Holiday Buyer's Guide: Notebooks
by Dustin Sklavos on November 15, 2010 9:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Guides
- Holiday 2010
Best Gaming Notebook: ASUS G73Jh/G73Jw ($1635/$1700)
The ASUS G73 comes in two flavors: the G73Jw and the G73Jh. Either one of these is awesome. Let us explain.
Prior to the G73, ASUS' gaming notebooks were potent but noisy, hot, and gaudy as hell. With the stealth-inspired G73 design, drastically improved airflow, and near ban on glossy plastic, ASUS was able to address the overwhelming majority of complaints about their previous units while firing a bullet straight into the heart of the gaming notebook market with an irresistable pricetag: buy a G73Jh from Best Buy, and you can walk home with one of the fastest mobile GPUs on the market for just $1,199: the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870. That model comes with only one HDD, 6GB RAM, and a 900p LCD, so if you can spare the extra $400 the various upgrades sweeten the deal, but either way you're getting a potent gaming laptop for an amazing price.
The design of the G73 fires on all cylinders and produces one of the best deals on the market, so it makes sense that when ASUS went to refresh it, all they really did was pull the Radeon HD 5870 for the generally comparable NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M and bump the Intel Core i7-720QM to a 740QM. All things considered we'd probably still go for the 5870-equipped G73Jh, but we have a hard time believing any gaming enthusiast would be disappointed with either model. You can find the no-frills G73Jw starting at $1400 online.
Gaming Runner Up: Clevo X7200 (Starting at $3113 with 480M SLI)
If you're not on a budget on the other hand or just have a general distaste for money that isn't on fire, we present to you the Clevo X7200, the most insane, ridiculous notebook you can conceivably buy. Oh we can review machines like the X7200, but realistically they're critic-proof. Why?
Well, what other notebook can pack a hex-core desktop Core i7, three hard drive bays, and a pair of GeForce GTX 480Ms in SLI? Oh, and you can RAID the drives in the system, too. The X7200 weighs more than my cat, boasts a 1080p screen, and somehow still manages to sport that same godawful Clevo keyboard. Even the power brick is appropriately enormous.
As a result, if money is no object and you simply must have as much notebook as humanly possible, there's really no choice: the Clevo X7200 represents the top of the mountain. We would be remiss in not mentioning AVADirect having offered us the review unit, so if you're going to take the plunge and buy a notebook that doubles as a murder weapon and space heater, you couldn't choose a better vendor to get it from.
Gaming Notebook Alternatives
There really aren't that many gaming notebooks out there when you combine all the model renaming. Clevo makes barebones notebooks that are then used by a large number of boutique shops and the like (AVADirect, Eurocom, Sager, and others all use the same basic Clevo designs, though some are more forthcoming about this fact than others), but a rose by any other name would smell as sweet... and weigh as much.
The Clevo W880CU drops to a single GTX 480M GPU with a mobile CPU but checks in with a starting price of nearly $2000 at AVADirect. Perhaps more interesting is the updated W860CU, now with GTX 460M or GTX 470M and quad-core CPUs starting at $1500. The Clevo W870CU has the same chassis as the W880CU but with a smaller power brick and again the 460M or 470M GPU starting at around $1530. We listed AVADirect on all of those links for the simple fact that they're the cheapest place we've found for configuring a Clevo-based notebook, but feel free to shop around at other vendors like Sager and XoticPC.
What about non-Clevo designs? Alienware still has their M-series notebooks, including the M11x R2 that is arguably the smallest laptop to boast reasonable gaming performance, but all three models (M11x, M15x, and M17x) are due for an update. If you want 5870 CrossFire, the M17x is probably the best place to get it, but GeForce parts are all last-generation DX10 for now, and the 400M updates can't be far away. ASUS also has their smaller G53Jw, with similar specs to the G73 but only a single HDD and priced at $1450. Finally, there's MSI notebooks. We really took issue with the GX640's keyboard, but it looks like the GX660 might have fixed this. $1200 for i5-450M and HD 5870 is still a good deal, or there's the larger GX740 starting at $1100 with the same components (and a 1680x1050 display as well!)
For less expensive "gaming" options, we refer back to the alternatives listed at the end of the Mainstream section on the previous page.
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FATCamaro - Monday, November 15, 2010 - link
For most comparable system it is around 5-20% which isn't steep.Cuhulainn - Monday, November 15, 2010 - link
I'm 5'9" and weigh 168 lbs. This is in the normal weight range for body mass index.If I gained 20% more weight, I'd weigh 200 lbs and would be considered obese.
Just sayin'.
th3pwn3r - Saturday, November 20, 2010 - link
What in the world does BMI have to do with anything? Not to mention BMI is a failed investment that they won't let die. If you're judged as being obese just because you're a certain weight/height ratio it's stupid. Most body builders and fitness athletes are classified as obese through BMI.JarredWalton - Monday, November 15, 2010 - link
Well, here's steep for the MacBook Pro 15:- 2.4GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-520M or i5-450M?)
- 4GB (2x2GB) RAM
- 320GB 5400rpm Hard Drive
- SuperDrive
- NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 256MB Graphics
- 15.4" Glossy 1440x900
- Secure Digital (SD) Card Slot
- iSight Webcam, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
- 802.11n AirPort Extreme
- Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, 5.6 lb
Total price: $1707 online, $1800 from Apple.
I get more than that in every area with an XPS L501x, with a price of just $1000. Heck, we can toss out the Dell Precision M4500 as another comparison, which is really quite expensive since it's a mobile workstation:
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Core i5-520M (2.40GHz)
3 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 3 Year Next Business Day On-Site Service
NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M 1GB
2x2GB DDR3-1333MHz
15.6" HD+ (1600 x 900) Anti-Glare LED Display with Premium Panel Guarantee
320GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
8X DVD+/-RW
6-cell (60Wh) Lithium Ion Battery
Dell Wireless 1501 802.11b/g/n Half Mini Card
Dell Wireless 375 Bluetooth Module
Integrated webcam with microphone
Internal English Backlit Keyboard
Total price: $1750 (though granted that's with the current sale Dell is doing--which they do all the time)
There's no question NVIDIA charges more for Quadro 880M vs. GT 330M, though they're basically the same chip. Many of the other areas are a wash as well, but the upgraded LCD should be good (hopefully as good as the MacBook, but without testing I don't know). And of course, we're comparing 3-year warranty with on-site service to the standard 1-year Apple store warranty. This is about as close as the comparison gets.
For consumer oriented offerings, the Dell XPS and HP Envy 14 cost about half of the MacBook Pro 15 while delivering similar features. Yes, you can complain about the XPS aesthetics, but they do manage to deliver a lot for the price. So you're looking at Dell on the one hand making the XPS 15 with all the features that Apple MBP 15 has but worse aesthetics and a price of $1000. On the other, you can't actually find anything else with a decent LCD and build quality unless you move into business laptops (which not surprisingly carry a price premium), and even then Apple is priced higher for what you get.
I suppose the real question is to define "steep". 5% markup on Apple relative to Windows laptops if you include a student discount perhaps, but for average buyers the markup is at least 20%, and I'd qualify that as pretty steep considering the cutthroat nature of the computer industry.
FATCamaro - Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - link
Point taken. The XPS L501x is a winner vs the 15" MBP for value.MeesterNid - Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - link
Right, but if we really are talking mobile here then you have to consider the battery power and the weight of the machines. I'm not sure about the Dell, but the MBP is a fairly portable (not too heavy) device that gives you a fair amount of battery-powered computing time.awaken688 - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
You are comparing the chips inside which is very important. But what about weight and battery.I'm still waiting to see a true side by side with the price comparison.
I still think the Apple 15 is overpriced, but some people value certain things much higher than others such a true portability (weight and battery).
Separate topic:
Long term battery test. I have 3 friends that just bought Apple laptops last year (2 MBP 15", 1 vanilla MacBook). Both are their batteries killed my PC laptop at the start. Now all 3 of their batteries can't even make it through a 1 hour meeting/class unplugged while using it.
bah12 - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
Well certainly the 20% buys you some weight/battery life (hell 20% better get you something), but then subtract from those gains the hassle of OSX or Bootcamp, and the small gain is not worth it IMO. Its strictly a matter of personal opinion of course.Also all batteries degrade over time, as your experience shows Apple is not immune to this either. So replacement part cost should be a concern, and I'm sure you will see that Apple tax sneak it's way back in there too.
awaken688 - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
I can't comment on OSX. Most people that use Macs enjoy OS-X. I know Anand and company does. I still don't understand why someone besides the Sony Vaio Z can't produce a similar quality (speed, battery, weight, screen, usability) to a MacBook Pro. Yes I know it will be just as expensive, but we really don't even have a choice.Maybe Jared knows of one.
- 15"
- 1680x1050 Quality Matte Screen (no I don't want 1920x1080 or 1920x1200. I have a 1920x1200 Dell Precision Mobile Workstation now and that resolution is just too intense for that screen IMO)
- Core i5/i7
- 4GB+ Ram
- Decent GPU (I don't care about games. That is what consoles and desktops are for)
- Under 6 lbs.
- Less than 1" thick (although 1.1" is alright)
- Battery life under light surfing over 5 hours
I know this is a MacBook Pro basically, but is there anything out there that is like this other than Apple's offering?
8steve8 - Monday, November 15, 2010 - link
Anandtech is not entirely different, but the whole geeky media is over-obsessed with gpu performance on laptops. Very few people rely on a portable laptop for demanding 3d games, and the core i5/i3/i7 gpu is fine for non-cutting edge games like warcraft 3, and playing any sort of compressed video.Stressing gpu performance in the media forces the mfgrs to create laptops with discrete graphics, which means wasted volume, weight and energy.
case in point, even the new lenovo U260 seems to have allocated space for a gpu, in its 0.7" thick frame, and partially because of this, it can only fit a 29Whr battery.
http://shop.lenovo.com/gbweb/gb/en/learn/products/...
^ ^ you will see discrete graphics is an option... amazingly stupid trade-off on an ultra-portable.
apple stubbornly sticking to nvidia for GPU, at the cost of several years of cpu progress is not even worth a second of debate, especially on an 11" machine.
I'm not hating on anandtech, just the whole industry, reviews shape future designs, and as we are seeing now, even with good-enough-for-non-gamers igp performance, laptops of all sizes are being outfitted with discrete options. Stupid.