Successor for W3 series?

I've been wondering why there hasnt been launched a refresh model for the W3. Since the W3j has the right screen size to many people, a very solid and robust case and looks great, I cannot really understand why.

Currently, I have a 15.4''' notebook and my next notebook will definitely be a 14'' . Hopefully, ASUS will launch another high-end 14'' model by the end of the year.

 

unfortunately it'll only be the V2 or A8 series this year.

 

Possibly the "why" is to create a market for the A8-s and the V2-s. The A8-s are perhaps supposed to be the budget, gaming replacement for the W3, and the V2 the business replacement.

I think with the V2 they kind of failed --- I haven't seen anything on the forums about V2-s so I don't think they are very popular. It's understandable given they are not really a worthy successor of the W3 (worse build quality, lack of hotswappable bay, too large for a 14" notebook).

The A8 is very successful. But its build quality is far below the W3J...

So I will have to agree with the "unfortunately" adjective applied by Goren... there is no real successor to the W3... more bad decisions from ASUS, when one looks from a user's perspective.

Edit: well, "unfortunately" is really an adverb, but whatever

 

Asus dropped the ball there... but check out Goren's signature. The Compal IFT00 looks like a pretty worthy successor. I think it comes with an 8600M GS? Build quality and other things we'll have to see when it officially comes out and someone makes a review.

 

There are two things I learned from the asus forum.


1. There is supposed to be an f8 model. This is the a8js gaming model. Supposedly in august.
I dont think it will be metal what it is is it will have the exterior of the g1 and the eyeball and the back pack.


2. asus is making 2 million 14 inch laptops for dell. This is their largest single model ever, this order is more than all the a8 series and w3 series.
It might be like a w3 series. Its probably more like the xps 1210 14 inch version.

Asus largest market is 14 inch notebooks, they will make a lot of them of all different kinds. I mean, about as many different 14 inch notebooks as are possible to make, they make them.

They make metal, plastic, 7300 7400 7600 7700 x1400 x1450x1600 x2300 i950 ati 200 ati 1150 and nv6150 cpu, amd x2 core duo 1+2 wxga wxga+
what else is there? I think they make more models than everyone else combined

w3 is eol but v2j can have lots of exciting changes, especially since its not going over well....

If you like it except the gpu I would hold out hope that they put a ati x2500 in it. the w3j, the model before was called w3v and it had an x600. The x600 is like the x1400 in the v2j its the same model level. The x1600 in the w3j, one level up. Same basic model.

w3j is one of the few asus models ever that overheats btw. It is an engineering step. a8js and v2j run much cooler.

 

I understand where your going stamar, it is quite interesting.

Empluse you can have a look at the V2Je review, in my sig. The W3J offered features which both the gaming market with the X1600 and quality and flexibility with the multi-bay.

The V2Je is more focused to the business aspect, equiped with far more features than the W3J but has an X1450 and no multi-bay.

You may want to way for the refreshed V2 and see what it has to offer.

 

Any prediction on the GPU?

 

Probably the X2300/X2400 or, if they switch to nVidia, the 8400M in some form.

Personally, I loved the W3J, and I think the closest thing now is the IFT00. The V2 was the "successor", but it lost all of the gaming prowess that the W3 had, and it didn't have a modular bay or that really cool hinge design.

 

Since that is the case, it is possible that we'll see a drop off in Asus 14" notebooks in the US. Samsung made some notebooks for Dell and as part of the contract, Samsung doesn't sell their own line of notebooks in the US for the duration of the contract.

 

That was because Dell literally just rebadged the notebooks (look at the Latitude X1/Samsung Q30). This is Dell contracting Asus to build them notebooks, similar to Apple and the MacBook being built by Asus.

 

well Im not really an expert on industrial contracts.

What dell wanted from this contract was to seperate the asus brand from asustek odm so it can compete fairly with the asus brand.

even if there is nothing that says that asus cant have a model just like the dell one, which I doubt, asus wouldnt want to make a model like the dell one. They want that model to sell through the roof. That model is now a large portion of the whole operation.

But I dont know what the dell model is yet I can only be sure its a 14 inch santa rosa notebook. It could be anything from an inspirion to a lattitude to xps or precision.

If you were to look at the models asus makes for apple and sony, they actually make the non gaming cute looking models usually. They make both the mac book and the sony c. So this dell model might be like that, a non gaming cute model. I dont want to make it sound like I know what the model is Im just speculating on the possibility that it could even be like the w3j, that its something to look out for that is upcoming.


as far as samsung and dell, it wasnt really the notebooks. Samsung was dells main lcd supplier. So their contract forbid samsung from competing in NA with dell.
That was just their contract it doesnt mean asus is the same. The samsung dell contract is over btw samsung didnt renew it and should compete with dell soon with notebooks. I would even look into becoming a dealer if I were a capitalist I think its the last new brand the us will see, and it already has great name recognition. Consumers going into retail stores already know the samsung name, it would probably outsell asus.