Asus is famous for its diversity in manufacturing consumer-oriented laptops; it has a vast range of laptops consisting of sleek utility notebooks, two-in-one PCs, and then you have the beastly 'Republic of Gamers' series. With such a vast coverage of laptops, the company has truly given other manufacturers a tough run over the years. In the past, I have reviewed numerous Asus laptops but nothing is as enthralling as reviewing a full-fledged ROG series gaming notebook.
Today, I am going to share my experiences regarding the recently released Asus ROG GL552 (GL552VW-CN430T). Well, this is my first encounter with a gaming laptop belonging to the well-famed 'GL Series' notebook, and honestly, I was blown away by its charm. Over the past two weeks, I have tested this laptop to the core and surprisingly, it never failed to amuse me. So without further ado, here is a detailed review of the GL552VW.
Design and display: The first thing which struck me after unboxing the review unit was its amazing design; the lid has been subtly designed with a silver-greyish tone and a ROG Logo engraved in a plectrum-shaped figure in the centre.
Opening the lid reveals a FHD screen, a decently sized keyboard, and a well-spaced trackpad. Moving on, the backlit chiclet-style keyboard and its surrounding area have an appealing red-black themed layout. The area above the keyboard has tiny spiral-shaped white lines running parallel to each other; this further adds to the contrast.
When I powered the device on, the laptop revealed some more of its myriad design traits; the logo on the centre of the lid lit up in a vivid red colour along with the keyboards. The laptop, when powered-on, looks like a beast roaring to go; a characteristic that pumps up any gamer. Yes, in terms of looks, the laptop does gain an upper hand over other boring looking gaming laptops in the market.
One negative aspect regarding the laptop’s design is its near 3kg weight, which makes it very difficult to carry around. Other laptops such as the Lenovo Y50 and the MSI GE62 Apache are more convenient to carry around while offering similar specifications. Also, users should be really careful while opening or closing the laptop lid as it is extremely fragile unlike the previous GL551. (We got the plastic lid variant for review; there is another metal version which is much better in terms of durability).
Another uncanny aspect that I noticed was the placement of the power button, which is located on the extreme right-hand side along with the other keys instead than on the extreme top left corner. Apart from that, the laptop looks amazing and stands out among other similar priced gaming laptops in the market.
The right hand edge of the laptop houses one USB 2.0 port, a Super-Multi DVD ROM, headphone-out and microphone-in jacks, and the Kensington Lock. On the left, there are two 3.0 USB ports, the Ethernet port, HDMi port, the charging port, and the USB-Type C 3.1 connector. There are also numerous indicators such as battery, headphone, and much more on the bottom-left corner of the keypad.
Coming to the display, the laptop features a 15.6-inch IPS anti-glare HD display with a resolution of 1920x1080p. For starters, the screen is perfect for gaming and viewing multimedia content. The screen’s matte-black finish eliminates glare for perfect visuals, as promised by the company. Also, with a 178-degree viewing angle, users should face no problem in watching or playing games in any position. Personally, I was really happy with the display and had no trouble gaming or watching movies for long hours.
Specifications and Performance: Needless to say that the laptop offers fantastic hardware which is more than enough to play the latest gaming titles seamlessly. The device features an up-to-date Intel Skylake core i7 6700HQ processor clocked at 2.6Ghz along with 16GB DDR4 RAM, and an Nvidea Geforce GTX 960M GPU with 4GB GDDR5 VRAM. Now that’s what you call a powerful rig! Moreover, the notebook runs on the latest Windows 10 operating system, along with a set of pre-installed software applications.
In terms of storage, the notebook offers a 1TB HDD along with 128GB SSD, offering lots of space for storing adequate files. Other than that, users also have numerous other connectivity options such as Bluetooth 4.1, WiFi, and a card reader.
I played numerous new games like Fifa 16, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty Black Ops 3, and even the Witcher 3. Believe it or not, I did not face any instance of lag during the gameplay and the fact that all these games fall under the graphics-heavy spectrum, makes the laptop even more desirable for gamers.
On benchmarking software 3DMark, the laptop got an impressive score of 4089, which is considerably higher than the category average. The current core i7 processor also breezed through the PC Mark 7 with a respectable score of 5121. The device’s graphics performance is also way above the average score on any high-end laptop and can easily support extensive gaming and multi-tasking.
While I am not delving further into intricacies, this laptop offers exceptional performance feedback, and it is also cheaper in comparison to the specifications on offer. If you are a gamer and also love multi-tasking, this beast can seamlessly fulfill your needs. However, the laptop heats up furiously as soon as you start gaming on it.
Audio and Battery: Moving on to the audio, I was disappointed with the sound quality on this device even though the company offered a mixture of SonicMaster and Audio Wizard. The sound was unusually low, and had to use a headphone for clear audio. This was the most disappointing factor on this laptop, according to me. In fact, some other reviews have pointed out the same problem.
Even the 48 wh battery on this notebook is not up to the mark and exhausts pretty fast. While I would have preferred a larger battery for uninterrupted gaming experience, there are users who prefer to use a removable battery; one reason why the company sacrificed battery capacity. If you are constantly using the laptop, it discharges in less than 5 hours. It also takes around two hours and thirty minutes to attain 100 per cent charge.
Price and Verdict: All-in-all, apart from the audio and battery disenchantment, everything else shines in terms of specifications and performance.
As mentioned earlier, I had a great time using the laptop apart from the disenchantment with the sound and battery. Although this laptop primarily appeals to gamers due to its mind-blowing configuration, it also doubles up to be an excellent PC replacement at a very good price. So people who are looking to buy a desktop should close their eyes and go for this laptop instead. It will not only offer heightened gaming prowess but also impeccable multitasking adeptness along with it.
What might concern users is the high price of this laptop, which is priced at Rs 93,990 on e-commerce site Flipkart. However, there are options to exclude SSD or RAM, according to user preference. Well, I would gladly purchase this laptop over other recent gaming notebooks as this is certainly one of the better ones available in the market, and that too, at a cheaper price.
