In the article you said the processor can be upgraded but for the 1GHz ULV version the processor is solder on to the board so it can not be upgraded. If you get the Asus S5200N which is the normal Pentium M you can change the processor.

Those stickers are awful! Why put a large "2 years warranty" sticker on a otherwise pretty notebook?

so this notebook's competitor is X40 and not Sony TR2 ?

how are they different in size? . sony was able to put optical drive inside the chasis..

White may be pretty - but for how long? My guess is that unless you have a mania for cleanness this baby will look pretty unappetizing in a very short time...

I own an asus s5ne. It works great, is ultra light and comes with all the trimmings.
The stickers come off easily - they are indeed stupid. Packaging is excellent and complete. Tha bag is OK but clunky and only modestly protective, the smaller cover is excellent. (I plan to get a small mac carrying case.) There is a full recovery set hidden on the HDD - but it eats most of a GB and recoveru disks for Win XP Home. The asus is larger than the TR2 but thinner. They seem to weigh about the same but the asus has a larger display (4:3 ratio). Battery life is good if you ramp down the speed. Plays dvd's fine - on its own LCD and a monitor with the built in graphics. I don't think it shows dirt or dust andy more than black or gray - clearly a matter of preference. Hot on the lap directly. But - a breeze to carry and real slick.

As he first comment pointed out the 1GHz ULV P-M is soldered to the motherboard for this particular model so no CPU upgrade is possible. I wonder though, about the mini-pci slot, is it accessible at all? An upgrade to 802.11g would be awfully nice now that the Intel 2200BG part is becoming available.

I would rather have a 12" g4 iBook - same size, built in drive, longer battery life, discrete RADEON 9200, bluetooth, built to last (used in schools), and you can have Unix/Linux dual boot with Windoze in emulation.

re: iBook - oh yeah, and the Apple comes with 802.11g too...

this thing ain't cheap either - $1400-1500

check this:
iBook G4
• 256MB DDR266 SDRAM (128MB built-in & 128MB SO-DIMM)
• 30GB Ultra ATA drive
• Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
• AirPort Extreme Card
• Bluetooth Module
• Keyboard/Mac OS X - U.S. English
• 12-inch TFT XGA display
• 800MHz PowerPC G4
• ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 w/ 32MB DDR video memory

Subtotal $1,248.00

I gotta love this comment:

"There are not a lot of white notebooks on the market, the only brand I can remember instantly is Apple, but they are pretty expensive..."

Given the fact that the iBook (Apple's white laptops) are almost across the board cheaper than the laptop being reviewed, it's really quite a comment to say that Apple's white laptops are "pretty expensive".

it is definitely influenced by the look of Apple's laptops... the the iBook is a good value, and it's capable of running Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows. the price is close to the entry-level 12" PowerBook as well - and with a government/education discount, the PowerBook would actually be cheaper than this machine.

still, it's a nice-looking notebook, and running Windows natively is a lot easier than using (and buying) Virtual PC. on the other hand, with you'll have to carry around an optical drive... yuck.

wow. so we've trashed this notebook for having "ugly stickers" ... cause those obviously won't come off. and obviously it can't compare to the sony TR series ... despite having a substantially larger screen and $350 lower price tag. but most importantly ... have all you iBook worshippers lost your minds?! the asus weighs 2 pounds less than the vaunted iBook! if you don't mind lugging 5 pounds, plus case, plus charger, plus accessories, then go for the Mac lifestyle. If you like travelling light, the asus S5ne is a great option. And if you MUST have the optical drive built in, check out the asus M5ne.

I just bought an ASUS S5NE and have been trying it out for the last week or so. Before this, I did an extensive amount of research on various laptops and finally decided on the S5NE (even despite the huge discount on an IBM T41 through my business school).

I have to say that I have been blown away by how great of a computer it is - the performance is great (even with only 256MB), the looks are amazing (people ask about it as soon as they see it), it's very, very light, and also, the added extras are really nice. I bought the extra battery and got around 8 hours of charge - the battery lasted an entire drive from LA to San Francisco and had plenty of charge left.

I would highly recommend this computer to anyone!

In what country the S5NE can be bought. I live in the Netherlands!

The Sharp MM20 gives you almost the same things. 200 dollars cheaper too. But then you get a lot more freebies with asus such as mouse, DVD/RW external cd drive, bag, and a firewire port.

The sharp also comes with 512 mb built in instead of asus' 256.
But it's only 1gigahertz compared to Asus' 1.5 gigahertz and it has only 20 gigabytes.

Still, an ultra thin for 1300 dollars isnt too bad. I wouldnt run HL or unreal on any of these computers though. The integrated graphics chip on both systems cant handle it.