14. Conclusion: An Almost Perfect Balance

As this review has shown, Asus has almost succeeded in creating the perfect balance between a business notebook and a gaming notebook.

Although the clock speed of the DDR video memory with 64 MB lies at an enormous 420MHz, Asus doesn't completely exhaust the performance potential of ATI's Mobility Radeon 9600 at a core clock speed of 317MHz. Unfortunately, Asus' version of the graphic card driver doesn't let the user vary these two parameters. Nonetheless, there is no need for this notebook to hide behind its competitors in respect of the results that it achieved concerning the measurements of 3D performance in the game benchmarks. In view of the swift response of the graphic sub system resulting in visible ghosting effects during fast game scenes, a display with a shorter response time would be nice - but all of the notebooks that we have tested so far don't make an exception to that rule. We also think that the sound of the stereo speakers needs some improvement.

The M6800N as a business notebook cossets the user with ample performance. With its 15.1" SXGA+ display, this machine is well suited for presentations at your desk or at the client's. Users who have to work a lot with spreadsheet programs will quickly appreciate the high resolution along with the bigger screen diagonal.

The battery rundown time of 3h 40m with a presentation running in an infinite loop, and almost two hours of intensive 3D game-play, this system with Centrino technology doesn't necessarily beat the records. But if you take the comparatively small storage capacity of the battery with only 64Wh into account, the M6800N shows that it uses power very sparingly.

It will cost you about US$2000 to purchase the M6800N in the version that we tested. We think of this as pretty fair price considering the three-year warranty that comes with it. And if you are comfortable enough with a shorter warranty and order the M6800N with a smaller hard drive, you can "reduce" the price by US$400.

The M6800N is available at online stores under different brand names, for example "Star M6N powered by Asus".