To make good use of the screen, the VX5 has a Blu-ray drive as standard, so can play BD movies without problem. Even in fast-action sequences of the movies we tried, it showed no signs of jitter, though some of the PC Mark Vantage video-over-video sequences caused breaks in the audio. You wouldn’t hit this in normal playback, though.

The bonnet/lid louvres break up more conventional lines

Audio isn’t bad, as mobile sound goes. The two speakers positioned behind the keyboard give a reasonably clear treble and mid-range but, as usual, bass is well under-emphasised. The suspicious-looking circular grille on the underside of the machine is supposed to be a bass speaker, but makes little difference that we could detect.

The machine includes a Realtek sound chip and, as always, much better sound is available through headphones or a decent set of external speakers. Standard headphone, mic and line out jacks are fitted in front of the Blu-ray drive.

The keyboard – looking vaguely like a set of Travel Scrabble tiles, but without the scores – is backlit with white LEDs. The keys have a reasonably positive feel and are better supported in the body of the VX5 than in some other Asus machines that share the same keyboard but with limited travel. The lighting of both screen and keyboard is controlled automatically, so it dims as the ambient light drops. The ultra-smooth touchpad is sensitive and has the usual scroll bar down the right-hand side, but no gesture support.

Moving round the edges of the VX5 shows a good range of connections. As well as four USB 2 sockets, distributed on three sides, there’s a single Firewire, an eSATA, external VGA and HDMI. At the back is a Gigabit Ethernet socket and on the left is an antenna socket, which doesn’t do anything unless you fit the optional TV and radio tuner card.

Well you wouldn’t want to rest your wrists on cheap plastic, would you?

The machine has both 802.11n wireless and Bluetooth and each can be switched on and off independently, to conserve power using a slide switch under the front lip. Both PC Express and twin-card slots are provided, with the twin-card slot supporting SD and Memory Stick in several varieties.

Next page: Test Results