Asus A8JR review

Asus's A8JR is the first notebook we've seen with ATI's new Radeon Mobility X2300 graphics chipset.

Although it's built in a slim chassis, it has an extensive set of ports that includes five USB2 ports and FireWire. The standard audio line out doubles as a mini-jack coaxial S/PDIF output for digital surround sound. The memory card reader accepts all common card formats except xD. There are D-sub, DVI and S-video outputs on the rear for connecting a range of displays.

The notebook's widescreen display is excellent, and capable of inky blacks, bright whites and smoothly blended colours. Its gloss finish isn't suitable for working in direct sunshine or under office lights, however. It measures only 14.1in diagonally, but has the same 1,280x800-pixel resolution as 15.4in displays. Above it is a built-in webcam for video chat sessions, and there's a microphone by the keyboard so you can be heard.

The reasonably compact display makes this notebook smaller than one with a 15.4in screen, and it weighs just 2.4kg so it's easy to carry. Once you've peeled off all the marketing stickers and logos, you can appreciate the A8JR's simple and attractive design. Its touch pad is big and accurate and sits flush with the wrist rest. Its buttons are almost indistinguishable from the touch pad, which looks great, but they don't click so it can be hard to tell if you've pressed them.

Inside, there's a 160GB hard disk, which provides plenty of room for your media files. The Gigabit Ethernet port means that network file transfers will be quick if you're connected to a Gigabit switch, and there's built-in Bluetooth for connecting to mobile devices such as a phone.

The A8JR's scores in our tests show that ATI's Radeon Mobility X2300 is a lot quicker than the old X1300 chipset. You could even play fairly recent games on it if you reduce the detail settings. We had to turn off anti-aliasing and reduce the texture detail to get a playable frame rate in Call of Duty 2. It has 128MB of dedicated RAM and can use up to a further 128MB of system memory if necessary.

ATI claims that the X2300 is very power-efficient, but it didn't help the A8JR perform particularly well in our battery tests. It lasted just over two hours in our light-usage test; a disappointing score for a lightweight notebook that could have been ideal for use on the move. It fared better in our other benchmarks, with the Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 processor proving fast enough for all the but the most demanding tasks.

The A8JR is a well-equipped and well-designed notebook. However, it costs £200 more than Gateway's excellent MT6825b, also reviewed in our Labs. It's still fairly good value, but its disappointing battery life limits its appeal.