ASUS G1s UK

Hey there,

Basically my brother is buying a 15.4 inch gaming laptop. His first choice was the XPS M1530 but then after after hearing about a number of issues regarding the Dell screen he is looking to get the Asus G1s. I have a couple of questions for Asus G1s UK owners-firstly on some US sites I have seen the G1s with a T7700 2.4 Ghz processor,I was wondering whether this processor is available in the G1s in UK,secondly could you suggest an online retailer from where my brother could purchase the G1s.I know I could just google and get a list of retailers but the reason I am asking you guys is because I would also like to know your personal experience with the retailers.Thirdly I would like to know whether the G1s comes with recovery cds ( I am well aware that my brother could just burn them but just checking). Lastly is the hard drive easily replaceable(like the MacBooks or the Dell Inspiron 1520s)?I would really appreciate your replies and thanks in advance.

 

bump....... Anyone??

 

Hello. Don't worry too much about a .2 or .4 GHz difference in the GPU speed, it won't make almost any real-life impact to the performance on the notebook.

Second, yes it comes with recovery CDs, which contain an image of the OS and can also be used (with a trick) to make a clean OS install.

 

Firstly thanks for your reply.No we are not actually quite worried about the T7700,I was just wondering whether it is available in the UK.

 

I bought my laptop from these guys:
http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/

I gave em a visit to check them out before i bought from them since they are based in London and I live there anyway. They will price match if you find a laptop cheaper and they were ok to deal with. Mind you, they only price match and refused under all circumstances to add in anyting extra as an incentive to buy from them ( yea not even a free £5 usb mouse :O). But like I said, no issues on purchase or delivery.

www.laptopsdirect.co.uk sell Asus laptops and are a huge online retailer I would trust.

 

Not seen the 2.4GHz processor myself, though as you say, you probably wouldn't really notice the difference anyway.

It does come with a recovery DVD as well as a recovery partition on the HD.

I believe the HD is straightforward enough to change, but it does void the warranty.

I got mine from laptopsdirect - TBH I got the impression that they're basically just a box shifter, though they will do a pre-delivery check (for a fee) which ensures no dead pixels. I figured that was worth £40 or so.

E.B.E: what's this 'trick' to get a clean install?

 

Basically don't insert the drivers CD when you are asked to do it, instead just reboot the computer.

 

Cool And, having rebooted, can I then install those drivers I actually want, and leave the bloatware behind?

 

Exactly. (filling my post up to 10 characters)

 

Well I have previously purchased from laptopsdirect and yes I agree with you AndyC, they do seem to be just a 'box shifter'.All in all I have received good machines from them previously.Well laptopsdirect it is then.I have a few more questions though,could any one of you comment on the battery life(I have read the NBR review and know it is not going to be impressive but whats the harm in asking),also apart from the carrycase and mouse does it come with any cleaning cloth etc?Also is the harddrive easily replaceable?

Edit:Thanks for your help guys!

 

HDD is very easy to replace on any ASUS notebook.

If it's like any of the 4 ASUS notebooks I bought, it comes with a cleaning cloth in-between the screen and the kbd.

Batt life I don't know but it's probably under 3 hours, typical for current ASUS notebooks is 2.5 hrs.

 

Yes, it comes with a cleaning cloth.

I've not tested battery life yet - it probably depends which OS you're running (and, of course, what power saving settings you use).

 

Vista vs. XP with good power management I think makes for a difference of at most 10 or 15 minutes.

 

Well my brother is going to run vista initially(not quite sure if he is going to downgrade/'upgrade' to XP.So if possible Andy could you inform me how long the G1s runs on balanced powersavings mode,with brightness get to half and wifi on(bluetooth off),obviously assuming you are running vista as well.

Edit: Andy could you also tell me whether your G1s has backlight bleeding at all,if it does is it too bad? I know most screens have some sort of backligt bleeding.Oh and thanks again.

 

Sorry, I wiped Vista after two days and loaded XP. And I only kept it that long because I didn't have the time to do it earlier!

The backlight does bleed a little at the bottom of the screen, but it's very uniform left to right which means it's much less annoying than on some displays. If I had to criticise the display I'd point out that the viewing angle isn't as good as it could be; look at it straight-on and it's nice and bright, but it dims quite quickly as you move up, down or sideways. TBH I preferred the matte screen in my Inspiron 8200. The G1S looks stunning in games, though.