The good: Non-glossy display; spill-proof keyboard; fingerprint reader.

The bad: Anonymous design.

The bottom line: The V1J doesn't come cheap but it offers very solid all-round performance and will suit a wide range of users thanks to its fingerprint reader, spill-proof keyboard and high resolution, non-glossy display.

Read full review of the Asus V1J »

By Rory Reid, CNET.co.uk
Oct 25, 2006

The V1J doesn't stand out from the crowd. Aesthetically, it's somewhere between Asus' garish but attractive Lamborghini VX1 laptop and the company's understated--read: Bland--A7J. The V1J weighs 2.7kg and uses a 15.4-inch display, so it's portable enough to carry on a daily basis while large enough to use without squinting at the display.

	The Asus V1J has an unassuming design. (Click for larger image)

Design
The dark navy blue cover contrasts nicely with the silver insides of the unit. Occupying an area of 335 x 236.5mm, it seems rather thick at 31.7mm. Weighing 2.46kg, it is a borderline case in terms of portability.

The laptop is mostly finished in black, with silver trim running around its edge. Opening the screen is straightforward enough--the V1J uses a push-button latch-release, which is easier to operate than some sliding latches. At the top of the screen there's a 1.3-megapixel webcam, which in this case swivels 180 degrees so you can record yourself or others in a meeting or lecture.

For the most part the keyboard feels good to type on, but some of the keys aren't quite to our taste. The return key, for example, isn't full size and is therefore slightly harder to hit with your right pinky finger than the large, squarish keys found on desktop keyboards. We also didn't like the fact that the Fn function key is to the left of the leftmost Ctrl key. Anyone who likes to use keyboard shortcuts (typically a combination of the Ctrl key plus another key) will automatically reach for the Ctrl button at the bottom leftmost corner. Happily, the V1J's keyboard is spill-proof, so it should be untroubled by accidental liquid incursions.

The mouse touchpad is responsive enough, and below this, between the left and right mouse selector buttons, is a biometric fingerprint reader. The reader lets you log into Windows by simply swiping a finger of your choice across the copper-colored pad--the unique impression patterns at the ends of your digits are registered so that you don't have to remember a password.

Above the keyboard there's a set of hotkeys for one-touch access to common applications. There are buttons for starting a media player, switching the laptop's performance mode (to enhance battery life or overall speed), altering display profiles to suit different tasks, activating Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and finally, for activating or deactivating the mouse touchpad.

To the left of the laptop is a LAN port, S-Video, VGA, two USB ports and an mini DVI port that you can turn into a full DVI output via the supplied adaptor cable. On the right of the laptop are modem and FireWire ports, a single USB port, two audio ports and an infrared receiver. Here you'll also find a four-in-one memory card reader, which supports SD, MMC, Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro formats. There is also an Expresscard slot for future upgrades.

Features
The V1J is a dual-core Centrino laptop. It uses an Intel T2400 processor running at 1.8GHz plus 1GB of RAM--a solid specification that'll cope with anything the average user throws at it. That includes games--the V1J uses an ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics card so it's perfectly happy running the latest 3D titles at a decent lick.

The Seagate Momentus ST9120821AS hard drive provides an ample 120GB of space. Multimedia file hoarders may need a lot more than this, but given the fact the laptop is aimed at business users, it's not so much of an issue. Asus says it plans to release both Blu-ray and HD DVD-equipped laptops in the near future, but it's no surprise to find a standard DVD burner on the V1J. In this case it's an 8x TSSTcorp TS-L632D rewriter that can burn up to 8.5GB of data to compatible dual-layer discs.

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