ASUS Lamborghini VX3 Defines Mobile Luxury

I doubt it’s a secret to a single person reading this that small notebooks are in, and large notebooks are for the workstation crowd, or those who don’t have a desktop. The sheer ease of netbooks or light notebooks make them an ideal choice for those on the go often, and if you can find one with great battery-life, then carrying along a notebook is more of a joy than a chore.

Up to now though, many of these lighter notebooks (not netbooks) that have been worth a look start out at $1,500, which is rather pricey for something so under-powered and small, but again, it’s hard to beat the great form-factor. Instead of getting less-expensive though, how about going in the absolute opposite direction? How does $3,100 for a 12.1″ sound?

We’re of course talking about the ASUS Lamborghini VX3 notebook, one that offers a fast processor, 4GB of RAM, a GeForce GPU (yes, they do apparently exist in such small notebooks), 320GB hard drive and two batteries – one 3-cell and one 9-cell. So is the VX3 worth the cash? If you have to ask, the notebook is not meant for you. That’s what makes it exclusive, just like the cars it’s been modeled after.

Getting past the VX3’s premium nature, the system’s battery life is another issue. The 3-cell battery may mount flush, but with less than an hour of DVD playback time, the VX3 really isn’t all that portable without its portly 9-cell unit. And the 9-cell battery sticks out the back quite a bit, ruining the VX3’s lovely lines and making it impossible for the system to sit in its fancy box. With seemingly so much invested in the VX3’s design, its battery seems like an afterthought.