Asus V1s User Review

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The Asus V1s is a 15.4&quot; screen notebook that comes equipped with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo Santa Rosa platform and Nvidia 8600 graphics card. The V1s is ultra slim and lighter than the average 15.4&quot; screen notebook so it's possible to treat it as more of a mobile machine, yet still have all of the power you'd expect in this sized notebook.

Reasons for Buying

My current laptop, a Sony VAIO FE590 is almost two years old and is falling to pieces, so I decided it was time to upgrade. I saw the Asus V1Jp and fell in love with its looks and its features. I decided with the Santa Rosa refresh around the corner that I would wait for Asus to release an update, after waiting for close to two months and with university starting in mid July I couldn't wait any longer and ended up buying a Dell Inspiron 1520. It turned out to be ugly, loud, and arrived with half the features I had paid for absent. For a $2,000+ notebook I expected better. So I returned the Dell and within two days the Asus V1s had started appearing on various sites. Another month of waiting and pre-orders started.

Reasons for Buying Overseas

Many manufacturers tend to grossly inflate the price of their products in Australia compared to the USA and European markets. Because of this I decided to order overseas. I looked through many retailers and narrowed it down to MilestonePC, GenTech, ExcaliberPC, and ProPortable. I ended up going with ExcaliberPC because they had been active in the NotebookReview.com forums helping users and answering questions. They were more than happy to answer the slew of questions and concerns I had. They also offered me a fantastic rate on the International shipping and price matched the modular battery. They gave me a promotional deal on the notebook and extended 3 year warranty. After placing my pre-order I gathered my funds on the Friday night when the AUD bought 88US cents. Unfortunately after weeks of highs the dollar had dropped to 82 cents by Monday. It bounced on Wednesday to 85 cents so I paid then. The V1s was released in Australia for $2,600 and was offered for as little as $2,485 but it came with the Intel 2.0ghz T7300 and Windows Vista Ultimate so I was happy with my decision to buy overseas. The total cost was $1,983 USD. This translated to $2,385 AUD. After I paid the 10% duty and $50 customs processing fee it came to $2,673 AUD.

My Configuration

As a student I was concerned about battery life and gaming performance, So I opted to get the 8-cell and 6-cell modular battery.

• CPU: T7500 2.2ghz, 800mhz FSB, 4MB cache
• RAM: 2x1GB 667mhz + 1GB Turbo Cache
• LCD: 1650x1080 WSXGA + with Colour Shine
• HHD: 160GB 5400RPM Sata
• WLAN: 4965AGN 802.11n
• GPU: Nvidia 8600GT w 512mb DDR2
• Battery: 8Cell 5200mAh + 6cell 3600mAh
• DVD-RW
• Other ports: 3xUSB, FireWire, HDMI, S-Video, Card Reader, ExpressCard /54, VGA, Gigabit Lan + Modem Port, BlueTooth, Stereo In, Stereo / Spdif out, E-Sata / USB port combo

Delivery and Packaging

The box was sent via Express Post International on Friday night in the USA and was in customs in Australia by Sunday. I called on Monday and received my customs reference number and faxed through the various forms and invoices. My item was released on Wednesday by mid-day and made it to me by Friday. I was extremely pleased as my last notebook and PC ordered from America took 3-weeks and 5-weeks respectively. The laptop arrived in a large brown box containing the carry bag, a second box, the modular battery and the 3 year warranty extension details.

Design and Looks

The V1s is incredibly sleek and slim, it looks amazing. I'm not too fond of the slightly sparkly keyboard with raised keys having become used to my Sony's flat keys. The Modular bay is very easy to remove and swap.

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The V1s looks stunning. It's sleek small and light. I love the metallic lid and palm rests. The LED and port layout is really good. The one complaint on the design side is it would have been nice to have had the exhaust vent on the back, not the side.

Build Quality

There is a fair amount of flex on the lid of this notebook, touching anywhere on the back of the screen results in a ripple just below the webcam. But no matter how hard I push I have not been able to make the palmrest flex or bend. There is no keyboard flex and overall it feels very sturdy.

The palm rest is either very rigid plastic or a metal alloy. It dosen't chink like metal when you tap it but it stays cold unlike plastic. The hinges are very strong, the screen dosen't wobble or shake when you move the laptop, nor is it ridiculously hard to open like my old Sony. The bottom of the notebook has a much more plastic feel to it, but is also extremely hard and rigid. The lid is metal, my guess being magnesium alloy.

Bloatware

I was surprised at how little bloat there was on this machine. It had a full install of Office 2007 that needed to be activated, a 90 day trial of Symantec Internet security, Nero Essentials, and a few Asus utilities that are pretty useful.

Ports

The V1S has a number of ports not found on most laptops such as E-Sata and HDMI. Amusingly there is a big sticker on the palm rest advertising the notebook's u-DVI port which it dosen't actually have anymore.

Left Side

Gigabit Ethernet, S-Video, VGA, 2xUSB, HDMI, Modular bay - DVD (view large image)

Right Side

DC Jack, Modem Port, exhaust port, FireWire, USB, Mic, Spdif/Stereo out, Esata/USB combo port, Card Reader Expresscard/54 (view large image)

Keyboard

I am very happy with the keyboard, there is no flex and the keys are well spaced. My only complaint is the Fn key is on the outer edge and the Ctrl key is to its right. I am used to the reverse so I keep hitting FN + C or FN + V by accident.

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The FN options are sleep, WiFi, email, Internet, brightness up and down, turn off the LCD, turn on multiple displays, disable/enable touchpad, volume up and down, mute, play, stop, skip, and Power4Gear settings. Many of these are duplicated with dedicated keys to the left of the power button consisting of Instant Media, Power4Gear, screen setting, Bluetooth, wireless, and touchpad on and off.

Touchpad

The touchpad surface is very rough and quite abrasive against the finger tips. It's also not quite as sensitive by default as my old Sony, but this is easily solved with the touchpad settings. The fingerprint reader is a very nice touch, but it is a little tough to use registering about 1/3 of the time correctly. I assume as I get used to using it I will place my finger for it to scan more correctly. The left click button has to be pressed very hard to drag and often will drop the item. This is really annoying when cropping photos.

Benchmarks

Vista 620/500

Vista 1280x1024

Vista 620/500 1280x1024

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Vista Stock With Turbo Memory Disabled

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Vista Stock With Turbo Memory Enabled

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XP

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PCMark05 Turbo Cache Enabled

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PCMark05 Turbo Cache Disabled

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HDD Test Suite Turbo Cache Enabled

HDD Test Suite Turbo Cache Disabled

CPUZ Full speed

CPUZ Downclocked

E-Sata Performance 250gb 7200rpm 7200.10 Seagate 3.5&quot; On Desktop

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Esata on V1S

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160GB Internal 5400RPM

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Windows Experience Index

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Super PI: 2M Calculation: 57seconds

CineBench 9.5:

• Rendering (Single CPU): 365 CB-CPU
• Rendering (Multiple CPU): 672 CB-CPU
• Multiprocessor Speedup: 1.84
• Shading (CINEMA 4D) : 423 CB-GFX
• Shading (OpenGL Software Lighting) : 1229 CB-GFX
• Shading (OpenGL Hardware Lighting) : 2140 CB-GFX
• OpenGL Speedup: 5.06

Screen

The high res 1650x1080 WSXGA+ screen is stunning. There is a small amount of light leakage along the bottom of the screen. The V1S also comes with splendid video technology which lets you use a hot key to change the LCD's colour presets. Some just make it look yellow, but most look really fantastic. It's nowhere near as bright as my old Sony, but it's more than bright enough for day to day tasks. On minimum brightness it looks like the backlight actually switches off all together, making it near impossible to see unless there is sufficent ambient light. The difference between 0/8 and 1/8 brightness is massive. The viewing angles are above average, but once again just not as good as my old Sony.

Low brightness

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Full Brightness

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Heat and Noise

The CPU runs surprisingly cool as does the GPU at default. When idle the CPU runs around 48-50C and under 100% load for twenty minutes it went up to 67C.

The fan is almost silent when doing light tasks but when it gets hot it spins up to a high RPM and is quite noisy.

Speakers

The speakers are subpar in comparison to the rest of the notebook. They are very tinny and not very loud. Even at full volume it is a struggle to hear them. They are placed on either side of the keyboard and they do not really project the sound well.

Battery

The first number represents the total time achieved on the 8-cell main battery and the second number shows what the modular battery got. For a total just add the two. I was very happy to get just over five and a half hours on the combined batteries while typing.

Usage Scenario	8-cell battery	6-cell battery	Total
Video: Brightness 2/8, video playing, Wifi BT off	2:25	1:15	3:40
Typing: Brightness 0/8,Wifi BT off, MS Office	3:40	1:40	5:20
Surfing: Brightness 2/8, Wifi BT on, surfing	2:55	1:20	4:15
Gaming: Brightness 8/8, Wifi on, CPU 100%, GPU active	1:35	45	2:20

OS Options

I, like many others, am not overly impressed with Vista and as such I decided to put XP on my V1s. Unfortunately Asus does not officially provide support for XP on the V1s. It took several hours of trial and error and searching for drivers before I was satisfied that I had all the drivers and utilities I needed. I ended up sticking with Vista in the end because it looks so much better. If you want to put XP on your V1s I created a very basic guide.

Overall

I really love the Asus V1s. It has a few faults, but overall it's exactly what I wanted. It's light, portable, powerful, and the perfect price. I recommend this machine to anyone looking for a business class machine with high quality components.

Pros:

• High resolution screen
• Great performance
• Modular bay battery for easy swapping
• High build quality

Cons:

• Left click must be pressed hard
• Screen quite dim, especially when at lowest setting
• Battery life could be better
• Lack of true Windows XP support

 

Nice review. Though I was hoping for more pictures.

 

There also seems to be some sort of battery wear issue with this laptop too. Currently my laptop has 5% battery wear and I have only done 7 discharge/recharge cycles.
Tim

 

Nice review, well written.

A few questions I didn't get from the review:
How heavy is it with both the batteries installed in the machine?
How many megapixels is the mounted webcam?
How sturdy is the swivel webcam?
What hard drive comes with it, 160GB Seagate Momentus 5400.3?
What came with the package, a bag and a mouse?
Is the optical drive Lightscribe enabled?

 

That 3Dmark06 score is impressive, mine was only 3000 stock as you saw in my review. Wonder why yours is so much higher.
That's the same score as the G1S gets stock.
Very nice review~
Rep +1

 

Well written review, with *tones* of benchmarks. Thanks!

I really like the V1s, but if I had that kind of cash, I would be tempted to go with a MacBook Pro instead. The battery issues and the much higher weight of the V1s are turn offs, but the modular bay is a really nice that isn't found on many laptops these days.

 

Nice review, matt_h1, and great benchmark tests!

Is it really just the V1? From what I hear a lot of the ASUS notebooks have battery wear issues...don't get me wrong, I think ASUS is fantastic but I've heard of several ASUS notebooks with this problem.

I've done 17 cycles on my MacBook and still 100% battery health . Yay!

 

worst battery life ever

great review although I don't like that particular laptop.

 

The Webcam is 1.3 Mega Pixels. The webcam is pretty sturdy.

Yep a bag and a mouse came with the laptop.

Yes the optical drive had lightscribe enabled.
Tim

 

Great review!

 

Notice that the tests were performed at 620/500, which are not stock NVIDIA clocks (slower that the GDDR3 memory, but faster than the DDR2, and much faster on the core, versus 475MHz stock). As well, tests were performed at 1024x768, so shouldn't be compared with default 1280x1024 tests.

Still, very nice review. I've always loved the design of the V1/V2 series, but couldn't get over their poor battery life.

 

Uhm actually the battery life is on par compared to other notebook with similar specs. Sure the V2 has subpar battery life, but we will have to wait till we see a review on the V2S.

I am glad that the battery life is the same as my V1JP.

PS: Matt_h1 there's a mistake in your calculation for battery life test 3, it should state 4 hours and 15 mins, not 3 hours and 15 mins.

Also please install Everest, and find out what screen they used.

What about games? and their performance?

Yah Chuck232 is correct the reviewer ran 3DMark06 in 10x7, when default is 12x10 I think.

I believe all new reviews should have both resolutions because everyone is measuring and comparing odd numbers. Regardless Zydan and others have stated the V1S will get 3000 points in 3DMark06 with default settings.

I am not 100% convinced that the V1S suffers from the batter wear issue, but we will find out soon, it takes about 1-2 weeks to put on a substantial amount of abnormal wear. Hope for the best.

BTW Nice review, I like the battery life tests d

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

Unfortunately, that requires the full version of 3DMark - the best way to go about this would be to only post 3DMark comparisons of the same resolutions.

 

Under 3 hours for a notebook with an 8-cell battery while just surfing the internet is below average. The norm is more like 4 hours, take a look at HP notebooks for example a lot of the 15.4" ones have 8-cells that last that long. Especially since the asus was at 2/8 brightness, is that readable btw?

 

Well it says my monitor is:

Tim

 

Thanks for you review Matt! I still have to order the V1s and I'll contact ExcaliberPC very soon and I hope they make me a good deal like you but the rumours of the V1s CPU upgrading in the next few weeks are doing to make me stay in hold about hurry to purchase it just now. In other thread I've already asked for real notices or links about this T7700 (2,4GHz) upgrade. Once again, anybody knows something more clear about it? when we can expect that? Would be nice to know for people who plan to purchase it.

 

Great review! I love how asus notebooks look.

 

Default resolution for 3DMark06 (free version) is 1280x1024.
So, I don't understand why benchmarking was done in 1024x768-"better looking" results?

 

If you go to hardware ID it should give you the manufacturer I believe.

Mine says SEC3346, I believe that's Samsung?

 

When you said it was 11 pages I figured it would have more meat to it.

edit: And why run 3dmark06 at 1024x768?

 

No, I was looking at Ken Lees posts in the Asus forums about the g1s and F3Sv and saw that 3/4 of the benchmarks were done in 1024x768 and as the G1s and f3sv would be compared against heavily I thought this would be the logical choice, Also as someone has already pointed out, I did a horde of benchmarks, I didnt have time to do another 5.

Also the MBP isnt without its own battery issues.

I fixed the battery calculation but that was Andrew I didnt have totals when I sent it in.

The screens details are
Model ID SEC3346
Manufacturer LTN154P1-L03

Edit: Winge Winge Winge Moan Moan Moan Meh CD if you want to spend 8 hours running tests and writing up a longer review feel free, But when someone gives you something completely free that you wanted its customary to say thankyou, Not "I wanted better"

 

lol winge? I'm just speaking my mind. You said it would be eleven pages, so I was expecting more. That's all I said. I didn't say it was a terrible review.

It's nice of you to get bent out of shape, however.

 

So after returning 1520, I see you got V1s while I went with SonyFZ. So, V1S has faster components, better keyboards, more port, modular bay, higher res screen, right heat bent. FZ is cheaper, lighter, better LCD, lid, touchpad, audio, left heat bent. Neither is perfect, but both seem to be good enough laptops.

BTW, why did you benchmark at 1024x768?

 

Ive already explained that WoodGypsy, And Meh_CD in Word, Unedited, It is 11 pages with all the pictures.

 

*throws up arms* I know. By meat I meant wordcount. I don't doubt that it is 11 pages in its current format. Can we just stop bickering with eachother?

 

Stock settings with the default resolution of 1280x1024 in 3DMark06, the G1S gets about 3800 and the Dell 1520 gets about 2900. Could you try the V1S at that resolution and let us know the results?

 

Just out of curiosity, what do you find a comfortable brightness when typing? I noticed you did your typing test at 0/8 brightness, which seems like it would be hard on the eyes. I'm sort of curious about what battery life you are seeing when typing at what you consider to be an acceptable brightness level with this laptop.

-Zadillo

 

I did the benchmark in my review (see sig), it came very close to 3000 at stock.

 

Zydan, will you be submitting your review for the front page?

 

Okay I included the 1280 scores, Nice to see with some overclocking it can match the G1s

 

Zadillo: 0/8 was very uncomfortable, unless in a room with no light, or lots of light, But I was using the typing scenario as a max battery life sorta test, On my Sony typing at minimum brightness was no problem at all, The V1S is no where near as bright though. Battery life and screen brightness are the two killers for me, I got 4 hours with my sony 8 cell on minimum brightness when I first got it, I get half an hour less with the V1S and the brightness is alot lower.

 

Gotcha. I'd definitely be curious to hear more about what you are seeing real-world. I think I have similar needs in a laptop as you (I plan on using it a lot for typing, and personally I like typing at a comfortable brightness, which often tends to be at least 5 or 6 out of 8 on laptops I've used, like a Sony SZ or an MBP). The V1S has appealed to me in particular because of the modular battery bay, so my hope has been that it would give very good battery life relative to other systems I've been looking at.

Probably not a fair comparison between the SZ, MBP and V1S though, since the SZ and MBP get the benefit of LED-backlighting (from both a screen brightness issue and a battery life issue).

-Zadillo

 

Battery life would be a little better under XP, If I can get the ACPI controls set up for NHC and control the fan speed I think it would get me another 15 minutes. I find 1/8 to be the minimum comfortable setting, With 2-3 quite pleasant. Though if you need 5-6 on an SZ which has a very bright screen then you would probally need 6-8 on the V1s, On 5/8 on the FE, Its about the same brightness as 8/8 on the V1. The modular bay is really nice, And the DVD drive is surprisingly good quality, All the DVD's ive burnt have worked, And its been able to read 1 or 2 discs that even my desktop DVD drive hasnt been able to.

 

I don't believe so. I sent an email asking about doing a review and never got a response, so I just wrote mine and posted it in the ASUS forum.

 

Typically they will only post one for each model, I sent mine in a day before Zydan posted his.

 

Nice review , and very detailed buying/pricing info . Many people miss that so we can't judge the notebook for value and to follow the path ourselves .

Turbo Memory : +1 points in 3Dmark , Xp : +300 points . Yay for Vista .

 

Great job. Been waiting for this review for awhile Even though the price and right-side exhaust port killed the V1S for me, she still looks great. Wish the battery was just a bit better though...

 

Thanks for posting the 12x10 3DMark06, its a little hard to read but it states, Stock Clocks = 2770 3DMarks06 and Overclocked its 3770 3DMark06. It is quite decent, about a 33% percent increase from my V1JP. And the Overclocked value is a 50% increase. (or considered as one third increase and doubled)

As for the review itself it is quite good guys, anything above 10 pages is very much respectable. (Counting pages in MS Word) My review on the V1JP is 18 pages with 80+ pictures, but it did take me about 30 hours after editing, coding and properly laying out the review.

Matt_h1 have a look at my pictures, try to take some angles shots of the screen, I am interested in seeing what the viewing angles are like. I am hoping that the V1S screen is on par with my V1JP, man I love my screen and keyboard so much.

Also I had a quick look at how you measured battery life and compared it with your Sony FE. Well it seems to me that your Sony has a weaker GPU, thus it 'may' use less power. Another way to check and compare properly is using the specs of the batteries.

Like in my review I stated the discharge rate and how many whrs the battery is. And took pictures of it too.

Also in your Sony review, you mentioned WIFI On eats about 40 minutes of battery life, otherwise with WIFI on your Sony would get 3 hours and 20 minutes of battery life on the 8 cell. IMO that's respectable for a notebook of that caliber.

Regardless, check your Sony battery, get the Volts and Amps, multiply them together. Example, 10.8v x 7.2 (7200mah) = XX whr battery.

Then using NHC it will tell u the discharge rate of the laptop, with your settings, so you have 4 settings in the review, you may as well use those, which are nice and see for 5 minutes on each setting what the average discharge rate is.

Also do this with your Sony FE. From what I know about the V1JP and calculating battery life, both V1S and your Sony FE seem to be discharging at 25 watts average, unless your Sony FE has a smaller battery capacity, then this means your Sony is more power efficient.

An example of a more power efficient laptop is the MBP, it only has a 60whr battery and gets equal or more battery life than my V1JP, meaning its discharge rate is something like 16-20 on average. Whereas the V1JP's battery is 77whr and with an average discharge rate of 22-25 watts.

Meaning the MBP has a smaller battery, with same specs but yields higher battery life than compared to the V1JP. And Yes I am comparing last years generation of the MBP. Not the new on with the LED Backlight. The new MBP is really impressive, I have yet to see it in real life, but it looks quite stellar, but is more expensive than the V1S. (In Canada)

Aside from that, Matt can you do some game testing? I found that installing games and testing them were the most time consuming parts of my review, especially doing Oblivion.

Thank you for posting the review and having a Guide on Installing XP on the V1S, that's very kind of you.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

The games I play I doubt most people would be interested in, I have been playing Black and White 2 at High detail settings at 1600x1024 and there is no lag even in the volcano epic scenes. I am thinking about buying BioShock though since its an Australian game (<3 Australia) For whatever reason NHC has never shown a discharge rate on my FE, No idea why, Ive had numerous versions and OS's on it in the last two years.

From memory the Sony is an 11.1v battery with either 5600 or 5200 mAh, I can never remember, The V1s is a 14.8v with 5600 or 5200. The reason I didnt put the discharge rate in the review was it fluctuated -widely- showing anywhere from 25w-50w with no apparent reason even when doing light tasks. But at the moment with the screen at full brightness, Wifi and BT on its 33%.

 

Interesting yes, well if you do get Bioshock, I will get it too, and we can compare our results, see how much of an improvement from my V1JP to your V1S.

With regards to the battery you can take out the battery from both laptops and look, but yes your discharge rate for the V1S looks about the same as my V1JP, meaning the battery life is about the same. Except for that particular test where you got 5 hours of battery life, with both batteries, I can't match that.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

I went with the MBP in June, although the new Asus looks sweet.

My MBP gets @5:05 hrs (+/- 15 minutes) surfing, screen at 60% brightness, wifi on, bluetooth off. It is pretty impressive from that standpoint, but goose up the cpu load and battery life drops quickly to the @3:45 range.

All said, the MBP led back-lit screen is so good, that it is a deal-breaker for me. Any laptop that does not have one drops off my list. It really sold me on jumping back to a Mac.

 

The issue of the fan on the side: Which side is the fan on? I have seen some people complain that heat coming from a side fan is unpleasant if your mouse hand is right next to it. Is it on the right side or left side?

I also imagine that having it coming out either side is a bit noisier for the user than fans that vent to the rear.

 

Fan is on the right side, and I don't feel that it's very much eat at all.

 

The vent is located on the right hand side of the laptop. Meaning yes the air will blow onto your mouse hand. Under working conditions like browsing and typing documents the air warm, but you can move your mouse hand just few inches away from the vent and you shouldn't feel anything.

With regards to gaming well the air can get hot, once again you will notice it and all you would have to do is move the mouse a few inches away and you should be able to get back to gaming.

Not too big of an issue in my opinion, but i definitely agree the vent should be placed else where because mosst people are right handed.

matt great review.

 

So is the V1s basically just a lighter weight version of the G1s in terms of CPU and GPU and screen for about the same price? (still trying to find the weight - thanks asus for an amazingly slow web site.) If so how do they make it lighter?

 

Not necessarily. The DDR3 in the G1s' video card makes more of a difference than you would think. It all depends on what you will be using the laptop for and whether or not you want an over-the-top look.

G1s weight: 3.1 Kg (with 8-cell battery pack)

V1s weight: 2.7 kg (with travel drawer)

 

The G1S has a larger chasis, weighing a total of 6.85 pounds with the 8 cell battery.

While the V1S is exactly 6.5 pound with the 8 cell battery and optical drive in it. It has a slightly smaller chasis, but much more feature, fingerprint reader, rotating webcam, spillproof keyboard.

The main thing about the G1S is the GPU, it has GDDR3 vram, which gives it more performance in synthetic benchmarks, V1S = about 3000 3Dmarks06 default, while the G1S = bout 4000 3DMark06 default settings.

 

The MBP was very nice but three things put me off, Price, Warranty ($600 in Australia to get more than one year) And poor support, Every time ive been into a mac store they act like they ignore me and just chat to each other. Seems to me that to be hired by apple you have to be a pretentious snob.

 

hey someone asked this eariler but no one has answered it, how much does the v1s weight with the 8 cell and modular bay 6 cell battery in.

 

It weighs the same as the 8 cell and optical drive, 6.5lbs. The Optical drive weight 6.6oz and the 6 cell multibay battery weighs 10.6oz. So it is a small difference which is not noticable in the laptop.

But if you were to hold the 6 cell battery and optical drive in either of your hands, you will feel a difference.