hey how's it going dave2d here so
normally when i cover gaming laptops on
this channel
i try to find either a device that i'm
really drawn to
like something that i would want to use
personally or i try to find a device
that's
really good value like good performance
for the money
this machine doesn't quite fit in either
of those it starts at 900 bucks so it's
not an
expensive machine per se but it's not
like the best performing machine
for the money but it does have two
features that i know a lot of people are
drawn to like people asked me to cover
this thing last year
i skipped it last year but they've made
some changes some improvements and i
feel like it's
a noteworthy addition to the 2020 gaming
laptop lineup so here we are
this is the rog strix it's the fourth
edition but this in particular is the
electro punk version
it comes in a few variants but what
makes these things special
is the lighting like the rgb
at the bottom is something that is very
unique and you do not normally get this
at this kind of price point it's
actually one of its coolest features
it's very bright fully customizable and
i got to be honest i really like these
leds now in the past i've talked about
how
when it comes to rgbs on laptops and any
kind of electronics
once you've seen it once you've seen
them all but on this device
it's a little bit different because it's
just so unique and normally you have to
pay a lot more money to get something
that is
as brightly lit as this particular
machine now the second thing that's
unique on this device
is the screen it's a 144hz panel and for
gaming laptops that cost under a
thousand bucks
this is not common normally with base
models you have to get 60 hertz screens
and then upgrade them
to higher refresh rates this comes with
a
good screen at the base model so the
overall package
is pretty solid the performance is good
it's running a six core intel processor
and a gtx 1650 ti so it's not amazing
right there's obviously devices that
push out way better frame rates
but considering the overall package it's
very respectable
now in terms of thermal performance this
machine has a ton
of thermal headroom like this is the
base model right so it doesn't have a
particularly
super hot graphics card you can
configure this up to an rtx
2070 max q so something that runs a lot
hotter
and at the base model there's just a lot
of room now i don't know how this thing
will perform
at the top end right if you stuff this
thing with that super hot gpu or the
fastest gpu available
i feel like this will struggle it has
the same kind of thermal system as last
year's model but the difference is that
this year they're running liquid metal
it's some stuff from thermal grizzly
is not a massive difference right it's
probably maybe three
four degrees better than just regular
thermal paste but it is significant when
it comes to
laptop thermal design uh the fan noise
is pretty average
it doesn't get crazy loud or anything
and you have nice control of those fans
in the software
but because this is equipped with a gtx
1650 ti i can't be like this is the
fastest machine out there
for a thousand bucks it isn't right if
you spend this kind of money you can get
rtx 2060 equipped laptops which are like
40
better in terms of graphical performance
but on this machine in addition to the
crazy lights up front you also get
a nice screen so the panel is fast and
games play very smoothly on it
you can play you know competitive
shooters you can play open world games
and i think it's a very good pairing
with the gpu like i feel like gaming
laptops that have
60 hertz screens with powerful gpus just
don't make sense anymore
now there are some design elements on
this laptop which you may not like
the big thing is that there's pink
everywhere it's got pink wasd keys it's
got pink trim
on the touchpad it's got a pink border
or pink trim around the edge of the
screen
i actually thought this lit up at first
like when i looked at the press photos i
thought this was
an rgb trim to the screen but it's just
pink plastic and the front of it
also has a pink rog logo
i personally don't mind it i gotta be
honest like i don't mind the color pink
i feel like there are people that don't
like it though
but the other thing is that because it's
pink and you can't change the color of
the plastic
it kind of limits what you would use for
the rgb lighting like there's only so
many colors that look nice
with pink blue and pink look great
porygon is the coolest pokemon out there
but if you put like i don't know green
well green would look okay but like
orange like you just lose a lot of the
spectrum
because of the pink it just doesn't look
quite right at least to me
now in terms of ports there's actually
no ports on the right side which is a
little strange like if you're
a right-handed mouse user your cable now
has to go around the
back of the laptop which is it's not the
end of the world but it is a little bit
different
on the left there's three usb-a ports
and they're actually pretty tight to
each other
so if you have a dongle or an adapter
might block some of the adjacent
usb ports and then on the back you have
your ac adapter socket
as well as your usb-c does not support
that level 3
and you have your ethernet jack and an
hdmi out so the port selection is
okay there's no sd card slot and there's
also no
webcam at the top if that was something
you were looking for
now the whole device is made with a
polycarbonate plastic it's plastic on
the top
and the keyboard deck and the bottom
panel it's all plastic but it is well
made like there's nothing
in here that feels poorly engineered or
poorly designed
i feel like in 2020 companies that are
using plastics in their laptops
they're doing it right the hinge is a
little bit different from a lot of other
gaming laptops
it's the same design as last year's
model it kind of goes in and out of the
device as you open and close it it seems
well made though like there were no
problems last year
and i feel like it's going to be the
same for this year's model the keyboard
is a pretty standard keyboard for an
asus gaming laptop
i've always liked it easy to type on
with good lighting and the trackpad
feels pretty nice as well it's accurate
it also has dedicated hardware buttons
so for people that like to just click
separate buttons to the left and right
instead of clicking the whole
touchpad mechanism if you need to get
inside the laptop
it's easy to open it up but be careful
of the cables that connect the lighting
system
we have access to your two ram slots but
only one is populated on the base model
you have your
three ssd base which is more than most
15-inch laptops and then you also have
your wi-fi card
the battery down here is 48 watt hours
not a big one i only got three and a
half hours with all the lighting off
and screen at 250 nits but it's actually
a pretty average battery size
and battery life for this kind of price
point
uh so that is the strix
four or like the fourth generation of
strix i think that this
is difficult to compete in terms of like
best performance right there are so many
devices out there nowadays that have
really good value at that thousand
dollar price point like the
g5 se the like the other asus product
like there's an asus
tough which i personally don't love it's
got thermal issues but it does perform
better than this in terms of just raw
performance
i mean there's a whole bunch of them out
there but this has one of the most
unique lighting systems you can get
now i'm going to close off this video
with a more personal message
if you're someone who's looking for a
laptop at a very particular budget let's
say it's a thousand dollars or two
thousand dollars whatever it is
and you hop into reddit or a discord or
maybe it's the dave2d discord you ask
people
what device should i get for x number of
dollars
oftentimes the recommendations that
you'll get will be these very
value-focused devices right good
performance
for the money and those are great
recommendations if you ask me for like a
value
focused device i would recommend those
same few machines
but sometimes you might be drawn to
something like this you're drawn to the
pink you're drawn to the
rgb whatever it is that you like about
machines that
aren't you know the same few performance
focused or value focused machines
it's totally cool you can pick up stuff
like this because
sometimes you're this is what makes
people happy
right if if that's what you're into go
for it you don't have to get the same
few laptops that like the sweaty laptop
nerds are suggesting you don't have to
if you want the best performance go for
it that's
like the sweaty stuff is usually the
best stuff but sometimes
rgbs make your heart sing okay hope you
guys enjoyed this video thumbs if you
liked it
subs if you loved it i'll see you guys
next time
[Music]
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