Asus Z84Jp 17-incher leaked

We know there's a core contingent of Asus nerds who await their next laptop launch like so many MacBooks, so we're happy to present their latest (leak), the 17-inch Z84Jp. Expect this 8.8 pound piano-black monster to pack a 1680 x 1050 display, Core 2 Duo up to 2.33Ghz, DDR2 RAM up to 4GB, SATA drive (sorry, it only sounds like there are single-drive configs) with external SATA connector, NVIDIA Go 7600 graphics, HDMI (huzzah!), VGA, and S-Video out, four speakers (plus subwoofer), 2 megapixel webcam, Bluetooth, gigabit Ethernet, ExpressCard, PC Card, 7-in-1 media reader, and, of course, the Vista variant of your choice. It should be out mid to late January, at a price unknown (but for the safety of your lines of credit, you probably don't want to know). One more shot after the break.

[par @ Jan 4th 2007 2:13PM]

a laptop beyond 15" shouldn't be called a laptop anymore. It should be called an all-in-one desktop.

[chris @ Jan 4th 2007 2:36PM]

what NO SIDE SHOW??? F*** this model then!

[bot @ Jan 4th 2007 3:25PM]

A 17" screen with 1680x1050 resolution, why can't they make monitors with similiar specs?

[Skyler @ Jan 4th 2007 3:52PM]

meh, 1680X1050 isnt too impressive for a 17 incher, my 15" has the same res, and i think with a screen that large i'd like to have a higher res.

[Bob @ Jan 4th 2007 6:00PM]

I don't get this. What's the point of having HDMI if the optical drive is only DVD-RW?

[Ken @ Jan 4th 2007 6:29PM]

The monitor should support 1920x1200. no excuses.

The Go7600 is kinda weak too. Considering no mention of upgradability, I'd expect an 8 series GPU with this late of a release.

Single HDD!?

This laptop is just plain boring on the specs side.

Besides CPU, this thing doesn't really compare to the XPS2 I bought nearly 2 years ago.

[RichardC @ Jan 5th 2007 1:29AM]

The Asus "Z" series are OEM whitebox barebones notebooks. It's just a shell you throw in your own cpu/ram/harddrive/wifi/optical drive. Generally speaking you can build a barebones Asus for 1/2 the cost of the pre-assembled "Ensemble" retail versions.

Since this particular one has HDMI, I'd hazard a guess that BluRay and/or HDDVD will likely be available when it comes to picking the optical drive. 4GB maximum ram is also a big deal, considering most notebooks today top out at 2GB max.

One quibble though: I've never seen a notebook with BOTH ExpressCard and PCMCIA slots. The Z84F (which I currently have) is in the same family as this model and only has ExpressCard, so I'd guess this new one does too. No idea why PC Card is listed as well.

[Christopher @ Jan 5th 2007 1:09PM]

RichardC - There is at least one available. I just bought a 2007 AptonBook laptop from MDG a couple weeks ago and it has both a PCMCIA slot and Expresscard. Did some research and found out it's a rebranded Compal HEL80.