Asus ROG G551

Yeah, hopefully once we can get a look under the hood it might clear up some things.

 

That's why I said 'roughly'.. Just went with 1,5 million and 2 million so I wouldn't have to break out my calculator

But yes, a big performance hit in any case. And for me, 1600x900 is plenty on a 15 inch display.

 

Exactly, hell, people are so obsessed with the resolution, when 1366x768 on a 15 inch display has a higher PPI than 1080p in a 23 inch display. 1600x900 in a 15 inch display is the equivalent to 2560x1440 on a 23 inch display

 

I like 3200 x1800 and 3840 x 2160 as they give you the option of standard or high res.

 

As i have said before, i have seen a lot of people talking about the perfect scaling from 1600x900 to 3200x1800, or from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, but never actully se proof of it

 

can anyone explain to me why is it necessary for a laptop to have both hdmi and mini display port? isn't it enough if this laptop just had the mini display port?

 

Because many displays use hdmi and not displayport.

Also you just set the res to 1080p or 900p for perfect scaling on the resolutions I listed. Simple as.

 

i have 2 questions:

1. can the ROG logo on the back of the screen lid be removed? is it a sticker or is it engraved?

2. how will you guys go about choosing storage? it has 256 ssd / 750 HDD / 1 TB HDD / 1.5 TB HDD possibilities.... what will you choose?? i want to have both ssd and hdd storage but at least 256 ssd - is that possible?

 

Eh, I plan on configuring what ever is cheapest in the unit for storage, then upgrading to a 1TB SSD later in the year, since the Samsung Evo series is hovering around $400 these days.

Haven't seen anything to indicate if there is an mSATA port, but have a feeling that the SSD option is cost wise around the same ball park number as the 750GB, 1TB, and 1.5TB.

 

SKUs will depend on asus. Resellers will be able to customise on demand of course.

 

here is a video of the N551: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNmtYAGxXWQ

apparently it has a matte screen as well! on the spec sheet during the video touchscreen is enlisted tho :-/ would be interesting if you can choose a version without touchscreen and with 860m - that would rock if you don't want the ROG logo



and another thing, the guy says it "might launch end of august or september" and will "start shipping out middle june / end of june"

while on this G551 video he mentions "launch time end of july beginning of august"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbyVcxROYA4

dont know what to make of that lol so the N551 / G551 will launch at different times? if this is true i'm happy anyway cuz the G551 is "launching" first - whatever that means

 

Yup same device except different materials for the chassis. I like the G model over the N model. Hopefully that means the G551 is already in production and that it will be hitting retailer/reseller inventory lists sometime soon.

 

A optical drive is pretty handy on a laptop. And isnt a out dated feature... Since not every where and everyone has a good internet conection.

 

It's not a definite include or exclude at the moment really.

 

The frustration of choosing a laptop >.<

As of right now I'm debating to choose the Y50, G550, and G551.

Y50 because of the 860m (obviously) and because of it being so thin. Only thing that concerns me is the screen. A lot of people are saying the resolution is really horrible.

I really like the G550 because of the sleek slim design. MAIN thing that bums the heck out of me is the 850m ddr3. That's the only thing. Everything else for me is gucci.

I like the G551. Only 2 things that I dislike. The chassis. Looks pretty thick and I need a slim laptop because I'll be using it in college and you know how college students are, they need a long lasting battery and a light weight laptop. I'm one of them lolol. And from reading this whole forum, I dislike the one fan, but then again, it may keep the laptop quiet hopefully! It may have dual or may not, I'm just assuming from what I read earlier on this forum.

I'm debating for these 3 because of it's portability and performance. As of right now, I'm actually debating either the Y50 or the G550 because of the slim design and portability, the performance not so much on the G550, but only games I play is Dota2 and some MMO's. I'm still considering the G551 because its performance and I may just suck it up about the size and weight. So those are my choices on what laptop to get lol.

I apologize for my grammar lol I just can't think straight right now.

 

Yeah, I noticed that too. I really want the N551 with 860 though because I want a touchscreen. I wonder who that guy was and how accurate his dates are? I'm reaaally hoping the N551 is out earlier than end of August...

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

 

things i dislike about y50 even if the 4k version turns out to be ips:

- power cord
- flex on keyboard background and the fact that it's plastic
- placement of CPU right under WASD keys making it hot on the only 4 keys u always have your fingers on
- no display port so with hdmi only 30 hz possible
- the laptop dimensions, even if thinner, are reported to be big in width due to space-shippy design and that it cant fit into some 15,6 laptop sleeves and some backpacks

might think of more things later on but as of now, none of these single points are a dealbreaker, the problem is all of these points acting up at the same time make it a general dealbreaker

what i dislike about G550:

- bad sound due to positioning of the speakers (under the front side)
- 850 gddr3

what i dislike about G551:

- the fact that i might have to live with the ROG design even tho i prefer something more discrete and no i don't want touchscreen version just to look discrete, hate touchscreen and everything that goes with it

judging by these points i choose G551 as it has the least things i dislike, tho a review of it might change that

 

Only problem I have with the G551 is it is bit thick at 1.22 inches. I'll be carrying this around with me in college so that's pushing the limits of what I'd consider to be portable. Really banking on the 4k Y50 to upgrade the screen quality.

 

One thing I don't quite understand about so many people's disdain for touch: you can always turn it off can't you? Having a touchscreen doesn't mean you have to use it or can't still use a mouse instead. Other than fingerprints that can be easily wiped away and the negligible added weight of the digitizer, is there some other drawback to touchscreens I'm not getting? I hate track pads in general. I only occasionally use the one on my laptop. Usually I use a wireless mouse and keyboard instead. I still want a trackpad on my next laptop.

Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

 

i dont know but apart from weight i guess i just dont like having something i dont use

also having touchscreen is just adding to things that can break/go wrong on a laptop

a touchscreen display also has additional glass layer which distorts the view a bit

and let's not forget it costs 150 bucks more usually

so it's not just a matter of "preference" as you can see there are actually many more things that come with a touchscreen than meets the eye

 

Now that I think about it, I agree with you on the Y50. That basically is a dealbreaker lol. Now I'm just debating on the G550 and G551...
I just really really really wish the G551 had the same chassis as the G550 because it's just so sexy to me and slim and sleek. But that's my personal preference. Overall they're both good laptops, just the 850m gddr3 kills it.

 

It's a much cheaper chip to produce though, the gddr5 and 860m chip will add a lot to the BOM.

 

what do you mean same chassis? asus g550 is 27 mm thick and g551 is 31 mm thick unfortunately

as for looks: search the web for pics, i think g551 looks great - metally dark colored
other than that the speakers have a lot better positioning so thumbs up for that

 

You know, N550JK has same specs as G550JK and seems like same deal with N551/G551, if you prefer more mainstream styling.

 

2GB GDDR5 costs about 20-25$ (subtract the DDR3 cost), so they could have added that about 20% more performance to 850m with that.
PS4 initial costing analysis [Updated] - NeoGAF
But then they might have missed whatever target price and profit margin they had in their mind. But happy to see this fixed with G/N551 generation.

Anyway seems like G550JK was just a quick rebrand of N550JK (a multimedia, not gaming machine) to get something to sell in 15" inch size, which has been lacking real ROG options since G55vw.
Also, happy to see that new options (G551 aka N56/G56 refresh and GX500 aka UX51 refresh with ROG badge) aren't that clunky while still packing some real gaming hardware (GTX with fast RAM), and FINALLY IPS screen in a ROG.

 

The Maxwell 860m runs cool enough that a dual-cooling system isn't needed.

It really depends on the fan itself. Not sure why everybody is hating on the single-fan setup. This isn't a Kepler chip.

 

The resolution of the Y50 is just fine, at 1920*1080. The issue is that one of the displays used (a Chi Mei) on the matte version is pretty sub-par, with bad viewing angles and an apparently yellowish tint.

The ASUS GX500 might be up your alley. Just as thin as the Y50, but with a better display.

 

if this laptop becomes available for sale say on the 1st of August, when can be expected for it to be on sale in Europe judging by the previous ASUS releases? Standard 1-3 months? So latest around beginning of November?

Just wondering if it's worth ordering one internationally and then just replacing the keys to fit my country's keyboard layout. Is this possible? Has anyone done it? Doesn't have to be like right when i buy the laptop, can be a few months later. Think i heard of a website where you can order any key for 5 bucks a pop but i am not sure if they offer other language keys.

Sorry for the stupid questions really excited about this laptop don't know if i will have the patience to wait for it to come to Europe after it goes on sale in Asia/America

 

Hey, im in the exact same situation that you are in and am trying to decide which laptop to buy between the same choices that you added.
I also want to know is the asus n551 860 ddr3 or ddr5? plz reply, thanks in advance.

 

I have never seen a gtx 860m with ddr3 ram. 99.99% sure it is gddr5

 

Nvidia dictates the 860m must use gddr5 if not then it must be called an 850m.

 

N550JK and G550JK just look way better than N551 and G551. And I mean way better. The new models look like $400 laptops to me. Very bad overall, in my opinion. I do not understand why Asus did that, really. I'm even thinking they did it to distance these models from the more premium NX500 and GX500, which actually look almost identical to the N/G550JK; the only difference being that they are way slimmer.

A tip of advice: as much as I love the N/G550JK looks, don't get fooled by the press pictures. They are actually much thicker than they appear. For example:

 

N/G550's are a bit thinner than N/G551's yes that's true and you can just take the dimensions they claim about these laptops and with a ruler you then see how thick that really is... so there is no fooling really.

I know exactly how thick, wide, and high the G551 is and i am still very excited about this laptop. Sure the 550 series is a bit thinner but reviews are yet to come. There may be a lot of benefits that come from this thicker chassis on the 551 series like very low fan noise and very good cooling (that they also market the laptop with). So if i get 3 mm thicker laptop but in the end its cooler than my fridge, then i am more than happy with that.

Personally i think this new trend of having the thinnest possible gaming laptop is over-hyped. What's the point of having only a few more mm off the dimensions on your laptop with these new "thin gaming laptops" when in the end you will still end up feeling like you are carrying a brick compared to a really light ultrabook. If you are a student and you think every mm matters then I can tell you with my 3 years of college I have brought the laptop with me maybe on 30 days. For those 30 days out of 3 years I doubt you should settle for a 3 mm thinner laptop or however much thinner it is cuz it won't make a huge difference.

What 551 has over 550 is probably the mentioned noise/cooling and much better speaker positioning and the very best: Maxwell GPU. Not that you didn't know that

PS: i thought the color of the 551 was a bit strange but its due to the lighting on the videos they show it. Because of the metally surface the color seemed "greenish" but in fact if you browse through some more videos you will notice is nice and black. Looks pretty good.

 

I thinks the same, i don´t see the point of thin gaming laptops, especially when the thickness affects the cooling (which is far more important)

 

Does anyone know what's being said here?

Hands-on do notebook G551 e entrevista com Marcel Campos, gerente de produtos da Asus [ Adrenaline.com.br ]

 

Hence why I'm a fan of Clevo. They know exactly what they are making - performance machines. With thinness comes necessary trade offs. I don't want to make any concessions.

If I can get a thin gaming laptop that performs just as well and is as cool and quiet as a normal, thicker laptop, great. Otherwise, I'll pass.

This isn't a fashion contest, that's the domain of Apple products. This is about gaming performance.

That being said, I'm liking these new ASUS models. If they indeed can perform on par with a thicker machine (same performance, thermals and noise levels) then I'm in.

 

I speak spanish, so I was able to pick a couple of things. The main thing I got was that they addressed specific complains from the previous models, so that's why they added GDDR5 and GTX860 option. I pretty sure I missed a couple of things, though. If someone speaks portuguese around here, we could really use your help!

I do think the press pictures (basically all rendered images we see on the web) can fool people. They certainly fooled me at the beginning. All I'm saying is that they are thicker than they appear. But I'm not complaining about that or comparing thickness between G/N550 and G/N551, 3 mm is not that big of a deal. I'm not upset about the thickness, I'm just upset about the general design of the laptop. Very disappointed. It could be for better cooling, yes, but from what I've read the 550 was already very good at that (not able to say it for myself, though, as I do not own one). There were questionable design choices made that wouldn't really affect the cooling anyway.

I'll have to disagree on that one. Aesthetics are a important part of any consumer electronics product, in my opinion. Why not have both performance and looks? Sure, some machines will go all-power but they don't need to look horrible because of that. The frustrating thing for me here is that these laptops actually looked better in the previous models (note that I'm not talking about thickness here, not my point at all).

I understand there are people who don't care about looks, and that's fine. I also understand that others like these new models even better, that's actually awesome, hope I could be one of you. I have to say, I will probably get the 551 anyway, if it does comes with GTX60 and reviews are good, and has similar price to 550. I am not willing to get an uglier laptop for GDDR5, though.

 

Understand, I'm not saying I don't care about looks. I'm just saying it's the LAST thing on my list - as it should be for a gaming machine, in my opinion.

Who will see your laptop besides you? And if anybody else does happen to see it, why do you care what they think of it? People don't care nearly as much what their gaming desktop PC looks like.

Some will say it's a matter of opinion, and that to each his own, etc. True in a sense. But my issue is this - by focusing too much on aesthetics, performance/cooling/noise takes a hit. In other words, those to whom appearance is very important are causing my gaming machines to lose ground on cooling, noise and sometimes even performance, as manufacturers are spending more time and resources making gaming laptops thinner/sexier, rather than focusing on improving all the other aspects that make a gaming laptop, well, a gaming laptop.

There are some gaming laptops that suffer from throttling due to heat. The Lenovo Y50 doesn't have an optical drive, which was dropped so it could be thinner (it also doesn't have secondary HDD slots, msata - to make room for a subwoofer). These issues cropped up because they're trying to make thinner, sleeker gaming laptops.

If they can make a thinner, lighter, sexier laptop WITHOUT sacrificing anything in regards to performance/cooling/noise, then great! Even I want that.

But I am really not pleased when a gaming machine starts sacrificing what's truly important to gamers in order to appease those looking for a stylish, thin, sexy machine.

If it was only one manufacturer doing this, it wouldn't be an issue at all. I'd just buy machines from those that cater to gamers who prefer function over form. But now they're all going this way. Only Clevo still makes machines that embrace function over form.

Because with the current technology, you can't. At least not at a price point that is affordable.

Hopefully, a machine will come along soon (maybe the GX500??) that will prove me wrong. In which case I'll gladly retract my statements and embrace a thin machine that performs just as well as a chunky Clevo laptop.

Actually, come to think of it, the G551 looks appealing to me precisely because I feel they can get good performance, cooling and noise levels out of this machine, while still having decent styling. On the other hand. I'm concerned with the GX500, because when you're that thin, you have sacrificed something (potentially optical drive, msata/extra HDD slots) and with such a thin profile, the fan blades will be small, meaning they'll have to spin faster to maintain adequate cooling. Which means a high-pitched noise.

 

i am not at all knowledgeable about clevo's nor does europe have them but while reading through the y50 thread if i dont remember incorrectly, there werent just issues with form-factor's with clevos but also general quality or something?

that's why i dont consider clevos (and because they dont sell in europe)

y50 has also taken hits on quality due to the price they had to play around with (keys not registering, crappy display panel, etc)

asus is a slightly higher class than lenovo in terms of price and quality so i dont expect there to be such problems and if im not wrong they are still thinner than clevos

 

They do sell Clevo in Europe. They're probably branded as Shenker, Eurocom or Sager or something like that. I personally haven't experienced any quality issues with a Clevo-based laptop - no more so than any other mass-produced brand. They aren't "premium" in the sense of design (no brushed aluminum, they're thicker, etc.). But they pack the important stuff from a performance standpoint while having good cooling overall (large, dual-fan setup, etc.).

 

I think the G551 looks sexy as hell compared to the competing models from MSI, Lenovo, and Clevo.

 

Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say.

I personally agree it looks pretty good. But a good part of that appeal is I know that due to the thicker chassis, they’ll be able to likely get good cooling and noise levels out of it. So, in a sense, knowing that performance will likely not be affected by its looks/design makes it look even nicer to me.

It’s like a beautiful woman. If she happens to be smart and funny and nice, it makes her even more attractive. If she’s dumb as doornails, her beauty seems to fade somewhat.

But that’s just me.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'd be in head over heels love if Clevo brought in someone who could design a chassis that offered some good aesthetics and keep the same performance/reliability. Ala, if they would make the W230SS chassis in a 15.6" and 17" size that would be amazing... but their W350SS and W370SS chassis is just awful. They really need to do something to get some consistency behind their brand, which is something that MSI, Asus, Alienware, etc. have done really well.

 

Awful from a looks perspective? I agree they're nothing special to look at.

But from a functional point of view? They're fantastic.

 

Correct, I'm purely speaking about their exterior looks, I agree that Clevo functionality wise is pretty tight.

 

there's really nothing wrong with clevo's design. the reason that it has no appeal is because even though it's supposed to be a modern day gaming machine, it looks like some variant of an old IBM thinkpad from 2002. design wise it's fine, the aesthetics is just like business notebooks. it just doesn't look modern enough, which is why many, including myself, can't stand it

 

If you guys had to choose between the MSI GE60, lenovo Y50 or ASUS G550JK to buy right now, all 3 with the same price, what laptop would you choose?

 

Macbook pro? Rhetorical question.

Trolol just kidding.

For my taste, the MSI GE60

 

Not the ASUS-it has the 850m.

The MSI will run louder and hotter than the Y50, but has an optical drive and better screen.

The Y50 is thinner, quieter and cooler. But the screen can be bad, depending on which panel you get.

You decide based on your priorities.

 

So ASUS no way?