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In short this computer is amazing. You wont find anything else under $2000 that can beat this. It comes with a standard 2 year warrant and 1 year accidental damage warranty plus a 30 day zero bright dot policy. The included mouse and bag are also great. So far I have been playing crysis and bad company 2(a great game for your new computer) on near full detail with amazing frames with the ati radean 5870(best single graphics card for laptops), 8gb of 1066mhz ram, and the new blazing fast core i7 processor. Although the computer is the size of some 18 inchers, I found that it looked and felt amazing. The whole back, palm rest area, and keys are rubberized which provides a great feel and grip. The keys are also back lit and the speakers on the computer are very loud and provide good audio The one thing I did not like about this computer was the touch pad buttons (not the touchpad its self which is great) are combined under a plastic cover which is really hard to press down on.

Pros:

Best for the price

Back lit keyboard

rubberized feels great

Best single graphics card ati 5870 with 1gb gddr5 ram

8gb of ram is more than enough

Great processor

Cool unique look

and i can just keep going on and on..

Cons:

Touch pad buttons I find hard to press down on

Number pad on keyboard feels squished

Overall 10/10

And as I said before this is the best!

Update after about 3 months

of use

I have already lost nearly all the rubber feet which do not seem attached well (medium problem). The keyboard has a lot of light bleeding through under the ` key (minor). And the worst problems i have experienced, my computer overheats! It shuts its self down randomly and i do not believe that the fan over the CPU is working (very major). I have sent it in for RMA with asus and will post an update later.

If i could change my rating I would give it 3.5-4 stars.
Rating: 5 / 5

I had the G73JH-A1 for almost two weeks before it shutdown while playing a game. A web search for G73JH and shutdown showed it could be overheating problems. I installed desktop gadgets that monitored the CPU and GPU and tested by playing various games. While closely watching and frequently checking the GPU temperature, it was generally anywhere from the mid 90s to just over a 100 and at times would reach 107 degrees.

After reading more on the web, I downloaded the FurMark benchmark utility and tried the stability test. In less than 3 minutes, the laptop reached 110 degrees and shut down. If the GPU ran hotter than a “normal” 95 degrees, but remained at a constant 100 or 101 degrees without reaching critical temperature, it might have been acceptable. Perhaps by using a cooling pad and making sure the ambient room temperature wasn’t higher than 90 I could do without having to send my G73JH for service. But the fact that a gaming laptop could overheat to shutdown with GPU intensive programs meant an unstable video card.

Just to make sure it wasn’t the benchmark utility, I tested it on my desktop computer which has an ATI 5770. It ran at a constant 96 degrees for 15 minutes. A friend installed FurMark on her laptop with an nVidia 360m and it was stable at 85 degrees.

I’m glad this happened during my first 30 days. Instead of having Asus replace the video card or entire laptop with possibly a refurbished one even though I had just purchased it new, I had Amazon issue me a RMA for an exchange. Hopefully there’s one in stock when it reaches them because I really did like this laptop and am willing to give it another chance.

Aside from the GPU overheating and having to deal with an exchange, there were some minor cons. I won’t bother with what I liked because it’s been covered by plenty of other reviews.

- The screen is way too glossy, causing lots glare and reflection on the monitor.

- After a week the spacebar sometimes made a squeeking noise.

- Dedicated volume buttons would have been easier than having to use both hands to press two keys, the Fn + F11 or F12.

- I wish the Numlock light was on the right side of the keyboard near the number keys. Instead it’s on the left side of the laptop, beside the Capslock key.

- On the Numberpad, the right arrow key is under the 1 and the 0 is under the 2. I’m used to pressing 0 with my thumb and have been trying to get used to the shorter 0 key.

- The touchpad bar for the mouse buttons is difficult to press. I’m glad I use a separate mouse.

- This laptop is so big it doesn’t fit in my old 17″ laptop case. Asus provides a decent backpack but it’s on the thin side and won’t hold more than one or two textbooks. Be careful and make sure you buy a laptop case or backpack large enough.

4-stars if the laptop didn’t overheat but 3-stars because of the lemon. If Amazon is able to send another for an exchange I’ll update this review again when I receive the replacement.

Update July 9, 2010: Received my exchange today. I have to really commend Amazon’s return service. It was very easy to request an RMA and they even refunded me the shipping costs for sending it back to them!

After initial setup, the first thing I did was install Furmark and then I held my breath. I can let out a sigh of relief. After 5 minutes it was at 90 degrees, and after 20 minutes this new G73JH-A1 was running at 93 degrees. It might have hit 94 or even 95 but I think 20 minutes was enough to confirm it’s stability.

A couple of other things about this laptop:

- The included mouse’s buttons are very sensitive. My fingers sometimes press a top or side button when I pick it up to move the cursor. Will take a little getting used to since the buttons are so delicate.

- I wish Asus had included recovery discs with this laptop. Perhaps it was a cost cutting measure. After all, this is a $1650 laptop that other companies would easily charge $2100 or more. Regardless, I don’t mind because if I uninstall the bloatware and run Windows Update, I can have bloat-free updated recovery discs.

Despite all the nitpicking, this is an incredible gaming laptop. Quad-core CPU for future programs and games, 8 gigs of RAM, Blu-Ray player, and one of the best laptop video card currently available, the ATI mobility 5870.
Rating: 3 / 5

Asus has made its model designation for their new Republic Of Gamers laptop systems a bit confusing. The G73JH- line consists of the following extensions A1, A2, X1, X2. All models are exactly identical except for the hard drive setup and the use of a Blue Ray drive or not. The A1 and A2 models use dual 500 gig hard drives for a total terabyte of storage. The A1 uses a Blue Ray drive and the A2 uses a regular DVD drive. The X1 and X2 models “only” have 500 gig hard drives. The X1 uses a DVD drive while the X2 uses a Blue Ray drive. Per my review title, I purchase the X2 at Micro Center about a month ago, so of course that’s what I’m reviewing. But again, all of these models are identical save for the drives, so a review of one essentially works for any of the other three.

The laptop was $1,500 which considering the hardware is quite reasonable. What surprised me however is how difficult this laptop was to find. In the retail market it’s usually the $700 and under laptops that are the big sellers. I thought I would have no problem purchasing a $1,500 laptop but I was wrong, they sell out as soon as they come in pretty much (at Micro Center). I find this astonishing considering the state of the economy and the fact regardless of hardware $1,500 is expensive for a laptop by anyone’s standards. Recession be damned I guess, not sure where are all of these people are getting the money for such an expensive laptop, were it not for my generous end of year bonus it would not be on my desk either (what I’m typing this review on). Guess lots of credit cards have G73JH laptops on them right now, I refuse to use a credit card, if I don’t have the cash I don’t purchase, period. Anyway, enough about the price and availability difficulties and on to the system.

I like this laptop very much. However since it replaced a seven year old Toshiba I probably would have liked most new laptops on the market today. Like I did seven years ago, I set a budget and then I research voraciously to get the best system for my money. Seven years ago my budget was a $1,000 or less, this year I bumped it to $1,500 or less. This laptop came in right at that price ceiling. Unlike the Toshiba I bought which was strictly a business machine, I knew this time around I wanted something I could play games with and use for business applications. Being out of the technology loop for so long, I had to catch up on current tech and what I was supposed to look for. My research told me the following: DDR3 memory is good, running at 1,333 MhZ is even better, the video card should have a gig of memory and run at DDR3 at a minimum, a Blue Ray drive and HDMI out will double my laptop as a Blue Ray player, dual core processors are good, quad are better, i7 are the best, hard drive size is not as important as a 7200rpm rotation speed, a 17″ screen is the best compromise between size and laptop weight, and finally looking at speakers specs, peripheral ports, and added niceties such as integrated web cam and backlit keyboard is also important. Whew!!! That’s a lot more info than I had to worry about seven years ago, but armed with that knowledge the hunt began. After a long search (three months) at which point I almost gave up being able to buy the “perfect” laptop for $1,500 or under I came across the new Asus Republic of Games line and that was all she wrote. The laptop had everything I was looking for and then some.

The performance of the laptop is well documented, so I’m not going to cover that. Basically it has chewed up and spit out any game I’ve thrown at it. Below are the annoyances/surprises I have discovered using it over the past month:

1. The speakers are incredible! Who would have thought laptop speakers could be so good. These things are loud, clear, crisp, and there is even a small subwoofer on the bottom of the case. I was really prepared not to be too impressed by laptop speakers but man oh man has sound technology improved leaps and bounds since my previous laptop purchase seven years ago. My old Toshiba sounded like a transistor radio when listening to music. The speakers on this ASUS are so good you could be quite content using them as your primary speakers, no external speakers necessary.

2. The track pad works very well, but it can be very difficult to see in the dark as the entire bottom half is matte black. It would have been much better to set off the track pad with a silver surround or something like that, anything to differentiate the pad from the rest of the base.

3. The mouse clicker is very stiff. I was surprised at how much pressure it takes to push down on it. I use the track pad for everything (single or double tap to select) so it’s not a big deal for me, but if you like to use the clicker be aware it’s not a low effort affair.

4. The number pad is a little too squished together for my liking.

5. The Blue Ray drive is unfortunately not a slot load type, but uses the regular archaic tray loading mechanism. It’s also awkwardly placed on the left side of the laptop. Most of us are righties, which means crossing over to insert a CD/DVD.

6. The laptop stays incredibly cool when not gaming, and the fans are whisper quiet. The CPU/GPU area at the bottom of the laptop will heat up a good bit depending on how demanding the game is you’re playing, but never once has this laptop overheated on me. It’s wild to put your hand by the back vents and feel all of the hot air being pushed out, very cool!

7. The monitor is absolutely gorgeous. It’s crisp, bright, and at 1080 p is just really stunning to watch Blue Ray movies on.

8. There is no screen latch. My Toshiba had this and it’s a nice touch to be able to lock the screen to the base.

9. No fingerprint security reader, but I think it does have a facial recognition security system, although I haven’t set it up yet.

10. No separate volume control, or DVD player control, it’s all operated via software or function keys. It was nice having a separate volume control I could access quickly on my Toshiba.

11. I love Windows 7. This laptop is the first time I was able to use it, and Microsoft got it right with this OS. It’s like MS added all of the cool Vista features while making it as fast and as stable as XP. Job well done MS!

That’s it pretty much. ASUS is giving you a lot of bang for the buck. The only reason they can sell a laptop with these features at the price (spec out an Alienware system with these features, I dare you to get it at $1,500, more like $3,000) is because they manufacture many of the components that go into this thing, therefore they have no middle man costs to contend with. They make the motherboard, sound card, video card, memory, etc. So if you have the cash (or the credit card) and want the best laptop on the market for under $2,000 look no further, you’ve found it.
Rating: 5 / 5