Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I decided to sell my G73JW-A1 when I saw this model get released. The main reasons for the upgrade were the added 3D Vision capability, 120hz matte finish screen, Blu-ray burner, and HDMI 1.4 port. All the other specs are identical.
As with all reviews, there are pros and cons with the new G73JW-3DE:
PROs:
- Great performance and impressive hardware specs overall for the money (similiar equipped Alienware without 3D capability would cost $400 more...)
- Superior cooling design allows laptop to run quietly even when gaming!
- Excellent 120hz 3D capable LED screen with a matte finish...about dang time! I can finally go to a LAN party and not see every single reflection behind me while gaming :D
- first laptop to offer 1920 x 1080 resolution while using 3D Vision and the screen is great for watching 3D and regular Blu-ray movies as well as 2D and 3D PC games
- Blu-ray burner drive is now a standard!
- Excellent sound from built-in speakers and subwoofer ans has EAX 5.0 capability
- HDMI 1.4 port! Didn't expect this from Asus so soon ;) Now you can use the laptop to send a 1080P 3D capable signal to any 3D TV!
- USB 3.0 port; albeit only one :(
- Battery life is surprisingly good for the performance power this laptop provides (about 2 hours from an 8-cell lithium ion battery is pretty good)
- White LED Backlit keyboard w/variable brightness (still not an available option on most laptops - only Dell, Alienware, and Asus provide this so far...)
- Light weight for its size - most 17 inch laptops weigh easily over 10lbs - this one weighs in at 8.5lbs! WOW
- Optic drive now a lot quieter versus the Blu-ray ROM drive that came with the G73JW-A1...Asus listens to their customers (and their complaints)CONs:
- No native RAID support - not sure why Asus removed this feature since it went to the Intel Core iX series of CPUs. The previous Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad Asus laptops had RAID support so why remove it now? Weird (and bad) decision by Asus.
- Stock WiFi card has just two antenna connections - good for only 2.4Ghz 802.11N
- Internal WiFi does not provide a third antenna for true 5Ghz 802.11N WiFi - you can buy an extra WiFi antenna from Amazon for about $15 and install it yourself (should you decide to upgrade to a 5Ghz 802.11n capable WiFi card; e.g. Intel 5300, 5350, and 6300 Ultimate-N WiFi Link cards)
- No ExpressCard slot - weird for Asus to omit this feature to allow the owner future upgradability/expandibility?
- No eSATA port - would have preferred both an eSATA port AND a USB 3.0 port since eSATA is still faster than USB 3.0...at least until USB 3.0 matures a bit more
- 4th DIMM slot is hidden on the other side of the motherboard; allowing the ability to upgrade only three of the memory DIMMs (unless you want to take apart the whole laptop just to upgrade!)
- GTX460M graphics card not quite powerful enough to play some of the newer games when using 1920 x 1080 resolutions while in 3D Vision mode; frame rates are unplayable until you lower the resolution and/or turn down the in-game graphic settings (AA, AF, Shadows, corpse count, etc); this is a known fact when using 3D Vision in games as frame rates are cut in half since the graphics card is having to render double the amount of information
- A bit disappointed that Asus didn't offer an option to buy this laptop with either a GTX470M or GTX480M graphics card or maybe even a new 500M series card in the near future...(fingers crossed) - this should help negate the slow performance when using 3D Vision in games
- **UPDATE - POSTED 22 JAN 2011** Just found out that the 3D driver issue experienced when playing Call of Duty: Black Ops has been resolved. The new nVidia 400M series laptop drivers were just released on 18 January. I installed them and COD Black Ops now plays great in 3D! W00T!! The original problem was to Asus' proprietary driver release 261.14. Looks like nVidia and Asus worked together to resolve this problem with the newer drivers - outstanding job! This should make a great many G73JW owners very happy. For a detailed list of what was improved with the 266.58 drivers, go to the nVidia website and read the release notes.
Additional comments:
1) I predicted that the GTX460M would eventually outperform the ATI HD5870 mobile once newer drivers from NVidia were made available. I WAS RIGHT! Not only is the GTX460M a faster card, it especially rules when the in-game settings are turned up. The GTX460M graphics card also overclocks quite well. Can't say that about the HD5870 which locks up almost immediately the second you try to overclock it. And did I mention that the GTX460M supports all games and applications that uses CUDA, NVidia Physx, and of course 3D Vision which by the way is a feature ATI is just now getting around to implementing. And, surprisingly the GTX460M runs a full 20 degees Celsius cooler than the 5870 when under full processing mode! O_o NUFF SAID! Don't believe me? Go here to see for yourself: [...]
2) Amazon has incorrectly labeled the type of system memory that the G73JW-3DE comes equipped with. The description states "8GB 1066Mhz" when in fact 8GB of 1333Mhz memory is installed. I verified this by using CPU-Z. So, if you were worried about that little fact, don't be :)
3) Some folks have been posting bad poop in the hardware forums saying that this laptop can't play 3D games and can only provide a 3D signal to an external source, while others are saying that this laptop can not use the 3D Vision mode at the 1920 x 1080 resultion. BOTH ARE FALSE STATEMENTS! This laptop can play all games in 3D Vision mode at 1920 x 1080 (albeit not at playable rates for some games like Metro 2033 or COD Black Ops) and is able to do so with it's own screen! Damn trolls are everywhere!
In conclusion, this is an excellent laptop and I am very happy with my purchase. I have only a few minor gripes to report and none of them are "show stoppers". I highly recommend this product for those looking not to spend over $1,940 on a very good gaming laptop and is well worth the upgrade for those of you who have a "lesser" system.
Click Here to see more reviews about: ASUS G73JW-3DE Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch 3D Gaming Laptop (Black)
17.3" Full HD (1920x1080) 3D 120HZ LED / Intel Core i7-740QM (1.73GHz Quad-Core) / 8GB DDR3 RAM / NVidia GTX 460M 1.5G GDDR5 VRAM / 1TB HDD (500G w/4G SSD x 2) / Blu-Ray Burner / Illuminated Keyboard / Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) / 802.11BGN / 2.0M Pixel / Bluetooth / 8 Cell battery / Gaming backpack and Gaming Mouse included / 3D Vision Glasses Included; 1 USB 3.0 port / 3 USB 2.0 ports / 8-in-1 card reader / 2YR Global warranty / 1YR Accidental Damage Warranty / 30-Day Zero Bright Dot / 2-way FREE shipping / 24-7 tech support
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