Lenovo Thinkpad L510 Battery

The touchpad is a different story. I miss using a pointing stick that you get on the ThinkPad series, but can handle a touchpad if it is a good implementation. The V100 touchpad is not a good implementation. The mouse buttons are some of the worst I’ve used, they’re very stiff, clicky, cheap feeling and the travel can only be described as awkward. The touchpad is often erratic, despite my playing with the configuration. It’s just overall not good. Maybe because I’m so used to the superb usability of the ThinkPad Ultra Nav input I’m being harsh here, but on the competing Dell M1210 notebook I give high marks for the touchpad and mouse buttons so I’m confident saying this is an area in which the V100 simply falls flat. Get a wireless mouse, you’ll need it.

We’re seeing more and more notebooks with built-in web cameras and such a thing is a happy addition to the V100 as well. This is no skimpy VGA resolution camera either, it’s a 1.3 megapixel resolution camera. I was most impressed with the quality of images captured by the V100 web camera, even in low light situations. In the same room and lighting conditions, the V100 took much better pictures and video than two other notebooks I have with a built-in 1.3MP camera. Take a look at the pictures below (your author is somewhat shy and at least prefers to keep eye and hair color a mystery):

The Asus W3J is Asus’ premiere high-performance portable notebook (as opposed to a desktop replacement). This review is for the newer W3J model number W3J-H026P. The specifications for this model are as follows:The difference between this model and the old one (H017P) is that this model sports a T2500 processor as opposed to a T2400 at 1.83GHz and one stick of 1GB RAM instead of 2 sticks of 512MB. This makes it easier to upgrade to 2GB of RAM by just having to purchase an extra stick as opposed to two 1GB RAM to replace the 512MBs.

This fall I am set to head to the University of California — Berkeley and I believed the time had come to acquire a new computer for my use. At first I had planned on building a desktop PC, but I soon realized that having a large and un-portable system would not be the most practical thing for a student living in a dorm. Therefore I turned my attention to the world of portable computers. The criteria I used in my search for my laptop was simple yet presented me with quite a few problems. I wanted a laptop that carried the new Core Duo processor and came with a fair amount of RAM as I am I going to be majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Additionally since I was an occasional gamer I wanted a laptop that had a dedicated GPU (video card). Lastly, this laptop had to be at maximum 6 pounds.

To make a long story short, I settled on the Asus W3J after reading numerous reviews and benchmark from a wide variety of laptops including the Dell Inspirion e1705, the Alienware Aurora, and the Acer Travelmate 8204WLMi. At the very end I decided upon purchasing an Asus W3J because I was sold on its superior build quality and because the specifications (listed above) fell into the general area of my requirements while not being overly heavy that I would have to receive a back surgery before my 20s. Furthermore, having lived almost 3 years of my life using a 15″ LCD with a native resolution of 1024×768 on my desktop, I found that I had no problem adjusting to a 14″ screen that was widescreen to boot.

I purchased the notebook via the reseller geared2play.com. Its owner, Eddie, is a participant in the Asus forums with well over 1000 posts. I purchased the laptop for $1729.00 (after a $70 rebate). However with the addition of an extra gigabyte of ram and 3 day select shipping, I ended paying $1910 up front. The price may seem a lot (and it sure did to my father), but I believe that you do pay more for the service rather than the product (in this case the quality of the product).

There is no other way to put it, but to say that the Asus W3J is one sexy beast. As soon as one takes the laptop of the Asus box (which by itself is yet another beautiful looking box), the eyes travel to the brushed aluminum lid. It’s hard to resist rubbing it a few times while soaking in the beauty. The elegance is not limited to just the lid. The beauty continues with the charcoal black color of the laptop, hotkeys that look as if it’s part of the chassis rather than buttons, stylish fonts on the keyboard, a touchpad that doesn’t detract from the design with oddly placed buttons, and an overall eye-pleasing look that cannot be conveyed by any photos.

However the W3J is no fragile beauty. The build quality of this laptop is top-notch. During my extensive testing (read: gaming) and circus acts with the laptop I have yet to hear a sound that strikes fear into my heart. The hinge is strong and sturdy and in fact requires two hands to open. There is none or very minimal wobbling with the screen nor are there any loose joints. Furthermore to a person who almost hurt his back lugging around 10lbs worth of textbooks every day for the past two years this laptop feels as light as a feature (but weighing around 5 and a half pounds still).

My complaints if any, is limited to two design problems. Number one (and the biggest) is the fact that is how the heat vent is placed on the right side and therefore makes it uncomfortable (especially while gaming) to use an external mouse. Secondly I do not like how tight the hinge is, because I constantly feel as if I will snap the screen while trying to open. However this issue is becoming more and more non-existent as I become used to the laptop.

The Asus W3J comes with a 14″ wide XGA with a native resolution of 1280×768. It has a Color Shine’ glossy LCD with Crystal Bright’ (extra bright) technology. My primary concern prior to my purchase was if the glare would be dehabilitating in standard use (i.e. other than for DVDs). Secondly (but not as much) I was worried if the small vertical resolution would be a problem. I am happy to report that neither of these were big problems when it came to using the computer. I never noticed the glare myself while looking straight at the screen, but in a few photos I could see reflections of the surroundings while taken at a slight angle. While on the topic of angles, I would like to report that the viewing angle of the W3J is not very wide. While it can easily accommodate the main viewer and perhaps one person on either side, any more than that and the screen is not very clearly seen. As for the screen resolution, a 14″ screen provides an excellent compromise between a performance and portability. I have yet to be disappointed by the screen resolution. Sure a larger vertical real estate would have been excellent, but the trade off with space would have been too much of a negative factor.

Coming from a desktop system with an excellent speaker system set up, I set my expectations very low regarding sound quality. However I am quite disappointed to report that the sound is too low, even for a laptop. While watching a DVD I had to turn on subtitles or I would miss out on key conversations. At times I even felt my old large DS had a higher volume setting than the laptop. However plugging in an external speaker set or headphones negates this problem quickly. And considering I will be using headphones most of the time (in order to not disturb class or my dorm mates), this will thankfully not be a big problem.

Processor and Performance:The new W3J is unique in that it will probably be one of the last set of laptops that use the Core Duo processors, as Intel is set to release their new Core 2 Duo (Merom) processor in July. However, the fact remains that the Core Duo T2500 is still one of the more powerful processing unit available. The fact that it is Dual Core allows for excellent multitasking, such as watching movie while compiling a program.Those who look to have high performance may need to do an extra step after their initial boot up — reformat, or at least extensive clean up. The system is riddled with bloatware (unnecessary programs), that hog system resources (no matter how extensive they are). At first boot-up I found approximately 40 processes running and over three-quarters were useless to me (i.e. Intel’s wireless utility — I prefer the Windows’ utility).

Weight-wise the Z96j is pretty light. I expected a 15.4″ with 256MB video card to be heavier, but it isn’t. Back to the lid, if you press on the back, there is minimum rippling in the screen. The screen does have a slight wobble, most likely due to the wideness of it. As for flex, it is a 15.4″ so there isn’t much you can do to keep it from flexing if you really try to make it flex.

The screen is awesome. It runs 1680×1050 on a 15.4″ screen. I didn’t receive it with any dead pixels (thank goodness). The screen has a glossy finish and it has very uniform backlighting, more so than the T60 does. So much so that I didn’t realize my T60 had uneven backlighting until I got this z96j. It has 16 different levels of brightness which range from about 5% to 100%. At the dimmest setting you can barely see anything on it. Though changing the backlight doesn’t affect the battery life as much as you’d think. I think the greater drain comes from the monster X1600 graphics card.