Follow-Up: Asus N73SV Laptop

Last week, I posted on the Asus N71 laptop. Sure enough, Asus has launched an incremental successor and the Register has an enlightening review. Here's the summary:

Wins

• Asus doubled down on audio. The 11 watt system developed in partnership with Bang & Olufsen moves down from the flagship N90 laptop.
  
  Aside: I live around the corner from a high-end audio-video store with a dedicated B&O section. Glad to see this company doing something other than making ridiculously priced products that can't compete. The Great Recession was good for something, I guess.
  
• They bumped up the screen resolution to full HD 1920x1080 and used a much better LED-backlit panel. Great idea - why have the screen be the weakest link.
  
• The processor is bumped up to the latest i7 version
  
• They moved the audio controls to the right of the keyboard and increased their size - much improved usability!

Fails

• The battery is still pretty weak. A larger battery would make this beast altogether unwieldy, I expect.
  
• No backlit keyboard - you gotta be kidding me. This was a weakness I neglected to mention earlier.

Depending on your opinion of Windows 7, this laptop could compete well with the Apple 17 incher. That is, if it had a backlit keyboard!!! In this segment of the market, it's table stakes.