In a surprising turn of events, an Asus ROG gaming laptop was spotted in a courtroom during former President Donald Trump’s $250 million fraud trial in New York. The laptop belonged to one of Trump’s attorneys, Alina Habba, and drew attention with its RGB lighting that changed colors throughout the proceedings. The specific model of the laptop is believed to be the Asus ROG Strix G17 G712, featuring a 17-inch 144Hz IPS display, a 10th-Gen Intel Core i7 processor, an Nvidia RTX 2070 Super graphics card, and 16GB of DDR4 RAM. This incident has sparked speculation about whether Habba chose a gaming laptop for personal use that also met her professional needs or simply opted for a powerful machine.
The presence of a gaming laptop in a courtroom raises questions about the intentions behind such a choice. While productivity-oriented laptops often lack discrete graphics cards and prioritize a lightweight design, gaming laptops offer more power at a potentially better value. With the upcoming Nvidia RTX 40-series laptops, finding a reasonably priced and powerful notebook is becoming increasingly difficult. While Acer’s recent laptops equipped with an RTX 4050 come in at just under $1,000, Habba’s Asus ROG Strix G17 G712 likely carries a higher price tag, currently retailing for $1,700.
Regardless of the motivations behind Habba’s laptop choice, Asus has inadvertently received some unexpected marketing exposure in front of a new audience. The presence of a gaming laptop in a high-profile trial serves as a reminder of the growing popularity and versatility of these devices in various settings beyond gaming environments.