Travel Review for the G73JW-A1

Greetings Users! (Yes the Tron movie is coming)

I have spent the last several weeks flying around the country and have had my first real chance to thoroughly test my new G73JW in regards to airports, security, rental cars, hotels and onsite customer meetings and have a brief report for anyone interested.

The Case
Targus Checkpoint-Friendly 17” Air Traveler Laptop Case (TBT046US)

I do a lot of traveling by air so a very important requirement for me was that the bag be check point friendly. I had not used the Targus “zip-thru” bags in the past but it works and works well. More importantly it is respected by TSA (always a concern as it’s no good to by a check point friendly bag if TSA still makes you take it out of the case). I still find it amazing how many travelers don’t know about these bags. At every airport noticed envious gazes as others fumbled around with their laptops, gear and bins while I simply unzipped my bag as it went into the scanner.

I like to travel with lots of gadgets so finding a bag with lots of various pockets is another must. This is the aspect of this bag that could be better. It does have lots of pockets but I could have used a few more. Still, it worked and I found a few cubby spaces along the edges that simulated the extra pockets. I will say that this bag seemed to have the most pockets for a laptop bag in this size bracket. It may be possible to get backpack with more, but I really wanted more of a standard case.

Overall it’s a great bag and very comfortable. It is bigger than my old bag (that carried my 15 inch laptop), but it’s very manageable and fits just fine under the seat in front of me on most planes (I don’t count those little regional jets as there ain’t much that fits under those seats).

The Laptop
ASUS G73JW-A1

I originally wanted to stay with a 15 inch laptop because of my travel schedule and the opinion that a 17 inch model would simply be too heavy and cumbersome. This however is not what I experienced. Yes, this laptop is larger but it carries well and does not seem that much heavier than my old system. Also with this model I get all the performance without needing to travel with a laptop cooler (which has always been quite a pain).

Traveling thru airports was a piece of cake, whether it be security or latching on to the airport WiFi. The system is built solid and sits on my lap a lot better than my older “lap”top. The bottom does not get hot and I’m not worried about cutting off airflow to the cooling system. The slightly larger size actually made it easier to work with in many situations and the screen brightness worked in all the lighting conditions I needed it too (even a car while sitting on the side of a road in California).

One important and aspect that I cannot understate is the fact that my primary drive is SSD. There were many situations where I needed to get to data in a hurry (including that side of the road example) and this system boots with amazing speed. In one case there were three of us all pulling out our laptops at the same time. As they mocked my “non-business” looking laptop (something which I disagree with) I was fully booted and looking at Excel files while they were still waiting to get to a password prompt. That felt pretty good.

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In the end I’d recommend this setup for road travel. It may be bigger than the average road machine but it’s durable, fast and dependable. In my mind the pros far outweigh the cons.