Asus NX90J laptop

Gaming (ROG) laptops by Asus, such as the G51, gained immense popularity largely because of the features they offer. In fact, the G51 3D even received the ‘Best Choice Of The Year’ award this year at Computex. The NX90J is very different from gaming laptops from the outside, but its performance will certainly impress you. For starters, the machine has an 18.4-inch full-HD screen and the audio is courtesy David Lewis, chief designer at Bang and Olufsen (ICEpower technology). Before we start raving about how good this laptop is in terms of power and functionality, let’s see what makes this laptop special.

Design
More than the performance, it’s the aesthetics and unconventional design that instantly define the target audience of this laptop. The rock solid anodized all-aluminum body has absolutely nothing on its surface that could spoil the lazer-cut polished surface, no stickers, no emblems, nothing. The only exception is of, the two Asus logos, one on the lid and the other on the wrist rest. The wrist rest is as large as the keyboard, and the keyboard is extends to accommodate one touch pad on either side. That’s right, it’s a dual-touchpad design, unlike standard laptops.

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Thankfully, in addition to the speaker grill and keyboard, the touchpads are matte, unlike the overly glossy body. The all-glossy mirror finish exterior is a finger print magnet, so you’ll need a lint-free cloth every time you handle it.

Now, although there are people raving about the design, there might be handfuls who don’t like the design as much, mainly because of the screen being wider than the chassis. The screen juts out more than 1.5-inches on either side because of the built-in speakers. Otherwise, there’s nothing to complain about in terms of build quality and ergonomics also. With a full-sized keyboard, large touchpads, huge screen, excellent build quality, there’s nothing to brood over.

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Features
In addition to the elegance that this machine adds to a living room, the multimedia experience is simply outstanding. With the presence of a Blu-ray combo drive, two 640 GB hard drives, an 18.4-inch full–HD screen and terrific sound quality, what more can you ask for? Speaking of hardware, the NX90J is built around an Intel HM55 chipset and is powered by a Core i7-720QM CPU, which is clocked at 1.6 GHz. There’s 4 GB DDR3 RAM (upgradeable to 12GB) and the discrete GPU is courtesy an Nvidia GeForce GT335M. This hardware, especially the CPU and RAM, is very similar to that of the Asus G51 3D laptop which costs around Rs 99,000. Whereas, this laptop costs Rs 1,30,000. But again, it has a much larger screen, with a native resolution of 1920x1080, more hard drive room. And besides, a gaming laptop wouldn’t add the oomph to your home (or office) as much as this machine will. But yes, it’s undeniable that you’re paying a premium for the aesthetics and overt design.

On the left-hand side, there is one USB port, a memory card reader and slot-loading Blu-ray drive, and on the right-hand side there are 3 audio jacks, Ethernet jack, 2 USB 3 ports, a USB eSATA combo, a VGA and an HDMI port. Connectivity options are Wi-Fi N, Bluetooth and Gigabit Ethernet. Finally, the machine is preloaded with Windows 7 Ultimate. So clearly, design is not the only aspect one may drool over.

Performance
The one thing truly spectacular about this laptop is the experience of watching movies on the large screen and listening to music. The sound quality is top notch, and it doesn’t blare even at high volume levels. What goes without saying is that, considering the processor and benchmark scores, it’s clear that this machine can handle heavy applications seamlessly.

Now, although this isn’t a gaming machine, we ran game benchmarks and kept to the native resolution (1920 x 1080). We’ve compared the benchmark scores of this machine to that of the Asus G51J. Take a look and you’ll notice how this laptop churns playable frame rates even at the native resolution. Despite the screen size and amazing performance, it offers 3 hours of battery life, which is quite impressive. Also, it’s not like you’re going to carry a near-5kg laptop around with you.

Personal Take
When I first saw the machine, it looked like an over-sized portable DVD player kept up-side-down. I didn’t really like it, mainly because of the size-difference in the screen and chassis, and of course the all-glossy body. But, if you look at it this way, are you really going to use it as a ‘laptop’? This machine is more of an-all-one PC in the form factor of a laptop. And besides, when I used it, ran the benchmarks, played HD movies, it actually feels like a cinema on your desk (or lap). Also, as I type this review, it feels like typing on a regular desktop keyboard. So I’d say that, it gets a five on five in terms of functionality and performance. In terms of looks, you’ll need to see for yourself to be double sure. We’ve received mixed opinions.

Specifications

• Dimensions: 526 x 30 x 280
• Weight: 4.8 kg
• Chipset: Intel HM 55
• Processor: Intel Core i7 720QM, 1.6 GHz, 6 MB L3 Cache
• RAM: DDR3 4 GB
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GT335M
• Network: Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi N and Bluetooth
• HDD: 2 x 650 GB
• Optical Drive: Blu-ray combo
• Screen: 18.4-inch glossy (1920x1080)
• Battery life: 3 Hours
• Price: Rs 1,30,000