Prime Notebook Computer Review

With combines portablility, power, and beauty into an elegant package that draws many looks the Asus W3V become a jack-of-all-trades notebook. It’s only 5 lbs with aluminum and carbon fiber casing.
The designers at Asus were on the mark when they design W3V with brushed aluminum cover and the elegant blue LED power button. It is also simple elegant with a blue LED theme.

The battery is putting on the back in an inconspicuously sized. So the notebook slimmed down and has more space for higher performance components package.
The screen of W3V with 14.1″ WXGA widescreen is one of the many highpoints of the W3V. But the colors are vibrant, and your desktop backgrounds will appear as if the screen is just a window to the place where the photo will taken. But there are no dead pixles on the notebook. The other little flaw is that when you take the brightness down the the lowest setting, one side is noticably lighter than the other. But overall the screen is great.

The Asus W3V specs:

Processor : Intel Pentium M Centrino 915 GM
Display : 14.1″ WXGA TFT LCD
Memory : 512MB DDR2-533 RAM
Hard Drive: 60GB 5400rpm Ultra DMA
Drive : 8x Dual Layer DVD Burner/24xCDRW Drive
VGA : ATI MOBILITY RADEON X600 w/64MB VRAM.
Battery : 8-Cell Battery
Ports : 3x USB 2.0, 1x IEEE 1394 port, 2x Audio jacks
1x Microphone-in

The Asus W3V using the Intel Pentium M 750 1.86 Ghz with 533 Mhz FSB processor. It’s powerful in a small package. Startup is quick as well, for just a minute. The hard drive is quiet, copying a large file from one partition to the other take less time. There is no lag visible on the screen when you play game in the highest resolution.
Asus use Windows Xp as their operation systems in W3V. They also bundled Nero and Asus DVD program that works very well. But
the only program they installed just Norton Internet Secutiry. There’s no unless softwares.

The W3V’s keyboard is solid. It have a good amount of travel on them for a notebook. But Asus relocated the bottom left Ctrl key and moved Delete key on top right corner. But the keyboard is fine for normal word processing and everyday use.
W3V’s included ports are 3x USB 2.0, 1x PCMCIA, 1x Firewire, SD/MMC & Memory Stick slot, S-Video out, Headphone/ (s/pdif), VGA out and Line In, Microphone built in, Ethernet, modem. All ports work are fine.
When i try to comparize the speed of processor using Super Pi program with another notebooks, i found the result that Asus W3V need just 1 minute 37 seconds to Calculate Pi to 2 Million Digits. It’s faster than other notebooks. The IBM ThinkPad T43 needs 1 minute 45 seconds, the IBM ThinkPad T41 2 minutes 23 seconds, and Compaq R3000T needs 3 minutes 3 seconds.

The speakers are not different with aothet notebook’s speakers. Sound quality is slightly tinny with little bass to speak of. But using of external speakers or headphones are recommended. Azilla, the new version of Intel’s integrated sound has many improvements over its predecessor.
The W3V supports 802.11 a/b/g and its works flawlessly. When you using wireless internet, you’ll find that the setup took less than a minute and the speed is very quick. Windows XP defaults the download speed at about half what it should be but after the settings are changed the adapter works at full capacity.
The baterry lifes is completly good. You can use the notebook for about three hours doing various tasks from minor photo editing to word processing.

As the conclusions, you’ll find that W3V will pleased you. This notebook can be take on the road with little hinderance, connect to a wireless phone via bluetooth, play a graphically intense game and look so good in its aluminum and carbon fiber body. But heat under the right palm rest and the location of the control and delete keys must be improved. With the ATI X600, a 1.86 Ghz Sonoma based processor with 533mhz FSB this little notebook is a great companion on trips.