REVIEW: Asus ROG Strix GL703GS SCAR Edition – i7-8750H, GTX 1070 and 17-inch screen with GSync

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Specs Sheet
Design and exterior
Keyboard and trackpad
Screen
Hardware and performance
Noise, heat and speakers
Battery life
Price and availability
Final thoughts
Comments

By Andrei GirbeaAsus ROG Strix SCAR Edition GL703GS, last updated on October 6, 2023

Asus ROG Strix SCAR Edition GL703GS

Summary: The updated 2018 version of the Asus ROG SCAR Edition is one one the best balanced 17-inch gaming laptops out there. It's built well, is fairly compact and light for its class, it includes the latest in terms of hardware specs and a fast 144 Hz screen with GSync. Last, but definitely not least, it performs admirable in games and other demanding loads. It can get very loud though, and due to GSync it's not going to last for long on a charge. Read on for more details.

Our score: 4.5 / 5
Price when reviewed: $1899

THE GOOD

well made, nice design lines
portable and light for what it is
gets a matte 144 HZ IPS screen with GSync
performs well and can be easily tweaked to perform flawlessly
easy to upgrade
punchy speakers
fair-sized battery

THE BAD

the keyboard needs some time to get used to
the fans can get very loud under load
short battery life due to GSync

Table of Contents

Specs as reviewed
Design and first look
Keyboard and trackpad
Screen
Hardware and performance
Emissions (noise, heat), Connectivity and speakers
Battery life
Price and availability
Final thoughts

In this article we’ve gathered our impressions on the updated 2018 model of the Asus ROG Strix SCAR Edition GL703GS. That’s a mouthful, in Asus’s “good” tradition, but this laptop is definitely interesting as a powerful 17-inch gaming machine with the latest hardware features and a fairly compact and light form-factor.

In fact it weighs just a little over 6.2 pounds and is less than an inch thick, despite packing a 17-inch display. It doesn’t get a bezeles design, like some of the modern 15-inchers do, but the edges around the screen are still fairly compact and overall this laptop is surprisingly portable for its category.

Despite that, Asus crammed the latest and greatest inside, namely a Coffee Lake Intel Core i7-8750H processor, 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, Nvidia GTX 1070 graphics, hybrid storage, a FHD IPS panel with 144 Hz refresh rate and GSync, as well as a 76 Wh battery. Other configurations are also available, but our test unit is the higher specked version of the SCAR Edition, with a selling price of $1899 at the time of the article.

Read on to find out how the ROG Strix GL703GS feels and performs in actual use, so you’ll know what to expect if interested in buying one of these.

Specs as reviewed

	Asus ROG Strix SCAR Edition GL703GS
Screen	17.3 inch, 1920 x 1080 px, 144 Hz, IPS, GSync non-touch, matte
Processor	Intel Kaby Lake Core i7-8750H CPU
Vide0	Intel HD 630 + Nvidia GT 1070 8GB
Memory	32 GB DDR4 (2x DIMMs)
Storage	256 GB SSD (M.2 PCIe) + 1 TB 5400 rpm HDD (2.5″)
Connectivity	Gigabit LAN, Wireless AC (Intel AC 9560) , Bluetooth 4.1
Ports	4x USB-A 3.1, 1x USB-C, HDMI 2.0, mDP 1.2, LAN, SD card reader, mic/headphone, Kensington Lock
Battery	76 Wh, 230 W charger
OS	Windows 10
Size	411 mm or 16.2” (w) x 274 mm or 10.8” (d) x 24 mm or 0.94” (h)
Weight	6.2 lbs (2.82 kg) + 1.54 lbs (.7 kg) for the charger
Extras	4-zone RGB backlit keyboard, webcam

Asus also offers a 15-inch version of this laptop, the ROG Strix GL503VS, with a similar 144 Hz GSync screen and GTX 1070 graphics, but smaller and lighter. You can find all about it in our detailed review.

Design and first look

On the outside the 2018 version of the GL703 series hasn’t changed from the 2017 models.

The design lines are fairly simple for a gaming laptop, with a Gunmetal Gray color scheme. Plastic is used for the inner deck, with a carbon-fiber like finishing. It’s not as soft as on the Dell XPS, but it feels nice and should age well and fend off scratches. The edges, bottom and bezels around the display are made from rougher plastic, while the outer lid gets a brushed aluminum cover.

There’s also a big ROG logo on the hood, but it’s just chromed, not backlit, and all the other branding elements are fairly subtle, although plastered all around the keyboard. There are no lights on the interior, aside from the status LEDs and the always lit Power button, which are rather inconveniently placed on top of the keyboard, but at least they are dim and you’ll learn to ignore them when watching a movie in a dark room.

On top of the keyboard you’ll also notice a pretty hefty air-intake grill, as this laptop sucks air from both the top and the bottom and expels it through the grills on the back edge. We’ll talk about the cooling system and its performance in a further section.

As far as the build quality goes, the GL703GS gets a plastic inner chassis, but it feels solid on the desk, with very little flex in the keyboard deck or the arm-rest. The lid is strongly built as well, so you shouldn’t concern yourself much over carrying this computer in your backpack all the time, it should handle daily hassle just fine.

Two sturdy hinges attach the screen to the laptop’s main body and they’re just the right amount of softness and stiffness, as they allow to lift the screen with a single hand, but at the same time hold it as set-up. The display only goes back to about 145 degrees though, which is alright for desk use, but can be limiting in other situations.

The GL703GS ticks some other practically aspects as well. It has a low profile and blunt edges and corners that won’t bite into your wrists when typing, it also gets a spacious palm-rest and the rubber feet on the bottom keep it well anchored on a desk. Down here you’ll also notice there’s a hardware quick-access bay, but no speaker cuts, as the speakers fire through the grills on the lateral edges.

As far as the IO goes, there’s almost nothing missing on this laptop, with 4x full size USB A slots, one USB-C port, mDP 1.2 and HDMI 2.0 for video output, a LAN connector, a headphone/mic jack and Kensington Lock, as well as a card-reader. There’s no Thunderbolt 3 though, which I believe Asus should have included on this 2018 update.

All in all I like what Asus did with the ROG Strix GL703GS. It doesn’t use exquisite materials or finishings, but is made well, feels nice in daily use, looks simple enough and at the same time gets enough proprietary design accents to make it stand out from the competition, and checks all the right boxes when it comes to practicality. On top of all these, the GL703 is also fairly thin and light for a 17-incher, which are highly important quirks for those of you who carry your computer around everyday.

Keyboard and trackpad

This laptop types well, but if you’re coming from ultraportables with short key travel, you’ll need some time to get used to its feedback and the fact that you have to press certain keys a little firmer to actuate properly. This caused me a fair bit of errors in the beginning, but after typing several thousands of words on it, I can conclude that I really like this keyboard and it’s a solid option for both typists and for gaming.

The layout is pretty standard for recent Asus ROG laptops, with a proper sized main deck of keys, but a cramped NumPad section and narrow directional keys, which are rather tough to accept on a gaming computer. There are also some separated multimedia keys, and the Power Button is not part of the keyboard, as with other layouts.

The keys have an 18 mm drop and a nice soft finishing, with a slightly concave shape, so feel great to the touch. They actuate quickly and offer springy feedback, but like I said above, need a bit more force to click than the shallower and softer keys on my Dell XPS 13, for instance, despite the fact that they integrate some sort of over-stroke technology meant to register clicks without a complete press (Asus calls them fast-actuating keys). That’s not something I’m complaining of, it’s just something I personally had to adapt to. If you’re coming from older laptops you’ll probably get used to this keyboard much easier.

The keyboard is also backlit, with RGB LEDs split in 4 different zones that can be controlled from the preinstalled AURA software. They can’t be controlled individually though, like on some of this laptop’s rivals.

Those of you interested in gaming will also appreciate that the keyboard gets n-key rollover and the keys are supposedly guaranteed for 20 million presses, twice the norm of a standard laptop keyboard.

As far as the trackpad goes, it’s fairly well sized and placed beneath the Space key. It’s not a clickpad, but a regular trackpad with dedicated physical click buttons, and I’m a big fan of these implementations. The click buttons are smooth and quiet, although they do feel a bit rough to the touch.

The actual trackpad is made by Elan, has a smooth plastic surface and Precision drivers, so it works pretty much flawlessly with swipes, gestures and taps.

Screen

The Asus ROG GL703 gets a 17.3-inch display with a matte finishing and an IPS panel with a 144 Hz refresh rate and GSync. Corroborated with the advertised 3 ms response time (probably GTG), this is perfect for fast-action games and gaming in general. It’s hard to put this in words, but gaming on a fast screen with GSync is a completely different experience, much smoother and more fluent, and you’ll probably become addicted once you sample it for a while.

This panel is not just fast though, it’s also pretty good overall, with above average brightness, colors and contrast, as you can see below:

Panel HardwareID: AU Optronics AUO329D (B173HAN03.2);
Coverage: 97% sRGB, 72% NTSC, 75% AdobeRGB;
Measured gamma: 2.2;
Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 275 cd/m2 on power;
Contrast at max brightness: 710:1
White point: 6800 K;
Black on max brightness: 0.39 cd/m2;
Average DeltaE: 1.10 uncalibrated, 0.85 calibrated.

You’ll want to use our calibrated color profile to address the slight White Point and gray levels imbalances, albeit this panel is fairly well calibrated out of the box.

As far as the resolution and color coverage go, there are better options out there for those of you interested in professional work, but for gaming and everyday use this panel works perfectly fine. It’s also fairly uniform in color and brightness, there’s no noticeable light bleeding around the edges, and although the maximum brightness is only average, that shouldn’t be a problem on a computer that will probably spend most of its life indoors.

Hardware and performance

As I mentioned in the beginning, our test unit is the higher-tier configuration of the ROG Strix SCAR Edition GL703GS, with the six-core Intel Core i7-8750H processor, 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, Nvidia GTX 1070 8GB graphics and dual storage, with a PCIe SSD and a spinning HDD.

You can get this in stores with GTX 1060 graphics as well, but keep in mind the GPU is not upgradeable. The RAM and storage are though, and in order to get to them you just have to remove the quick-access plastic bay on the back, hold in place by a single screw. Just one of the RAM slots is easily accessible, but that shouldn’t be a problem, as the available configurations should come with this slot unoccupied.

In order to get to the other slot, the cooling system or the wireless chip you’ll have to unscrew the entire bottom. Keep in mind you first have to remove the HDD and there’s also one more screw near the RAM slot, alongside all the other screws on the back panel. It’s a fairly simple task, just make sure to get all the screws and remember where each came from, as they’re of different sizes.

When it comes to the performance, this laptop can of course easily handle everyday activities like browsing and movies and so on.

You’ll probably buy this for demanding applications and games though.

The CPU performs admirably in most cases, but like expected from a six-core implementation inside a thin platform, it can’t maintain maximum Turbo Core speeds with prolonged full loads. We ran Cinebench in a loop and were able to get results above 1050 points for the first two runs, with the CPU’s TDP initially jumping to 75W and then stabilizing at around 40W once the package reaches temperatures of above 95C. As the CPU heats up, the next runs returned scores between 950 and 1000 points, as the speeds dropped quicker. Check out the picture below for more details.

I also ran a standard set of tests and benchmarks, and the results are available below.

3DMark 11: P17811 (Physics – 12805, Graphics – 20741);
3DMark 13: Sky Driver –32849, Fire Strike – 13498, Time Spy – 5408;
3DMark 13 – Graphics: Sky Driver – 52810, Fire Strike – 15092, Time Spy – 5448;
PCMark 08: Home Conventional – 5256;
PCMark 108: 4635;
PassMark: 6309 (CPU – 14011, 3D Graphics – NA);
Geekbench 3 32-bit: Single-Core: 4138, Multi-core: 22129;
Geekbench 4 64-bit: Single-Core: 5059, Multi-core: 21439;
CineBench 11.5: OpenGL 76.17 fps, CPU 12.11 pts, CPU Single Core 1.93 pts;
CineBench R15: OpenGL 117.28 fps, CPU 1065 cb, CPU Single Core 169 cb;
x264 HD Benchmark 4.0 32-bit: Pass 1 – 198.48 fps, Pass 2 – 61.75 fps.

The I proceeded an undervolted the CPU with Throttlestop. I only went to -120 mV, and the i7-8750H performed flawlessly at this level, so there’s probably room to undervolt it even more. Still, this setting should get you enough. With the CPU undervolted, Cinebench R15 returned scores of around 1200 points for the first two runs, and then settled for scores of around 1050 to 1100 points. The CPU runs at a lower TDP of 65W with the undervolting, and as a result builds heat slowly and is capable of running at high frequencies for a longer period of time.

Undervolting has a slight impact on other benchmarks as well, especially on those that emphasize on the CPU’s multi-threaded capabilities, but also a small effect in games, allowing the CPU to run at more consistent Turbo frequencies than it does by default.

3DMark 13 Fire Strike: Physics – 16711 (vs 15525 default), Graphics – 14878;
Geekbench 4 64-bit: Single-Core: 5034, Multi-core: 22113;
CineBench R15: OpenGL 118.70 fps, CPU 1198 cb, CPU Single Core 169 cb;

When it comes to the gaming performance we should also talk about the fact that the fans inside this laptop get three speed settings: Silent, Balanced and Overboost.

With the default CPU settings (no undervolting) and the Balanced fan profile, the CPU reaches temperatures of around 90 C in games, while the GPU settles at around 82 C. This translates in an average fan-noise of around 51-52 dB at head level, which is loud, but not unreasonable for this kind of computer. Switching to Overboost causes the fans to spin much faster and much louder (56-57 dB at head level).

On Overboost the CPU runs at higher Wattage and thus higher Turbo frequencies, with fluctuations, while the GPU runs at 2-5% higher clocks as well and stabilizes at just about 77-78 C. In other words the Overboost setting improves on the laptop’s performance, but at the same time makes the computer pretty much unusable without headphones.

I was also curious on the impact of undervolting the CPU on the gaming performance.

While keeping the laptop on the Balanced mode, which makes living with it more bearable, the CPU runs at slightly higher Turbo clocks and 1-2 C lower temperatures then it does out of the box, with no impact on the GPU’s behavior. On Overboost the CPU runs consistently at 4.0 GHz, its maximum Turbo Clock speeed, while averaging temperatures of 85 C, and the GPU settles at about 74-75 C, but with no increase in performance, which is normal since we only undervolted the CPU and did not mingle with the graphics in any way. Even so, the fact that the CPU runs cooler also has an impact on the GPU’s temperatures, as the cooling solution uses some shared heatpipes, as you’ll see in the next section.

Moving on, if you’re curious how the ROG GL703GS performs in games, here’s what we got with the default settings and the Balanced fan mode. Don’t forget this also comes with GSync, which means it offers a solid and fluent experience for FHD gaming with maximum details in most titles, with few exceptions that will require you to trim down the settings.

	FHD Ultra
Shadow of Mordor	145 fps
Grid Autosport	131 fps
Tomb Raider	131 fps
Bioshock Infinite	137 fps
FarCry 4	92 fps
Total War: Attila	49 fps

It’a also worth mentioning that these results improve by 2-5% when using the Overboost fan setting and undervolting the CPU.

Emissions (noise, heat), Connectivity and speakers

There are 3 fans inside this laptop and a complex system of heat-pipes, as you can see in the picture below. The two larger CPU and GPU fans spin independently of each other, and they’re 12v fans with thin fins and dust-exhaust channels, similar to those we’ve previously seen on the Asus TUF FX504 series.

As I mentioned earlier, the fans get three profiles: Silent, Balanced and Overboost. We measured the temperatures in daily use and gaming while using the Balanced profile.

With daily use both the CPU and GPU fans spin most of the time, but at low speeds that translate in noise levels of about 37-38 dB at head level, enough to be heard in a quiet room, but easy to cover by the speakers and surrounding noise in a normal environment. I didn’t notice any significant change when switching to the Silent mode, although in this case the GPU fan would occasionally switch off, but without a noticeable drop in the perceived noise.

With games the fans spin faster and average around 51-52 dB at head level on the Balanced mode, and 56-57 dB on the Overboost mode. The Overboost mode impact performance to a small degree, as explained above, but I’d reckon the people coexisting with you in the same room while paying games won’t like your extremely noisy computer much.

On the other hand, the GL703GS runs fairly cool with demanding loads and games, considering it’s build and the hardware inside.

*Daily Use – 1080p Youtube clip in EDGE for 30 minutes
*Load – playing FarCry 4 for 30 minutes

There’s Gigabit Lan, Wireless AC and Bluetooth on the ROG GL703GS. We’ve mostly used it on wireless and the newer generation 802.11ac 2×2 Wave 2 Intel Cannon Lake 9560 implementation performed well with daily use and in our tests, both near and further away from the router. However, I had to switch to the 2.4 GHz connection when using the laptop farther than 40 feet from my router, as it dropped on 5 GHz, something that rarely happened on other notebooks.

This laptop gets a set of stereo speakers firing through some small cuts on the sides. They’re averagely loud at about 81-82 dB max volume at head level, but the sound coming out of them is clean and fairly rich. You can also adjust it in the included Sonic Studio application.

I’ll also mention the camera placed on top of the screen, flanked by microphones. It’s nothing to brag about, but has a wide viewing angle and takes good enough shots in a well lit room.

Battery life

There’s a 76 Wh battery on the Asus ROG GL703GS, which is fair-sized for a 17-incher these days. But there’s also GSync on this computer, which means the Nvidia chip is active all the time, so don’t expect much in terms of battery life.

Here’s what we got, with the screen’s brightness set at 30%, which is roughly 120 nits, what we consider good enough for indoor use.

23 W (~3 h 20 min of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Balanced Mode, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON;
26 W (~3 min of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Internet Explorer, Balanced Mode, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON;
21.5 W (~3 h 30 min of use) – 1080p fullscreen .mkv video in the Movie app, Balanced Mode, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON;
28 W (~2 h 40 min of use) – 4K fullscreen .mkv video in the Movie app, Balanced Mode, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON;
37 W (~2 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Balanced Mode, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON;
50 W (~1 h 30 min of use) – gaming on battery, High Performance Mode, screen at 30%, Wi-Fi ON.

The laptop comes with a fairly compact 230 W power brick (the same size as the 120W brick on the TUF FX504 and FX505, but slightly thicker and heavier at 1.5 lbs/ 0.7 kg) and a full charge takes around 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Price and availability

The Asus ROG Strix SCAR Edition GL703GS is available in stores around the world as of late April 2018.

You’ll find it in a few different configurations, but the ones that makes the most sense buying includes the Core i7-8750HQ processor, 16 GB of RAM, the GTX 1070 graphics, a 256 GB PCIe SSD and a 1 TB HDD for mass storage, for $1899 at the time of this article. The same configurations goes for around 2000 EUR in Europe.

Follow this link for updated configurations and prices at the time you’re reading the post.

Update: It’s worth adding that Asus bundles the laptop with an ROG backpack, mouse and gaming headset in some regions, which can be one more reason to get this laptop for some of you.

Final thoughts

There’s very little not to like about the ROG Strix GL703GS. Some design decisions are perhaps arguable, but the lines are pretty clean and I doubt many will look past this laptop for aesthetic reasons. The keyboard on the other hand could be an antagonizing factor, as the feedback needs some time to get used to, the layout isn’t perfect and there’s no ability to individually control each key’s back-lightning, like one some of the competitors.

Battery life might also weigh heavy in your decision, as this laptop can only offer about 2-3 hours of daily use, since it gets GSync and the GTX graphics are active all the time. But on the other hand this is primarily a gaming machine, and GSync greatly enhances the overall experience so I’d expect gamers would rather get this over having longer battery life.

So when we get to draw the line, if you’re after a fairly compact 17-inch gaming laptop, this notebook should absolutely be on your list. It offers the 144 Hz screen with GSync and performs really well, despite its thinner profile, nearly flawlessly if you undervolt the CPU and put the fans on Overboost. You’ll definitely have to use headphones to cover their noise though, or you can keep them on Balanced and accept a very minor drop in performance that should minimally impact your experience.

As far as competition goes, there aren’t many similar notebooks out there, but the Asus TUF Gaming FX705, MSI Stealth Pro GS73, Gigabyte Auros x7, Clevo PA71ES-G and especially the MSI Raider GE73 could be alternatives worth a look, each with their own shares of strong points and quirks.

That wraps up our review of the Asus ROG Strix SCAR Edition GL703GS. Get in touch if the comments section if you have any feedback, anything to add or any questions that we can help with.

Disclaimer: Our content is reader-supported. If you buy through some of the links on our site, we may earn a commission. Terms.

Review by: Andrei Girbea
Andrei Girbea is a Writer and Editor-in-Chief here at Ultrabookreview.com. I write about mobile technology, laptops and computers in general. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now. I'm a techie with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. I mostly write reviews and thorough guides here on the site, with some occasional columns and first-impression articles.

71 Comments

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 17inch@1080p, 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.

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REVIEW: Asus ROG Strix GL703GS SCAR Edition – i7-8750H, GTX 1070 and 17-inch screen with GSync

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