ASUS Laptop A8 Series A8JP-4S029M Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 (2.00 GHz) 1 GB Memory 120 GB HDD ATI Mobility Radeon X1700 14.0" Windows XP Media Center

Pros: The price. A comparable Dell system would be $2000+ This thing is the best balance of portable and powerful you could hope to find. The size is just right, not ultraportable but not too big. It's nice and light too. And the WXGA+ screen is very hard to find in a laptop priced this low. Full size keyboard makes typing very easy. The ATI X1700 video card is very capable when paired with this system - I ran Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142 on it at high settings without a hitch... high FPS count. And on top of that, while the side exhaust was hot, the laptop itself stayed cool! Comes with a 2 year parts and labor warranty. The extras are nice... a decent case, and a decent mouse. Windows CD is included, which is nice because I hate dealing with recovery partitions. Excellent laptop for the price.

Cons: While I can't stress enough how happy I am with this laptop, nothing in this world is perfect, so here's the downside: -Battery life: only lasts about 2-2.5 hours. -Screen: Bright, crisp and beautiful - but the viewing angle isn't great. -Keyboard: full size is nice, but the row of keys bordering the outside of the keyboard's right side is annoying because I usually automatically go there for the backspace key (which is just inside of that outer row)... and like everyone's mentioned, the function key is in the bottom left corner, with the ctrl key next to it. Irritating. And then the windows key is right next to the smallish ctrl key, meaning I hit it by mistake sometimes when gaming. Also irritating. -Touchpad: looks cool being flush with the rest of the laptop, and with it's integrated buttons... but I'd rather have a pad where I can really feel the outer borders. Right now I tend to hit it with my palm when I'm typing, which makes my cursor move around. Distinct buttons

Overall Review: Ran out of space... continuing here. Also, while built well, the chassis does seem a bit flexible, so this isn't a beater... treat with care, at least somewhat. And the outside tends to scratch easily. Other downside: 1GB of RAM, 2GB max. This is the ONLY downside in the specs. It runs great now but I'm still planning on buying 2GB of RAM and selling my current sticks. Overall though, this laptop is GREAT, with an amazing price and specs and great extras. Amazing capabilities and a really great balance of portability and performance. I bought it and don't regret it.

Pros: This thing is brutal. It takes on everything I have thrown at it without a flinch. Plays CS Source, BF2 and FEAR on max settings. It is fast but it still runs quiet. Excellent build quality and light weight. Definatly ninja material. Keyboard has a great feel. Has many USB ports. Bluetooth is a plus. Webcam is also works well in good lighting. This is a serious laptop that is great for gaming, travel and whatever you need to use a laptop for. It will take care of business. The price is a steal. Asus is going to become a threat to the rest of the laptop manufactures. This is an impressive laptop. Vista makes it even better.

Cons: Screen could be a little better but is not a problem by any means. Mouse pad button should be a split design and easier to press down but thats what double tapping is for. Had a few issues with mouse sensitivity settings not staying. Also the computer would not stay in standby and hibernation. It would awake on its own a few minutes after. Im sure there is a fix for that though. Overall there is nothing wrong with this laptop. I would say it's flawless in my opinion.

Overall Review: I installed 2GB of OCZ Ram a few days after I recieved the laptop. Then I updated BIOS to 1.8 Then Vista arrived so I did a clean install and everything loaded up without a problem. Everything works great, even better than it did on XP. I would recommend a Vista clean install. It cleaned things up and it boots and runs even faster. I was happy with the system when I got it and now Im blow away. Vista put this computers potential to use. Just do it and buy it, overnight this badboy. It's worth it.

Pros: Having dual cores allows multiple tasks to be completed very well. While have an external 19" LCD monitor attached, I have been very pleased with the pictures of both screens running in unison. I have worked on graphics with the main screen and watched movies on the 19". Like I said earlier, runs flawlessly. the 5 USB ports come in hand and I have utilized all of them. This laptop has satisfied all of my computing needs. Don't wait and THINK about purchasing this laptop. Just DO IT! I have performed numerous searches for notebooks in this price range and nothing out there can compete.

Cons: This notebook looks very plain and is not as sleek as some of the other notebooks on their product line. My previous notebook was an Asus W3A, and I loved the design, especially the W3J. This is solely my opinion and to many others this design is innovated. Other than physical looks, this laptop is still top ranked for the price range.

Overall Review: You may do your own research, but I know this notebook will not disappoint you. With a 256MB ATI X1700 dedicated video card, you will be doing more than most notebooks on the market can do at this price range.

Pros: Great graphics handling for a laptop. Beautiful screen. Sexy aesthetic design. Can act as a true desktop replacement. Great keyboard feel. 5 USB ports. Terrific power mgmt. Some truly useful software. The Core 2 Duo T7200 is a champion. Almost silent operation.

Cons: 2GB ram max. Terrible DVD drive button-hard to eject blindly. No hard volume controls. Subpar sound--No EAX support. Strange reversal of FN and Ctrl btns. Lots of bloatware. Unusual factory partitioning of HDD--split in half. The worst designed touchpad I have ever used. The video card is a bit weaker than I expected but still a champ. Exaust/right side gets rather hot during heavy gaming or gpu/cpu intensive apps.-Only 1 exaust port. Terrible speakers but, alas, it is a laptop. Poor video quality of VGA camera.

Overall Review: I must admit, this is one great, high quality piece of technology. The price point is just incredible. A few complaints: The video card is not a powerful as some users have suggested. It will play most games on highest or MED/High settings, but NOT at the native resolution of 1440x900. Do I need to play games at that rez on a 14 inch screen? Heck no! I maxed out at 2GB ram before I even turned it on for the first time-worked great. Try to find a comparable gaming laptop for this price--Good luck! Bottom line?--I am truly happy about this purchase and am 100% confident that I made the right decision.

Pros: Wonderful laptop. I love the high resolution, clear, glossy screen. The video card is amazing - 3D mark 2005 runs well on it, as does Doom 3 and Half Life 2. Oblivion kinda ran it down though. The mouse and laptop bag are nice additions, as well as an ACTUAL Windows XP MCE DVD, rather than just a recovery partition (which it also has). The laptop is quiet and has a nice, although plain keyboard. I was pleasantly surprised that the notebook came with built in Bluetooth 2.0 EDR. The DVD drive is awesome - it does every format under the sun, including DVD-RAM and DL-R discs. It even does Lightscribe, which is a gimmick IMO compared to Epson inkjet printing, but still neat.

Cons: Weak built in speakers. The trackpad is good, but does not have a "smooth" surface, which makes use of it difficult to use. I just use a Bluetooth mouse anyway. The scroll part of the track pad also doesn't seem to respond well. The shape of the DVD bezel piece and the location of the DVD drive button could be thought up better. The biggest complaint however is the initial install of how the OS and hard drive partitioning is done. This drive is split into 3 partitions - one recovery and two 55 ish gigabyte FAT 32 partitions. I fail to see the point of using Fat 32, as it is insecure, bloated and inefficient. I could see the point of having a couple NTFS partitions - one for Vista and one for XP MCE. Norton Bloatware is installed from the factory. A decent amount of questionable software (crapware) is also installed by default.

Overall Review: Most "average" customers won't care or know about the partition issue. This will create major issues though if they decide to do video editing, ISO dumping or work with large files. I don't understand why ASUS chose to go this route with the HDD partitioning...

Pros: Well built, quick, and very reliable for anyone. As for the price, about two grand to any other model with the specs on this thing. This thing can even go to a different display with a 1440x900 dvi output. Phenomonal product for anyone on the go! Comes with Vista free! Only few extra add-ons/advertisements that comes with it. Sleek, but professional look.

Cons: Gamers will HAVE TO get used to the FN and Ctrl keys being switched. To game, best to be plugged in and charging for best performance. Quite a few extra programs running in the background but can always be fixed with msconfig with startup options. Sound will get a bit distorted when on max volume. Somewhat low battery life - ABOUT 2 hours.

Overall Review: Great machine, portable, clean look. For the price, you cannot find anything better anywhere else. 2ghz duo, 120gb, 1gb RAM, DVD RW w/lightscribe, 256 to 512 Hypermemory VRAM graphics! For less than 2K. You will not be dissapointed

Pros: Excellent laptop, unbeatable price! ASUS did a fantastic job with this laptop. Performance is remarkable. A bit of bloatware is on it, but not much. Nice keyboard, although I personally don't like the placement of the Fn and Ctrl keys on the left. I could play Quake4 at 1024x768 with excellent performance. Office and Multimedia applications work really well. Large screen real-estate provides a great browsing experience. I use it to connect to work all the time and all graphics are rendered seamlessly. ATI X1700 is very good! Decent ASUS bag and mouse. Gigabit LAN! DVI and S-Video Out!

Cons: WinXP Media Center Edition Constantly on fan, even when laptop is idle, although the decibel level for the fan is pretty low. Less than great mouse-pad. Glare-type screen is quite reflective in mid-high lighted environments. Speaker volume is a bit low. Instant-on doesn't work as mentioned. DVD drive is a bit noisy (I guess I am picky!)

Overall Review: Price/Performance is unmatched for the number of features this puppy has

Pros: ***1. Cheap compared to the competition ***2. Decent audio with not a lot of interference. ***3. It is s a notebook *and* can play desktop games. 4. Keystroke feels and sounds good.

Cons: ***1. Screen is good, not great. Nice clarity, but it gets washed out looking from off-angles. ***2. ExpressCard only and no PCMCIA. Can't use existing PCMCIA cards. I use wireless data from Cingular ***3. CTRL & Fn button awkwardly switched

Overall Review: I was looking for the cheapest notebook that can play World of Warcraft decently, and this fit the bill perfectly. I'm averaging 30fps with everything maxed out. The big bummer is the lack of a PCMCIA slot which means for me, I couldn't use my existing wireless card and had to special order an unlocked ExpressCard card since Cingular doesn't carry one. The fan is always on, but it's barely noticable. The included bag isn't as junky as I thought it would be, and I'm not planning on getting a different bag for it, although I would have preferred it to be a little firmer (it's kinda soft).