Asus V6800V (V6V/V6000V Series)
Construction: Building, Appearance, Size
 |
|
The notebook chassis is constructed of a sturdy carbon fiber metal alloy composite material, which seems relatively scratch-resistant. It is a strong, yet light material that helps with keeping the notebook's weight down, and it has a stylish metallic look. The exterior has a solid black finish that contrasts well with the metallic interior and edging.
;)
The notebook does not have an LCD hold-down clip, which leaves it very vulnerable to flopping open once the resistance in the hinges wears down. There is definitely room for some form of a clip too, and the lack of one is an annoyance especially for a laptop that is going to be picked up and moved around consistently. If you are just carrying it around under your arm, the display lid shouldn't suddenly swing open at first, but it might be more prone to doing so after a few months of use. Note that we can only "guess-timate" how long the resistance will keep up, but this is based on our experience with other notebooks.
Top (left to right):
;)
Left (left to right):
- Lock Port
- 4-pin mini IEEE1394 port
- PCMCIA slot
- IR window (above PCMCIA slot)
- DVD+-RW (8x +- R/4x +- RW/24x CD-R/10x CD-RW)
;)
Back (left to right):
;)
Right (left to right):
- USB 2.0 port
- SD/MMC Card Reader
- Headphone/Microphone jack
- USB 2.0 port
- Modem jack
- 2x USB 2.0 ports
- Exhaust vent
- Ethernet jack
- Power port
;)
The layout of the V6V was somewhat difficult to work with. Preferably, most of the jacks and expansion ports would have been placed on the back of the unit, with a couple of USB ports on the side for flash drives and similar peripherals. With all the USB slots on the right side of the V6V, however, not only are left handed users in for a nuisance, but right handers will have to deal with too much wire slack. Given the ultra-thin nature of the laptop, the USB ports should have been spread out a little better between the right, left and back sides.
;)
;)
Most manufacturers that do not place ports in the back do so to prevent the chaos of having wires coming out of the back, but from a practical point of view, the back is always a safer bet for things like the S-Video port and a power port. This may not be a significant problem for certain people, but for the vast population, it will become a nuisance in some situations.
