Other graphical niceties include the V1J's ability to pipe 1080p video through its HDMI port. This supports HDCP encryption, so it's perfectly capable of playing hi-def video via your television. Watching video on the laptop itself is also a pleasure. Its 15.4-inch screen runs at a resolution of 1,680x1,050 pixels, which is about par for the course considering its physical dimensions. It looks great and has a matte screen coating to reduce unwanted reflectivity in direct light.
Another cool trick up Intel's Santa Rosa sleeve is the ability to dynamically change the LCD screen's 'refresh rate'. Liquid crystals twist and untwist a certain number of times every second, using up valuable power. The laptop is able to detect when a fast refresh rate isn't important, and can throttle this back slightly to save power.
The V1J's Wi-Fi capabilities are significantly improved. Whereas original Centrino laptops had to settle for 802.11b or 802.11g wireless (11Mbps and 54Mbps respectively), this generation of Centrino laptops get to use the draft 802.11n standard, which has a theoretical maximum of 300Mbps. You'll achieve nowhere near this speed, of course, but under ideal conditions you can expect it to perform in line with a wired 10/100 Ethernet connection. The laptop is also compatible with 802.11b and 802.11g networks, so it will still work at your local Starbucks.
Storage in the V1J is average. Asus supplies a 160GB Hitachi hard drive, which gives you plenty of room to stash your Excel spreadsheets and Word documents. Just don't expect it to cope with anything more than a few dozen DivX movies after you've filled it with boring number-crunching applications. Like the previous V1J, this updated model ships with a Lightscribe-equipped DVD burner, which lets you laser-etch monochrome labels on to compatible discs.
As the V1J is a Centrino Pro business laptop, and not a standard consumer-focused Centrino Duo model, it has extra tricks up its sleeve. It incorporates Intel's vPro technology, so it's possible to remotely manage, diagnose and repair PCs across your enterprise, even when the laptop is switched off, or the OS isn't working. Asus provides a two-year collect and return warranty.
Performance
The V1J clocked up a PCMark 2005 score
of 4,400, which is quick, but the laptop doesn't quite reach its full
potential. Its performance is shackled because it uses 667MHz memory.
Had Asus' engineers supplied 800MHz memory, which runs at the same
speed as the laptop's FSB, the V1J would be significantly faster at
completing memory-hungry tasks.
Graphics performance was impressive though. The GeForce 8600M GT card helped it run F.E.A.R at 33 frames per second and rack up a 3DMark 2006 tally of 3,741. Asus' own G2P gaming laptop scored just 2,011, so the V1J isn't doing badly at all for a 'business' laptop.
We wouldn't expect a high-performance laptop to have a long battery life, but the V1J fares well here, too. It lasted 77 minutes in our Battery Eater test, which is long enough to watch an average DVD, or to survive a train journey between meetings.
Conclusion
The V1J is an impressive, if slightly
flawed, example of a Centrino Pro laptop. It offers a great balance of
performance and battery life, but is let down by its uninteresting
looks and use of slow memory.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Nick Hide
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