Asus M70sa

Asus M70sa Review

Overview & Features Meet the next DTR / multimedia system provided by Asus – the M70. Our model is the M70sa model, which features the 1gb ATI HD3650 video card and a very capable 1920x1200 display with a Blu-Ray drive to enjoy it with. This is a 17” full HD widescreen laptop featuring a lot of connectivity options and of course, 1 Terabyte worth of hard drive space. Design The case on the m70 is simple yet elegant. It features a simple lid design that reminds me of the latest HP and Toshiba implementations – it is a glossy lid and bezel, along with a striking chrome accent logo and line towards the hinges. The feel of the unit is mostly very nice, however, the lid seems a little too flexible with all the plastic and it definitely takes two hands to open the lid, which is something I’m not a fan of. The latch on the chassis is gimmicky and I would much rather see a slide and lift method on the LCD bezel than a tab release on the chassis. The bottom features chrome accent around the subwoofer speaker, and is very clean – with 3 major compartments – the battery bay and the component bays. Unless you plan on upgrading your CPU, there is no real reason to open this area as all the area’s are pretty maxed out / utilized.

The battery release is simple, with an integrated lock/release tab.

Keyboard The keyboard is nice and tactile featuring matt keys surrounded by a glossy black bezel and chrome strip. Since this is a 17”, it features a number pad, which helps with 10 key entry, or simple number entry. The layout is simple, but I’m not a fan of the 10 key layout – it seems cramped and normal math function keys are located in very odd places, making 10 key additions sort of awkward, or at least to me. There is a 4 dedicated shortcut keys above the keyboard, one of which starts the “instant fun” application if pressed as a power-on instead of the normal power button. This launches Windows Media center immediately after boot – which I thought was supposed to be the instant fun aspect, but wasn’t so instant… Trackpad / Mouse The Trackpad on the M70 is an actual treat, featuring hot touch area’s that enabled by tapping the function MODE area, then tapping the associated backlit area. The left and right mouse buttons are settled on either side of a biometric scanner, and the glossy chrome LED status area just beneath it.

Speakers / Audio The speakers on the M70sa are well appointed Altec Lansing speakers on either side, with a dedicated woofer on the bottom of the unit. They too have the chrome accent surround and in our tests, performed very well for laptop speakers. The sub helped fill in the lower-midtones, but as usual, fell very short of providing much of any low – end bass. One thing that I wish this laptop had that the last laptop I reviewed had, was the dedicated volume knob that was found on the Toshiba Satellite m305 – even thought the multi-touch launch does can control audio, it would be a nice touch to have that extra “dedicated” multimedia volume control. Connectivity The M70 features a whole slew of connections, so let’s break it down by area, starting with the front of the M70sa. The front features a simple IR port, and that’s it. The knob in the center is the LCD release hinge, which, I’m not a fan of its implementation. The left side of the M70sa features the integrated TV tuner port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, mini-firewire port, SD card ready and the Blu-Ray drive. The right ports of the unit are an Express Card slot, wireless on/off switch, audio in/out/spdif, and 2 more USB 2.0 ports. The rear of the unit is actually pretty decked out as well – the furthest left features the power plug, exhaust area, AV input, HDMI output, E-Sata connector, RGB output, modem, Ethernet, and lockslot. Well, Asus has graciously bundled the M70sa with a digital antennaethat can accept OTA digital broadcast along with cable/satellite coax, and a proprietary AV video input connector (more on this later...), along with a USB mouse and a carrying bag. Display The display on the Asus M70 is striking – simply a joy. A glossy 17” widescreen featuring a resolution of 1920 x 1200 – it utilizes a FULL HD signal to the best capabilities and is a perfect resolution for a display of this size. The colors were extremely vibrant, and the glossy screen provided little to no grain washout. The horizontal viewing angles were pretty decent, and the vertical viewing angles had a nice normal range, but extreme inverse was visible much past 20-30 degrees. Even though I did complain about the LCD release mechanism, the LCD exhibited little to no creaks/flex when opening, which is very welcomed.

Size & Weight

The M70sa is not a shy machine when it comes to size, measuring in at 16.2" x 11.8" x 1.7" and weighing in just over 8 pounds with it’s 9 cell battery. Here's a shot of it against the Lenovo U110 we just reviewed. 8 pounds for a 17” DTR is actually not that bad of a weight, considering the L300 we are currently reviewing ticks in at over 9 pounds! Helping alleviate this during transportation was the included Asus / Targus co-branded carrying bag. The battery is a 9 Cell 14.8V, 5200mAh Lithium Ion battery, and is pretty hefty, but not too large to handle as shown compared to a normal sized DVD. Upgrading Options: The M70 is pretty feature stacked, and especially our M70sa model – which carries 4gb of RAM, an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T9300 (2.5GHz, 6MB L2, 800MHz FSB), and 1gb of video memory. But to top all this – the M70sa includes 1 Terabyte (TB) of hard drive storage. If you need more than that – I’m going to go far as saying that you need more than a 17” laptop, you probably need a server, a studio and a lot of external storage options. If you do so feel inclined to upgrade, you might want to look into a higher clocked CPU – and a 64bit operating system, because this model, even though equipped with 4gb of DDR2 RAM, Windows Vista Home Premium is only 32-bit, and that dodgy memory limit exists with the 32-bit version. That’s not to say other programs won’t utilize it, but this version of installed Windows won’t. Features Not to mention the power under the lid, there’s the included 2x Blu-Ray drive, and the nice TV tuner integrated with the unit. It also features an A/G/N Intel wireless network card, and a 1.3mp swivel webcam on the LCD top. I have always loved the idea of the swivel design, making snapshots and video of your surroundings / yourself and others a little easier, but I’m confused as to why it’s implemented on a 17” model. This seems like it should be saved for the 15.4” and under range, as these merit more transportation friendly dimensions and weight. A dedicated HDMI output and E-Sata port make this an excellent choice for hi-fi freaks and those who wish to add even MORE space at a very speedy performance pace. These two options make the M70 very versatile in it’s application, and I love that they are included. As stated before, Asus graciously packs the assortment of extra goodies that help you utilize this laptop on the road, and as a entertainment mogul.

Performance & Conclusion Performance I’m going to start out by stating that this system had to have a full system restore performed before it would install any benchmarking applications. That’s right; somehow, Windows installer was corrupted when I decided to remove all the bloatware that needs to be removed in order to run benchmark applications. Programs like Microsoft trial software, Norton Internet Security, etc. Once this was done, I tried installing Worldbench...no go. I tried manually starting the service, it would hang and shut down giving me error messages. I did a restore to RIGHT AFTER I opened the box, and it still had errors. That left me no choice but to open up Restore DVD and insert it. The restore process was…interesting. Merely choosing which partition to restore and then hope it did it right? Which, it did –on the third try. I’m not sure if it’s Vista’s fault, or the system configuration – but it did not pre-load all software to “out of box” state when I tried to select this option. I didn’t call the 24 hour Tech support on this matter, but I did for another, after all, installing drivers and software isn’t the hardest thing to do.

It’s hard to judge a system on specs alone, and simple benchmarks help gather what the system price tag and components mean to the end user. We’ve come up with a somewhat standard testing methodology which can be read HYPERLINK "http://www.laptoplogic.com/about/test/" t "_blank" here. Of course, those numbers will mean nothing if we don’t have reference laptops and software to go about the testing. The last system we reviewed that comes close to these hardware specs would be the Alienware m9750 and the HP HDX Dragon – but at nearing 8 and 10 months old, these systems represent a different price segment and performance ratio to what is offered today. So, even though numbers represent a lot, it’s important to note that with any technology device, 4 months from now, it could be old news, or the next best budget gaming system.

FRAPS Scores When running FRAPS within the FEAR single player demo at 800x600 graphics set to medium, we reached an average 62 FPS. Knocking the settings up to high at this setting still managed a playable 35 FPS. Bumping up the resolution to 1024x768 however, we started to see some decrease in numbers. At medium settings we gathered 30 FPS and with maximum turned on, we slowed down to a mere 14 FPS. Even though the 1gb of memory is a lot – it’s down to the clock and memory speed the HD3650 has that determines its performance. Not to mention I wasn’t a fan of the drivers and seems that FEAR played a little more like TEAR. However, this played the game moderately and would suffice for some newer 3d games, but this is no gamers machine – which isn’t exactly what it is advertised for – it is more for multimedia, however, it would have been really nice to see better implementation of 3D performance. Windows Vista Experience Score The experience score laid out the details pretty quickly – it’s a very decent performer – with, wow, imagine that – Graphics being its low point. PCMark Vantage Pro 3784 – this is a great number and proves that the T9300 coupled with 1gb of Video memory makes on productive monster, of course, 4gb or RAM and 5400 RPM drives help as well. 3DMark We are tired of video card manufacturers providing us with test equipment and drivers, and wish they would get their act together in providing a polished product to the end user, without the huss and fuss. I’m saying this because the M70sa we received had a lot of difficulty running 3dMark Vantage – it would constantly hang the display drivers in our performance test, but would run the full test in “entry” mode (not taxing the card as much and gained and in retrospect, this could be a Microsoft Vista problem more than the video card itself). To throw even more perplexity, 3dmark06 had no problem whatsoever. The 3dmark06 score of 2462 running in 1920x1200 is acceptable, and when we ran 3dmark06 on it’s default settings, we gained a score of 3297 but we would still love to see the true numbers with our updated testing methodology using the latest Dx10 support in 3dMark Vantage. The clock and slower DDR2 ram for the HD3650 are really starting to show…regards to any of these reasons, I wish there was more performance, and less stress with this setup as it is currently offered. Similar spec’d units from HP and Alienware spanked the ATI HD3650, even with its 1gb of video ram, but considering the a previous laptop (Toshiba M305) with it’s integrated card, a value of nearly 3300 3dmarks is 6 times more powerful and shows that its’ very capable of playing some modern games at moderate settings, but not to the extent super graphics freaks will rave home about. But keep in mind, the 3600 series offers full support of DX10.1 and have Pixel Shader 4.1 support as well. WorldBench 6 Beta 2 The m70 plowed through our worldbench test, providing a very healthy 97 points – one of the highest we’ve seen put out in awhile – but it is kind of expected with such hefty specifications being toted for a desktop replacement / entertainment powerhouse.

Battery Performance Watching a standard DVD use gained 1 hour and 27 minutes of runtime – very acceptable for a 17”, and when running in a moderate power setting scheme, I managed to squeeze 2 hours and 17 minutes from the machine – which, for a 17” multimedia laptop – is pretty awesome.

Heat really wasn’t a problem, but then again, I wasn’t resting this laptop on my lap that often as the weight did become a little on the heavy side after 10 or so minutes. Noise was drastically apparent only while running our extreme test runs. While watching a Blu-Ray DVD, the machine hummed along nicely, only exhibiting much of any fuss when heavily navigating within the menus. The HD tuner produced awesome color reproduction and little to no tearing when watching full action sequences, however – the reception was a little lacking (as expected from a desk antennae). I wish the cord was twice as long and had extension feet so it could sit on a window sill easier. The magnetic base was cool though, my office garbage container looked like R2-D2 for awhile. Audio / Video input I searched everywhere in the manual and all it states on how to use this is “you must purchase the included TVtuner hardware / software package to utilize this feature”…which, I’m sure I have. But even an experienced tech user as myself, I couldn’t find any program to select “video input”. WMC offered Tv input, but no configuration for A/V in. So, I thought I would try calling their 24 / 7 hour technical support line. Who knows, maybe someone there can help me out which program I’m missing from my re-installation process – after all, I only have so much time with a unit to see how it works and if I were a normal “customer” – I would be in the same scenario anyways because if I wanted to install anything right, I would have had to do the same steps as above.

Technical Support... So I called and entered ‘notebook technical support’, and I waited. 10 minutes passed before someone answered. I then told the technician my model number and what I wanted to do. He then asked for my phone number so he could call me back. Not even a slight of words – that was his first response. I was like; “you want my phone number to call me back? ….” and the technician simply restated he needed my phone number to call me back. Then asked for my first name and the model number and then asked again what I was trying to do.

What? Ok. So after this was completed, the technician hung up and I was left to wait. And I waited…and waited. After 2 days, I completed this review – no one had called me back yet. So, I can’t comment on this section, but I would love to. One thing I can comment on – is that Asus technical service, wasn’t great. In fact, I’m not sure it exists at all for phone calls, but perhaps their e-ticket system works better. Conclusion You have 17” that can operate as a DTR or a laptop, a full HD display, next gen optical format, more than enough hard drive space, a speedy system and great accessories, and besides the less than stellar 3D gaming performance on the physical side of things – I give it a highly recommended for it’s feature set. Granted, you could opt for a few high end components in some other similar sized systems from other PC manufacturers (SSD, SLI graphics, xtreme clocked chips) but for the price and performance and the inclusion of a HDTV tuner, I’d have to say this is a pretty decent value.

However…restoring a new laptop in order to install items normally was a huge turn-off, and the service department needs to pick up where their “warranty claims” begin – which is actually pretty impressive in writing, and is one reason why I would have highly recommended this unit for mobile users. They offer Zero Bright dot insurance for your LCD display for the first 30 days, and if you drop, spill on, crack, manage to light the unit on fire, or lose your computer to a power surge, they claim to replace or repair the unit…however, after what I’ve encountered with a simple question of how to get video input working…I am not sure I can attest to it. I’m sorry, but service plays a big part for me (especially when something goes wrong!), and if the service isn’t there from the reviewers end (thus far), I can’t recommend it for a consumer end.

Unfortunately, the hardships I encountered from the get go, and technical service I received - knocks the unit’s rating from an otherwise 4.5 to 3.5 – it is a fully featured laptop yes, and the price is awesome for it's feature set – but if you are going to tout your service / technical support, you better follow through - if you are comfortable with that being said, at a online price at around $1,800 you have a really nice 17" multimedia machine full of features on your hands - and does get a "recommended" award - but only if you know what you're buying, and what you're not.

Bottom Line: A full featured laptop with plenty of hard drive space, a striking full HD display married with a blu-ray drive and HDMI output, plus almost every connection you would need, it is truly an mobile entertainment / productivity machine – and if you get past some of the lackluster 3D performance, and technical service response (if needed) you have a really well rounded multimedia laptop, fully featured, and a nice price tag.