X-bit labs

Dual-Core Budget Platform: Asus A6Rp Notebook Review (page 5)

Category: Mobile

by Alexander Britvin

[ 06/07/2007 | 09:44 AM ]

The left side of the notebook is occupied by an optical drive with an activity indicator, eject button and emergency ejection hole.

The right panel is much more populated (from left to right):

• PC Card slot (for one PC card of Type I or II) with eject button
• 4-in-1 card-reader (supports Memory Stick/Memory Stick Pro/MultiMedia Card/Secure Digital)

• IrDA port
• Headphones socket
• Microphone input
• Audio input
• LAN port (RJ-45)
• Modem port (RJ-11)

The headphones socket is not combined with a digital S/PDIF output and the TV output (S-Video) is missing.

The following can be found on the notebook’s rear panel:

• Four USB 2.0 ports
• LPT port (instead of DVI-D)
• 15-pin D-Sub port for an external monitor
• Power connector
• Kensington security slot

The USB 2.0 ports are still too densely placed like in the rest of the A6 series, which makes it inconvenient to use all of them at the same time (for details on the A6 series see our article called ASUS A6Jc Notebook: New Reincarnation of the Popular Family).

The elongated 4400mAh battery is hidden in the bottom near the user, so the area under your hands won’t get hot at work.

The following is located on the notebook’s bottom: covers of memory, WLAN module, HDD and CPU compartments, a battery module with two locks, an emergency shutdown or reset hole, a holder for your personal card, two stereo speakers, and stickers with the model info and the OS serial number.

You control the sound volume using the Fn key together with F10, F11 and F12. This is indicated on the screen as follows:

There are two slots in the memory compartment, one of which is occupied by a 512MB module. The other is free, giving you an upgrade opportunity.