ASUS L5GA Notebook Review - Conclusion
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It's a shame I did not get to review the L5GA with dual channel enabled and a higher performing hard drive. While the gaming performance was great as tested, I would have liked to see what it could do without being hamstringed by a single channel memory configuration. However, since the L5GA is easy to configure and upgrade yourself this would give you an idea of what going with the entry-level configuration would get you. In the future it could always be upgraded to a faster processor, dual channel memory, and a high performance hard drive.
With all the features and performance of the ASUS L5GA it probably won't surprise most of you that battery life suffers. The longest I get the battery life under normal usage was about an hour and a half, the low was an hour and ten minutes watching a DVD. Clearly this could be a problem if you plan on using the L5GA for watching a movie while traveling. You would need a second battery just to be able to get through practically every movie and third or fourth to get through one of the Lord of the Rings movies. This may not seem like a big deal but remember the L5GA is designed as a desktop replacement.
The keyboard and touch pad were very useable. The only exception was the Delete key. It is a rather small key located in the upper right corner of the keyboard that even when I was sure I was pushing it, it didn't always respond. I had no troubles with the touch pad compared to other laptops although I would suggest you carry around a USB mouse for gaming sessions.
Highs
- Upgradeable Processor
- Bright and Sharp Display
- Mobility RADEON 9600 Pro
- Intel I865 chipset
- GigaBit LAN
- 56k Modem
- An Amazing Amount of Connectivity Options
- DVD-ROM/CD-RW and Floppy Drives
- Looks Pretty Good
- Price
Lows
- Battery Life
- Mediocre Optical Drive
I really enjoyed using the ASUS L5GA. It met or exceeded my expectations in almost every area. I haven't owned a laptop in almost 4 years and the only ones I've been using are the ones they've bought at work because I had always been disappointed by the performance of a laptop considering the high price. The best praise I can give the L5GA is that it makes me want to own a laptop again. Besides being a machine capable of being a desktop replacement the L5GA eaily could be used while traveling to show photos from your digital camera to friends and family. Watching DVDs. Playing a quick game of UT2004 online. Checking your email, or playing bills online. Talking to friends online while traveling.
If you're looking for the ultralight, ultraportable type of laptop that you can carry to Starbucks, the ASUS L5 series of laptop is probably not for you, albeit ASUS does have other models such as the S5 series that would meet those needs. However, if you're like me and don't necessarily like the idea of having to spend money on both a performance desktop AND a performance laptop, the L5 series is as perfect as computer equipment can currently get.
The ASUS L5GA besides being a unique laptop also has a unique way of being bought. The laptops most manufacturers typically sell come factory configured with options you may not have wanted or did not want to pay for at that time. The L5GA and some of their other lines of laptops are built as a whitebook. This strategy is backed by Intel to emphasize their CPUs and Centrino technology in whiteboxed notebooks. With the lack of options and style found in today's notebooks ASUS is focusing on our notebook design and the overall platform. The whitebook approach allows the end user or the reseller to personally configure the CPU, memory and hard drive using the brands and the specs that they prefer. Sometimes they can be hard to spot as ASUS allows branding by their resellers. This gives you a wider variety of options available to specifically cater to your needs. This seems to be the future of laptops, for further evidence you need look no farther than NVIDIA's recent announcement of their MXM graphics module. It appears in the not-too-far future, a laptop may be as customizable as a desktop, with the L5GA leading the charge. For a list of ASUS resellers check out this link: http://usa.asus.com/wheretobuy/WTB_Notebook.htm The price of the L5GA seems very affordable with a range from approximately $1150 barebones to over $2100 depending on the configuration options you choose.
Thank you for joining us today for this review. I would like to give special thanks to ASUS for giving us the opportunity to review the L5GA. If you have any questions, gripes, or concerns, feel free to contact me in the Dev Hardware forums or email me at Memphist0@devhardware.com.
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