Asus G73 Review

OK with some pretty major problems (3.5 - 4 stars), March 17, 2010

In short this computer is amazing. You wont find anything else under $2000 that can beat this. It comes with a standard 2 year warrant and 1 year accidental damage warranty plus a 30 day zero bright dot policy. The included mouse and bag are also great. So far I have been playing crysis and bad company 2(a great game for your new computer) on near full detail with amazing frames with the ati radean 5870(best single graphics card for laptops), 8gb of 1066mhz ram, and the new blazing fast core i7 processor. Although the computer is the size of some 18 inchers, I found that it looked and felt amazing. The whole back, palm rest area, and keys are rubberized which provides a great feel and grip. The keys are also back lit and the speakers on the computer are very loud and provide good audio The one thing I did not like about this computer was the touch pad buttons (not the touchpad its self which is great) are combined under a plastic cover which is really hard to press down on.
Pros:
Best for the price
Back lit keyboard
rubberized feels great
Best single graphics card ati 5870 with 1gb gddr5 ram
8gb of ram is more than enough
Great processor
Cool unique look
and i can just keep going on and on..

Cons:
Touch pad buttons I find hard to press down on
Number pad on keyboard feels squished

Overall 10/10
And as I said before this is the best!

Update after about 3 months
of use
I have already lost nearly all the rubber feet which do not seem attached well (medium problem). The keyboard has a lot of light bleeding through under the ` key (minor). And the worst problems i have experienced, my computer overheats! It shuts its self down randomly and i do not believe that the fan over the CPU is working (very major). I have sent it in for RMA with asus and will post an update later.
If i could change my rating I would give it 3.5-4 stars.

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You can find a ton of reviews regarding the hardware and you can compare similarly configured gaming notebooks and you'll see that this is HUNDREDs of dollars cheaper. I've had the machine for almost 2 weeks, gaming about 1-2 hrs a day.

Pluses
-have not had a single technical issue
-function keys for volume and brightness do not bring me to the desktop when playing games (like it did my previous HP)
-HDMI to HDTV is plug and play (video and audio)

Now for the Gaming part
I play around with AA (anti-aliasing) from highest and then bring it down until very smooth playability. These are the games I found to push the notebook the most (settings to be very playable at native 1920x1080, I don't use vsync):
Crysis/Crysis Warhead - no AA, almost all on High/Gamer settings
Batman Arkham - No AA, All Max
RE5 - All Max
Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions - HDR at medium, No AA, almost all at max
Prototype - All max
Wolfenstein - All max
Borderlands - All max
Red Faction Guerrilla - No AA, almost all at max
Just Cause 2 - No AA, almost all at max
L4D 1 and 2 - All max, even vsysnc

Every other older game (even newer ones), the G73 just breezes through, (such as GoW, UT3, Dark Void, L4D, TR:Underworld), I've found it handles the Unreal engine quite well.

I can't believe how this notebook handles games at 1920x1080. Stays cool and quiet. Audio is pretty decent, even takes care of Prototype's low volume issue (just crank it up!). I've been gaming on laptops for more than 12 years (no space for desktop rigs) and I've never had a gaming laptop, always had to compromise the graphics. Not anymore. Playing at 40-50 frames/sec is surely a welcome change.

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GPU may overheat and cause laptop to shut down, July 2, 2010

I had the G73JH-A1 for almost two weeks before it shutdown while playing a game. A web search for G73JH and shutdown showed it could be overheating problems. I installed desktop gadgets that monitored the CPU and GPU and tested by playing various games. While closely watching and frequently checking the GPU temperature, it was generally anywhere from the mid 90s to just over a 100 and at times would reach 107 degrees.

After reading more on the web, I downloaded the FurMark benchmark utility and tried the stability test. In less than 3 minutes, the laptop reached 110 degrees and shut down. If the GPU ran hotter than a "normal" 95 degrees, but remained at a constant 100 or 101 degrees without reaching critical temperature, it might have been acceptable. Perhaps by using a cooling pad and making sure the ambient room temperature wasn't higher than 90 I could do without having to send my G73JH for service. But the fact that a gaming laptop could overheat to shutdown with GPU intensive programs meant an unstable video card.

Just to make sure it wasn't the benchmark utility, I tested it on my desktop computer which has an ATI 5770. It ran at a constant 96 degrees for 15 minutes. A friend installed FurMark on her laptop with an nVidia 360m and it was stable at 85 degrees.

I'm glad this happened during my first 30 days. Instead of having Asus replace the video card or entire laptop with possibly a refurbished one even though I had just purchased it new, I had Amazon issue me a RMA for an exchange. Hopefully there's one in stock when it reaches them because I really did like this laptop and am willing to give it another chance.

Aside from the GPU overheating and having to deal with an exchange, there were some minor cons. I won't bother with what I liked because it's been covered by plenty of other reviews.

- The screen is way too glossy, causing lots glare and reflection on the monitor.

- After a week the spacebar sometimes made a squeeking noise.

- Dedicated volume buttons would have been easier than having to use both hands to press two keys, the Fn + F11 or F12.

- I wish the Numlock light was on the right side of the keyboard near the number keys. Instead it's on the left side of the laptop, beside the Capslock key.

- On the Numberpad, the right arrow key is under the 1 and the 0 is under the 2. I'm used to pressing 0 with my thumb and have been trying to get used to the shorter 0 key.

- The touchpad bar for the mouse buttons is difficult to press. I'm glad I use a separate mouse.

- This laptop is so big it doesn't fit in my old 17" laptop case. Asus provides a decent backpack but it's on the thin side and won't hold more than one or two textbooks. Be careful and make sure you buy a laptop case or backpack large enough.

4-stars if the laptop didn't overheat but 3-stars because of the lemon. If Amazon is able to send another for an exchange I'll update this review again when I receive the replacement.


Update July 9, 2010: Received my exchange today. I have to really commend Amazon's return service. It was very easy to request an RMA and they even refunded me the shipping costs for sending it back to them!

After initial setup, the first thing I did was install Furmark and then I held my breath. I can let out a sigh of relief. After 5 minutes it was at 90 degrees, and after 20 minutes this new G73JH-A1 was running at 93 degrees. It might have hit 94 or even 95 but I think 20 minutes was enough to confirm it's stability.

A couple of other things about this laptop:

- The included mouse's buttons are very sensitive. My fingers sometimes press a top or side button when I pick it up to move the cursor. Will take a little getting used to since the buttons are so delicate.

- I wish Asus had included recovery discs with this laptop. Perhaps it was a cost cutting measure. After all, this is a $1650 laptop that other companies would easily charge $2100 or more. Regardless, I don't mind because if I uninstall the bloatware and run Windows Update, I can have bloat-free updated recovery discs.

Despite all the nitpicking, this is an incredible gaming laptop. Quad-core CPU for future programs and games, 8 gigs of RAM, Blu-Ray player, and one of the best laptop video card currently available, the ATI mobility 5870.