Asus W7J 13.3 inch Portable Core Duo Notebook Review

Display and Audio

Going a step beyond typical integrated graphics is the onboard NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400. While it’s not a high-end gaming graphics solution, it is good enough to play older games and newer 3D games at lower details. We will examine the game performance of the Go 7400 later in this review.

Multimedia is where you will enjoy the Go 7400 the most. With many user adjustable settings in the driver along with NVIDIA’s PureVideo media acceleration, the W7J’s is very capable to double as an HTPC.

The 13′ display itself is very nice with viewable angles superior to the W5F we reviewed not long ago. You’re able to sit well beyond the 60 degree view arc and still see the screen clearly. The quality of the display is very good and it is bright across the whole width with good contrast. It’s brighter and sharper than the Compaq V2410 14″ I use in my daily work.

To help you adjust the display to the way you like it, Asus has software called SplendidVideo which is software that allows you to quickly switch between different profiles. You can quickly toggle between a Vivid mode for watching movies, and then switching to Normal for general desktop usage.

Audio

My impressions of the audio quality of thr Asus W7J will sound familiar if you’ve read our Asus W5F review. Why? Well it’s because it uses an identical sound system — same speakers, same audio codec chip.

The speakers on the W7J are located just below the LCD panel and the sound they produce is what you’d expect from small speakers — metallic and a lack of low frequency definition. The W7J is not a multimedia laptop, so I won’t hold the speakers against it, and neither should you.

One of the key audio features of the W7J is the SPDIF output capabilities of the Realtek ALC861 codec chip. By using a SPDIF mini cable (or adapter), you can have the W7J act like a portable HTPC. Couple that with the great PureVideo hardware acceleration on the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400, you have yourself a portable laptop that’s good for work and play!