Review: Asus G51 Gaming Laptop

When I heard about the Asus G51 being the younger brother to the very impressive G71 I had thoughts that it might lack power where it would not be able to compete with other gaming laptops. At heart, however, I knew that this was wrong.

After sitting down with the G51 laptop I can only say that it will probably beat most of the desktop PC’s currently being used by to read this review. So with all my doubts at ease, we can move on.

Before we start on the G51, we’d like to remind you that Asus is the creator of this powerful machine. Asus is famous for their Republic of Gamers motherboard brand, and high end graphics cards. With this in mind, they have taken this knowledge and put it into one place. Say hello to a series gaming of laptops.

The Powers within

What does this laptop have to offer in terms of gaming performance? With the target market being gamers, it has to be able to run games of all levels to the best, or highest, levels — at the very least. But we always need to keep in mind that a laptop targeted at gamers has to have something to make it look cool, seeing as it will be used at LAN’s.

Specifications:

• Intel Core i7 Q 720 @ 1.60GHz
• Intel PM45 + ICH9M chipset
• 15.6″ WUXGA FHD LCD display at 1366*768, 120Hz
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M 1GB GDDR3 memory
• Intel 5100AGN Wireless
• 4GB DDR3 (2GB x 2)
• Two 320GB Seagate 7200RPM Hard Drives
• DVD SuperMulti
• 120W (19V x 6.32A) 100-240V AC Adapter
• 6-cell 53Wh 11.1v 4800mAh Lithium Ion battery

The i7 is a beast and it is empowered even by the GTX 260 display card, and a set of 4GB DDR3 RAM. Power like this is a gamers dream, not to mention that they can take it anywhere they want.

The purpose of the Asus G51 is mobile gaming and it achieves its goal with and good performance, despite the short battery life. However, laptops shouldn’t ever run of battery as performance fails. Battery power should be last resort, try to plug it in at all times.

So, so pretty

Moving on to the aesthetics area. Aesthetically it is pretty well done to say the very least. The sample we had was a blue top, but there is a model with a white top. The smooth matte finishes and the Asus ROG’s logo is tacked in at certain areas, where lights on the top as bling to attract attention towards the device.

With your common gaming keys (W, A, S and D) being highlighted, you’ll notice that when gaming in dark, or dimmed, area’s you’ll be able to see your keyboard. Following this, the touch pad is pretty good and it has good tracking with almost no lag while playing games. But then again, you’ll use a mouse to play games — not a touch pad.

Visuals and Audio

The G51 only boasts a 15-inch screen which maxes out at 1600×1000 pixels. Most new laptops feature 17-inch monitors, but Asus’ approach for a 15-incher revolves around weight reduction. The colour and brightness on the monitor is perfect, where it sports high performance, entertainment and power saving modes too.

On the sound end we have 2 x ALTEC Lansing surround sound speakers built in to the laptop. Quality wise, the system is exceptional and it’ll be useful if you want to sit and watch a movie in bed. For LAN’s you’ll want to purchase a headset.

2D, 3D what’s the deal with this?

The main attraction, or gimmick, on the G51 is that it’s one of the only 3D laptops out there. 3D works for almost everything on the laptop. There are 3D videos (you need to download or obtain special videos and to be played on a special Nvidia 3D player), 3D pictures (they look pretty cool, but we know what certain people will do with it), and finally 3D gaming — which is a different experience to say the least.

With only about 7 games properly supported by Nvidia, 3D is not yet that popular.

Accessories

As always Asus gives a nice assortment of accessories with their products. With the laptop you get a laptop carry bag; which is pretty snug, a Razer gaming mouse; which is a must have, and last but not least, an awesome set of Steel Series gaming headsets. For gamers this package will should be popular.

Scoring

We ran Futuremark’s PCMark Vantage and it scored 6121. That’s a nice number to see.

The Verdict

As I end this review, I think about owning one and how much simpler gaming would be. With a retail price of around R18,000, it’s costly but if you can afford it, it’s well worth it. The G51 does the job it was made for and will last you at least 4/5 years of hassle-free gaming.

My only real concern is the 3D gimmick, with the news of standalone 3D screens the question arises: you really want to wear glasses to get 3D when certain screens are released without needing this?