Asus G51Jx review

3D finally achieves gaming credibility, and looks set for the long haul.

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As you'd expect for a high-powered gaming machine, the G51Jx features some eye-wateringly fast performance.

A quad-core Intel Core i7 720QM, with 8912MB of DDR3 memory onboard, produces enough performance for you to multitask a variety of very resource-intensive applications with little problem.

As a result this is an option for those who really don't want to mess around when it comes to power, and you'll find this kind of performance also produces a serious amount of futureproofing – meaning the G51Jx will happily tick all the software requirement boxes for most applications for many years to come.

Likewise, the nVidia GeForce GTS 360M – backed up by 1GB of dedicated video memory – provides more than enough gaming power for running the latest titles at full whack. It's not quite as powerful as the Alienware M17x, which features two ATi chips, but it's not nearly as expensive either.

The 640GB hard drive spins at a fairly standard 5400rpm, and will provide you with plenty of storage for your multimedia libraries, alongside any work files and folders you might have.

The G51Jx also features a Blu-ray optical drive, for watching HD movies on, and although it can both write and read DVDs, it can only read Blu-rays. It's also a shame that because of the low pixel resolution of the screen, you won't get the full HD effect on the laptop.

A host of features include 2.0 mega pixel webcam for video messaging your friends and family, Bluetooth for wirelessly connecting to your smartphone, for example, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. The G51Jx also comes with a dedicated gaming mouse and bag, which is a nice touch.