The following are my subjective impressions on some of the ergonomics of this laptop.

A 15.4" LCD running at 1280 x 800 covers a LOT of territory.

In Photoshop, for example, usually I have to scroll horizontally with some images if I have all the menus up on the screen - with this LCD, there is enough space so that the image and menus co-exist nicely. In Exel, my Sharp's 12.1" screen covers columns A - O, while the ASUS 15.4" covers A - S.

I found the screen to be sharp and bright - very nice performance and easy on the eyes.

The fans never revved up to full strength (except for maybe a few seconds at Boot-up) - I never found fan noise objectionable. If I had to guess, I would say it was running at about 50% capacity while running Prime 95. With a desktop CPU, the noise level would be higher. Under "normal" use, the fans are just about noiseless - and this is with the CPU running overclocked 33%.

One thing I noticed that I should mention - sometimes the fan would spin up for a few seconds and then decrease; for example, when using a Photoshop filter. The spin-up would be to the next step - not full on. Not annoying, but noticeable.

The keyboard's footprint measures 11 ¾" x 4 ¼"; this compares to 10 ¼" x 3 ¾" on a Sharp MV12W (12.1" LCD) and 11 ¼" x 4" on a Microsoft Digital Media keyboard. I found the Asus keyboard very comfortable and I had no problems hitting two keys at once, which sometimes happens with smaller keyboards. There is ample room to rest your palms on the laptop.

The one thing I did not like is that the Fn key is the lower leftmost key next to the Ctrl key - at first I found myself hitting Fn instead of Ctrl - you get used to it, however.

A snap and done while in Windows - download the BIOS file, unzip, launch the update utility, point to the BIOS file and that's it - could not be easier.

This is a very nice touch - there is a sensor at the top of the screen (next to the microphone) which adjusts screen brightness. Once you set the level you like (I always set mine about midway - I find the whites very bright), the sensor takes into account room brightness and adjusts accordingly. I did notice that once in a while the screen flicked a shade dimmer - the monitor may have picked up some outside light when I moved; this has happened maybe two times in a week.

There are five keys at the top right hand side above the keyboard to launch email, internet, wireless LAN, touchpad ON/OFF and "Power4 Gear". Frankly, I'm not a fan of dedicated buttons as it's just as easy to launch most of these things with Windows "Quick Launch" icons; the others you're not going to access all the time anyway, so why bother?

This is not bad - you can play audio CDs with the notebook turned off. The usual buttons (Play/Pause, CD Stop, CD Skip Previous, CD Skip Next and CD Power) are conveniently located at the front right. You can also adjust the volume with the CD Skip buttons - holding them down adjust the volume.

There's a bunch of power modes under AC and battery - you can select among them from settings such as "Super Performance", "DVD Movie Performance" etc. It does give users added flexibility, although I would use this notebook as a DTR and run it on AC probably 99% of the time, so for me they are there and that's about it.

I also feel that there are other utilities that will do the same thing and maybe a bit better - Intel's "Enhanced SpeedStep® Technology" is very neat and ..."enables the processor to switch between multiple frequency and voltage points instead of two." As an example, these are settings for the 1.6 GHz:

The utilities shown below allow users various degrees of control over settings:

CPU Cool - Temp readings included
RMClock - Nice displays but no temps
SpeedSwitchXP - The most aggressive "underclocking" of the bunch; also shows CPU speeds in the tray

I really like this notebook - purely a personal view:

• The LCD is sharp, bright and covers lots of territory
• The keyboard is full size
• It's very easy for users to clean, maintain and service
• CPU upgrading and overclocking is a snap
• It runs quietly - low fan noise
• It's not horribly heavy at 6.1 pounds, but not what I would consider a portable

Things I don't like -

• Plastic case (nice, but plastic does flex)
• Fan intake ports - on the bottom of the notebook - you must ensure that there is no interference with airflow - on the lap or blanket is a No-No.

Overall, I think any one looking for a DTR or a "semi-portable" will find ASUS's Z71A a very good choice - if my kids were still in school, this would be a top pick.

The ASUS Z71A is available from Directron.

Email Joe