Review Asus A6Ja
This time reviewed by us: the Asus A6J. It is a favorable notebook made by Asus with good features and attractive performance data. You can learn here, whether the laptop is useful apart from the good features.
Case
After switching on the Asus A6J the very first action was the deactivation of the selected screensaver, which particularly got on our nerves due to sound playback.
During a close investigation of the case we already found several scratches. That's no miracle, probably the test sample had already been on numerous desks. Nevertheless, the surface does not seem to be particularly scratch-proof.
Within the right area in front of the keyboard we could determine crunches under pressure. In addition, the chassis flexes somewhat at the left side in the area of the DVD drive. The display cover in the left lower area is likewise somewhat wobbly.
Against the current trend, the battery of the Asus A6J is accommodated in the front of the chassis. Therefore fan exit and interfaces can be positioned in the back.
There are feet on the battery, however there are small feet beneath, which guarantee the safe positioning of the case even with not attached battery.
The interface equipment of the Asus A6J can be called complete. Rarely you find 4 USB of 2.0 connections in a mobile computer of that size.
Also an analogue and a digital (DVI-D-D) monitor exit unfortunately are still rather the exception. Firewire, s-video, modem, Gigabit LAN, PC Card, Cardreader, camera and audio interfaces complete the features. Only an infrared interface is missing.
The arrangement of the interfaces is quite favorable, too. The 4 USB and the monitor exits are positioned on the back, the remainder is at the right side in the rear range.
The double hook sealing system is handled by two slidegate valves, which are functioning separately from each other.
- connections front side
- connections right side
- connections left side
- connections back
Input Devices
Overall, the keyboard leaves a good impression. The keys are sufficiently large and are characterised by a pleasant easily fitting with springs pressure, which is accompanied by a quiet clicking noise. There is nothing to complain with layout. A slight wobbling of all keys is to be marked.
The high-speed keys for adjusting the volume, display brightness etc. can be manipulated by FN + F1 - F12. They are indicated by well recognizable Icons on the screen.
The touchpad possesses a smooth surface and can be handled easily and precisely. The keys are manufactured from one piece of metal and do not only look good, but also function perfectly.
- touchpad
- keyboard
Display
- colour diagram of the Asus A6Ja
The reflecting 16:10 widescreen display with a resolution of 1280x800 pixel works well and with high-contrast. The maximally measured brightness of 126.9 cd/m² is rather moderate, but the illumination distribution of 88.1% is very good.
The color representation diagram shows a usual deviation of the blue curve and warm colors of the screen.
In the test of susceptibility for creation of streaks the level 6 could be achieved in the program Pixperan, and thereby is inconspicuously average.
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Informations
Maximum: 126.9 cd/m² Average: 116.9 cd/m² |
The stability of viewing angles is good in the horizontal range and sufficient in the vertical range. Slight changes of the brightness are possible.
Performance
The Core Duo processor and the ATI X1600 video card grant the expected good performance.
Interesting with it: the 512 MB hyper-memory version of the X1600 in the already tested Samsung X60 achieves hardly better results with current 3D benchmarks. Only with older benchmark tests the video card combined with a faster processor can obtain clearly better values.
- benchmark comparison 3DMark06
- benchmark comparison PCMark05
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| 3DMark06 in comparison | ||
| Review Sony Vaio VGN-TX2XP/B (min) | 49 | |
| ... | ||
| Review Samsung X60 | 1828 | |
| Review Samsung X60 Pro Notebook | 1829 | |
| Review Asus A6Ja | 1830 | |
| Review Toshiba Tecra A7 Notebook | 1836 | |
| Review HP Compaq nc8430 Notebook | 1881 | |
| ... | ||
| Review Alienware Area-51 m9750 Notebook (max) | 7472 | |
 |
|
| PCMark05 in comparison | ||
| Review Samsung Q30 (min) | 861 | |
| ... | ||
| Review HP Compaq nc6400 Notebook | 3716 | |
| Review HP Compaq nc8430 Notebook | 3761 | |
| Review Asus A6Ja | 3769 | |
| Review HP Compaq nc4400 Notebook | 3775 | |
| Review Apple MacBook Pro 17 inch | 3971 | |
| ... | ||
| Review Asus G1S Notebook (max) | 5568 | |
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Doom 3 The timedemo demo1 resulted on the average (with the settings) Low: 63.9 fps Medium: 62.9 fps High: 51.7 fps Ultra: 37.7 fps further values: ultra 2xAA: 36.8 fps, ultra 4xAA: 30.3 fps, ultra 8xAA and ultra 16xAA impossible; |
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Quake 4 Das Timedemo demo4 von hartware.de ergab im Schnitt unter den Einstellungen Low: 105.4 fps Medium: 101.4 fps High: 54.0 fps Ultra: 30.7 fps further values: ultra 2xAA: 27.9 fps, ultra 4xAA: 25.4 fps, ultra 8xAA and ultra 16xAA impossible; |
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Quake 3 Arena The average results of the timedemo demo1 were 193.7 frames per second (fps) |
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Emissions
Warmth
Within the central range at the bottom of the laptop quite considerable heating up with peak values of more than 47°C were measured. The top side especially in front of the keyboard remained pleasantly cool. The reason is that the battery is accommodated in the front range of the laptop.
- temperatures at the top
- temperatures at the bottom
- diagram noise ambience
Volume
Under load the Asus A6ja suffers amazing temperatures as already mentioned. So it is no wonder, that the fan must work heavily in order to get the heat out of the chassis.
The DVD drive assembly is inconspicuously and remains decently in the background during playback.
Loudspeaker
The loudspeakers sound somewhat dull and can not really convince. The total volume is sufficient.
Battery Runtime
The A6J did not offer considerable results according the battery runtime. Particularly the determined maximum runtime of 145 minutes is not a reason for happyness.
Battery Eater Readers test - corresponds for instance to the maximum runtime
(min. brightness, WLAN off, current savings on)
battery runtime result: 2h 25min
Battery Eater Classic test - corresponds for instance to the minimum runtime
(all max., WLAN etc.)
battery runtime result: 1h 15min
current cunsumption
minimum (all off or at minimum): 33.6 Watts
idle (max. brightness): 41.1 Watts
maximum (full load inkl. WLAN): 56.1 Watts
Verdict
- Asus A6Ja
The Asus A6J is provided very well with interfaces. Altogether four USB 2.0 connections and a digital screen port (DVI D) fulfil most desires.
The workmanship of the notebook shows a slight lack of quality. However tt is to be marked that our test sample was not new from the factory and revealed some marks of aging like scratches.
All over, the display is pleasant, but a slight instability of the viewing angles, particularly a somewhat weak brightness as well as the mirroring reduces the pleasure somewhat.
The performance is ok owing to Core Duo processor and ATI X1600 video card and masters all to time usual tasks.
Comparatively high heat emissions and therefore also noise emissions are quite negative features. Also the battery runtime of the A6J is to be classified as rather moderately.
