Asus, ROG G60VX

Only the extraordinarily wealthy (and strong) will be interested in buying Asus' recent W90. That uncompromising behemoth may lay reasonable claim to the title of 'World's Fastest Laptop', but such accolades are short lived – most of us who want a laptop for gaming will need something a little lighter on the pocket and arm. Enter the same company's G60.

Branded with Asus' own 'Republic of Gamers' badge – and a head-turning paintjob to match – the G60's high-powered innards come, like its predecessor the G50, wrapped in a tough and glossy plastic shell.

While that may strike fear into the heart of the finger-print-o-phobic, Asus' answer to the greasy streak problem isn't bad. The lid has a white finish that doesn't show oily smears, while a rubberised wrist rest around the keyboard not only proves more comfortable than most gaming laptops for long sessions hunched over the screen, but also smudge resistant.

Wider-screen
It's surprising how quickly the notebook industry has adopted 16:9 as the de facto screen ratio, but the G60 is yet another machine to sport a large 16in panel in that style.

The panel itself is bright and clear, and despite the glossy coating works well outside in the summer sun too. The low 1366x768 resolution is a bit of an issue, but it is enough to play HD movies from the built-in Blu-ray player.

The picture quality isn't great either: compared to the monitors on the W90 or any of the Sony laptops we've seen lately, like the FW and the TT, it's washed out and suffers from narrow viewing angles.

Electronic excellence
The screen is the only electronic component that doesn't live up to the technical expectations of a gaming brand, and rather lets down the rest of the internal electronics.

Review continues after the break...

The 2.5GHz CPU may be in danger of melting through its plastic prison, and doesn't do the battery life any favours, but it's awesome for processor-intensive games like WoW. The GeForce 260M that powers the graphics has more than enough headroom to up the visual detail settings at these resolutions. It's unusual to see a GPU this powerful in a laptop under £1,500, too.

The keyboard, unfortunately, is the same removable chiclet style that we had issues with on the U50, and while the backlighting is useful, the low travel and slight flexibility aren't ideal for gaming. It's a step back from the older, larger and more robust design of the G50, and seems like it's there more for looks than purpose.

So while the G60 is powerful enough that it could probably gain sentience and calculate a coefficient for world peace, it's still not quite enough to beat our current gaming favourite, the MSI GT725. That has a slightly less powerful graphics card, but wins thanks to a quad-core processor, better screen and more bashable buttons.