Howard's Asus G60VX-RBBX05 REVIEW

This is my 3rd encounter with Asus gaming laptop. I have owned Asus G50, G51VX and this is the 3rd one. Hopefully I can shed some light for readers.



DIMENSION: 14.8 x 10.4 x 1.6

WEIGHT: 7.2 lbs with 6 cell battery

CPU: Intel P7450 2.13 ghz 3MB L2 Cache

Memory: 4 GB PC-6400 Hyundai (2X2) at 800Mhz

HDD: 320gb 7200rpm HD

VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GTX 260M 1GB

SCREEN: 16 inches LED at 1366 X 768

KEYBOARD: Chicklet type back-lit (white light) keyboard

OS: Windows 7 premium

PORT: 4 USB, 1 E-SATA, 1 HDMI, 2 Headphone, 1 Mic, card reader, Express card slot, ethernet.

BATTERY: 6 CELL

WEB CAM: 1.3 MP

PRICE: 999.99



DESIGN AND CHASIS:



G60 use the exact same chasis as G51. Both are same size, identical keyboard and ports which is very sturdy and no flex. Major change is the lid design which is dark blue/black and there is no more light strip on both side of the lid. The hinge is strong and tight, screen exhibited no flex or play while moving it back and forth. When I tried to press on the center of the lid, LED remained bright and no discoloration. This thing is built like a tank. There are touch sensitive buttons just below the screen that changes the LED scheme to vivic, cinema...etc the usual. Also has 1 touch button for battery saver, entertainment, extreme performance (overclock?)



One notable item is the top two corners of the LED screen which was not finished at a 90 degrees angle but a sloped design which some people might find annoying due to the few reduced pixel. I personally did not find it bothersome.



WINDOWS EXPERIENCE INDEX AND PERFORMANCE



With windows 7, the WEI has been extended to 7.9 as top performance. Under extreme performance

CPU: 5.7

MEMORY: 5.8

VIDEO/GAMING 6.7

VIDEO/AERO3D 6.7

HDD: 5.9



I have not noticed a huge performance increase over the G51 which was equipped with the same video card, same memory but a P7350 2.0 ghz cpu. However the overall windows boot up, gaming, touch and feeling experience felt much more smooth and fluid over G51. It's probably due to the combination of 0.13 ghz speed bump + windows 7 which is less of a resource hog.



I did not have access to an external monitor at time of testing and 3D mark vantage will not run because 16:9 screen did not meet the requirement of being able to achieve a 1280 x 1024 resolution. However 3D mark 06 was able to be performed at 1280 x 720 resolution and G60 achieved a score of 9020. Some of you may recall that G51's 3D mark 06 benchmark at 1280 x 720 achieved a score of 8880 found here







This laptop was shippd with Nvidia 186.40 driver and has 112 stream processor. For those not familiar with it , this laptop GTX 260M card is roughly equivalent to desktop version of Nvidia 9800GT card which also has 112 stream processor and DDR 3 memory. This card paired with 1366 x 768 resolution, can run any modern game at high resolution.



MEDIA and SOFTWARE:



G60 came with recovery media and drivers. However it kept prompting me to create recovery discs which should be a more convenient than installing them one by one. Which would prompt some question about bloatware. I immediately uninstalled trend micro trial and microsoft works and other bestbuy, napster software. Besides the usual drivers, half of the software was Asus proprietery such as smart log on, AI recovery, splended video, power 4 gear hybrid. One notable software is the control deck which staggers all the system setting in a series of software presented on your screen with simple name/explanation on what it does. All you have to do is point and click. Very nice and user friendly.



CONCLUSION:



This laptop runs cool, quiet and is built very sturdy. The color scheme offers a mature professional tone while offers a hint of gaming menance as if it can take on any gaming rig out there priced above it. Sure it's not the fastest rig out there and not a 2000 dollars alienware. But coming from someone who has had extensive collection of gaming laptops from earliest day of dell xps to all kind of gaming desktop, this G60 will hold it own without any problems. I bought this laptop mainly for gaming on the go for modern warfare 2. I have no doubt it will handle MW2 any whatever game coming its way in the coming year with absolutely no difficulty. What remains to be seen is its upgradeability which I do not have such information yet. I reckon it will take a brave forum member to try it out



Thank you Asus for making such a balanced gaming machine without breaking my bank.



PS: Sorry about the unclear picture..I been super busy work full time + school full time + just bought a house and my camera broke..had to use my blackberry to take pic.only 3.2mp

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