ASUS Z63A Whitebook Laptop Review

Overall Conclusions

The Z63a notebook is attractive, small (13 x 9.7 inches), thin (1.2 inches), light (about 5 pounds including AC adapter), and easy to use. It is almost silent and never felt hot sitting on my lap. The build quality is excellent, and it is easy and fun to assemble to your own specifications and intended usage. The screen display quality is far above average. I based that observation on a side-by-side, same-image comparison of the Z63a with 5 desktop LED monitors I have in the office. These range from 17 to 20-inch, with and without gloss-type color enhancement coatings. I also took the Z63a to my local mega-retailer (rhymes with ‘Fry’s’) and compared the Z63a side-by-side to every laptop on display. In my subjective judgment, the Z63a display quality was much better than most, and only exceeded by only one, a $2600 Fujitsu with a 17″ screen. The package includes a carrying case and a wireless/optical mouse. The drivers and utilities supplied with the notebook are up to date and useful.

The combination of IntelPro A-B-G wireless and PROSet software was stunning. The wireless performance was outstanding compared to my 2 other notebooks with built-in ?G? wireless and to add-in ?cardbus? G and A adapters from Netgear and Linksys. I have yet to drop a connection (used to happen once every 30 minutes) and the effective range is far superior in both A and G bands. The wireless performance can be configured across a wide range of characteristics, and is WPA-2 certified for bulletproof security. Hell, I have never even received a pop-up message ? the Intel wireless loads swiftly and silently on startup, and seamlessly switches connections, wireless bands (a-b-g), and security profiles when traveling.

The performance capabilities of the Centrino package are amazing. The ASUS Z63A is as fast as my overclocked Pentium-4 desktop in almost all computing tasks. The integrated graphics performed flawlessly in office tasks and DVD playback, and will run any games except for the most 3D-intensive recent issues. What?s more, the Z63A features an honest 3 to 4 hours of battery life, and for $85 can be configured with a secondary battery that will give up to 8 hours of performance. If that?s not ?power like a brick through a plate-glass window?, I don?t know what is.

I used to consider notebooks as a household appliance ? overpriced, slow, un-tweakable and uninteresting. My friends, I have seen The Future. Actually, The Future bitch-slapped me as if the Dell Dude wandered into the Bunny Ranch on ?2-for-1 Abuse Night?. Take that year-old notebook and give it to the first homeless person you see. For $1000, you can build your own notebook that you?ll take everywhere, and that will outperform anything costing half-again as much. So tell me now, pilgrim: Q?s your daddy?