ASUS G75VW: Conclusion

Conclusion

Heat and Noise

Cooling is one thing ASUS has done well on its 17.3-inch G-series notebooks and the G75VW is no exception. The cooling systems for the processor and graphics cards are cleverly separated; the left exhaust vent is for the processor and the right is for the graphics cards. They use completely separate heatsinks. Air is pushed through the rear vents at a slightly upward angle, improving efficiency as opposed to just pushing it at the ground. At idle the notebook is silent for all intents and purposes and even under full load, there's just a quiet rush of air out the back. This is one of my favorite cooling systems -- it just works so well.

Battery Life

I managed three hours, three minutes of battery life during our standard battery run-down test (Windows 7 Balanced power profile, 70% screen brightness, wireless active and refreshing a web page every 60 seconds). It's not a spectacular time but certainly not something I'm going to complain about. The second hard drive undoubtedly adds to the drain on the battery life. The Nvidia Optimus technology helps improve it by turning off the dedicated Nvidia graphics card and switching to the integrated Intel graphics card (which is actually part of the Core i7 processor) when no 3D processing power is needed. This also helps keep the heat and noise level down.

Battery life could be further improved by reducing the screen brightness to minimum and installing an SSD in place of one of the hard drives.

Battery life test results (higher scores mean better battery life):

I have no reservations recommending the ASUS G75VW to enthusiast gamers. It excels in nearly every area as have previous-generation ASUS G-series gaming notebooks. I like the design tweaks of this iteration including the much-improved keyboard and touchpad and anti-glare screen coating.

Build quality is good; it gets a respectable three hours of battery life and overall performance is outstanding. It plays all the latest games including Mass Effect 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 at maximum settings. The G75VW has an excellent cooling system; the fans are almost inaudible and the chassis is lukewarm even under maximum load. The only item that sticks out as needing improvement is the speakers - but that's hardly a con on a notebook.

Gamers wanting a bit more power can opt for a G75VW with a slightly faster GTX 670M graphics card.

Pros:

• Excellent anti-glare 1080p display
• Superb keyboard and touchpad
• Solid build quality

Cons:

• Subpar speakers

Individual Ratings: *

Software & Support 
Upgrade Capabilities 
Usability 
Design 
Performance 
Features 
Price/Value Rating 
* Ratings averaged to produce final score