ASUS W5fe SideShow
Imaging scrolling through your email, calendar media files, and stock ticker without flipping your laptop’s cover open or even turning on your system. The auxiliary display on the ASUS W5fe lid makes this a reality. It does this through ASUS W5fe SideShow, one of Windows Vista’s most intriguing functions.
The ASUS W5fe SideShow has a gorgeous 12.1-inch widescreen, but it’s the 2.8-inch full-color secondary LCD on the case’s outside that gets your attention. It gives you quick access to e-mail, photos, calendar info, and music fi les. (This is great for travelers who don’t have time to power up their laptops.)
E-mail and calendar info worked like a charm, although there’s no support for Outlook mail, only Windows Mail. Importing JPEGs and using the secondary display as a slideshow viewer worked well. I couldn’t get some video formats (MPEG, AVI, and WMV) to play, though SideShow’s Windows Media Player gadget should be able to run them.
The rest of this 3.9-pound ultra-portable’s components aren’t shabby. The W5fe packs a 2.16-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 processor, 1.5GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, and a dual-layer DVD burner. But it’s really SideShow that takes center stage here.
PROS Long-awaited SideShow display. Two bright screens. Laptop runs cool. Good performance. Big hard drive.
CONS Lack of downloadable gadgets. No video support. Some SideShow glitches. Small battery (three-cell).