good sharp monitor, quiet, excellent trackpad, full number keypad, excellent performance, good warranty and extras
slight bleed on monitor, resolution could have been higher, glossy case attracts smudges, poor battery performance, keyboard not backlit
I’ve had theM51Va-AS045G for a few months now. In my opinion it’s an excellent all-round performance notebook. Sure, the resolution precludes hd viewing and there’s no bluray drive (at least not in the base model) but I didn’t buy it to watch movies on it. There are a lot of better sub $2000 options for that. But as an all-round notebook it’s an admirable performer. Running Vista Ultimate 32 bit, it’s a bit strange to see 4GB RAM in it, but in the Windows Performance Index, it rates a 4.8, which is a handy score.
It’s fast to boot, comes without too much bloatware, and is a pleasure to use. The keyboard boasts a full size numpad, which will please many, and it’s nice to type on. I do wish it would have had backlit keys as it’s impossible to type in the dark. There are a number of vaguely useful Asus apps that come with it, and it also comes with a restore set of dvds, as well as having a hidden restore partition. On top of that is a 2 year international warranty. It's reasonably heavy, and its appearance is well.. not sexy and not too stodgy. There have been reports on whirlpool of a problem with some of the hinges, but mine is sturdy.
How long will it be on the top of the A-List? Not long. All things pass. Particularly at the cutting edge. But at the moment this notebook represents excellent value for money and gives you a powerful machine that will no doubt be good enough to run Windows 7 when its released. So forget about buying a new notebook for at least three years and sit back and enjoy the ride. Look to pay at least $100 less than the listed price.