Unleaded's Asus Z83V Review

Asus Z83V Review:

Introduction:

Asus’ configurable cousin to the W2V has been on the market for some weeks but has not received a tremendous amount of attention to date. As such, I decided it was time to get my hands on one and put it through its paces and share my thoughts with the Notebookreview.com community.

By now, most of us have become familiar with Asus as not only a manufacturer of quality performance desktop components but as a laptop maker who has offered some exceptional systems over the last few years. Systems such as the M6N, Z70V/Va, Z33A/ae have garnered high praise for their functionality, performance and exemplary build quality.

The Z83V’s chassis is built using the same carbon fiber material which has been used in the systems mentioned above. This is one key differentiator between the Z83V, which hails from the Built on Asus family of products, and the W2V from Asus’ Ensemble line which uses an aluminum alloy for much of the chassis. There are other distinctions such as the screen resolution/type (WXGA+ Glossy on the Z83V vs. WSXGA+ matte on the W2V) and the ability to fully customize the Z83V. The W2V comes pre-configured/pre-assembled from Asus with set specifications while the Z83V is offered by various Asus resellers who can configure the system with a wide array of components to suit your taste. The Z83V is also considerably less expensive than its kin which will certainly appeal to those with a limited budget in search of a 17” desktop replacement.

Now, on to the details….

System Specifications:

17” WXGA+ Glossy LCD (1440 x 900)
Pentium M 760 (2.0GHz 533MHz FSB)
1GB DDR2 533 (2 x 512MB Supertalent)
60GB 7200RPM Hitachi Hard Drive
8X Dual Layer/Format DVDRW
Intel Pro Wireless 2200 (802.11b/g)
Integrated Bluetooth
TV tuner
IR Remote Control (For Asus’ Mobile Theater 3.0 Software)
8 Cell Li-Ion Battery

Chassis Design and Build Quality:

Let’s make no mistake, the Z83V is a BIG laptop. That being said, Asus has managed to keep the form factor of this 17” system relatively small and they have done a terrific job in terms of design aesthetics. The Z83V does not appear bulky, but rather offers sleek lines, a thoughtful layout and an attractive palette of charcoal, black and silver.

Build quality is exceptional, in keeping with what we have come to expect from Asus. The Z83V is downright solid with no evidence of any flex to speak of anywhere on the system. Even the large display can be opened and closed with one hand from the corner without exhibiting flex. The keyboard is a pleasure to use with great feedback, solid keys and quiet keystrokes.

Heat is expelled from a fan driven vent at the rear of the system keeping any warm air from causing discomfort for left or right handed mouse users. All other venting is passive through grilles on the underside of the chassis. Ports are intelligently placed with RJ-11 and RJ-45 ports and 1 USB port at the extreme rear of the left side of the system and Audio in/out ports, TV Tuner and media card reader occupying the remaining surface area of the Z83V’s left side. 4 more USB ports are on tap on the rear of the system in addition to a D-Sub VGA out port. The Dual Layer/Format DVD burner opens to the right of the system and the tray is surprisingly solid, a far cry from the flimsy optical drive trays of many other laptops on the market.

The Z83V offers 4 stereo speakers with 2 situated on either side of the keyboard and the remaining two on the front edge of the underside of the chassis. The grillwork which covers the speakers on the laptops work surface integrates nicely with the keyboard (in color and dimension) and seems almost to be a logical extension.

The trackpad and mouse click buttons are situated slightly left of center within the sprawling area of the palmrest surface. Asus has once again used a single piece of aluminum split at the center (below the trackpad) to surround and accent the trackpad’s surface and to serve as mouse click buttons. The mouse buttons are responsive and feel solid, however, the trackpad is surprisingly small, especially given the amount of real estate at Asus’ disposal.

Performance:

I was pleased to discover that the x700 in the Asus Z83V offers higher default core and memory clocks than x700s in other laptops currently on the market. The larger chassis and the better ventilation/cooling it affords might be largely responsible for these higher defaults. The x700’s stock core clock as reported by ATI Tool is 357.75 and the stock memory clock is 398.25. I initially installed the VGA drivers provided by Asus on the included driver/utility disc and received the following 3DMark scores at default clocks:

3DMark2005 (Default Clock): 2609
3DMark2003 (Default Clock): 6392
3DMark2001 (Default Clock): 17012

These scores are better than most, if not all, other x700 based laptop’s scores, however, I felt that these scores were low given the Z83V’s GPU clocks. After searching Asus’ global site I found that newer VGA drivers were released in early November, quite a bit more recent than those provided on the driver disc packaged with the system. After installing the updated drivers I reran all 3DMark tests at stock clocks and received the following results:

3DMark2005 (Default Clock): 2754
3DMark2003 (Default Clock): 6380
3DMark2001 (Default Clock): 16817

Given the higher than typical stock clocks on both the core and memory I was confident that there was headroom for OC’ing and after much experimentation I found what I believe to be the stable ceiling, 429.44 core clock and 498.25 memory clock. No artifacts, tearing or freezes presented themselves at these settings though freezes resulted from further increases to either clock. 3DMark scores were as follows:

3DMark2005 (429.55/498.25): 3254
3DMark2003 (429.55/498.25): 7566
3DMark2001 (429.55/498.25): 18396

I found these results to be more than impressive, especially considering that a Mobility Radeon X800 returns a 3DMark2005 score of around 3800 at stock clocks. Those individuals who have considered the Z83V and dismissed it as it did not offer an x800 or 6800 Go might wish to re-visit this system given the stellar performance of its x700.

In order to ensure that all other subsystems/components were performing in line with their specifications, I ran a number of benchmarks using Sisoft Sandra 2005. There are no big surprises here, just affirmation of proper functioning:









LCD Screen:

The Asus Z83V offers a 17” WXGA+ display of the glossy variety. I found the screen to be exceptionally bright with vivid colors. Viewing angles were impressive as well, with no washout at all at 45 degrees or less. In a well lit room, however, glare on the screen’s glossy surface will obscure the screen at such angles. Though many Notebookreview.com regulars prefer higher resolutions, I feel that going higher than WXGA+ is not necessary on a screen of this size. This is, however, an issue of personal preference. Overall I can honestly say the LCD on the Z83V is one of the best I’ve seen on a laptop of any size.

Battery Life:

In order to test battery longevity on the Z83V, I chose to play the DVD "Stealth" starting from a full charge (please don't waste your time or money renting/watching this piece of garbage ). Using Asus' Power4Gear I adjusted the power settings to "Battery Saving", however, I felt that the defaults brought the screen brightness down to an unacceptable setting for comfortable viewing so I bumped the brightness up by two "ticks" to what looked to be about 40%. The film played in its entirety, including the obligatory previews, before being forced to standby. Total run down time was 2 hours and 23 minutes which I felt was more than satisfactory for a system with the Z83V's specifications and 17" screen. I should note that for the purposes of testing I disabled both WiFi and Bluetooth to reduce drain on the battery.

Thermal Properties:

Final impressions pending

Conclusion:

Cumulative thoughts pending

Pros:

Exceptional build quality
Strong GPU performance
Aesthetics
Did I mention build quality?
Beautiful glossy type display

Cons:

Small touchpad

*additional pros and cons pending

 

They use the same touchpad as the Z70va/W3v/etc. and those are pretty big for those laptops. But the size wasn't that bad - although its true it could of been larger.

I guess they wanted to keep an universal touchpad for most of their laptops(Cheaper as well )

But the 'widescreen' touchpad is awesome, its widescreen so you get the most out of your horizontal scroll.

Much more of a descriptive review then mines

 

Nice job unleaded, enjoyed your review.

I always like to see a nice performance section in a review, especially for higher-performing notebooks. Those are very high clocks for a standard X700 - 351/398 - wow. I might have to OC mine. My default clocks are 351/351. Do you know if your GPU uses DDR or DDR2 memory?

Thanks for your efforts!

 

Chazman421, I'll have to check that out, I don't have the system in front of me at the moment.

351/351 is actually higher on the memory side than most x700s. Most I've reviewed/evaluated are stock clocked at 351/297.

 

Yeah, I know that my Acer's X700 isn't clocked as high as my Sager, it only had 350/330. I have an AXIOM modular X700 my current notebook, 256MB DDR2 memory.

 

nice job unleaded, a thoughtful review here. it's definitely a pretty machine and like the W2 probably the best at "hiding its size" through sleek design. the thinkpad z60m i used had a 15.4" screen but was really chunky, which is fine as it's meant as a DTR, but next to the 17" W2 I had at the time it for some reason appeared bigger and brawnier, even though it wasn't.

 

Updated the review to reflect battery run down test results.

Abaxter:

I couldn't agree more about the "intelligent design" in the Asus Z83V mitigating the bulk of the system.