ASUS G73SW - True Portable Power

Bringing the breathtaking performance of a desktop gaming PC to a compact notebook has been a challenge, but this is exactly what the G73SW achieves. It’s full high definition gaming and multimedia packed into a sleek form with the latest technology.

Processing muscle

The popular G73 series has been updated with the recent release of Intel’s® 2nd generation Core™ i3/i5/i7 for an even faster notebook. With performance rivaling that of a desktop computer, the G73SW is ready for anything that you throw at it, from office applications to video encoding and gaming.

Always cool
With its eye-catching design, the G73SW deploys unique cooling and noise dampening, with two huge rear venting exhausts that push both heat and noise away from users. This results in a cool and quiet environment.
 
Awesome audio

EAX and THX surround audio boosts game enjoyment and immersion with realistic effects and enveloping sound, while redefining sonic performance in music and movies.

Comfort first

The ergonomic illuminated keyboard sits at a 5 degree angle to increase usability even during long gaming sessions, plus surfaces come wrapped in a rubberized material for even greater ease of use.

Gorgeous graphics

The G73SW utilizes the brand new NVIDIA GTX 460M with a massive 1.5GB GDDR5. Based on Fermi technology, this new graphics processor offers native DirectX11 for a huge graphics gain in high definition gaming, plus dedicated video acceleration.Bundled with the G73SW is 3DTV Play from NVIDIA, which projects the high definition graphics of this notebook onto any compatible 3DTV via HDMI 1.4. This includes 3D video, games and photos, taking the experience into the living room.

Specifications


Processor Intel® Core™ i7 2630QM
Intel® Core™ i5 2410M
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7
Chipset Intel® HM65 Express Chipset
Memory DDR3 1333 MHz SDRAM,4 x SO-DIMM socket for expansion up to 16 G SDRAM (Quad Core),2 x SO-DIMM socket for expansion up to 8 G SDRAM (Dual Core), *2
Display 17.3" 16:9 HD+ (1600x900)/Full HD (1920x1080)/Full HD 3D(1920x1080 120Hz) LED backlight
Graphic NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460M 1.5GB GDDR5 VRAM
Storage 2.5" SATA
750GB 7200rpm
Dual HDD Support*1
Optical Drive Blu-Ray DVD Combo
Super-Multi DVD
Blu-ray Writer
Card Reader 5 -in-1 card reader ( SDXC/ MS/ MS Pro/ MS Duo/ MMC)
Camera 2.0 Mega Pixel Fixed web camera
Networking Integrated 802.11 b/g/n
Built-in Bluetooth™ V2.1+EDR (Optional)
10/100/1000 Base T
Interface 1 x Microphone-in jack
1 x Headphone-out jack
1 x USB 3.0 port(s)
3 x USB 2.0 port(s)
1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert
1 x HDMI
Audio Built-in Speakers And Microphone
EAX Advanced HD 5.0
THX TruStudio
Built-in subwoofer
Battery 8Cells : 5200 mAh 74 Whrs
power Adapter Output : 19 V DC, 6.3 A, 150 W ((Quad Core)) , 120 W ((Dual Core))
Input : 100 -240 V AC, 50/60 Hz universal
Dimensions 41.5 x 32.0 x 1.89 cm (WxDxH)
Weight 3.85 kg (with 8 cell battery)

DELL XPS M-1530

Dell made a serious effort in 2007 to listen to customer feedback criticizing Dell’s older, thick and heavy laptops. The result was the amazingly thin and light XPS M1330, one of the sexiest looking notebooks of 2007. The new Dell XPS M1530 is an impressive 15.4" screen notebook designed similar to (just larger than) the very successful 13-inch XPS M1330.


Screen

Another difference that should be mentioned is that currently the M1530 is offered with only a standard 15.4" widescreen XGA (1280 x 800) display, while the XPS M1330 has the option for a thinner and more power efficient LED backlit display. Dell says the XPS M1530 should be available next year with different resolution screens ... including LED backlight options.

Even though some will be a little put out by the lack of LED backlighting being offered on the M1530 initially, the standard CCFL display is still gorgeously bright and flawless. Plus you get a higher 2.0MP web cam with the standard thicker CCFL screen, whereas with a thinner LED screen only a VGA resolution cam can be fitted.

The screen on our pre-production unit looks flawless from straight on and the horizontal viewing angles are great. Upper vertical viewing angles are good, but colors did begin to invert at lower viewing angles when the screen is tilted back.
Without any tweaks to drivers or removal of software, the machine performed very well -- the 2.20GHz Core 2 Duo processor and Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB card will satisfy most gamers with exception to those more hard core, and will certainly please the average PC user. The 3DMark benchmarks might look unusually high at first glance, but the Nvidia 8600M GT card in the M1530 uses GDDR3 RAM instead of the more common GDDR2.



Frame rates for games like the Crysis demo and Call of Duty 4 were all quite playable and smooth with a few moments of lag during Crysis.

Game Average Frame Rate (FPS)
Crysis ~20
Call of Duty 4 ~40

Of course, the M1530 is also available with Nvidia 8400M GS graphics for those customers who don't care about playing the latest games.

wPrime is a program that forces the processor to do recursive mathematical calculations, the advantage of this program is that it is multi-threaded and can use both processor cores at once, thereby giving more accurate benchmarking measurements than Super Pi.



Pros

Thin and light ... for a 15.4" Dell notebook
Nvidia 8600M GT card option uses high-performance GDDR3 memory
Reasonable battery life
Nice keyboard, touchpad and media buttons
Cons

Only three USB ports
Slot-loading drive is loud during loading and ejecting
Hard drive noise is magnified by the case/mount design
Limited screen options at the time of this writing



bY... Noufal gP Free DNS

Lenovo Thinkpad X61 76744NQ

This laptop comes with Intel 2GHz Core2 Duo Processor; 2GB RAM which is upgradeable upto 4GB and 120GB HDD. It has a 12.1-inch display. This Thinkpad laptop also has an integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 video card, integrated modem and sound card, Wi-Fi, Point Stick mouse, inbuilt speakers, Fingerprint Reader, PCMCIA slot, three USB ports, Firewire port, inbuilt Bluetooth adapter and Infrared port. It comes with Lithium Ion battery and Windows Vista Business Edition. 

Apple MacBook Pro

This laptop comes with Intel 2.33GHz Core2 Duo Processor, 1GB RAM upgradeable up to 3GB and 120GB HDD. It has a DVD writer and a 15.4-inch widescreen display. This MacBook laptop also has an integrated ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 video card, integrated modem and sound card, inbuilt camera, touchpad Mouse, inbuilt speakers and microphone, S-Video port, two Firewire ports, integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It comes in black with Lithium Polymer and Mac OS X Tiger. 

Design and Build

The design and build of the MacBook Pro is top notch.  For someone who has used and handled (although admittedly never owned) several Dells, HPs, and Compaqs (dang their University contracts) the step up in quality was very much appreciated.

Screen

 The Apple engineers made a tough choice to shave 60 precious vertical pixels off an already widescreen aspect in order to integrate the high quality iSight cam.  It still isn't as wide as the 16:9 movies I like to watch so it doesn't bother me at all that this was done.  I'm one of those crazies who actually uses the web cam so I consider it a fair trade.  The resolution is way better than the one found on the W3J, which was one of the things that bummed me about that notebook (1440x900 vs 1280x768)

Battery Life

Battery life is good but not great.  I get about 3 hours and 15 min with half brightness (more than adequate) when I am using my laptop to type stuff up and browse the web.  I haven't tried to play WoW on the battery, but I never plan to so I am pretty pleased with it.  It is pretty good juice for such a slim notebook.

Wireless

Wireless works great and has decent range as far as I know.  My apartment is pretty small so the "Airport Extreme" has no problems dropping out of strong signal strength.  It does seem to have better pickup than my wife's IBM T40.  I do appreciate that in OS X it automatically connects to the strongest available wireless network.

Sound

The speakers dominate the left and right side of the keyboard.  Bass is obviously not great, but it is pretty decent sound for a laptop if you ask me.  The placement of the speakers helps to project the audio so you don't have to worry about your belly blocking the sound (like front mounted speakers found on the HP line). Volume is fine for the movies (divx) I've seen and the audio output with headphones is great.

Pros:

• Very well built
• Great overall performance
• Smaller dimensions and weighs less than other laptops in its class (1lb less than the Acer 8204 for example)
• Can run Windows XP or OS X (and potentially Linux)
• Very quiet
• Amazingly bright non-glare type screen
• High quality web cam
• Decent battery life
• Plays WoW like a champ
• Comes with a remote for media and powerpoint

Cons:

• Somewhat hot when plugged in
• Boot Camp not quite ready for the masses
• Underclocked GPU

Acer Ferrari 1005WTMi

This laptop comes with AMD Turion 64x2 2GHz Processor, 1GB RAM upgradeable up to 4GB and 160GB HDD. It has a 12.1-inch TFT display. This Acer laptop also has an integrated Radeon Xpress 1150 video card, integrated modem and integrated Sound Blaster Pro sound card, Built-in 1.3 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Touchpad mouse, inbuilt speakers and Microphone, PCMCIA slot, inbuilt Bluetooth adapter and Infrared port, three USB ports and 5-in-1 Digital Media Reader. It comes with a Firewire port, Lithium Ion battery and Windows Vista Business Edition. 

Sony VAIO VGN AR49G

Thisl aptop comes with Intel 2.22GHz Core2 Duo Processor, 2GB DDR2 RAM and 240GB HDD. It has a Blu-Ray Disk Writer and a 17-inch wide screen display. This Sony Vaio also has an integrated NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT video card, inbuilt 1.3 megapixel Camera, integrated modem and sound card, Wifi, Touchpad mouse, inbuilt speakers and microphone, PCMCIA slot, Express Card slot, Firewire Port, S-Video port, 3 USB ports, integrated Bluetooth adapter and 5-in-1 Digital Media Reader. It comes with Lithium Ion battery and Windows Vista Home Premium Edition. 

Dell Latitude ATG D630

This laptop comes with Intel Core2 Duo 2.2GHz processor, 1GB RAM, upgradeable up to 4GB and 80GB HDD. It has a DVD Combo Drive and a 14.1-inch wide screen display. This Dell laptop also has an integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 video card, integrated modem and sound card, Wi-Fi, dual point mouse, inbuilt speakers, Fingerprint Reader, PCMCIA slot, Serial Port, Express Card Slot, four USB ports, integrated Bluetooth and Infrared adapter and Media Card Reader. It comes with Windows Vista Business Basic Edition and Lithium Ion battery. 

Build and Design:

This thing feels like a tank and is extremely sturdy. The hinges on the machine are stiff but not difficult to open and the screen will not wobble. There is no flexing of the screen and you truly have to try to press the back to see ripples. When closed, a small, shiny hinge holds the screen locked. The top and bottom of the machine are made of magnesium. I still wouldn’t recommend dropping the machine in order to test if the material is durable.

The speakers are (I think) inside the laptop because I saw no openings for them. The battery sticks out in the front rather than the back. You are also able to add another battery to the DVD bay or replace the drive with something updated down the road. It is very simple to replace the drive in case something happens.

I do have one complaint: I frequently use my USB slots and I dislike having the other two ports in the back. I prefer them on the side. The USB slots are also a bit stiff. Sometimes you have to try to jam the connector into the slot.