I went to Best Buy last Saturday to browse their in-stock ASUS models… I’ve been eyeing them for their specs, but haven’t been able to bring myself to spend $1000+ on something as ugly as the G50V (it screams out Halloween to me). That’s when I saw the exclusive BB X83Vm-X2 — it looks much different in person than the photos online. The colors online are not very accurate, and the exterior pattern design is more sleek & subtle. The dark brown is similar to a rich chocolate, and the lighter color caramel. Nice specs too — an nVidia GeForce 9600M GS packed into a 14.1″ model, 320GB RAM, bright glossy screen, HDMI out, eSATA, and much lighter than my old college laptop (Compaq Presario V4000T… so heavy, bulky, and overall disappointing for the price I paid 3 years ago). It was still marked $1,049.99 and I had purchased it.. just to see the next day it went on sale! So I took my receipt & price matched it, no problem.
I’ve only had one major gripe so far, and that’s the keyboard. I don’t know if it is all models, but my boyfriend also purchased the same model & has same problem. Seems to have keyboard lag.. he types over 100 WPM, and my maximum is around 130, but I’ve had to really reduce my speed because nearly every other key was skipping. I could barely type sentences while using messenger programs… typing the sentence “I’m so frustrated!” came out as “I’m s frstratd!” Seems to be a problem with ASUS models perhaps, as the 50 series was having the same problem. I read through this thread on the Asus M50 series and made two modifications… the first solution on first post (some changes to Synaptic application), and some changes in the Task Manager to change compatibility for Synaptic applications. I don’t really understand how making tweaks for the touchpad affect the keyboard, but those minor modifications have definitely improved… I’m still skipping some keys, but I can type at an average ~90 WPM now no problem and I’ve almost forgotten that I was having keyboard issues my first two days with this laptop.
In terms of performance, I haven’t really pushed it to do much yet. It runs Adobe CS applications smoothly, and the bright screen is definitely an improvement over my old V4000T. It makes editing dust, blemishes, etc. so much easier. I have some video editing work to do but haven’t tried it out yet. Also have done some light gaming, no problems running Warcraft 3 with everything on high & max resolution. (Would you believe my V4000T would struggle with such an old game? With everything set on low/off?). Boyfriend has been playing Spore on his laptop and that runs smoothly as well. Another thing I’ve been looking out for is overheating issues, even from just regular usage keeping laptop on for long periods of time. My V4000T had problems with hard drive, CPU, or video card heating, and since the X83Vm-X1 is much smaller, I was concerned heat may be an issue here as well. So far, no problems.
Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the purchase. I was already satisfied when I had spent the $1,049 but since it went on sale for $899, I love it even more now. The laptop is actually pretty stylish and the colors are nice, but the photos on BB website don’t portray it nicely at all! & speaking of the V4000T… it is still in my possession. I have to double check that I’ve carried over everything from the old laptop to the new, and then reformat it (and fix the RAM issue it was having). I’m giving it to my mom; she said she wants it even though all she ever uses the internet for is to check her bank account all online. :)
Edit #1: Notebook came with a bunch of stuff pre-installed. The webcam program, LifeFrame, was fun to play around with. I like the Photo Club feature, which reminds me a little of the purikura (Print Club) booths in Japan that take multiple photographs. Has anyone tried the ASUS InstantFun program yet? I’ve heard that Express Gate can cause problems, and I wonder if InstantFun is the same way.
Edit #2: Added photographs! You can see more in my Flickr here.
