Asus ROG G551

Wouldn't the prices of those laptops be significantly higher with the nVidia 900 series, like more than 1500USD or around 2000USD? I mean the 750JZ is around 2000USD and it only has an 880m.
So I guess the gl551 would be ok for those with a limited budget such as people going to college/school IMO. (With the info given so far. my opinion could change)

 

I think I am, I might even if it doesn't have an IPS screen. This seems like the best deal in that price range right now, I need one ASAP can't wait until Nov-January time frame, and I think i prefer this one to the Y50.

 

Quick question guys. I plan on buying myself a new laptop pretty quickly and I'm torn between 3 options; The Lenovo y50 touch (16gb ram 1tb sshd); the Asus GL551 (16gb ram 1tb hd), and the Acer nitro black 15" (no real info on hard specs yet for the U.S.). I was originally going to buy a Gigabyte p35k-CF3 they had for $1200, but that ran out of stock before I had the chance to purchase it. So any advice between these 3?

 

Dang guy's taking his time and enjoying the laptop probalbly and forgot about us. Either that or it's a conspiracy from ASUS because they love making people anxiously wait.

 

I'm going to outline the drawbacks & advantages:

1. Y50: I think the model you are talking about costs around 1200+ (correct me if I'm wrong ). Do you mean 1TB 5400RPM? That's one disadvantage. You probably already heard about its screen, so I'm no going to say that again... but you could change it by yourself (costs around 130 to buy IPS) by following video on youtube. Besides, the battery life is short (around 3.5 hrs the most). However, Y50 is lighter and slimmer than GL551.

2. GL551: Asus laptops usually have good quality from my experience. At this point, the screen is still a mystery to everyone, so consider this before buying it. Some people say 1 fan cooling system is weak, no comment on that since no detailed review on it yet. It's kinda heavy and not that portable obviously... However, the specs and build quality are good within this price range.

3. Acer nitro black: Possible releasing date could be as late as Nov - Dec, but you could buy one from German Amazon. This laptop is portable and beautiful. There are reported heating issues however. Besides, the price might be 1300+.

 

I'm going to get this laptop on Saturday, only if you guys are willing to wait...

 

Yes, the hard drive is at 5400 rpm, but it does have an 8gb cache, so that might help mitigate it somewhat, although overall the Asus hard drive is probably gonna be faster. And as for the screen.... ya I've heard the horror stories. That being said I went and looked at the touch model screen at best buy, and it's not too bad (although my guess is that would be due to it being a glossy panel? not sure). From what I heard, you can't change out the touch model screens. And for the price, the Lenovo is $1229, so I could save $130 if I went the Asus. One more question, Is it possible to change out the optical drive to a Blu-ray if they make a compatible model? If so I think I'll probably get the Asus. Plus I can always put an SSD in it later.

 

can you pls see if it indeed has heating issues or not that would be very helpul, and comment on the screen, thank you a lot man

 

IMO, if you get the Y50, you must replace the screen. Imagine that every time you move slightly, it looks like everything on the screen changes a little bit. Look at how terrible the viewing angles are, I've seen one in person and it's pretty bad: http://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_CAM00357_9f4cb65669.jpg

Some angles look OK, like the middle right, but look at the middle left, and middle top and bottom. Looks like a freaking photo negative!

 

I'm not sure about the BlueRay part (seems poss, you would prob have to do research to see if which BR drive is compatible ) but you could replace the optical drive with an ssd instead using a caddy. ( How to upgrade Laptop HDD to SSD : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks) and I guess you could use an external BR drive. I don't really know your requirments/needs but thats what I would do.

 

I don't really know about that, but I saw someone posted that you could take out the optical drive and put a SSD in... not so sure, maybe I misunderstood.

Edit: I just saw the last post, so it's true XD

 

Yeah you can change it to a Blu-ray drive or with a hard drive caddy turn it into another hard drive bay as well. You can remove the face plate on the optical drive and mount it to the harddrive caddy so everything looks factory fit.

The biggest questions are the cooling IMHO first and foremost and then the screen. Yes the screen is super important but if the machine throttles all to heck who cares how pretty the screen is.

I read the 17inch version review and it was throttling during gaming. That single fan might really be holding it back but hopefully not.

 

on average i get 4.5hrs with 60% brightness on the y50 on battery, so Idk where you got 3.5 the most from.
if you have touch, not only it's more expensive, but you also can't replace the screen

 

Lol sorry guys !
Actually got carried away with the device.

It's value in hardware id is AUO36ED. It is the same as the y50 in spec, technically. But I liked this display more. Good colours and side-to-side viewing angles. Top-down viewing angles not so great. Its powerful though and there's only minimal heating on it under heavy gaming. I kind of like the keyboard, then again its personal opinion.
My major worry was the ugle bulge on the bottom right of the notebook, but it actually doesn't bother me one bit after I got it. I barely notice it. The sound is pretty average. I expected more. It has a decent battery life of about 4 hours ( Then again it's after a fresh charge , so i don't trust it )

All in all, I'm very happy with the notebook so far !

 

Thanks for the update rohitanooj on the display. It's really to bad after reading so many reviews the previous model having IPS this one did not. I'm sure you gave people a lot of food for thought.

 

Thanks for the update. At least now we know it does not have IPS.

It's strange this model doesn't come with an IPS screen since his big brother has it. According to this review the guy says that because of the IPS screen the response time is not as good as a TN panel

Asus G771JW / G771 review - a capable 17 inch multimedia laptop

Edit: So maybe is not bad having a non-IPS panel, as long as this one is better than the panel on y50.

 

Yes it's rather sad. I can only think of the reviews I read tonight on the old model with the 850m DDR3 is that they were much more expensive euro models and include SSDs,better displays because they were paying a premium already.

 

Asus, asus.....Oh well, this is going to be sent back.

 

Trust me guys. I'm a display fanatic too. I wanted the IPS real bad. I hated my previous y50's display and gave it back.
But the display on this I feel is miles from it. It has great viewing angles also. So far I quite like it. I'm not complaining at all. I'm going to keep it for sure.
It doesn't have that much heating problem as well on continuous 90 min heavy gaming in full perfomance. For this budget range, I'm pretty happy with the machine I've got !

 

guys what do you think about the Xoticpc Phantom X1?

It got an IPS screen (860M graphic card) with a good price .
Will it be a good purchase?
XOTIC PC | PHANTOM X1 - Custom 15.6" Gaming Laptop by XOTIC PC

 

so how is it that you hate and praise the same screen? that's just contradictory lol

 

Could you confirm that it has the i7-4710HQ, not the i7-4750HQ that Amazon shows in the tech details? Also, would you mind checking which wireless card it has? Amazon seems to have that messed up too.

 

Maybe I'll get the G771 if the price is right. It doesn't seem that much heavier than the G551 and has similar specs with a better screen.

 

Could you do some benchmarking while playing a game, similar to what I did with the 15" Acer Nitro here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/759420-new-acer-aspire-v-nitro-series-29.html#post9777778

Open Hardware Monitor has a graph where you can plot in CPU load, CPU temp, and CPU clock - which would be a great indicator of how hot it gets under load and whether it throttles.

 

Welp, Asus can suck my left nut. Absolutely refuse to buy their laptops now, gaming or otherwise. Just sick of this TN garbage. If i wanted a overheating piece of crap with a bad screen i would of bought the y50 three months ago.

Oh well, here's to waiting on the Acer, see if they can manage to F that one up too.

 

If anyone happen to have color calibration device, could you please upload ICC color profile for this screen?
I heard it made a lot difference on Y50.

 

I'm glad I didn't order this Asus is refusing money....

 

I'm guessing this laptop is a bare-bone from Gigabyte, the styling of the vent and the keyboard looks like it was meant to be a prototype for the Aorus X7. Whether that is a good or bad I'm not sure. But Gigabyte is not know for their build quality, too much screen and keyboard flex.

As for temperature, the Aorus X7 and X3 plus run extremely hot, but I'm hoping that since this chassis is a fair bit thicker and it has dual fans (judging by the 2 vents) the heat will be more manageable. It is tempting for the the price though I give you that much.

I'm personally waiting for the pricing of the G771, it looks way more promising and I want to bet my money on Asus's build quality.

 

I did speak with Xotic about it, it is Maxwell 4GB graphics card and the IPS is good but not the best.

 

Yeah even if it has a Maxwell, we still need to worry about the build quality and it can still be loud...another thing Gigabyte is known for. The Aorus X3 screen flickers, when it is tapped on the back! My crappy Lenovo holds up better than that. Which is why I have a hard time trusting Gigabyte.

Buying laptop this time around has been a very stressful waiting game. I don't understand why ASUS drop the ball on their design with the G551, the G550jk was an example of a good laptop. Great chassis, extremely sexy design, great screen, dual fan, solid cooling, 1.1" thick...why the hell can't they just upgrade it with an 860m and don't give me this "not enough room" bullcrap, Lenovo did it with their Y50.

I'm guessing it's a marketing strategy to get more people to buy the much slicker and thinner GX500, which I'm sure, will overheat and throttle because it's too damn thin and will cost the poor soul who buys it nearly two grands ($1800 the last time read about it). You can't beat physic and I'll gladly eat my word if ASUS finds a way to do just the opposite. And lastly, putting a 4k panel over a so called gaming laptop is useless with an 860m. Rant over

 

The computer was actually very quiet while running benchmarks and some of the lowest GPU temps I have seen. The IPS screen looked as expected from IPS.

I filmed our video review for it earlier this week and it should be on our YouTube page soon.

Slight flex to the keyboard but nothing extreme or unusual. The overall build quality is good, but not as good as the Asus G series.

 

Sigh I've been waiting for this laptop to come out, I really need one for school now I'm unsure what to do. Seems like no one on this forum is satisfied with any laptop that is out right now. How bad is the screen since it isn't IPS? What is the reason the Y50 screen was so bad? I was set on that one before but I read so many horrible reviews about the screen i steered away from it, that led me to the G550 but that one had a bad video card. Gaming in graphics is important to me but not my first priority, more so overall performance since I will be using it for programming and other general things. My budget max is 1000-1300 though.

 

Also Lenovo has the Y40 on sale for $699 which is 400 dollars off. Anyone have any experience with that one? Unfortunately it has an AMD Radeon™ R9 M270 graphics card.

 

The TN panel is indeed disappointing, *but* I wouldn't get this machine anyway because of the color scheme. I was hoping to see some news about the N model by now, but no word on it yet. Isn't it weird? Being basically the same laptop as this one...

I know you guys probably don't care much about the N, it's just that I don't know where else to talk about this. Sorry!

 

Sorry off-topic, but it seems to me that the Asus G750JM is the most balanced gaming laptop atm. If it just wasn't so bloody massive & heavy. I mean it has, Maxwell, great cooling, good display, slots for HD & SSD, solid build and its pretty cheap. I hope those sketch pictures of its successor are for real...but then again, its Asus so it could be anything.

 

I see that nobody has really mentioned the G56jk... Anybody have any experience with this laptop?

 

I agree with you 100% But I can hope this one is good otherwise I will sell it like I do with all of the other laptops in my SIG .

I owned a gs60 3K and I loved the laptop but the 3K just forced me to zoom in on everything so I sold until the scaling in windows becomes better.

I'm excited to see this! Thanks for the update. Is the graphics card user replaceable, or is it soldered onto the board?

It also has a dual core and undervolted I7.... Not for me..

I have owned a couple ROG's and they are by far some of the coolest laptops I have ever owned. Them and the alienware I have. The sager is also cool but you hear the fans on the 750 and AW17 you don't. Is the JM Maxwell though? I will have to look into that agaiin.

 

First of all thanks Hutsady for providing further insight about the Phantom X1, looking forward to the video review. Don't mind me if I sound cranky back there, laptop shopping takes its toll.

As for RayJohnson, yeah most people aren't happy because ASUS almost done it right but they screw it up with this so called "upgrade". The G551 is thicker, has 1 less fan, which more than likely leads to more heat and throttling (the G771 benchmark already shown this, although Rohitanooj says his run ok. Look at page 67 of this thread), it's a non-IPS screen, heavier and just doesn't look as sleek as previous gen. I'll be pissed too. The only thing better is they gave are extra 8gig of rams and an 860m, which I don't mind paying $100-200 more if they stick with the old chassis.

The Y50's screen is so bad because it uses a very very cheap Chi Mei TN panel, every reviews out on the internet right now picks on the screen first and foremost. A shame because it has such a svelte chassis, they correct this with the Y70, this is a blown up Y50 with IPS touchscreen and ask you to pay $1700 for the highest configuration (lowest is $1400).

If the maximum gaming graphic is not your priority then the G550 is a good choice, but now it is extremely hard to obtain and will cost you around $1270-1500. Assuming you can get your hand on one, that price tag is still hard to swallow for a last gen graphic card that won't last you the next year.

Basically, it's choosing between two evils. But I'm thinking the negative sides of the G551 can be overlooked if you don't mind the screen, since it doesn't seem as bad as other TN panel.

Don't go with the Y40 you'll end up kicking yourself with the underpowered processor, crappy screen and non-backlit keyboard. It's an extremely budget minded machine.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfTqm-D6Oh0

Those sketches you see are pretty real alright...that's the new G751. Doesn't look any thinner though :cry:

 

Who sells a Y50 with a 1 TB SSD?

 

That's the way lenovo markets their 1tb with an 8gb ssd caching drive as a 1TB SS HD not SSD

 

Can anyone post what the GL551 has for a WiFi Card. I am hoping it is an Intel 7260 AC Card - but I haven't seen any details on that. My GL551 has been delivered....but I won't be able to try it out until tonight.

I am almost glad the GL551 does not have a IPS screen. I had to return two MSI GS60 Laptops last month as the light bleed from the IPS panel was not toleratable.

I am still highly looking forward to this laptop...with be light years ahead of my aging Lenovo Y500 with single 650M card. It is a budget gaming laptop...plain and simple.

 

802.11agn. Got it off the Amazon product info

 

Welp, now that i've calmed down somewhat, i may try to wait and see what the deal is with the GL771. I wanted to go "down" to a 15incher since my last laptop (old 9800m sager) was a heavy beastly beast of a machine.

Ultarbookreview is generally a pretty well sorted out website, they dont eff around with their reviews, and while he didnt "confirm" 100% it was IPS on the 771, from all the tests and such, color gamut, viewing angles, it would have to be one of the best TN panels on the planet to not be IPS. So, i guess i can handle the extra size. All gonna depend on the pricing.

Otherwise its back to waiting on the Acer US release.

 

Ah, I didn't notice the H in there. Thanks.

 

I ended my ASUS waiting with a MSI GS60 ghost pro-052 instead. Newegg is currently running a promotion so that you can score the MSI at about $1480 AC/AR. Slightly beyond my original budget but for a far better IPS screen and GTX 870m I think it's a decent deal. At least I dont have to rant here and there now

 

wow good job asus,

MSI released a whole lineup of GTX 860m notebooks, GE60 GS60 in about A WEEK after those GPUs were released by nvidia,

Asus releases a GTX 860m notebook on the SAME DAY nvidia releases 900 series chips 6 MONTHS LATER

 

Yeah, one of the reasons I'm skipping the g551 and waiting now for the g751 with 900m chip.

 

Is there like a certain time of the year where all the laptops are released (for example from July-Nov) or is it anytime?

 

Does anyone know if GL551JM has dual or just a single cooling fan??? amazon doesn't show any info about that.