Scalpel Please
Considering the small size of this laptop, taking it apart isn't likely to prove particularly beneficial. It's not as if you're going to be able to upgrade the CPU, since that's soldered onto the motherboard. But when have we let practical considerations stand in our way?
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The first step is to remove the keyboard, which requires you to locate the four small catches along the top edge of the keyboard and pressed them in using a small screwdriver. Then disconnect the ribbon cable and you now have access to the memory socket. If you want to continue dissecting a laptop, you will need to remove six screws on the bottom and seven more screws underneath the keyboard before you can remove the rest of the top cover. You also need to unplug the brown ribbon cable (both ends), two cables in the top-left, one cable in the top-right, and three cables in the bottom-center.
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With the top panel out of the way, you gain access to the optical drive and the 1.8" hard drive. You could conceivably upgrade either of these components in the future should the need arise, though it's unlikely you would need to swap out the optical drive anytime soon. (Blu-ray support doesn't make sense in a device of the size, plus you need an appropriately sized Blu-ray drive.)
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It did require a decent amount of patience and careful prying before we could separate the top panel from the rest of the laptop. If you're not careful, you could easily break one (or more) of the small plastic latches that help secure the panel. In particular, the plastic clips on the left side and the back of the chassis are difficult to disengage. There are two memory sockets in the laptop, but the second is not easily accessible. On the test laptop, the top socket contained a 2GB DIMM and the second was a 512MB SO-DIMM. Getting to the other socket requires a lot more effort….
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JarredWalton - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
I haven't used the VAIO TZ, but looking at the pictures they appear practically identical to the ASUS U2E in size and major features. ASUS includes 3GB of RAM where the latest VAIO units ship with 2GB, ASUS provides a mouse and carrying bag and Sony only does that on the top models, and ASUS has a 2-year warranty versus 1-year standard. On top of that the ASUS is priced a few hundred dollars lower for relatively equal specs (i.e. the same outside of the memory config, where ASUS has an extra 1GB). Sony does include T7600 and even T7700 CPUs, however, so the price difference more or less balances out.As an example, here's the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">VAIO TZ equivalent of the ASUS U2E-A2B. It has a 12.5% faster CPU and comes with Sprint Mobile Broadband (but only a one-month trial, so who cares), with 2GB RAM. That competes with the http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Pr...">ASUS U2E-A2B, which costs $100 less and includes an external 160GB USB HDD. The difference in price and features is quite small, but with the warranty I'd give the edge to the ASUS.
erwos - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
Wasn't there a variant of the U2E that had an external Sideshow display? I would have really liked to have seen that...Myrandex - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
Why 2GB x 1 & 512MB x 1? Or even 2GB x 1 & 1GB x 1? To get dual channel performance, shouldn't they have two identicle sticks in there? 2GB x 2 ftw~!Jason
BigLan - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
You can run dual channel with mismatched sticks on intel laptops. I've got 2gb + 512gb on my dell, and cpu-id tells me that it's running dual channel.They probably topped out at 3gb because they're shipping 32-bit vista and didn't want to confuse customers with 'missing' ram. You could add in your own 2gb stick for pretty cheap if you wanted to.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
Note also that laptops running a 533FSB with DDR2-533 are already matched in bandwidth even in single channel mode. The extra bandwidth helps with IGP a bit, perhaps, but in a system like this the overall memory performance isn't nearly as critical as power requirements.bigdog1984 - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
I was reading the article and im in need of some clarification on two points. Does the unit have micro-dvi or hdmi because the breakdown chart has hdmi and the review states dvi and how much ram is in the unit,,,chart says 3 review says 2.5JarredWalton - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
Sorry - it's Micro-DVI. It looks the same as HDMI, but doesn't carry audio. At first I thought it was HDMI; forgot to update the table. As for the RAM, the systems are apparently supposed to come with 3GB, but the test unit shipped with 2.5GB (as stated on the bottom of page 9).ciparis - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
Adding features that the MBA omits (like CD/DVD drives, replaceable batteries, and extra ports) is not "addressing shortcomings".It's making a different set of tradeoffs.
Whether that's a good thing will depend an awful lot on your needs and preferences.
rqle - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
Yes, needs and preference will always be a factor, but “shortcoming” does hold true. When some body is able to add features in relatively same size why wouldn’t it be a shortcoming? Even apple will release an update model to MBA with more ports, faster, etc…ciparis - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
"Relatively" hints at the crux of the matter: it's not the same size, and it wouldn't be able to contain those items if it was. If you're pushing for absolute thinness, something has to go. If that's important to you, those are the trade-offs you make.Personally I consider having to lug things around that I don't need or want on my laptop most of the time to be drawbacks, but I wouldn't presume to call it a shortcoming of the Asus because have a clear understanding that that's my preference. It's a feature trade-off that makes sense to me but says nothing about what might make sense to the next guy.