Sorry for the long review upfront, but since i was desperate for reviews for this product before i bought and there are barely any out there I'll write a detailed one, consider this a 4.5 stars, since there is no option for that i rounded it to 5.
Coming off from my asus g55bw that served me very well for 5 and half years i decided it was time for an upgrade, to something powerful as well. I have to admit that I initially wanted the Dell 7577, though it was not available for international shipping and cost 300$ more in my country, and the gl503 was way to expensive. Still Eventually i decided to go, even bet on this one since there weren't any reviews on it. I had this laptop over two weeks, adequate time for a review.
Package was intact and in order, also got the warranty document and guide. No dead pixels on the screen to my surprise, no defects can be seen or any other damages. The matte finish is absolutely stunning, feels great very slick looking, doesn't at all look like a gamer laptop which in my opinion is a big plus. The screen has a flex to it but the keyboard part of the laptop is pretty rigid, it's not the best build but there has to some compromises to match the price point. Nice quality camera and very nice speakers. The keyboard feels really good, very comfortable to type, touchpad got a very smooth feeling to it, responds very well nice to use. The Screen is awesome, great display even from difficult angles. The laptop comes only with a power button unlike asus rog series that has additional buttons for gamer features. The selection of ports is ok, 3 usb 3 an one sd card, in my case i don't need more than that so it doesn't bother me.
This machine packs an insane hardware for it's size, weight and thickness, i7 7700hk cpu, 1060 3g, 16 gb, 128 ssd 3 + 1tb 5400rpm. Still impressive that they fit everything in this laptop. This is an absolute game crusher, tested it on shadow of war, wolfenstein ii the new colossus and overwatch:
Shadow of war on ultra: 45-65 fps
Wolfenstein ii the new colossus on ultra: 75-95 fps
Overwatch on epic: 100-120 fps.
Overall very very impressive.
Now for the not so good part. The minor issues: the usb ports seem to be too rigid, you have to use some force to take out a device out of the port, though in time it seems to get a bit easier, i hope it won't be worn out eventually. In addition the num lk is annoying, there is no indicator if it's on or off. Furthermore, the fans are really really loud under heavy load, but this is not to big of a deal since i always play with earphones. This is the successor to the fx502, that laptop had to big issues: screen and heating. The screen on the fx503 is ips so no problem with that but to my disappointment the big heating problem is still alive. Since asus packed this heavy duty hardware in this thin laptop they had to compromise, so the cooling system is not good at all, really bad. While gaming on high settings the temps were really high, just to note the the gpu handle itself very well and it's on usually 69-75 C, the problem is the cpu. under heavy load it got to 96 C!!! really bad. Took me a while to find a trick to lower the temps, a good on is to go to window's advanced power options and to lower the max cpu usage to 99% from 100% so the cpu won't go to turbo mode, that takes down a couple of degrees which i strongly recommend to people who buy this to do this option even with a cooling pad, performance won't be effected. Another method is to elevate the laptop so there would be an airflow between the surface and the laptop. Despite those methods the temps are still to high for the cpu, were about high 80's under max load. there is no escape from buying a cooling pad, actually with this laptop the cooling pad does a great job because of the laptop's ventilation at the bottom that exposes the gpu and the cpu cooling system, it took down a whopping -15+ C which is a lot, now under max load it's usually around mid 70's up to 80 as it should be.
I would have given this product a 4 star if it wasn't for the cooling pad, with it this laptop is a beast that will last for a while so my final rating is 4.5, so if you do not mind the cooling pad this is a great option for the average gamer. Overall awesome laptop and very portable.
**EDIT: Strongly recommend (at your own discretion -it's quite safe just watch a youtube guide for XTU) to undervolt the cpu, will do wonders to temps and performance.
| Standing screen display size | 15.6 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Processor | 3.4 68000 |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Memory Speed | 2400 MHz |
| Hard Drive | 1000 GB SSD |
| Graphics Coprocessor | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 |
| Chipset Brand | NVIDIA |
| Card Description | GTX 1060 3GB, Dedicated |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 3 GB |
| Wireless Type | 802.11ac |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 1 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 6 Hours |
