I just received this computer, and I have to say it's beautiful. Before I get into the specs, let me address some things the other reviewer has said.
Firstly, Asus's customer support is about the same as any other computer manufacturer, if not better. There's absolutely no way to have a bad experience with Asus, and the quality of their computers have been exceptional in my experience with them. I've never had a problem before, and I don't expect for there to be one for anyone now.
Secondly, as for the updating the internal components, there are probably guides on Youtube, and the guide is probably not included because most users won't need it.
Thirdly, yes, the power brick is quite large and heavy, but I don't see a problem considering you'll be stationary while playing, and it's a rather long cord. It's not as if you have to lay the power brick on your face while you play.
But as for the Asus G55VW -
+ The Asus G55 is a sleek, gaming-powerhouse laptop engineered specifically for long hours of use while playing the most demanding games. I can throw anything at this laptop, unlike many laptops, and know that it will never run hot. With the left exhaust port, if I remember correctly, being specifically for the CPU, the fan will run independently from the right fan at whatever speed it needs. The right fan, however, being for the GPU, will cool your GPU during long hours of hard gaming.
+ When playing games, the touchpad, keyboard, and palmrest stay at about 70 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The cooling system does an excellent job in capturing the heat and throwing it out of the back of the computer.... quietly. The sound from the fan is measured at approximately 30 decibels, which is not even as loud as a whisper. I was very impressed with this, as most laptops with the power that this computer has run hot.
+ The ports are in ergonomic locations. The Asus G55 features four USB 3.0 ports, with two on the right near side, and two on the far left side. On the right, this laptop has both an HDMI and VGA, alongside the DC power port.
+ The keyboard, screen, and touchpad are all phenomenal. Featuring a HD display, everything looks crisp and clear... and runs smoothly. I've got no problem playing Skyrim on Ultra, or TOR on the maximum settings.
The above is just from my personal experience with the computer, but if you want to know more, I'd direct you here.
Product Showcase Asus G55VW Unboxing & Benchmarks (by GenTechPC)
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I just received my laptop on 6/1 (ordered 5/30) and here is my review after a few days of tinkering. For those of you that do not wish to read through the entire review, here is a summary ~
Pros:
Beautifully sleek
Back-lit keyboard with adjustable brightness settings
Condensed full-size keyboard
Soft and comfortable palm rest
Extremely fast 3rd generation Core i7 quad core processor
Four USB 3.0 ports instead of just one
Insanely quiet fans
Comfortably cool in all situations
Cons:
Extremely large power brick
VIA drivers for sub-woofer
Cloning
Review:
The ASUS G55VW-ES71 far exceeds expectations when it comes to gaming or any other heavy processing activities, and it performs all of its duties while encased in one of the most beautiful laptop shells ever designed. The keyboard is laid out in a Chiclet style with each button as its own "island," and ASUS managed a 10-key number pad on the right hand side. The lighting behind the keyboard is adjustable, making it the perfect the brightness for anyone. The palm rest is layered with a soft mat material resulting in a comfortable gaming and typing experience.
The incorporated processor is blazing fast. Intel's new quad-core processor with eight threads lives up to expectations with a Windows Experience Index of 7.6 (out of a possible 7.9). Memory on this beast of a machine scores at a 7.8, and the graphics chugs up a more than respectable score of 7.3. This machine is only bottlenecked by the hard drive score of 5.9 (the only one out of all the categories that does not score a 7 or higher). Not to fret, with a little bit of dedicated time, replacing the factory hard drive with a shiny Solid State Drive (SSD) is quite a breeze, boosting this category's score to the max of 7.9. This of course means that the lowest score for this machine would be the GTX 660M's score of 7.3, but there should not be a soul who would be mad about the graphic card's performance when comparing to other similar machines.
ASUS took no expense in giving their users the best of the best. Keeping in consistency with the machine's speed, ASUS decided to load this rig with four total USB 3.0 slots. No more finding or struggling to look for more USB 3.0 inputs for your external hard drives because the manufacturer only decided to upgrade one of the four USB inputs to the 3.0 generation, now you can plug it into any of the USB slots and you will experience the glory of USB 3.0 speeds. The cable gets in the way for the USB slot in the back? Plug it in on the side! The user experience gets better. Usually gaming units such as the G55VW will need increased airflow to keep all its parts running cooler and lasting longer. This usually meant that the fan would have to run incredibly fast and loud. ASUS took the liberty to design a machine that runs comfortably cool and indescribably quiet! Whether you're on your bed instant messaging and gaming or you're at your desk, well, instant messaging and gaming, you will be able to relax without the noticing your laptop blazing on your leg and you will not be disturbing anyone else in the vicinity with what sounds like a giant portable fan that other gamers are lugging around.
As with all products, there are some drawbacks. For this particular machine, the power brick is quite sizeable. It is heavy enough to break a toe and large enough to make an uncomfortable bulge in just about any laptop storage bag. However, the power brick does come with two Velcro ties to sort both cables. This machine comes with a sub-woofer. YES! A sub-woofer! 2.1 channels! Sounds like an exciting feature, right? Unfortunately this is not the case because VIA's drivers are not performing as expected. Instead of using the sub-woofer to compliment the sound that flows out of the laptop, it actually plays every single sound its two speaker buddies are playing. It does not provide the bass that we all would love to enjoy, just awkwardly (and most horribly) acts as a third speaker that would output voice as you would think any sub-woofer would. Luckily, the sub-woofer can be disabled through the volume properties of the ASUS speakers.
Finally, although above I said that it would be a "breeze" to swap out the underperforming hard drive for a lighting fast SSD, it also contributes to one of the few low points of this laptop. This is because cloning this hard drive one-to-one is very much impossible with any of the freeware (and some paid software like Acronis) available online. I will not get into too much detail and just say that it is due to the fact that the hard drive is formatted under GUID Partition Table (GPT), and most cloning software does not know how to handle this. As of now I have not found any software that is able to handle GPT and would greatly appreciate the knowledge of one in the comments. The easiest way for anyone to swap in a SSD is to create recovery discs at first boot and then use the discs to boot up and install on the SSD.
Final Rating: 4.9/5.
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I was thrown off by negative reviewers when I was looking to buy.
With technology as it is now, a solid state drive is kind of an essential now. It gives you huge bang for your buck. True this machine doesnt come stock with one but it has room to install one easily and its engineered so its super easy to put one in.
The risks of buying a custom laptop is that your stuck with it indefinitely , in most circumstances. I'm an amazon prime member, so I get free shipping on all my orders, and amazon is awesome about returns so there isnt really any 'risk' in buying. So in the other gaming laptops in the 1500-2500 $ price range, that are NOT custom (MSI, alienware, Sager etc)(because in buying those, there IS risk involved and if you get a dead pixel in your screen, or some faulty part, your looking at weeks to months of repair time, and shipping charges etc) , the options are Asus G55 or G75, or Samsung series 7 gamer or toshiba qosmio.
the series 7 and qosmio dont have slots for an SSD which as i said , in my opinion is a must have component. that being aside the only difference then is just small differences in the internal components ie 12 gb vs 16 gb ram, 660m vs 670m , things which make difference on paper but not really in the performance of the computer. I chose the g55 because 8gb of ram is way more than enough, 660 is arguably a better card than 670 and 675m because of how it can be overclocked, and further the actual performance is so close you'll never notice it anyway. now the difference between 660m vs 7970 or the 680 is huge.. so thats a different thing , but then your looking at a "purely gaming laptop" and thats kind of a losing proposition anyway. you can hand build a better desktop for 900$ for gaming and it will outperform a 2200$ gaming laptop. so.. good to keep that all in mind. so the g55 works best for me compared to all the above models because it retains some portability, the screen is big enough, and if i want a bigger screen, i can plug it into an HDTV. the g75 is awesome too but a lot of the features, for 700$ price increase may not be worth it.. namely the 670m, and the SSD and double the ram. you can buy and install your own SSD for 120$.. and double of 8gbram is useless, so the upgrade from 660m to 670 is not worth the price increase in my opinion.
im listing this all out because when i was deciding what to buy, i had almost nothing to go on. I think others looking at this laptop will be having the same questions I had, so i hope this helps. the g55 was definitely right for me. its an incredible machine, performs awesome, looks awesome. my only gripe is that to increase the volume , you need to push FUNCTION key and then F12 . which is retarded because the FN key is on the bottom left of the keybaord, and F12 is top right. its not easy to push both with 1 hand. so I hope you dont ever eat food while you watch movies on your computer LOL or your going to have a dirty keyboard. that is a seriously retarded oversight.
other than that , asus all the way and amazon rocks you always have 30 days to change your mind.
Honest reviews on ASUS G55VW-ES71 15.6-Inch Gaming Notebook (Black)
Over the year's I've had a few ASUS gaming laptops. Personally I really do like this machine. I give it 4 out of 5 stars because of a few "quirks". They do not bother me but for the typical end user I don't believe it is fair to give something a 5 star review with a few "caveats".
Pros:
Screaming fast: I swapped out the HDD and put in a Kingston 128 SSD. With a base install boot time from power button to surfing is 18 seconds.
Keyboard: responsive to fast typing (over 100 WPM), good feeling keyboard
Ivy Bridge processor: most recent gen, fast, should handle processing needs for next 2-3 years.
8GB of Ram: I'm sorry but I hardly ever see anyone utilize more than 3 GB, I know there are some that do but for the average gamer 8 is ample enough.
Beautiful Screen: Great resolution, crisp delivery, glare is tolerable in direct sunlight
Casing: Good presentation, aggressive looking, solid feel
Ports: good selection of latest ports to meet almost all media needs (HDMI, Multicard reader, etc)
Gaming: So far it handles all games I throw at it on highest / ultra settings.
Cons:
Power brick: I agree with the first reviewer, no excuse this thing is huge. I travel for a living and have taken it with me a few times. It is large and cumbersome, but better than lugging a desktop around.
Sound: The sound is horrible, and you can't adjust the volumes. I personally NEVER use laptop speakers and bought this with the intention of using head phones. For some this may be a big problem, for me, not so much.
Weight: Gaming rigs are heavy, period. But for someone new to PC gaming, it may be a bit of a shock when you lug this beast around.
Other Thoughts:
I'm a IT Pro by trade and bought this with the intentions of making changes out the door. I was pleasantly surprised when I swapped out the HDD that the included CD contains all of the drivers in a very user friendly install interface. I am also very pleased that after running said software I had to remove very little bloatware. I personally wouldn't bother with upgrading the memory for a few reasons. One, it's more than enough for almost all users. Two, you would need to pull out the existing chips and find out the speed/type/timing. Even if you find memory of the same speed and type, you may "lose out" if you buy slower timing. Most users wouldn't notice it, but if you're going to that extent you should know what I'm talking about.
Conclusion:
This is a solid gaming rig. It is capable of playing all the games out, and will be able to hold steady for at least 2 years of new games. There are definite trade-offs when purchasing a budget laptop. You can buy a better, larger, and more capable rig elsewhere but it will cost you. I think the device delivers perfectly at its price point.
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Review-Asus G55VW laptop computer
First let me point out some issues I had with this Laptop.
The first laptop I received was defective. Occasionally there was a grinding noise made from the fan vents near the back of the computer. This happened when I was playing a game and the fan speed would increase to a certain point. After some research I found the problem to be because of possible bent fan filter that would hit the fans. After a couple days I decided this bothered me so I requested an exchange from amazon. I can't say if Asus has poor quality control or I simply got unlucky but what I can say is that exchanging with Amazon is a joy. They took back the laptop with no questions and even crossed shipped the new one so I actually received the new laptop the same day that UPS picked up the old one. I just thought WOW! In my opinion amazon has great customer service. I am also happy to say that I received the new laptop and there are no issues with the fans. I cannot really reflect this in my overall rating because I may have simply gotten the 1/1000 bad one.
Now to get to the laptop,
OVERALL FEEL:
This thing looks cool. The matte black finish is rubberized to give it a more grippy feeling. This really stands out as a nice feature on the wrist pad where it adds lots of comfort when typing. Also it's hard to tell at first but the rubberized feeling also is on the keyboard keys which are very nice. The keyboard is alright however it seemed a little small to me at first. Something that you can probably get used to though and I also have larger hands. The whole feel of the laptop is quality and is definitely much better than my old Samsung laptop. The ports are all easy to get too and well placed out. The CD drive is not the easiest to hit the button but I would consider that a positive since on my old laptop I would constantly be accidently opening it.
PERFORMANCE:
The first thing I did when getting this laptop is put a SSD in. Other reviews that I read seemed to have issues when cloning the hard drive. Well I didn't have an issue except it did take a while. First thing you should do(to make it easy) is start the laptop. As soon as you do the initial setup (enter the date, time, name. yada yada) and windows desktop comes up for the first time there will be a box popping up that asks if you want to make recovery disks. Do that, know that you need to have 4 DVD's ready to make all of the disks needed though. Go through and make them, then simply install your ssd in the back. Next you need to go into bios and make sure the computer boots from the CD drive. Insert the first disk and start it up. Install windows from the recovery disks and tada! You now have the computer running all of the stock software. Alright, now to the real review again. This computer performs great. It plenty fast and runs what games I have played on it great. So far what I have played is Battlefield bad company 2(high setting runs super smooth), fallout new vegas(Completely maxed setting super smooth), and minecraft(well it runs smooth lol). I haven't had any issues with the graphics card and it seems to run anything pretty well. I would not expect it to play the latest and greatest games maxed out but I am sure that they will run with at least medium settings fine. The fans stay quiet and that laptop doesn't seem to get to hot even after 3 or 4 hours of battlefield. My last laptop would shut down all the time due to overheating with battlefield. Overall I would say this laptop performs well and for $1200 you can't beat its performance.
A few negatives and minor gripes I have.
The first and most obvious negative for some people is going to be the sheer size of this laptop. At just over 15 inches wide this thing would not fit in my 17in laptop case! Another thing to consider is the power supply if you are planning on taking that with because it is huge in its own right. It measures roughly 6.5x3.5x1.5 inches and should be considered if you already have a bag if it will fit. Also with all this size comes the weight. It is pretty hefty laptop that may be a pain if you're constantly carrying it around with you. For me personally however these aren't that bad of issues. Another thing that I noticed is that the backlight on the screen isn't all that even. On a black screen in a dark room there is lots of backlight spots on the screen. I would say that I am usually more picky then others when it comes to screens though and the issue is not bad on anything other than a completely black screen. Even during darker scenes in video games I did not notice it. Lastly if I had to find something else wrong is that the drivers are a little buggy as far as speaker control. As in other reviews there is an issue with the "subwoofer" (if you want to call it that) not changing volume. I am happy to say that I simply updated the drivers for the sound and now it seems to be working properly.
Overall I would give this laptop 5 star because personally it was everything I was looking for in a laptop. Blue-ray may have been nice as well as a slightly better graphics card but for this price you'll be hard pressed to find another laptop that offers the same value as this one. Hopefully I helped someone else make their decision selecting this laptop because I know I had a difficult time deciding!
