The Asus G71Gx is the latest laptop in the Taiwanese company’s gaming line-up, and balances a powerful GPU with a high-end quad-core Intel processor. Although it only has a single graphics card, it’s also a lot cheaper than many high-end gaming machines, striking a good compromise between price and power.

With bright colours and an edgy design, the G71Gx is a distinctive machine. The styling won’t appeal to all users, proving slightly fussy, but overall it’s a reasonably attractive product. As with many of its rivals, you’ll find coloured LEDs as an integral part of the design, including lights on the sides of the screen and surrounding the touchpad.

The 17-inch screen is on par with most other gaming laptops, which means you’ll find a high-definition 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution and near faultless image quality. Colour reproduction is especially good, producing bright and even colours.

Asus has fitted a high-end GeForce GTX 260M graphics card. It’s not the company’s flagship GPU, but it’s still more than powerful enough to play most games. The screen’s HD resolution does take its toll in some of the more demanding titles, however, where you may have to turn down detail settings slightly. Despite this, games still look great, and for the most part run smoothly and at high frame rates.

Along with the powerful graphics card, Asus has fitted Intel’s Core 2 Quad Q9300 processor, which runs at 2GHz. We’ve seen more powerful machines when running single tasks, but this machine is really in its element when it comes to multi-tasking. 4GB of memory rounds off the specification, resulting in smooth office performance. With a weight of over 4kg, it’s unlikely that you’ll want to take this machine on the road with you, but if you do you’ll find the battery lasts for just over an hour between charges.

The keyboard offers good levels of comfort, with a responsive and springy keyboard that has a great typing action. It’s not the quietest board we’ve seen though, and the sparkly finish is reminiscent of Asus’ Eee PC S101 netbook. Although it looks great on a ?400 netbook, it’s slightly more questionable on a laptop that’s getting on for ?2k.

The materials are all of a good quality, with robust plastics used, but it’s a shame Asus has abandoned the aluminium finish of the more powerful W90 gaming laptop. The thick screen surround offers loads of protection for the display, with no sign of flex under pressure, and details such as the magnetised covers for the ports are a nice touch.

The plastic flaps cover ports on both sides of the chassis. Along with a USB port, on the right-hand side you’ll also find headphone, mic and SPDIF sockets. The left flap covers a further two USB ports and 1394 FireWire. There’s an HDMI port for connections to HD screens, a VGA port for analogue displays, and also an eSATA port, letting you transfer data to external hard drives at high speeds.

There’s an optical drive that’s capable of playing Blu-ray discs, along with writing to regular CDs and DVDs. 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Gigabit Ethernet combine to make this a very well specified laptop.

Verdict:

The G71Gx can’t match some of the more expensive gaming laptops when it comes to sheer power, but it does strike a good compromise between price and performance. The quad-core processor sets it apart from many of its rivals when it comes to multi-tasking and, aside from battery life, it’s a good all-round package.

Tags: Hardware Laptops Asus Asus G71Gx Asus G71Gx

Asus G71Gx notebook originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:09:44 +0100

The Asus UX30 is a CULV laptop, using low powered components in order to keep the dimensions as small as possible. As such, the 13.3-inch machine measures a smidgen over 2cm at it’s thickest, and weighs in at 1.5kg, putting it broadly on par with Apple’s MacBook Air.

Like the Air, quality is also an area where this laptop shines, with a neatly integrated brushed aluminium lid, and tactile textured plastics. It’s a stylish and cohesive design, with the ports hidden behind magnetised covers, and a glossy cover over the screen that stretches right to the edges of the chassis.

The 13.3-inch screen uses LED backlighting to offer bright and vivid colours, also cutting down on power consumption. The 1366 x 768-pixel resolution results in detailed images, with enough space on screen for a couple of documents side-by-side. While the glossy coating looks great, and enhances the design, it’s a case of form over function, proving highly reflective once out on the road – which is where this machine will surely be used most.

The keyboard features the same isolation style as many other high-end rivals, with keys sticking out through separate holes in the chassis. It’s backlit, adding a hint of quality and making it easy to use in dark conditions, although some users will find the keys slightly too small. It’s easy to strike up a decent typing speed, however. Excellent usability is also offered by the touchpad, which is more than large enough for comfortable and precise use. ?

Intel’s Core 2 Duo SU9400 processor, backed by 4GB of memory, offers adequate office performance, but it lacks the power of the MacBook Air, or other high-end rivals such as Sony’s VAIO Z-series. Battery life is good – lasting for over 5 and a half hours when carrying out several office tasks simultaneously, so 6 hours is on the cards when running single apps.

Graphics are handled by an integrated Intel GMA 4500M chip, so don’t expect to carry out intensive 3D tasks or play games in your spare time. Granted, this isn’t a major setback in a laptop of this type, but it does place it behind the Air, Z-series and even the latest ION netbooks in the multimedia stakes.

There’s no optical drive, but there is a decent array of ports – putting the Air to shame. On the left-hand side of the chassis, behind the plastic cover, you’ll find a single USB, mini-VGA, HDMI-out and an Ethernet connection. The left side houses a further two USB ports, and there’s also a flash memory card reader. Along with Gigabit Ethernet for speedy fixed network connections, draft-n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth offer wireless connectivity.

Verdict:

Despite the fact most other CULV laptops are selling for considerably less than the Asus UX30’s ?999 price tag, it’s difficult not to be impressed by this stylish machine. Few laptops can offer such a great mix of style and quality at this price, and the compact dimensions and light weight make it a great companion for the daily commute. Look elsewhere if value for money is high on your agenda, however, and the same goes for those of you seeking a portable powerhouse.

Tags: Hardware Laptops Asus Asus UX30 Asus UX30

Asus UX30 notebook originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:42:53 +0100