Asus Rog Gaming Laptop Gtx 1080

Laptop Mag Verdict

The Asus ROG Strix GL753 offers gaming on a budget with a comfortable keyboard and bright display, but it struggles with intensive titles at high settings.

Pros

+
Comfy, RGB-backlit keyboard
+
Keeps absurd while gaming
+
Bright display
+
In a higher place-boilerplate bombardment life

Cons

-
Non a looker
-
Finicky touchpad
-
Struggles with intense games at high settings
-
A little pricey

If you're looking for a gaming PC only don't have the cash to driblet on something that'southward VR-set, you can still find a laptop that will play well-nigh games. The Asus ROG Strix GL753 ($1,099 to start, $1,299 equally tested) is one of the first notebooks on the market with Nvidia's GTX 1050 Ti GPU, along with the company's get-go RGB-backlit keyboard to add a flake of color. It's a solid laptop, but other systems are on the fashion with similar specs for under $one,000.

Design

Asus took the awesome design that it uses with its premium ROG machines and dumbed it down for its budget models. The result is a plastic animal that'southward more garish than sleek. The lid is fabricated of black plastic with a faux-aluminum pattern, and while the premium machines have glowing lights on the sides of the logo, the company opted for orange neon pigment on the hat of the Strix, making information technology await similar a race car bed.

Lifting the lid reveals the 17.3-inch, 1080p display and an island-style keyboard complete with number pad. There's a bit of neon orange on the plastic chassis, too: the ROG logo in the bottom correct-manus corner and a stripe around the touchpad. There are a few more orangish accents on the forepart-facing speakers under the palm rest.

At 6.4 pounds and 16.3 x 10.7 ten 1.3 inches, the Strix is light for a 17-inch gaming notebook. The Alienware 17 R3 is a noticeably heavier 8.3 pounds and 16.nine x eleven.5 ten 1.three inches. Unsurprisingly, the 14-inch MSI GS63VR 6RF Stealth Pro is lighter at 4.ii pounds and smaller at 14.9 ten 9.eight 10 0.seven inches.

The sides are lined with ports to connect to external displays and attach peripherals. An Ethernet jack, HDMI and Mini Display Port outputs are on the left side, forth with two USB 3.0 ports, a single USB 3.i Type-C port and a headphone/microphone jack. The right side features a Blu-ray drive, another USB three.0 port and a USB ii.0 port besides as a lock slot. An SD card reader is subconscious just beneath the palm residual.

MORE: All-time Asus Laptops

Display

The Strix boasts a 17.3-inch, matte 1080p display that shows off sharp, vivid details, but it isn't equally brilliant equally the competition's. I watched the latest trailer for Power Rangers and was able to make out every little cube that fabricated up Bryan Cranston'due south character Zordon. Elizabeth Banks' Rita Repulsa costume was a deep, emerald greenish that popped against the street during a battle with the Rangers. Thank you to the screen's 178-degree viewing angles, I could run into the trailer even from the far side of the laptop.

When I played Batman: Arkham Knight, the blood-red-and-regal neon signage atop stores in Gotham Urban center contrasted nicely against a cloudy dark sky, and I could run into the raindrops pelting the Dark Knight's cape. The viewing angles were still great, but it was hard to make out Batman in the nighttime when I wasn't looking straight at the screen. Even though the screen doesn't support Nvidia'due south G-Sync, I didn't have whatsoever problems with screen fierce.

The screen on the Strix reproduces an excellent 124 percent of the sRGB color gamut, though it falls just short of the desktop-replacement boilerplate (128 percentage), and far beneath the Alienware 17's (174 pct), merely it's ameliorate than the Stealth Pro (111 percentage).

With its loftier Delta-E score of 2.two, the Strix'southward colors aren't very precise (0 is ideal). This mark is worse than the average (1.v), the Stealth Pro (2) and the Alienware (0.viii).

Our light meter measured the Strix's average display brightness at 285 nits, which is just below the 295-nit boilerplate and dimmer than the Alienware (319 nits), just it was brighter than the Stealth Pro (242 nits). Despite the score, I found the screen to be bright enough for both coincidental use and gaming.

Audio

The speakers on the Strix GL753 are pretty powerful. When I listened to Tegan and Sara's "Closer," the sound immediately filled our modest conference room with a blast of synths, vocals and drums. With the preloaded Dolby-powered ICEPower AudioWizard, I switched to the Action preset, which emphasized the percussion and cymbals, but I recollect the default multimedia setting is fine for virtually people when they're just watching YouTube videos.

When I played Batman: Arkham Knight, I constitute that the speakers really packed a punch when the Batmobile fired missiles at drones and enemies talked through walkie-talkies. The background music, however, was quiet. I tried switching to action fashion, and it provided a more well-rounded soundscape.

More than: The Best Gaming Laptops

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Strix's keyboard offers an extremely comfortable typing experience. Between its deep 2.1 millimeters of key travel and threescore grams of required actuation, I never came close to bottoming out. On the 10fastfingers.com typing test, I typed at a speedy 115 words per minute, exceeding my average of 107 wpm. My simply complaint is that the keys could stand to pop up a bit faster, which would be improve for quick-twitch reactions while gaming.

This is one of Asus' starting time laptops with an RGB-backlit keyboard. Out of the box, all of the keys were red, but with the new ROG Aura Cadre software, I was able to alter or wheel between hues and separate the keyboard into four unlike zones to requite them each their own colors. I would prefer a fleck more than customization, like the power to customize every single key'south color, simply information technology's nice to finally see something other than red on a ROG. The software is limited to colors, all the same, and then don't expect to commencement setting custom macros.

Get a gaming mouse, though, because the 4.i x 2.eight-inch touchpad is a flake finicky. While the cursor is accurate and I had no trouble performing gestures like swiping three fingers up to see all of my open programs, I had to exist very specific about where I clicked. Particularly, I often had to utilize the very lesser of the trackpad to correct click, as it didn't e'er have that input in more comfortable locations.

Gaming, Graphics and VR

The Strix will play intense games, thanks to its Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU with 4GB of VRAM, but that entry-level GPU tin have a little trouble running intense titles at their highest settings.

When I played Batman: Arkham Knight at 1080p on high settings, the Strix ran the game between xl and 55 frames per second every bit I used the Batmobile to merchandise missiles with unmanned tanks on the streets of Gotham City. I noticed that when I collection really fast, yet, the frame rate dropped slightly. Information technology was smoother when I switched all of the settings downwardly to normal, and the game stayed between a more than stable 47 to 60 fps.

While playing Batman: Arkham Knight, the speakers really packed a punch when the Batmobile fired missiles at drones.

The GPU struggled on our regular benchmarks. On Metro: Terminal Low-cal (high settings, 1080p), the Strix reached just 28 fps, which is lower than our thirty-fps playability threshold. The Stealth Pro (GTX 1060) and Alienware (GTX 980M) delivered a better 45 fps and 37 fps, respectively.

On Hitman (1080p, Ultra settings with DirectX 12), the Strix again striking 28 fps, falling far short of the 88-fps average and the Stealth Pro's 48 fps.

On the Ascent of the Tomb Raider benchmark at medium settings, the Strix reached 28.ix fps, falling simply curt of the average.

Don't expect to connect an HTC Vive or Oculus Rift to the Strix, because information technology won't work. While The GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti are meant to provide improve operation than Nvidia'southward previous generation of GPUs, neither is really considered to be VR-ready. The laptop earned a score of 2.4 on the Steam VR benchmark, rendering those immersive titles unplayable. The Stealth Pro hit vii.4 on the same test.

When you aren't gaming, the laptop falls back to integrated Intel Hd Graphics 630.

Performance

Thanks to its 2.8-GHz Intel Cadre i7-7700HQ CPU (it's amid the beginning gaming notebooks with a "Kaby Lake" processor), 16GB of RAM, 256GB SSD and a 1TB 5,400-rpm HDD, the Strix is primed to multitask. I switched between Thou Theft Automobile V on very loftier settings and an case of Chrome with 25 open tabs without experiencing whatever signs of lag.

The Strix notched a score of 13,693 on the Geekbench 3 overall operation test, falling curt of the desktop-replacement average (17,478) and the Alienware (Intel Core i7-6820HK, 13,906) only surpassing the Stealth Pro (Cadre i7-6700HQ, xiii,454).

Information technology took the Strix 23 seconds to copy 4.97GB of mixed-media files, which translates to a rate of 221.3 megabytes per second. That's significantly slower than the 560.8-MBps category boilerplate, the Stealth Pro (565.5 MBps) and the Alienware (509 MBps).

Asus' notebook paired twenty,000 names and addresses in 3 minutes and 19 seconds on our OpenOffice spreadsheet macro. That's speedier than the average (3:34), too as the Stealth Pro (3:38) and Alienware (3:53).

Battery Life

The ROG Strix will last longer on a accuse than most desktop replacements. It endured for five hours and 25 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test, which involves continuous web browsing over Wi-Fi. That's 1 60 minutes longer than the average (4:23) and far better than the Stealth Pro (2:54). The Alienware, possibly thanks to its final-gen graphics carte, lasted the longest at 6:07.

MORE: Laptops with the Longest Battery Life

Webcam

If you're using this estimator for streaming, get yourself an external webcam. When I used the 720p webcam for a selfie in our lab, the resulting photo was nighttime and blurry. My brown shirt appeared closer to black, my pilus was blurry and the walls behind me looked grainy.

Heat

The Strix was overnice and cool in our testing. After streaming 15 minutes of Hd video from YouTube, the bottom of the laptop measured 88 degrees Fahrenheit, the keyboard reached 83 degrees and the touchpad hit 81 degrees -- all of which are below our 95-degree condolement threshold.

When I played Batman: Arkham Knight for fifteen minutes, the center of the keyboard hit 91 degrees, the touchpad reached 88 degrees and the lesser of the notebook was 105 degrees.

Software and Warranty

Asus' pre loaded software is a mix of gaming-specific apps and a few other useful utilities. Most notable is the ROG Gaming Center, a consummate dashboard that shows everything affecting functioning, including CPU and GPU memory and temperature, also as options to boost fan speeds and disable the Windows key. The other major gaming app, GameFirst IV, makes it easy to prioritize which apps employ net bandwidth for a lag-free experience.

Additionally, Asus' First-class Utility lets you control color temperature (perfect for some late-night gaming), and XSplit Gamecaster is onboard for streaming.

Unfortunately, there's a bit of bloatware packed in too, including Netflix, Minecraft, Drawboard PDF, Processed Crush Soda Saga, Imperial Defection II and Twitter.

Asus sells the ROG Strix GL753 with a one-twelvemonth warranty. See how the company did on our Tech Support Showdown and All-time and Worst Brands rating.

Configurations

The Asus ROG Strix GL753 we reviewed is a $1,299 model that packs a 2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-770HQ CPU, 16GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU with 4GB of VRAM, a 256GB G.2 SSD and a 1TB, 5,400-rpm hard drive.

For $i,099, you tin get a version with an Nvidia GTX 1050 GPU instead of the 1050 Ti. That version besides ditches the SSD together, leaving y'all with only the hard-disk drive.

Bottom Line

The Asus ROG Strix GL753 is an affordable gaming laptop with a comfortable, RGB-backlit keyboard, vivid display and Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti GPU.

When a laptop comes along with a 1050 or 1050 Ti with a subthousand-dollar price range, that will almost assuredly become a better deal (and nosotros know they're coming. We saw the Dell Inspiron xv 7000 Gaming and Acer Aspire VX 15 at CES). Otherwise, I'chiliad hard-pressed to recommend anything with a GPU that isn't Pascal-based.

The ane exception is if y'all immediately demand a laptop with more configuration options. Y'all tin nonetheless buy a version of the Alienware 17 R3 on Amazon (though Dell is phasing information technology out for newer models), some of which offer 4K displays. It's great for watching movies, but you certain won't be gaming at that resolution with a 980M GPU.

Your all-time bet correct now is to accept the Strix for what it is: a solid budget gaming laptop with a nice keyboard and choosy touchpad, that'southward available immediately. Only go along in mind that laptops with this GPU will exist very competitive in pricing sooner rather than later.

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Asus ROG Strix GL753VE Specs

Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.0
Brand	ASUS
CPU	two.viii-GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU
Card Slots	SD memory reader
Company Website	asus.com
Display Size	17.three
Graphics Card	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (4GB)
Hard Drive Size	ane TB
Hard Drive Speed	5,400rpm
Hard Drive Type	Serial ATA
Highest Available Resolution	1920 x 1080
Native Resolution	1920x1080
Operating System	Windows 10
Optical Drive	BD-ROM/DVD
Optical Drive Speed	8X
Ports (excluding USB)	HDMI, Lock Slot, Mini DisplayPort, USB 3.1 with Type-C, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, Combo Headphone/Mic Jack, Ethernet
RAM	16GB
RAM Upgradable to	32GB
Secondary Difficult Bulldoze Size	256GB
Secondary Hard Bulldoze Blazon	M.2 SSD
Size	16.three x 10.seven x 1.3 inches
Touchpad Size	four.one x two.eight-inches
USB Ports	6
Video Retentivity	4GB
Warranty/Support	1 year
Weight	6.iv pounds
Wi-Fi	802.11ac
Wi-Fi Model	Intel 2x2 802.11ac

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