My first impressions of the Asus G73JH-A1 from TigerDirect

Summary:

-Had issues with TD, but all is good.
-Mouse was similar to Logitech G5 I believe. Has an LED on the top, DPI switcher under scroll with light indicator. Has both mouse button 4 and 5 on the thumb rest. They are oppositions top/bottom rather than left/right, which I prefer. Useless for me since I have a G9x.
-Backpack is okay
-Laptop bigger than I expected. Didn't expect it to be so much bigger than my Lenovo T500.
-A lot of unneeded bloatware. Recommend clean install and installing drivers from provided disc from Asus. I don't have a blu-ray player anymore though (software). Stock ones aren't provided in drivers/utilities disc.
-Blu-ray froze on me during the start, only real problem to occur so far
-Fan is audible in comparison to having a Lenovo T500. Doesn't bother me much, but I notice it. For those people who OCD about it, it might concern you. But this means it's cooling is pretty efficient. Previously on T500, palm rests got hot. On the G73, almost always cool aside from my body temperature transferring to it.
-Keyboard is taking some time to get used it. Chiclet key feedback isn't very tactile. I often hold shift too long or miss a key sometimes because I don't know if I pressed it or not.
-Much more vibrant colors in games compared to the LCD Matte screen on my T500 (comparing through SC2). Almost too colorful... But it's a great quality screen.




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Original post:


So I will be sharing my experience. I decided to make a separate thread; if mods want to integrate it into an existing Asus G73 thread, go ahead.

I ordered an Asus G73JH-A2 from TigerDirect on Saturday early morning (1AM, Friday Night) May 8th. The A1 and A2 model came out that day, with a 15% cashback. It was Order Today, Ships Today. I got an email that I needed to confirm my credit card. I tried as soon as possible, which was Monday. Before Monday I called and tried to verify that as soon as I confirmed, they would ship it. The person that helped me told me that yes, they have it on hold ready to ship as soon as my credit card was processed.

So I call on Monday, get it confirmed. I wait 2 days, my shipments was stuck processing. I decided to call on Tuesday. By this time, The A1 and A-2 models were appearing/disappearing with shipping changing from usually ships from 7-21 days to order today ships today. The A1 just so happened to be on order today, ships today. So when I called up, they told me my A2 was on backorder, so I asked if I could switch to the A1 since it was ready to ship. The person said yes and switched it. They said it should ship by that day. It didn't, it shipped 2 days later on Thursday.

I just received it today May 18.

So initial thoughts:

Quite big. I didn't expect it to be so big compared to my Lenovo T500. I am still pleased at the looks though.

I plugged it in and turned it on. Went through computer's first boot up and blah blah.

Typing might some getting used to coming from a Lenovo T500. I'm not very picky with keyboards, I can touch type pretty well with any keyboards. The problem I'm having is with how the keys push in and do or do not register. I suppose the feedback isn't great. So yes, I'm typing up quite a few mistakes on this but in due time i'll get used to it.

The laptop fans are audible. I would say loud compared to my Lenovo T500. Maybe if I used headphones the sound would be drowned out. But as of right now, I'm watching a movie on the side and I can hear the fans pretty clearly right now. The good side is the cooling is pretty good. Again, in comparison, both palm rests (mostly the left) on my T500 often got warm/hot when I played games. With the Asus G73, it's cool all the time. I never even notice if it's ever getting hot until I put my hand on the back of the laptop, where I can feel a good amount of heat being pushed through the exhausts on the back.

Right from the start, there was a lot of icons on the desktop. A lot from Asus, and some from other junk. I don't know what is really a good tool or not yet, I plan to install an SSD and fresh install, but I'm unsure atm, since I'm unsur of what I should keep or what I need, like CyberLink for Blu-ray.

My first problem arrived when I was downloading SC2 beta and meanwhile I decided to try out if the Blu-Ray drive was working. Not really ongoing, but it did happen. I put in a blu-ray movie and CyberLink opened, but it froze. It didn't respond, and I tried to close it. Suddenly, the laptop froze too. I couldn't task manager or anything so I had to do a hard shut down.

Nothing else so far right now and I'm fried. Just gonna go back to watch my movie and see how else this laptop fares with more time.

 

Congrats on your purchase. I hope all goes well with your G73JH.

 

There are still driver problems for the blu-ray that havent been resolved yet thats why it keeps freezing when watching blu-ray. I think that is why there was a time that the blu-ray models were pulled from the market

 

I was just testing if it worked. I really don't require an optical drive. Most software I need are available over the internet and I don't really think it's a wise monetary decision to purchase blu-ray.

I'll be patient with the optical drive, in short.

 

It may be due to drivers on the blu ray, as most ppl are saying, but i know the issue of cyberlink starting up and freezing (and subsequently, freezing the whole PC) all too well. Had this problem a number of times with PowerDVD9 and 10 on my desktop....(a reinstall usually got rid of the problem).

While the picture quality is very good when this software works, my experience with it has been full of bugs, glitches and the ever soo wonderfully
invasive 'Movie live' crap.

I strongly advocate WindDVD10....

 

Congratulations on your new purchase.

If you want some idea of what to keep and what to remove, you may want to check out the link in my sig.

 

So I clean installed W7, installed drivers and some applications off the cd provided, and it's going pretty good right now. I'm not having any of the dreaded problems that I have read so many of, but we'll see.

Resolution changing isn't really causing a problem or SOD's of any type. I'm running on the stock 10.3 drivers, not willing to try 10.4 from ATI right now.

Still getting used to keyboard...

Am considering taking the stickers off the laptop.

I'm not sure about blu-ray atm. I don't have CyberLink or whatever else that was anymore, so I'm not sure how i'm going to play Blu-Rays right now... Looks like only I can get trial software for Cyberlink, but not what I want.

 

You can download the OEM Cyberlink PowerDVD from Asus directly.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/Drivers/ATKDrv/WinDVD8_BD_80B20100_2ch.zip

Note that the OEM version only allows 2-channel audio. If you have a 5.1 or 7.1 sound setup, you'll need to purchase the retail version.

 

Ty David, would + rep more but I just gave you some on another post

 

That's WinDVD, not PowerDVD.

Also, since it is an older version, newer media may not work.

 

Where can I get the newer PowerDVD

 

From CyberLink?

 

An OEM version... or something that I don't have to pay for.

 

David's link already provided you the last OEM version of WinDVD from ASUS.

 

Oh, just wondering if I can get the same one as stock or a newer one. Don't want to run into problems with later bluray.

 

David's link provided you with the latest OEM version. Unfortunately, the OEM version is already not capable of playing all currently available Blu-ray media. In time this will continue to get worse. The only way is to purchase the latest version.

 

A little update:

I'm still having issues with typing well with this laptop. I often hold shift one extra key too long or accidentally miss a key sometimes, so it is a bit troublesome.

Also would like to point ut (just messed up here with typing) that the fan is clearly audible, so I understand some people's complaints about it being loud.

 

mine is still in back order...........