Home > Consumer Reviews > ASUS G50Vt-A2 15.4-Inch Laptop (2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 640 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive, Nvidia 9800 GS Graphics, Vista Premium)

I purchased this computer having read many reviews, but most of these were written by gamers for gamers, and I bought this computer for use in laboratory research and teaching. So my perspectives are a bit different than most reviewers, but I will end with a perspective on gaming for those interested.

This computer comes with Vista 64, which is a decent operating system for those applications which are designed to take advantage of it. It would have been nice had Asus provided Windows XP SP3, but they do not even include drivers for XP, so one cannot install XP and take advantage of the hardware without tracking down about 30 drivers, and I am not sure they exist for all the gizmos on this computer. Fortunately, Vista64 can run most Win XP software, but I found a number of applications which have trouble (Adobe CS2, Microsoft Office XP, Chem3D) . However, if your application runs, it will run very fast on this computer. The Vista performance measurement yields 5.4 (Processor), 5.8 (gaming) and 5.9 (all other aspects). These scores are comparable to a $4000 desktop computer. This notebook computer runs scientific software extremely well given the excellent core-2 duo 2.53GHz processor, 1.1 GHz backplane, and 4GB DDR2-800 SDRAM. Although Vista wastes 1 GB of the RAM, there is plenty left for you application and Vista does a good job of page swapping for apps that require more than 3 GB. With 640GB 7200 RPM drives, applications which rely on fast disk access run very well. This combination is why this notebook computer is the best choice for those looking for a scientific computer. This computer runs molecular orbital calculations like a mainframe, and allows one to run both processor or graphics intensive calculations efficiently. All my scientific programs run (Gaussian, Mopac, MathScriptor, etc.) with no problems.

There are two negative aspects to this computer. First, it is large and heavy for a modern notebook computer. Second, the battery life is short (one hour - 1.5 hours using the standard battery). Both aspects are to be expected given the power of this computer. I gave the computer 5 stars recognizing that this is not a design flaw but inevitable for a computer with these capabilities.

As for gaming, I have only tried out two games. One came with the computer (Alone in the Dark) and one I had (Grand Theft Auto IV). To my surprise, this computer was able to run Grand Theft Auto IV without a problem on full 1680 x 1050 resolution at 22 fps with detail and distance turned up. GTA4 was not designed to run of Vista64, but it seems to have no problems with it.

Finally, I should note that the computer comes with a GeForce 9800M GT not a GeForce 9800M GS graphics processor card even though all the ads and specs on line seem to indicate the latter. There is a significant difference between the GT versus GS cards, and if one is a gamer, this is a hardware difference that is significant. GTA4 could probably not run smootly on a GS at full resolution. I suspect that the change was made late in the design/testing stage at ASUS after tests indicated that the GS was not adequate. The switch came after the information was released because much of the Asus literature does not acknowledge the faster card. But it is there, and it makes this computer a superb graphics machine.

The laptop is stunningly beautiful, the color, finish and build quality is much better than I have expected, the attention to details is staggering. Asus makes some of the best laptops out there with prices that are way better than the competition.

Really well packaged it arrived without any problems, the carry bag and mouse included are not just cheap extras they are really good quality products.

It started up smoothly and that was an experience by itself the blue back lights look beautiful and you can customize the way they light(fan speed,processor,always on and blinking), the feel of the keyboard is tight but it's a little on the left side because of the numeric keys on the right, it has a lot of Asus applications already installed (face recognition,security,asus utility...) and it came with a number of CD's like the Nero 8,alone in the dark game, recovery CD's and the bluray software(windvd for Asus)which you have to install to run blu rays and that was a bit of a problem, the software is old and even vista changed colors because it wasn't compatible! it freezes and shuts down by itself and after a two hours I figured out how to make it work! you have to insert the blu ray and just wait for it to start by itself (8 to 10 minutes) and once it started it played beautifully without any glitches, I guess it's because of the Nvidia 9800(will change the software to avoid waiting time), LCD is just below full HD at 1680 + 1050 so videos are really crisp and it's a little bigger than your normal 15.4 inch.

I was kind of worried about my HSDPA modem installing and connecting because of the 64 bit version but no problems there, and the bluetooth worked fine. You get like a 580 GB capacity out of the 640 they claim at 7200 rpm.

Speakers, you really get a sense of the surround sound but the speakers are not powerful enough for movies or music, even when I changed the setting to BASS I could hardly get any bass at all. that is a weakness considering that it's a gaming laptop (most laptop speakers are weak anyway). And for those who are wondering about the round speaker at the bottom it's NOT it's just a fan and it's orange!

There is an LED display on the left side of the keyboard that you can also customize to display your CPU or Memory performance and it can also display your incoming mail and MSN which is very cool.

Battery ran on full power with the lights on for an hour and twenty minutes when it reached 10% charge so I guess when you run it on power save mode you could get an extra 30 minutes or so.

Camera is okay with effects and shooting modes, you can put an Afro on your head and it moves around with you :-)

I loaded the Alone in the dark game that came with the package and it played excellent no freezing on maximum resolution and the turbo extreme mode,the CPU performance meter changed from 53% to 75% when I hit turbo extreme mode and it was faster.

Performance showed a total score of 5.5.

There are a lot of features that I haven't tried so I will update once I do.

A great laptop.

I'm just gonna make it short. If you're looking for a super laptop system, this is the one you should upgrade from. If you have the money, you can upgrade the CPU on your own, replace the stock HD w/ dual OCZ vertex 60G SSD on Raid 0 configuration. I'm still running it on a single G.Skill 128G SSD but planning for that ultimate Raid 0 upgrade.

Back to this laptop.

Pros: Very high performance, stability, speed, TV toner, memory card reader, bright screen (excellent for gaming), quality speakers, runs cool, num key pad.

Cons: Large laptop, heavy, 1-1.6hr battery life.

In short, if you're looking for the best 15in widescreen laptop in the market w/ CPU upgrade ability (sony vaio's cpu is soldered on the MB and you can't do jack about it) and dual hard disk support, this is the one. Just buy it and you'll love it!

I really like this laptop, and the performance is great, as advertized. I utilize the options of changing the performance levels, as this can greatly increase the battery time. For such a powerful laptop it runs surprisingly cool. The keypad is tight and in my opinion user friendly although offset slightly to the left. When I ordered this unit I was expecting a standard sized 15.4 laptop. This is not the case. This unit replaced my old Toshiba and when recieved it is actually larger (wider), and did not fit in my roller bag. The color and graphics of the monitor is outstanding. I had to upgrade to a new larger bag. In addition, when viewed on the websites the offset color..to me..appeared to be a "wood grain" finish and contributed to my purchassing the unit.. This is deceiving, as this color is actually orange, and pretty flashy. I do not use this laptop for gaming, but use it for my technical/professional business and was slightly concerned that this color would take away from a business type presentation. In the end I was complimented many times on the style and color of the laptop and am very content with it. It is heavier and sturdier than most laptops of comparable size, but this is not a negative issue for me. One issue that buyers need to consider is that this laptop is 64Bit, and at present IE8 does not support Adobe Flash player. Changing to Mozilla Firefox as your browser will allow you to download Adobe 7 flash player to get around that problem. Another issue is that the laptop comes loaded with Vista Home Premium, and some of my older XP programs were not compatible and new CD's / Drivers were required. Other than those few bumps, I would highly recommend this laptop. It is packed with features and has abundant disk space, memory and speed for even advanced users, and is an excellent buy for the price.