By Darius Chang, CNET Asia
28/05/2007
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/notebooks/0,39050488,40133940p,00.htm

Not many people can afford a Lamborghini sports car. Actually, not many can afford the Asus Lamborghini VX2 notebook, either. Priced at S$4,688, it is significantly more expensive than most gaming level portables like the Asus G1 and G2, as well as powerhouse models like the Dell Inspiron 9400. However, price aside, this update to the Asus VX1 exudes pure power and speed, and is one of the few portables in its generation to sport a Draft-N wireless radio. Asus has also bundled several high-end extras like a leather notebook briefcase, Bluetooth Lamborghini mouse and a leather Lamborghini mousepad to sway the consumer.

	The design is understated with the use of leather around the keyboard area. (Click for larger image)

Design
When we first lifted the Asus Lamborghini VX2, we thought we had a 17-inch portable in our hands. Coming in at over 3kg, there is no doubt this notebook is more comfortable in the front seat of a car than on the shoulder. Fortunately, the VX2 has a sleek profile with a 363 x 263 x 38mm footprint. Unlike the car hood design on the top lid of the VX1, this Asus sports a more conventional exterior with a glossy yellow or black paint job. But like most things glossy, the body picks up fingerprints, which may be why Asus has bundled a micro fiber cleaning cloth to wipe off.

Ostentious this notebook is not. Besides the Lamborghini badge on the top, the only other indication of its sport car inspiration is the hubcap design at the bottom. For a touch of luxury, the palm rest and keyboard borders are covered in stitched leather, which feels more comfortable than the usual plastic or metal base.

Utilizing a latchless design with strong hinge action, it allows for a swivel 1.3-megapixel Webcam that sits atop the transflective widescreen display. In a departure to the norm, the indicator lights use bright white LEDs instead of the more conventional red or blue lamps. This may look pretty in the dark, but it's also murder on your night vision in dim environments.

Features
Positioned as a power user's notebook, the Asus VX2 distinctly lacks the bells and whistles present in business and entertainment machines. No remote control, no shock-mounted harddisk. A row of application shortcut keys above the full-size keyboard are mapped to the wireless functions, touchpad disabler, display and power-saving modes. There is also a multimedia button that pulls out Windows Media Center but, due to the limitations of the Vista OS, is not coupled with a preboot function. Other extras are the fingerprint sensor straddling the touchpad buttons coupled with a Trusted Platform Module security chip, making sure your data is safe from hacking attempts.

The 15.4-inch widescreen display is of the transflective variety, which makes movie viewing off the harddisk or DVD Super Multi drive an immersive experience. The display is also capable of a maximum resolution of up to 1,680 x 1,050 pixels. However, using the notebook outdoors or under bright lights results in distracting reflections off the screen, a bane of transflective display technology. The graphics chipset is the high-end Nvidia GeForce Go 7700 with 512MB of video memory, one of the fastest in town.

The speaker design is a little misleading, giving an impression of large speaker bars flanking the keyboards. But on closer inspection the actual horns are a lot smaller, though sound quality is still generally good for a portable but lacking bass. Fortunately, the headphone jack is S/PDIF-compatible, allowing you to hook up a digital line to your favorite audio setup.

A fingerprint sensor with TPM chip takes care of data security. (Click for larger image)

Network connectivity is another shining feature of the VX2. Besides the common modem, infrared and Bluetooth radio, this Asus can also run on the fastest gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n Wi-Fi standard currently available. The latter is especially rare in non-Santa Rosa portables. Connecting to peripherals is possible via the rather stingy three USB 2.0 ports, a mini-FireWire slot and ExpressCard/54 connector. We especially like its external display options, which include a trio of connectors comprising a monitor port, S-video out and HDMI slot.

Though the notebook may be expensive, Asus has bundled some nice accessories to defray the ownership cost. A leather laptop briefcase, Bluetooth Lamborghini mouse and mousepad complete the image of a VX2 owner.

Performance And Battery Life
Until MobileMark is compatible with Windows Vista, we are unable to benchmark the productivity performance or battery life of this machine. But this S$4,688 system is powered by a Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz processor, 2GB RAM and 160GB hard drive, so you can expect the Asus Lamborghini VX2 to make quick work of almost any office and multimedia application. It must be noted that this is one of the few notebooks in the market to come preinstalled with the top-of-the-line Windows Vista Ultimate Edition, with a set of Lamborghini themes and startup logos bundled. You may be paying a hefty sum, but in return you get impressive computing power.

When it comes to gaming, the Asus VX2 does not disappoint, giving an impressive 2,356 score on the 3DMark06 test. It rates high enough to earn a spot in our Top 5 list for gaming portables. This beats even Asus' G series, which is a product line dedicated for gamers. However, it falls below the cheaper Dell Inspiron 9400 with a 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS video card.

FutureMark 3DMark06 performance rating (longer bars indicate faster performance)

Asus Lamborghini VX2 (Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz processor; 2GB RAM; 512Mb Nvidia GeForce Go 7700) 2,356 Asus G2 (Core 2 Duo 2.0Ghz processor; 2GB RAM; 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1700 ) 2,011 Dell Inspiron 9400 (Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz processor; 1GB RAM; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS video card) 3,566

We tested the battery life using the Hero DVD, with the screen brightness set at medium and audio output (with headphones plugged) at maximum. Despite its large screen and high-end graphics processor, the VX2 lasted a respectable 1 hour 45 minutes without access to external power. This would be enough to finish most movies, but not epics like Lord of the Rings.

Service And Support
Asus offers a two-year limited global warranty with all its notebooks, with an additional one-year local warranty only for Singapore units. Should a problem occur with the unit, you can send it to any Asus service center around the world and get it repaired using the warranty card. For users who travel overseas often, having a global warranty is important. However, the Asus service overseas centers should be checked for accessibility. Asus Web site provides software support and updates as well as a telephone hotline number.