Mobile Computing News

Photo: Asus

Tread lightly. The Asus G73JH is not cheap. Not by a long mile. But it is an extremely well engineered laptop that can appease the desires of most hardcore PC gamers. Still here? Alright then, dive right in with us.

Specs

Considering the amount of money you’re paying, you definitely want the specs to justify the shillings. Asus works hard at doing this for you. The Asus G73JH has an Intel Core i7-720QM processor. It ships with 8GB RAM right out the box and a beefy 1,000 GB hard drive (yes, that’s right, a terabyte in the case). What of that promise for gamers? No need to fret, how does an ATI Mobility Radeon HD5870 sound? Thought so. Add to that a Blu-ray ROM built in (still something of a rarity on laptops) and HDMI, VGA output with Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, you start to see how the costs of this Asus G73JH just escalated and escalated.

Display

The display is a generous 17-inches in full HD (1920×1080p) with an aspect ratio of 16:9. You’re not going to want to take it outside, since the reflections from the glossy screen are unbearable. Viewing angle is surprisingly forgiving, allowing for slight movement vertically and horizontally relative to the screen’s positioning, but dodging the reflections is the big problem. And this bright, generous display also adds to the battery life problems.

Input

There’s little to say about the input. Both the keyboard and trackpad are above standard fare, presenting a pleasant user input experience. The keyboard is backlit, too – which always excites us more than it should – which is another major plus.

Performance

Photo: Asus

Which brings us to the big one – performance. With a battery that hits three hours at the beginning of its life cycle and continually depletes thereafter, one may feel the pinch with the Asus G73JH. The truth is, this considered, perhaps performance is not as good as the price might suggest. Let me reiterate, the Intel Core i7 and ATI Mobility Radeon HD5870 ensure it works like a charm, but the misgivings start to stack. We tested the machine with the most popular first-person shooter on PCs at the moment, Modern Warfare 2, and at a full 1920×1080 p resolution with 4x anti aliasing turned on and textures extra turned on, it averaged a very respectable 48fps. It’s not quite the COD optimum 60fps, but this is a notebook, after all.

Naturally with applications, this theme carried through as well. It runs really well. Really, really well, actually. And you’ll be hard pressed to find many desktops with equivalent specs or graphics capabilities. But it costs over £1,600, which makes us take a pause. Is the ATI Mobility Radeon HD5870 really worth that? What of the Intel Core i7 processor? It’s just, you sort of feel like it’s overpriced by £200. Sure, we realise at 8GB worth of RAM, with a fantastic processor and a remarkable graphics card, add to that a full HD display and Blu-ray drive, how much did we expect to pay, right? Still, though, it hangs in our minds.

So, in effect, if you’re looking for a superb gaming laptop and price is not a sticky point for you, get the Asus G73JH now. If price is a sticky point, you may dance around the issue a little bit, as we have been.