W3A - First impressions

W3A just arrived. Here's the first impressions...

o Overall - I'm really pleased with it.

o Looks great. The casing is not identical to any pics of the W3 posted so far. However, it's closest to the light-coloured (French?) W3V pics that were put up recently. So... no aluminium palm rest, and no perforations.

o I was one of the people that thought that the pics of the light-coloured W3V didn't look too good e.g. I thought the trackpad and trackpad surround looked bad. I can say, though, that in the flesh, the W3A looks really stylish.

o Screen. Narrow viewing angles both horizontal and vertical. But at the viewing angle of someone actually using the laptop, the screen looks really nice.

o Keyboard. Pretty nice feel. Keys are good size and have good travel.

o Sound. A bit tinny - about what you would expect from a laptop


I'm not able to post any pics. However, if anyone has any questions, I'll do my best to answer.

 

georgem - nice laptop. Every time I see some pictures of this model a,v or n...it always draws me back to liking it! I prefer the no perforation model and the asus name not in the middle, but whatever comes in the US will still be ok to me.

Can you comment on some early reports about the heat generated from this notebook?

I still have to wait for some reviews as I have sometime to wait before I buy. 71v - nc8230/nw8240 - w3v are the models that I am waiting for personal reviews.

 

For those that are interested, I've found a couple of pics of the W3A which I've posted below.

 

Yes, can you comment on heat and fan noise?

Thanks!

 

Re: heat and fan noise.

First heat. The laptop gets quite warm on the right hand side - around where the hard drive is located. To scale you on this, the heat isn't all that noticeable on the palm-rest/keyboard (you can feel it, if you're looking for it - but other than that you don't notice). You will certainly notice the heat underneath if you use the laptop on your lap whilst typing. The amount of heat underneath the laptop is similar to feeling the outside of a mug of warm (not hot) coffee.

As for fan noise, I'd say it falls into the category of not noticeable. If you're in a room with any ambient noise at all you won't be able to hear it.

 

The pictures in this thread look totally different from the ones on Justin's site and other pics we've seen. It's kind of annoying that ASUS isn't giving us ANY idea what the W3v we're getting in N. America is going to look like.

_{I am one escroww}

 

Justin said that the W3V should arrive or something to ASUS US on Friday. So I guess we might know then or after... =X

[l]ikwid.[f]uzion

 

Thats going to be more or less the look of the barebone unit... but all basically the colors of the W5...... but same design if you look closely... just a few changes that really give them a different personality.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Asus said Pearl.. ish... which is I think more white like the W5 than the pearl color of the S5....

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

That's pretty slick. So it will be white and/or black? I was thinking the one in this thread looks a lot like the M5/S5.

Strike that. It's late and I'm tired and I just realised it looks nothing like them. Zzzzzzzz.

_{I am one escroww}

 

It will be very interesting to see what it looks like. I really like the mix of aluminum and white/pearl...ish on the S5 and W5 though. Too bad they won't be carrying that over to the W3 barebone.

I'm also interested to see what the new M5 will be like.

_{I am one escroww}

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by georgem

 

Is the screen 1280x800 or 1280x768?

 

1280 x 768 -

Why don't you make a list of what you think is good and what you think can be improved on.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Is there a way to disable wireless/bluetooth by a switch on the front before you boot laptop up? If you boot up wireless laptop on a plane, they turn the plane around.

 

If you disable it PRIOR to shutdown, the next bootup should still have it disabled.

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, Toshiba Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Delinquent

 

Yeah, if it's off before you shut down, it shouldn't restart with it on..... there isn't a solid state switch on the W3 as there is on the W5..........

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

That's a shame really. I like the manual switches. There is something reassuring about knowing... regardless of software settings, when that switch is off, NO wireless signals are sent from the laptop.

It's not changing my opinion about the W3 though. It's a beautiful machine.

 

Yeah.... well that solid state switch on the W5 is ala the sony systems.... I think the W5 needs it more than any other system I've seen... as it has wifi, bluetooth, and RF.... and one switch turns all of them off for the best battery life.....

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by georgem

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by PROPortable

 

Re: screen settings. OK - I've figured out how to make the picture display correctly on non-widescreen resolutions. It's just a setting on the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Mobile, accessible from the system tray.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by LiKWiD FuZioN

 

glad you were able to take care of that.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone could comment on the W3Vs problem with heat. Is it really that bad? Would you say you couldn’t use on your lap? Does the heat around the keyboard build up unbearably? Does the vent blowing hot air on the right cause any problems when using a mouse?

It seems like a very good laptop if it were not for that, as sometimes I would probably want to use it on my lap. I am also looking at the V6V and the Z71V which both are good. Though each has its gripes... the V6V has very annoying layout of USBs... ie all 5 on the right side which could get very annoying very fast as i usually have a lot to connect. The Z71V is just too big for what i really need... being a fairly small, fairly light but powerful comp. The W3V fills that role well, except for the heat...

I have been using a dell 8100 and if anyone can compare any of the three laptops listed above to that I would be very grateful. How much bigger/smaller is the Z71V as I don’t think I would want any laptop any bigger than the dell... even that was a pain to lug around... it was heavier though, id say 7.4lbs or so... I had looked at the dell 610 which seems fairly decent and can be configured powerfully but seems to have a consistent problem with the soundcard... it produces a whining noise... I listen to a lot of music and so I didnt want to get a comp with a crappy sound card and the W3V seems to have a good one...

Right now the Z71V seems to be the best of the ones i've considered as its only issue is bulkiness which i dont really know if it would be that bad. If its only moderately bigger than the dell 8100 it might be OK as the weight of 6.5lbs seems ok...

Any advice would be great! Thanks!

 

Well, after much reading, and generally going with my instincts, I have ordered my W3V. 2199$ [minus 500 for ANBR rebate], whether or not I get the rebate, will not matter, the price is adequate for its ability/performance, in comparison to anything near its cost and size.

As for the S360, the 13.3" and the older technology made it illogical to purchase it. Also, the the debate I have read I wouldn't mind adding my input, this of course is the "Which is better? X600 Mobile or 9700 Mobile". Some have made the mistake of speaking as though the 9700 is the desktop equivalent of that same name. The 9700 [non pro] on the desktop was weak, those who purchased it, only did so in large part to open up the pipelines and make it a "pro" version, if anyone wants me to explain how that works, I will do so. Also, the reasoning behind it, I will gladly explain. The 9700 [mobile] is not comparable to the desktop version, memory, 128bit, clock rates,pipelines, and in a other aspect, cooling. The X600 "spec wise" exceeds the mobile 9700. Here is a bit of quick info.

Here are the benchmark results for the 9700 and the X600.

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=1064&s=3

What you will find there is the following

9700 [Mobility] X600 [Mobility]
3dmark01 Score 10,391 9,460
3dmark05 Score 2,933 3,320
Aquamark Score 22,475 22,887

The more advanced tests/benchmarks result in the X600 performing better in both instances [3dmark05/Aqua]. Only in 3dMark01 does the 9700 perform better.


Here is the technical specs,


Mobility Radeon 9700
450 MHz - Core Speed
1800 MTexels/s - Fill Rate
128-bits - Bus Bandwith
DDR - Memory Type
260 MHz - Memory Speed
8.32 GB/s - Memory Bandwith

Mobility Radeon X600
400 MHz - Core Speed
1600 MTexels/s - Fill Rate
256-bits - Bus Bandwith
DDR - Memory Type
250 MHz - Memory Speed
12.8 GB/s - Memory Bandwith

Source: http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=98&var2=0

Based on these sources, it appears that the X600 and the 9700 are close in there abilities, but ultimately the x600 outperforms the 9700. Nevermind the AGP/PCiE difference, which on desktops has a slight difference in most cases [this of course varies, based on sytem and video cards.]

Ultimately, I am going to get my laptop on Tuesday. I will report what I find, it will be from a new shipment. So I will see what happens.

According to my distributor I have a 30 day DOA where I can return/exchange my laptop if any problem exists, so thats my safety net for any problems I might experience. I am not so worried about the heat effect, but more so other problems that "might happen."

Anyone try Linux? any distribution on it? Anything? overclocking? video wise? cpu? thoughts?

p.d

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by scottschaffter