9 responses so far ↓

• 1 Hardy

  I have had the ASUS N81vp-D2 for around 3 weeks now, and it reboots randomly. I think it will take some time to see if this is a fluke on my end, or if others who just bought it begin to have problems too. I believe the D2 is brand new so I would use some caution if you are considering one.

  Other than that problem, I have no major complaints about it. The LCD screen stinks but for the price its what I expect.

• 2 Aiden

  Good performance and nice graphics/sound support. However, very poor keyboard and touch pad. Pressing some of the keys on the left side of the keyboard is making a disturbing sound. Also, touch-pad buttons are very hard and make a disturbing click sound.

• 3 Noble

  This is an amazingly powerful machine, running above and beyond expectations. My only complaints are that the camera runs at a very low framerate and the keyboard takes a bit of getting used to, as you need to hit them precisely in the middle or they will not register. It also gets smudgy easily, but it even comes with a nice little cleaning cloth. But other than those minor gripes, an excellent buy!

• 4 Norheim

  When I purchased this laptop I had several criteria
  1) Powerful enough to last my family 3 years at least
  2) Enough gaming power to do light gaming
  3) Portable – I didn’t want a 17″, I wanted 14-15″
  4) A maximum of around $1000
  5) A quality name/warranty – this is a laptop afterall

  1) Power – The “windows experience” rating is 5.8 but that is due to the replaceable hard drive. The Processor got 6.4, the graphics 6.7. While the stated max of the motherboard is 4gb RAM, its reported to handle up to 8gb. No this isn’t one of the lasted i7 or i5 processors but its a very powerful dual-core and if you aren’t doing media editing this will last a long time.

  2) Gaming – I have Dragon Age running at max details and it doesn’t even skip a beat. The specs call the graphics chip a HD4650, the sticker says HD4670. The only difference between the two is clock speed, and this is clocked as a 4650. You could over clock it but I don’t see the need yet. This isn’t a laptop for hardcore gamers but it can play hardcore games.

  3) Portable – this is a 14″ laptop with desktop replacement hardware! Of course the downside is the tiny battery can’t keep up. I’d suggest buying a spare battery or staying near an outlet.

  4) When I got this laptop it was 1000 w/ a 100 dollar rebate, its gone up a bit but its still a steal!

  5) Most laptop companies give a 1 year hardware failure warranty. Asus gives a 2 year hardware and 1 year accidental damage. Oh and Asus laptops are much more reliable than HP/Dell/Gateway ones.

  Cons:
  1) Battery
  2) No DVI output
  3) Battery
  4) Typical bloatware
  5) Battery

  Bottomline: Get it while you can!

• 5 Choe

  The ASUS N81Vp-D2 is a great laptop. It is powerful enough to handle most of today’s games (currently playing Dragon Age and The Witcher on high settings)and has handled every business application I have thrown at it without a hiccup. The screen is bright and crisp although viewing angles are a little less then optimal. Not bad though. It doesn’t come with 4650 vid card like is advertised. It actually comes with a 4670! Not sure how much better it is but better is good. Boot up is fast as is shutdown. Windows 7 is great although I upgraded to Win 7 Pro using the Anytime Upgrade, which went off without a hitch in less then 10 minutes. The laptop is pretty solid but the lid does have some flex and the keyboard feels “loose” in the upper left corner. The keyboard also has the “Fn” and “Ctrl” keys reversed which causes some headaches but I’m sure I’ll get used to that. The built in speakers are excellent for a laptop. They sound much better if you have the laptop sitting on a table then if it is in your lap but, again, for laptop speakers they are great.

  The biggest issue I have with this laptop is the battery life. I expected it to be bad, considering the specs, but I wasn’t prepared for just how bad it is. Just surfing the web on power saver mode I can get just under 2 hours. If you turn off wi-fi and just do business applications or Word/Excel type stuff, you might be able to get 2 1/2. Forget watching movies or gaming. There are no extended life batteries available either. I guess it is not a huge deal for me since I use mine mostly at home or at the office so I can keep it plugged in but it should be taken into consideration if you need to use it on battery power a lot. All in all, I’m happy with the purchase but I will most likely be buying another power adapter so I don’t have to lug it around with me.

• 6 Bentrup

  The laptop is great, a lot of features for a 14 inch laptop. One of the best laptop video cards, at a great price (Got a nice deal on Amazon). It comes with a bundle, even though the accesories ain’t that great, they are still some nice freebies (Carrying Bag and Optical Mouse). Asus warranty seems to be great, we will see in the future if/when I need it. HDMI is nice, even though after upgrading to Windows 7 Ultimate I had some problems to make it show properly on my HDTV (32 Inch Samsung Full HD). Overall, a 9/10 for this kind of product. I would say the only con I can think of is the battery life, but you can expect that for a laptop so powerfull. Would be great if it had come with DDR3, instead of DDR2.

• 7 Fickas

  ASUS N81 vp D-1

  PROS: Lightning fast, nice build quality, not too much bloatware, pretty light, GREAT video card, HDMI out, amazing value for the money, great warranty (including 1-year accidental damage coverage.) Plenty of USB ports, too (5).

  CONS: “Clunky” keyboard and trackpad feel, attracts fingerprints, battery life is short and no larger battery available (yet), included mouse isn’t wireless.

  BOTTOM LINE: Great little “desktop replacement” laptop…can’t beat the value and a HUGE video card!

  I’m a professional writer and I’ve been looking to replace my old Vaio laptop – VGN FS550 15.4″ for some time. I researched TONS of laptops. The Sony’s are expensive and reliability has become an issue. The Samsung’s look great, but performance is lacking and they’re expensive, too. I’m just not impressed with Dell and never really considered Apple (I like to be able to upgrade things myself, thank-you, and don’t need the “hip” quotient in a piece of work intensive hardware.) HP I didn’t look at because I had an HP printer that was a nightmare. Lenovo gets high marks, but couldn’t match the Asus for features and price. Actually, nothing could.

  I occasionally need to game, so I happened on this Asus on a chat room page and decided to check it out. I’ve had it now for about two weeks, have written a couple assignments on it, and I’m pretty pleased. It’s lighter than my Vaio and set-up easily. I use the “photo recognition” software to sign-on (though just “signing on” is sometimes faster!) and I’ve configured Vista pretty well. It runs all of Office 2007 FAST-FAST-FAST. And games – actual FPS – run on this thing! I dumped the Norton for AVG and didn’t really have to dump much of the bloatware at all (which was a HUGE problem on my Vaio!) It’s not as stylish as a Sony or Samsung, but I’ve got no complaints (I didn’t buy it to be a piece of art.) It has no lock when you fold it, but the hinge is designed to keep it shut and I had to spend $60 replacing the little plastic latches on my Vaio when they broke, so who needs `em? It feels solid and the build quality is good – I’m impressed by that. And the speakers are the best I’ve heard on a laptop – blow my Vaio’s away. The screen is Excellent, though because it’s smaller (at 14″) you may have to adjust it out at what seems like an extreme angle if your chair is tall (or get a different chair!) Wireless features are great – I work in many wifi environments and it picks everything up. I haven’t dropped a signal yet.

  My main complaint: the keyboard feel is VERY clunky. It’s just not as smooth as my Sony or my desktop (which, granted, has an upgraded keyboard.) It’s loud and “harsh” when typing. I use a mouse, mainly, but the trackpad is also “clunky” and cheapish. I’ve also read people complaining about the 32 bit version of Vista that’s included. I know many people would prefer 64 bit, but it doesn’t really affect me. I think I’ll be fine with the Windows 7 32 bit.

  Overall, I would buy this machine again after having checked it out. I haven’t even begun to use all of its features (Bluetooth, camera, etc.) but I’m looking forward to doing more with it in the weeks and months ahead. I think I’m going to look into an Asus netbook as well.

• 8 Felden

  I bought this notebook based on it’s great specifications. It would certainly be a good notebook if it was dependable. It is not. I have never had so much trouble with a computer. The operating system constantly gets corrupted. The computer freezes frequently resulting in a hard restarts which further corrupts the system. Sent it in to be looked at by Asus after informing them that I had reinstalled the operating system 5 times and thought either the motherboard or memory was bad. Also told them one of the USB ports was defective. All they did was reinstall the operating system. I had already done that 5 times in a matter of 3 weeks. They did not even test the hardware.

  The display is not very good. Very bad viewing angles. Blacks are not black, but grey. Buttons are hard to click. Fingerprint device does not load when booting. The video card is very good, too bad the rest of the system is not well designed and components faulty. I may have to get with my credit card company on this one as Asus doesn’t seem very interested in repairing it and I am ready to throw it in the garbage. Sony and Macintosh products are much superior, but don’t offer such a great video card.

  Overall, I would not recommend this notebook to anyone, unless you enjoy frustration. I have owned over 10 notebooks over the last 15 years or so, and this is the worst of the bunch. Stay away, look at Sony, Dell or Apple instead.

• 9 Ireland

  Why did I buy it: wanted a 13-14inch with good power, so found this with slightly positive reviews , warranty/insurance, very powerful, 14inch, good ventilation. Didn’t get Dell studio 14z (price, too much heat, no dvd), sony vaio CW (price), HP DV4t (price if configured the same), DELL StudioXPS 13 (price, heat issues, battery duration,small touchpad)
  have had it for 5 days so far … Got it for [850$ from amazon] (could have gotten it for [...] if I used bing cashback and [...] )
  Pros:
  -Very powerful.. CPU , GPU , HDD (7200rpm).. it got 5.9 on windows experience index because of the HDD, the CPU/RAM gets 6.4 & GPU gets 6.6 .that’s with win 7 64bit, it got as far as I remember ; 5.4 or 5.9 on the CPU with vista 32bit that came with it..
  -Sooo cheap for such power
  -Looks nice; not super nice, but nice..
  -Very well ventilation design .. for all that power, it doesn’t get hot.
  -included mouse (not wireless) and bag…
  -full array of ports ( including FIVE usb ports, that is amazing )
  Cons:
  when you have so much power, the input devices should be up to the same standard; they are not
  -No backlit keyboard.. I know; I knew this before buying it; but when you get it and can’t see the f1/f12 keys in the dark and can’t see the WIFI / Bluetooth either ; not even the power button if it is not turned on …

  -FN key on left of CTRL key … VERY VERY Stupid .. I already knew, but thought I can adapt; not yet..
  -Horrible sounding and functioning touchpad buttons .. needs too much power to press and makes too much noise .. I already knew thru reviews but didn’t appreciate how bad they are .. I honestly try to avoid using them ..
  -Now the worst part; the left side of the keyboard is so flimsy that when pressing any of those keys (ESC,`,1,2,TAB,Q,W,A,S,CAPS,LT SHIFT, Z,LT CTRL,FN) it makes so much noise … you won’t appreciate how frustrating or annoying this is until you use it … Same about trying to avoid using them, except u can’t
  -The DVD tray button is very difficult to press without directly looking at it …
  - the scrolling bar on the touchpad is a hit/miss, you have to press the line drawn on the touchpad exactly for it to work , and it keeps scrolling even after u remove your finger, u have to press it again like u r applying a brake .. STUPID DESIGN ..
  - unresponsive keys: sometimes some keys don’t respond to pressing them leading to too many typing errors ..
  - poooor battery life, though it is understandable, but at least ASUS should offer a 9 cell option …
  update 12/29/09:
  - f3,f4,f9 keys don’t have labels for their other function ( default mail application, default browser, turn on/off touchpad in order)

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