July 31st, 2010
ASUS Republic of Gamers G51JX-X3 15.6-Inch 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 1920×1080 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
Product Description
The ASUS G51JX-X3 is one of the newest notebooks from the Republic of Gaming(ROG) Notebook line. Powered by Intel’s i5-430M Core i5 processor and a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M graphics card, the ASUS G51JX-X3 offers users a completely new class of physical gaming interaction for a more realistic and dynamic experience. The NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M also features 1GB GDDR5 VRAM, which performs significantly better than the standard DDR2 and DDR3 video memory. W… More >>
ASUS Republic of Gamers G51JX-X3 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop
July 31st, 2010 4:54 AM
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.
Rating: 2 / 5
July 31st, 2010 6:58 AM
***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.
Rating: 2 / 5
July 31st, 2010 7:09 AM
Their slogan is “Gain the unfair advantage”. And that is just what Asus will do to you, if you purchase this laptop. Their advertising is misleading – on the Amazon page it says that the 1.6GHz CPU can be “turbo boosted” to 2.8GHz- yeah right. If you can find out how, please let me know. The machine does come with a utility that apparently lets you do this: Power4Gear Hybrid – or at least it lets you THINK you can do this by clicking the “turbo” box. Just like those racing stripes on your car, you may think you’re going faster, but you’re not. The “Windows Experience index” Processor data (Calculations per second) or heck, even the clock rating of the CPU – remain stubbornly the same.
If you are lucky enough to manage to get a machine that doesn’t blue screen when finishing up the install of the OS, be pre,pared for more disappointment. This machine is advertised as a “gaming laptop” because hey, after all they have a “Republic of Gamers” logo! But some games (like say Battlefield:Bad Company 2, Men of War/Men of War:Red Tide) just cannot be played due to widescreen issues. It seems like the mouse and the screen don’t match up. In battlefield the mouse doesn’t “point” to where it’s supposed to, making menu selection and other mouse specific tasks (like, playing the game) impossible. In Men of War the mouse doesn’t move at all. Although you can still manage to highlight or select items by guessing. To be fair, there are some games that do work – Napoleon Total War runs fine, as does Hearts of Iron III, for example.
Unfortunately this laptop ships with a 500GB hard drive, and it happens to be the infamous Seagate Momentus 7200.4 hard drive. At least in my machine. I will leave you to do your own reading of reviews. It’s a fantastic drive, when it works. Many people have complained that this drive is DOA, or dies shortly after purchase. Mine lasted 3 months. I am still arguing with ASUS to get it replaced. In the meantime I have purchased a 750GB Western Digital drive and it seems to be working fine. But of course this means that I lost my Windows license – because this laptop does NOT ship with a Windows CD – they do the “backup partition” thing that 1) takes away hard drive space from you because you buy a 500GB drive thinking you’ll have 490GB plus the OS but no, there’s a hidden 20GB partition on there too and 2) completely fails to protect you when the hard drive dies – which it will. Oh and just so that you know, you will probably have to repartition your hard drive because for some reason ASUS decides to ship this machine with a very weird default partition configuration. I guess gamers need lots of small hard drives, huh ASUS?
This computer runs VERY HOT – hot enough to burn your lap at times if doing CPU/graphics intensive tasks (like duh, playing games on a gamer laptop). I would recommend a cooling pad. Oh and the REAL battery life (what battery life?) is just over 1 hour. They do sell 9 cell batteries for this laptop, but those are actually bigger than the laptop itself so expect it to bulge at the back.
Since I had to replace the hard disk, I could also say that their design is not so good – you have to remove a good dozen screws in order to get to the hard drive, essentially taking off the whole back cover. The same for the memory – the whole cover comes off. There’s only one way to do it, see. Other laptops I’ve seen had separate compartments but…
Finally, for a “gaming” laptop, the speakers are woefully inadequate. Make sure you’re in a very quiet room, or buy yourself a set of speakers to plug in, because sound is certainly not where ASUS decided to put the money when they made this machine. Come to think of it, where DID they put the money?
Also, the keyboard occasionally skips letters. Once in a while expect a missing letter in your typing. I guess gamers are supposed to do one finger typing only, huh? That was before my hard drive crash. Now, with a new OS and (probably) some missing drivers, they keyboard is even better – once in a while the cursor jumps to a new place on the screen while I type, so my typing buffer gets dumped in the middle of a previous sentence. I don’t know which is more annoying.
On the good side, the monitor is nice and easy to read.
So, if you want to pay $1400 for a very nice monitor, a mediocre CPU, a hard drive known to be problematic, a hot lap (but only for an hour), a kdeyboar ttha sdoe this while once in a, then this is the machine for you! Oh, and don’t forget the 2 year ASUS GLOBAL WARRANTY that will get you a tech support person that will tell you to contact the reseller (when the reseller told you to contact the manufacturer). Oh and remember to fill out and send in your warranty card, keep the receipt and original packaging for the full 2 years, and send in the whole laptop (even if it’s just a burned out $60 hard drive).
I certainly will never buy another ASUS product. They used to be good. Not anymore.
Rating: 1 / 5
July 31st, 2010 9:33 AM
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.
Rating: 2 / 5
July 31st, 2010 11:50 AM
Who can say why, with the laptop I got another Backpack, not like in the picture? Whom can I contact for help?
Rating: 4 / 5