8 Comments »

• L. Natividad says:

  03/15/2010 at 2:02 am

  When you order this laptop it will be black, like what everyone else says. This is a beautiful laptop with great design features. I would give this product 5 stars if they had an LED backlit keyboard. This is the only thing that is missing from this laptop! Other than that this is totally worth the money!
  Rating: 4 / 5
• Nordh says:

  03/15/2010 at 3:53 am

  Not really much to say here that hasn’t been said elsewhere but if you are looking to use it for pretty much anything, this is the notebook for you.

  It has a perfect balance of specifications vs price. If you are trying to find the best notebook for under 1k this is undoubtedly it!
  Rating: 5 / 5
• A. Lam says:

  03/15/2010 at 4:29 am

  You won’t find any laptop better for $970 without tax. I’ve searched high and low for the best one and this is what I got.

  Pros:
  Very strong graphics card, fairly new (couple months old), can handle new games easy
  Very quiet, you might think a disc tray may make noise but I assure you it’s quiet
  Extremely fast, quad core i7, 7200rpm HDD, 4gb ddr3 ram
  Great viewing angles for LED screen
  VERY good quality built-in microphone, most laptops built-in mics are terrible
  Numpad

  Cons:
  ATI drivers suck, need 3rd party programs to get into advance settings (unlike nvidia)
  Base idle heat of about 60, which is kinda high. But expected for a quad core i7.
  Somewhat low height of resolution for a 16″ screen.
  Alot of useless ASUS bloatware
  Wish the numpad was a little bigger

  Overall the best you could get for the price, you won’t find anything near this systems specs for this price.
  Rating: 5 / 5
• RJG says:

  03/15/2010 at 5:58 am

  I purchased and returned this unit just today after receiving it from Amazon only yesterday.
  It is of high quality equal to the more widely known MFGs.
  I had to return it due to the lack of resolution, razor thin viewing angle and meaningless Gamma Ctrl from its 768 screen.
  I’m coming from a 5 year old Gateway 1600*900 M65 Core 2 Laptop with a Go Force 7800. And YES I knew the specs going in and took a chance but well you can’t fight the numbers sometimes.
  Yes, the older LT display is significantly better. Much darker blacks, hence better contrast. Phillip/LG made the screens for the Gateway back when and they are excellent, near Plasma black levels I dare say. Now granted the Gateway is a 17″ 900 screen where the ASUS is only 15. 6 /768 but if you are using Adobe/Lightroom or Nikon Capture NX2 you will be disappointed, unless of course you use an external display (more money) then all bets are off. But that defeats the purpose in my case. So off it went.
  I did however do a Performance test using PC Wizard 2010 and the ATI/AMD 5730 scored very high as well did the Hitachi 7. 2k HD based on results comparing to a I7 750 unit PC Wizard uses as a reference. So for the gaming crowd this unit should please. The unit is very well made, has amazing keyboard feel and is very quiet and as others have pointed out for the price nothing comes close with this type of quality. Cons: It does run a little hot, I would suggest a Antec laptop USB cooler or similar device. Value: A closely config. Del* cost several hundred more and does not offer USB 3. 0 or DirectX 11 which will be important sooner than latter. Bottom-line: If your purchasing for Games, standard issue MS office, email Web surfing this is an excellent box. . for high res editing not your 1st choice.
  Rating: 4 / 5
• David Willis says:

  03/15/2010 at 8:03 am

  After a very bad experience with an Asus N10Jh-A1 and due to Asus having a good reputation for laptops- a second unit was tried, the N61Jq-X1 (A1 is same except for having 2 year warranty). Amazon has changed it’s ad for this laptop since our company purchased this unit, as it does not have the TV grade, additional amplifier and cone speakers etc, which was advertised. Asus website still has these features listed, including a really nice video touting their laptop. Simply doesn’t exist on N61Jq units.

  Turned the laptop on for the first time, providing name /date/time, password and reached the create the System Restore DVD’s (four required)part of setup. Inserted first new DVD disc and a half hour later, this laptop Blue Screened, BSOD, on SETUP. When finally back at the point of doing the Restore discs for second time, the second attempt to do Disc #1, few minutes later another error box and BSOD again. This is going well. Now on third attempt to do Disc #1 which started at 26% ?? and later, FOUR hours later, the four dvd backup discs are finished. Don’t expect I could trust these discs to Restore anything. Day Two: ASUS was sent all the technical stuff (codes and information beyond my technical expertise, hoping only to provide Asus with information to fix the problem, OR be able to find out it’s not repairable, information easily found using Windows 7 which I believe is the best thing Microsoft has done in some time and gasp! might even be better than XP. Four separate emails and tech numbers from Asus later, the Asus techs are still talking about SRS drivers and issues nothing to do with BSOD. Since initial setup, the unit in the past three weeks BSOD two more times while watching two movies from internet. Interesting only for having nothing to do with DVD drive in unit. The N61Jq-X1 as of yesterday is on it’s way back to Amazon. Going to purchase a Sony VPC-F111FX/H or if Amazon takes forty days to credit the N61 like they did the N10, will order one directly from Sony.

  It is likely in the universe of all the laptops which Asus produces that a couple of ‘lemons’ will come from their factory. Have two big issues with ASUS, First is their Tech Service from two different laptop, our experiences with ASUS Tech department in the past six months is deplorable. Second, I have a real BIG problem when a manufacturer touts features and hardware that is NOT actually in the laptop. Go to Asus home website asutech or [. . . ],, go to Products, to Laptops, Multimedia units, then click on N61, then click on N61Jq or any N61J code,, look at the Sound System you should have, Watch Asus video. . . THE SOUND SYSTEM, SPEAKERS/AMPLIFIER ETC. JUST ISN’T THERE. AMAZON IS CURRENTLY CHANGING SEVERAL WEBSITES ADS SINCE THE INFORMATION ASUS FURNISHED THEM WAS WRONG. INDEFENSIBLE TO SELL A PRODUCT WHICH FALSELY DESCRIBES THE HARDWARE THE CUSTOMER IS EXPECTING TO RECEIVE FOR HIS MONEY.

  Just wanted to balance out the rave reviews,, I’m sure Asus does make some good units, the free information is always worth what it costs you. davzway/ TSRW INC
  Rating: 2 / 5
• Thaddeus Prospal says:

  04/07/2010 at 3:23 am

  Great post from an expert and it will be a great knowledge to us and thank you very much for sharing this valuable information with us.
• Sharon Mokriski says:

  04/10/2010 at 8:13 am

  My laptop, long battery usage time will be very hot, is not a sign before the explosion?
• Fidela Roesslein says:

  04/12/2010 at 1:26 pm

  hey I like this post. I found it from doing a google search. Ive been looking for this sort of thing for a while. This info will come in handy to me. I will check back soon to search the rest of your blog. thanks

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