Asus - 14" Laptop - 8GB Memory - 750GB Hard Drive - Black

First things first, this laptop does not have an optical cd drive, touch screen, SSD, nor the highest resolution screen being a 1366 x 768. With that out of the way, what it does offer you however is a very nice and powerful graphics card along with a decent portable size due to the way it is designed. I was expecting to do some gaming and a little bit of everything really and this thing really delivers, the games actually do look great with its native resolution due to the powerful graphics card. the battery life is pretty decent when not gaming, with about 6 hours life for me on battery saver, the white led backlit keyboard is a great addition too. The fan and exhaust are located at the back of the laptop which is such a great idea, the laptop stays very cool when gaming. With my old laptop i had a cd drive but now im ok with downloading my games so i always have them with me, plus the 750 gb hdd is plenty of room for my games and is upgrade-able. Overall with a budget of $1000, this little gaming laptop will play just about anything you want it to right now on high to ultra settings with latest drivers and upkeep. Just under $1000, im amazed at what i have got in my hands right now i didnt believe it was possible! Now that i have told you the facts, my personal opinion is to choose this laptop for your on the go gaming needs. It will not let you down!!

I wanted a mobile gaming machine but didn't want to spend more than a grand for it. After days of researching and browsing on different websites, I finally found this beauty. If I were to describe this gem in one phrase, it would be: "SIMPLE yet SLEEK... SMALL yet POWERFUL". [PROS] [The LOOKs] For starters, let's talk about appearance. It's small and compact. At only 14 inches & weighing around 6 lbs., it's the perfect bring-with-you-anywhere gaming rig. It's got that sleek "stealth fighter" look that most gamers like me would find gorgeous. The back of the screen is nano-coated and feels like Teflon, along with its chiclet keys, which make them feel REALLY good when you're typing (Typing feels better compared to most chiclet keys on other laptops -- It feels softer, smoother and more responsive; and can barely be heard by other people. Great if you don't want to disturb anyone when you're sending IMs or writing Emails). Keyboard is backlit, and can be adjusted easily -- no more "tilting-the-screen-to-see-your-keys-in-the-dark". =) Layout of the keyboard has been shortened, and does not include the right-side keypad, which I kinda miss, but at the same time makes it look more cleaner... more simpler. And for me, Simplicity is everything. The wrist-rest has that "brushed-aluminum" look which is a nice addition to the laptop's sleekness and elegance. [CPU] This specific model packs a core i5-3230M, a dual-core, four-threaded mini-beast, which is quite powerful, and is more than enough for my gaming needs. However, it's a third generation i5, and is part of the Ivy Bridge family, which means it's energy efficient. If you're a gamer but you're conscious about power consumption (like me), this chip/processor is right for you. [GRAPHICS] Ohhhhh yeah~! This is probably the only laptop out there that has a GeForce GTX 660 that's under a grand. :D All of the games that I play are set between medium to very high settings and are pumping out 40 to 60 fps. This is the main reason why I bought this mobile monster -- It churns up anything I toss at it, and it's begging for more! No chugging, no lagging, no inconsistencies -- just smooth-as-butter gameplay! :D [CONS] Okay, nothing's perfect in this world. But then again, It could be me just nit-picking and minding the trivial stuff. You be the judge of that. ^_^v At any rate, here are some of the things I didn't like about this laptop: [HDD] The hard disk's speed is 5400RPM -- it's okay for regular stuff like surfing the web, etc... but when you're gaming, it makes "loading times" longer, which is a pain at times. It's not really a CON, just a minor nuisance. I swapped mine with a 250 gig SSD and all is well now. If you can invest buying an SSD for your laptop, I suggest you do, as it makes a HUGE difference. The system gets more responsive and cuts games'... "loading times" significantly. [BATTERY Life] Technology gradually rises and advances at a steady pace. Computer hardware like CPUs and GPUs are upgraded almost every year (ie: from GeForce GTX 500 series to 600 series). Sadly, the tech for current-gen laptop batteries is moving at a snail's-pace, and is still trying to catch-up to everything else. When I'm doing heavy gaming, the battery would last 2 hours at the most. What's worse, is that the battery module is built-in, and is not designed to be user-removable. Which means carrying an extra battery as a back-up is not an option. (Also a pain if you forgot to bring your charger :/ ...You've no choice but to wait until you get home to plug it in) [ODD] No CD/DVD/Blu-ray reader/writer. But in this era of USB 3.0 Flash Drives and portable HDDs, who needs it? [OTHER THOUGHTs]' Coming from a desktop that has an overclocked i7-3930k, triple GTX 680s in SLI, and dual SSDs in RAID 0, the jump was of course... horrible. Everything felt really slow at first. But I just kept reminding myself that it's a laptop. LOL. I stopped using my desktop, and after awhile, I got used to it, and realized it's power. Compared to other laptops though, this one has WAY more oomph -- and for the price, it can't be beat. This is definitely one of the best laptops out there. I highly recommend this to any Gamer out there.

Let me just start off by saying that I am a PC gamer. I play games nearly all of the time and I know what to expect of a good laptop. This laptop has played anything I have thrown at it. The nvidia geforce gtx 660m really does this laptop good. The 750gb Hard drive and the 8gb graphics will handle anything you need it for. I don't like how the screen isn't full HD, but, hey, that's about it. This is truly a great working, compact laptop.

Got this for 800$ and love it. Its a little on the thick side but its still small and easy to carry (for me anyways) with the 14" screen. The keyboard is great and so is the track pad. The screen is a mixed bag with narrow viewing angles and a low resolution, but the resolution helps out on the gaming with its dGPU which is very good for a laptop this size. Plays skyrim on highest, Just Cause 2 on highest, GTA 4 on high/ultra, Tombraider on high and still looks stunning. Very pleased with gaming. The battery life is decent for a laptop in this cateregory, i get about 4-5 hours browing/youtube/files/a little video. this of course with GPU off and screen at about 40-50% brightness. The HDD is slow but offers alot of space which isnt the worst trade off for me. If your not sure about this or another laptop, then get this, you wont regret it, and you can always swap out the HDD for an SSD with the help of a youtube video.

I've owned about 2 different Asus gaming computers since about 2007 or so, both were great, but i also have a gaming desktop. Also the graphics chipset "eventually" gets a bit obsolete, but not so much now as back then. I already have a nice 17.3 inch Acer notebook, and didn't really want something with windows 8 or to game on. But i just couldn't pass this up. Mainly because of the price, specs and the size. I couldn't/can't believe they put all this power into something so small. And it runs great, whisper quiet, even at full load. Runs semi-warm on your lap, with a blanket on you. Without, a little less. The vents in the back are great as one pulls in cool air, and the other shoots out the warm. This keeps the cores idling at about 44 to 47 degress C, which is awesome. I've seen a lot of other laptops never run that cool, even bigger ones. Also the lit up keyboard was a shock, and the small republic of gamers light on the back in a nice touch as well. The mousepad is just right, had to get use to it and the keyboard since i used a larger laptop before. But now it's great. You can max out about any game out there, which isn't hard since this is a 720p machine and not 1080p. Never the less it still buries consoles. The I5 is nearly as fast as my gaming desktop which has a Core 2 Quad, which is right next to the first gen I7s. No optical drive is really not a problem since i don't "burn" to many discs anymore. I have my desktop for that. But i may get a cheap external one at walmart anyways. So all i can say it get it, you won't be disappointed, it's well constructed, does everything and a bit more than most standard desktops out there. Even way more than some. So this little thing is a beast, and rivals it's big brothers which are a few 1000 more dollars. Even on Amazon this one goes from 1,299$ to 1,499$. So at this incredible price don't pass this up. I'm glad i decided to get this on impulse. The small compact desktop in a cast, the tout around is just awesome. Didn't think I would ever find one. I did.

This laptop is great. I'm very pleased with my purchase. It performs to the highest standards of any laptop I've used through my entire life thus far, I'm 20 years old and have used many different laptops in my lifetime. It can play any game at the highest settings possible without any problems. It has great cooling abilities, with its two huge fans and heat sinks for the cpu and gpu so it doesnt get hot. It's a very comfortable laptop to use for long periods of time. The screen isn't as bad as people have said in other reviews, that it isn't bright enough. I think it's plenty bright unless you prefer washed out colors. Back-lit keyboard, web-cam, windows 8 (that isn't so bad once you use it for a while) nvidia gpu, fast i5 3rd gen processor, and on top of it all, its an Asus. Asus is very reliable and make great computers. The only thing that could've been better on this laptop, that I didn't include as a con, because its not something that bothers me AT ALL, is that the hard drive is 5400rpm instead of 7200rpm. For 799.99, for what this laptop comes with, I think a little reduced speed in the hard drive isn't so bad. In a few years, when this laptop will still be able to play most every single game on the highest settings, solid-state drives will be cheaper, and I'll get one of those. But for now I'll keep kicking butt with this machine.

Overall ratings should not be an average of each section. They should be ... overall. Overall this product is easily 5 stars, although nothing on it is 100% perfect. I was looking for a mid sized (under 15) laptop that was capable for the long run. I'm not a big gamer so I thought a gaming laptop was a waste of money, but in the end I decided a laptop designed for gaming would provide top specs in almost all categories which would prevent me from having to upgrade in a year or so. On to the review. . . First things I love: The keyboard: it's amazing. It types so well. It is very sturdy, there is no flexing. The key arrangement is a little off from what I was used to, but that's simply an adjustment to a new product, not a fault. Trackpad: I'm a mac/pc flip flopper. One thing you will never find on a pc is a comparable trackpad... they're just not very good on the pc side. This is the next best thing. The track pad is responsive, sturdy, and feels natural. The overall construction of the laptop: The system is a little on the heavier side if you just pick it up and look at it, but at 14 inches, the weight is only heavy for it's size if that makes sense. The overall weight is completely manageable and it provides for a very sturdy (not a toy like) feel. Specs: The specs are ... we'll say 75% where I'd like them. The i5 processor is not what I'd ideally want, but for the price point with the build quality, graphics card, etc, they had to cut a corner here and there. I've yet to see any limitations in performance for the processor. Graphics Card: Like I said, I don't play alot of games. I have installed World of Warcraft and I can play it on ULTRA with no frame rate problems. I can usually get 40-50. This creates heat however if the laptop is actually on your lap so I usually run it on medium to high (I can't see a big difference in detail so not a biggie for me). Things I'm not crazy about Screen: 768 resolution. I've never been a fan. I looked and looked and could not find a laptop with a better screen resolution that wasn't enormous. So I have to deal with it. I've read online people have ordered new higher res screens online and replaced it (since the graphics card is more than capable of handling it). Hard drive: 5400 rpm hard drive? Really? That's the only thing about the laptop I can't stand. I get not putting in an SSD (which would be AWESOME and I will definitely do myself) but how about a 7200 rpm, or one with an express cache. The hard drive if DEFINITELY the bottleneck on here. Heat: If you are running with the Nvidia graphics card (mostly with gaming, other things use the onboard graphics) the laptop will get hot sitting on your lap. The vents are on the very back which is very cool, but the underside gets quite toasty. Again, not an issue with daily use or if you're using a desk. Finally, one biggie I forgot to mention. mSATA port. I have read (verify yourself) that the motherboard has an mSATA port with room for a card. The idea is to keep the current hard drive for storage and put in a SSD mSATA card, thereby running dual hard drives, one of which would house windows and be super fast. I'm not eager to tear it apart yet to verify though.

This laptop looks, feels and runs awesome. Im a gamer but with a budget, i could play BF3 at ultra setting without a hiccup. The display res could be better, but i solve this with and external monitor and its perfect. Battery life for casual use is absolutely amazing 5-6 hours so far. Way less while gaming. Its definitely a most buy for gamers on a budget.