Recent Asus notebooks have left us impressed; they look much better than
previous generations and offer good value for money. The F3F keeps up the good
work in a number of ways.
Under the lid is an Intel T2050 (1.6GHz) Centrino Duo processor and 1GB of
Ram. There may be faster processors in this roundup, but that extra memory
helped the F3F to achieve a
Sysmark
score of 194 and a PC Mark of 2881. These scores may sound puny
when compared with Core 2 Duo processors, but compared with most others in this
group test, the Asus proves its worth.
Its main selling point, however, is incredible battery life. Asus has
equipped the F3F with a 7,200mAh battery pack – bigger than anything else in the
group. It enabled the F3F to run for more than six-and-a-half hours while
performing general computing tasks – more than twice the time managed by its
closest rival – the MV – and 408 minutes when playing DVDs.
The 80GB hard disk is standard fare for a notebook at this price, and the F3F
also carries a Vista Capable sticker, which means there should be no upgrade
problems when the new operating system arrives.
Other notable features include a multiformat DVD writer, a 15.4in bright
widescreen display, a 1.3 megapixel webcam built into the lid, a good-size track
pad with a scroll slider and integrated Bluetooth V2.0+EDR, which can reach
transfer rates of 3Mbits/sec.
The graphics aren’t really up to much, though, thanks to the choice of
Intel’s integrated 945 chipset, but overall the F3F is well designed, looks good
and, at 3.05kg, it’s relatively portable too.
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