ASUS G Series G1S-A1 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T7500(2.20GHz) 15.4" Wide SXGA+ 2GB Memory DDR2 667 160GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT - Retail

Wonderful... if you understand what you're buying.

Reviewed By: novanryder on 10/9/2007

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: This laptop is beautiful, from the aesthetic design (yes, including the fingerprint-savvy carbon fiber) to the location of different physical ports/utilities. Function keys are splendid, 1680x1050 15" display is amazing, the interals are easily accessible, built-in webcam is quite nice, included laser mouse is actually very impressive, included backpack is awesome looking as well as functional, and just the LOOK of the laptop makes me want to have babies with it. c2d 7500 + 2GB ddr2667 (and expandable!!) + 1680x1050 w/8600mGT + HDMI out + DVD burner + wireless N + GREAT WARRANTY for < 2k = wow! The ASUS "eye" thing below the touch pad is a little weird but not bad. Wireless a/b/g/n are all up to snuff for their respective speeds. The overall function of this machine blows away pretty much every contemporary laptop in price and performance.

Cons: well- 5400rpm hard drive + no ddr2800 = why?! just why?! As if the battery life wasn't short enough already, what would a 7200rpm HD and some faster RAM matter? The RAM isn't a huge deal, honestly, but the hard drive is obviously what's keeping this system down. Also - beware the bloatware! Gets a little hot, but it's a gaming machine. Buy a laptop cooler like the Zalman ZM-NC1000. This machine is made with a focus on gaming, which causes heat build-up due to constant load. The hard drive compartment and RAM seem to get a little too hot for my liking, but it doesn't appear to affect performance. Read the user manual. Keep this thing on a flat, hard surface. Vista seriously ticks me off, but there are a few problems with the XP drivers for this computer. It seems unable to run certain applications correctly, which I assume will be corrected in future updates.

Other Thoughts: Though I have just given it a good bashing, I'm actually VERY happy with this laptop. I have had it for about 2.5 months now and I'm still quite impressed with its looks and most of its hardware. I agree that the USB ports could be located better for some people, but I'm quite happy with them. USB cords are kept out of the way. I used this laptop to play Oblivion, which it did VERY well considering that it's working w/a 90w PSU. I also understand that at my time of purchase, ddr2 800 RAM (especially in a laptop) was quite expensive, and ASUS aimed to make an affordable high-power compact machine, thus; For the price you simply can't beat this purchase. It has impressive looks, bells + whistles, hardware and some rather nice accessories. I gave it 4 stars because I expected more out of this hardware combo, but I wouldn't exactly say I'm disappointed. I wish there was a quarter-star system on newegg, because I give it 4.75 stars, not 4. I just can't give it 5 due to the slow hard drive.

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More Than I Had Even Hoped

Reviewed By: SilvorFlames on 8/1/2007

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

Pros: It exceeded my already high expectations. It seems to be built very solid. It is a VERY attractive notebook. I replaced the HDD with the 7200.2 Seagate, but I kept the 2G of ram. Incase you missed it.. if you are planning to upgrade your RAM.. DO IT NOW. They give you 2 1G sticks which means you will hafta dispose/sell both the 1G in order to insert the 2G to max it out. It runs VERY quickly. The MAIN reason I chose this laptop was because it came with the Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT 256m card which is Direct X 10 capable! Otherwise there are a few other ASUS laptops with similar specs that I would have chosen from Newegg.com. Also the backpack does not look bad at all. Maybe they changed it since the guy who posted and said it looked like a train wreck. The full version of Nero it comes with is also a plus.

Cons: Nobody noticed that the power cord was kinda short? It's not a huge big deal but it seemed that it was like 3 feet shorter than my last laptop cord. I feel Vista is more informative but MUCH less tactile. Meaning be prepared to read as opposed to looking for icons, buttons, etc..

Other Thoughts: Great! I am a fulltime student and a slight gamer. BTW Parents, "Gaming" simply refers to the power a PC will have available. It's not "Made" for playing games necesarily.. Kinda like they have the "Sports Edition" on vehicles. A gaming machine WILL last a good bit longer than a "work" laptop. Also, I didn't know what the "Eye" was under the touchpad. It's just a Rubberized ASUS logo that glows green. The Laser Mouse it comes with is GREAT! It has 2 buttons to instantly increase/decrease sensitivity which comes in handy considering how much more precise the laser is than the touchpad. It saved many visits to the Control Panel. All laptops run warm/hot.. this is no different. I would suggest getting a Chill Mat. I found the buttons above the keyboard to be usefull also. For instance, there is a button that will let you change the Battery Profile from High Performance all the way down to Power Saver. This will help during school as I will just be typing.

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Great laptop

Reviewed By: Jlochman on 2/1/2008

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

Pros: Great screen, fast processor, HDMI and E-Sata are another nice addition.

Cons: The hd is only 5400rpm, and the ram is only ddr2667. And this laptop has terrible battery life, about 1 hour with full performance settings, 2 with battery saving.

Other Thoughts: Great laptop for the price, there is a certain other wow laptop that is way over double the price and all you get is another video card, a physx card, and a 17" screen

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Reviewed By: maxl on 1/25/2008

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Excellent monitor with crisp and clear resolutions. Designed very well, nice and sturdy. The hardware is awesome, thats the whole reason i bought it, now we just need the rest of the industry to build more multi-threaded apps. Overall really nice quality product, what i expect from Asus.

Cons: There is always something that's ackward with every product. With this one there is no LED for the ethernet jack. i like my LED's and its a good indicator for low level troubleshooting. Plus it ships with vista, with is just an overall horrible operating system and uses way to many resources for simple things. I recommend throwing linux on it, but then you'd be limited with gaming. Oh, and the battery life is horrible <= 2hrs.

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Awesome, but replace RAM!

Reviewed By: Rawr! on 1/19/2008

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: The instant savings on it makes it. It looks awesome, totally blows away anything out there in that regard. No, the 8600m GT is not the absolutely fastest thing in a laptop anymore, but its still very good. It almost maxes The Witcher and World in Conflict, and runs Crysis smooth on Med settings. 1680x1050 resolution blows away most other laptop monitors by far! You CAN install XP on it, no problem, with a simple BIOS flash from the ASUS website, no need to slipstream anything! If ya run the vista recovery ya can load most of the ASUS programs and just pull the disk when its almost done, go into XP and install everything. All but the Power4gear and the Webcam work just the same, and for everything else that doesnt work theres XP versions of them online, just search for em. Just make sure to have Vista and XP installed on 2 different partitions.

Cons: DDRII 667, 5400 RPM HDD, Vista, bad speakers, smudgy. I've already replaced the RAM with 4 gigs of Geil, though of course XP/ vista 32-bit only read 3 gigs. HDD i'd like to swap when i get the money, but it works just fine. Runs hot.

Other Thoughts: Overall its spectacular. The ASUS Direct flash/ customizable text on the clock LCD is uber cool, plus the IM warning that flashes if ya have windows messenger minimized. The built in Wireless A/B/G/N card flys. Runs hot, but never does anything stupid from the heat, but ya should buy a cooler anyways. Havent really found a use for the ExpressSlot yet, but its a nice addition.

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