Asus Max-Q 1080 Laptop Review by LinusTechTips

So it's here. The quick rundown at least is honest and shows that it's a hot mess, but still faster than a 1070. In any case, he did mention it is quite quiet, so it makes me wonder if they actually allowed the fans to spin faster if cooling would be even better.

No switchable graphics though. Don't want Optimus obviously, but manual switch on a laptop like this is almost expected.

 

Still only 10% above a downclocked (mobile) 1070 - anyone who takes 10-15 mins of their time to OC their AW17 1070 will beat this

 

How much does this piece of trash BGAbook weigh? @Papusan @Mr. Fox

 

Apparently less than Asus' dignity.

 

You find it out if you are very interested in one of the the Max-Q threads, hit up @hmscott or checking Notebookcheck.net. I'm sick of all false advertising going around... These BGABOOK's is called 1080 gamingbooks. They aren't... They are delivered with a fully castrated 1080!! What would happen if you was able to run max 1080 performance aka up to 200w graphics power in one of those flimsy... Fried hardware? Or only fried smells? It's sad if people don't understand they are screwed when they buy due false advertising. This false advertised 1080 graphics has maxed 110w TDP. Some could even think this is max what 1080 can delivers in laptops. Because this was the normal before.

 

Is it just me or the comparison to the Razer Blade 1080 was conveniently avoided?

 

Linus never really has a bad thing to say about Razer.

 

At this point his entire office has a Razer Blade. He isn't going to go against them now...

 

I will answer in two parts. (1) I don't know; and, (2) I don't care.

This is basically all I care about, and if it can't beat this it is irrelevant to me:

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/13076731

Paid shills never have anything bad to say about the garbage they are paid to support.

 

Well looking at the comments it's obvious a low cut top brings out the adolescents amongst linus' subscribers

 

To be honest I would buy this laptop if I can afford it. I know I can get a better spec laptop with better cooling and maybe at a lower price but it would not be as thin and light as this one. People who buy this prefer the form factor and the brand. I am just glad that options are available out there for people with different preferences.

 

It's likely the current AW 15 1070 OC Alienware shipped to match the Max-Q 1080 performance would have indeed matched Linus's Max-Q 1080 in his tests.

Alienware just started shipping the new faster AW 15 1070 OC with the Max-Q 1080, so it's unlikely that's what Linus was using.

AW is supposed to offer Firmware updates to owners of the "slower" production AW 15 1070's, so they should call AW and find out what's what, and when they can get the BIOS / vBIOS updates to match performance of the new model.

It's odd that Linus didn't know about this detail, that AW had upped performance of their AW 15 1070 to match performance of the AW 15 Max-Q 1070.

 

For comparison, another slim 1070 level performance laptop, the Asus GL502VS total weight with PSU given by XoticPC is 7.4lbs

Spoiler: Video - 03:30

The Asus GX501VI total weight with PSU / assessories given by GenTechPC is 7.375lbs.

Spoiler: Video - 01:17

So the carry weight is essentially the same

Spoiler: Physical Case Temp Comparison

Spoiler: Benchmark Comparisons

From @D2 Ultima 's article

Spoiler: Some more weight details

According to notebookcheck.com the GL502 is 12.34 oz's heavier + PSU 3.52 oz's heavier = 15.86 oz heavier, just shy of 1lb. Adding in the GX501 adapters and wrist rest brings the difference down to nothing.

GX501 - Weight 2.25 kg ( = 79.37 oz / 4.96 pounds), Power Supply: 670 g ( = 23.63 oz / 1.48 pounds)
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Zephyrus-GX501-Laptop-Review.230546.0.html

GL502 - Weight 2.6 kg ( = 91.71 oz / 5.73 pounds), Power Supply: 570 g ( = 20.11 oz / 1.26 pounds)
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Strix-GL502VS-Notebook-Review.171567.0.html

 

I would rather they just put a 1070 in there and call it a day. Because a 1080 has really no business being in there and also drop the price at least a couple hundred bucks too and likely able to cool much better. I'm fine with if they want to make it thin and light, but again, design within the thermal envelope.

 

It's really tough to recommend it based on 1070 level performance, with OC it's better, but with OC comes more heat and noise - 60dba+ in some video's is now being shown.

At $1000 more than the GL502 1070, it's really not a good value for money.

I would have liked to have seen Asus replace the GL502 1070 with something like the Zephyrus - the same performance as the GL502 1070, but thinner case and quieter operation, a next generation laptop, for the same price.

And, then Asus put's in a 1TB NVMe SSD, bumping the cost way up beyond where it needs to be. That was a silly move. They need to bring out a budget version, just like the entry level GL502 @ $1699 USD.

For only $300 more you can get a full sized 1080 laptop in the Asus G701VI. Those benchmarks Linus has for it are suspect. The G701VI in Sport mode was beating 1080 desktops in previous reviews.

 

I'd be surprised if he did know.

Guy's got like 1 million projects; and laptop hardware has always been second to desktop hardware in LTT. The AW 15 "performance boost" is still very new and unconfirmed as full retail by AW themselves

On the video:
I cringed every time they picked up that laptop or put it on their knees and that bottom panel bowed and warped like crazy

 

Where notebooks are concerned, ASUS has no dignity.

 

Yes, true, totally overpriced. Needs to be under $2000 really. You can get the Sager NP8157 / Clevo P650HS-G wth 1070 specc'd similarly for under $2k but with the 1070. Not sure if that 1080 justifies the extra $800.

 

People need to consider the form factor and the R&D they did for cramming the 1080 into this slim of a device. Is buying this laptop a good money decision? Probably not but you have to give credit to the innovation they did shrinking the form factor down. People can buy something more powerful and capable for cheaper but I'm sure they can't get it in this size and sleek look. We just need to accept that there are other people out there who would want this laptop over one that is more powerful, more capable, and cheaper.

 

Yeah, but with this you get the extra special ASUS ROG skinned versions of CPU-Z and GPU-Z that always clashes with the rest of your desktop theme. That's got to count for something, right?

 

Take a standard BGA motherboard, cut a few ports, move a few traces closer together and add thin fans + heat sinks. Nothing innovative about it.

 

Crippling the hardware performance for fitting in a thinner chassis, ain't innovation. And never will be!! Something I have missed? Put in even more crippled performance and you can fit it in even thinner laptops. Pure simple.

 

If it were that simple to do they would have done it a long time ago

Sent from my SM-N920C using Tapatalk

 

They did it this time for selling more thin and flimsy. And Nvidia wanted get rid of more chips and make more money.. If you have a huge load of chips, what is better than tune it down and max out profit?

 

OMAGAWD...that gives me huge EYEGASM @Mr. Fox !

Do you have a tutorial somewhere on how to make a GPU CPU @21C?

 

There is a certain thing called a product/ release timeline.

 

With products like this, I see it as a positive because of where they point. The manufacturers are testing the waters. Getting their toes wet. And, in a few years, iterations - if this 'line' is still relevant and selling for them - it will have exceeded or at least achieved most of what is promised today.

In the meantime; the consumers that (today) truly want a thin & light with some gaming prowess have a chance at that (given a certain budget). Otherwise? The other options are still (mostly) available for the more discerning buyer(s).

 

Nothing special... CPU delid, liquid metal, thinner pads, correcting poor heat sink fit, strong fans, good ventilation and plenty of cold air.