Do you own your own private island? Check. Living in a huge villa? Check. Lamborghini Gallardo in the garage? Check. Then you’ll probably want to add this one to your collection – the Asus Lamborghini VX2. Asus isn’t usually associated with high-flying super-brands, so in what it calls an “unprecedented merger … of advanced technology and amazing design”. Of course, it is not unprecedented at all. Acer has been doing the same thing with Ferrari for years and Asus has just stolen the idea. But hey, if it produces such beautiful notebooks, why not.
Personally, I’ve decided that if I found an amount of money in the form of a supercar to burn, I’d probably prefer a Lamborghini to a Ferrari. After all, if you have it and really want to flaunt it, why not do it right? Lamborghinis are just a bit more shine, a bit more bling and the Gallardo is just a stunning looking car.
Despite the enticing glimpses of the Gallardo in Asus’ commercials, the VX2 doesn’t really resemble a Gallardo. It does not have perfectly balanced, shaped curves or a balanced aggressive posture. In fact, I could say that when closed, it’s just a laptop with a yellow lid if I want to be harshly dismissive. But that would be unfair with a certainly great looking machine with lots of exquisite design details. The piano lacquer finish on the yellow lid is bright, smooth and elegant and an eye-catcher in true Lamborghini style. If you crave attention, that’s your boy.
The Lamborghini emblem sits proudly on the lid, with the Bull logo sublime, while the Asus logo is discreetly placed at the bottom left. At the front there is a black honeycomb grille, reminiscent of a car radiator grille. Among them are four translucent lights with icons next to them that indicate when the laptop is connected, charging or Wi-Fi or the built-in Bluetooth 2.0 EDR is turned on. The hinge is painted black at the top, as is the back of the integrated webcam. Basically, it’s a good-looking lid.
When you open the lid, you’ll see an impressive 15.4-inch widescreen display with Asus Clear Shine technology – basically a high-contrast, high-brightness coating that is sure to make Windows Vista Ultimate look like this. Blues look particularly good and the video was fluid. The viewing angle was also pretty good – there’s some color shift and it’s better when coming from the sides than it’s horizontal, but it’s not nearly as extreme as some displays.
I often criticize laptop displays for not offering enough resolution, but Asus got it right with this one. It has a generous resolution of 1,680 x 1,050, which means there is plenty of space for applications and multiple Windows. You won’t find this resolution on a desktop monitor smaller than 20 inches, so some may find the icons and text too small to work with a 15.4 display. Usually I don’t have a problem with small text, but even I had to enlarge the document to be able to write it comfortably on the laptop. If you ever have trouble squinting at small text, you may have a problem here. The only other concern is that the graphics chip is struggling with so many pixels, but we’ll look at that when we get to performance.
A 1.3-megapixel camera is mounted on the display. The surface around the lens retains the high-quality appearance of the rest of the notebook and can be rotated in both directions. If you want or need to communicate, a built-in webcam is useful – less to carry and no messy cables.
It’s not often that what’s under the screen is more impressive than the screen itself. The fit and workmanship around the keyboard is just fantastic. Immediately above and below the keyboard are speckled metal strips. The words “Automobili Lamborghini” are stylishly engraved at the bottom right, while at the bottom left there are four small square lights as if outside, one for power, charging, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Above the keyboard is a number of keyboard shortcuts for enabling Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, switching between power-saving modes, enabling/disabling the touchpad, starting Windows Media Center, and finally switching on/off. And yes, this is the full version of Windows Media Center, as it is now an integral part of the Home Premium and Ultimate editions of Vista, with the latter pre-installed on this notebook.
While opening most notebooks feels like getting into a cheap car, the VX2 has the feel of a really expensive vehicle. Above and on the sides of the keyboard are real leather stripes with excellent yellow stitching, including round hinges that really enhance the look. This mainly moves the VX2 from being just another laptop to something you actually like to stand in front of. The old motorist cliché of a well-equipped interior can be described as a “nice place to be”. Well, it’s certainly worth saying about this notebook. The warmth of the leather against the matte shine of the metal stripes, combined with the white lights, is just very cool. The high design continues to the speakers that run down the sides, with the angle of the leather undoubtedly reflecting the sharp angles of the Gallargo. In short, I like the way it looks.
The actual keyboard itself is very good. The size of the notebook means there are no tight keys with a full-size Shift and Backspace key and an extended Enter key. The typing movement is quite firm, but it felt pleasant, although I had to take off my watch to be able to rest comfortably.
The smooth black of the trackpad tapers subtly downwards and the mouse buttons are separated by a biometric fingerprint protection system. The first time you gently swipe your finger over it, a wizard will be launched that allows you to “enroll” it so that you can use it alternatively and/or in addition to a password. It’s a sign that the VX2 doesn’t just have a well-equipped interior – there’s a lot of technology in it.
Before we get to that, let’s take a look at the left side where you will find a DVD burner that can handle almost all kinds of DVD media. Thanks to LightScribe technology, you can burn a dual-layer disc and even etch a label on it. Next to it is a connector for connecting an external DVI port, next to it are two USB 2.0 ports and then a VGA output and an S-Video output. In the left corner you will find a Gigabit Ethernet port.
The sound functions are managed by a Digital HD audio chip built into SoundMax, which sounds pretty good through headphones or through the speakers, which have a surprising volume. At the top level, there is no distortion and there is even a little midway, although inevitably the bass is missing.
If you move to the right, you will find an express card slot and above it a card reader that accepts SD/MMC and Memory Stick. Having just bought the fantastic Fujifilm S9600, I have to wonder why none of these card readers can handle xD cards. Next to the reader, an infrared port is crammed, although I can’t see this being used, and then you’ll find an SP/DIF output so you can plug Dolby Digital into an external amplifier with the right cable. This includes a microphone output. If you go further, you’ll come across another USB 2.0 port that brings the total to three, and then there’s a mini Firewire port. In the right corner you will find a modem connection and then the socket. The back is free of ports or ports, aside from a Kensington lock, which is certainly needed if you leave it in a public place.
With a brand like Lamborghini, you’d expect some pretty fast components to be inside, and by and large, you’d be right. The fixed storage is provided by a Hitachi TravelStar – a model with 5,400 rpm and a capacity of 160 GB – notebook drives are starting to become quite extensive. However, the star of the show is the Intel Core 2 Duo T7400. This mobile processor operates at 2.16 GHz and has 4MB of Level 2 cache. When it’s going at full speed, quite a bit of heat is emitted through the connector on the right, but you can switch to cooler mileage profiles. If you activate one of the functions via the function key, you can see a decent animation – a clear difference from the normal basic feeling of cheaper notebooks.
The CPU communicates with the two sticks of the 1GB PC2-5300 via a 667MHz front side bus. 2 GB of RAM is quite important for a high-performance notebook running Vista. The only downside is that there are no free slots in case you want to add more, but you can of course add an external storage key thanks to ReadyBoost technology, which, as we have proven, works quite well.
While the CPU is top class, the graphics are actually in the middle range. With 12-pixel processors at 450 MHz, a 128-bit memory controller, and 512 MB of 1,000 MHz memory, the GeForce Go 7700 is essentially an 80-nanometer process response of the Go 7600, making it cooler and cheaper to manufacture for nVidia, but doesn’t really contribute much to the performance. This can be seen in our game results. Vista turns out to be a pretty annoying beast for our benchmarks and Call of Duty wouldn’t run on this notebook, while Battlefield 2 delivered the same score in every single test. With the games that have worked, you can see that the VX2 really struggles to deliver a smooth frame rate at native resolution and maximum settings. However, if you set the game to friendlier, medium levels of detail, you can play comfortably on this notebook. Aside from the benchmarks, we tried FEAR and it was fine.
Thanks to Vista, we can’t run our normal MobileMark battery tests, but by switching to the Office profile, I have about two and a half hours of use before it was prompted to be connected. If you keep usage low, you should be able to reach three hours of playing games or watching movies, then you’ll watch much less. At 2.43 kg, however, this is not really a notebook for regular use without a power connection.
Matching a notebook like this, Asus has bundled probably the most plush notebook bag I’ve ever seen. The trim and seams correspond to those of the VX2 and of course it has the unmistakable logo on the front. Of course, this almost screams to attack me, but no doubt your guards will do it for you as you stroll down the road. If you don’t actually have bodyguards, in the brief moments you actually have with the carrying bag, you’ll appreciate the foam-padded handle that’s just nice to hold. Also included are a leather mouse pad and a small Bluetooth mouse, which are suitably dressed in Lamborghini paint.
The VX2 is without question a very cool notebook to look at and operate and stands out from the crowd. The nice thing is that it does more than beat Sony in its own game – it actually offers something different and is more exclusive in a sense.
The screensaver is, of course, cool shadow image of a Gallardo accompanied by roaring 5-liter V10 humming noises, which is either very cool or highly embarrassing, but that’s the thing about a notebook like this – it polarizes opinions. In our book, it’s a refreshing change and reason enough to like it.
”Judgment”
You’ll either love or hate the look of the Asus Lamborghini VX2, but the quality of its construction or the strength of its components can’t be denied. It’s not the fastest device for gaming, but for general use and casual gaming, this is a serious-looking and powerful part of the kit.
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Used as our main laptop during the reporting period
Tested for at least one week
Consistent benchmarks used for fair comparisons with other laptops
Verified against recognized industry benchmarks and real-world usage
Points in detail
- Power 8
- Value 7
- Features 9