Asus A8Jm Review (pics, specs)

Overview and Introduction:

The notebook under review is the ASUS Ensemble A8Jm, this notebook could be considered a thin and light system. It's not really ultraportable, but it's a nice size to carry around with a bag. The important specs for my A8Jm as configured:

• CPU: T2400 Core Duo (1.83 GHz)
• RAM: 2GB DDR2 667MHz (Originally came with 1GB, did an upgrade)
• HD: 100 GB 5400 RPM
• GPU: NVidia Go 7600 512Mb dedicated memory
• Screen: 14.1 WXGA (1280 x 800)
• OS: Windows XP Home

Specs as seen on the A8Jm label (view large image)

In addition, this machine included all the bells and whistles including DVI, VGA, 5 USB 2.0 ports, FireWire port, Infrared port, DVD-RW, 0.3MP built-in camera, Intel 3945 a/b/g wireless, Mic In, S/PDIF, memory card reader and ExpressCard reader.

Asus A8Jm fresh out of the box, screen protection cover still in place! (view large image)

The only glaring exception is that for some reason ASUS decided to not include the internal Bluetooth module in the North American versions of this machine. Asian and European models of the A8J series all come with Bluetooth installed internally. I have no idea why ASUS did this, as it seems only a trivial thing to put it in all the machines.

Reasons for Buying:

I bought this notebook because I'll be moving from Canada to Indonesia within a couple of months, and I wanted something I could use for business purposes, since I'll be starting my own business. I didn't want to be PC-less while settling down overseas, since I'll be quite ineffective in work and life that way.

I've actually been looking for a notebook for almost 2 years, and haven't really been forced to get one until now. I checked out the Asus Z70 and Z71 series last year, and this year when I started looking seriously, the only notebook models I considered were the Asus Z96J, S96J, A8Jm and the ACER Aspire 5672.

I finally decided on the ASUS A8Jm model because of it's great reputation and build, but all in all those final 4 machines really had me in limbo for awhile. The A8Jm is the most expensive of them because it's an Ensemble (pre-configured), but I felt it was worth the extra cash since I'll probably be using it as my main machine for the next few years.

I got a Core Duo model because it's supposed to be pin for pin compatible with Intel's next generation processor, Merom, hence increasing the chance of upgrading the CPU in the future and prolonging the life of this notebook. The graphics card also played a great deal of influence in my decision, as it's one of the most powerful available for notebooks at the moment, and will future-proof me when Windows Vista comes out.

Where and How Purchased:

I bought this notebook from MilestonePC.com (previously CanadaSys) for CAD $1,729 + Upgraded RAM $110 + Vantec LapCool3 $23 + 15% tax $279.30 = CAD $2,141.30. The original price when I pre-ordered it was $1,649 with an Intel T2300 processor and Bluetooth included. When the final specs came out, it turned out to be a T2400, but less the Bluetooth. I got an extra Targus carry bag and sleeve, as well as a 512 MB USB Flash drive from MilestonePC for pre-ordering, so those pre-order incentives were a pretty good bonus.
The A8Jm is not really the cheapest of notebooks (I spent aninordinate amount of time comparing this to a similarly configured Z96J / S96J / AS5672, which would all cost a few hundred bucks less), but I think it's a worthy investment and also easier to move around than the others which were 15.4 screen notebooks. I went to pick this up at MilestonePC because I just couldn't be bothered to pay the extra shipping fees -- or to anxiously wait twiddling my thumbs looking for the courier to arrive!

Build and Design

Asus A8Jm lid view (view large image)

People have said the A8Jm is not as good looking as its higher end counterpart the W3J, but to me it looks quite nice. It's silver in colour, and I believe the casing is made of hard plastic. The A8Jm isn't really an ultraportable and feels a bit weighty, but carrying it around isn't a big problem for me. I can manage to move it about while the lid is open and holding it with one hand, although I probably couldn't do it for a lengthy amount of time.

(view large image)

The screen is very well built, pushing the lid doesn't give me any ripples whatsoever, and the hinges really hold the LCD nicely, not much wobbling at all when I try playing around with it.
I've never owned a notebook before, but from testing out others at Best Buy, Future Shop and other stores, I feel that this one is sturdier than most models. It's kind of hard to explain and quantify that observation, all I can say is that it just feels more compact and better built when I touch the parts such as the screen and keyboard. The only concern I have is probably the optical drive, which seems a bit awkward to close.

Screen:

The screen is a widescreen 14.1 WXGA (1280 x 800 pixels resolution), with ASUS Colour Shine technology. I was really expecting them to come out with a WXGA+ (1440 x 900) screen, but when I saw what things looked like in WXGA, I realized that it was quite enough for most people.

Notice the almost perfect mirror reflection from the glossy type screen when it is black or off (which is somewhat exaggerated further due to cover still being on and bright light in the room) (view large image)

Since it has a glossy type screen, there is quite a bit of glare when working in really bright areas. Mine doesn't have any dead pixels and is just perfect in terms of manufacturing quality. Wanting to keep the screen in perfect shape, I haven't taken the protective screen off until now! I see some extra brightness near the bottom part of the screen when looking at it in a certain angle, but it's hard to detect and so easy to say light leakage is minimal for this screen. Viewing angles are also very good; I can still see the items on the screen even when viewing from some pretty weird angles.

In a typical room with average lighting conditions I think most people will be fine looking at this glossy type of screen. I get a lot of glare on the screen when working in areas close to 9' glass windows I have in my home. However, when I use it in my home's den, which better resembles lighting conditions for a place most people would work, the glare is much reduced and not a concern.

Speakers:

The speakers are at the lower front of the notebook, one on each side. I tried playing a couple of CDs and DVDs and the found the sound to be ok, but not as good as that from typical external PC speakers I'm used to. Maybe I'll get used to this sound after awhile, I'm not very picky about sound, so for my needs the speakers are fine.

Processor and Performance:

As mentioned above, the processor in this A8Jm is a Core Duo T2400, clocked at 1.83 GHz. I also added in an extra 1GB of memory so I won't need to upgrade in the near future. The exception is if Merom indeed can be put into this machine, then I probably will upgrade.

I put in 667MHz DDR2 speed memory, although I've read lately that it shouldn't be too much different than the 553MHz speed RAM due to the latency. The current 667 MHz memory sticks have a CAS latency of 5, while the 553 MHz ones have a latency of 4, hence making only a slight difference in speed.

The hard drive that came with this machine is a Hitachi Travelstar 100 GB 5400 RPM HD. I decided against upgrading to a 7200 RPM hard drive because I really didn't need much faster access times for the things I do. To add to that, some people have warned me that increasing the RPM might also reduce battery life and cause some more heat to be generated. I reformatted the drive and partitioned it using GParted Live CD into 2 partitions, a 20 GB partition for the Windows OS and programs, and the rest for storage. I left the Recovery partition that came with the notebook alone.

Having used to a Pentium III at home and Pentium 4 2.0 GHz machine at work, relative performance of this Core Duo notebook seems excellent to me. From the press of the ON button to the login screen of Windows XP, it takes about 30 - 40 seconds. All the applications I launch take little time and the computer always seems responsive no matter what I'm doing. I haven't had time to really test out running development / graphics environments together at the same time, but running normal office / web applications is a breeze. There is some delay in loading applications at times, but I have a gut feeling that it's more due to the hard drive than the processor.

Benchmarks:

Super Pi

Notebook	Time
Asus A8Jm (1.83GHz Core Duo)	1m 19s
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Intel T2500)	1m 12s
Dell Inspiron 710m (1.7 GHz Pentium M)	2m 04s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s
IBM ThinkPad Z60m(2.0 GHz Pentium M)	1m 36s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Pentium M)	1m 48s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	1m 52s
Dell Inspiron 600M (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	2m 10s
HP Pavilion dv4000(1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 39s
Asus V6Va(Pentium M 1.86 GHz)	1m 46s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s

PCMark05 (using High Performance for nVidia Quality & Performance Image Setting).

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Asus A8Jm (1.83GHz Core Duo)	4,134PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410(1.66GHz Core Duo)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60)	5,597PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Panasonic ToughBook T4(Intel 1.20GHz LV)	1,390 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400)	3,646 PCMarks
Toshiba Satellite M70 (Pentium M1.86GHz)	1,877 PCMarks

3DMark06 (using High Performance for nVidia Quality & Performance Image Setting).

Notebook	3DMark 06 Results
Asus A8Jm (1.83GHz Core Duo, Go 7600 512MB)	2,365 3D Marks
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Intel T2500, ATI X1400)	926 3D Marks
Dell XPS M1710 (2.16 GHz Core Duo, nVidia 7900 GTX 512MB)	4,744 3D Marks
Apple MacBook Pro (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB	1,528 3D Marks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	794 3DMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60 Nvidia GeForce Go7800GTX)	4,085 3DMarks
Asus A6J (1.83GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB)	1,819 3D Marks

HD Tune Benchmark Results:

• Minimum transfer rate: 17.6 MBps
• Maximum transfer rate: 39.9 MBps
• Average transfer rate: 31.2 MBps
• Access time: 17.7 ms
• Burst rate: 71.9 MBps.

Heat and Noise:

The vent for this notebook is on the backright side. You'll find a stream ofwarm air blows from there,but it's never what you would call hot air. And if you're from Asia,rest assured it's never warmer than that breeze you feelonany given hot humid day! At times I have also felt aslight amount of warmthrising up from under the keyboard area.

Some areas that I noticed getting warmafter extensivewere are the palm rests and bottom of the notebook. I wouldn't recommend having this on your lap for too long, as it got quite warm after using it for a little while. The ASUS user guide states "DO NOT PUT THE NOTEBOOK PC ON YOUR LAP OR OTHER PARTS OF THE BODY TO AVOID INJURY FROM THE HEAT", so I guess this wasn't meant to be a lap-top. I did get a USB powered notebook cooler, so that might be the solution if I need to use this on my lap for extended periods of time.

Temperatures range from 48 - 51 C during idling and office use, the temperature went up to a max of 63 C when I ran PCMark05 and was running at 100% CPU load. Hard drive temperature was at 35 - 40 C most of the time.

As for noise, I think ASUS did a great job on this machine. I hardly hear it making any noise while working normally on it, fan is rarely audible. It only starts to become slightly audible at 58 C. The only other sound I hear is from the optical drive when reading files (my optical drive sometimes makes a clicking sound that disappears after a bit, looks like a problem with the optical drive, not the machine itself.)

Keyboard and Touchpad:

Keyboard and touchpad view (view large image)

The keyboard is excellent, there'sno flex at all to it when I'm typing. One problem I find in usingthe keyboard is the location of the left locatedFN and CTRL keys. Most people are used to having the CTRL key on the furthest lower left key onthe keyboard, many other manufacturers take this approach.In ASUS' case this is flipped, the Fn key is in the far left bottom corner and then the Ctrl key is next to the right of it. This may cause some users to mis-press the keys every now and then if they're used to the buttons being reversed. As far as I know, there's no way to swtich them around. I like the fact that I can function lock the keyboard so that part of it acts as a keypad, as it's very useful when inputting numbers.

The Fn button is in the far left corner of the A8Jm keyboard(view large image)

Notice on this Dell e1405 machine the Fn and Ctrl are switched from what the A8Jm has

5 Quick launch buttons at the top of the keyboard, the Bluetooth and InstantOn do not function properly on this model(view large image)

The touchpad is silver in color, the same as the palmrests and cover. I've read that some people don't like it because of the texture, but I didn't really have any trouble using it the first week when I didn't have an external mouse to use. Seemed to work like just any regular touchpad to me. The Synaptics touchpad device settings allows customization of the 4 corners of the touchpad to act as command buttons. Tapping in a programmed corner areacan register as adouble click, right click, etc. and is quite useful.

Touchpad, notice it looks like there's one single mouse button, but it registers a right and left click by pushing in the appropriate area (view large image)

There is also a scroll area on the right side of the touchpad, which simulates a mouse wheel. I don't really use this too much, but have found it quite difficult to use. It requires quite a lot of pressurein the right place to get it working correctly. What's interesting is that the left click and right clickmouse buttons below the touchpad are seemingly joined together as one button, but they function correctly when you press the left and right sides of it. For some reason, my right click makes a louder clicking sound than the left one.

Now here's where I'm a bit disappointedin withASUS. There are 5 control buttons above the keyboard that should perform in order: Power4Gear, Bluetooth, Wireless, Splendid and InstantON. Out of those 5, only 3 work on mine (because Bluetooth is not included and with no InstantONsoftware included itjust launchesyour Windows defaultmedia player). I would really have appreciated the option to re-assign functions to these buttons. As it stands right now, there's no way to do it and I'm stuck with 2 useless buttons up there.

Input and Output Ports:

Left side view of Asus A8J (view large image)

On the left side of the machine we have: USB 2.0, FireWire, 5 in 1 Memory Card Reader, Express Card slot, Mic In, S/PDIF Out.

Right side of Asus A8J (view large image)

On the right side of the machine: 2 x USB 2.0, InfraRed.

Back side view of Asus A8J (view large image)

On the rear/back side of the machine: 2 x USB 2.0, DVI-D, VGA, S-Video, Ethernet, Modem.

All in all, there are 5 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x IEEE 1394 Firewire port, 5 in 1 Memory Card Reader, Express Card slot, Mic In, SPDIF, InfraRed, DVI-D, VGA, S-Video, Ethernet and Modem.

Wireless:

The Asus A8Jm I have camewith the Intel 3945 a/b/g wireless cardas well as an infrared port. The A8Jm is definitely Bluetooth capable (there is a Bluetooth button and indicator present), but ASUS for some reason omitted the internal Bluetooth module from all North American models (why ASUS, why?). All other versions should have Bluetooth installed.

Battery:

The battery supplied is a 6 cell, 4800 mAh battery.With brightness on a lower setting, battery saving mode on, wireless on, external USB mouse connected, and doing regular office work +internet surfing+ application installation I could get about 3 hours of battery life on this machine. I don't thinkthat's too bad considering the power of this laptop, and I know some people have achieved 3 hours and 40 minutes with wireless set to off.

Operating System and Software:

Windows XP Home came pre-installed on this machine. I was provided with the Recovery CD's, Driver & Utilities CD, ASUS DVD, Microsoft Works and Nero Express. Asusdoesn't install too many useless programs on the machine like some other manufacturers. The installed programs such as Power4Gear for power management and ASUS DVD are quite useful, so it's not a waste of space and resources. Even so, I wanted to install my own copy of XP Pro and then partition and set up the hard drive according to my likes, so I wiped everything out except for the included Recovery Partition (which only takes up 1.8 GB of space, not abig deal for me) and just re-installed the things I wanted.

Customer Support:

Here's my first and only experience with ASUS support:

I called in to customer support to ask about the InstantON button that is provided on the keyboard. Here's what the manual had to say about the InstantON button: "When the notebook PC is off: Pressing this button will launch a multimedia player application (without entering Windows) to view DVDs, VCDs, videos, photos, or television programs; or listen to music CDs or files". In addition, there is a light indicator with an InstantON symbol to indicate if it's in the InstantON mode.

What I found is that by pressing the InstantON button, my notebook just boots windows and loads the default media player. So I emailed tech support through the ASUS website, and got a reply from the tech, to call a 1-888 number and speak to a rep. I did call in, and talked to a support person. When I told him about the button, the guy seemed lost and insisted on calling it Audio DJ. He said he'd call back later on to confirm.

He called back later, saying there's no Audio DJ on my model. (at this point, I was just cursingunder my breath. I told him at the beginning it's InstantON, not Audio DJ). So I explained the location of the button and he put me on hold. After about 20 minutes or so, I got disconnected and the guy never called back. I proceeded to email tech support again explaining the situation, and got another reply asking me to call the 1-888 number and to talk to a specific person.

Within hours, I got 2 calls. First one was the person I was recommended to talk to; he said it's a known problem and that HQ was investigating, hoping to get a solution soon. The second one was the originalguy I was talking to and got disconnected from, saying that it's an error with documentation, that it's supposed to load Windows, not an external media player.

It seemed ridiculous to me that they're blaming it on documentation. I mean, there's an InstantON light indicator on my machine for goodness sakes, what's the purpose of it then? And the answers I got from both guys seemed to contradict each other. Furthermore, I found out that on A8 models with an integrated graphics card, the InstantON button works to load the non-Windows based media application.

So, I'm not sure what's going on, but can't really be too positive about their support. It just seems they're trying to cover up the problem instead of acknowledging it and doing something. Oh, and the support forum on their site is a joke, there's no admin or support that can quickly answer questions or concerns.

Conclusion:

Thankfully, the A8Jm is so well built, you probably won't have to use their technical support often if at all. And even if you had a problem with the machine, good resellers like MilestonePC would probably be able some initialsupport for you.

I'd recommend this machine to anybody; with almost every feature you could ask for in a thin and light configuration, it's really a dream machine. The price is a bit high, but considering most of what's in it is bleeding edge technology and is most likely future proof (maybe Merom compatible, Vista compatible), I think it's a worthy investment.

Pros:

• Very quiet and cool for such a powerful machine
• Dual Core technology
• Graphics card: nVidia Go 7600 with 512 MB dedicated memory
• DVI-D output
• Memory supports 667 MHz DDR2 RAM
• 5 USB 2.0 ports, 1 Firewire port, Infrared port, Expresscard port, Memorycard reader
• Built in camera
• Well built, nice LCD
• For the performance it brings, it's a great value for the money spent
• Most probably can support Intel's next generation CPU, Merom

Cons:

• ASUS support is so-so if you ever need to use it
• The North American version has no Bluetooth built in
• InstantON feature not working properly on A8Jm

 

Nice review

The A8jm is a fantastic unit, it's built pretty well, and for the price, its very sweet.


Is that table from IKEA btw?

 

Excellent review Darrick, thanks for taking the time to put it together.

After reading this, I think I'm gonna have to look a little more closely at this model (considering the A6J and V6J also), especially since it's price has dropped by around $300 AUD in the last week... astounding considering the model was only released here last month. Now if only they'd drop the price on the V6J...

 

great review! it certainly is the most powerful 14" laptop currently released. Hope it serves you well when you move.

 

Excellent review, I'd been looking forward to one on this notebook.

 

awesome review...its not that much cheaper than the w3j (i thought it would be)...

 

hey i wanted one already.

yes well right at this moment the w3j in the us is 1799 with a 100 rebate. so 1700

a8jm is 1550. so 150 more. right at this moment the w3j is better deal id have to say. i think 150 is worht it for the aluminum lid.

 

Nice review.

You mentioned the European versions have bluetooth but you failed to mention that ours come with the crappy Go7300 and yours come with the Go7600!!!

 

Very nice review! The A8Jm is among the most powerful 14" notebooks in the market. Congrats on ur new notebook!

 

You da man Darrick, first detailed A8Jm review in English. Congrats!

 

Coriolis: Yes... IKEA how'd u know... u must own one too hahha.

TedJ: Dropped $300 in the last week? That's nice.. how much is it now there?

spaztaz & stamar: Yeah... when I got it, I thought how close in price it would be to the W3J, but just couldn't spend the extra $$$ just for looks

radditz: OOps... that would be like trading BT for Go7600 .. U guys don't have the A8Jm then, it's the A8Jc right?

Everybody: Thanks for the support & wishes guys... was fun to do it, hope it helps

 

Excellent review Darrick, that's a great looking notebook.

If I had to get a 14" notebook right now, this would be it for several reasons - the Nvidia GeForce Go7600 is top-of-the line, and it includes a DVI-D port. DVI is very rare to have on a notebook, most manufacturers don't feel the need apparently.

Excellent job, enjoy the notebook.

Chaz

 

Cool review. I would get one of those bad boys but I need the money for college.
Tim

 

Great review, thanks. In the UK comes in the A8Jc format. Would like to get, however we get a 4,200 rpm for the HD and seems we can only get the T2300 processor, very annoying.

 

yeah its such a shame we've been shafted in the uk...
luckily zepto ( www.zepto.com) have taken a 14" chassis and stuck that same glorious 512mb 7600 in it. its received really good reviews too, the 6214 that is.
have a look if ur uk bound an after a powerful 14", for under £1200 you can configure it with 2ghz yonah, 2gb 667 ram, 100gb 7200 rpm hd and 512mb 7600 - well worth a look in if your disapointed with the 7300 in the a8j, this zepto 6214 is basically the same machine

 

well said philkempo, the zepto is a match for the asus in almost all areas, and is far cheaper here in the uk, and mine will arrive with a custom cover

 

I recognize that table ANYWHERE

I have one, and I love it

 

Excellent review of a really nice notebook. Congrats and enjoy!!

I've got an IKEA computer desk, too. Mine is the Jerker. I love it!

 

wow
that has to be one of the best laptops ever
and it's not really that expensive considering.
a 14" with a 7600.....WOW i'm jealous

 

Sorry, just had to take a shot at IKEA's people here... I wonder why they don't research or change product names before importing it into another country

 

i still cant get my head around that 3dmark06 score, a 256mb 7900gs gets around 3150 points and a 512mb 7600 can get to 2400 at the same 1024x768 resolution (see alienware 9700 review on this website http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx)
its a cracking little card that 7600, seems to outperform the old 6800 as well!

 

Very nice review, Darrick!

Nice laptop as well - plenty of power in a portable form factor.

 

*drools

great review!

 

Can you do a review once it arrives? Also, ive heard the screen isnt very good - the colours are all washed out.

 

its matte thats all, which is good because im an ugly b*stard so i dont want to see my face being reflected back at me

 

Nice review Darrick. Could you measure how thick the a8jm is. I saw somewhere that it varies from 1.37 to 1.45 inches. Does it seem too thick?

 

It's not quite top of the line. The X1600 still wins in 3dmark tests. But it's still a very good card in a 14".

Great Review!

 

Cheers for that!!

Did look into the Zepto. Looks nice, however the reviews show the battery life is a bit on the poor side. Also I'm not really fussed about the graphics card, its getting a slightly faster processor and hdd, which Asus are not seeming to offer in the UK at present!!

 

yeah i was slightly disappointed with the battery life, but then a 2nd battery is only £40, so i figure ill cut my losses and put up with the niggle of an extra battery rather than fork out an extra £200 for a similar specced machine somewhere else
means i can spend the money on fun things like a tv tuner and a decent set of portable speakers ;D which should make university significantly more bearable

 

phil I have talking to their operations manager, and they are working on getting an extended battery made.

I have been trying to convince them a 9 cell wouldnt give that much improvement as the 6 cell is so poor, and that 12cell would be perfect

 

this review was on A8JM and 7600go...why do ATI fanboy club always need to chime in when ever the 7600go is mentioned. I think it`s top of the line right there with the X1600 and even betters it on 3Dmark06. Excellent review and posts by btw Darrick

 

Juan: really? they're considering a 12 cell?! to be honest i'd be happy with 9 cell, aren't they supposed to give 90% more or something, but a 12 cell? that would be the most perfect ever!
Are they confirmng anything or looking into it?

hori: ah tell me about it, they keep harking on about 3dmark05, despite the fact that a 7600 clearly wins in 06 and seems to provide better frame rates all round, like the 6600 vs x600
well if they're happy ;D

- and before you start on at me ati lovers, i do try to stay neutral and balanced, but when the results say that the 7600 is better, i tend to believe them

 

all I know is they are talking to Battery Manufacturers

 

thats very cool, thanks for the info

 

rwhejny : It's about 1.5 inch at the back near the vent, and 1.3 in the front, so the info you have is quite correct. Doesn't look that thick to me, just a right balance.

As for Ati vs Nvidia, I don't think it really matters too much, as long as they're in a comparable class, I'm quite happy (this coming from a pro ATI guy)

 

Hi Darrick, can u have the LCD Screen review ? I read a lot of complain of the LCD screen quality drop from china forum. The complain above the
1. viewangle
2. Brightness
3. The pixel is big.
4. Hard to watch movie from far, only limit to 1 people watch it directly because of the limitation of the angle.
Do u facing above problem >

 

WOW I wish i new about this. I just ordered the Dell m1210. I kinda do want a bigger screen. Am I better off cancelling and going with this?

 

I think so, the bigger screen, means you can see better in general.

Lets assume i buy this A8jm.

I would take the a8jm to school most likely with a power brick, and use it for 5-8 hours in school.

Then take it home, since i feel 14" is too small so far to game on, but perfect for school usage, nice real estate. So when at home im gonna buy a 17" LCD and hook it up via DVI .

I personaly like 17" because my eyes can see everything on it, compared to a 19" lol plus a 17" is cheaper

Plus the GPU in the A8jm is 2x more powerfull than the Dell.

I'm not sure about pricing for you tho.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

Yes, for sure.

 

Btw guys (esp. Rogue & Shinjin), sorry haven't had time to do the DVD playback battery time & angles. Will do it as soon as I'm free.

 

Thanks all, I canceled the dll and am now trying to decid between the W3J and the a8jm. Looks like the W3J does not have an integrated camera ? hmm I am interested in video conferencing with Skype.

 

I'm torn between the two as well (actually the A8Jm that i am looking at is the Portabl One MX)... with the upgrades and what not they are close to the same system... price's are relatively close (portable one is a bit more), but i think the A8Jm is what i will be going with because of support from portable one, the bigger harddrive, the camera, dvi, and it looks good (the w3j also looks pretty good, maybe better, i will give it that).

Also the Portable One MX (A8Jm) comes with a transreflective screen (TrioView Transflective (UVA) 160° WXGA LCD for optimum viewing under direct sunlight) that is supposed to cut down glare and keep the screen clear and vivid; if anyone has experiance with this please pm me or reply to this.

But needless to say i'm still having trouble choosing, the macbook pro 15.4" still looks too good.

 

The transflective screen will cost you another $399. If glare is that big of a problem, you could probably pick up some sort of screen cover for ~$50. I'm sure it's nice, but is it $400 nice?

Portableone is great. They answer the phone in 1-2 rings and are very helpful. Also, you can get accessories there pretty cheap (extra battery for $99, extra AC adapter for $39).

 

Could you please check which audio chipset is used? Realtek ALC8xx?

Thanks a lot!

greets, apollo

 

I'm new here but Darrick's review is what convinced me to buy the A8jm. I've used this now for about 6 weeks and would like to add comments to the review. Some of them are negative, but don't misunderstand me this laptop is just about perfect for me. Just about.....

Positive:

1. The core duo is great! I run processor intensive lens design software which really bogs down most laptops. Not so with this system. That said how many programs actually take advantage of the dual cores? My guess is very few.
2. The nVidia 7600 go performs as expected (great). It keeps up witht he Quadro FX 4500 on my main system!!!
3. Size and weight are perfect for my very mobile lifestyle. I bike all over with this and it is a welcome relief from lugging around my old Dell M60. What's more the screen fits nicely when in an airplane seat - no more tilting my keyboard into my chest!

Negative:

1. The nVidia 7600 has caused me a lot of grief. This may be because I migrated to XP Pro. But I can not use standby at all. If I do, 50% of the time the system locks up and then when I reboot the graphics outputs to the external monitor - which was never connected or being used!!!! It takes about 2-3 boots into "safe mode" and shutting down to pull me out this mess. Again this could be operator error - XP Pro
2. I absolutely without a doubt HATE the glossy screen. It may be fine for a gamer who never leaves his parents' basement, but it does not belong on any laptop intended for travel. There are times when my eyes are actually focusing on what's reflected off the screen rather than what I'm supposed to be working on! I have purchased a matte screen protector to solve this issue ($15). I hope this trend dies before I purchase a new machine.
3. Speaking of the screen, I prefer the old 1400x1050 standard to this widescreen. If you think about most documents they are taller than they are wide. This screen doesn't offer you enough of the page when editing. Great for movies and games. Not so good for documents.
4. Video camera but no bluetooth. It's not the end of the world, but I can think of a lot of things I'd rather have than a lo res slow instamatic video camera. Like Bluetooth. Or an LED to light up the keyboard at night. Or a full (6-pin) firewire port.
5. Lastly, the key layout is really pretty bad. Top to bottom on the right hand column you have DEL, HOME. PG UP, PG DN, END and Rt arrow. Right next to DEL on it's left is INSERT. I can not hit the key I want without looking. AND the key I mistakenly hit tends to be exactly the opposite of what I want to do. The same holds for the special function keys like screen brightness, volume controlr and LCD/External monitor switch. This lack of foresight makes day to day operation on this machine kind of a drag. ASUS should study a ThinkPad and copy.

Then again maybe I'm just too business oriented.

That's my 5 min supplimental review....

D'

 

Thanks for the review Darrick.

I just placed an order for an A8Jm...but my supplier(Toronto, Canada) says they're out of stock at the moment and have to order. Does anyone know how long that takes from the order process to finally receiving the machine? A couple of days I hope. I can't wait for the A8Jm though, very excited..originally wanted Macbook Pro but it was just too expensive for my liking(especially being a university student). I opted to get the A8Jm and upgrade to 2GB of RAM and wait for Windows Vista (The Mac Tiger OS Clone )

 

Hey Darrick, nice review!
I'm thinking of purchasing this laptop, but almost every online site in Australia lists the ram at 533mhz, not 667. Your review (and others on the net) say it is 667mhz. You say you upgraded the ram, was that just the amount or the speed as well?
Thanks

 

lion1:

I upgraded both amount and clock speed... ie, replaced 2x512MB 533 with 2x1GB 667.. although, due to the CAS latencies, right now 533 and 667 won't have much difference in speed.

The recent versions of A8Jm should be 1x1GB 667MHz