ASUS Republic of Gamers G51JXX3 15.6Inch Gaming Laptop
- Intel Core i5-430M Processor 2.26 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.53 GHz
- 4GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM, 2 SODIMM Slots; 8GB Max
- 500GB Hard Drive (7200 RPM); Super Multi Optical Disk Drive; Wi-Fi 802.11 bgn
- 15.6 Full HD 1920x1080 LED LCD Display; NVidia GTS 360M Graphics Engine with 1GB DDR5 dedicated VRAM
- Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) Operating System; Bluetooth; 2.0MP Webcam; Backlit Chiclet Keyboard
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Impressive power, awesome display, best bang for buck right now
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Overall, I’m very happy with this laptop. I don’t use my computers unplugged very often at all, so battery life isn’t a big issue. I was a bit timid about buying another Asus since my last one was defective, but the 2 year warranty made me feel better about taking a chance on this model. This may tell how long it’s been since I bought a laptop but it was common to see 2 year warranties and frankly I’m surprised that not all the Asus models offer this coverage.
Gripes:
Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium for a “high end” gaming platform just doesn’t make sense. I was expecting, at a minimum, the Professional version at this price point. As an aside, nearly all my complaints are around Windows and the lack of it’s ability to run many not-so-old applications that I depend on. So be prepared to also drop some bucks on newer versions of programs that won’t run on 7 that were perfect on XP. Also, approximately 100gb chunk of the 500gb hard drive is not available out of the box thanks to Microsoft’s “instant upgrade” OS to Professional/Ultimate are already on the drive. I guess it’s convenient for some to upgrade this way but I always insist on a Physical Disc for that day the hard drive craters. (Asus: It would be helpful if you offered instructions or an “uninstall” option to delete these files for those of us that want our hard drive space for our use), or maybe I should charge Microsoft rent?
No Blu-ray. Ok, maybe I shouldn’t list it as a gripe since I knew it didn’t have this when I bought it, but seriously, why go through the hassle and expense of a true 1080p display and NOT have a drive to watch/load Bluray or HD titles?? I hope Asus will make a replacement drive available with Blu-ray/HD capability at a reasonable cost. By the way, Microsoft did not think it important to support HD playback in Windows 7 (incredible blunder!) and as of this date I have not found an application on this machine that will play Bluray/HD files! More $$$ for that I guess!
Speakers: I was expecting much more from the Altec Lansing branding…while they sound ok (not great by any standard, as an audiophile), my biggest gripe is VERY LITTLE OUPUT AT MAX compared to my last HP notebook which would get loud enough to embarrass me! No worries with this one in this regard, sadly. (Asus,I’ve gone through all the convoluted menus to try to tweak more output but I’m disappointed!). Not enough bass nor treble. They are best summed up as anemic. Perhaps I got a bad sound module?? At least the headphone output is quite good.
The included bag, while appreciated, is just large enough to carry the laptop/power brick, mouse and few knick-knacks. It feels a bit on the cheap side compared to my other Targus bag (which this is also a Targus). Perhaps it’s better for your back this way.
This is not really a gripe, just a “heads up”: Heat! Under heavy load (or any graphics intensive operation) this puppy will pump out some BTU’s! It’s main exit vent is on the left side and I’ve found it quite handy for keeping my coffee HOT (not just warm!). This is almost a plus but I can see why Asus didn’t want to advertise this. Just be careful for spillage. The heat is extreme enough under load that I worry about anything remotely flammable within a foot or so of the vent. Asus did a great job of keeping the heat off the keyboard and upper area (although it definitely will be welcome in the winter, keeping your hands warm while you type!). I have read that the Intel i7 chip is a HOT chip under load, so this is going to be “normal” if you run an i7 quad core, no matter who builds it. The i5 I had previous was also a hot machine, but the i7 is definitely hotter.
What I like:
The part of any laptop you look at the most and thus, in my opinion, the most important part, the display,is sharp and bright. Colors are natural and the “Splendid” application allows one to customize viewing almost limitlessly. Perhaps 1080p on a 15.6″ screen is a bit overkill, but I’m not complaining. I do find myself zooming in a lot though.
Keyboard lighting is great and you can adjust the intensity (3 settings to choose from). The ergonomics is fair and I really love having a keypad on the keyboard. The keys feel a slight-bit on the “cheap” side but they work just fine. I say “fair” on the ergonomics since the edge of the palm rest tends to “bite” into my lower forearms after a few minutes. The top of this palm rest is coated with a “rubbery” layer which is comfortable enough but the edge is just a little too sharp for my tastes. This is not a big issue but I’m very thorough and critical of my big ticket items.
Wireless: The best and most sensitive I’ve witnessed yet. I’m amazed at the range this laptop wireless has from the base station. Almost double anything I’ve used prior to. Well done Asus!
Bluetooth: I’ve had issues using Skype (about the only time I used the bluetooth) with it dropping my Plantronics headset after a few minutes in a session. It could be just Skype’s software, I don’t know. The headset works flawlessly for hours at a time with my Blackberry. Perhaps there is a conflict? I’m going to find out the problem and update when I do.
Gaming/graphics capability: I consider myself a casual gamer but I’ve been VERY impressed with the frame-rate even at full 1920X1024 resolutions! Runs X3, Silent Hunter IV, Half-Life 2 with all options maxed no problem. (Heat! will be generated!) I will update on this as I try other games. My main use for this power is TurboCAD as I do a LOT of design work and this machine flies through everything I throw at it.
The included mouse is great! I’ve always used logitech mice but I think I found a new alternative. It isn’t wireless (which would be even better) but it is a joy to use.
The touchpad, while not the “new” style of the one on my other Asus, is much nicer to use. I HATE the multi-fingering gesturing and I MUCH prefer having a scroll bar like this one has. It also will auto-shut off when a mouse is attached (software option). This touchpad is great!
I plan on doing a 90 day update so stay tuned.
Great system with awesome features, for a nice price!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I highly recommend this system. I recently purchased this system, moving up from a Dell Latitude D810, and I love it! You’ll be hard pressed to find a system with a 15″ screen that has 1920×1080 resolution, with a quad-core at this price. I was tempted to wait for the ASUS G73 series, but really wanted a 15″ display that was full HD. This system nearly matches the performance of my desktop which is an AMD Phenom x4 with 8GB RAM. I’m not much a of a gamer, but I plan to do more video and photo editing, and this seemed like a great system to do that effectively. Out of the box this system run like a champ and runs HOT; but can one expect from a system with horsepower? So far this system has traveled well. I haven’t used the backpack it came with because I have to carry another laptop when I travel. The AC adapter is large and bulky, and I don’t much like the 90 degree angled connector to the laptop, it either gets in the way of the network port, or in the way of the screen. The battery life on this system is not horrible for the horsepower that it has, but I would like to see a bigger battery for this for those long plane rides. Having the number pad on the right hand side is nice, but at the same time throws me off when I’m typing, when I want Backspace I usually press the Num Lock key. I recently had an issue with the video driver having an error and reloading. This only happened with FireFox trying to load something Java. A quick update of the video driver and to Java and the issue was resolved. I’m also surprised at how stable Windows 7 is on this system after seeing the mess that Vista was in general.
My other complaints (And they are minor):
No Blu-Ray – Cannot yet find one that would match the size and shape of the DVD-RW face plate that in installed.
No TrackPoint on the keyboard
No dedicated volume control – Though you can use Fn + F10-F12
Webcam – Would have liked to have seen it slightly adjustable, not a big deal.
I would actually rate this system 4.5 on a 5 point scale.
Good but could be better
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Pros
Fast laptop
Decent Graphics Card
1080p LED screen is very nice
Asus support/warranty
Speakers are good
Comes with backpack + mouse
Webcam seems nice, haven’t tested it but the mic is pretty good
Cons
Mine came with a horrible bios glitch that took me two days to fix.
Short battery life
Speakers are a little on the soft side
Conclusion
It is a good laptop but mine started crashing as soon as i got it. It would blue screen on me, freeze, and just do crazy stuff. If this is happening to you make sure you update your drivers. The problems went away after I installed the new bios driver. It would be four stars if it didn’t crash on me in the beginning.
Perfect machine for application or database development!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
If you are looking for the best overall laptop for application and database development, look no further than the Asus G51JX-A1. This is the perfect machine to debug your code and develop complex queries. You can also play the latest and greatest games with your fellow developers!!! Also, the lighted keyboard is kind of cool when working late nights…
Bang for the buck!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Digging on this computer. I couldn’t be happier with the purchase. DragonAge Origins settings are all on the highest levels and the computer screams. Dawn of War 2, Crysis and Bad Company 2 as well. The performance will please you. Take into account that this rig costs nearly a grand LESS than a comparable top-end game laptop you will be left wondering what does it take to please people who buy them. If price is an issue you will get everything you want and more while not breaking the bank with this laptop. My only regret is I didn’t get a TB HD and Blu-ray DVD Drive.
Great laptop for a great price
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I ordered this laptop from Amazon and received it quickly afterward. Once received, I quicly opened the box and this is what I found out about the laptop:
The Pros:
- It is fast. It ran all of the games I am owning with with ease (because of GTS 360M GPU, core i5, and lots of fast RAM, etc…)
- True 1080p on a 15.6in monitor produces great picture quality; however, text can be a bit small (tips: do Ctrl + +sign in IE to increase the font size, vice versa Ctrl + -sign to reduce it).
- 7200RPM hard drive. (The hard drive is the biggest bottleneck in laptop or any computer’s performance for read and write, but this has 7200RPM, which is very good, boot up and shutdown time is great).
- The material that made up the laptop case is good, the laptop feels sturdy.
- Full keyboard with dedicated num pad and can light up in the dark helps with using it at night.
- Audio sounds great (if you have a headset, plug it in and you will be able to hear the true sound quality of the built in sound engine.
- Heat (to be fair, I have own laptops that are hotter than this one, and ones that are cooler than it, so the heat from this laptop is neutral in my opinion, neither hot or cool.
The Cons:
- For a 15.6in laptop it feels a litle bit bulky (ASUS could have reduce the height and width a bit)
- The keys on the dedicated NUM pad are smaller than the normal keys (??? why, they certainly have spaces on the sides to make these normal-sized keys
- the bezels around the lop are thick (again ??? why, they could have reduce half an inch off of each side and it will be perfect).
Overall, this is a great laptop for the price; however, the GTS 360M is only a directx 10.1 GPU, now that Fermi is out, might as well wait for the mobile GPU from that architecture and upgrade.
Solid Laptop for price
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Pros:
This laptop preforms just as description provides. I play games like Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Bioshock 2 (lots of 2′s) and they all run at high to max settings at a perfectly smooth fps. Also, has yet to crash, etc.
The high resolution screen is excellent, no dead pixels. You will probably want to download addons for Firefox, Chrome, or IE to increase the size of text and graphical images because by default they will be small due to the high res screen.
Cons:
The only con I have for this lap top is that the CPU has this odd ringing sound when it is doing low processing jobs, like browsing the internet; its not constant, but still bothersome.
Asus also stated that they will address the issue in a future BIOS update.
Bottom Line:
I recommend this product, it is one of the best “bang for your buck” gaming laptop out there. You will not be disappointed.
material very easy to break, Made in China
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
This laptop is not exactly what I expected, most of the parts are made in china, very easy to crack. In the pictures looks nice but, after you get it looks like a toy laptop. It heats a lot and LCD screen resolutions are very bad graphics. Webcam is not compatible with differents messengers. Don’t go for chinese Items it’s not worthless, I have my old CP, and it’s much better than this one.
Pretty nice!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
So far so good. It is an amazing screen. Does not get as hot as I thought it would. Very fast on games. Does great computer stuff as well. This is the best computer I have ever owned and I hope somewhere down the line I have no problems. The sound could be louder but it is really clear and that makes it listenable.
A little bigger than I thought and a little heavier, but I can live with it. A lot of computer for the money.
Fast laptop, but hot
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Pros: A good laptop, has every feature you could expect from a modern computer.
Cons: Left part of the keyboard becomes noticeably hot during normal use.
A big disappointment.
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
After a HP / COMPAQ this was my second laptop. I chose the Asus after analyzing each model offered on the website amazon.com. I have more than a hundred of good experiences with a hundred Asus motherboards since 1994 and never had problems with them.
But this laptop is very, unstable, and it was my biggest disappointment of my life with computers.
It freezes several times a day, warms like a hair Dryer. When loading Windows 7 already had blue screen and rebooted several times, whenever I try to use one of the configuration options it freezes, I’ve had to do dirty shut down the power button several times. And people know that it damages the file system.
It is unacceptable that Asus put a device on the market as unstable as this one. Mainly because it is a device that claims to be high-performance games.
When playing movies the display is not smooth, but run almost frame by frame.
On the site of amazom you can see that they advertise that the equipment is guaranteed worldwide. But this is not true, such a guarantee only works in countries that are part of Asus GSM. And I live in Brazil and my country is not part of GSM. However, they sell products and have offices here and support for other models.
On the product page on amazon.com it says the product is supported 24 hours a day. However, I contacted Asus for help to solve my problems, and that company told me to contact Amazon.com. They’re throwing me from side to side.
Is unfortunate, not recommend to anyone. Be careful before purchasing, because not everything that is written here applies to the whole world.
First owned laptop
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Bought this unit because i wanted a laptop with High definition and good graphics. Was originally going to spend about 800 or 900 on an acer but it took to long to come on the market. Lucky me. I spent the extra 300 or so and am very pleased I did. This is a great unit for playing tv shows and videos in high definition. Had this for a few weeks now and am very satisfied. Have not exercised all the ports yet but was able to sync my pda with music on it and download my songs. For some reason tho I’m hearing imperfections in the files when played, like skips and hesitations. Not sure why. Also noticed there was a built in microphone surrounding the built in videocam. it will echo when you listen to audio thru the headset plug in. But the mircophone was easy to turn off. Materials used to make this machine include a fair amount of plastic but regardless it still feels solid and no problems with any parts coming loose etc. It is a bit of a high maintenance unit. You need to be cleaning the screen and the plastic fairly often but i’m sure this would be with any unit. I bought a gelskin to protect the top of the laptop and that works great. Will eventually be getting a protective coating for the screen as well. People have mentioned this machine gets hot but for me its not so hot that i can’t keep it on my lap or that i need to get a cooler. But then I don’t play alot of games so maybe that makes a difference. I do love that there are tons of ports on this thing including an Expresscard slot which can be converted to any other type of port you can think of. I will probably use it in part to create a scsi port since my scanner is scsi. Will update my comment when i finally do this. One thing people should be aware of is that this really isn’t great for typists. The chicklet keyboard is not for the speedy typist being that if you don’t hit the keys solidly it might not show up on the screen. But again, this isn’t what this machine is primarily for. But I did try the included speech recognition and that was pretty cool. Takes a bit of time to get good at it but it might be what a person would want given the difficulties with typing on the keyboad. Definitely alot of unit for the money and being that i love High definition its certainly delivers in that department. When I get a high definition tv I’ll be checking the output to the tv.
Great Gaming Laptop for the price
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I just bought This laptop a week ago and the first thing your eyes catch is How beautiful it looks as a hardware laptop, now for my Experience with this laptop Here is a summary on what I have tested and done:
1. First Things first, Updated Windows 7 to the latest with its drivers, everything was automatic anyway… Things worked well.
2. Checked Windows Experience on the Laptop, It got High Rates, lowest were Ram and Harddisk Speed 5.9, which are not a biggy anyway (RAM can be upgradable).
3. Tested Some Games, It Got High Frame Per Second Rates (Like on Guild Wars High on Everything got around 50 to 61 Fps), so it worked well Graphically.
4. I like The Full HD with Backlit Keyboard, and how it feels while typing/playing, everything looks nice.
Now for the things I would have liked to see or faced while using the laptop:
1. Sometimes @ first it froze once or twice in Windows When I opened and configured the ASUS FancyStart Application, but now it’s working fine.
2. Still not sure about the Audio bit if it’s 4 speakers simulation by 2 actual speakers, and if it was Connected via HDMI would it be able to have at least 5.1, that Would be great to have if it does.
3. Doesn’t have Blu-ray playback but I was able to purchase an external Cheap Blu-Ray player powered by USB 2.0 to Support that (Costed me around $129.99)
Other than That, Great Laptop, very Recommended for the Budget, I mean all gaming laptops with that high Graphics card and Specs are at least $1400 and up, for that it’s great to have it even if it had some minor flaws.
Great buy great price
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Used this for a little over a month now and for the money its great. Can play pretty much every game out with great frame rates and doesn’t have a cooling problem at all. Bloatware is easy to remove and a total reformat takes around 2 hours. Goto notebookreview if you need info on that. Notebook looks great and backlit chiclet keyboard is awesome. Has many little cool features like switch to kill wireless and hd and vga outs. Full 1080p res is awesome even though screen is small. Overall its a great computer at a great price.
Machine Shuts Down When Gaming
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
On paper this machine seems to have it all. However, there is one major issue – it completely shuts down in the middle of gaming. When running COD MW2 the machine would make it about 5-10 minutes into the game and would then completely shut off as if someone had cut the power to the machine. We tested this over and over with gaming as well as with several different stress testing tools (Furmark, etc.) The laptop did not shut down in every single instance, it happened about 50% of the time. While running non CPU/GPU intensive apps we had no issues. After making several calls to ASUS support, they could not determine the problem and wanted me to send the unit in for repair (after only having for 2 days). Thankfully Amazon let me return the unit for a replacement. However, we just received the replacement machine yesterday and are having the same exact problem with it!
After doing some digging on the internet, it appears others have had the same problem and is a known issue with these laptops. All indications point to the fact that either the CPU/GPU are getting too hot or the power supply itself is getting too hot and the machine completely shuts down.
You may want to look at other options when considering this laptop – especially for gaming.
Computer lasted less than 12 hrs
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
EDIT: First I gave it a 1 star because of this: When I got my G51JX-A1 everything was ok. The mouse is cool and the backpack looks good too. The computer is awesome, it really is, but after using it for about 5 hours I got a BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH (BSOD), I updated the nVidia drivers and that was the end of that error. About 3 hours later it started FREEZING constantly, but the temp was ok and I had not too many programs open. Everytime it freezed I had to turn it off pressing the on button for like 5 seconds, then it turned on fine… The freezing became more constant and I couldn’t even use it for 10 minutes straight, then it came the WORST, It doesn’t even turn on now, just gives me a black screen and that’s it. One time it turned on fine and I managed to update the BIOS with the latest version, it did it ok, when I restarted the computer I got on the BIOS information and in fact it was the version I updated it to. It turned on fine, got on windows, 5 minutes later it FREEZED AGAIN, that was the last time it worked… I called Asus, they gave me a RMA and I’m going to send it back to get it fixed, however I don’t live in the USA and I’m here for vacations only, after they send it back I’m gonna have to pay like 150$ to get it send to Venezuela and that’s not on Asus…
Good luck with yours, but give it a try and search “Asus freezes” or “G51JX freezes” on Google before buying, that might help you reconsider…
EDIT: My New 5 star review would be after this: I contacted Amazon and in one day I got a replacement laptop for the one that was bad. The one I received worked great… Great Laptop for real!
Pros: Awesome Machine, Graphical Applications like Autodesk Maya 2010 and Unreal Development Kit works like a charm. Everything you would expect from such machine.
Cons: Sound Volume is REALLY (REALLY REALLY) low on speakers, I don’t know if it’s just mine or if it is a common thing for this laptop. Also laptop gets really hoy, left side of the keyboard feels hot and the air that flows out of it is hot as well.
Great laptop, when it works
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this laptop for school, and a little gaming now and then. The processor worked just as expected, it was fast and reliable. But, after using the laptop for schoolwork for two weeks, I decided to play Bad Company 2. The graphics were sub par and the fps was between 6 and 15. I ran a 3dmark several times, and not to my surprise, I was getting a score of 4800, every time.
I ran futuremark sysinfo, and it alerted that there was no gpu chipset installed. I called Amazon, several times for a replacement, but since my zip code changed on my payment address, they couldnt issue a replacement, refund only. So I sent it back for a refund so I can order another one and now I am awaiting it to arrive back at Amazon.
Amazon customer service is out of this world, I talked to ten different agents who all bent over backwards trying to get a new laptop out to me right away, but Amazon security system would not allow it. They issued me a refund on the shipping immediately after I shipped it, and issued me a $40.00 Amazon credit.
The laptop only gets two stars because of the first impression, but Amazon gets five stars for excellent customer service.
UPDATE: Amazon customer service is awesome, he stayed there until midnight to make sure my replacement was sent out quickly, it was shipped at midnight and its out for delivery the same day.
the one to get fore gaming
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Asus is the number 1 selling laptop now and for a good reason. They are not just affordable but reliable. I have owned mine several months and have not had a single crash. The graphics for games are smooth and the colors are vivid. My only real criticism is that the number pad is awkward because it overlaps the arrows you use to move around so I mistype now and then which is annoying. Otherwise, a great lap top and highly recommended.
Great comp…but got a lemon.
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I bought the G51jx-x3 computer after doing a lot of research, knowing it was the best bang for the buck out there…and it is. Unfortunately after 30 mins of firing it up and downloading Window 7 updates I started to receive random blue screens; this consistently happened every 3-30 minutes. I thought I unfortunately had the same BIOS problem that some are complaining about who own a G51 series laptop. I then tried a system restore which failed to solve the problem; I knew at this point I had a hardware problem. Windows memory checker confirmed this. Got ASUS tech support on and they walked me though everything I already had done…after an hour they finally came to the same conclusion I had already come to. Shipped the package off to them today; they said it will take 3-4 business days to look at and repair. I’m looking forward to getting it back as it looks and feels great. Minus the bad hardware (RAM by Kingston) I would recommend this computer if you are willing to look past ASUS lack of QC. At least their support is decent so far.
Asus Rock Solid, Meteor hot.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Pros: This product is rock solid so far had for 2 days so far. I have stressed this thing as far as I could. This machine handles almost all the games I play at full settings (Wow, LOTRO, WC3, Also some different FPSs.). This machine runs things fast program wis0e. All video buffering on this machine is lightning fast. The video on this machine is almost top of the line for a laptop. Intel + Nvidia, Mind blowing combination(Almost 10,000 3DMark06 score). This laptop comes with the Turbo Boost option. This option is a performance overhaul, Caution WILL Light it up. The backlite keyboard is nice if you do gaming in the dark like I do. The display on this machine is gorgeous. Full 1080pHD is the only way to go. Windows 7 really takes full visual advantage that this machine can offer.
Cons: This thing gets hot when at full performance.I will be purchasing a cooler. This is probably necessary no mater which brand gaming laptop you will purchase. The battery life on the power saving mode is about 2 3/4 hours. This is a short battery in comparison to other laptops however, This is a desktop replacement machine(should be plugged in anyways). The keypad is rather small. They could have made it a bit bigger but I personally still like the fact of a number pad.
Other Thoughs: Really perfect for me. I would suggest to my friends. This is a Sick bang for the buck, this machine should probably be in the low 1,400 ranges but is so low(in my opinion).
RMA’d after a week…
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I didn’t purchase this through amazon, but I usually read amazon reviews when I make my purchasing decisions so I thought I would post my issues.
For the good: This is a very powerful gaming laptop. This is my third ASUS and I have been very satisfied with their products in the past.
For the bad: I had mine for one week and had really just completed loading up my games, and the GPU failed. It would sit at 90C for about 8-9 minutes then complete failure. This is not an OS (BSoD) issue, the actual machine would ‘pop’ and shut down. Who knows, maybe I finally got the lemon, but its still annoying. This laptop gets HOT and from my point of view, ASUS has not resolved the heat issues from the 260 and just re-branded to the 360 with this laptop to get them out the door. I’m waiting now for ASUS to DOA mine and send me a new one. I hope it works this time….
Good luck.
LAPTOP W/O BACKPACK & MOUSE
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
It does seem ridiculous at times how orders can become troublesome, ASUS laptops appear to be in this category. Two bad ASUS, the N10JH-A1 blue screened repeatedly trying to get to desktop and constantly when trying to use HDMI which ASUS could fix and returned to Amazon, bag made it and mouse didn’t. . The N61JQ-X1 blue screened during initial setup, blue screened twice during internet streamed movies. Mouse missing. Advertised with premium amplified sound, added cone speakers etc. by Amazon and Asus- hardware features which didn’t exist.
This unit, an Asus G51Jx-X3 was purchased more for specs and graphics ability than gaming which we don’t do (PS3 for grandkids). Amazon ad has the Republic of Gamers Laptop backpack and the Razor optical mouse, as does Asus ad, and about every UTube or review seen. Our unit received today, NO BACKPACK OR MOUSE. HAVE EMAILED AMAZON, AMAZON CORPORATE AND CALLED COMPUTER SALES. WILL REPORT AND UPDATE REVIEW WHEN AMAZON’S RESPONSE TO THESE DEFICIENCIES IS FINAL.
QUESTION: Is there anyone else who has noticed the circular grill (2-1/2-3″) on bottom of laptop for bottom fired subwoofer touted in many reviews for all Asus G 51 units is MISSING? Would love to hear who has or who hasn’t. Unfortunately this was one of deciding factors for BETTER sound that we were looking for when it wasn’t in the N61Jq (look at Asus website, products, laptops, gaming laptops, then click N61, then N61Jq, look at description and watch video to see what we are talking about) Amazon is changing their ads after our complaint on this issue.
Perfect so far
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Can’t complain about anything right now.
One big MAJOR change from my previous laptop is that this new one does not trigger the breaker of the power plug in a plane (i fly a LOT for work). On my previous laptop (gateway), as soon as i started a 3d game, the breaker was shutting off the power. Now it don’t. Amazing !
Best Regards,
Fantastic
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I can’t say enough good things about this machine. Yes, the “gameboy” packaging is a bit garish and it is a fingerprint magnet, but it’s what’s on the inside that counts. The ultra-high-density screen is amazing. Speed is incredible and the features can’t be beat for the money. As an IT professional, I have dealt with Asus’ technical support in the past and have found them to be outstanding. The free accidental breakage coverage is unprecedented. Get yours now!
ASUS customer support is nonexistent
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I purchased the earlier version of this computer (ASUS G51J-A1) for my son for xmas. Everything works great except the HDMI output – it will not drive an LCD TV (Sharp or Samsung). I’ve contacted ASUS for support over a week ago, but, in spite of their promised 48hr. reply time, have yet to receive any sort of response. Review Amazon’s computer return policy very closely too, before buying – they’re of no help because we’ve had it for more than 30 days. Nvida, the graphics card mfg. won’t help because their board was purchased as part of a computer. And ASUS simply doesn’t reply. In my opinion, such poor customer support makes them all look bad. Buyer beware!
Good laptop, but with flaws
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I bought this system to replace a stolen HP HDX16t because it was the only currently available laptop I could find that had some things that I required (since the HDX16t is now discontinued). So far, it seems like a solid, powerful machine, but not without little quirks that I haven’t been able to find workarounds for.
First, the pros:
1. Impressive specs (you’d know about those already if you’re reading the product reviews)
2. Backlit keyboard, with 3 brightness levels
3. Almost full-size keyboard with number pad, and lots of Fn key shortcuts
4. LED backlit screen has decent viewing angles and is very bright
5. The “soft touch” palm rest feels nice
6. Freebies, and better warranty than any “standard” laptop warranty I’ve ever seen
Cons:
1. My biggest beef with this laptop: its volume controls. First of all, I can’t change the volume or mute/unmute with one hand. 3 of the LED indicators above the keyboard are also touch-sensitive buttons. They could have included volume controls there. Secondly, when the volume is at 0 and you press volume up, it goes straight to 12%. After that, it goes up in 6% increments. The only way to get finer control is to use your mouse on the volume icon in the system tray–a PITA if you’re trying to watch something full-screen. I MUCH prefer the HDX16′s dedicated volume slider, which does 2% increments.
2. The touchpad buttons are stiff. They seem fine to me now, but they stressed my thumb when I first received the laptop. I must have gotten used to them, or they became softer with use. Either way, be warned.
3. It runs kind of hot. This is not surprising, and it actually seems to manage heat a lot better than HP laptops in my experience. The keyboard, palm rest, touchpad, etc., all feel cool to the touch. However, the area around the side vent gets quite hot. It makes me wary to have any kind of food, beverage, pills, or things made of soft plastic/rubber on the left side of my laptop.
4. I’m not a fan of the colors and LEDs on the lid. Too “loud” for my taste. I also find the whole “Republic of Gamers” thing rather silly, and am glad they at least had enough sense not to slap that text label on the backpack, or *too* prominently on the laptop lid. [Disclaimer: I'm not a gamer =P]
5. The wireless card only supports up to half-N speeds (150 Mbps), and only in the 2.4 GHz band. I tried to find out what type of card it is before buying, but couldn’t find anything as the model was quite new at the time. Anyway, it’s an Atheros AR9285. I suspect it would be upgradeable, but if you want full 802.11n speeds and/or dual-band functionality, it’s an extra cost you’ll have to consider.
6. Biggest, heaviest power brick ever. The thing weighs over 22 oz, twice as much as the HP HDX16t one. This is my first quad core/high-end GPU laptop, so maybe it’s supposed to be a common thing, but it came as a surprise to me. FWIW, my boyfriend’s Thinkpad W510 with an i7 and Nvidia Quadro GPU also came with a similarly huge power brick.
Other thoughts:
- Speakers weren’t as good as I’m accustomed to (long-time HP customer here)
- The screen could’ve easily been 16″ without increasing the size of the overall machine. The 15.6″ screen has a huge bezel on all sides.
- Yes, my system also came with the upgraded 1333 MHz RAM, but I don’t think I’m getting much of a performance boost, if any at all. Just maybe a slightly better resell value. MAYBE.
Why spend more
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Why buy a bigger computer? I have had this computer for 4 days and boy is it hot! I am not much of a gamer but Avatar is fantastic. This game runs flawlessly with all the bars to the max while browsing on the internet with Delphi 6 running in the back ground. Blu-Ray movies look so good that I will carry this ASUS anytime I have to make a trip or go camping this summer. Lite Scribe was a pleasant surprise.
Pros Fast, Looks Nice, Very sharp graphics lots of memory Ability to extend memory with a flash drive or SD
Cons Yes it do get hot especially at the exhaust port get a cooler
Great laptop for the price.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is the most powerful laptop I have seen at this price point. This system is easily a match for high end gaming systems by alienware or voodoo pc, but at hundreds of dollars less.
Pros:
There are a plethora of ports on the laptop – 4 usb, 1 e-sata, 1 hdmi, and 1 firewire. Add the standard network jack and multi-card reader, and you can use almost any conceivable device on this.
The display is gorgeous, with full 1080p resolution.
There is plenty of power out of the box. This machine was able to play Dragon Age, Champions Online, and City of Heroes at full 1920 x 1080 resolution with graphics sliders set to maximum with no slowdown.
The power is not limited to gaming. I was able to run Word, Access, Excel, Visio, and several web browsers simultaneously with no slowdown in the applications.
The illuminated keyboard is a very nice touch, making it easier to use the system in low light.
Cons:
A machine this powerful generates a lot of heat. You will need a cooling mat of some kind.
The ROG logo and case art is cool looking, but it can be gauche in a business environment.
The battery life is on the short side, but I had planned on using this plugged in anyway.
Bottom Line:
The G51JX-X3 is a steal for the price being offered. It is a powerful desktop replacement at a great price.
Very Nice
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I did a bit of research and this laptop seemed pretty highly anticipated by those looking to buy and well received by the few that already had them. I also saw that it seemed most of the initial shipment came with 1333MHz DDR3 ram instead of 1066. I opened mine up and it does have 1333MHz. A supply issue I guess. Very nice considering it’s a $150+ upgrade on some websites.
I installed Borderlands and it seemed like a dog at first, then I realized I didn’t have the AC adapter plugged in. It automatically goes to a power saver mode when only on battery (of course) and it makes a big difference. Once plugged in I put all the settings on high except for anti-aliasing at 4 instead of 16 and resolution at native 1920×1080 it ran a little slow. Frame rate was around 30 usually. Fine for most games but not a FPS. At 1280×720 the frame rate was in the 50s. I played for about an hour and it was running very hot so I stopped for a while. I bought this laptop to replace an older Dell laptop I had because I burned out the vid card on the Dell, so I was a bit worried, maybe needlessly.
The keyboard is fine but the keys are real slippery, could use some kind of texture or concave shape. They are lighted which will be very useful (hit Fn+F4 when you 1st get it, mine were turned off).
Could use a USB in the back (I like to use a cooling pad) but it has 2 on each side near the front which is nice.
Lights on the lid are annoying. The side ones turn off in battery mode, I’ll have to look into a setting to turn them off all the time. The logo light in the center of the lid never turns off.
I like the physical switch for wireless and bluetooth.
No dead pixels, I’ll be looking close for 30 days but I hope to not have to RMA. Nice warranties on this thing, definitely a selling point. Watch out if you try to buy an ASUS from Best Buy –they do not honor all the standard ASUS warranties, I think the accident insurance. Because Best Buy wants to sell you their own insurance for $179.
The thing I don’t like the most about this laptop is the screen size. Not the resolution but the actual physical size. There is approximately a 3/4 inch bezel on the sides and bottom and nearly 1 1/4 inch at the top. This makes the laptop less attractive visually also, like it’s chunky and thick. The large top bezel is likely because of the webcam which I will never use. The screen could easily be 16+ inches which would help lots with the high resolution. At 1920×1080 for a laptop you need all the size you can get. Text at 100% is tiny but mine shipped at 125% so that’s smart on their part. I primarily use it for painting in Photoshop and Painter so the high resolution is great. Trying to show someone text on the screen is difficult when they can’t read it unless they are real close.
One other thing I didn’t like was 40+GB of pre-installed software. Why anyone would want all this crap is beyond me. I was going to wipe and reinstall but there is the quick start OS which I need to look into and see if that will be wiped and if there is any difficulty reinstalling it. I pretty much always plan on wiping a new computer but most people wouldn’t so that is a factor.
I got my backpack and mouse, I see some others didn’t.
Oh yeah it’s not black, even the darkest part of the lid is a dark blue.
So:
+Free ram upgrade
+speedy
+lighted keys
+wireless switch
+free backpack and mouse
-slippery keys
-physical screen size
-bloatware
All in all very happy with it.
Solid, Awesome performance
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Yeah, I guess you could be upset that you didn’t get some complimentary swag or whatever with this machine, but I didn’t buy it for swag.
Let’s get down to business, shall we?
Pluses: Gorgeous, smooth graphics in Star Trek Online, DDO, Champions Online and Team Fortress 2 with the sliders cranked just shy of the max. EAX sound is amazing: even sounds decent out of the built-in speakers (really rocks with my headphones though). CPU performance and multitasking is sweet and responsive. I have multi-surfed Word, Visual Studio and Photoshop CS with no lag or issues.
More ports than you can shake a stick at: plenty of USB, eSATA, FireWire (1394) and even HDMI (which outputs to full 1080p if that floats your boat). Bluetooth devices are easily paired. Amazing Windows 7 performance (rates a 5.9 Windows Experience out of the box, with 6.6s in graphics, before any tweaking)
This thing is a sweet PC for money.
Cons: Runs hot. Be sure to keep side vents for cooling free. Might be worth investing in a cooling mat for this bad boy. Also, can we please not pre-install a bunch of crap on our new, high-performance gaming machines? I had to uninstall a bunch of cheesey ASUS games and stuff before I could really get down to business.
Nice Laptop, will see how RMA is handled
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
***update***
The laptop is actually still a 4, but due to Amz Customer Service lowering the rating, see below:
Wow, so the laptop is still nice, but can’t say the same for Amazon customer service for issue #2. After ASUS said that Amazon was responsible for the added items (Complimentary backpack and mouse), I sent that info to Customer Service. They in turn emailed to say they could not replace items from a set and would send a whole new set out as replacement. Got the replacement today and no backpack or mouse. In fact the product page now has that line deleted from the description (I have a screenshot with it in there). So I need to send the replacement back, but does Amazon provide a prepaid label….NO. So now I have to take time away from work to find a mailbox store, pay to have the item (that should never have been sent, AMZ’s mistake) and then ask them for a refund on shipping. If they had just said the item description was wrong in the first place, no big deal, but now I have to jump through hoops to send them back something that should never have been sent….terrible service! I am an avid Amazon shopper, but this is ridiculous, Newegg and a lot of the other vendors supply prepaid labels with their initial shipments, can’t understand how this can be so hard for Amazon.
Laptop is nice and fast, SmartLogon manager is pretty cool (allows user to logon with face recognition), runs apps and games flawlessly. However a couple of issues:
1) Have a dead pixel, called ASUS for RMA will edit this review when issue is fixed to rate their customer service.
2) Amazon website clearly states complementary backpack and mouse, neither were received. Emailed Amazon they said to contact ASUS, called ASUS they said to contact Amazon, clearly someone does not have their ducks in a row. Have since replied to Amazon and asked them to resolve, again will edit this post when I get a reply.