El Clásico! Well if the last face-off between Real Madrid and Barcelona left you wanting for more then get them fight it out all over again and this time around, in the video game domain. Similarly, satiate the urge of the historian within you and traverse back into time to unravel the mysterious Cold War era. At least, that is what we’ve been doing ever since the Asus G53J Gaming Notebook stepped into our periphery for a review. As summer temperatures reach the zenith, we’ve decided to beat the heat with some blistering gaming action. Meanwhile, we’ve also reviewed this gaming notebook from the house of Asus to find out if it is capable of quenching our thirst.
From the looks of it, you can actually rush out onto a real battlefield with this device by your side. However, its 3.6kg weight could put such plans on the back burner. So, while we stick to our desks with the notebook, here’s how it appears. Dipped in black color, the device boasts of no fancy designs or frills. The upper panel of the laptop has a smooth texture with the company’s name and its Republic of Gamers’ logo entrenched at the center. Once you’ve opened the system, the 15.6-inch HD/LED BL display subliminally tells you about the device’s rugged and sturdy nature. Its masculine appearance has been refined with about an inch of bezel that surrounds the screen. At the crest of this border is the 2MP web camera with a LED flashpoint while the manufacturer’s name reclines near the bed.
The G53J notebook has been equipped with a spacious illuminated Chiclet keyboard, a mid-sized touchpad and ample of palm rest. Adorning the top side of the keyboard are buttons such as power on, lights on/off for the keyboard, Power4Gear options and 3D vision enable/disable. The palm rest has been pasted with labels of various technologies assimilated into the device. The frontal slope of the laptop has been integrated with four status LED indicators while the rear houses an 8-cell battery pack and two Kensington lock port. The former can be easily slotted into the allotted place while withdrawing it isn’t a task either. The review unit that arrived into our office has also been outfitted with microphone and headphone jacks, one USB 3.0 and three USB 2.0 ports along with a RJ45 LAN, display output, power input and HDMI ports. The other components include optical drive Blu-Ray DVD combo and an 8-in-1 card reader compatible with multitude of formats. Besides, you’ll also find an optical drive, its activity indicator as well as electronic and emergency ejects. The supplementary accessory which knocked on our doors along with the notebook was the Nvidia 3D Vision glasses.
Now that we’ve served the basic layout of this minimalistic yet smart sculpture, let us take you into the battlefield enfolded within. Ruminating over the events of an era which existed through whispering corridors, we jumped straight into the Call of Duty: Black Ops combat zone. While we saw the Cold War period through the eyes of Alex Mason with the 3D glasses on, the game’s stereoscopic 3D feature and G53J’s capabilities engineered the emergence of a spine-chilling wave on the screen. The displayed graphics are extremely impressive since all characters appear as if they’ve been modeled in clay. Unlike the 3D manifestation of the 80s and 90s, this one infuses realistic images and gives the first person shooter arena a genuine first person view. The embedded Intel Core i7-740QM processor with the abilities of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M graphics card spells nothing less than magic. The color reproduction and animation in both 3D and non-3D modes transform the in-game environment into an even intense place to explore, bringing the Russian labor camp and deadly tunnels to life through levels such as Vorkuta and Payback, respectively.
While making through Rebirth and Redemption in Black Ops, we landed onto EA’s popular football stadium. We decided to kick off with FIFA 08 followed by its successors. Although we are too much in awe of the ninth and tenth installments, the eighth chapter is a good ground to brush up on basics. Since we had the 3D Vision mode enabled, images were splashed with a three-dimensional streak. The system wheedles an exceptional visual imagery of this content as the cheering crowd can leave a mesmerizing effect. Even the non 3D presentation made by the Asus G53J Gaming Notebook is up to the mark. Although the volume level needs to be tweaked a bit, the THX TruStudio technology delivers enhanced acoustics and suffuses powerful gameplay on the field whether you slick pass the ball or stop it from entering the goal post. Connecting the device to an external audio system is a better way to gain the most from its aural quality.
Our ride through MMO circuits of ‘Need for Speed World’ unleashed a blistering and effervescent rush on the system. However, the drive continues to be smooth and calm as long as the device is refueled with average battery levels. The moment the battery dips below 10 percent or so, you could experience lags through gameplay, be it a football face-off or an aggressive melee in a combat zone. Thankfully, the G53J doesn’t drain out of battery all that quickly and offers a runtime of around 3 – 5 hours on sporadic usage following a recharge for about 120 minutes. Those who wish to try their hand at built-in games, the Asus Game Park unlocks the access for a spectrum of games including Luxor 3, Jewel Quest III, Bookworm Deluxe and Farm Frenzy. We also tried our hands on the 3D game of Pool but the results were merely satisfactory. On the non-gaming front, it extends efficient performance triggered by the comfort of the Chiclet keyboard, easy text key-in, responsive touchpad and smooth web browsing.
Amongst other things, Splendid Video Enhancement technology, LifeFrame 3 and SmartLogon become the three main integrated applications. LifeFrame 3 lets you capture moments either as still images or video and decorate them with frames, moods, filters and more whereas the Splendid Video Enhancement technology can be employed for refurbishing pictures stored on the system. SmartLogon lets users click their picture and transform it into an activation code for access to the system. Additionally, the ControlDeck attribute sketches out a slate with options like Brightness, Volume, Resolution, Power4Gear modes, Fast Boot and Asus apps. Rendering a customization hand, it allows gamers to adjust various aspects of the display and gameplay as per their convenience. The aforementioned lights on/off key for the keyboard comes handy for emanating light from this space. However, this feature barely manages to direct you during intense and horrid situations as the merger of darkness and bright illumination confuses the eye.
The Final Word: The Asus G53J Gaming Notebook is still pretty much a notebook as opposed to a gaming machine. Not that there is anything to put it down in the gaming realm but we’ve had enough products which offer a maxed out play experience with enhanced gratification. Its 3D presentation is up to the mark and so is the overall performance. We liked the mechanism it employs as well as the overall construction but a few tweaks especially in the area of battery and volume levels would’ve helped better. Priced at Rs. 1,12,499, the device could make for an efficient solution to satiate the needs of both gamers and non-gamers.
Looks: 8.5/10.
Functionality: 8.5/10.
Comfort: 8/10.
Overall (not an average): 8.5/10.