Asus G71V: Bells and Whistles
I decided to take a look at a few of the features unique to the G71V and that remove a lot of the tinkering needed to set up the machine to your own requirements.
First up is Direct Console, one of 4 touch-sensitive LEDs that control some of the system hardware and settings. The item I have used the most over the last few weeks is the Performance setting that allows the user to overclock the CPU without having to fiddle directly with the CPU itself. I consider myself fairly tech-savvy but I prefer not to delve into the depths of the CPU and having to manually set overclocking speeds, so having access to this extra boost setting at the push of a button is welcome indeed.
On booting into Windows, the default CPU setting is Normal and the user has the ability to choose Turbo mode, or Turbo Extreme mode (aka the Holy Cow, This Is Fast mode – or HCTIF), ideal when using CPU intensive applications or games and you need that little bit of extra oomph! However, be warned that using the Extreme setting will obviously use more power so is not ideal when using the laptop on battery power alone, unless you are happy with carrying around a 4kg paperweight until you find your next charge point.
The Direct Console also allows you to set the LEDs to perform as you like (or not, if you are distracted by flashing blue lights), and set the system messages that display on the upper left part of the keyboard. You can be alerted to CPU and RAM usage, as well as being able to see incoming emails and MSN messages, as well as battery power and any custom message you might wish to display. Overall, the Direct Console is very useful and provides the information I need at a glance and is definitely something I would like to see on my next laptop.
Additionally, the Power4Gear button allows toggling of the power saving modes on offer, namely: Entertainment, Quiet Office, Battery Saving and High Performance. These modes control performance versus battery usage to ensure you aren’t let high and dry if you are on the go with the G71V.
Finally, using the Fn function key with ‘C’ allows the user to alternate between the Splendid Video Intelligent Technology modes, or SVIT, as I like to call it.
Hey, no-one said I had to be creative!
Anyway, this tool switches between different display colour enhancement settings that improve brightness, skin tone, colour saturation and contrast to ensure you get the best quality image, whether you are watching a Blu-ray movie, playing a game or just general web browsing.
Modes include: Normal, Gamma Correction, Vivid, Theatre and Soft.
As you can see there are quite a few bells and whistles that will keep your tinkering down to a few button presses so that you can get on with your work or play, without having to make too many trips to the Control Panel.
