Asus G750JS-T4064H Gaming Notebook Review

The unusual build and a matte, rubber-coated plastic casing have impressed us ever since the G46 product line. The design featuring sharp edges already suggests the power of Asus' G750JS. Although the laptop is anything but a lightweight, weighing 4 kg (~8.8 lbs), it is 700 grams (~1.5 lbs) lighter and 8 mm (~0.3 in) thinner than the model sporting Nvidia's GTX 880M. In contrast, MSI's GT70 is 5 cm (~2 in) thicker and 300 grams (~0.66 lbs) lighter than Asus' G750JS, but does not use visible gimmicks.

When opened, the user finds a brushed aluminum plate around the keyboard. Both sides of the work area slope off in a trapeze shape. The chrome-ringed trackpad and ROG logo adorn the keyboard area. The looks of both the closed and opened device in conjunction with the materials and edges already suggest what is inside. The rubber coating is a poor choice in terms of cleanliness. It attracts dust and the brushed plate exhibits every fingerprint.

The plastic underside allows accessing the hard drive and working memory after removing one screw. All screws are tastefully protected by rubber caps that can be removed easily. The battery, that looks small in contrast to the other laptops, can be released or replaced by the familiar slider. Overall, the Asus G750JS not only feels good, it also conveys a good quality impression. The dimensions and weight do not give the laptop a bulky appearance, but lets it look powerful and menacing. Furthermore, Asus has eliminated the crooked hinge of our Asus G750JW review sample, and the new laptop from the G750 line makes an impeccable esthetic impression. The only adverse things are that the display is a bit too loose, which is noticed when the laptop is turned around, and the countless rubber stoppers on the display's bezel.

The modified chiclet keyboard (37 x 10.5 - 12.2 cm; ~14.6 x 4.1 to 4.8 inches) of the G750 line convinces with a very good pressure point and a three-level backlight. The number pad and the keyboard are separated by 9 mm spacing. The arrow keys are centered just below this gap. The inconsistent spacing and the positioning of the neighboring keys needs some familiarization when using the arrow keys and keyboard at the same time.

Both the feedback and typing feel are subjectively pleasing and the restrained stroke noise is more than just acceptable. The keyboard is the perfect tool for gaming owing to the standard-sized arrow keys and accurate pressure point.

Like before, the only complaint is that Asus does not incorporate additional keys instead of FN combos, or hot keys for gaming - there is enough room for that.

Touchpad

A big laptop calls for a big touchpad - at least that might come to mind when looking at Asus' G750SJ. The size of 11.7 x 6.6 cm (~4.6 x 2.6 in) is gigantic compared with MSI's GT70 and One's K73-4N. It also pleases with accurate and smooth gestures.

Gesture control for up to three fingers can be configured via the included Asus Smart Gesture software. Scrolling, zooming, and rotating are only a few of the settings that we not only like, but also function smoothly and accurately. A fourth finger is detected, but there are no optional settings for it. An important yet not always available setting is disabling the touchpad when an external mouse is used. This is easily accomplished via the included tool in this case. Both dedicated mouse keys feature a soft and even pressure point with an agreeable feedback.

Touchpads normally cannot replace an external mouse, but the term "replacement" is more than justified. The functional total bundle of the new G750SJ is decent, and the additional, elegant chrome looks of the ring separate it from the rest of the keyboard unit. We were disappointed to find the accuracy in the pad's corners is not maintained or even completely vanishes.

Although the contrast of 575:1 shows some improvement, all comparison devices have an outstanding contrast of 1000:1, which is a difference of approximately 75%. The combination of brightness and contrast lead to a black level of 0.48 cd/m², which is acceptable and renders a decent black in movies and gloomier games.

We recorded a good result of 80% that can compete with all contenders in the sRGB color space coverage. Asus' G750JS achieved a coverage of 59% in the AdobeRGB color space assessment. These are normal rates for a higher-quality TN screen, but not sufficient for professional use.

We have discovered a typical pattern in the analysis of the color reproduction. A clear bluish cast is visible in the state of delivery when looking closer, which was already common for the screens in the former models. This phenomenon is not noticeable or even distracting in "normal" application fields, but TN screens should not be used in the professional field due to the just mentioned color space coverage.

We examined the DeltaE shift in the color accuracy analysis and received middling rates of just over 8 in both colors and grayscale. Better CalMAN results were achieved by the Asus G750JZ, which sports an Nvidia GTX 880M, because Asus installs its own color profile only in this model.

It soon becomes evident that colors and brightness deviate when looking at the screen from the sides. Asus touts a viewing angle stability of 140 degrees, which we can only confirm to an extent here. We could verify this stability in the former G750 models, and only discovered deviations in different tilt angles. Though it will not impair the lone user, we ascertained visible color and brightness differences in the sofa test, i.e. the laptop is on a table and a group of friends intends to watch videos or the like on the laptop.

As a high-performance laptop CPU, Intel's Core i7-4700HQ is usually found in larger 15 or 17-inch models. Since the integrated Intel HD 4600 graphics card is active, switching between the dedicated and internal graphics cards is possible. That spares both the battery and electricity bills. Intel's Core i7-4700HQ has a base clock of 2.7 GHz and features a Turbo mode that enables a short performance boost. Thus, a Turbo speed of up to 3.4 GHz can be reached in single-core mode, i.e. when only one of the four cores is loaded. That is 200 MHz more than the possible 3.2 GHz in multi-core operation.

Asus' laptop is defeated by all contenders in Cinebench R15 because they sport Intel's Core i7-4800MQ and thus have a higher boost and can thus achieve higher performance. Despite that, with a score of 641 points the CPU performs well in multi-core operation, which does not change in battery mode.

We did not notice any unusual performance deficits in other respects and did not ascertain throttling either.

Nvidia's GeForce GTX 870M is a premium range graphics card based on Nvidia's Kepler architecture. It has 3 GB of dedicated memory and Asus overclocks the core clock to 981 - 1000 MHz rather than 941 - 967 MHz in our case. Nvidia's Optimus switches between both graphics units imperceptibly for the user. We tested the graphics card's overclocking with 3DMark 11 and the difference between both scores was not even 3%. Thus, Nvidia's GTX 870M score of 7151 points is approximately 185 points more than without overclocking.

A look at One's K73-4N shows that both laptops achieve similar rates in 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark 11, although the Asus GPU overclocks. Nevertheless, a terrific score of 24,000 points is achieved in 3DMark Vantage, which surpass Nvidia's GTX 870M precursor, i.e. the GTX 770M, by approximately 26%. The difference of approximately 38% in 3DMark 11 is even more striking.

Asus' laptop cannot compete with the stronger Nvidia GTX 880M that is installed in both MSI's GT70 and Schenker's XMG P704. MSI's machine achieves a 1000 point higher score in 3DMark 11 and 4000 points in 3DMark Vantage.

The dedicated graphics card cannot and should not be used in battery mode for a long period due to its high power consumption. However, it is possible to use it without a great performance loss according to our tests. The scores achieved in battery mode in both 3DMark 06 and 3DMark 11 were within the normal variance of results.

The G750 product line is known for its good circulation and waste heat dissipation via its dual system fans. The temperature development in the keyboard area and on the laptop's underside were noticed. We performed the tests in an ambient temperature of 24 °C (75.2 °F). Asus' laptop did not surpass 30 °C (86 °F) when idle and only reached a temperature of over 29 °C (84.2 °F) on the underside. Its contenders achieve similar rates and only Schenker's XMG P704 noticeably steps out of line with 33.5 degrees.

Load operation shows just how well the cooling system really works and we recorded a temperature of over 40 degrees (104 °F) only twice. In particular, the keyboard side never exceeded 35 °C (95 °F), which is very pleasant and will not adversely affect typing.

The thighs never got too hot in our renowned on-the-lap test. However, users should think twice whether they want to use an over four kilogram (~8.8 lbs) heavy machine that way.

The power supply's temperature ranged from 32.3 °C (90.14 °F) when idle and a hot 51.4 °C (124.52 °F) during load, and thus should not be covered by a pillow or blankets.

A peculiarity is seen in the stress test. Asus' laptop does not throttle despite maximum performance and can even sometimes maintain its Turbo. A consequence could be that some games will run a bit smoother than on other laptops under full load.

We did not observe any losses when we repeated the benchmarks after an hour of stress testing. The well-designed cooling system by Asus provided a truly outstanding result.

The battery runtime of high-performance machines is usually short due to the power consumption of the premium components. This fact can also be translated to the battery's size that suggests a short battery runtime at first glance. However, we achieved a remarkable idle runtime of over 10 hours that is in no way typical for this laptop category. One's K73-4N and Schenker's XMG P704 managed a runtime of 3 - 4 hours, and MSI's GT70 achieved a better yet not competitive time of 6.5 hours.

Asus' laptop still achieved a good time of almost 5.5 hours in the Wi-Fi test. MSI's GT70 tops that by an hour. Power is demanded from the laptop in the load test and consequently not only higher clock rates, but also switching to Nvidia's dedicated GPU is the reason why the runtime drops to 1:28 h.

Overall, Asus' laptop achieved astonishing results that could considerably influence the purchase decision. Apart from the awesome runtime for this laptop category, we also like the easy-to-replace battery.

A supplementary and interesting fact is that the battery needs 162 minutes for recharging.

Asus' G750JS rightly carries the Republic of Gamers logo and, like former models, convinces with a high quality standard and performance. The buyer gets a solidly built and robust laptop for 1800 Euros (~$2459) that allows mobile use even without the power supply owing to the remarkable battery runtime and the large, user-friendly touchpad. Should the subcategories of a gaming laptop not be important, and particular focus is placed on performance, the equally priced competition like MSI's GT70 with Nvidia's GTX 880M is certainly an alternative.

Remarkable and rarely seen are also the quiet fans, and the maximum Turbo Boost clock despite permanent stress test load.

However, the inferior screen will likely be an annoyance, especially since it is very viewing angle unstable when tilted, and has a considerably lower brightness than the contenders. Asus should at least offer a higher-quality IPS screen as an option.