ASUS ROG Unleashes The Gamer in You

If you follow our FB page, you may have noticed I posted a picture of an ASUS banner with a guy wearing a ROG T-shirt in the background. It was an exclusive media gathering to introduce their new line-up of products.
The tone of this gathering was rather laid back and Malaysia’s product manager Li Huai Pin made a very short speech before revealing he was quite a serious WoW gamer back in the day and is still a gamer today — when his wife allows him to. Let’s get back to the main point though. ASUS. Republic of Gamers. Unleash the gamer in you. Powerful gaming machines. Yum.

This is the guy guilty of going through the slides filled with drool-worthy gaming hardware.

Today, ASUS has broadened their target audience by releasing more gaming notebooks at varying price levels. Compared to last year, when ASUS only had two models, a 15.6″ mid-range and a 17.3″ high-end ROG laptop. They now target all levels of gamers with 4 models with varying specifications.

ASUS is not shy about their intention to go head to head with MSI with their newest line-up. With various models targeting the exact same price levels, it’s hard to not see this coming. Here we see the G751JY compared directly to the MSI laptops as well as the Lenovo Y50 in terms of heat dissipation and also in terms of 3DMark 11 benchmark scores against the GT72.

While I am not sure of the comparison against the MSI laptops, I do know the Lenovo Y50 actually has that heat dissipation pattern. The keyboard can get uncomfortably hot when I am gaming.

This is the the highest end ASUS ROG G751. We have reviewed the lower-end version, the ROG G751JT, and it is quite the performer, so I guess we can imagine what the higher end version is capable of. However the G751 is just too thick and bulky for my tastes as a laptop.

Going straight to the cheapest ROG notebook announced, the GL552 “has everything a gamer needs, without breaking your wallet”

You might smirk at the DDR3 used for the graphics memory, and I too was puzzled by the decision to use DDR3, since several sites have tested the difference and found close to 20% decrease in performance compared to GTX950M with DDR5 VRAM. I asked one of the representatives at the event, and he said the decision to use GTX950M with DDR3 VRAM was mainly to keep the price affordable, but even with DDR3 the GTX950M is sufficient to keep most casual gamers happy.

ASUS did have a showcase unit available for us to try, but they only had CS:GO for us to play. CS:GO really isn’t the most hardware intensive game out there, so I can’t say much about the performance of the GL552. As you can see in the photo, the GL552 has an Aztec pattern similar to the GR8 of yesteryear. A new theme for ASUS ROG maybe?

Also at the event was the ROG G551.

Starting from RM3799, this model is equipped with a GTX960M.

Next up, we have the ASUS ROG G20.

A SUS also claims the G20 to be very quiet when idle, even quieter than the average library. I do think it is an easy feat if it was compared against my university’s library. But these are impressive figures nonetheless and I did go near a G20 running CS:GO, and it was barely audible.

RGB lighting is also available on the G20 just for bling bling. There are three lighting zones which can be configured individually.

That’s a fine monitor right there. It wasn’t mentioned in the presentation because it isn’t in the ROG line-up. It’s the ASUS MX279H which is a FHD AH-IPS LED backlit and frameless monitor according to their website. It looks absolutely amazing in real life. It would be a dream come true to use a multi-monitor setup with these babies. I was actually more attracted towards the monitor than the G20.

Front view of the G20A.  Aztec pattern once again. Subtle ASUS logo near the back end.

Rear view of it. ROG logo near the back end as well. This is a PC you want to show off. And look at the back of that monitor! It’s pretty even from the rear! Side note, notice the HDMI cable is not connected to the discrete GPU? Weird. I asked a representative but he didn’t know the reason behind the weird configuration. There was someone using the G20 so I couldn’t disconnect it and try plugging it to the discrete graphics card. However from this view, it seems that the G20 could possibly be upgraded with a beefier 2-slot GPU. I asked the representative there to crack it open and give us an inside look but I was politely denied. Oh my tinkerer sense was tingling.

Last but not least of the slew of new ROG notebooks unveiled today, the G501.

Most probably designed to compete with MSI’s GS series, this baby is only 20.6mm thin and 2.08kg light. It could actually be an ultrabook with these numbers, except for the fact that it uses a powerful quad-core instead of those measly ULV processors and also it’s battery life which will not qualify as an ultrabook. Also, the performance is also way beyond what an ultrabook is capable of. With an i7-4720HQ and GTX960M with 4GB DDR5 VRAM, I am sure it can handle many games with ease. Heck, I use a Lenovo Y50 with a GTX860M and it’s also capable of kicking ass, and this has a GTX960M. Wew.

This is the 4K version which will be taking RM6399 out of your wallet. Screen is immaculate, but so is the FHD version’s screen. I actually couldn’t differentiate the two screens from normal viewing distance. I spent the most time with this laptop as it is really quite the perfect laptop for me. Portable enough for me to carry it to class everyday but also powerful enough for me to play games when I get the urge to. The keyboard is just nice, being thin didn’t make it crappy. And did I mention it glows red?

However, being so thin definitely has it’s downsides though. It only has the bare minimum of three USB 3.0 ports. It has a HDMI 1.4 port capable of outputting 4K and miniDP port to give you a maximum of three displays for more productivity, but I NEED MORE USB PORTS. My Lenovo Y50 has three and I can assure you, they aren’t enough. Connect two USB 3.0 external drives, a hub with a keyboard and mouse, and where are you gonna connect your phone to transfer files? Or a thumb drive your friend passed you? But I am sure some are more than willing to give up a few USB ports for the sake of portability.

ASUS ROG peripherals were also present at the event.

This mouse and headphone comes free with every purchase of G751 and G501. The mouse supports a DPI of up to 5000. It was quite comfortable to hold and in the CS:GO session organized by ASUS, I think it has proven itself to be accurate enough as I didn’t hear anyone complaining about the mouse causing them to lose the game.
The headphone sounds okay and is comfortable although I think it isn’t really that good in terms of clarity. It does have 60mm Neodymium drivers which I think are among the largest I have heard. The shell of the cups however is plasticky and upon taking it off I was really not impressed by the hollow noise it produced when my fingernail tapped the shell.

Above are pictures of the ROG GX1000 gaming mouse. It has a sensor which goes up to 8000dpi and comes in black or silver. Interestingly it has an aluminium body which seems to be quite lightweight. Talking about lightweight, if you think it isn’t heavy enough for you, you can add weights too. The lighting is also configurable with several profiles to choose from. This wasn’t mentioned in the media presentation but according to the representative this mouse might be available in stores soon.

And these are the bags that come with the ASUS ROG notebooks. The one on the left has a lot of compartments inside for you to keep your peripherals along with your laptop and has parts made of Kevlar so maybe you can try using it to block bullets at your own risk.

Besides presenting us with new hardware, ASUS also organised a 3 on 3 CS:GO tourney among the media representatives present.

Here we have Cody gleefully pitting the media against each other.

I guess this is solid proof that ASUS ROG laptops are capable of gaming?

The champions… They each won an ASUS ROG Gladius mouse to take home. Damn, if only my friend came back from his cigarette break quicker I could have been in the running to get one too. The next time ASUS hosts a gaming competition, especially at a ROG media gathering, they should anticipate more teams will join and not just allow 4 teams to participate. After all, we are all gamers in the Republic of Gamers, aren’t we?