Small notebook shootout - part I
Author: Vedran Dakic
Date: 05 Apr 2008

So, it's been quite awhile since we reviewed any ASUS notebooks so - we kind of decided that it's time to change that. Initially, we actually got two of them - F9DC and U6s but - we're gonna do a two-part review, add MSI's PR200 to the mix and then do a complete conclusion since all of them are from the same, 12" class - just to spice things up a little bit. I have to admit that 12" or smaller are my personal favourites so - I'm also gonna add the fourth one to the mix, just to have a base to see how far did the overall technology get in the past couple of years.

Let's take a look at the box first. The "box inside a box" feature is still the leading ASUS philosophy when it comes to notebooks, with all of them being "bundled" with all of the necesities - mouse, notebook bag, some with additional batteries etc. ASUS has actually come very far with their notebooks from the "early ages" a couple of years ago. I believe it would be pretty fair to say that in terms of build quality, ASUS is really high on my list, it's just the "million models" thing that bugs me a little bit...

One of the most basic "features" of this model is the fact that it's a 12.1" model with discrete VGA and it's AMD-based, which is quite rare these days. Also, the built-in VGA is NVIDIA's 8400M with 128MB of memory so, considering its size, this notebook is actually quite packed with power. Also, you cannot help but notice a cool, 240 degrees swivel camera (1.3MP) that's very convinient for any kind of web-based sessions. You can also use it without any "external" microphone help since F9Dc has a built-in microphone so - everything can be done without additional hardware.