You are browsing within the review sections of our forums. Content within these sections reflect consumer opinions of laptops. Our admins take the best and most objective laptop reviews and index them here to create a distinct selection of quality reviews with averaged overall ratings. Many of these reviews have benchmarks attached to them which allows for users to compare their laptop's performance with others, and ultimately enables us to provide a sortable list which at a glance show the fastest laptops amongst a variety of applications (gaming, video editing, web browsing, etc...). Help us build a better laptop database by submitting your laptop review.

ASUS Z71V Review:

Reseller: ISTNC was/is great to work with. Any questions I had, Rick was very happy to answer. There were some problems getting the order to go through, however it was all my banks fault (so ISTNC is in the clear). There was one problem in the computer they configured for me. They sent me (2) 512mb sticks or ram instead of the (1) 1GB stick of ram that I ordered (and also sent me the abg wireless instead of the bg that I ordered, but that doesn’t annoy me as much ). However, I do not foresee any problems getting this issue resolved.

Screen: This thin has a killer resolution (which I nice IMO). There is no glare and the ALS (Ambient Light Sensor) is awesome. The screen “sparkle” was more evident then I would of hoped… but if you’re a gamer, you wont notice it while fragging. There is a dark spot on the bottom right, but there are no dead pixels.

Keyboard: It’s a pretty solid board. I can’t say there isn’t any flex whatsoever… because there is some slight flex on the top right. Unnoticeable in everyday use for me. The touch pad is high quality (and matches nicely). I can’t get the scroll bar to work in Fire Fox, but I’m sure that’s an easy fix. The buttons are louder then I had hoped, but not extremely loud. However, they are loud enough to make me not what them to use them.
The layout is pretty nice. The only grip being the function key. Im sure it will no longer be an issue once I get use to it.

Performance:
I haven’t had time to buy a game in the store, but HL2 is coming on wed., so I’ll be posting those results when it gets here. 3Dmark05: 1806. Pentium M’s rock… This thing is quick as hell and I’m loving it. I’ll post some CPU benchmarks when I get to it.
The two fans on the bottom are always on. They are pretty quiet and I don’t even really notice them anymore. Sometimes they spin higher and lower randomly, but it doesn’t bug me.

Something everyone should know:
I don’t know if anyone else has used the 4-in-1 card reader, but I thought I’d be a cool feature. I took some pictures and they were put on a Memory Stick Pro. I put it in the reader and everything transferred just fine. When I went to remove it, it wouldn’t come out! There wasn’t any spring loaded feature where you push it and it pops out enough for your to grab it. I had to take some PLYERS to get it out. I don’t know if it is supposed to have a spring in it, but mine doesn’t. If yours is anything like mine, DO NO USE IT.

Overall:
I’m happy with this purchase. It was either this or the i9300 (with its 6800go), but the 17” screen was just way to big for me. This size is perfect. Not heavy at all and no problems carrying around. What a great notebook…

Pros: Performance, solid feel, resolution, 5 USB ports
Cons: Sparkle is more evident then I’d hoped and a dark corner, and 4in1 card reader.

Pictures to come!

Nice review! Regarding scrolling in Firefox, this was posted on my review thread. I switched to the 7.10.14, and it works fine.

i never used the card reader.. but i might need to soon. arg.i dun haf a memory stick pro to try

The card reader has a spring , feels the same as the slot on my clie, just like a pen click click



w00t

Well it will be going back soon to get the right RAM, so that is just one more thing for 'em

UPDATE:
Well I talked for Rick for about an hour on AIM and we both came to the same decision; the system needed to be replaced.

The main reason being the card reader. He said ASUS had some reports of them not ejecting properly, but not with the memory stick. Since it isn't a replaceable bay (it’s built right into the sob), the whole notebook needs to be replaced.
On the same note, the RAM boards will be fixed I imagine as well. I can't say with 100% certainty that the wrong ones were installed because I didn't actually take out the keyboard (1dimm is located there and the other is on the back. If in fact the right ram board was installed, the dimm slot would be empty. If not, the one under the keyboard would have one installed there).
The reason i can't say for 100% certainty is because im unsure of my knowledge of software that is telling me that there is two 512. If someone could confirm for me, that would be great:

The laptop is going to be picked up on Tuesday for repairs. I'm still undecided if im going to upgrade from the free ground shipping to the overnight shipping.

All in all, im VERY happy with my business with ISTNC. Rick has absolutely NO problems with taking my system back and getting me a new one. He has gone out of his way (on a Sunday @ 11:00 while he's at HOME I might add) to help me out, as I'm sure he's done for others. I would do more business with him in a heart beat.

Great customer service will always make them come back for more...

Bahama, regarding your memory, I'd guess (initially) that you DID in fact get the 1 GB memory module. I have 2x512MB, and here are some differences between my Sandra stats and yours:
Mine shows 512 MB on banks 0 & 4. Yours shows as 512 on banks 0 & 1.
Mine says there are 2 channels, yours says 1
And mine is running at 1064 Mhz data rate, while yours is running at 1/2 of that (which would make sense if you only had one memory controller, as opposed to 2. For some reason, yours also has higher latency than mine (5 vs. 4).

Yeah... sounds like I'm running a single 1GB stick. Sounds great
I’m not sure when I'm going to buy another stick so I can get the "dual bank" whatever you guys call it. I've been reading that the performance between 512x2 and 1x1 is there, but it isn't extremely noticeable at all.

I'll wait till they get below 1000 *sarcasm*