So I didn't like the other two twice as much as the Asus, so I took the plunge.
I ordered it from Amazon because of the very favorable experience I'd had with them in the past. I read about them putting the laptop box inside of another box with no padding, allowing the laptop to shift around during shipping which is not good for drives, etc. Some said to order 1 day shipping to avoid this. I ordered 1-day shipping, but they still shipped it in a larger box with no padding, so this part isn't great. I was very unhappy with the shipping arrangements (they shipped it signature required, which I understand given the $$$; I tried to get UPS to hold it at the distribution center because I wasn't going to be home so I could pick it up later that day they said NO, the shipper has to call to do this I called Amazon and they contacted UPS, but they DIDN'T tell UPS that I wanted to pick it up that day, so I had to wait a day. Ordinarily this is OK with me, but I paid $50 to get it overnight so I was not happy. I emailed Amazon about this. They apologized and refunded my shipping cost, which was nice of them.)
Anyway, I eventually got it. Opening the laptop box, it's well packed. I comes with a Republic of Gamers bookbag and gaming mouse (both with ROG logos and both seem to be high quality) pretty nice extras.
The laptop just looks so cool. I'm very glad I decided to get the 15" screen as opposed to the 17". Both have 1080p, and I like a screen with higher density pixels. Really nice design on the whole. Magnetic lid closure, bright clear screen, no dead pixels. It's really quiet and stays quite cool, although I haven't given it a real test yet. I burned my Recovery DVDs without a hitch. Tested the media reader, camera, microphone, ports, etc. Everything checks out. The keyboard does have a little flex, but it's hardly noticeable. If no-one told you it had the flex, you probably wouldn't have noticed it. Sure, if you STARE at it when pressing keys, you notice it, but I think people are really blowing this fault out of proportion. The key backlighting is nice, but it looks a little messy with the light escaping from the edge of the keys. I would prefer that just the letters on the keys are lit. The trackpad works well, although smaller than many other laptops, and much smaller than the MacBook Pro. It's very zippy, and runs everything very quickly. Lots of bloatware, but I'm in the process of reinstalling a clean windows copy.
Design things I would change: 1) I would have put the power plug in the back because it looks so messy in the middle of the right side of the laptop. 2) I would like to have had the USB ports towards the back not the front, so the cables stay out of my way. 3) screen hinge is a bit stiff, so you have to hold the base down while opening it to keep it on the table, 4) screen doesn't pivot back quite far enough for me. These quibbles are pretty minor though.
One thing that is clear the moment you open this thing up. It's so masculine. It really makes the MacBook Pro seem quite girly. The stealth-fighter look is totally badass. Now I love macs, and I've got a few, but this machine just makes you feel like a man (grunt, growl). Yes, it's heavier and thicker than the MacBook Pro, but I plan on using it as a desktop replacement anyway.
So I'm very happy with my purchase. I would have liked to have a Blu-ray drive in it. Given the sale price with the $150 rebate on top of that, it can't be beat for value.
If you've been considering it, GO FOR IT! I think you'll be very happy with your choice.
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I received this laptop yesterday and I've been very satisfied so far.Packaging: Amazon put the laptop box in a larger box with no padding. It could have easily shifted back and forth in the box. Previous users mentioned this problem so I opted for the overnight delivery to minimize UPS handling of the unit. It seems to have worked.
Screen: Looks amazing although strangely there wasn't a plastic covering when I first lifted the lid. There was no damage or scratches so it didn't bother me so much.
Sound: It's nothing fantastic but it's doable. The laptop has a sub woofer so it's definitely better than most out there.
Video: I tried playing starcraft II at 1920 x 1080 at "Ultra." It wasn't amazingly smooth and there was a bit of lag. I turned the resolution down and textures to high and the game works flawless. This is the only game I've tried so far. 3dmark01 score was 39,421.
Keyboard: I love the backlit features. I've had no problem with it so far. I read reports that the lights will sometimes go out but I've yet to experience that.
Mouse/Backpack: Quality items. The backback is pretty awesome and stylish. The mouse is a Razer Abyssus.
Overall I'm very satisfied with the purchase. There was a lot of bloatware pre-installed however. I simply removed everything that wasn't windows related and installed the drivers again (included on a CD). All of the hotkeys work great and windows boot-up is very fast. I would definately recomment this computer especially since Asus is offering a $150 mail in rebate. Mine is already in the mail.
Note on rebate/warranty: You have to send in the warranty card that comes with the notebook. I've read that if you don't mail it in you will experience troubles in the future if you need to utilize warranty repair. The mail-in rebate is very strict and has small details you have to include be sure to read the instructions carefully. The most annoying part is the UPC code there were so many I didn't know which one to include. It turns out the one I needed was taped on the very tough cardboard box. I just sent the cardboard cutout itself.
UPDATE: 7/25/11
I've been experiencing freezing issues. A couple of times per day my system just freezes. It has yet to freeze while gaming though. When I'm viewing pictures, browsing the internet, etc. When the computer freezes, about 5 seconds later the system makes a large "beep" noise. After a few seconds it unfreezes for about 5 seconds but the freezing continues it's a never ending cycle. I have tried for hours to get ahold of phone support, but while I'm waiting for an agent I get disconnected which leads me to believe phone support is non-existent. I've written an email but it says it'll take 48 hours to respond. I've dropped my review from 5 stars to 1 until this problem gets handled.
UPDATE: 09/23/11
Problem has been fixed. I forgot exactly what I did but it was related to hibernation/sleep mode (which is now disabled).
Best Deals for ASUS G53SW-A1 Republic of Gamers 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop
I realize that this laptop probably isn't very popular anymore, but I thought I would chime in on it anyway.The Good-
In terms of hardware for the price, this laptop really can't be beaten. Starcraft II can be run on Ultra/High, and multiple processes (eg. Photoshop, Sony Vegas, Powerpoint) can all run simultaneously with ease. The 12 gigs of RAM is frankly a bit much; I don't think I've gotten over 4 gigs of usage at a time. However, it can be useful if you're looking to create a RAM disk.
The screen is extremely sharp and vibrant. The keyboard illuminates nicely, and the "flex" that other reviewers mentioned is really insignificant. The default sound, while nothing special, is pretty good for a laptop.
The Bad-
Most of the bad things about this laptop are annoyances, and not that bad at all. For example, all of the ports are on the side, which makes things very crowded. Also, sometimes the keyboard fails to register a keystroke, although this isn't common enough to be frustrating. Of course the battery life is horrid, but that comes with the territory.
The Ugly-
There is a freezing issue associated with this laptop. I have to manually reboot the computer because it completely locks up. Another annoyance is that the sound card in this computer is garbage. My subwoofer barely works with it, and (the sub) works perfectly with my friends $600 Dell and my iPod.
Overall-
The tone of this review may have seemed negative, but really the laptop is pretty awesome except for the annoyances. It's powerful, looks good, and is cheap (for what you get). 4/5 stars
10/2/11 edit: Upgraded this review to 5 stars because I fixed some of the issues with it. The freezing issue can be avoided if Hibernation or Sleep mode are not used. The sound card is fine. A pre-installed THX program was set to laptop speakers, preventing the sub from working properly. It sounds great now. 5/5
Honest reviews on ASUS G53SW-A1 Republic of Gamers 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop
I had the ASUS G53Sw-A1 for about a month now. The first thing I did was put it to a rigorous, non-stop, two maybe three day download. After which I would play a game that takes a fair chunk of the processor to run. The game ran smoothly and the cooling fan (I call it the jet-engine) stayed cool although it did get hot when the GPU was running. I was impressed that only the region around the vent heated up and not the entire back surface of the computer. Even more impressive was how cool the laptop stayed when the gpu was not in use. Casual use of this product for however many hours will barely produce any heat. The ventilation system is top notch for the price!I own an old 32" 360p t.v. so the difference between HD and standard definition was made very clear (no pun intended). This laptop provides vivid colors (along with other visual preset settings like "theather mode") and sharp pictures. 1080 pixels is enough said. Sold with a high tier graphics card, this is deal is really a bargain. I don't know how people tests Graphics card but just as a benchmark, I'll note that I've played BFBC2 on this laptop. It ran smoothly despite the high settings (although you can really go beyond 4x filtering without compromising the frame rate).
The laptop speaker comprise a strip of space just in front of the keyboard. I don't like the sound quality but would rather listen to the audio of this laptop over another laptop's audio any day. I use headphones most of the time so I can't give an accurate review of the audio quality although the sound outputing to the headphones is great. It had a nice range of power for you party animals and casual listeners out there.
When I called ASUS tech support for help with nonresponsive Function keys, they directed me to download some drivers and the problem was fixed within 10 mintues. I wasn't happy that the laptop wasn't shipped with this particular driver installed but it was a minor detail. Tech support is mediocre but I don't expect a jolly welcome from my laptop provider.
Windows 7 runs nicely on this laptop. I like the slide-show background feature. The first thing I did with this laptop was load the computer with 146gig of files. It handled them without incident.
My only gripe was the battery life without the power adapter. You'll get about 3-5hrs of use running no applications, 2 hrs of use running nonstrenous applications, and 45mins-1hr intensive running of the gpu.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ASUS G53SW-A1 Republic of Gamers 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop
This computer is a monster. I was able to play all the games I wanted including WOW, Crysis 2, SC2 and Portals at high resolution.It also included the following:
1Targus Gaming Backpack.
2Razor Gaming Mouse.
I have no complain about the laptop itself just about Amazon packing it was not that good however ASUS packing was good enough to protect it.
I have had this computer for over a month and I have not faced any problem. I did an update of the drivers and even changed the OS to a ultimate edition.
I am running GNS3 with several routers and the computer performs smoothly. The battery is not great but it is not bad too. I mean if you are playing then yes the battery will last no more than 2 hours, however if you are working on any office program it might last 3 hours.
Yes, I strongly recommend this product, I talk with Amazon about the packing issue and they were extremely polite about it and gave me several solutions.
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