Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsA "Gaming" Laptop that justifies the price
Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2016
I have been a long idealist of having a desktop over buying a "gaming" laptop because the price. I have been wanting to upgrade my dekstop PC for 3 years now and I was finally able to since I had most of the parts needed and would just need a new mobo,RAM, CPU,GPU and case. So adding it all together I could have gotten essentially what this laptop game me for about $1000.
Then I started thinking about it, what this laptop offers you as a consumer. 16GB RAM which means never having to worry about multitasking or chrome eating up too much memory. I develop on my desktop and I would have a hard time running Android Studio (my desktop was running an Intel Core Duo 2 Q9550) and anything else at the same time. I had to close out of unnecessary things like Chrome and Steam when I developed. An i7. It may be a mobile i7 but it still is an amazing piece of technology. Everything opens quickly which I was used to be I have never seen anything stutter or lag. It's incredible.
Then there is the coup de gras: the 1070. Oh my goodness. I don't know if you know this but Nvidia promised to the mobile 10xx series to be at most 10% difference between the desktop versions. I believe it. I have no issues ever. Every game max settings 1080p. I don't really pay attention to frame rates but I'm sure it's through the roof. It's always smooth. There is not one game on 1080p that I could find that didn't give me smooth game play. Even ARK on epic did not have trouble. The 1070 is VR capable and I wish I could test it out because I am sure it will be able to run it.
Battery life could be an issue. It's hard to say. The battery estimator is completely garbage. Depending on what you're doing it will say you have 3 hours and then you open up chrome or something and it jumps down to 1 hour. Silly thing. I keep it plugged in at my desktop for the majority of the time I've had it but the one time I took it with me to work outside my house I was able to browse the web and program in Android Studio for about an hour and 45 minutes and I was at 50% battery so take that for what you will. I also had power saver turned on basically as soon as it off the charger which didn't result in any known performance issues. I don't know how they expect you to get 5 hours but oh well. The charger is kind of bulky too, but that is to be expected. Also if you want to buy a case for it don't get the 15-15.6" cases get the 17" ones because I got one of them and my laptop barley fits. Like just barley. I have to unplug everything from the USB ports and it's a very tight fit but it works.
As I thought about the hardware that comes with it, I realized that this is actually a pretty good value for you get. I looked at other "gaming" laptops and I couldn't believe the prices they go for. Some don't have SSDs or only a 960m and are in the same price zone as this laptop. You can get everything this laptop offers, starting from nothing, for about $300-$400 less in a desktop and if all you care about is that then I encourage you to do that. But if you are on the move or work on the move and like to game then I recommend this laptop highly recommend. For me, it came down to "Is it worth $400 more for mobility?" and that answer is yes and I am very pleased with what I got.
PROs:
* Never have to worry about performance in multitasking/1080p gaming. To me this is a future proof device. As for how long I can't say because technology is growing quickly, but my last desktop lasted me 7 years so I expect at least 5 on this one. Hopefully the exterior can hold up for that long. I guess if you are a serious gamer and you want 144Hz 60FPS you will be disappointed but if you want smooth gameplay on the highest settings at 1080p for any game this will do you fine.
* Perfect amount of ports. You get 3 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB C port, ethernet, mini DisplayPort, headphone/mic jack, SD card reader, and an HDMI out. I'm pretty sure it's 2.0, but I cannot verify that. It would just be silly if it wasn't. I would recommend buying a USB 3.0 hub for another $12 so you can just unplug the one port if you want to use this on the go.
Neutral
* Finger print magnet on the top and the trackpad. Just finger prints everywhere. The keyboard is a full keyboard. You get a dedicated numpad and function buttons at the top that can control audio and open things. It feels good to type with. The spacing is perfect and it doesn't have a small backspace or any other useful key. It feel durable and should last a while. The overall build is good. There is plastic so it's not the best but it works.
* I personally don't like it only as one m.2 drive. I have seen on similar laptops from ASUS that have two and am not sure why they couldn't include it in this one. That being said it is pretty straight forward to replace the drives. You just open the bottom panel by removing the screws and then remove and replace the drives you want.
* Battery life is meh. Don't expect to play games on this without your charger or being plugged in. I haven't tested it but I cannot imagine it will last very long with the one test I did do just using it for work. If you need to take it on the go for a few hours then it will be okay.
CONs
* The only con I have about this laptop is that it comes with so much crap. Unnecessary crap. Highly recommend doing a fresh install of Windows 10.
Really good laptop if you want a "gaming" laptop or just a powerhouse of a laptop. If you need to be mobile for work or whatever so you can take it on the go I highly recommend. If you just use your computer as a battle station or work station from home then I recommend building your own PC because it is cheaper and for $1700 you could have a build with a 1080 and i7 that is more powerful than this one.
