X-bit labs

ASUS X51R Notebook Review: Excellent Budget Solution (page 2)

Category: Mobile

by Alexander Britvin

[ 11/11/2007 | 09:17 AM ]

Design and Ergonomics

You can easily guess the manufacturer at a first glance at the X51R as shows unmistakable traits of an ASUS product. The lid is beveled along the perimeter to make the notebook slimmer visually. The weight and size indeed surpass your expectations: 2.8 kilos and 365x264x36 millimeters. These are quite standard parameters of a 15.4” notebook. There is a thin silver line at the top of the notebook’s body, but the bottom is all black.

The gray logo of the manufacturer is placed in the middle of the lid. It doesn’t look durable. We guess it is likely to wear off soon.

The display lock is placed at the front of the lid. It is designed like a slider. To the left of it there is an IrDA port.

Below the lock you can see system indicators that are visible even when the lid is closed (from left to right):

• Standby indicator (it doesn’t shine when the notebook is turned off or in sleep mode)
• Battery charge indicator (alight when the battery is being recharged; off when the battery is charged or fully discharged; blinking when the battery charge is below 10% and the notebook is not connected to the mains)
• Storage indicator (it shows that a storage device is being accessed)
• Wireless

The battery indicator doesn’t stand out visually among others, being green like the rest of the indicators. The Wireless indicator is useless in our notebook as it doesn’t have WLAN or Bluetooth interfaces.

Painted a charcoal color, the display hinge is raised above the notebook’s bottom. It consists of three elements like in the A6 series. This mechanism allows unfolding the X51R by an angle of nearly 180 degrees.