Reviewing Asus G1 gaming laptop, Laptop Magazine gives it 3.5 out of 5 stars and writes, “For all but the most hardcore gamer, the G1 provides an appealing mix of portability and performance at a reasonable price. If you’re one of the many mobile gamers who balks at paying an exorbitant price for a backbreaking rig destined for obsolescence, Asus has a proposition. The G1, part of the company’s new gaming line, is a solidly built machine tuned for gaming, with parts slightly below top-of-the-line, and attractively priced at well under $2,000. This isn’t a machine for the hardcore, but most gamers will find that price and portability can be as appealing as frame rates.

The 13.9 x 11.1 x 1.3-inch case features military styling appropriate for a gaming laptop. The lid and keyboard area are skinned with a mesh decal; hinge accents and a handful of green lights add to the serious appearance. An unnecessary button featuring the Asus gaming logo distracts from the comfort of the mouse pad, but we don’t mind the clearly labeled WASD keys. Despite the handful of stylistic touches, the G1’s restrained appearance doesn’t immediately mark it as a gaming machine. Neither does the weight, which comes in at 6.8 pounds without the power adapter.

The 15.4-inch display features a native resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels; it looks great while working with media or documents, browsing the Web, and watching movies. For gaming, we found that Nvidia’s Go 7700 graphics-a few steps behind the top-of-the-line GPUs-limited the playable resolutions to 1024 x 768 pixels. On autodetect, F.E.A.R. displayed a respectable if not impressive 55-fps average. With settings maxed, our tests suffered a significant frame rate reduction to 30 fps.

Outside of a professionally competitive multiplayer environment, the G1’s performance is ample for most players. The 2.0-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 7200 CPU and 2GB of DDR2 RAM provide a solid performance base. We’d like a faster drive than the 160GB 5,400-rpm SATA, however, as that speed could become a data bottleneck.

If you’re considering buying the G1, you’ll have to ask yourself the following question: How hardcore are you? If frame rates are the bottom line, pass up this option and go straight to machines by Alienware, Dell, or Voodoo. Gamers willing to settle for a very playable 30 fps on the most demanding games, however, will find that the G1 has plenty to offer and that the light weight and long battery life mean more gaming in the long run.”

PROS and CONS of the Asus G1 according to Laptop magazine

• Good performance for most gamers
• Relatively long battery life
• Affordably priced for the components
• Lags behind top-flight gaming rigs
• Lackluster speakers
• Rear-mounted USB ports

Read more reviews of the Asus G1

This entry was posted on January 14, 2007 and is filed under ASUSTeK Computer.