I-ComfortShop.com

Todd Menard

2010-06-09

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Great Laptop for the Price
I purchased this laptop to add to my families present computer number as well as play some of the more current resource taxing games. I like everything about this computer except the extreme heat the exhaust port generates and the ease at which the shiny exterior surface picks up fingerprints; minor details in my opinion. The video card does excellent job for modern games and laptop looks well laid out in all aspects. I am sure I have not began to unlock all that this laptop can offer. Well worth the money spent and highly recommended for average to medium gamers and those wanting a step or two above average big box store deal of the week.

bztang

2010-02-09

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Amazing
I bought mine from newegg.ca, though the model is the N61JQ-X1, which has the same specs besides a smaller 320GB 7200rpm HD and only a 1 year Global warranty vs 2years for the -A models.
It is an incredibly powerful laptop with a blazing fast quad core i7-720QM processor that supports hyper-threading, giving it up to eight virtual cores. This processor is a beast for multi-threaded application but it's no slouch when it comes to single threaded processes because it can automatically overclock two cores to 2.4GHz or one core up to 2.8GHz, depending on what you're running. This laptop has other cutting-edge features such as a 1GB DirectX 11 capable ATI Mobility Radeon 5730, and being the first laptop to possess USB 3.0, a super bright 16" LED backlit screen with a smooth surface - the edges don't stick out.

Other features are an HDMI output, Expressport, eSata, Bluetooth, wireless 802.11 B/G/N, Multi-card reader, Altec Lansing SRS surround sound which actually sounds pretty good, dedicated volume and power setting buttons, and the top of the laptop looks beautiful.

Photo and video editing on this machine are a breeze, and video encoding is super fast. Games run pretty smoothly, I've tried Star Trek Online and Mass Effect 2 so far and they both run pretty well, getting about 40-60FPS easily on native resolution and high settings for Mass Effect 2, and Star Trek, only at medium-high settings. That is because the game is not properly optimized since my desktop can sometimes drop to 40FPS or below in some instances with AA on and it's running a much more powerful ATI Radeon HD 5850 (though at double the resolution 1920x1200).

Slight issues I have are that it gets a bit hot in the upper left corner where the exhaust is, but the laptop stays cool overall, and the screen is only 1366x768, since most people prefer more screen real estate for a 16" laptop such as 1920x1080 which is almost twice as much, but I'm fine with that because I prefer gaming in native resolution with decent FPS (frames per second), so a lower resolution screen is ok, especially for newer games. For example, if the screen was 1920x1080, I doubt I could run Mass Effect 2 around 40-60FPS, but more like 25-35FPS.

Also the battery life lasts a maximum of about 3hrs with power saver on and wifi off and about 1.5hrs with the entertainment plan, but that is to be expected from a smallish 6-cell battery in combination with this powerful machine. Another issue is that Asus loaded this laptop with numerous bloatware programs that I don't use such as Power DVD, Trendmicro, Office trial, etc, but which I removed easily using PC Decrapifier

Although there are some minor flaws, there are no other laptops at this time with this much technology for this price.
If you're looking for an affordable desktop replacement, look no further, this ASUS laptop bests laptops that cost 300$+ more from the competition.


FYI:

The Windows 7 performance index scores are pretty good:
Win 7 Home Premium x64
Processor - 6.9
Memory - 5.9
Graphics - 6.7
Gaming Graphics - 6.7
Primary hard disk - 5.9

Whereas my desktop scores, for a stock Core 2 Quad Q6600, 4gb DDR2 800MHz @ 4-4-4-12, and stock ATI Radeon 5850:
Win 7 Professional x64
Processor - 7.1
Memory - 7.1
Graphics - 7.7
Gaming Graphics - 7.7
Primary hard disk - 5.9