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With the newer higher end models of notebooks coming up the market these days, the average computer user who would hard pressed to find a notebook model which can strike a fair compromise between performance and price. Most people who have a preference for mobile gaming would have to deliberate between choosing a cheaper notebook with a poor integrated graphics card, such as the Macbook or force having to fork out more money in for a higher end machine such as a Macbook-pro or an Asus Lamborghini, sacrificing mobility at the same time. Having been through the same search for find such a notebook, I would like to mention the Asus F9S, which is able to pack some power, yet not cost a bomb to buy.

The Asus F9s is really what I would call a jack of all trades, a middle man. It comes as a middle end notebook, balancing performance, mobility, utility and price all at the same time. A gaming device, a web surfing notebook or even a lightweight business equipment, it is able to fulfill all those needs to a certain extent. It comes with the technical specifications of the usual modern notebooks, a choice of a Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor from a range of 1.6ghz to 2.2ghz, a hard drive space reaching up to 160GB, in addition to a memory of up to 3GB of DDR2 ram. Coming in with a 12.1″ screen also, you can check all the other specifications of this model here.

However, the main highlight of the notebook would be it’s NVidia GeForce 8400M G graphics card, with 128Mb of dedicated video memory, in addition to a Turbo Cache of up to 896Mb. This is basically the main difference it has between the cheaper notebooks which have identical processor speeds or memory size. Taking the lower end Macbook as an example, most lower end notebooks utilise integrated graphic cards in their system, which, to put it frankly, are very weak. With a dedicated video card, it’s what sets the F9S apart from other computers around it’s price range, being able to run more graphical intensive games such as this year’s Call of Duty 4 and Command and Conquer 3, albeit barely, setting it apart as a mediocre gaming device. Another unique feature of this device would be a 1.3 mega pixel web cam located above the screen of the laptop, fully functional upon boot with a 240 degrees swivel function for those frequent internet chat users.

However, it is not without some flaws. Having just switched from an older laptop, there are several nitpicks which annoy me personally. Firstly, the general layout of the keyboard is extremely cramped up, especially at the right hand side, with several of the function keys(For example, home, page up, etc) squeezed together. Furthermore, I find the lack of a scroll button at the touch pad another minor hassle, something which I myself felt as a necessity on my older notebook. In addition, the notebook lacks a latch of sorts when you close the lid, which might cause some accidents if one were to not be careful. Still, others might consider such an idea fresh, and “zen”.

All in all, the Asus F9S is a decent choice if you’re looking for something which is able to run more efficiently than the lower end notebooks. As a jack of all trades, it’s a notebook suitable for all uses, just do not expect too much from it in terms of power.

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(11 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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