So I bought this laptop back in early 2017 (around the middle of January) and am still using it to this day (almost 2 years later). So take what I say with a decent amount of confidence and read my full review to understand why I'm giving this laptop such a low score even after 2 years of use. Go to the bottom for a TL;DR and list of pros and cons.
So originally I was using a MSI GT72 Dominator laptop which I purchased back in 2015 and was using very regularly for school, work, and recreation. It just so happens that your younger sibling spilling coffee on the keyboard tends to ruin laptops. So I looked around and decided to acquire this laptop at it's very reasonable price tag of around 1,300 USD at the time of purchase. The nice slim design was really appealing for travel and to take back and forth to school and it had fairly decent reviews at the time (almost 4.5 stars). So I checked the full specs out online, benchmark scores, and tech reviews of the laptop. All of which indicated that it would be a decent buy. After receiving the laptop I used it for probably around 6 months without any issues whatsoever. Speeds were reasonably decent and it could run most anything (game wise) in medium-high settings without any issues. The on-board Wi-Fi adapter worked really well and I had no troubles with connectivity through that or while using a wired connection.
The first noticeable issue came at about 7.5 months into using the laptop whenever the GPU fan started to make this awful grinding noise and it sounded like the fan was hitting the housing, something had gotten stuck in there, or a piece had come loose. So I opened up the laptop by removing the back panel and took out the fan to inspect it and saw no visual indication that anything was wrong. There was only minor dust buildup which I cleaned out and then reinstalled the fan into the computer. The problem was still there. So I went online and ordered another fan (which ran me about 40 USD with shipping) and installed that no problem. After about another month I started hearing the same noise coming from the other side of the computer. This time it was the CPU fan that was having the exact same problem. So I went ahead and did the same thing, visually inspected, cleaned it out, placed the part back, and checked that the connector wasn't damaged in any way. And yet, the problem was still there. So I ordered a CPU fan this time (roughly 30 USD with shipping) and replaced that as soon as it came in about a week later. No issues. Then about 4 months later the GPU AND the CPU fans both started having the issue again within about 4 days of one another, progressively getting worse and worse as more days went by. So this time I simply ordered 3 of each fan at a discounted rate and just have them on hand for the next time they fail.
During all of this fan nonsense I started to notice performance drops in the read/write speed of the hard drive (which is not a very good hard drive to begin with). I had bought the model without the m.2 SSD installed and so it was VERY noticeable whenever the loading times on most apps/games and the write speeds to my external hard drive started to slow down tremendously (all the way down to almost 60MB/s write for single large files). So I went ahead and replaced my HDD with a Samsung 860 Evo 1TB SSD and had no further problems there. I eventually bought an enclosure for the HDD and use it as a storage for picture and low size media files as it's not very good for large sized data transfer. So just be forewarned that the HDD they use is a fairly cheap one and might not last the life of the computer.
As far as RAM goes, if you buy the 16GB model it only comes with one stick, which is nice if you want to upgrade your RAM later on, but the performance on a single stick of RAM is absolutely shoddy compared to having two. Outside of specialized tasks, I really don't see why you would need more than 16GB in the first place. So keep that in mind if you plan on buying this PC.
Now onto my biggest gripe with the computer. Cooling. This computer has the worst, and I do mean the worst, cooling setup I have ever seen out of all the laptops and desktops I have ever used. The amount of clearance (due to the slim factor) between the motherboard/fans and the bottom part of the case (where the fans draw air from) is horrific. You maybe have about a half inch, if even that, of clearance between where the lower part of the fan is and the desk where you'll likely be resting this computer on. On top of that the fans themselves are extremely small and can barely keep the internal parts cool enough for them to operate at maximum load during stress tests and while using extremely intensive applications and games. I found that my computer was suffering more from the CPU throttling due to temperatures than ANYTHING else during the entire time I've had this PC. I've played everything from the newest AAA games to the cheapest Steam games imaginable to intensive video editing software and beyond and the biggest hindrance through it all was the CPU throttling due to overheating because of the inadequate cooling setup for this laptop.
TL;DR / Summary
This is an okay laptop with decent specs and fairly modern hardware that can hold it's own for medium-high intensity games. The PC suffers a lot under intense use and has major overheating issues due to inadequate space for airflow because of the slim form factor of the laptop itself. The Hard Disk Drive that comes with the laptop is sub-par (cheap) and will probably need to be upgraded within 1-2 years of continuous use (less than 1 year if you're a very heavy user like myself). The RAM in the laptop comes in single 16GB stick format which causes it to under-preform when compared to a laptop with the same specs running two 8GB sticks at the same memory clock. This laptop has MAJOR issues with it's fans (more than likely due to the large strain put on them because of the design) and they will probably need to be replaced multiple times throughout the lifespan of the laptop (40 USD per GPU fan, 35 per CPU fan).
*A thing to note with gaming laptops is that the battery generally will wear down quicker than a normal workstation style laptop and will hold less of a charge due to the higher power draw from the upgraded parts inside. This laptop is about average with it's battery life. Roughly 2-3 hours with light/minimal use. 1-1.5 with moderate use. And less than 1 with heavy/very intensive use.
Pros:
- Easy to travel with
- Can run almost all modern games and new applications with ease in medium - high settings
- Reasonably quiet unless running at full throttle
- Average battery life for a gaming laptop
- Comes in multiple configurations
- Spare parts are easy to obtain for repairs
- Very easy to upgrade
Cons:
- MAJOR issues with cooling and fans
- Slim design causes problems with airflow
- Single RAM stick can cause issues when loading RAM intensive applications/games
- HDD is cheap and WILL slow down quicker than a nice one
Overall I'd give this laptop an 6.5/10 with most of the drop in score coming from the cooling/fan issues. I personally wouldn't recommend this specific laptop or any ASUS laptop that has this same design to anyone looking to buy a gaming laptop. Try to find something similarly priced by Acer, MSI, or if you don't need a laptop then look to build your own desktop PC and get something like a Chromebook for mobile tasks (this is much cheaper than a gaming laptop). If you are set on getting a gaming laptop then make sure it's not a slim form factor to help with the cooling so that your parts (specifically the CPU) don't get throttled due to the temperature getting to high. I hope this helps inform anyone looking to buy this product. Have a great day!
| Standing screen display size | 15.6 Inches |
|---|---|
| Max Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 Pixels |
| Processor | 2.6 GHz core_i7 |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Memory Speed | 2133 MHz |
| Hard Drive | 1 TB SSD |
| Graphics Coprocessor | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 |
| Chipset Brand | NVIDIA |
| Card Description | Dedicated |
| Wireless Type | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 3 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 5 Hours |
