ASUS-Automobili Lamborghini VX7 laptop

When ASUS and Automobili Lamborghini first joined forces, you would have been forgiven for thinking this was merely a design and marketing venture. A quick first-hand tour of the revamped VX7 notebook will certainly convince you otherwise. The ASUS engineering and design people sure take their automotive inspiration seriously, pouring enough technology into this 15.6” wonder to make it a contender for one of the most powerful gaming/desktop replacement portables around.

The lure of the road...

Of course, it helps that the VX7 does look like a Lamborghini – namely the Murcielago LP640 Roadster. This is especially true of the rear end, which incorporates huge vents shaped to resemble the taillight and exhaust portions of the venerable Lamborghini powerhouse. That’s real fusion of form and function, because these vents don’t just look cool, they act the part, getting rid of heat quite prodigiously. You’ll need this good thermal performance for all the gaming you’re going to be doing on the VX7.

All the competition ever sees of the VX7

Other touches evident on all VX7 models are leather-trimmed palm rests (the decadence!) and a power button that looks suspiciously like an engine start. And while our test unit came in classy black, ASUS is offering the VX7 in Lamborghini orange and carbon fiber too, with all colors officially licensed and formulated to match the actual application on the cars themselves. Yes, your notebook PC can have the same paintjob as a top of the line automotive speed machine.

But it will let you get up close and personal

Under the hood (we had to say it) lies the real strength of the new VX7 we took delivery of. True to its legacy, this PC is all about power and more power. Quad-core Intel i7-2630QM CPU? Got it. Up to 16GB of DDR3 memory? Check. 750GB HDD or SSD/HDD hybrid drive? Onboard. Should you forgo the hybrid in your own configuration, the VX7 supports up to 1.5TB in total storage. Plus there’s Blu-ray for very good measure as well.

Rest your palms on some luxurious leather

But we were most taken aback by its graphics. The discrete GPU is a DX11-certified NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M, which is at the high-power end of  notebook graphics. Yet, ASUS has upped the ante even more, with a humongous 3GB of GDDR5 video memory, the biggest allotment we’ve seen on any notebook to date. The extra video memory proves very useful in actual gaming performance, enabling better texture detail and higher resolutions. We’ve tested the VX7 with games like ArmA II and Black Ops, and performance was super smooth at high settings.

This may look like a stylish about-town sort of notebook, but in actuality it’s a gaming machine very much in the vein of the popular Republic of Gamers G series. In other words, if you’re a gamer who also loves cars, stop reading and get buying.

The ASUS-Automobili Lamborghini VX7 is available now. Check local retailers for prices and specs, as those may vary from the version described here.

Drop us a line and tell us what you think of this rev-tastic notebook in the comments section!