ASUS M70 (Core 2 Duo T9300 Processor 2.5GHz, 4GB RAM)

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Features

We're extremely excited by the prospect of 1TB of storage in a laptop, so we'll talk about that aspect first. Nobody's managed to create a single laptop drive that holds 1TB of data, but the M70 gets around this problem by incorporating twin 500GB drives from Hitachi. These run at 5,400rpm, have a 5.5ms average latency and 12ms average read time, so they're not as quick as some 3.5-inch desktop drives, but they're still mightily impressive in a laptop. As you might expect, the drives can be configured in either RAID 1 or RAID 0 configurations, but you'll have to configure it yourself as it ships RAID-free.

The M70 makes a statement in areas outside of storage, too. It uses the new Intel T9300 Core 2 Duo CPU, clocked at 2.5GHz. This is part of the new Intel Penryn series of processors, which are intended to replace the previous range of Core 2 Duos codenamed Santa Rosa.

The RAM situation on the M70 is a little strange. ASUS ships the laptop with 4GB of DDR2 667MHz memory, but because the M70 uses the 32-bit version of Windows Vista Ultimate, it's capable of addressing only 3.12GB, leaving approximately 1GB of RAM sitting dormant. It would have made more sense to ship the M70 with the 64-bit version of the operating system as this would allow users to make use of the full 4GB. You can always upgrade the OS yourself, but what's the point when you've already paid for the 32-bit license?

There's better news where the graphics adapter is concerned. The M70 has one of those new-fangled ATI Mobility Radeon HD3650 cards, which were announced by AMD early in 2008. It's a solid all-round card that allows everything from gaming to high-definition movie playback--with the added bonus of being quite energy-efficient. It uses ATI's PowerPlay system, which attempts to find a good balance between power consumption (when running on batteries) and all-out performance.

It would have been fairly easy for ASUS to wimp out with a sub-standard display, but it deserves credit here. The 17-inch screen on the M70 runs at 1,920 x 1,200 pixels, which is a very high resolution given the size. Users can enjoy proper high-definition movies, plus lots of desktop real estate for arranging windows as they see fit. One small gripe: The vertical viewing angle is quite limited, meaning the picture degrades if you're sitting in the wrong position or the screen isn't tilted in exactly the right way.

No self-respecting desktop replacement laptop is complete without some form of TV tuner, and we were pleased to see the M70 comes with one built-in. ASUS doesn't include a remote control, which is a little unusual, but you can always buy a Media Center remote from a third party. The laptop comes with an infrared receiver on the front, so doing this shouldn't be difficult.

Connectivity is well-covered on the M70. It has four USB ports--two on the right, two on the left, one four-pin FireWire port, a PC Card slot and a memory card reader. You also get a Gigabit Ethernet port round the back, a modem jack and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi.

Performance And Battery Life

The M70 will put in a pretty good shift no matter what's asked of it. It balked at our PCMark05 or 3DMark 2006 tests for some unknown reason, but rest assured it feels as quick and responsive as you'd expect from a laptop using a 2.5GHz dual-core CPU and 4GB of RAM. As previously stated, 1GB of memory is sitting around doing absolutely nothing, so enthusiasts may consider installing Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition in order to eke out even more performance.

The M70 proves that laptops needn't be poor relations of desktop PCs, particularly where storage is concerned. It's a well-designed, well-equipped system that will appeal to those with large file collections. We're a little disappointed it uses an HD-DVD drive instead of Blu-ray, but it's a good alternative to rival systems such as the Acer Aspire 8920G.

Service And Support

ASUS offers a two-year limited global warranty with all its notebooks. Should a problem occur with the unit, you can send it to any ASUS service center around the world for the first two years and get it repaired using the warranty card. Issues during the third year of coverage can only be resolved in Singapore service centers. For users who travel overseas often, having a global warranty is important. However, the ASUS service overseas centers should be checked for accessibility. The ASUS Web site provides software support and updates as well as a telephone hotline number.

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