Asus-Automobili Lamborghini VX7 review: Asus-Automobili Lamborghini VX7

The 15.6-inch Asus-Automobili Lamborghini VX7 aims to appeal to petrolheads by offering a design based upon the famous cars of the same name, and equally quick performance. Our model packed a 2GHz, quad-core Intel Core i7-2630QM processor, 8GB of RAM and a dedicated 3GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M graphics card.

The VX7 is available now for around £1,850.

Design and build quality

Lamborghini cars are renowned for being loud, in your face, and making mothers tut disapprovingly. This laptop is every bit as rude and in your face as the cars, but we’re not convinced it’s going to win the hearts of petrolheads the world over.

The shell is made of a highly reflective black plastic with deep ridges running across it. The classic Lamborghini bull logo sits proudly in the middle, with the slightly less classic Asus logo demoted to second place at the bottom. Around the back, you’ll find two huge vents under red plastic ‘lights’. The rear is evidently designed to look like the back end of a Lambo, but, rather pitifully, the lights don’t illuminate.

From a distance, the laptop doesn’t look too bad, as long as you don’t mind epic amounts of vulgarity, but, up close, it doesn’t do so well. The shell is not only a total fingerprint trap, but it’s also made of a very flimsy plastic that bent and creaked under our pokes and prods. Squeezing our hand around the vents at the back resulted in a further symphony of horrible creaks and clicks. The VX7 seems poorly built.

It’s a real shame to see such poor build quality on a laptop with such a steep price tag. We really wouldn’t trust it to put up with life on the road. You probably won’t want to take it on the road anyway, though, as it weighs around 3.9kg. It will be much better off staying stationary at your desk, unless you happen to have a real Lamborghini to help you carry it around. Or a truck.

If you do decide to carry the laptop around and don’t have a V12-powered monster to help you do it, Asus provides a Lamborghini-branded bag with the VX7. We just couldn’t bring ourselves to use it, though. It’s just too embarrassing.

The VX7’s lid opens on a hinge that sits slightly further forward than usual from the back of the machine. The hinge feels pretty sturdy, and it’s the only part of the machine that’s free from annoying creaks. The position of the hinge also seemed to help the laptop sit securely on our desk.

Keyboard and trackpad

Under the lid, further excessive design flourishes await. The wrist rest is made of real leather, mimicking the interiors of many Lamborghini cars. It does seem a rather unnecessary addition, and it’s a shame a cow had to die in order to provide leather for this monstrosity. The bovine would have been much better off saving its hide for something classy like the Acer Aspire Ethos 5951G.

The isolated keyboard is comfortable, and backlit too, which is handy if you make a habit of typing away in the dark. The trackpad is made of a shiny glass which feels good to slide your finger over and the adjacent buttons provide a lovely click. We all love a good click.

Screen

The 15.6-inch has a resolution of 1,920×1,080 pixels, which means it can display your high-definition content at its best. That’s great news, as there’s a Blu-ray drive tucked into the side of the machine.