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Asus A8JsWith Intel's Core 2 Duo processor, the Asus A8Js really performs. Price:
$1,499
by Jamie Bsales 
The Asus A8Js is a sleek thin-and-light machine with a focus on gaming and multimedia. At $1,499, you're not likely to find a lower-priced notebook with this much 3D-graphics power.
The silver-and-black chassis weighs 5.2 pounds, and is comfortable in the hand thanks to the system's rounded edges. Flip the lid and you'll find a sharp-looking silver keyboard deck with a full-sized black keyboard. The keyboard is comfortable to use, though the glossy touchpad takes some getting used to. We were surprised to see no dedicated volume (you can use Fn + F11/F12) or multimedia buttons. The 14.1-inch glossy widescreen panel delivers deep, rich colors (though watch out for glare in typical office lighting conditions). As with other notebook LCDs, the panel's viewing angle is fine from side to side, but poor from above. The 1440 x 900-pixel resolution means increased screen real estate, but also rather small fonts in applications at default settings. The A8Js delivers plenty of features for the price, including a built-in webcam, a 100GB hard drive, a dual-layer multiformat DVD burner, 2GB of RAM, and both 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0. The 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7200 processor delivered good productivity test results with a MobileMark05 score of 227. More impressive is the whopping 9,754 on 3DMark03, thanks to the 512MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7700 graphics engine, making the A8Js an affordable gaming portable in addition to a solid workaday PC. The tradeoff for this graphics power is short battery life, as the system lasted just 2 hours and 36 minutes. If you can live with limited tech support hours (19 hours weekdays and 9.5 hours weekends), the Asus A8Js delivers the most muscle per pound of any 14.1-inch notebook. Compare Prices | Asus A8Js Specifications Featured Site Sponsors
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