'notebook' ??

I would not call a 16 inch screen machine a notebook, at that size it's a fricken laptop!

Why do these netbook/notebook creators keep increasing the screensize of their products? 8.9" is perfectly fine for me and a lot of others, yet they all want to sell me 10" or bigger screens now. Don't cite the old "oh but the keyboard is too small" bollocks, the keyboard on this Eee is perfectly good enough for me to be able to touchtype on - it's 'fullsize' keyboards I have trouble with now because you have to move your fingers so far in all 3 axis to touchtype.

So what are you getting for your money here?

Just picked up a "clearance stock" Advent 7555GX (yes I know, Advent are awful but this was cheap) quad core from the hell-on-earth that is PC World for less than half the cost of the Lambo. True, it has a rather awful 1440x900 screen, but being based on the MS-1722 I'm guessing I can upgrade the screen and the dog-poo 5400rpm diesel powered SATA2 hard-disk. Graphics are from an ATI4850 which is fine for what I will be using the machine for (portable DAW).

The main selling point for me was quad-core for £730 and as this was ex-demo I got it for £500. Preposterously cheap. Just waiting for my Windows 7 disks.

The point being - why are ASUS selling a quad-core that costs this much when it ought to be possible to build and sell it for much less. It's all very well having a Lamborghini sticker on it, but is it worth the extra grand?

Call me when....

...someone releases the "Ultima GTR" Laptop.

Faster, better looking and a 10th the price.

http://www.ultimasports.co.uk/Content.aspx?f=gtrintro