Full Review

22 January 2007 - When it comes to designed luxury notebooks, Asus is very much in a league of its own. Whether it’s the Lamborghini range, or the its leather finish machines, they have a look all their own.

The latest example is the W2P, which isn’t so much an upgrade from the W1 but an overhaul of the whole idea. It’s still built around a stunning 17-inch Super-TFT screen but Asus and fine-tuned the design and finish with stunning results.

The main body and lid are made of dark brushed aluminium and feels constantly cool to the touch. It’s not only feels good but the overall build quality is top-notch – this has to be one of the best designed desktop replacements notebooks currently on the market.

It’s not only the look that impresses as we found the large-sized keyboard to be well above average. Usability is a strength of Asus laptops, and the W2P doesn’t disappoint. The touchpad is textured for ease-of-use, and the mouse buttons are equally tactile.

Most notable was the performance of the Asus when running multiple high-performance tasks. Powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 processor, 1024MB of DDR2 memory, to give you more than enough power for today and the foreseeable future.

For use with external AV equipment, high-definition video can be output via an HDMI-out port. Dolby 7.1 surround sound can also be sent to compatible amplifiers. A built-in TV tuner allows you to watch digital/analogue broadcasts, and record to the Asus’s large 160GB hard drive. You’ll need the space, as the built-in DVD rewriter supports HD DVD for playback but currently won’t write discs, with is the only weakness of an otherwise great machine.

It may weigh 3.6kg, but the weight is well distributed, so if you do need to carry it around you won’t find it too much of a burden. Using it about the home, we managed to regularly get over 3 hours of life from the battery, so you can easily spend the evening with the laptop sat on the edge of the chair while you surf the web.

To be fair, if you’re looking for a laptop to simply surf the web, this is too much machine for that as it easily handled everything we threw at it. Gaming is even more than enjoyable curtesy of the ATI Mobility Radeon X1700, which is a mainstream card but more than powerful enough for most occasions.

VERDICT
If you’re looking for the ultimate in style and power and have the money the slash out on both, this machine needs to be on your list. Not only were we impressed with what it has to offer in terms of specification and extras but also it’s a genuine pleasure to use such a well-built notebook.

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