Asus ROG Zephyrus M GU502 review (GU502GU model – i7-9750H, GTX 1660Ti)

102 Comments

  1. Igor

    June 14, 2019 at 8:03 pm

    Hello! Thank you for review! What will you choose gu502 1660ti vs msi gs65 stealth 1660ti?

    • Andrei Girbea

      June 18, 2019 at 10:59 am

      Both have their pros and cons, but the GU502 is stronger built, so that's the one I'd get IF Thunderbolt 3 would not be a must.

      • Igor

        June 18, 2019 at 9:47 pm

        Thanks for the answer! Why is everyone talking about Thunderbolt 3? What cases do you want to use it in? Connecting an external video card is pointless, where else?

      • Andrei Girbea

        June 19, 2019 at 9:15 am

        pretty much connecting a dGPU, everything else (video, charging, transfer) is possible via the available USB-C port

    • Dani Rumak

      January 5, 2020 at 6:08 pm

      Hey I want a new laptop but don't know if choosing this Zephyrus, MSI P75 Creator 9SD-649ES Intel Core i7-9750H/32GB/1TB SSD/GTX 1660Ti/17.3" or MSI GS75 Stealth 9SD-1039XES Intel Core i7-9750H/16GB/1TB SSD/GTX 1660Ti/17.3". PLEASE HELP ME TO CHOOSE.

  2. Stefan Simov

    June 15, 2019 at 4:14 am

    Was really surprised to read that there is only a $100 difference to the RTX 2060 S model. Although I also highly prefer not to have the AAS, as it overcomplicates things (LED inside the AAS, and the possibility of dust getting inside there), if it offers better cooling with more heatpipes, it's not an easy choice to make. A further $100~$200 cut to the price would be great.

    Looking forward to the Glacier Blue versions as well! They seem to have struck gold with the color choice there.

  3. Sandy

    June 15, 2019 at 10:18 am

    Great review as always. Yes, I agree that it's expensive, and in my country with that price you can get an RTX-powered laptop.

    Please review the new budget Asus ROG Strix G G531. It looks good on paper, and comes with attractive price (at least in Malaysia and Thailand). I'm curious about your view on it. Thank you.

  4. Jauquin Thomas

    July 7, 2019 at 10:45 pm

    How easy is it to tear down and repaste the laptop? Anything I know before attempting to repaste?

    • Andrei Girbea

      July 8, 2019 at 9:47 am

      Not complicated as long as you know what you're doing, the screws are visible once you remove the thermal tape pieces. there's a warranty sticker on one of the screws, so I'm sure you know that repasting voids warranty.

  5. Jasper

    July 15, 2019 at 8:23 pm

    My TimeSpy score is weirdly low on my GU502, it's only getting around 5800 and mines even a 2060 model. I only have it undervolted to -50mv. Do you know what may be the problem? Thanks!

    • Andrei Girbea

      July 15, 2019 at 8:27 pm

      what are the CPU and Graphics subscores?

      • Jasper

        July 15, 2019 at 8:31 pm

        The GPU scored 6116 and the CPU scored 4455.

      • Andrei Girbea

        July 15, 2019 at 8:36 pm

        Looks like the CPU is the issue.
        Are you running the laptop on Turbo?
        Try to run the Cinebench loop test explained in this article and see if you get the same speeds in the Hwinfo log. You can also look at the 3Dmark monitoring numbers and compare the findings to ours, perhaps your CPU heats up very fast and clocks down more aggressively than the one on our unit.

      • Jasper

        July 15, 2019 at 8:39 pm

        I'll try to run the Cinebench test and see. As for the temperature, it only slightly get past 80C and the max clockspeed is 3,990 MHz.

      • Andrei Girbea

        July 15, 2019 at 9:41 pm

        It should score higher than that. Can you confirm you have the latest drivers from the Asus website and you're running on Turbo from Armoury Crate?
        The CPU clocks down for some reason, again, you can check our its behavior with HWinfo >> Sensors and then click on the Core ) frequency >> Show graph and compare to ours in the review.

      • Jasper

        July 15, 2019 at 8:50 pm

        I've run Cinebench for about five times, and the average score was about 1125, which is lower than the score you tested.

      • Carlos

        July 31, 2019 at 4:51 pm

        Are you running in dual or single channel mode? In my case, I got lower scores in Time Spy as happened to you, but I was running on single channel. I ordered a Samsung 16GB RAM module and once I have it, I will rerun the benchmark. I can tell you the new results then, if you are interested.

      • Andrei Girbea

        July 31, 2019 at 5:05 pm

        Dual, that's explained in the article. You should get better with dual, gaming is especially influenced by having dual-channel memory, but also some of the GPU results

      • Carlos

        July 31, 2019 at 5:28 pm

        Sorry Andrei, that answer was meant for Jasper. I tried to edit the comment but I couldn’t. I guess then that Jasper is running on single channel mode.

      • Andrei Girbea

        July 31, 2019 at 5:57 pm

        Oh, OK, sry there's no editing option right now.

      • Jasper

        August 3, 2019 at 7:06 pm

        Hi Carlos, my laptop did indeed run in single-channel mode, and I forgot the laptop in this review is running in dual-channel mode. But now I've purchased a 16GB ram for my laptop and now the performance is closer with the laptop in this review.

  6. hai

    July 25, 2019 at 12:55 pm

    Can I use 2 SSD PCIe x4 for this laptop? I mean that I will remove existed SSD and place 2 others PCIe x4 SSD

    • Andrei Girbea

      July 25, 2019 at 1:55 pm

      that's a good question, I'm not sure the two slots are both x4 capable at the same time.

      • hai

        July 25, 2019 at 6:10 pm

        It will be a stupid thing that this laptop support raid 0 for 2 SSD PCIe x2
        I wonder why asus give this laptop a SSD with PCIe x2

      • Andrei Girbea

        July 25, 2019 at 6:34 pm

        They tend to put slower x2 SSDs on most of their laptops, perhaps in order to end up with a lower price point. A single PCIe x4 drive is surely supported, what I'm not convinced off is if the two slots share a PCI x4 connection like on the Zephyrus G, or each has their dedicated x4 line. I'm inclined on the latter, but I haven't tested it.

      • hai

        July 26, 2019 at 7:59 am

        Can we check if the two slots is shared a PCIe x4 or a PCIe x4 for each of them?
        By infomation in bios or by software or by disassembly this laptop?

      • Andrei Girbea

        July 26, 2019 at 10:28 am

        I no longer have the laptop around, so I can't, but maybe some of the other readers can pitch along

      • hai

        July 26, 2019 at 1:05 pm

        https://static.digit.in/default/141380ba878e1b041cecbdc7cf26a156e50941d1.jpeg
        This picture make me think that is shared PCIe x4 shared for both

      • Andrei Girbea

        July 26, 2019 at 2:08 pm

        How did you get to that conclusion? I'm only seeing PCIe, without any mention of the speed.

        This is the GU502: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/internals-3.jpg
        This is the GA502, for comparison, which gets the shared PCIe connection: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/internals-2.jpg

  7. Carlos

    July 31, 2019 at 5:24 pm

    Hi Andrei! Really good review, it helped me to choose this model over others. Thanks for this!

    I’ve got a little concern: let’s suppose that this laptop had Thunderbolt 3. Imagine that in 5 years some of the newest games don’t run well on the internal 1660ti, and I want to buy one of the newest graphic cards and connect it through TB3 to my laptop. My thought is that if we are running the GPU outside the laptop, then we wouldn’t have any CPU thermal or power throttling, so that could help to the CPU to stay at 4GHz or more indefinitely; thus, I would have maximum performance at CPU and GPU levels. Does this make sense? Would I have any kind of throttling in this scenario? This is just curiosity, because I’ve already bought the laptop, knowing in advance that it lacks on TB3. Cheers!

    • Andrei Girbea

      July 31, 2019 at 6:04 pm

      It makes sense, yes, the only thing to consider is the potential bottleneck limitations of using a TB3 external enclosure. Even now a dGPU won't perform as well in such a TB3 enclosure as let's say on a desktop, and down the line, the difference might increase with this newer chips. What I mean is that an RTX 3080/4080 or whatever they'll call it might be eventually bottlenecked by a nowadays TB3 connection.

      That being said, though, if this would have TB3 support, you'd still have the ability to hook up an RTX 2070 sometime in the future and get better performance than the internal 1660 can provide, for most-likely a pretty competitive price point at that time.

      USB 4 is supposed to come out in the next year or so, which is basically a faster TB3, and it Intel actually decides to support it on-chip, than future laptops might have better support for dGPUs.

  8. Beni

    August 3, 2019 at 7:52 pm

    Hi andrei, i love your review for the zephyrus m and g and actually i bought the zephyrus m after i read your review, overall from design and performance it is really satisfying but the bad sides of this laptop are
    1. The noise of the fan when i run it turbo , it even make me difficult to hear voice chat from discord , any trick to make it a little bit quiter?
    2. The heat , although i run it turbo , still reach 80°c or hotter even when i only use it for watching youtube it gets to 45°c~53°c. Is there a way to increase the cooling system performance?

    Sorry for my english, english isn't my main language

    • Andrei Girbea

      August 4, 2019 at 8:53 pm

      Hi Beni. Then fans are very noisy on Turbo and there's nothing you can do about that.

      As for the CPU temperatures, first, you should undervolt the CPU, perhaps your unit is stable at more than -50 mV. Then, you can also try something else: limit the CPU's Turbo with Throttlestop. Let's say you limit it to 3.0 GHz, that should still be good enough not to affect performance, and help with temperatures. It might also allow the GPU to run at higher clocks, so the experience might be even better this way.

      About that noise, though, the only tweaks I can think of would be to run the laptop on Balanced and try these tricks mentioned above.

      • Beni

        August 5, 2019 at 3:58 am

        Thank you very much for the advise

        But is it safe for the CPU to run at 75°~80°C ?

      • Andrei Girbea

        August 5, 2019 at 9:07 am

        Yes, those are very good temps for an i7 inside such a thin profile.

  9. Glenn B

    August 6, 2019 at 2:17 pm

    MSI P65 GTX 1660Ti or ROG Zephyrus M GU502GU??

    • Andrei Girbea

      August 6, 2019 at 2:42 pm

      The P65 is pretty much a GS65 with a different design (and possibly different screen, based on configuration). Personally, I'd go with a Zephyrus for the better build and more affordable price for the same config, but the GS65 comes close.

  10. Rick

    August 10, 2019 at 1:30 pm

    question sir. I just had my zephyrus m, and just a newbie in gaming laptop, i want to upgrade my ssd and ram. What specs and brand do you recommend? I play my games in high settings.

    • Andrei Girbea

      August 12, 2019 at 9:48 am

      See the Hwinfo pics in the article, it shows the RAM and SSD used on our test unit.

  11. Robin

    August 12, 2019 at 9:25 am

    Hello Andrei, first and foremost thank you for this great review it really helps to get to know more in depth the capabilities of the laptop. I'm about to buy a gaming laptop for both heavy tasks but mainly gaming and I have to admit that I'm still wondering which laptop will suits my needs best between the Zephyrus M GU502GU and the higher spected Zephyrus S GX502GW. For me ray tracing isn't something I'm going to use however the g-sync option is something that I would love to see however is it such a big difference between a non g-sync panel such as the M GU502GU? That's my only concern and I hope you might be able to help me up with this? Basically is there any tearing that could potentially happen on the M GU502GU?
    FYI the games I'll mostly be playing would be WoW, LoL, Overwatch and probably more demanding fps.

    • Andrei Girbea

      August 12, 2019 at 9:52 am

      What's the price difference between the two? If it's very small, I'd get the GX502, for the GSync support and better thermals thanks to the AAS system.

      As for GSync, it makes the gaming experience smoother, but the truth is it's smooth on a normal 144 Hz screen as well. Perhaps you can find more videos on Youtube, or somehow got to a store and experience a 144 Hz monitor with GSync on and GSync off.

      • Robin

        August 12, 2019 at 2:02 pm

        So far only the GU502 is available at €1699 for the 8Go Ram and at €1995 for 16Go Ram. The GX502 is expected to be at €2600 with the RTX 2070. Pricing of these machine's is a bit odd here in France at the moment.
        Is there any major difference between the two regarding fan noise?

      • Andrei Girbea

        August 13, 2019 at 10:53 am

        Not really, but the 2070 variant gets a more complex thermal module

  12. Haikal

    September 9, 2019 at 6:42 am

    Hi Andrei, thanks for the complete review, I want to buy this laptop for motion graphic, 3d work and light gaming like Dota, how good this laptop in rendering? or can you suggest other laptops have similar form factors and prices?

    • Andrei Girbea

      September 9, 2019 at 9:47 am

      This should do. Other options are the Acer Predator Triton, MSI GS65 Stealth and Razer Blade 15.

  13. José fonte

    September 11, 2019 at 11:03 pm

    HI Andrei, great review and I hope you help with a situation.
    I'm about to get in mech. eng. in college and I need a laptop both for portability and for performance; my head is battling around two models, the acer predator triton 500 (rtx2060 |1699$) and this one(1799$). I believe this 2 are the best options for me, but there's things that I really value and both models have their pros and cons.
    Can you help me chose the best because this is a big investment for me and I don't want to regret my purchase in the future. what's the best all-arounder? does the price difference matter? Which's the best for work/portability and performance?
    Thanks in advance :)

    • Andrei Girbea

      September 12, 2019 at 9:24 am

      Does the GU502 come with 16 GB of RAM or more? If only 16, you'll most likely have to buy another 16 GB of DIMM to get dual-channel memory. so that's something to consider.

      That being said, I think the Zephyrus is a better-balanced product: better made, better thermals, better keyboard. It also looks better imo. The Triton, on the other hand, is more affordable and offers better specs. It still performs very well based on our review unit, so could be a good option as well

      I don't think I can make the call for you. As I said, I prefer the Zephyrus, but it's in the end up to what matters for you. You'll find in-depth reviews for both products here on the site, those will greatly help.

  14. Eric

    September 12, 2019 at 10:30 pm

    I recently purchased the Zephyrus M GU502 on sale for $1,549 and I just noticed that the Zephyrus S GX502 is on sale for $2,149. I'm still within the window to return my laptop, but do you think it's worth the $600 difference to upgrade to the GX502? Graphic horsepower isn't my highest priority, but I like the idea of the AAS cooling, G-Sync and Optimus.

    • Andrei Girbea

      September 13, 2019 at 10:58 am

      That's a big difference, I don't think it's worth it unless you'll actually need that 2070 over the 1660. Those other aspects should come as secondary perks, imo, but that's within your budget and they matter to you, then go ahead and swap for the GX502.

      • Eric

        September 16, 2019 at 7:21 pm

        Just to clarify, this is the RTX 2060 model that I picked up for $1,549. Considering the price is almost 40% higher, I'm guessing the performance is no where near 40% better.

      • Andrei Girbea

        September 17, 2019 at 11:26 am

        It's definitely not. WE have other RTX 2070 laptops here that you can use as a reference.

  15. Bern

    September 17, 2019 at 11:31 am

    I want to upgrade storage on this laptop, but how many ssd slot available in this laptop? Can i add 512GB adata nvme sx8200? Thanks 4 the answer

  16. Jason

    September 18, 2019 at 1:49 pm

    HI there,

    I have gotten a GU502, and it seem to that there is some overheating issue with the laptop, however the local asus service center insisted it's normal.

    Running on 2060 on daily usage the idling temperature sit arounds 60-70 degree be it on turbo/balance.Sometime it can also hit 80+ degree with just chrome at the background.
    when i am playing dota 2 (Not running on Ultra with 60FPS) the temperature is consistently sitting at >85 degree and hitting 90+.

    • Andrei Girbea

      September 18, 2019 at 2:48 pm

      You can check our temperatures in the review, for comparison. With normal use, the 2060 shouldn't even be active.

  17. jim

    December 19, 2019 at 12:21 am

    tested gsync via compatible gsync monitor and it does indeed work

  18. Allan

    January 3, 2020 at 7:53 pm

    Hi Andrei,

    Would you recommend this laptop over Acer Helios 300? I need to choose between the RTX2060 version of this and 2060 RTX version of the Acer Helios 300.

    • Andrei Girbea

      January 3, 2020 at 7:56 pm

      For sure, nicer built, better keyboard, longer battery life. But the Helios should be much cheaper, not the same class. The Predator Triton 500 is Acer's alternative for the Zephyrus M.

      • Allan

        January 3, 2020 at 8:15 pm

        Thank you very much!

  19. Raf

    February 14, 2020 at 3:23 pm

    "The GPU scores do increase by 3-6%, due to the +200 MHz frequency boost, which applies to both Base and Turbo clock speeds, but it’s important to note that the GPU does not entirely benefit of this boost in tests and real-life gaming, most likely due to Power/Thermal Limit Throttling kicking in at the GPU level. We haven’t looked into this matter, but further tweaking should be possible with a slight GPU undervolt, possible with apps like MSI Afterburner."

    I was hoping to use MSI Afterburner myself as you mentioned, however I noticed that most of the options are locked out even with Voltage Control unlocked. Is ASUS GPU tweaker the only method of editing those settings?

    • Andrei Girbea

      February 16, 2020 at 11:18 am

      I would have expected Afterburner to offer even more options, but if it doesn't, then you could try Asus GPU instead. There's no undervolting option with it, though

  20. Philip

    March 1, 2020 at 6:59 am

    Hello Andrei!

    First of all, tank you so much for the review, it has helped me a lot.

    There's a Razer Blade 15 with almost the same main components as this Zephyrus (i7-9750H,GTX1660Ti, etc.), but with a SSD+HDD combo, a 65Wh battery and 16Gb (8+8) dual channel RAM.

    In terms of performance, how has been your experience with Razer vs Asus? Which of the 2 would you recommend as an all rounder/gaming laptop and why?

    Thanks in advance!

    • Andrei Girbea

      March 2, 2020 at 3:15 pm

      Performance and thermal wise both should be solid. The ROG has an edge when it comes to software and power profiles. The Blade wins at features (TB3, finger sensor, IR camera, better speakers) and looks much cleaner.

      • Philip

        March 2, 2020 at 8:43 pm

        Awesome, thanks for the answer!
        Do you know if there's any noticeable difference in terms of battery duration? (I'm wondering if those superior power profiles really make a difference). I've found conflicting numbers online and I don't know who to believe.

        The reason for all these questions is that I need a computer for studying during the day (probably carrying it around, not always near a power outlet –> main issue: battery duration), and gaming during the evenings and weekends (at home, plugged –> main issue: performance).
        I currently have a custom built PC for the gaming part, and these all rounders seem like a good option to cover both scenarios and not have such a drastic difference in performance vs my current desktop.

      • Andrei Girbea

        March 2, 2020 at 10:55 pm

        Given the hardware is similar, the differences are small, but favor the Asus in this case, which gets a 76 Wh battery. Realistically, expect about 1 hour of daily multitasking per 20 W on battery, and 1 hour of video/light use per 14-16 W, with the screen at around 120 nits. I don't think you're going to get a full day's work with any of these.

      • Philip

        March 3, 2020 at 12:31 am

        Asus sounds better for me then. Thank you very much for all the help!

        Especially now that the Glacier Blue is $300 cheaper than the Razer for some reason.

  21. Oliver

    April 8, 2020 at 3:48 pm

    Thanks for the great review!

    I am abit late to the party but I am facing a choice between this one (but one with 2x8gb) and a
    – MSI GP65 Leopard. i7, RTX 2060, 144mhz, s16gb.

    They are priced exaclty the same where I live.. Can you advice?

    • Andrei Girbea

      April 8, 2020 at 3:54 pm

      Definitely this one. It's smaller, nicer built, gets a better keyboard and larger battery.

      The GP65 will do slightly better in games with the RTX 2060, while this gets the 1660Ti in our configuration, but the difference should be within more or less 10%. Or are you looking at 2060 models of both?

      • Oliver

        April 8, 2020 at 4:08 pm

        Hi thanks for the quick reply!
        No this one comes with a 1660ti. There are 2060 version but they are way more expensive here. :)
        The Asus model here is also with a 240hz screen. I dont care too much if it is that or 144hz but more the rest of the screen performance (color, brightness, refreshrate)
        The asus model here also come "glacier blue" which looks pretty nice.. :)

      • Andrei Girbea

        April 8, 2020 at 4:12 pm

        The 144 and 240 Hz panels are mostly the same, minorly increased contrast and colors on the 240 Hz, but not the kind you can easily tale. I'd go with the Asus, that MSI is not the same class and should normally go significantly cheaper than this ROG.

  22. Adailton

    April 15, 2020 at 12:09 pm

    Excellent article. I bought this notebook and considered it to be a great choice, however I live in a very hot country and the CPU temperatures are above 90-95 degrees after playing time. I couldn't find any program for me to downgrade the CPU clock. I tried the ASUS software and the MSI afterburner. Do you know any program that I can do this limitation? Thank you.

    • Andrei Girbea

      April 15, 2020 at 12:20 pm

      Throttlestop and XTU can be used to undervolt and limit the CPU clocks. There's a detailed Throttlestop guide on the site, use the search in the top corner

  23. BOB

    April 23, 2020 at 4:47 pm

    hello, what do you recommend between the model you reviewed and OMEN 15-dh0036nl Notebook with NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 1660Ti and 144Hz screen? I would use it for 3D cad rendering and light games

    • Andrei Girbea

      April 23, 2020 at 4:50 pm

      Sry, I haven't reviewed the Omen, but I've heard good things about it. It's a bulkier and heavier laptop though, and not as nicely made as this one, so if they're the same price for similar configurations, I'd lean towards the Zephyrus M.

      • BOB

        April 23, 2020 at 4:58 pm

        thanks a lot, the only doubt I have left is on the cooling, being a thinner laptop I would not have limited performance compared to the omen

      • Andrei Girbea

        April 23, 2020 at 5:06 pm

        Yeah, I can't comment on the Omen's performance and thermals without reviewing it, but you have all the details on this Zephyrus in the article. Try to look into a few good reviews of the Omen, perhaps on notebookcheck or on Youtube (Bob of all trades, Own or disown), figure out how much better the thermals are with the Omen.

  24. carl

    May 12, 2020 at 1:14 pm

    Thanks for another great review….I'm still not sure :S

    I want to spend around £1500 for a 100% RGB IPS 240hz laptop but it seems all the Asus reviews advise of high temperature and poor thermal designs.

    The options I have here (UK) are:

    ASUS ROG Zephyrus M FHD 240Hz i7 GTX 1660Ti Glacier Blue Performance Laptop – £1399
    https://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-rog-zephyrus-m-gu502gu-fhd-240hz-i7-9750h-16gb-ddr4-512gb-nvme-ssd-6gb-gtx-1660ti-usb-32-type-a

    ASUS ROG Strix G15 15" i7 RTX 2060 Gaming Laptop – £1599
    https://www.scan.co.uk/products/156-asus-rog-strix-g15-g512lv-az059t-glacier-blue-240hz-fhd-i7-10750h-rtx-2060-16gb-ddr4-1tb-ssd-win

    Sadly I cant find the M15 in the uk, which you say may have better thermal but if it was here with the 2070 then it would cost around £2000 I think.

    I'm trying to spend time learning to code, gaming isn't a major thing as I use Nvidia shield/GeForce now on a 55 inch LGC9 which is great but I suffer bad eye strain and find higher refresh, IPS (no pwm) and hopefully, full RGB (less differing) should help which is why I considered the 240hz as generally, they seem higher quality.

    I loved the TUF 14 too, but the panel isn't good enough possibly although if this was the best option thermally then that's more important.

    I guess I'd love to hear from you what you think is the best laptop screen wise for me to work on without overheating and requiring fixing? I also contacted Asus before here but they are clueless it seems.

    I've spent 3 days trying to research this, even ordered from Lenovo and cancelled that one as everyone on forums were saying the chips are poor but ironically it might have been a good option (Lenovo Y740) although your tests from the Asus models blow it out the water

    • Andrei Girbea

      May 12, 2020 at 2:09 pm

      The m15 is new and not yet available, but should be soon. Currently working on a review, but it's not a lot different than the 2019 Zephyrus M and more expensive.

      The thing is, if you're going with a slim form-factor, the chassis and components are going to get hot with games. No way around that. But you're not running games, so I don't think thermals should be an issue on any of these picks.

      That Zephyrus M option is a fine choice imo. I'd make sure to upgrade the RAM, I think it only comes with soldered memory in single-channel, so adding another 16 GB stick is recommended. The Strix G15 is a lower-tier laptop, bulkier and uglier imo, but should run cooler.

      The Legion Y740 is another good option, as well as the Acer Predator Helios 300.

      • carl

        May 12, 2020 at 2:46 pm

        It was just that in some of the threads here, people are saying the Asus laptops, even the M is running hot just by running chrome…..the Y740 and Helios 300 scores are abit lower and dont have 240hz screens. Whats your view on the screen quality of the others? Maybe at 144hz they could still be quality if the RGB is near 100% etc

      • Andrei Girbea

        May 12, 2020 at 3:08 pm

        I don't think you should care that much about exact scores or numbers. Also, 144 or 240 Hz refresh makes no difference with daily use, brightness, contrast and color coverage matter more, and that's what you should look into.

      • carl

        May 12, 2020 at 3:32 pm

        Okay then forget the scores! I give you £1500 to buy either the M 15, Y740, Helios 300, where does your money go? Your like laptop lord and happy to hear, I would guess the M 15 2019 :p. The refresh thing, well it seemed most the 240hz panels had 100% RGB or more than 120hz, not sure if thats a thing or not

        Guessing intel chips only also or is AMD worth a look?

        Originally I had been aiming at AMD chips until seeing the scary heat tests wonder if intel chips help fix the issue…..I wish there was a table with a filter so we could just pick min brightness, rgb, hz etc, heat, would really make life easier I think, so much amazing data but no way to easily configure for requirements, id even pay for such a list as making the wrong purchase is very costly…..look at some of the guys in thread for example.

      • Andrei Girbea

        May 12, 2020 at 3:39 pm

        Well, it's not my decision to make, but yes, I'd most likely go with the M 15 out of these three. Since you're in the UK, I'd reckon you have the option to give a try and see how it works for you, and then just return if it's not ok. Right? Or perhaps you can check the options in store, once the COVID situation is over?

        2020 AMD chips are a good buy, especially on the Zephyrus G14. But is that within the budget over there?

  25. carl

    May 12, 2020 at 4:35 pm

    So if this is the contender:

    ASUS ROG Zephyrus M FHD 240Hz i7 GTX 1660Ti Glacier Blue Performance Laptop –
    GU502GU-AZ080T – £1399
    https://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-rog-zephyrus-m-gu502gu-fhd-240hz-i7-9750h-16gb-ddr4-512gb-nvme-ssd-6gb-gtx-1660ti-usb-32-type-a

    the next best AMD rival would be:
    GA401IU-HE001T – £1399 (G14) ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 14" AMD Ryzen 7 GTX 1660Ti Gaming Laptop
    https://www.scan.co.uk/products/14-asus-rog-zephyrus-g14-ga401iu-he001t-eclipse-gray-120hz-fhd-ryzen-7-gtx-1660ti-16gb-ddr4-5

    Same price but the AMD scores are a lot better, but from what I read it comes at the cost of increased heat on the laptops and your advice was to go for less performance and seek out the M model I think.

    As for your query about affordability in the UK here are some other examples for just a little more money:

    The next jump up to the 2060 card would be:

    ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 15" AMD Ryzen 7 RTX 2060 Gaming Laptop
    https://www.scan.co.uk/products/156-asus-rog-zephyrus-g15-ga502iv-az001t-brushed-black-240hz-fhd-ryzen-7-rtx-2060-16gb-ddr4-1tb-ssd – £1499

    ASUS ROG Strix G15 15" i7 RTX 2060 Gaming Laptop – £1399 (interesting to see 10th gen chips)
    https://www.scan.co.uk/products/156-asus-rog-strix-g15-g512lv-hn033t-black-144hz-fhd-i7-10750h-rtx-2060-16gb-ddr4-512gb-ssd-win10-ho

    and then lets check the £1599:
    ASUS ROG Strix G15 15" i7 RTX 2060 Gaming Laptop
    https://www.scan.co.uk/products/156-asus-rog-strix-g15-g512lv-az059t-glacier-blue-240hz-fhd-i7-10750h-rtx-2060-16gb-ddr4-1tb-ssd-win

    ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 14" AMD Ryzen 7 RTX 2060 Gaming Laptop GA401IV-HA026T – £1599 (adaptive refresh??)
    https://www.scan.co.uk/products/14-asus-rog-zephyrus-g14-ga401iv-ha026t-eclipse-gray-60hz-qhd-ryzen-7-rtx-2060-16gb-ddr4-1tb (maybe better thermals also?)

    I cant seem able to find the 2060 M version with maybe 10th gen chips, thinking maybe the 10th gen improve the thermals?? Maybe theres a better option in these ones but thought id post some for you to see, so many options its actually giving me square eyes!

    • Andrei Girbea

      May 12, 2020 at 8:33 pm

      No, 10th gen don't improve thermals. They're not yet available in stores, should be in a month or so.

      I'd still go with either G14/M 15 at 1399 out of all these options.

      • carl

        May 13, 2020 at 12:03 am

        Thanks I'll place my order tomorrow I think! :).

        I read one of your other excellent reviews on the Msi gs66 and was amazed at the frame rates you were getting for the games…100+ for shadow of tomb raider even, after this I noticed they sell the model down the i7 for like £1698 and it got me wondering a little :D. I'm not planning big gaming, but nice to be able to if ever I wanted it, I can pay some more for the right laptop.

        https://www.scan.co.uk/products/156-msi-gs66-stealth-10se-040uk-fhd-240hz-i7-10750h-16gb-ddr4-512gb-nvme-6gb-rtx-2060-win10-home

        But bang for buck, the M is winning I think, maybe if it gets too hot I could upgrade the thermals or something

        On a sidenote, Asus website has 15% off laptops if anyone has a student beans account, might only be uk I'm not sure but ill scan that site, they only offer these though https://gyazo.com/faf07a1cfe3443869de7ee943981bd3b and no M's…..that means 144hz laptops or 300hz

      • Andrei Girbea

        May 13, 2020 at 9:51 am

        I haven't reviewed the MSI GS66 yet

  26. Carl

    May 13, 2020 at 1:29 pm

    Good morning (depending where you are? :)

    https://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI-GS66-Stealth-10SFS-Laptop-Review-Visually-subdued-acoustically-conspicuous.463461.0.html

    Here’s this sites review, performance seems very solid but has even worse thermals than the M…..But a little tempting

    I just feel a 1660ti shouldn’t belong to any gaming laptop atm as if you choose to play it’s going to be abit average although possible but I also understand that more power = more heat especially with AMD chips. If this M had 10th hen chips I’d be all over it but then would be £700 more!

    • Andrei Girbea

      May 13, 2020 at 2:36 pm

      I can't comment without reviewing it myself.

      • Carl

        May 13, 2020 at 5:21 pm

        Ok I think if I find a Ryzen 9 2060 g14 I’ll be happy

  27. Carl

    May 13, 2020 at 8:10 pm

    I might just go all out and try for a gync super that are due out in 1-2 weeks…….like a GX for example, just spoke to overclockers who seem great

  28. Evangelos Aktoudianakis

    June 13, 2020 at 5:12 pm

    Thank you for the wonderful reviews.

    This has dropped to 1199 : https://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-rog-zephyrus-m-gu502gu-az067t-black-fhd-240hz-i7-9750h-16gb-ddr4-512gb-nvme-ssd-6gb-gtx-1660ti

    No thunderbolt 3 though….

    Main use would be writing (enthusiast writer), hopefully surviving without a charger for 3-4 hours…
    Photo editing on Photoshop/Lightroom

    Gaming wise, world of warcraft and hearthstone…

    I am thinking of going for the 1399 new G14 with 1660ti Ryzen 4800H, I am just not sure it's worth the price jump based on my usage…

    Any opinion is much appreciated.

    Again thank you so much.

    • Andrei Girbea

      June 13, 2020 at 6:43 pm

      The main reason to go with the G14 is its improved efficiency. That will last 4-5 hours on a charge, while with the M15 you're not going to get more than 3-4 hours of daily use.

      That aside, though, both will handle your needs well. The GU502 gets a faster and nicer quality screen, and is the better gamer here, while the G14 offers better audio, smaller form-factor, etc. I can see how this is a tough call. If not in a hurry, might be worth waiting for the G14 to drop in price as well, I'd reckon there will be sales in the next months.

      • Evangelos Aktoudianakis

        June 13, 2020 at 6:56 pm

        Thanks SO much for the reply !
        So what they are saying on the 15 about up to 8 hours of battery life is, basically, s**t ? :D

      • Andrei Girbea

        June 13, 2020 at 7:13 pm

        Those are ideal situations, and just not realistic in actual use. What we mention is the Battery life section of our reviews is closer to what to expect, although runtimes can vary based of everyone's settings and use.

  29. Evangelos Aktoudianakis

    June 13, 2020 at 8:31 pm

    Thanks for the replies. While we are on the topic, I considered the G14 1650Ti configuration which goes as low as 1099… But I felt like it might not cover my needs for WoW and HotS. Couldn't really find any reviews on that. Again, I can't express how much I appreciate the help.

    • Andrei Girbea

      June 14, 2020 at 10:37 am

      we've reviewed that on an Asus TUF A17. I think it should be fine for those games, but the 1600Ti is significantly faster and definitely worth $100 extra

  30. Evangelos Aktoudianakis

    June 14, 2020 at 8:42 pm

    Thanks for all your help. I ended up buying this.

    Could you suggest a second 16 gig module to install from amazon UK? (Using your link so you benefit from it too :)

    • Andrei Girbea

      June 15, 2020 at 11:01 am

      Wait, that most likely already has a second ram stick, with 8 GB soldered and 8 GB on that stick.

      • Evangelos Aktoudianakis

        June 23, 2020 at 8:04 pm

        Even so, I'd like to get it upwards; I am thinking of maining this as a PC, and selling my desktop. Really happy with it so far :)
        Any suggestions to take it to 24, or even 40? (if that's possible) with a link so I can help the site?

  31. Evangelos Aktoudianakis

    June 26, 2020 at 10:47 pm

    I have a strange situation –
    While I am gaming on this machine, in random times, the laptop window screens goes to : locking, and then it shuts down.
    Restart is very fast…
    I am having the lid closed when I am doing this, though I can report what happens with a lid on? I am steaming both to an HDMI output, and a Displayport output.
    I don't think it's overheating, as I am watching temps at real time, and though it spikes at 95, it mostly settles in the mid 80s.
    Only happens when I game so far.

    No idea why.

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