Question:
Asus z62f Review
Asus Z62F Yonah Napa Notebook Review
Tested model Specs:
Intel T2400 1.83ghz dual core
80gb 5400rpm 8mb Samsung
1gb (512mbx2) ddr2-667
8x DVD/RW UJ-841 Panasonic
Intel 3945abg wifi
Win Xp pro
General Appearance:
This is a pretty nice and compact 14 incher. Yes I have to admit it does not have the appeal of the z63a which it is replacing but it’s a lot better then the pictures tell. I can’t really say much more on this. It is what it is a value notebook from asus. Pics can be found here http://www.geared2play.com/store/pro.../z62f/z62f.htm at the bottom
Ports, buttons and expansion:
1x Port Bar 3 dock
1x Integrated video camera into top of the screen
1x Kensington lock hole
1x PCMCIA card bus
4x usb 2.0 ports
1x Firewire mini type port
1x 7-pin tv-out
1x vga out
1x Ethernet nic network card gigabit
1x 56k modem
Video card and assembly:
The video card is integrated from Intel. It scored a "whopping" 1519 points on 3dmark03. So much for gaming on it. Assembly is easy. A 10 year old donkey can slap this thing together. This notebook is solid. Yes it little flexing in the palm rests but most of them do. Who cares? No creaking yet. All the panels for adding and removing parts are on the bottom. Asus finally made a notebook with easy assembly. I have never seen an easier notebook to add or remove parts from.
Screen:
Awesome A grade screen. Excellent brightness, contrast and color definition. Excellent wide view angles. Not so great verticals. No complaints this is an A grade screen. This one is a 14" glossy type display. Max resolutions @ 1280x800. I can’t really add much more. I guess people will have to take my word that the monitor is all that and more without any imperfections.
Audio and Speakers:
Pretty weak speakers as its replacement (z63a). On the other hand there is an optical spdif port for a mini tos link. So if you want nice sound the ability to connect to an optical receiver is there. The 2 speakers it has are minute. Can’t say I am surprised. It’s a budget laptop.
Dimmensions
13x10x1.5 Inches (wxdxh)
The legs are about 2mm.
Weight @ 5.5lbs fully loaded with base battery.
Battery life:
I got exactly 4 hours and 3 minutes out of it while typing this review. This had power4gear set to email/office and brightness @ 50%. That’s phenomenal. If you set brightness at 15% in a dark room its very visible you can get upwards of 5 hours on very mild use I imagine. Very good battery life and surprisingly better then expected. Now keep in mind this is without undervolting.
Heat and Noise:
This thing is extremely cool. I am on battery now. The fan is Silent. No Joke. It feels like it is off. On ac adaptor it is still silent. Only time you can hear it is during pcmark. NICE!!! The fan in here is all that and more. This is less loud then any laptop I have seen from asus in the recent past. I can say its silent but I know I will get bashed so I will say its almost silent. After installing notebook hardware control these are the temps i got while on battery. I am still not undervolting this thing so keep that in mind:
cpu: 40C (battery low load)
hdd: 43C (battery low load)
CPU:47C (AC low load)
HDD:43C (AC low load)
CPU: 53C (AC 35% load)
HDD:49C (AC 35% load)
Please keep in mind the hdd during these simple tests remains mostly off. Obviously during simultaneous uploads and downloads or disk defrag most hdd will reach up to 60C. This is normal. I give this an A in terms of heat and noise.
Benchmarks:
Ok what I did to compare is run pcmark05 full suite on 3 machines all with very comparable specs except the z70va which has a dedicated x700 and a 2.0ghz cpu instead of the 1.8ghz as the others which explains the high graphics score:
Z62F Overall: 3012
CPU: 4266
Memory: 2505
Graphics: 1079
Z62F Overall (after bios flash): 2536
CPU: 4273
Memory: 2912
Graphics: 809
Z63A overall: 2082
CPU: 2992
Memory: 2734
Graphics: 812
Z70va overall: 2883
CPU: 3195
Memory: 2823
Graphics: 2888
Basically all these tests conclude is that the z62f destroys all mobiles that came before it in terms of multithreading and general cpu performance. The reason it fell slightly behind in memory is because of the high latency. DDR667 is cas5 while ddr533 is cas4. Now i did not run extended memory tests but i am sure the higher clock can contribute to some beneficial results over the others. It’s also possible that 3dmark05 does not have full support for the new chipset. This is pretty minor still because in terms of overall processing power the z62f destroys both no contests. With all that said the battery life is actually greater then its cousin the z63a. Same 4800mah battery too. Just for kicks and giggles I tested my desktop which has an amd athlon 3200+ which is still considered a high end desktop cpu. It scored a whopping 2751 on the cpu test of pcmark05. That’s pretty sad considering it scored even less then the 533fsb Dothan. It (my desktop) did destroy the lappies in all other aspects including memory which scored more then double, hdd which scored almost tripple (running mirror raid here with 2x sata drives).
Pro's:
* Extremely easy to assemble. They finally got it. A donkey can put this notebook together from scratch.
* Built in camera and mic
* All ports on one side. Some may not like this but I think its ok. A lot better then having some ports on the back
* Nice keyboard. Has very little play. Some very picky analyst will return because of this so I though i should mention it. It also has a partial spill proof keyboard. Just a spill proof layer of clear acrylic on the bottom of the kb. Will not stop a flood but will prevent a small spill from toping over to the mainboard. The keyboard can use a little work. Some padding on the bottom will help. I have seen a lot worse. This gets a B unfortunately. After some fiddling around I used double sided clear tape on the bottom. I have to say it is very solid now. Too solid. I will recant the B and give it an A-. Too solid infact. I like a little play in my kb gives it a soft feeling
* Port bar connect is on it. This is not a very popular feature. It is basically an expansion dock that allows you to connect asus port bar from the rear which has a ac hole, vga out, 4 usb, modem, lan....
* They finally got rid of the ****ed Toshiba Samsung optical drives. Those things were just unreliable. Hopefully they won’t contract Samsung for anything anymore. This year all they did was get screwed by them and we got it even worse
* Got rid of the audio dj. Yes this is a pro. Did anyone actually ever use that feature? What 1 in 1000?
* This notebook is an awesome value. We started the base barebones off at $579. In the history of asus there has never been a better value.
* Positioned the exhaust vent on the left side middle. That’s good because I don’t have to take phone calls that start with "is it normal for my hand to sweat if I use an external mouse near the vent on the right?". I love picky people.
* Stackable memory. Yes finally the memory bays are right above each other. Why o why did they use to put one of them under the lappy and the other under the keyboard?
* This is the best one. A standard unaltered optical drive. No more rail kits or faceplate kits. This thing is original as manufactured by Panasonic. I think. Though this does not affect end users it helps us a lot in terms of rma. We no longer have to order special drives from asus for rma purposed. We can pick then up anywhere and not get bent over.
Con's:
* Someone screwed up. The plastic fillers for the PCMCIA and sd card readers were not included. Talk about attention to detail.
* Absence of a modular optical bay. That’s right this model no longer employs the famous modular bay. You cannot use a second internal battery or a second internal harddrive. Of course there is no traveler drawer. All good things that made asus stand out before are now gone.
* The plastic legs on the bottom. Not sure why they are there. They are a bit taller then the rubber feet which makes this thing wobble on a flat surface. For now we are just grinding them down. This is a defect. We are fixing this on our end but I hope asus will take care of this in the next shipment with slightly taller rubber feet. We are basically polishing them down a bit don’t worry they look natural.
Conclusion:
It doesn’t look bad. It doesn’t look beautiful ether but it is what it is a very good value and from what it looks like a good quality design and hopefully remains to be such for the next few years like the z63a.
Answer:
Re: Asus z62f Review
Nice review, read it on your forums earlier today :p
The Z62f won't even offer BT as an option?
Answer:
Re: Asus z62f Review
I have to check on monday. unfortunately the current internal modules we stock do not fit the new port. There is a port for bt but i dont know if we will be able to get those modules soon enough. Have to see on monday :(
Answer:
Re: Asus z62f Review
Thanks Eddie, nice job :)
Now, any closeups? :p
Answer:
Re: Asus z62f Review
I have to check on monday. unfortunately the current internal modules we stock do not fit the new port. There is a port for bt but i dont know if we will be able to get those modules soon enough. Have to see on monday :(
No problem, I was just wondering about it and in case someone here might care for BT.
I am convinced to wait for the Z35f. :)
Answer:
Re: Asus z62f Review
Nah no close ups yet. I got a ****py camera. besides the pics that are available now are pretty decent. I will try to see if i can have a 3d model drawn up for this thing and the new ones provided asus marketing funds cover the expense. Not sure if this one is even worth it all that time and effort.
Answer:
Re: Asus z62f Review
I am convinced to wait for the Z35f.
I got one here on friday. Dont know how but it came with a 915 chipset and a pm750. Not even the core. Dunno what to do with it. I havent been this excited since the z70va came out and now i have nothing but a fancy shell without the right chipset. :mad:
Answer:
Re: Asus z62f Review
That's annoying at least solo (as was your initial info) ment you could have upgraded it.
At least is the shell nice and well built?
Have you tested battery life on it yet? Since it seems the P-M and the duo are roughly consuming the same amount of power.
Answer:
Re: Asus z62f Review
Eh its ok. They will hopefully bring it in black instead of the strange mixture of silver and white on top. Looks like a mac with all the white. Its small. I am quite satisfied with its portability. I still would love for them to bring in a non wide 12 incher. Something about the 12" wide that makes the screen frame look too large and the screen to wide. I guess i am just used to my 12" m5n. You know i belive the cores actually use less power. The z62f gets more battery life from a 6 cell. Anyone know if the z63a also had a 6 cell or an 8 cell. I think they were all 6 cells. Only the z70 series had an 8 cell.....i think????
Answer:
Re: Asus z62f Review
wow, over 4 hours on a 6 cell is great battery life!