Asus G1S

The keyboard of the G1 is quite well designed. The keys are well spaced out, offer good feedback and the highlighted “WSAD” keys are a welcome touch. The only thing we found annoying here was the fact that sometimes the key presses didn’t register in games and caused problems. Initially we thought that this might be a problem in our test piece, but it was not. We worked on the machine for normal every-day work and found that the same keys worked fine. The touchpad of the G1 is a very standard fare. It offers good traction and control and is generally pleasant to use. It is however not very good to game with and for this Asus includes a stylish mouse.

If the mouse strikes a feeling of familiarity... it’s because it’s a rebadged Logitech MX518.

In terms of peripheral connectivity, the G1 is certainly not lacking. It offers 4 USB slots which unfortunately have been all grouped up at the back. This is a major annoyance as it means that for connecting any USB item; one has to turn the laptop around every time. The rest of the connectivity is quite standard with a Firewire slot, Rj11/ Rj45 jacks, Mic/headphones out, a card reader and a dual-layer DVD drive. Wireless connectivity is present in the form of Bluetooth 2.0 EDR and 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi support.