ASUS Lamborghini VX1

Luxury cars. Every guy reading this review has likely dreamed of owning one at some point. Or every single day, like myself. Personally, I’d be content with a BMW M3, but that’s mild compared to the likes of Italian powerhouses Ferrari and Lamborghini. Since it’s just not practical for most people to contemplate owning one of these vehicles, ASUS has done us a favor and captured the spirit of Lamborghini and compressed it to the size of a notebook.

When you think of Lamborghini, there are a few things that come to mind. Performance, sexy curves and an obvious passion for accomplishing both. The same can be said about the VX1 laptop… it’s a powerhouse. Luckily for us, it only costs around 1% of an actual Lamborghini, so you will not need to sell your house to get one.

One thing that should be made clear, is that the VX1 is not meant to be a gaming laptop but rather one suited for multi-media. It has a beefy CPU, sufficient ram, and a large hard drive to keep your digital lifestyle going when you are on the road. Let’s take a hard look at the laptop itself.

The VX1 showed up in a huge cardboard box, and inside laid the actual product box and official laptop bag. I will get into the bag and other extras later in the review. The laptop has been updated since it’s release, so you will want to pay attention to the specs on the side of the box before purchasing.

Though lacking pictures, the inside of the box is divided into two parts. First, the laptop is snuggly placed in between two corrugated dividers to keep it perfectly still during shipment. There is also an additional box inside that contains all of the software, manuals and even a mouse.

Lamborghini’s are known for many things, but one thing that stands out is the bright yellow that’s often used as a base color. The laptop shares the same sense of style. There is also a jet black model as well.

The Lamborghini badge that I have become accustomed to, thanks to the Murcielago in my garage, is near identical on the laptop. When the notebook is in use, the logo will be in the proper alignment. So, the person sitting on the other side of the table will see it as it should be.

Of course this is a team effort, so the ASUS badge is located a on the bottom of the chassis.

On the front also, we have four status LEDs. You may ask why these are here, because when you are using the notebook, you will not see them. Perhaps it’s to give the laptop additional bling, or to let you know that it’s still churning away when you close the cover. Also here are non-operational air intakes.

On the first opening, you will have to remove a screen protector and also a cloth-like material from the keyboard. Simple, yet very effective ways of protecting such sensitive equipment during transportation.

It’s difficult to tell with a wide shot like this, but the entire front plate for the keyboard and other buttons has a brushed aluminum look. This is one of my favorite parts of the design… it looks very sharp.

Taking a close look at the touchpad, you can see the brushed look better. Like many other recent laptops, this touchpad can dual as a scroll wheel by double tapping the right side. I have personally never used this feature due to it’s clunkiness, but that’s not a problem with this specific notebook. Actually, I am not a fan of touchpads regardless, just because they don’t “feel” right. However, the touchpad on this laptop is one of the better ones I’ve used, but is not perfect.

Along each side of this touchpad, are a slew of stickers. Within these, is one for the ZBD, or Zero Bright Dot warranty. If you buy the VX1 and it has a single dead pixel, you can return it for a new one without a single hassle. There is another sticker here that notes all of the systems innards, and then of course we have the obligatory Centrino, Windows and GeForce sticker.

I hate stickers on notebooks. Why they are there at all… just makes no sense to me. If you are the one who purchased the notebook, chances are good that you know what’s on the inside. If you don’t, then those stickers are not going to tell you anything. The ZBD sticker is huge and after 30 days of owning the notebook, it’s completely defunct. So what’s the point?