| There are some things that you just don’t think will go together. Cabbage and ice-cream are one. Posh clothes and trainers are another. But put them together and some how, miraculously they seem to work. When we were told about the Asus S6, a laptop that was covered like your old school books but instead of your dad's left over wallpaper, in leather, we thought it was all wrong. Leather and computers, no, no, no. But some how, it manages to work, really well. It’s a product that any executive would be proud to have on their desk, or anyone that likes a product that is slightly different. |  'Leather Laptop' look quite good in an Italian designer kind of way |
Design | | This really is a step away from tradition. While Apple have gone for different colours to spice up the look of their laptops, Asus have taken the Lawrence Lllewellyn Bowen approach and decked out the S6 with hand embossed leather. And the theme has been continued at the front with a leather frame around the screen as well as just below the keyboard. If chocolate brown isn’t the colour for you, don’t worry, you’ve got two other options. There’s the option of camel grey, crocodile skin and pretty pink. The keyboard is a gunmetal grey colour which coordinates with the mouse. Oh and did we mention it’s really small and has an 11.1 inch screen. There’s three USB ports and a DVD rewrite drive attached as well as an Express Card slot and a multi-format card reader. | | Setup/Installation | | Make sure the laptop is completely charged before using. Other than that it comes installed with Windows XP and you just need to start playing. | | Features | | Not only does the design of the S6 come in tops, but the insides, although a bit of a mish-mash come up trumps too. The S6 comes with the latest Intel Centrino Duo mobile technology with an Intel Core processor Duo L2400 that runs at 1.66GHz, which means you can multitask computer programmes without worrying about it crashing or slowing down and the fast processing performance allows you to open up programmes quickly and start working straight away. You have a choice of hard drive varying from 60GB up to 120GB. There’s a Mobile Intel 945GM Express chipset in each machine and it comes with Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 ABG Network connection giving you WLAN 802.11a/b/g connection so you can access the Internet wirelessly anywhere. And they’re also Bluetooth V2.0+EDR enhanced which means that data is transferred at three times the rate of your standard Bluetooth – which is ideal for synchronising your outlook on your PDA and laptop. The screen isn’t really big but we found 11.1 inches was big enough for us, especially as it means the machine is lighter and more mobile. The WXGA LCD which runs on a native resolution of 1,366x768 pixels uses the ASUS Splendid Video Intelligent Engine for added colour and shine. The only problem with the extra shiny screen is it can make reading in direct sun light difficult as there’s too much of a glare, but this could be overcome with a bit of fiddling with the settings. The metal grey keyboard is lovely under your fingers. While the actual computer is small, unlike the Sony Vaio TX3 the keyboard here is perfectly sized for your fingers. And the mouse touchpad has the perfect sensitivity. There’s a slim DVD rewriter that’s attached too which can write and rewrite CDs at 24x and 16x. | | Performance | | This is a lovely machine that is small, compact and fast. For a portable device there’s not much you could ask for. Multiple programmes running didn’t slow down the machine and there was no fear of crashing. There was a slight glare on the screen when the sun was shining on it, but like we mentioned above, with a bit of setting tinkering you could overcome this, or alternatively relocate to a darker room. The graphics were good for working on and surfing the net but not brilliant when it came to games, so you’d really need to decide whether this is going to be used as a gaming computer or not. As well as being fast, the S6 didn’t mow once. The fan is virtually silent, and it didn’t get hot while using it so you could actually sit it on your lap without scolding yourself. | | What's In The Box? | | Asus S6 laptop, power adapter, instructions. | | Overall Opinion | | If Apple had introduced this, the world and its sister would have been going gaga over it, but they didn’t, Asus did so the praise is a bit quieter. The Asus S6F is one of the best portable laptops out on the market, we’d say. It’s got everything from stylish looks to power packed facilities. It’s fast, it’s got built-in wireless for connecting up on the go, a good screen and loads of memory. |
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