U3, U6

Hi, I just got a U3S-A1W for Xmas and it's been great so far. I never really looked into Asus so I can't say anything for the U6, but here's some things you'd might like to know about the U3.

It's almost weightless compared to my 13 lb 17" Alienware and I really don't see a point in anything smaller than a 13.3" screen. The battery life is just over 1 and a half hours on the "Speed" high performance mode, I have yet to try it in "Power Saving" mode. It does not come with an optical drive although it does come with a few utility CDs. It also comes with quite a lot of perks including a matching bluetooth mouse, a suede carrying sleeve, a tough fabric and leather messenger bag, small things like an lcd cleaning cloth and wire clasp, and mine came with a really nice backpack as a promotion.

Slight annoyances I've had with it so far:
-When awakening from hibernate the resolution needs to be readjusted
-When accessing the album artwork view mode in iTunes, a video card error message comes up and the screen flickers. I bluescreened the first time I tried this view mode. I do not know of any driver updates for the 8400M G as of now.
-The fingerprint reader took a looong time to setup, but once the thing started scanning clearly, it worked fine.
-For some reason, it doesnt beep when the battery is approaching critical so I'm getting used to watching for the blinking light. (I still can't find an option to make it beep. If anyone knows how to set this up please let me know.)

Despite these minor problems, everythings running well and I think it's quite a beautiful machine. The craftsmanship is obviously very good and it comes with a load of extras. If it's portability you're after, I don't see any reason for something smaller.

Hmmm, as far as I know, the obvious difference between the A1B and the A1W is the color (obviously, for the W's and B's). Specs were the same when I --- briefly --- took a look on portableone. Newegg has a X2W with 120gb, but I wonder if that's the sole difference (A1's at portableone are 160).

I wouldn't call successors since there are notable differences between the u3 and u6 (most notably, the GPS and the absent optical drive). To me, the U6 is an awesome notebook. At first glance, the one I would buy today, but don't count on my words... I started looking at them (together) on the last days.

btw, how do you boot the U3? Does it use the esata or/and usb port for an external optical drive?

wow, i really missed the obvious with the B for black and W for white part...looks like mines a A1B afterall...gotta change my sig. I havnt had a change to use the esata and so far I've successfully transferred all data and installed software with my 4 gig usb stick.

Wait, so does either of them come with an external USB drive?

eh? mine has 3 usb ports