ASUS G73JH-X1 gaming laptop hits the US
By Donald Melanson 
posted February 10th 2010 1:11AM
posted February 10th 2010 1:11AM
ASUS introduced its G73JH-X1 gaming laptop right at the start of CES this year, but it unfortunately didn't have much to say about pricing or availability at the time. That's now changed in a big way, however, as the laptop is available right now (at Newegg, at least) for the not-so-crazy price of $1,449.99. That will get you a 17.3-inch 1920 x 1080 display, a Core i7 720QM processor, 8GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 graphics, and a DVD burner, among other more standard fare -- all in a suitably angular, eight-pound package, of course.
Woah... where do I preorder? O_O
@Ducman69 You don't, you just order. My G73JH-A2 will be here today at 9:45AM.
If they would put in a Nvidia Quadro this would be brilliant. I don't need the games.
@TonyMontana2367 They pay nothing, Engadget is owned by AOL.
@BUNT2 I thought you could just do a driver mod to turn a geforce into a quadro on the cheap, and cad has DX support now.
@Ducman69 Well whatever, I can't have this ATI.
And I don't do cad
@BUNT2 dammit I cant downrank myself... why did I bring up geforce when this is ATI? no more drunk posting for me.
@BUNT2
Then get a Dell M6500, those look nicer, same specs but with your Quadro and have been out for months. And in case you didn't notice this is a GAMING laptop so stop spewing your shill and go elsewhere.
Impressive price and features, I still wonder if there is a mistake and it means $1,450 is the starting price, not the price for listed specs.
WTF, now it costs $50 more!
That is a pretty sexy machine.
Still a Desktop over Laptop kinda guy, but that is certainly a powerful 'book.
@pontelon havent you seen the back, or a non press photo? Looks ugly as sin.
@pontelon
I was a click away from preordering this two weeks ago (the A1 version), but I opted for a more portable alternative. After reading a review online confirming that this notebook is powerful but at a heavy expense in portability, I think I made a good choice.
@pontelon im not really a fan of its big butt
@pontelon
I certainly has power but falls flat on it's face with connectivity wish it had a DVI or Displayport out instead of a VGA and an E-SATA and it would be solid.
The only reason I hate ASUS
They pimp out their G series laptops every 5 months!!!!
I still love my G50!
1449???
wow! that's an amazing price for what you get. And finally ASUS has realized how to make a laptop not look like ass!
@Streetfights Agreed, thats a hell of a lot of laptop for that price
beast laptop! 8GB of ram and a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870!
this laptop will make Crysis it's Bitch!
@onQ
Ehh... not quite. The Mobility HD5870 is roughly as fast as a desktop HD5770/HD4870, which can just barely max out Crysis at 1680x1050. Two of these things in Crossfire would def make Crysis its bitch, though!
@aznofazns As long as it can max out Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, BioShock 2, and MW2 I'm happy (in my pants). :D
Ummmmmmmm...WAAAAAAAANNNNNNNTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm selling my Macbook Pro right now, with a Core 2 Duo in it. Don't get me wrong its a great computer but all this for the same price. Holy Crap!!
@yulebellow
Yea, it wasn't such a smart move on your part to buy a MBP as a gaming rig, was it?
@BUNT2
I don't have any interest in games but power and bang for buck is something that I can appreciate regardless
@yulebellow
Ok, so where are you going to see any power from that graphics card for what you do?
beast laptop! 8GB of ram and a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870!
this laptop will make Crysis it's B word!
@onQ: "it is"?
...and a battery life of one half of ten minutes
Shizam!
@Spiraling Shape
ASUS has been pretty good about it's battery life's. I have a G50, which only has a 9800 GTX+ and a dual core @ 2.2 4gb ram etc..
My battery would seem to be much smaller (still pokes out behind the screen though) than this one. Cell wise as well, and I can get a good 3 hours of watching hulu, or netflix.
Or I can play mass effect 2 on it for about an hour and a half before it dies.
I'm not sold until I get a word on the display. I guess it's not RGB LED or something with similar performance. :(
@substance90 Full details from some owners of the G73JH here: http://www.em-zero.com/index.php/2010/02/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-asus-g73jh/
this a ridiculously cheap price!!! You got to love asus, msi, and acer for their prices
@purecussion ASUS > MSI > Acer
@Atkins $1,7xx+? aren't you suppose to prove to me that's it cheaper!?
VAIO is infamous for their expensive prices, plus, the radeon in the asus owns the nvidia 300 series any day.
@Atkins
You can get a Blu-ray writer for this as well.
@Atkins
dude the point is that a different graphic card puts the asus on a whole new level nothing sony has for under at least $1500 can compete with this. when you buy sony you are paying premium on its brand. dont try to argue that it's better when it's only 'lighter' but cost 20% more. the price point IS the ultimate factor in most purchases. get a real laptop dude.
p.s. thinner dont always translate well in a high end piece of hardware. occasionally there are heat issues in general for long hour use.
wow that is a great deal! The M17x with similar specs is about a grand more and that is only with one ATI 4870!
I have a feeling my Asus Laptop from bestbuy will become "broken" in the coming months
Will dual-core i7 be better for gaming? The 720QM is only 1.6GHz,
@mianmian i7 quad core will produce more heat as compared to i7 dual core and adding to this this GPU used 50watt. unless you are a serious gamer, it wont help you much.
Dual core i7?
whaaaatttt
@FAP FAP FAP
welcome to the fun of intels new name scheme. there are quad core i5s too!
@mianmian
I thought the i7 720QM was a quad core, actually I'm pretty sure of that. Anything including and above the 720QM in the i7 range is quad core, the only mobile dual core i7 i can think of is the 620QM.
@Seven again dual core i7 could be i7-620M not QM. And many laptops holding i7-720QM reported throttling issue :(
@Atkins Tsk, that's like saying that the performance per clock doesn't increase generation over generation... But you knew that was the case, right?
@Atkins
this isnt 5 years ago, there are plenty of CPU intensive games out that need all the power and cores they can get.
@FAP FAP FAP
NOOOO!!! That songcameout afterwards!
That is actually pretty good price/performance for a laptop. Though driving games at that resolution is going to be hard. Even a top end mobile gpu is perhaps on par with mainstream discrete cards from two years ago. The res and pixel density does make AA pointless, which helps gain fps.
I would also have trouble justifying this, because a similarily specced desktop can be had for $500 or less. Maybe as a desktop replacement, and if I was working as a games programmer or 3d artist.
@Akhen I call bs
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231308
8gb DDR3 1066 385$
Radeon HD 5770 170&
good mobo 80$
1TB 120$ or so
Nice 500W psu 80$