May 1

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.