home - I think it was $1599-1699?

Availability is, unfortunately, whenever Asus NA decides to bring it in (and new models almost always are delayed) but perhaps one of the retailers here will have a better guess.

 

I'm also waiting for the U6 in order to choose between U6 and U3, if the U6 has HDMI and internal DVD-RW, it's a sure buy for me.

 

Available in the US for Pre-Order with the pecs here : http://www.excaliberpc.com/Asus_U6S.../90ND8A4131224EQL750T/partinfo-id-583561.html

 

here are Specs I found posted on the Web for one of the U6s Models. Looks very cool

U6S (U6S24MD25DBU) Specification
· Intel® Centrino® Duo Processor Technology
- Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T7700 (2.4GHz, 800MHz, 4MB L2)
- Intel® Next-Gen Wireless-N 4965ABGN network connection 802.11 a/b/g/n
- Intel® 965PM Express Chipset
· Genuine Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Business
· Nvidia GeForce 8400M G with up to 896MB Turbo Cache
· 12.1” WXGA (glare 1280 x 800) LED backlit panel
· 2GB DDR2 RAM and 250GB SATA 5400rpm HDD
· TPM-Trusted Platform Module and DVD Super-Multi Double Layer Drive
· Integrated Bluetooth™ 2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate
· Built-in Web-Camera and Built-in 5-in-1 Card Reader
· Weight: 1.55Kg with 3-cell battery
· Accessories: 6-cell battery, notebook bag and Bluetooth mouse
· Smallest notebook with HDMI port and dedicated graphics card

 

Looks like a nice laptop, but is anyone as put off by the leather palm rest as I am? I'm a carnivore by the way.

 

Believe Portable One will carry the U6S soon. Their website said "shipment begins in 3rd/4th week of Nov 2007".

Priced at US$1,749 with the following specs:

Intel Core Duo 2 T7500 2.2GHz 4MB L2 Cache, 800FSB
- 12.1“ WXGA (1280 x 800) High Brightness Display with Color/Crystal Shine & Anti-glare technology
- 2GB DDR2 667MHz Memory
- NVIDIA G8400M G 128MB (DX10) VRAM
- Hybrid 160GB + 256MB Flash 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
- Built-in Web Camera with mic
- Built-in DVDRW Super Multi Double Layer Optical Drive
- Built-in Biometric Fingerprint Scanner
- 8-in-1 card reader & Expresscard Slots
- 4 x USB, Firewire, S-Video, VGA & HDMI Ports
- Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN
- Integrated Intel N 802.11a+b/g/n Wireless LAN
- Integrated Global 56K Modem
- Integrated Bluetooth V2.0 EDR PAN
- Carbon Fiber & Magnesium Alloy encasing
- Custom finished leather palm rests
- Windows Vista Business Edition
- 2 Year Global Warranty & 30 days Zero Bright Dot (ZBD) Policy
- 3.46lbs; 11.7”(W) x 8.6”(D) x .9~1.2”(H)

* Free FedEx Shipping
** Free Carrying Case & Mouse

http://laptopsinc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=U6S-A1&Category_Code=ASUSU

 

Almost $500 more than the F9S and not much of a difference in specs. I don't think its worth it just for the looks. I just got my F9S and am happy with the build quality. It is much improved over my A8J laptops.

 

CNET.co.uk has a review. The only thing that I dislike about this laptop is its battery life.

 

Leather palmrest seemed ok from a review I read a while ago. Seems really hard leather, difficult to scratch. The color might wear out over time; maybe users of the older S series with leather palmrests might enlighten us on whether that happens.

battery life is predictably very poor as with all ASUS laptops recently.

 

This is the long lost MacBook Pro 12"!

 

The leather palm rest should be similar to the U3S. Hard leather, difficult to scratch unless you intentionally try, and fairly stain resistant.

My (white) palm rest is slightly dirty, since the leather has crevices for dirty and stuff to get into and also very lightly stained from some of my long sleeve shirts. It's hard to tell unless you're looking for stains.

Given the hardness of the leather, I'm pretty sure you can remove the stains with some typical cleaners (mr. clean magic eraser?).

 

I bought one of these last week (Thursday 8th Nov) in Best Buy - Kansas. I cant seem to find it anywhere else for sale.

It cost me $1699 + tax, and has the T7250 Processor option and the 160GB hard drive option.

On Sunday the display stopped working for some reason. It was not dropped or anything but just stopped working from one boot to the next. Anyway not sure what the problem was and Best Buy could not figure it out either, but got it changed ok.

Going home to Ireland next week so it better not be a problem with this batch!!

Apart from that it is excellent looking laptop! Very sleek. Great set of features as well.

 

Here is the link at Best Buy : http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8617847&type=product&id=1192835692178

 

Its weird that the best buy version of the laptop has a slower processor than the F9S.

 

For some reason all of the X-1 notebooks that BB has that are Asus have lower CPUs than the A-1s and the B-1 of any Asus notebook series... Why would they sell a BB version? Seems kinda weird....

 

They distribute through Best Buy to increase brand awareness, and they have to lower the specs of the models sold by Best Buy so Best Buy can maintain their profit percentage, which is considerably higher than that of most Asus resellers.

 

Taiwan Asus released U6 (both U6s and U6e) today!! the Specs are little difference from European Version. U6s has 250GB while U6e has 200GB. Vista is Genuine Home Premium. The rest is the same.

 

Any signs of the U6 in Canada?

 

U6S & U6E should arrive in North America by Late November or Early December. Most specs have been confirmed by Asus USA.

U6S, w/ Dedicated GeForce 8400M & Vista Business (Color: Mocha Brown)
U6E, w/ Embedded Intel GMA X3100 & Vista Business

 

Saw the U6S-X1 on ebay as well as Best Buy, $1450 with buy it now on Ebay.

Can some1 confirm that this laptop comes with 8600M G?? Both Best Buy and the Ebay listing list that the laptop is equipped with 8600M G, not 8400M G with 128mb of ram.

Link For Ebay Listing: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=220172889920&Category=114205&_trksid=p3907.m29

Best Buy Link: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8617847&productCategoryId=abcat0502002&type=product&tab=2&id=1192835692178#productdetail

 

I've been looking into the U6S ever since it was announced as it seemed to be fulfilling all my needs from a laptop, i.e. ultra-portable, powerful and sporting HSDPA.

But looking at the latest specs it seems they've not included HSDPA in the end, is that true?

 

I have an Asus u3s -- and I originally was put off by the leather palm rest.

It's a very very hard leather, almost like plastic. As far as wear, I've had it for 3 months now without any issue (no fading, etc). I actually prefer the leather palm rest now, considering I thought it was what I'd hate the most.

Most of my friends like the palm rest as well. So, don't let it be a turn off. I originally was put off by it, and now enjoy it.

 

Can anyone confirm whether they ship with HSDPA?

 

I just sold my F9 and miss it already so I'm considering picking up another Asus. I thought I had my mind made up on the W7 but wow, the U6S looks damn sexy with the leather and all. In terms of build quality how does it stack up against the W7?

 

U6S is finally in stock! at http://www.excaliberpc.com/Asus_U6S.../90ND8A4131224EQL750T/partinfo-id-583561.html and http://laptopsinc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=U6S-A1&Category_Code=ASUSU

Hoping for a review soon!

 

btw.. does anyone know the difference between the U6S-A1 and the U6S-X1 from bestbuy?

 

Looks like Asus will be releasing a U6E, using the GMA X3100 instead of a Nvidia chip.

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=5&l2=75&l3=589&l4=0&model=1928&modelmenu=1

 

Just bought the U6S-X1 from best buy recently. I got it today and have been playing with it for a while.

Right off the bat: battery life sucks ass. I have a dell inspiron e1505 and still is running great. so i thought this would be a nice switch since it'll be smaller and soooo much lighter. well the battery only lasts about an hour or less. And no, power saving mode doesn't do ****, it only adds like maybe 6 minutes more (which technically IS a 10% increase). Mind you, it only has the 3 cell battery it came with that's rated at 2400mAh, I'm looking for the larger ones, I believe there is one that's 7800mAh and that'll most likely add another lb and then some.

Lost of nice things, the size is great, weight is impressive, it doesn't feel too cheaply made. Better keyboard than the ****ty new sony's have now. the hdmi output is a nice touch that i'll most likely give a shot when my new tube gets here soon.
One thing was kinda weird, most of you know those little s-video adapters that people use to plug into the tv that doesn't have any s-video, well there was one in the box with the manual. The laptop doesn't even have s-video for crying out loud, lol would be nice if they included one for hdmi if that was possible.

Some things I notice...
Vista sucks, I mean common, I'm majoring in computer engineering and jeez, all the bells and whistles vista has is more for pretty looks than function or speed. When I booted it up, vista took like 45 minutes to even get ready for me to play with it, and even then it was soooo slow.
For some strange reason the wireless didn't work but I later found out that was due to vista's setting for power saving will turn down the 802.11 security. Lame.
After uninstalling a bunch of useless trail software like office and Norton security (i use openoffice and nod32 instead). Dissabled almost all the startup programs, couple of the services and it's running away like a pack hound (sorta, I think my dell with xp on it still leaves it in the dust in terms of speed but that's debatable since i'm still tweaking)

I think I will be happy with this laptop once I get finished with vista (sigh). Oh, one last thing, the mouse buttons are hard as hell to push, maybe they just need to be broken in or something. the leather pad is a really nice touch. love the size of this baby. damn the battery to hell, lol

 

If the touchpad buttons are anything like the U3S, it'll get a little easier to use later on. You'll want to push near the lower left/right corner for best effect.

 

I think I know what I'm asking Santa for...

 

Ok, I need to be honest here, I have a huge need in my job to be unplugged from the wall for hours at end (minimum 3 hrs) since I tend to have presentations on my laptop with my clients. With this U6S I'm not able to do that with this battery and Best Buy wants a 15% restocking fee just to take it back for a different laptop (that's 255 bucks just to return it). So I'm willing to sell it for around 1550 (originally was $1,853.28 after tax) for anyone who wishes. I can post more pics and answer your questions about the laptop. It still has the warranty and everything. I didn't change anything besides test it out for 2 days so everything is in crispy condition.
I thought it was interesting there's a SIM card slot under the battery. Not sure how to use it or test it out since I don't have a SIM card anymore.
I'm really sad I need to part with a laptop so pretty! Lol, seriously it's sexy and small.

Let me hear from y'all. If you want you can email me directly at [email protected]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8617847&type=product&id=1192835692178

 

I suppose one choice would be to get an external battery, pretty bulky and inconvenient but there's another option besides selling it.

 

creature, why don't you pickup the 9 cell battery?

 

Creature, can you go without a dedicated video card?? Do you do a lot of heavy 3D?? Business laptop normally not equipped with a dedicated video card and small.

 

He's stuck with the decicated video card. U6S doesn't have switchable graphics. He would need to pick up a U3S or U6E =(

 

Yeah I considered getting a 9-cell battery but seriously I don't need something this fancy and would be happy buying something without all this power and graphics.
I did think the U6S was more like the U3S with the graphics since I've used the U3S before and the U3S did go longer. My co-worker actually was making the purchase for me since I was out of the country at the time and she was explaining over the phone what the laptop was like at best buy (I'm surprised she found one on display, I couldn't find a store that had it). I only saw the online list of it and wasn't able to find any good reviews of the laptop (until I hit this site a few days ago) I made the mistake of going to fast into the purchase. Oh well.

I'm NOT going to give best buy the laptop back so they can get it back and more money out of my pocket. No thank you! (I'll basically get the same amount back by selling it on here for 1550 as taking it back to best buy). Plus a 9-cell will cost what? 150 or something? Good grief. Lol, lesson learned.

 

Now I'm actually looking at the U6 myself as my next notebook. Is there any Asus notebook that gets decent/good battery life? I've heard nothing but mediocre to poor battery life with all Asus notebooks practically, why?

I spend 99% of the time near a wall outlet but still, a 12" notebook with poor battery life? Makes no sense! Even though I want a small laptop that would be plugged in all the time. U6 seems to fit the bill. : D

From what I can tell, the U6S has a dark brown lid and leather palmrest and the rest is white and the U6E is all white? I haven't seen the U6E for sale in North America. And really the only difference between the U6 and U3 is the size and the U3 switchable graphics?

Too bad the U6 has a glossy lid, gonna get smudged and scratched up in no time, like my Compaq V3000.

 

Creature,

Like you I jumped the gun and bought the U6S at Best Buy, also. I was very disappointed in the battery life, too. I got about an hour like you. I did not like the screen at all, too washed out and horrible verticle viewing angle. The SLIGHTEST bit off and the screen looks washed out....horrible for this type of laptop. Leather palm rests are tacky. They have goldish speckles mixed in with the brown...I guess they were trying to match the lid, but it didn't work out. Keyboard was great, that's about all I can say about it.
I took it back to Best Buy and they let me trade it in on another laptop without any restocking fee (as long as the laptop was more expensive). So I traded it in on a Sony TZ150. What a beautiful machine...no powerhouse...but absolutely stunning and battery life is around 5 hours! I am much happier now.

Drew

 

A 12" ultraportable that is so powerful with horrid battery life makes perfect sense to me (as in why the battery life sucks, not that it makes sense why they would sell such a product).

I mean, just look at the numbers: it needs to have a pretty small battery to manage to be 3.5lbs. And then theres the performance: T7500, 2.5" 5400RPM HDD, and the 8400M. The CPU and the GPU will slaughter battery life compared to other 3.5lb ultraportables that use LV (X61s) and ULV (Fujitsu T2010, HP Compaq 2510/2710, Dell D430, that one Gateway) processors and have integrated Intel graphics (and some of those have smaller 1.8" 4200rpm HDDs). Though the LED backlight does help, it can only recover so much battery life. It really is a pity that they didn't use that trick switchable graphics system thats on the U3s, that would really have helped matters in battery life.

 

Just listed this laptop in the bst forum with photos, you can check them out if your curious how it looks since there is practically no pictures online.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=193021

 

creature, does this machine make a lot of fan noise?

 

not for what i've been using it for. i barely can hear the fan

 

I just placed an order for u6s. Too bad its only avail in brown.

 

Firmware Version 204 Launched, here are the following fixes:

If the single core CPU, BIOS does not set throttling in 3S1P.
Fixed: The stop: 0xA5 (0x1000, 0x0, 0xFFFFFFF0, 0x100) issue, when plug-in 4GB RAM and USB is disabled in I/O security.
http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/U6/U6SE204AS.zip

Any1 successfully installed XP will all the drivers for this laptop?? please let me know. thank you

 

Haven't really figured it out how to put xp on here since it won't boot the cd before vista starts. I didn't really try much. Just updated all the drivers and damn I have to be honest and say how much asus's website just sucks. It's hard to find anything and there is piratically nil information about what your downloading (drivers don't exactly specify what they updated).
Funny, I couldn't figure out how to update the BIOS to 204. I have 203 and don't have a single core cpu do I don't need the update but I was planning on doing it just for the hell, I'm clueless tho. The file I downloaded is u6seas.204 and absolutely no idea how to use it.

 

to install XP on this laptop, you need to change IDE configuration t Compatabilty from Enhance mode. To do this, when you are booting and seeing asus logo on the screen, press F2. When pressing F2, you will see a menu. And if you dont see the CMOS menu but the Vista Booting menu, you pressed F2 too late. When you get in the CMOS menu, go to advance tab and there is IDE config, change from enhanced to compatability mode. All the XP drivers can be downloaded from ASUS U6 Lounge thread in this forum. Oh, forgot, you need to change the booting priority as well. Make sure you go into the booting setting and boot device CDROM first, save the setting and exit the CMOS.

About Bios upgrade, download the version 204, unzip it to a folder that you want. Then go into Winflash that installed with your Asus laptop. Run Winflash and click on open, guide to the file of the folder tha tyou have your bios and double click on the file then it does everything by itself, just sit back and lets it flash. Make sure you are not running programs when you want to flash your bios. I recommend to start windows fresh, dont run anything, just flash the bios.

 

HI,

New here on some other forums I have more than 20 000 posts and I feel so strange as newbie

Anyway, I need some help regarding Asus U6 line!? You see, I am in doubt between the U6E & U6S and the main problem is fact that I am getting different specifications from different sites and I ma just curious what is the main diffrent between those two models?!

Also do you know if the E model isalso available in the brown color? I prefer it over the white one but it isn't that important for me to be honest, features before all

10X in advance,
Teo

 

E model has integrated graphics and no hdmi, thus longer battery life and lower 3d performance. It is white.
S model has an nvidia 8400 G dedicated card and hdmi, thus shorter battery life and better 3d performance. It is brown.

Take your pick!

 

Wow, thx 4 the fast respond... . .

So basically “S” is the better solution? Especially considering the color :lol:

By the way, both models features the cell functionality or only S model? It is really important to me as I have the data sim card with an extremely good data plan?

10Q once again,
Teo