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For all this added performance, you're going to pay the price when it comes to battery life. The U6S ran for 1 hour and 56 minutes on our battery drain test, which is woefully short for a system intended for frequent travel. Sony's TZ150 ran for nearly four hours, while Toshiba's R500 came close to three hours. In real-world use, Web surfing and working on office documents, we got closer to 2.5 hours of life from the U6S, which is still on the short side.
Asus includes an industry-standard one-year parts-and-labor warranty with the system, but finding support on the Web site is not as easy as it is with a mainstream retailer such as Dell or Gateway, thanks in part to language and localization issues, but mostly to a confusing site layout. Still, there is an online knowledge base and driver downloads, and several minutes of digging through links will eventually yield a toll-free telephone number of U.S. support.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Find out more about how we test laptops.
Asus U6S Windows Vista Business Edition; Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz T7500; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 128MB Nvidia GeForce 8400M G; 160GB Seagate 5,400rpm
Apple MacBook Air (1.6GHz ) OS X 10.5.1 Leopard; Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 144MB Intel GMA X3100; 80GB Samsung 4,200rpm
Sony Vaio TZ150 Windows Vista Business Edition; 1.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage U7500; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 64MB Mobile Intel 945GM Express; 100GB Toshiba 4,200rpm
Toshiba Portege R500-S5003 Windows XP Professional SP2; 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage U7600; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 224MB Mobile Intel 945GM Express; 64GB Samsung Solid State Drive
