Asus G73SW Sandy Bridge Gaming Notebook Review
Introduction & Specification

Now in its third generation, the G73SW represents an architectural upgrade to what was already a powerful mobile PC. The goal remains the same, which is to recreate the desktop experience in a portable form factor. Whether you need to hammer out a spreadsheet, encode a Blu-ray video, or frag some foes at a LAN party, the G73SW promises to help get the job done. By all means, this is a desktop replacement, but with the addition of Intel's Sandy Bridge architecture, there's potential here for battery life to be extended beyond what you would normally expect from a high octane notebook. The question is, can it deliver on all fronts?
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Model
|
G73SW |
Display |
17.3" (1920x1080) |
CPU
|
Intel Core i7 2630QM (2.0GHz) |
Memory
|
8GB DDR3 |
Graphics
|
Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M w/ 1.5GB GDDR5 |
Storage |
1TB (2x500GB Momentus XT Solid State Hybrid Drives) |
Optical
|
Slimtype Blu-ray Reader |
Operating System |
Windows 7 Home Premium x64 |
Wireless |
Intel 802.11 A/G/N |
Webcam
|
2.0 Megapixel |
Wired Internet
|
10/100/1000 Ethernet |
Ports
|
1xUSB 3.0, 3xUSB 2.0, 5-in-1 Media Card Reader, HDMI |
Weight
|
8.49 lbs with battery |
Dimensions
|
41.5 x 32.0 x 1.89 cm (WxDxH) |
Warranty
|
2 Year |
Price
|
$1,745 |
We classify the G73SW as a desktop replacement, but in all reality, the sum of its parts add up to more than what the average Joe is rocking inside his mid-tower. The G73SW sports four cores of Sandy Bridge computing muscle racing along at 2.0GHz, enough RAM (8GB) to handle content creation chores, a mobile graphics card built around Nvidia's mighty Fermi architecture, and a pair of Seagate hybrid hard drives equipped with solid state storage for a speed boost. What's more, depending on how deep your pockets run, there are plenty of upgrades available as well.