Asus G53J Gaming Laptop: Some Kinda Mean Machine

Here’s another winner from Asus’ Republic Of Gamers series of laptops, the G53J. If you remember the G51J, this one’s going to be a true refresher. It’s a mean machine in terms of hardware and looks. Not to mention, it’s also more expensive, so we’re obviously expecting much more.

Design
Aesthetics is one of the major distinguishing factors of this mammoth machine, especially when you’re comparing it with its predecessor. Now, the latter was an award winner for very good reasons and the G53J seems to be following the same trend. However, this time, it’s also about looks. With a rubberized all-black matte body and rugged build, the G53J looks more like a stealth aircraft. We’re not sure if that’s where it gets the design idea, but really, even the surfaces are absolutely flat and no curves whatsoever.

Notice how all the surfaces are absolutely flat

On a more serious note, if you’re looking for something truly machine-like, this laptop is the answer, we haven’t seen anything like this before. So, it’s the lid and the overall shape of the unit that makes it look the way it does.

Ergonomically, typing on the chiclet keyboard is pretty comfortable, with the well-sized keys, touchpad and buttons. The one slight downer we found was the quality of plastic in some places, they could have either used more heavy gauge plastic or used a metal shell. Also, the keyboard flexes more than normal, which could be a hindrance if you’re typing out long letters and so on. Nevertheless, the overall look of it camouflages the small downsides.

Features
In terms of features, hardware is clearly the biggest asset of this laptop. Built around the Intel HM55 chipset, it is powered by an Intel Core i7 720 QM CPU, and has 8 GB RAM, two 750 GB hard drives, an Nvidia GTX 460 GPU and a 3D-ready 15.6-inch screen (1366 x 768). With all this muscle, this laptop easily trounces its predecessor, the award winning Asus G51J, which is also a great 3D gaming laptop priced under a lakh.

Of course, the price of the G53J is higher for obvious reasons, but it’s still worth spending that extra buck. Here’s why, in addition to the spruced up hardware, you get this mean-looking machine, not to mention the higher frame rates and better game play.

Other features are rather common to high-end machines like this one. For instance, there’s a Blu-ray combo drive, and in addition to the standard connectivity options like Wi-Fi N, gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth, even a WiMax module showed up in the Device Manager. Despite of having all the required features, the machine looks pretty clean. In front, you’ll find only a memory card reader. On the left-hand side, there are two USB ports and the optical drive. On the right-hand side, there are two USB ports, an HDMI and a VGA port, audio jacks, Ethernet and the power jack. At the rear, apart from the Kensington lock slot, the only things you’ll see are the gigantic afterburners that you see in stealth aircrafts. Finally, the machine bundles with it Nvidia’s 3D Vision kit without the wireless receiver, because the receiver is built into this machine.