ASUS is probably the most well known for their motherboards and netbooks. So when they came out with the very large N90Sv 18″ multimedia laptop I was curious about how it would fit in with the rest of their products. When ASUS asked me to review the N90Sv I jumped at the chance to check it out.

Features

• 18.4 Full HD (1920×1080) Color-Shine (Glare-type) screen
• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 130M, with 1GB VRAM
• Choice of single or dual hard drives
• Integrated 802.11 b/g/n
• 8 in 1 card reader
• 1.3 Mega Pixel web camera

The biggest benefit of a large laptop is a large screen. The 18.4″ screen on the N90Sv has a native resolution of 1920×1080 which allows it to display a full 1080p movie without any problems. My biggest complaint is that the screen is glossy. I have never liked glossy screens because of the nasty glare they have and how distracting it can be.

The Core 2 Duo processor and the GeForce GT130m graphics chip are what powers the N90Sv. The CPU and GPU are the heart of any system and from the specs they look fairly good.

A very unique feature is that this laptop has two hard drives. This is the only laptop that I have tested that has had more than one hard drive. Since laptop hard drives are notoriously small, having two hard drives certainly expands the possibilities for internal storage space.

As with most laptops these days, this one comes with the ability to connect to all the most popular wireless networks.

The card reader is capable of reading all the most popular media formats including: SD, MMC, MS, MS-Pro, mini SD w/ adapter, MS-Duo, MS-Pro Duo via adapter

The last feature I will mention here is the built-in web camera. The N90Sv includes a 1.3 Mega Pixel camera above the screen. This is not the highest resolution camera that I have seen in a laptop, however, it should be good enough for chatting. To the right of the camera is a single microphone.

Design

When I first saw just how big this laptop really is I was taken back. I was not prepared for the shear size of the laptop.

The outside is fairly simple looking. The top has the ASUS logo, with a swirl design, but it is hard to see in pictures.

Top

The left side has the SD card slot and the Blu-Ray drive.

Left

The right side has an Express Card slot, a wireless on/off switch, dual headphone jacks, a microphone jack, and two USB ports.

Right

The back has another two USB ports, an HDMI and VGA plug, and a network port.

Back

If you flip over the N90Sv you will see that there are two access panels. The first and biggest one covers the CPU, memory, and a hard drive. The second panel covers the second hard drive.

Bottom Open

When I opened it up for the first time I really got an idea of just how big it is. You see, not only does the N90Sv have (what looks like) a full size keyboard, but it also has a separate number pad. Not only that, but to the left of the keyboard ASUS has reserved a large space for several buttons.

Keyboard

Controls

The top button turns on the laptop in Express mode, which allows quick boot up and use of only a few built-in programs. Express Gate is Asus’ answer to the long boot times that Windows Vista is well know for. If you need quick access to your E-mail, Skype, or a few other programs, Express Gate is the answer.

Skype

Chat

Photo Manager

The next button switches through the ASUS Splendid modes. These modes include Normal, Gamma, Vivid, Theater, and Soft. There is one additional mode called my profile, but it can only be accessed by launching the Splendid Utility. My profile mode allows you to configure your own settings.

Normal

Gamma

Vivid

The third button turns the touchpad on and off.

Touchpad Enabled

Touchpad Disabled

The last button switches between the many different Power4Gear modes. The Power4Gear modes include Entertainment, Quiet Office, Battery Saving, and High Performance.

Entertainment

Quiet Office

Battery Saving

Finally, below all those buttons is the volume wheel with a mute button in the center.

Volumn Up

Volumn Down

Mute

The touchpad below the keyboard is fairly standard, except for the button. I say button (in the singular) because instead of two buttons there is one large button, however the left side of the button does a left click and the right side does a right click.

TouchPad

Above the keyboard is the speaker bar and on the far right is the power button.

Above the screen is a 1.3 Mega Pixel web camera and to the right of that is a small hole which is the microphone. To the left of the camera is a green power light and whenever the camera is on it lights up.

As you probably have already guessed this laptop is not designed to be very portable. Because of its size and weight the target market for the N90Sv is people that are living in small apartments and dorm rooms and they don’t have room for a large TV or media center. Because of this, I think the N90Sv would benefit from a built-in IR port and a remote control. It may even be nice if it had a built in TV tuner or cable card capabilities.

Performance

So now we move on to the testing portion of the review. Here are the specs for the system that I was given:

• Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64 bit)
• 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9550 (1066MHz FSB, 6MB L2 Cache)
• Chipset: SiS 671DX+968
• 4GB PC2-6400 RAM (2GB x 2GB)
• 2 x 500GB Seagate 5400rpm
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 130M 1GB GDDR2 VRAM
• 18.4″ 1080P HD FHD LCD 1920×1080 (Glossy)
• Optical Drive: BD-ROM + DVDRW+/-
• Wireless: Atheros AR928x B/G/N Wifi and Bluetooth 2.0
• 8-cell 14.8V 4.4Ah 62Wh battery
• Dimensions: 18.4″ x 12.4″ x 1.8″
• Weight: 9lbs 8.3oz
• Warranty: 2-year global, 1-year accidental damage
• Price as configured: $1,799

According to the specs it looks like a fairly powerful system. I expect the N90Sv to perform fairly well in the performance tests.

The first test is 3DMark Vantage, this test puts the graphics chip and CPU through several 3D and gaming related tests. Because of the specs above I expected to get a middle of the road score. So when I saw the score of 1699 I was a little disappointed. I was hoping for a lot more from a laptop this size. To be fair to ASUS this is a multimedia machine, not a gaming machine.

3DMark Vantage

The next test is PCMark Vantage, this test again tests the computer but instead of focusing on 3D and graphics it focuses on things like photo manipulation and movie playing. Because of this I expected the computer to do slightly better than before. The PCMark score of 3646 is quite a bit better, and as you can see from the image it is a lot closer to the center of the pack.

PCMark Vantage

For my final test I tested the battery life on the N90Sv. Even with the 8-cell battery I really don’t expect the battery to last very long because of how large it is and because it has two hard drives. I used MobileMark to test the battery life and when it finished it gave me a time of 124 minutes. This isn’t too bad, but it is just barely long enough to watch a full length movie. This just reiterates the fact that this is not intended to be a portable machine. I had the screen brightness at about half, so you could probably squeeze a bit more out of it by setting it lower.

MobileMark

Conclusion

After all is said and done I think this fits nicely into its niche, which is a non portable, non gaming, multimedia laptop. With the addition of a built-in tuner, IR port, and a remote control it would almost be perfect. I say almost because the price tag is a bit high. With a retail price of $1799 it may be a bit out of reach for the target market I mentioned above. In fact you could get a much more powerful nice desktop for that price, in fact I recently built a new desktop computer and it only cost me $1450. However, nobody pays retail and it is fairly easy to find this laptop for quite a bit less. With just a few minutes of searching on Amazon I was able to find this laptop (with smaller hard drives) for $1399, and an upgraded model (faster CPU and hard drives) for $1633.

If you are in the market for a really large multimedia laptop, and you have $1399 or more to burn, you might want to check out the ASUS N90Sv.