Asus ROG Chimera G703 (i7-7820HK, GTX 1080, Full HD) Laptop Review

While the design of most notebooks is symmetrical, Asus pursues an individual approach in the design of its gaming cases. In the case of the G703, not only is the top of the base unit asymmetrical, as we have already seen in the G752, but the lid is asymmetrical as well. Of course, it depends on your own tastes whether you can appreciate the numerous slants and color changes. While the design of the 17-incher appears very fresh with its silver elements in our opinion, we would have liked slightly less visual gimmicks here and there (for example on the bottom of the case).

There is hardly anything to complain about in terms of the materials. This also goes for the lid, which is made from brushed aluminum. The soft-touch finish of the high-quality palm rest also strikes a good impression, but it tends to become dirty quickly (due to its materials). In particular greasy palms will easily leave prints. In order to keep the weight from being too high, the bottom of the case is made of plastic.

We would call the stability of the case good. Even when using more force, the base unit hardly budges under pressure, if at all. As in many other notebooks, things are not so good with the lid, which can be twisted significantly using two hands and then it creaks unpleasantly. The workmanship could also use some improvements. In our test unit, the gaps between the display and the frame varied considerably, and this diminished our impression of the quality. However, taking all the aspects into account, the case still delivers a good impression.

Looking at the weight and dimensions, you can see that the 17-inch notebook is meant more for stationary operation. 4.7 kg (~10.4 lb) is quite an uncomfortable weight to transport. With this value, the G703 is heavier than the competition, which reaches 4.3 to 4.4 kg (~9.5 - 9.7 lb). Only the MSI GT75VR weighs almost the same. In terms of its thickness, at 51 mm (2 in) the G703 ends up between the Acer Predator 17 X (45 mm, ~1.8 in) and the MSI GT75VR (58 mm, ~2.3 in).

Asus appears to have listened to the complaints from buyers and the press and has positioned the connections much more intelligently than in other versions of its gaming notebooks. The G701 and G752 17-inch siblings had to live with a positioning that was too far towards the front before, causing annoying collisions with plugged-in cables when using the mouse. Although the positions in the G703 are not perfect either with its fan openings on the sides, there is more room for movement now. 

Many of the most important and often used connections are now on the back. Overall, the 17-incher can score with four USB-3.0 ports, two audio ports, two display ports (HDMI & Mini-DisplayPort), an RJ45 port, a card reader, and a Kensington lock. The whole package is rounded-off by a modern Thunderbolt-3 port, which theoretically allows you to connect an external GPU.

As the MSI GT75VR and the Acer Predator 17 X show, fast card readers cannot be taken for granted. While the two competitors remain below 100 MB/s in the test with our reference card, the ROG G703 manages between 182 MB/s (transfer of images) and 240 MB/s (sequential reads). Only the Schenker XMG Ultra 17 can approach these values with its 187 and 208 MB/s rates.

In the wireless communication, our Chimera misses a top spot. In contrast to its competitors, the 17-incher does not use a wireless module from Rivet Networks (Killer 1435 or 1535) but uses one from Intel. Even though the Wireless-AC 8265 plays at the top in the reception performance, its sending speeds are slightly lower.

Our test unit for the press had to make do with a Spartan amount of accessories. In addition to the notebook itself, the box only contained the 330-Watt power supply, which weighs about 1.3 kg (~2.9 lb) and measures about 20 x 10 x 4 cm (~7.9 x 3.9 x 1.6 in).

The maintenance options can best be described by the word "limited." Anyone who removes the maintenance flap from the bottom of the case, which is easily done, only gets access to the storage and half of the RAM slots. In order to reach the cooling system, the battery, and the rest of the RAM, you would need to completely take the notebook apart, which would be rather difficult for non-professionals. This is a lot easier in other notebooks (such as the Schenker XMG Ultra 17). But since the CPU and GPU are soldered in, you cannot upgrade the core hardware later anyways.

The pick-up and return warranty covers 24 months. Please see our Guarantees, Return Policies and Warranties FAQ for country-specific information.

Touchpad

The touchpad also achieves a reference level. On the positive side we have the comfortably smooth surface that makes sliding pleasant and also the ample size of 11.2 x 6.8 cm (~4.4 x 2.7 in). Since it is a conventional touchpad with dedicated keys (even if they appear slightly loose), left and right clicks are always recognized reliably. The same goes for the multi-touch support (zooming and scrolling via two-finger gestures) which most often works flawlessly. Asus could possibly make some improvements in the precision, which should be a tad more exact.

After 60–75 Hz have been the standards for displays for years, now more and more 120 and 144 Hz monitors are appearing. Asus and many other manufacturers are bringing this trend into the notebook segment as well.

We were positively surprised by the reaction time. At this point it should be well-known that IPS panels offer good viewing-angle stability. However, in terms of the reaction speed, TN panels have an advantage most of the time. With a relatively fast 11.2 ms (black-to-white) and 17.6 ms (gray-to-gray), the Asus G703 is an exception here. The IPS displays of the Schenker XMG Ultra 17 and Acer Predator 17 X need more than 20 and 40 ms respectively.

Even though with Intel's Coffee-Lake architecture and AMD's Ryzen generation, six and eight-core CPUs are just around the corner and will proceed on their victory march in 2018, the quad-core chip of the Asus G703 still belongs to the high-end range. Gamers will be particularly pleased with the powerful GeForce GTX 1080. An SSD RAID and 64 GB of DDR4-RAM reinforce the luxury claims.

In contrast to Intel's Turbo-Boost technology which adjusts the speed dynamically to the load of the single cores (for example, 3.5 GHz @ quad-core load), Turbo Gear is designed to maintain the 4.3 GHz constantly, with the exception of longer stress scenarios. The G703 mastered our Cinebench loop (at least 30 minutes multi-core test) without any problems.

The 17-inch racer is ahead in the benchmarks accordingly. Even the Acer Predator 17 X, whose Core i7-7820HK also overclocks to 4.3 GHz, falls behind by a few percentage points. The advantage to a 7820HK notebook without OC is about 20%. Note that the graphics chip (HD Graphics 630) integrated into the processor remains always inactive due to the lack of Optimus technology.

For a price of more than 3000 Euros (~$3694), buyers should expect an extremely high system performance. In brief: The G703 delivers this in all respects. Thanks to the high-end components, the ample amount of RAM, and the SSD duo, the 17-incher also offers sufficient power for the most demanding applications, be in the gaming or in the multimedia areas. Since the operating system is located on solid state drives, Windows 10 boots up extremely fast and loads programs in a very short time. In all other areas, the system also reacts comfortably fast, and things like high latencies are foreign to the G703.

In case space on the two 512 GB SSDs (Samsung SM961) should become tight one day, the G703 also offers a classical HDD with a 2 TB capacity (Seagate Mobile). The 17-incher can be equipped with up to four storage drives in total. Under the hood are one 2.5-inch slot, two PCIe/NVMe-capable M.2 slots, and one M.2 slot which supports only SATA-III and which was still empty in our test unit.

Anyone who does not want to compromise in terms of the image quality and performance is well served by the current top choice, the GeForce GTX 1080. The DirectX-12 model from Nvidia's Pascal series offers 2560 shaders and 8 GB of GDDR5X-VRAM.

Like the CPU, the GPU is also overclocked via Turbo Gear. Instead of 1,582–1,771 MHz, the core reaches 1,682–1,871 MHz according to the GPU-Z tool. Because Nvidia's GPU Boost leaves a lot of room on top in terms of the clock speed, the values achieved in practice are much higher. For example, the GeForce GTX 1080 leveled out at 1,924 MHz in the Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark, which could break some records. In the optimal case, the GPU even climbs up to a respectable 1,974 MHz.

Using the computing-intensive RPG hit The Witcher 3 for 60 minutes, we tested whether the high performance can be maintained over longer periods of time. The result deserves our highest admiration: An average of 1,911 MHz for the GPU and 4,300 MHz for the CPU point to a powerful cooling system. Other gaming notebooks often begin to have trouble here. The G703 executes the graphics benchmarks unobtrusively. In 3DMark 11 and the Fire-Strike test of 3DMark 13, the 17-incher remains comfortably at the level of the GTX-1080 competitors.

While a Full HD panel with 60 Hz would be underwhelming for the performance capabilities of the GTX 1080, the high-end GPU can fully shine with a 144 Hz display. All 12 games we tested raced ahead at more than 60 FPS in maximum details, and in seven games it was even more than 100 FPS.

If you prefer a higher resolution rather than higher FPS numbers, Asus also sells a variant of the G703 with a UHD display (3840x2160 pixels). According to our information, there is no WQHD model.

In idle mode, the G703 also deserves fewer complaints than some of the other 17-inch competitors. Whereas the Clevo barebones for example often tend to rev up, in the G703 sudden, unexplainable jumps in the fan noise occur rather rarely. They only happen if they are provoked by CPU or GPU-heavy tasks or the opening of applications. If the system simply idles along, at 35–36 dB the 17-incher reaches an acceptable level for gaming notebooks. In the ideal case (longer inactivity and power-saving options activated), the fans and the HDD are completely deactivated.

The insides of the G703 get significantly hotter. A maximum GPU temperature of 88 °C (190 °F) and a maximum CPU temperature of 97 °C (207 °F, according to the HWMonitor tool) come close to the limits. Yet neither the GeForce GTX 1080 nor the Core i7-7820HK throttle, which not all high-end notebooks can claim. During everyday gaming, you do not need to worry about the temperatures of the components, since even the more demanding games will tax the system less than our stress test with the Furmark and Prime95 tools. For example, The Witcher 3 only heated up the GTX 1080 to 80 °C (176 °F).

The sound of the speakers of the 17-inch racer is quite acceptable. Even though at times games, movies, and music may sound slightly muffled, in other respects the sound does not need to hide behind the competitors. For example, the Chimera offers a decent bass, and with its high maximum volume (89 dB), it is also suitable for larger rooms and distances from the notebook.

Tuning enthusiasts should also be able to have their fun with the preinstalled audio software (Sonic Studio III), which offers several profiles and sound improvements. Overall, we liked the performance of the two loudspeakers that are positioned at the front. External speakers or a headset are not absolutely necessary for the G703. However, buyers of the more affordable G752 should think about using alternative methods (worse sound).

Frequency comparison (checkboxes selectable!)

A great disadvantage of the CPU and GPU overclocking is the enormous power consumption. At 123–341 watts under load, the G703 consumes even more power than the Schenker XMG Ultra 17, which uses a desktop processor with 65 instead of 45 watts TDP. In idle mode, the situation is much better. 26–37 watts is typical for a high-end notebook that runs without graphics switching.

In the battery life section, the G703 places last. 2:31 hours of Internet surfing via WLAN and 2:23 hours of watching HD movies (medium brightness) will not knock anybody's socks off. Even when the notebook is only occupied with a text document and the brightness is adjusted to the minimum level, the lights go out after just 3:20 hours. The Predator 17 X at least manages 5:13 hours here. No wonder, since the Acer has a much stronger battery with 89 instead of 71 Wh. Apropos power: Without a power supply, the 3D performance drops by about a third. We recently observed the same result with the Schenker XMG Ultra 17.