Laptops Arena

When it comes to laptop manufacturers that we trust, it’s safe to say that Asus has gained a special place in our hearts as it has proven itself a good laptop producer. It knew just how to position itself in the mind of the consumer and even if it hasn’t achieve the same performances like Dell or HP have, it is still a brand that deserves our full attention. If you want to buy a cheap Asus laptop, like always, you have to keep in mind what you require from a laptop. Think about all the aspects, like the processor, the amount of RAM, the hard disk space, the graphics card and all the extra features, like Bluetooth, a webcam or an SD card reader.  After you have established what you need that laptop for, start surfing the internet to see that offers are available on different models.
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The online purchasing method has become very popular in the last few years because more and more people have gained every day access to the internet. I mean, most people hate having to go from store to store and waste time, gasoline and energy to look for a product. This is why they like purchasing they stuff online or they can at least look for a store that is selling the product they want and then go straight for it. If you are on a really low budget but still want to buy a good Asus laptop, you can always look into some refurbished laptops which will act just like brand new ones. Refurbished is not a synonym for damaged, it just means second hand. Now that we have cleared all that up, time to look for the lowest price on Asus laptops. Well, we are going to show you the lowest prices we could find for this brand’s laptops.

On www.amazon.com, the successful Asus Eee PC 4G can be bought refurbished for a price of $145. It has a 7 inch display, 512 MB of RAM, the Intel Mobile Processor and 4 GB of free disk space. The success of this netbook was due to its small price and functionality. This mini laptop is ideal for those that have to travel a lot and are in need of a small computer that will allow them to surf the internet and do some word processing. The unit we are talking about here has the Linux operating system preinstalled. I guess it’s pretty hard for people that have been working for years with the Windows operating systems to get used to the Linux interface, but it’s not impossible.



On the very same trustworthy Amazon website you can find the Asus UL30A-X5 for $650. With a weight of 3.74 lbs, this laptop can be considered an ultraportable. It has a 1.3 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor plus some 4 GB of RAM which means you could run Windows 7 operating system on this laptop with no trouble at all. Oh, did I mention that the 4 GB of RAM were DDR3 Ram? This means that we have a higher transfer rate and yes, that is good news. 500 GB should about cover you disk space needs. Come to think of it, I saw gaming laptops that didn’t have this much available disk space. Unfortunately, when we get to the graphics card part, we can tell this is no gaming laptop. We are dealing here with the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500 MHD which is one of the weakest video cards available. You have to admit, $650 is not a big price to pay for a brand new Asus laptop.



Another interesting purchase that fits into the lowest price on Asus laptops category is the UX50V-RX05. For $530 you can buy this laptop from www.tigerdirect.com. This laptop has a 1.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Solo processor, 4 GB of DDR2 RAM, the nVidia GeForce G105M graphics card with 512 MB of video memory. The hard drive offers a total space of 500 GB so there is no need to worry that you don’t have enough room to store your pictures, movies and music. This 15.6 inch laptop is actually good investment if you think about the price and the specs. It’s a thin and glossy laptop which looks very elegant I might add. As for the ports and connections, we have 3 USB ports, a HMDI out and a VGA port, a multi format card reader, an Express Card slot, the Ethernet port and the stereo speakers, headphones out and microphone in jacks. It even has an integrated webcam so you can use it to chat with your friends and even take some pictures for your Facebook profile. The 6 cell battery of this laptop can keep the computer alive and running for about 2 hours and 38 minutes on the battery drain test using video playback. It’s nothing spectacular but the time is ok for a 15.6 laptop with the components of this Asus.



These are a couple of examples for really cheap Asus laptops which are available for online purchase. There is also the old fashioned way of buying a laptop – visiting the local stores and retailers. This traditional way is somehow a better option because it gives you the chance of actually seeing the laptop before buying it. You can touch the keyboard; press the keys to see how they feel and if you are comfortable with the feedback. You can see for yourself how your unit is tested before you take it home.



It gives you a better chance to compare one laptop model with another. When you touch the chassis of a laptop you can sometimes figure out if it’s easier to be scratched or not. In the end, it’s always better when you have the opportunity to see what you’re buying with your very  own eyes. And besides, if you’re a woman, it gives you the chance to see what other products are on sale this time of the year (and even if you are a guy, maybe there is a sale on that huge LCD TV you’ve always wanted).

When it comes to Asus laptops, one of the best choices you could make for purchase is the Asus G51VX-A1. The price of this laptop varies between $1000 and $1700 depending on what specs you wish to find in the unit. With an Intel Q9000 quad-core processor combined with 4 GB of RAM adding up the nVidia GeForce GTX 260M graphics card which has 1 GB of video memory and throwing in some 640 GB of disk space storage, this gaming laptop is something you can’t go wrong with this laptop.
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This 15.6 inch laptop even has a numerical pad which is extremely useful for those working with spreadsheets and it’s also pretty uncommon for 15.6 inch laptops. Not only does it work great but it also looks pretty good (not that you’ll be carrying around with you too often to show off). It has a back lit keyboard which makes it great to type even in a dark room. The palm rests are rubbery so it really feels nice to rest your hands on them. The cool display is also a bit glossy so you may have a fingerprint plus weak image in bright rooms problem. The blue lights around the LCD’s lid reminded me of the cool blue color found on the lid of the Alienware m17x. Gamers will surely fall in love with this design. Unfortunately there is some flex around the keyboard which is pretty noticeable once you type. The touchpad buttons are nice to use but as you know, we always recommend an external mouse for gaming purposes. The display has a 1920 x 1080 resolution which means games are going to be enjoyable on this Asus laptop.

The performance of this laptop is definitely a plus from what we’ve seen on other so called gaming laptops. With the specs we’ve written above, you can play Call of Duty and Far Cry 2. The 6-cell battery with keep the laptop up and running for about 2 and half hours. It is nothing to be amazed about since there are 15.6 inch laptops that can do way better when it comes to battery life performance but if we consider the powerful specs inside, then this laptop is ok. Since you will be using it for gaming above anything else, you will probably keep it at home and plugged in most of the time so battery life is nothing to be worries about.

For $1050 you can get the Asus G51VX-A1 which has only 320 GB of disk space and the P7350 processor. The screen resolution and the mega pixels of the webcam have also been reduced but I don’t believe this will affect gaming performance that much. Overall, the built in quality of this laptop is very nice as the screen cover is very durable and there is no flex or distortions on the display when you apply pressure on the back of the LCD. Upgrading this laptop is easy but be aware that by removing the sticker that is covering one of the main screws, you will be voiding the warranty and that is quite a shame.

The keyboard is ok despite the flex and the Synaptics touchpad is also ok as it offers nice navigation and tracking speed. The left and right buttons of the touchpad are ok when pressing them and even when they were tested during game play, the results were great. However, you could tangle you hand if you always use the touchpad for playing games so go out and get yourself a good and decent mouse. You have a total of 4 USB port, a VGA out, a HDMI port and even a FireWire, eSATA connection and 3 audio jacks. You can even choose the expansion Asus and get an Express Card slot plus an SD card reader.

Because it likes to take care of its customers, Asus offers some free stuff along with this laptop upon purchase. You can get a nice backpack that protects your G51 whenever you plan on taking outside of the house and even a Razer Copperhead Gaming mouse for better shooter game play and accuracy. Not only is this a great notebook for gamers but it can be a wise choice for students living on campus as they can benefit from the various functionalities of this laptop. It can be used for writing projects and essays, doing some internet research, reading e-books, online press, sending e-mail at home to mom and dad, chatting with friends online (and the webcam is a nice feature for video chatting programs), watching movies, listening to music and relaxing with a good game from time to time.



As you can see, you will have no trouble with the daily computer activities and it even works for doing some more complicated stuff and running demanding applications. The graphics card is not the best on the market but it will still be enough to run some 3D application and it comes to meet some mainstream gaming needs. This laptop is going to provide some solid frame rates. If you are interested in some benchmark scores, this laptop has managed to get 3874 during the PCMark Vantage test, 4861 at the 3DMark Vantage test, 8531 at the Multi CPU test and 3873 at the Open GL test. You will be getting some good performance for your money and $1050 does not seem a huge price to pay for a gaming laptop which is usually priced above $2000.

The number of ports and connections is sufficient, just as it should be for a gaming laptop and a desktop replacement. If the resolution of the display does not please you during game play, you can always attach an external monitor and really get a kick out of those shooters. We think you will be very pleased with the performances of the Asus G51VX-A1 as it offers a great deal of features and possibilities for a price that does not require a mortgage on your house.

We are now back with a new episode of “Pimp my laptop”. Just kidding. But we thought it would be fun if we wrote some more about how to personalize your laptop especially since we know how it important is it to have an everyday gadget that matches you personality. Besides, if you are a person that has to make a living while sitting in front of a laptop, like I am, might as well buy a sticker or personalize one that can be pleasant to look at. It could make you forget for a while that this is a work instrument.
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Our topic for today is Asus laptop skins. Well, skins are not made for a certain manufacturer; they are made in different sizes. For example, www.schtickers.com lets you choose the laptop manufacturer and you have a table with the width, height and screen size and they will tell you what size the stickers are available. Normally, when you choose a certain manufacturer on such a website, you are given a list of all the models and under each particular model you will find the exact size of the laptop. Then all you have to do is browse the skins by size (for example, 15.4 laptop skins or 13.3 laptop skins).

www.laptopskins.net is one of the coolest websites with skins for any laptop model, not just an Asus.  A laptop skins costs 20 Euros and they have some of the neatest models I have ever seen. Like I said in one previous article, laptop skins are not only made for design purposes, they also help keeping the laptop protected from scratches and other visible marks. The categories which you can choose from are Blue Sky, Water Bubbles, Camouflage, Cream, Depth Styles, Flowers, Frozen Light, Geek Out, Graffiti Art, Industrial, Paisley, Pastel, Plain, Rorschach, Spring, Tiles, Trees, Typography, Vector Art, Vintage and Warning. Unfortunately, each category only has 9 models available which is terrible disappointment, considering that other website have hundreds and maybe thousands of skins available. My favorite category was the Water Bubbles because when I looked at those skins I really had the feeling that bubbles were going to burst right in my face. When you choose the laptop skin that you mostly like, it’s time to choose the size of your laptop. Payment can be made online though your credit card or PayPal. It’s that simple.



Another nice website where you can find Asus laptop skins is www.skinweaver.com. The best part is they also have keyboard skins if you want to add some color to those plain white and boring keys.  I have to say, the skins in this website are amazing. I saw an incredible Christmas picture with 2 very cute and animated red nose reindeers. The skin is designed for a 16.8 inch laptop and it costs only $15. The package even includes some matching palm rest skins to personalize even the interior of your laptop. Although there was no visible information on this matter, I’m guessing these skins are removable and replaceable because it would be pretty weird to go to work or school with a Christmas skin on your laptop in the middle of July. The names of the categories are a bit different here then they were on the previous website. We have: Premium Skin, Transparent Skin, Netbook, Translucent, Animals, Bling, Cars, Cartoons, Dreamy, Executive, Fashionista, Flowers, Graffiti, Legends, Music, Off-center, Patterns, Peace, Retro, Romantic, Sleek, Temptress, Unicolor, Valentine, Winter and Zero Gravity. The names of these categories sound pretty interesting so I decided to check out some of them.



The Animals category is by far one of the coolest I have even seen. I saw some beautiful pictures of Collies, Golden Retriever puppies, white tiger, Shar-pei, butterflies, bunnies and even an ugly tarantula. Except for the spider, my guess is that animal lovers will have a very difficult time in making up their mind which picture is better and which one they should by. It will be easier for those that actually have a Collie or a Golden Retriever at home. I also wondered what kind of skins that Executive category could have in store for us. Most of the skins in this category are abstract and they use serious cold and dark colors, with different shades of green or blue. One picture even shows some documents and money, both paper and coins and even some gold bars. Talk about CEO material! The Legends category has some awesome pictures with characters we all heard about. I liked the Superman skin which shows our hero on the right side of the sticker and the background is composed by one clear blue sky. This Legend category mostly contains tribal images or dragon images and even some abstract designs.



The Cartoon category holds some really nice images, very colorful and cute. They are excellent for kid’s laptops and some high school girls may even fall in love with those cute bunnies and teddy bears. To tell you the truth, when I saw the Cartoons category I imagined I would find skins with famous cartoon characters like Tom and Jerry, Donald Duck or Chip and Dale so I must admit I was a bit disappointed. Just to be in the holiday spirit, I had to see if there was anything interesting in the Christmas category. I found a beautiful image which reminded me of those paintings that my grandmother used to have with cottages in the middle of the woods, surrounded by tons of snow. All those lights that were lit inside the house suggested there was a big family inside which was getting ready for Christmas and it really used to put me in the holiday spirit. This picture was about the same.



The main idea is that laptop skins take your boring laptop out of the ordinary. The majority of Asus laptops are not famous for their design so when you look at that plain old black lid, it really is a working turn off. Imagine filling it up with color so it will be a pleasure to open up your Asus laptop and work, while the others admire that beautiful skin you have there.

Gaming laptop? So much to say and so little time and space. Let’s talk about the best Asus gaming laptops. That should be easier and faster. It should also be interesting especially since Asus does not really have a famous gaming laptop like Dell has the XPS or the Toshiba has the Qosmio.
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If we have to choose an Asus model which is good for gaming, we choose the Asus G50vt-X1. Take a look at the picture below and you will agree with us that this laptop looks nice. The lid reminds us of the blue Alienware M17x. I love blue laptops because they express power and potential. The tribal look of this laptop is going to scream from far away and let you know this is a gaming laptop. If you are going to tell us that 7.3 lbs is not a normal weight for a laptop, we are going to tell you that gaming laptop are not meant to be carried around. They are meant for home usage especially since you can’t play Left 4 Dead at school nor at the office. It was surprising though, to find a 15.6 inch gaming laptop especially since most of them are about 17 inch. The display has a 1368 x 768 resolution. Even more surprising was the numerical pad we saw and which is not common for a 15.6 inch laptop.
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Keyboard is important. If the keyboard would not be pleasant for me to type on my laptop I would probably smash it (I’m not the most patient person in the world) or quit this job. The best case scenario would be for me to get an external keyboard. Well, there will be no need for any of those 3 desperate measures here because the keyboard on the Asus G50vt-X1 is G.R.E.A.T. It offers positive feedback each time you type and flex is not noticeable in any part of the keyboard. Above the keyboard are some touch sensitive buttons with special dedicated functions. The display is also very important we are talking about a gaming laptop. Actually, for a good gaming experience, every part of the laptop is extremely important. You may be disappointed with the rather small resolution of this laptop. We know that the bigger the screen on a gaming laptop is, the better experience you will get out of shooting zombies and cutting the throat of the bad guys. The viewing angles are not that great and the colors are not as sharp and beautiful as we have seen on similarly priced laptops.

As for the connectivity part, we have 4 USB ports, one VGA port, one mini FireWire, an e-SATA port, a multi card reader, an Ethernet port plus the headphones out and microphone in jacks. The processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo that operates at a speed of 2.26 GHz. This laptop has 4 GB of RAM which means you can install a 64 bit operating system. The 320 GB of hard disk space should be enough for any kind of file storage and you don’t have to worry about performing disk cleanup any time soon. The nVidia 9800 GS graphics card has 512 MB of video memory. This laptop even comes with a built-in web camera which may come in handy for Skype chatting with your friends from abroad. The speakers are ok, they produce decent sound, nothing spectacular but you can listen to your favorite music. For true game play we recommend that you attach a pair of external speakers in order to get a better surround sound experience.



Using the DVD playback video test, you will be able to get about 1 hour and 20 minutes of battery life. If you plan on saving some battery life, you could get about 2 hours of battery life with the screen brightness set to medium level. It is still below the average of 15.4 inch laptops but we are going to excuse this Asus by saying that it has powerful components that wear out the battery pretty fast. This means that if you were planning to take this laptop to the coffee shop or use it during a full day of classes, you probably shouldn’t. Not only is the weight an essential impediment but the laptop won’t stay on for more than a couple of hours so you’ll be on the run for a power outlet.



In conclusion, there is some decent game power in this unit but I think that you could still do much better. We are sure you are going to find some pretty cool offers now that the holiday season is here so be on the lookout for those irresistible deals.  We love the design and we can use this laptop for moderate gaming and light entertainment. This $1300 laptop does really feel like a nice gaming notebook and even if it is not exactly 3D performance material it can still run some mainstream games. The tribal model found on the lid, has a nice blue color with light stripes that look like flames in the dark. Even the touchpad has a strip blue LED that matches beautifully the pattern of the lid. If you turn off those lights, you can save up some battery life.



There is even a button with a lightning bolt figure on it that is used to activate Express Gate, a Splashtop programs that allows you to surf the internet, play some music, watch photos and even chat online with your friends without having to turn on the laptop or booting up the system. With the combination between the 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB of RAM and the nVidia GeForce 9800M GS graphics card with 512 MB of video memory, this laptop came with a good score on the benchmark tests.



It’s fair to say that the Asus G50Vt-X1 is the best Asus gaming laptop even if there are better gaming laptops on the market. The price is ok for the specs especially since we consider that one of the best gaming laptops is worth about $4000.

As far as Asus computers laptops are concerned, one model that offers good value for money is the Asus X38Vm-X2. This is a budget laptop which surprisingly offers a good graphics care and some integrated graphics that can’t handle any new games.
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For $800 dollars you can buy this laptop that has a 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 processor which is combined with 4 GB of DDR2 RAM. It also comes equipped with the nVidia GeForce 9600M GS graphics card with 1 GB of video memory and 320 GB of hard disk space. This Asus model looks fancy at the least. It has an interesting lid color which makes it a powerful presence in a store filled with so many laptops. If you want to ever upgrade this laptop, on the bottom you will find two panels which are simple to remove. Be careful with messing with whatever is inside there as not to void the warranty. Apparently, this laptop only has a warranty void sticker on the screw of the heat sink. To everyone’s surprise, the video card is upgradeable. We think that the 9600M GS is good enough so don’t go doing any useless video card removal. The screen is bright so there is not much complaining to be done here. Both the horizontal and the vertical viewing angles offer nothing special but that is what you get with low priced laptops.

The speakers are weak. This is mainly because the speakers are located on the bottom front of the laptop. This is why I am a big fan of speakers which are located above the keyboard because the sound is projected straight up and there is no muffle. To get better sound it is recommended to keep the laptop on a flat surface like a table or desk because the sound is horrible if you keep it on your lap. The keyboard is ok and there is no disturbing flex. The response is ok so typing will never be bothering with this keyboard. Personally, I hate the color of the keys. There is a combination of brown keys, the letters are light brown and the function keys have red letters... it’s a very strange combination and since this budget laptop does not have keys with LED backup, you won’t see anything in low light. The touchpad is ok and it has a nice imprint finish. The problems are the left and right mouse buttons which are stiff and hard to press and they also make an annoying clicking sound. We do recommend and external mouse so you don’t get any headaches.



The ports and connections are in a big enough number to keep you satisfied. There are 5 USB ports, one VGA port, an Express Card slot, a FireWire, an Ethernet port, a HDMI port, an eSATA port and the headphones and microphone jack. This laptop has a Bluetooth indicator light even if there is no Bluetooth device.  The processor and the RAM are combined in such a manner so it can handle most applications. Basic tasks are done at good speed. 320 GB is enough free space so you can store all your pictures, documents, music, movies, games and applications. The graphics card has 1 GB of video memory and this can be considered a waste because the processor is not good enough to handle that much memory. 512 MB would have been sufficient. It is easy to overclock  the GPU and you will be able to play good games at a native resolution.



For a 14.1 inch laptop, the battery life is quite ok. Of course, we have seen better especially for ultra portables. Of course we don’t expect this laptop to have 7 hours of battery life like a netbook does but still the whole concept of a laptop is portability (except for those big units that are designed to be desktop replacements) and what is portability if the laptop will not stay turned on when you most need it? You will get about 3 hours of battery life if you have the wireless card turned on and the brightness of the display set close to the bottom level. The good thing is that even with the display’s brightness set at minimum level, the screen is legible even under pretty strong light. It is amazing how the fan on this Asus computer laptop manages to keep the unit under normal acceptable temperatures. This is particularly nice especially since you can barely hear any noise coming out of this laptop. You will notice some heat in the areas where the processor and the graphics card but the keyboard and the palm rest area are perfectly usable.



Of course this laptop has some problems but they are not big enough to make you say “I would never buy this laptop”. The price is low for the specs. However, we don’t recommend this unit as a gaming laptop because performance is not that spectacular to let you play games like Far Cry 2. The GeForce 9600M GS will handle some mainstream games but don’t expect to get any super game play experience with this laptop. It’s nice to see that this unit has no problems with heating but I’m guessing that if you use this computer on your lap it will become a bit more heated than if you use it on your desk. It does have all the necessary number of ports and connections so your possibilities are not limited with this laptop. Who knows when you will want to attach an external monitor and enjoy a good movie with a couple more friends? Especially since the horizontal and vertical viewing angles are not good at all.



The combination of colors on the keyboard is not appealing to the eye at all (red and brown?!). The speakers are awful so headphones or some external speakers would be a wise choice for listening to music and watching movies. We didn’t understand the Bluetooth light since there is no Bluetooth but that’s something we can live with.