Exclusivity at a Price

There's something about fast cars that conjures up an air of envy. Pair that image with a laptop and you get the Asus Lamborghini VX3. If that bright yellow lid catches your attention, that's because it's painted in the same hue as adorns the likes of the Lamborghini Gallardo and Murcielago.

There's more to the VX3 than just the name though. Every square inch is made with super-premium materials, some of which may even sound like overkill. Starting with the leather palmrest (which doesn't heat up as much as a metal one would), to the titanium alloy hinge, to the sapphire crystal scratch-resistant webcam. And it may be just 12.1-inches but it packs in enough power and storage space to embarass larger machines. You get a Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz processor (T9300), 4 GB RAM, 320 GB hard drive, 12.1-inch LED backlit screen and NVidia 9300M graphics. The performance is reflected in our benchmark scores too; 4989 PCMarks and 1668 3DMarks. Enough for full HD movies, gaming, high-res images & video editing. Special mention must be made of the lightscribe DVD-R/W, HDMI & four USB ports–quite rare in a 12.1-inch notebook. The keyboard is comfortable, though the reduced size right shift and enter key took some getting used to. The trackpad is smooth, responsive and trapezoidal.

To justify the high price tag, they've bundled two batteries (one is the extended battery which sticks out at the back), a wireless mouse, leather mousepad, soft case and a leather sling bag. With the standard battery, we got about 56 minutes. With the extended battery, we got 3 hours 25 minutes. These are however, worst case figures, so an average user will get a little more.

However, you're still paying Rs 1 lac for just the Lamborghini name alone. A similarly specced Dell XPS M1330 (with a 13.3-inch LED backlit screen, Vista Ultimate, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB HDD and dedicated graphics) will cost you about Rs 1 lac including taxes and delivery.

If you buy a Lamborghini VX3, you're getting great performance & looks. But if you do buy one, it should be more for the exclusivity & status that it affords rather than the price to performance ratio.