In July 2006 I acquired an ASUS A8JS laptop. The purchasing decision was made based on the following assessment at the time:
- High Specs for the price
- Relatively compact, but not small (14.1″ Widescreen)
- NVidia Graphics Card (NVidia GeForce Go 7700)
- Good Reviews: Most people seemed to be quite happy with the Laptop in forums and reviews, thus I felt confident it was a good model.
Having used the laptop for 6 months, in December I switched to an Apple MacBook, which despite Apples hopeless warranty service (1 week for a replacement hard drive after it died), has so far served me very well.
For several reasons, the ASUS A8JS laptop was not well suited for me at all and for the benefit of others, here is the list of Good and Bad characteristics that I have found.
Use Case:
The laptop ran Ubuntu or Debian Etch/Lenny/Sid over the period and performed well with both operating systems. I mostly used the laptop working from home, with less than 10% travel. The Laptop was never dropped or had any other bumps that I am aware of.
The Good:
- Bang for buck: Price wise, at the time the laptop seemed to have better specs than any other contender.
- NVidia GeForce Go 7700 Graphics Card: With 512 Mb Dedicated memory, and being Linux friendly, this seemed great.
- Runs Linux well: Both Ubuntu and Debian Etch/Lenny/Sid worked well on it with only minor tweaks required to get it working properly.
- Runs Games Well: For the brief period that I had a Windows XP partition, I found this Laptop has the guts to run games well. I had no problem at all running Call of Duty 4, for instance.
The Bad:
- Build Quality: The Laptop is not robust at all. The laptop case cracked around the hinges, and within 6 months of use primarily on my desk at home, the screen became very loose. The Keyboard felt flimsy from the start, and within 6 months the delete key literally broke off (perhaps thats an indication that I use it a lot when typing :s). Compared to HP, IBM and Apple laptops that I have used, it gets a 1 out of 10 for build quality.
- Overheating: The heat sink and fan unit seem not very well thought out. The fan sucks air from directly under the laptop, blows it through the heat sink that has very fine fins, and out the side. There are two issues with this – right handed mouse users will find they get a warm thumb after a while, but worse, the heat sink gets blocked with lint and dust easily. The laptop will then overheat regularly and cut power (switch itself off) when the sensors indicate the processor is at about 80 degrees Celsius. I found that I had to clean it every few months.
- Microphone Placement: The microphone is located on the left hand side of the base unit near the key pad, not exactly where my palm rests when typing but close. Alas, you’ll get feedback every time you put your hand on it by accident. So I just disabled the microphone and enabled it when I needed. As a side benefit, I also felt there was no way anyone was listening too me.
- Touchpad: For some reason, more than any other laptop I have ever used, I found that I bumped the touch pad all the time. This made typing quite a frustrating experience – perhaps this is why the delete key broke, correcting all the mistakes from accidental cursor relocation via the overly sensitive and in-the-way touchpad.
- Warranty: The warranty service in Australia is a bit poor. I have to take the laptop to a service center myself, drop it off, and find out later when it will be ready. I haven’t done this yet as I haven’t found time to drive all the way over too it.
This post is only intended to be informational for people who are curious about this model of laptop, and is based on my personal experience only. I am sure others have had much better or worse experiences.
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:59 pm
If you got those heating problems under Linux, you should know that I have the same notebook, and I suffered the same issue. I discovered there was a kernel bug (https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=336538), and I notified it (the fan sometimes wouldn’t turn on when it should). By now it should be fixed. But you got a point on the built thing, a damned hinge broke after 6 months of use…
July 1st, 2008 at 11:42 pm
I have the same laptop, and can compare. One hinge is coming apart after a year; but I have never had an overheating problem.
I’m not quite sure if I’ll ever get an Asus again, and I think my next laptop will be a Lenovo.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I have a similar laptop and had similar experiences. Mine was blessed only with a 7600 Go, but all of the structural issues you noted were reproduced in it. In all I feel it was a good purchase for what it was intended to do in a one year period – which is probably all most of my countrymen (The U.S. land of the free and the belief; replace before repair) require. However, I would not have bought it in retrospect, considering I needed a gaming desktop and a mobile work laptop, neither role of which the spec powerful laptop could fill acceptably.
To be frank, we are probably fools for seeking a notebook which could perform to spec with modern games and professional programs without expecting serious shortcomings.
In addition to your well-formed and accurate criticisms, let me add a warning about the battery – when I first received the machine it would perform for 2.2 to 2.4 hours on a full charge with the processors clocked to half (Power4Gear Quiet Office stepping) and about 2 hours at full speed. After six months of light use and conservative charging practice the battery was reduced to 1.6/1.4 hours at full charge. It does not perform well over time.
September 6th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Ooohh boy..
I’ve just found out that I’m the not the only one
having a horrible experience with this laptop.
It indeed overheats, cracks all over, lcd becomes loose, has a bad mic. position, an awful touch pad, ..
The first day it shutdown by itself was exactly 1 day after the warranty expired. (not a joke)
I’ve bought it in France.. (and as an ‘extra’, it doesn’t have bluetooth in the euro version)
MY FIRST AND LAST ASUS PRODUCT.
November 28th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Similar problems here. The laptop case did crack around the hinges. It overheats a lot! I’m not using the bult in mic. I’ve learned how to type without touching the touchpad by mistake. Keyboard works fine, never had any probs with buttons. Screen isn’t very good on this laptop.
February 26th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
We have an F3 which now shows for the 3rd time the very same crack in the cover. Both the shop and Asus refuse to take responsibility. Their Global insurance does not seem to work, and you’re sent from post to pillar. The cracks are a design/factory problem. these machines should never have been sold!
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:20 pm
I’ve had this laptop for nearly 3y, and love it. It has shortcomings (lots of crap to uninstall, battery life is abysmal, keyboard layout takes getting used to, but I always swap CTRL and CAPS LOCK anyway
I use it as my home, work, and portable computer. At home I run S/PDIF output from the headphone jack to my stereo, and the DVI port means I don’t need a docking station just to drive an LCD at work and home. (Nowadays most laptops have HDMI – also nice, but you may need an extra adapter for it). I paid $50 extra for bluetooth support, and have an expresscard adapter for 2 eSATA drives. Just upgraded to 3GB memory and a 7200RPM 320GB drive, and hope to get a couple more years out of it. So it has its quirks, but considering that at the time I bought it it was spec’d much nicer than a macbook pro and for $500 less, I think it was a great buy.
May 18th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Well after more than 2 years using the A8Js I could write a long term review, instead here are just a few observations.
Great Linux support, I’m using it with Ubuntu and Gentoo, flawless. Only a few tweaks were needed. Also works great with Windows 7. After upgrading to a 320gb HD and 4Gb RAM (although it only sees 3gb, bummer!) it became a true fast machine.
Overheating problem is due to the awful thermal paste used. I was getting at least one overheat shutdown per day until I changed it to Arctic Ceramic, now the idle temperature dropped 25°C and tops on 76°C, way better than 75~100°C! Incredible!!!
The original paste can be a little tricky to remove, but with the help of a heat-gun (a blow dryer also works), a small spatula and some isopropilic alcohol it was not that hard to come loose.
Hinges are still a major problem, my A8Js is completely broken and there isn’t any parts available to buy! I’m living in Brazil and the Asus Reseller do not warranty products bought abroad: Where is the Global warranty!?!?
The solution is to buy the parts that are available and manufacturer replacements for those that aren’t. Meantime I managed to temporary fix it using JB-Weld. But I really don’t know until when it will works.
Bottom line is that Asus have the most great notebook specifications with the worst possible built quality.
Next notebook probably won’t be an ASUS.
June 17th, 2009 at 7:50 am
@Eduardo How did you manage to find the drivers to run Windows 7 on your Asus A8J?
September 24th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
WEEEE i love asus so much!! cant go wrong with a pink color, unfortunately my local dealer doesn’t sell one
and i had to go online to get one. glad to come across http://asusguys.com/, they also have pink bags for it! love it!, also bought a spare battery just in case 