Asus F3JP

The Asus' dark grey and silver finish is smart, but it's more pin-stripe suit and cufflinks than trendy jeans.

It isn't just the Asus' looks that are sober either. The F3JP is the only machine here to feature a TPM chip - a security feature used to store passwords and network keys securely, normally seen on business notebooks. A little extra security is no bad thing, however, and elsewhere the F3JP stacks up pretty well.

Core components comprise a 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5600, 1GB of RAM and a 120GB hard disk. There's nothing groundbreaking here, but neither is it a specification that will be found lacking for everyday tasks - it scored 1.04 in our 2D application benchmarks. For gaming, ATi's Mobility Radeon X1700 graphics can't match the Nvidia GeForce 7600-based machines, with only 20fps in Far Cry.

The F3JP is the only machine here to offer Bluetooth 2 connectivity, a standard that ups the speed of standard Bluetooth to 3Mb/sec. Other bonuses include an 8x dual-layer DVD writer that features LightScribe technology. There's also a 1.3-megapixel webcam and an external USB digital TV tuner.

Open the lid of the F3JP's mid-sized chassis and you're presented with an excellent 15.4in 1,280 x 800 screen. Contrast is good - helped by the glossy finish - while colours are vivid and brightness is even from top to bottom. The keyboard below it, sadly, isn't quite so good. Although the key action makes general typing easy, the layout isn't ideal: a half-height Enter key and out-of-place backslash key are frustrating.

The touchpad buttons are also a little stiff for our liking and, more importantly, battery life isn't great. The F3JP only managed a little over two hours in our light-use test and 1hr 30mins under intensive conditions.

It all adds up to a mixed bag. The F3JP has some thoughtful extras: the two-year collect-and-return warranty, decent performance, an excellent TFT and a reasonable price. But the ergonomics aren't perfect and neither is the battery life, factors that ultimately push it out of contention for an award.

Author: Jim Martin