The Asus X51R's keyboard is not especially structured in any way. Guided by the American archetype, the available rectangle was segmented into sub-rectangles and filled with keys. Only the cursor block does not totally follow this strict order.

The key size is generally alright. Nearly all keys (again except of the cursor keys and the F-keys) are well and user-friendly dimensioned. Although the F-keys and the cursor keys are made smaller, you won't face any negative impact on use.

During typing, you'll detect that the total keyboard somewhat yields under pressure and is only rather loosely attached. At forceful typing, a clear clatter can be heard.
Typing feels comfortable and is characterized by a well recognizable point of pressure. Typing very fast, might feel uneasy, because the pressure point is somewhat overemphasized.

The  color of the Asus X51R's touch pad goes well with the rest of the case. Furthermore, it has a comfortable surface with good sliding properties and it precisely reacts to user actions.
Both of the touch pad buttons react at their total extend and can be used be applying a comfortable amount of force. However, its comparably loud clicking noise somewhat annoys.

In the center above the keyboard there are the Asus typical hot keys, which can be used to, e.g., switch between different energy/performance profiles or to (de)activate the wireless function. The volume is controlled by the key combination Fn F11/F12.

Up to here, besides a poor equipment with interfaces, we did not face any heavy saving measure. Performance is another exciting aspect, also, because of the provided Windows Vista with its high demands on system resources.

The review verifies this. The Asus X51R is equipped with an Intel Celeron M 520 processor, an new Celeron brand with 64Bit capability, which also allows the use of Vista. Well, allows, but doesn't make it joyful.

This notebooks is also equipped with an integrated Intel 950 GMA video chip which fulfills the minimum requirements of Vista, but there are hardly any reserve capacities for 3D multimedia applications.

But, the main bottle neck of the hardware equipment is the available main memory. Only 512MB RAM are hardly sufficient for Vista, even more, if also the video card uses a part of it.

This does not mean, that Windows Vista cannot be run on this notebook, however, you'll face clear limitations compared to fitter systems. After Vista finally booted after a while, a you'll notice a delay when starting and executing programs.
It took up to 2 seconds to open a simple .txt file. Although this does not sound too much, this seems to be a long time during a working process.

Fortunately, neither technically nor financially big efforts are necessary to fix this main problem. You can get another 512MB bank for clearly less than 50.-, and even an untrained user is able to put it into the free memory slot. All you need is a crosstip screwdriver.

With a total of 1GB main memory even Vista should run more smoothly without big problems and the notebook should be fit for office and internet applications. However, don't even think to play games with the  Asus X51R, except you should consider very old games at Amiga level...

The provided 80GB hard disk rated average regarding transfer rates and access times. Also the capacity should be alright for standard use.

Further information about the video card can be found here or in our comparison of mobile video cards. Detailed information about the Celeron M CPU can be found here.

Please also look at our benchmark list of mobile processors or at our benchmark list of mobile video cards, in order to compare this notebook to other configurations.