Asus U6S-3P199E review

Along with the Sony, the Asus U6S is significantly dearer than most of the competition this month - it's so new Asus could only give us an RRP of £1,276, which may lower once it arrives with retailers. However, you certainly get plenty for your money: nothing comes close in terms of included features, and it packs plenty of punch in the CPU department, too.

With the same 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo T7500 as the Sony, the two laptops perform identically - a benchmark score of 1.07 puts them behind only the Toshiba in that respect. Both also come with discrete graphics: the Nvidia GeForce 8400M G of the Asus is slightly slower than the Sony's GS, but neither is a serious gaming proposition. The Asus managed just 19fps in Call of Duty 2 at our lowest test settings.

But the U6S really impresses with its feature set: it comes with the largest hard disk of the group (250GB); a 3.6Mb/sec HSDPA adapter; draft-n wireless; Bluetooth; four USB ports and a card reader. There's an HDMI port, a fingerprint reader sits between the mouse buttons, and there's a TPM module inside. The only minor quibble we can find is that the webcam is just a 0.3-megapixel model.

You also get two batteries: one with a huge 7,800mAh capacity plus a smaller 2,400mAh one. Together these give a combined 6hrs 15mins in light use - not up there with the Sony, but impressive all the same. Nearly five of those hours come from the larger battery, though, so you can keep the weight down to around 1.9kg by leaving the small one at home.

For all its features, however, the build quality lets down the U6S. We're not fans of the mouse buttons, which are joined to the touchpad by one edge, and the chassis feels a bit shaky in places, particularly around the optical drive. It's a shame, as the 13.3in TFT is bright and vivid, the keyboard is comfortable and it certainly isn't an ugly notebook.

The Asus U6S isn't cheap, but it does offer decent battery life and plenty of power, along with excellent features. We'd just about lean towards the Sony, though, as it matches the Asus in most areas, but does so with more style.

Author: David Bayon