The ASUS ROG G73Jh — part Batmobile, part stealth-bomber…

ASUS has something of a track record for producing eye-catching notebooks of all shapes and sizes, but its new ROG G73Jh gaming portable really raises the bar.

The striking design of this 17.3” gaming notebook is inspired by the clean lines and angular shape of a stealth aircraft, but it also harks back to that innovative fold/unfold notebook concept that ASUS first unveiled at the 2009 CES.

If you like your gaming notebooks to light up like a Christmas tree, then the ROG G73Jh probably isn’t for you — this is a portable that’s more about cool sophistication rather than blue LEDs and shiny silver badges, but there’s more to the design than just good looks.

The ROG G73Jh’s wedge-shaped case also tilts the keyboard to a 5-degree angle. This not only makes for a more comfortable typing than on most laptops that lie flat, but it also helps avoid undue stress on the wrists and hands — just the thing for long gaming sessions. The keyboard is illuminated too, which should eliminate those awkward gaming moments when you’re frantically stabbing at the Q key and wondering why you’re not going anywhere…

ASUS has also gone back to the drawing board for the ROG G73Jh’s cooling system. The standard approach for laptop cooling is to direct warm air through a vent in the side of the case, but this usually leads to excess noise with a powerful laptop that’s working hard.

The ROG G73Jh, on the other hand, has twin exhausts at the back of the case, behind the screen. This not only means that the waft of warm air is kept well out of earshot, but that you can sit with this notebook on your lap without impeding the air flow.

Good looks and clever cooling are only two aspects of the ROG G73Jh, though — what about the spec? As you might have guessed from the name, this notebook is part of ASUS’ Republic of Gamers range (ROG — geddit..?) and its well-equipped to cope with pretty much any 3D DirectX 11 game you can throw at it.

An Intel Core i7 processor paired with 8GB of DDR3 RAM powers the ROG G73Jh, and the graphics grunt comes courtesy of an ATI Radeon HD5870 chipset with 1GB DDR5 video RAM. A 1TB hard drive provides plenty of room for games galore and, of course, that glorious 17.3” display means you won’t miss a moment of the on-screen action.