Asus Rog Strix Gl553ve 156 Gtx 1050ti I7-7700hq Review
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When the first ASUS ROG GL552 notebook came out, it took the market by a storm. The upgraded version was also highly praised by the users due to its affordability and powerful hardware. It also offered probably the all-time cooling solution among its competitors but lacked the premium feel and blueprint nosotros are used to seeing from a ROG machine.
Well, those days are gone because the newly released ASUS ROG Strix GL553 laptop is really pricier than the Lenovo Legion Y520 and Acer's Aspire VX xv while offering mostly the aforementioned hardware. Then why would it cost so much? Mayhap the panel is going to offering much improve picture quality than its rivals or the RGB keyboard backlight is essential for nowadays gaming community? We found out in the extensive review below.
You lot can find some of the available configurations hither: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)
Contents
- Retail package
- Design and construction
- Disassembly, maintenance and upgrade options
- Display quality
- PWM (Screen flickering)
- Buy our display profiles
- Audio
- Specs sheet
- Software
- Battery
- CPU – Intel Core i7-7700HQ
- GPU – NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (4GB GDDR5)
- Gaming tests
- Temperatures
- Verdict
Retail parcel
The laptop comes in a fancy, Strix-branded black box containing all the usual user manuals, AC adapter, ability string and the laptop itself.
Pattern and structure
The refreshed chassis is more in line with the recently reviewed ASUS ROG Strix GL502 with brushed aluminum lid, brilliant orange accent and plastic interior just at the same fourth dimension, it strongly reminds us of the previous ROG GL552VW. Also, the new model cuts down on weight with about 100 grams while the profile is noticeably slimmed-down from 34.75 mm to xxx mm. It falls behinds the Lenovo Legion Y520 in terms of dimensions but stays competitive against Acer's VX fifteen.
Anyway, let's kickoff with the lid. As nosotros already pointed out, it's fabricated of brushed aluminum plate with bright orange LED-illuminated ROG logo and ii stripes in the middle. The plate itself is quite flexible, bends under small pressure even causing ripples to appear on the LCD screen and it's susceptible to fingerprints and smudges. The hinges, nonetheless, seem to exist extra sturdy, stealth and perfectly tightened. Opening the laptop with 1 mitt is possible and makes a satisfying magnetic snap when closing it. It's a big improvement compared to the previously reviewed models. The bottom is totally revamped now continuing the Strix blueprint concept with orangish radiator peeking from the primary exhaust vent on the left, orange silicone legs and no service hatch. Luckily, the whole bottom piece is piece of cake to remove for maintenance.
The sides haven't changed much and some users might yet find the port placement a bit awkward considering all connectors are placed towards the front end edge. Notwithstanding, almost all ports are positioned on the left and so cables won't go far the way while gaming with an external mouse. We are referring to the RJ-45 port, HDMI, 2 USB 3.0 connectors, one USB-C three.i (Gen 1) and a 3.5 mm audio jack. Whereas on the right, you will notice just one USB 2.0 connector and an optical bulldoze. Upwards forepart, yous will notice the orange stereo loudspeakers.
The interior is a mixed handbag. The keyboard tray is made of plastic imitating brushed aluminum, which means that fingerprints and smudges will be quite visible. Likewise, nosotros are not happy with the overall stability of the material. There'southward a bit of flexing in the eye of the keyboard and the corners around the wrist rest expanse. The touchpad design hasn't changed at all and it's just as bad as before. Information technology's extremely wobbly and mouse clicks feel a bit too stiff. Still, it offers good gliding surface while being quite responsive. All gestures and swipes are registered correctly. On the other manus, the keyboard seems to be slightly modified and feels much better now. The key travel is 2.v mm and feels crawly. It'due south excellent for gaming and typing and the clicky feedback feels oddly satisfying, but at that place'southward nevertheless no media control. In addition, the tiresome old ruby-red LED backlight has been replaced with a highly-customizable RGB LEDs with different furnishings and zones. And equally for the layout, information technology'southward practically the same standard pattern with slightly smaller than we would adopt arrow keys but they are also isolated and piece of cake to reach.
To be honest, nosotros expected better build quality for the asking cost. The brushed aluminum lid and RGB backlit keyboard simply don't cut it. Even the Aspire VX 15 from Acer feels sturdier at a lower cost. Non to mention the impeccable build quality of the Legion Y520, which is also made entirely out of plastic. Yet, the latter has its ain drawbacks so information technology boils down to personal preference here.
Disassembly, maintenance and upgrade options
Fifty-fifty though the laptop doesn't have a dedicated maintenance lid, the bottom piece comes off easily and then you can clean in, upgrade it or repair information technology. Exist careful, though, it might exist easy but a scrap tricky to detach the bottom piece – you have to remove the silicone cap located in the center as shown in the photos beneath. And so, you can unscrew the bolt and proceed by prying up the plastic plate.
Storage upgrade options – 2.5-inch HDD, Ðœ.two SSD
The laptop offers the standard ii.5-inch HDD in 1TB flavor spinning at 7200 rpm from HGST. There's also the Grand.2 PCIe NVMe SSD slot, which in our example is taken by an SK Hynix scrap with 256GB chapters but using the SATA interface, which is kind of disappointing given the cost betoken of the product. The slot supports the standard 2280 size.
| Slot | Unit of measurement | Upgrade toll |
|---|---|---|
| 2.5-inch HDD/SSD | HGST 1TB HDD @7200 rpm | Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned) |
| Thou.2 slots | SK Hynix 256GB K.2 SATA SSD (2280) | Purchase from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned) |
RAM
Every bit usual, the motherboard holds two RAM slots, one of which is taken by an 8GB SK Hynix DDR4-2400 flake. The other slot remains complimentary for upgrade.
| Slot | Unit of measurement | Upgrade toll |
|---|---|---|
| Slot one | SK Hynix 8GB DDR4-2400 | Upgrade options |
| Slot 2 | Free | Upgrade options |
Other components
The Wi-Fi module can exist found adjacent to the battery and it's from Intel with model number 7265NGW.
The battery is placed betwixt the hinges and it'southward rated at 48Wh.
Cooling arrangement
The cooling system hasn't changed over the last generation and still relies on just ii heat pipes and a single cooling fan with a huge radiator. Still, the cooling system did surprisingly good but, on the other manus, it had some trouble during heavy load.
Display quality
Instead of the usual LG panels on its multimedia-based and ROG laptops, ASUS is now relying on BOE panels for the GL553. Its model number is NV156FHM-N43 and can as well be constitute in Acer's loftier-end business laptop the TravelMate P658. Nonetheless, we've noticed small differences in some of the tests but they are mostly negligible.
Anyway, the console offers Total Hard disk (1920×1080) resolution in a 15.6-inch diagonal leading to 0.18 x 0.18 mm pixel pitch and pixel density of 142 ppi. The screen can be considered equally "Retina" when viewed from a distance equal or greater than lx cm.
Since the notebook uses an IPS panel, viewing angles are excellent.
The maximum recorded brightness is 336 cd/m2 in the center of the screen and 316 cd/m2 is the boilerplate value. This means that the maximum departure is 12% in the lower right corner. The color temperature (6400K) seems to exist pretty close to the optimal 6500K. The contrast ratio is 1060:1.
Nosotros've also measured the color deviation in unlike sectors of the screen. The highest value is 2.seven, over again in the lower-correct function of the screen. Values above 4.0 are usually unwanted.
Color reproduction
To make certain nosotros are on the same page, we would like to give you lot a little introduction of the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To commencement, at that place'due south the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human heart, giving you a better perception of the colour gamut coverage and the colour accurateness.
Inside the blackness triangle, y'all will see the standard colour gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors etc for printing. Basically, colors within the blackness triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential function of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.
Withal, we've included other colour spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, besides equally the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, still, is withal a thing of the future and it'southward difficult for today'due south displays to cover that well. We've also included the and so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer's gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around usa every day.
The sRGB coverage is 92% and it'southward excellent for multimedia purposes and gaming. Colors will appear vibrant and punchy.
Beneath you volition see practically the same image but with the colour circles representing the reference colors and the white circles existence the upshot. You can see main and additional colors with 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% saturation within the sRGB gamut pre and mail scale.
We've created a profile with 140 cd/m2 luminance, D65(6500K) white indicate and 2.2 gamma.
Nosotros tested the accurateness of the display with 24 normally used colors similar light and dark human being peel, blue heaven, green grass, orange etc. You lot can check out the results at factory status and also, with the Function & Spider web Blueprint profile.
The next effigy shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an paradigm, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.
The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the Gaming & Moving-picture show Nights profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical centrality – the luminance of the brandish. On the 2 graphs below you lot can hands check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances merely go along in heed that this also depends on the settings of your current brandish, the scale, the viewing bending and the surrounding light conditions.
Gaming capabilities (Response time)
We exam the reaction time of the pixels with the usual "black-to-white" and "white-to-blackness" method from 10% to xc% and opposite.
We recorded Fall Time + Ascension Time = 36 ms. Demanding gamers will notice the and so-called ghosting effect (blurred frames) during fast-paced racing games and offset-person shooters.
PWM (Screen flickering)
Pulse Width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When y'all lower the effulgence, the lite intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these lite impulses the low-cal/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.
Unfortunately, the PWM is still present in this display but the skilful news is that the frequency is pretty high, which reduces the negative impact.
Blue light emissions
Installing of our Health-Baby-sit contour non simply eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you're not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole trunk. You tin observe more information about that in our dedicated commodity on Blue Light.
You lot can see the levels of emitted blue light on the spectral power distribution (SDP) graph.
Determination
We are really happy with the display quality because, despite the shift from LG panels, ASUS managed to offer overall the aforementioned pic quality as before. We accept high dissimilarity ratio, high maximum brightness, wide sRGB coverage and relatively accurate colour reproduction and color temperature. The simply thing that needs fixing is the PWM, which is present from 0 to 99% brightness.
We advise using our Health-Baby-sit profile for eliminating PWM and reducing blue light emissions during long hours of gaming sessions during the dark and our Part & Blueprint Work and Gaming and Motion-picture show Nights profiles for amend visibility in dark scenes and ameliorate color accurateness.
Buy our display profiles
Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this commodity and its respective contour packet is meant for ASUS ROG Strix GL553VE configurations with 15.6″ BOE NV156FHM-N43 (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS screen, which tin can exist found at Amazon: Purchase from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)
*Should you accept problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you lot'll receive via electronic mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, modify the file extension to .aught or contact us at [email protected]
Read more well-nigh the profiles Hither.
[edd_item edd_id_1='78703′ edd_id_2='78706′ edd_id_3='78709′ edd_id_4='78712′]
Audio
The sound quality is good and at that place are not noticeable distortions in the low and high frequencies.
Specs sheet
The specs canvas provided below is for the model used in this review. Hardware specification may vary depending on your region.
| CPU | Intel Core i7-7700HQ (4-cadre, 2.80 -three.80 GHz, 6MB cache) |
|---|---|
| RAM | 8GB (1x 8192MB) – DDR4, 2400GHz |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (4GB GDDR5) |
| HDD/SSD | 1TB HDD (7200 rpm) |
| Display | fifteen.six-inch (39.62 cm.) – 1920×1080 (Total Hard disk drive) IPS, matte |
| Optical drive | DVD burner |
| Connectivity | LAN 10/100/thousand Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11a/thou/n, Bluetooth 4.0 |
| Other features |
|
| Bombardment | 4-prison cell 48Wh |
| Thickness | 30 mm (1.18″) |
| Weight | two.five kg (5.51 lbs) |
Software
The unit we received had Windows ten (64-bit) already installed but if yous wish to go rid of all the bloatware and perform a clean install, we suggest downloading all the of the latest drivers from ASUS' official support page.
Battery
In the battery section, the notebook offers a marginal upgrade from 47Wh unit to a 48Wh battery pack. Only combined with the arguably more efficient Core i7-7700HQ, nosotros were able to go about 14% better bombardment runtimes on the web browsing test, compared to the previous GL552VW laptop. It's a welcomed improvement, nonetheless. And, equally before, all tests were performed using the usual settings – Wi-Fi constantly running, screen brightness ready to 120 cd/m2 and Windows battery saving characteristic turned on.
Web browsing
In club to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic spider web browsing through over 70 websites.
Pretty good consequence for a gaming laptop – 369 minutes (6 hours and 9 minutes).
Video playback
For every test like this, we apply the aforementioned video in Hd.
Slightly lower, but still a expert result – 338 minutes (5 hours and 38 minutes).
Gaming
Nosotros recently started using F1 2015's born criterion on loop in order to simulate real-life gaming.
Information technology's quite unlikely that you lot volition showtime a gaming session without being close to a power source, but it's good to know that y'all tin play for more an hour – 110 minutes (ane hour and l minutes).
CPU – Intel Cadre i7-7700HQ
The Core i7-7700HQ is Kaby Lake'due south top-shelf straight successor of the Skylake Core i7-6700HQ offering slightly higher clock speeds on the nearly identical compages and TDP. While Intel markets Kaby Lake's architecture as "14nm+", the Core i7-7700HQ is still on the same 14nm node with the only pregnant update beingness in the iGPU department. That'south why the slightly contradistinct clock speeds (2.8 – 3.8 GHz vs 2.6 – 3.v GHz) bring not more than 10% increase in performance compared to the Cadre i7-6700HQ. We still have the supported Hyper-Threading technology with iv/8 – cadre/thread design, the aforementioned 45W TDP and 6MB cache.
Withal, the Kaby Lake generation boasts an updated video engine for the iGPU, although, its performance is just about the same. Branded as Intel Hard disk Graphics 630, the GPU offers slightly college clock speeds (350 – 1100 MHz vs 350 – 1050 MHz) compared to the Intel HD Graphics 530 and support for H265/HEVC Main10 contour at 10-scrap colour depth and the VP9 codec for full hardware acceleration. In improver, the HDCP 2.2 is also supported allowing Netflix'due south 4K video streaming.
You can scan through our top CPUs ranking: http://laptopmedia.com/top-laptop-cpu-ranking/
Hither you will find other useful data and every notebook we've tested with this processor: http://laptopmedia.com/processor/intel-cadre-i7-7700hq/
Results are from the Cinebench 20 CPU examination (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from our Photoshop benchmark examination (the lower the score, the better)
Results are from the Fritz chess benchmark (the higher the score, the better)
Fritz
Fritz is a chess benchmark that tests the computing capabilities of the CPU with various chess moves. The Intel Core i7-7700HQ managed to become 13.335 million moves per 2nd. For comparison, one of the near powerful PCs, Deep(er) Blue, was able to squeeze out 200 million moves per second. In 1997 Deep(er) Blue even shell the famous Garry Kasparov with 3.v to 2.5.
GPU – NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (4GB GDDR5)
NVIDIA'southward GTX 1050 Ti for notebooks is almost identical to its desktop counterpart but offers different clock rates. What'due south more, the Ti variant uses more than CUDA cores than the standard GTX 1050 version – 768 vs 640 but both GPUs utilise the aforementioned GP107 bit, which differs from the other NVIDIA high-end solutions. The GP107 flake is manufactured by Samsung, non TSMC, and it'south built on the 14nm node on contrary to the 16nm from TSMC.
Anyhow, the GTX 1050 Ti also offers significantly higher clock rates than the normal GTX 1050 versions well 1493 – 1620 MHz vs 1364 – 1493 MHz. This contributes to a significant performance boost over the standard version simply the balance of the specs remain the same. The GPU offers 4GB of GDDR5 memory continued via 128-chip interface and transfer rates equally high equally 112 GB/s.
You can browse through our superlative GPUs ranking: http://laptopmedia.com/superlative-laptop-graphics-ranking/
Here you lot will find other useful information and every notebook with this GPU that nosotros've tested: http://laptopmedia.com/video-card/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-ti-4gb-gddr5/
Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (college the score, the ameliorate)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven iii.0 benchmark (college the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark (college the score, the better)
Gaming tests
| One thousand Theft Car 5 (GTA five) | Full Hd, Medium (Check settings) | Total Hd, Very High (Cheque settings) | Total HD, MAX (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average FPS | 72 fps | 38 fps | 23 fps |
| Ascension of the Tomb Raider (2016) | Full Hard disk drive, Medium (Check settings) | Full Hard disk, Very High (Check settings) | Full Hard disk drive, MAX (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average FPS | 62 fps | thirty fps | 21 fps |
| Tom Clancy's The Division | Full Hard disk drive, Medium (Check settings) | Full HD, Ultra (Check settings) | Total HD, MAX (Bank check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average FPS | 56 fps | 32 fps | – fps |
Temperatures
The usual stress tests that we perform have things to the extreme and thus we cannot compare it to existent-life utilize. The boilerplate user won't be able to reach 100% CPU load + 100% GPU load for such long periods of time, merely it'south still a skillful mode to assess the overall stability of the arrangement and the effectiveness of the cooling design. In our previous reviews of the GL552, the laptop did great with virtually no oestrus on the surface of the keyboard and no thermal throttling. Let's encounter how the successor volition fare.
We started off with 100% CPU load for an hour and the notebook was able to utilise the full performance of the chip at 3.3 GHz and adequately depression temperatures – around 79-lxxx °C.
However, later turning on the GPU stress test, things started to go s. At first, the GPU ran at over 1700 MHz and slowly clocked down to 1695 MHz while the temps were considerably higher than what we've expected them to be. For instance, the Legion Y520, which has a bad cooling design, didn't allow temperatures of the GPU go above 74 °C while the GL553's GTX 1050 Ti was running hot at 82 °C. Interestingly enough, the CPU's temperatures were relatively low but the workload still caused the Core i7-7700HQ to throttle at 1.v-1.8 GHz. Quite similar to the Legion Y520 scenario.
We do have to annotation two things hither. First, the previous versions of the GL552 didn't break a sweat during this test, but with the new hardware, clearly the GL553 has some issues with the cooling performance. And secondly, the thermal throttling that occurred with the GL553 is far less severe compared to the Legion Y520, because the latter had to downclock its CPU at 800 MHz at times. The GL553, on the other mitt, was still able to keep higher and more stable clock speeds of the CPU.
Quite surprisingly, despite the inner temperatures, the surface around the keyboard was absolutely cool. This is really good news for the full general users because they don't demand to worry nigh overheating during long hours of gaming.
Verdict
Let us put it this way, if you accept the extra cash, we strongly recommend going for the ASUS ROG GL553VE instead of the recently reviewed Lenovo Legion Y520 or Acer Aspire VX 15 (VX5-591G). We all the same have to do a review of the GTX 1050 Ti version of the VX 15 to be off-white, simply our opinion of the Legion Y520 remains – it's all the same the best 1 because the value. However, the GL553VE excels with a crisp IPS panel, far superior to the one nosotros've tested on the Legion Y520 and offers a customizable RGB keyboard with overall better feel and condolement and more than importantly – far better cooling solution.
However, in that location are some trade-offs that need to exist considered. For example, the build quality is questionable, the touchpad is bad and the port placement might be considered slightly inconvenient for some. And fifty-fifty though the cooling design is more effective than the one on the Legion Y520 with absolutely no heat dispersed on the surface, we noticed some thermal throttling during heavy load. The issue will not exist present during normal usage and gameplay simply should be considered every bit a drawback in the long run.
Finally, nosotros would like to address the battery. We doubt that the marginal increase in capacity has led to an approximately xiv% improvement over the concluding generation just it's definitely a step in the right direction. Information technology's nifty for a gaming laptop, at all.
All in all, the GL553VE is definitely an comeback over the concluding generation and it also holds an edge over the Lenovo Legion Y520 and the Aspire VX 15 with some of the features, but equally usual, everything comes at a cost. And the GL553VE costs more than we expected.
You can find some of the available configurations here: Purchase from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)
Pros
- Splendid keyboard
- Improved bombardment life over the final generation
- The cooling arrangement keeps the surface temperatures extremely low during load
- Supports K.ii PCIe NVMe SSDs
- Bright IPS console with wide sRGB coverage, optimal colour temperature and high contrast
Cons
- The screen uses PWM from 0 to 99% screen effulgence (the Wellness-Guard profile eliminates that)
- Questionable build quality
- Minor CPU throttling during heavy load
- Once again bad touchpad design
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Source: https://laptopmedia.com/review/asus-rog-strix-gl553ve-review-do-the-extra-features-justify-the-higher-price/
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