Product Listing

3D Wonder - ASUS G51J 3D

By Aloysius Low - 30 Mar 2010
Launch SRP: S$3098

3D Immersion

3D Immersion

If stereoscopic 3D is the future, then gaming will definitely be one of the pull factors for consumers. The fact is, 3D movies are the ones pushing the well-heeled consumers into getting a 3D HDTV, but with the PS3 getting a firmware update for 3D capability, who knows if gaming too will start moving towards stereoscopic 3D. PC gamers are already endowed with this feature if they have a modern NVIDIA graphics card with the separate 3D Vision kit. Recently, ATI too has announced something similar at long last, the Open Stereo 3D initiative, where the graphics chipmaker will support the 3D products of third-party vendors in terms of drivers and middleware.

The 3D stereo capable ASUS G51J 3D is the first in the market for consumers, and right now this 15.6-inch widescreen notebook is one that delivers the 3D experience easily and impressively. While the design elements are pretty flashy (and given that it's a gaming notebook, we don't see why not), it's the internal notebook specs and design that won us over. You're definitely getting good performance out of this notebook, and the added NVIDIA 3D Vision kit gives users even more incentive to get this notebook instead of other gaming notebooks. Of course, this wouldn't have been possible if ASUS had not incorporated a 120Hz capable screen in this machine. Our one concern for the display was that its screen resolution was low for a gaming-grade machine and you can't enjoy Full 1080p HD videos in their native format. However if you are fine with its 1366 x 768 pixels screen resolution, then this true 3D gaming notebook should be of high consideration.

Price wise, you're looking at S$3098, which is kind of expensive, but it's still more affordable than a Dell Alienware m15x. However the Alienware notebook has its own niche in extreme performance, which is why for the same physical notebook size, it is a lot more faster and also way more expensive at around S$6390. The Alienware machine however, doesn't come with the stereoscopic 3D yet, so here's where the ASUS G51J 3D strikes the knockout blow, with its trinity of decent performance, reasonable pricing and of course its immersive 3D capability. For those who might want to give the 3D stereoscopic gaming a miss, ASUS has the non 3D version of the G51J with a higher resolution panel that's also for your consideration.

Having a 3D stereo capable notebook doesn't mean breaking the bank, and the ASUS G51J does well enough here that we think it's a great buy if you're an early adopter.

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8.5
  • Design 8
  • Features 8.5
  • Performance 8.5
  • Value 8
  • Mobility 7
The Good
Decent performance
Affordable gaming notebook
World's first 3D Vision enabled notebook
The Bad
Battery life is weak like all gaming notebooks
Screen resolution could be higher
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