Asus G73Jh Gaming Laptop Mini Review

Jesus I had my doubts about this laptop but jeez is this thing sexy.

If they ever bring it to Best Buy where my buddy has a discount.......I'd be all over that.
 
Sure for 1990's laptop, 5.8cm= 2 1/4in, thats one thick laptop, my 2004 Dell XPS is only 1.5in thk.
 
Nanan said:
Sure for 1990's laptop, 5.8cm= 2 1/4in, thats one thick laptop, my 2004 Dell XPS is only 1.5in thk.
Click to expand...
Thats only in the back, it like having one of those hp batteries that stick out the back and make the laptop slant. So stop crying. Bet your xps isnt as bad ass as this laptop. :):D:p Haha.
 
Boshingtang said:
make it a 15 inch and i'd be all over this.
Click to expand...

Same here. I've had a 17" and 18.4" gaming laptops and found them both to be just to big for portable use. They both ended up just sitting there since I already have a gaming laptop. The day someone comes out with a powerful 15" gaming laptop I'll buy.
 
harmattan said:
Same here. I've had a 17" and 18.4" gaming laptops and found them both to be just to big for portable use. They both ended up just sitting there since I already have a gaming laptop. The day someone comes out with a powerful 15" gaming laptop I'll buy.
Click to expand...
This makes me sad, Did you take the big laptops to class or anything like that? Did they feel too big? This one comes with a backpack so shouldnt be too bad.
 
lillimon04 said:
This makes me sad, Did you take the big laptops to class or anything like that? Did they feel too big? This one comes with a backpack so shouldnt be too bad.
Click to expand...

There is no way I would carry this heavy ass laptop around to class with me and junk; it is amazing though.
 
This is a tough decision. Haha. Maybe buy a little netbook, or an older cheap laptop for school? And this from around the house and lans?
 
I once was considering this laptop, but changed my mind
the design is cool, but the they cut some stuff from it

only 4 usb ports, it doesn't have an esata port, no express card connection..


the 5870 is not considerable faster than a 260m GTX (considering the 5870 name)

I am going to wait till summer, hopefully by then Nvidia has their next gen mobile card out
 
I was almost set on buying this and replacing my desktop with it but decided just to get a Thinkpad T500 for school and downgrade my desktop.

T500 with a 3650 isn't great for games, but I can still play TF2 and other on medium/low settings and it's fine for LAN's because most of the time we play crappy games anyways and it's much easier to bring a laptop than to bring a whole desktop/monitor etc.

But this is an amazing laptop for the price.
 
WTF that thing is huge you might as well just lug around a SFF case and a monitor. Probably doesn't even get 2 hours battery life and I don't want to think about the fan noise.
 
StaticSurge said:
WTF that thing is huge you might as well just lug around a SFF case and a monitor. Probably doesn't even get 2 hours battery life and I don't want to think about the fan noise.
Click to expand...
It's not that big(8.8lbs), calm down haha

battery life doesn't matter, it's a gaming laptop, you typically don't use one away from a power source.
 
StaticSurge said:
WTF that thing is huge you might as well just lug around a SFF case and a monitor. Probably doesn't even get 2 hours battery life and I don't want to think about the fan noise.
Click to expand...

8.8 lbs isn't that large. My laptop is 7.7 lbs IRC. A lot of 17"-18.4" laptops are 10+ lbs. If you buy a laptop with Core i7 and a 5870, 2 hours would be a god send. I seriously doubt anyone buying this would care about battery life.
 
lillimon04 said:
This makes me sad, Did you take the big laptops to class or anything like that? Did they feel too big? This one comes with a backpack so shouldnt be too bad.
Click to expand...

Yes, of the three gaming and two non-gaming laptops I've tried to used day-to-day, anything 17" 8 lbs or over is too big (imo, 15" 6lbs +/- is an ideal compromise). In my experience, every large laptop I've ever owned sees very little use and ends up sitting in a corner at home.

Plus, I wouldn't be caught dead with this thing in public much less in a room with hot co-eds. I know most of us [H]-ers could care less what people think, but at the same time, we all know deep down what 99% of the ladies think when they see someone carrying around gear like this... I'll keep my shameful geek gear hidden in my home theater and mancave, thank you :p

And no, the backback doesn't help since weight while carrying it isn't really the problem -- it's when you set it down on tables, airplane trays, desks where the size/weight becomes unwieldy.
 
harmattan said:
Plus, I wouldn't be caught dead with this thing in public much less in a room with hot co-eds. I know most of us [H]-ers could care less what people think, but at the same time, we all know deep down what 99% of the ladies think when they see someone carrying around gear like this... I'll keep my shameful geek gear hidden in my home theater and mancave, thank you :p
Click to expand...

Eh... you'd be surprised how many heads I've turned with my laptop (in a positive way). Although, there's one specific head I don't want to attract the attention of - my professor.

And I'd rather be caught with a flashy ASUS ROG laptop than a macbook.
 
I just swapped out my 3lb 11.6" netbook style laptop for a T500 with a 9-cell battery and it weighs ~6-7 lbs... I barely noticed the difference. My 1100 page calc book easily weighs more than this thing...

Just I doubt the 17" would fit in my backpack, the 15" with 9-cell barely slips in.
 
I dont really care about weight, wouldnt matter to me if it was 10lbs+, its just of how big it is, cus dont some college classes have tiny desks?
 
Aztlan said:
that doesn't mean they are not working on the next mobile card.. they have different teams
Click to expand...

Yes... the one team to make hardware and the other team to rename old hardware.

If you guys hadn't noticed, the G300M's are already out for laptops. But they're nothing 'new'.
 
Intel_Hydralisk said:
Yes... the one team to make hardware and the other team to rename old hardware.

If you guys hadn't noticed, the G300M's are already out for laptops. But they're nothing 'new'.
Click to expand...

Heh, heh so sad. nVidia has been ranaming the same chip technology for laptops since 2007. Some builders then try to charge substantially more for the same exact, rebadged tech. Dell, for example, was charging $150 more at one point as an upgrade option from an 8800M GTX to a 9800M GT in their XPS line :rolleyes:

The chip in the 360 GTX has now gone through three name changes: 9800M GTX, GTX 260M, GTX 360M. Pathetic.

In that time, ATI has introduced three completely different generations of mobile chips (38xx, 48xx, and now 58xx).
 
Sold the w90 eh hart?

I lug around my w90 everywhere. Fully loaded the backpack is probably close to 20 lbs. All the texts book through school don't make it so bad but i find im constantly bumping it off door frames and whatnot. No so bad for text books but one day im going to regret not being more careful :p Survived its first overseas trip last summer, fingers crossed for next summer.

Price it at 1400 cad and i don't think i could resist. Was expecting a little more horsepower out of it buts its still respectable. Especially like the slant they gave the machine to make it easier on your hands for long gaming sessions.
 
Savage hows the w90 with gaming? What desktop card would you compare its close to? Also do you find the laptop to big for some desks in class?
 
SavageThrash said:
Sold the w90 eh hart?

I lug around my w90 everywhere. Fully loaded the backpack is probably close to 20 lbs. All the texts book through school don't make it so bad but i find im constantly bumping it off door frames and whatnot. No so bad for text books but one day im going to regret not being more careful :p Survived its first overseas trip last summer, fingers crossed for next summer.

Price it at 1400 cad and i don't think i could resist. Was expecting a little more horsepower out of it buts its still respectable. Especially like the slant they gave the machine to make it easier on your hands for long gaming sessions.
Click to expand...

Ya, sold the w90 since I found it was way to big for every day travel use. Again, it wasn't carrying it that was the issue, I just found unwieldy for anything other than a desktop replacement. It was a pretty amazing gaming machine (probably equal to a core 2 quad 2.9ghz with a 4850 x2 desktop), but since I already have a desktop it just sat in a corner unused. If it had been my only machine it would have been more than enough as an at-home gaming machine.

let's hope Asus does a better job supporting the g73 than it did with the g90. If it hadn't been for the great modding community, the g90 would still be stuck with 1 1/2 year-old drivers.
 
After having to fight with HP Customer Service (Which by the way is fu**ing horrible and would never deal with again) to refund my money after failing to deliver my laptop for 2 months I'm really considering picking this up... it has everything I want, just little on the steep side for me. any idea when these will be available yet? all I can find is "February"
curious if Bestbuy will have this model available as well since I get a nice discount if I buy through them
 
lillimon04 said:
Savage hows the w90 with gaming? What desktop card would you compare its close to? Also do you find the laptop to big for some desks in class?
Click to expand...

I'd compare it to what hart said, probably crossfired 4850's. Im running a qx9300 (2.53ghz) so my machine is going to be a bit faster then the other w90s, still seems slightly cpu bound even at 3ghz. Currently working on flashing my RAM to achieve a higher overclock as I have no bios options. Intel says this quad should pull 3.6 with little to no voltage bump and we've seen proof of it hitting 4ghz, just need to get this dang RAM sorted >.<

Gaming on this machine is nothing short of fantastic. Of course it has its little quirks in the past here and there but nothing that's been a deal breaker for me. I guess being a pc tech and part of the younger generation gives me an edge in dealing with the w90's little hiccups (most of which are non-existent at this point). Significantly faster then my old e6600 3ghz 8800gts setup. Can't wait to drop a higher OC on this thing, thing just screams. Unfortunately the 512mb vram will be the death of this notebook as games start using more and more vram. Can't run mw2 on extra settings because i just don't have the vram for it and you notice half second stutters as it has to access system ram.

As for use in class, Im not presently in school however I could see it being an issue in uni or college classes. The feet on the bottom of the notebook are spaced 14 inches apart with the inner support feet being 7 inches apart. In highschool a desk would handle this no problem but those tiny folding desks you get in college (got them in music class as well) might be a problem. The bigger problem in my opinion would be needing a power outlet. Ive never really pulled more then an hour out of the battery. Heaven forbid you try to sneak a game in during class.

I remember the first day i got it, fired up some game the previous owner had installed and sat at the menu, unplugged the laptop and walked upstairs to my kitchen, by the time i sat down at the table i had gone from 100-88% wasn't expecting to be able to game on battery but 12% in the matter of less than a minute blew my mind :p And trying to charge the battery from dead while using the laptop takes quite some time, really taxes the PSU. I use it to keep food warm when im gaming :D Battery only serves as a UPS for me when the power goes out or when I have to move it quick.

harmattan said:
let's hope Asus does a better job supporting the g73 than it did with the w90. If it hadn't been for the great modding community, the w90 would still be stuck with 1 1/2 year-old drivers.
Click to expand...

Yeah, who knows if it ever would have gotten fixed, after all they pretty much stole Vicious' fix from NBR. Released a bios which they gave no release notes too, so who knows if Asus/Ati did any of it themselves. Either way were up to date with the 9.12's and the beta 10.1s now so Im not complaining.

On topic, Im surprised that asus didnt mount the battery in the front on the g73 like on the w90. Maybe it's not possible with the down slanted design of the notebook but it sure would have made the back of it less weighted/bulky.
 
Last edited:
Impact said:
After having to fight with HP Customer Service (Which by the way is fu**ing horrible and would never deal with again) to refund my money after failing to deliver my laptop for 2 months I'm really considering picking this up... it has everything I want, just little on the steep side for me. any idea when these will be available yet? all I can find is "February"
curious if Bestbuy will have this model available as well since I get a nice discount if I buy through them
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I doubt that best buy will carry it. Asus is slowing putting more and more notebooks into the big box stores however in the past is was something they didn't like to do, and can only assume because of the poor customer care and sales support offered by big box stores. That said Asus does sell a few certain models in b.b. stores however it's usually a system that's been modified/made for that purpose, and more often then not its lower end student oriented systems from what I've seen. However Im in Canada and we really get shafted on stock all around compared to the US. Can only cross your fingers.
 
thanks for the heads up ill make sure to buy it here in the states before I move to Canada in April
 
harmattan said:
Same here. I've had a 17" and 18.4" gaming laptops and found them both to be just to big for portable use. They both ended up just sitting there since I already have a gaming laptop. The day someone comes out with a powerful 15" gaming laptop I'll buy.
Click to expand...

What do you consider powerful? Lenovo had that Y550P with an i7 and GT 240M for $999 on Newegg...that's a pretty badass machine for a grand IMO, and there are bound to be more powerful laptops than that if you're willing to pay closer to $1500-$2000. Don't some of them have dual GPU configurations, or is that only offered in 17" notebooks?

There were also a few Asus models with the HD 4670 capable of playing the latest games, but they had lower native resolutions (1366x768 and 1280x800). Of course they are refreshing their lineups now and XoticPC has the K52JR-A1 with an i5 and 1GB 5470...that's pretty decent for $869.
 
imyourzero said:
What do you consider powerful? Lenovo had that Y550P with an i7 and GT 240M for $999 on Newegg...that's a pretty badass machine for a grand IMO, and there are bound to be more powerful laptops than that if you're willing to pay closer to $1500-$2000. Don't some of them have dual GPU configurations, or is that only offered in 17" notebooks?

There were also a few Asus models with the HD 4670 capable of playing the latest games, but they had lower native resolutions (1366x768 and 1280x800). Of course they are refreshing their lineups now and XoticPC has the K52JR-A1 with an i5 and 1GB 5470...that's pretty decent for $869.
Click to expand...
Wish the gt240 was a good card.
But that Asus looks pretty nice with the 5470, wonder what the performance will be like.
 
SavageThrash said:
Unfortunately I doubt that best buy will carry it. Asus is slowing putting more and more notebooks into the big box stores however in the past is was something they didn't like to do, and can only assume because of the poor customer care and sales support offered by big box stores. That said Asus does sell a few certain models in b.b. stores however it's usually a system that's been modified/made for that purpose, and more often then not its lower end student oriented systems from what I've seen. However Im in Canada and we really get shafted on stock all around compared to the US. Can only cross your fingers.
Click to expand...

My guess is we might see a waterdown bestbuy version of the G73, as they already burning their G72, probably will come a 5870 as past generation had the same gpu both bestbuy and retail, the things that i expect lower are
Only 1 hard drive (around $80)
4gb instead of 8gb. (around $100)
1600x900 display instead of the 1920x1080 (around $50)
BR to DVD (around $90, most online retailers already offer this downgrade)
Only 1 year warranty ($50-100)

This probably will place it in the G72 price range $1149-$1299, again this just my guess.
 
Last edited:
Only 1 hard drive - Good
4gb instead of 8gb - Extremely good (who the f needs 8gb)
1600x900 display instead of the 1920x1080 - Doubt it, but if so 1600x900 is still very good.
BR to DVD - Good or bad, depending on needs
Only 1 year warranty - bad, no accidental dmg protection.

In for a Best Buy version, as I have a hook-up.
 
I wish we had the option to

change the hard drives from 2 to 1
and change the ram from 8gigs to 6gigs

these 2 things alone would probably drop the cost about $200 bucks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top