After a period of wafer-thin ultrabooks and pocket-sized ultraportables, there's nothing really similar to a hulk desktop-replacement gaming rig. Despite creation a name for itself with the initial Eee Personal Computer Netbook and the new Zenbook, Asus has always had a plain line of gaming laptops (sometimes marketed beneath the "Republic of Gamers" subbrand), the ultimate of that is the G74SX-A2.
While that variety of letters and figures might not be very illuminating, the network it refers to is a burly entertainer that has the updated gain of not seeking similar to the conventional terrible gaming laptop. The $1,949 G74SX is an bony black box, and its pale matte complete helps it from feeling as large as it obviously is.
These days, two splendid is really an celestial amount to pay for a laptop, and normally usually Apple gets divided with charging that much. In this case, you do obtain a few major hardware is to money, inclusive a quad-core 2.0GHz Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M GPU, a 160GB solid-state expostulate (SSD) joined with a 750GB hard-disk expostulate (HDD), and a whopping 16GB of RAM.
All that creates it great for mid- to high-level gaming, even though not on the same turn as our stream gaming laptop leaders, the Origin EON17, that is an overclocked $3,500 beast built in to a brutally broad Clevo chassis, and the $5,000 setup of Dell's Alienware M18x that you tested progressing this year. But even major gamers are doubtful to observe a disparity solely on the top sum settings of the ultimate Personal Computer games such as Skyrim and Battlefield 3.
If you're usually a unintentional (or semiserious) gamer, this network might be overkill, but the possibilities of the large twin hard-drive setup and 16GB of RAM might be attractive to video editors and other multimedia types. If you wish gamer-oriented power, without the over-the-top designs and flashing lights of an Alienware PC, the G74SX could be your wolf in sheep's clothing.
As referred to above, the look and feel of the Asus G74SX falls someplace between the dorm-room-chic glitz and lights of an Alienware gaming laptop and the generic, terrible black-box look of hand-assembled featured item systems, typically built around an off-the-shelf Clevo body. The whole externa; bombard is matte black plastic, and the network tapers somewhat toward the front, with the sides of the lid angling down for a winglike look. The back corner has a hulk air blower vent, moreover neatly angled, and suggestive of the front grille on a classic muscle car--it's one of the few high-design touches on the laptop, so it's as well bad it's confronting divided from the user many of the time.
The direction toward thinner, lighter laptops, at all shade sizes, creates the over 9-pound weight of this laptop even more jarring, nonetheless it weighs scarcely 3 pounds reduction than Alienware's large 18-inch M18x. For a more complex take on what a big-screen laptop can look like, examine out HP's Envy line, that does high power and high type similarly well.
The feature-free interior has usually a keyboard, a large hold pad, a few position indicator lights (HDD access, Wi-Fi, and so on), and power/quick-launch buttons. You're doubtful to ever intentionally use the quick-launch pre-Windows working system, mainly as this laptop is written to stay tethered to your table full-time, but as the two buttons lay correct next to any other, it's easy to unwittingly strike the incorrect one. When the network is already running Windows, that second symbol activates a still mode to lower air blower noise.
That aside, the set of keys is a basic, no-frills affair, solely for a useful backlight. The flat-topped, at large spaced keys are of the same island type found on many laptops these days, but the bigger footprint could have upheld a deeper keystroke. The keys themselves are a decent size, but they shake somewhat beneath even light typing, that isn't the kind of reward feel you design from a $2,000 laptop. There's a full-size well-defined number desk pad to the right, and the 4 arrow keys lay somewhat awkwardly between the QWERTY set of keys and number pad.
The large hold desk pad is a plus, and different a few bigger pads that soak up the left and correct rodent symbol functions right away in to the desk pad (the clickpad approach--Apple does it well, others, not so much), in this box you obtain earthy left and correct rodent buttons. The buttons are big sufficient to strike comfortably, with a solid-feeling, but thankfully silent, click.
Asus packs in several law program applications, a few of that you might find useful, but many are so exclusive that you're doubtful to deposit the time indispensable to pick up them. The Rotation Desktop app lets you barter between different customized desktops (much similar to a Mac does), and the Smart Logon Manager handles facial approval for passwords. One of the apps, the appalling Asus Vibe Fun Center (yes, that's really the name), is just an terrible front end for selling you diversion and song content.
The manifestation is arguably the many critical segment of a gaming or desktop-replacement laptop. In this case, it's a 17.3-inch, 1,920x1,080-pixel-resolution screen, that is precisely what we'd design from any 17-inch cover outward of the infrequent $500 bargain-basement special. The shade is coherent and colors pop, but it doesn't obtain particularly bright. An overly shiny topcoat reflects light easily, that is a shame, as the off-axis observation is obviously flattering great in reserve from that. Unlike a few high-end laptops that have gaunt bezels or edge-to-edge glass, this shade is surrounded by thick cosmetic and (not to harp on the point, but...) doesn't look or feel similar to a $2,000 system.
The audio is tasty sufficient to fool around games without headphones, and usually a big, big laptop such as this can fill up in speakers large sufficient to pierce the air vital for decent sound. Unfortunately, the volume controls are subordinate functions of the F9, F10, and F11 keys, so you'll must be stumble around a bit to arrange volume on the fly.
While you obtain Blu-ray and a singular USB 3.0, there's something to be said for a big desktop deputy laptop having an eSATA port, that for now is still a more familiar way to link up a large outmost expostulate than USB 3.0. Bluetooth is useful for joining a wireless rodent without using up a USB port, but do not design as well many frills over that.
While the definite setup reviewed here runs $1,949, there is a less-expensive $1,500 chronicle that drops the RAM from 16GB to 12GB, and ditches the 160GB SSD for a singular 1,5TB, 7200rpm hard drive.
Big gaming laptops are, if not rare, then at least not badly familiar these days. Most of the 2011 models use one of Intel's quad-core Core i7 CPUs--in this box it's the 2GHz Core i7-2630QM. More than sufficient for gaming, HD video, multitasking, or whatever else you wish to hurl at it, this is positively more laptop power than many people will need.
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