Slashdot Mirror
What Do You Think of ASUS Laptops?
Dan Guisinger asks: "I'm looking at replacing a laptop that was recently stolen and came across ASUS's new B1000 series laptop. It seams to have everything one could want, dual FireWire ports, DVD, CDRW, 15" screen, upgradable Pentium III cpu using mPGA2 sockets...it even has finger print security. My only problem while looking at the specs is the measly 1024x768 XGA resolution it supports. I am unable to find reviews on this laptop, nor most other ASUS laptops. Can anyone speak of the quality of their laptops overall? How about this particular model, has anyone seen or used the B1000?"
the Asus is a quality product, I can say that much. But the fingerprint security system you speak of just provides a false sense of security, anyone can just take your HD outta the box and plug it in elsewhere.
--
WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
Liberty is an inherently offensive lifestyle. Living in a free society guarantees that each one of us will see our most
It seems like it would be all but useless to have much more than 1024x768 on a laptop screen (well, maybe a little larger would be nice). 1600x1200 would be too small to be useful for me I would think. If you want a higher resolution you should probably just hook it up to an external CRT.
Ad in classifieds: Pandora's Box (no box) $5
Wide screen, DVD, CDRW (external firewire), 30G drive, Radeon Mobile gfx, 512M, 1000/100/10bT ethernet, and an internal 802.11b card. Mac OS X is really sweet. I can run CorelDraw and IE5 right next to a bash prompt and GAIM.
Granted, the damned thing cost me almost $3200 but I love it still.
Chris
I used to have an ASUS L-7200 , I've never had any problem with it, everything was working perfectly, except I had to use the X Frame Buffered server under linux because the graphic card wasn't supported at all.
The only problem was that I made the mistake to buy it with a 12"1 screen (800*600), which was too small for the use I had to make with it later.
Now I have a Compaq Presario 1801-EA, that I bought because of its screen 15", 1400*1050. Everything's working perfectly either under under Linux and Windows.
Anyway, all that depends of what you have to do with it.
I can also tell you that if I've a compaq now, it's mainly due to the fact ASUS doesn't sell any screen bigger than 14", as far as I know.
Tom.
Oh arse
The only thing that I would worry about personally is the savage video card, I would *personally* be looking for a Geforce 2go based laptop or wait until the new NVidia mobile chipset has found its way in to a notebook. This could take a while and also depends on your needs, I fly model helicopters and like to use a PC based sim while on the road to practice so the more polygon pushing power a laptop has the better.
A journey of a thousand miles starts with a brutal anal raping at airport security
and use it to gain access!
You're using her as bait, Master!
The specs looked great, except for the 1024x768 resolution and this little gem "Weight ~3.3kg (w/ 15" LCD, 9.5mm HDD, 24X CD-ROM and 9 cells Li-Ion battery pack)". At 7.3 LBS, it's just a brick with nice colours...
Jean-Sebastien Morisset, Sr. UNIX Administrator
I worked for a place who sold and fixed these things in 1997-1999. Overall, they were as good as TI, Dell, NEC. Better than Apple but worse than Compaq / Toshiba. This is purely from a sturdiness standpoint.
Parts were pretty easy to get too.
I'd stick with a Toshiba, IBM, or Compaq though.. They usually don't cost much more, and are just built better and are easier to get parts.
Q: What do you think of ASUS' servers?
A: Not much, they slow down to a crawl when slashdotted.
From the spec page:
Hard Disk Drive
2.5" 9.5mm IDE HDD with Ultra DMA66/100 supported
Supported capacities up to 30 GB
Bumping mechanic's design
Fixed type, easy for BTO
Some dancin' auto repair technicain desgined it! Also, the hard drive isn't broken because Bachman-Turner Overdrive would find that difficult to use.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Your numbers are only valid for the standalone lcd market. There are many notebooks with very special lcd panels. There are notebooks with a14,1" and 15" TFT with a resolutions of 1400x1050 or 1600x1200. And for subnotebooks you can find 10,4" and 12,1" XGA displays. Also you shouldn't forget the Ti Powerbook that has a widescreen TFT with a resolution of something like 1186x768.
Jan
Which brings up the question of what is the highest resolution available out there? And how practical is it?
I've gotten upset at the number of promising links that take me right to eBay, as far as looking for a laptop comparison site.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
I just bought one as well (and the Airport hub - right before they updated! Doh!).
I don't think there's a better laptop to have at the moment, and probably not even for the forseeable future - until Apple releases the next update.
OSX is also great, and it even has a nice GUI panel to run many common network utilities (like netstat, ping, traceroute, etc.).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
you just described most of the current ultra-portable notebooks in existence. Try these:
Dell Inspiron
Compaq EVO
Sony VAIO R505 series
You'll have some trouble finding a notebook that is completely devoid of those features you mentioned. All three of these come with the standard legacy and PS/2 connectors, but none of them have any internal floppy or optical drives, which saves a great deal of weight and battery life. And they're all about $1400...not too bad if you ask me. We use the Dells here at my place of employment, and they work great. It's not mentioned on Dell's website, but you can order any of their laptops without an operating system at a $100 discount.
Also some manufacturers which otherwise make nice products have keyboards of a horrible quality (I have had a very bad experience with a Dell something).
JMD
What would people consider a good, cheap laptop, and where would you get it?
My guess for minimal requirements would be:
I could imagine using this machine to write code, but probably generally not to build major projects. The speed of the CPU wouldn't be a major issue, and as long as there was a decent amount of memory, (say 128 MB) that would be ok.
Would an Apple iBook be an option? I like the concept of OSX, and I hear X.1 is reasonably fast, but would it be on an iBook? Are they really durable or do they just look like it because of the titanium shell? Do PPC linux distros run on that hardware? Is it any less open than a typical PC-type laptop?
As for where to get it, I wouldn't mind getting a used laptop, I'm not looking for cutting-edge, state of the art. Is there anything to look out for in buying a used laptop? Is it reasonably easy to find good used laptops? How about good used Apple laptops?
It's a thin laptop, probably the thinnest one out there (sony included), but the quality however, leaves much for desire. Fans for the system stops working for BOTH of the laptop so now it's running hot as hell. The Screen is not as good as the Inspiron 8000 not in terms of resolution (which i8000 just murdered that little beast), the brghtness is nowhere as good. But it's sure cheap though, I say go for the Dell (feel kidda cheap, I don't care what you say) or Toshiba.
kawai
I don't know anything this laptop, but in general:
- Asus products are well designed, well built, and well priced. Oh yes, and well documented!
- Asus tech supports SUCKS! Their website is often down, they don't answer service calls, and they don't necessarily have consistent specs on their parts between different divisions.
I love Asus products, but until they reform they're NOT getting any more of my money!
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Can you say "Slow News Day?"
... to replace a laptop I recently sold and found this one. 1 Ghz, 512 Mb, 30 Gb, 15"@1400x1050, DVD, on-board 10/100 and modem, etc for less that $1600. Except for the modem, which I can't tell, all the hardware is supported in Linux and you can order it with NO OS.
Saving my pennies now to pick one up.
yes, it may be great bang for the buck, but my sony VAIO PCG-N505VE is a Celeron 333MHz, 128MB RAM, 6GB HD and the LCD is about 10.1 Inches, and it can do 1024x768. this is an old laptop, works great but these newer notebooks should at the _LEAST_ be able to do 1280x1024, look at the IBM X20, or X21, they both have killer resolution(x20 will do 1280x1024 I believe and the x21 will do 1400x1050)!!
Privacy? Not in this lifetime.
It's not a "nipple". It's a tit-mouse.
After using a Dell Inspiron 8000 with the 15" Ultra XGA screen, I will never ever use any other laptop. Dell is the only company I've found that sells laptops with Ultra XGA, and the screen quality is absolutely stunning. After using that laptop, I couldn't stand looking at even the sharpest CRT monitors. The difference was incredible.
At our company we've used ASUS laptops for nearly three years now, and I've been through two of the flagships (L8400 and the older F8400 (i think)) and they've been top notch quality, especially considering we've taken them along for demos, used them on long flights. Even now, we have one at Comdex. A guy at work uses it for linux work and he's very happy. The most severe problem we ever had with one was the spring to the powerbutton giving out, but thats it. Compared to the Compaq's I used at my old work (which had a tendency to lack good drivers and also had serious problems with the screen going berzerk/garbled), these rock.
;)
If I had to say something bad about them, its that they lack GeForce2Go, so my "leet skillz" in Unreal Tournament really suffers from playing on them
KDE on a 1600x1200 latop screen is lovely, especially if you turn on anti-aliasing in the latest builds
Knowing the processor socket is a good thing
(unless intel deprecates it too early).
Another good thing is the MAP, Mobile AGP Package, which can make it possible for some upgradability of the graphics too (like some people succeded in upgrading their Dell PC's to Geforce2Go).
Read about Nvidias cool 64 Mb MAP package.
Maybe someone knows when you can expect mobiles with this option on the market so you can buy one without having to wait for the good graphics chips to be available.
Also, there's talk about intel working for more standards in modular mobiles, any examples? I'd love a MiniPCI with both Firewire and 100 MBps networking, that socket is just to good for a measly modem.
I guess i failed to mention that part...it seems that the secret password is actually "..I'll be putting these 12 notebooks on my business account." They never have a problem with that.
Seriously, though...I've had the same problem with them, and during that particular instance, I simply demanded that they do it. It's not a real problem for them to do it without the OS...rather it seems that it's a buried function in their ordering system (if you've ever tried to order a SIDE of big mac sauce at the McDonald's drive-thru, you know what i'm talking about...). Try talking to a sales supervisor or someone even higher-up than that. I only had to go a step above the phone rep to get it done the last time I dealt with them.
You probably DON'T want to put us2000$+ on a laptop if it's stuck at 1024x768. Now 1280x1024 is standard on midrange laptops, don't look at resolution on LCD like you see CRT, like, getting 1280x1024 sucks (blurs, etc) on most 17" monitors, but it's really crisp and nice on a 15" laptop screen. The Dell 8000 I use has 1600x1200, when I saw that on dell's site I was "ok I'll probably run it at 1280x1024 because it's gonna suck" but to my surprise, it's readable crisp and usable (I Never ran 1600x1200 before, not even on a 21" hehe), and beleive me, you can put a quadro8-2go in the laptop, if it's 1024x768, you'll feel screwed when you'll see better resolution, unless you don't pay much for it.
Of course most people manage with 800x600/1024x768, and I guess for running linux it's not a big issue, but since you mentionned it, I guess it's because it matters to you, unless it's dirt cheap, if you have doubts about the resolution size, don't go for it because chances are you'll regret it, it's not like buying a 200$ CRT monitor, you'll be stucked with it afterwards.
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
I like the ASUS overall...you get a lot of features for a relatively low price, it still runs well, overall a pretty stable machine (after about a year and a half now). I did, however find customer support to be not at all helpful, which I consider a huge drawback, even though I tend to be a do-it-yourself type. Another huge drawback I found was that when I upgraded to Windows 2000, several drivers did not work correctly (even after re-installing from the driver upgrade CD ASUS provides with the computer). I have yet to get my DVD player working...grrrr...ended up buying a card modem after the internal modem did not work after the upgrade. Customer support, again, not very helpful in this arena. I imagine, though, if you stick with the OS you are provided with the computer, you'll be fine. From what I hear, though, the machine is more stable than many other laptops on the market..the only problem is if you do have a problem, you're kinda out of luck. Not even sure how able your local computer repair store would be in servicing any repairs. Hmmm...I think it's a gamble. Personally, if I were to buy another laptop, I would go with one that I know has good customer support and that can be serviced easily at just about any repair store, but maybe that's just me....
. .
btw this one has a smart card reader to boot ;) ..
Okay, gotta add this, because this beast, the Fujitsu Siemens Celsuis Mobile H apparently has encypted disks as standard.
You can't see it from the spec sheet from this linked pdf spec sheet sorry no Google text cache :(
But if you go to their rather elegant, but annoyingly Flash only presentation and click on "product" at the right and then "security" at the middle, up pops the words "Encrypted Hard Disk : The information stored on the hard disks cannot be read elsewhere even when connected to another computer"
This is one mean machine : 1.13GHz Mobile PIII - M, 5 Channel Dolby Digital out, Quadro 2 Go w/ 64MB vram and TwinView, 15.1" 1600*1200 display, firewire (but annoyingly as an either / or option for ethernet and modem), Detachable wireless keyboard which uses Bluetooth (but annoyingly it seems a proprietary conection), Smartcard reader, and so on.
Do check it out, however I've not even been able to get their UK branch to tell me how the encryption works, if hardware or software - whether EFS under Win00 add to this or make things worse e.g. and what to do if you absolutely *must* do a data recovery job, let alone for someone to quote me. Nor is there any info about the crypto disks in the manual [pdf] or the bios setup guide [pdf]
I've heard estimates this thing is $5K, and not likely to be sold direct in the US. Which is sad and silly of them. I figure more than a few people would get these, despite the tag and the relative bulk and weight.It looks darn good for its size . .
Even allowing for disk i/o being waay down on my UltraSCSI 160 desktop (but 1GB RAM might compensate a little :), in other aspects this is the first time I've though of a laptop as an *upgrade* (and I have a Quadro based Elsa card to boot, and _need_ that card to be there).
So someone get one to review or something. Laptop security is on of the most important issues out there for businesses. It's why Win 2000 Pro get's some respect in this field (EFS as standard), but laptop security in general is rarely well thought out or just plain hard to do.
This an option / aspect / feature I bet plenty other prople than just me want to know more about. It gets me wondering if this encrypted drive and access features (card and fingerprint) are bios level (there seem to be some bios only related aspects to protect bootup) and whether we migh see some *nix running happily on hardware like this, or whether there some annoying custom driver set involved. And no I've not found any drivers on the support site which look like they're suspects as of yet . . Man, would I like to talk to someone who actually has one of these blah blah rant etc.
== Idle Random Thoughts. Usual Disclaimer Apply ==
. .
sincerest apologies for this, I got so carried away with the post above I somehow posted links for a different product's manuals :(.
by way of excuses, if you go here http://manuals.fujitsu-siemens.com/workstation.htm l to find the right bits and pieces they make you use some annoying java applet (where i clicked on the wrong fiddly bit), then (i double checked now, okay? :-) only offer the "Easy Guide" and "Getting Started" manuals in the end. Dang, I found the proper manual the other day, no idea how to find the link again. Didn't mean to get your hopes up there'd be some juicy info in the intended link, but I read the manual anyway and no mention of encrypting disks. sorry again if you looked in vain
My new T22 has a 1400x1050 display. There are apparently laptops that go up to 1600x1200 as well.
Why do the fonts have to be small? You do know you can adjust what font size everything is rendered in?
Note that some of Dell's laptops aren't worth it. Read this:
http://www.powernotebooks.com/Name_Brand.php3
Virtually none of the "Name" brands manufacture their own laptops... For example an ODM named Compal makes the Dell Inspiron 5000e, the ChemBOOK 3015,
the PowerNotebooks.com PowerPro III:16
Therefore it would probably be better getting the powernotebooks model for a lot cheaper.
--------
It's OK to be social, just don't tell anyone about it.
The company I work for purchased two ASUS M8000s about a year and a half ago; Pentium III 500MHz, 128MB RAM, XGA TFT LCD. As a piece of hardware, they've performed really well, running Win98, Win2k and Linux with no issues at all. However we've had a lot of problems with the manufacturing of the device.
Both laptops have had problems with the screen flickering about a year after we bought them. Seems like the connection between the laptop base and the LCD screen is not all that great. Moving the laptop lid up and down changes the brightness, so you have to now fiddle with them until they show up at their full brightness. One of the laptops had the entire screen portion replaced, however six months after it's started to flicker again: sounds like a design fault to me.
The plastic that encases the screen on one of the laptops has split at the bottom right-hand corner where the screen meets the base. When you open and close the laptop lid, a lot of strain gets put on this area and after one and a half years, it wasn't up to it. The left-hand side is showing signs of wear as well.
Finally, on both laptops, we've had problems with the computer freezing for no apparent reason. Seems like the chips on board the motherboard come loose very easily, and all that is required is for someone to open it up and wriggle them back into their sockets, because the freezing stops after that's done.
So all in all, they're a great laptop for the first year of operation, then Bad Stuff starts happening, at least in the M8000s. Be sure to get an extended warranty if you're going to go for an ASUS.
I bought an Asus laptop 2 years ago rebadged as a Chembook 7000C.
It has some reak drawbacks. The paint is wearing off in the wrist rest area, I can't get it to install Win 2000, and the BIOS has an extremely strange feature that requires a DOS partition to be present on the hard disk for it to boot, even if it's a Linux install.
Support for my Win2K issue has been zilch - all I got from Chembook is an audio driver and the statement 'it should work' in Win2K.
Never again.
Since we're on the subject of laptops, I just want to vent my frustration with all the laptop vendors who don't include 3 buttons for their mouse. Sure, it's fine for Windows, but in Linux it's -so- nice to have that real third button instead of having to chord.
Thank you IBM for providing three buttons in all of your laptops.
KDE? 8GB RAM? 1024x768 screen?
Bah! [waves dismissively]
I've got a Dell Latitude LM P-133 w/40MB RAM and a 2-gig disk. The screen resolution is 800x600x8bit which is great for a bunch of xterms in blackbox. The only reason I'd buy a new machine is for an ACPI power-off/on button.
I recieved the laptop free from a prior employer and I find it does everything I need. If you need KDE with all its overhead you aren't thinking small enough. I don't know about prices, buy you could probably pick up a similar model for a few hundred on ebay.
marotti.com
That laptop has the embedded VIA Savage 4 chipset (basically S3 Savage VGA integrated into the VIA northbridge)
It has the 2D core of the S3 Savage 2000 & the 3D core of the Savage Pro (to save on the transister count & power consumption)
The 2D core does does DVD 'hardware' decoding to.
So if you get a Software DVD player that is compatible with the hardware calls of the Savage DVD decoder you'll save on processor cycles & it will multitask better.
AFAIK the only other processor chipsets with integrated VGA that does 'hardware' DVD are SIS's multimedia chipsets.
Whoops. you may be right on the 66->100. Other then that, my information is just outdated ;)