Asus G70S review

At nearly 5kg, Asus’s G70S is one of the heaviest laptops here.

Its car bonnet-like metallic design has a series of coloured lights which, among other things, can be set to flash in time with processor activity or when a new email arrives. A small display above the keyboard can show information on the number of unread emails you have or the battery’s charge, but its usefulness is limited as it can show only one thing at a time.

The G70S is the only laptop here to offer SLI graphics. Its two GeForce 8700M GT chips are paired in SLI mode, so it stormed through our Call of Duty 4 test at 41.6fps. It can even play the most demanding titles, such as Crysis, but you’ll have to settle for less detailed graphics and a lower screen resolution.

It wasn’t quite as fast in our Windows benchmarks, where its fast 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo T9300 processor was outpaced by the Acer Aspire 8930G’s quad-core processor.

The G70S has the shortest battery life of any desktop-replacement laptop here at one hour and 21 minutes, but given its weight it’s unlikely to move far from your desk. The G70S is one of only two laptops here that can burn as well as read Blu-ray discs. There’s plenty of storage space thanks to the two 320GB disks.

Disappointingly for the price, the 17in widescreen display has only a 1,440×900 resolution, which is low compared with the competition. Its viewing angles aren’t very wide and images have a beige cast, but it’s easily the brightest display of any desktop-replacement laptop here.

Despite the G70S’s width, the numeric keypad has a squashed non-standard layout. The keys feel a little springy, but overall the keyboard is comfortable to use. Extra function keys on the left of the keyboard can be used for different commands in games.

Asus’s G70S is the best laptop here for gaming, but you pay a high price for it. If the ultimate 3D gaming performance isn’t very important, Acer’s Aspire 8930G is better value.