Very Very Nice
Written: Mar 11 '04 (Updated Oct 06 '07)
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Pros: very high-performance, light-weight, very good looking, almost NEVER gets hot, very quiet, LONG battery life.
Cons: Video performance not great. (not terrible either)
The Bottom Line: I really like it. High performance, long battery life, light weight, and good looking. Still loving it after 3 years!
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| Russhoolio's Full Review: ASUS M3N (asu-nb-m3n-combo) PC Notebook |
I bought my M3N in September 2003 from lapdogg.net . I am writing this review using my M3N.
There are a lot of things I like about the ASUS M3N, and not very many things at all that I don't like.
First of all it's a very good looking machine. It doesn't have that overdone futuristic look that some new laptops have. It has a very graceful line and type of beauty that doesn't go out of style.
The screen is very crisp and easy to view, even from the side. With the Microsoft Powertoys I can even extend my desktop to a second monitor. Which is nice when you have lots of applications open.
My M3N has a 1.4 GHz CPU. It is much faster than I thought it would be. It crunches Seti@Home v3.08 work units in about 3 hours and 20 minutes. By comparison my friends Pentium IV 2.4 GHz takes about 4 1/2 hours.
It also seamlessly runs all of my applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Quickbooks, Word, Excel, etc.
One of the best features is the battery life. It runs for about 5 hours on one battery charge. And with the second battery that can replace the CD-ROM drive, it runs another 2.5 hours after the main battery runs down.
Also, it never really gets hot. My moms laptop you could fry an egg on, and it is only 2 months older than mine.
Another thing I like is that I can turn the touchpad off. I never liked those things. So I carry a mouse with me.
One thing I do NOT like is the video performance. It tends to skip and jerk a bit when running a DVD full screen. But that's to be expected with any computer that doesn't have dedicated VRAM. But I hardly ever watch movies on my laptop, so it doesn't matter to me.
One more thing I like is the Asus Portbar III. I just leave all my stuff plugged in, so when I come home I just plug in one thing to have access to mouse, printer, zip drive, digital camera, etc. --- This section has been updated below!
Update 16 August 2006
This laptop has traveled internationally with me quite a bit and has held up really well. It's nearly 3 years old performs better than most of my friends' much newer laptops.
I've upgraded the CPU from a 1.4 GHz to a 1.7Ghz which has affected the heat profile of the laptop quite a lot. It gets quite hot now if I am running BOINC or doing a lot of Photoshop or other CPU intensive work. But it has only ever overheated once that I can clearly recall and has approached overheat 3 or 4 times and all of those were on very warm (90+ degrees Fahrenheit, with no A/C).
The Portbar III failed on me after about 14 months. The USB on it went kaputt. The connection cable on it was also too short, and tended to pull down on the connector-port. So I always had to have a book or something beneath it to prop it up. I tossed the Portbar eventually and replaced it with a $10 USB hub which works better than the Portbar ever did.
My M3N is almost 3 years old and I still love it and have no intention of "upgrading" as I feel any change would be a step down.
Update Oct 6, 2007
My M3N is now officially 3 years old. In computing terms that's like a person being 75. The lithium batteries are now just so much weight. The bare wires are beginning to show through on the power adapter cord. I've had to replace the CDRW drive. And I've replaced the OEM Hitachi HDD with a Toshiba drive. It has lost that new computer shine.
That being said, I don't know anyone who's brand new shiny, fresh off the store-shelf laptops can outperform mine in start up time, stability, or processing time. The screen is as good it was when it was new. The keyboard is still perfect. All of the ports still function. And best of all the computer was made to be user-serviceable. I know: I've done it all myself.
This was Asus' flagship model in 2004. Frankly, I'm surprised they don't re-release it. It has simply been an outstanding laptop computer.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1800
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 14 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
Russhoolio
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Reviews written: 79
Trusted by: 8 members
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