The ASUS Republic of Gamers G751 Review: G-SYNC Comes To The Notebook Computer
by Brett Howse on July 29, 2015 8:30 AM ESTFinal Words
Evaluating the ASUS G751 is my first opportunity to use G-SYNC when gaming, and to that end G-SYNC has certainly lived up to its billing. Some of that would also be the very powerful hardware that ASUS has packed into the G751. The GTX 980M continues to impress, and in a device of this size, cooling is not an issue. The other part of the smoothness when gaming though is ASUS’s decision to include a 75 Hz IPS panel. The combination of G-SYNC with this panel makes practically any gaming scenario a silky smooth experience.
The package has some hits and misses. The keyboard and trackpad are quite good, and I’ve already praised the IPS panel which in addition to the 75 Hz refresh rate, has decent color accuracy and contrast. It’s a big step up from the TN panels which can still be found in some gaming notebooks. ASUS has also included plenty of connections including four USB 3.0 ports and a network port. On the miss side is, at least in my opinion, the styling. The G751 seems to have been styled against gaming laptops from a couple of years ago, and hasn’t moved to a sleeker form factor with more premium materials than plastic. Some of that may have been costs though, since ASUS is trying to offer a powerful system at a better price.
The thicker form factor and massive weight of this notebook certainly reduce its portability, and that is further hampered by the poor battery life, which is dragged down by the lack of Optimus support. But for the target audience this is going to likely be the least important criticism. The benefit of no Optimus is G-SYNC support, which on a device like this is certainly the right trade-off.
At this point, all of the hardware inside of the G751 is pretty well known, but that doesn’t take back what it does. The Core i7-4720HQ processor is plenty powerful for most tasks, and while it would have been nice to see ASUS upgrade it to the Broadwell parts, it’s hard to fault them since the quad-core Broadwell upgrade was pretty late in coming. The NVIDIA GTX 980M is the star of the show, as it tends to be, offering some pretty impressive gaming performance in a portable notebook. ASUS has also outfitted the G751 with 24 GB of memory in this model, and they offer an upgrade with 32 GB as well. The included storage is very fast, and it’s great to see them make the move to PCIe based storage. The XP941 is a very quick drive and storage speeds should not ever be an issue. For those that need more flash storage, ASUS does offer a 512 GB version as well as the 256 GB model sampled. The days of the optical drive seem to be numbered, but it’s handy to have a Blu-Ray burner available, and I’ve already used it a few times.
One of the strongest features of the G751 is the cooling system, which seems to pretty easily handle the heat output of the CPU and GPU, but it does this while maintaining a relatively quiet sound levels. It really is quite amazing to be gaming on a system this powerful, and while you can hear the fans, the output and frequency are both low enough to not really bother you. Most gaming laptops are almost always going to need headphones, but the G751 is certainly the quietest gaming notebook that I have encountered.
Overall, I’ve really enjoyed my time with the ASUS G751. It offers plenty of power, a good display, and is among the first laptops to offer the supurb game smoothing capabilities of G-SYNC. It is certainly not inexpensive at $2150 as tested, to $2650 (MSRP) with a faster CPU and double the SSD storage, but it comes in at a good price for a system with this much performance. Online, you can find the as-tested model for $1900 at Amazon, which is a good chunk of change less than the MSRP and really adds to the value of this offering. To me, the one real downside is the styling, but that’s one thing that is really up to the individual. The combination of G-SYNC, a 75 Hz IPS panel, and the GTX 980M make this an incredibly potent gaming notebook.
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boeush - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
(The sad and rarely advertised/appreciated aspect of any kind of engineering or architecting, us that 50% or more of the time is spent on writing or reviewing of documentation.)douglord - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
Has anyone seen a windows laptop with a 4 core cpu and Iris Pro with NO igpu?ingwe - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
Isn't Iris Pro an iGPU?BMNify - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
pointless question is pointless, Iris Pro IS igpu.Notmyusualid - Saturday, August 1, 2015 - link
+1Meaker10 - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
Yes this model with the 4870HQ, also the GT72/GT80 with the 4950HQ and 5950HQ. However they can manually switch to it too.deeps6x - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
I believe the author must have been referring to the Zenbook 303, as the Zenbook 305 is a cpu crippled piece of dung. But an otherwise nice piece of dung. 1080P (not some unusable in windows 3k or 4k BS), matte screen (which is the only way to go on a non-touch laptop), NON-TOUCH (which is also the only way to go imho), nice keyboard, nice case, nice weight, so-so connectivity. But the 303 doesn't gimp the CPU and that makes it a NICE ZENBOOK.As for this overweight (big steaming pile) mini-desktop (as nobody wants almost 9 lbs dropped on their laps, and certainly not 9 lbs of HOT laptop while gaming).... I will say this: I love that GSync is being included in laptops now.
Note to Asus, quit trying to 'check boxes' and start offering real value in some other form in your laptops. Does anyone need 24 or 32 GB of ram in a lower mid level desktop equivalent laptop used for gaming? Um... NOPE. 16 GB is overkill, but 8GB is underkill, so stick to 16. But don't cheap out on the SSD. These days, when you can get a 480-512 GB SSD for like $200, just put that in it and be done with it. Don't try to up sell your customers for $500 for something that should already be included for your bloated list price. BTW, stop overcharging for GPUs in laptops. If you take this 980M out of the laptop, what do you have? A laptop spec wise similar to something you charge $799 for? That is CRAZY! Does adding a GPU that is functionally equivalent to a $250-$300 desktop card mean you should charge $1200 (or whatever) more? Sure seems like you are milking your loyal customers instead of trying to expand your user base by offering a better bang for the buck than your competitors. Which sucks, because I personally think you are second only to Apple in design quality. I'm typing on a Zenbook now. Love ya. Try harder. Do better.
/end rant
WackyWRZ - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
While I agree with most of your statements, I fail to see how they are "cheaping out on the SSD". Its an XP941 which is a PCIe SSD - not SATA and is known to hit 1.0Gbyte/sec+... They also cost about 2x the price of a SATA drive too.deeps6x - Thursday, July 30, 2015 - link
My mistake. I missed that the first time I glanced at the article. Came back to read it. I do love the PCIe SSDs. I have a small one in my MSI Ghost Pro and it is actually noticeably faster than the regular SSD in my Zenbook. Hopefully everything will start coming with the twice as fast PCIe version, from the lowest Zenbook to this massive gaming box.One other thing I'd add to my rant. Asus, you clearly have enough room on the keyboard, so could you PLEASE return the double wide zero key on the keypad? For people who actually use the keypad for number entry, the double wide zero key makes it so much easier. Especially since we are used to it on every desktop keyboard and calculator out there. Why do you insist on gimping your laptops this way?
PS, I looked at the picture of the back of the laptop, read the Pontiac Aztec comment, and laughed. Yup, both look quirky. Some people will love it, some will hate it.
boeush - Thursday, July 30, 2015 - link
At least the keyboard spans the width. What really gets my goat, is when laptop vendors stick a 13" keyboard into a 17" form factor...The fact that I feel a need to actually commend Asus on this matter, is a very sorry commentary on the state of the laptop market these days.