Asus K52F Battery ASUS K72F Battery Posted: August 19, 2014 |
There is a reasonable selection of ports on the M51 with just about every port the average consumer is likely to need (or want) on a 15-inch notebook. The complete list of ports includes:Although I was glad to see at least four USB ports on the M51, I found the placement to be a little odd. One of the ports is located on the front edge which is nice for USB flash drives but not much else. Additionally, two of the ports are located on the back of the notebook which makes them difficult to reach. On the bright side, Asus includes a full-sized DVI port for connecting the M51 to an external display. The built-in Altec Lansing stereo speakers located above the keyboard are quite good. The built-in speakers produce a full range of high and middle frequencies, and even do an acceptable job with low bass for a laptop without a subwoofer. Clarity and loudness are also very good. The only negative issue with the built in speakers is that they are located very close to one another and don’t offer very good separation for stereo sound. There is, of course, a headphone jack located on the front edge of the notebook for people who like to plug in earbuds or external speakers. This location is great for headphones but isn’t the best for external speakers since you have to stretch the cord around the front of the notebook. I don’t typically make special note of the webcam on most notebooks. The reason for my lack of commentary about webcams is because most webcams are pretty much the same. They’re great for video conferencing and not much else. The reason I’m drawing your attention to the webcam on the M51 is because Asus was nice enough to include a rotating webcam. While the webcam itself isn’t anything special, the mount inside the display lid rotates 180 degrees so that the webcam can be pointed in the opposite direction. This is great for students who need to record a professor’s lecture or business professionals who might need to brodcast live video footage while on location.
One other item of note regarding the battery is that the 6-cell battery did not fit snug inside the notebook when locked into place. I thought this was worth mentioning since more and more consumer notebooks from other companies seem to have loose batteries. A battery shouldn’t wiggle and rattle around when locked inside a laptop. The Asus M51 is a nice consumer notebook with good performance, decent port selection, and a solid graphics card option for gaming. Asus has clearly risen to the challenge of creating an attractive general use laptop in an attempt to attract a wide range of consumer laptop shoppers. Still, I can’t shake the feeling that the M51 is lacking something. Build quality could have been better, there are no dedicated media buttons, and the display doesn’t offer a high enough resolution for a 15-inch laptop in 2008. The ASUS W90 is one of the largest notebooks that has passed through our office, with only the HP HDX Dragon and Dell XPS M2010 being larger. The 18.4” frame is designed to provide adequate cooling under stress down an Intel T9600 processor and two ATI Radeon Mobility 4870 graphics cards. This means a very thick chassis to provide airflow for 3 cooling fans and a sturdy frame so the notebook doesn’t bend when you try to pick it up. It feels like a tank, in both weight and size. Build quality is fantastic, better than most ASUS notebooks I have reviewed. Fit and finish are excellent and the materials used feel as if they will show little wear over the life of the notebook. One odd behavior we noticed during the review was the system wanting to shutoff when the display lid was closed to around a 45 degree angle. Most notebooks detect the screen closing really close to the keyboard, so it was a surprise to find the notebook shutting down when we wanted to move it to another location by slightly closing the screen. Keyboard and Touchpad The large Synaptic touchpad is one feature of the notebook that I really love. It has sloped edges around the perimeter, instead of a hard barrier to show the edges of the touch surface. The texture is smooth with a light matte texture. It is easy to use even after my hands were sweating from sitting on top of the notebook for a couple of hours. The touchpad buttons are easy to trigger without much force needed to click. They have shallow feedback and give off a muted click when pressed, not an obnoxious snap. ASUS includes a wireless Bluetooth mouse and backpack with the W90, and they are actually not that bad at all for freebies. The backpack offers some protection for the notebook beyond a slipcase and with the brick carried along as enough room for a school book or two. The shoulder straps are adequately padded with additional material at the top to lug around the 16+lbs of the notebook and accessories. The front of the bag has a semi-rigid face for protection against impacts and the rear has pockets to conceal the waist strap when not in use. The mouse felt cheap compared to most Bluetooth competitors, but considering it was free we can’t complain much. It is powered by two AA batteries and fits comfortably in your hand.
The W90 is easily the fastest notebook we have ever reviewed and even faster than most desktops. The Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 processor and dual ATI Radeon Mobility 4870 graphics cards make formidable team up again the latest games on the market. One of the games that we turn to when we really want to stress a system is Crysis, since it can make nearly every system weep with its demanding needs. With the system overlocked by 17% using the ASUS power ultiity we were able to play Crysis Warhead at 1920×1080 resolution at the Gamer visual settings getting 30-34 frames per second (FPS). This was more than playable for most people, and still offered plenty of room to tweak settings to get even higher framerates. The W90 also produced the highest 3DMark06 result we have seen, topping 15,000 when overclocked. WPrime is a benchmark similar to Super Pi in that it forces the processor to do intense mathematical calculations, but the difference is this application is multi-threaded and represents dual core processors better. Lower numbers indicate better performance.This is a review of the G1 Gaming Laptop by ASUS. This laptop defies traditional categorization since it provides gaming performance while maintaining a mobile capability. Normally gaming notebooks are isolated to larger entertainment style laptops that have low battery life. However, the Asus G1 being reviewed here can provide excellent multimedia and gaming performance while remaining portable with good battery life.The box was secure and did not seem like the contents were loose or shaking inside. After opening the first outer box, the backpack and G1 box were revealed. A piece of cardboard the height and length of the remaining space wedged the G1 box in snuggly. The backpack was folded and sealed in plastic. Inside the G1 box, the contents were divided into two sections, the laptop in an anti-static bag secured by fitted plastic foam and a brown box. Inside the brown box was contained all the various discs, parts, and promised corded gaming mouse. The top of the laptop was covered with a plastic protective film along with other various protective measures, such as a sheet between the monitor and keyboard, and a plastic sheet over the monitor. Several decorative and informative plastic inserts highlighting the features of the notebook were also present.I observed the overall design and proportions of the unit and found them satisfactory. The laptop was not small but certainly not huge. The finish and textured look was impressive and gave a sophisticated look to it. It was scratch free and did not have any obvious blemishes. Finger prints were not immediately noticeable, though at close inspection you could observe them. All the expected ports and devices were present. The optical drive had several labels but nothing in regards to LightScribe (More on this later). The laptop being billed as a Gaming Laptop was certainly true from the exterior. The strobes, colored squares around the "W", "A", "S" and "D" keys, a sleek dark design, OLED, and all seeing evil eye gave it that serious gaming experience on the exterior. A true Gaming Laptop is impressive inside and out.
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