Asus A7T review

The A7T is capable of doing everything we expect from an entertainment notebook.

It has Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) installed, so you get an excellent interface for browsing media files. The usual MCE remote is included along with its IR receiver, which can also control your set-top box if needed. Plus, you can make best use of the built-in hybrid TV tuner thanks to MCE's excellent electronic programme guide (EPG).

Inside there's a single 100GB hard disk, which is sufficient for TV recording and media storage. Some of the A7T's competitors use twin hard disks, but that's too much to expect at this price. If you find yourself running low on space, you'll have to archive older files with the DVD writer.

The chassis is deeper than that of most 17" widescreen notebooks. However, it is quite slender and the additional depth gives better wrist support when typing. The keyboard flexes a little when you type, but otherwise it's good. Surprisingly, there's no number pad included; instead, there are speakers taking up the extra width.

These speakers sound excellent. Not only are they loud enough for watching films from a distance, they also sound crisp, well balanced and even have some appreciable bass.

The display is good, too. It's not as bright as some we've seen and has a slight graininess. However, it produced accurate colours and did well in our greyscale test. Its native resolution of 1,440x900 pixels will give you plenty of space with which to work.

There are numerous video outputs should you want to connect to a larger display. The usual DVI and D-sub are complemented by S-video, composite and component. If you want to capture analogue video or audio, there's a breakout lead with composite, S-video and phono inputs. A memory card reader and S/PDIF output are also provided.

The 1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-52 and 1GB of RAM should handle all but the most complex tasks, and they are good enough to play back HD video. The onboard Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 graphics are a good choice and will cope with the latest games at high detail settings.

The A7T is a great notebook and only the quality of the display lets it down slightly. At this price, though, it's incredibly good value and it is a fine choice if you want a notebook for work as well as leisure.

Author: Seth Barton