The hinges hold the screen firmly in position, and the base unit only moves a very small amount when the viewing angle is adjusted. The lid's hinges are really quite large, and only provide a very limited opening angle (which is not ideal for tall people). Likewise, the lid does a good job of resisting torque forces, and you can only bring about distortions in the screen picture by applying direct pressure to the screen itself. Both the top and bottom of the laptop respond very little to pressure, with the exception of the keyboard area. In terms of robustness, there is not much to criticize the G73 for. With an acceptable weight of 3.85kg, the G73 can certainly be transported easily, although the lid does rattle annoyingly throughout. While on paper the G73 may seem quite bulky, measuring 420 x 315mm, the dimensions are cleverly concealed by the sloping design of the side edges, along with the G73's low height of 19mm at the front (57mm at the back). The matt surfaces are very resistant to picking up fingerprints, and are pleasant to the touch thanks to a slight rubber coating. Whereas previous Asus gaming notebooks like the G71 and G72 sported glossy surfaces (making them more vulnerable to scratches and liable to pick up dirt), the emphasis now seems to be on everyday functionality. To be honest, it's the matt surfaces more than the design itself which we really like. Once you take taxes and shipping into account you do end up with a similar price to the model available here, but you get more performance for your money. So those who are used to such things (or those who are happy to experiment) could think about importing the machine.
Or to put it another way: European customers are being asked to pay more, for lower performance and considerably less in terms of hardware! Outside of Europe, you can get the fundamentally better equipped G73JH-A2 model, with Core i7-720QM, 8 GB of RAM, 1000 GB hard drive (2 x 500 GB), a FullHD screen, carry case and mouse, for around $1550, which translates to about €1150. Particularly when you look at what's available abroad, you can't escape the impression that Asus is charging its European customers over the odds.
The model also comes with 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, a total hard drive capacity of 640 GB (2 x 320 GB), and an HD+ screen with a 1,600 x 900 pixel resolution. It may provide reasonable performance, but a Core i7 would have been more appropriate given the estimated price of around €1,400 and the very high-performance graphics card, an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870. The G73JH-TY042V can be thought of as the base model of the G73 range, for this reason: the processor is only a Core i5-520M, a mid-range, dual-core processor. In fact, the G73JH-TY042V we tested is the only model currently available in German-speaking Europe.
The choice of G73 models is still very limited at present.