The 17-inch W2V media notebook by ASUS packs plenty of power without sacrificing style; Jørgen Sundgot finds it to be an excellent - yet pricey - alternative.
Review summary of the ASUS W2V:
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 Making an admirable first impression, the W2V is one of few notebooks that goes on to deliver the goods in every department. A stunning display is backed up by raw performance and broad connectivity options, with the only drawbacks being a less-than-optimal software suite for media management and a slight design faux pas in the department of media connectors. With the proper software, the W2V will serve media-hungry users as well as it will power-hungry road warriors, and even chalks up enough graphics performance to offer a hefty gaming session in between working and relaxing - if the price tag doesn’t scare you off.
Pros: Glorious display; high-powered; svelte looks; broad connectivity options
Cons: Pricey; sub-par media software; clumsy audio/video connector arrangement
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Full ASUS W2V Review:
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Despite hefty sizes and heftier prices, media notebooks are increasingly proliferating as an option for mobile professionals who want notebooks that can both serve as powerful business tools and dish out media. ASUS' new W2V most certainly focuses on the latter of the two, but also delivers impressive performance in a setup so stylish it should make even Sony raise an eyebrow or two.
Traveling in style
At 395 x 289 x 34 mm and 3.4 KG in its most capable configuration, the W2V is a visual treat with its understated yet highly stylish jet black colour scheme with silver trimmings. Pleasantly uncluttered, the left side of the notebook harbours a Kensington lock port, power input, a luscious slot-in Dual Layer DVD drive and a USB 2.0 port. Also, practically concealed behind a panel are 10/100/1000 Ethernet and 56K V.92 modem connectors, as well as an S-Video out port with support for both NTSC and PAL formats, and, finally, a combo analog/DVB-T RF receptacle.
Meanwhile, the right side of the notebook is somewhat more cluttered, hosting a total of three USB 2.0 ports, as well as a FireWire connector, an Infrared transceiver, VGA out and a memory card reader supporting SD/MMC, Memory Stick and Memory Stick PRO formats. Also present is a PCMCIA Type II expansion slot in which the Infrared remote control bundled with the W2V cleverly resides when not in use.
A brief look at the rear reveals nothing but the 8-cell Lithium Ion battery of the W2V, whereas the front is quite a bit more intriguing with five indicator LEDs, one of which surprisingly serves to alert the user of new e-mail, as well as an array of audio and video related connectors plus a Consumer IR receiver. Here, we find a video input supporting Composite and S-Video, as well as a combo headphone/SPDIF audio out jack along with surround sound outputs.
Speaking of audio, the W2V harbours a total of five speakers, one of which has in fact been dubbed a subwoofer by ASUS, and is mounted centrally underneath the laptop. The quality of sound produced by this setup is surprisingly decent, and offers enough volume to adequately allow for the W2V to play back media or watch a bit of TV in ye olde dorm room. Don't count on it for parties, though.
Honey, have you seen my sunglasses?
Not only pretty on the outside, the W2V also boasts a positively glorious, 17-inch widescreen display with a 16:10 aspect ratio which, at a WSXGA+ resolution of 1680 x 1050 pixels, isn't the highest-density display in town - but we're hard pressed to name a competitor for its brightness and clarity. There's also the option of a WXGA+ resolution display, and we're quite certain the ATI Mobility Radeon X700 chipset would handle graphics output to this with equal prowess.
With 128 MB of dedicated VRAM, graphics performance in the W2V is impeccable. The notebook easily handled a crop of current-generation games, showing only minor performance slowdowns when handling notebook and TV output simultaneously. Of course, part of the honour goes to the Intel 915PM chipset and Pentium M 770 processor powering our unit at a clock speed of 2.13 GHz, boasting 2 MB of Level 2 cache and a 533 MHz front speed bus. For those so inclined, the W2V also comes with the option of Pentium M 730, 740, 750 and 760 processors.
Memory is naturally also part of the equation, with the W2V packing 2 SO-DIMM sockets to allow for a total of 2 GB of DDR2 533 MHz RAM, which was the configuration present in our review system. This was backed up by a 100 GB DMA100 hard drive, with ASUS also offering 60 and 80 GB configurations. Rounding out the specifications is the inclusion of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g (or, alternatively, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g), both for which the W2V displayed very impressive range and reception qualities.
Let me entertain you
As a media notebook, one of the most important aspects of the W2V is how it handles the display, recording and playback of media - and the answer is somewhat mixed. Available in three different editions, the W2V either comes void of a tuner; with an analog TV tuner, hardware encoding and Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005; or with a hybrid analog/DVB-T tuner, and ASUS' own Mobile Theater software with software encoding. The edition on review here is the latter, and is also known as the ASUS W2Vc.
Although unable to review DVB-T signal reception, we found analog performance to be more than adequate - yet the road to TV nirvana was not laced with rose petals. Unfortunately, the rebadged Ulead software included by ASUS under the 'Mobile Theater' moniker proved not only to be frustratingly slow and short on functionality, but also void of any advanced settings dialog. This was particularly notable when trying to receive a PAL G broadcast in a country which the software insisted on used PAL B - without even indicating the latter.
Fortunately, a quick and free TV suite download from the maker of the hybrid tuner used in the W2V saved the day - at the cost of being unable to use the remote control, that is. Furthermore, we also found the scattered placement of video and audio connectors to be of some annoyance; front-mounted connectors are rarely a good idea, and in this particular case makes for a very cluttered setup if all video and output options are to be utilized. Still, in the name of fairness, the W2V performs very well indeed when properly configured.
Another piece of software which deserves mention is ASUS' Power4 Gear software, which contains a number of templates to maximize battery life under varying conditions - a well thought out and reasonably well implemented concept. On a related and less positive note, wireless always comes back on with both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi activated subsequent to a power-off; quite frustrating as having Wi-Fi enabled easily shaves half an hour or more off the otherwise adequate two and a half to three hours of battery life provided by the W2V.
Availability
The ASUS W2V is at the time of press available throughout Europe and North America, selling in the €3,000 EUR range for a maximum configuration.
Price and availability
The ASUS W2V will start selling for TBA () in November 1999.
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