Review: Asus V6X00J (V6J Series) Notebook -- (With Vista RC1!)
So, desperately looking around for a laptop to buy (and with no time to order a custom build), I went to the store and found this Asus V6X00J with some very good specs for $1800 dollars. It was attractive, and much thinner than my old clonker (Dell Inspiron 6400). So after much hesitation, I decided to give it a try -- after all, the reviews were good and the machine felt solid. Also, I figured that most of the components were made by other vendors (Intel, Nvidia, Samsung), so the only "Asus" thing I was buying was the case.
The specs on the machine I bought were the following:
- Core Duo T2300 (1.66Ghz)
- 15" SXGA (1400x1050)
- DVD dual layer RW
- Wifi and Bluetooth
- 100 GB 5400RPM drive
- 1024MB RAM (I upgraded to 2048)
- NVidia GeForce Go 7400 (128MB dedicated, with the ability to steal from the system memory for up to 512MB)
These suited my needs for a high resolution, high performance laptop. And weighing in at 6lbs and less than an inch thick, its featherweight for the specs. One other nice thing about the laptop is its brushed metal enclosure with blue LED highlights for the status lights, which feels solid and looks more appealing than other notebooks.
Unpacking the device, the first thing I noticed was the weight. The machine was much lighter than my old laptop, and the cool metal screen has nearly no branding on it. The screen has a small border around it, and not much space is wasted. I plugged it in and turned it on, and although initially the startup took longer than I had hoped, I was presented with a clean Windows desktop. No shareware or bloatware, just a single Asus power utility and the standard windows settings. This is a rarity in todays world, and it made me very happy to see at least one company (like Dell) keeps from fucking up Windows with junk.
Another notable aspect of this laptop is the screen. The screen is incredibly bright and vivid, and has one of the most fine-grained brightness control's I've seen. You can switch from nearly no light at all to a full brightness with great contrast. One of the best laptop displays I've seen.
I promptly formatted the machine and installed the RC1 of Windows Vista. Vista detected most of my drivers and installed promptly. Sadly, it didn't get the NVidia driver from the start, but a quick look into the device manager allowed me to setup the NVidia card and get going with Aero (Glass). I was pretty happy to see how beautifully Vista works on this machine. It's fast, responsive and stable. Even Flip3D works without a hitch.
So far I have been very much enjoying the Vista experience. The small things of the OS (changes to the way files are copied, filtered and searched are great aspects of the new OS, as are Windows Photo Gallery and the new "workflows". Windows does a great job at predicting what you'd want to do based on an action, and walking you through it. For example, connecting a camera now opens up a small import screen allowing you to add tags to the files and import them. Very nice.
One of the other impressive things (probably greatly in part to the Core Duo processor) is the battery life. Running this machine, which has a rather small battery, in normal use and second-to-lowest brightness (dim but comfortable), the machine commands a good 4-4.5 hours of continuous use. Not bad for the machines specs, weight and size.
Overall, I've considered this machine a good purchase thus far and would encourage those looking at Asus laptops to consider them. I have not, however, delt with support at this point, and it will be interesting to see what comes of that. According to other reviews of Asus, support is reasonable.