Not too long ago, it was hard to find a good mainstream gaming laptop with a good graphics card that wasn’t top of the line and didn’t feel like a plastic clamshell full of compromises. Even if one did come up, you usually had to wait until the holidays to find one at a price that made sense for what you were getting.
Those days seem to be coming to an end, and the latest entry-level 10-series graphics cards from Nvidia have a lot to do with it. The GeForce GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti GPUs give laptops like the Dell Inspiron 15 7000, a budget gaming beast that starts at just $800, 3D gaming performance on par with desktops.
Even so, that doesn’t mean that the Inspiron is a great deal for the price. Dell cut corners to make the price so low, but not in how well it plays games. For a better all-around package, you’ll still need to spend a bit more on something like Asus’ ROG Strix line, which includes the 15-inch GL553 and the 17-inch GL753. Some of these corners stay the same, even though the starting price is about $1,100 more than before.
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ASUS ROG GL753
If you want a gaming PC but don’t have enough money to buy one that’s ready for virtual reality, you can still get a laptop that will play most games. The Asus ROG Strix GL753, $1,099 to start, $1,299 as tested, is one of the first laptops on the market with Nvidia’s GTX 1050 Ti GPU and the company’s first RGB-backlit keyboard to add some color. It’s a good laptop, but soon you’ll be able to get similar systems for less than $1,000.
ASUS ROG GL753: Design
Asus took the great design of its high-end ROG machines and made it easier to use on its cheaper machines. The end result is a plastic beast that looks more garish than sleek. The lid is made of black plastic that looks like aluminum because it has a pattern on it. The premium machines have lights on the sides of the logo, but the Strix has orange neon paint on the lid to make it look like the back of a race car.
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When you open the lid, you can see a 17.3-inch 1080p screen and a keyboard with a number pad that is set up like an island. The ROG logo in the bottom right corner of the plastic chassis and a stripe around the touchpad are neon orange. Under the palm rest, the speakers that face the front have a few more orange accents.
You can connect to external displays and add other devices through ports on the sides. On the left side, there’s an Ethernet port, HDMI and Mini Display Port outputs, two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 3.1 Type-C port, and a headphone/microphone jack. There is a lock slot, a Blu-ray drive, another USB 3.0 port, and a USB 2.0 port on the right side. A SD card reader is hidden under the palm rest.
ASUS ROG GL753: Display
The 17.3-inch matte 1080p display on the Strix shows sharp, clear details, but it isn’t as bright as the competition. The Strix screen shows 124 percent of the sRGB color gamut, which is better than the Stealth Pro but not as good as the desktop replacement average of 128 percent or the Alienware 17’s 174 percent (111 percent).
The Strix doesn’t have very accurate colors, with a Delta-E score of 2.2. (0 is ideal). This score is lower than the average score of 1.5, the score of 2 for the Stealth Pro, and the score of 3 for the Alienware (0.8).
The light meter said that the Strix’s average display brightness was 285 nits, which is just below the average of 295 nits and less bright than the Alienware (319 nits) but brighter than the Stealth Pro (242 nits). Despite the score, I thought the screen was bright enough for everyday use and gaming.
ASUS ROG GL753: Audio
The speakers on the Strix GL753 are pretty loud. When you play “Closer” by Tegan and Sara, your small room will be filled with a blast of synths, vocals, and drums. If you use the pre-installed Dolby-powered ICE Power Audio Wizard and switch to the Action preset, the drums and cymbals stand out. But I think most people will be happy with the default settings for multimedia if they only want to watch YouTube videos.
ASUS ROG GL753: Keyboard
The keyboard almost has the same layout as the Asus GL702. The number pad is on the right side of the chiclet keyboard. The directional keys are a little further apart and bigger, and the left side of the space bar is the same way. When you use the WASD keys, this is where your thumb goes most of the time. Only two small changes are needed, but they can help.
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The keys move smoothly and are not too short for a notebook. The pressure point or feedback is also good. We can put a lot of pressure on the middle of the keyboard and make a small dent, but this doesn’t change how it feels to type. When you type, the noise you make is always muffled and quiet.
ASUS ROG GL753: Touchpad
Asus likely makes a test model with the GL702’s touchpad. The surface’s ability to slide is helpful, and the two places where you can click give good feedback. You can also write on the pad using the software that comes with it.
ASUS ROG GL753: Connectivity and Storage
The stronger chassis makes it easier to connect to more and different things. Two USB 3.0 ports, a USB-C port, an HDMI port, a Mini DisplayPort connector, and an Ethernet jack are on the left side. On the right are two more USB 3.0 ports and an 8x DVD Super Multi optical drive. You can store a lot of games on the 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) and the 1TB hard drive. Other features include Bluetooth 4.1 and Intel 2×2 802.11ac Wi-Fi, which uses two antennas to support two different data streams. Asus gives a one-year warranty on the laptop.
ASUS ROG GL753: Communication
The Wi-Fi performance of the Asus Strix GL753 is very good. In our standard test, the laptop could transfer data at speeds of up to 666 Mbps, which means it can compete with high-end systems. When we move our test router further away and compared the GL753’s results to those of the MacBook Pro 13, which does very well in this area. Even though the router and the test model are about 10 meters apart and separated by several concrete walls, they can still connect, and the transfer rates are about the same as those of the MacBook Pro.
ASUS ROG GL753: Accessories
Asus’s ROG gaming laptops come with a lot of extras. All of the items in the line look the same, from keyboards and mice to headsets, bags, and even clothes.
ASUS ROG GL753: Performance
With its 2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU, 16GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and 1TB 5,400-rpm HDD, the Strix can handle a variety of tasks. It has one of the first Kaby Lake processors in a gaming laptop. You can play Grand Theft Auto V on the highest settings and have 25 tabs open in Chrome at the same time without any lag.
The Strix got a score of 13,693 on the Geekbench 3 general performance test. This was less than the average desktop replacement (17,478) and the Intel Core i7-6820HK Alienware (13,906), but more than the Stealth Pro (Core i7-6700HQ, 13,454).
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The Strix copied 4.97GB of mixed-media files in 23 seconds, which is the same as a rate of 221.3 megabytes per second. That’s much slower than the category average of 560.8 MBps, the Stealth Pro’s 565.5 MBps speed, and the Alienware (509 MBps).
ASUS ROG GL753: How Long Can a Battery Last
Most computers that can replace a desktop will run out of power before the ROG Strix. It can last for 5 hours and 25 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test, which involves constantly browsing the web over Wi-Fi. That’s 1 hour longer than the average (4:23) and a lot better than the Stealth Pro (2:54). At 6:07, the Alienware lasted the longest. This could be because it had a graphics card from the last generation.
Conclusion
This review of the ASUS ROG GL753 is like going to a restaurant and ordering the second-cheapest bottle of wine. In the United States, it costs about $1,300 and in the United Kingdom, it costs £1,275. In Australia, Asus sells a high-end setup that includes a GTX 1060 card for $2,600. For the extra money over the Dell, you get a quad-core Core i7 processor, a nice 17.3-inch full HD display with a matte finish and wide viewing angles, a solid-state drive and a hard drive for storage, a customizable four-zone RGB-backlit keyboard with scissor-style switches, a lot of ports and connections, including a USB 3.1 Type-C (gen-1) port, and even an optical drive.
