Asus A7G Review
Overview
Over the past year the notebook industry has grown by leaps and bounds, but we can think of no single company that has shown as much individual growth as Asus. Asus notebooks have traditionally been regarded as high quality, but they simply weren't as widely known by consumers. Even less known was the fact that Asus makes a number of the ODM models major manufacturers buy and brand as their own. With Asus-branded notebook shipments growing and a recent design win with Dell, Asus is on the way to the top and is a formidable player in the notebook industry.
The Asus A7G is a 17' widescreen 'multimedia notebook' as described by Asus, and is one sleek package. Design has always been top notch with Asus and the A7G's sleek two-tone scheme is sophisticated, yet not too flashy. Our test model came well loaded with a speedy Pentium M 760 (2.0GHz), 1GB DDR2 533 RAM, 100GB 5400RPM Hard Drive, a built-in TV tuner, and of course ATI's fresh new Mobility Radeon X1600 GPU. The A7G is well built, continuing the quality shown by all the Asus notebooks we've come across. When you first open up the A7G, you might be taken aback by its large size. We feel that the layout of the A7G wasn't really optimized for size, as there is a fair amount of screen bezel and a large chassis area around the keyboard that make it seem rather bloated. While it is understandable that Asus didn't want or need to make the A7G slimmer or sleeker, it sure would be appreciated by most users.
The 17' WXGA+ (1440x900) ColorShine display is to say the least, breathtaking. The colors are extremely bright and vivid, thanks to both Asus' Splendid Video color enhancement software and ATI's AVIVO technology in the Mobility Radeon X1600. The brand spanking new ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 is featured only in the Asus A7G at the time of writing, and is without a doubt the best GPU for a thin & light performance application. Now the A7G isn't exactly thin or light, making us wish ATI had included a higher end GPU for gaming; candidates could have included the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800GTX or ATI's somewhat outdated Mobility Radeon X800XT. As much as we love the design and the screen, Asus could have included a little punchier speakers being a multimedia machine and a more powerful GPU would certainly have been welcomed by gamers. A higher resolution screen option is noticeably absent, but we imagine that higher resolution panels would sacrifice the quality of this 'low resolution' WXGA+ display. Overall the A7G is a solid, well built, feature filled, and powerful machine; it is just too bad it isn't available in the U.S., yet. Across the sea MSRP for this beast is The 17" WXGA+ (1440x900) ColorShine display is to say the least, breathtaking. The colors are extremely bright and vivid, thanks to both Asus Splendid Video color enhancement software and ATIs AVIVO technology in the Mobility Radeon X1600. The brand spanking new ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 is featured only in the Asus A7G at the time of writing, and is without a doubt the best GPU for a thin & light performance application. Now the A7G isnt exactly thin or light, making us wish ATI had included a higher end GPU for gaming; candidates could have included the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800GTX or ATIs somewhat outdated Mobility Radeon X800XT. As much as we love the design and the screen, Asus could have included a little punchier speakers being a multimedia machine and a more powerful GPU would certainly have been welcomed by gamers. A higher resolution screen option is noticeably absent, but we imagine that higher resolution panels would sacrifice the quality of this low resolution WXGA+ display. Overall the A7G is a solid, well built, feature filled, and powerful machine; it is just too bad it isnt available in the U.S., yet. Across the sea MSRP for this beast is 1399, or roughly $2200USD. The price is definitely on the high end, and for that much we would appreciate a more powerful GPU and 7200RPM hard drive, but the multimedia features are all there and they pack quite a punch.
Design
Portability
The only 17 notebook weve seen that is remotely portable was Dells Inspiron 9300, and the A7G isnt nearly as petite as the 9300. Measuring a hefty 15.9 wide, 12.3 deep, and 1.5 thick, Asus A7G isnt going to be a machine you want to take everywhere you go. The bezel around the LCD could be smaller to allow for a smaller chassis, but then you would lose the camera and middle speaker. The only portability we recommend with this machine is moving it around your living room.
Case and Design
Weve always loved the style and design of Asus notebooks, and the A7G is no exception. The sleek two-tone chassis is stylish and hip. Youll notice the hinge is composed of a relatively small cylinder, but the LCD has a very secure attachment to the hinge cylinder and feels very solid. Since the A7G is multimedia oriented, the media control buttons are accessible even with the LCD closed.
Left to right you have CD, Previous, Next, Stop, and Play/Pause controls for media playback. There are also several LEDs visible, consisting of Power, Battery, E-Mail, and WiFi from left to right. For those who will use this as an always on desktop replacement, the e-mail indicator LED can be configured to blink when a new e-mail has arrived.
Taking a look at the interior, we see the simple two-tone color scheme and striking blue LEDs. The layout is standard, with several buttons and LEDs at the top. From left to right you have Bluetooth and Hard Drive Activity LEDs. There is also probably a WiFi indicator, but our model did not have WiFi enabled so we were unable to verify this. You also have several buttons consisting of Power4Gear, Internet Browser, E-Mail, and Touchpad Disable from left to right. The Power4Gear button cycles through Asus excellent power management profiles with an on screen indicator in the upper left hand corner. We feel that the LEDs at the top could have been larger and brighter. While we appreciate the simple look, they are difficult to view from a distance and it isnt easy to decipher what the LED actually indicates.
As always with Asus machines, we found the build quality to be top notch. There was very little case flex and overall the machine felt very solid. The only complaint we really have is that the sleek finish on the outside of the LCD is easily prone to light scratches and fingerprints. While not as bad as the Fujitsu Lifebook N3510 we reviewed, it is an annoyance for those who will be transporting the A7G a lot.
Keyboard
The A7Gs keyboard is full size, but looking at it in comparison to the chassis makes it seem diminutive. Just looking at it, one might wish the keyboard was larger and the speakers on either side smaller. However, after sitting down and typing at it for a while, the size feels quite natural and comfortable. When placing your hands to start typing, the large palm rest area supports ones hands well and contributes to an overall good typing experience.
The travel distance and quality of the keys themselves was excellent as well. While we cant say this is of Thinkpad or Powerbook quality, no one should be disappointed. The function keys available are a fairly standard load. From left to right you have Sleep (F1), wireless radio control (F2), Brightness Down (F5), Brightness Up (F6), LCD Off (F7), Display Output (F8), Mute (F10), Volume Down (F11), and Volume Up (F12). All of these buttons activate an On Screen Display in the upper left hand corner, showing you the relevant information for the selected function. The wireless radio control button can be configured to toggle one or all of the wireless radios (i.e. Bluetooth and/or WiFi).
It is a little difficult to comment on key placement here, as this model is not intended for sale in the U.S. (at least for now). Speaking purely from a standard U.S. keyboard layout, this keyboard is atrocious. The left shift key is tiny and the Enter key is abnormally shaped. I cant speak for other people, but when I place my hands on a keyboard I use the left shift key as a placeholder to get the rest of my fingers aligned properly. That is pretty much impossible on this machine! We hope against all odds that this keyboard will not find its way into any potential U.S. models, as weve not seen a keyboard like it from other companies. However, on the upside, the Russian characters are pretty to look at.
Design ContinuedTouchpad
Asus chose to include a standard touchpad with two buttons and scrolling regions. It is a little larger than most touchpads which is nice, and is responsive as any. The buttons do not have a deep travel depth, instead having a very shallow and sharp click. You actually have to click them more towards the middle of the two buttons, as the outside edge of each button is apart of the frame around the touchpad. The inside area of each button are what actually clicks, so it takes a little getting used to but is not a huge nuisance.
Connectivity Options
Being a multimedia machine, we found the number of ports and options on the A7G to be plentiful.
The front is barren except for the IR transmitter/receiver.
We see a large number of ports on the rear of the A7G, which fits in with its DTR design. People who use a notebook as desktop replacement would prefer more of their ports on the back, as they have to plug/unplug devices less often. From left to right, we see the exhaust port, S-Video Out, VGA out, Parallel, and four USB 2.0 ports. The Parallel port is a surprise, although a welcome one. Not many people use parallel devices, like older printers, these days, but it cant hurt to have one. The plethora of USB ports on the back is also an excellent choice, ensuring users are able to plug in the many USB devices out there today.
From left to right we have the network & modem plugs, one USB 2.0, TV-Tuner input, Headphone jack, Microphone input, SP/DIF output [CHECK] , 4-pin Firewire, and PCMCIA slot. Directly above the PCMCIA slot is a very tiny wireless radio hardware switch and the 4-in-1 card reader. The card reader supports SD, MMC, MS, and MS Pro memory cards. Why Asus chose to include a wireless hardware switch when they already have a software function built into Fn+F2, but they could have at least made it a little larger. As is, the switch is very tiny and difficult to operate.
The right side is pretty barren, with only the optical drive and power connector present. As we've noticed with other Asus systems, the optical drive button is easy to accidentally depress if you're moving the machine around, causing the drive to eject unexpectedly.
Heat and Noise
Desktop replacement notebooks generall trend one of two ways: either with a cool & quiet cooling system or they just run blatantly warm. The A7G's CPU runs fairly cool, staying around 40 degrees Celcius when idle at 800MHz. With the CPU spiking to 2GHz or even idling at 2GHz, temperatures will quickly rise to 50 C and above. This isn't an issue for concern, just somewhat disappointing as you can feel several warm spots on the underside of the A7G. What is somewhat concerning is the hard drive temperature. In this chassis the Fujitsu hard drive stays in the upper 30 degrees C, breaking 40 C fairly easily. This is likely not a sign of the hard drive itself producing heat, but heat from the rest of the system not being dissipated properly.
Upgrading and Expansion
One thing weve loved about every recent Asus notebook weve gotten our hands on is the simplicity in upgrading. Most companies put the CPU under the keyboard, requiring you sometimes to remove the entire palm rest/bezel area around the keyboard to get to it. RAM is increasingly being found under the keyboard or in even less desirable places. Hard drives are about the only aspect that is universally simple in laptop upgrading. With the A7G, you will find every bit of end user replaceable components on the bottom of the machine. Grab yourself a very small Philips head screwdriver and in about 90 seconds youll have the 3 door covers off and the guts exposed.
Users can now easily swap the CPU, RAM, hard drive, and mini-PCI card with ease. The only negative here is that one of the RAM sticks is under the keyboard, leaving only one easily accessible. Luckily Asus clearly labels the screw holes on the bottom, so with a user's manual one can easily remove the keyboard. You couldnt ask for an easier system to upgrade!
FeaturesProcessor/Chipset/RAM
The A7G uses Intels latest Pentium M platform, codenamed Sonoma. As most of you know, this update to the popular technology brings a faster front side bus, PCI Express, High Definition Audio, Serial ATA, DDR2 RAM, and more. Our model came loaded with the Pentium M 760, running at 2.0GHz with 2MB L2 Cache on a 533MHz FSB. The Intel 915PM chipset is used, providing discrete graphics via ATI's brand new Mobility Radeon X1600. The higher bus speeds help improve performance as does the faster RAM running synchronous with the FSB. DDR2 is also Dual Channel capable, meaning that using two identical memory modules effectively doubles your memory bandwidth. In our Sonoma Platform article, we determined that dual channel brings very little real world performance improvement. While DDR2 is also clocked higher than DDR 333, it has higher latencies which reduce the positive effect of the higher speed. Latency refers to the amount of time it takes for data to enter and leave the memory, thus higher latency produces less performance. Regardless, the Sonoma platforms new features are a big step in the right direction. The new feature sets added to the Centrino platform make mobile systems capable of doing everything a desktop can, with battery life to spare.
GPU
This notebook is the first of its kind, implementing ATIs new GPU: the Mobility Radeon X1600. Unlike the previous X600/X700 models which were near identical to the 9000 series, the X1000 series GPUs are an entirely new architecture. We will go into more detail in an upcoming gaming article about this new GPU, but lets cover the basics here. The Mobility Radeon (MR) X1600 is built on a 90nm manufacturing process, which brings smaller die sizes, lower power consumption, and potentially higher clock scaling. The architecture driving the X1600 is the same as its desktop brethren, bringing with it higher performance, a greater graphics feature set, and support for ATIs famed AVIVO multimedia technology. Shader Model 3.0 and High Dynamic Range support is finally included, catching up to where NVIDIAs GeForce 6-series had already been quite some time ago. The X1600 GPU itself has support for any type of graphics RAM imaginable, from the antiquated DDR1 to the defacto standard GDDR3 to the upcoming GDDR4, making this one robust GPU.
The MR X1600 features 12 pixel pipelines and 5 shader units, up from the 8 pixel pipelines and 4 shader units of the MR X700 it replaces. Perhaps the best part about this GPU is its thermal design power, or the amount of power that must be dissipated by the cooling system. The previous Mobility Radeon X700 was built on a 110nm manufacturing process, consumed a mere 14W, and was one of the best GPU's for a thin & light notebook; ATI's best thin & light GPU by far. Thanks to the X1600's new 90nm manufacturing process, a new power management technique called Back Biasing, and the updated PowerPlay 6.0 power management software, the Mobility Radeon X1600 dissipates up to 17W! This is ATI's first mobile 12-pipeline GPU, so we can't make a direct comparison there. However if we look at NVIDIA's GeForce Go 6800, that GPU was manufactured on a 110nm process, has 12 pipelines, and has a TDP around 40W! The X1600 really is an achievement in mobile thin & light gaming, offering very respectable performance in machines that can be still be considered portable! Obviously the Asus A7G is not one of those machines, but we can expect to see the X1600 in 15.4" machines and hopefully even smaller chassis!
ATIs AVIVO technology is not one to scoffed at, especially for multimedia notebook users. People are increasingly playing high definition video content, performing large amounts of video editing & converting, and also wouldnt mind higher image quality in general on their laptops. AVIVO promises to improve all of this, and in fact it delivers in some respects. Anandtech recently took AVIVOs performance in desktop form for a test drive here, and found some promising results. The big feature AVIVO is now able to support is H.264 decode acceleration. H.264 is an increasingly popular high definition video format, which is a key building block for upcoming Blu-ray and HD-DVD optical media. It offers incredible quality with more efficient use of space, but it comes at the expense of a severe toll on the CPU.
Above is a chart from an ATI PDF on H.264, which pretty clearly shows the demand H.264 can place on a system. With a lot of emphasis being placed on this new format, companies involved in the video arena would do well to ensure that consumers can gracefully change over to the new format. As you can see in Anandtechs article, ATIs GPU accelerated H.264 decoder was able to reduce CPU load during playback of the H.264 video by a fairly large margin. NVIDIA promised something similar with their GeForce 6 series GPUs for MPEG and WMV-HD formats, but could never quite deliver as well as they promised. ATI is already on the right track with H.264 acceleration and will hopefully continue on that same track. To be fair, while we feel that ATI is closer to what they promised as far as decode acceleration than NVIDIA was, NVIDIA did eventually accomplish sufficient decode acceleration despite some broken promises on the original desktop GeForce 6-series AGP video cards.
For a more in-depth discussion of all the benefits AVIVO is supposed to provide, feel free to check out ATIs whitepaper on the subject here. The promises of AVIVO technology are quite enticing, and will be a huge hit if they are implemented as promised. AVIVO offers several key improvements: improved 2D & video playback quality, improved analog to digital conversion (for instance with TV capture/viewing), hardware assisted video compression/transcode, hardware assisted video decoding, and superior post-processing. Weve seen evidence of the video decoding performance, but the video compression/transcoding is only so far implemented through ATIs very efficient AVIVO Video Converter software. Image quality is a very relative subject, as some users dont even notice a difference and others dont even care. While we can say the image quality on the A7G was absolutely top notch, we cant say that will necessarily be true on any AVIVO-enabled notebook. AVIVO looks to be a great step forward for mobile multimedia support, but time will tell if it is everything its cracked up to be. As a last note, not every notebook with a Mobility Radeon X1000-series GPU will necessarily have AVIVO support. It is up to the manufacturer to include full support for AVIVO, and we hope that each and every single one does.
Display
While we were less than impressed with the Asus V6Vs 15 SXGA+ ColorShine screen, the A7G far surpasses the V6V and most other notebook screens. Not only is it extremely bright and vibrant without being overly harsh, but colors and viewing angles are superb. Asus proprietary Splendid Video engine combined with ATIs AVIVO technology make for one stellar image that anyone can appreciate. Surprisingly, there is almost no color inversion when viewing the screen from just about any angle. In addition to no color inversion, the image barely fades from view at even extreme angles.
There was no noticeable ghosting during gaming, which is a plus given the sweet GPU and multimedia orientation. This 17 display runs at a WXGA+ resolution, or 1440x900. WXGA+ is a good choice considering WUXGA (1920x1200) would make text too small for most people, but the option should have been included. As a lover of high resolutions, WXGA+ is a little limiting at 17 but is certainly bearable. Overall we love this screen to death. A WUXGA option would be nice for those high resolution gurus like myself, but the top notch quality makes up for it.
Sound
The first thing youll notice when listening to the A7Gs speakers is the volume. These speakers get PLENTY loud, whether it be in games or music. In fact, if you let the default Asus screensaver kick on it will startle you with its upbeat music blaring. Surprisingly though, there is little bass coming from the A7Gs sound system. We would expect such a large multimedia machine to include either higher quality speakers or a built-in subwoofer, neither of which the A7G includes. If the A7G or a similar variant ever makes it to U.S. shores, Asus would do well to beef up the bass a little bit. Other companies have successfully implemented an integrated subwoofer for added bass, so there is no excuse.
Luckily the onboard sound quality is as good as can be expected, given Asus chose to implement the Sonoma platforms Intel High Definition Audio standard. Below is a brief comparison of the defacto AC97 codec and Intels Azalea High Def Audio:
| AC'97 | Intel High Definition Audio |
| 20-bit output, 96 kHz stereo Max - 12 Mb/sec Max | 32-bit output, 192 kHz Multi Channel - 48 Mb/sec (SDO), 24 Mb/sec (SDI) |
| Fixed bandwidth assignment | Dynamic bandwidth assignment |
| AC'97 DMAs: dedicated function assignment | High Definition Audio DMAs: dynamic function assignment |
| Codec enumeration at boot time (BIOS) | Codec enumeration done by SW (bus driver) |
| Codec configuration limitation | No codec configuration limitation |
| 12 MHz clock provided by primary codec | 24 MHz clock provided by the ICH6-M |
| No ISOCH support | ISOCH support enables power savings opportunity (CPU in C3 state with audio activity) |
Wi-Fi
Unfortunately theres really not anything to say here. For whatever reason, the WiFi was in our unit was disabled at the hardware level by Asus prior to distribution. It came installed with a standard Intel 2915ABG card. The A7G will have the option of either the 2915ABG (802.11a/b/g) or the standard 2200BG (802.11b/g).
Bluetooth
The A7G also features integrated Bluetooth wireless technology to wirelessly sync with Bluetooth enabled devices like printers, mice, keyboard, PDA, and cellular phones. We connected a Radtech BT500 bluetooth mouse with ease, thanks to the Add Bluetooth Device Wizard that detected the mouse immediately with no software drivers needed in order for it to operate. The user can easily enable/disable the Bluetooth radio either with the Fn+F2 key or a small hardware switch on the left side of the machine. Although Bluetooth works within a smaller scope, it is useful for connecting multiple devices simultaneously. If Bluetooth and WiFi are not enough, the A7G comes with infared (IrDA) communication that allows you to synchronize with PDAs or mobile phones.
Optical Drive
OurA7G test model came with a Matshita DVD-RAM optical drive, capable of writing any disc you throw at it, including Dual Layer DVD's. This of course includes both DVD formats, CD-R's, and even the obscure DVD-RAM. With burn speeds competitive with other notebook drives and every feature support you could want, we are very pleased with the A7G's optical drive.
The supported read and write capabilities are as follows:
- Read: 24X CD-ROM/CD-R, 8X DVD-ROM, 6X DVD-ROM Dual Layer, 4X DVD +/- R/RW, 2X DVD-RAM
- Write: 24X CD-R, 16X CD-RW, 8X DVD +/- R, 2.4x DVD +/- R DL, 4X DVD +/- RW, 3X DVD-RAM
Hard Drive
Asus chose to include the top notch Fujitsu MHV2100AH; featuring a 100GB capacity, 5400RPM spindle speed, and 8MB cache. In our 2.5 Hard Drive Roundup, we found it to perform very well and the quietest of the bunch. Asus of course packages it in a simple drive caddy for storage in the machine. A 120GB 5400RPM or 100GB 7200RPM drive would have been a nice option, but the Fujitsu drive performs adequately. 60GB and 80GB drives are also available.
Battery
An 8-cell battery is standard, featuring a capacity of 4800mAh rated at 71Whr with19V voltage. Battery life however was pretty dismal at around 2 hours, despite the respectable capacity. The main reason for this is of course going to be the giant and bright LCD panel. Still, we are a bit disappointed that a better battery life couldnt be achieved using stock settings. Our benchmarks are run with the power scheme set to Portable/Laptop for consistency, but Asus excellent Power4Gear software should allow for some extra juice out of the A7G.
A bit of an oddity to note here is that Asus places the battery at the front of the machine, whereas almost any other laptop has the battery located at the back. There is no real negative to this that we can tell, just an oddity to point out.
AC Adapter
The included AC adapter measures 5 long x 2.25 wide x 1.25 thick, which is about average for a 17" machine. Both ends of the power cables are about 5 feet long. These cables could be a little longer for additional flexibility, but most people will just plug this in and leave it there most likely. There is no cable management to speak of, again probably lending to the fact that this machine wasn't meant to go out and about.
Integrated Webcam
Almost a requisite for multimedia machines these days, the Asus A7G sports an integrated 1.3 megapixel CMOS digital camera. This is capable taking still shots or recording video. You will need to supply your own recording or communication software to actually use it as a camera/webcam. The video isn't very clear, but you can make out the person without too much difficulty. The camera is capable of 320x240 or 640x480 video resolution.
Asus Video Security
The only program included to really put the camera to use is Asus' Video Security. While more of a gimmick from this reviewer's opinion, the software does include options for triggering the camera, recording options, network/e-mail alerts, and more. Spy on anyone who might want to use your laptop or even go near it!
(Our Editors are shy folk!) Enlarge Image
Asus Mobile Theater
Reminiscent of the Windows Media Center Edition interface, Asus has bundled their own Mobile Theater 3.0 software.
It is very straight forward to use and should cover the bases for just about any multimedia use. The biggest complaint though is this program seems very bloated. It loads very slowly, advances between sections very slowly, and just feels slow in general! The Windows XP Media Center Edition interface is much smoother and quicker, and you usually get a remote with MCE machines.
TV Tuner
Integrated TV tuners are becoming more common in today's multimedia machines and the A7G is no exception. We did not have a long time with this machine and unfortunately could not extensively test the TV tuner, but did make sure to play around with it.
Enlarge Image (Full 1440x900 Image)
I loaded up the TV Tuner interface in Asus Mobile Theater before even hooking up the cable connection. Immediately upon plugging in the included adapter (pictured above), I was greeted with a crisp, clear picture. Truthfully, I was rather surprised at the image quality. Having used a few TV tuner cards in desktop machines, I was expecting a fairly grainy yet bearable image. The A7G's tuner picture was anything but grainy, almost looking better than the TV sitting next to it! Skin color tones were still not perfectly reproduced, but sharpness and clarity was very good. Part of this is due to ATI's AVIVO technology, which we previously discussed. One of AVIVO's features is that it enhances analog to digital conversion, and if this is the result of that then we are certainly impressed! Without a more thorough investigation of integrated TV tuner performance we can't chalk this one up as a pure win for AVIVO, but it definitely contributed and we are impressed.
A remote control would have been a nice addition for this multimedia machine. Regardless, Asus' Mobile Theater 3.0 software will allow you to record, schedule, and organize your favorite TV programs (or whatever other input source you hook up to the TV tuner). Again we prefer the Windows XP Media Center Edition interface to Asus' Mobile Theater, as well as the commonly included remote with MCE machines.
Setup MethodThe Asus A7G was set to run at full performance by setting the power scheme set to 'Home/Office Desk' with the AC plugged in, meaning that the CPU will not underclock while running the tests. For the battery performance test, the power scheme was set to 'Portable/Laptop'. This activates Intel's Enhanced Speedstep technology, which lowers CPU speed when not needed, thus increasing battery life. Screen brightness and audio were both set to 50% and Wi-Fi were turned on. Each test was repeated 3 times to ensure accuracy. Before each test was run, the laptop was rebooted and its hard drive defragmented.
Bapco SYSmark2004SE is popular benchmark suite consists of two different performance scenarios and generates an overall score by taking the geometric mean of the individual scores.
- Internet Content Creation: In this scenario, the content creator creates a product related website targeting a broadband and narrowband audience. The user first renders a 3D model to a bitmap, while preparing web pages using a web site publishing tool. The user opens a video editing package, creates a movie from several raw input movie cuts and sound cuts and starts exporting it. While waiting on this operation, the user imports the rendered image into an image-processing package; modifies it and saves the results. Back in the 3D modeling software, the user modifies a 3D model and exports it to a vector-graphics format. Once the movie is assembled, the user edits it and creates special effects using one of the modified images as input. The user extracts content from an archive. Meanwhile, he uses an animation creation tool to open the exported 3D vector graphics file. He modifies it by including other pictures and optimizes it for faster animation. The final movie with the special effects is then compressed in a format that can be broadcast over broadband Internet. The web site is given the final touches and the system is scanned for viruses.
- Office Productivity: In this scenario, the office productivity user creates a marketing presentation and supporting documents for a new product. The user receives email containing a collection of documents in a compressed file. The user reviews his email and updates his calendar while a virus checking software scans the system. The corporate web site is viewed and the user begins creating the collateral documents. The user also accesses a database and runs some queries. A collection of documents are compressed. The queries' results are imported into a spreadsheet and used to generate graphical charts. The user then transcribes a document.. The user edits and adds elements to a slide show template. Finally, the user looks at the results of his work (both the slide show and the portable document) in an Internet browser.
Bapco MobileMark 2005 is the latest version of the premier notebook battery life and performance under battery life metric based on real world applications.
- Office Productivity: The workloads in this category model a mobile professional at a fictitious automobile company. The worker creates documents using Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, accesses email, and creates graphics and animation with Photoshop and Flash to include in a multimedia presentation. An Internet browser is used to view presentations. The user also invokes file compression and virus detection in the background.
- DVD Playback: The DVD playback 2005 workload is based on a 1 hours 55 minute movie that BAPCo has created from content provided by BMW. The DVD playback test starts the movie playerapplication, sets up a full screen playback, and the loops over the content on the disk in the DVDplayer. This playback will continue until system shutdown at battery depletion.
3DMark 2001 SE PRO build 3.3.0 measures graphics performance by benchmarking the CPU, memory, and graphics through a series of 21 tests, including simulated games, theoretical tests, DX8 feature tests, and image quality tests. Resolution was set to 1024x768 with all default settings.
3DMark 2003 build 3.6.0 measures DX9 performance through a series of 3D game based sound, graphics, and CPU tests. Resolution was set to 1024x768 with all default settings.
PCMark 2005 Advanced build 1.1.0 is the latest update to Futuremark's popular overall system benchmarking program. The 2005 version adds multithreading, DirectX 9, Windows Media Player 10, virus scanning, High Defintion video playback (WMVHD), and a vast number of other tests to its suite. Testing your computer's CPU, RAM, hard drive and graphics card, PCMark05 drives your computer to the max to determine its strengths and weaknesses.
Doom 3 (Version 1.1) using the built-in time-demo, initiated with the console command timedemo demo1 precache.
Test1:
| Test2:
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Half Life 2 (Source Engine 7) timedemo Canals 08 with the following tests and graphic settings:
Test1 (Low Image Quality):
| Test2 (High Image Quality):
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Configurations
Editor's Note: Unfortunately at this time we have no current benchmarks of truly comparable models, since we recently updated our benchmark suite to better serve our readers. Performance numbers between Winstone & Sysmark are not comparable unfortunately, but one can compare Winstone and MobileMark runtimes for a rough comparison.
| Specifications | Asus A7G | Lenovo Thinkpad Z60m | MSI MS-1029 |
| Processor | Intel Pentium M 760 (2.0GHz, 2MB L2 Cache) | Intel Pentium M 760 (2.0GHz, 2MB L2 Cache) | AMD Turion 64 MT-37 (2.0GHz, 1MB L2 Cache) |
| Front Side Bus | 533MHz | 533MHz | 800 MHz (HTT) |
| Chipset | Intel 915PM | Intel 915PM | ATI RX480M + SB400 |
| Wireless LAN | Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG | Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG | MSI 802.11b/g |
| LCD | 17" WXGA+ TFT LCD (1440x900) | 15.4" WSXGA+ TFT LCD (1680x1050) | 15.4" WXGA Glossy TFT LCD (1280x800) |
| Hard Drive | 100GB Fujitsu MHV2100AH 5400RPM 8MB Cache | 100GB Hitachi 5K100 5400RPM 8MB Cache (HTS541010G9SA00) | 80GB Western Digital 5400RPM 8MB Cache (WD800VE) |
| Memory | 1GB DDR2 533 PC4200 SDRAM (2 x 512MB) | 1GB DDR2 533 PC4200 SDRAM (1 x 1GB) | 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR400 PC3200 SO-DIMM in Single-Channel Mode CL 2.5 |
| Graphics | ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 128MB | ATI Mobility Radeon X600 128MB | ATI Mobility Radeon X700 128MB |
| Graphics Interface | S-Video/VGA-out | S-Video/TV-out/VGA-out | S-Video/VGA-OUT |
| Optical Drive | 8x DVD+/-RW | 8x DVD+/-RW | Dual-Layer Multi-Format DVD+/-RW |
| Modem | Integrated V.90 Modem | Integrated V.90 Modem | Integrated V.90 Modem |
| Ethernet | 10BASE-T/1000BASE-TX Ethernet | 10BASE-T/1000BASE-TX Ethernet | 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX Ethernet |
| Audio | Intel High Definition Audio (ICH-6) | Intel High Definition Audio (ICH-6) | AC'97 2.2 |
| Audio Interface | Microphone, two stereo speakers, headphone/line-out with SPDIF support | Microphone, two stereo speakers, headphone/line-out with SPDIF support | Microphone, two stereo speakers, headphone/line-out with SPDIF support |
| Ports | 3-in-1 Card Reader 4-pin FireWire 1394 5 x USB 2.0 PCMCIA Slot | 3-in-1 Card Reader FireWire 1394 3 x USB 2.0 PC Card/ExpressCard | MMC/SD/MS 3-in-1 Card Reader FireWire 1394 4 x USB 2.0 PC Card |
| Weight | 9.04lbs with 8-cell battery | 7.3 lbs. with 9-cell battery | 6.39lbs with 8-cell battery |
| Size (W x D x H) | 15.9" x 12.3 " x 1.5 " | 14.1" x 10.3" x 1.47-1.58" | 13.98" x 10.04" x 1.18" |
| Operating System | Windows XP Professional w/SP2 | Windows XP Pro w/SP2 | Windows XP Pro w/SP2 |
| Battery | 4,800 mAh | 7,200 mAh | 4,400 mAh |
Bapco SYSmark2004SE
Internet Content Creation
Office Productivity
Total Score
The results here are rather surprising. Since the Z60m and A7G are nearly identical in configuration, aside from the GPU, we would expect the scores to be near identical. However in the Office Productivity test the A7G scored an unprecented 145, bringing its total score to a whopping 163. We really have no explanation for this disparity. The A7G's RAM is in dual channel configuration, but that would not cause such a large difference. The only other major difference that might affect the Office test is that the A7G's hard drive is formatted with FAT32, but that should not cause such a huge performance difference, if any. Unfortunately we did not have enough time with this machine to re-test this to see if it is a fluke.
PCMark05 Advanced
Performance was very respectable across all systems. CPU performance is close, but the 2.0GHz Pentium M's pull ahead. DDR2's high latency shows its weakeness against the CL 2.5 DDR 400 in the MS-1029. Graphics are no contest with the MS-1029's X700 GPU and while hard drives are all very close, the Hitachi 5K100's high areal density wins.
Here are the associated scores:
| PCMark05 | Asus A7G | Lenovo Z60m | MSI MS-1029 |
| CPU | 3184 | 3157 | 2878 |
| Memory | 2794 | 2782 | 2897 |
| Graphics | 3256 | 1819 | 2769 |
| HDD | 3564 | 3572 | 3116 |
and the PCMark05 Advanced Overall Score:
The A7G leads the pack here in total score thanks to its superior GPU. As you can see, the RAM, hard drive, and CPU are near identical between the A7G and Z60m leaving the GPU to be the deciding factor. MSI's MS-1029 falls behind due to its CPU and hard drive.
3D PerformanceUnfortunately we don't have full gaming benchmarks for the MSI MS-1029, but we would rather compare the Dell Inspiron 9300 anyway. The 9300 features NVIDIA's GeForce Go 6800 256MB, a 12-pipeline GPU like the MR X1600. However you cannot simply look at two 12-pipeline GPU's and say given that equal clocks, the performance is equal. We're looking at apples and oranges here, and it will be interesting to see how ATI's low power 12-pipe GPU compares to NVIDIA's relatively power hungry, previous generation 12-pipeline GPU.
| Specifications | Asus A7G | Lenovo Thinkpad Z60m | Dell Inspiron 9300 |
| Processor | Intel Pentium M 760 (2.0GHz, 2MB L2 Cache) | Intel Pentium M 760 (2.0GHz, 2MB L2 Cache) | Intel Pentium M 730 (1.6GHz, 2MB L2 Cache) |
| LCD | 17" WXGA+ TFT LCD (1440x900) | 15.4" WSXGA+ TFT LCD (1680x1050) | 17" WUXGA TFT LCD (1920x1200) |
| Hard Drive | 100GB Fujitsu MHV2100AH 5400RPM 8MB Cache | 100GB Hitachi 5K100 5400RPM 8MB Cache (HTS541010G9SA00) | 80GB Fujitsu 4200RPM 8MB Cache |
| Memory | 1GB DDR2 533 PC4200 SDRAM (2 x 512MB) | 1GB DDR2 533 PC4200 SDRAM (1 x 1GB) | 512MB DDR2 533 PC4200 SDRAM (2x256MB) in Dual-Channel Mode CL 4 |
| Graphics | ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 128MB | ATI Mobility Radeon X600 128MB | NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 256MB |
| Audio | Intel High Definition Audio (ICH-6) | Intel High Definition Audio (ICH-6) | Realtek AC' 97 |
| Operating System | Windows XP Pro w/SP2 | Windows XP Pro w/SP2 | Windows XP Pro w/SP2 |
3DMark 2001 SE
3DMark01 is generally CPU limited, but we see two major distinctions between the GPU classes. Obviously the 4-pipeline X600 falls last, but the two 12-pipe GPU's are pretty close. The 9300 does pretty respectably considering its considerably slower 1.6GHz CPU. This just goes to show the power of NVIDIA's "old" Go 6800.
3DMark 2003
3DMark 2003 is mostly GPU limited, at least in the notebook realm. We see a bit of an interesting turn here. Even though the 9300 has a slower CPU and less RAM, the peppy 256MB GeForce Go 6800 shows a discrete lead over the A7G's X1600 GPU. ATI usually pulls a lot of extra performance out of their cards with future driver releases, and we expect the A7G to be supported by the Mobility Catalyst drivers. We might see these tables turn with future driver revisions!
3DMark 05
3DMark 2005 is 100% GPU limited with all but the NVIDIA GeForce Go7800GTX, which isn't featured here. Here we see the 9300 and the A7G flip flop, with the A7G's MR X1600 GPU leading pretty steadily over the Go 6800. This is mostly reflected by the X1600's newer architecture and more recent drivers.
Gaming PerformanceDoom 3
The A7G's Mobility Radeon X1600 is more than playable on low setting, but when you go to High Image Quality and 4xAA it quickly chokes. 256MB VRAM would help this issue out quite a bit, but Doom 3 is still highly optimized for NVIDIA cards and the Go 6800 has a huge advantage there; just like the X1600 will have in Half Life 2 below.
Half Life 2
Half Life 2 on the other hand favors ATI GPU's and even a relatively basic one like the X600 can maintain very reasonable frame rates. While the Go 6800 is much more powerful than the X600, the ATI-optimized Source graphics engine allows the X600 to compete very well. Of course the new MR X1600 takes the cake here in both categories, showing a decent headway over the Go 6800. The extra VRAM on the Go 6800 (256MB compared to the X1600's 128MB) doesn't even help it that much with AA/AF enabled, allowing the X1600 to win by a fair margin. Battery Performance
Unfortunately battery life is the only category where the A7G really, really falls behind. We understand it must take a generous amount of power to run the LCD, but it is still an 8-cell battery with a 71Whr battery. The Z60m's 9-cell has 85Whr of juice, yet lasts quite a bit longer.
The same trend is apparent in the Office test, showing usage that better reflects what most readers will experience.
Let's just hope you don't try to watch a Lord of the Rings movie, because the A7G will die before it can finish. As we mentioned in the battery section though, this is with the default Portable/Laptop power scheme and screen brightness at half. If one were to use Asus' Power4Gear software to optimize settings for DVD viewing, one might have a shot of at least getting close to the credits.
Conclusion
Pros:
- Beautiful screen
- Loud speakers
- Integrated TV tuner
- Custom Asus software utilities
- Legacy parallel port
- Good GPU
Cons:
- Heavy and bulky
- Expensive
- No higher end GPU option
- No higher speed, higher capacity hard drive options
- No ExpressCard support
- Terrible battery life
Recommendation
It is hard not to like the Asus A7G 17 multimedia notebook. All of the key ingredients are there: top notch screen, good performance, a very decent GPU, and a slick design to boot. Multimedia-centric users will appreciate the spacious, breathtaking display and loud speakers. In fact, this laptop would make a great coffee table center piece. The Asus screensaver included flashes some pretty graphics, plays a peppy tune, and even uses the onboard camera to display video amidst the swirling images. Even the more serious gamers shouldnt shy away from the A7G. ATIs new Mobility Radeon X1600 doesnt break any mobile graphics performance records, but it does play just about every game out there with very respectable performance while consuming very little power. Overall we have a well built, well performing notebook with a full set of multimedia features.
As you can see from the Pros & Cons section, we dont have a lot of bad things to say about the A7G. However you can also see we dont have a lot of good things to say. We are satisfied with this notebook and particularly love the screen, but not much is really blowing our skirts up. Fujitsu offers a similar machine in their Lifebook models, which sport integrated TV tuners, similarly beautiful screens, and a host of multimedia features. In fact the Lifebooks offer Windows Media Center edition as an operating system, something the A7G does not offer. The current line of Lifebooks do not have anything impressive in the GPU category though, which will turn off gamers. The comparable Lifebook, model N6220, is similarly priced and comes with a Pentium M 750 (1.86GHz), 1GB DDR2 533 RAM, 17" WXGA+, 200GB dual hard drives, Dual Layer DVDRW, TV Tuner, and Windows XP Media Center Edition. Unfortunately the GPU is only an ATI Mobility Radeon X600 with 256MB Hypermemory. The 200GB dual hard drives are a bonus for a true multimedia enthuasiast, while the GPU is a bane for gamers. The differences in the two models are clearly between multimedia and gaming, which should make the choice easy for most consumers.
Of course this discussion is all elementary, as the A7G is not being released in the U.S. at this time. For all those international readers out there, the A7G is a machine definitely worth looking at. It brings a lot to the table and has a few notable features to distinguish itself from the competition, namely the screen and GPU. Just be sure to consider other options like Fujitsus Lifebook models, as they may offer certain features that are more beneficial for your particular uses.
Availability/Warranty
The Asus A7G is not available in the United States, but should be available in Europe in early 2006 for a MSRP of 1399, or roughly $2200USD.
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