Review: Idantiva's - Asus Z70V Review

I received my Z70V yesterday. Sorry it took a while to get out; I've been busy with end of HS stuff.

Specs: P-M 1.86 GHZ; 533MHz FSB; 2MB Cache; 1024MB DDR2 533 SO-DIMM; 80GB Segate 5400 RPM RDD w/ 8MB buffer; 8x DVD+/-R/RW DL; 802.11b/g; WSXGA+ (1680x1050 well, not an option but important); 64MB ATI X600

Aesthetics: This is a very nicely designed unit. The chassis is almost all black or dark gray, with clean lines. The LEDs are not annoying at all, as I believe some people thought they were on the M6Bne. Ports are conveniently located, etc. Around the keyboard is a black rubberized material, which I actually sort of like.

Sound: There are four speakers; two at the bottom of the screen and two at the back of the base (I think). The sound is good, but not excellent. One cool thing is that the notebook supports both 3.5mm and S/PDIF outputs for audio so you can connected it to a high-end audio system (optical, yes?).

Performance: I don't have a whole lot of words to say here; the system performs just like you'd expect when you look at the specs. I've been very busy setting up software and haven't done any official benchmarks yet, but it "flies" for lack of better words.

Display: It's a nice display. Brighter than my HP's. The high resolution is one thing I didn't want to stray from.

Ordering: I got mine from Proportable, and Justin was helpful throughout the process. I'd highly recommend using that company. Top notch all around.

Pictures: In the picture thread, silly!

Oh, there is something I found curious while setting up the notebook. It's more of a Windows thing, though. I like to use 120 DPI on 15.4" WSXGA+ displays (migrating from the same resolution on a different laptop), but on my Z70V after I change the DPI from 96 to 120 and restart, it is at 96 again. (Actually, the display properties still has it listed at 120, but it clearly is not. Re-changing the DPI temporarily fixes it, until a reboot). Anybody know why this setting might not be "sticking"? Not an Asus fault, just a question to put out there for y'all. I've been able to change font sizes and %'s in programs to get along, but I'd really like to have the display set up exactly the same as I had previously on a different notebook.

EDIT: updating BIOS/ATI drivers from the Asus site fixed the DPI issue.

Screen has no dead pixels and no light leakage. I don't think I'm a good judge of sparkles, even after reading a couple threads on the subject. If I look closely at a solid colors (i.e. taskbar), I can make out faint horizontal lines. This is subtle though, and the screen looks great in my opinion. It's nice and bright. Staring at a plain white canvas from a few inches away, I can see little patterns, but I think it's in my head because I can't really focus on it. If you're not paranoid, you won't notice anything strange. That's my opinion. I'd be proud to open this notebook in front of clients. ('Got a little web design thing goin' for the summer.)

Build quality rocks. (Based one two days' use, that is). It feels very solid; the chassis is part carbon fiber. It's pretty light, too, (6lbs), and definitely thin enough for my taste (0.87"-1.34", varying). Pressing on flat parts ("palm rest") will cause a slight flex in the material. Do not get me wrong, though: this is anything but flimsy. The front and sides of the unit are beveled, so setting on a table it looks a little thinner than it really is.

The synaptics touchpad feels good. The texture of the pad itself is clean and not the cheaper plastic finish I've seen on other notebooks. The brushed aluminum around it doesn't look tacky. It's pretty nice-looking. The touchpad drivers it comes with allow you to customize actions very much, actually more than I expected. I can't get virtual scrolling to work in Firefox, oddly. Maybe someone can shed light on this.

The palmrest has not gotten hot, and I've had it on for hours (though not gaming). The back-left portion of the bottom face of the laptop gets rather warm, and you'll definitely feel it if it's actually on your lap.

As far as hype, I am very satisifed with this purchase. I was going to get the M6Bne, but I'm glad I held of a little longer. I feel good going into college with the Z70V (UIUC mech engr!).

A couple more things: The brick is nice and small (see recently added photo). The Shinza large 15" sleave is a nice fit. Hmm, I went to compare the screen to my CRT, and I discovered that even a Trinitron looks a little funky when you get close and stare at it. Sorry I can't be of more help as far as sparkles. I'm not entirely ruling it out, but it'd take a more experienced eye to point out as that label. Definitely nothing severe, if at all. Like I said, I can detect a fine gridlike pattern, but I believe that is known as "pixels". (Originally, that wasn't supposed to be funny when I wrote it.) When I take a step back, I think the display is fantastic, especially when I think of some of the ones I come across fairly frequently.

The fan noise is pretty soft. I can't feel it on either side when I put my had near the vents. I use an external mouse on the right side ~4 inches from the unit, and cannot feel any breeze when the fan revs up.

Horizontal viewing angle is excellent (colors don't change when I look at it from the side, actually, it's just my angle that gets skewed), vertical is good. No complaints there.