Salut Andrei,o intrebare rapida : ce ai alege dintre Asus Gl703gs modelul asta pe care l-ai prezentat cu Aorus scan.co.uk/products/173-aorus-x7-v6-cf1-120hz-qhd-g-sync-i7-6820hk-16gb-ddr4-512gb-m2-pcie-ssdplus1tb-hdd-8gb-gtx-1070-w si modelul asta ?? multumesc anticipat si tine-o tot asa !!
Daca sunt la acelasi pret, as merge pe Asus. Procesorul i7-8750H e mult peste 6820-ul ala.
mastafish
May 5, 2018 at 6:31 am
Thank you for the color calibration!!! Can't wait to unbox mine and start gaming. Great review and now I know what to expect!! I also bought some Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut which I'm hoping will reduce temperatures enough to make the fans run quieter. Cheers my fellow Scar Edition gamers!!!
It is not recommended to use liquid metal on the 8750h because unlike previous generations the flip chip is not perfectly flat.
Very dangerous to use conductonauot.
Mathias
May 5, 2018 at 7:32 pm
Hi Andrei.
I got this Laptop last Week and i really love it. Got a bit of Screen-Bleeding but i can live with that. I was able to undervolt the CPU to -160 mv and it is still running stable.
One Question:
On your Pictures of the Mainboard there is one Label "Xbox Module". Do you know what that means? Whats it`s purpose?
Could be an integrated XBox One Wireless controller, that's been part of some other Asus ROG laptops. But I can't see the exact module on this laptop, just the inscription, so it's either not installed or behind the motherboard.
thanks for the review, i'm looking for a laptop with max budget 1900$,my main use is programming and watching movies and gaming(but it's not the first priority), and i really want to get this laptop, but I'm sensitive to noise,i can handle wearing headphone while gaming, but not while daily use,so is it louder than the average noise level of most of laptops while daily use ??… and if you can recommend me another laptop even if it has GTX 1060, i will be really thankful.
The thing is, if you don't want this primarily for gaming, you should probably get something without GSync, that will last longer on battery. There are options out there.
On the other hand, all the thinner gaming laptops get noisy fans, there's just no way around it. This particular laptop isn't very noisy with daily use and it shouldn't get very noisy with programming software either, but with games it will be fairly noisy.
I ordered from Amazon, the reseller was a real problem, they told me to return it then wanted to charge a $400 "restocking fee". I'm withholding their name for now, it has been three weeks since they got the machine and so far they have not refunded a penny.
The good news is that the replacement is working great, I'll confess to seeing two BSODs in the last 3+ weeks, so far always when one particular game is running, but it is in open beta so…who knows. This second unit is perfectly acceptable in the stability department.
M.Can
September 28, 2018 at 3:02 pm
Edbert would mind informing me about how is your laptop doing so far? it acurred to me the products of may and june are mostly defective, becouse there are no negative feedbacks in July and September. Yet still I don`t intend to play laptop lottery with 2k$. Also did you get all updates with Asus update utility? Have you done any undervolting etc, thanks in advance and good luck mate.
edbert
September 28, 2018 at 5:17 pm
I am currently on my third unit, all were made before July. Reseller will not offer another RMA. Asus says to send it in, but I know of people who wait weeks to action and Asus will probably say (like the reseller does) that they cannot find anything wrong with it.
I have updated all of the Asus software/drivers/utilities (not all were accomplished with Asus Update tool) and have patched the BIOS with the only update available. I have NOT experimented with undervolting. I have some experience with overclocking and thought it was like underclocking. I understand that is not the case but since I'm new to the technique I'm reluctant to start without instructions specific to my unit.
That said, yes, my $2K "gaming laptop" works great for anything I want to do with it …EXCEPT PLAY GAMES. I get 10 to 20 minutes before it BSODs.
Undervolting the CPU is simple and safe and explained here: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/10167-laptop-undervolting-overcloking/ . It's imo simpler and safer to perform than overcloking. These CPUs can easily undervolt to at least -100 mV, but you can start with a safer level, like -80mV. I haven't yet found a 8750H laptop that's unstable at -100 mV.
No need to stress test with Prime, you can use Cinebench R15 and just run the multicore test several times in a loop. If it doesn't BSOD, you can try to play your games next and see if it helps. It would also help to log your temperatures and CPU/GPU frequencies with HWinfo, before and after undervolting. Launch in sensor mode, right click on the field of interest and then select show graph. It's pretty intuitive, you'll get a log similar to the one we have in the performance section.
Of course, all these might solve nothing. But if thermals cause the BSODs, undervolting might help. Up to you.
Ed Bert
October 3, 2018 at 1:45 am
My reply is for Andrei, but his post did not have a reply button.
I just wanted to reply to say 1.) I am not ignoring you. 2.) I did not mess with the stress tool yet but I have ThrottleStop 8.70 set like this…
Voltage Default (cannot go lower only higher)
Offset Voltage -102.5mV
VCCIN Default (cannot go lower only higher)
IccMax 128.00A
I set it to log to txt and played a game (I chose one of the most problematic ones…Armored Warfare) for about an hour with infrequent pauses in between battles. Exporting the TXT to CSV shows the highest CPU temp was 76C, and this is in a room that is about 76F. I'm not sure if that is good or bad, and I have no metrics from "before", but the good news is that I played for about an hour and no crash or BSOD.
Way too soon to say solved, and even if it is not truly solved this is better, I owe you a big ole THANK YOU!
Do you think that my undervolt is too aggressive? Maybe that is what the stress test was for. To be honest, the fans (set to dynamic in ROG Game Center) stayed a little quieter than they did when I was crashing before, I'm thinking that meant my temps are lower now.
No, the Intel chip is inactive with this laptop, due to having GSync. What's the issue with Premiere?
Iskan
May 8, 2018 at 11:19 pm
Clevo PA71ES-G is another great alternative. According to pundits over at Notebookreview forum, MSI Stealth line is riddled with issues, ASUS has poor thermal design as with poor QC and A/S, and Aorus is heavily overpriced. So really there are only two lightweight 17" players here: MSI GE73 Raider and Clevo PA71.
Hi admin….,in terms of gaming performance and thermals, which one is better between this one and the msi ge73 8rf. I really do rely on ultrabookreview reviews and this one is very important to know for me
Did you buy any of them? I am also doubting between those 2. I wish the new scar II came also in 17.3 since it seems like they finally improved the heat problems
Great review. Really helped me make my decision (thanks!) and have no complaints since getting mine about a month ago. I went with the 17.3", Core i7-8750HQ processor, 16 GB of RAM, GTX 1070 graphics, 512GB PCIe SSD/1 TB HDD – Runs super smooth.
Cons are well covered above and typical for this type of product: Volume of fans is bearable. You're not buying it for battery life, but still infinitely more practical than a desktop. Heats up but won't turn your room into a sauna. The lack of Thunderbolt 3 is a bit lame, and a 4k resolution would have been nice but you can work around both of these.
One thing you didn't mention was that it comes with a neat backpack, gaming mouse and gaming headset – great little perk which I think sets it apart from the MSI rivals.
Hands down best laptop on the market for under £2k IMO.
Hy there.could you recomend a good gaming laptop for me?i want to chose between this asus and the acer predator helios 500.on paper specs are the same 1070 gpu with i7 gen8 144hz screen.but dont know witch is better.from what i know the asus has cooling problems while the acer is better at it.plus the acer has a thunderbolt.i am rly confused about these 2.rly would like some advice.ps i live in romania and if you could also recomend a place where to buy them that would be great.
We haven't reviewed the Helios 500 so can't comment on its subterfuges. Both should be good buys, with pros and cons. Try to read several good reviews and figure out which is the better pick for you
Can Yuksel
July 24, 2018 at 12:49 am
Hi,
Instead of gaming I consider this laptop for video editing (adobe products) and 3d render works. However, color accuracy and Adobe RGB color performance(75% as far as I know) bothers me. Battery performance is no problem at all. Would you recommend this laptop for video editing(also for color grading) or should I go with Dell XPS series?
I don't think that screen is accurate enough for color grading. I'd go with something else, there are 15 and 17 inch laptops with 100% ARGB screens out there
Thank you for the great review. This is one of my target that I want buy.
Can you give your opinion which one is better for daily usage at college and gaming? Asus ROG GL703GS or MSI GS73VR 8RF ?
THREE BIG ISSUES:
1. BSODs and freezes while playing (updated everything or even out-of-the-box)
2. panel AUO B173HAN03.2 [AUO329D] is faulty showing ugly inverse ghosting trails (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_qXG8TjcSE )
3. all USB3.x ports disconnect frequently while copying big amount of files (20GB) from external USB3.0 drive to internal disks, even from out-of-the-box config and after factory reset
Sent RMA, but I'm afraid these are "common issues" reported by many other users
Yep, but it still freezes after undervolting -150mV (core and cache) with ThrottleStop unfortunately. Contacted ASUS for RMA in the meanwhile… temps are in the "normal" range for gaming laptop (CPU 88°C, GPU 78°C) :(
3 seems ok for some other users so mine might be just a faulty unit with power issues.
Well, QC is problematic with a lot of laptops these days and you unfortunately draw a short straw. Good thing you can RMA.
Aedthicz
December 9, 2018 at 10:07 pm
I have this problem too. Game freezes for like 1 second during long sessions of gaming… I didn't find any solution for that, i don't even know why this happening.
Just wanted to updated my adventure: on 2nd (!) RMA they finally changed my mobo and…
Issues 1, 3 solved!
As I supposed must have been some sort of underpower issue with the faulty mobo causing dead USB devices and also random freezes.
Unfortunately it also came back with much higher temps, probably due to bad thermal pasting: CPU 98-99°C (was 88-90 max) and GPU 88°C (was 82 max), so there'll be a 3rd RMA in a raw! :(
Of course. Dual channel makes a big difference as usual. From my tests on my GL703GS Lords of the Fallen (demanding on both cpu and gpu) switched from 89-93fps to 109-113 in dual channel (2x16GB filling the empty ram slot)…
I am interested in the reviewed laptop (with 16GB RAM though). I want to use it for 'heavy' software such as Agisoft for Photogrammetry or ArcGIS..Do you think it is sufficient or should I look for something else?
My review unit performed well, but if you'll go through the comments and look on reddit/forums you might find that some people are complaining about performance in demanding CPU/GPU loads, so you might want to further look into this matter. The MSI GE73 might also be something to consider if you're after a fairly portable 17-inch laptop with this kind of specs, but keep in mind that's only available with a TN screen.
Thanks! That is really helpful. Anyway, for my budget I think this is good enough and perhaps later I”ll upgrade it.
hexaae
March 5, 2019 at 12:45 am
A question about (much better) color profile kindly provided in this review:
is it possible to edit it to remove a little bit more the yellowish tint still present?
What (free) tool can I use, if you can't directly help?
Uhm, no that will not work. Was looking for a ICM profile editor, but can't find anything… just profile inspector tools but nothing to alter calibration parameters. :-(
Sry, I haven't looked into this matter. The included profile is what Sypder4 shoots out. Perhaps there's a way to play with the Night Mode settings in Windows or perhaps the Asus Splendid utility? Those might only help warming the image though, not cooling it as you want.
Claudiu
May 5, 2019 at 7:52 pm
Hi Andrei,
After reading your review of the GL703GS i decided to buy it since i was in need of an upgrade from my GL552VW, wanted a [email protected], gsync was optional, and since imho i did not find one solid reason to spend a few hundred pounds on a RTX2070 for what i will need the laptop in the next 2-3 years, decided to get this since i found it for a nice 1500£(512GB ssd+1tb hdd,16GB ram)(no backpack,mouse and headset tough).
First impression: REALLY HOT, i mean the cpu went straight to 95-96 degrees with fans on overboost in gaming, so way to hot for my taste, so undervolted stable to -150mv with throttlestop, and the cpu boosts to 3.9Mhz without any issues, also very important to note while i play im in bed,with the laptop on my lap, atm using the old 15inch cooling pad(still thinking which 17inch cooling pad to get), and maybe change the thermal paste when i have the time. The screen is fantastic, specially compared to my old laptop, speakers are loud, BUT…sometimes the sound is "cracking", but only happens in games and exclusivly on the speakers(headphones no issues) and from what i read on some forums there are some issues with the speakers beying like that.
The thing that actually bothers me is this: quite often when i turn the laptop on, the screen stays black, i can hear windows starting etc, and i cant do nothing, only thing i can is ctrl-alt-del untill it restarts, or power button to force shutdown. since i only use it plugged it, i disabled sleep/hibernate etc from the power menu, nothing powers down while on AC power, happened once i closed the lid, came back later, the screen was black and everything else running, had to force shutdown…should i be worried about this?, because i havent found any issues like this online.
All in all i am happy, save for the minor incoveniences from above.
p.s. boxele caraie pe romaneste, doar in jocuri am observat, am dezactivat tot in sonic studio, e default, daca ai putea sa imi recomanzi un colling pad de 17 inch ar fi fantastic, sincer reviewul tau mi sa parut cel mai uman posibil, la obiect cu bune si ele, felicitari.
1. Not sure what to say about that black screen issue. I've come across it over the years on various laptops, but occasionally and never dug for a solution. Perhaps Reddit or the forums at notebookreview can offer some help
2. Do the speakers make that creaking noise all the time? And both of them creak, or just the one? IN the past, I noticed that sometimes the speakers were not properly mounted, and that caused distortions. As you can see here, they have soem rubber gaskets: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/internals-battery-speaker.jpg . I'd make sure they're properly placed on your unit.
3. I don't use cooling pads, but amazon should be a good place to start your search, and pick something based on reviews
1. i think i exagerated a little with the black screen being "often", it was actually 3-4 times in one month since i bought the unit(still for this price range and a highend unit is unaceptable from my point of view), will try some forums maybe someone came across it.
2. it happens random, when i will open it to change the thermal paste i will look into that.
3. finding it a bit hard to find a cooling pad which is decent in reviews and the proper size since the laptop is 41cmx27cm.
thanks for the reply.
Eugene
May 18, 2019 at 7:42 am
" Black screen , when you hear windows starting etc. "
– I had this issue on 2 office laptops (Dell, Hp ), – solution is to close and open the lid : )
Are you sure you meant DDR5 and not DDR4? That's not even available, and I doubt DDR5 is even compatible with the DDR4 form factor. If you meant DDR$, I don't know if it can actually work at those speeds with this platform, but perhaps someone else who might have tried it can pitch in
I purchased this laptop in November 2018, but I got the 16gb / 512 ssd / 1tb sshd version
I am still using it to this day and iv never had a single issue with it, not 1 crash or bsod, I haven't had to undervolt it or anything. I dont know if I just got a lucky pick or what but my cpu temp never jumps over 80 and my gpu doesnt even touch 70 even under strain.
I run it on overboost all day long and the sounds doesnt bother me too much but I do make good use of the included headset, this isnt much of an issue as i would use a headset regardless of the noise.
The battery life sucks, I tested it out of curiosity and got less than an hour from full charge while gaming, but it's a gaming laptop so what else do you expect. It doesnt really leave my house so its virtually always plugged in.
I use an external mechanical keyboard and gaming mouse so I very rarely even touch the laptop and after years is still looks and performs like it was new, I generally get much better ingame results than most people using more high end pc builds which for a laptop is pretty amazing.
This was my first gaming computer, I had previously only ever used consoles so I did a lot of research before smashing $2k, it was a big decision to go for a laptop rather than a pc as most would have done considering it never leaves my house anyway.
I have a regular asus notebook for day to day use and reserve the rog for gaming only. I opted however for portability and comfort in my gaming system and it really paid off.
I purchased the 1060 version prior to this and I scooped it up brand new for 1k, that did have problems with bsod so I returned it, despite this I was really taken by my experience in general with the laptop so I doubled my spend and got the 1070 version from scan in the black friday sales and since then I haven't felt the need to upgrade a single time, even after the release of the RTX cards.
Keep in mind: We manually approve each comment, this way we can attend to all your questions and requests. There's no need to submit a comment twice, just be patient till we get to it. Thanks.
Over the years, I’ve reviewed multiple variants of the popular Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 series of portable performance laptops, and I wanted to put up together a comparison of...
jayson
May 3, 2018 at 5:48 am
Hi Admin,
Is the GTX 1070 graphics in this model 6gb? I saw specs in some online stores this model has gtx1070 8gb. Please clarify my confusion.
Thanks in advance. Your reviews are helping consumers a lot in choosing our prefered units.
Andrei Girbea
May 3, 2018 at 10:25 am
8, that was a mistake on our end, the GTX 1070 comes with 8 GB of Vram. This pic from HWinfo confirms it: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/hwinfo.png
sergio
June 7, 2018 at 9:30 pm
Salut Andrei,o intrebare rapida : ce ai alege dintre Asus Gl703gs modelul asta pe care l-ai prezentat cu Aorus scan.co.uk/products/173-aorus-x7-v6-cf1-120hz-qhd-g-sync-i7-6820hk-16gb-ddr4-512gb-m2-pcie-ssdplus1tb-hdd-8gb-gtx-1070-w si modelul asta ?? multumesc anticipat si tine-o tot asa !!
Andrei Girbea
June 8, 2018 at 9:58 am
Daca sunt la acelasi pret, as merge pe Asus. Procesorul i7-8750H e mult peste 6820-ul ala.
mastafish
May 5, 2018 at 6:31 am
Thank you for the color calibration!!! Can't wait to unbox mine and start gaming. Great review and now I know what to expect!! I also bought some Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut which I'm hoping will reduce temperatures enough to make the fans run quieter. Cheers my fellow Scar Edition gamers!!!
Mike RFX
May 20, 2018 at 9:28 pm
Hey Mastafish, so any follow up on Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut temps and fan noise reduction if any? Can you provide us some numbers? Thank you
fejern
August 28, 2018 at 7:11 pm
It is not recommended to use liquid metal on the 8750h because unlike previous generations the flip chip is not perfectly flat.
Very dangerous to use conductonauot.
Mathias
May 5, 2018 at 7:32 pm
Hi Andrei.
I got this Laptop last Week and i really love it. Got a bit of Screen-Bleeding but i can live with that. I was able to undervolt the CPU to -160 mv and it is still running stable.
One Question:
On your Pictures of the Mainboard there is one Label "Xbox Module". Do you know what that means? Whats it`s purpose?
Andrei Girbea
May 7, 2018 at 9:58 am
Could be an integrated XBox One Wireless controller, that's been part of some other Asus ROG laptops. But I can't see the exact module on this laptop, just the inscription, so it's either not installed or behind the motherboard.
jon
May 6, 2018 at 12:05 pm
thanks for the review, i'm looking for a laptop with max budget 1900$,my main use is programming and watching movies and gaming(but it's not the first priority), and i really want to get this laptop, but I'm sensitive to noise,i can handle wearing headphone while gaming, but not while daily use,so is it louder than the average noise level of most of laptops while daily use ??… and if you can recommend me another laptop even if it has GTX 1060, i will be really thankful.
Andrei Girbea
May 7, 2018 at 10:01 am
The thing is, if you don't want this primarily for gaming, you should probably get something without GSync, that will last longer on battery. There are options out there.
On the other hand, all the thinner gaming laptops get noisy fans, there's just no way around it. This particular laptop isn't very noisy with daily use and it shouldn't get very noisy with programming software either, but with games it will be fairly noisy.
ahmed
May 6, 2018 at 12:13 pm
Great review, if it hasn't been for the loud fans, it would have been a perfect one.
Andrei Girbea
May 7, 2018 at 10:01 am
there's no way around them on a thinner gaming laptop
edbert
May 7, 2018 at 11:35 pm
I got one last week, and already have sent it back due to horrible crashing and BSODs, even after a format and re-install of a clean Win10 Enterprise.
I'm not turned off, I've a 20+ year love affair with Asus and ordered another one already.
Jory
May 16, 2018 at 3:55 pm
From Where did you order it ?
edbert
June 5, 2018 at 3:05 pm
I ordered from Amazon, the reseller was a real problem, they told me to return it then wanted to charge a $400 "restocking fee". I'm withholding their name for now, it has been three weeks since they got the machine and so far they have not refunded a penny.
The good news is that the replacement is working great, I'll confess to seeing two BSODs in the last 3+ weeks, so far always when one particular game is running, but it is in open beta so…who knows. This second unit is perfectly acceptable in the stability department.
M.Can
September 28, 2018 at 3:02 pm
Edbert would mind informing me about how is your laptop doing so far? it acurred to me the products of may and june are mostly defective, becouse there are no negative feedbacks in July and September. Yet still I don`t intend to play laptop lottery with 2k$. Also did you get all updates with Asus update utility? Have you done any undervolting etc, thanks in advance and good luck mate.
edbert
September 28, 2018 at 5:17 pm
I am currently on my third unit, all were made before July. Reseller will not offer another RMA. Asus says to send it in, but I know of people who wait weeks to action and Asus will probably say (like the reseller does) that they cannot find anything wrong with it.
I have updated all of the Asus software/drivers/utilities (not all were accomplished with Asus Update tool) and have patched the BIOS with the only update available. I have NOT experimented with undervolting. I have some experience with overclocking and thought it was like underclocking. I understand that is not the case but since I'm new to the technique I'm reluctant to start without instructions specific to my unit.
That said, yes, my $2K "gaming laptop" works great for anything I want to do with it …EXCEPT PLAY GAMES. I get 10 to 20 minutes before it BSODs.
Andrei Girbea
September 28, 2018 at 5:31 pm
Undervolting the CPU is simple and safe and explained here: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/10167-laptop-undervolting-overcloking/ . It's imo simpler and safer to perform than overcloking. These CPUs can easily undervolt to at least -100 mV, but you can start with a safer level, like -80mV. I haven't yet found a 8750H laptop that's unstable at -100 mV.
No need to stress test with Prime, you can use Cinebench R15 and just run the multicore test several times in a loop. If it doesn't BSOD, you can try to play your games next and see if it helps. It would also help to log your temperatures and CPU/GPU frequencies with HWinfo, before and after undervolting. Launch in sensor mode, right click on the field of interest and then select show graph. It's pretty intuitive, you'll get a log similar to the one we have in the performance section.
Of course, all these might solve nothing. But if thermals cause the BSODs, undervolting might help. Up to you.
Ed Bert
October 3, 2018 at 1:45 am
My reply is for Andrei, but his post did not have a reply button.
I just wanted to reply to say 1.) I am not ignoring you. 2.) I did not mess with the stress tool yet but I have ThrottleStop 8.70 set like this…
Voltage Default (cannot go lower only higher)
Offset Voltage -102.5mV
VCCIN Default (cannot go lower only higher)
IccMax 128.00A
I set it to log to txt and played a game (I chose one of the most problematic ones…Armored Warfare) for about an hour with infrequent pauses in between battles. Exporting the TXT to CSV shows the highest CPU temp was 76C, and this is in a room that is about 76F. I'm not sure if that is good or bad, and I have no metrics from "before", but the good news is that I played for about an hour and no crash or BSOD.
Way too soon to say solved, and even if it is not truly solved this is better, I owe you a big ole THANK YOU!
Do you think that my undervolt is too aggressive? Maybe that is what the stress test was for. To be honest, the fans (set to dynamic in ROG Game Center) stayed a little quieter than they did when I was crashing before, I'm thinking that meant my temps are lower now.
Andrei Girbea
October 3, 2018 at 11:24 am
Hi Ed. I'm glad this helped. I don't think the undervolt is too aggressive, I've had 8750Hs run perfectly stable at -120mV and even a bit lower.
As for the temperatures, they're better than what I got on the test unit ( https://www.ultrabookreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/perf-temps-gaming-undervolted-balanced.png ), although they're highly dependent on each game. Either way, they should be lower than on the default profile. I wouldn't worry about stress testing, just keep using the laptop and see how it goes on the long term.
Mohamed Badawi
May 8, 2018 at 2:11 am
Hi Andrei,
Have you tried nvdia optimus on this laptop as on paper it should support it, and how it is affecting battery life?
Thanks
Andrei Girbea
May 8, 2018 at 11:19 am
There's no Optimus, this has GSync and the Intel chip id disabled.
Ajith Kumar K
January 22, 2019 at 1:56 pm
Is there a way to enable the intel chip? I find it very difficult to render my videos in premiere pro. Please help me out.
Andrei Girbea
January 22, 2019 at 2:10 pm
No, the Intel chip is inactive with this laptop, due to having GSync. What's the issue with Premiere?
Iskan
May 8, 2018 at 11:19 pm
Clevo PA71ES-G is another great alternative. According to pundits over at Notebookreview forum, MSI Stealth line is riddled with issues, ASUS has poor thermal design as with poor QC and A/S, and Aorus is heavily overpriced. So really there are only two lightweight 17" players here: MSI GE73 Raider and Clevo PA71.
Andrei Girbea
May 9, 2018 at 10:42 am
thanks, updated and added the Clevo as a suggestion as well.
Starrbuck
May 9, 2018 at 9:03 pm
The ROG logo on the back of the screen is backlit.
Evgeniy
May 10, 2018 at 12:22 pm
Thanks for review!
Arka Banerjee
May 15, 2018 at 10:40 pm
Hi admin….,in terms of gaming performance and thermals, which one is better between this one and the msi ge73 8rf. I really do rely on ultrabookreview reviews and this one is very important to know for me
Andrei Girbea
May 17, 2018 at 11:14 am
I haven't reviewed the GE73, but you should check notebookcheck for more details, they have very indepth reviews as well.
manuel
June 14, 2018 at 11:41 am
Did you buy any of them? I am also doubting between those 2. I wish the new scar II came also in 17.3 since it seems like they finally improved the heat problems
Luis
May 16, 2018 at 4:36 pm
I could do a review on YouTube, I'm interested in this notebook but before buying I would like a full review
Ooi Yin Ken
May 17, 2018 at 11:55 am
Was into acer nitro v17 since 2017 , 1 year reading ur review
Got into action this Monday , but Malaysia Acer has stopped this product
Then got recommended this 17inch scar edi , as I again read ur review , bought it yesterday.
Just want to exclaim my thanks here , ur website is really helpful ..
As it expose all the truth for laptop , which is so important for us consumer.
Thank you and God bless you !
Casey
June 25, 2018 at 10:50 pm
Is there anyway to improve battery life? Perhaps upgrading the battery yourself? Maybe there’s some kind of software?
Andrei Girbea
June 29, 2018 at 4:16 pm
Not really. Undervolting should help a little bit, keeping the CPU's speed low and dimming the screen
Mark
July 16, 2018 at 12:09 am
Really good review, thx.
Tom
July 20, 2018 at 5:29 pm
Great review. Really helped me make my decision (thanks!) and have no complaints since getting mine about a month ago. I went with the 17.3", Core i7-8750HQ processor, 16 GB of RAM, GTX 1070 graphics, 512GB PCIe SSD/1 TB HDD – Runs super smooth.
Cons are well covered above and typical for this type of product: Volume of fans is bearable. You're not buying it for battery life, but still infinitely more practical than a desktop. Heats up but won't turn your room into a sauna. The lack of Thunderbolt 3 is a bit lame, and a 4k resolution would have been nice but you can work around both of these.
One thing you didn't mention was that it comes with a neat backpack, gaming mouse and gaming headset – great little perk which I think sets it apart from the MSI rivals.
Hands down best laptop on the market for under £2k IMO.
Andrei Girbea
July 23, 2018 at 10:11 pm
Thanks, they don't include those accessories over here. Will add to the review.
Alush
October 7, 2018 at 4:10 pm
Hy there.could you recomend a good gaming laptop for me?i want to chose between this asus and the acer predator helios 500.on paper specs are the same 1070 gpu with i7 gen8 144hz screen.but dont know witch is better.from what i know the asus has cooling problems while the acer is better at it.plus the acer has a thunderbolt.i am rly confused about these 2.rly would like some advice.ps i live in romania and if you could also recomend a place where to buy them that would be great.
Andrei Girbea
October 8, 2018 at 12:54 pm
We haven't reviewed the Helios 500 so can't comment on its subterfuges. Both should be good buys, with pros and cons. Try to read several good reviews and figure out which is the better pick for you
Can Yuksel
July 24, 2018 at 12:49 am
Hi,
Instead of gaming I consider this laptop for video editing (adobe products) and 3d render works. However, color accuracy and Adobe RGB color performance(75% as far as I know) bothers me. Battery performance is no problem at all. Would you recommend this laptop for video editing(also for color grading) or should I go with Dell XPS series?
Thanks for great review!
Andrei Girbea
July 24, 2018 at 12:45 pm
I don't think that screen is accurate enough for color grading. I'd go with something else, there are 15 and 17 inch laptops with 100% ARGB screens out there
Hari
October 5, 2018 at 1:05 pm
Thank you for the great review. This is one of my target that I want buy.
Can you give your opinion which one is better for daily usage at college and gaming? Asus ROG GL703GS or MSI GS73VR 8RF ?
Sorry for my bad English
Thank you
Andrei Girbea
October 8, 2018 at 12:49 pm
Both are good options, with pros and cons. Read reviews and try to figure out which one better suits your needs.
hexaae
December 7, 2018 at 5:45 pm
ASUS GL703GS-E5012T
THREE BIG ISSUES:
1. BSODs and freezes while playing (updated everything or even out-of-the-box)
2. panel AUO B173HAN03.2 [AUO329D] is faulty showing ugly inverse ghosting trails (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_qXG8TjcSE )
3. all USB3.x ports disconnect frequently while copying big amount of files (20GB) from external USB3.0 drive to internal disks, even from out-of-the-box config and after factory reset
Sent RMA, but I'm afraid these are "common issues" reported by many other users
Andrei Girbea
December 9, 2018 at 4:34 pm
1. you might be able to do something about that by undervolting the CPU. See some of the other comments above.
Unfortunately I haven't tested 2 and 3 during my limited time with the laptop
hexaae
December 9, 2018 at 5:53 pm
Yep, but it still freezes after undervolting -150mV (core and cache) with ThrottleStop unfortunately. Contacted ASUS for RMA in the meanwhile… temps are in the "normal" range for gaming laptop (CPU 88°C, GPU 78°C) :(
3 seems ok for some other users so mine might be just a faulty unit with power issues.
Andrei Girbea
December 10, 2018 at 2:40 pm
Well, QC is problematic with a lot of laptops these days and you unfortunately draw a short straw. Good thing you can RMA.
Aedthicz
December 9, 2018 at 10:07 pm
I have this problem too. Game freezes for like 1 second during long sessions of gaming… I didn't find any solution for that, i don't even know why this happening.
Hexaae
January 22, 2019 at 4:08 am
Just wanted to updated my adventure: on 2nd (!) RMA they finally changed my mobo and…
Issues 1, 3 solved!
As I supposed must have been some sort of underpower issue with the faulty mobo causing dead USB devices and also random freezes.
Unfortunately it also came back with much higher temps, probably due to bad thermal pasting: CPU 98-99°C (was 88-90 max) and GPU 88°C (was 82 max), so there'll be a 3rd RMA in a raw! :(
Aedthicz
December 9, 2018 at 10:05 pm
I've just bought this laptop. It came with 1x16gb of ram. If i add another 1×16, total of 32gb would be any difference in game performance?
Andrei Girbea
December 10, 2018 at 2:41 pm
No, 16 GB are mostly enough for gaming
Hexaae
December 10, 2018 at 7:00 pm
Of course. Dual channel makes a big difference as usual. From my tests on my GL703GS Lords of the Fallen (demanding on both cpu and gpu) switched from 89-93fps to 109-113 in dual channel (2x16GB filling the empty ram slot)…
Panos
January 7, 2019 at 3:09 pm
Hi there,
I am interested in the reviewed laptop (with 16GB RAM though). I want to use it for 'heavy' software such as Agisoft for Photogrammetry or ArcGIS..Do you think it is sufficient or should I look for something else?
Andrei Girbea
January 7, 2019 at 3:15 pm
My review unit performed well, but if you'll go through the comments and look on reddit/forums you might find that some people are complaining about performance in demanding CPU/GPU loads, so you might want to further look into this matter. The MSI GE73 might also be something to consider if you're after a fairly portable 17-inch laptop with this kind of specs, but keep in mind that's only available with a TN screen.
Panos
January 8, 2019 at 12:40 pm
Thanks! That is really helpful. Anyway, for my budget I think this is good enough and perhaps later I”ll upgrade it.
hexaae
March 5, 2019 at 12:45 am
A question about (much better) color profile kindly provided in this review:
is it possible to edit it to remove a little bit more the yellowish tint still present?
What (free) tool can I use, if you can't directly help?
Thank you
Andrei Girbea
March 5, 2019 at 11:47 am
You might be able to with the Color Settings in the Nvidia Control Panel.
hexaae
March 5, 2019 at 10:39 pm
Uhm, no that will not work. Was looking for a ICM profile editor, but can't find anything… just profile inspector tools but nothing to alter calibration parameters. :-(
Andrei Girbea
March 6, 2019 at 12:24 pm
Sry, I haven't looked into this matter. The included profile is what Sypder4 shoots out. Perhaps there's a way to play with the Night Mode settings in Windows or perhaps the Asus Splendid utility? Those might only help warming the image though, not cooling it as you want.
Claudiu
May 5, 2019 at 7:52 pm
Hi Andrei,
After reading your review of the GL703GS i decided to buy it since i was in need of an upgrade from my GL552VW, wanted a [email protected], gsync was optional, and since imho i did not find one solid reason to spend a few hundred pounds on a RTX2070 for what i will need the laptop in the next 2-3 years, decided to get this since i found it for a nice 1500£(512GB ssd+1tb hdd,16GB ram)(no backpack,mouse and headset tough).
First impression: REALLY HOT, i mean the cpu went straight to 95-96 degrees with fans on overboost in gaming, so way to hot for my taste, so undervolted stable to -150mv with throttlestop, and the cpu boosts to 3.9Mhz without any issues, also very important to note while i play im in bed,with the laptop on my lap, atm using the old 15inch cooling pad(still thinking which 17inch cooling pad to get), and maybe change the thermal paste when i have the time. The screen is fantastic, specially compared to my old laptop, speakers are loud, BUT…sometimes the sound is "cracking", but only happens in games and exclusivly on the speakers(headphones no issues) and from what i read on some forums there are some issues with the speakers beying like that.
The thing that actually bothers me is this: quite often when i turn the laptop on, the screen stays black, i can hear windows starting etc, and i cant do nothing, only thing i can is ctrl-alt-del untill it restarts, or power button to force shutdown. since i only use it plugged it, i disabled sleep/hibernate etc from the power menu, nothing powers down while on AC power, happened once i closed the lid, came back later, the screen was black and everything else running, had to force shutdown…should i be worried about this?, because i havent found any issues like this online.
All in all i am happy, save for the minor incoveniences from above.
p.s. boxele caraie pe romaneste, doar in jocuri am observat, am dezactivat tot in sonic studio, e default, daca ai putea sa imi recomanzi un colling pad de 17 inch ar fi fantastic, sincer reviewul tau mi sa parut cel mai uman posibil, la obiect cu bune si ele, felicitari.
Andrei Girbea
May 6, 2019 at 9:33 am
1. Not sure what to say about that black screen issue. I've come across it over the years on various laptops, but occasionally and never dug for a solution. Perhaps Reddit or the forums at notebookreview can offer some help
2. Do the speakers make that creaking noise all the time? And both of them creak, or just the one? IN the past, I noticed that sometimes the speakers were not properly mounted, and that caused distortions. As you can see here, they have soem rubber gaskets: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/internals-battery-speaker.jpg . I'd make sure they're properly placed on your unit.
3. I don't use cooling pads, but amazon should be a good place to start your search, and pick something based on reviews
Claudiu
May 6, 2019 at 8:32 pm
1. i think i exagerated a little with the black screen being "often", it was actually 3-4 times in one month since i bought the unit(still for this price range and a highend unit is unaceptable from my point of view), will try some forums maybe someone came across it.
2. it happens random, when i will open it to change the thermal paste i will look into that.
3. finding it a bit hard to find a cooling pad which is decent in reviews and the proper size since the laptop is 41cmx27cm.
thanks for the reply.
Eugene
May 18, 2019 at 7:42 am
" Black screen , when you hear windows starting etc. "
– I had this issue on 2 office laptops (Dell, Hp ), – solution is to close and open the lid : )
PEPITO ANTE
September 22, 2020 at 2:16 pm
Hi, is anyone to this ROG SCAR STRIX EDITION GL703 experiencing randomly shutdown while you plug-in to power supply?
Momchil
May 15, 2019 at 2:28 pm
I cannot find just 1 detail in the review. Did you detect PWM flickering in the display?
Andrei Girbea
May 15, 2019 at 3:07 pm
This uses PWM, but only under 20% brightness and at 25 KHz, so flickering is not going to be a problem.
Bjork
July 22, 2019 at 12:02 pm
Hi there, bought this computer a while ago, i love it.
My question is regarding possibility of upgrading the RAM. Mine came with 16 GB DDR4 at 2667MHZ.
Is it possible for me to buy 2 x 16 GB DDR5 at 3200 mhz speed? Is that compatible with this laptop?
Kindly advice and happy to hear from you
Andrei Girbea
July 22, 2019 at 1:09 pm
Are you sure you meant DDR5 and not DDR4? That's not even available, and I doubt DDR5 is even compatible with the DDR4 form factor. If you meant DDR$, I don't know if it can actually work at those speeds with this platform, but perhaps someone else who might have tried it can pitch in
De nada
May 27, 2020 at 7:16 am
I purchased this laptop in November 2018, but I got the 16gb / 512 ssd / 1tb sshd version
I am still using it to this day and iv never had a single issue with it, not 1 crash or bsod, I haven't had to undervolt it or anything. I dont know if I just got a lucky pick or what but my cpu temp never jumps over 80 and my gpu doesnt even touch 70 even under strain.
I run it on overboost all day long and the sounds doesnt bother me too much but I do make good use of the included headset, this isnt much of an issue as i would use a headset regardless of the noise.
The battery life sucks, I tested it out of curiosity and got less than an hour from full charge while gaming, but it's a gaming laptop so what else do you expect. It doesnt really leave my house so its virtually always plugged in.
I use an external mechanical keyboard and gaming mouse so I very rarely even touch the laptop and after years is still looks and performs like it was new, I generally get much better ingame results than most people using more high end pc builds which for a laptop is pretty amazing.
This was my first gaming computer, I had previously only ever used consoles so I did a lot of research before smashing $2k, it was a big decision to go for a laptop rather than a pc as most would have done considering it never leaves my house anyway.
I have a regular asus notebook for day to day use and reserve the rog for gaming only. I opted however for portability and comfort in my gaming system and it really paid off.
I purchased the 1060 version prior to this and I scooped it up brand new for 1k, that did have problems with bsod so I returned it, despite this I was really taken by my experience in general with the laptop so I doubled my spend and got the 1070 version from scan in the black friday sales and since then I haven't felt the need to upgrade a single time, even after the release of the RTX cards.