Asus W5A (W5G00A) - Asus' New Ultra-portable

Construction: Building, Appearance, Size The new W5A...

According to Asus, the W5A shell is composed of a carbon fiber composite. The earlier S5N is said to use carbon fiber. There is certainly a different feel between the two notebooks. The W5A actually has a nice micrograin texture, whereas the S5N was smooth to the point of being a detriment. As for scratches, it seems like they will be easily visible in good lighting over time, but to a lesser degree when compared to its predecessor.

The W5A doesn't have any security mechanism to secure the display lid down, other than the built in resistance in the display hinge. The down side of this approach is obvious, as the resistance wears down over time. Asus compounds the problem because there is no real snap close, like there is with the V6V. This means that after 6+ months of use (estimated) the display lid will be more prone to swinging open when in transit.

Front (left to right):

Left (left to right):

• Modem jack
• Ethernet jack
• 4-pin mini1394 Firewire port
• 1 x USB 2.0/1.1
• Matshita UJDA765 CD-RW/DVD-ROM (24x CD-R/24x CD-RW/24x CD-ROM/8x DVD-ROM)
• Card Reader (SD/MS/MSPro/MMC)

As we have noted in the past, the placement of a communication port [especially the ethernet port] on either the left or right side makes orientation more of a hassle. In this case, if your ethernet cable is to the right side of the notebook, you will have to feed the cable around the backside to plug it in. This will turn into a real frustration should the ethernet hookup be far enough away that you need to use all of the cable to reach the laptop's ethernet jack. This also goes for the modem, but fewer and fewer people seem to be putting this port to use. There is one USB port on the backside, left side, and right side, which should make orientation all around easier.

Back (left to right):

• Exhaust vent
• S-Video port
• 1 x USB 2.0/1.1
• lock port

Right (left to right):

• 1 x PCMCIA (Type I/II)
• volume toggle
• microphone port
• headphone port
• 1 x USB 2.0/1.1
• exhaust vent
• VGA-out port