Asus A8JP Notebook Review

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by Michael Davison

The ASUS A8JP is a small 14” laptop with enough power and performance to put most larger laptops to shame. Especially considering the price, nothing can touch this. I know, because I have looked. While not an “ultra-portable” (13” and smaller), it is definitely not a burden to carry around and has pretty good battery life, taking in to account what this bad boy can do.

Asus A8JP (view large image)

First impressions:

Packaging:

The ASUS box came from Newegg.com in a larger box full of peanuts. It was very secure and well cushioned from impact. Inside the Asus outer box were the carry bag and A8JP box. Inside the A8JP box was the laptop and the box off accessories. The laptop was in a plastic bag with a screen shield taped to protect the screen. It also had a thin piece of foam sandwiched between the lid and the keyboard. All neatly done and with purpose.

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ASUS A8JP Specs:

• 14” Wide XGA+ (1440 x 900) Color Shine (glossy)
• Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 2GHz, FSB: 667MHz, 4MB L2 Cache
• ATI Mobility Radeon x1700 256MB Dedicated (512MB Hyper Memory)
• 1GB RAM, DDR2 667MHz (2x512MB) / Max 2GB
• 120GB 5400RPM 8MB cache 2.5-inch SATA Hard drive
• DVD Dual Layer Super-Multi Drive (left side back)
  • Read    24x (CD) / 8x (DVD)
  • Write    24x (CD) / 8x (DVD±R) / 4x (DVD±R DL)
  • 16x (CD) / 6x (DVD-RW) / 8x (DVD+RW) / 5x (DVD-RAM)
• Intel PRO 3945 Wireless 802.11a/b/g
• Bluetooth2.0 + EDR
• Infrared (IRDA) (right side)
• 5 USB 2.0 (2 on right, 2 in rear, 1 on left)
• IEEE 1394 (left side)
• 4-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro) (left side rear above DVD drive)
• 10/100/1000Mbps, 56k modem
• DVI, VGA, S-Video (TV Out)
• 19mm Full Size Keyboard
• 13.2&quot; x 9.7&quot; x 1.4-1.5&quot; / 5.25 lbs
• Built in .3 mega pixel Webcam
• Built in Microphone (next to the function key)
• 1 x Headphone-out jack (SPDIF) (left side forward)
• 1 x Microphone-in jack (left side forward)
• 1 x Express Card slot (left side forward)
• Carry Bag (2 pocket)
• Asus Optical Scroll Mouse (USB)
• Kensington Lock Hole (backside left corner)
• Virus and Tool Software
  • Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2005 (Trial)
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0
  • NERO Express V6.0
• Multimedia Software
  • ASUS DVD XP 6.0
  • Power Director V3.0 DE
  • Medi Show V2.0 SE

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Everything included with the Asus A8JP (view large image)

Reasons for Buying:

I've been considering my laptop purchase for the last 4 months and have researched all kinds of laptops from many different manufacturers. I wanted to be able to game when I travel. While I didn’t need cutting edge, I for sure didn’t want integrated graphics and nothing below a Core 2 Duo T7200 2.00GHz processor. It seems ASUS somehow got a list of exactly what I wanted and built the A8JP to my specifications. I looked at so many laptops that I thought I would never get anything close to what I wanted. The reasonably priced ASUS S96J was my primary candidate due to the x1600 256MB video card, but it was a little bigger than I wanted. I was hours from settling on the ASUS S96J when this beast popped up on Newegg.com. I searched by video card looked what was available. No joy. For fun I typed in “x1700” and boom the A8JP popped right up for $1298 + shipping. I thought I was hallucinating and double checked, and then triple checked the specs and price. It couldn’t be. It was, and I’m very happy with my purchase.

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Where and How Purchased:

I purchased the laptop from Newegg.com. Used a credit card and got it in 3 days via UPS Ground. I couldn’t believe the price of $1298. Still can’t.

Build &amp; Design:

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This is my first laptop, but I am pretty impressed with the build quality. Though I won’t be using it to pound nails, use it as a Frisbee or wedge it under the tires on my car, it is pretty solid. The hinges provide plenty of resistance and the screen easily adjusts position and stays put. I pushed down on the top with the screen closed and it bowed in. The top is plastic, so of course it was going to give some. When closed, you can pull up on the top and observe a minimal amount of play, but nothing to worry about. The keys won’t fall out and the mouse won’t get away. The latches are actually 2 rectangular tabs that are attached to the top of the screen frame and lock into place at the bottom of the palm rests. There is only one exhaust vent and it’s on the right side toward the back. I prefer it to be there and have all the video jacks in the back. That’s just me. The placement of all of the USB ports and accessory jacks are very functional and spread out. Overall it’s a pretty well put together laptop.

Left view of Asus A8JP (view large image)

Right view of Asus A8JP (view large image)

Front view of Asus A8JP (view large image)

Back view of Asus A8JP (view large image)

Asus A8JP under side view (view large image)

Screen:

ASUS provides a “zero bright dot” warranty on all laptops bought after October 2006. My screen had zero bright dots and is beautiful and colorful without any noticeable leakage, when viewed dead on. I put the blank screensaver on and looked at the screen and it was evenly lit up. I could only see what seemed to be leakage when looking through my digital camera, but it was not noticeable to the naked eye. The screen is too bright at 100% for indoors. I usually keep it around 40% indoors. The screen was very clear and was easily viewed from approximately 45 degrees on either side of center. The screen has “flex” when I twisted it, but this goes back to it having a plastic screen lid, and I don’t plan on twisting it again. The laptop has a native resolution of WXGA+ (1440 x 900) displayed on a 14-inch glossy TFT screen. In the screen setting the screen refresh is locked at 60 Hz, with all other modes not selectable. I did not observe any ghosting on the screen. The screen was also free of scratches or any type of damage.

Movie on A8JP screen (view large image)

Speakers:

The speakers are under the lip on the front side right and left corners of the laptop. I watched a DVD and was impressed at how loud and clear the sounds were. For even more volume I turned up the audio booster in the DVD program. Wow. Gaming on them was fine and I actually had to turn the volume down. No need to max out the speakers to hear them. They lack bass obviously, but are more than sufficient for gaming/media on the go. I’d still recommend a good set of headphones for gaming, ‘natch.

Processor and Performance:

The processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 (2.0GHz). I downloaded and installed all of the Windows Updates, including Internet Explorer 7 (seems like a Firefox copy) and Windows Media Player 11, uninstalled Symantec Internet Security, flashed the newest bios from ASUS (went from version 205 to version 208), updated some ASUS hardware drivers and performed minor tweaks here and there. Boot up sequences are just under 90 seconds from push of the power button to no hour glass on the mouse and all icons loaded. It takes the Windows Splash screen progress bar exactly 8 swipes to load. The hard drive is a SATA 120GB 5400 RPM drive with 8 MB cache. A fairly large sized amount of space at only 5400 RPM may lead to longer delays when compared to 7200 rpm ones. This allows for better battery life though also. The drive is actually three partitions: Recovery (hidden), C: 64.7 GB, D: 43.1 GB. The drive came formatted as FAT32, but this is easily converted with a batch file on the desktop “NTFS converter”. It only took a couple of minutes and it was done. I highly recommend defragmenting the drive after the conversion, because it really scattered the data. The laptop contains 1GB of DDR2 667MHz memory. The two slots are filled with 512MB sticks, making upgrading to anything higher more expensive because you have to remove at least 512MB to add another stick. The ATI Mobility Radeon x1700 is basically an x1600 tweaked a little and made with newer “stretched silicon” technology to become more energy efficient.

Benchmarks:

The driver used during benchmarking is the ASUS x1700 driver 8.311.0.0 (dated 10/06). At this time ATI’s own Catalyst drivers do not recognize this card and even though I updated from the ASUS website, it is still kind of old. I did try to over clock to get more performance, but the current tools (ATITool and RivaTuner) don’t recognize the chipset yet. ATITool actually had my clock speed at like 1500MHZ – yeah right. I think that once I can upgrade to the newest official driver, I will see a little boost in performance. Here’s hoping. I also had it plugged in and the rear elevated on a book to get max air flow and performance.

NOTE: For some reason 3DMark06 lists the video card as “generic VGA with 260 MB of memory”, and also says it is not Vista compatible. This is wrong and must be because it is new and not readily recognized yet.

As you can see, you can get pretty good performance out of this little guy. Even most of the newer games should be playable albeit with lower settings and/or resolutions. Most impressive, even with the low clock speeds that the video card is at. Wonder how big of a boost I’ll get when I can OC…

Stock Clocks: (as per ATI Catalyst Control Center)

• Core – 473 MHz
• Memory – 396 MHz

F.E.A.R. SP Demo all settings to MEDIUM and anisotropic filter to 4x (1024x768)

• Fraps says – 52.255 fpsavg (11 min)

Far Cry SP Demo all settings to HIGH (texture filter is medium) and anti-aliasing high (1024x768)

• Fraps says – 45.275 fpsavg (10 min)

Half-Life 2(1280X768 / 16x10 / v-sync enabled / HIGH everything / Trilinear filtering / no AA / water reflect all)

• Solid locked in 58-60 fps(limited by v-sync for better visuals)

3DMark01SE	19892  (1024x768 set by default)
3DMark03	7279    (1024x768 set by default)
3DMark05	4205    (1024x768 set by default)
3DMark06	2153    (1280x768 set by default)
	2376    (1024x768 set by me)
PCMark05	4378
Super Pi(2M)	1m 02s
AquaMark3	47,189(GFX – 6,027/CPU – 10,867) (1024x768 set by default) Doesn’t test dual core. Also for some odd reason, the video was blank throughout the test. I had to minimize and maximize to get the result screen to appear.

 

3DMark05 Results and comparison:

Notebook	3D Mark 05 Results
Asus A8JP (Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz, ATI x1700 256MB)	4,205 3D Marks
Asus G1J (Core 2 Duo, 2.0GHz, NVIDIA 7700)	4,247 3D Marks
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	4,236 3D Marks
Asus W3J (1.83Ghz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	3,925 3D Marks
Dell XPS M1210 (2.16 GHz Core Duo, NVIDIA Go 7400 256MB)	2,090 3D Marks
Sony VAIO SZ2 (2.16GHz Core Duo, NVIDIA GeForce 7400)	1,851 3D Marks

3DMark06 Comparison Results:

Notebook	3DMark 06 Results
Asus A8JP (Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz, ATI x1700 256MB)	2,153 3D Marks
Dell XPS M1710 (2.16 GHz Core Duo, nVidia 7900 GTX 512MB)	4,744 3D Marks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60 Nvidia GeForce Go7800GTX)	4,085 3D Marks
Asus G1J (Core 2 Duo, 2.0GHz, NVIDIA 7700)	2,389 3D Marks
HP nc8430 (2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	1,745 3D Marks
Compal HEL80 (2.0GHz Core Duo, nVidia Go 7600 256MB)	1,654 3D Marks
Apple MacBook Pro (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB)	1,528 3D Marks

PCMark05 Comparison results:

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Asus A8JP (Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz, ATI x1700 256MB)	4,378 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks
Asus G1 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, Nvidia Go 7700)	4,727 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Sony VAIO FE590 (1.83GHz Core Duo, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,427 PCMarks
Toshiba Tecra M6 (1.66GHz Intel T2300E, Intel GMA 950)	2,732 PCMarks

Super Pi to 2 million places

Notebook	Time
Asus A8JP (Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz, ATI x1700 256MB)	1m 02s
Asus G1 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 02s
Dell Inspiron e1505 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 16s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Toshiba Satellite M100 (2.00GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Samsung X60 (1.66GHz Core Duo)	1m 29s
Dell XPS M140 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 41s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s

HDTune 2.52

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Heat and Noise:

The heat is not really a factor unless I am benchmarking or gaming. The fan does blow more, but is not loud at all and you really won’t notice it if you are gaming or watching a movie. I didn’t try it on my lap, but should be fine if you don’t block the intake/exhaust with clothes. After benching and gaming I don’t notice any heat building up on top at all. The exhaust got much warmer, but not to the point of “hot”. The exhaust cools down pretty quick once you stop doing graphics intensive programs. A single heat exhaust vent is present on right side toward the back of the unit.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

Asus A8JP keyboard (view large image)

The keyboard and touchpad are well designed. The keyboard has 88-keys and is straight and centered. The keys press softly with little noise. There is a small amount of flex in the top left of the keyboard but it is not obvious without applying above average force and looking carefully. The Ctrl and FN keys are positioned so that the FN is the outer key and Ctrl is wedged between it and the Windows key.

The touch pad looks to be a solid plate, but it functions like a normal “divided” touch pad. It is a wide touch pad to compensate for the wide screen and has the “virtual mouse wheel” section on the right side for easy scrolling on documents and the web. I found that I had to press a little harder to get the scroll to work, but it did work. I use the included optical scroll mouse (Logitech M-UAG120) when I can and it is pretty good. It probably won’t satisfy hardcore gamers looking to 1337 #e4d$#0t$ n00bs, but it performs just fine for everyone else. You can have the mouse settings disable the touchpad when an external mouse is plugged in.

There are 5 “Instant” buttons located above the keyboard.

Left to right:

• Power4 Gear+ - toggles power saving modes.
• Bluetooth - enable/disable Bluetooth.
• Wireless - enable / disable wireless
• Splendid - toggles different color enhancement modes
• Instant On – boot straight to multimedia player without loading Windows. (This doesn’t work on mine and it’s a known “manual misprint “ error)

The buttons worked as advertised, except the InstantOn.

DVD:

Works just fine. Very smooth sounding and fast. When bening a DVD at 8x, I just hear the hum of the drive. Awesome.

Wireless/Bluetooth/IRDA/Modem:

The built-in wireless A/B/G + Bluetooth are icing on the cake. The wireless found 6 connections (all locked) within range around my house (I don’t have wireless). I didn’t have anything to test the Bluetooth with, but I know its there and turns on and off. I also don’t have anything to test the IRDA, but it's there. Yes, there is a modem. People still use these?

Accessories:

The laptop came with a carry bag divided into 2 pockets and a Logitech M-UAG120 USB optical scroll laptop (not full size) mouse. Good stuff.

Battery:

After charging to full in about an hour, I unplugged it and tried to see if I could watch a DVD on a single battery. The computer went in to a power saving mode that you can customize. The screen was at 40% brightness, which is plenty bright if you ask me. Depends on the movie I guess. I got through 2 hrs of the Matrix Reloaded when it went into standby with 4% battery left. Pretty good I suppose seeing that it was running the DVD drive the whole time. If I tweaked it a little more, I bet I could watch the whole movie. The video card down clocks also to save power. I went from 19913 plugged in to 6395 with battery (this turned video card to power saving mode) in 3DMark01SE. Intense gaming is out of the question with battery unless you want less than an hour of play, by cranking up the video card performance out of power save mode.

Operating System and Software:

Windows XP Media Center is the included operating system. I’m glad, because I get a free update to Vista Home Premium when it comes out ($6.93 s/h + taxes). I’m not in to the whole Media Center part, but its there if you want it.

There wasn’t any bloatware to speak of. Some things I didn’t need, but not really junk. ASUS’ power saving program and display settings program work well and I don’t want to get rid of them.

Lightscribe software is included, but the drive doesn’t support it. No big deal for me.

Microsoft Works 8.5, Nero OEM and Skype were also there. Skype is pretty cool and I tested it with the onboard microphone and speakers and worked excellently. Pretty cool to be able to make free phone calls when I travel to other countries.

This is an example picture taken with the built-in camera, the camera can be used for video chat (view large image)

Customer Support:

I had to use customer support to ask about the reason InstantOn was not working. When I called the first guy said he’d call back when he could get the right information, because they were experiencing high volumes of calls. He called back, but I was gone.

I called the next day and talked to an Albert about the InstantOn, Hypermemory, and the IRDA. He seemed knowledgeable and explained about the InstantOn “typo” in the manual. Hypermemory is locked in newer bios and the IRDA is in the Control Panel under wireless connections. Not what I wanted to hear about InstantOn and Hypermemory, but c`est la vie.

Conclusion

This laptop is perfect for anyone that wants mid-high performance, portability, good battery life, and just an overall high quality product for a price that can’t be beat. It has all the connections and accessories you could want and will last you for a good long while. Being Vista compliant is a big plus and not being DirectX 10 compatible doesn’t really bother me. An absolutely top notch laptop.

Pros:

• Performance (great overall performance)
• Graphics (not limited to Doom I or II era games… lol)
• Size (so many features, yet so small)
• Price (can’t beat it – period)
• All the built ins (Wireless a/b/g, IRDA, Bluetooth, webcam, mic, DVD burner))
• Speakers (loud and clear)
• Hard drive is quiet
• Free bag and optical mouse

Cons:

• 2x512 DDR2 (if you want to upgrade, you have to remove these)
• X1700 not recognized in Current ATI Catalyst drivers (may effect performance)
• Lid flexes when pushed on
• InstantOn doesn’t work as advertised

 

wow seems like an amazing laptop for the price.
i have the A8Jm, and am a little jealous.
unfortunately, I use linux, and thus need an nVidia card, so this wouldn't be an option for me.
Still, I always prefered ATI on the windows side.
I still can't believe the price!
I thought I got a deal paying $1350 (from ewiz.com) for my A8Jm back in May

 

Nice review! For that price, the A8Jp has to be among the best 14 inch gaming notebooks out there. Incredible value for money, I must say!

 

Thanks for a great and concise review. Beefdonkey's review and points match my experience exactly.

I used Asus's VIP email support (you get VIP just for registering your NB - no charges or fees). They responded within one day with clear, concise instructions.

Wireless and Bluetooth work extremely well. Wireless on the A8JP works better than any other NB I've used.

The layout of the ports, etc., as he mentions, is very well done.

 

This is certainly a great help for me. I'm looking at buying my first notebook too and one of the options is indeed the Asus A8Jp. I guess it's a tremendous notebook for that price.

I'm not totally impressed, because (like you say)it uses 2x512MB instead of 1x1024MB and there's also an Asus A8Js (GF7700) which scores even better than the A8Jp. Besides I'm also still looking at the F3 series with 15 inch widescreens, so I might just buy that model.

Nevertheless, thanks for a great review!

 

I also couldn't believe the price on this model when I saw it on newegg.com.

This portends well for the future, if ASUS can keep cranking 'em out and other companies stay competitive. I'm still waiting to buy my first laptop.

I don't care (much) about gaming, but I want decent 3D and I want to run Aero flawlessly. If match a lower-end CPU to a decent graphics card—assuming such a notebook can be had—I wonder if I'll have longer battery life and still be happy?

Otherwise, you hit exactly the points I was curious about. Very nice review. The reviews here are top-notch.

 

A 14" notebook with a good dedicated graphics card is such the sweet spot for my type of notebook. I use a T43 ThinkPad with an poor X300 dedicated graphics card, the T60 I'd move to next only offers the X1400 as the highest option. But I put more value in having a pointing stick, robust docking station option and I'm set on the ThinkPad keyboard so kind of stuck.

Nice review Michael, very helpful!

 

Great review Michael, have been waiting for this one, as I missed out on the Newegg deal, since I hesitated on pulling the trigger.

My question relates to battery life and screen viewing angles.

Can you give some more examples of "normal usage" battery life? DVD use is pretty intense and 2 hrs is good, but I would love to know how long this thing goes when you have the wireless on, have screen brightness at about 50% and are doing medium intensity stuff like web surfing, IDE development , listening to music a la winamp or something similar or just working on MS office stuff with the wireless and music on ?

Im hoping this baby can crest the 3 hour mark, since that is what I am looking for, and from the A8js owners, the feeling I get is that it will fall shy of that at about 2:30-2:40 . Can you confirm that?

Also, some pics of vertical and horizontal viewing angles and wash-outs would be the icing on the cake for this fine review!

Good job, keep it up!

PS > almost forgot... what about the media reader? Does it read xD cards like the A8js, or not?

 

Amitkc: On battery life, it is in the 2hr 30min - 40 min range.

Last night, I ran mine at 40% screen brightness, while surfing, checking email, and writing (had Firefox, Outlook, and Word open the entire time), installed some programs and burned a CD. I was connected wirelessly to my home network the entire time and had bluetooth running as well.

I started at 7:30 p.m. and the battery hit the 4% level at 9:35 p.m.

If you ran the A8JP at max battery and disabled all the background services (wireless, bluetooth, etc.) you might stretch it to 3. I've noticed the battery on the A8JP seems to take slightly longer to charge, too, compared to my Compaq Presario.

Two things to budget for immediately: additional battery and RAM upgrade to 2GB.

 

nice review, and oh my god wow thats an amazing price! now i wanna return my laptop and get that one! (but i wont cause im too lazy to have to go through everything >.< )

 

hmm.. thanks Brent.. sounds like the p and s models on the A8j are pretty much the same with battery usage, though I was hoping that the p might eke out a little more because of the slightly less powerful GPU.. oh well que sera sera and all that.

I'm spoilt silly by the company thinkpad t42 that lasts forever it seems on battery, albeit without a glossy screen or high end graphics card.

Does anyone have a larger battery on their A8js/A8jp so they can take a pic and show how much it sticks out?

Also, milestone pc is throwing in an Asus wireless router on top of the $100 rebate that they have going on right now on the BT-special A8js (albeit with the 100GB HDD , not the new 120) .. is that worth it , for the extra 250 greenbacks????

MMM.... decisions, decisions, ... if justin from milestone pc gets around to reading this post, drop the router , gimme another 100 bucks off, and I'll prolly buy the a8js for $1450 shipped!

 

Thanks, great review. The really amazing thing to me, looking at those benchmarks, is that a desktop (if you built it carefully, keeping component prices low by buying off Fry's or newegg, or if you bought something pre-configured), would cost almost as much for the same performance: very roughly, E6300 + MB + x1600 or 7600GS + monitor + XP + case + power supply, etc.

 

A great laptop for the price. Did A8J series drop their prices? because I remember it was 1500$ or 1600$ .. now it's $1300?

Great price great buy. I would buy that If I'm confortable with 14" screen. I prefer 17" better.

 

anyone with an answer on whether the media card reader in the A8jp reads xD?

 

There are a bunch of different A8s:

A8Fm - Integrated Graphics - $1200
A8Jp - x1700 - $1300
A8Js - Go 7700 - $1500-$1600 depending on vendor deals

The sad thing is that the A8Js with C2D 2.0 and Go7700 is probably as fast for $1500 as the X2 4200/6800GT box I build right after the X2s came out for $2400...

 

@amitkc,
You mentioned using a ThinkPad from work. How do you feel about matte vs. glossy screens? I use matte screen HPs at the library, but most of the models I'm considering have glossy screens.

I'm dreaming of a full-on ThinkPad kit (with docking station) but I'll probably end up with something more prosaic. Because of financial reality.

 

actually the a8jm is still for sale for 1400$ it has the t2400 cd.
This a8jp is the best deal it sort of forces your hand I think.

what Id like to hear is the screen manufacturer of the a8jp.

You can find it out by using everest.
Most a8js screens sold in na had the auo screen, and most of them had a little light leakage on the bottom middle.
The euro a8js used a cmo screen I dont have any stats on but it seems to have the same stats only it doesnt have any light leakage.
So based on the ops description I think the a8jp comes with the cmo screen.

Which makes it even a better deal. I think this is the one machine everyone buying a notebook should consider first.


edit
beefdonkey, I think instant on is asus name for what most notebooks call audio dj.
Its not there. all the a8j models have it removed. The button just boots windows and asus strange dvd program. I didnt read the manual but any mention of it is in error. It was never fixed. When the a8js came out it was advertised again and people thought it was fixed but it wasnt. Asus low end models dont have this feature even though they have the buttons.
On some of the machines like the a6 it has a lot of buttons even like ff rev etc and they dont work.

vista readyboost, the thing that uses flash memory to start that works. Youll need to buy a fast sd card

 

Oh my. Nice review. This is an excellent deal, even better than the $1069 Acer 5672 that newegg took down awhile ago. Goes to show the rate that the technology improves while the price falls like a rock. Congrats on your purchase.

Anyone interested in buying a z96j for $800? -__- /sarcasm

 

xd on the a8jp anyone?


Thinkpads rock. I could have bought one at employee pricing, but even with that the config i wanted was $1600, with only 1 gig of ram. Widescreen is now available, as is glossy i think , but matte display on the thinkpads is amazing. If I could convince myself to drop that kind of coin, I would get either the new V1 or a T60.

 

Thank you guys for all the kid comments. This was my first attempt at anything published like this. Also it is just my opinion and I always thought that those "magazine/tv" reviewers focused on the stuff nobody cares about. I'm glad I could help some of you make a decision, but it is gone from newegg (solid 5 stars there).

Thank you Andrew posting this and the GC Makes me wish I had more laptops to review

My battery lasts the same as sanabloguy's

See about getting some more pics soon.

Agreed.

I don't have one of those cards, but the manual says MMC/SD/MS/MS Pro

I don't know about the screen, but I see no flaws with my screen. I don't notice leakage, but I place paper towels (Bounty) under my lappy just in case

Instant on is a no go and a waste of a button IMHO Sounded good though. I still think that somebody could figure out how to do it... (it uses Linux I heard...)

 

Thanks for taking the time to write up this review and sharing it with everyone. The A8Jp is definitely a must-look-at system. Now if only it would become available again.

Interesting that you notice no light leakage when the A8Js supposedly has some very obvious leakage. Also, did you do any FRAPS while in native resolution?

 

Nice review. This looks like a great notebook at a great price. I would like to get one myself, but I think it may be a few hundred over my budget. It's a tough deal to turn down though.

 

<---Notebook Reviewer



Newbie no more. :lol:

 

Excuse my ignorance but could you tell me exactly what light leakage is, and how big a problem or hindrance it is?

I think I have an idea, but I am not sure.

 

http://www.lavalys.com/



everest will tell you your lcd maker

also the dvd drive. yours has different stats than mine it says 6x write to dvd-r mine has 8 x

 

I am new to this fraps and benchmarking. But I took an educated (somewhat ) guess, that 1024x768 was the general resolution that people base their scores on. Obviously the score will take a hit if you bump up to the res (1440x900), so the scores couldn't be directly compared to laptops that can't go that high (My css runs at 200fps at 800x600 and his sucks cause it runs at 60 fps at 1440x900). Another thing is, some of those games (don't quote me) didn't have that res selectable I could be wrong but isn't that people want? A common ground to compare specs.

Or did you just want it fyi

See what I can do.

 

I don't use dvd-r, but I'm pretty sure its the same for + or - dvds.

My computer -> right click dvd drive -> properties -> find model -> google

 

This is a nice review & I once look into this model. But the 0.3 megapixel let me off

 

LCD brightness/quality kinda is still bothering me (yea.. im overly paranoid), maybe its just the picture quality. Now would you say its good enough for long periods of use (ie... programming or typing up a paper)?

 

...Applause...

 

Nice review. You didn't say that much about heat and noise but perhaps you can shed some light on the fan. Is it constantly on, and if it is, is it clearly audible in a almost quiet room under low-low load?
I'm thinking of swapping my F3Jc out for a similarly (CD T2300, Go7300) configured A8Jn but I wouldn't like a similar notebook with similar (slightly annoying) noise levels.

 

Regarding leakage, yes there is some from the bottom part of the screen. It's only noticeable on a black or dark screen, and I've only noticed it during boot up and looking at the screen from an angle.

Regarding heat and noise, I don't notice the fan noise in a relatively quiet room (background music/TV playing at a low level). I have to want to hear it to notice it. I don't think the fan is on all the time. It's on more often during heavier use like burning a CD or playing a game.

The upper right portion of the keyboard/base gets warm if you don't use a cooler. That's where the exhaust fan is placed on the A8JP. Not hot, but pretty warm. When I did my battery test (posted above), I left the NB cooler off (I use a Targus cooler - the A8JP fits on it nicely, it's lightweight, does a great job, and is quiet). Was able to comfortably use the notebook on my lap for a while. But the area of my leg near the vent would get warm, too. It seemed less warm sitting on the desktop.

I'd say, noise wise, it's not an issue. I use it for a lot of work and writing and haven't been distracted by the fan at all.

 

WOW, that price is really good, woundering if newegg ships to europe? Would really recomend it to my friend that is looking for a new cheap laptop that can game.

 

great review

They don't even ship to canada .

 

There was a canadian New egg.

It was bought out but I cant remember who did it. a major canadian retailer though.

 

I am pretty sure nobody bought it out, they just decided it wasnt a good time to go ahead with the site.

 

Well if anyone is curious (I know I was) about viewing angles on the A8Jp, this site has pictures of it if you scroll down (I tossed in some other laptops for those who want to do comparison):

Asus A8Jp

Toshiba Satallite A100 Pro

Apple Macbook 13.3" Core 2 Duo

 

In stock again at NewEgg woo-hoo ...

 

That's a nice review! Helped me to finally pull the trigger on one. Hopefully it gets here soon.

One question though, what do you guys think of removing those stickers. Generally I wouldn't go tearing them but I saw one LG-laptop in a recent retailer in which the stickers where half off and I started thinking about it. Just wondering if someone has succesfully removed the stickers or what do you guys think, would it even be possible. Would be AWFUL to have that big sticky spots where my hands should rest.

Anyhow, gotta say all the stuff I read from NBR is top notch. Can spend all the time i should be doing my schoolwork reading the great reviews and news bits.

Cheers, keep 'em coming.

 

where/how would one get the larger battery? I have a dell m1210 right now, and I'm reallllly tempted to sell it towards this one!!! but 2.5 hrs battery life just isn't quite good enough for me :-\

 

There are no extended batteries for this laptop. Your best option would be to buy one of the Universal External Battery Packs such as the Portable Power Station. This way you could have additional power for all your devices when you need it.

 

Great review. Thank you for taking the time to photograph and document everything. ASUS should pay you for the free marketing.

I was already sold on the A8Js but the price was a little high (~$1,600) when I originally looked at it ( although newegg has it for $1,498 now) so I was leaning towards the HP dv2000t. Last weekend I noticed that HP stopped offering the 128MB video card and the only option now is for the integrated graphics. Just when I thought all hope of an affordable 14" laptop with a decent video card was lost, I found this review. I didn't even know the A8JP existed. I'm so glad HP forced me to look elsewhere.

For any of you that own this model, have you installed Vista on it or are you planning to take advantage of the Express upgrade?

Has anyone run the Vista Upgrade Advisor? Does all the hardware pass?

 

Hmmm....I was sold on the A8JS, but now the A8JP is starting to look pretty good. It seems to have all the features of the A8JS, except for the 512VRAM, and is around $200 cheaper. Plus newegg has it with free shipping for $1300. I added the laptop and 2-1GB RAM Sticks and the total came to $1498, still less than the A8JS...can't beat that. The Nvidia card can't be THAT much better and I doubt it will make any real-world difference.

I think I'm sold on the A8JP.

My only question, those that purchased from NewEgg, do you know if you got the AUO screen or the CMO screen? I have read great things about the CMO and horrible things about the AUO.

Thanks!

 

ra990, I hope you ordered yours. I came home from work, cleared it with the wife, and pulled up newegg only to see that they are sold out. I should have just ordered them at work.

BTW, the A8JS is $1,498 at newegg. Another stick of RAM is only ~$100. Plus, you get XP Pro and the Vista Anytime Upgrade from Vista Business to Ultimate is $139 as opposed to $159 when coming from Home Premium.

Looks like we will be getting a couple of A8JS's.

 

I got the CMO screen with my A8JP, and I'm mostly happy with it. It's pretty bright, has good eye-popping color reproduction. The only things that really nag at me are the viewing angles (described at length on the ASUS forums) and that the white isn't quite white, it's a very light yellowish compared to my desktop Samsung 940bw.

As far as the viewing angles go, I think it's only really noticeable when you first start using the A8JP. After awhile you don't (or at least I didn't) notice it anymore.

Overall, I've been happy with the machine. Looking to write a review on it soon

 

update/FYI

the a8jp does read xD as I suspected it did. whoopee!

 

Ya actually the manual that comes with it does not list the card reader as supporting xd, but it does.

It may be one of very few computers that does.

Then again, others might they just also dont list it.

 

I've been looking at the A8JP as well, and I noticed on the ASUS website it says 1GB x1, not 512MB x2, so I was wondering what the deal was with that.

 

Not sure, but the Newegg A8JP is ASUS A8JP-4S029M so I assume there are other models. It's a popular laptop in Australia (where they don't have the A8JS or the G1 yet) and I expect the ram is probably 1 GB x 1 on some of those Australian or other global models of the A8JP.

 

is there a bios out there that switches the keystroke position of the Fn and Ctrl key? if so you could just flash it, pop out the keys, switch their positions, and have a keyboard with the correct position of the ctrl key.