Review Late last year we were left somewhat underwhelmed with Acer’s attempt at a 3D laptop. The Aspire 5738DZG was underpowered, making 3D gaming nigh-on impossible. Now Asus has entered the fray, with the G51J 3D, which handles the whole 3D thing in a very different way.
Asus’ G51J 3D: combining 3D and raw power
Instead of using a polarised pair of specs, Asus has opted for Nvidia’s 3D Vision technology. Just as important, however, is that the G51J 3D is much more powerful under the bonnet, with an Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory and Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M all combining to provide far more oomph than Acer’s attempt. As you might expect, this also means it will set you back a fair bit – £1,699, to be precise.
It’s a fairly bulky piece of kit, measuring 375 x 265 x 41mm. The battery also pokes out from the rear, which is a shame since given the size of the laptop there should have been room to keep it in within the confines of the chassis.
The laptop’s styling is questionable. The lid looks like Wolverine has gone to town on it, with a large tear motif sitting in the middle. Asus has also deemed it necessary to adorn the chassis with lights – two strips on either side and a third on the lid – as well as illuminating its Republic of Gamers logo. Somewhat annoyingly, it’s not possible to switch these blighters off. Worse still, leave the laptop in standby with the lid closed and the two lights on the top will endlessly flash. Read the rest of this entry »
Review It’s hard to see who Asus’s supercar laptop tie-ups are aimed at. If you have the money to buy a Ferrari, a Porsche or, in this case, a Lamborghini, will you really be going for a £1,700 portable to remind you what’s in the garage. If you drive a lowered Golf with blue neons underneath, wouldn’t you want a VW laptop? We guess the Asus VX5 is all about aspiration.
Asus’ Lamborghini VX5: more bling than luxury?
A big, Desktop-replacement laptop should be able to handle anything you would throw at its not-so-portable predecessor but, above all, it should remind you of a sports car you’re never likely to afford. Acer dreamt up the idea of supercar tie-ins with its Ferrari laptop and Asus has taken up the challenge with the VX5, which is tied in with another renowned Italian marque, Lamborghini – the Lamborghini Reventon, in particular.
The VX5 comes in black or white and declares its heritage with a Lambo bull badge in the middle of the lid and shallow louvres behind. Open it up and there are a number of other trim tweaks, such as leather covers to the wrist rests in front of the keyboard and metal trim around the edges. There’s a smooth ceramic touchpad and a conspicuous button to the left of the keys, marked ‘speed’. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Think stylish laptops, and brands such as Apple, Sony and, if you’ve a particularly bizarre sense of style, Toshiba’s Qosmio range spring to mind. Having pioneered the netbook revolution, Asus is more likely to conjure up images of small, portable and good value laptops. However, the Taiwanese giant has always had a penchant for eye-catching laptops, such as its Lamborghini range and the slightly more peculiar Bamboo model.
Asus’ UX50V: all that glitters…
The UX50V is its latest attempt at creating a laptop for those who like to stand out from the crowd. It features a glossy 15.6in display with a 1366 x 768 resolution, delivering a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. It is powered by a 1.4GHz SU3500 – an ultra-low voltage, single-core CPU from Intel’s Core 2 Solo range. A more powerful Core 2 Duo SU9300 version of the UX50V with a 500GB hard drive appears on the UK web site, yet Asus tells us this isn’t actually available in the UK, so we’re stuck with the Core 2 Solo model.
According to Asus, the UX50V’s design is inspired by that of a butterfly with the view that it, “resembles the curvature of the wings of a butterfly once opened”. Jokes aside, we’re assuming Asus isn’t serious about this butterfly thing, as the company has done well in creating a slimline chassis, measuring 29mm at its thinnest point. But at 2.6kg, it’s a long way from the realm of ultraportables, or butterflies for that matter. Read the rest of this entry »
Review In recent years, Asus has become a key player in the netbook revolution. Yet with the F70SL, the company is looking to appeal to a totally different audience. Touted as the world’s first notebook with a 17.3in display, this bulky, 4kg Desktop replacement, offers a 16:9 aspect ratio screen at a resolution of 1600 x 900.
Asus’ F70SL: bulky, but easy on the eye
With a robust chassis, the F70SL feels like a notebook that could withstand a knock or two, and there’s very little creaking to be heard when giving it a rough ride. The lid is decorated with an attractive horizontal line pattern – a theme that’s continued on the inside of the notebook.
Measuring up at 426 x 302 x 44mm the F70SL is quite a size, so it’s good to see Asus has found room for four USB2 ports – two at the rear, two on the right side – along with Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, a memory card reader and an ExpressCard 54 slot. You also get a switch to turn Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off, along with a 1.3Mp Camera embedded into the screen’s bezel. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Asus sent us a Crosshair III Socket AM3 Phenom motherboard to use when we tested the Republic of Gamers OC Station. This seemed like a questionable idea as it meant we were testing a £125 accessory on a £137 motherboard.
To our mind, it made better sense to match the OC Station with the £299 Rampage II Extreme or a £190 Maximus II Formula, but the Crosshair III Formula turned out to be more interesting than we expected.
Asus’ Crosshair III Formula AM3: more interesting than expected
The original Crosshair supported Socket AM2+ Phenoms with an Nvidia nForce 590 SLI chipset that supports two graphics slots. Crosshair II upped the graphics support to Tri-SLI, thanks to the use of the nForce 780a SLI chipset. It’s all change with Crosshair III: the new model uses an AMD 790FX chipset which supports Socket AM3, DDR 3 memory and CrossFire X graphics. Read the rest of this entry »
