14. A7J Support

The majority of the ports and connectors on the A7J appear on the left and back sides of the case. The front presents the AV panel we've already described with a front-and-center catch for the top half of the clam shell. When this catch is depressed, it's easy to lift the display one-handed, with thumb and forefinger only.

On the left side at the front, you'll find an ExpressCard slot without any cover below and a 4-in-1 memory card reader above. Next to that, there's a slide switch to turn the integrated 54 Mbit WLAN module on and off. After that, you'll find a Firewire port and three audio inputs and outputs. The headphone jack also does double duty as an (optical) SPDIF output (a special adapter is required).

AV connections on the A7J

The antenna for the cable-ready analog TV tuner and a special input cable adapter for analog audio/video signals may also be attached to the left side of this notebook. And if this isn't already enough, you'll find a modem port, a gigabit Ethernet connection, and one of a total of 5 USB ports on the rear of the notebook. The disadvantage of this sizable collection of ports and connectors soon becomes evident any time you want to use multiple connections at the same time. In that case, you may find yourself entangled in a veritable rat's nest of cables on the left side of the A7J's case.

On the plus side, however, Asus actually includes all the cables and adapters you'll need to make maximum use of this notebook, including the integrated TV tuner from AVerMedia.

On the back of the AJ7 you'll find the following: 4 USB ports, one each VGA and DVI ports, as well as an S-Video output should you choose to link the notebook up to a TV set.