The Asus VX2S: A Laptop that Redefines Portability

In the realm of laptops, there are few models that can evoke as much nostalgia and curiosity as the Asus VX2S. Released in 2007, this desktop replacement laptop was designed to be a powerhouse on-the-go, packing a punch of performance that would have been unthinkable for its time. With its sleek design and impressive specs, it's no wonder why many consider it one of the most underrated laptops of its era.

As I sat down with my VX2S, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement to see how well it would hold up against modern standards. After all, this was an '07 laptop that was capable of running some pretty demanding games even back then. I started by firing up The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a game that was notoriously graphically intense in its day. And what did I find? An average framerate of the low 30s, dipping lower when more characters were on-screen or when venturing out into open areas with lots of grass and greater draw distance. Still, nothing unplayable about this – it's a testament to the VX2S's prowess that even an Elder Scrolls game could be pushed to its limits.

But The Elder Scrolls IV wasn't the only game I wanted to try. Next up was Midnight Club II, a racing game that's often overlooked in favor of more popular titles like Need For Speed. And what did I find? This one runs great, maxed out, no problem. But with a 30FPS cap on the physics, while the framerate is supposed to be uncapped – it was interesting to see how well this game held up despite these limitations. Even with Vsync off, I was only getting a maximum of 54 frames per second, but even so, the gameplay remained smooth and enjoyable.

Of course, not every game would be as forgiving as Midnight Club II. The next test subject was one of my all-time favorites: FEAR. Running here on maximum settings at 1280x960, since this unpatched version doesn't natively support widescreen – even with those extra pixels, performance was quite respectable. Averaging a framerate in the low 30s, dipping into the upper teens when things were at their worst and going much higher during sections between action. It's clear that the VX2S had some serious muscle behind it.

For my next test, I turned to one of my favorite real-time strategy games: Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth 2. This was about a year old when the VX2S came out, and I recall barely being able to squeeze out a decent framerate when I played it soon after launch. But yes, the Lamborghini just coasted along nicely here, running at 1280x960 on High settings. This did have a 30FPS cap on the framerate, which I entirely forgot about till now – but it reached that effortlessly through most of the game.

Finally, the question of "can it run Crysis" looms large, so let's give the Crysis benchmark a shot. And yes, it certainly runs! Even cranked up to medium settings, oh... The frame rate drops into the mid-to-low teens when action ramps up, but the majority of the game is in the twenties and is overall playable for 2007 standards. Would have boggled my brain to see Crysis run this well on a laptop then – though it's not without effort, really being pushed to the redline with that exhaust working overtime.

As I delved deeper into the performance of the VX2S, I couldn't help but be impressed by its capabilities. With its 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of DDR2 RAM, this laptop was built for heavy use – whether you were playing games or multitasking with a variety of applications open at once. The performance held up surprisingly well even when pushed to the limits, making it clear that the VX2S was more than just a pretty face.

But as I gazed upon the VX2S's design, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at its sheer audacity. With its sleek lines and shiny metal exterior, this laptop demands attention – it's like carrying around a luxury accessory or a high-fashion handbag. And yet, despite all its flash and dash, the VX2S is still a solidly built machine that has withstood the test of time remarkably well.

In the end, whether you could live with the VX2S's gussied-up look and had the cash to spare, it would have been hard to go wrong with this laptop at its original price point. And due to the cash-grab product tie-in nature of the thing, it's still a fun collectible even now – one that I hope you enjoyed checking out with me. If you enjoyed this laptop retrospectively then feel free to peruse some of my previous videos on similar computers of the past.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enGreetings, and today on LGR I’ve got somethingsitting in my driveway I never thought I’dhave. A sleek, shiny Lamborghini from themid-2000s!Wait why’s there a laptop out here, lemme get this inside.Yeah that’s better.This lovely beast we have here isan Asus Lamborghini VX2, a specially-brandedWindows Vista laptop from 2007. It sold for$2,699 on launch for the base model, withcertain upgrades and bundles boosting thatto nearly $4,000 for a fully specced-out VX2Slike the one we have here. Not quite Italianexotic car money but by no means a cheap laptop,then or now. Compared to similarly-speccedmachines of its day, like the Dell XPS M1330as one example, the Lamborghini VX2 cost 5to $700 more for roughly the same capabilities.No doubt some of that was due to its ragingbull branding, but surely there was more toit, right? Right indeed, this thing is packedwith premium materials, fancy features, andalluring extras that made the asking priceslightly more understandable, all added up.Things like a lacquer-coated lid painted ineither gloss Midas yellow or carbon-finishedin Noctis Black. A magnesium alloy frame andtrim tucked into the base of the computer.Real leather blanketing the palm rest andaround the keyboard, with golden thread stitchedinto the edges. Plus just about every port,interface, plug, adapter, and peripheral youcould want in a mid-2000s laptop. Either builtinto the system or included in the box, makingit a multimedia, productivity, and entertainmentpowerhouse. It was also one of the very firstlaptops to come with Windows Vista Ultimateinstalled from the factory. But let’s bereal, the main reason this existed was thefact that Asus and Lamborghini wanted someof the exotic car laptop market for themselves.After Acer’s successful Ferrari laptopsdropping in 2004, something I’ve coveredbefore here on LGR, the precedent was setand ASUSTeK lapped up the chance to sell theirown fast car computers. Long-standing Ferraririval Lamborghini was a clear choice, a partnershipthat began with the VX1 model in 2006. Itwas praised for its build materials and overalllook, but criticized for its 4:3 display,lackluster GPU, odd port placement, and heftyprice. All things Asus addressed in the follow-up:the VX2, unveiled in January 2007 right alongsideLamborghini’s new upgraded Gallardo, theSuperleggera. The VX2 was an improvement inevery way, boasting an Intel Core 2 Duo T7500CPU up from the VX1’s 7400, Nvidia 8600MGT graphics up from the GeForce Go 7700, anda 200 gigabyte hard drive up from the previous160. Reviewers praised the new model overall,with only minor complaints about the OS andmultimedia capabilities. For example, PC Magazinefound the VX2’s dual layer DVD+RW drivedisappointing in such a high-end system, sayingit was really too bad it didn’t have anHD-DVD drive. Ah the wishes of2007. Finally, it wasn’t long before theswansong of the VX2 line arrived: the VX2S,of which we have this phenomenal example here,packing even more improvements on top of theVX2. In particular, this VX2S is the creamiestof the creamy crop. The Ultimate Bundle, theone that cost four grand on its release in‘07. We’ll get to what this added as weexplore the system, but the lavish luxuriouspresentation remains the same no matter whichmodel you chose. Starting with this texturedblack box the computer shipped in, openingup to reveal a fitted insert embracing theshape of the VX2S. Which is itself tuckedaway inside a soft velvety drawstring bag.Lifting the machine outta there and onto adesk makes it apparent that this is more ofa desktop replacement than a laptop for yourlap, weighing in at 3.3 kilograms, or justover 7 pounds. Still, hefty as it is, theLambo is one looker of a laptop, with thisone featuring a carbon fiber lid, a premiumupgrade over the bright yellow paint option.And of course that authentic-ally licensedLamborghini logo placed right smack in themiddle there, providing eye-catching flairto anyone on that side of the screen. Openingit up reveals the keyboard and trackpad borderedin stitched leather, and the wrist rest areabeing protected by a plastic cover and a distractingmishmash of badges. At least they didn’tadhere them directly to the leather, and thecover peels off with little effort and maximumsatisfaction. Yeahthat’s better. The only logo you see anymoreis that Automobili Lamborghini insignia debossedinto the metallic strip just below the arrowkeys. It’s quite the appealing look if youask me, straddling the line between classilyunderstated, and gaudily pretentious. Perhapsnot as wild as you’d imagine when you hearthe words “Lamborghini laptop,” the laterVX7 model looks far siller in a fitting way.But the VX2S, I dunno, it’s not bad!-Also included was this stylish leather carryingcase, something the previous owner of my machinekept for themselves I suppose. Irksome. Insidethe next box is an assortment of accessories,software, and peripherals. Like the powersupply, video cables, interface adapters,various bits of paperwork and recovery discs.As well as a custom Lamborghini wireless mouse,encased in its own little black bag. It’sa smaller 3-button optical mouse that connectsvia Bluetooth using two AA batteries. Themouse buttons are fine with a nice click tothem but the wheel feels weird, lacking atactile click, and just kinda mushing downwith a disconcertingly smooth scroller. Nota fan, but at least it has a nifty metal flakepaint job I guess. Next up is the VX PowerStation, included as part of the Ultimatepackage. It’s your standard docking station/portreplicator done up with a bit of automotiveflair. It adds a pile of useful ports, includingmore audio and USB, full-sized serial andparallel, DVI video out, a PS/2 port, ethernetand so on. It also makes the machine lookeven more over-the-top with those metal wingsjutting out from either side of the station.However it’s hooked up though, this doozyof a desktop replacement is packed with darnnear every desirable option for 2007. Startingwith a Motorola SM56 modem next to the powerconnector, FireWire and USB 2.0 ports leftof the main exhaust fan, microphone in andheadphone/SPDIF digital audio out jacks. AneSATA connection that doubles as another USBport, an 8-in-1 card reader with an SD cardblank insert. And an ExpressCard interface,the short-lived replacement for PC Card PCMCIA,accepting handy little expansion boards. Notmuch along the front and back, with an IRblaster on front for infrared applicationsand only a Kensington lock around the rear.Most of this area is taken up by the battery,a 4800 milliamp hour deal capable of about2½ hours of life, give or take half an hourdepending on how much time you’re wastingon Newgrounds. The left side is more exciting,featuring an RJ45 jack for 1 gig ethernet,S-video output, 15-pin VGA, two more USB 2.0ports, HDMI out. And an optical drive PC Magwould be proud of: a Toshiba HD-DVD drive!This was included as part of the uber-expensiveUltimate Package, also functioning as yourstandard LightScribe DVD burner. But yeah,I never realized laptops even had HD-DVD asan option, much less owned one till now. Infact this is my first time experiencing theformat, since I simply ignored the Blu-Ray/HD-DVDformat war and waited till someone lost beforechoosing a side back then. The drive is alsohot-swappable, allowing use of different opticaldrives, hard drives, or even a second battery.And then with the laptop unfolded we cometo that 15.4” 16:10 display. It’s ratherglossy for my taste but the colors look lovelyand black levels are solid. And it even camewith a “Zero Bright Dot” guarantee fromthe manufacturer. Basically your screen shouldn’thave any white or black pixels stuck on thescreen, and if you did they’d replace it,barring a few exceptions. Then above the LCDis this 1.3 megapixel webcam, with 240-degreeswiveling action allowing you to tilt up,down, or even all the way around to the back.There's also a little microphone right besidethe webcam as you would expect, which is whatyou're listening to now. And yeah this isthe quality 640x480 at some absurd frame rate.And we've also got built-infilters, so if we want the sepia filter we'vegot that. We've got the Sin City filter, negative,naked person filter. And there's also frames.Oh my goodness, happy halloween, hearts andthings. Yeah, this is very 2007 and it's adorable.-Then right below is the 86-key keyboard, flankedby speakers left and right, with a prettystandard layout and set of key switches. Nothingto write home about, it’s a typical laptopkeyboard of its day with decent key traveland relatively light actuation. The top rowof shortcut keys are useful, with power onthe right, buttons for activating things likethe Bluetooth 2.0 transceiver and draft 802.11nWi-Fi. Disabling the trackpad, opening mediaplayers, switching performance modes and displayprofiles. With those last two optimizing powerconsumption and adjusting LCD color temperatureand contrast, respectively. Fun. What’snot fun at all are the trackpad buttons, whichhave a decent click but only allow you topress them if you tap the correct side ofthe button. Which, for whatever reason, isthe opposite side that I naturally wanna use.However, that bit in the middle? Yeah that’sa fingerprint reader for biometric log-ins.A nice touch for 2007 especially, so you canfinger your Lamborghini instead of enteringa password anytime you take it for a spin.Another nice addition is found underneath,with this cute little fan grille replicatingan alloy wheel from Lamborghini. Althoughit’s for the base model Gallardo, not theSuperleggera that the VX2 launched alongside,but hey they tried. And well, it’s not reallya fan grille either, it’s more of a fancover. The opening is blocked underneath,where it plops down on top of the CPU fanand the exhaust goes out the side. And yeah,under there lies the 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 DuoT7500, with this Ultimate package actuallypacking an upgraded 2.4GHz T7700. Then downbelow that is this, an NGIVG1000 GPU Board,that’s a mouthful... packing an Nvidia GeForce8600M GT graphics card. Yeah I don’t actuallyknow what upgrade options may be available,but this is just neat, I haven’t had thison very many laptops. The 8600 does sharememory with the system though, claiming either512 megs or 1 gig. How much depends on thetotal RAM installed, with 2 gigabytes of 667MHzDDR2 RAM on the base model. And a maximum4 gigs supported, as came installed in theUltimate package here. Finally, there’sthe 200 gig 7200RPM hard drive – or therewould be if it was still installed. This waspilfered by the previous owner, along withthat awesome leather case I’m definitelynot bitter about. So I replaced it with acheap 240 gig drive and reinstalled everythingfactory fresh. Super easy thanks to recoverydiscs that don’t rely on hard disk restorepartitions, thank goodness. And with that,the Lambo is ready to lay down some rubber,and hit the road at full speed with Windows Vista.And yeah, it plays engine revving noises onpower-up, alongside the Lamborghini logo inlieu of the usual BIOS screen. Delightfullycharming. To a point anyway, as it then carrieson loading Windows Vista Ultimate Edition.Although it’s only 32-bit, oddly enough,dismissing the fact that its T7700 CPU happilysupports 64-bit operating systems.And yeah, nothing too special here in termsof presentation. No supercar startup noisesor bespoke Lamborghini Windows theme. Justa small handful of VX2-related wallpapersand that’s about it. Missed opportunities.Asus did include plenty of bloat though, yay.Many of the programs are pure annoyance, likeantivirus trials and slow-loading updaterprograms and generic OEM crap. But there area number of decently useful applications too.Asus Splendid Video is an interface for switchingdisplay profiles, doing the same as pressingthe related button on the keyboard. InstantFun is your standard multimedia frontend,with shortcuts to common programs similarto Microsoft’s Windows Media Center. LifeFrameis the app for controlling the aforementionedwebcam, with its silly filters and framesand things. Power For Phone is a simple phonedialer program, using either the built-inmodem or Skype to call up phone numbers. NeroExpress 7 Essentials is your cut-down versionof Nero for handling reading and writing ofoptical media. Including LightScribe, whichthe drive supports providing you have theappropriate discs. And finally a special versionof InterVideo WinDVD, for playing DVDs aswell as those fancy high definition discs.Which hey, still look great! The speakersare a bit flimsy-sounding unfortunately, butthat glossy screen still looks quite goodhere 15 years later.All right, enough of the preinstalled fluff,let’s play some games! In the pursuit ofrelatively similar comparisons, each gamewill be running at 1280x720 resolution, oras close to it as each title allows. Startingwith Unreal Tournament 2004 running on maximumsettings. Which yeah, no surprise that itdoes phenomenally well here. Even maxed out,UT2K4 is a cinch for this combination of processorand GPU, and barely revs up the cooling fanswhile playing. It rarely dips below 60FPS,as indicated by the Fraps numbers in the top-leftcorner. And for the most part it stays wellover a hundred, smooth as a freshly-waxedItalian exotic. Next up is the latest ElderScrolls entry when this computer came out:Oblivion, running here at 720p on the defaultgraphics settings. And really this ain’tbad at all for an ‘07 laptop, this was apretty hefty game to run even on a well-specceddesktop then. Here we get an average frameratein the low 30s, dipping lower when more charactersare on-screen or when you venture out intoa more open area with lots of grass and greaterdraw distance. Still nothing unplayable aboutthis, and I would’ve been floored to seeThe Elder Scrolls IV running this well on alaptop back then. Next I wanted to try a racinggame, and I figured why not try Midnight ClubII for something a bit different than my usualNeed For Speed choices. And well, this one’sa little strange. Like, it runs great maxedout, no problem. But this is one of thosegames where there’s a 30FPS cap on the physics,while the framerate is supposed to be uncapped.Yet even with Vsync off, I’m only gettinga max of 54 frames per second. Weird but whatever.Even with the arbitrarily locked frame rateand loose physics it’s still quite playable,despite some handling wonkiness due to thegame logic being tied to performance. Movingon then to one of my favorites of the mid-2000s:FEAR. Running here on maximum settings at1280x960, since this unpatched version doesn’tnatively support widescreen. Even with thoseadditional pixels, performance is quite respectableon this built-in benchmark. Averaging a frameratein the low 30s, dipping into the upper teenswhen things are at their worst and going muchhigher during sections between action. Sooverall, a solid set of numbers for what wasstill a rather graphically-intense game atthe time, I’d have been quite happy to playon a laptop at this speed and fidelity. So,how about some real-time strategy? For thatI’m going with another of my favorites:Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth2. This was about a year old when the VX2came out, and I recall barely being able tosqueeze out a decent framerate when I playedit soon after launch. But yeah, the Lambojust coasts along nicely here, running at1280x960 on High settings. This does havea 30FPS cap on the framerate, which I entirelyforgot about till now. But it reaches thatrather effortlessly through most of the game.Dropping down to the mid-to-low 20s when zoomedin to an area full of units enduring heavycombat. Still way better than what I experiencedon any laptop back then, this is good stuff.Finally, the question of “can it run Crysis”looms large, so let’s give the Crysis benchmarka shot. And yep, it certainly runs! Even crankedup to medium settings, ooh. Unsurprisinglythe frame rate drops into the mid-to-low teenswhen action ramps up, but the majority ofthe game is in the twenties and is overallplayable for 2007 standards. Would’ve boggledmy brain to see Crysis run this well on alaptop then. Though it’s not without effort,really being pushed to the redline with thatexhaust working overtime. A machine that’sjust as fast as it is hot and loud? FerruccioLamborghini would approve.And that is all for the Asus VX2S! A top-notch2007 desktop replacement with aesthetics thatdemand attention and computing power to backit up. It really does sit on the fence between“beautiful” and “ostentatious” interms of design, but considering the Lamborghininamesake I’m kinda surprised it’s as subtleas it is. Relatively speaking. The thing stillcomes off as a luxury accessory to the casualviewer, like a high fashion handbag or a bigol’ piece of jewelry. An unnecessary attentiongrabber no doubt. But the sheer performanceand functionality arguably makes up for it,this was such a solid portable computer inits day. As you’d hope with its original2½ to $4,000 price tag, but still. If youcould live with its gussied-up look and hadthe cash to spare, it would’ve been hardto go wrong with the VX2S at the time. Anddue to the cash-grab product tie-in natureof the thing, it’s still a fun collectibleeven now,one that I hope you enjoyed checking out with me.And if you enjoyed this laptop retrospectivethen feel free to peruse some of my previousvideos on similar computers of the past. Orstick around for new stuff, always in theworks here on LGR. And as usual, thank youfor watching!\n"