ASUS F6V User Review

by James Wong

Over the years ASUS has developed into a globally recognized brand. The company retains its competitive edge by producing quality notebooks and pushing the market boundaries through new innovations. The F6V "scent-infused" notebook is a prime example of what ASUS is prepared to do in order to win the customer’s satisfaction.

The ASUS F6V-3P088C features a fragrance described by ASUS as a "musky smell." The 13.3” display coupled with the relatively light weight of 1.9kg places this notebook in the portable class. Given that the F6V is based on the latest Montevina platform, it should be interesting to see how performance is balanced with the portability of this notebook.

Specifications as reviewed:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 (2.26GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB L2 Cache)
• Memory: 3GB DDR2 RAM (2GB + 1GB)
• Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 256MB
• Display: 13.3” 1280x800 WXGA Color Shine LCD
• Hard Drive: 320GB Seagate Momentus 5400.5 (ST9320320AS)
• Optical Drive: TSST Corporation TS-L633A DVD Super Multi
• Webcam: 1.3M Pixel
• Wireless: Intel WiFi Link 5100 Series
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
• Ports: 3x USB 2.0, eSATA, HDMI, VGA, Headphone/SPDIF, Microphone, Modem, Ethernet
• Slots: 1x ExpressCard (34mm), 8-in-1 card reader
• Dimensions: 312 x 231.9 x 32-35.2mm
• Weight: 1.9kg

Reasons for Buying

I regularly move up and down the country as well as travelling overseas, so I needed a notebook that was portable yet powerful enough to do some occasional gaming. My previous laptop was the ASUS W7S and I decided that the size of a 13.3” screen was perfect for me. During my search for alternative notebooks, I narrowed my choices down to the Lenovo ThinkPad X300, Samsung Q310 and Sony VAIO SR/Z series. The Lenovo and Sony were out of the budget that I had planned, and the Samsung was quite an attractive deal with similar pricing and specifications. I purposely disregarded notebooks that included the GeForce 8X00m GPUs due to the critical failure issues which was the result of a design flaw by NVIDIA.

Where and How Purchased

I normally like to purchase notebooks from retail shops as you can get a real feel of the notebook, but with my previous experience with the ASUS W7S I decided to order it online. Not many retailers sell ASUS notebooks in the United Kingdom so I wasn’t really spoilt for choice. I eventually found an online shop that I liked called Laptops Direct (http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk), the cost for the notebook including the VAT of 15% was £685.40 (~$1,000 USD). One thing that took me by surprise was that I had to pay a premium for the ASUS recovery DVD, which I assumed to be included in the package.

The whole package

My notebook package includes:

• 6-cell Li-ion battery
• Targus carry case
• ASUS optical notebook mouse (corded)
• Power adapter with cable tie
• LCD cleaning cloth
• S-Video to composite cable
• ASUS F6V drivers and utilities disk
• ASUS recovery disk
• CyberLink Power2Go 6.0 disk

It is interesting that they include the S-Video to composite cable because this notebook does not have any S-Video output. It would have been more useful for ASUS to have included an HDMI or VGA cable instead.

Build and Design

Upon the arrival of this notebook, my first impressions were that it was more glossy than I had expected. The lid of the case is glossy, the rim of the keyboard is glossy and the screen itself is glossy. It is very much like the HP Pavilion in that respect.

Many computer hardware websites have stated that the palm rest of the ASUS F6V is made out of carbon fibre. I was a bit sceptical of these claims as I thought ASUS would reserve this kind of luxury for their W/V series of notebooks. When inspecting the palm rest a bit closer it does not seem like carbon fibre at all; there are no thatching patterns to be found. To me, it just looks like some sort of reinforced plastic that is imprinted in a distinctive way to suggest a carbon fibre construction.

Palm rest

Nevertheless the plastic used in this casing feels thick and sturdy, but it looks a bit dull in some places. However this contrasts nicely with the glossy finish which stops it from looking too much like a ThinkPad.

This is the first time that I have owned a notebook that features artwork on the lid. I’m not really a fan of such decorations as they can draw unwanted attention ... especially when you use it in a public place like the library. But after looking at it a few times I actually think it’s quite discrete; especially when compared to the pink ‘flower version’ of the F6V that ASUS also released.

Notebook lid

Like most laptops the screen can be twisted when enough force is applied, but I found harder trying to look for noticeable ripples when pressing my finger against the screen. The hinges for the lid are stiff as usual and opening the notebook is a two-handed job.

This Notebook Smells

ASUS is the first notebook manufacturer to produce notebooks that have an infused scent which comes in four different flavours, the one that I have is the ‘dark musk’ smell which I quite like. It’s hard to describe this smell because it just smells like a new laptop; kind of like a ‘new car’ smell but for a notebook. If I had to put it into words I would describe this smell as ‘polished metal with a bit of aftershave’.

Some websites say that the scent is emitted from the lid whilst others say it is emitted from the whole case of the notebook. However I’ve been sniffing all over my notebook like a mad dog and I have pin-pointed the source of the scent to be the heatsink fan inside the laptop. This would explain why the fragrance smells stronger when the notebook gets warmer because the fan would spin faster to cool it down, and release more of the scent.

During the time that I have used this notebook the smell has definitely lost its intensity and I get the feeling that it will disappear over the next few weeks. In order to prolong the lifespan of the scent, the user manual recommends that you store the notebook inside the carry bag when not in use.

Screen

The 13.3” WXGA glossy screen is quite comfortable to look at and is especially great for indoor use. The resolution is a standard 1280x800 pixels which scales quite nicely for a portable notebook. I don’t have any problems using this display for a long period of time as the contrast and brightness seem to be perfect. However when using this notebook outdoors with lots of sunlight, the screen can be difficult to use and the glossy finish results in lots and glare.



Unlike the previous models, the 1.3MP webcam is mounted discretely above the screen with no obvious extrusions to the chassis. The quality of the image produced is sufficient for video messaging, but there is a noticeable lag of about one second when in use. The new SmartLogon feature allows you to sign in by staring at the webcam which is cool at first, but it is painfully slow to start up.

1.3M pixel webcam

The horizontal viewing angle of this display is great, and any curious eye can easily see what you have on the screen. Like the previous ASUS I have owned the vertical viewing angles are not particularly impressive, but this is the case with many other notebooks.

Light leakage is apparent in this notebook and is more prominent on the lower section of the display.

Light leakage

Speakers

The two speakers are located on the base of the display and they sound a bit hallow. Specifically it lacks a lot of bass/mid range frequencies and some songs sound totally different when listening through these speakers. There weren’t any noticeable crackling sounds when the volume was cranked up and it’s loud enough to be on shouting terms.


The speakers located under the display

One major disappointment in the design of this notebook is that it does not have any external volume control. It seems that ASUS ran out of space for this in favor of fitting other connection ports, so all the volume control has to be done by software inside Windows. ASUS appears to have copied this trend from other portable notebook manufacturers such as the Apple MacBook and the Sony VAIO.

Processor and Performance

Intel’s new Montevina platform supports the P8400 CPU which is based on a smaller 45nm process. Logically this would reduce the thermal output and help with the heat issues that ASUS used to have. Together with the higher FSB of 1066MHz the increased memory bandwidth should result in better performance.

ASUS has generously produced this notebook with two upgradeable RAM modules giving a maximum of 4GB. This F6V comes with 3GB of RAM which is just under the theoretical maximum that a 32-bit OS can handle.

The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 caters for the mid-range gamer who desires respectable frame rates with decent picture quality. Bearing in mind that this GPU is relatively new and I was forced to use the ASUS release of the graphics driver as the official drivers from AMD did not support this GPU without modding the .inf file. In the near future AMD will hopefully release new Catalyst drivers that support this chipset meaning that the results will be better than the ones achieved by the benchmark below.

Seagate’s Momentus 5400.5 320GB hard drive was included in this setup and it should provide good performance for a portable notebook. A large hard drive such as this uses two 160GB platters and it would be interesting to see how this effects the thermal operation inside the notebook.

Benchmarks

WPrime is a benchmark similar to Super Pi in that it forces the processor to do intense mathematical calculations, but the difference is this application is multi-threaded and represents dual core processors better. Lower numbers indicate better performance.

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
ASUS F6V-3P088C (Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz)	33.654s
Fujitsu LifeBook A1110 (Core 2 Duo P7350 @ 2.0GHz)	38.313s
Lenovo IdeaPad Y530 (Core 2 Duo P7350 @ 2.0GHz)	38.455s
HP Pavilion dv4t (Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.8GHz)	26.972s
Dell Studio 15 (Core 2 Duo T5750 @ 2.0GHz)	41.246s
HP Pavilion dv5z (Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 @ 2.1GHz)	39.745s
Dell Vostro 1510 (Core 2 Duo T5670 @ 1.8GHz)	51.875s
Dell Inspiron 1525 (Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2.0GHz)	43.569s
Dell XPS M1530 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.485s
HP Pavilion dv6500z (Turion 64 X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz)	40.759s
Sony VAIO NR (Core 2 Duo T5250 @ 1.5GHz)	58.233s
Toshiba Tecra A9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	38.343s
Toshiba Tecra M9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.299s
HP Compaq 6910p (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz)	40.965s
Lenovo T61 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.705s
HP Pavilion dv6000z (Turion X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz)	38.720s

PCMark05 measures overall notebook performance based on processor, hard drive, operating system, RAM, and graphics (higher scores are better):

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
ASUS F6V-3P088C (2.26GHz Intel P8400, ATI Radeon HD 3470 256MB)	5,405 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook A1110 (2.0GHz Intel P7350, Intel X4500)	4,281 PCMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad Y530 (2.0GHz Intel P7350, Nvidia 9300M 256MB)	4,844 PCMarks
HP Pavilion dv4t (2.8GHz Intel T9600, Nvidia 9200M GS 256MB)	5,463 PCMarks
Dell Studio 15 (2.0GHz Intel T5750, Intel X3100)	3,998 PCMarks
HP Pavilion dv5z (2.1GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, ATI Radeon HD 3200)	3,994 PCMarks
Dell Vostro 1510 (1.8GHz Intel T5670, Intel X3100)	3,568 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1525 (2.0GHz Intel T7250, Intel X3100)	4,149 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB)	5,412 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT)	4,616 PCMarks
Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100)	3,283 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks

3DMark06 comparison results for graphics performance (higher scores are better):

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
ASUS F6V-3P088C (2.26GHz Intel P8400, ATI Radeon HD 3470 256MB)	1,719 3DMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook A1110 (2.0GHz Intel P7350, Intel X4500)	979 3DMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad Y530 (2.0GHz Intel P7350, Nvidia 9300M 256MB)	1,833 3DMarks
HP Pavilion dv4t (2.8GHz Intel T9600, Nvidia 9200M GS 256MB)	1,741 3DMarks
Dell Studio 15 (2.0GHz Intel T5750, Intel X3100)	493 3DMarks
HP Pavilion dv5z (2.1GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, ATI Radeon HD 3200)	1,599 3DMarks
Dell Vostro 1510 (1.8GHz Intel T5670, Intel X3100)	519 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1525 (2.0GHz Intel T7250, Intel X3100)	545 3DMarks
HP Pavilion dv6500z (2.0GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60, NVIDIA 8400m GS)	1,551 3DMarks
Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100)	504 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB)	4,332 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT)	2,905 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks

HDTune results:

Heat and Noise

In the past ASUS has produced relatively hot notebooks making them uncomfortable to use during extended periods of time. Surprisingly this F6V is the opposite. It is cool to touch and the exhaust heat produced is less of an issue. When comparing the noise with the ASUS W7S this notebook has less ‘fan noise’ and more of an ‘air noise’ which is easier on the ears. Here are some temperature measurements of the laptop using HWMonitor:

	Idle (degrees C)	Load (degrees C)
CPU	23	55
GPU	38	61
HDD	28	30

Room temperature: 18 degrees C
Idle: "Battery Saving" profile, idle laptop
Load: "High Performance" profile, Orthos, FurMark

The temperature readings above show that the GPU is the hottest component in the laptop and during maximum load it had reached 61 degrees C, which is quite low compared to the temperatures that I have previously seen from ASUS.

During the battery life test I switched the notebook to the "Battery Saving" profile and to my surprise the fan had actually switched off! The only noise being emitted was the 320GB hard drive which is whisper quiet anyway, but this had only happened during certain periods of time when it was either idle or when you first switch it on. Once you start gaming the fan spools up faster and it is still quite quiet. The palm rest area becomes a little warm but not enough to make your hands get sticky and sweaty.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The design of the keyboard is pretty good and it’s nice to have a large "Enter" key but when you start typing with it the keys they feel a bit insecure at times. Each key that is depressed makes some sort of rattling noise and so it is quite hard to be discrete when typing in public places like the library. The good thing about this keyboard is that the keys themselves don’t really get sticky when you type with sweaty fingers, the same thing goes for the palm rest when you rest your wrists on them. Speaking of palm rests ASUS has a bad habit putting stickers all over this area and makes the notebook look like it’s still sitting in the shop window.

The keyboard from above

The keyboard flexes quite a bit although it is more noticeable near the top where all the number keys are, however for the people who touch-type this isn’t really an issue.

I really like the touchpad on this laptop because it is very smooth and it does not become slippery even with sweaty fingers.

The touchpad

Input and Output Ports

All the vital ports are included in this notebook and the heat vent is conveniently located on the left side which makes it ideal for a typical mouse user. Like the Apple MacBook, ASUS has not decided to include a FireWire port in the laptop which is fine because I have never found a need for it anyway. The VGA port does not have any mounting screws which may be of inconvenience to some users with external displays. It would have been nice for ASUS to have included a DVI port instead of a VGA port but I guess the HDMI output more than makes up for it. The new eSATA port is included and makes the notebook more future-proof as this standard finds its way into more and more devices.

Right: SPDIF out, Mic in, USB, Kensington lock

Left: DC input, HDMI, 2x USB, Wireles switch, ExpressCard/34mm, Card reader, e-SATA

Rear: Modem, LAN, VGA

Wireless

Included is the Intel WiFi Link 5100 which received lots of problems from users during its release such as slow speeds and dropped connections. My experience so far has been flawless and I get the full 54Mbps out of my Buffalo router. This wireless card operates through two antennae as opposed to the Intel WiFi Link 5300 which has three meaning that performance may suffer, but the power consumption should be lower. The bluetooth 2.1 + EDR card is a staple feature in most notebooks and I have had no problems using it to transfer files to my cell phone.

Battery

The battery pack is a standard 6-cell lithium-ion rated at 4800mAh. The battery forms part of the chassis and it has two rubber feet for support, however when the battery pack is fitted it protrudes from the back of the laptop. This is particularly noticeable and it adds an additional depth of 20mm to the design making it less portable to carry around as it will not fit in conventional 13.3” laptop sleeves.

The battery and power adapter

ASUS has previously struggled with making notebooks that lasted more than three hours on a 6-cell battery. This F6V has bucked the trend and has managed to squeeze 3 hours and 7 minutes on the ‘Battery Saving’ profile (50% brightness, wireless on, idle laptop). Under maximum load with the ‘High Performance’ profile it lasted 54 minutes (100% brightness, wireless on, Orthos, FurMark). These battery life improvements are most likely attributable to the increased efficiency of the Montevina platform as well as the increased power management of the GPU.

OS and Software

The F6V comes preinstalled with Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (32-bit). Upon logging onto the notebook for the first time, I was astonished to see that there were hardly any bloatware installed except for a trial version of Norton Internet Security 2008. On the contrary there were quite a few ASUS utility applications preinstalled, most of which are webcam applications and security software. The Windows Vista Aero interface runs smoothly and the ASUS Splendid application makes everything look very colorful.

Windows Experience Index:

In the event of a full reinstall ASUS included the driver CD and recovery disk.

Customer Support

I have not had the misfortune of having to deal with customer support about my notebook but reading from other users who have been effected by the GeForce 8X00M GPU failures, ASUS were keen to offer full replacements. The two year global warranty is hard to match and it represents the great reliability that you can expect from them.

Conclusion

The debut of this scent infused laptop has exceeded my expectations of ASUS through its cool and efficient operation. I feel that I can use this notebook comfortably over long periods of time as well as enjoy its portability. The minor quirks that I have found are offset by the great performance offered by the ASUS F6V and I would say that this laptop is a pleasure to use.

Pros:

• Nice scent
• 2-year global warranty
• Carry case and mouse included
• Very little bloatware
• Cool and efficient
• Great touchpad

Cons:

• Keyboard flex
• Battery sticks out of the back
• No external volume control
• Lots of stickers on palm rest
• Smell does not last long

 

I JUST bought this notebook in Taibei hours ago, and was taking pictures for a future review, and then I stumbled on yours I would have to aggree with your points, but I got the F6V non-scented version, with 2+2GB ram, a 250GB HDD and p8400. I like it so far ( a few hours!) The main difference is that I have a matt black lid, and black body as well as no extra smell. I was hoping to try and squeeeze out left4dead on it, but there is no more demo!

Thanks for the review though!

 

Scent infused? Sounds like a marketing gimmick .

Great review BTW

 

nice review,thx!

 

scentLESS laptop FTW!!

 

Looks like a sweet laptop. Great review.

 

Great review!

Nice lappy! I also like the lid! :yes:


Cin

 

That does seem like a great laptop to me, I really like how it looks and the performance for it's price & size. Nice work on the review.

 

Put in a led screen and take away that awful lid design and it would be on top of my wish list.

Any idea if you can get the laptop with a plain lid?

 

Asus does come up with the most insane marketing gimmicks...That being said, it seems like a nice laptop.

For me, however, it's not an option while Asus laptops maintain their less than average battery life. It's their main downfall (maybe they need to move a bit of the focus from crazy scent-look-leather-fur ideas to usability )

Anyhow, great review.

 

Nice review!
The light leakage looks terrible and almost unbearable .... Does it look better in real life? It's usually exaggerated when you take a picture of the screen in a dark room. Try use different exposure times that best depict the leakage if you can.

 

as gimmicky as this scrent notebook seems i dont think this can beat that Asus Bamboo notebook lol that one was definitely in a class of its own. Also can you imagine if you are at an airport and someone sees you sniffing your notebook

Anyway, lid is great i love it its unusual and very well designed i think the price is decent a notebook like this should have been cheaper only because at around$1300 there are alot of options in that range like the vaio SR and the lenovo u330 also the new samsung Q310 this should have been priced at like 1 grand. Still a good value though i also would have loved to see the N80's LED screen in here overall i am impressed with this laptop though

13" was something asus never seemed to be interested in now it seems that they are doing something about it id love to see more 13" from asus great review though! +rep

 

Thanks for the great comments!

I may have over-exaggerated the light leakage with the photo in the review but it's mainly noticeable when the screen is displaying a black image. It's interesting to see what people think about the lid design, you either love or hate it I guess... and the smell. Whether it may be a new marketing gimmick at least you can get the normal version without all the bells and whistles.

 

LoL, I like this one

Nice review, and congrats on this new lappy!

 

Timely review.

I was just seriously admiring this F6A at Newegg! Same body and features as the review subject, but lower spec'd CPU and gfx.

Very basic, with a T5800 and shared RAM 4500MHD. But still, 800 USD seems like a pretty sweet deal for a 13.3 with a pretty full compliment of ports.

Only thing that kept me from pulling the trigger: I have yet to own or demo an Asus notebook nor even seen the Ax6 series in person + Newegg's no refund policy on notebooks.

 

I got a MATTE white F6V with the same specs but with a lower CPU (2.0) and so far I'm Loving it !!!

 

It can manage up to 3 hrs with the 6-cell battery in power saver mode .. the 9 cell can for sure break the 4 hrs mark : )

 

You mentioned "the battery sticks out of the back". That really concerns me. Do you have a picture to show the 20 mm protrusion?

 

Would you rate it better or worse than your W7s, and given a choice between a new F6V and a W7s, which would you go for?

I'm still using my trusty old W7S-A1B, and am contemplating a replacement at some point, wondering if this is a viable solution.

 

Nice review! Just what I was looking for and I would assume it would be comparable to the F6A that has the montevina platform.

Have you managed to take apart the notebook and take photos of the inside?

 

I am also the proud owner of the F6V unscented version that is sold by Newegg (F6V-X1/X2). So far I completely agree with chicken royale.
There seems to be minor differences in the specs: I have 4 GB RAM, a Western Digital harddrive with 320 GB, Atheros wireless and the modem port is non-functional and sealed with a rubber plug. It shipped with Vista Business and the recovery DVD was included.

 

This is the only pic I have showing the back of the lappy with the battery, as you can see it does stick out quite a bit for a 6-cell. The specifications on the Asus website say that it can take a 3-cell battery which should solve this problem, but at the expense of the battery life.

To be honest the W7S is made of better materials and has a much classier look (which I miss) and the battery does not stick out! However I find that the F6V is a much more comfortable laptop to use... cool to touch, 2 upgradeable RAM slots, better touchpad and has HDMI. The W7S has the GeForce 8400 GPU which is prone to the soldering failure caused by Nvidia and ends up making the screen broken up into six pieces. Off course this would be covered by the warranty but in previous cases they just replace the motherboard with the same GPU.

Yep I've taken this photo a while ago and since then I've upgraded it to 4GB of RAM with Vista 64. You can see that the layout of this laptop is designed just like the 12" Asus F9 series and everything is easily accessed, even the WiFi card!

 

Very timely you mentioned wanting to see a demo of the F6A. Check out your local B&M Best Buy. Here in Southern Cal I was looking for a replacement for my ill fated HP 2312. I'm trying to find something suitable before it takes a dirt nap from the overheating Nvidia GPU.

I stumbled upon the very same F6 with the racing stripe. It's on special this week for 699 as a closeout. YMMV of course depending if BB in your region has any stock on hand. I really was enchanted by the design and overall style of the laptop. Only thing that kept me from snapping it up was the Vista 64 OS. I have a ton of legacy 32bit programs I've been using for years and I'm not inclined to give them up. Not yet.

I think I've found what I'm looking for in the F6 form factor with Vista 32 here Link

BTW. Although you'll want to check out the F6 at BB. It may not be a good idea to buy it there. BB does not participate in the Asus enhanced warranty program

 

BB was where I later saw it too, but it wasn't on sale. $849 USD was the reg price, IIRC. A very nice looking machine, I thought, tho the KB seemed a bit cramped (SOP for 13" I suppose).

I too ruled it out due to Vista 64b (love Vista, hate 64b). I also wanted a 25W TDP rated Penryn Intel CPU (P7350/8400/8600). This one had a 35W T5800. But if on sale for 699, that's a very sweet deal IMHO (if one can accept the 64b OS).

 

BB....sells the f6? Wow i thoguht you could only buy it online it is probably a lower specced version though still for $700 who needs a netbook?

 

^^

F6A @ Best Buy

 

Well...after much thought and research I decided it was indeed a very sweet deal. I went back to BB and picked up the F6A-X2 with Vista 64. I think I have workarounds to cope with legacy software. Add to that my curiosity to use Vista 64. I also intend to use a multiple boot configuration in order to use Ubuntu and a beta of Win 7 when it's released in a few months.

I decided against the online purchase. Something about dealing with an unknown NYC electronics retailer I never heard of just made my spider sense tingle.

I don't have the 360 Asus warranty since I did purchase it from BB, but I charged it on my AMEX plastic so that gives me another year over the basic warranty. I don't think I need accidental coverage because the times I do travel with my lappy are rare.

The HP2312 will be donated to my sons. They'll be thrilled to have it. Once it goes belly up I'll send it to HP for what will no doubt be the first of many repairs.

If this F6 configuration meets your needs and you can deal with the warranty, best to hoof it down to BB soon. These are going pretty quickly.

Happy New Year Everyone

 

Funny you should mention that Red. My whole intention in the beginning was to see if a Lenovo S10 netbook would be a fair replacement for the HP. Once I checked out the F6A, it was game over

 

Durian scent ftw!

 

I'll be the first person to break that laptop if i see/smell one

 

We'll try...I'm sure you are with your new Lappy. Nice way to start the year.

Enjoy!

 

Hi

I liked this laptop and planning to buy one. but, Can you clarify whther it has 64 bit or 32 bit operating System (Vista Business)!! I couldnot find the version of the OS Specifically any where. thanks in advance.

-----
padal

 

lol im with you just recently i was looking at the HP mini 100 then i looked next to it and saw the toshiba portege M800 for $800 i was like that toshiba is a really good deal! It was better in every way spec wise and the screen quality was superb

Also PP, Got to best buy website and hit specifactions check the os and it should tell you which on it is good luck

 

This is just an update on the F6A-X2. Everything is going well. The 64 bit OS with 4Gb of ram, makes Vista a whole new and enjoyable experience. No problems with 32bit software. Just a brief hiccup with installing Spybot. It didn't play nice in the beginning with NOD32.

On a not so happy note, the HP 2312 the Asus replaced took a dump 2 weeks after I gave it to my sons. Unbelievable. HP has promised to fix it for free, but I've been looking at this thread and I have serious doubts.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=233974

 

thats awesome, im glad you like it

i hope on the next version they put in that amazing N80 LED screen

wow, how did it break?

 

About 2 years ago AMD/Nvidia designed a defective goforce GPU chipset that was used primarily for HP, and some Dell laptops. It caused overheating and premature failure in many of the HP Pavilion DV series laptops. To go into more detail would be way off topic for this thread. If more info is needed a search string with Nvidia, HP, and overheating will turn up a wealth of info from all over the net.

Let's just say if your primarily an Asus user you should count your lucky stars

 

Ohh...i know about the the 8 series defects my bad i didnt realize that was what you were talking about.

I know the Asus G1S suffered heavily from this problem.

 

I think you should have added this photo to the review.
It is very strange you took pictures of the laptop without the battery.
F6V with that battery out from the rear is very ugly; it ruins the entire look.

 

It might look weird, but 3+ hours of battery life on power save profile is beautiful. Apparently this battery is standard issue in the F6 form factor. I think Asus made a good decision making this 6 cell battery standard.

 

Other manufacturers such as Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, are able to make 6-cell batteries flush with the chassis.
Asus did a poor job in this regard.

 

Hmmm...I'm a bit puzzled as to why this would be such a deal breaker for you, but to each his/her own I guess. I've measured how far the battery sticks out. It's only 3/4 of an inch. It may not look like it, but the F6 balances quite well with the battery. When I carry the laptop my palm rest on the underside of the laptop while my fingers loop over the battery and rest on the lid. It helps to give me a much better grip on it.

Still, If the battery jutting out is not acceptable, you might want to consider looking elsewhere for a 13" laptop.

 

i wonder if this notebook is gonna get updated soon? The reason i state this is they were already showing the Asus F8(the 14.1) coming out with the ATI 4570....i wonder if this notebook will get the same? Theres a chance it might.

 

lol another reason this is stupid is i mean COME ON? How many 11"-13" notebooks already have batter ies that stick out?

Also man i have 17" notebook(7811) and the battery sticks out alot too, it really isnt that big if a deal. If you dont like it dont buy it, thats what it comes down too the sticking out battery never really affected me anyway.

 

Oh, this book looks pretty good. But Asus laptop really not preform very well in the US market...

 

If anyone is interested, I was in Best Buy again today. I saw the same F6A-X2 I paid 699 for in January on sale again today for 549!
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9050117&type=product&id=1218012525009

The price is not the same as the web site. Go to your local B&M and see what the price is. I saw this at the BB in Manhattan Beach CA. Of course on something like this YMMV.