Hey, how's it going guys. This is Dave2D and This is a video on two laptops:
The Asus GL553 and the Asus GL753.
Both have been updated with the Intel 7th generation chips,
So the Kaby Lake HQ processors, as well as the GTX 1050
and GTX 1050ti video cards. Both of them are pretty similar -
this is the 15 inch model, this is the 17 inch model.
So the design of these laptops are a mix between the older red and black devices like the 552 and 752
but they've been updated with those bright orange accents.
So, it's got the aluminum top panel, brushed finish with these orange accents -
When its in use the backlighting kicks in and gives a little pop.
They're bright - I mean it's basically neon orange but I personally prefer this look over the old one.
I was getting tired of the red and black look.
So the rest of it is made with plastic materials, even the bottom panel
but its well made and if I remember how the 552 and 752 felt - this feels better.
Everything is a tighter fit and there's just way less material flex overall.
Even the screens feel more rigid.
The hinge is a little stiff, I can't open it with one hand but the overall build quality feels really solid.
The port selection is good on the 15 inch. Lots of USB ports - including a type C but
its not thunderbolt 3. There's also audio, ethernet, and an HDMI port.
The 17 inch model has an extra USB and a mini display port.
And then both of them have SD readers up front and if you've noticed --
optical drives on the side. Now optical drives obviously aren't for everyone
but if you need them these laptops have them.
The headphone jack and the right side USB port are both located toward the front.
So when you have peripherals plugged in it feels a little bit off at first, like when you're playing games
the mouse cord is right there and same with the headphone cord but you get used to it.
On the inside we have two RAM slots a 2.5 inch SATA drive and an M.2 SSD.
The one they include is a SATA stick so speeds aren't amazing but all these are upgradeable.
The battery, as you can see, is small. We had the same issue as we've seen in older Asus gaming laptops --
where, by adding the optical drive, yes it's nice to have a drive but you're taking out precious real estate
on the inside and consequently the battery is smaller. So on these particular laptops, the 17 inch model: I'm getting around 3 hours of battery life -
on the 15 inch model we're getting 3.5 hours. Not terrible but I wish the battery was a little bit bigger.
The 15 and 17 inch screens are both solid. 1080p panels, not a touch screen, but they're bright and they have good contrast and viewing angles.
Neither of my units had any kind of backlight bleeding.
They're not G-Sync panels and they're not particularly color accurate, but they're great for playing games.
The keyboards are nice. I really like the layout. It's actually one of the very few keyboards that have that number pad on the right
while keeping the arrow keys properly spaced
and without weird placement of shift keys or anything.
The key travel feels nice and the new for this year -- both of these keyboards have customizeable RGB lighting.
It's done through software and you can adjust four zones and it's not individually lit.
But its a nice addition. Lighting like this is always fun to play with.
The trackpad is very good. Windows precision drivers, there's no skipping around and there's good gesture recognition.
The surface is plastic not glass but it has a nice texture and it supports handwriting recognition which is kinda neat.
Now it's not something that I'd ever use but if you have a character based language like Japanese or something --
then yeah it can be pretty cool.
It terms of CPU performance the Kaby lake chip is about 10% faster on benchmarks than the Skylake 6700HQ.
But when I'm using it at work or browsing the web I don't really notice that speed increase.
It's maybe a little bit snappier but combined with the GTX 1050 or 1050ti its a pretty capable machine for games.
For the GTX 1050 we're looking at around a 20 to 25% increase in performance over the 960m on benchmarks.
Depending on the game you can either increase graphics quality or just stay at the same quality and get higher framerates.
I'm always about getting higher frame rates so something like Overwatch
on a GTX 960m, even though I average 70 frames per second on high graphics at 1080p,
When there's a ton of stuff happening it can drop to low 50s which I find difficult to play on.
On the GTX 1050 I'm averaging around 90 frames per second. So when the fights get gnarly - I'm still above 60 frames per second.
The 1050ti is even higher. It's pushing over 110 frames per second on the same settings.
More demanding games like Battlefield 1 will hover around 45 frames per second on high graphics 1080p
And this is for the GTX 1050
And on the 1050ti its closer to around 55 frames per second.
The extremely demanding games like Witcher 3 are still not very playable on these cards on High settings.
On medium settings we're looking at 60 frames per second on the 1050, and 70 frames per second on the 1050ti.
Now if you're looking to do VR, it's kinda capable but not really.
I'll b doing a more comprehensive video on that in the near future so if you want to see that be subscribed.
The fans are controllable using the ASUS software, but if you set it on automatic
it's not too bad on idle, but when it's under load, especially on the 1050ti models, they can get pretty loud.
There's no significant CPU throttling during benchmarks. The fans do a respectable job cooling it down
but the exhaust area gets pretty hot.
The speakers actually sound quite different between the two models.
The 17 inch ones sound better. They have better base, more clarity -
but the 15 inch ones actually get louder. Neither of them are amazing speakers but they're not bad.
Alright, so with the GL553 and the 753 you're getting devices with an aluminum top panel
plastic pretty much everywhere else but good build quality.
They both start at $1100 with a GTX 1050 but you can configure them with a 1050ti and extra storage for $1300.
The screens are both 1080p panels, bright, and with good contrast, but they don't have good color accuracy.
The keyboard is nice to type on and the RGB lighting that they've included this year is pretty cool.
The trackpad is good. I actually think it's one of the best trackpads at this price point.
Inside the Kaby Lake i7 and the GTX 1050 are a nice bump up from the previous generation.
About 25% better than a 960m and it's another 25% for the 1050ti.
Both configurations are properly cooled. the 16gbs of ram and the two storage drives are all easy to access
and upgradeable. The 48 watt battery is relatively small and despite the better energy efficiency of the new CPUs
it's still only gets you 3 to maybe 3.5 hours of battery life but overall I like what they're doing here.
I definitely like these more than the 552 and the 752 from the previous generation.
I mean those were nice but the design languages feel a little bit dated.
This is obviously refreshed. I like the orange. I like the RGB keyboard.
And it's kinda like a mid tier, mid budget, gaming laptop. So if that's what you're looking for take a look at these ones.
That's the end of this video! Hope you guys liked it! Thumbs if you did, subs if you loved it, see you guys next time.
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