The good: Stylish design; attention to detail; screen display quality.

The bad: Stickers plastered on the inside; non-widescreen display; price.

The bottom line: The Lamborghini VX1 isn't for everybody. It's more expensive than ordinary laptops, lacks the practicality of a widescreen display and has styling that will upset the faint-hearted. But these are criticisms that could just as easily describe the legendary cars with which it shares its name. Ultimately, the VX1 isn't as fast or as trendy as a real Lamborghini, but if you can stomach its looks and price tag, there's little here not to recommend.

Read full review of the Asus Lamborghini VX1 series »

By Rory Reid, CNET.co.uk
Nov 1, 2006

PC fans commonly liken the speed of their computers to that of high-performance cars. It's therefore somewhat surprising to note that relatively few hardware manufacturers have released car-inspired PCs. Acer pioneered this phenomenon with its Ferrari laptop range, but it has taken almost two years for anyone else to follow suit.

Ever eager to widen its range of stylish laptops, Asus has just released the sports car-inspired Lamborghini VX1 range, which promises as much performance and style as its namesake.

	The lid of the VX1 sports the iconic Lamborghini logo

Design
The VX1 comes in two flavors: Black, and the more traditional Lamborghini yellow. Both are attractive, but our yellow review sample makes an instant retina-searing impression straight out of the box, making it the more suitable poser's accessory. Asus says the laptops use the same paint finish as the iconic cars, incorporating subtle golden paint flecks that catch the light of the sun, as well as the famous Lamborghini logo.

The lid of the VX1 has a molded plastic section that is reminiscent of a car boot spoiler, but it's actually inspired by the engine cover slats of a Lamborghini Gallardo. It's a nice touch, giving the laptop a sleek overall look. Unfortunately, the "spoiler" section of our review sample was a slightly different shade of yellow to the main body of the laptop--a flaw which Asus says won't be present on final retail models.

Look closely at the spoiler section and you'll see a set of lights hidden behind fine meshing. These three indicator lights are of little use, but make a nice talking point for anyone who loves fine details. We'd hoped the sea of yellow would flow onto the inside section of the laptop, but Asus has chosen a contrasting black. This isn't such a bad thing, but the effect is spoiled by a row of stickers advertising the quality of the laptop's TFT panel and its interior components.

This is a shame, as the stickers take your eyes away from the Lamborghini logo on the palm rest, which also has hundreds of tiny drilled holes, two of which hide power and hard drive access lights. There's also a vertical blue LED strip between the mouse buttons, which is a nice touch. The base of the laptop plays host to a business card holder which can accommodate a couple of ordinary size cards, but again we were disappointed by the lack of a yellow finish.

Features
Any laptop bearing the name of a high-performance sports car deserves high-performance components, and the Asus Lamborghini VX1 doesn't disappoint. It's not the most insanely well-equipped laptop we've seen, but its 2GHz Intel T2500 CPU and 2GB of DDR2 RAM give it a very potent foundation from which to build.

We'd have preferred if the laptop used the 2.2GHz T2600, the fastest CPU in the Centrino Duo range, but this is an acceptable alternative. Graphics performance comes courtesy of a custom Nvidia chip, the Geforce 7400 VX. This is essentially a GeForce 7400 that was renamed for Asus' use, but it's a welcome and capable inclusion for a laptop that doesn't tout itself as a dedicated gaming machine.

Rate It Now

Rating guidelines

Asus Lamborghini VX1 series (Core Duo T2600 Processor 2.2GHz; 2GB RAM)

Rate this product:
1 - Abysmal 2 - Terrible 3 - Poor 4 - Mediocre 5 - Average 6 - Good 7 - Very good 8 - Excellent 9 - Spectacular 10 - Perfect

Need help? Read our guidelines for what each number rating represents.

Submit your opinion

• Most Popular

• Upcoming

Latest Downloads

 

What's Hot