Amazon.com: Customer reviews: ASUS G751JL 17-Inch Gaming Laptop [2014 model]

Top positive review

Couldn't Ask For A Better Machine For The Price

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2015

I think reviews from verified purchasers are one of the best ways to find the best product in a competitive market. I appreciate many of the reviews I read for this laptop, but I still felt like I was taking a risk by investing so much money on a laptop without trying it out beforehand (in person). I felt the need to write my own review and make it as in depth as I thought fit. Please, comment on the review with any questions you may have. A laptop is a major investment and you shouldn't make the decision to purchase with any unanswered questions in mind. I will update this review frequently so new potential buyers can have the most up to date information/opinion regarding the G751JL-DS71. The * (3 of them about the same thing) in the review signifies a disclaimer which is discussed at the end.

I needed a new laptop for college, and it was between this beauty and the Lenovo Y70. Both met my budget of $1200 and my hardware requirements (minus having an SSD for the Asus one*). My college required the i7 processor and 16 gigs of RAM and 1 TB of HDD for engineering/lab programs/softwares, etc. I chose Asus because of their no questions asked warranty (unless you make internal modifications*) and the reviews for this laptop were just flat out better. Also Asus leads the laptop industry in cooling technology, and Lenovos are known to overheat just like Alienware. This Asus also had a better graphics card than the Y70 ( Lenovo had 860m). I can confidently tell you that I have made the correct decision to invest in Asus. Although I am not able to compare personal user experience side by side with the Y70, my review will highlight only this laptop. I hope the Lenovo Y70 reviews are also in depth. I have not looked at that webpage in about 4-5 weeks, but the link at the specific page is " http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-17-3-Inch-Touchscreen-Gaming-80DU0034US/dp/B00MCJQ6JG/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1438126231&sr=1-3&keywords=lenovo+y70 " . One thing the Y70 had over the Asus was the 256 gig SSD. But, it also had a touchscreen which is a deal-breaker for me. I didn't want a smudgy screen that i had to constantly clean. Without further adieu, here's my review on the G751JL-DS71.

I'm not a hardcore gamer, however this rig will work for the most graphic intensive games for at least 'high' settings. If you want to play Witcher 3 on max graphics, you can't find a laptop in this price range that will do that. Don't be unrealistic. The games I play are exclusively from Blizzard Entertainment: WoW (World of Warcraft), HOTS (Heroes of The Storm), and Hearthstone (I do plan on playing more games though because the experience of gaming on this rig is breathtaking. I upgraded from a 2006 dell inspiron desktop and all the games I played were on the lowest settings but now they can be maxed). WoW is the most graphic intensive of the 3 games, and in my garrison I get 45 fps on ultra settings (when the charger is in.. if unplugged graphics are noticeably worse). I put my graphics on high for raiding, and get 75 fps in 25 man raiding. For HOTS, graphics are maxed out on 'extreme', and I get no lag and high a high fps rate (don't know how to measure fps on HOTS, but no latency or lag at all)... and the same goes for Hearthstone. In the 2 weeks I've had this baby, I've never heard the fans make a single noise. The keyboard is never hot (or Warm .. it's always 'cool') and the backlit keys makes playing at night so much easier. I don't put this baby on my lap, but after 5 hours of straight gaming (HOTS on 'extreme') I felt the bottom of the laptop and there was only one slightly warm spot but I don't plan to game for more than 5 hours straight... so I'll be fine. The vents (yes, there are two! Asus does it best) are on the back of the laptop, so you could use it on your lap without a problem.

As for the rest of the laptop (besides graphics card), the screen itself is gorgeous. The IPS FHD screen was totally worth the investment. Very bright and vivid, although I have not played any movies via the CD. I do watch Amazon Prime Video and I get no lag or buffering at all. Same goes for full HD videos on Youtube. This is thanks to the Beastly processor and the 16 gigs of ram. Also, I watch Amazon video on my lap (the laptop is on my lap) and with friends/family on each side, and there is no bad angle to view the screen from. Simple browsing on the web (Internet explorer is default, but I downloaded Chrome) is lightning fast despite my Verizon Fios internet speeds being 50 mbps. Once again, thank you processor and RAM. For its size (17.3" screen), the laptop is more slim then what I imagined, and it weighs 8.6 pounds (the description on this page is wrong). It's not that heavy really, just imagine holding a flat gallon of milk with two hands. Like mentioned, the keyboard never gets hot, even in the middle of gaming. It is the best keyboard I've used to date. The keys still have that tacky sound, which I love, and the tactile pressure for typing is enough so that you don't type extra letters by dragging your fingers over it. An added bonus is the full number pad on the right side. If you are really into gaming, there are specific buttons for macro commands (3 different macro buttons), launching steam, accessing the ROG page, and even a button that lets you record your game (at the push of a button). The only qualm I have about the record button is that it is in the top left corner of the keyboard, where the esc key is on traditional keyboards, so sometimes I press the record button while trying to access the game menu (esc). Like I said the Backlighting is perfect; not too aggressive but bright to play in the dark. This keyboard is probably my favorite thing about this laptop. No wonder why my review is so long, I love to type with it! This keyboard will help bang out college essays and papers super quickly.

This laptop has some drawbacks, however they aren't big enough to drop this from 5 stars. Windows 8, as we all know, is terrible. This is solved by the free Windows 10 upgrade, and I will update this review after I've experienced the new OS. There are a lot of stupid pre-installed apps and programs (bloatware) on the laptop that took some considerable time to uninstall. A free Macafee trial comes with the purchase but Macafee sucks, so I'll be getting either Norton or 'Avast!' since they are user friendly, cheap, and most of all work. If you're on the go and forget to bring a charger with you, this laptop will only run for maybe 2-3 hours at most if you plan to use 100% power. I unplugged my laptop at 100%and then started writing this review with all settings on max (brightness, backlight display, etc.). It's at 45% right now and that's after 80 minutes.To solve the battery life problem, drop the graphics on games, dim the screen, and if you don't need internet, turn on airplane mode.

The trackpad on the laptop has been a non factor for me because I purchased a wireless mouse at the same time I bought the laptop. I have never used the pad for more than 5 minutes. Also I don't use the laptop on my lap. I've been playing with it in preparation for this review and its not too bad, but everyday users have said its too sensitive or doesn't work well. Oh well, there isn't much more to say here, I'm not the one to ask about the pad.

One category that hasn't been discussed much in these reviews is audio. The laptop has speakers and a subwoofer for that 'oomph' on bass. I'm not one of those people that need the immersive surround sound crystal clear audio to make further enhance the experience. This rig has a decent audio system. It can get loud but bass lacks for the most part, despite the subwoofer. Like I said, I don't consider this a drawback, since it is an upgrade over my old desktop speakers. If you're really that concerned, just buy a good pair of headphones and you won't have to worry about anything. I use headphones although I don't care about sound quality that much, and its fine. When I am watching Amazon video with others, like I said, the Audio is good enough to get the job done.

Let's review the review..

Pros- graphics (screen), gaming (cooling technology), KEYBOARD, fast web surfing, processo, second available drive bay* (unmentioned)
Cons- Bloatware, Macafee, WINDOWS 8, Escape key / Record key on keyboard, Battery life
Neutral- Audio system, Trackpad

In conclusion, BUY THIS THING. YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED!! Best Value for the Price!

If you've made it this far in the review, thank you for reading, you have the same research thoroughness as I do. PLEASE be honest on if this review helped you or not in your quest for a new laptop. This is my first Amazon review and I want your feedback on things you liked or things I can improve on. Also, PLEASE comment your questions, if any. I'm on Amazon everyday so I can answer them quickly!

* I know one of the reasons I bought Asus was for the warranty, but I have now decided to install a 500gb SSD in the second available drive. I will update the review to say how the installation goes and how it perfects performance / my experience. I'm also considering upgrading the RAM to 32 gigs. That RAM change would require taking some of the insides apart to get to the 2 extra slots for ram. The SSD, however is accessible without taking anything apart. I called Asus and they said any internal modifications would void my warranty.

157 people found this helpful

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

Jamie Schumaker

Good for gaming, Battery dies FAST and is NOT EASILY REMOVABLE

Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2017

While the computer is great for gaming, the battery dies within six months of the warranty expiring at one year. While normally this wouldn't be an issue in laptops, you cannot remove the battery without taking apart the entire laptop as the battery is screwed into the inner frame. Leaving the dead battery in also normally wouldn't be an issue, but not in this computer as your computer will shut itself down due to the battery trying to charge or other internal software-related issues. It's a serious PITA. I don't know if I would have bought this computer had I known about the battery thing. If you have the patience and spare $$ to get your battery changed out, it's a good laptop gaming system for those who require a laptop over a PC.

One person found this helpful

246 total ratings, 228 with reviews

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From the United States

Joe

Couldn't Ask For A Better Machine For The Price

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2015

Verified Purchase

157 people found this helpful

Helpful

L. Wong

Superb upgrade to the ASUS ROG line of laptops

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2015

Verified Purchase

Just wanted to put in my opinion about this laptop.

I came from an Asus ROG G53, which I was very happy with, but it has been with me for 3 years or so, so I was looking for an upgrade.

Naturally, I looked into the new Asus ROGs, but also considered the Alienware laptops, Alienware SFF desktops, Asus SFF desktops, and some of the new 4K laptops (Lenovo and Acer). My wife has an Acer laptop which is very nice, so I seriously looked into the Acer 4k laptop.

After looking closely at these alternatives, I soon gave up on a 4k laptop, mainly due to the performance issues I have seen in several detailed reviews, and I seems to me that the benefits of having a razor sharp screen are not worth it for my purposes. It also occurred to me that a "retina" resolution screen works well on a tablet since it's usually closer to your eye (where it's some benefit), but on a laptop the screen with is usually farther away, so perhaps the super-resolution is not as beneficial - again my opinion.

I considered trying an SFF desktop, since I mainly use my laptop as a desktop replacement, but after looking at some configurations of the desktops, I found this Asus G751JL to actually be a better value. I think that has to do with the higher overall demand for laptops, or maybe something else in the marketplace dynamics.

So I came down to the Alienware and Asus. In the end, it came down to how happy I was with my current Asus, and their superior cooling system, which for me was a very large component. I hate it when laptops gets really hot, and the fans become really noisy under load. Some of the reviews for the Alienwares showed they get hot under load, but ALL of the reviews I found on the Asus show it's cooling is excellent for a laptop.

So I went with the Asus. And how it is? In a word, AMAZING.

Fantastic Screen: 17 inches of pure beauty. My old Asus had a shiny 15inch 1080p TN panel, but this one is 17 inches, IPS, and is a MATTE finish. The overall effect is a screen that simply "glows" and oozes quality. I sat in a Starbucks yesterday with my back to a huge wall of windows, and was able to work with no trouble at all. Screen hinge was a little stiff in the beginning, but has broken in over the past few days, and now can be opened without holding the base down. This also happened with my old Asus.

Keyboard: amazing upgrade. The old Asus keyboard was spongy and the keyboard sank a little with every keystroke. The new one is ROCK SOLID, no movement or play at all, solid feeling, EXCELLENT feel. The only thing I don't like is it's red backlight, which is a bit dimmer to me (I am red-green colorblind). The old Asus required you to remove the keyboard to get into the laptop, but the new G751 has an easy-to-remove panel on the bottom, so the keyboard is much more solidly locked in.

Trackpad: much larger, good sensitivity, and MUCH BETTER BUTTONS. It has 2 physical buttons, which are awesome, easy to push.

Graphics card: I don't use my computer much for games. I know it's weird buying a gaming laptop if I'm not playing games on it. I like the option of playing games on it, but I'm mainly a console gamer, since I like to be in the living room playing. It's got a nice graphics card. For a little more money, the G751JT and G751JY have more capable graphics, but at additional cost. For me, this graphics card was plenty good enough, but instead I used the $200 money I saved to add the 500GB SSD, which is much more worth it to me. I will say this graphics card has enough juice to drive a 4k monitor in the future, so that was important to me. It's also got a DisplayPort plug, so it should be able to drive a 4k monitor without trouble.

Wifi: nice internet card and is the new AC type. My old Asus had a very marginal wifi card, which I needed to upgrade. The downside of the G751 wifi is that I don't think it's upgradeable. The G751 wifi internet is fast and works well. I tested it and I was getting 30 Mbps, which is the fastest I have on my internet service. I used in a Starbucks, and no trouble connecting, and was also superfast.

Sound: only 1 speaker that I can see, on the bottom and on the left side. It sounds pretty good for a laptop speaker, but it's only on one side, which is a bit disappointing.

Design and maintenance: As I said, there's a panel on the bottom, which you can remove with ONE SCREW, and you have access to 2 memory slots and both hard-drive bays. MUCH MUCH BETTER. I added a Samsung EVO 850 500GB SSD, and now the thing FLIES. Very quick boot up and response, traditional HD for larger files, can't beat it. The bad thing is there are 4 memory DIMM slots on this laptop, which is great. Two of them are accessible through this panel, the other two require dis-assembly to access. Unfortunately, Asus decided to use the 2 ACCESSIBLE memory slots to install the 2x8GB DIMMs, which doesn't make any sense to me at all. I imagine the 2 unused memory slots sitting inside the laptop, and this irritates me. I probably won't upgrade memory any more, but it would be nice to have the option.

The power plug has a 90-degree built-in, so it plugs in and runs back, which is really nice and doesn't get in the way. Also, the power plug now has a ridge on it, so it stays in the laptop better. It is a traditional plug, though, not one of the those fancy magnetic plugs.

All 4 USB ports at 3.0, which is awesome. One design improvement - they moved the USB ports on the left side towards the back, so they do NOT interfere with the DVD drive bay, which is very nice for me. I like to plug in my mouse to the left side of the laptop so the cable doesn't interfere with my mouse with I place on the right side. On my old Asus, I was always bumping into my mouse's USB plug. Now it's nicely out of the way. Kudos Asus for a nice design improvement.

Overall design is much more classy. I swear it's a tiny bit thinner than my old Asus, or it's just the same thickness but looks thinner because the screen's bigger.

Reinstalling windows: this was a pain. The Asus Backtracker software process didn't work (I only had a USB 2.0 thumb drive, which I read it has trouble with and only works reliably with a 3.0 drive). I tried Samsung cloning, which didn't work well either (Windows crashed when I removed the original HDD after cloning). In the end I did a clean windows 8.1 install which went well with automatic activation via the code in the BIOS, once I found the right version of windows. I downloaded the drivers on the Asus website, and it works just fine. There were no issues with the standard default windows drivers, but I updated them all anyway.

NOTE: There's a link out there to build Windows 8.1 install media, and you have to choose the regular "Windows 8.1" version to build onto a DVD or USB thumb drive. I burned it onto a DVD so could keep it for the future. Do NOT build the windows restore media using 8.1N, 8.1 Pro, 8.1 Pro N, or 8.1 Single Language (thanks Microsoft for the insanely confusing options). If you do the wrong version, it will ask you for the authentication key. If you use the right one, it proceeds automatically because it found the right key in the BIOS.

In all, I've very very happy with this machine. Everything's upgraded, and has an air of class now with the new design. One additional note: it's only a little bigger than my old Asus, which had a 15-inch screen. That Asus came with an official ROG laptop bookbag, which is regrettably missing from this package, but I'm happy to report the old backpack does fit the G751, which is another bonus to me.

Highly recommended!

30 people found this helpful

Helpful

Brian

Still works but it's annoying. 2) The finger prints

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2015

Verified Purchase

I've had the laptop for about 3 months now so here is my opinion on it. The only reason I give it a 4 is because I cant give it a 4.9. I only have 3 concerns with this laptop. Before I start I should say when I got this laptop and until this point in time nothing has broke. Screen is 100 and no messed up buttons or anything.

1) The computer's speaker is a piece of s***. It can't handle louder sounds without crackling so you have to keep it down a bit. Still works but it's annoying.

2) The finger prints. Whatever they made this laptops case out of, it is the kind of material that soaks up all your natural oils. You will not be able to keep it looking nice unless you use gloves or wash it with alcohol after every use.

3) I'm no expert on computers or anything but my buddy(IT technician that works on multi million dollar servers everyday and has always been into computers, builds his own and such) is and when i told him i was getting 90 degrees Celsius playing borderlands 2(max settings)on my CPU he was surprised and so was I. Nothing else was running at the time and it is a must that you have something in between you and the laptop so you don't burn yourself. however the GPU was only peaking at 65 so that is nice. I think it was just being punished while i was going on a rampage with 15 plus guys all shooting at me at the same time. If you're wondering I won btw :)

Overall this computer is a no brainier for the price. Couldn't be happier really as none of the stuff above concern me that much. I should also note that the same buddy i mentioned above installed a 250gb SSD for me so my operating system is lightning fast and all my games and other stuff is on the standard Hard drive. So if you are wondering there is an empty port for another hard drive if you want one. It also doesn't affect the manufacturers warranty to open it up and put it in so you don't have to worry bout that. (we called and asked before doing anything) Windows 10 update went pretty smoothly as well besides it taking a s*** once when it was 90% all done. But, that's windows for you. So there you go. If you are looking for a laptop that can play most of the new games on high and some on max settings this the laptop for you in this price range. Cheers!

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Edmahn

So far, so good

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2015

Verified Purchase

I've owned this laptop for less than two weeks, so my views are preliminary, but I thought I should offer my initial review.

I'm not a gamer, but I decided to look for a gaming laptop for the power and video capabilities. I figured I could buy one at the lower end of the gamer price range, and it would be good enough for my purposes. This laptop is a monster, built like a tank. My old laptop was a Dell XPS17, equal in size but without the sheer heft of this one. I decided to replace the Dell, instead of wiping the drive and starting from scratch, when one of the two hinges shattered. On the ASUS, there's a central hinge, which works really smoothly. It's sturdy as all get-out and looks like it'll last forever. I don't know why other laptops don't use one like it.

The appearance: The ASUS looks great. I'm too old to use the word "awesome," but you can pretend I've said it. I love the form. I love the fan vents in the back. And the default wallpaper on the desktop, which I've directed Windows 8.1 to boot to, shows an image of this laptop highlighting the fan vents, with a red and gray background. It's, er, awesome.

The keyboard keys feel good and respond well to touch. I do agree with people who have criticized the extra keys. (I constantly hit the "record" key at the top left, because I expect it to be the ESC key, which most keyboards have at the top left. But fortunately, the real ESC key is right below, and the record function closes with ESC.) The keyboard is backlit. I would have preferred white backlighting, but I suppose the red is cool in its own way. It's just not as practical.

Initial boot times have ranged from about 35 seconds to a little less than a minute from power-on to the stripey page. From there, it's roughly 15 seconds to the desktop. I guess I would have expected slightly faster times, but maybe I'm not being realistic.

The hard drive comes formatted into two primary partitions, one labelled OS and one labelled Data, but what's called the OS partition actually contains not only the OS but basically everything else on the computer as well. The Data partition is completely empty. Downloads and new installations default to the OS partition. I suppose there's a way to wipe the drive and start with literally nothing but the OS in the OS partition, but I didn't want to go to the trouble. So instead, I merged the two partitions with the Windows utility built into Windows 8.1.

I haven't really tested the video capabilities. As I said, I'm not a gamer. But I did search out video game trailers, and the graphics on this laptop are beautiful. Maybe at some point, I'll test the frame rates, and so on, but for now, I have no complaints.

I've been surprised at how quietly the computer runs. It's true I haven't run heavy-duty games on it, but my wife's desktop, which also has never run games, sounds like a jet engine in comparison. This is a quiet computer.

One clear failing in the computer is that the external speakers are mediocre, but this is not a grave flaw in my opinion. Any time I'm going to listen to something that requires good sound, I'm going to use headphones, anyway.

Based on what I've seen so far, the laptop deserves a 5.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jamie Schumaker

Good for gaming, Battery dies FAST and is NOT EASILY REMOVABLE

Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2017

Verified Purchase

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Good laptop for price, but ASUS servicing is useless

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2016

Verified Purchase

To get the reason for the title, go to the bottom of the review. Otherwise, if you'd just like the review, here you go:

---Review---
This is a pretty great laptop, especially for the price. Let's go over some of the really nice features for a moment:

1. Hardware specifications are great. The 965M runs most modern PC games with high quality and framerate, and among the products in this family, this is less expensive by far. I would say it's not worth it to splurge over a hundred extra dollars for the 970M, which is also great but not much better. The 4720HQ is desktop-replacement level does fantastically, and 16GB of RAM means that you're pretty much set unless you literally never close anything. It doesn't have an SSD, which is a bit of a downer, especially since other models in the family have two drives (which means that there's likely two hard drive slots), but it runs fine, no complaints there.

2. Visually beautiful. The laptop looks good, both the exterior and the screen. The finish can aggregate some fingerprints, but it's not horrendous and mostly you don't notice it. The keyboard is backlit, which is nice, with variable lighting power. WASD are highlighted out of the keyboard, with a dot on the W to help keep your place. The touchpad is kinda centered around regular typing position, which is sort of odd, but I mostly use a mouse anyways with the touchpad disabled. There is a rather large area around the laptop screen, which makes this laptop absolutely humongous, but that is part of what you're buying it for.

There are some minor downsides, even when the computer is functioning fine:

1. Lots of the functionality buttons (delete, insert, home, numlock, pageup/pagedown and scrolllock) are two-to-a-key, which means that function button needs to be pressed to hit the alternative ones. If you're used to using hotkeys like that, it's a bit of a pain.

2. Oddly, there are a LOT of peripherals on the right side, which is usually the side the mouse goes on. Depending on how close you have your mouse to the laptop, these can bump. These are on the right side, from back to front: power (right angle charger ameliorates this), DVI (really bad), ethernet (kinda bad), HDMI (really bad), thunderbolt (I never use this), (2) USB 3.0 (kinda bad), and the three sound jacks (pretty bad).

3. There is no way to disable the CD drive. No one uses this anymore, but hitting the button makes it pop out and it's actually not that difficult to do it accidentally. I've done it dozens of times. I've gone through hardware manager and other things, but it doesn't disable power to the CD drive and it will still pop out. It also doesn't lock if the computer is off, which can be bad.

4. It's super bulky, which can make it a pain to fit into a backpack. Thankfully my previous backpack fit it perfectly, but backpacks made for 15.6" laptops definitely will not work and some backpacks made for 17" laptops still might not work.

---Issue---
About 6 months after I purchased this laptop, I noticed that my battery stopped charging to full. This isn't an uncommon issue, apparently, and is caused by defective batteries that are put into ASUS laptops. Easy fix, right? Take out the battery, put in the new battery. It's not externally removable, but it doesn't appear to be a difficult process. Online battery replacements are about $80-100, though, so I would much rather not pay that.

Here's the issue, though: to get any type of hardware servicing, you have to go through the RMA process. This means you have to ship your laptop to them, and then they'll ship it back. In fact, there was an interesting story circulating a little while ago about how the ASUS RMA service takes:

1. A really long time, between 2 and 4 weeks. For people who use their laptop every day, this is completely unacceptable. Homework and projects don't just magically stop being due for 2 to 4 weeks.

2. A big joke on the repair side. After multiple RMA processes, the guy's laptop was still not fixed and in fact had coffee stains and other evidence of poor treatment.

That is super not worth it to me. However, that also means that my battery is essentially worthless now. It degrades around 1% every few days, which will hopefully slow down, but a battery health report (you can run this in command line) shows that my battery can only charge to around 70% of its originally intended capacity.

With that in mind, I will likely eventually leave this as an actual desktop, and not buy from ASUS again. As a desktop replacement, it is overpriced, has a small, poor-quality screen and lags around 4 years behind in hardware capability from similarly-priced desktop builds. Without a good way to get laptop servicing, hardware defects can completely cripple this product for everyday users.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Corey Robinson

If you're looking for an entry level gaming laptop, this is for you.

Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2015

Verified Purchase

This is my first review I have written for a product, let alone ASUS. I was looking for a laptop replacement since my old laptops GPU died last week and I found myself looking into gaming laptops since I needed something mobile yet powerful enough to satisfy my gaming needs while at college. I compared A LOT of laptops; however, I had trouble finding something heavily reliable without loads of bloatware that would last me years without any problems. Now, I can't say that this will indeed last years but it is already starting out better than the competition.

My final choice came down to this laptop and two from MSI. I ended up steering away from them because the Intel 5700hq processor definitely had some problems with windows 10...in general I wanted to stay away from 10 due to endless problems in terms of software and hardware conflicts which led me to this.

Now, this review is only based on 3 days of heavy use since I received it on 9/5/15 but I hope it helps some of you make decisions if you're looking for an entry level gaming laptop.

PROS:
1. Large display (obviously) with wide viewing angles.
2. Sturdy keyboard which doesn't appear to be too much of a finger print magnet.
3. Two large rear fans with dissipate heat VERY WELL. Room is always at 71F and this laptop hasn't hit 80 yet despite being on it pretty much all day (wanted to field test it across every game I had).
4. Has handled just about any game I've thrown at it so far on Ultra or Max graphics (War Thunder, the entire Total War series, CS:GO, Minimum, Ark, etc etc etc just too many to list but at least here are a few).
5. 16GB of ram definitely comes in handy...have run multiple games at once (mostly WT and RTW2 because of MM que).
6. Comfortable in terms of how the keys are spaced and where the track pad is placed (though I never use it).
7. Relatively quick start up time from cold (5 seconds as of this morning with another 5 seconds to get to amazon to write this review).

Now, here are some relatively small drawbacks.

CONS:
1. This laptop is pretty heavy. About 10lbs (it is incorrectly listed as 13 on here). You wont be toting this bad boy to class...and even if you could it probably wont fit in your bag because the extended rear fans don't even fit in some 17.3in carrying bags.
2. Battery life but I must say it is pretty good given the amount of power this laptop draws. Unplugged no games I get about 4 hrs and with games about 2. I have to say that's a PRO in terms of gaming laptops but still a CON in my opinion.
3. Had some problems with NVIDIA drivers being updated. Seems like a recurring problem which states NVIDIA could not connect and many others report having this problem across many laptops but I figured it's worth a mention.
4. Windows had problems updating...but hey that's windows.

Overall, I have to say this laptop is worth the buy especially if you're looking for something you CAN move around if you need to bring it to, say, a friends house to game, or if you're toting it back and forth from college because of breaks and such. Definitely satisfies my gaming needs and, for my first ASUS product, this is not letting me down, AT ALL. Exactly what I wanted.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

GGRussell

Nice laptop but has some issues

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2015

Verified Purchase

Like other owners, very disappointed in the display for a laptop in this price range. It definitely has a yellow cast. I tried adjusting the Asus Splendid app and I even used the built-in Windows color calibration. When I compare the same image on the laptop to my desktop, it definitely has a yellow cast regardless of the display calibration. I would NEVER recommend this laptop for critical image editing.

One other issue with the display is 'screen memory'. I had the Windows Explorer on the screen for about 30 min. When I closed it, there was a definite outline left. Indicative of really cheap LCD display. My 7 year old HP laptop had a better display.

I'm even more disappointed in the BIOS for a laptop manufactured on a few month ago! Yes, it is EFI 'compliant', but it is NOT a graphical UEFI BIOS. For something aimed at 'gamers', the BIOS has nothing for overclocking. However, Asus does include a custom version of the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility.

There is no way to access the i7's Intel HD Graphics 4600 at all in the BIOS. I have a video editor that can take advantage of GPGPU acceleration. Can't do it with this laptop as there is no way to have the HD4600 and the nVidia GTX965M active at the same time.

I bought this version to save some money on SSD. I purchased Samsung EVO 500GB SSD to install myself. What a nightmare! The way this laptop boots isn't like anything I've ever used. I was trying to preserve the Recovery partition, but in the end, decided it wasn't worth it since I'll be upgrading to Win10 anyway. I was a bit surprised when I contact Asus Tech support on how to clone the 1TB to the 500GB SSD.

"Generally speaking, to ensure the compatibility and stability of the whole system, such operation isn't recommended.But if you insist to do it, I would suggest you to use the Asus Backtracker utility to backup the OS on a flash drive, and then load it back on the new SSD installed for a try."

Asus Backtracker didn't work at all because it requires the same size hard drive to restore the image.

Also there is no app to create a backup set of Recovery DVDs! I had to contact Asus support on how to backup the Recovery partition. The only way is to use the built in Windows back up. Had not seen this before, but it did work.

If I had know all these issues beforehand, I would not have purchased, but I will still keep the laptop because it's fast. I use a laptop mostly for internet stuff and might do some family video editing. Certainly, nothing that need color correction.
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10 Aug 2015 - Update to Win10 doesn't work. Also noticed that this laptop doesn't have Win 8.1 PRO! Seriously Asus?
11 Aug 2015 - Don't use Asus Back Tracker! It just wiped out BOTH hard drives and I just lost all my disc image backups from Acronis. To make it worse, the new 16gb thumb drive that Backtracker was on get corrupt. So now I have an laptop with NO OS.

Downgraded to two stars -- The laptop hardware is really great, but I feel that Asus has made some bad decisions for a laptop in this price range. First No Win 8.1 PRO; Second the Windows serial number is no where to be found. Not on the box, not on the manual or on a label on the bottom of the laptop.; Third, I don't like the how I had to make a back up. It defaults to 16gb thumb drive which I went out an bought a new one, but it didn't seem to verify the integrity for that drive so I ended up with a corrupt thumb drive. So far this laptop has been nothing but headache after headache. Seriously doubt I would ever consider another Asus product.

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Helicopter A-Z

Nice!! Works with Apple 27" Thunderbolt display.

Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2015

Verified Purchase

Time for a review, but first a warning.

DO NOT BUY THIS OFF OF AMAZON WAREHOUSE DEALS. At least: that was my experience. The first go around I bought it, "Used, like new" direct from Amazon Warehouse deals. Which basically means item had been opened but apparently unused. That was definitely NOT the case in my experience. Computer had a Windows refurbished sticker on the bottom for activation. "Refurbished" is different than "Used like New". At first, I was like ok, and proceeded anyways. However once I got into using the computer, loading it with software is when the real issues started. Long story short, what I believed happen, is that somebody ordered this computer previously with the sole purpose of committing fraud. All of the internal high end hardware was missing or did not work. NO Nvidia graphics card, thunderbolt port did not work, storage was not as spec'd...Just a bunch of stuff was wrong.

So I called Amazon and explained to them what was going on and to their credit (Amazon has awesome, live customer service) - they refunded my original purchase, set up a return, and allowed me to both order a brand new one, and they picked up overnight shipping.

When I got the new one and operated them side by side is when the differences became immediately apparent. The brand new out of box booted directly to Asus' ROG screen (not a big deal because I didn't buy it for gaming anyways) - but just the interface alone told me I had made the right decision to reject and return the Warehouse Deal one.

Anyways - this does everything so far that it promises to do. One of my big question marks, which is apparently a lot of peoples' questions on the web, is whether or not this will interface with a 27" Apple Thunderbolt Display.

To that I answer a resounding and confident, first-hand experience, "YES". Plugged it in to the port and it immediately recognized its presence and I use it every day as I do my Macbook Pro.

I have only had it a couple days but it runs graphics based software beautifully and without delay. Coming from a Mac interface, there is a learning curve, but I expected as much.

6 people found this helpful

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Sebastien Reis

This is a good gaming laptop

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2016

Verified Purchase

Probably the best Laptop you can get for this price. I needed a laptop for school and I didn't want to fork out cash for a laptop and a separate gaming tower, so I decided to pick up a gaming laptop and kill two birds with one stone. The hardware puts it a little on the heavy side but that's one of the only cons I've found with this pc. The design is very sleek, the lighting is cool, there are macro keys, and the keyboard is actually incredibly comfortable, not to mention it's one of the few laptops that doesn't heat up under your hands, the cooling system is in the back. The screen is crystal clear and soothing to look at, you can use it with the sun shining on it and still see the screen clearly. Battery life when gaming is horrendously short which is to be expected, also tanks performance on most AAA titles, for school and browsing the web however the battery life is an average 4 - 5 hours. When plugged in to a power source however it's a whole new monster. The I7 processor overclocks to 3.5 ghz and the cooling system keeps it at an almost flat 60 degrees Celsius during my gaming runs long in to the night, which is amazing, you can keep the thing on your LAP. The graphics card isn't a 980 but it'll get the job done. You can play on full resolution with most settings on high in even the newest AAA titles with 60 frames, but you'll need to sacrifice on Anti Aliasing (which doesn't look bad due to how highly compacted the screen pixels are), shadows, and depth of field. If you don't mind locking at 30 FPS (Like most console games) you can run games on ultra no problem. I highly recommend this computer if you're looking for a medium price range gaming laptop.

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