Asus W5A User manual

Inside the W5A, ASUS’ Sonoma-class Combatant
Foreword
On January 18th Intel officially released the Gen 2 Centrino platform (codename: Sonoma),
which had been followed very quickly by the Sonoma platform notebooks. The ASUS W5A
was one of them.
Black W5A
White W5A
The W5A is 100% consistent with Intel’s definition of the 2nd Gen Centrino platform, i.e.
Intel’s latest Pentium M (533 FSB, 2MB L2 Cache) processor, 915GM, and Intel Pro/Wireless
2200BG WLAN card. The standout specifications include DDR II memory, a 12 inch
widescreen TFT LCD, and an integrated 1.3 megapixel camera.

W5A specifications:
Model # ASUS W5A
CPU Intel Pentium M 745 (1.86GHz,533 FSB,2MB L2
CACHA)
Northbridge Intel 915GM
Southbridge Intel ICH6-M
Memory 512MB DDR II 400 (256MB onboard +256MB)
HDD 60GB
Graphics Intel GMA900 (integrated on 915GM)
Optical drive 8X DVD/CDRW COMBO
Display 12 inch WXGA widescreen
Camera 1.3 megapixel digital camera
USB port USB 2.0 X 3
1394 port IEEE 1394 X 1
Card reader SD MMC XD MS MSPRO
WLAN card Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG
Bluetooth Built-in
LAN 100M
Modem 56K V92
Dimensions 12.01in x 8.66 in x 1.18 in
Note: Some items of the specifications, such as CPU and memory, might be slightly different
from the actual product from different retailers.
Design
There is a lot that has been kept from the 12.1 inch widescreen S5 and M5 design
philosophies. The successful black and white strategy used by both the S5 and M5 is also
used here, as it has proved to successfully attract both male and female users alike. We have
tried a black one.

What separate the W5Afrom its S5 and M5 predecessors is the new Sonoma platform and the
mighty performance that comes from it. More on this in testing below.
The 12 inch widescreen TFT LCD is the first of its kind to come out of ASUS. The 1.3
megapixel camera is also very rare in notebooks of this type.
Although the W5A has integrates a camera module, most people still consider it an
entertainment notebook. The truth is that the 12 inch widescreen display provides room for a
wider keyboard, so keyboard feel is superior to many other entertainment notebooks. This is
due not only to the design of the keys, but the size of the keyboard itself.
The same touchpad pointing device adorning the S5 and M5 is also applied here and
integrated into the wrist rest. For added aesthetic appeal, the metal buttons use a brushed
effect.
Worry not, however, if you’ve never gotten used to the ideas of touchpads, because the W5A
comes with its very own wireless Logitech Cordless Optical Mouse for notebooks (resolution
800dpi), which is manufactured under OEM agreement for ASUS. Although Logitech has
developed compact wireless USB receivers, that is not in use here. But that doesn’t mean that
there is an annoying wireless receiver somewhere – just the opposite: the wireless receiver for
the mouse is hidden well inside the notebook’s compact body, which makes things a lot easier
on the user, because he/she can’t forget to bring, connect, or lose it ever again.

Located at the upper left hand corner of the keyboard are the Power4Gear quick keys and a
WLAN card power button.
Lighting up in cool blue after power-on is the notebook power button (also taken from the
S5/M5) located on the upper right hand corner of the keyboard. The outer ring bearing the text
“WWW.ASUS.COM”.
At the left lower edge of the wrist rest are a set of status indicators that also illuminate in cool
blue after power-on. They indicate the power, battery, HDD, WLAN, and CAPS status.

On the cover ASUS engineers have added two indicator lights for the power status and the
battery. The power indicator light is illuminated constantly when the system is fully active, and
flashes during system standby. The battery indicator, on the other hand, illuminates when the
battery is charging, and is dark when the battery is fully charged.
Sound for the notebook comes from the speakers located directly beneath the screen.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of space to work with there, so the speakers are limited in size.
Be that as it may, the sound effects coming from them are quite good. Part of the reason for
that is the Realtek ALC861-VS HD Audio chip installed inside the notebook.
Noise and Heat
Most of the noise coming from the notebook can be narrowed down to the cooling fan inside,
which starts to hum fairly loudly once the computer has been run at full speed for a certain
period of time. Fortunately, the fan noise falls within what most will describe as the acceptable
range. Once the system detects that things have cooled down sufficiently, the fan will cease to
spin and the noise cuts out right there and then as there is basically no other significant source
of noise from within the notebook other than the HDD, whose own noises are extremely
insignificant.
Heat issues are never close to the user’s mind as the major components are “hung” below the
motherboard, which means their distances to the user’s hands are maximized. The image
below is the notebook’s bottom cover sheltering the CPU area removed.

In the image there is a very thick heatpipe running across the 915GM Northbridge chip, the
Pentium M processor, and the cooling system. The 533FSB Pentium M processor has a TDP
higher than its predecessors of the two previous generations; reaching a total of 27W, which
made cooling a high-priority design. The very thick heatpipe is therefore quite necessary.
Vents are strategically located to help with cooling neat the major heat-generating components,
such as the memory.
Ports
This is the front end view of the W5Awith nothing excessive here.
On the left are the 56K modem port, 100M Ethernet port, a 4-pin IEEE 1394 port, a USB 2.0
port, a 9.5mm DVD/CDRW combo drive, and a flash card reader supporting SD, MMC, MS,
MSPRO, and XD formats.

On the right are the PCMCIA slot, volume adjustor, earphone & microphone jacks, a USB 2.0
port, cooling vent, and VGA-out port.
At the back we see the power adapter jack, an S-Video out connector, the battery, one USB
2.0 port, and the notebook lock.
Display
Two words describe the most important aspects of the 12 inch display: widescreen, mirror
surface.
The 12 inch display provides a resolution of 1280 x 800, and should therefore show more
onscreen content than 4:3 XGA monitors, which is excellent for business-use productivity.
When it comes to entertainment, especially movies, the benefits of a widescreen are already
well documented.

Every manufacturer has its own name for the mirror surface, but what is important is its
make-up, which is a basic LCD panel, plus a light filtering layer and a reflective layer, for
reduced glare, clearer contrast, and a brighter-looking screen.
The W5A provides 15 brightness level adjustments for the display.
The only gripe we have with the screen lie with the bezels. When most 17 and 19 inch LCD
monitors are sporting bezels only 1.5cm/0.59in thick, what in the world is a 12 inch display
doing with bezels 2cm/0.79in and 3cm/1.18in thick? It’s a bit out of the ordinary, to say the
least. It certainly isn’t ugly, don’t get us wrong. In fact, it is a very attractive design. Thanks to
the bezels, the notebook has room for 4 quick keys and a full-size keyboard.
The W5A also uses the popular latchless design that allows the notebook to be opened with a
minimum of effort.
Camera

ASUS wasn’t the first to fit a camera onto a notebook, but it is one of the very few
manufacturers to offer notebooks that do. The others though, most incorporate 350K pixel
digital cameras, which aren’t known to produce very impressive images. Here’s where the
ASUS W5A rocks.
The W5A camera has 1.3 megapixels for the maximum image resolution of 1280*960, or 4
times the size of 0.35 megapixel camera’s 640x480 images. The W5A also incorporates a
flipping mechanism similar to the Sony TR’s to allow the camera a full 180 degrees of rotation.
Worth mentioning here is that the W5A’s camera is protected by a metal beam, allowing the
user to peel open the screen from the center without having to worry about damaging the
camera.
These are the actual pictures taken using the W5A’s integrated camera:

640 x 480 standard image
1280 x 960 standard image

640 x 480 image of color palette
On the software side, the W5A comes with a very easy to operate image/video shooting title
called LifeFrame, and the ASUS Video Security application, which operates as a monitoring
and warning system.Any movement that is detected immediately triggers a warning.
LifeFrame

ASUS Video Security
Battery
ASUS W5A is powered by a 6 cell, 4400mAH battery. Using MobileMark 2002, we
established the 6-cell battery’s running time to be 229 minutes (3 hours 49 minutes) using
screen brightness of 50%.
Performance Tests
We went into testing expecting a whole lot from the 533 FSB Pentium M processor, and we are
happy to announce that we were not let down. Business and multimedia computations alike
were handled with finesse, but the business side was slightly more outstanding. The bulk of
the very impressive scores can be put down to the 2MB L2 Cache, and 533MHz FSB.
Sysmark 2002 score Overall 241
Sysmark 2002 score Internet Content
Creation 290
Sysmark 2002 score Office Productivity 197
Mobilemark 2002 Performance Rating 221
Business Winstone 2004 20.7
MCC Winstone 2004 22.7
PCMARK 2004 3316

For the performance of subsystems we use Sisoft Sandra 2005:

The notebook’s graphics performance was tested using 3DMark01 and 3DMark03 (1024x768,
32bit). The W5A scored 5046 3DMarks in 01 and 849 in 03. Intel’s previous 855GME chipset
achieved only 2300 3DMarks in 3DMark01, so the improvement is obvious. The GMA900
graphics processor’s ability to break through the 5000 point level places it on equal footing with
the ATI Mobility Radeon 9200.

Summary
The ASUS W5A’s weight and size are both marginally above average as far as 12 inch
widescreen notebooks go, but don’t forget for one second that that body contains an integrated
optical drive when most 12 inch widescreen notebooks do not; and the full-size keyboard that
goes a long way towards guaranteeing a pleasurable typing experience.
A lot of performance is tucked away under those surfaces too, as the Sonoma platform’s very
impressive performance helps the ASUS W5A to achieve outstanding business and
multimedia computation abilities. Add the stylish black/white (choose one according to your
own taste) exterior, and the W5A is an extremely competent notebook that is worth
recommending.