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The VX6’s jet-black finish and sharp angular design mimic the Lamborghini Reventón on which it’s based, but under the distinctive styling there are plenty of premium features.
A desktop version of Intel’s Atom processor gives a welcome power boost over other netbooks. The dual-core Atom D525 runs at 1.8GHz and is sensibly matched with 2GB of memory. Asus has installed Windows 7 Home Premium to avoid the 1GB memory limit imposed by the Starter edition of Microsoft’s operating system. The extra memory makes everyday programs run far smoother than we’re used to on most netbooks, but it still can’t compete with full-size laptops. In our multimedia benchmarks, the VX6 managed an overall score of 29, which is roughly twice as fast as a single-core netbook.
An Nvidia Ion chipset is a step above Intel’s integrated HD graphics, as it can comfortably play 720p video on the VX6 itself, or Full HD content on an external display via HDMI. Unfortunately playing modern games is asking too much, as Call of Duty 4 crawled along at 5fps. You should be able to play older titles by lowering detail levels. To extend battery life, Optimus power-saving disables the graphics chip when it isn’t needed, but the VX6 still only managed just over five hours in our light-use test – below average for a netbook.
The 12.1in display has a 1,366×768 resolution – a great improvement over regular netbook screens. It’s wide enough to have two documents open side-by-side, and long enough for Windows’ dialog boxes. The screen doesn’t tilt very far back, but horizontal and vertical viewing angles are wider than the average netbook. Image quality is excellent, with high contrast levels and rich colour reproduction. Brightness is even and black levels are deep. Audio quality from the front speaker pair can’t match the impressive screen, but sound quality was still above average, with solid mid-range and even a small amount of bass.
The VX6 has one of the best keyboards we’ve seen on a netbook; the keys are all a good size and have excellent tactile feedback. Unlike many Chiclet-style keyboards we’ve tried, each key didn’t wobble and made little noise as we typed. The touchpad is small but responsive. We weren’t so keen on the rocker-style touchpad button. The large dead spot in the middle isn’t always noticeable, but we would prefer a two-button layout.
The bold Lamborghini design won’t appeal to everyone, but the VX6 is still a very usable and feature-packed netbook. The major downside is the cost; it may be the best netbook we’ve seen, but it’s twice the price of its rivals.
For far less you could pick up the excellent Packard Bell Dot S. Alternatively, the Acer Timeline range has a collection of far faster ultraportables for around the same price.
