The eagerly awaited Asus Eee Pad Slider will lastly be available in the US prior to the end of the month. According to Engadget who got some extended hands-on time with the tablet hybrid, the device will start off at $ 475 for the 16GB model with the 32GB model jumping a hundred bucks to $ 575.

The Asus Eee Pad Slider attributes a 10-inch 1280&times800 resolution IPS display, Android three.two Honeycomb and none of the heavy manufacturer skinning we&rsquove noticed from OEM&rsquos like Sony or Samsung.&nbspIs anyone still interested in this tablet? Nonetheless waiting for a quad-core Android tablet or has Windows 8 taken away some of the glitz and glamor of Honeycomb?

[Via Engadget]

Android Phone Fans

With the Asus Republic of Gamers Crosshair V Formula it has produced a board that makes us virtually want to suggest it regardless of regardless of whether or not Bulldozer is much cop.

We’ve looked at a few motherboards based on AMD’s 9-series chipsets now, and so far the general impression has been that they’re OK. Unfortunately it all truly depends on the forthcoming FX (aka Bulldozer) processors to make them worthwhile.

Like other Crosshair, Rampage and Maximus motherboards in the RoG series, it is a stupidly over specified board that just makes you want to grin.

It’s unlikely most folks would even know what to do with half of the functions included, let alone actually use them. So becoming able to say you own a motherboard that functions them carries its own form of geek cache.

What sort of points do we mean?

There is the optional remote for overclocking, for a start, and the power out points for taking manual volt readings of the main motherboard rails. There is the plethora of diagnostic LEDs, the inclusion of two full 16 lane graphics ports for two way SLI or Crossfire… the list goes on.

There’s clearly not a lot of performance difference between the 990FX and the 990X chipsets from AMD, and even the lower spec 960 is not far behind.

What’s much more intriguing than the performance benchmarks, maybe, is the power usage. Playing about with ASUS’ EPU settings can lower this even further.

What’s good about the Crosshair V is that in spite of becoming so properly equipped it isn’t intimidating.

Getting mentioned all that, the Crosshair V Formula is not the most extremely specced motherboard ASUS has ever created.

Some of the extras that you will discover in the Extreme range of motherboards like Bluetooth – which is helpful for overclocking via a mobile phone – are noticeable by their absence.

But there is a host of techniques the Asus RoG Crosshair V Formula makes points effortless for the user.

The new UEFI graphical BIOS, for example is effectively laid out and simple to use. And even though the ASUS software utilities are hateful if you ever try to uninstall them, so lengthy as you leave them performing their own factor they’re a straightforward gateway to controlling not just the CPU clock settings but also ASUS’ Push-me-pull-you chips, TPU and EPU. These automatically undervolt or overclock other motherboard components depending on existing system load.

It is the little issues that make the biggest distinction though.

Issues like the inclusion of an X-Fi chip for sound (this isn’t a full blown X-Fi, mind, but it is better than regular on board audio) and 1 touch overclocking buttons.

There is an extra couple of USB 3. ports over and above the norm too.

Sadly, though, as fun as the Crosshair V is, value for funds does have to come into play at some point.

It’s not terrible in this regard – ASUS own Sabertooth 990FX is virtually identical but has a worse soundcard for £10 much less – but it’d nonetheless be unwise to shell out for a best spec motherboard with out knowing how good Bulldozer is going to be or how a lot it is going to expense.

And that last point is crucial – since if AMD’s next CPU can undercut its Intel rivals substantially, it is going to be worth purchasing a premium board to make the most of it.

And they don’t come a lot far more premium than this.

We liked

The Crosshair V has got just about every thing you could wish for to develop a high finish program about.

It is quickly, endlessly teakable and even has a decent on board sound chip.

The cost is not terrible either, unless you are a die challenging bargain hunter that it.

We disliked

As we stated this is a board with every thing, except that is for a great CPU to go with it.

Phenom II is yesterday’s news, and to make the Crosshair V worthwhile, Bulldozer has to be excellent. So like each other AMD 9-series motherboard at the moment it’s just a warm up to the major event.

Final word

If Bulldozer is top notch performance at a bargain cost, it’ll be worth getting a high end motherboard like this to get the most out of it.

TechRadar: All PC & Mac feeds

You owners of the Asus Eee Pad Transformer are a lucky bunch. I’m a bit jealous as I don’t own one. You all are in the middle of an OTA update, and as you get it you will more than likely check your Android version right after. No? Doesn’t look like it’ll happen just yet, still 3.1? That definitely disappointing. Transformer owners have every right to be a little anxious over getting this Honeycomb 3.2 update. I mean, come on, the Motorola Xoom is getting it!

Well, just sit tight. The ASUS twitter account recently gave us this hope:

@ASUS is testing Android 3.2 on the #EeePadTransformer now – we hope to have it released soon!

So stick around, and we’ll let you know when we get the news!

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer wants the update but still at 3.1

Android News, Rumours, and Updates

I know you’ve been seeing these posts all week about Asus’ elusive Transformer tablet going on sale at various stores around the net, only for the post to be updated with “Sold Out” before we can even publish.

Well, looks like Best Buy may have received more than 4 units of this hot ticket item. Phandroid reported earlier this week that Asus was planning on upping production of their Tickle Me Elmo tablet. Yesterday, when we found out they were available at Best Buy, we sent out a tweet notifying our followers and like clockwork, the 32GB version sold out in minutes. Upon checking BesyBuy.com this morning, I couldn’t believe my eyes to see that the 16GB version is still available. Of course, I could have been raptured in my sleep and I suppose it’s possible that heaven has a never ending supply of Honeycomb tablets.

Either way, grab your Transformer before they sell out (again) and don’t forget — you can always save yourself some extra moolah by picking up the 16GB version and plopping down $ 30 for a 16GB micro sd card to shove inside. Thank, gawd for expandable memory!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Android Phone Fans

ASUS just showed off a whole lineup of Android tablets at CES, but chairman Jonney Shih is already touting what’s on the horizon. He apparently has the inside scoop one what will be powering the Apple iPad 2 — supposedly a dual-core ARM Cortex A9-based chip — and claims his company’s future NVIDIA Tegra 2 tablets will have the edge. In fact, Shih said, “to really compete it will take [Apple] some time” to catch up to what ASUS is bringing.

Throw Android 3.0 Honeycomb on whatever they have coming up and I’d say Shih might be talking the truth. In fact, his real competition might end up being Android tablets such as the Motorola XOOM and LG G-Slate.

[via Electronista]

View full post on Android Phone Fans

Adding to Asus’ comprehensive range of high-end laptops, the U53Jc (£899 inc. VAT) is a powerhouse portable with a twist.

Finished with a bamboo exterior, it is one of the most uniquely designed machines you can buy, but proves to be far more than just a pretty face.

Chosen for its environmental credentials, the use of bamboo on the lid and palm rest is notable for the strength and organic look that it lends this laptop. With a finish resembling mahogany, it creates a luxurious style of its own – albeit one that is likely to divide opinion.

The remainder of the chassis’ interior is finished in brushed aluminium, contrasting nicely with the bamboo veneer. As such, the black-plastic keyboard looks a little out of place, but it is a pleasure to type on, with its spacious design and firm keys responding well at all times.

Built around a 15.6-inch screen, this is one of the larger laptops in this group test and so is better suited to home use than travel. At 2.8kg, you can certainly carry it on shorter journeys, however, and the 271-minute battery life is a capable enough result for a laptop of this size.

Thanks to its larger dimensions, storage is comprehensive, with two hard drives paired up for a staggering 640GB of storage space. As with all the laptops here, cutting-edge wireless and fixed network connectivity is also in place, courtesy of 802.11n Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet.

Cutting-edge components

Powered by a processor from Intel’s Core i5 range, the Asus delivers fantastic performance. While slightly bettered by the Toshiba Satellite R630-141, software loads and runs impressively quickly. Graphics are slightly less capable, but there is still more than enough power for watching high-definition (HD) movies and editing your photos and videos.

The HP Envy 14 more than doubles the performance on offer here, however, so bear this in mind if you’re a serious gamer. That’s not to say the Asus is not a good choice for home entertainment, as the bright 15.6-inch screen proves sharp and vibrant. With its deep black levels providing a striking level of contrast, widescreen movies in particular look great.

One area that this laptop falls short of the others in this group is the software included as standard. There is no office or multimedia software and internet security is limited to a 60-day trial version; so factor the software you need into your budget. While you’ll either love or hate the bamboo finish of the U53Jc, the power and components it delivers ensures this laptop provides great value for money. Only the limited software package lets it down, but this is still a unique and highly capable home machine.

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Maximum power in a minimalist package. That’s what the new Asus Rampage III Gene is all about.

But is it even a sensible idea to force-feed enthusiast-class performance and features into a small-form factor motherboard? Quite possibly, yes.

Micro-ATX motherboards aren’t hugely smaller than the ATX standard. What’s more, the greater level of feature integration in the latest processors means motherboards themselves are simpler and require fewer components.

Affordable high-ender

Ultimately, however, what really counts are the features and performance on offer, not size. The Asus Rampage III Gene sports Intel’s top CPU socket and chipset combo in the LGA1366 and X58. That means support for Intel’s Core i7 processors, including the mighty six-core Gulftown chip.

You also get USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps and a pair of 16-lane PCI-e graphics ports for multi-GPU action.

At £170, it’s even relatively affordable for a high-end motherboard based on Intel’s X58 chipset. The full-size Rampage III Extreme costs nearly £300. Full-sized enthusiast boards based on Intel’s premium X58 chipset cost a lot of money.

Consequently, board makers feel obliged to weigh them down with a ton of features. The Asus Rampage III Extreme, for example, packs no less than four 16-lane PCI Express ports. In theory, that enables quad-GPU graphics action. In practice, you’re paying for a feature that you will literally never use.

Cramming it in

With that in mind, the Asus Rampage III Gene has the makings of a perfect performance motherboard.

The micro- ATX form factor means frippery isn’t an option. Instead, Asus has focussed on the features that matter. Instead of four PCI Express graphics ports, you get two of them and support for both multi- GPUs platforms: NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFire.

Asus has also managed to cram in a full set of six DDR3 memory slots and even makes sure they don’t fight with the graphics port for space. That’s an achievement that eludes many full ATX motherboards.

Space around the CPU socket for heavy duty cooling is likewise ample and hardware buttons for power, reset and clear CMOS are all present. As for performance, you’ll struggle to spot the difference between this motherboard and a full ATX equivalent. That’s because there really isn’t any.

That includes overclocking which tops out at around 220MHz on the baseclock and includes an absolutely comprehensive array of BIOS options. In terms of speed, 220MHz on the baseclock is right up there with any high-end X58 chipset motherboard and more than enough to extract the most from any LGA1366 CPU.

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Slapping a new brand name to give an old chip a leg up is a popular ruse in the PC industry. Do not, therefore, assume that the Asus M4A785TD-M EVO and its AMD 785G northbridge is necessarily old hat.

For the most part, it’s identical to the supposedly newer 880G found in Gigabyte’s competing 880GMA-UD2H.

The graphics cores in both, for instance, are effectively the same Radeon HD 4200 DirectX 10.1-class architecture. You get carbon-copy AMD Avivo HD video features and 40 shader cores with this slightly older Asus board. Likewise, AMD Hybrid Graphics is supported by both.

However, where the two diverge and the Asus M4A785TD-M EVO arguably falls behind involves the companion chips that provide additional functionality.

While the Gigabyte board gets the latest SB850 southbridge chip and NEC’s USB 3.0 controller, Asus makes do with the older SB710 southbridge. USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps are not part of the package.

In raw performance terms, the gap between the Asus M4A785TD-M EVO and supposedly newer and fancier boards, such as Gigabyte’s 880GMAUD2H is measured in microns. Whether it’s video encoding, professional 3D rendering or playing games courtesy of an add-in graphics cards, there’s near as dammit no difference. The same applies when using the onboard Radeon HD graphics.

In both cases, it’s a mixed bag of feeble 3D performance and excellent 2D hardware acceleration. At least all the important video codecs are supported ensuring buttery smooth playback of high definition video, whether stored locally or streamed from the net, without stressing the CPU.

Likewise, both boards offer support for AMD’s Hybrid CrossFireX technology enabling users to switch on the fly between beefy but power-hungry discrete graphics and the more efficient integrated 3D core.

OC headroom

Shift the focus to overclocking, however, and the older Asus M4A785TD-M EVO actually carves out a small advantage achieving 270MHz to the Gigabyte’s 260MHz. So much for progress.

Elsewhere, however, the Asus doesn’t have it all its own way. Part of the problem is the fact that quad-core Intel chips have the edge on the fastest six-core AMD chips. Intel’s six-core models are in a class of their own.

Exactly how important high bandwidth interfaces, such as USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps will be during the lifetime of a board bought today is hard to judge. Currently, there are few available components and peripherals that support either standard.

However, you can have both with the Gigabyte board for just eight pounds extra and otherwise offers a very similar package. So, why take the risk?

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Asus has done the unthinkable with its RT-N56U Dual Band Wireless-N router, it’s made it look beautiful.

As a dual-band 802.11n Wireless-N router the RT-N56U is designed to provide a complete Wireless-N networking extension to your existing wired network for both the standard 2.4GHz and newer 5GHz wireless ranges.

Asus has spared nothing in the design both technically and aesthetically, and you should be struck by both the shiny exterior case design and the shiny specification lurking below it.

Of key importance to the RT-N56U is the 5GHz 802.11n; AKA Wireless-N networking.

The theory being that using twice the frequency should boost speeds by two times too. The practical outcome however is far from that simple.

Despite the 5GHz range being far less crowded, along with the the availability of more free channels, the 5GHz frequency is hampered by being absorbed far more readily by objects.

Back it up with MIMO to compensate for that though and perhaps you’d hope for a 50 per cent increase in throughput over 2.4GHz.

Couple these abilities with its Gigabit LAN, cable-ready WAN port and full complement of security, management and easy-to-use web interface, this should be a winning combination.

So, is it?

We tested the wireless performance in various scenarios to see how the Asus RT-N56U performed in typical real-world situations for both its 2.4GHz and 5GHz modes.

The first was a same-room configuration transferring a large file from the router to the laptop. The second involved the laptop being placed one brick-wall and a standard wooden floor away.

Finally we ran a distance test at 30m with a direct line of sight, to see how it coped with distance.

Same room transfer speed

One-room, one-floor away transfer speed

30m line-of-sight transfer speed

At the heart of the Asus RT-N56U are two sets of 802.11n wireless antennas. These create the distinct spatial streams for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz radio frequencies.

Typically better 2.4GHz will offer three or four distinct antenna, as more spatial streams increase the MIMO effect, so increasing speed and workable distance.

The RT-N56U comes with two internal antennas for the 2.4GHz range and three for the 5GHz range.

Two antennas is something we’d expect to see on more modest Wireless-N-class routers, though we can understand the need to concentrate on the 5GHz performance.

Even so, same-room and medium-distance tests were excellent.

In some respects besting wired 100BaseT Ethernet speeds, with an average of 12MB/s and peaks just over 13MB/s. One room and floor away and speeds were maintained at 10MB/s.

It wasn’t until we tried at distance that things tailed off to 1.1MB/s, which was our only disappointment with the RT-N56U, but at 5GHz its three antenna maintained a decent 3.8MB/s transfer speed.

Unusually for a router it manages to pull off the twin design goal of looking aesthetically pleasing and offering an aesthetically pleasing web interface.

In fact its interface feels more like a standalone app than a web-based interface. It’s slick, well presented, easy to navigate and speedy to use.

This makes setting up what in effect are two routers in one an easy and quick job. It also includes a WPS fast-setup button that ties into Windows 7 which can eliminate entering WPA keys. If you trust that sort of thing.

A barrage of status LEDs is tastefully implemented, while the USB ports can handle storage, printers and compatible 3G adaptors. That USB storage ties in beautifully with the UPnP capabilities so it doubles as a media streamer, bittorrent, FTP and HTTP download server too.

We liked:

There’s an awful lot to like about the ASUS RT-N56U from the aesthetic design of both the chassis to the slick web-based interface to its actual performance.

There’s a confident air about every aspect of it and you really feel the engineers have the designed knowhow to squeeze every drop of performance from their hardware.

The Ai Radar technology certainly overcome any limitations of the 2.4GHz twin antenna to provide leading-class performance and 5GHz speed are equally impressive.

We disliked:

With only a question mark over its long-range performance, at this price it’s certainly full-steam ahead for this ASUS router.

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Riffing on the ‘small, but perfectly formed’ design ethos, Asus P8P67M-Pro is packing a lot into its teeny, tiny footprint.

If you cast your mind back a few years, micro-ATX (mATX) boards were seen very much as the poor relations of the motherboard world, they didn’t support the latest processors or chipset technologies and weren’t exactly over blessed in the features department, either.

They were usually seen as a bit of an afterthought option to allow people to build small-scale PCs where performance came very low down on the list of priorities.

One look at the P8P67M-Pro from Asus though shows exactly where the small format motherboard is now in the consumers’, and more importantly the manufacturers’, consciousness.

Not only does it support Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge technology – Intel’s LGA 1155 Core i7, Core i5 and Core i3 processors and the P67 Express chipset – it also backs these up with four DDR3 memory slots and a whole host of features normally associated with its full-sized siblings.

And all this despite the obvious compromises that have to be made because of its small sized PCB.

The old-school idea of performance being limited by the small-scale motherboards has been blown out of the water increasingly by Asus over the last year or so, culminating in the mATX performance of this P67 board.

Keeping pace with a full-size, and more expensive, P67 is impressive, and beating it by even such a short way doubly so.

3D Rendering performance

Cinebench R11.5 – Index: higher is better
Asus P8P67M-Pro: 6.71
Foxconn P67A-S: 6.69
ECS P67H2-A: 6.53
Overclocked: 8.31

Cinebench R10 – Seconds: quicker is better
Asus P8P67M-Pro: 37
Foxconn P67A-S: 39
ECS P67H2-A: 39
Overclocked: 31

Video encoding performance

x264v2 – FPS: higher is better
Asus P8P67M-Pro: 35.15
Foxconn P67A-S: 32.71
ECS P67H2-A: 33.21
Overclocked: 43.69

x264v3 – FPS: higher is better
Asus P8P67M-Pro: 35.70
Foxconn P67A-S: 36.76
ECS P67H2-A: 32.71
Overclocked: 43.37

1080p gaming performance

Just Cause 2 – FPS: higher is better
Asus P8P67M-Pro: 46
Foxconn P67A-S: 46
ECS P67H2-A: 45

Despite that small size, Asus has managed to pack pretty much all the mainstream user requires of a motherboard these days into the P8P67M-Pro; a full complement of DDR3 memory slots, SATA 6Gbps and SATA 3Gbps support, USB 3.0, integrated Gigabit Ethernet and eight-channel audio.

Given the fact that it’s built on a small-format PCB, the P8P67M-Pro is very nicely laid out and looks the part too, with a black PCB and pale blue passive heatsinks.

Compared to the huge heatsinks found on some standard-size boards, these are comparatively tiny and are used to cool the P67 and the MOSFETs.

When it comes to the compromises you have to make on a mATX boardd you can clearly see it in the closeness of memory slots to the top of the two PCI-E x16 slots, (x16 in single mode but x8/x8 in Crossfire or SLI mode), but thankfully this isn’t the problem it used to be because Asus has used memory slots with only a single locking latch, this being on the other end of the slot.

More of a problem is the positioning of the vertically stacked SATA ports, which can obstruct long graphics cards with massive coolers, but then it’s unlikely you would fit such a massive card in the sort of li’l system the P8P67M-Pro is designed to be built around anyway.

The new EFI BIOS Asus is using on its Sandy Bridge boards is something very special, if only in looks alone.

The beauty of having so much traditional motherboard fodder on the CPU now means you can pack much more performance into a small board. Because of this the P8P67M-Pro actually outperforms its chunkier MSI competition, the P67A-GD65.

Both are capable of an impressive 4.2GHz overclock with a 3.4GHz Core i7-2600K, but even at stock speeds the Asus board is just a little faster in our benchmarks.

So the fact is with the new Sandy Bridge setup there’s no need for compromise in performance if you opt for a smaller form factor. We could be looking at a new breed of masterful, mini gaming PCs coming our way.


We liked

A well-built, nicely laid-out board that has a feature list that belies its small stature and gives it a good deal of future proofing.

As with most modern Asus motherboards it comes crammed with technology you can’t see, including the AI Suite II, which allows you to balance between out and out performance and energy saving via an easy-to-use interface.

The new EFI BIOS is also an eye opener once you get over the shock of seeing it for the first time.

We disliked

There’s not much to dislike about the P8P67M-Pro in all honesty, given the comprises that arise as a result of its small format.

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Although the Asus N73J is a well built media centre, it doesn’t quite hold up to the other big-screen laptops.

Build quality is excellent, with a strong metallic finish to the firm chassis that is immune to scuff marks. We liked the design, although the 3.7kg weight might be a bit much for some. Portability is further impaired by the 103-minute battery – one of the worst results we have seen in a while.

The built-in Blu-ray drive can be used to watch films and create discs. Movies are this machine’s speciality.

The 17.3-inch display doesn’t have the Full HD resolution of the Acer Aspire Ethos 8934G and HP Envy 17 3D, but it matches the Samsung RF710-S03UK for sharpness. Images are bright and vibrant and films look great as a result.

Designer speakers

Dedicated speakers from audio specialist Bang & Olufsen take up a sizeable chunk of space above the keyboard. Although volume levels and sound quality are good for a laptop, we were a little disappointed when compared to other laptops here and the Acer’s speakers have more power.

As with the HP Envy 17 3D, an Intel Core i5 processor has been used, although the Asus has just 4096MB of memory. We found performance lacking – enough to capably multi-task with various applications, but not enough to offer much future-proofing.

Graphical power is also slightly lacking. The dedicated Nvidia GT 420M GPU can run the latest games, with support for DirectX 11, but you’ll have to turn down detail levels for a smooth frame rate.

Nvidia’s Optimus technology allows a basic integrated graphics chip to take control when dedicated graphics aren’t required. This is supposed to save battery power, but appears to have very little effect here.

This laptop also has limited storage for a laptop of this size, although the 640GB hard drive is still enough for a huge media collection.

USB 3.0 is available for speedy data transfer with external storage devices, which we’ve found is roughly twice as fast as USB 2.0.

There’s also a feature dubbed ExpressGate, which boots the laptop into a basic operating system in seconds for browsing the web or photos.

We found the keyboard was slightly more cramped than the others and we prefer the isolation-style design used elsewhere, although it’s still comfortable to type on. The touchpad is a reasonable size and smooth to use.

The N73J is a well-built laptop that does little wrong, but it struggles to compete with its rivals here for power and features. However, its low price makes it ideal for those on a tighter budget.

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Although Asus may not yet be a household name in the UK, it manufactures some excellent laptops, and the U53JC-RX080V is one of them.

Costing less than many of the other machines, it provides impressive performance and excellent portability, with only its flawed usability slightly letting the side down.

The key to any ultraportable laptop is portability, and this laptop offers bucket loads. The 1.8kg weight may not be as light as the Lenovo IdeaPad U160, but is comfortable enough for regular travel, while the 444-minute battery life is excellent, providing over seven hours of power between charges.

Ample performance

This is also a very powerful laptop, and the machine boasts Intel’s latest processing power in the form of a Core i3 processor. In fact, it offers nearly as much performance as the Toshiba, which features a processor from the higher-specified Core i5 range.

Graphically the laptop may not be as powerful as the Apple MacBook 13-inch, but there isn’t much in it and you’ll have no trouble editing high-definition videos and even enjoying a bit of gaming, which is impossible with the other machines.

The laptop boasts Nvidia’s Optimus technology, which aims to improve the battery life of laptops with dedicated graphics cards.

There’s a 320GB hard drive in place, but there’s no optical drive for reading or writing CDs and DVDs, although this is to be expected in such a small laptop.

Build quality is generally good. The laptop’s lid features a very smart brushed-aluminium finish that provides decent protection for the screen within.

The 13.3-inch panel is great. It can’t match the Apple for clarity or colour vibrancy, but still makes your movies and photos look great. A shiny Super-TFT coating is in place and produces distracting reflections in bright light – so not great if you work on the train, for example.

The laptop’s chassis features an attractive weave design, but we prefer the metal simplicity of the Apple.

The keyboard is the only disappointing part of the machine. It’s not nearly as poor as the Toshiba’s offering, but remains overly spongy, and we certainly recommend trying out this machine before you buy, to make sure you are comfortable with the action the laptop provides when typing.

Aside from the keyboard, we were extremely impressed by the Asus U35JC-RX080V. Performance is excellent, and portability is the best here – beating some big names to the title. Yet the laptop remains cheaper than most of its competitors and, therefore, offers great value for money.

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When it comes to new PC components, odes to awesomeness are often overwrought. But take it from us, Intel’s new Sandy Bridge desktop processors proved worthy of our finest prose. The Intel Core i5-2500K and Intel Core i7-2600K chips are preposterously quick. Of course, to get the best out of them what you need is a damn fine motherboard. For example, the Asus Maximus IV Extreme RoG.

At least, that’s what Asus would have you think.

This latest board from the enthusiast-class Republic of Gamers line is based on the new Intel P67 chipset, one of two consumer-oriented platforms for the new Sandy Bridge chips. The P67 is the discrete graphics alternative to the integrated graphics H67 chipset.

On the downside, that means you can’t use the integrated graphics core that comes with all 14 of the new Sandy Bridge desktop CPUs. Normally, we wouldn’t class that as a major disappointment. After all, the history of integrated graphics has been one of awful performance. However, Intel’s latest effort is the best we’ve seen by miles.

On the upside, the Asus Maximus IV Extreme RoG is absolutely, positively rammed with high-performance features. Highlights include no fewer than eight USB 3.0 ports on the rear panel, remote control overclocking, a seriously snazzy graphical firmware interface and much, much more.

We’re only beginning to get to grips with the immense performance and overclocking headroom of Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processors. It’s therefore difficult to draw really firm conclusions about the comparative performance of the first compatible motherboards.

However, what we can say for sure is that the Asus Maximus IV Extreme RoG is making the most of the 2.0 revision of Turbo Boost that comes with Sandy Bridge. During testing, the Maximus runs an Intel Core i7-2600K processor at a constant 3.8GHz under load, regardless of the number of active cores.

Professional rendering, Cinebench R10

Time – faster is better

Foxconn H67S: 38 seconds
Asus Maximus IV Extreme: 35 seconds
Gigabyte P55A-UD6**: 46 seconds

Video encoding, x264 HD

Frames per second – higher is better

Foxconn H67S: 32fps
Asus Maximus IV Extreme: 35fps
Gigabyte P55A-UD6**: 28fps

Gaming, World in Conflict

Frames per second – higher is better

Foxconn H67S: 90fps
Asus Maximus IV Extreme: 96fps
Gigabyte P55A-UD6**: 78fps

Memory bandwidth, SiSoft Sandra

Gigabytes per second – higher is better

Foxconn H67S: 14.1GB/s
Asus Maximus IV Extreme: 18.7GB/s
Gigabyte P55A-UD6**: 17.3GB/s

** P55 chipset and Intel Core i7-870

Extracting maximum power and performance from Intel’s new LGA1155 CPUs is the unambiguous task we’re setting for the Asus Maximus IV Extreme RoG. On paper, it’s certainly up to the job.

For starters, like all boards built for the new Sandy Bridge processors the Maximus is equipped with EFI firmware. EFI effectively replaces the long-standing BIOS PC firmware platform and brings a number of upgrades including faster boot times, support for boot disks larger than 2TB and graphical user interfaces.

Regarding the latter, Asus has really gone to town. The Maximus has a thoroughly snazzy mouse-driven EFI menu that runs at 1024 x 768. It even supports screen grabs to a USB key via the F12 key. If nothing else, it’s a feature that makes life easier for us on TechRadar.

What’s more, like all of Asus’ RoG boards, the Maximus’ menu is absolutely packed with overclocking and tweaking options.

There is, however, one thing missing – the ability to overclock using the global CPU multiplier setting rather than the Turbo ratios. Asus has provided an entry in the CPU configuration menu for the base multiplier ratio, but currently it doesn’t allow inputs beyond the standard ratio required to achieve the official non-Turbo clockspeed.

This is very much in line with how Intel describes overclocking with the new Sandy Bridge processors. Other board manufacturers, though, have streamlined this process so that it automatically switches to the Turbo multiplier when you go beyond the designed specifications of the new Intel chip’s multiplier.

Another key feature is remote overclocking via RoG Connect. The basic functionality via USB is a familiar feature, but the Maximus gets a few funky new capabilities.

A Bluetooth module allows you to hook up wirelessly and control the overclocking settings using an app on an iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Asus says it’s considering adding support for other platforms. Android and Windows Phone 7 users may yet experience some wireless ROG Connect joy.

GPU TweakIt is the other upgrade for ROG Connect and essentially adds discrete graphics card to the remote overclocking package.

In terms of hardware specifications beyond the standard Intel P67 chipset, Asus has soldered on a pair of NEC USB 3.0 controllers, which in turn feed two USB 3.0 hub chips. The result is a total of eight USB 3.0 ports. In other words, the back panel is pure USB 3.0, which is jolly nice.

Meanwhile, the Maximus also has some serious hardware tweaking chops in the form of voltage measuring points and DIP switches for configuring the PCI Express ports.

On that very subject, the Maximus supports both AMD CrossFire and Nvidia SLI multi-GPU platforms. Intriguingly, with regard to SLI support, Asus has wired up an Nvidia NF200 chip. Ostensibly, this provides extra PCIE lanes and allows support for triple-card SLI.

However, our understanding of the Sandy Bridge architecture suggests this is a futile measure due to the limited bandwidth of the external DMI interface, which shares 2.5GB/s across all peripherals. We’re awaiting word from Asus on how this all adds up.

In performance terms, it’s hard to be absolutely categorical about the Asus Maximus IV Extreme RoG. It’s the quickest Sandy Bridge board we’ve tested, but then we haven’t seen many yet. Still, it’s worth noting that we achieved our highest air-cooled overclock of Sandy Bridge, an impressive 4.6GHz, with this board. However, for all the talk of quick-booting EFI firmwares, it doesn’t half take a long time to wake up and smell the coffee.

If that’s a function of the snazzy graphical EFI menu, we’d prefer a return to plain old text.

Moreover, there are several unresolved issues that prevent us from giving this board the full thumbs up. We’re not convinced the NF200 chip’s triple-card SLI capability is quite what it seems.

Another doubt involves the Quick Sync Video transcode core that appears in all Sandy Bridge processors. According to our Intel engineering contact, it should be possible to access the transcoder when using discrete graphics.

However, the Maximus does not provide an option to enable the integrated graphics core in parallel with a discrete card and thus it doesn’t appear in device manager. We’d certainly be loathe to pass up on Quick Sync Video. Early tests suggest it’s much faster than conventional CPU software encoding.

We liked

If you can afford it, we’ve little doubt the Asus Maximus IV Extreme RoG represents your best chance of maximising the CPU performance of Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processors. It’s also packed with seriously desirable features such as wireless overclocking and comprehensive USB 3.0 connectivity.

We disliked

We’re still getting to know Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processor architecture, so it’s not quite clear whether Asus is responsible for Maximus’s niggles, including question marks over SLI and the Quick Sync Video transcode engine. But all the same, they could do with sorting.

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To round out today’s Android-based announcements from ASUS, the Eee Pad Transformer and Eee Pad Slider have been flaunted on stage. Both of these devices are very similar: they both run Android 3.0, they both boast 10 inch multi-touch IPS displays with a resolution of 1280×800, and they’re both powered by Tegra 2 dual-core processors. Other features include Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi, front-facing and rear-facing cameras (VGA and 5 megapixels, respectively).

The main differences between the two will be their physical options. Starting with the Slider, it’s exactly what its name makes it out to be: it’s a tablet slate that can slide up to transform into a netbook as a full QWERTY keyboard sits beneath it. The Transformer is of similar taste, but the keyboard is actually detachable.

These fit in nicely with ASUS’ choice + innovation model. I’ve never been more excited for an Android netbook, if I might share my own thoughts. It looks like Android 3.0 is making the prospect of portable PCs just as much of a reality as tablets and handsets are now. We’ve seen Android netbooks before, but they didn’t look nearly as nice and didn’t have nearly as many features.

Just as with the Eee Pad MeMo, we’ll be dying to get our hands on these products at CES and we’ll be bringing full coverage right to your screen. Stay tuned.

View full post on Android Phone Fans

ASUS just wrapped up their CES press conference, one that was full of some pretty innovative Android tablets. One thing is for certain, the hardware manufacturer means business with a lineup that should cover just about everyone. Here is a quick run down of what you can expect from their Android options coming out over the first half of 2011.

ASUS Eee Pad MeMO

• 7-inch screen capacitive touchscreen with stylus
• Android 3.0
• 1080p video playback and HDMI out
• Available June ranging from $499 to $699

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer

• 10.1-inch IPS wide format capacitive touchscreen
• Android 3.0
• NVIDIA Tegra 2 Processor
• Removable keyboard dock
• Available April ranging from $399 to $699

ASUS Eee Pad Slider

• 10.1-inch IPS wide format capacitive touchscreen
• Android 3.0
• 1.2MP front-facing camera and 5MP rear camera
• Available May ranging from $699 to $799

Here is the full press release:

ASUS Tablet Computers — Providing Choice through Innovation at CES 2011

Chairman Jonney Shih unveils a new range of innovative tablet computers that provide a wide selection of choices for consumers and businesses alike

Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas, NA (January 4, 2011) – ASUS today announced four new tablet computers designed for a wide range of users and applications — The Eee Pad Slider, Eee Pad Transformer, Eee Pad MeMO and Eee Slate EP121. The new models are available with three screen sizes, and a choice of either Windows® 7 Home Premium or Android® operating systems for the ultimate in mobile flexibility and productivity.

Choice is essential when selecting innovative and technologically advanced personal computer devices. When it comes to tablets, there is a clear need for devices than can deliver a full multimedia experience with HD video, broad connectivity options and even gaming plus the broadest range of media compatibility with standards like Adobe Flash, all in a compact device. In short, there is demand for tablets that enable users to both consume and create content with a choice of applications whether it is for learning, work or play. This is what the new ASUS Eee Pad and Eee Slate computer range showcased at CES 2011 delivers, choice through innovation.

ASUS Eee Pad Slider
Mobile users who want the best of both tablet and traditional notebook worlds will be well served by the Eee Pad Slider. This pad computer not only features a 10.1″ IPS touch-screen for finger-friendly use, but also a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard for comfortable, use-anywhere typing. It is powered by the NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2, the world’s most advanced mobile processor with a dual-core CPU and NVIDIA® GeForce® GPU for never-before-seen experiences on a mobile device.

Built-in digital cameras on the front (1.2-megapixel) and rear (5-megapixel) of the Slider allow for easy video chat and digital photography while the Android® 3.0 operating system makes sharing photos by internet, email and social media sites a breeze. The intuitive interface provides user-friendly control via the capacitive touch-screen and optional onboard 3G allows for go-anywhere internet access, making the Slider the ideal device for mobile professionals with work-oriented needs.

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer
With a slim lightweight design and 10.1″ IPS touch-screen, the versatile Eee Pad Transformer is the perfect pad computer for people who want to enjoy multimedia on the move, but still wish to have easy access to the web, email and other productivity applications. A custom user interface provides easy access to the many features of the Android® 3.0 operating system, while the NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 processor provides full support for Adobe Flash, smooth HD video conferencing and playback, a lightning fast web experience and incredible mobile gaming performance.

An optional docking station turns the Transformer into a full-fledged notebook with a full QWERTY keyboard for desktop use, while extending battery life up to 16 hours. As with the Slider, front (1.2-megapixel) and rear (5-megapixel) digital cameras make for easy video chat and digital photography, while a built-in mini-HDMI port makes for easy connections to external displays showing off full 1080p HD video playback.

ASUS Eee Pad MeMO
The Eee Pad MeMO provides the ultimate in mobile flexibility. Its 7″ capacitive touch-screen makes it small enough to slip into a jacket pocket, yet still perfect for taking handwritten notes using the supplied stylus pen. The Android® 3.0 operating system offers a wide range of productivity and entertainment software, while a mini-HDMI port means the MeMO can even connect to an external display for full 1080p HD video playback.

ASUS Eee Slate EP121
The Eee Slate EP121 is designed for users who require a highly portable handheld device that can also run standard office software while multitasking with other applications. Powered with an Intel® Core™ i5 dual-core processor, the Eee Slate PC features a 12.1″ LED-backlit display with a 1280 x 800 resolution and a wide 178° viewing angle, making it perfectly suited for both productivity applications and multimedia entertainment.

Windows® 7 Home Premium ensures full compatibility with a wide range of popular applications controlled by flexible input options thanks to the Eee Slate EP121. The capacitive touch-screen responds instantly to fingertip control for day-to-day use, while the capacitive stylus offers fine precision input and control. An on-screen keyboard is also complimented by support for an external Bluetooth keyboard for traditional desktop use.

The Eee Slate EP121 is available with 32GB or 64GB of SSD storage (expandable via SDXC), and up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM. All models have 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, a 2-megapixel camera, plus two USB 2.0 ports that provide full support for a wide range of standard PC peripherals, along with a mini-HDMI port that is ideal for connecting to external displays.

ASUS is excited to announce that the ASUS Eee Slate EP121 is one of their eight products to be selected for a CES 2011 Innovations Award.

ASUS at CES 2011
For ASUS’ complete CES product lineup, please visit us between 9:30AM and 6:00PM at The Venetian, San Polo Ballroom – 3501A from January 6-8.
Please visit http://www.ces2011.asus.com for the latest ASUS CES announcements.
For more details about the products mentioned in this press release, please go to www.techinstyle.tv.

###

About CES Innovations Awards

The Innovations, Design and Engineering Awards program, sponsored by PCWorld, recognizes the most innovative consumer electronics products in the industry’s leading categories, with a particular emphasis on forward-thinking innovation.

http://www.cesweb.org/awards/innovations/default.asp

###

About ASUS
ASUS, the world’s top 3 consumer notebook vendor and the maker of the world’s bestselling and most award winning motherboards, is a leading enterprise in the new digital era. ASUS designs and manufactures products that perfectly meet the needs of today’s digital home, office and person, with a broad portfolio that includes motherboards, graphics cards, displays, desktop PCs, notebooks, netbooks, servers, multimedia, wireless solutions, networking devices and mobile phones. Driven by innovation and committed to quality, ASUS won 3,398 awards in 2010, and is widely credited with revolutionizing the PC industry with the Eee PC™. With a global staff of more than ten thousand people and a world-class R&D team of 3,000 engineers, the company’s revenue for 2010 was around US$10 billion.

View full post on Android Phone Fans

A couple days ago we showed you some leaked images of what appears to be an Android-powered Asus tablet (as evidenced by the physical buttons on the bottom). Although the photos were pretty high quality, they didn’t leave us with a whole lot of information about the device. Thankfully a new teaser video gives us a little more insight into what ASUS has up their sleeves in terms of their tablet offerings being presented at CES next week.

We still don’t know anything in terms of specs, but we now know the model names of the three devices: EP121, EP102 and EP101. The EP121 is a Windows tablet, but either the EP102 or EP101 (or perhaps both?) could be the Android device. There is also an EP71, which looks to be a small media player of some kind. That’s all we have for you right now, but we will be on hand at CES next week and we’ll be sure to follow this one for you. Continue after the break to catch the teaser vid as well.

Read More…

More Asus tablet details emerge, does the suspected Android model have a detachable keyboard?

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Reports of an Android tablet being released by Asus in 2011 are finally sounding realistic.

Asus has announced that they will be releasing three tablets in 2011, as the tablet phenomena has exploded recently with the releases of the Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab.

While more details have yet to emerge (and probably won’t until after CES 2011), we do have some juicy pictures of these tablets for you after the break.

Read More…

Asus Eee Pad caught on camera

View full post on Android News, Rumours, and Updates

Since Asus pioneered the humble netbook around three years ago, its Eee PC range has faced fierce competition from almost every other laptop manufacturer out there. From Packard Bell’s Dot machines to MSI’s Wind series, there’s a mind-exploding variety of netbooks to choose from.

Although most of these mini-machines appear identical on paper, there’s actually considerable difference between many of the models. From the incredible battery life of the Acer Aspire One D260, to the solid build quality of the Dell Inspiron Mini 1018, every netbook we see has its own strengths and highlights.

To make things even more confusing for the average consumer, there’s also the huge resurgence of tablets to consider, offering a smart and convenient method for browsing the net and consuming media.

Into this saturated market bursts the Asus Eee PC Lamborghini VX6. Inspired by the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 roadster, this is easily one of the most stylish netbooks we’ve seen.

The curved lid mimics the roadster’s drool-worthy chassis and comes in a choice of white or black. Lamborghini’s famous crest is planted firmly in the centre and adds an extra touch of class to the Eee PC VX6.

Pull back that lid and the black interior looks just as sharp. Asus has gone for rubberised palm rests, which feel good and add another distinctive touch that sets the Eee PC VX6 apart from its competitors.

We were highly impressed by the Eee PC VX6′s build quality, with no flex or weaknesses in any part of the chassis. The lid is incredibly solid and could probably brush off a firm knock without concern.

This quality continues inside, with a firm and highly usable keyboard in place. Asus has stuck with the isolated-key design of its recent Eee PC models, such as the Eee PC 1015PE, and we found the board to be well-sized, filling the width of the chassis. There are gaps between each key to prevent mis-hits, but the gaps are covered to stop crumbs and muck from invading the Eee PC VX6′s innards.

It’s rare to find an attractive touchpad, but the glossy finish to the Eee PC VX6′s pad gives it a sleek chrome appearance that stands out and looks great. The touchpad is smooth and responsive, and a good size considering the netbook’s compact chassis, with a firm single bar used for the two mouse buttons.

The pay-off for the solid build is, of course, extra weight and bulk. While the 1.6kg weight isn’t exactly going to drag you down, and the 38mm thick chassis can still slip with ease into most bags, the Eee PC VX6 is still heavier and chunkier than many of the netbooks we see.

Unfortunately, it’s also much pricier. With an RRP of £499, the Eee PC VX6 is almost double the price of the average netbook. The question is: is the extra cash worth it?

We like some of the little touches Asus has thrown into the Eee PC VX6, which should please any car fiends out there. The netbook actually revs when you switch it on, an effect that never fails to amuse.

Lamborghini fans will delight at the desktop background, which showcases the Murcielago LP640 roadster, and if you leave the netbook idle you’ll be treated to a noisy screensaver featuring – you guessed it – cars screeching around the place.

Most netbooks contend with a tiny 10.1-inch screen, but the Eee PC VX6′s 12.1-inch display means browsing the web and editing your documents isn’t as fiddly. We were impressed by the sharpness of the screen, with a 1,366 x 768-pixel resolution in place of the standard 1,024 x 600.

Images are crisp and also reasonably vibrant, while brightness levels are standard for a machine this size. However, the screen only bends back a fraction past vertical, so finding a comfortable viewing angle can be tricky, especially with the Eee PC VX6 positioned on your lap.

Storage is average for a netbook, with 250GB of space for your files and media. This should prove plenty for most people, assuming the Eee PC VX6 is used as a backup machine and not your main computer.

Some standard Asus features are in place, including the Express Gate Cloud quick start option. By hitting a second power button, the Eee PC VX6 launches an alternative operating system in mere seconds.

This is a basic OS with limited options – you can browse the web, check out your photos and play some simple games such as Solitaire. However, the Express Gate OS is rather slow and ugly, and we much prefer the Windows 7 interface. It’s definitely worth the extra minute or so it takes to boot the Eee PC VX6.

Much more impressive are the ports the Eee PC VX6 offers. Most netbooks contend with a VGA port for outputting to an external display, but this machine has an HDMI port too. You also get two USB 3.0 ports, which allow rapid data transfer with compatible devices.

Networking is another highlight and as strong as it comes, with 802.11n Wi-Fi on board for wireless connections and Gigabit Ethernet for good old-fashioned wired communication.

We usually raise the point of a netbook’s audio only to mention how tinny and useless it is, but Asus has employed Bang & Olufsen to add a bit of oomph to the Eee PC VX6′s sound quality. Initially we were sceptical about the ‘ICEpower’ audio, which promises ‘crystal-clear and powerful sound’.

However, at top volume the Eee PC VX6 does deliver a surprisingly strong aural experience. Music has more depth than usual, while it’s actually possible to sit through an entire film without plugging in earphones. This isn’t a party machine, though, and a pair of dedicated speakers are required to fill even a small room with sound.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the Eee PC VX6 on paper was the power beneath that highly desirable chassis. While an Intel Atom processor is in place as usual, Asus has gone for the dual-core Atom D525 backed up by 2048MB of DDR3 memory – twice as much as normally found in these mini machines.

Yet despite this extra power under the hood, the Eee PC VX6 performed only marginally better in our benchmarking tests than any other netbook. If your needs are basic, restricted to browsing the web, consuming your media and editing office documents, the Eee PC VX6 will be sufficient.

However, as with other netbooks, don’t expect to run several applications at once without everything slowing to a painful and shuddering halt.

Although standard performance may be a letdown, we were highly impressed by the graphical abilities of the Eee PC VX6. Asus has included Nvidia’s Ion technology, which offers considerably better performance than the integrated solutions found in almost every other netbook.

We found the Eee PC VX6 had more than enough power to smoothly play HD video and run older games, and you can even get away with some light video editing.

Even better, Nvidia’s Optimus technology is on board to help conserve battery power. Whenever the battery-draining Ion graphics aren’t needed (for instance, when browsing your email), the Eee PC VX6 switches to the more economical integrated graphics.

The resulting 313 minutes of battery power is enough to keep you active for most of the day away from the mains. However, this isn’t a patch on most recent netbooks, such as the Packard Bell Dot S, which managed 502 minutes, and the Acer Aspire One D260, which lasted an incredible 532 minutes.

The Asus Eee PC Lamborghini VX6 is the netbook evolved. Featuring a slick chassis inspired by the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 roadster, this is one of the most stylish mini machines we’ve seen. Add in an impressive specification and this should – on paper at least – be the best netbook of the year. But is it worth that hefty price tag?

We liked

The Eee PC VX6′s chassis is incredibly well put together, as solid as it is stylish. The excellent build quality also extends to the keyboard and touchpad, which are responsive and highly usable.

Performance is nothing special, but the Nvidia Ion graphics mean you can happily watch HD video, edit your home movies and play basic games – quite a feat for a humble netbook.

We enjoyed the Eee PC VX6′s 12.1-inch screen, which is pleasingly sharp and reasonably vibrant. Other features also impressed, including the HDMI port for hooking up to external displays and the two USB 3.0 ports.

The Bang & Olufsen speakers are actually decent too, although dedicated audiophiles will need to plug in headphones to get the most from their music.

We disliked

Although the chassis is undoubtedly solid, it’s also a little weighty and bulky compared to slimmer models such as the Packard Bell Dot S. Despite this, the Eee PC VX6 still slips with ease into any reasonably sized bag.

Although 313 minutes of battery power will keep you going through lengthy journeys, it’s beaten by most modern netbooks. The Acer Aspire One D260, for instance, survived almost four hours longer.

The price tag is also a little steep, although if you want a netbook packed with style and features, we feel it’s just about worth the extra spend.

Verdict

Easily the best-looking and most graphically powerful netbook we’ve seen in the last year, and indeed since Asus conceived the first ever Eee PC. We’d happily take an Eee PC VX6 on the road with us any time, although that price tag might put off many potential buyers.

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Over the past twelve months we’ve seen a range of 3D-capable laptops released by some of world’s biggest manufacturers. As well as the polarised screen technology of the Acer Aspire 5738DZG, the Nvidia 3D Vision based Toshiba Satellite A665-11Z and the ATI HD3D-powered HP Envy 17 3D, Asus was one of the first to get in on the act with the release of the Asus G51J at the start of the year – the world’s first 3D laptop to use active shutter 3D glasses.

The Taiwanese manufacturer has now stepped back into the 3D market with the uniquely eye-catching Asus G53Jw.

Designed to combine the distinctive Stealth Bomber style of Asus’ high-powered G73Jh gaming laptop and the 3D screen of the aforementioned G51J, the Asus G53Jw packs cutting-edge technology across the board.

Aiming to deliver one of the most feature-packed specifications yet seen in the desktop replacement laptop market, while also providing high-powered gaming performance and 3D capabilities, the Asus G53Jw has the potential to be the world’s greatest 3D laptop, but only if it learns from the flaws of previous 3D machines and fixes the most common faults we’ve seen many times before.

Unfortunately, while the Asus G53Jw succeeds greatly in some areas, it falls flat in others, making it as much of a mixed bag as every other 3D laptop we’ve seen to date.

With that said, however, there’s no denying the stunning combination of both style and substance on offer and, while the Asus G53Jw is not quite the market-redefining gaming laptop we had hoped for, it is certainly one of the better 3D machines you can currently buy – albeit one with some notable flaws.

The first thing that strikes you as you unpack the Asus G53Jw is its stunning design. As with the larger 17.3-inch Asus G73, the G53Jw’s chassis has been inspired by the F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Bomber and its aggressively sharp lines and matt finish create a truly unique, high-end look that you won’t find anywhere outside of Asus’ gaming range.

Thanks to the matt finish, this also is not a laptop that’s easy to scuff or scratch, adding resilience far too often missing from the many glossy machines found elsewhere in the market.

Continuing the Stealth-inspired look, huge exhausts on the rear of the Asus G53Jw’s chassis are in place to keep the laptop feeling comfortably cool to the touch at all times. Air is drawn in through vents on the base of the chassis and is then blown over the powerful internal components and expelled away from you at the rear of the laptop as you work.

The whole system works extremely well, with the fans running near silently at all times and keeping the Asus G53Jw cool and comfortable to work with on your lap for long periods of time.

Despite being built around a 15.6-inch screen, rather than the more cinematic 17.3-inch panel seen on such rivals as the HP Envy 17 3D, the chunky dimensions of the Asus G53Jw’s chassis make this one of the largest and heaviest 15.6-inch laptops we’ve seen.

Weighing 3.8kg, this is not a laptop that you’ll want to carry very far and it’s far better suited to use at home on your desk. This limited mobility is further illustrated by the poor battery life. We were able to keep working for just 128 minutes with brightness set at 50 per cent, and this dropped yet further to just 98 minutes when we were watching a DVD.

A benefit of the somewhat heavyweight chassis of the Asus G53Jw, however, is the extra space that it provides for the user interface. The large isolated-style, chiclet keyboard uses full-size keys to great effect and is a pleasure to work with.

Thanks to the slightly angled design of the Asus G53Jw, the keyboard slants ever so slightly towards you as you type, making it comfortable to place your hands on the palm rest and get to work. The board is also backlit and so is easy to work with in low light conditions.

Our only minor complaint is that the keys feel a little spongy and we’d have preferred a sharper, more tactile amount of feedback.

Unfortunately, while the large touchpad is just as comfortable to use as the keyboard, the Asus G53Jw’s mouse buttons are far less usable. Despite their large size and comfortable matt finish, both buttons require an unusually firm amount of pressure to register, responding with a loud click when they’re activated.

Although this is not enough of a problem to render the keys unusable, it does make them slower to access than we’d have liked and causes unnecessary delays when working, as you pause to fully depress the buttons.

Due to the large vents at the rear of the chassis, all ports on the Asus G53Jw are placed on the right and left-hand sides. While this of course makes them more accessible, it can lead to a slightly untidy appearance, with cables spewing from the sides of the laptop, rather than tucked away neatly at the rear.

On the right-hand side is a Gigabit Ethernet port, for the fastest possible wired network connections, alongside an analogue VGA port and a digital HDMI port, for connecting the Asus G53Jw to a larger external monitor, projector or HDTV.

There are also two USB ports positioned near the front of the chassis, for connecting external peripherals, with one of the ports providing USB 3.0 compatibility for high-speed data transfers to external storage devices. This is a pleasing addition, since there’s no eSATA port in place on the Asus G53Jw.

The left-hand side of the Asus G53Jw is a more sparse affair, with just two USB ports – again placed near the front of the chassis for easy access – alongside the integrated, tray-loading Blu-ray optical drive.

The only other extras to be found on the G53Jw are an 8-in-1 card reader at the front of the chassis, for sharing files with compatible external devices, such as your digital camera or camcorder, and a compact webcam above the screen for taking basic snapshots, recording live video and using with online video messaging software.

Internal components are far more comprehensive, and make the Asus G53Jw one of the best-equipped laptops you can currently buy. You can get the G53Jw with a choice of dual or quad-core Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, and the model we tested was powered by a quad-core Core i7-740QM CPU running at 1.73GHz.

Backed by a stunning 8GB of high-speed DDR3 memory, even the most demanding users won’t be left wanting for speed. The same can be said for storage, with a capacious 640GB of hard disk storage in place.

Graphics are equally capable, with a cutting-edge Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M graphics card and 1.5GB of dedicated, high-speed video memory in place.

Providing full support for the Asus G53Jw’s 3D graphics via Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology, as well as supporting the latest DirectX 11 games, the Asus G53Jw is again set up to deliver the best possible performance for the price, and provide a certain degree of future-proofing for gamers and home workers alike.

Obviously it is the 3D abilities of the Asus G53Jw that is the key selling point and, while Asus’ previous 3D machine, the G51J utilised Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology via an external USB 3D receiver, the Asus G53Jw has built the receiver into the chassis for easier and tidier usability.

Activated and deactivated by a hotkey above the keyboard, the 3D Vision technology synchronises easily with the supplied 3D glasses for an immersive experience when viewing photos or videos and playing games.

As with all Nvidia 3D Vision and ATI HD3D-based machines, the 3D effect is created through the use of active shutter glasses. This works by opening and closing the lens covering each eye in turn, in time with the refresh rate of the Asus G53Jw’s screen.

In this way, the screen shows each eye a different image faster than the naked eye can register and tricks your brain into seeing a three-dimensional image that does not exist. The result is extremely effective, with images leaping from the screen with an impressive illusion of depth.

The technology works particularly well when playing games and Nvidia has worked closely with a wide range of games developers to ensure a comprehensive array of high-quality titles can be played in full 3D.

This includes such market-leading games as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Batman: Arkham Asylum, among others, and the extra depth that 3D Vision adds to these games makes them among the most immersive entertainment experiences we’ve seen to date.

Unfortunately, however, the most common flaw of Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology remains as present as ever when using the 3D features of the Asus G53Jw. Whenever we’ve tested previous 3D Vision-equipped machines such as the Toshiba Satellite A665-11Z and the Asus G51J, the active shutter glasses have the unfortunate downside of greatly reducing the brightness and impact of the laptop’s screen when viewing 3D content.

The same flaw is on display here, with images greatly lacking vibrancy when viewed through the 3D glasses. While we had always previously assumed this flaw was inherent to active shutter technology, the rival ATI HD3D technology seen on the HP Envy 17 3D uses active shutter glasses to far greater effect, without impacting on screen brightness, so it seems totally avoidable and unnecessary for this flaw to still be present on the Asus G53Jw.

Nvidia has been aware of this situation for some time, however, and claims to be working to rectify the situation for future iterations.

More disappointingly, the Asus G53Jw’s 15.6-inch screen is not without its own inherent flaws. While the screen is suitably bright and vivid and its 1366 x 768-pixel resolution allows you to watch high-definition 720p videos in all their glory, the screen itself has one of the worst viewing angles we’ve seen on any laptop this year.

Unless you view the screen straight on, with not even a degree of change in your angle, there are notable dark areas on all but the centre of the panel, leading to a consistently washed out and flawed image.

While it could be argued that it is essential to view any 3D screen straight-on in order to get the most accurate 3D effect, that is no excuse to provide such a limited viewing angle, as most rival 3D laptops provide far better performance in this area.

Since most users will be working without wearing the 3D glasses for the majority of the time, this screen flaw makes the Asus G53Jw a little hard to recommend for long-term use, for work or play.

Thankfully the balance is redressed somewhat by the excellent performance provided by the Asus G53Jw’s cutting-edge components.

The quad-core Intel Core i7 processor powers the most resource-consuming software with ease and ensures that light work is made of even complex multitasking. The 8GB of memory adds to this performance, as applications open and respond quickly and even the largest files can be quickly loaded into your software of choice.

Graphics are just as capable, with Nvdia’s DirectX 11-compatible GeForce GTX 460M graphics card running the latest games with aplomb.

While you shouldn’t expect quite the same level of power you’d find on such high-end rivals as the Alienware M17x, the Asus G53Jw is nevertheless a powerful and reliable gaming and multimedia machine, with more than enough power for running your home office, as well as gaming and editing and enjoying your photos and high-definition videos.

With its odd combination of highs and lows, the Asus G53Jw sits in an awkward place in the current 3D laptop market. While its stunning performance, striking design and cutting-edge technology mean there’s no denying that this is a unique and highly capable 3D multimedia machine, its somewhat limited usability and flawed screen mean it’s not the top of the range world beater you sense it was intended to be.

If you can live with its niggling flaws and you absolutely must have 3D capabilities, you’ll find a level of power and style all too rare in the modern laptop market, but if you want the best multimedia powerhouse you can get for your money, and don’t mind sacrificing the 3D screen, there are many better machines than the Asus G53Jw.

We liked

With its striking Stealth Bomber inspired chassis, the Asus G53Jw is one of the most differently designed laptops we’ve seen. And it’s not style over substance either, because the large exhausts at the rear prove highly effective at keeping the laptop cool and comfortable to use.

Powered by cutting-edge components, the Asus G53Jw delivers fantastic levels of performance for even the most demanding tasks. While its not the most powerful laptop we’ve seen, few people will feel shortchanged by the stunning levels of power on offer here.

By building the Nvidia 3D Vision receiver into the chassis rather than using an external USB receiver, the Asus G53Jw is one of the easiest 3D laptops to set up and use on the move. And the 3D effect is truly startling, bringing photos, videos and games to vivid life.

We disliked

With its poor viewing angles, it can be very tricky to get an adequate view of the Asus G53Jw’s 15.6-inch screen. While the panel delivers decent levels of brightness, colour and contrast, the screen is just too flawed in use to be truly effective.

As with other Nvidia 3D Vision capable laptops, the active shutter glasses used by the Asus G53Jw render the already flawed screen even dimmer when viewing 3D content. This would be a problem on even the best screen, so here it only serves to increase the problem.

While usability of the Asus G53Jw is generally good, the slightly spongy keyboard and overly firm mouse buttons make this laptop a little awkward to use at times. Thankfully the spacious keyboard and backlit keys compensate somewhat, but we recommend you try before you buy.

Verdict

Despite a few missteps along the way, the Asus G53Jw has enough notable strengths to make it a viable rival in the growing 3D laptop market. With its strong performance, striking Stealth Bomber design and comprehensive specification, you certainly get a lot for your money.

However, the flawed screen and slightly limited usability prevent it from truly excelling and, if you can live without the 3D screen, there are plenty of far better rival multimedia and gaming laptops you could spend your money on.

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Touchscreens are the computing flavour of the moment. It’s hard to argue otherwise given the success of the iPad and the tablet market that’s quickly rising beside it.

We don’t necessarily think the Samsung Galaxy Tab or the Dell Streak are going to change the world, but they are out there, on the shelves. And so, now, is the Eee Top ET2010AGT all-in-one touchscreen PC.

It makes sense that everyone would want a slice of the pie, from mobile manufacturers to proper PC makers such as Asus. Soon enough, your 40-inch TV and your washing machine will have multi-touch functionality. It’s the game to be playing.

Thing is, there are two kinds of touchscreen computer; those that work, and those that don’t. You don’t want to have to get up and wipe your fists all over your washing machine just to select the spin cycle. And Asus’ latest Eee Top, while it’s not a washing machine and it is a decent PC in it’s own right, doesn’t spell the end of the mouse just yet.

We’ll get to the precise reasons why in a little while, though for now let’s say the execution is shaky, the form factor doesn’t suit touch like the tablet does, and we’re not entirely sure why the touch screen is there other than to tick a box. Oh, and it runs Windows 7. Ever tried to use Windows 7 with a touchscreen interface? Yeah. It’s not up to much.

Let’s start with the ET2010AGT’s panel. This isn’t a capacitive touchscreen, or even a resistive one. It’s optical sensor-based, using a pair located in the top corners of the slightly recessed screen to determine the position of your fingers.

It’s pretty effective; the sensors can locate and track two fingers for limited multi-touch support, and while it’s possible to get it confused (try placing three fingers on the screen, or hovering your finger just above the monitor to register phantom clicks) you’ll be able to take advantage of Windows 7′s full (ie. limited) range of finger functions.

The sensor system makes the Eee Top good for the kitchen in that you don’t have to use sticky fingers; just grab any vaguely cylyndrical object and use it as a stylus. Heck, use a carrot. Go mad.

The underlying guts of the ET2010AGT are based around an AMD architecture, and are pretty average for the price. You get a full 2GB RAM, which covers you for everything you’re likely to tease out of the 1.6GHz AMD Athlon X2 processor.

The full 64-bit version of Windows 7 deals with the operating system side of things, even though the low voltage processor would normally be associated with XP. Thankfully it keeps up with a modern OS just fine. There’s a mid-range laptop graphics chipset (an ATI Mobility Radeon HD5470) to deal with games; don’t expect miracles, just decent mid-range performance. This isn’t a gaming machine, after all.

If this machine had also sported a TV tuner and HDMI in – and the case has holes where such ports could plausibly go, and other models in the range sport the features – it would have been a complete package.

It’s easy to criticise the standard all-in-one PC design because you can’t easily upgrade it or replace any components which might break. Even though that places this machine in the same category as laptop PCs and desktop devices such as the Apple iMac, the ET2010AGT is not as convenient as the former or as good as the latter.

You can’t carry it easily, and it’s unlikely to have the same longevity of a modern OS X machine.

So it’s awkward. The addition of a touchscreen, sadly, seems like little more than a transparent gimmick, since poking around at a vertical computer monitor just isn’t comfortable in standard use. For the occasional prod in a standing environment like a kitchen? Fine. We can see it working. For your desk? You’ll use the mouse every time.

There’s a pretty major problem, too, or at least there was with our review model: you can do what you want with the touchscreen, as long as you don’t want to touch the top centimeter of real estate. It doesn’t work.

Touches to that area don’t register correctly, possibly due to the way the sensors are positioned within the case. This is is particularly frustrating because Asus chose exactly that area to host its drop-down quick launch menu and, more importantly, that’s the zone that covers the top of a maximised window. Want to close or minimise something with your finger? Tough.

The processor and chipset are just strong enough that using the ET2010AGT isn’t a sluggish or sketchy experience, but there’s not a lot of wiggle room. Expect to run older games such as Team Fortress 2 at medium settings without too much trouble; a netbook this ain’t.

The construction of the ET2010AGT isn’t quite as sturdy as its decent processing power.

The tinny speakers are really quite awful, the 1600 x 900 screen pretty low res and prone to fingerprint smears, and the included keyboard and mouse combo – small and cheap, to be frank – is just about adequate. We were impressed that the narrow keyboard fits easily into the gap at the bottom of the unit, if that counts for anything.

The Eee Top ET2010AGT is machine that, at an average selling price of £500, is too expensive – even next to pricier competition. You’d look at the iMac, you’d look at one of the rather excellent HP all-in-one Touchsmart range, you’d look at a much more versatile laptop before you’d look at this.

Yes, it’s a lot cheaper than Dell’s touch screen Inspiron One 23. But it’s a lot less powerful, too.

We liked

This could be the perfect PC for certain situations. It’s reasonably strong under the hood, it’s not too noisy, and it’s pretty versatile despite its restrictive form. At £500, we’d actually say it’s a good choice for the bedroom, given that it’s a space saving design with just enough nuts to get standard computing jobs done.

We disliked

Even if you’re desperate for a touchscreen, there are better examples – the shaky implementation puts the ET2010AGT at the bottom of the pile. Even ignoring the touchscreen, its panel is probably too small, the speakers too tinny, and the processor too incapable of playing back 1080p HD to consider this as a proper media machine.

Verdict

A decent stab at an all-in one, but the design is so restrictive and the price so high that you’re better off investing your money elsewhere.

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There’s been no shortage of competent media streamers hitting our test benches over the last year or so. Asus’ original O!Play HD1 was little different, offering myriad format compatibility and fairly basic functionality for a decent price.

The Asus O!Play HD2, though, has a trick up its sleeve: USB 3.0 compatibility. Elsewhere it’s still the same Realtek powered device, with NAS, BitTorrent and iTunes server options to boot.

It happily copes with practically any file format you throw at it and manages local HD video content without problems.

But times are tough for the standard media streamer and I don’t think the addition of a still under-subscribed interface will make much difference. The difficulty is in the availability of cheaper and increasingly more powerful net-tops, and the spectre of Google TV and other TVs with internet and PC connectivity.

The O!Play does come with some internet-ready apps, such as Picasa and Flickr, plus a weather and stock reporter, but these do precious little to elevate it. There is the promise of an Opera browser in the next firmware update and Asus claims it will continue to add apps in, but at the time of writing those are still a little way away.

Still, the O!Play is a functional little device and this time around there’s the addition of an internal HDD slot that I’d wager will get more use in the short term than the USB 3.0 port.

Unfortunately, the tightly closed Realtek platform offers little room for manoeuvre for the manufacturers, and with others like the fully internet-savvy, open-sourced Boxee Box from D-Link just landing, it’s a tough market for this capable little box.

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You’d be forgiven for thinking the days of humble netbooks such as the Asus Eee PC 1215N are numbered, with tablets such as Apple’s iPad, the Viewsonic Viewpad 10 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab currently stealing the limelight.

While it can’t be denied that sales have been hit by the new breed of ultra-stylish tablets, they’re not exactly direct competitors to netbooks; you’re unlikely to opt for a tablet if typing documents or carrying out other keyboard-intensive tasks is on the menu.

What we have here is the latest effort from netbook pioneer Asus, namely the Eee PC 1215N. With enhanced graphics and a dual-core processor, it’s aimed at people looking for a mix of portability and performance.

However, the Eee PC 1215N also comes with a rather heady price tag of £429, which some will say instantly prevents it from being called a netbook at all. But with its Eee PC moniker, Asus clearly sees it as a netbook.

So what exactly do you get for your extra notes? Well, quite a lot, as it happens. Most obvious is the display, which is larger than what you’ll find on most netbooks at 12 inches.

It also looks good and feels reassuringly solid in the hands. There are none of the nasty creaks you get on cheaper models when opening the lid, for example, and its smooth, curvy design looks great.

Asus has also done well to accommodate the six-cell battery into the chassis; it protrudes ever so slightly on the underside, but not enough to ruin the shape of the netbook.

There’s a fair bit going on under the hood, too, with a dual-core Atom processor and Nvidia’s Ion graphics combining to produce above-average performance for a netbook. You’ll be sorely disappointed if you’re hoping it will double as a mini games machine, but it certainly outperforms its cheaper, single-core rivals such the Acer Aspire One 533.

Ultimately, though, the Eee PC 1215N’s success will be down to whether or not Asus has done enough to justify the rather high price tag.

While most netbooks such as the MSI U160 stick to a 10.1-inch screen, Asus has plumped for a 12.1-inch model on the Eee PC 1215N. It also comes with a native 1,366 x 768-pixel resolution, which means there’s not only more room on your Windows desktop compared to the standard 1,024 x 600 resolution found on most 10-inch netbooks, but that it’s also capable of displaying 720p HD video.

And, as you’ll find out in a moment, HD video is something this netbook is more than capable of handling smoothly.

As expected, the display has a glossy coating. This enhances colours and makes movies and photos look vibrant, but it also attracts reflections like there’s no tomorrow. If you’d prefer a non-glossy display, consider Samsung’s N230.

Of course, a larger screen is always going to impact on chassis size, and with dimensions of 296 x 203 x 38mm, this netbook is ever-so-slightly harder to cram it into a small bag. Still, at 1.46kg it’s impressively light, and won’t weigh you down on your travels.

The left side is home to the power socket, VGA-out, USB and an SD card reader. There’s also an HDMI-out socket, enabling the Eee PC 1215N to be quickly connected to an HD television. On the right are a further two USB ports, along with a 10/100 Ethernet socket and audio in/out.

802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth take care of the wireless, but there’s no built-in 3G module, so if you’re looking to access the internet while travelling you’ll need to purchase a separate 3G dongle.

The quality of the keyboard can make or break a netbook, and the one on the Eee PC 1215N is something of a mixed bag. We loved the chiclet design and the feedback from each individual key was spot on. However, it also has a worrying amount of flex; this is never nice to see, especially so when you’re paying for a premium netbook.

The touchpad looks good and has two slim chrome-effect bars marking its left and right edges, but it has the same smooth, slippery texture as the wrist rest, which makes it a little uncomfortable to use. We also found the left and right buttons, which take the form of a single bar, to be a little on the stiff side.

Asus has been slightly stingy with the hard drive, installing just a 250GB model. Unless you’re looking to amass a large movie collection, it should suffice, but we expected at least 320GB at this price.

The Eee PC 1215N comes with Windows 7 Home Premium.

Although it comes from Intel’s Atom line-up and runs at just 1.8GHz, the D525 processor powering the Eee PC 1215N has two cores at its disposal. This means it’s far more capable in terms of multitasking and won’t slow to a crawl when your weekly antivirus scan kicks in. It also supports hyper-threading, so Windows will see it as a quad-core processor.

A total of 2GB of DDR3 memory is supplied, which is double that of most netbooks and helps Windows 7 tick along that bit smoother.

Graphics performance also gets a shot in the arm thanks to the use of Nvidia’s Ion chip. Impressively, when running tasks that aren’t graphics-intensive, the netbook is able to fall back on Intel’s integrated GMA 3150 graphics chipset, and the dynamic switching between the two is handled so smoothly by Nvidia’s Optimus technology that you won’t even know it’s happening.

More powerful graphics means shorter battery life, so the netbook’s ability to automatically switch between the two is welcome. However, it’s also possible to manually choose when to activate Nvidia’s Ion chip.

This can either be done using Nvidia’s Control Panel or on an ad-hoc basis; for the latter you can choose whether or not to use the more powerful graphics by right-clicking a program icon and selecting ‘Nvidia’ or ‘Integrated’ from the ‘Run with graphics processor’ option.

The big question is whether Nvidia’s Ion graphics makes a difference. In short, it does, but it’s not a massive leap. We managed smooth fullscreen 720p playback on the 12-inch display and, impressively, even when outputting Full HD 1080p content via the HDMI port. Adobe Flash Player 10.1 also supports Ion, so you’ll be able to enjoy stutter-free playback online.

However, you can banish all thoughts of playing graphically intensive 3D games. When we gave Crysis a whirl, it just about managed 12fps, but that was at the very lowest resolution and detail settings – not exactly a fun-filled gaming experience.

Despite the dual-core processor and 12-inch display, battery life on the Eee PC 1215N is pretty good, and when we ran it at full pelt with the brightness at full whack it lasted 204 minutes.

Running the same test, but with the Ion graphics chip activated, saw this drop to 156 minutes, which highlights the added power-draw of Nvidia’s chip. Stick to the integrated graphics and dim the screen, though, and you can expect around five or possibly even six hours from a single charge.

It’s by no means table-topping battery life (Samsung’s N230 can manage well over 10 hours), but it’s not bad considering the higher-spec components.

The Asus Eee PC 1215N definitely offers a boost in performance compared to your average netbook. However, if you’re looking to do little more than browse the web, send emails and edit documents, you would undoubtedly be better off opting for a smaller, cheaper alternative such as the Acer Aspire One 533 or MSI Wind U160.

It’s also worth remembering that larger, more powerful laptops can be picked up at this price, such as the 15-inch Acer Aspire 5551, but you’ll obviously lose out on portability.

We liked

Undoubtedly the Eee PC 1215N’s greatest asset is the combination of a dual-core Atom processor and Nvidia’s Ion graphics. Anyone hoping for a massive boost in performance will be left disappointed, but it’s far better at multitasking compared to single-core netbooks, and its enhanced graphics capabilities means it’s a dab hand at smoothly playing back HD video.

The seamless switching between integrated and Ion graphics is also impressive, as is the ability to manually configure which programs should take advantage of the more powerful, but battery-sapping Nvidia chip.

We also liked the 12-inch display with its higher-than-average 1,366 x 768 pixel native resolution, making it perfect for watching HD video. And with the included HDMI port, it can quickly be hooked up to a larger HD TV to display Full HD 1080p video.

The 2GB of memory is also a welcome addition, allowing Windows 7 Home Premium to smoothly run multiple applications.

We disliked

It’s not all good news, though, and the Eee PC 1215N has its downsides. The most obvious is the price. Although you get a reasonable amount for your money, it’s a fair bit more expensive compared to 10-inch netbooks.

We felt the keyboard and trackpad could be improved on, with the worrying amount of flex on the keyboard being the main issue. The 250GB is also a bit measly, and something closer to 500GB seems more appropriate on a premium netbook such as this.

Verdict

The Eee PC 1215N certainly isn’t a bad effort from Asus, but it occupies something of an uncomfortable middle ground between bog-standard netbooks and fully fledged laptops. The performance increase over standard netbooks is definitely there, but it’s not massive.

That said, if you’re after something small and light, and find the current crop of netbooks don’t quite meet your power expectations, the Eee PC 1215N would be a good choice.

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Asus pioneered the netbook in 2007 and its Eee PC range has since grown by a staggering scale. While the Eee PC Seashell 1015PE adds little to the basic netbook concept, its unique features, great usability and ample storage make it easy to recommend.

The chassis looks impressively high end for such a low-priced machine, finished in sleek matt-black plastic. While the finish attracts fingerprints, it is easily cleaned.

The resilient build quality is also more than tough enough for frequent travel use. Despite being one of the larger netbooks on the market, the 1.3kg chassis remains suitably slim and portable.

Powered by a 6-cell battery, we were able to work for almost eight hours on the move – a great result, but slightly bettered by the Acer Aspire One D260 and Packard Bell Bell Dot S.

Chiclet keyboard

Asus was one of the first to use an isolation-style (or ‘Chiclet’) keyboard on a netbook and the feature is well implemented here. While the keys are smaller than those of the Acer Aspire One D260, the spacious design and firmly fixed board ensure comfortable typing. As with the Acer, a large touchpad is also in place.

Perfectly mirroring the wide aspect ratio of the 10.1-inch screen, the wide pad makes it easy to manoeuvre onscreen. The single brushed-aluminium mouse button adds to the style of the device and is equally comfortable to use.

Asus has utilised a matt TFT screen rather than a glossy Super-TFT panel. Reflections are entirely eliminated, making it easy to work outdoors. While many matt TFT screens can tend to reduce image vibrancy, we saw no such flaw here.

Powered by the same components as most of its rivals, performance is basic at best and only suitable for home office use. With that said, the Asus ran ever so slightly faster than most other netbooks at this price point, although the difference will be negligible in daily use.

Where this machine stands out from the crowd is in the extra features it provides. As well as a capacious 250GB hard drive, Asus also includes 500GB of online storage, letting you safely back up your data via the internet wherever you go.

As with most other netbooks, a webcam is fitted above the screen. The Asus’ camera is unique, however, as it includes a sliding shutter to cover the camera when not in use for greater privacy. Finally, proprietary ExpressGate software is also installed.

Asus has delivered yet another fantastic machine with the Eee PC Seashell 1015PE. While we prefer the improved usability and battery life of the Acer and Packard Bell, there’s no denying this is one of the best you can buy.

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Every company has its ‘hero’ products, such as Asus’ NX90JQ. These hero laptops usually boast cutting edge design or power (or both), cost an enormous amount of money and – most importantly – boost the brand awareness of the company.

Take Dell’s Adamo XPS laptop and Sony’s X-Series as examples, both of which happen offer class-leading portability.

But with the NX90JQ, the Taiwanese electronics giant has gone a different route – in this case creating a multimedia monster targeted at those after a premium sounding product and who aren’t bothered about the matching price tag.

And at around £2,500 the price tag is a heavy one. But with the NX90JQ you do get bang for your hard-earned buck. There’s the much touted Bang & Olufsen (B&O) speaker system, high-end components, an impressive features list and a gorgeous polished aluminium design.

Some could correctly argue you can get this kind of performance elsewhere for less cash, and they’d be right. MSI’s excellent GX660R offers a very similar experience, including dedicated speakers, while the Acer Aspire Ethos 8943G should also be considered. But neither offers quite the swagger or beauty of the Asus NX90JQ – even if the laptop fails to deliver in certain areas.

The first thing you’ll notice about the Asus NX90JQ is the sheer size of the laptop. A lot of this is down to the 18.4-inch screen. The Full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution offers a very detailed picture, but is lacking the brightness we’d expect of a multimedia centre, and colour vibrancy isn’t fantastic as a result.

Nevertheless Blu-ray movies – watched on the integrated Blu-ray optical drive – look fantastic on the NX90JQ’s screen, which also makes the laptop suited to editing HD movies and photos.

The two B&O speakers sitting either side of the screen are the main reason the laptop is so large. Positioned to offer the best audio experience, and combined with Asus’ SonicMaster technology, sound quality is great. We tested a broad range of music genres – from classical to hip-hop – and were largely impressed by the quality and clarity of audio produced.

Before we get too carried away, it’s important to note that, as good as the NX90JQ is, it’ll never replace a dedicated hi-fi system. We also compared the laptop with a set of £200 desktop speakers and found the latter outgunned the NX90JQ in most areas, especially stereo and bass.

It’s also important to note that there are other options with dedicated speaker systems, such as the HP Envy 14 Beats Edition and MSI GX660R, that offer a very similar experience sonically, but don’t cost nearly as much, so it’s important to consider your options before making a purchase.

The combination of speakers and screen give the laptop a unique appearance that divided opinion at TechRadar. Some thought it looked great while others argued it gives the NX90JQ an unfortunate top-heavy appearance. However all agreed how good the polished aluminium finishes is.

When closed, the NX90JQ looks more like a piece of art than a laptop, and the same goes when the machine is open thanks to the large polished aluminium palmrest, which sits completely unblemished.

You’ll quickly realise the reason the palmrest looks so great – apart from the material used – is the lack of a touchpad. This is because Asus has employed an innovative design that employs not one but two touch pads, each with left- and right-click buttons.

Placed either side of the keyboard, they’re supposed to be used in conjunction with Asus’ Desktop Rotation software, which features special gestures but the company decided to leave out at the last minute. As a result you’re left with two touchpads that nicely use up quite a bit of excess chassis space. Nevertheless, they support full multi-touch functionality, although aren’t as intuitive as Apple’s MacBook Pro system.

The Asus NX90JQ’s keyboard is large and comfortable to use, and if you want a laptop for regular typing you could do a lot worse. There’s no dedicated number pad, however, which may put off those who regularly input data.

The NX90JQ’s plastic chassis is well put together and features a wealth of ports and connections. Down the left side you’ll find the slot-loading Blu-ray optical drive as well as multi-card reader and a USB port. Down the right side of the laptop sit three more USB ports. Two boast USB 3.0 technology – for rapid data transfers to external devices – while one doubles as an eSATA port.

There are also VGA and HDMI outs, as well as the Ethernet port and a digital TV tuner aerial port.

Considering the quality and power of components beneath the hoo,d we expected the NX90JQ to be exceptionally powerful, but it didn’t quite match our expectations.

Don’t get us wrong. The quad-core Intel 1.73GHz Core i7-740QM, which overclocks itself automatically to 2.93GHz thanks to an Intel’s Turbo Boost technology, is more than capable of running pretty much any commercially available program as smoothly as you’d like – thanks in part to the 6GB of memory on board. However, the laptop is outperformed by the Sony VAIO-VPCZ12V9E/X and also Asus’ own G73JH.

We don’t know about you, but we’d expect the best power on the market for this price, regardless of if we were ever going to need or even use it, and the Asus NX90JQ doesn’t deliver.

The same can be said for graphical performance. The NX90JQ features a Nvidia GeForce GT 335M graphics card with 1GB of dedicated video memory, and again benchmark results were disappointing – and the MSI GX740 provides significantly more graphical performance at a fraction of the price.

If you want to casually edit high-definition film and play the latest games without too many issues, the power is fine, but for the money we still expect more.

The NX90JQ boasts two 640GB hard drives offering acres of storage for your multimedia files and folders, so those with hundreds of movies, songs and photos should be well catered for well into the future.

As mentioned above, a Blu-ray drive is included for watching the latest films, but while you can’t write to Blu-ray disks (another shame considering the price of the NX90JQ) you can to CDs and DVDs. 802.11n Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet are on board, and are the current fastest networking technologies around.

As you’d expect, portability isn’t the NX90JQ’s strong card. The 4.4kg the machine weighs is hernia-inducing, and the polished aluminium finish will quickly attract scratches and scuffs on the road. Contrastingly, however, the 210 minute battery life isn’t bad at all considering the power of the components involved.

We found it very hard to come to a conclusion about the Asus NX90JQ. On the one hand, it’s a laptop with a uniquely gorgeous design, great audio, innovative usability – courtesy of the twin touchpads – and powerful performance.

But there’s a nagging feeling that, while the NX90JQ does its job well, the audio isn’t that spectacular, the twin touchpad design – which does work – is a little pointless without the excluded Desktop Rotation software and the performance isn’t all conquering. All these arguments are placed into even sharper relief when the price is chucked into the mix.

It’s important to note, however, that the above qualms may be of little consequence to those simply after something a little different and have the cash to splash. For the rest of us, however, better value for money (if that’s what you’re after) can be found elsewhere. The Acer Aspire Ethos 8943G or the HP Envy 14 Beats Edition (if you’re after something a little more portable) are good starting points.

We liked

There’s a lot we liked about the Asus NX90JQ. First and foremost, the design is killer, and the glorious polished aluminium finish is beautiful to behold.

The sound quality produced by the B&O speakers is also impressive and some will really enjoy using the twin touchpad system – especially the left-handed.

This is a very powerful machine that will carve its way through pretty much anything you care to throw at it. Add in the Blu-ray drive and considerable storage space and you’re looking at a highly specified laptop.

On-top of the above the NX90JQ boasts a wealth of features including a TV Tuner, USB 3.0 and cutting edge networking technologies.

We disliked

Firstly the cost, and ultimately it’s hard to see how the NX90JQ offers value for money.

Sound quality is good for a laptop, but equalled or bettered by a standard set of desktop speakers – which may be a better and cheaper option if you’re looking to enhance your audio experience.

Performance is good, but not all-conquering, and for those with serious multimedia interests, such as gamers and serious movie editors, there’s more power on offer elsewhere for cheaper.

For a multimedia machine, the screen brightness isn’t quite up to scratch.

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