Since I am a student, I was looking for a very powerful laptop for a very long time. It had to be a real desktop replacement. First, I was thinking about G60VX-RBBX05 for 650. But it is an old model. Then I found G60JX-RBBX05 for 760 which has newer hardware. Then I found this one. I bought it immediately, because I had looked all gaming laptops, such as Toshiba Qosmio, Dell Alienware, Asus N series, Lenovo Ideapads...Some of them were more powerful than this one, but their price...
Actually, I didn't buy this laptop on amazon, but I bought it on bestbuy for 903 dollars (849+tax). It is also refurbished. The package is simplest laptop, battery and charger. Nothing more and nothing more was needed. It has 500 gb hard drive which is sufficient for me because I have external 1 TB hard drive. 6 gb of ram is more than needed :)
I could say that comparing to other gaming laptops this laptop has the best ratio of performance/money. Really, 903 dollars to almost fastest quad-core processor (820qm, 840qm, 920xm, 940xm, and Sandy Bridge processors are better) and almost fastest Mobility Radeon 5870 (GTX 460M, GTX 480M, GTX 285M, and future Radeon 6970M are better)!
Also, I chose Asus because I trust this company. But other people complain but it's support. I haven't tried to use it yet.
Pros:
1) performance
2) backlight on keyboard. Good to play during nights.
3) big screen (enough for me, 1600x900)
4) two places for drives. You can make a good combination of ssd+hdd.
5) powerful speakers+subwoofer.
6) aggressive design. However, girls, I think, won't like it. (it's not pro, actually, but it's what I like in the laptop)
7) Remarkably silent. Even if I put your hands in front for radiators, it is not hot. The bottom doesn't heat up at all.
I hadn't found cons for me. Nevertheless, I would like to enlist some aspects that you might not like:
1) Battery. Yes, it lasts short, but since the laptop is desktop replacement and gaming laptop, I don't care about this.
2) Set of ports and their arrangement. Because of rear cooling system, there are no ports and they are on sides. This makes mess of cables. Also, set of ports is poor. No DVI, no eSATA, no USB 3.0, no FireWire, no ExpressCard port, no dial-up modem (maybe not important nowadays).
3) Huge charger. Yes, it's huge and heavy, but it's desktop replacement. I don't move it at all.
4) Transportability. The laptop is huge and heavy, but again, it's desktop replacement. I don't move it from my table.
5) No multimedia or additional like quick launch keys. Actually, there are some, such as FN+arrows for media players.
6) No Blu-Ray.
7) No Bluetooth.
8) Small screen resolution. There are other g73jh laptops with 1920x1080 resolution.
9) Touchpad button are tough. But I got used to it for a while and moreover I use external mouse.
So, this is my review. Best laptop I ever had. All games run. For students-gamers it is one of the best deals.
It died on me. Motherboard dead, price for new motherboard $920. I've had it for 6 months. Nothing else to add, there are some better deals anyway.
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Ok, the laptop is wonderful, I actually got it for like around $900 after taxes at bestbuy (refurbished). If everything on the laptop was in good shape, the only thing I could possibly complain about is the mouse pad, it drives me nuts, it skips and you need to press down very hard to click. So if you bought this PC brand new, that would be my only complaint.
Now, the refurbished one I bought had several major issues. The guy who did the refurbishing must have been completely careless. CRACKED SUBWOOFER SPEAKER (Sounds terrible!), it came with software problems as well, the computer would say "start-up is preparing your computer for first use" each time you boot it up, so I started hibernating it instead to bypass the problem. What else... Oh yea, several burnt pixels on the screen. So, a cracked speaker, software issues and burnt pixels is what I got. But I did save 3-400 bucks for the risk.
I would say buy it, I doubt this would happen to you, I just lucked out on the guy who refurbished mine :-/
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I bought this ASUS G73J excited about its two year GLOBAL warranty and for its great reviews. However, within the first year of buying the laptop, I have had to send it in 2 times for screen repair. I am not talking about bright-dots. I am talking about TOTAL screen misfunction. It is a tempting buy because of its specs, but PLEASE do not buy this computer. For anyone who depends on it for their work, especially if they travel abroad, their global warranty is false advertising. Repairs are only available at certain centers in the US and in other limited countries, making it almost impossible for users who travel outside of those regions to get service. DO NOT BUY THIS BRAND OF COMPUTER. I have had a much worse experience with this brand than with any HP, Toshiba, Mac, Dell or other brand of laptop I have owned.
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I brought an ASUS g73 laptop less than a year ago. The laptop failed. I sent it to them for warranty repair and they sent it back with a whole new set of issues (missing screws, the keyboard was now defective, and the video was failing). I sent it back to them again, get it back and right out of the box again a new issue (no network card)! I sent it back to them yet again and they sent it back out to the wrong address! Now, I don't even know if my laptop is working or not yet and on top of it it's 100 miles from where I live. I have called them several times, they would keep apologizing and claim they would fix the issue, and then screw it up yet again. I have reached my limits with dealing with these people! They refuse to simply replace the unit with a new one or just refund my money, they even refuse to let me speak with a manager. I have never met people with this level of incompetence in my life! I can't get anyone at ASUS to actually do anything useful, FedEx won't re-route the package because they only let the shipper do it. So I guess I am just supposed to be out my laptop! (After a lot of screaming I got it Back).
This is the kind of service you can expect from these people. I guess that is why they have over 1000 complaints listed with the BBB over the last 3 years almost all for customer service and tech support issues.
Now, after 4 RMA's I am once again having issues with this laptop! The mouse pad is still not working, which was my original complaint with this machine before the kept returning it to me with more and more issues. I finally had enough of this! I called tech support so I could just get the part and repair this thing at my own expense and sell it so I would never have to deal with ASUS ever again. After waiting on the phone over a half hour at 11:30 at night I get this genius who couldn't even supply me with a part number for their own product! Her suggestion was to look for it myself!
There is a lot of marketing hype around laptop and tablet features these days -but, here's the real deal! When I tested the HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Edition at a local big box store I was hooked from day one. Then I received it as a gift at the Amazon price and was still amazed at how much of a powerful and fast laptop this is for my business and entertainment needs. My goal was to have an affordable Windows laptop PC that was as useful, powerful and durable as a desktop. The HP dv7t knocked it totally out of the park on ALL the specs I checked and compared with other Windows and Apple laptop computers -and I still kept coming back to this model for its features. The Beats Audio system is even more of a knockout whether played through this laptop's front, back AND sub-woofer bottom-side speakers. This really mattered to me since I listen to a lot of CD and Internet radio Jazz, Hip-Hop and Classical music to clear my head during or after work. The video and sound is even more impressive when I hooked-it-up to the big screen TV from the the dv7t's HDMI connection. The large 17-inch adjustable screen is absolutely no strain on my eyes during long work periods, or viewing DVD and online movies on it. This tough 6-pounder that I sometimes carry from home is no more of a problem than carrying one textbook. Besides, I worry about how fragile many of the "thin is in" portable PCs being sold lately. I'm more secure with HP's light-weight metal and plastic construction of the dv7t for the long run. Because I am totally happy and very impressed with this laptop, I could say more about its other virtues. But, if you DO YOUR OWN checking and comparing of the line-by-line specs, you'll most likely do the right thing -at a good price. Moreover, I don't like having to spend (or overspend) money every 2 or 3 years for a new PC. This well-built HP dv7t is a genuine keeper for at least the next 5-plus years of my work and fun. As the classic Hip-Hop song says, "Don't believe the hype!" other PC makers are slinging about why you should spend your dollars on their PCs or tablets. With its WiFi, high-resolution screen, very fast 8GB RAM (be sure to get the Intel i7 chip), studio-quality sound, sharp screen camera, fingerprint security, internal help features, plus multiple USB-HDMI-SD-VGA and audio inputs -I now have my high-speed Internet, big hard drive, work tool, cable TV, bass-boosting stereo music, online telephone, and HD movie system in one box. HEAVEN!!! This HP workhorse affordably delivers the real deal 24/7 for work and play.
