Asus M70sa

Full review of Asus M70sa

Meet the next 17" DTR / multimedia system from Asus - the M70, which features the ATI HD3650 video card with 1gb of Video Ram, a Full HD display, and 1TB of hard drive space, and measuring in at 16.2" x 11.8" x 1.7" and weighing in just over 8 pounds with it's 9 cell battery. Get ready for a bit of a workout, this thing is large and in charge!

Opening up the glossy piano black LCD blessed by a 1.3mp webcam, you'll find the keyboard, which is very decent, with a tactile matte like finish, and full number pad, which helps with 10 key entry, or simple number entry. There is a 4 dedicated shortcut keys above the keyboard including the "instant fun" button, but it isn't really that instant, and only provides the media center in vista.

The Trackpad on the M70 looks the part, and then some. It features backlit hot touch area's that are enabled by tapping the function MODE area, then tapping the associated backlit area. Volume, backlighting, play, pause, next can be controlled by simply hitting the specific areas and is a nice feature to have as a multimedia notebook. The 5 speakers on the M70sa are well appointed Altec Lansing speakers with that funky dedicated woofer on the bottom of the unit. Chrome surrounds all except the most front speakers on the M70, and the sub helped fill in the lower-midtones

Features and Performance The M70 is definately not a simple mans machine, it features nearly every connection you will need, like: IR port, integrated TV tuner port, 4 USB 2.0 ports, mini-firewire port, SD card slot, Express Card slot, wireless on/off switch, audio in/out/spdif, and a Blu-Ray 2x drive sitting in the compartment to the left as well. But that's not it! The rear of the unit is actually pretty decked out as well with an AV input, HDMI output, E-Sata connector, RGB output, modem, Ethernet, and lockslot.

Gaming performance was decent, although not mind blowing - since the HD3650 uses slower DDR2 memory and slower clock speeds and finicky drivers - it did feel a little anemic playing on high settings on popular games, but otherwise for video, photo, or simple TV it performed very well.

The M70sa also comes with a carrying bag, USB mouse, HD tuner antenna, and that sweet accident protection program.

Asus M70sa Technical Specifications

• Processor Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T9300 (2.5GHz, 6MB L2, 800MHz FSB
• Memory 4GB
• Harddrive 1TB (Terabyte)
• OS Windows Vista Home Premium
• Weight 8.3 lbs
• Screen 17 inches
• Screen resolution 1920x1200
• Graphic Card ATI Radeon HD3650
• Battery Life 2 hours

Pros

• Included accessories
• Trackpad shortcuts
• 1 TB hard drive (2 500gb into 4 x 250gb partitions)
• Blu-Ray and HDMI output
• Battery Life for the performance

Cons

• Display Drivers need major work
• Does not utilize all of installed system memory
• Lots of Asus software to utilize everything