ASUS G74Sx 91234Z > Reviews (1)

Configuration of my laptop

Processor: 2GHz Intel Core i7-2630QM
Memory: 8GB, 1,333MHz DDR3
Hard drive: 160GB SSD and a 1.5 TB 7200rpm HDD
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 560M
Screen size: 17.3 inches

Performance

This laptop is really one of the best gaming laptop for the price. It comes with the 2 Ghz i7 quad core processor and NVidia GTX 560M which are both high end processors and Graphics card available in the market. My laptop came windows home premium 32 bit but I thought that the performance would increase if I used a better OS so I installed the Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit edition. I took my portable Hard disk and connected it to the laptop since I bought this laptop for selling it at a higher price so I did not wanted to go into all the troubles of installing games and stuffs . In my portable Hard disk I had Modern warfare 3, Battlefield 3 and I tested the laptop's performance by taking the frame rates of these games. Modern warfare 3 ran quite smooth at max resolution (1920x1200). It ran at 35 frames per second. Battlefield 3 ran at 28 frames per second at max resolution which is pretty impressive performance for a laptop (I use a Fraps for testing frame rates of games). I ran 5 programs at the same time for testing its multitasking capabilities. When I tried to swipe between the programs I was pretty impressed with its multitasking performance. I could swipe between the programs very smoothly. Normally it takes some time to change between the programs, specially when you are running many programs at the same time.

Design

I would not say that I was very impressed with the overall design. I mean the whole laptop would look a lot better if it was a bit thinner. When you look from the sides you can see that the laptop is sloping. I meant that the upper part of the laptop is thicker than the lower part. The outer part of the laptop's body is made up some sort of rubbery black plastic. The whole part under the LCD display is a huge vent covered by grills which looks really cool. The overall construction of the laptop makes it feel quite firm and strong. The biggest problem of this laptop is the weight. It weights a massive 4.28

Display

The 17.3 inch monitor has a resolution of 1920x1080 The display of this laptop is really glossy which makes it hard to see things under bright conditions, specially under sunlight. The display is extremely bright. The image looked crisp and detailed. I ran some blue ray videos and I was really amazed with its video quality. The video playback was really smooth, the colours looked crisp, the image looked detailed and sharp. The viewing angles of this laptop is quite good. The colours looked okay even when I moved about 40 degrees from the centre of the display.

Keyboard

The laptop has a spacious keyboard. Like the laptop itself the keyboard is also a bit slanted. The keyboard is made up of aluminium in which plastic buttons are placed. The laptop has backlit keyboard which means that the letters of the keys of keyboard is lit by a light under the keyboard which makes it really easy to use in dark place.

The keyboard also has a full number pad which is quite uncommon for a laptop. What makes typing on this laptop very comfortable is the palm rest which has a rubber exterior making it very grippy. Just one disadvantage- the keyboard is a bit noisy.

Touchpad and mouse

The laptop has a large touchpad which is placed slightly at the left. The touch pad is very responsive and also supports

multi-touch gestures like pinch to zoom and scrolling. The laptop has two soft rubbery touch buttons at the bottom of the touch pad. The laptop also comes with a gaming mouse which looks really cool. It has six button and also has a rubbery and grippy surface like the laptop itself.

Speaker

The speakers of this laptop is really awesome. The speakers are loud and produce high quality sounds but the disappointing thing is that it is placed at the back of the keyboard which makes the sound seem less loud from the person who is using the laptop. The sound is a lot louder to the person who is in front of the laptop.

Connectivity

On the left side of the laptop there is one blue ray drive, headphone and microphone jacks, lock and two USB ports. The LAN port, AC adapter jack, HDMI port, VGA port, a USB 3.0 port and another USB 2.0 port, the 5 in 1 card reader are placed on the right hand side of the laptop.

Battery life

The battery life of this laptop is quite disappointing. It took only one hour forty three minutes to drain the battery while play High-Definition videos. Many modern laptops have the feature to switch between integrated graphics and discrete graphics card which makes them really energy efficient but unfortunately this $2000 laptop did not have this facility.

Buying guide

This laptop has a great performance. The expensive laptop is great for gaming but the short battery life and its weight make it less portable. So this laptop can be a good desktop replacement. If you do not want to to play hard core games or edit videos then you should not buy this laptop as a lot cheaper laptop can suit your needs.