6GB RAM
320GB hard drive
DVD+/-RW
18.4 inches (1,920x1,080)
Dual ATI Radeon HD4870 (CrossFire, 512MB)
11.5 pounds
2.5x17.4x12.9 inches
Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit)
Every so often a notebook comes along that is so impressive that it raises the bar for all comers. The Asus W90Vp-X1, available exclusively at Newegg.com, is that notebook. Not only does this desktop replacement set new 3D-graphics and productivity-speed records, but it also features a beautiful HD display, a powerful audio system, and an easy-to-use overclocking utility that lets you squeeze a few extra clock cycles out of the processor. All this, plus a generous warranty program and a relatively affordable $2,199 price, earns the W90Vp-X1 our Editors’ Choice award.
Measuring 2.5x17.4x12.9 inches (HWD) and weighing in at 11.5 pounds, the W90Vp-X1 is one of the heaviest laptops we’ve seen, outweighing the dual-screen Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds by nearly half a pound. Factor in the gargantuan power brick (it alone measures 7.7x3.7x1.7 inches and weighs 2.2 pounds), and you’re looking at nearly 14 pounds of total travel weight. Fortunately, Asus includes a free Republic of Gamers backpack for those who want to take their game on the road.
Beneath the brushed-aluminum lid, you’ll find a gorgeous 18.4-inch LCD with a 1,920x1,080 resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio, which means it can display HD content at 1080p without stretching or scaling. The brightly lit screen delivers incredible color quality and wide viewing angles, making it ideal for gaming and viewing videos. We only wish the high-gloss coating weren’t so reflective. Alas, this particular model lacks a Blu-ray drive, so you’ll have to settle for watching standard-definition DVD movies, which nevertheless look great on the big screen. Asus assures us that a Blu-ray model will be available through the retail channel in the near future, however.
A 2-megapixel Webcam embedded in the screen’s upper bezel makes conducting video chats and capturing and editing video and still images easy, especially with the included Asus LifeFrame software. The camera’s image quality tends to be grainy, but it's more than adequate for Skyping and chatting purposes. As with the Asus N80Vn-A1, the last notebook we reviewed from Asus, the Webcam can be used with the SmartLogon software as a face-recognition security tool.
The spacious keyboard deck sports a black brushed-metal finish with a glossy black bezel that frames the keyboard, which is roomy and features a dedicated number pad on the right side. The touch pad is also sizable and much more responsive than the one that comes with the N80Vn-A1. A fingerprint reader is sandwiched between the two highly polished mouse buttons, and a set of touch-sensitive media-player controls and a volume slider are positioned to the left of the keyboard.
Above the keyboard are a touch-sensitive display-brightness controller and six function keys, including a speaker-mute control, a touch-pad on/off button, a zoom button that magnifies the area of the display where your mouse cursor is positioned, and a Turbo Gear key that lets you enter into a power-saving mode and toggle between standard and overclocking modes. The Turbo Gear utility lets you bump up the W90Vp-X1’s bus speed incrementally by 3, 5, 10, 15, or 17 percent, which in turn speeds up the processor clock. At its highest setting (17 percent), the CPU runs at 3.28GHz (versus 2.8GHz, its native speed).
There’s also a key that launches the LifeFrame application, and the Splendid key lets you switch among five preset display modes (normal, gamma, vivid, theater, soft). At the far right is the main power button, and an Express Gate button is on the far left. The Express Gate button lets you launch specific applications, including a Web browser, a photo viewer, a media player, a gaming portal, and Skype, without having to boot into Windows. Audiophiles will appreciate the W90Vp-X1’s robust sound system, which consists of four speakers plus a subwoofer and provides lots of volume with booming bass.
The W90Vp-X1 uses an Asus X38-based motherboard populated with a Core 2 Duo T9600 processor (2.8GHz) and a whopping 6GB of DDR2 memory. Video is driven by two ATI Radeon HD4870 controllers running in CrossFire mode. This powerful combination churned out some very impressive scores on our benchmark tests, and in some cases, took top honors compared with the best-performing notebooks we've seen. On FutureMark’s PCMark Vantage 64-bit productivity test, the W90Vp-X1 turned in a leading score of 4,665, beating out Gateway’s P7808u by a single point and besting the Alienware M17 by more than 1,100 points. We overclocked the CPU to 3.28GHz and ran the test again for a score of 5,040 (an 8 percent increase). The system completed our iTunes encoding test in a quick 3 minutes and 9 seconds, giving it the number-one spot in its class.
Its Windows Media Encoder time of 5 minutes and 16 seconds was also above average but trailed the Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds and the Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q708 by more than a minute and a half. It completed the same test in 4 minutes and 29 seconds with overclocking enabled.
neq4r5fsxw