When shopping for a big, bulky gaming laptop, the kind that
will take any new game and crank it up to high settings at full HD resolution
without a problem, there are generally two camps to choose from. The first is a
legion of smaller boutique PC builders, from Origin PC to Velocity Micro, who
take ugly off-the-shelf laptop shells and stuff them with carefully tweaked
gaming parts. The second is machine from an established major league PC brand,
such as Asus, Dell/Alienware or Acer, which all have custom-built bodies and
slick designs, but at the loss of that hand-crafted care that comes with a
boutique PC.
Of the major-brand gaming systems, the ROG (or Republic of
Gamers) line from Asus has always been a favorite. Last year's G751 was built
like a tank, included a top-of-the-line Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M graphics card,
and powered through every game we threw at it. But, it was also incredibly big
and bulky -- attach a long handle and it could be used as a snow shovel.
This new revamp gives the ROG laptop series its biggest
facelift in years, and trades up to Intel's latest Skylake generation of
processors. But, there has not been a new mobile GPU from Nvidia in some time,
so it still has the same 900-series mobile graphics chips as every major gaming
laptop from the past year and a half.
Not also that this $1,799 configuration bumps the graphics
down a step, from the Nvidia 980M to the 970M, but at least pairs it with a
128GB SSD/1TB HDD combo and a generous 16GB of RAM. It's hard to find the exact
same Asus configuration internationally, but similar models sell for £1,343 in
the UK and AU$2,699 in Australia. A DVD optical drive is also included, but
largely superfluous, as PC games are almost entirely downloaded from online
stores such as Steam and GOG now.
ASUS ROG G752
Price as reviewed $1,799
Display size/resolution 17.3
inch, 1,920 x 1,080 screen
PC CPU 2.6GHz
Intel Core i7-6700HQ
PC Memory 16GB
DDR4 SDRAM 2,133MHz
Graphics 3072MB
Nvidia GTX 970M
Storage 128GB
SSD + 1TB 7,200rpm HDD
Networking 802.11ac
wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
Operating system Micorsoft
Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
The new look takes the classis Asus ROG matte black finish
and trades it in for warmer palette of brushed aluminum with copper accents and
red/orange lights. A few sci-fi-inspired touches, like carved hieroglyphic-like
lines above the keyboard and honeycombed speaker grilles along the hinge, add
some character. The new chassis is definitely slimmer and more streamlined than
the bulky industrial look of its predecessor, but it's still way too big and
heavy (at 8.8 pounds) to carry around more than once in a great while.
Along with a backlit keyboard with deep, satisfying keys,
Asus includes a handful of programmable macro buttons above the left side of
the keyboard. I've been playing PC games going all the way back to my first
Tandy Color Computer 3, and rarely if ever use macro keys -- your milage may
vary. The macro keys, good for launching apps or running through a series of
key commands, can be programmed through a simple included app called Asus
MacroKey.
More interesting is the Asus ROG Gaming Center app, which
offers a wealth of system information, including CPU and GPU frequencies and
temperatures, and allows for adjusting some display and audio settings and
controlling the system lights, all from a single view. Multiple profiles can be
set up, optimized for media playback, gaming, or extended battery life.
This midlevel configuration of the G752 has plenty of
hard-drive space, including a 128GB SSD for OS files and some basic apps, plus
a big 1TB 7,200rpm hard drive for storing big game files, which can be 25GB or
more each. The Intel Core i7 6700HQ processor is about as up-to-date and
powerful as one could ask for in a gaming laptop, but the 980M from Nvidia is
really what you're looking for in a gaming laptop, at least on paper. To trade
up to it requires a step up to a configuration Asus sells for $2,599, which is
a big jump (but also includes a 256GB SSD and a more advanced cooling system).
Fortunately, in hands-on and performance benchmark testing,
the G752 as configured here turned in impressive scores. In standard
application tests, it was second only to the Origin Eon17-SLX, which packs
actual desktop PC parts into a laptop body, although really any of the high-end
gaming laptops we compared this system to are more than fast enough for
everyday tasks, even heavy photo and video editing.
In gaming tests, the difference between systems with the
Nvidia 980M and the 970M were more pronounced in some cases. And, as newer,
more demanding games are released, that difference could become more
pronounced. However, in hands-on gaming, the 970M card was more than powerful
enough to run Fallout 4 at maximum detail settings and full 1,920x1,080
resolution, as well as other demanding games such as Metro: Last Light and The
Witcher 3. For about $2,000, Dell, Acer and other PC makers can get you a
gaming laptop with a GeForce 980M in it if that's a must-have.
One bonus not available in most other gaming laptops is
Nvidia's G-Sync technology. That allows properly configured graphics cards and
displays to sync up, with the GPU producing a new frame of animation at exactly
the right time for the display to use it, which leads to smoother gameplay and
less stress on the GPU. Last year's Asus G751 was the first laptop we tested
with this technology, which is explained in more detail here.
Obviously, no one buys a gaming laptop for its battery life.
In this case, running for 2:25 on our streaming video playback test isn't going
to change any minds about that, but for an hour or so of disconnected gaming,
it should be fine.
Conclusion
There are gaming laptops that offer more features, slimmer
designs, or more graphics power, but Asus has managed to find something close
to the sweet spot in this mid-priced (for a gaming laptop) version of the G752.
The design is less overpowering than last year's model, performance is fine for
the games of today or tomorrow (but less future-proof than something with the
step-up GPU), and adding G-Sync is a valuable extra that really makes a
difference in the handful of systems we've used it in.
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