Personally I'd take the Asus Whatchamacallit... Yeah, the G71GX. That's my opinion. If this was a question to help you decide, you'd need to decide what your priorities were, what you want, don't want the laptop to do, or perform.
I for one, would like to play games on the fly. I'd like to dump my current PC, and use my laptop as a 'replacement'. However, if I had to use this on the go, without a power adapter, then I'd take a laptop with more power-efficiency, with similar processing power. If I needed to search the web, and I had no intention of playing games, or Folding everywhere I go, then I'd dump these laptops, and settle for a netbook!
Anyways, according to specs, the G71GX should be better then the DV7 in terms of actual performance, but talking about power hungry, the DV7 should be no where close to the 71.
Two major factors that I take into play; if the GPU is dedicated or integrated. If the GPU sucks donkey balls or actually renders graphics. That's what I'd look for when buying a laptop. Again, your views are different.
Direct comparison:
Their weight is nearly the same. Only 1.5lbs more for the 71GX, which accounts for around 10% of the total weight. One runs on a quad core @ 2 ghz, where the other runs @ 2.7, a dual core. Their archeitechure is the same, thus clock for clock, 2.7 > 2.0. Not many actual quad core oriented games (applications.) out there, but in such case, the GTX260 would kill the 4650, which makes up more than everything for the difference. Desktop GPUs, that may be 60 - 70 more performance (GPU wise) Don't know about their mobile counterparts. There is also the 700mhz in extra speed that can be used for applications that use only single or double threads.
The screen, only .3 inches in size more than the 71GX, which is 2%. No that much considering the original size. However, the DV7's monitor runs @ 1600 x 900 where the 71 runs at the typical 16:10 1440 x 900
The hard drive, the DV7 has a faster hard drive, but run identical spec RAM. The DV7 is probably running on a better chipset too, but in real - life applications, you probably won't notice the difference, unless you were writing or reading something to the HD (higher HD speeds).
THe 71 is a bit bigger in dimensions, and runs for a shorter time on the stock batteries under a battery drain test. You should last significantly longer if just searching the web.
With the 71, you can reach DV7 levels in terms of encoding, if you overclock the processor. THey state that you can reach 15% normally on the processor. Maybe cooling can get you another 5% to 3.3- ish ghz. Encoding, you may get the equivalent decrease in encoding times, where in the DV7 was only 10s faster (respective tests). However, overclocking the GPU on the DV7 won't make it any faster than a GTX260, as the difference is too much.
-Discovered GTX260M =~ 8800GT
4650M = <4650 - 4670 = maybe 30 - 40%
Depends on your needs.
