Asus X58L Laptop Should I buy?

islandhealer

Hi

Is this laptop a bargain or not? £279.99 reduced by £40 at Argos.

My Dad wants one just to mess around on and use the internet.

Thanks for your help.:T:A

-TangleFoot-

It's got a Celeron Mobile processor in it and battery life is under 2.5 hours. For a notebook, it's cheap, but you could get a similarly specified netbook for substantially less. The only things it's got going for it are looks and a DVD drive.

So, not exactly a bargain, but you'll be hard-pressed to find anything better that isn't refurbished.

AceRider

As you can see from my signature I have an X58L
I got this free when my Fiance! took out a new contract mobile.

There's not alot I can say against this laptop, except maybe a little more RAM would have been nice.
The widescreen dislay is crystal clear and great for watching movies on, I've never had a problem with the wireless or anything. As previously stated it comes with a dvd-writer drive that can read/write both + and - cd/dvd's.
The battery life is in fact alot higher than 2.5 hours - in High Performance setting I can usualy get around 2.5-3 hours if I'm just surfing or 2-2.5 hours if I'm watching streaming videos.
However if I set it down to the pre-set Batter saving mode I can usually get around 4-4.5 hours surfing.

The grahics it uses unfortunatly are a chip set - which means it comes with 8mb of graphics however it takes use of shared graphics and so uses any "spare" RAM to increase this.
So far I havn't found any problems with this and have been able to play games that require 128mb graphics without a problem.

The laptop is by no means a high gaming machine but I've found it good for playing games on with a USB mouse, playing games such as Freelancer, Ceaser III and even the new Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars (although C&C was at low graphics and played a bit slow)

On the back is a Power Cable 'hole', a telephone line port and etherner port so it can be used either wireless or wired to connect to the internet. There is also a VGA out port meaning you can plug in another monitor and have either a clone display (the same image on both screens) or you can extend your desktop ( both screens side by side make up on desktop so you can have multiple applications showing at the same time).
There are also 2 USB ports at the back, with a further 2 ports on the side - all 4 ports are USB 2.0.
On the side there is also a built in Card reader for using SD cards which again I have used without any problems.

The design is quite nice to look at and has an almost carbon fiber look about it.
The only problem I had at the beggining was finding a carry case to fit - In the end I had to buy a 17" laptop case to fit the 15" widescreen.

I hope this helps your decision and if you have any more specific questions about the X58L please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them for you

AceRider

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

It's got a Celeron Mobile processor in it and battery life is under 2.5 hours. For a notebook, it's cheap, but you could get a similarly specified netbook for substantially less. The only things it's got going for it are looks and a DVD drive.

I don't mean to be personal or 'dig' at you here but your link to other netbooks as being 'similar' products are nothing like the X58L.
Firstly they are netbooks where as the X58L is a laptop. Most of the products on that link have small screens (between 7" and 11") where as the X58L has a 15" widescreen. Again with the processors they are all between 900Mhz and 1.6Ghz where as the X58L has a 2Gb processor.

I'm sure I could continue but I think this shows my point. Again this isn't meant as attack against you I'm just trying to show to the OP that the netbooks you linked to are not too be seen as an equal to the X58L as each one of them seems to be a lesser performing system.

-TangleFoot-

AceRider wrote: »

netbooks [...] are nothing like the X58L.

That depends greatly on your own point of view. For messing around on the internet, there's not much between them. The only likely sticking point is the fact that current netbooks are not very good at video decoding.

In short: if you like to watch full-screen video, get a notebook.

AceRider

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

That depends greatly on your own point of view. For messing around on the internet, there's not much between them. The only likely sticking point is the fact that current netbooks are not very good at video decoding.

In short: if you like to watch full-screen video, get a notebook.

That's a good point.
If price is the main factor and not performance (which as TangleFoot quite rightly pointed out) for basic browsing won't need much in the line of specs, then the netbooks could serve you well.
However when you are decided what to buy especially online please make sure to read all the specs. The last thing you want is to order what you assume is a decent laptop for you to have a little 9" netbook turn up lol

-TangleFoot-

AceRider wrote: »

The last thing you want is to order what you assume is a decent laptop for you to have a little 9" netbook turn up lol

I have a little 9" netbook!

AceRider

Appologies to OP as we seem to be going a little off topic here

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

I have a little 9" netbook!

Personal opinion - How on earth can you surf on a screen that small :eek: lol
However, out of curiosity what resolution does that run at ?

-TangleFoot-

AceRider wrote: »

out of curiosity what resolution does that run at ?

1024 by 600 pixels, like almost every other netbook.

VIJAY_FROM_KENT

Check out the eBuyer laptops on here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1728625