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| Introduction | |||||||
Unlike a traditional desktop, a notebook is a very specialized system which typically excels in one particular area. However, there are usually design constraints that impede the system's performance in other areas. For example, at one extreme we have the ultraportable notebooks that are extremely light and easy to handle. In exchange for its convenience, these smaller notebooks generally lack the brute horsepower of a large desktop replacement notebook. With no additional space for intricate cooling solutions necessary to manage the latest and greatest GPU's and CPU's, these notebooks are heavily constrained with no apparent solution in sight. Those craving serious horsepower for gaming or taxing applications have a wide array of desktop replacement options to choose from though. Usually armed with a large widescreen LCD, the latest mobile GPU, and the fastest CPU the notebook can handle, DTR notebooks can keep pace with some of the fastest desktops available. Unfortunately, all this performance comes at a price and in this case that means excessive weight and an enormous amount of real estate on your desktop. Fortunately, with the launch of the W2V, ASUS has stepped up to the plate with a notebook that offers one of the best comprises between size and performance that we've seen to date.
Weighing in at roughly 7.5lbs and having 17.6"x12.7"x1.1" dimensions, the W2V won't be mistaken for an ultraportable notebook anytime soon. However, once you glimpse the 17" widescreen LCD with Color Shine glare treatment and the elegant chassis design complete with subwoofer, the size and weight of the system appear much more impressive. For the size, ASUS has done an admirable job of squeezing in as much functionality and performance one could ask for. |
| Construction |
Looking at the system as a whole, we find that ASUS has chosen to use a very elegant brushed aluminum finish throughout the majority of the notebook. Although much darker than the traditional brushed aluminum aesthetic, the look still retains a rich and modern feel. Carrying our attention towards the edges of the system, we see that there have been great efforts made towards rounding off as many sharp angles as possible. Keeping with this tradition of remaining as clean as possible, ASUS has opted to use a magnetic latch system instead of a mechanical latch. Though this makes opening the unit slightly more difficult, the uncluttered appearance seems a worthwhile trade.
Conventional notebook users might initially be disappointed if they skip to the back of the system searching for ports. Here, the hinge and panel design results in the lack of a single port on the back of the system, with only the battery taking up any real estate. However, this omission does ensure that the panel remains extremely rigid and in place. In the days of cheap plastic parts and flimsy panels, this type of quality is a welcomed change.
Viewing the right side of the system, we see a dense collection of ports and expansion slots. From front to back, we have two USB ports, a 1394 port, Flash Memory slot, PCMCIA slot, infrared port, additional USB port, and 15-pin D-Sub monitor output. Nestled in the midst of these ports is an adequate series of air vents for the cooling fan to exhaust warm air.
Switching our attention to the left side of the system, we see an equally impressive collection of ports. From front to back, we have a USB port, a slot-loading DVD+/-RW drive, cable TV input, a TV-Output port, LAN port, Modem port, power input, and lastly a Kensington Lock port.
Opening the panel and investigating the inside of the system, we see a very clean and organized orientation of buttons. On the left-most side, ASUS has placed a series of status indicators. A Drive Activity indicator reflects hard drive access, whereas an indicator is lit when the Number Lock is activated. A Caps Lock indicator lights as expected, with a Scroll Lock rounding out the left-side with its own indicator light. On the opposite side of the system, we find a series of Instant Launch Keys. From top to bottom, we see launch keys for the internet, e-mail, Bluetooth, pad-lock, and Power4 Gear power saving modes. Rounding out the multitude of indicators, we see the front panel houses indicators for power, battery charge, e-mail, Bluetooth, and WLAN. Should you still be wanting more outputs and inputs, ASUS has populated the front panel with a complete sequence of multimedia jacks and a consumer IR port.
The bottom of the system holds a feature which will surprise even the most seasoned notebook veteran. In addition to the usual gamut of compartments for the CPU, hard drive, memory, and battery we see three additional speakers to compliment the two on the front of the LCD panel. Nestled between a stereo speaker on either side of the system is a small but surprisingly effective subwoofer. Although you'll never mistake the integrated speakers for a new rival to your home theater speaker setup, it certainly is a marked improvement over the usual integrated setup. |
| Field Testing Features |
The AC Adaptor being used is a 19v model from Delta Electronics which is the expected size and weight. With the W2V power connector being on the left-side of the system, ASUS opted to use an angled connector on the power cable. This aids in preventing the cable from being inadvertently pulled from the system. The adaptor itself does get pretty warm to the touch when used for a considerable amount of time, though nowhere near as hot as some other DTR AC units.
Display - The ASUS W2V incorporates a 10:9 17" Widescreen LCD with a native resolution of 1680x1050. The WSXGA screen features ASUS' CrystalShine glare treatment and brightness enhancement. In theory, this LCD should offer even the most discriminate user the level of performance they require. In practice, the W2V display proved exceptional under nearly every application. For standard productivity applications, the widescreen LCD offered a wealth of real estate. Being able to view multiple documents side by side in full view was certainly appreciated. When watching DVD's, the screen had no trouble with ghosting and offered exceptional detail and contrast. Viewing angles were good, though we have seen some slightly better results from a select few systems. Perhaps most importantly, the W2V had no trouble at all with even the most intensive gaming. Here, frames appeared smooth with very little to no ghosting or artifacts whatsoever. In terms of build quality, ASUS has gone the extra mile by offering a zero dead-pixel policy within 30 days of purchase. Should you encounter a hideous frozen pixel, it certainly is comforting to know that ASUS will be there to replace it without issue. With regards to noise, the W2V was a pleasant surprise. Regardless of what applications were being used and the load on the system, the ASUS notebook remained surprisingly quiet. Like the system fans, the keyboard and hard drive produced little noise and were not a distraction. The only component which was a slight annoyance in terms of noise would be the slot-load optical drive. Here, the drive would make a mildly obnoxious mechanical noise when a disc was being loaded or being accessed heavily. Regardless, the simplicity and coolness factor of the slot-loading drive far outweighed the minor gripes we had with noise.
In terms of heat, the ASUS notebook faired generally well. Although the system did eventually start passing some serious heat through the exhaust vents on the side of the chassis during heavy use (as expected), the palm rests surprisingly never became overly warm like most DTR notebooks. The bottom of the system did get fairly warm, though our male readers can rest assured knowing it was not uncomfortably warm when being used on the lap. |
| Field Testing Features Continued |
High marks are warranted for both the W2V's keyboard and touchpad. Although it did lack the almost standard side number pad for 17" notebooks, the layout for the keyboard was very comfortable to use even for long durations. Though initially feared as a aesthetic compromise, the unique etched-like buttons were easy to use and functioned without error. The only issue we encountered was a slight lag when using the vertical scroll feature on the touchpad. Here, there was an annoying delay which often resulted in scrolling past the desired point on the screen. Aside from this minor gripe, the interface on the W2V was exceptional.
As we referenced earlier, the speakers of the W2V are anything but typical. Here, the notebook features a surprisingly effective 4-channel speaker orientation combining speakers on the front of the LCD and on the bottom of the system. Without question, the most interesting aspect of the ASUS notebook's audio system is the integrated subwoofer. The competent sound of the stereo speakers is paired quite nicely by some effective bass from the subwoofer. These speakers make the W2V one of the very few notebooks you won't be forced to use discrete speakers with when listening to music, playing games, or watching DVD's. Overall, we had a very positive audio experience when using the W2V's integrated speakers.
When talking about the W2V's software, the first point of interest is primarily the OS. The system comes loaded with Microsoft's Media Center 2005 and is packaged with the appropriate connectivity hardware and remote. The features of this OS play heavily upon the system's feature-rich hardware and makes the W2V an extremely versatile system. There is a bit of humor packaged with the system in the way of an NVIDIA component video adaptor. Surely, there is an amusing pairing with an NVIDIA adaptor hooked to an ATI graphics card. Regardless, if there ever were to be a Swiss-Army branded notebook the ASUS W2V would likely be the ideal choice. The remainder of the W2V's software suite is equally impressive as the OS, as ASUS has provided an excellent assortment to choose from. From a full retail copy of NERO, a 6 month trial of Norton Internet Security 2005, AsusDVD, Power Director DE, and Medi@show SE the system seems to have all bases covered. The Power4 Gear power management utility allows the user to tailor the power settings for the system to the applications being used. Please reference the image below which outlines the various settings and appropriate details.
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| Test System and General Performance | ||||||||||
In order to keep the list of notebooks from getting exceedingly long and turning this page into a scrolling race, we are going to archive past notebook specs in an Excel file (HTM format) which will be updated with every notebook review (click here).
Business Winstone 2004 from Veritest uses scripts to test the performance level of a computer in business related applications:
Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004 from Veritest uses scripts to test the performance level of a computer in multimedia rich environments:
Higher scores here indicate better performance. You can read more about Business Winstone 2004 on Veritest's FAQ page. You can also read more about Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004 on Veritest's FAQ page.
Armed with some potent hardware, it is no surprise to see the ASUS defeat all but a single competitor. Without question, this is an extremely capable system for any typical application you'd use on a day to day basis.
Viewing the results for Content Creation Winstone, we see a similar trend as before. Again, the W2V is able to oust all but the Dell XPS Gen 2 though the margin of victory is certainly slim. Overall, this is excellent performance for a mobile platform. |
| Battery Info and Performance | ||||
We are using the standard benchmark settings from Bapco, along with a few other minor system tweaks. The screensaver was disabled and the volume was set at approximately 20%. MobileMark 2002 utilizes the following applications:
After being punished by a sequence of common applications until the battery was drained to 1% of its capacity, it was a pleasant surprise to see that it had faired extremely well. Though it did not walk away with the overall victory, Asus W2V did remain in the top three notebooks and had an impressive score considering its size and hardware.
For the first time during testing, we finally see the first glimpse of some of the compromises the ASUS notebook must make to accommodate all the features, functionality, and performance it brings to the table. Here, the smaller and slightly less capable systems run away with the victory with some significant advantages in terms of overall battery life. However, at over 200 minutes there is ample battery life in this notebook and the tradeoff it makes for higher performance and increased functionality is well worth it. |
| Startup Performance | ||||
The times listed below reflect the time it took for the system to power up until the cursor appeared with no busy indicator on the desktop background.
Taking a look at the results, we see the ASUS W2V lands somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of boot time. It seems logical to expect that the system's Media Center 2005 OS is largely to blame for the increased time, though it is hard to quantify to what extent. Regardless, it is more than acceptable and is not an annoying amount of time.
Once again, we see that the response of the W2V is roughly on average with the rest of the field.
Returning from Hibernation mode, the ASUS notebook begins to climb towards the front of the pack. Overall, the notebook had a good response throughout testing and could easily be further optimized to respond faster by editing which programs and utilities boot with Windows. |
| Conclusion | |||||||
From a hardware standpoint, the W2V is a very robust and feature rich system. From the gorgeous 17" LCD panel to the 5400rpm 100GB hard drive, this ASUS notebook exhibits excellent quality throughout. And the 128MB ATI Radeon Mobility X700 was able to run the latest games with solid image quality settings. Armed with a 2.13GHz Pentium M processor and up to 2GB of DDRII memory, there is an impressive amount of power at hand. Overall, this would be a very capable LAN rig as there is ample horsepower under the hood.
Despite being a thoroughly impressive notebook in nearly every respect, the ASUS system was not perfect. As with any somewhat static mobile platform, you're very limited in terms of a hardware upgrade path. Although the 128MB ATI Radeon Mobility X700 was more than capable of running nearly any game we had on hand at respectable settings, it would be nice to squeeze in something slightly faster with a bit more memory. Again, this is anything but trivial given the effort to keep the notebook thin and light, as hot GPU's require heavy, intricate cooling. However, in a perfect world we'd be working with a new generation GPU with a DVI interface and at least 256B of memory to ensure we'd be able to keep pace in some heavily detailed games coming down the road. While we were making changes, we'd also find a way to silence the otherwise excellent slot-loading optical drive.
Without question, the ASUS W2V is one of the most versatile and impressive options on the market for those looking for a high-end notebook. Matching a rich and modern aesthetic to a solid blend of quality components, the system is able to tackle nearly any task with ease. Whether you're searching for a multimedia powerhouse to watch DVD's and listen to music on the road or trying to find a solid gaming system to bring to your next LAN, the W2V will not disappoint. Granted, with an MSRP of $2599 the system is anything but cheap. However, you would be hard pressed to find a more flexible mobile solution that excelled in so many areas. Add to that the endless amount of bundled gear, the robust Media Center 2005 OS and the classy carrying case and it makes justifying the cost that much easier. Overall, we're giving the ASUS W2V an rating of 9.0 on the HotHardware heat meter.
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