ASUS W2Pb-7M005C

The stylish hidden-hinge design leaves no room for ports or connections on the back, and as a result these tend to crowd the rest of a notebook's case. Still, the WP2b handles the arrangement well, tightly grouping network and modem jacks and S-Video out, HDTV-out, and cable TV ports--all normally found on the rear--under a left-side cover.

All of the audio ports, including a headphones connection that doubles as an S/PDIF port for attaching digital speakers, are situated on the front, and USB ports are located around each corner so you can plug in peripherals quickly. The small, oblong Asus DTV+FM antenna isn't slick but it does the job.

The 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7200 processor helped the W2PB-7M005C run mainstream applications fast; it finished in the middle of the pack in our recent 15-laptop roundup, with a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 76.

The W2P-7M005C's 256MB ATI Radeon X1700 graphics controller is not up for heavy game playing. It managed to struggle through Far Cry at 1024 by 768 resolution with a frame rate of 37 frames per second, but this was its smoothest performance. Running Far Cry and Doom 3 with antialiasing turned on produced slow and jerky results. DVD movies, 2D games, and video editing all run fine, however.

Carla Thornton