Asus G1S

The G1s being a gaming laptop, comes with some decent specifications. It is powered by a Centrino Duo T7300 processor clocked at 2 GHz, comes with 2 GB of DDR2 667 RAM, and Nvidia’s 8600GT graphical chipset with 256 Mb of graphical turbocache RAM. The 8600 GT is the beefed up version of the 8400 graphics chipset that was present in the A8SC that we reviewed recently. Like the 8400, it is DX10 compliant and supports Nvidia's Purevideo 2 technology.

We divided our tests into 3 sections. First up and most importantly were the synthetic tests namely 3DMark06 and PCMark05. The G1s aced both tests achieving scores of 4608 and 5124. These are impressive scores, keeping in mind that we have the mid-level version of the G1s. In comparison, the top-end version comes with a faster processor (T7500) and the 8600GT has 512 Mb of graphical memory.

In our second test we tested the games like F.EA.R, WoW, Oblivion and Prey. Each of the tests was run at the laptop’s native resolution of 1440x900, which is a widescreen resolution and conforms to the 16:10 standard. While some of the games support widescreen modes natively, we had to utilize either 3rd party patches/hacks for a couple of the games get them running in widescreen mode. Each test was run with a very moderate 2x AA/AF setting.

In each of the games the laptop was more than up to the task. We had average playable frame rates of around 38-63 across the spectrum. While the variance in the frame rate may seem to be a lot, please remember this is average frame rate. Smooth gaming is indeed possible on this laptop.
Our final test was the battery life. Here the laptop was a solid performer. We set the laptop for maximum performance and got a battery life of around 2 � hrs. Surprisingly when we switched to the battery conservation mode, the battery life went up by a mere 15 minutes.

The G1s is priced at Rs. 93,000. Though it offers some reasonably strong features build and performance, we find at its price point it loses out to other manufactures on being VFM. Dell and others offer laptops with similar specifications at a good Rs. 10,000 less. If your budget permits the purchase of this machine, we suggest you have a good hard look elsewhere before settling on this machine.