ASUS N90Sv-X1 18.4-inch Desktop Replacement Laptop PC

Jul 15 2009 - The ASUS N90Sv-X1 is certainly a desktop replacement laptop because of its large 18.4-inch display and 9.3 pound weight but it also offers solid performance for its $1400 price tag. The display is one of the best features of the laptop with its very bright and colorful output. For those looking for a laptop to be taken around periodically but a bit more performance, the N90Sv-X1 offers a good balance but you do have to live with fewer ports and a case that will frequently need cleaning.

Jul 15 2009 - ASUS tried to balance performance and price with the N90Sv-X1 and for the most part they have done a good job. The performance is handled by a combination of several components including an Intel Core 2 Duo T9550 dual core processor, 4GB of memory and a high speed 320GB drive spinning at 7200rpm. It isn't quite as fast as it could be though. It would have been nice to see ASUS use DDR3 for an additional performance boost but the DDR2 still does well and helps keep costs down.

The graphics are one of the highlights of the N90Sv-X1. With the very large 18.4-inch display, this isn't a small system. Thankfully the display is running at the very high 1920x1080 resolution that gives it plenty of workspace. The display is quite bright and very colorful making it a good choice for those looking to use it for graphics work. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 130M graphics come with 1GB of memory but this is really overkill as the 3D performance is good but not great. Some games will run at 1920x1080 but most will have to run at a lower 1680x1050 resolution.

One thing that may bother a number of users is the glossy exterior plastic casing. While this gives it a very nice look when it is first removed from the box, this glossy exterior also resides on the case around the keyboard including the wrist support regions. This means that the case will easily show fingerprints and smudges that will require frequent cleaning if you want to maintain the high gloss finish.

The biggest issue with the N90Sv-X1 though is the lack of ports. With a system this large, one would expect it to have a wide range of peripheral ports. For some reason, ASUS has elected not to include a FireWire port. While there aren't a huge number of peripherals that use this interface, it is something that doesn't require much from the company to support.