The ASUS is one tough little cookie. Its cover and palmrest are encased in brushed aluminium lending the unit a reassuring sense of rigidity and roadworthiness. The keyboard is well laid out and responsive. The trackpad is a little unforgiving though: it is made of a hard plastic rather than the usual rubbery surface, and it could make things hard on the fingertips after several hours of use. The 15.4" screen is bright, and its default resolution of 1680x1050 makes text sharp but a little small to read unless up close. The unit also comes with a built in TV-tuner, and also sports a TV-antenna output.
Most of the I/O options such as networking and PCMCIA port are hidden on the left hand side behind a small flap. Underneath it sits the memory reader - which is still accessible when the flap is closed. But this also means you won't be able to open or close the flap if you have a full-size Memory Stick in the slot, or a network cable attached.
One feature that should find favour with mobile users, though, is that the battery is easily detachable from the unit, making replacement simple if you carry a spare. The ASUS, like the Acer, also comes with a PC Card-sized remote control, which makes stowing it away quick and easy in the PCMCIA slot. The inbuilt speakers aren't too bad for a notebook, and also feature a small 'subwoofer'.
Performance-wise, the 1.7Ghz Centrino and Mobility 9600 graphics put the card in the middle to lower section of the roundup in the PCMark and games test scores. In fact, this unit is one of several notebooks that refused to run Doom 3 for more than 30 secs at a time - even with the latest manufacturer-supplied drivers. It was only by using a modified version of the Catalyst 4.9 drivers that we were able to determine a score of 16.2 fps. This suggests a driver problem.
The ASUS is the most expensive machine in this test - even $600 more than the equivalently specified Toshiba Satellite. And this combined with a couple of niggling design issues make the ASUS W1N hard to recommend.
This article appeared in the December 2004 issue of PC Authority.
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