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The Asus NX90JQ-A1 ($2,530 street) is a media center laptop. While you might be gawking at the full 1080p, 18.4-inch widescreen if it were another laptop, in this one, your eyes are fixed on the mammoth, side-mounted speakers. Merely looking at the laptop is entertaining, as flashes of the classic Maxell commercials with the iconic Blown-Away Guy come to mind. Indeed, the speakers, co-developed by Bang and Olufsen ICEpower, are the main attraction. But there are plenty of other features worth noting, including the dual touchpads, top-of-the-line Nvidia graphics, and a quad-core processor. Serious audiophiles have been waiting for a laptop like this, but like all specialty products, the NX90JQ-A1 will cost you dearly.
Design
In terms of design, the NX90JQ-A1 is more bizarre than revolutionary. Its width alone, at 21.8 inches, is unprecedented for a laptop and unlikely to fit in any conventional laptop bag. Moving it beyond the confines of your room will take some mental and physical preparation, as the NX90JQ-A1 weighs a monstrous 9.4 pounds. It's heavier than its 18.4-inch counterpart—the Acer Aspire AS8943G-6782 ($1,600 street, 4 stars) (8.2 lbs)—by over a pound. It makes the 17.3-inch HP Pavilion dv7-4071nr ($1,029.98 list, 4 stars) (8 lbs), and 15-inch Dell XPS 15 ($1,115 direct, 4.5 stars) (6.3 lbs) look like ultraportables in comparison.
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The speakers extend past the screen like a huge, albeit elegant, pair of elephant ears. It definitely took great skill to design a laptop around vertically mounted speakers of this size, but you can't help but question the materials that cover the frame. Aluminum, which is used often by many premium laptops, comes in different forms. There's the brushed kind, which is used frequently in Asus and Acer designs. A matte version can be found in the Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch (Unibody) ($2,799 direct, 4 stars) and XPS 15. The HP dv7-4071nr even went as far as etching decorative patterns on its metal. The NX90JQ-A1 uses polished aluminum, which, according to the company, was inspired by brass musical instruments. Gazing at it, though, is like looking into a mirror, after you stare past the fingerprints and stains that it can be a magnet for. What's worse is that the entire area below the keyboard (the palm rest area) is made of the same material—a distraction if you're working under a bright light.
Specifications
TypeGaming, Media, Desktop ReplacementProcessor NameIntel Core i7-720QMOperating SystemMicrosoft Windows 7 UltimateProcessor Speed1.6 GHzRAM8 GBWeight9.4 lbScreen Size18.4 inchesScreen Size TypewidescreenGraphics CardnVidia GeForce GT 335MStorage Capacity (as Tested)1280 GBNetworking Options802.11nPrimary Optical DriveBlu-Ray Disc More
An 18.4-inch display is the largest LCD manufacturers will make for a laptop. Identically-sized screens can also be found in the Acer AS8943G-6782 and Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850 ($1,179 direct, 3.5 stars). They all share the same 1,920 by 1,080 resolution or what's referred to as full 1080p. This resolution exists on a screen as small as 15 inches, like the one found on the Dell XPS 15. A huge screen and a maximum resolution are terrific for media consumption.
Dual touchpads has never been done on a laptop until now. Obviously, they'll take a while to get accustomed to. I can understand why there are two of them, though: Since the designer didn't want the touchpad (with the mouse buttons) in the usual spot, you can't have a single touchpad flank the keyboard without taking into account both left and right-handed users. Both touchpads come with a pair of very soft mouse buttons, and they're meant to be used in tandem, similar to how a DJ spins two record players. For instance, I've used one touchpad to navigate while tapping the other to invoke a click, though there were several times, out of habit, when I reached below the keyboard. As for the keyboard, I've typed on better ones. The one on the NX90JQ-A1 is too mushy for my tastes and lacks a backlit function, like the one found on the Dell XPS 15.
Features
The twin B&O speakers are 10 times larger than those found in laptops today. And they're placed strategically, so that sound waves are aimed at you rather than at the ceiling, as with the many laptops that have their speakers located adjacent to the keyboard. For perspective, the 11-Watt amplifier is more powerful than that of the Samsung PN58C8000 (10 Watts)—a 58-inch HDTV. It's so powerful that Asus didn't even bother with a subwoofer, as in the ones found in the Dell XPS 15 and Acer AS8943G. Bass and volume, as you can imagine, are thunderous without the distortions. Sound coming from a Blu-ray movie (Avatar), high bit-rate music files, and Dolby's 7.1 surround sound tests are fully immersive, as if you're sitting in a movie theater. It's arguably the best sound experience on a laptop, even surpassing the Dell XPS 15, which, at the time it was tested, had the best audio experience on a media center laptop.
A media center laptop wouldn't be complete without the usual bells and whistles. If you haven't already guessed from the audio experiment, the NX90JQ-A1 ships with a slot-load Blu-ray drive. All of its competitors also ship with Blu-ray drives, but are of the tray-ejecting kind. There is an HDMI port and two out of the 3 USB ports are USB 3.0. Likewise, the Dell XPS 15 also has two USB 3.0 ports and HDMI, but it also has a DisplayPort. While rare on a laptop these days, the NX90JQ-A1 has a built-in TV tuner and an included external antenna. Not so rare is an eSATA port (for storage expansion), which probably won't be used: The NXJQ-A1 ships with twin 640GB, 7,200rpm hard drives, enough storage (a total of 1.28 Terabytes) for the most extreme media hoarders.
Performance
Components aren't any more extraordinary than those found in media centers that cost half as much, such as the Samsung RF710-S02US and Acer Aspire AS7745G-6214 ($1,260 street, 3 stars). But it's a powerful laptop nonetheless. It runs a 1.6GHz Intel Core i7-720QM, a quad-core processor that's widely used in laptops of this magnitude. A whopping 8GB of RAM (expandable to 16GB) matches the amount found on the Acer AS7745G and Acer AS8943G. In terms of pure performance strength, the NX90JQ-A1 wasn't part of the elite, as its PCMark Vantage (5,795) and Handbrake (3:12) scores didn't quite live up to expectations. However, its score on Cinebench R11.5 (2.95)—a multithreaded test that uses all four processor cores—did well enough to beat the competition.
The NX90HJQ-A1 is also a gaming laptop, as it features one of the best Nvidia graphics chips in the market—the GeForce GT 335M. Results from Crysis (46.4 fps) and Lost Planet 2 (38.9 fps) demos, two of the most demanding games in the business, were comparable to those of the Dell XPS 15 and Samsung RF710. In a nutshell, NX90JQ-A1 won't lose any frames playing the latest 3D games. Battery life is about what you would expect from a media center laptop that crams in all this technology. The 6-cell (60WH) battery is sealed into the system, so removing it through the conventional latch methods is not going to work. The battery lasted 2 hours 42 minutes in MobileMark 2007 tests, which is about as noteworthy as the Ace AS7745G (2:32) and the RF710-S02US (3:07). It's efficient enough to last through a home movie while unplugged from the wall, but not much more.
It was George Lucas who said that sound is 50 percent of the movie-going experience. Who would have thought these words would be echoed so loudly by a laptop? The Asus NX90JQ-A1 is as rich sounding as you would expect from a laptop that has the two biggest speakers mounted to a screen. With Bang and Olufsen's built-in speaker technology alone, this laptop is guaranteed to improve your movie, music listening, and gaming experience. Thing is, do people care enough about sound to spend over $2,000 for a media center laptop, when similar ones without the B&O speakers cost half as much? I think not. You'll get a better overall media center with the Dell XPS 15. If you're looking for the biggest screen on a laptop, the Acer Aspire AS8943G-6782 is a cheaper alternative.
Design
In terms of design, the NX90JQ-A1 is more bizarre than revolutionary. Its width alone, at 21.8 inches, is unprecedented for a laptop and unlikely to fit in any conventional laptop bag. Moving it beyond the confines of your room will take some mental and physical preparation, as the NX90JQ-A1 weighs a monstrous 9.4 pounds. It's heavier than its 18.4-inch counterpart—the Acer Aspire AS8943G-6782 ($1,600 street, 4 stars) (8.2 lbs)—by over a pound. It makes the 17.3-inch HP Pavilion dv7-4071nr ($1,029.98 list, 4 stars) (8 lbs), and 15-inch Dell XPS 15 ($1,115 direct, 4.5 stars) (6.3 lbs) look like ultraportables in comparison.
View Slideshow See all (7) slides
More
The speakers extend past the screen like a huge, albeit elegant, pair of elephant ears. It definitely took great skill to design a laptop around vertically mounted speakers of this size, but you can't help but question the materials that cover the frame. Aluminum, which is used often by many premium laptops, comes in different forms. There's the brushed kind, which is used frequently in Asus and Acer designs. A matte version can be found in the Apple MacBook Pro 17-inch (Unibody) ($2,799 direct, 4 stars) and XPS 15. The HP dv7-4071nr even went as far as etching decorative patterns on its metal. The NX90JQ-A1 uses polished aluminum, which, according to the company, was inspired by brass musical instruments. Gazing at it, though, is like looking into a mirror, after you stare past the fingerprints and stains that it can be a magnet for. What's worse is that the entire area below the keyboard (the palm rest area) is made of the same material—a distraction if you're working under a bright light.
Specifications
TypeGaming, Media, Desktop ReplacementProcessor NameIntel Core i7-720QMOperating SystemMicrosoft Windows 7 UltimateProcessor Speed1.6 GHzRAM8 GBWeight9.4 lbScreen Size18.4 inchesScreen Size TypewidescreenGraphics CardnVidia GeForce GT 335MStorage Capacity (as Tested)1280 GBNetworking Options802.11nPrimary Optical DriveBlu-Ray Disc More
An 18.4-inch display is the largest LCD manufacturers will make for a laptop. Identically-sized screens can also be found in the Acer AS8943G-6782 and Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q850 ($1,179 direct, 3.5 stars). They all share the same 1,920 by 1,080 resolution or what's referred to as full 1080p. This resolution exists on a screen as small as 15 inches, like the one found on the Dell XPS 15. A huge screen and a maximum resolution are terrific for media consumption.
Dual touchpads has never been done on a laptop until now. Obviously, they'll take a while to get accustomed to. I can understand why there are two of them, though: Since the designer didn't want the touchpad (with the mouse buttons) in the usual spot, you can't have a single touchpad flank the keyboard without taking into account both left and right-handed users. Both touchpads come with a pair of very soft mouse buttons, and they're meant to be used in tandem, similar to how a DJ spins two record players. For instance, I've used one touchpad to navigate while tapping the other to invoke a click, though there were several times, out of habit, when I reached below the keyboard. As for the keyboard, I've typed on better ones. The one on the NX90JQ-A1 is too mushy for my tastes and lacks a backlit function, like the one found on the Dell XPS 15.
Features
The twin B&O speakers are 10 times larger than those found in laptops today. And they're placed strategically, so that sound waves are aimed at you rather than at the ceiling, as with the many laptops that have their speakers located adjacent to the keyboard. For perspective, the 11-Watt amplifier is more powerful than that of the Samsung PN58C8000 (10 Watts)—a 58-inch HDTV. It's so powerful that Asus didn't even bother with a subwoofer, as in the ones found in the Dell XPS 15 and Acer AS8943G. Bass and volume, as you can imagine, are thunderous without the distortions. Sound coming from a Blu-ray movie (Avatar), high bit-rate music files, and Dolby's 7.1 surround sound tests are fully immersive, as if you're sitting in a movie theater. It's arguably the best sound experience on a laptop, even surpassing the Dell XPS 15, which, at the time it was tested, had the best audio experience on a media center laptop.
A media center laptop wouldn't be complete without the usual bells and whistles. If you haven't already guessed from the audio experiment, the NX90JQ-A1 ships with a slot-load Blu-ray drive. All of its competitors also ship with Blu-ray drives, but are of the tray-ejecting kind. There is an HDMI port and two out of the 3 USB ports are USB 3.0. Likewise, the Dell XPS 15 also has two USB 3.0 ports and HDMI, but it also has a DisplayPort. While rare on a laptop these days, the NX90JQ-A1 has a built-in TV tuner and an included external antenna. Not so rare is an eSATA port (for storage expansion), which probably won't be used: The NXJQ-A1 ships with twin 640GB, 7,200rpm hard drives, enough storage (a total of 1.28 Terabytes) for the most extreme media hoarders.
Performance
The NX90HJQ-A1 is also a gaming laptop, as it features one of the best Nvidia graphics chips in the market—the GeForce GT 335M. Results from Crysis (46.4 fps) and Lost Planet 2 (38.9 fps) demos, two of the most demanding games in the business, were comparable to those of the Dell XPS 15 and Samsung RF710. In a nutshell, NX90JQ-A1 won't lose any frames playing the latest 3D games. Battery life is about what you would expect from a media center laptop that crams in all this technology. The 6-cell (60WH) battery is sealed into the system, so removing it through the conventional latch methods is not going to work. The battery lasted 2 hours 42 minutes in MobileMark 2007 tests, which is about as noteworthy as the Ace AS7745G (2:32) and the RF710-S02US (3:07). It's efficient enough to last through a home movie while unplugged from the wall, but not much more.
It was George Lucas who said that sound is 50 percent of the movie-going experience. Who would have thought these words would be echoed so loudly by a laptop? The Asus NX90JQ-A1 is as rich sounding as you would expect from a laptop that has the two biggest speakers mounted to a screen. With Bang and Olufsen's built-in speaker technology alone, this laptop is guaranteed to improve your movie, music listening, and gaming experience. Thing is, do people care enough about sound to spend over $2,000 for a media center laptop, when similar ones without the B&O speakers cost half as much? I think not. You'll get a better overall media center with the Dell XPS 15. If you're looking for the biggest screen on a laptop, the Acer Aspire AS8943G-6782 is a cheaper alternative.
