The ASUS ROG G751JY-DH72X is a high-end gaming laptop that beats the competition by dominating the gaming benchmarks. It does this by being competitive, while coming in for less money, and outclassing its competitors on a feature-by-feature basis. It comes with with a fourth-generation Intel Core i7-4860HQ processor and Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M graphics.
To that it adds 32GB of memory, a 512GB solid-state drive (SSD) and a 1TB storage hard drive, a 17-inch In-Plane Switching (IPS) display, and ergonomic features that make gaming more comfortable. The fact that it packs in so much and still comes in at a reasonable price, gives it the oomph to jump to the top of the heap as our latest Editors’ Choice for high-end gaming laptops.
Design
Thanks to the large screen, the Asus ROG G751JY-DH72X is understandably beefy. The system is packed in a matte-black chassis that measures 1.7 by 16.5 by 12.5 inches (HWD) and weighs in at 9.06 pounds. The 17.3-inch, matte-finish In-Plane Switching (IPS) display gives you the benefit of both a wide viewing angle and reduced reflections from ambient lighting.
It’s a bright screen with a 1,920-by-1,080 resolution, which on first flush can seem a little small when high-end ultraportables have 4K screens, but 1080p is better for mobile gaming. Smooth animation in 3K or 4K gaming would require at least three GPUs, which is impractical in a laptop.
The red, backlit, chiclet-style keyboard contrasts with the black chassis, and is quite comfortable to use, with enough space for a full numeric keypad. The spacebar is wider on the left side, to give you a wider area to hit with your left thumb while gaming. The touchpad has two physical mouse buttons, and the cursor keys are offset from the rest of the keyboard.
The keyboard deck is also tilted toward the user, which makes it more comfortable during long gaming sessions. Above the function keys are five keys: one to bring up Steam, three customizable macro keys, and a key that can start a game video recording to play back for yourself or friends later. Speakers are loud and clear, with a subwoofer for a little extra low-end sound. The system has dual rear vents, so heated air is channeled away from the user.
Connectivity
Connectivity is excellent: The sides of the system are chock full of I/O ports. You’ll find an Ethernet port, a headset jack, an HDMI port, a line-out jack, a Thunderbolt port, four USB 3.0 ports, and a VGA port. For wireless connectivity, there’s 802.11ac Wi-FI and Bluetooth.
The system comes with a Blu-ray/DVD burner combo drive, so you can install older games and watch movies on disc. Speaking of movies, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M can drive up to four displays simultaneously (the internal display, HDMI, mini-DisplayPort/Thunderbolt, and VGA), allowing you to have game screens, instant messaging, Web browsing, and a movie all playing at once.
Performance
The ASUS ROG G751JY-DH72X is equipped with a quad-core Intel Core i7-4860HQ processor that runs at 2.4GHz stock speed. Asus includes overclocking utilities to tweak performance of the CPU and GPU, but we tested the system in the stock configuration. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M graphics processor help the desktop pull through amazing frame rates on high-end games at extreme-quality settings at full 1080p resolution.
The system’s performance is a lot smoother than competitors like the Alienware 17, the ASUS ROG G750JZ and the Origin EON17-S. The only other competitor I’ve seen that can play at extreme levels smoothly in the Origin EON17-SLX, thanks to its two Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M GPUs that help with the heavy lifting. However, 3D marks are almost at par with the competitors with negligible differences.
The system comes with two drives: a 512GB SSD for bootup and a 1TB 7,200rpm SATA hard drive. That’s plenty of space for games, movie files, music, photos, and myriad other programs.
Battery life is average for a gaming laptop, at 3 hours 4 minutes on our battery rundown test. That’s within a few minutes of the three hours and change garnered by the Alienware 17 (2014) and the Origin EON 17-S. The outliers are the Origin EON17-SLX (1:13) and the battery champ Asus ROG G750JZ-XS72 (5:32). Basically, all of these systems will work untethered for a short period of time. Gaming-oriented processors and large screens tend to drain battery life quickly.
Summary
So how does the ASUS ROG G751JY-DH72X end up on top? It beats the rest by having better ergonomics, has double the memory of competing systems, and much more storage. It is also lighter as compared to competitors such as the EON17-SLX, has a more durable power adapter connector, with the battery lasting almost two more hours. Simply put, while the MSI GS65 Stealth may have the best extreme performance scores, the Asus ROG G751JY-DH72X is still quite competitive, and the money you save can be used to buy a backpack, a gaming mouse, and a lot of games.
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