ASUS 15.1" M6N Review

Does anyone feel this review is fair to the Asus?
I don't think any of the computers were at equal levels to this laptop.... I have mine and I think it is great.... just my opinion....

I own the 15.4 wide model, read through that review pretty quickly, and I will add my own 2 cents here. I dont go in for the comparisons much- yeah, the dell beats it out alittle in some specs, but the cost for that dell is alot higher. The only thing I will agree upon is the sound, the speakers aint great - theyre laptop speakers! But the sound card isnt helping either. I prefer hearing my 4.1 old cambridge soundworks off my soundblaster live. MP3s dont sound so tinny.

Everything else though... I get great battery life, great wireless reception, killer screen, great case, and the thing games like crazy. I upped my FFA, anti aliasing or whatever way up and unreal 2004 is... unreal. Really. Maybe my standards are low since I havent gamed in awhile, I have no comparisons to make, but really, its a good lappy.

I didnt think Toms was all that harsh. Yeah, the sound blows a little. Games sound fine in the phones, discriminating ears may not like the music. I havent tried CDs vs MP3s yet either.

Gonna do my own review when I get a chance...

E

My new SXGA+ M6N

I received my loaded M6N two days ago with the SXGA+ display from (not sure if I can say the name). Here are the options I chose:

Pentium M 1.6
Hitachi TravelStar 60G 7200rpm HD
512MB in one DIMM
Intel PRO/wireless 2200 b+g
8X DVD + CD-RW
Extra battery for dual battery support (CD/DVD bay)
Extra AC adaptor
Extra year on-site warrantee
No OS installed

Price I paid was $1925 + shipping.

I had to wait a while because these SXGA+ displays were on backorder but they kept me up to date and shipped it out the next business day after they got it (which was late in the day on Friday). They were even nice enough to keep me up to date on price as well (even up to the day after I received when I got a PayPal credit if you can believe it).

Sooooo... this thing is HOT off the press from ASUS and hot onto my lap I might add (more later). It came with the latest bios and I believe the drivers on CD (since I went with a bare HD) were also up to date. Everything installed FLAWLESSLY and works perfectly--including wireless g and the Fn wireless on/off key. In fact, I'm typing this on my M6N now over my wireless network using an ASUS WL-300g access point. I did not encounter even the slightest glitch or hiccup setting it up and using it for the past couple of days. In a nutshell: Rock stable and FAST with its 1.6 M and 60G 7200rpm Hitachi drive.

I saw the new Compal 2056 (aka PowerPro M5:6 and several others). Nice specs but no gigabit lan (usefull for backups over the network) and no support for dual battery.

This thing is whisper QUIET compared to any other notebook I've heard. I bought it for the incredible list of features, power, and long battery life. There was just no other offering in its pricerange with everything this has except for the Acer 8003 that JUST came out. But even that doesn't have dual battery support as far as I can see.

Some criticisms...

* The keyboard. Average I'd say, with your typical wobbly notebook keys. A little too light on the stroke but fairly decent point-of-no-return feel with a hard bottom and little keyboard flex (but I can't say non-existent). I wish it were like an IBM R50 keyboard. The problem with the key wobbling or tilting is that you can't feel the edge of the key very well when you strike it, so you miss a few more strokes than you would on a good desktop keyboard or a better notebook keyboard. The bezel gets in the way of the bottom row of keys as well, and there is some truth to the wrist pain over long typing due to the sharp front edge of the notebook. I'm picky enough about keyboards that I might return the unit in favor of one with the ultimate keyboard.

* The SXGA+ display is definitely very bright. In fact I can afford to turn it down a bit. Its razor sharp as well and I can't see ANY ghosting problems. The problem is what others have mentioned in regards to a slight brightness/contrast gradient from top to bottom. It is NOT an electrical problem. It is VIEWING ANGLE related and is quite subtle to the point where nobody notices it unless you show them. I'm now wondering if this is how a lot of notebook displays are. You see if you're staring directly at the center of the display, then looking up to the top is not the same as looking down to the bottom (the angles are in opposite directions). Unfortunately, since the display is a bit angle-sensitive, you will see a slight shift in brightness and contrast top to bottom. The bottom is ever so slightly washed out unless you tilt the screen back a little bit or sit back further, but then the top gets even darker. When you set the screen to a full black background, you can see a glow in the screen when you move around--as if a faint light is reflecting in it. Again, probably typical for this type of LCD technology. It's just not that great when you've seen a Fujitsu N3010 MVA display. Anyway, others respond with, "wow, what a nice display." I'm just slightly annoyed but I suppose I really shouldn't complain. I've got two stuck pixels on the left side of the screen as well.

* It gets a little warm on your lap, and can get very hot if you lay it on a couch. The trick is to avoid blocking the intake vent, which sits close to your croch on the underside. If you wanna have kids someday, push the notebook back a bit so the vent is over the gap between your legs. It's not that there is any hot air that blows on you, just that the base gets hot if the vent is blocked. Once you unblock this vent, it cools down quite readily. Sitting on the table, the bottom is nearly room temperature.

That's it for now. Gotta get to bed.

CodedoC

Great first impressions! I think the keyboard on my m6n (1.7 60gig7200 1gbRAM) is really nice. I don't know if anyone has used keyboards on the new Dell machines but man, those things feel and sound like crap!

I think the overall fairness of Tom's Hardware review was good. Even though they tested it against a 1.7 ghz M machine, (and the ASUS was a 1.5) I don't think that skewed the graphics testing results all that much (as most of it is done by the GPU)... And they didn't have anything bad to say about the build quality of the machine either, which I agree on also, these m6n's are great. Also, the support plate they talk about that surrounds the keyboard is really nice when just resting your thumbs on... I don't even notice that it's nice until I realize that it's not just hard plastic, kind of inviting your hands to rest on the keyboard.

About the screen gradient, I took my m6n to best buy and put it up right next to some of the HP's, Sony's and Fujitsu's. I think the screen brightness is just fine, especially for indoor office / home use. What I did notice was the colors seemed different on my ASUS, probably because of the viewing angle thing I'm guessing. Something interesting is that every person who has seen my laptop so far has commented on how nice and sharp the screen looks, and how clean the design is. I agree.

My 2 cents worth.

EricT- Yeah I know that it's easy to dismiss sound on a laptop as 99.9% of them suck. However, having owned the 5205-S119 with the Harmon Kardon + Subwoofer combo that Toshiba used in some of its select notebooks and I can attest that good sound IS possible...even on a notebook. That said, every other book I've heard that people say have sounded nice (m505x, 9100) still sound like absolute ass...then again I'm a pretty big stickler in that regard.

I called ASUS tech support in the US today (by the way, they answered the phone immediately) and asked them about the display brightness variance issue. In broken english, they informed me that this is completely normal and within manufacturing specs. They said it is a "character[istic]" of the display technology and that there are no plans to improve it. I'm wondering if the other folks who had theirs replaced had just a really bad case of it. I showed the display to my best friend who has a 1600x1200 compaq I think, and the first thing he said was "nice display!" He was jealous that his wasn't as bright. I pointed out the brightness variance and he immediately said that it's nothing compared to many others, and that they all do that to some degree. Frankly, I probably wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't read about it here. What I would have noticed is its sensitivity to viewing angle (mostly vertial). But when you take into consideration the brightness and sharpness, it is probably better than average overall, and again, impresses most folks who see it. For programming, I can't complain. For photos and DVDs, well, there are better choices. I am going to Best Buy to check out the other displays tomorrow just to satisfy my curiosity. I've been spoiled by the looks of the Fujitsu MVA.

My friend liked my keyboard as well. To each his own.

I thought the THG review was pretty unfair, especially compared to how they normally review sys's, which'll typically be MUCH closer spec-wise than the lineup the M6N got. IMHO the M6N was the lowest-spec model in that field, and... it's like the author is constantly surprised on every bench that the M6N isn't beating a P4/128MB Radeon 9700 sys. That doesn't seem, as Fox would say, 'fair and balanced' to me lol

Conspiracy theory: Maybe THG is Intel-biased, and FO SHO Intel's pissed at Asus for busting open their PAT on Springdale- this is their revenge ;p

I really doesn´t get why the 15.1" has this problem. Mine is the wxga version and there is no displayproblems what so ever. The view angle is also extremely large compared to other notebooks.
Is there a technical difference between the 2 except for the wider display?

Well I read somewhere (maybe here, forgive me if I repeat from another thread) that the gradient issue may not really be an issue at all, but simply be due to a relatively limited vertical LCD viewangle. If that's the case it kinda makes sense why the widescreen wouldn't have the problem, b/c it's display isn't as tall.

Either that or there just were/are defective 15.1 LCD's for whatever reason, and that makes sense too b/c I'm sure the 15.1 and 15.4 LCD's are different models, simply b/c the dimensions are different.

Or maybe both theories apply.

Oh and I forgot to mention- there's a response thread to the THG M6N review in the THG forums: http://www.community.tomshardware.co...collapsed&sb=5

The first post has some very useful M6N CPU/GPU overclock info.

M6N SXGA+ display vs. the rest

Well....... I went to Best Buy yesterday and looked very carefully at all the displays. I had to shut down the stupid demo program they run by clicking (left or right click can't remember) on the upper righthand corner where there's some date or version number or something. Once at the desktop, I made sure the displays were in native resolution. Then I switched the background to Santa Fe Stucco which seems to exhibit the display brightness gradient problem the most, and GUESS WHAT? Most of them had the same @#$*ing problem! In fact, the only SXGA+ display that did not have this problem was a battery-sucking 16" Sony Vaio on steroids priced at $2499. It had a gorgeous display, probably on par with the Fujitsu N5010 16" SXGA+. The other dream SXGA+ tha I've mentioned is on the (apparently now discontinued) 15" Fujitsu N3010 which uses MVA technology, which stands for Multi-Domain Vertical Alignment and was invented by Fujitsu. Too bad it's has a max of 2 hour (more like 1.5 hour) battery life and no SD slot--or I would have bought it.

Anyway, the M6N I have (branded by ChemUSA and bough through discountlaptops) is ROCK STABLE and serving me well. I just wish it didn't have those two stuck pixels.

NOTE: If you use the InCD program that comes with the Nero 5.5 bundled with the unit, and you use dual battery, you'll need the latest update or you'll get a blue screen on shutdown, and the system will reboot instead. There's a bug in InCD which apparently doesn't know there's now a battery in the CD/DVD bay. This error is conveniently caught by Windows XP upon reboot when it asks you if you want to send an error report. Upon connection, it links you to the latest update--which is free to download.

Hmmm... or maybe some lame reseller trying to label it as normal so they don't have to hassle rma'ing...

I have an early 15.1" SXGA+ that exhibitied the display gradient problem. I was wondering if perhaps I had been oversensitized to the problem by what I'd read, so I visited a couple local brick and mortar stores and examined a good 20-30 different notebooks. Not a single one exhibited any display gradients, not even the el cheapo's.

So I personally feel this is just poppy cock!! The M6N is marketed as a "Digital Entertainment Gateway", and as such one should expect nothing less than a stellar display. The M6N is also high end notebook from Asus fer chrissake... not some piece from some off brand fly by night outfit. So my advice to anybody who has a defective unit is to rma the rig 100 times if they need to, but make Asus make it right.

I first visisted Tom's Hardware when P5's were all the rage and he was just one guy cranking out articles. I used to consider it a great source,and in it's day was de facto authority. Since then much has changed, however, and I personally no longer consider Tom's to be credible. It was good when independentl but now so advertiser driven as to be just like any pc rag.... The target market is no longer the end users, but rather the advertisers.

So... my conspiracy theory is correct?! lol

Anyway I wasn't suggesting in my other post that a defective LCD was an ok thing, especially since this is Asus. I just remembered reading a few posts like Codedoc just posted, that said most notebook LCD's behave that way to some degree. Again just what I read. I also forgot to mention that I read somewhere else, again God knows where, that the gradient issue was a 'real' prob, but only on the initial batches of the model. So if that's true then recently shipped units should now be cool (and mine that I just received today is, 'cept for the relatively unimportant flex/poweroff issue). Did you get your bad LCD unit pretty early on in production web?

Did I mention I got mine today? TRES COOL! XD

phairest, set your background to a deep ruby red color and tell me you don't see a variance in color density or brightness. If you're not sure, put a sheet of paper across the screen so that you see only about 1" band of the screen at the top and the bottom, then compare. If you're certain there is no difference, I'll be returning my unit tomorrow. I have seen this problem on many displays--even my 17" desktop ViewSonic LCD though to a much lesser degree. Maybe I'm just WAY oversensitized to it.

Anyway, congrats on your new unit

or try black..... or a deep blue.. or like mentioned a deep red. those are the worst colors for me

I don't have to set the colors, I concede vertical gradient is visible when not viewed from a rather tight sweet spot. I don't think it's a defect however b/c when compared side-by-side against my old lappy, both the displays behave in this way. In addition, when I show it off to people they inevitably say 'wow, nice display', as opposed to '... why are your colors wonky?'

So I'm happy with it, even though I did a close-up exam and discovered 2 stuck pixels yesterday. When I was ordering it I was all crazed about stuck pixels and horrified that Asus' warranty would only replace if you had like 4+, but now I pretty much see it their way- they're really only noticable if you're actively looking for em.