My review: Asus U46SV

This is my first Asus laptop. Before I purchased this laptop, I nearly purchased the Dell XPS 15z or the Toshiba R840. Laptops I've used extensively in the past include: Dell Inspiron 1420, Toshiba Portege R700, Toshiba Satellite M50 (with H/K), Toshiba A660 (with H/K). So by now you could guess I'm a Toshiba fan or a H/K fan. I needed a very light 14"/15" notebook as I only use it on the move. I'm a big fan of good speakers, but Toshiba does not sell any powerful and light 14" notebooks in UK. They do sell the Atom netbook with H/K. I know there is a market for this Atom powered netbook. This is a review of the U46SV-00044x. I bought it here: Asus U46SV-WX044X 14" i5 W7HP 4GB 500GB

First thing I did when I got the laptop is noticed that it came with a big battery. It says that it comes with an 8-cell but I'm not sure if the 8 cell is protruded as mine is (look at the images below). On another note, this is quite as it means there is air can circulate below which is quite good feature. Another thing I noticed is that it feels heavy. It says 2 kg including battery on the website, but does not feel that way. The second thing I did was opened the RAM area and I noticed that it comes with 1 Hynix 4 gb Rx8 DDR 1333 RAM. Its great as now I only needed another 4 gb ram. I decided to maxed the ram immediately as from experience, if you don't buy RAM now, prices will only increase. Got another 4 gb stick <£18.

The manual is very thin, does not explain anything about first time boot stuff etc. Only thing it tells you is how to put the battery and what the buttons and connectors are on the laptop. Speaking of connectors, mine came with 1x USB 3.0 which is quite nice.

This laptop looks and feels great with its metal (I think aluminum) cover, and magnesium handrest. The handrest and the cover is made of a radial circle texture which is actually quite nice to rub your hand against. The keyboard area is of aluminum without any pattern and a different material compared to the handrest . No flexion at all no matter how hard you push the key. The keys are black and matte textured and not shiny-there is no way you can slip while typing which is good. On the Toshiba A660 its a shiny plastic material. The key distance is quite good as well. The A660 is quite far spaced and slippery. The trackpad is huge for a laptop this size. In fact its bigger than the trackpad on the A660. Buttons give a nice loud "clicking" response when you click. Maybe slightly loud, but I like it. The trackpad does support multigesture inputs.

The only con which I could say about the casing is that there are too many stickers on it. Stickers include:
core i5,
W7
Nvidia GT540
SonicFOcus
Asus U46 sticker.

It ruins the feel of the device - makes it slippery. Makes it look less premium. If someone knows an effective method of removing the stickers without any adhesive material left, please let me know.

There are no dedicated media buttons on the keyboard. The other buttons on the keyboard are the power button and this "eco-button". I am an PC and laptop overclocker, and I think its a waste to include an eco button. The A660 has this button as well. I think its a marketing gimmick to ship more laptops. All I could see is that by pressing this button you are reducing the performance of the laptop. Win7, the Intel Icore already do a good job at power management (-in my case ruining my usage experience. Unless I'm desperate I run everything at max settings) that I don't see the point of another dedicated button. That said the button lights up white (the same colour as the power button) when its enabled. As there are no dedicated wifi, volume, bt etc key with the laptop, you are left with two options. Manually fiddle the settings in the system tray, or use the Fn key. The Fn key is not limited to keyboard inputs as you can manually change the settings with the mouse if you want to enable/disable a bt/wifi feature.

On the software side, like most W7 laptops, this comes with junk software. Nuance pdf reader, some light games which you only can play for 60 mins before you are told to buy the full version, cyberlink powerdvd and Asus's own software. There is clearly a high amount of software from Asus. I can see it being useful for normal people, but luckily you can uninstall everything with Revo. I can understand that they included the junk software to bring down the price of the laptop.

One con which I see immediately when starting the laptop is that Asus has went ahead and decided to partition the 500 GB HD into OS (C -186 gb and a Data (D of 254 gb. I can see where they are going with partitioning but to me its unnecessary. Now I need to reconfigure synback for two different partitions. Annoying at most.

Like all the reviews Asus U46E laptop the main problem of the laptop is the speakers. The speakers are loud- I think Asus got tons of feedback from people of the previous laptop, but both speakers are located too close to each other on the right side of the trackpad (see the included picture below). The speakers work, and there are two speakers but don't expect it to come anything near the H/K toshiba speakers. Its flat, has acceptable treble, but lows are almost not available. You can tweak the sonicfocus eq which does help, but its not going to reach the H/K anytime soon.

On another software note, if you decide to make the recovery DVD, I suggest you do this after you've updated and installed everything. Its going to take some time. It will take more than 2 hours, and I've keep cancelling my one. First it says it needs 6 DVD's, then one hour in, the program says it needs 5, even though the first one has not burned yet. I think 5 is still overkill, and I'm not surprised if it got down to two DVD's. Will keep you posted.

There is no backlit keyboard


speakers


what you get


Does anyone know how to make the strap work like the diagram shown?


4 gb ram-only two screws hold the entire ram and hd bay









No more stickers:


H/K: Harman Kardon

Benchmark:
http://3dmark.com/pcm7/141378;jsess...cm7/141378?key=YD9mJwF56TUFzv9LJXQx6bZd8AHNQm

http://3dmark.com/3dmv/3420131;jses...mv/3420131?key=bb55SY2fs0cMFPjAZ4MFeXyc22v0pS

http://3dmark.com/3dmv/3417937;jses...mv/3417937?key=qFYRrUVmXx4YvZxz425a4DLvpXT5dU




Verdict: Here are my final thoughts:

+ Build quality. Feels even better when you remove all the stickers. Keyboard and mouse joy to use. Multitouch mouse maybe a bit too sensitive. Battery size provides natural ground clearance for air circulation. On stressing the CPU/GPU the fan is quite quiet.
+ Spec, with discrete card is quite nice.
+ SonicFocus audio software does improve equalizer settings when you use earphones and speakers.
+ Intel Wifi manager. Basically turns your laptop into a wireless router for other devices to connect to.
+ Power saver button (opposite of power button) is useful at quickly changing power/battery profiles. You click on it and it cycles through the profiles.

- Asus AI Recovery too. Basically its crap software only runs once if you are lucky. I ended up wiping the entire disc and using the Key below for a clean W7 Pro. This ordeal (making recovery DVD) took 2 days for me to figure out.
- Built in speakers. Yes sonicfocus improves the quality, but it ain't no harmon kardon. In fact my previous inspiron 1420 with a speaker bar above the F keys was better. Left and right speakers placed too near. If you want to play games which this laptop is capable of, use earphones/dedicated speakers.
- Asus's own junk and HD partition. I understand some users like the partition bit but I don't. I hate it. Solved with clean install.

~ earphone/mic input on left side. I prefer in front of the pc.
~ ethernet on the right side. I prefer at the back though the back is quite thing for it to fit there. At least they could have placed it further back as now the ports at the back are the HDMI and USB slot.

 

What's H/K?

 

I popped into micro anvika on Tottenham Court road and I agree with this review. Didn't get to test the speakers but the laptop is well made. It is a bit on the heavy side but the large battery means longer use of the laptop from a single charge.

I'm planning to buy this when i get back from the US/Canada. I plan on buying a SSD in the US and maybe a 1TB internal hard drive. The second hard drive will be going into the ODD slot.

@mystvearn, do you think the ODD will be easy to remove without voiding the warranty?

 

Harman/Kardon Speakers

You need to remove all the screws in order to reach the ODD. I have no idea until I open all the screws. I don't see why its hard to remove the back plate. Make sure to make a recovery DVD prior to taking out the ODD.

 

Sorry but I don't think there is a backlit keyboard on the U46sv...

 

Can you do any gaming benchmarks?

Also do you notice if the cpu throttles during games?

Thanks.

 

Thanks you mystvearn to share your experience with us.
There is nearly no review for the moment of this laptop and that would be a real chance for us to see how this laptop is "in the real world" and not in a Computex stand

I have several questions ta ask about this computer :

- The first one would be the most important : compared to the Acer TimelineX 3830TG-2414G12N which is the principal opponent, does this Asus suffer from heat and create CPU Throttle ?

- In the meanwhile, could you do some temperature test ?

- Could we change the hard drive to what ever SSD on the market ? what are the dimensions of the hardrive installed ?

- the handrest is made of plastic ? I thought it was metal built ! Is it good quality ?

- I am also interrested about dp3000 question about the ODD to put another drive on it...

thanks for all in advance for answering all my questions

Cheers

 

Thank you so much for taking the time the write up this review
Like 99% of the people looking to buy this laptop, could you comment on the cooling of the laptop?
Temps while gaming to see if there's any throttling would be a HUGE bonus.
Thanks

 

This is definitely THE question about slim laptops... Manufacturers are pushing the limits of laptops dimensions without taking in considerations the performances as Acer did with the 3830TG...

Hope that Asus made some effort on this important point

 

Thankyou for the review, if i may can I add the following questions.

How is the Fan Noise? Is the fan always on or is it only on demand?

In a Bright room do you get alot of glare from the glossy screen?

 

I'll install Futuremark and post some scores later

Please detail the kind of test and I will do it to see the CPU and heat issues. So far I don't see any CPU throttling and head dissipation is quite good thanks to the high battery height.

Handrest is magnesium. I thought I mentioned that.

I'm not going to put another HD yet.

As before, please detail the tests you want me to do. On the fan noise, its quite quiet. You will here the DVD drive more than the fan noise, so that is not an issue.

I have amber lighting so I do not see that much glare. I am using a dark/default black wallpaper. I do see some reflection. Notice the image I posted you could see the ceiling reflecting on the laptop when turned off.


Now its my turn to ask for help. I could not make the AI recovery burner. More like I did manage to get it once halfway until the system restarted I think of software installation, now it does not detect the partition, even though I see the partition there. It says "recovery partition does not exists". I want to solve this first before going on testing the laptop. Worse case for me is I just use another W7 64 bit copy and wipe clean the laptop. However I then need to manually install the drivers online. A bit of a drag. Also wasting the included W7 key under the laptop.

Any ideas how to get the recovery burner working?

 

I thought Asus provided a cd with all the drivers installed on the laptop? If not, have you tried returning the laptop back to a "restore point" or was that also on the partition drive.

You might want to use an alternative back up solution than the one provided to you by Asus.

 

Drivers yes. The Win7 installation DVD is not included. I'm trying to make that disc

 

well if u have any cpu/gpu intensive games? u could measure temps/cpu frequencies and see if it throttles/gets excessively hot.
if no games, try prime95 and monitor temps, and see if frequency of cpu fluctuates at all during the test?
prime95 is a tiny dl+free dl, u just need some programs to monitor the rest.
i'm sure others have better ideas to measure throttle+temps
this is literally the test i've been waiting for to get me to return my 3830 and wait for the u46sv so forgive my pestering

 

You can also run 3DMark11 or 3DMark Vantage over and over and use HWMonitor to track temps.

 

wowwww a dragon quest fan.... hey mystvearn, say hi to vearn for me

 

Graphic Card Bench : Furmark
http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

Temperature Monitor : Real Temp
Real Temp - CPU temperature monitoring

Temperature Monitor : HWMonitor
CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

CPU stress tool :
CPU Burn-in Homepage

I think with all that tools you are ready to the maximum heat

Regarding your recovery problem, try to run the recovery tool with administrator rights, maybe it will work.
It's weird that it tells you that it cannot find the partition

If you cannot launch the recovery tool, your windows key should work even if another copy is installed as far as it's the same version (W7 home premium 64bits) but maybe you will have to call microsoft a few days later to activate the product explaining them that you had an hardware problem.

The fact is that W7 is already pre-activated with the recovery partition and with the recovery DVD you create.

 

I did not expect anyone to know that

Here are the results:
Intel HD Graphics 3000 Mobile video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5-2410M Processor,ASUSTeK Computer Inc. U46SV score: P3196 3DMarks

Intel HD Graphics 3000 Mobile video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5-2410M Processor,ASUSTeK Computer Inc. U46SV score: P903 3DMarks

 

Cool !

Thank you for your benchmark.
Some precision please, it seems like the graphic card tested is the Intel HD 3000... Does the GT540 activates when you run the benchmark ?

On this point of view, it seems that the temperature is really convenient with the Intel card (53°C)...

If you try this : NVIDIA Optimus Driver Tutorial - YouTube
You can change the video card used for your benchmark and test the GT540

Something else you could test if you don't mind : could you check the harddrive type you have in that laptop ?
I plan to change it for a SSD, as I told you before, but I would like the dimensions of the actual harddrive. You can check the model number of the harddrive without unscrewing it using the bios directly or the Windows 7 System Information tool :

1 / Click the Windows "Start" button and select "All Programs." In this menu, click the "Accessories" icon, then click "System Tools" and then click "System Information." This opens a dialog window with a list of hardware components.
2 / Click the "Components" icon on the left side of the window. This expands a list of other options. All the options listed are different hardware categories on the machine including memory, storage and network components.
3 / Click the "Storage" icon underneath components. This displays a list of storage devices on the machine including optical and hard drives.
4 / Click the "Drives" icon. In the main window is all the hard drive information. In the section labeled "Volume Serial Number" is the hard drive's serial number.

I would be able to retrieve the dimensions of this harddrive and compare it with SSD dimensions on the manufacturer website.

Thanks in advance

 

I'll get on to this after I get the backup disc running. Also trying to do a clean install without the bloatware on top of it.

On another note, I have removed all the stickers on the laptop. The surface is soo nice that the stickers make it a drag to use-that is how good the surface is. Also now it looks minimalistic without any stickers on. Looks like a mac book air now.

 

i think that calls for more pics
can't get enough of this laptop

 

There you go :



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

Awesome

Even if I wait for your precisions, I have to tell you that I've ordered mine today

Friday is the day !

 

When I tried to download the nvidia optimus driver from nvidia's website, it brought me to a clearcube.com website. I can't download from nvidia. Now, where do I find the full software?

 

This is strange that you cannot download from nVidia website...

try this URL : NVIDIA DRIVERS 280.26 WHQL

And if this software does not install, try this : http://uk.asus.com/Notebooks/Superior_Mobility/U46SV/#download

If you cannot access those sites, tell me and I will upload the graphic drivers on my webserver

Ho... do not forget to install Intel driver

 

I pre-ordered mine as well. It comes out Friday?!

 

As I live in France, the website where I ordered mine had a lot of pieces in stock and I will receive it on Friday !

 

Thank you for your feedback !

We're looking forward to reading from you to see if it really throttles as the 540 M GT is in use ingame

 

When you were running the graphical benchmarks, did you notice the temperature of the palmrest?

The reason I ask this is because U46SV's sister, U41SV, has both CPU and GPU installed right beneath the left palmrest. Therefore any time the computer starts up, the left palmrest immediately becomes a heater, and it is quite uncomfortable, especially when gaming.

 

The most important question is:
When is it coming out for U.S?...

 

By now, I am not quite sure if this laptop is compatible with Optimus. I don't see any specification on the Asus product page.
Additionnaly, on this page we can see a note saying : "Optimus may not be available on all OEM SKUs. See manufacturer for more information."

If you install Nvidia's driver and follow the tutorial that I told you, we will be sure of its compatibility.

 

3D mark vantage results:

NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5-2410M Processor,ASUSTeK Computer Inc. U46SV score: P4362 3DMarks

More to follow. Stay tuned

 

Rhaaa Lovely
I am waiting patiently

So your graphic driver is installed correctly ? Have you got the Optimus system ?
BTW have you installed HWMonitor to see the temperatures ? There is an important information that I need for my question on the SSD...
Look at the attached file which is a creenshot of my HWMonitor results.
I have made a red line around the name of my drive, if you can tell me what name you have in HWMonitor, it would be great

Thanks

 

PC Mark 07:

NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i5-2410M Processor,ASUSTeK Computer Inc. U46SV score: 1820 PCMarks


more..

 

Yes, got the graphics
Graphic driver which was included is version x.36, graphic from nvidia's website x.28. I have no idea why nvidia's own is behind compared to asus supplied version.

 

OK so it's better to take the Asus version.

Ho man, I edited my message in the meantime you posted yours
I put an attachement on it !

 

So thats about it. Can't make 3D mark 11 to run the test. Missing some DLL file

 

I thought already displayed? The Drive is: ST9500325AS

 

I agree............

 

THANK YOU DUDE

Well, according to that page, it seems like this drive is height 9.5mm (0.374 in) Width 69.85mm (2.75 in) Length 100.35mm (3.957 in).
SSD of that dimensions would be compatible.

 

Np. I'm holding off the SSD's for now. Even SG Momentus XT Hybrid has some problems. I think when it gets really slow then I'll get an SSD (5 years down).

This laptop gives a good first impression -due to the solid build that when I showed it to my lecturer yesterday, he came back at me to see and feel it again. He is thinking of cancelling his Dell XPS laptop order

 

Of course you have to choose the right SSD reference...
I have a Crucial C300 in my desktop and it was like an illumination compared to mechanical drives

I consider buying a Crucial M4 128 gb or an Intel 510 120 gb to put it in this laptop.
For the moment my choice goes to the Intel cause of the performances, the 34nm chips and because the M4 has no over provisionning chips.

 

Any ideas how hot this laptop gets while playing games?

Does the metal frame help dissipate the heat or not?

 

thanks for the great review!

and yes, i would like to know about the heat too.. since it's quite thin, does the laptop heats up easily? thank you!

 

I will have mine on friday. I will be able to make some additional tests too

 

we def need some gaming heat tests. heat is the enemy!
anyone know if it's a dual fan or single fan cooling design?

 

Am I the only one confused about the backlit keyboard mentioned? Someone asked about it earlier, but no one answered, I have this computer on preorder and was under the impression that is was not backlit, but that would make my day If it were. Thanks in advance!

 

Surprisingly the laptop keyboard is quite cool. You can feel the air blowing out at the vent but there is no signs of it at all on the keyboard surface. Something I can't say about the Toshiba or Dell. It is pretty quiet.

Devil May Cry 4.
All super high settings. Vscync disabled. AA 16qCX= 40 FPS. Lower AA to 8qCX and I get between 60-80 FPS. I've compared to my Radeon 6870 HD and basically the card runs exactly half what the 6870 HD is capable of. That is one great feat considering my 6870 HD reference card is about the same length of the asus and my desktop has 8 gb XMS2 Ram

 

I can't speak about the U46SV, but the U46E does not have a backlit keyboard, and I am pretty sure the SV won't either.

With regards to heat, the only time it became an issue was when doing high-intensive activities, which in my case was playing StarCraft II. When in the game the left side of the laptop heated up quite significantly, and it was a noticeable bother for me because I am left-handed so my hand was right next to the heat. It wasn't a deal-breaker by any means but it was definitely annoying.

 

Ok I've got mine !!

My impressions on that machine are really close to mystvearn. I will try to complete his description, do some small corrections and give you my subjective impressions
I will not post any pictures because this is the same look as him
But what I can say is :

- The look and feel is really impressive. The handrest is made of metal and not plastic. You can feel it cause, laptop switched off, it's cold when you touch it. Only the champagne part of the keyboard is made of strong plastic (magnesium ?). The keyboard is very comfortable, not noisy at all, but not backlighted.

- The heat of the machine is directly linked with the harddrive which is located on the left side of the laptop. Furthermore : my machine is equipped with a different drive than mystvearn. It is a seagate 750gb and, good news, it's a 7200 rpm drive
Anyway, even if it's a 5400rpm, this is a part of the laptop which warm the left side of it.
I think with a SSD, it won't be as warm as with a mechanical harddrive. I will install it during the week end as I receive it on saturday.

- The screen is really thin ! it's amazing ! But I am a bit worried of its rigidity... Every time I open the laptop, I am affraid of breaking it (the hinges are really tightened)

- The sound is really poor and very deported on the right side of the laptop. Weird impression...

- It's true that Asus installed a lot of crap on the laptop. But, I think all the Asus appz are necessary to take advantage of an Asus machine. Keep them but uninstall manually all others such as the Nuance pdf reader, all the crappy games and whatever you want

Again, all that I told you is to cross with mystvearn description which is what I felt as well, apart the handrest and keyboard area material.

I will post other infos regarding my "small" tweaks during the week end :
- SSD : Intel 510 - 120 gb - Sata III
- 8 gb Ram : KINGSTON DDR3 PC3-14900 - hyperx 1866 MHz
I would like in some months to put a drive caddy instead of the optical drive to have the 750 gb drive to store all my data.

I am really pleased of that laptop. It breathes quality and my overall thoughts of the product is really positive even if there are some cons, but there is no ideal machine...