Using the V6-V
With the ergonomics of the screen covered (and I wish they wouldn't cover it with the reflective coating), what about the rest of the laptop? At 2.5kg it's borderline thin-and-light for me, on the upper edge of what I'd class as truly portable. However it's just over an inch thick which, combined with the other exterior dimensions of 13 x 11 inches which house the 15 inch screen, leave it easy to grip along an edge and carry it in your hand if you can suffer the weight.Keyboard wise the V6-V is fantastic. I've loved the key feel and key action of the keyboard since I first had the chance to use the notebook, and my opinion hasn't been swayed since. My sole complaint is levelled at the slightly small left shift key, MAKING TYPING LIKE THIS A PROBLEM, but the rest of the keyboard is fine. Backspace and Enter are good sizes, space sits perfectly under my thumbs and ASUS use almost all of the interior width to place the keyboard, meaning overall key size is good.
It's a real joy to type this article with, and I'd be comfortable tapping on it for extended periods of time when out on the road. The key action is somewhat delicate, but there's great tactile feedback to let you know you've depressed a key, essential since the key action is quiet, generating little noise unless you're really banging away on it.
The touchpad and mouse buttons keep up the good game ASUS have going with the V6-V. The touchpad is good, if a little overly sensitive to being brushed over, with a vertical scroller on the right to save you activating the mouse buttons for a scroll. The mouse buttons respond well to easy side-on thumb presses, and even though it's somewhat easy to confuse the two buttons if you're quickly mousing since there's little to separate them and nothing to physically tell them apart, it remains a nice touchpad and button combo to use.
ASUS use the bottom leading edge of the speaker area to place the buttons for power, radio operation and other shortcut keys (non-programmable that I can see), along with the LED cluster for easy visual indication of the laptop's status. Blue and orange LEDs are used, adding to a really nice aesthetic.
One ergonomic faux-pas ASUS make with the V6-V is that, in pursuit of a really stylish look, the brushed aluminium keyboard surround can get very cold on first use, until a combination of the laptop's heat (not that much, even under load) and your poor wrists add some heat to the thing.
The laptop looks fantastic, the chassis made of a slate grey plastic with ASUS keeping the exterior detailing to a minimum. As a result, the V6-V is a sleek bit of kit and looks the business. If you buy a laptop based on how it looks then the V6-V should catch your eye.
Lastly from an ergonomic perspective, the lid of the V6-V is nicely weighted, especially around the fixed position. That makes it hard to slam the lid shut, but sometimes fiddly to open if you don't get a good grip on the small lip used to open it. Force alone on that lip won't help you; you need to counter the action by holding the base otherwise you just lift the laptop up.
Overall it's great to use and if it wasn't for that bloody screen coating I'd be waxing entirely lyrical about how good the V6-V is a great notebook to use for real work. As it stands, I can just about bear to use it indoors in my office but I don't relish using it outside in the sun, or indoors where there's strong light coming from anywhere behind me.
