Asus has a hit with their light and essentials-only Eee PC line, but Asus can do heavy and capable too, as seen very clearly with their rendition of the mid-high range multi-use 15” laptop – the Asus N50V. Specifically, the Asus N50V has a 15.4 WXGA LED-backed LCD screen, the LEDs being only one of many technologically advanced features that can be found in the N50V. We look at the rest of the goodies next.

Other than the large, LED-backed LCD, other tantalizing features that I’ve seemingly long not heard, such was the proliferation of relatively tiny, basic-use netbooks, are a blu-ray optical drive, an Nvidia 9650M GT GPU with its own 1GB of RAM, a full-sized keyboard with included number pad (yey!), and other powerful internal components and goodies I’ll describe more in depth in a few more paragraphs. The short and the long of it is that this N50V is feature-packed and is the perfect antidote for chronic netbook-icity.

The stylized chassis design is definitely a departure from staid, one-color laptops.

How I’ve forgotten the advantages of a regular sized laptop! With its large screen, everything simply fits, and the LEDs are energy-saving and quite bright, even with its gloss treatment and when exposed to moderate sunlight. The large canvas that is the chassis has more than enough space for the keyboard and a largish trackpad, as well as easy-to-actuate, though somewhat plasticky mouse buttons. There’s even a large grille near the hinge, which is actually the Altec Lansing speakers. Along one side of the N50V there is a power-in, LAN, VGA-out, HDMI, dual USB slots, antennae-out, FireWire-B, Express Card slot, and a 3-way card reader. Other switches and sockets scattered around he front and other side include an additional USB connector, the Wi-Fi on-off switch, audio ports, and a surprise addition: an E-SATA port front and center.

The downside of all these features is the weight, primarily – 2.95 kg is definitely a departure from the twirl-on-your-finger netbooks that I own. Regardless, this is a compromise most must make, and when its features versus weight, features usually win out at the end, especially if the weight isn’t too excessive, as is the case with the N50V.

The number pad could probably benefit from a little bit of plastic separating it from the main keyboard.

Moving on to the internals, the aforementioned 9650M GT is joined by a T9400, 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB of RAM, and a large 320GB hard drive. Needless to say, these big (and hot) components are not things you can find in smaller laptops. Tying up both the external and the internal of the N50V is the above average performance, as evidenced with the PCMark Vantage and 3DMark 06 tests run on this laptop. To whit, the PCMark Vantage total of 2991, while merely adequate considering the individual components, are backed up by the high average of the individual suites within the PCMark test – 3200 for the productivity suite, 4564 for the gaming suite. Further amazement awaited the testers once we ran 3DMark 06 – 3DMark Vantage would not run due to reasons I will discuss in a bit. A 4765 3DMark score greeted us, which is just right for a 9600 series videocard-equipped laptop, taking also into account the intrinsic rendering capabilities of the 9000 series – all in a laptop that isn’t even being marketed to the gaming crowd.

The left-most button switches the touch controls between multimedia and additional shortcuts.

Some irritants discovered over the course of testing this laptop: while the screen is a pretty looking thing, its limited 1280 x 800 resolution limits its applicability to some applications – witness this laptop’s inability to run 3DMark Vantage’s default tests. Another problem is the touch control’s hyper-sensitivity when being manipulated – these touch controls are found on top of the speaker grille and control volume, playback, adjustments and whatnot. The speakers, while branded Altec Lansing, still sound somewhat like tin cans, and on top of everything, the light champagne-gold / dark gray casing attracts the most fingerprints of any glossy device I’ve reviewed until now.

Altec Lansing sounds good, but the actual speakers doesn't sound like the usual Altec Lansing quality.    

If the previous paragraph makes it sound like I’m complaining, it’s easily overcome by considering a few more unique features found around the laptop: Bluetooth connectivity, Wi-Fi N compatibility, a fingerprint reader, Asus Express-On utility with its own hardware button for easy access, a webcam, and a passable two-and-a-half hour battery when running a DVD continuously. The Asus N50V is a consummate “regular” laptop, only this time the regular is elevated to the extraordinary with its huge dollop of features and very good usability. It’s up to personal preference whether this wealth of features is worth the weight it brings along. Watch out for our magazine review in our February issue! More pictures to follow.

Fingerprint reader between the two mouse buttons.

Front and center are the audio ports and an external SATA port.

Blu-ray points to this laptop's multimedia capabilities.