ASUS N82JV-X1 Review Discussion

The ASUS N82J is a 14-inch multimedia notebook packing a Core i5 processor and powerful Nvidia GT 335M graphics with Nvidia Optimus technology. Is this notebook the ideal compromise between portability and performance? Read our review to find out.

Read the full content of this Article: ASUS N82JV-X1 Review

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Nice review

What is this thinkpad t410s with ati 4890 and envy17 like graphical power (3rd page comparisons)?

I never heard of it, and I would love it if true.

Edit: Or is it that external stuff tested not that long ago (external ati card with that t410s)?

 

Thanks.

Yeah, the T410s with the 4890 is with the Vidock thing.

 

So essentially, after 3 years, ASUS is still making notebooks that look good on paper and to your wallet, but make some noteable sacrifices to keep that price point.
- half-decent screen, small size
- Below average speakers
- Poor battery life
- Skimped on the HDD quality (I wasn't aware of this, but marketing a 7200 that struggles to keep up with some 5400s, that's just a slap in the face)
- Why do they still make these god-awful loud touchpad buttons?

Some good things I like are the solid build quality and good performance for the price.

Seriously, Asus makes decent/solid/good laptops in this category. But if they squeezed just a little more effort and refinement, they could be outstanding. But I understand that this price/performance ratio is a great deal, and it's a market that Asus seems to have a good grasp on. I'd just love to see them try a lot harder.

 

Good read

Looks like a good, well balanced machine - suitable for road warriors and gamers (if they can stand the underwhelming screen that is).

If my Dell kicked the bucket sometime soon, this would get some consideration - though I've become spoiled by the 16:10 screen and have come to prefer the old-school traditional keyboards.......

 

Lol, and in the Asus section there's a thread called "Official waiting for N82JV thread" that I made back in February. Thank god I didn't wait for this after all.

 

Yes, there are still some issues with their machines.

- While I bashed the N82JV for a less-than-stellar screen, realize that it is not an exception -- most consumer notebooks have garbage screens. I don't think the N82JV is worse than any given generic 14" at Best Buy.
- I generally don't take off points for speakers since I expect them to be bad -- the N82JV's are passable.
- The battery life should have been longer because ASUS should have included a larger battery. A 47Wh 6-cell is not powerful, the Nvidia Optimus technology isn't able to help as much as it theoretically can. The rather low battery life really limits the appeal of this machine.
- The hard drive I didn't take off points for either, simply because these notebook manufacturers buy from a whole host of suppliers and get different drives in all the time. What you get in your notebook is basically what was in stock at the time. At any rate, the Seagate 7200.4 series really needs to die, it's a no-good drive; excessive vibration and subpar performance relative to competing drives.

Despite all that, I enjoyed testing this machine, its build quality is really outstanding given the price and the fact it's a consumer notebook. It also has a very nice amount of power given its size. The battery life kind of kills its mobility appeal though . . . so what's the point of having a 14" laptop?

IMO, what ASUS really needs to do is simplify their notebook lineup . . . they have so many different product lines and models it is a nightmare to comparison-shop.

 

Great points, and thanks for the insight

I agree completely with this! Their lineup was massive and cofusing before and it still is! It doesn't help much that all their notebooks have confusing alpha-numeric names.

And I understand why you enjoyed testing this machine. It's essentially the same story as my current laptop, but 3 years advanced. If you're on a budget and want a laptop that can game, is small and sturdy enough to carry to class and offers some battery life (my laptop only lasts 2-2.5 hours, not enough for a single 3 hour lecture, or 2 smaller lectures - so 3.5 hours would sadly be an upgrade for me!), you simply can't get much better bang for your buck here. And I think Asus understands this well.

 

Actually you can. The Acer 3820TG is out in Canada now for $729 at Canada Computers, comes with HD 5650 and switchable graphics with 7 hours battery life on HDD or 9 hours on SSD. 13.3" at something like 3.8 or 3.9lb.

 

Well I'll be damned. Only things I have to say after a few quick scans on Google is, shouldn't this model come with i5 and 640 7200 HDD? Also, notebook check didn't get 7 hours even with the lower specs. A very intriguing laptop. I would have to see it in person before buying it though (and would want to see a few more good reviews), as my impressions of Acer laptops aren't very positive.

 

I don't know what's with the NotebookCheck review. I have the thing sitting on my desk (i5-450M / HD5650) and was getting 7.5 hours on the 5400RPM and after I put in an SSD, it estimated 9 hours remaining at 92% battery, drawing something like 7W power according to Everest. Since it's a 64WHr battery... 64/7 = 9.something.

 

but has anyone gotten n82 to run winxp? my installation bluescreens after it's loaded the drivers, at the "starting windows" screen.

sure, i could go with 7, and maybe one day i will, but i need to get some work done before i have the time to deal with it.

 

Right on the spot. It's like Asus has millions of models with weak discrete GPUs like 210/310m and even joke models like UL80jt (14" with a ULV i3...what the hell?)

 

Maybe it's a memory problem? Run memtest for 8 passes or so (overnight) and see if it comes up with any errors:
Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

Other than that, it could be a driver issue. There's too many variables at the moment.

 

thanks for the pointers. bsd stopped appearing after i got to borrow another xp disc that some geek has compiled with the latest patches just a week ago. repair-install progressing smoothly now. though i don't yet know if i'll run into glitches /w device drivers. suspect it'll be ok though - at least the asus site appears to have quite a few things there labeled /w xp.

can't wait to see the i7 in action!

 

It's always been like that. No idea why they saturate their own market like that, makes no sense. All the work involved in the unique Q&A and production for each model series makes no business sense, just alot of wasted inefficient work.

 

Nicely done -- that makes sense. I'm willing to bet it was some updated driver in the latest patches.

What kind of i7 do you have in your N82? I felt the i5-450M was a very competent CPU in my test unit.

 

my cpu is the i7-840q - intel's utility reports it's overclocked, but i've done no such thing (though it could be a good idea while they spend another decade revising all the apps to support multi-core):
Expected Processor Frequency: 1.87 GHz
Reported Processor Frequency: 2.04 GHz
Expected System Bus Frequency: 133 MHz
Reported System Bus Frequency: 136 MHz
Expected QuickPath Interconnect Speed: 4.80 GT/s
Reported QuickPath Interconnect Speed: 4.90 GT/s
Expected Integrated Memory Controller Frequency: 1333 MHz
Reported Integrated Memory Controller Frequency: 1362 MHz

xp initial install bsd - i think it was the intel ahci that's given us loads of trouble over the past few years - i assume the previous disc would've needed an F6 install. though before it would've just complained about not finding an HD...

anyway, it wasn't as easy as i thought it would be (i seem to recall this baby was sold with XP at some point as an option...). usb part of the chipset doesn't load, and the nec usb 3 doesn't either - perhaps as a result of the former. card driver & bluetooth also not yet on, but they likely depend on the usb.

asus website is almost useless (learn from lenovo, please). and their tech support kept me on hold for 45 minutes, then hung up. on the 2nd call i got a nice gent called RG, who, after a bit of persuasion, promised to look into the matter.

will report back how this all goes.

for anyone wanting to try this, you can download all the asus n82 winxp drivers from:
http://www.dvxuser.ramjetfilms.com/-z-/n82xp.rar

use a download manager, it's .5Gb. & enjoy!

otherwise, where did they hide my express card slot? i looked pretty hard but haven't yet seen it.

 

you should just have to disable achi mode, the driver isn't on many cd's

 

that part of the matter is now sorted. but how to disable ahci? i don't know how to get to bios settings on the n82...

 

just an update while on hold to asus tech...

winXP now works across all the devices - but other problems have arisen.

kind mr. RG never got back about the usb3 device driver problem above, however i was able to resolve it. it appears that the nec drivers have to get installed either very first, or at least before the chipset to avoid an unresolvable device conflict. (have also updated the package on the driver link above with some later versions.)

but now on to the SERIOUS matters - and these are the same regardless of whether i run xp or 7:
- despite being advertised / identified in the device manager as a gigabit adapter, the atheros NIC only connects at 100mbps.
- the eSata port appears bizarrely crippled, where it halves my external storage box'es speed. connection IS sata2, but full speed seems only to be available on ports 0 & 1 that are the main HD / optical drive, respectively. this is VERY odd.
- the intel turbo boost utility does not install on XP or 7. on XP i can force it to install, but an exclamation mark remains on the device manager. on 7 in its factory configuration it is not there, but it seems that the CPU does clock up from the default, but on XP it stays at the paltry 1.86 GHz even on tasks that would need all gettable CPU cycles.

update a few days later - all other problems resolved, but eSata is faulty (see pic); & i've still not found my expresscard port.