Product Reviews

Buying a budget laptop used to mean compromising on performance, but that's simply no longer the case. Models equipped with powerful dual core processors, generous hard disks and ample memory are now available for as little as £600. The Asus A8JR costs a little more at £700, but is the extra outlay really worthwhile?

The A8JR uses an Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 processor, which runs at 1.66GHz. This is easily fast enough for day-to-day tasks like surfing the internet and office applications. It's dual-core, so you can run optimised applications at impressive speeds and complete demanding tasks like video encoding quickly. There's 1GB of RAM supplied, which is sufficient for running Windows Vista smoothly. If you need to upgrade to 2GB later, there's an easily accessible spare memory slot available too.

Windows Vista Home Premium is installed as standard, and it takes up the best part of 10GB of hard disk space. Fortunately, there's plenty of room left over on the 160GB hard disk for storing big video files or an extensive music collection.

Image conscious

The 14.1in display has a 1280 x 800 native resolution. This is more than sufficient for most tasks and exactly the same resolution as you'd find on larger 15.4in screens, but it does begin to feel a touch cramped if you use lots of applications at once. Image quality is excellent though, and the Asus possesses one of the better laptop displays we've seen recently. Whites are clean and bright, with no unwanted coloured tint, and there's a good contrast range too. Only the screen's viewing angles were cause for mild disappointment,

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but it's no great cause for concern as you're unlikely to crowd people around such a small screen.

The display is powered by the new ATI Radeon Mobility X2300 chipset. This is the company's latest budget graphics chipset and it significantly outperforms the old X1300. In testing it scored 34% in our Call of Duty 2 benchmark, which makes it fast enough to run recent games, albeit at reduced detail and resolution settings, while it handled older games without so much as breaking a sweat. And it's also quite capable of running Windows Vista's Aero 3D Desktop.

Fully featured

The edges of the laptop have every port you're ever likely to need. There are five USB ports, so you shouldn't need a USB hub for extra peripherals. Then there's a FireWire port, memory card reader and mini-jack S/PDIF audio output. An Expresscard/54 slot is available for upgrades like 3G data cards and TV tuners. On the rear is a wide range of video outputs, including DVI, D-sub and TV-out. Above the display there's also a built-in webcam for online video chats, while a small microphone beside the keyboard picks up your voice. The built-in speakers are mounted just beneath the laptop on the angled front edge. Like most laptop speakers they aren't very loud, sound tinny and lack bass. So as ever, you'll need to invest in headphones or external speakers to fully appreciate your tunes.

The keyboard has generously-sized keys, but they do feel a bit spongy. The touchpad is neatly integrated into the casing though, and the buttons are moulded directly into the touchpad, with only the slightest ridge to divide them. Although the touchpad looks great and is big and accurate, the buttons don't give a distinct click when pressed.

The A8JR's simple and slender silver casing means it's better looking than the vast majority of budget laptops. As it only houses a 14.1in screen, it's smaller than the more common 15.4in screen laptops and weighs only 2.4kg, making it rather portable. It's a shame that such a portable laptop is hamstrung by disappointing battery life. It lasted just two hours in our light use test, so it isn't ideal for working on the go and it won't even make it through a DVD movie either.