Hands on Use

The first thing you notice about the ASUS G73JH-A1 when you see it is the style. The machine is very cool and unique with its angles and flat black finish. The matte finish means that fingerprints and smudges are nonexistent. The finish has a rubber feel to it and should resist scratches well and be very durable.

Crack that lid open and you get your first glimpse at the highly glossy 17.3-inch screen. With the full HD resolution and integrated Blu-ray drive, the ASUS G73JH-A1 is a fantastic media machine. Blu-ray videos looked great with smooth playback and no issues with tearing during fast action. Streaming video from Hulu was equally good in windowed mode and full screen. The GPU inside the ASUS G73JH-A1 is up to the task of media playback.

The ASUS G73JH-A1 has a very nice sound system for a notebook with a 2.1 speaker set. A small subwoofer is located on the bottom of the machine. This subwoofer isn't large enough for the kind of deep bass you will get from a desktop system with a 2.1 speaker system, but in a notebook this is as much bass as you can expect. On a machine that will be used for movies and gaming the subwoofer is a very nice touch.

Most gamers like to play in a dark room so there is as little glare as possible on the screen. That means that we often end up having to play with a desk lamp or light of some sort to illuminate the keyboard so we can find the keys we need. The ASUS G73JH-A1 has a sweet backlit keyboard that is very nice. The keys are all placed where they are supposed to be. The only downside is the right shift key is smaller than the average shift key. Typing feel and tactile feedback are very good.

The ASUS G73JH-A1 has a large trackpad with plenty of area for use. The buttons are easy to press and the trackpad is separated well from the surrounding wrist rest area. The keys of the number pad on the right side of the keyboard are smaller than the rest of the keyboard. That is a good trade off in my book since most of us will rarely use the number pad. I would take larger standard keys any day over smaller keys across the board for the sake of a larger number pad.