I suppose I wasn't the only one on this boat where Acer 8104 and Asus Z71V both caused me to ponder. After receiving about 5 or so messages on why I went with Asus Z71V, I decided to just post it and let everyone pitch in to discuss on the matter...

I had my eye set on the Acer 8104 since it was first annouced. After reading all the great reviews about them, analyzing every angle pictures of them, and seeing all the benchmarks out there about them, I decided to go with Asus Z71V.

My reaons for Asus Z71V:

1) I wanted a laptop where not everyone and their mother jump on the bandwagon yet. Acer have been overly popular since launch and too many people jumped on it, thus making it not "fresh".

2) I wanted something more "configurable". Asus gives me that option. The reason for this is I wanted 2GB of memory. With Acer I had to go with 8103, toss out the 512MB it comes with and buy two sticks of 1GB. Plus I wanted the 60GB 7200RPM drive. Again, have to toss out the 100GB from Acer and toss in the 7200RPM drive. It will end up too costly.

3) I wanted something as thin as possible, but at the same time give me the power I need. Asus was a bit thinner than Acer series, at the same time able to offer me the performance I need and wanted.

4) I have been using ATI for many years, I wanted something different. Asus comes with nVidia GO 6600, which in most cases perform a bit better than ATI X700. Thought some still say they are about neck to neck.

5) While the Acer 8104 design looked nice and I give them full credit for it, the design still was missing something. The front look of it with cover closed didn't look quite right to me. I didn't like where the speakers were situated at.

6) The Asus seems to have a better battery life due to their light sensor, which something I like. I use the laptop at night in bed and didn't want to alway adjust the light on the LCD each time I use it.

7) Asus come standards with 2 years warranty if purchase through www.proportable.com. Acer comes with only 1 and you have to purchase extra for additional year.

8) I wanted a clean system w/o all the junk software pre-installed. With Asus I could do that, with Acer I could not and would have to format the system to create my own recover disk.

Those were my reasons as to why I chose the Asus Z71v. I did strongly considered the Asus V6 model, however decided against it as I can not bare with myself spending that much money for "Style" and not being able to have the "function" long term. I felt the V6 model will grow out of its function quicker than the Z71V due to their limited video and again, back to #2 above it would be too costly for me if I wanted 2GB of memory on it and a different hard drive.

I hope my reasons would at least assist those who are pondering on the same matters as I did. Your reasons might be different than mine or you might still feel the Acer 8104 is a better deal. I totally agree with you on it, however I wasn't exactly in the mole for me.

--SPK

Here is a refresher on the pictures

Acer 8104


Asus Z71V

Z71x has a nice body.

Butterface, though

From what I've heard or read, the picture above is the Z71A and the Z71V is a bit darker in color?

Thank you smilepak for sharing your thought process....Now we will be waiting for your initial review. Congratulations!

I have the same thinking for the W3 - style vs function.....still in the decision process though but leaning more on the z71 right now.

Yeah,

Images ran through my head for a week about me having the V6. Sitting down at starbucks sipping my morning coffee. Head start to turn towards my direction people checking out the laptop...

While that feeling is all great and dandi, I perfer sitting with my Z71V in other placing pounding on DOOM3 instead.

By the way, for anyone who was curious...the full spec and price I had paid for

PROPortable's Asus Z71V Centrino Notebook
1. Intel® Pentium® M w/ 2MB Cache; 533MHz FSB - 750 - 1.86GHz
2. DDR2 533 so-Dimm - 2048 ddr2 533 (1024mb x 2) - Corsair (2GB DDR2!!)
3. Hard Drives 2.5" ATA100 - Hitachi Travelstar 60GB 7200 RPM w/ 8MB Buffer
4. Optical Drive - 8x DVD Dual Layer / Dual Format Burner (+/- R/RW)
5. Internal Wireless Card (Required for Centrino) - Intel PRO/2915 Wireless 802.11a/b/g MiniPCI
6. Warranties - 2 years parts & labor w/ 1 way paid shipping
Price: $2,083.14

Prices are subject to change w/o notice. So please check with them for current pricing.

LoL!

Why the 2GB of RAM?

I have 2GB on my desktop, so wanted to max out on my laptop as well. So since I am spending money anyway, might as well did it all at once. I got zero interest, zero payment until May 2006 with my Visa. So took advantage of it.

Lastly, I wanted to be LongHorn ready the minute it get released!

Review for the z71v is up. Great lappy. You had me going with the battery leak. I actually tested for that. I wish i had a sence of humor would have saved me 4 hours waiting for the battery to spew liquids.

lol!!!!

hahaha LMAO!!!

where is the review?

reviews will be coming over the next week, as more people recieve their computers. At the moment, only 2 people on the forums (that I know of) have a Z71V in hand. The rest of those who ordered them, including smilepak, are still waiting on delivery.

What elements of the Z71V are upgradable over time?