Background and Identification

The Asus G73 is a series of laptops released in 2010 and 2011 aimed at the gaming market. They all use Intel Core i3/i5/i7 processors and a dedicated graphics card. The case of these laptops is made from black plastic with the Asus logo on the back of the display. As part of Asus’s Republic of Gamers (ROG) suite, the G73 laptops also have ROG branding in the form of an indented ROG mask logo.

Under the hood, G73 laptops have upgradeable memory and storage. Both of the memory slots and both bays for 2.5-inch hard drives are accessible behind a cover on the bottom of the laptop. You can also find the wireless card here. The battery is positioned near the hinge of the laptop and can be removed from the case by unlocking two simple clasps. The left side of the device sports an optical drive reader which you can also pull out by removing a screw near the memory.

You can identify this laptop by looking on the bottom side for a sticker containing the model number. It will start with “G73…” with the rest of the characters representing the exact configuration. For example, the G73JH and G73JW both use first-generation Intel Core processors while the G73SW uses a second-generation version. The “W” at the end of some product names refers to the Nvidia processor inside, whereas “H” refers to an ATI card.

Technical Specifications

Processor

• Intel Core i3/i5/i7 processor

• First-generation for the G73JH and G73JW

• Second-generation for the G73SW

Memory

• Two upgradeable SO-DIMM slots

• DDR3 memory

• For the Core i3 or Core i5 processor

  • Up to 4 GB total (or 8 for the G73SW)

  • 1066 MHz cap

• For the Core i7 processor

  • Up to 8 GB total (or 16 for the G73SW)

  • 1333 MHz cap

Storage

• Two hard drive bays

  • 2.5-inch form factor

  • SATA interface

• Optical drive

Graphics

• G73JH: ATI Radeon HD 5870

• G73JW and G73SW: Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M

Display

• 17.3 inches (44 cm) on the diagonal

• 1600x900 pixels or 1920x1080 pixels

• 60 Hz refresh rate (the G73SW has a 120 Hz refresh option for the 1920x1080 panel)

Connections

• Four USB ports

  • G73JH: all USB 2.0 speed

  • G73JW and G73SW: one USB 3.0 and three USB 2.0

• HDMI port

• VGA video output

• Ethernet port

• Card reader

• 3.5 mm headphone jack

• 3.5 mm microphone jack

Wireless

• 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi

• (Optional) Bluetooth 2.1

Additional Information

Asus ROG on Wikipedia

Asus G73JH product page (specifications are all on the product pages)

Asus G73JW product page

Asus G73SW product page

NotebookCheck aggregation of review for the G73 series

Asus G73JH original review by NotebookCheck

Asus G73JH updated review by NotebookCheck