When it comes to gaming notebooks Asus’s Republic of Gamers offers a very diverse portfolio. At the higher end lies those big screens, heftily built and stunningly designed gaming rigs. On the other end lies those relatively less powerful gaming machines which offer the same look and feel that makes the series such a hit with gamers.
The Asus GL552JX, priced at Rs.80,990, belongs to the second category of Republic of Gamers (RoG) notebooks, and is more powerful than many of the high-end laptops.
Design: Stunning and well-built
What distinguishes it from the crowd of notebooks is the stunning looks, the emphasis on red and the rugged build. Though made of plastic, the coarse fabric-like texture and the red backlit RoG logo on the lid gives it a unique and stylish appearance. Its only limitation is that it catches dust very easily. It weighs 2.4kg, and measures 16 mm when closed, which isn’t bad by the standards of a 15.6-inch notebook. While carrying it around will not be easy for someone who uses a 13-inch notebook, for someone who is used to big-screen notebooks, it is pretty handy. The good looks and solid build comes as bonus.
Asus hasn’t skipped any of those connectivity options that power users might need. The optical drive, for instance, is still very popular with gamers as downloading a 30GB game is not viable for many. In addition to the optical drive, there are 3 USB ports, 1 HDMI and a LAN port. The sound quality is much better than many high-end notebooks as the speakers are placed at the front, right above the keyboard.
Performance: Fast and niggle-free
The notebook runs on a top-of-the-line Intel fourth-generation Core i7 processor with NVIDIA GeForce 950M 4GB dedicated graphics card. It is backed by 8GB of RAM and 1TB of HDD. It is nippy and that reflects even when you are just browsing. Games like FIFA 15 run without any hiccups or frame drops.
The notebook’s 15.6-inch LED display has a screen resolution of 1920x1080pixels, which puts it on par with the more expensive high-end notebooks. The big display makes not just gaming a delight, but even for day-to-day usage it is a lot better than many of those small-screen ultrabooks. It is not a matte display but the anti-glare feature keeps reflection at bay.
Battery is a weak link in most gaming notebooks, the GL552JX is no different in this aspect and on non-stop usage involving games and movies it can muster 4 to 5 hours at the most.
It runs Windows 10, comes with Cortana voice assistant, new Edge Browser and a month’s free subscription of MS Office 365 suite, which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Keyboard: Big and colourful keys
The notebook comes with a full-fledged keyboard. The keys are big, highly responsive and are backlit. The red backlighting is a bit unusual but worry not as it as effective as white backlighting. Some of the keys, W, A, S, D for instance, have a red line around the edges so a user can find them easily. These are often used as default keys in games. The wide hand rest ensures you can play games with the same comfort as you can with a game controller.
Verdict
The rugged and well-built GL552JX has the looks and configuration of a high-end notebook. It is ideal for users who are looking for a powerful yet easily portable machine for gaming, watching movies and could slip into the shoes of a regular device with consummate ease.
Acer’s Aspire V Nitro VN7 is the only other good-looking laptop that offers better configuration. It is powered by Intel Core i7 processor but with 12GB RAM and a more powerful NVIDIA GeForce 960M 4GB graphics card. It also offers a 4K (3840x2160p) display. However, it costs Rs.110,000. If you want something less expensive, the Asus GL552JX is the best option out there right now.
