GL502 kaby lake finally does away with the nasty orange keys.

however, I'm not sure how well silver plastic will hold up in the palmrest area.
Usually that area gets discolored quickly from oils and rubbing, etc.
might even be possible to order the keyboard and swap it out.

Real photos and tests on post #122....
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...asty-orange-keys.800140/page-13#post-10437390

 

I really liked the orange - sad to see it go :/

 

In my opinion it was awful and I'm glad to see them go, if your a gamer and you don't know where those keys are already.....just use a controller.
Unfortunately from those pics it still looks like the vents in back are blocked from the screen, hopefully they improved the cooling system and added a TB3 port.
I liked the original all black look ( besides those horrible orange WASD keys, yes it was one of the reasons I didn't buy one besides the lack of TB3 port) not sure how I feel about the silver color unless they use a all metal on the whole laptop and not only on the lid.

 

The vents aren't obstructed, not from my testing at least, that screen area doesn't really get hot - air usually escapes from the top, bottom and side.

 

partially obstructed. You gotta admit it isn't the best cooling design.

Also, I hope they actually used silver plastic for the base, instead of black plastic painted silver.

I used to have a gray Dell laptop where the palmrest turned black from wear. It looked ugly.
Light color plastic isn't a good choice for laptops.

 

Well - with the latest BIOS I had 0 issues maintaining 85*C max temp without a repaste under 100% load. Good enough for me really. I'd imagine that with a repaste, you can get that down to 80 or even lower. And if you turn off turbo, you can get into the high 60s/low 70s.

 

Any idea if the refreshed model has a TB3 port?
Ok partially blocked rear vents but good to see it doesn't affect temps too badly.
@don_svetlio
How loud are the fans under load, I hear mixed reports.

 

It depends on the BIOS

With 203 (currently in use) there are 2 situations
1 - with turbo (85-90*C max)
2 - without turbo (78*C max)
In both cases - noise is minimal - I'd say quieter than my desktop R9 280 (DC2T)

With Bios 300 and full turbo - 86*C max and quite a bit more noise.

 

I really like the look of the new gl553 and 753 with rgb keyboard. Not really liking the silver in the 502 and 702. Going to wait on reviews to see if the heating is still an issue. At least the power supply is 230w this time around

 

CES 2017: Asus ROG STRIX GL553 and GL753 Gaming notebooks!


ASUS GL753 Kaby Lake - Full Review


CES 2017 - Asus ROG Gaming Laptops GL553 and GL753

 

it looks like the gl502/702 come with a metal deck now.

 

That would be a great addition, hopefully price isn't going to increase too much.

 

The base models are $1499 for both. All the refreshed models are up on Amazon btw. 502 for instance

ASUS ROG GL502VM-DS74 15.6" Traditional Laptop https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MS14CQH/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_nJ7CybYW1MF8Q

 

Looks like they put in standard 128 ssd + slow 5400rpm hard drive for the base models

also bumped the battery capacity to 76whr


The burning question is whether it has IPS gsync and thunderbolt 3 like the skylake model.

Someone needs to do a proper review and check the model number of the lcd, and check the bios for Thunderbolt.

Good thing they upgraded to hdmi 2.0 though

 

The Amazon page only says Wide view angles. That is what most OEMs say when there is a TN panel. Probably the same one from the FX502

 

I'm trying to find a seller for the new model. Even in the US (Im in Canada) can't find a damn thing yet aside from one Amazon page that's apparently out of stocks.

You guys know where they're selling right now?

 

In the USA, Google shows amazon, Jet.com, xoticpc, newegg, Abt for the gl502vm model.

the last gl502vm said the same thing, but turned out to have an IPS panel.


I really want to get one of these just to do a thorough review.

There was not one single thorough review of the skylake GL502vm, and retailer sites were chock full of misinformation.... some saying yes thunderbolt, some no thunderbolt, some saying yes IPS, some no IPS.
It was a fckin mess, mainly because Asus marketing materials sucked.

The kaby GL502vm is no exception. Some places say 120hz gsync for gtx1070 only, some say 120hz gsync for the gtx1060 VM model. (1060 doesn't have enough horsepower to push 120fps on ultra)

No one has fricken accurate info

These for example.... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N6NZCFK?th=1
http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=138417
says it has IPS and thunderbolt 3

but the dudes over at XOTIC PC just read off the spec sheet and say no IPS, no TB

 

Yeah for the VM. The VS is the model I was looking for and it doesn't appear to be marketed anywhere yet that I could find.

 

display panel design still block the air vent on the back ?

 

From pics it still looks like they are partially obstructed.

 

are these curve still blocking the vent ?

 

Sorry couldn't post a pic before but the back looks slightly different, they might have addressed that with this model but its hard to tell from pics alone.

 

this is was previous model right ? the new one has no orange accent WASD anymore.???

CMIIW

 

http://edgeup.asus.com/2017/01/04/kaby-rog-gaming-laptop-guide/
Has a nice table and writeup though.

Unfortunately doesn't say anything about TB3.

 

Yea, no more orange keys! Thank you ASUS!
Now all it needs is a TB3 port.

 

the lid is exactly the same shape in the skylake and kabylake models.
that is, the 15 inch is blocking the vent, and the 17 inch has that cut out.
The picture below is the 17 incher.

 

i see, why only the 17 inch version has cut out like that? i think it will be good for 15 inch version when they make design like that, especially for the temperature,

how about the power break, did they make 230watt on the kabylake version ?

 

180w according to a question on the 502 listing on Amazon

 

https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/ROG-GL502VM-7th-Gen-Intel-Core/specifications/

Shows 178 degree screen, 180W power adapter, and 1 x USB 3.1 TYPE C port, but no mention of thunderbolt.

https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/ROG-GL502VM-7th-Gen-Intel-Core/overview/
Shows that the black version still has the ugly orange keys.
Claims a 120Hz 'wide view' g-sync panel

I thought only IPS has 178 degree screens, but I also thought only TN has 120Hz panels. Any guess on what the screen actually is?

Edited for organization, additional spec details.

 

Fortunately the 1070 model comes with a 230w PSU

ROG GL502VS (7th Gen Intel Core)
https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/ROG-GL502VS-7th-Gen-Intel-Core/specifications/

Oddly, the 1070 model says it's VR-Ready, but the 1060 model doesn't say that - I thought the 1060 was also considered adequate for VR?

 

I think the 3GB 1060s are not, but the 6GB 1060s are VR ready. This has a 6GB version, so it should be good.

Also, I looked and did find 120Hz IPS laptop panels (apparently a recent development), but no 178 degree viewing TN panels, so it's probably IPS.

Edit: Aorus is clearly advertising 120Hz IPS panels for their laptops, so I guess they must exist.

 

oh thanks for the information on the power break... they still stick with TN panel on that list right ?

 

Gentechpc has the 17'' model and that does have a TB3 port.

https://www.gentechpc.com/Asus-ROG-GL702VS-DS74-nVidia-GTX-1070-8GB-G-Sync-p/asus-gl702vs-ds74.htm

 

IPS panels can't react fast enough to respond to the 8.3 msec refresh time needed to completely draw a frame at 120hz.

That's why the TN panels are better at high refresh settings

 

I don't think so, see my post above. Also, the specs show 72% NTSC (~100% sRGB), and I don't know of any laptop TN panels that achieve this (could be wrong).

 

Man going from a gtx 1060 to gtx 1070 on the 17" model is a extra $500! Yikes!

 

There are a bunch of 144Hz, and even some 165Hz IPS desktop monitors. Of course laptop panels are a little behind, but 120Hz is possible (ref the Aorus laptops I mentioned above). Refresh rate and response time are related, but not necessarily tied to each other. Perhaps it is electronically capable of 120Hz, but depending on the color difference for each individual pixel between frames, the display may not fully replicate it on the screen (not like most people are capable of distinguishing much more than ~30FPS anyway). Of course, video game FPS are slightly different, as it's not so much about distinguishing frames as it is about eliminating jitter and tearing.

 

There are several Display options:

Display
15.6" (16:9) LED backlit FHD (1920x1080) 60Hz Anti-Glare Panel with 72% NTSC 178˚ wide-viewing angle display with G-Sync

15.6" (16:9) LED backlit FHD (1920x1080) 120Hz Anti-Glare Panel with 72% NTSC 178˚ wide-viewing angle display with G-Sync

15.6" (16:9) LED backlit UHD (3840x2160) 60Hz Anti-Glare Panel with 72% NTSC 178˚ wide-viewing angle display with G-Sync

It's a very personal choice... but with a 1070 in a thin laptop, running either 120hz @ 1080 or 60hz @ 4k is going to put a heavier load on both the GPU and CPU to meet those higher FPS and Graphical data transfer than 1080p 60hz G-sync.

Of course 4k and 120hz are fun, but they will heat up things quite a bit, and run the fan at a higher rate - getting pretty noisy.

From these Display descriptions, none mention IPS or IPS-like, so you have to assume they are all TN screens, so there is no visual image advantage to getting the 1080p 60hz screen - I'd recommend getting an IPS screen over the 120hz TN - just a personal preference in this thin of a laptop.

If you don't mind fan noise, the 120hz for gaming will be fun. If you do large photo or 4k video, then the 4k screen would seem best - but if you game a lot too still consider the internal display at 120hz, and get an external monitor for proofing images.

You might wait, as display choices change over time, so if you really want an IPS display, keeping looking

 

The measured refresh rates of the 120hz IPS panels for laptops haven't done well so far, and yes there are faster IPS panels, just not on laptops - yet

 

Good points either way, but I really don't now of any TN panels that are capable of 178˚ viewing angles. I'm pretty sure it's not possible (max around 160?). Also, I don't know why they'd downgrade the display panel during a product update. I really wish they'd provide confirmation though, I'm seriously considering buying one. Trying to weight pro/cons of this vs the new Clevo P650HP6-G.

 

@hmscott
Pretty sure I've seen the option of changing the refresh rate of 120hz screen to 60hz in some control panel if it raises temps and fan noise, not the best option but if it helps with thermals and fan noise is not that huge of a sacrifice.

 

I really don't need 120Hz anyway, but that's what they're showing on the "overview" page, which doesn't completely agree with the "specifications" page, lol.

 

Historically when you see "wide-angle viewing" and no mention of IPS, IPS-like, or another IPS-like buzzword, you can count on it being TN.

Price, that's why TN is used instead of IPS. Especially when stuffing in more high performance hardware, you are getting that instead of IPS.

If you want IPS, and the same high performance hardware tech, it's gonna be another $100-150 +-.

If these were IPS, or IPS-like, it would be a positive selling attribute, and it would be listed.

 

If the 60hz panel were IPS / IPS-like I'd choose that over the 120hz TN, since I run lots of other things besides games that I prefer to view on IPS.

Since this one only has TN panels, then why not go for the 120hz TN, you can always play with the refresh rate

Plus, I've gotten spoiled with IPS displays OC'ing refresh to 100hz on most laptops I've had over the last few years.

I'd want to check to make sure that an offered IPS 1080p 60hz screen would OC to close to 100hz too before choosing which panel to get.

 

That's typical of first listings on new laptops, at least as far as I can remember, there are always broad generic copy used across the new line that doesn't quite fit some of the models.

I recently saw 1060 / 1070 / 1080 mentioned in the Overview copy of a laptop that only had 1060 models in the previous generation, and in the spec's it said 1070 *only*, which ended up changing to 1060 only by the next day

So I'd view these product pages with an eye to verify before purchasing

 

typical asus, mixing up their marketing material

 

I just wonder if they overheat like the 2016 versions while gaming

 

Fricken xoticPC has all kinds of mixed information again.

http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-gl702vs-ds74.html

It says it has 120hz Gsync and Optimus.

retailers are doing a really good job CONFUSING people with the 502/702 models.
and the 702VS comes with a 180w power brick.
come on........ getting careless.

 

Actually that mix up I spoke about earlier with the 1060 / 1070 / 1080 and 1070 listed instead of 1060 was MSI this time

The VR-Ready thing, might be real, maybe that particular model isn't up to passing the VR Performance test(s)?