My Asus z70va came in a little less than a week ago, but I've been really busy moving in to college and all so I haven't gotten the chance to review it until now. This review is, for now, a work in progress, as I haven't had a chance to test everything. I'll edit it as I get the chance. The format of this review is copied from Djembe_Rob's z71v review.
Specs:
Intel Pentium M 750 (1.86 GHz), Sonoma core
1 GB DDR2 RAM
100 GB 5400 RPM Seagate HD
15.4 inch WSXGA+ screen
ATI x700 128MB GPU
Built in 803.11B/G/A and bluetooth
Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound
Looks:
This thing looks awesome. No joke, it is the best looking laptop I've ever seen. Just an all around great design. One thing I wish they would have done was show the carbon-fiber weave, because that would have looked really sweet on this thing, but I guess that isn't professional enough for everyone.
Build:
Excellent. No noticable flex in the keyboard, the hinges for the screen are tight and smooth - just a very solid feel overall.
Weight & Mobility:
Not bad, but not great either. It's a bit of a strain carrying it with a textbook and a few notebooks in the bag, especially when I'm on my bike, but it could be worse. I'm using a Targus messenger notebook bag instead of the included case, because it's bigger so I can fit my books in it, but the included bag seemed pretty nice. If you're looking to carry it everywhere you go, you might want to look for something lighter, but if you're just taking it to class or the library every once in a while, it's perfectly fine.
Screen:
Excellent. The horizontal viewing angles are absolutely incredible, as is the lower vertical viewing angle, but if you look at it from the top at much of an angle, it washes out. I just tilt the screen back about 30 degrees and it's fine. The resolution and color are both great, and it doesn't reflect or glare much at all. Overall a very solid screen.
Sound:
Wow. The best sound I have ever heard from a laptop. A bit lacking in the bass side of things, but that's to be expected. Perfect in every other aspect.
Keyboard:
Great in every aspect except for the function key. It's switched with the ctrl key, so fn is on the outside. I'm starting to get used to it, but it was really annoying for a while. The feel of the keys is perfect, however, and apart from the ctrl key I had no issues swiching from my desktop keyboard.
Touchpad:
No complaints. I'm not a big touchpad fan really, I'd rather have an eraserhead, but for a touchpad it's pretty good. The integration of the buttons into the border is a nice touch, and the scrolling feature is something I couldn't live without.
Performance and Benchmarks:
3DMark05: 2052
more coming
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get updated drivers installed. For some reason, the Catalyst test program is saying that my laptop isn't compatable with it, both in the normal Catalyst version and the mobile one. If anyone has any solutions to this, they would be most appreciated.
Battery Life:
Haven't run the battery down yet, I've mostly been using it plugged in.
Heat:
The area under the keyboard gets a bit warm after it's been on for a long time, but nothing really uncomfortable. The temparature's hovering around 57 degrees right now while I'm running CHC's full CPU stability test (I just undervolted it).
Undervolting:
It's undervolted relatively nicely. I have the 14x multiplier set to 1.100V, and the 6x multi set to .716V. These were both tested pretty well with Prime 95 and CHC CPU Stability test. Everything in between I just set to one step above what I saw most other people getting, and didn't bother testing them extensively with Prime 95. I'm in the middle of testing them with CHC right now. No word on temps and battery life after undervolting yet.
Audio DJ CD player keys:
Quite useless for me, as I wouldn't bother with it while the laptop is turned off (I have a pretty nice stereo for that) and while it's on they don't work with iTunes unless iTunes is the currently selected window. If I could use them to skip and pause tracks while I was in, say, firefox, then they would be really useful, but until then they're sortof a waste of space.
CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive:
Haven't burnt anything yet (I forgot to bring blank CDs to college) but read speeds seem normal. I'll get back to you on this one.
Pricing and reseller experience:
Bought for about $1850 (don't feel like looking up the actual figure now) including 2 extra years of extended warranty from Integrated System Technologies. I can't say enough about these guys. They were always willing to answer my questions over IM, and when Asus delayed the release they upgraded me to overnight shipping so I could get it before I left for college. It also looks like they upgraded me to a 100GB hard drive over an 80GB, perhaps because they ran out of 80 giggers. I strongly reccomend that you buy from them, you won't be disappointed! www.istnc.com
Problem Resolution:
Haven't really had any problems yet, so nothing to resolve, but based on my experience with ISTNC so far, I doubt that the resolution of any problems that do crop up will be anything but extraordinary.
Overall:
Great laptop, I would highly reccomend it to anyone looking for something in this price range!
Specs:
Intel Pentium M 750 (1.86 GHz), Sonoma core
1 GB DDR2 RAM
100 GB 5400 RPM Seagate HD
15.4 inch WSXGA+ screen
ATI x700 128MB GPU
Built in 803.11B/G/A and bluetooth
Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound
Looks:
This thing looks awesome. No joke, it is the best looking laptop I've ever seen. Just an all around great design. One thing I wish they would have done was show the carbon-fiber weave, because that would have looked really sweet on this thing, but I guess that isn't professional enough for everyone.
Build:
Excellent. No noticable flex in the keyboard, the hinges for the screen are tight and smooth - just a very solid feel overall.
Weight & Mobility:
Not bad, but not great either. It's a bit of a strain carrying it with a textbook and a few notebooks in the bag, especially when I'm on my bike, but it could be worse. I'm using a Targus messenger notebook bag instead of the included case, because it's bigger so I can fit my books in it, but the included bag seemed pretty nice. If you're looking to carry it everywhere you go, you might want to look for something lighter, but if you're just taking it to class or the library every once in a while, it's perfectly fine.
Screen:
Excellent. The horizontal viewing angles are absolutely incredible, as is the lower vertical viewing angle, but if you look at it from the top at much of an angle, it washes out. I just tilt the screen back about 30 degrees and it's fine. The resolution and color are both great, and it doesn't reflect or glare much at all. Overall a very solid screen.
Sound:
Wow. The best sound I have ever heard from a laptop. A bit lacking in the bass side of things, but that's to be expected. Perfect in every other aspect.
Keyboard:
Great in every aspect except for the function key. It's switched with the ctrl key, so fn is on the outside. I'm starting to get used to it, but it was really annoying for a while. The feel of the keys is perfect, however, and apart from the ctrl key I had no issues swiching from my desktop keyboard.
Touchpad:
No complaints. I'm not a big touchpad fan really, I'd rather have an eraserhead, but for a touchpad it's pretty good. The integration of the buttons into the border is a nice touch, and the scrolling feature is something I couldn't live without.
Performance and Benchmarks:
3DMark05: 2052
more coming
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get updated drivers installed. For some reason, the Catalyst test program is saying that my laptop isn't compatable with it, both in the normal Catalyst version and the mobile one. If anyone has any solutions to this, they would be most appreciated.
Battery Life:
Haven't run the battery down yet, I've mostly been using it plugged in.
Heat:
The area under the keyboard gets a bit warm after it's been on for a long time, but nothing really uncomfortable. The temparature's hovering around 57 degrees right now while I'm running CHC's full CPU stability test (I just undervolted it).
Undervolting:
It's undervolted relatively nicely. I have the 14x multiplier set to 1.100V, and the 6x multi set to .716V. These were both tested pretty well with Prime 95 and CHC CPU Stability test. Everything in between I just set to one step above what I saw most other people getting, and didn't bother testing them extensively with Prime 95. I'm in the middle of testing them with CHC right now. No word on temps and battery life after undervolting yet.
Audio DJ CD player keys:
Quite useless for me, as I wouldn't bother with it while the laptop is turned off (I have a pretty nice stereo for that) and while it's on they don't work with iTunes unless iTunes is the currently selected window. If I could use them to skip and pause tracks while I was in, say, firefox, then they would be really useful, but until then they're sortof a waste of space.
CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive:
Haven't burnt anything yet (I forgot to bring blank CDs to college) but read speeds seem normal. I'll get back to you on this one.
Pricing and reseller experience:
Bought for about $1850 (don't feel like looking up the actual figure now) including 2 extra years of extended warranty from Integrated System Technologies. I can't say enough about these guys. They were always willing to answer my questions over IM, and when Asus delayed the release they upgraded me to overnight shipping so I could get it before I left for college. It also looks like they upgraded me to a 100GB hard drive over an 80GB, perhaps because they ran out of 80 giggers. I strongly reccomend that you buy from them, you won't be disappointed! www.istnc.com
Problem Resolution:
Haven't really had any problems yet, so nothing to resolve, but based on my experience with ISTNC so far, I doubt that the resolution of any problems that do crop up will be anything but extraordinary.
Overall:
Great laptop, I would highly reccomend it to anyone looking for something in this price range!
