It’s been a little over a week since we’ve gotten our hands on the ASUS ROG Strix GL753VE and we’ve put it through its paces. Armed with the a 7th generation Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of SSD storage plus a 1TB SATA HDD, and the NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti, it’s time to let you know if one of the newest entrants into the Taiwanese company’s gaming sub-brand is worth it. We do have a little bit of a caveat before jump into to its specs though — the ASUS ROG Strix GL753VE has yet to receive its suggested retail price, so we’ll be judging solely on its capabilities. With that out of the way, here are its specs.
ASUS ROG Strix GL753VE Specifications
- Intel Core i7-7700HQ 2.8GHz (3.5GHz Boost)
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti (4GB GDDR5)
- 8GB DDR4 2400MHz
- 17.3-inch Full HD IPS Panel, Anti-Glare, 1920×1080 resolution
- 128GB M.2 SSD, 1TB 5400 RPM 2.5-inch SATA HDD
- DL DVD±RW/CD-RW Optical Drive
- 1x Ethernet port, 1x HDMI port, 1x Mini Display port, 1x combo mircrophone/headphone jack, 3x USB 3.0 port, 1x USB 2.0 port, 1x USB Type-C
- 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.1 (Dual band) 2*2
- 48WHrs, 4S1P, 4-cell Li-ion Battery Pack
Carrying It Around Isn’t a Breeze
Compared to ASUS ROG laptops from last year, we’re seeing a bit of a change to their most recent notebooks in terms of design. The two-toned brushed aluminum finish on the lid of the notebook has been replaced by a slightly more subtle looks, but it still bares the unmistakable logo that is backlit and beckons on lookers to “Join the Republic”. The lid is primarily made out of aluminum and hardly has any flex to it; a good thing considering it has to protect that 17.3-inch IPS display.
The rest of the notebook is made out of plastic but, as we mentioned in our initial review for the notebook, there’s hardly any play when you’re typing or even when we’ve found ourselves aggressively mashing away at the keys when we’ve gotten a little “gigil” with the games we’ve been playing on this bad boy. The heft of the notebook also lends to feeling that this gaming laptop is well built.
Speaking of which, if you are looking to purchase this particular laptop from the Taiwanese brand and plan to have this strapped to your back for most of the day — prepare yourselves. Its dimensions already require you to bring a backpack larger than usual, but it also weighs in at 3 kilos, or 6.6 pounds if you aren’t into the metric system. We aren’t exactly the smallest dudes at Team Unbox, but lugging it around while covering events can took a toll on our backs; completely understandable given what ASUS has stuffed into this gaming laptop.
It has a Great Keyboard and the Trackpad has Good Accuracy
The ASUS ROG Strix GL753VE has a full-sized keyboard and having those number keys to use as custom key bindings for games definitely help; also a godsend if you happen to do data entry. The keys are, of course, backlit using ASUS’ Aura lighting. You can toggle through its modes or choose through its color settings by simply hitting the ROG key to bring up the Gaming Center where you can control a ton of other options as well.
ASUS has included a pretty great trackpad with the GL753VE. There’s a matte finish to it that tends to pick up fingerprints, but we’ll gladly take the hit since it’s does make tasks easier to do if you forget your mouse. Speaking of which, the unit comes with a free ASUS Sica mouse inside the box, which great cause you’re not really going to be gaming on a trackpad, are you?
Great Display, Sound Takes a Step Back
The display on the GL753 is great. It’s a 17.3-inch Full HD IPS display that has great viewing angles (170-degrees according to their website) and was given a matte finish to reduce glare. We were a little surprised at the speakers this gaming laptop has on-board. Now, we’re not saying that it’s awful but we’ve seen better setups from ASUS on older models that are even equipped with a sub-woofer for a more robust sound.
Let’s Get to the Benchmarks!
Most of you will probably skip to this part of the review and, honestly, we don’t blame you. We know that you want to know how the ASUS ROG Strix GL753VE handles gaming and not to spoil anything, but it threw everything we threw at it rather well. You have to understand though that while you have the latest Kaby Lake processors from Intel on board and an adequate amount of RAM to game, the NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti is best suited for playing games on High and on 1080p resolution. We’ve concentrated our efforts using this preset on the games we’ve played, since that is the sweet spot for its specs.
Here we go. Let’s start of with the results for the 3D Mark benchmarks. Above are the results for Fire Strike, and take note that it isn’t Fire Strike Ultra, running at 1080p on the recommended settings.
Next are the results for Time Spy but, seeing as we couldn’t get an overall score running on custom settings at 1080p, we’ve had to run it on 2k resolution; giving us less than ideal results for this benchmark test. So you can see the results better in terms of frame rates, we ran Unigine Valley and Heaven on the ASUS ROG Strix GL753VE.
Here are its results.
As you can see, it does a pretty good job when you keep settings within its sweet spot. We do see frame rates dip down to very noticeable ranges, but its averages are above 60 fps; always a good thing to see. You didn’t come here to see synthetic benchmark test results though, so let’s get to the actual games.
We tested the ASUS ROG GL753VE with the three titles from my personal Steam Library that could show you guys what this notebook is capable of: Rise of the Tomb Raider, XCOM 2, and For Honor. Here are the frame rates from the games that we’ve recorded using Fraps’ internal benchmarks.
We’ve consistently been seeing Rise of the Tomb Raider being included in benchmark tests, so we definitely had to include this game. The GL753 handles the Rise of the Tomb Raider very well. There are a few dips in frame rates during weather changes within the game, but generally gameplay was smooth.
The second game we tried out was XCOM 2. We were a little worried when Fraps showed frame rates at the mid 30s during the title screen, but the tactical strategy game ran smoothly during actually gameplay with a few dips here and there, but mostly during loading times.
Lastly, we tried the GL753 on one of our current favorites, For Honor. We played a round of Dominion since that had the most happening on the field of battle and we were surprised that the notebook could handle it without that much trouble. We were even able to set it to the highest graphical preset and still have it a little playable if you’re mostly into the 1v1 or even 2v2 duels.
Stays Relatively Cool During Games
One thing we were pleasantly surprised about is that the GL753 didn’t feel warm at all during binge gaming sessions. The notebook only has one exhaust fan which is located on the left side, and it manages to do the trick on its own; unless the plastic they used in the construction of this gaming laptop is just that thick, of course. We would advise you to keep gadgets away from the vent, since the heat it does expel can get quite toasty.
Don’t Expect to Game for Long Periods without a Power Outlet Nearby
Having the ability to take this kind of hardware on-the-go is definitely convenient, but its battery life is nothing to sing praises about. We’ve never seen a gaming laptop really go the distance, so it was no surprise to see that the ROG Strix GL753VE could only last 3 to 4 hours depending on your usage. We have been able to edit short videos, while we were away from HQ but it was pretty much a race between if we could finish the edit first and if the battery would die on us. So, yeah, make sure you get a seat at a coffee shop near a power outlet or bring an extension cord, just in case.
Verdict: Thumbs Up, If the Price is Right.
In case you’ve forgotten about our little disclaimer above, ASUS has yet to release the SRP for the ROG Strix GL753VE; making it harder for us to tell you if it is worth it or not. In terms of its performance though, if you can’t tell, we’re generally happy about this gaming laptop from the Republic of Gamers. We understand if you guys want a machine with a little bit more oomph, but we’re guessing that extra something also cost a few extra Gs. If ASUS gets the pricing for this laptop right, we would absolutely recommend it. If we were to venture a guess though, we think this gaming laptop would probably cost around Php 70k; seeing as the ASUS FX series notebook with a 1050Ti is priced at Php 65k.
If you happen to be in the market for gaming laptops, check out our other reviews and features:
Acer Predator 21x Review: Half a Million Peso Gaming Machine
ASUS ROG G752VS Review: Desktop Class Gaming
ASUS Launches Dual GTX 1080 Equipped ROG GX800
