Design

We touched on this topic on the first page of this review, but in case you missed it, the W90Vp isn’t your traditional Republic of Gamers design. Gone are features like the gaming LEDs and styling found on the ASUS G50 and G70 series of notebooks.

This isn’t a new design direction for ASUS. Rather the notebook has been adapted from ASUS W90 series of multimedia notebooks, which are more understated designs focused on the media buff who wants to watch movies on the go with his laptop.


The system sports a brushed aluminum lid emblazoned with the ASUS logo in the center. The lid is latch-less, so you don’t have to press a button to open it. The latches securely hold the lid in place, but we wouldn’t classify them as firm: the lid quivers back and forth when the system is pushed and pulled.

Open the lid and you’ll find an edge-to-edge display, a first for ASUS. Here you’ll also see that the palm rest and the rest of the system base are built from black brushed aluminum.

This gives the system a higher quality look and feel (and also helps to reduce weight), although as a result the system is prone to collecting smudges and fingerprints. For added flair, ASUS even flanks the power and Express Gate buttons with fake leather (leatherette?). Fake leather on a gaming notebook? That’s definitely a first! This is another obvious sign of the notebook’s original intended market -- multimedia-focused consumers.


As a high-end notebook, the system is equipped with many of the features you’d expect to find on a laptop of this caliber. Touch-sensitive buttons are provided above the keyboard for turning on the webcam, muting sound, adjusting brightness, magnification, disabling the touchpad and switching power modes (standard, power saving, and overclocked). The buttons are lit up with blue LEDs, as are the power and Express Gate buttons.

Here you can also spot two of the system’s six Altec Lansing speakers, we’ll be discussing these gems in more depth a little later.


To the left of the keyboard ASUS provides additional touch-sensitive buttons for media playback (play/pause, fast-forward, rewind, etc) as well as volume control.


The system itself feels likes it’s been built for taking punishment. The phrase “built like a tank” definitely comes to mind. This is probably due in part to the system’s hefty weight, but the chassis itself does feel like it has been designed for durability. There’s very little keyboard flex, and all the hinges feel solid.

Ports

ASUS outfits the W90Vp with a generous number of ports. On the right side of the system ASUS includes three USB ports, an eSATA port, IEEE-1394 Firewire, an 8-in-1 memory card reader, Express Card slot, and an on/off switch for the Bluetooth/WiFi. Here you’ll also find the system’s optical drive. On the left side of the system ASUS includes an additional USB port, headphone and microphone jacks, and a Kensington lock.

Finally, out back ASUS provides HDMI and VGA outputs, and modem and Ethernet jacks.

Keyboard/Touchpad

ASUS equips the W90Vp with a full-size keyboard with numpad. Typing aficionados used to the clicky feel of old school keyboards will like the W90Vp keyboard. Keys provide nice tactile feedback and aren’t mushy like many laptop keyboards. The feel isn’t as clicky as a midrange desktop keyboard, but definitely provides more click-feel than other notebooks.

Our only gripe with the keyboard is that it isn’t backlit. Hopefully this is a feature ASUS can integrate on their gaming notebooks shortly.

Unfortunately, the touchpad ASUS uses with the W90Vp isn’t quite as good. The left and right buttons are tighter than a drum, and have very little travel. In fact it’s so bad they almost feel like an extension of the chassis itself, rather than functional buttons. When it comes to tactile feedback, these are among the worst left and right mouse buttons we’ve seen on a notebook, particularly one of this price range. In addition, to their glossy nature, the notebook’s buttons attract fingerprints easily.

The touchpad itself lacks support for multitouch gestures, and the button for scrolling takes practice to get it right.

Fortunately as a desktop replacement the W90Vp will most often be paired with an external USB mouse, otherwise the trackpad would be a bigger issue.