The recent introduction of the Santa Rosa platform has to lead a rash of laptop releases from manufacturers seeking to exploit the performance potential that the new platform offers. Asus is one such manufacturer. Hot on the heels of their sideshow based W5FE launch, they are now all set to launch the A8SC, which is aimed at being a steady workhorse with basic gaming capabilities. How does it perform? Read on to find out…
The first impression that anyone will get on laying eyes on the Asus A8SC is that unlike their other products, the A8SC is far more bulky and surprisingly big for a 14” screen laptop. A closer examination of the product revealed the reason for this. Unlike normal laptops in this range Asus, has used a thicker than normal plastic for the body of the A8SC. The result- a laptop that will weather better with age and given the fact that it is aimed at a being a workhorse, more than a flashy product this is a nice touch.
Though the A8SC maybe a bit boxy looking, it is far from ugly. It sports a nice silver finish. This color scheme extends all around from the lid to the keyboard area and makes it a product that looks equally at home either being used by a corporate user or a student.
The A8SC being a widescreen model, has a 14 inch variant comes with a native resolution of 1280x800 (WXGA). The LCD panel on this laptop needs a special mention. It’s extremely sharp, has great brightness color and contrast levels. It also of a very good viewing angle for a laptop screen and this makes working long hours easier as all the factors above combine to reduce eye fatigue. This kind of functionality (for lack of any other word) is nothing new from Asus. We have found time and again that their laptops come with excellent LCD panels so therefore the brilliant screen on A8SC should come as no surprise to anyone. The screen is well supported on the software side too. The “Asus Splendid Technology “profile manager comes with some pre-defined profiles, that can set the monitor‘s brightness and contrast. These profiles can either dim or light up the monitor’s as per the user’s requirement. We played around with the profiles a bit and found that the program works quite well.
I have been using almost similar configuration from ASUS (A8JP) and its pretty satisfying. ASUS has done quite wonderful job in quality and reliability of their products and laptop is no exception.
