Whenever I talk about gaming laptops to almost anyone, most tend to stare at me blankly especially when I talk about specs and acronyms. Then there are others that simply ask, “Why?” Then the conversation stops. That one word question is a heavy one to answer but to put it bluntly, why not?
Taken at face value, there really isn’t that much reason to own a gaming laptop. It isn’t that practical as you won’t be bring it anywhere because of its size and weight. Battery life is non-debatable as it will only last for an hour and a half at most; and that’s without even gaming on it. And in terms of price, you could build three gaming desktops for price of one gaming laptop. And yet, brands such as Asus are still coming out with gaming laptops such as the G73JH that we are reviewing.
Externally, G73JH is a beast of a laptop. With an 18” diagonal LCD display, it is one of the largest and heaviest laptops in the market. The design is reminiscent of the F117 stealth bomber with its sharp lines and black color. The way that the laptop is built, the keyboard has a 5 degree inclination which gives a little more ergonomics especially with heavy typing. Speaking of the keyboard, it is backlit with a bluish-white glow. This is great for those that want to dim the lights to concentrate on the game and still see the keys.
The specs of the Asus G73JH are also worthy of a beast. Intel provides the processor which is a Core i7 720QM. This is a quad core processor that runs at 1.6GHz. Now that doesn’t sound like much this is also a hyper-threaded part so you get 8 logic cores and is also turbo boosted to run as high as 2.8GHz when the application demands it. It has 8GBs of RAM as well as a 1GB Radeon HD 5870 graphics card. It also sports two, that’s right, two 500GB SATA hard drives and a Blu-Ray Drive as well. Keeping with the gaming aspect of the laptop, sound is given priority which is provided by Creative that affords the laptop to produce EAX 4.0 Advanced HD environmental sounds.
Also included is the Asus Republic of Gamers’ Gaming Mouse. The gaming mouse is wired and solidly built. There is also a switch the below the mouse wheel that changes the DPI of the sensor depending on your preference. The mouse is a great extra especially for gamers who are not expected to game using the touchpad.
We tested a number of in-game benchmarks such as Dirt 2, Street Fighter IV, and Resident Evil 4. We also tested it with a number of games such as Medal of Honor, Mass Effect 2, and Borderlands.
In most of the games tested, you can max the graphics quality of the games at native 1920×1080 resolution except for the anti-aliasing. Especially the newer games in the test such as Dirt 2 which takes advantage of the DirectX 11, we had to lower the anti-aliasing to as much as 2X to get playable frame rates.
We also encoded a Blu-ray movie (Videogames Live!) to a 720p mkv video using Handbrake. Although the Core i7 720QM is rated to go as much as 2.8GHz with Turbo Boost, Handbrake was using all cores at maximum but was steady at 1.6GHz throughout the encoding process. The encoding process was done after 3.5 hours which was a little slower than expected even the application was essentially using 8 cores. The bottleneck seemed to be the speed of the CPU at ran steady at 1.6GHz.
Just for fun, I decided to tote the beast to see just how portable this can be if one really needed to bring it around. First thing that I found out is that almost all of my laptop bags were big enough to fit this thing. I was able to find just one backpack that would barely fit without breaking the seams.
The place? Bonifacio High Street in Taguig. As I left the parking lot to walk to my secret writing spot (Krispy Kreme), it was immediately apparent that the heft of the laptop that I’d be needing a Salompas patch on my shoulder by the time I arrived.
The Asus G73 JH looks like the last hurrah of the first generation Core-i processors as Intel is already in full production of its second generation Core processors codenamed Sandy Bridge. As a gaming laptop and portable workstation, there really is nothing to fault in terms of its ability to crunch the numbers. As something that will be used for entertainment and studies in a dorm, the specs will last a whole tenure in college (including any extra semesters, if needed). Unfortunately, there are some problems with the G73JH. Mainly nitpicks on my part but the most noticeable problem with it is the rather flimsy keyboard. Its keyboard has a lot of flex for something a laptop that has a sturdy construction. The LCD could be a little brighter especially in bright areas.
The argument against desktop replacements such as the Asus G73JH is their price against a similarly spec-ed desktop and the lack of upgradability. One can argue for desktop replacements that these laptops can be transported anywhere. It is true that the laptops such as the Asus G73JH cater to a niche market. One can think of photo and video editors that need the horsepower in the field or dorm students that lack the space in their dorm for a full desktop but still want to be entertained as well as be educated.
Plus: Has the horsepower to play current games; big and vivid display; Speakers can fill a small room with audio
Minus: Heavy; The latest G-series gaming laptop with Sandy Bridge is just around the corner which is 3D capable
Bottomline: If you want a portable powerhouse but is not interested in the latest and greatest, then the Asus G73JH is a great recommendation
Rating: 7.5/10
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