After much deliberation the lucky six bloggers were chosen and for the last month we’ve been getting their daily thoughts on everything from the software, hardware to pure usability of their chosen device.

The final twist to the campaign came when we asked the six bloggers to turn on each other who they felt gave the best blogging experience. We’re happy to announce that Emma Hill, who affectionately called the ASUS Eee Top 1602 ‘ET’ and even took some cracking photos of ET in action to prove the point!

Emma took a whopping 50% of the blogger vote, making her a clear winner and popular choice.

Emma will get to keep the keep the ASUS Eee Top 1602, while our other bloggers will each receive an ASUS Eee PC netbook as a consolation prize.

We’d like to congratulate all our bloggers for a fantastic experience, as the last few weeks have thrown up some probing and interesting posts!

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It’s had a great response and we’ll bring you the winner a little later today – stay tuned!

Our six ASUS bloggers have spent a month writing about their experiences with their test machine, and it’s now time to find out which one was your favourite blogger. Was it Lauren with the Bamboo, John with the Eee PC, or Mark with the N80vc?

Maybe Johan grabbed your attention with the N50, or did Emma’s posts keep you reading about her Eee Top? And what about Gavyn with the gaming G71V?

Relive some of their best moments and vote on your favourite ASUS blogger, right here!

Lauren Brown has been using the ASUS Bamboo U6 for the last month and told us that most comments from people seemed to ‘be obsessed with the battery life of the U6′.

Lauren really got into the spirit of the campaign early on, testing out all the features of the Bamboo U6, even setting up the fingerprint scanner, even though she wasn’t really concerned too much about security – she just wanted to see how well it worked!

However, we really liked the topic about when she ‘killed Peter Griffin‘. Messing about with the settings, Lauren accidently deleted something and had to be resourceful how to get it back. This showed real ingenuity and made for some interesting points.

Was Lauren your favourite ASUS blogger with her indepth comments about the ASUS Bamboo U6  ultraportable laptop? If so, vote below, and help her keep her blogging machine!

Mark Dumpleton was our youngest blogger and had the ASUS N80vc to get to grips with. Being a student he probably had the most unlikeliest of laptops, as the N80vc is a business machine. However, Mark made some great points, approaching the machine with a practical guide to reviewing and testing.

Perhaps the best thing Mark brought to the campaign was his own Quiz Show – fast or flop! This took the Asus and pitched it against a couple of other machines he had to hand to see how the N80vc copes in real world situations. This was a great example of ingenuity coming to the fore with our ASUS bloggers, as Mark really got in to the spirit of the whole event.

If Mark  was your favourite ASUS blogger make sure you vote below, and reward his novel take on testing ASUS N80vc business laptop. If he wins, he’ll get to keep it!

John Scholes had the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE netbook and from the start set himself the challenge of  discovering whether ‘a netbook really [is] just supposed to be an ultraportable laptop without a cd/dvd drive? What is it being used for?’

John seemed to get a great deal of comments and was keen to answer as many queries as possible, making for a great deal of debate about the Eee PC. A lot of this debate centred around which version of Linux is best to install – if any at all – on a machine running Windows XP.

Did John’s take on the Eee PC 1000HE win you over? If so, make sure you vote below and help him keep hold of the machine for good!

Johan Sijbesma was easily our most prolific blogger, as he put the ASUS N50 laptop thouroughly through its paces. He approached getting to grips with the N50 in a very methodical way and was keen to get Electricpig readers involved whenever possible. That’s exactly what we wanted, and as a result, people were genuinely interested in how portable the ASUS N50 was

To answer their questions, Johan took it on the road with him, summing up, ‘The N50 might not be the world’s best ‘travel laptop’ but it travels well enough once you found a bag for it.’

However, Johan wasn’t content to simply test out what the ASUS came shipped with, as he was the first of our bloggers to get the Windows 7 bug and actually install it on his machine!

Was Johan you’re favourite ASUS blogger with his in-depth analyse of the ASUS N50 laptop? Your vote could help him keep his computer. Get stuck in below!

Or maybe you’d rather plump for Emma Hill. She received the only non-laptop – the Eee Top 1602 and seems to have fallen in love with her blogging machine, even give it the nickname ET. In fact, ET seems to have been making regular appearances on Electripig of late!

This touchscreen machine seems to have made a real impact on the family home, as Emma pointed out that her daughter had been told off for touching the non-touchscreen displays at school! Incidently, this post also got the best response with close to 50 comments!

Emma spent a good deal of time discussing whether the Eee Top really was a good family computer and we feel this quote sums it up nicely – ‘as a family PC it works well it moves around easily although my eldest daughter complained that everyone could see the screen when she was on MSN, exactly I replied that’s why you are on it.’

Was Emma you’re favourite ASUS blogger with her touchscreen fixated love affair with ET? If so, vote and help them stay together!

Gavyn Britton had the most expensive ASUS laptop, the ASUS G71V, which is a gaming machine like no other on the market. Being expensive Gavyn spent some time working out whether this price was justified and made for some nice insights in to what makes a portable gaming machine.

The G71V is a large machine and comes with a host of gaming specific features that Gavyn explored with a nice understanding of what a gamer should be looking for in a laptop like this. He summed up the experience saying ‘there are quite a few bells and whistles that will keep your tinkering down to a few button presses.’

So, does Gavyn get your vote? Will you get involved to keep him gaming? Give us your choice below!

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Johan Sibesma has spent this week using his entertainment-focused Asus N50 as a desktop replacement to try and get some work done, and while the lack of a docking port was a bit of a downer, he still found it held up well parked on an office table.

Emma Hill has taken to the only non-laptop in our test, the Eee Top 1602. While the all-in-one PC is nothing new, Asus has been making it even friendlier with touchscreen functionality built in. Not only has Emma penned her thoughts on the digit controlled display though – she’s taken some video to show everyone too!

Gavyn Britton‘s been blessed with the Asus G71v beast of a gaming laptop, and to round off his tests, he’s been doing a bit of price comparison. How does the red machine fare against other gaming laptops? And is the extra portability over a desktop gaming rig worth the extra cost? Find out here what he has to say.

Mark Dumpleton meanwhile has been blogging about the Asus N80Vc laptop for business users, and this week he answered an important question for any budding exec: just what ports does the N80Vc have? Will it hot desk? Mark has the answers.

The netbook natterer of our bloggers, John Scholes, answered a burning question recently for would-be buyers of the 10-inch laptop. What’s it like to really use Linux? Can a layman install it? And would he want to?

Finally, Lauren Brown has spent the last week trying to watch Family Guy non-stop on the Asus Bamboo U6. Can it survive the wear and tear of stop start playback and sudden lid closures?

Remember, voting takes place on Monday so check back then to tell us who your favourite Asus Blogger is!

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Ask any male and you’ll be told that that there are quite a few similarities between women and computers. I need to be careful what I say here for fear of upsetting large swathes of the population, but one of the comments I have heard is: A woman is like a computer in that she costs more than you thought it would, and will not do exactly what you want it to.

I am not going to agree with that of course (mainly as I don’t have a large enough head-start), but the one area where I see similarities between women and the G71V is the area of multi-tasking. Yes, I have heard men are apparently useless at this human trait, so as a practicing male subject, I thought I’d see how effective the G71V is in this very important area. I have tested most aspects of the G71V thoroughly, and so this tests how the G71V handles an area most people face daily in the real world – opening multiple applications at the same time while working, with a few games open on the sly for some stress relief!

With all the memory available, and an OLED display that shows memory usage so that I could monitor how taxed the system was, it was time to open a whole lot of applications and a few games to see if I could break the machine!

So, I opened Firefox, (with all my multi-tabs and a truck load of extensions), MS Word, MS Excel, MS Powerpoint, MS Outlook, iTunes, Skype, IE7, Call of Duty 4 and memory was only on 66%.  Whew, not quite as much as I thought it would be so let’s open a few more. I also opened G.R.I.D and MS Access as well as MS Publisher and still memory capacity was at 78%.

I didn’t go any further as realistically, I would never open this many apps at any one time but it’s great to know that if you ever have an attack of “I need to do everything now”, this machine can handle it and then some. I would have to say that the G71V handles multi-tasking, probably better than my better half, but you never heard me say that!

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My husband went outside this evening with his laptop to work, I eyed up ET and thought “Ohhh can you go outside?” The monitor has a handle which makes it very easy to move, the keyboard and mouse are incredibly light so in theory yes and I was rather excited to imagine ET’s little blue lights as daylight faded, but then I’d need to get an extension lead and that seemed to much effort when I realised all extension leads were in use, which one to ‘borrow?’

Too late the feeling had gone ET stayed inside.  Is it missing the battery back up like a netbook or laptop? Easy to carry yes but it would need a special case to transport it more than just moving it room to room. I do like the idea of taking it out as a mobile office, I imagine the odd looks in McDonalds as I start unpacking it but the power supply is an issue.

If you want a computer to commute with this possibly isn’t for you although I believe it is more comfortable to work with even with battery power your neighbour on the train to work may object to holding the screen for you! When our children were younger this would have been ideal for us with husband working from home the set up of a PC which we could move upstairs when children were playing and downstairs at afternoon nap time.

I do prefer it over my laptop and I never ever thought I’d say that, I like the screen, the ability to position the screen and keyboard independently. The book that accompanies the ET1602 says the monitor is wall mountable, I like that idea if it was staying in one place but for moving around I am too fussy to have occasionally used brackets on my walls.

For me this computer would be ideal to open as a family PC  and a perfect gift at Christmas, it provides entertainment, an interactive sharing element that a normal desktop PC does not offer. I also think it could have a great future in education, the touch screen does make activities seem more fun, I can’t imagine my children to have been enthralled by some of the tasks we have used ET for, I think I’d have had suspicious “Oh no not more work” looks.

The down side being for all I love it I do find it a bit slow, sorry ET but it’s true. I think for the price of around £400 it looks great, more expensive than its price I would choose this design over boxy looking processors and monitors every day. For those worried about a sticky touch screen don’t be, the fun outweighs an occasional wipe over now and then. I am glad we have had this opportunity, for me such a clever piece of computing screams out “Try me then buy me!”

I will shortly be eloping to Birmingham with ET, Birmingham because there is a chocolate factory, chocolate and ET what more could I want and we don’t wish to be separated, I would be very sad to see the back of ET, and at the risk of sounding like someone who walks away with 1p on Deal or No deal I have met some lovely people whilst writing this blog and above all it’s been fun  and for those worried I am longer daunted by self serve checkouts, in fact I actively seek them out!

I shall leave you with this fascinating fact that ET may also be the only PC you can take out and about with you on your bike, you’ll need a long extension lead but fitting it on the handlebars but it was like it was designed to sit there!

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There are several things I like about this machine. Top of the list is the battery life. I have never had a machine before where I am happy going out for the day without the charger. The 1000HE also fits comfortably inside my favourite briefcase (see picture) whilst leaving room for a few papers.

Despite the small size (about 10.5in x 7.5in x 2in, although it tapers, so it looks thinner), I really liked the keyboard and had no difficulty touch-typing on it.

It comes loaded with XP, which I much prefer to Vista. It is also preloaded with several useful apps, including Skype, which works well with the built-in microphone and speakers, and a version of OpenOffice which handles all but the most complicated Microsoft Office documents without difficulty.

My top hate is the flawed Elantech touchpad (supporting two finger scrolling, zoom etc). It seems to be a driver problem, so it should be fixed reasonably soon. I am also told that there are other drivers which work much better, although I have not tried them.

But almost as bad, and not fixable, is the screen height of 600px. For many apps that is fine, even lavish. There is no difficulty with Skype, reading ebooks, text writing/editing, watching youtube, and many other apps. However, I find it inconvenient for browsing, although the difficulties are certainly mitigated if you take care to pare down browser clutter by getting rid of unnecessary icons, search bars, status bars and so on. But mitigation is not enough if you want to have multiple windows open. I do a lot of writing and typically have half-a-dozen other browser and pdf-reader windows open for reference whilst I am doing it. That simply doesn’t work on a screen this size.

Some people claim that the lack of a separate video processor makes video jerky. I did not find that. I found youtube worked fine. But it may be different if you want higher definition video, or gaming or something else that is more processor intensive.

Finally, remember that it does not have any kind of CD/DVD drive. If you want to transfer files to or from it then you have to use a memory stick, USB cable, WiFi or bluetooth.

You have to look at price. There seems to have been an informal conspiracy between Intel, Microsoft and the PC companies to drive up the price of netbooks. The EeePC came out after the hype about the MIT $100 Third World laptop. But the EeePC was never anywhere near $100. The 1000HE has a list price of about £330 and seems to discount to about £300. That is not cheap. There are plenty of laptops around for that price that come with better screens and DVD drives built-in.

So you should only consider the EeePC1000HE if size/weight is critical. But in that case you need to be sure that (A) you are happy with the screen size, and (B) that you would not be better off with an iPhone. Due to extremely slick software and a wealth of “widget” apps, the iPhone is surprisingly capable, whilst being far smaller.

Finally apologies to everalm. I did read his suggestion that I get Ubuntu from eeebuntu.org, but too late for it to help me. Unlike comments, there can be quite a timelag on these articles. For example, as I write this, my 10th article has still not gone up 48 hours after I emailed it in. I have not persevered with tweaking Ubuntu, because the EeePC1000HE simply doesn’t suit me.

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Well, I knew it would come to this and sadly, after four weeks, my relationship with the G71V is about to end. I have a new found respect for the folks who write reviews day-in and day-out as this has been an interesting journey to ensure that every aspect of a potentially large investment is covered to ensure the reader makes a wise and informed buying decision.

So in this final Blog, I will summarise my findings and present a final verdict. Let’s get cracking . . .
Design – while some may say the G71V is gaudy and brash and not going to win any style awards, I think it stands out. Black with red trim, blue LEDs and more blinking lights than your standard Christmas tree, this machine demands to be taken notice of and when I have used it out and about or with friends, it has drawn a lot of approving looks.

Features – the G71V doesn’t fall short here, boasting an array of high end components. Intel Quad core CPU, 4GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive, 512MB graphics card, 17” 1080p HD screen with built-in 2MP webcam and a Blu-ray drive as well as 4 Altec Lansing speakers and a sub woofer … not much left on my features wish-list. If anything, my one minor disappointment is that the laptop does not support the latest nVidia graphics card.

Performance – apart from one game (Crysis), the G71V handled all games with aplomb and barely raised a sweat when it came to running standard applications such as an Office suite, Photoshop or any other resource hungry programs. If anything, some of the games wouldn’t run in the native resolution of 1920 x 1200, but that is a minor niggle, and something that can be solved with a faster graphics card or dual cards. Battery life was pretty poor, but then as the laptop is designed mainly for high performance, it shouldn’t come as a great surprise.

Environmentally, the G71V is extremely quiet and most of the time you wouldn’t even know it’s on. Heating is a non-issue and I have spent many an hour with it on my lap without branding myself or setting fire to me.

Final Verdict:  The G71V is a seriously quick machine, and runs Vista at pace, as well as all the applications I had installed. The quad-core CPU will kick sand on other laptops, and quite a few desktop PCs as well. It is a complete desktop replacement and doesn’t cost the earth if you are looking for performance and mobility, and is a multimedia powerhouse to boot!  Would I buy one? Without a doubt – I have used it extensively every day, played games on it, done work on it, used it for entertainment and even used it to work out the meaning of life … but I forgot to write the answer down.  Now, if I could only claim a G71V on expenses!

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Over the last couple of weeks I have been using the N50 quite intensely and it has definitely grown on me. But now it is time to say our goodbyes and for me to give my final verdict on the N50.

As you have probably read  in my blog series I haven’t always been that positive when it came to the N50. When put under a microscope the N50 certainly has its flaws and some improvement can certainly be made, and have already been made in the new models of the N50, but it’s hard to fault the overall package.

When I was pondering how to describe the N50 to you in my final blog, the phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none” sprang to mind. This might sound a bit harsh but in reality I think it is the biggest compliment you can give a laptop like this.

If you look at how the N50 measures up when you pitch it against its brothers and sisters on test, “good enough” seem to be the operative words. Is it the most powerful? No, the G71v can run computational laps around the N50. The N50 will, however, take anything you’d care to throw at it and eat it for breakfast.

Is it the lightest and smallest with the longest battery life? No, the EeePC1000HE pretty much cornered that market all by itself. Nonetheless you can easily carry it around with you and it will last for 2 –3 hours on its battery which is enough 95% of the time.

Does it have the best screen? It’s certainly not a touch screen like the ET1602 and it doesn’t have the size and the high resolutions of the G71v, so alas another resounding no. On the other hand even I, a self proclaimed fan of the high res screens, have to admit that after using it for a couple of weeks it’s a lovely screen which is plenty big enough.

The list goes on and on and every time it seems that the N50 is always a top contender but never goes home with the gold. Sadly never the best, but always good enough. When we add up the final scores though, always ending second or third is certainly a rewarding strategy.

Unless you are looking for a laptop with specific attributes like, a laptop that is small and light, has extreme gaming prowess or is extremely eco friendly then I think the Asus N-series is your man. A good looking laptop, which handles itself well, whatever you throw at it and I’ll be sad to see it go.

With the Windows 7 upgrade program now in full swing there is no better time to start looking for a new laptop and the N50 should certainly make it onto your shortlist.

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The end is near, we face the final curtain la la la la… my singing is as good as my technical knowledge, BUT not  quite as appalling as my map reading abilities, my instructions were follow the blue line of the River Thames, ok simple enough I can do this I thought,  I followed the blue line… wondering  why it was going round in a circle, it was then I noticed I had switched blue lines & was actually following the M25, my finger had traced many M25 little signs but I was concentrating on following the blue line I was using Google earth with ET thankfully not giving anyone directions, I do make myself laugh though before I cry at my stupidity!

Every computer shop should have an Asus ET1602 Eee top PC out on display for people to try out.

The thought of packaging ET up and sending him away does bring a tear to my eye, sad but true, it’s been so much fun. I have made a brief film of other abilities ET has which I haven’t really mentioned because ET distracts me and makes me play, it’s like having another child but ET doesn’t wake me up at night.

Aside from his internet powers and games which I may have mentioned!  ET has the ability to make presentations, spreadsheets and calculate mathematical equations and other things that normal people may wish to use a PC for, he doesn’t just look amazingly good, Just to clarify ET the computer not the alien I mean, in his sleek “I don’t have a huge processor to house” he packs a lot into a small space, similar to a six pack I think tightly packed and managed.

I am off to test him out with his mobile abilities now ready for the last chapter; you may wish to get lots of tissues ready for the tears…

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Well, that time is upon us, ElectricPig readers! It’s my final blog post with the Asus N80Vc. I’ve been using it daily for the last four weeks, and sadly it’s time for me to return it! So in this final blog post I’ll give my concluding thoughts of it, including whether I would buy one myself and whether I would recommend it to you, the ElectricPig readers.

So, my last blog post! These past four weeks have just flown by! I’ve had some good use out of the Asus N80Vc, including a few trips on the train, a couple on a bus (I’ve learned it’s not very easy to type while a bus is driving round small country roads!) and I’ve tried it while sat on the beach promenade too (rather sheepishly though, as I was trying to shield it from any sand – which, may I add, worked!). It really is light enough to be taken just about anywhere – it’s really light and I can easily fit it in my backpack without a noticeable weight being on my shoulders, so it truly is a portable laptop.

I think Asus have really hit the nail on the head with the N80Vc. It’s primarily aimed at business users, but there’s nothing to really make it ONLY for business users. In fact, Asus seem to have worked to make it a business laptop which can also function as a multimedia or everyday laptop too, which really does ensure it can cater for all markets.

I’ve been really impressed – not just by seeing how technology has changed since I bought my previous 1.5GHz single-core laptop about 5 years ago, but by how close the gap between desktop and laptop computers has become. Top-range computers costing £1000 are still at about the same level of performance that this laptop delivers!

If you’re looking to buy the laptop, it’s worth considering a couple of negative points. The screen is quite reflective – it was quite hard to get photographs of the screen without an image of my face or my camera showing up very prominently in the photo! As long as you’re not going to sit in a really brightly-lit area with a light pointing at the screen and then try to read an e-book, it should be fine though. The noise the keyboard makes does take some getting used to, so if you’re used to a computer keyboard where you press the keys in with quite a bit of force you’ll have to learn to adapt if you want the N80’s keyboard to be quieter!

I really don’t want to have to give this laptop back – my computer has sat all but unused over the past four weeks and when it’s returned to Asus I’ll miss the portability the N80Vc provides me with!

In all honesty, the laptop really is brilliant and well worth the £600 it would cost to purchase it. I would recommend it to anybody looking for a laptop who has that amount of money to spend, and if I had the money (I wish I did!) I would buy this laptop in an instant. It presents fantastic value for money and I believe it has enough features to satisfy business users and non-business users alike.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Asus and ElectricPig for allowing me to have this laptop for a month. The experience has been fantastic and the opportunity to own a top-of-the-range laptop for the last four weeks has been really great. If ElectricPig does something like this again, I would recommend it to all.

So, this is Mark Dumpleton for Asus and ElectricPig, saying thank you and good night.
Goodbye Asus N80Vc – maybe we’ll meet again someday!

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