ASUS' $1,500 Core i7-equipped G51J gaming laptop gets reviewed
By Darren Murph 
posted November 10th 2009 12:23PM
posted November 10th 2009 12:23PM
posted November 10th 2009 12:23PM
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I am amazed they managed to cram the mobile Core i7 processor and chipset in the same chassis and also DROP the price from the previous G51 model. As far as I can see, the only thing Asus removed was the bundled EEE Sticks which were Wiimote clones but who will miss those?
finally a good first comment!
i admit this a good gaming laptop and the price is not sky rocket high (still remains reasonable)!
i7 720QM + 260M / 1500 = FTW
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dear santa, i so want one of these, please, please, please!
SWEET! Raise the bar guys! Looks great. Thanks for not lacing it with ORANGE STYLING! Ewe! live and learn.. right?
Damn Asus knows how to make a gaming laptop. Powerful and affordable. A very rare sight nowadays.
PS, I WISH LENOVO would do an i7, on a 15.6" with a number pad... and a solid graphics card! I WISH! Hey.. backlight the keyboard while you're at it! :-D
That's WAY too much to ask right now. If they did that, the battery life would be 45 minutes, and it would cost $2500. No one would buy it, and that's why they aren't making it. Every good thing you add to a laptop comes at a price, and it isn't always just money.
So does Apple make anything that can compare to the raw power of this thing?
no sir, at least not in the laptop category.
HA HA HA!
The women are attracted to the RAW power. My woman tells me that I am a man because I dont use fruity tutti computer.
Their top of the Line MacBook Pro comes close.
...at almost double the price.
Sorry little witte Apple buddy, sometimes a "pee-cee" can offer things a Mac can't. So sad.
Troll. If you need a woman to tell you you're a man based on what computer you use, you are not a man.
reason i laughed at the newly released apple computer is.....
mac fans are calling that i5 mac HIGH-END!
but maybe they're right.... HIGH price, low End specs!
Anyways congrats to Asus for beating Gateway, but they're still coming so be prepared.
@(Unverified) C'mon man, don't bring Apple into this. But anyway, what would cost a MBP with such specs? Damn!
wow good deal! too bad about that shitty graphic.
'Gaming Laptop' is an oxymoron.
You say that, but this laptop could beat most desktops out in the real world. I have a C2D 3 GHz + Geforce 7950GT desktop, and this will definitely take it and probably still put up a good fight if not still beat it outright when I upgrade to a 5750/70 soon.
The difference is that I'm not willing to spend $1500 and be limited like that.
Sorry, welcome to 2009. You might need a sturdy heat resistant lap though.
Supposedly i7's are going to be extremely power efficient. I'd guess its the video card that eats the battery the most.. and as far as adding a number pad, I WISH they would.. but Lenovo only adds that to the behemoth 17".. which adds a 1.5" plastic border around the display as it is. Additionally, as a Lenovo customer, I think they do have the best product - however, it does irritate me that they waste real-estate with the border around the display, wont offer a number pad in a compact (15.6" display)... can't scroll left and right with the erasure tracking device, the audio is quiet. Aside from those issues.. they really are the best. Best keyboard, versatile ultra bay (can put a battery or second hard drive where my Blu-Ray burner is).. No eSata port, only offer mini 1394 (falls out easily) .. low resolution web cam.. but, otherwise, I could rant and rave about the excellence that is the Lenovo. Even their restore disk is SELECTIVE! You don't have to restore all the bloatware.
doesnt sound that great tbh man
Nice, with i7 now I have less batery life!
Gah, shitty chicklet keys.
So what is the problem with a gaming laptop and short battery life? It's to be expected, at least until they are equipped with the flux capacitor option. This is one sweet ass machine at a great price, with the option for gaming should you want it. Who is ever really that far from a wall socket for an extended period of time other than a business exec? Even then, who is to say that they don't like a game every now and then?
A business executive wouldn't buy something like this because it is simply too big and heavy for day-to-day travel. These days, 13" models seem to be pretty popular since they get the job done and don't take up much space. Besides, this hardly screams "business", does it? Rather, this screams "I'm bunking off and playing video games", which isn't the message you want to communicate.
Google A51J and BSOD, you'll find a bunch of users that get blue screens while gaming in Win7. However, many users report no problem in XP. I have this problem as well and am holding out for a new BIOS instead of downgrading the OS... but it's disappointing to have such a problem on this awesome laptop.
Is that a subwoofer on the bottom? Or just a vent or something underneath the GPU?
Big vent. Actually has pretty weak stereo speakers.
I'm commenting from my old G51, with the quad core, and I'm sorta mad at myself for not realizing that this would come out. I bought this G51 for college, and I could do with some better battery life, not to mention a better processor.
Also, engadget missed that the new G51 also has ddr3 ram, the old one has ddr2 ram.
HP are pushing their Dv8 lappie out for $999 after instant savings...
Core i7, 4gig ram, 7,200rpm 320gb HDD, 1 gig GT 230M vid card, 18 odd inch screen and blu-ray.
http://www.techdealdigger.com/pr/cheap-hp-pavilion-dv8t-184-laptop-with-windows-7-premium-core-i7-deals/2401
Worth a look I'd say...
7.2 Pounds - Weight
might as well buy a gaming desktop for 1k and get a netbook...
maybe you should hit the gym.
@daytripper
Maybe you should shut up. Who the hell wants to carry around something heavy when there are other options? If this is the only computer that has the necessary power, well, then that's fine. I remember laptops when they came in enclosures like suitcases and weighed a lot - perhaps you'd be happy with something like that.
Damn I clicked the link without the disposable income, now I have to find me some.
....Dock?
First the Win7 Taskbar goes Cupertino, now this?
Those gaming results are inconclusive.
The old laptop on Farcry had 36 Frames/s at 1368 x 768 and this new one had 38 Frames/s at 1280 x 720, but the slight increase can be attributed to the lesser resolution.
The old laptop does not have any data for other resolutions.
I love my ASUS G50Vt gaming laptop. When the time comes for me to get a new computer, it's probably going to be another ASUS. $1,500 isn't bad when you consider that a $1,500 MacBook would be seriously underpowered next to this computer. You get a lot for your money with ASUS.
I'm glad I switched from Mac.
With all due respect, if gaming is your thing then you should never consider a Mac. Gaming isn't my thing which is why I use a Mac. Windows just angers me and I'm not paying good money to get annoyed.
To back up what Kelmon said, if you need 100% sRGB color coverage for graphics, Asus doesn't offer anything that does (Apple and Dell have laptops that do this, and many nicer desktop LCDs do). Asus gives a lot of power for the money, but there's limits to what they do.
Asus does it again here. A high powered gaming notebook for $1500. I was close to jumping on the G51VT refurbed on eBay for $800+9% tax until I decided last minute to buy a lower powered notebook for $700. Didn't want to deal with the 260m's heating issues and figured I'd end up selling it later and buying a desktop once SC2 came out.
Still...this comp IS something to drool over.
Asus has got good specs/price, and they're come a long way in build quality. Still there's significant room for improvement - it's still quite some ways from a unibody Macbook or a Dell Precision or new Alienware in build quality. Also, there's no measurement of the brightness, contrast and color range of the G51J screen in this review, historically where Asus has been medicore. The G51J screen is likely "sufficient" for gaming but it'd also be nice to have more.
the power consumption kills the mobility and makes any "laptop" obsolete, but hey :)
I was planning on getting the Acer Aspire 8940 when it comes out... is this better?