ASUS M70Sa 17″ Multimedia Notebook

[PAGETITLE=Introduction] [Top Ad] Over the course of the past few months, my tastes in notebooks has changed. I've always been interested in big, powerful and great-looking notebooks, but when I dealt with two different 12.1" notebooks over the course of a few months, I realized just how amazing they can be. If you travel often, a smaller notebook is incredibly convenient. It's nice to walk onto a plane and know that the notebook will actually fit under the seat properly, and that you could use it during flight, comfortably. Many still want or need larger notebooks, though, and DTR's are the way to go, especially if you use your notebook more than your desktop. But what does it take to become a proper DTR? For starters, a large screen and resolution would be nice, and at 17" / 1920x1200, this ASUS M70Sa hits the goal. Of course, you need to add sufficient hard drive space, and this notebook again delivers, offering a staggering 1TB, divided between two 500GB drives. Toss in a fast processor, sufficient graphics, lots of memory, a Blu-ray drive, TV Tuner, lots of connectivity and great design... on top of a completely reasonable price, and we have a proper DTR. Closer Look. If you take a look at our notebooks page, you'll notice a common theme... lots of ASUS-related reviews. Don't worry, even though I personally can stand by ASUS' notebook quality most of the time, we don't mean to stick to a single manufacturer. ASUS loves sending us the latest models to check out, and we love receiving them. In the months to come, we'll have reviews from both Dell, Gateway and hopefully others. I just thought this should be mentioned. I was thrilled to receive the notebook I'm taking a look at here, because after reviewing smaller and underpowered notebooks, I finally received one that's huge, powerful and offers far more functionality than what I'd ever need. It's also one of the most expensive notebooks I've had here, at $2,399. Given all the features packed in though, it's actually happens to be a reasonable price, but I'll touch up on that later in the article. The 'M' series from ASUS denotes 'Multimedia', which is why the M70Sa includes a 1080p-capable resolution and also a Blu-ray drive. Although this particular review sample doesn't include a TV Tuner, the model you purchase will. So if you happen to find the M70Sa on sale somewhere and it doesn't include one, leave it, then go find a place that's stocking a more recent model, unless of course, you happen to get a great deal, or don't want a tuner. On the surface, the M70Sa somewhat resembles the M51S 15.4" notebook that I took for a spin this past April. That was a bit more modest though, and cost under $1,000. It still won me over with its design and the vast amount of features, however. We should be able to expect similar thoughts with the M70Sa. One problem I had with previous ASUS notebooks, is that the webcam 'straps' (black rubber-bands) have the ability to be yanked off when rubbed against a certain way. I haven't experienced that with this particular notebook, but I've had it happen with the F8S, which has a similar design. Their implementation may have improved since that time, however. Opening the lid will unveil most of what the notebook has to offer in way of key features. Included are some excellent Altec Lansing speakers, including a subwoofer underneath and also a robust touchpad, which is designed with the multimedia buff in mind. When the 'Mode' is tapped, it will lock the touchpad and replace the functionality with the labels shown here. It's all straight-forward; tap a function to activate. Don't worry if you are sitting in bed and watching a movie, these labels light up so that you can see them. On the following page, we'll continue our trip around the M70Sa, then dive right into some testing. [PAGEBREAK] [PAGETITLE=Closer Look] Along the top of the notebook, you'll find both a selection of buttons and status LEDs. The buttons included represent the performance mode, touchpad enable, color correction and media. The LEDs show relevant status information, the most important being the battery-life. The only button on the top-right-hand-side is for the power, which lights up with a white LED. On the left-side of the notebook, a spot for an antenna can be found, for TV or FM radio, although an antenna is not actually included. Also here are two USB ports, a Firewire, memory card slot and the BD-ROM. The right-side features an ExpressCard slot, WiFi enable, audio ports and two more USB ports. The back features an AV/S port, HDMI, e-SATA, VGA, modem, LAN and a Kensington security lock. The AV/S port requires a separate accessory, which will convert S-Video or Composite video to something the notebook can understand. No adapter is included here, although future models may. There doesn't seem to be a notebook today that doesn't include a webcam, and the M70Sa is no different. The resolution seems a bit low, though, at 1.3 megapixel, whereas competitors models are now offering in excess of 2.0 megapixels. In way of accessories, a branded notebook mouse is included, along with the power adapter, cable tie, manuals, CD's, phone cord, monitor cloth and various other pamphlets. The back shows off the many ventilation points as well as the subwoofer. Notebook sound is never going to (likely) compare to external speakers or headphones, but this is certainly one of the better ones I've touched in a while. The overall design of the M70Sa is good, and nothing strikes me as requiring improvement. It's a large notebook and in turn offers a lot of functionality, including a full numpad. To add to it, the touchpad proved easy on the finger after a few hours of use, and the left and right 'mouse' buttons were equally easy to use. No complaints here, so let's head into a look at the installation and software. [PAGEBREAK] [PAGETITLE=Software Configuration, Initial Thoughts] Installation of the M70Sa was about as easy as it could be. After the first boot-up, I was required to enter my name, then choose some minor Windows Vista details, such as a wallpaper. After that, the computer took about ten minutes to finish setting up, after which I was left with the following desktop: There is really nothing at all different between this any all of the other ASUS notebooks I've taken a look at. Most of the notebooks include the same applications and all include Norton Internet Security. Below, I show a screenshot of everything that is installed, straight after the first boot: There is a LOT of software installed, and in some regards, it could be considered ridiculous. But ASUS makes up for it thanks to the fact that most of it is their software, and most of them are applications most people might actually find useful. It's Norton IS, P4P and Adobe Reader that some may choose to uninstall. Here is a quick run-down of the included ASUS software and what it does: CopyProtect Allows you to lock certain hardware from being used, such as the DVD-Rom, external storage and also a network drive. Requires a password to lock and unlock. InstantFun Front-end media center. Similar to Windows Media Center, but lighter on features. LifeFrame Specialized web cam software, allows video capture and image capture. Includes fun accessories and filters. Live Update Updates the notebooks drivers, if available. Security Protect Manager Advanced security, allowing users to use their thumbprints to log on. Smart Login Allows login via web cam identification. While sitting at the login screen, the web cam will scan the face of the person sitting in its path and if the person matches to a user account, it will auto-logon, forgoing the need for a password. Splendid Color enhancement. Includes presets, but also allows creations of personal ones. Splendid is an integral part of ASUS' entire line-up of products, most notably their displays. Below is a screenshot of both CopyProtect and InstantFun. Next up, battery-life tests and performance testing. [PAGEBREAK] [PAGETITLE=Battery Life, Performance & Gaming Tests] Our testing methodology for notebooks differs quite a bit when compared to other products we regularly benchmark. Depending on the goals of the notebook, we choose our real-world tests carefully. If a notebook was built for business, for example, and included a lackluster integrated GPU, we wouldn't run gaming benchmarks. Most of our benchmarks are real-world, but we do use SYSmark 2007 Preview as full system-suite benchmark, since it's thorough and delivers easy-to-understand results. Also, in our table below, the 'EFS' in our DivX benchmark stands for Experimental Full Search, an advanced algorithm that thrives on the SSE4 instruction set, which both the Hypersonic and M70Sa include, thanks to their Penryn-based processors. Benchmark ASUS U6E ASUS M51S Hypersonic AG2 ASUS M70Sa SYSmark 2007 Preview E-Learning VideoCreation Productivity 3D Overall 122 97 133 127 119 86 93 100 93 93 156 134 120 144 138 151 125 146 143 141 VirtualDub + DivX 6.7 Encode 720p Video w/o EFS Encode 720p Video w/ EFS 221 s 393 s (SSE2) 291 s 512 s (SSE2) 188 s 218 s (SSE4) 187s 219s (SSE4) Adobe Lightroom Convert 100 RAW to JPEG 333 s 448 s 271 s 257s HD Tach RW/3 Burst MB/s Average MB/s Latency 116.2 MB/s 36.7 MB/s 18.7 ms 196.8 MB/s 50.6 MB/s 16.2 ms 116.5 MB/s 51.9 MB/s 14.9 ms 172.6 MB/s 53.5 MB/s 18.1 ms The results seen here are fantastic, even compared to the also fast AG2 from Hypersonic. The HDD test results were superb and even Adobe Lightroom proved 14s faster than the AG2. Overall, great-looking results. Battery-Life. Given that the notebook is rather large, I didn't expect fantastic battery-life reports, but the M70Sa actually impressed me a bit. Playing a Blu-ray movie (Fifth Element), the notebook lasted a smidgen above 1h 45m. Not that impressive from a movie standpoint, but given how system-intensive high-definition video is, it wasn't bad at all. The benchmark I often use to...

ASUS M70Sa 17″ Multimedia Notebook

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Rob Williams