However, the VX1's battery life is quite impressive, with no less than 3h 25m in MobileMark 2005's battery test. The DVD playback test resulted in one minute short of three hours, so you should be able to watch a full-length movie on the VX1 without a problem.

The Core Duo processor means that there's plenty of processing power and 2GB of memory helps here as well as you can see from the performance numbers. However, a 3DMark05 result of a mere 2,246 shows that the GeForce Go 7400 VX just isn't powerful enough for serious gaming.

But the final insult really is the price tag. The VX1 will set you back around £1,679, which can hardly be considered cheap, especially in the era of sub-£500 machines. It's only £20 cheaper than Acer's Ferrari 5000 and offers a slightly better battery life, but it proved slower than the rival machine in every test bar PCMark 05's CPU benchmark. And the Acer comes with far more bundled goodies.

Saying that, the VX1 isn't a terrible laptop. Had it been rather less expensive and without the high-end pitch inherent in the the Lamborghini branding. Core 2 Duo models are in the pipeline, but even at the same price, they won't make this a must-have notebook.

Verdict

The Lamborghini brand stands for luxury, speed and performance, but price aside, the Asus VX1 fails to deliver on the promise. It's not a bad machine, but neither is it the laptop equivalent of its famous namesake. ®