i still not turn it on.....
waiting weekend to come.....haha....
hand get tired easily.....my new dumbbell......

Take ur time, no rush. Welcome to the club.Still, damn u guy don't have to wait the stock for long compared to us.

Hasn't seem Jeffrey posting in this thread.

probably quite busy bah. end of term exams maybe

Right, so I'm off today, decided I should start on my impression review. It'll be very casual minus all those technical stuff, which i believe you can get from Google.

So I've been waiting close to 3 months for this particular laptop, the Asus G53SX. First an order has been placed at EverNew MidValley but they have failed me badly, screwed it and went to Acme Computer in Pyramid in the end. Ordered, put a deposit and the aunty gave me a period of 2-3 weeks. Truth to be told I was pushing the aunty every single week, but I have to else they won't really rush the suppliers. In the end, it finally came.

I was in my networking lab when the call came. She called me to go pick it up tonight as they close at 10PM. Finished most of my workload and decided to go over to Pyramid. FINALLY. Asus Malaysia should really reorganize their management and QC department. It's seriously f***ed up.

Well, upon arrival I was greeted with a humongous box that has an Asus logo on it. Everything looked okay and the tape wasn't tampered. Everything going smoothly at the moment. Took a blade and cut the tapes open, clearing the box's guts.



Was actually expecting the model that comes with i7-2630QM, glossy HD screen (1366x768) but I didn't know I'll be surprised.



A ROG box containing the beast and also, the backpack that failed so miserably. More on that later.
Took the laptop out and checked if everything was working accordingly, waited for Windows to configure the first time usage, everything a-ok and then paid so I can rush home to bask in its glory.

Upon reaching home, took everything out and laid them nicely to check out what is bundled in the box.

Asus's motto. If only they can apply that to their service and management.



The laptop itself, the driver disc, the battery and the power brick.


The famous ROG emblem embedded into the lid.

One thing I was a little disappointed was, I was expecting the Asus logo on the lid to be a little brighter as it's quite dim. But then again, small little personal ding.



The exhaust vents. One for the CPU and one for GPU.


Opened up the laptop and was greeted by a stealthy keyboard layout. But one thing that struck me was, the screen wasn't glossy. It's MATTE. I thought this was supposed to be an option and it wasn't available on this model for us in Malaysia. But whatever, this is a +1 for the amount of time i had to wait. I've heard very good things about the matte screen and I'm happy to say that it really doesn't disappoint.






Definitely inspired by a stealth fighter jet.



Chrome Asus logo to add classiness to the stealthy looking laptop.

//End of part one

This post has been edited by Bushido: Nov 4 2011, 01:57 PM

Powered by an i7-2670QM, nVidia GTX560M and running on Windows 7.


A sticker containing the specs, personally I dislike Asus putting this huge ass sticker on it, spoils the look. And of course, another ROG emblem, showing what kind of breed the laptop is living on.


Oh yeah and this is how big the power brick is. You can actually use it for self defense. I know i would.

And of course, the backlit keyboard. I've never owned a laptop that has a backlit keyboard before. Good to say that I'm loving this one. There are 3 stages of brightness for the keyboard and none of them is too glaring. Another +1 on adding classiness. Very good for me as well as I do a lot of late night coding, hacking and work. I read reviews saying that the keyboard sucked and could do better. But personally for me, it's really good. Not as good as a MBP but it's really good enough. It's even better than my Asus EeePC's chiclet. Good enough layout for touch typing as well. Will not go into detail on every single function found on this keyboard.

One thing that grinds my balls about this keyboard is the open spaces around each key is too big, as dust and debris can just go in easily.





Oh yeah and the bundled gaming mouse. Truthfully my first gaming mouse, as for me, spending so much on a gaming mouse is a stupid move. I'd still pawn players in CS or COD using just a RM30 Logitech mouse. But the bundled mouse is really nice to use. Nicely weighted and there are four DPI settings.



The laptop, minus the exhaust vent at the back would be a 15.6" inch in size. But including those giant vents, it's already 17.3" overall. This is where the backpack bundled failed badly. The laptop bag couldn't be zipped all the way without one corner of the laptop sticking out. It's disappointing because the bag's internals are nicely padded and I liked the look, but what a waste. To give you a clear look on the size, I've compared it to my EeePC which is 10" in size.





There's a reason why I needed a netbook, one is because lugging around this beast all day wouldn't be ideal. I'm a gym person and lugging this beast around one handed is tiring, let me tell you. It's still bearable if you carry it in your backpack, but it will leave your shoulder sore after an hour or so.




The fHD matte screen in action. Was testing out Battlefield 3. No hiccups whatsoever playing on fHD.

As for the audio, I'm very impressed at the THX TruStudio tech. I paired the laptop with my Grado SR-60i headphones and the audio quality really shines. Bass is bloody tight and the highs are bloody clear, esp. playing FLAC files. As for the speakers, it's above average. It's loud enough for me despite some reviews saying it's soft. I prefer the speakers to be configured to the 'External Speakers' setting instead of the 'Built-in Speakers' setting on THX. Too thin sounding on the latter setting.

Some things i REALLY hate about this laptop, well maybe one, is all the port placements. ESPECIALLY the USB ports. There are so much spaces around the sides of the laptop but still they put it near the areas which we use our mouse. Really gets in the way when using a mouse, no matter right or left handed. The power port is still bearable but still, bad placement.


Will continue with another review on the performance soon.

This post has been edited by Bushido: Nov 4 2011, 02:31 PM

i use that cooler too....it is a bit smaller ...
haha.......
power port is on the right hand side........
Dislike~~~~~

This post has been edited by eenong89: Nov 4 2011, 02:29 PM

@eenong89:

Power port is okay, the USB is the shitty part.

luckily our cooler have extra usb..(for mouse)...
haha....
but u can use the usb on the left hand side for your cooler....
now i feel like wana reformat my laptop and remove all the bloatware....
but today i am working.....>.<
can i just install display driver which is downloaded from nvidia without mod it?
is our laptop BIOS is the latest version?

---

Added on November 4, 2011, 2:49 pmand also how to turn on the keyboard backlit....
never use it b4~~~~~~~

This post has been edited by eenong89: Nov 4 2011, 02:49 PM

I didn't reformat because the amount of bloatware isn't that much compared to other Asus laptops. Just uninstall them and you are good to go. Unless you don't like the partitions they have made for you.

Of course you can use the nVidia drivers, that's what it's for isnt it? You don't even have to delete the current one to install the new one. Just over install it. My BIOS i'm not sure, haven't check it out yet.

To use the backlit just press Fn+F3/F4

nice.thanks.
because some of the asus laptop cannot use the drivers that are downloaded from the Nvidia website.
they need to mod the driver in order to success the installation.....

lol bushido, the usb placement imo were perfect. especially the dvd drive on the left since i'm right handed. The problem is the power port, such a shit location to put it. the cable its straight somemore.

why don't u just peel off the sticker if you hate it so much, personally i removed all the stickers even the intel and nvidia ones

Getting a gaming mouse, with a polling rate of 1000Hz does make a difference, you'll notice it more in LAN gaming.

here's a pic of my mouse, doesn't interfere with the usb ports.


This post has been edited by DoubleU: Nov 4 2011, 03:33 PM

There's nothing wrong with modding the driver, you just adding the info needed to let it detect the graphic card..

well it's personal preference anyway. i don't like USB port placed near where i use the mouse. Esp when I have a couple of HDD and wireless interfaces attached to my laptop.

thought of peeling it but scared if it would leave a stain behind or screw up the rubberized material. the sticker is good to prevent dirt on the palm area anyway

i don't game many hours a day so i'd prefer to spend the money on something else, like headphones.

but the process takes time.
i prefer directly download and install and play..........
aw~~~~~~~~~~~

if better peel now if you don't want the imprint being left behind.
why not the HDD cables on the left side of the laptop? still got 2 more ports

Read the manual, on how to use the laptop. Every information is there, there's e-manual in the godamn laptop.

Peeled it off right after you said that. I'm okay with the small nVidia stickers, i like it.
On my left I hooked up my N900 and a Wifi Interface. So it's the same no matter what side The audio port is also disturbing. It's okay if you use the normal sized audio jack on your headphones, but my headphone is recabled so the audio jack is huge as hell. Oh well this is the only cons of the laptop. No biggie.

OH just saw your picture on ur mouse placement. You're okay cuz you have loads of space. My workspace has quite a limited amount of space, so my mouse is very close to the ports if u see the pictures i've posted.


Wanted to say that, but is in a good mood today. So I shall be nice.

This post has been edited by Bushido: Nov 4 2011, 03:43 PM

i not even started to explore anything in the laptop yet.
just feel curiuos.........

Even if ur curious, wouldn't it be better ask uncle google or download the manual from Asus website. This kind of questions are already listed in NBR Stickies.
FYI, I even had to go through manual and btotech disassemble video coz I was stuck in one of the step in disassemble my laptop.

huhu, the disassembling of asus G-series laptop involves a lot of screws. Well, Sager makes its laptop parts easily accessible and even the fans too. Still +1 to the coolness of Asus G-series laptop. Might consider one in future since I'm sort of a techy guy who doesn't mind to disassemble my own laptop provided there is a tutorial on how to disassemble it. BtoTech one is nice, the G73 disassembly guide is very clear but the G53 one is not that good because the shooting angle is bad :[