Asus U6S Leather Laptop

Asus U6S Leather Laptop Review

Overview & Design

It is time for the Asus U6S to go through the paces under the watchful eye of the Laptop Logic testing labs. We will put this ultra-portable under the spotlight and discover its true inner workings through a variety of scrupulous tests. Asus has recently hit the scene in a big way due to the EeePc's success and now we take a look at the sexy U6S, so let's begin.

Design
The lid is a lustrous deep brown, dark enough to possibly be confused for black. It is accented with glimmering blue flecks, which truly fortifies its role as a showstopper. Within a span of ten minutes using the laptop in public, people had swarmed to inquire who made the beautiful piece of technology sitting on my lap. Not only does the glossy finish attract people, but it also attracts fingerprints like bee's to honey. The stunning chrome accents undoubtedly add a layer of elegance to this already sophisticated notebook. The U6 is constructed from high quality materials that compliment its beauty, in addition to making it very sturdy. The slim wedge design of the unit fits nicely into the hand for easy carrying.

The unit lacks volume buttons, but features a dedicated camera switch and battery usage options. While the integrated mouse button area and touchpad are visually appealing, we noticed the buttons require a surprising amount of pressure to activate which detracts from the actual usage. The keyboard is sufficient in size, with full size keys that have a nice tactile feel to them, while the touchpad is responsive and tracking was dependable. The leather clad wrist rests are a stylish touch and actually very comfortable, featuring a thin layer of leather surrounding the touchpad and mouse buttons. The leather is pretty hard and appears to be quite tough and scratch resistant. However vegetarians and animal activists beware, as the leather still has that bovine aroma, leading us to believe that it is in fact real leather. The unit also features a fingerprint scanner which is placed neatly into the coupled touchpad and mouse buttons.

The Asus U6S is on the larger end of the ultraportable spectrum, but the extra weight is well worth it for the full size laptop features that it possesses. A 12.1-inch LED backlit WXGA screen provides good contrast, deep colors, and an overall bright, crisp picture. The ASUS U6S runs quiet and the only noticeable noise was observed in an almost silent room.

Front

The leather palm rests jut out ever so slightly, which surprisingly looks pretty good and the easy to open lid is also a nice feature. Note that the speaker sits off center on the front of the U6S.

Left

The left side sports three USB ports, an ExpressCard slot, HDMI output, wireless switch, and power plug. HDMI output is a nice addition, enabling the laptop to be connected to an HDTV.

Right

On the right we find headphone and mic jacks, SD card slot, an additional USB port, and a lock slot. The U6S also features a tray loading DVD rewriteable drive with Lightscribe capabilities.

Back

The rear boasts a VGA out port, as well as modem and Ethernet ports.

All in all, we were impressed with the plethora of ports included in this tiny machine; usually features like these are compromised in smaller notebooks. Technically you don't have a Firewire port here, but given the lack of market saturation in products that require Firewire, it is no big loss.

Features & Conclusion

Webcam
The webcam is a substandard 0.3 megapixels, which is good enough to snap half decent pictures and video chat, but that is about the extent of the camera's capabilities. The notebook features facial recognition security capabilities that work with the integrated webcam, however it is a bit too inconsistent to be truly useful.

Technology
The Asus U6S is one ultraportable that doesn't skimp on features, sporting a cast of full sized features such as the super-fast Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 and NVIDIA GeForce 8400M graphics card; 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth are also included standard. Unfortunately with high performance comes higher power draw, and the battery life is lessened by a great degree. The U6S' 4800mAh 6 cell battery produced about 2 hours 15 minutes of run time in testing, which is rather low for the ultraportable category. The power drain may be too large of a flaw to overcome for even the most fashion oriented and power driven road warrior.

The standard 160GB 5400rpm hard drive is sizeable, but with only 2GB of non-upgradeable RAM users and Windows Vista preloaded, users will be screaming for more system memory. When testing battery life during DVD playback, the U6S scored a paltry 90 minute runtime - make sure you bring the spare batteries to get through Titanic or a Lord of the Rings film.

Included with the purchase of this laptop are a few luxury add-ons. You will find two Targus cases: a nylon strap tote and a suede sleeve case. Also a sleek Bluetooth travel mouse is included, possibly to offset the unusually stiff mouse buttons built into the U6S.

Conclusion

Pros:

• Stylish
• Fingerprint scanner
• Full size keyboard
• Low Heat & Noise
• HDMI output
• Built-in optical drive

Cons:

• Poor battery life, especially when watching movies
• Hard to click mouse buttons
• Non-upgradeable RAM

Overall, the ASUS U6 is a wonderful notebook packed with numerous features and power in a small sophisticated package. The functionality of the unit and pure elegance of this laptop undoubtedly outweigh the weakness of a below average battery life, but you may find yourself wishing for more RAM in short order. With all of the computing capabilities at a reasonable $1699.99, this is definitely a laptop to seriously consider if you're in the market for a full-featured ultraportable.