Don't be fooled by its 0.9 foot thick thin body. Asus ROG Strix GL502VT is a performance monster, and this game notebook is equipped with Nvidia's GeForce GTX970M graphics card. The starting price is 1399 dollars (about 9298 yuan). Our test machine is 1599 dollars (about 10627 yuan), This ROG Strix has a nice 1080P screen, a high-speed SSD, and a battery whose endurance is enough to shame other game laptops. However, there are also some shortcomings, such as overheating and mediocre sound effects when playing games.
Appearance design
After evaluating so many game laptops, I feel visually tired of their appearance. Basically, game laptops from every manufacturer are decorated with black shells and some red ones. But this time Asustek came with something different. The black shell is combined with orange. Most of the shell is made of brushed metal. The two orange lines on the A side are very eye-catching. The orange logo of the black eye is embedded in two straight lines, which seems to be full of faith. But you will definitely need a clean cloth to put beside the computer all the time, because this laptop is just a fingerprint collector. Every time you touch it, you will leave your fingerprint on the laptop.
Open the shell of the notebook, and you will see the logo of the Black Eye on the right side of the touchpad. Faith is everywhere. The letters on the black keycap are carved in orange. The WASD buttons are pure orange. They are very eye-catching. When you play the vanguard, you will never forget how to move.
The ROG Strix weighs 4.85 pounds, and its body size is 15.3 x 10.5 x 0.9 feet, which is lighter than the Gigabyte Aorus X5s V5 (5.5 pounds, 15.4 x 10.7 x 0.9 feet) and Alienware 15 (6.6 pounds, 15.2 x 10.6 x 1.3 feet), but heavier than the Thundersnake Blade (4.2 pounds, 13.6 x 9.3 x 0.7 feet).
Interface
ASUS provides many interfaces for Strix, which can connect many peripheral devices to create a perfect playing environment. There are two USB3.0 connectors, SD card reader, headphone hole and anti-theft lock on the right side of the fuselage. There is a USB 3.0, USB Type-C interface, mini Display interface HDMI、 Ethernet interface and power interface.
(Left side: power interface, Ethernet, mini Display interface, HDMI, USB3.0, USB Type-C)
(Right side: 3.5mm headphone interface, 2 x USB3.0, SD card reader, anti-theft lock ）
screen
Although this screen of Strix is not as smooth as other laptops, it has a good look. The 15.6-inch screen with a resolution of 1080P has rich colors and high contrast. When I watch Star Trek: Beyond the Stars, the picture details are also very rich. This full HD screen left a deep impression on me when I played Doom Warrior, and I could see the intricate details of the armor on the main character of the game.
Like other ASUS notebooks, Strix pre installs a Splendid Utility visual effect adjustment software, which has four effects to choose from: standard, soft, warm and cold colors, and can adjust the color temperature of the screen. I use the warm color mode, which I personally think is the best.
(IPS panel, good viewing angle)
The sRGB color saturation of this screen is 109%, higher than Alienware 15 (98%), but not as good as Blade (120%). At the same time, the color accuracy of Strix is also very high. The Delta-E value is 0.49, which is a very good result（ Thundersnake Blade Is 0.95). When testing the screen brightness, the average brightness of Strix is 273 nits.
(Sub pixel arrangement)
Sound effects
The effect of the Strix speakers is very ordinary, and the speakers are located at the bottom of the keyboard on both sides, which is easy to block when you type or play games. Although the volume is high, the whole room can hear it, but the bass part is not satisfactory. I am listening to Beyonce's Party I can obviously feel the lack of bass effect when I set the sound effect in ROG AudioWizrd for a long time, and finally chose the Multimedia mode (there are six modes in total: War Room, Battlefield, Multimedia, Action, Soundscape, and "None"). However, I continued to output alto tones to me, and still lacked bass effect.
It may be because of the game notebook. Only when I played the game did I think the sound effect was good. The sound of chainsaws, shootings and other sounds in Soldier of Destruction sounded particularly impressive.
Keyboard and touchpad
The island keyboard of Strix can provide a clear and obvious feedback. The input experience is very good. The 1.6mm key range and 55 grams of pressure are comfortable to type. In the input test, I can type 60 words per minute, which is good.
The Strix has an independent keypad, but it lacks the common keyboard macros on the game notebook, which surprised me. Moreover, the power key is located inside the keypad, hidden between PgDn and the hyphen key, and looks particularly inconspicuous. The keyboard also supports backlight, and the light color is red. It is basically OK to use it in a dark environment.
(The color of the WASD key is striking)
The touchpad has an area of 4.1 x 2.8 feet, which is enough. Whether you use gestures to browse the web or zoom in or out with two fingers, this touchpad is fast and sensitive.
Games and graphics cards
In order to ensure that users can have a high frame rate when playing Wizard 3 or Tomb Raider, ASUS matches a Nvidia GeForce GTX970M video card for Strix, and has 6GB video memory. When I play Destroyer, this configuration does not disappoint me. Under the high special effect screen, even in the fierce battle, the frame rate can remain at 42, When I turn down the special effect to medium effect, the frame rate can rise to 51.
When running Rainbow Six: Siege under 1080P resolution, the frame rate of Strix is 128, which is the same as that of the Razor Blade (the same video card configuration), and far exceeds the average value of similar products (80 fps). Even if the special effects are adjusted to high, the frame rate of Strix still performs well, maintaining at 69 fps.
When we play Metro: Return with Strix, the performance is slightly worse. The frame rate is 78 under low special effects, which is similar to Alienware 15 (64 fps), while the test value of similar products is 66 fps. When you switch to high special effects, you can hardly play. The frame rate is only 23. When you don't play games, just look The system will switch to the integrated display Intel HD Graphics 530 GPU.
performance
Strix GL502VT The processor of is 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ, which is the same as that of the Razor Blade and X5S, so I am very confident about its performance, and the result is the same. While conducting a comprehensive system scan, I opened 12 pages in Google Chrome and watched high-definition videos. It runs smoothly as usual. Only when I load Destroyer will there be a bit of stuttering.
In the Geekbench 3 test, Strix got a score of 13348, which is also far higher than the test score of similar products. The Razor Blade (13268 points) is close to it. In the hard disk test, it took 37 seconds for a 128GB SSD of Strix (with a 1TB 7200 RPM hard disk) to write a 4.97GB file, which translates to 135.9MB per second on average, much slower than the 256GB PCIe SSD (359.2Mbps) of Razor Blade.
Let's look at a set of performance tests
*For the following tests, the red font is ASUS Strix GL502VT, and the bottom black bar is the average value of similar product tests
(3DMark Fire Strike test * The higher the value, the better)
(The lower the color standard *, the better. The value of Razor Blade here is 0.95)
(The higher the color gamut * value, the better)
(Image performance test * The higher the value, the better)
(Write speed test, in MB/S *, the higher the value, the better)
(Geekbench 3 test * The higher the value, the better)
Battery life
For the game notebook, the endurance performance of the Strix GL502 is good. In our test, the notebook lasted 5 hours and 56 minutes (the test project is to browse the web in the WiFi environment until the battery runs out), and the industry average is about 5 hours and 52 minutes.
Idle state (WiFi not connected, medium brightness): 9 hours and 44 minutes
WiFi browsing: 5 hours and 56 minutes
Full load operation state (maximum brightness): 56 minutes
*The charging time from 0% to 100% is 2 hours to 2.5 hours.
fever
When the machine is idle and not in use, the body temperature will always be low. The heat sink is located at the back of the notebook, which is basically far away from the place you can touch. When the machine is running, the places with high temperature are concentrated in the heat sink. When When the laptop is running at full load, we record that the maximum temperature of the machine surface is 61 ℃, and the maximum temperature of the bottom is 70 ℃. Fortunately, you should not touch these places, and the temperature at the WASD key is still very low, so you will not feel uncomfortable in the war.
(* Full load operation status. Temperature area distribution diagram. Left: front of fuselage; right: bottom of fuselage)
(* Idle running status. Temperature area distribution diagram. Left: front of fuselage; right: bottom of fuselage)
system
The experience of the pre installed software in Strix is pretty good. Basically, they are all software designed to improve your game experience. The ROG Gaming Center Control Center has many custom settings for you to adjust. You can set the Splendid Theater and Audio Wizard. If you have a ROG mouse, you can also customize the settings in the Gaming Center Control Center. There is also GameFirst in the pre installed software. After it is enabled, the system will allocate bandwidth for the game process separately, which can improve the game data transmission to the highest level, ensuring a more smooth playing of online games. Third party pre installed software includes XSplit (video recording live broadcast software), NVIDIA GeForce Experience (game optimization software), etc.
Configuration version
The Strix I evaluated has a 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor (Intel HD Graphics 530), 16GB of memory, a 128GB SSD with a 1TB 7200 RPM hard disk, and the GPU is Nvidia GeForce GTX970M (6GB video memory), priced at $1599 (about 10627 yuan). You can upgrade to 256GB SSD and a Nvidia GeForce GTX980M (8GB video memory) by adding 350 dollars (about 2322 yuan).
summary
The Strix GL502 has strong comprehensive performance and is very affordable. Although there are also some short boards that game enthusiasts dislike, such as no keyboard macros, no RGB keyboard lights, and no Thunderbolt 3 interface, its advantages are obvious, such as great screen appearance, good keyboard input experience, and strong hardware performance. If you prefer a higher resolution screen, I suggest you buy a $1999 (about 13264 yuan) Thundersnake Blade It has a 4K resolution screen, and its body is light and thin, and its performance is also very strong.
Bonus points
Negative equinox
List of parameter configurations
CPU: 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor
System: Windows 10 Home Edition
Memory: 16GB
Screen: 1920 x 1080 resolution, 15.6 inches
GPU： Nvidia GeForce GTX970M/Intel Graphics HD 530
Unique memory: 6GB
WiFi：802.11 b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth: 4.1
Touch pad size: 4.1 x 2.8 inches
Body size: 15.3 x 10.5 x 0.9 inches
Weight: 4.85 lbs
Hands on evaluation of similar products: Razer Blade & Dell Alienware 13 OLED
The above pictures and texts are translated and arranged from:
