Review: Asus GL551 review

IntroductionIn general, gaming laptops are an expensive proposition. With most gaming laptops starting at $1,500 (about £923, AU$1,720) or more, a mobile gaming machine a hard sell when you can just as easily put together a desktop with better performance and for less money. A few machines, like the MSI GE60 Apache, help soften the blow at an affordable $1,250 (£1150, about AU$1,433). Now, Asus meets the new pricing floor with its $1,099 (about £673, AU$1249) GL551.The price tag isn't the only thing this 15.6-inch notebook has going for it. Asus has equipped this entry level rig with a 1080p screen, Intel Core i7 processor, and a respectable Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M graphics chip. All the boxes have been checked to earn the title of "gaming machine," but has Asus cut too sharp of corners to reach budget buyers?DesignAsus hasn't cut any corners in build quality with the GL551. The notebook, however, is a mix of premium touches and compromises to keep an affordable price point. The lid is one large sheet of brushed aluminum, painted in a midnight black with a glowing Republic of Gamers insignia etched in the center. Open up the laptop, and you'll be greeted by large plastic bezels surrounding the 15.6-inch screen.Meanwhile, yet another continuous sheet of aluminum covers the keyboard deck as well as the palm rest before the rest of the laptop ultimately trails off to a portly plastic body. One odd proportion quirk about the GL551 is its rounded frame juts out on its lower right.Overall, there's nothing chintzy about the laptop, but it's clear Asus has focused on making the GL551 look good where it actually matters. LAN party rivals will recognize the ROG symbol, and it's easy to appreciate the laptop's sturdy interior.The only small gripe I have with the GL551's chassis is that there's only one exhaust vent on the laptop's left side. This small outlet pumps out concentrated heat so regularly you could keep your coffee warm with it.Thankfully, it's not an uncomfortably hot current. (You may even enjoy the constant stream of heated air during colder months.) However, you should ensure the vent is not blocked off when placing the gaming notebook near a wall or on your lap.Gamer credAs far as gaming laptops go, the Asus GL551 tries not to call too much attention to itself. The notebook doesn't threaten to turn a room into a multicolored disco, nor does it have any aggressive design quirks better suited for hypercars.If anything, the GL551 attempts to pass off as a gussied up multimedia machine, with a red backlit keyboard and crimson chamfered edges on the laptop's lower lip. Unfortunately, this toned down aesthetic is marred by the pervasiveness of Asus's Republic of Gamers logo.It would have been enough to just embroider the laptop's lid with the logo, but Asus went a bit too far, stamping the tribal tattoo on the palm rest as well. Meanwhile, Republic of Gamers is printed prominently above the keyboard. It's as if Asus is saying "hey, don't forget this is a gaming machine."SpecificationsThe Asus GL551 is one of the most heavyset 15.6-inch gaming laptops around, weighing in at a solid 6 pounds and measuring 15.0 x 10 x 1.3 inches. The comparable 15.6-inch Lenovo Y50, meanwhile, does away with a optical drive for a thinner 15.23 x 10.37 x 0.9 inch frame that weighs 5.29 pounds. Of course, the Maingear Pulse 14 wins the lightweight competition, thanks to its smaller 14-inch form factor. The Pulse 14 tips the scales at 3.8 pounds with 13.31 x 9.5 x 1 inch dimensions.Here is the Asus ROG GL551 configuration sent to TechRadar: Spec SheetCPU: 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-4710HQ Processor (quad-core, 6M cache, up to 3.5GHz with Turbo Boost)Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M (2GB GDDR5 RAM); Intel HD Graphics 4600RAM: 16GB DDR3L (2x 8GB at 1600MHz)Screen: 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) display, matte finishStorage: 1TB HDD (7,200 rpm)Optical drive: 8x DL DVD±RW/CD-RW DrivePorts: 3 x USB 3.0, 1 x HDMI, 1x mini DisplayPort. SDXC card reader, Gigabit EthernetConnectivity: 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0Camera: 1.2MP, 720p webcamWeight: 6 poundsSize: 15.0 x 10 x 1.3 inches (W x D x H)Asus has packed a lot into the GL551 for just $1,099 (about £673, AU$1249). Out of the trio of GL551 configurations, Asus sent TechRadar the middle tier, JM-DH71 variant. The GL551JK saves you $50 (about £30, AU$57), but as a consequence, you will have only have access to 12GB of RAM, a less capable GTX 850M GPU and downgraded storage that only amounts to 750GB. These trade offs are hardly worth the tiny savings, so ponying the tiny bit of cash to get the configuration I've listed above.Alternatively, you can score the top end GL551JM-EH71 for $1,199 (about £738, AU$1,375). However, this swaps out the 1TB hard disk drive for a 256GB solid-state drive. The price of this SSD upgrade matches up with the cost of buying your own unit. So, it's definitely economical, if you seek the extra speed bump and don't want to replace the storage unit on your own. The Asus GL551 is one of the most affordable gaming laptops I've reviewed thus far, going head to head with the similarly specced – but thinner – Lenovo Y50. Also starting at $1,099 (about £673, AU$1249), the Lenovo comes with the same 2.5Ghz Intel Core i7-4710HQ processor, Nvidia GTX 860M graphics card and a 1080p full HD display. The only down sides is the Y50 features 8GB of RAM and a half the storage space (albeit with the advantage of an 8GB SSD cache).Despite being the smallest and least equipped rig of the bunch, the Maingear Pulse 14 is also the most expensive, starting at $1,324 (about £814, AU$1,514). On paper, the Maingear fails to to merit its bigger price tag, equipped with a less capable Intel Core i5 chip and GTX 850M GPU. The only advantage this machine has over its two competitors is that it packs a 1080p screen in a smaller 14-inch package.PerformanceDon't mistake the GL551's entry level price for middling performance. The affordable Asus machine packs a wallop. It easily plowed through any game I threw at it threw at it on medium to high settings. You won't be able to turn on every graphical flourish – and forget about tessellation – but the GL551 has no problems playing recently-released games like Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. Here's how the Asus fared in our benchmark tests:Benchmarks3DMark: Ice Storm: 105,573; Cloud Gate: 15,736; Fire Strike: 3590Cinebench CPU: 602 points; Graphics: 89.36 fps,PCMark 8 (Home Test): 3040 pointsPCMark 8 Battery Life: 2 hours and 23 minutesBioshock Infinite (1080p, Ultra): 40.55 fps; (1080p, Low): 126.55 fpsMetro: Last Light (1080p, Ultra): 11.67 fps; (1080p, Low): 26.33 fpsImpressive results indeed, especially considering the GL551 is rocking the mid-range GTX 860M graphics card with 2GB of video memory. Despite this, the GL551 churned through 3DMark's GPU intensive benchmarks scoring 16,041 points in Cloud Gate and 3,590 points in Fire Strike. Meanwhile, the Lenovo Y50 and its fully-loaded, 4GB GTX 860M completed the same tests with 13,639 and 3,650 points. Unsurprisingly the Maingear Pulse 14 performed the worst in this regard, finishing Cloud Gate with 12,603 points and Fire Strike with 3,363 points.The most likely reason for the GL551's close – and at times leading – performance compared to the Lenovo is its slightly faster CPU (the Y50 we reviewed came with a tick slower 2.4GHz Core i7 processor). This is evidenced by the PCMark 8 test, where we can see the GL551 scored 3,040 points, a markedly better performance than Y50's 2,644 score.However, it seems that having more video RAM is all too important when rendering games with more frames per second. Cinebench results show the Lenovo rig pulling ahead with 97 fps over the Asus's 89 fps.When playing actual games, the Lenovo leads again playing Bioshock Infinite on its highest settings at 42 fps, while the GL551 trails close behind with 41 fps. Not a significant difference, but every little bit of gaming horsepower will matter more as developers push hardware even harder.In between screen sheen and poor viewing anglesI was really hoping not to run into any caveats with the GL551, with its above average build quality and gaming performance. Sadly, though, Asus fell through one of the pitfalls that plagues many laptops, a poor display. There are two things you'll notice about this machine's 15.6-inch panel. First the display isn't all that deep when it comes to contrast. Second, the matte finish on the screen causes light to refract across it entire surface, washing out anything on the display.With these two problems combined, you will have a hard time figuring out the exact angle to tilt your screen. Any sunlight or illumination from an overhead lamp washes out the screen, desaturating colors and turning blacks into gray. Thanks of this, you will have to tilt the screen carefully away from you, but pushing too far reveals the screen's poor viewing angles. It's a careful balance, and you'll have to figure out exactly how to position the GL551's display every time for the optimal picture.The worse thing about the GL551 display is that, even after you've figured exactly how much to tilt the screen away from you, the picture still looks mediocre. The screen displays colors and blacks with a natural tone, but there's hardly any contrast. Dark areas within images render into black blotches, which could mean life or respawn in multiplayer games with enemy players lurking in the darkness.Another battery-guzzling gaming machineIt's pretty much a given that gaming laptops don't have very good battery life, and this Asus notebook does nothing to reverse this trend. This gaming laptop called it quits with the PCMark 8 battery test after 2 hours and 23 minutes, which falls in line with the Lenovo Y50's 2 hours and 49 minute result. The Maingear Pulse 14, by comparison, lasted a nearly identical 2 hours and 21 minutes.The Asus GL551 lasted a slightly longer 3 hours and 35 minutes while tabbing between 15 webpages on Firefox plus another two in Chrome, streaming tunes on Google Music, watching Flashpoint Paradox for an hour and playing two bouts of Hearthstone. With regular use such as this, you can expect to get through part of the day unplugged, but be sure to pack the power adapter every day.The Maingear Pulse 14 takes the cake when tasked with a similar load, hanging on for 4 hours and 2 minutes. Meanwhile, the Lenovo Y50 clocked out after just 2 hours and 45 minutes, much earlier than the rest of its competitors under similar conditions.Bundled softwareAsus has been known to put on an incredulous amount of bloatware on its notebooks, but thankfully, the company has scaled back on the amount of bundled software with its ROG line. Here are the most important bits you'll want to keep around:Asus Live Update: A simple download tool that pull the most up to date software for the GL551's pertinent system components.Asus WebStorage: 5GB of free cloud storage that, like Dropbox, you can place a shortcut to in Windows Explorer for easy access.Asus On-Screen Display: Activates more notifications when changing settings like the keyboard backlight level and turning on/off the touchpad. But why isn't this enabled by default?USB Charger Plus: Customize the way your USB ports provide power to charging devices, even when the laptop is asleep or off.VerdictThere aren't too many surprises about the Asus GL551. It checks off all the boxes you'd expect from gaming laptops without breaking the bank. Despite the value-packed price, this laptop isn't lacking in power at all. It performs admirably playing just about any title on medium to high settings.We likedGoing back to the Asus GL551's gaming performance, it has a lot of power to spread around. I was able to play Metro 2033 Redux Edition at a nearly steady 60 fps with the game turned up to "Very High" settings, plus a bit of additional tessellation and v-sync. Gamers will run into a bit more resistance trying to play more strenuous games like Wolfenstein and Battlefield 4. But a bit of careful massaging will allow you to play these titles at 30 to 40 fps.The Asus GL551 isn't the best looking gaming laptop around, however, it's mostly a joy to use and that's what really matters. The solid metal keyboard deck and palm rests is a solid platform for gamers to tap and click on well into the wee hours of the night. Plus the notebook comes with a decent set of tweeters. That saves you from having to invest in a headset to hear all of the splashy in-game explosions.We dislikedSadly, my biggest (and only) hangup with the Asus GL551 is it's downright awful display. While the screen is the singular issue I have with the laptop, it's a crucial one. This is the very display you will be looking at day in and day out, and for this reason, I can't wholeheartedly recommend it sight unseen.I would highly suggest you check out this laptop in person before buying it, just to see if it's something you can eventually get used to. Of course, there's also the option to purchase an external monitor. In my own testing, the GL551 had no problem outputting to a 27-inch 1080p screen through HDMI. But this sort of solution really defeats the purpose of such a device.Final verdictSave for the display, the Asus GL551 is a sweet package for its $1,099 price tag. Nothing about this portable rig screams budget machine. In fact, there's much more apparent Republic of Gamers branding, if anything. For the price, the GL551 delivers above average gaming performance with plenty of oomph to get gamers through the sooty plains of Mordor or the heavy metal war of Titanfall.Even with the subpar screen, I would suggest you pick the Asus GL551 over the Lenovo Y50. Having reviewed both laptops, I can say they share similarly terrible displays, and the only thing the Y50 has going for it is its brushed aluminum body. Meanwhile, the Asus machine ekes out just as much performance for a matching price, with a better battery life to boot.For the same reasons, I would also suggest you pick up the GL551 over the Maingear Pulse 14, unless you absolutely need a 14-inch gaming laptop. For now, the Asus GL551 is the best and most affordable entry level gaming laptop available.

Click here to view full content