Asus G71G

Asus G71G

Feature

Asus G71G is the latest and greatest 17” gaming 'laptop' from Asus, offering power that is rarely within the grasp of notebook users.

Introduction
Asus G71G is the latest and greatest 17” gaming 'laptop' from Asus, offering power that is rarely within the grasp of notebook users. Equipped with a nVidia GeForce 9800M graphics card with 512 MB of memory, the notebook should perform extremely well with even the most demanding games on the market today and perhaps even in the near future.

Asus G71G
The design of the notebook is very nice, although the number of blinking and shining LEDs is a bit exaggerated in useless spots and is missing from areas where you’d want to have some more light, like the keyboard. The LEDs adorn the lid on both sides and on top, lighting up the fancy Republic of Gaming logo. Another series of LEDs light up front side of the main unit and the rim of the touchpad, making it conveniently visible even in darker rooms. Even if the keyboard itself is not lit, there are four touch buttons above it that are, and the separate small LCD screen also provides a little bit of light.

Besides the light show, the unit is rather sportily designed using black and red colours. Most of the ports for headsets and USB gear are located behind small red flaps on the sides of the notebook, making them harder to find and access even if they streamline the looks of the machine. We also wondered how easily they might be replaced if one of the lids broke off in rugged gaming contexts.

The whole unit weighs about 4 kilos or 8.5lbs, which makes it a bit on the heavier side, especially given its cumbersome size. As such, it will probably serve a double duty as a physical exercise device for smaller statured gamers. Personally, we both liked the actual looks of the machine, although we have some reservations about all the blinking and flashing LEDs that the designers have littered the unit with.

Specs
The specifications of the unit that we reviewed are as follows:


  • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo processor T9400 2.53GHz 6MB L2 cache, 1066 FSB

  • Graphics: nVidia GeForce 9800M GS 512MB GDDR3

  • Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit

  • Memory: 4GB DDR2 800MHz (2GB+2GB+2GB)

  • Display: 17.1" WUXGA (1920x1200) glossy

  • Hard drive: 500GB 5400rpm SATA 2.5" (250GB x 2)

  • Optical drive: 8X DVD/RW Double layer Super Multi Drive

  • Ports & slots: 4x USB 2.0, HDMI, eSATA, IEEE 1394, Express card, 8-in-1 media card reader, VGA, microphone-in, headphone-out, Ethernet

  • Wireless: Intel 5100 Link 802.11a/g/n

  • Battery: 8-Cell 5200 mAh

  • Other features: Built in Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, 2.0MP webcam

  • Weight: 3.9kg

  • Included accessories: Carrying case and optical mouse

  • Dimensions: 41.05 x 29.95 x 4.55~6.0 cm (W x D x H)



There are variants of the G71 on the market with differently sized hard drives up to 1TB, so you should check that stuff out before making your purchasing decision.

Screen and graphics
Asus G71G
The 17” glossy LCD screen professes 1920x1200 resolution and dual lamps behind the panel. There is very little leakage at the bottom of the screen, but this is next to unnoticeable. The screen is very bright at the top settings and, for once, you may actually use the screen at less than top illumination even in daytime. The horizontal viewing angles are very good and allow you to share a movie with your friends even on the back seat of a car (just be wary of the battery life!).

The graphics card is nVidia GeForce 9800M GS 512MB GDDR3 and it certainly provides a fair share of power to the machine. The performance scores below, while not astounding for a desktop, are very high in the world of notebooks. Overall, the screen produces a very enjoyable picture quality both with movies and in games.

Speakers
Asus G71G has four-channel Altec Lansing speakers, which produce very crisp and high quality sound – for a notebook. The volume goes up high enough to let you watch a movie without external speakers and the crashes and booms have satisfying depth both in games and in movies. Although you can always do better with external speakers, these do well for your everyday gaming needs if you are on the go.