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Asus Strix GL503VM-DB74 Hero Edition

Specifications

Asus Strix GL503VM-DB74 Hero Edition
Asus Strix GL503VM-DB74 Hero Edition (GL503 Series)
Processor
Intel Core i7-7700HQ 4 x 2.8 - 3.8 GHz, Kaby Lake
Graphics adapter
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile - 6 GB VRAM, GDDR5
Memory
16 GB 
, DDR4
Display
15.60 inch 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixel 141 PPI, LED, glossy: no
Mainboard
Intel HM175
Storage
256 GB NVMe, 256 GB 
, + 1TB SSHD (8GB Cache) FireCuda
Connections
4 USB 3.0 / 3.1 Gen1, 1 HDMI, 1 DisplayPort, Audio Connections: 3.5mm, Card Reader: SD, 1x USB3.1 Type C
Networking
10/100/1000 LAN Card (10/100/1000MBit/s), 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (a/b/g/n = Wi-Fi 4/ac = Wi-Fi 5/), Bluetooth 4.1
Size
height x width x depth (in mm): 23 x 384 x 262 ( = 0.91 x 15.12 x 10.31 in)
Battery
64 Wh Lithium-Ion, 4-cell
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
Camera
Webcam: HD
Additional features
Speakers: Stereo, Keyboard: Chiclet, Keyboard Light: yes, 24 Months Warranty
Weight
2.5 kg ( = 88.19 oz / 5.51 pounds) ( = 0 oz / 0 pounds)
Price
1700 Euro

 

Pricecompare

Average Score: 76.8% - good
Average of 5 scores (from 6 reviews)
price: 75%, performance: 83%, features: - %, display: 85% mobility: 67%, workmanship: 80%, ergonomy: 85%, emissions: - %

Reviews for the Asus Strix GL503VM-DB74 Hero Edition

70% Asus ROG Strix Hero Edition (GL503VM)
Source: PC Mag English Archive.org version
The Asus Strix Hero Edition is an all-around capable midrange laptop made for MOBA gamers, delivering 60fps HD gaming at 120Hz without busting your budget.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 03/19/2018
Rating: Total score: 70%
78% Asus ROG Strix Hero Edition (GL503VM) review:
Source: CNet English Archive.org version
A likeable general-purpose gaming laptop that can handle work and play equally well, as long as you don't need to run off the battery for more than 2.5 hours.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 03/13/2018
Rating: Total score: 78% performance: 80% mobility: 60% workmanship: 80%
86% ASUS ROG Strix Hero Edition GL503VM gaming laptop review: An elegant beast
Source: Tech2 English Archive.org version
For a more full-fledged gaming experience, do consider the MSI GE73VR 7RF Raider. It’s a larger, more expensive, more powerful laptop that costs Rs 30,000 more than the Hero, but it’s also a true desktop replacement. If the size turns you off, the Hero is too good to pass up on.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 02/22/2018
Rating: Total score: 86% performance: 85% display: 85% mobility: 65% workmanship: 80% ergonomy: 85%
80% ASUS ROG Strix GL503 review - The Scar and Hero editions
Source: Hardware Zone English Archive.org version
All in all, the Scar Edition is a nicely balanced gaming notebook in its segment despite the issues mentioned above. But it does come at a premium at S$3,498. The alternative is the much more affordable Hero Edition (comparatively speaking) at S$2,698, and might be the better buy if you are an esports-type of gamer, where less hardware demanding games like CS:GO and DOTA 2 are what you live by and will live by for the next couple of years.
Comparison, online available, Very Long, Date: 01/13/2018
Rating: Total score: 80% price: 75% performance: 85% mobility: 75% workmanship: 80%
70% Asus ROG Strix Hero edition review: The working class hero
Source: Gadgets Now English Archive.org version
The ROG Strix Hero Edition starts at a price point of Rs 92,990 and it is a competitive category with rivals like Dell, HP and MSI all having decent offerings. So, Asus does have a battle on its hands. However, with the Hero Edition it does have a capable challenger to take on the competition. It has a beautiful display, delivers solid performance and has an impressive battery life. Asus is trying to widen its customer base with its latest offering and the Strix Hero edition will certainly help it in doing so.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 12/22/2017
Rating: Total score: 70%

Foreign Reviews

Đánh giá Asus ROG Strix GL503: Thiết kế đẹp, cấu hình khủng, bàn phím LED RGB,...
Source: The Gioididong VN→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Beautiful design; excellent display; powerful hardware; support VR mode; comfortable keyboard; light weight. Negative: Plastic case; noisy under loads; overheats while using.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 11/12/2017

Comment

Model: The Asus Strix GL503VM-DB74 Hero Edition has been designed for MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) gamers. The mid-range gaming laptop comes with a Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics card and a 120 Hz display. Will MOBA gamers be happy with performance, features, and price?

Design and Connectivity

While other Republic of Gamers (ROG) laptops features red and copper accents, the Asus Strix GL503VM-DB74 Hero Edition uses black and white colors and has so-called “Maya” pattern on the lid and the keyboard side. Matthew Buzzi from uk.pcmag.com finds the design is restrained compared with some other gaming laptops, but he still finds it somewhat tacky.

According to uk.pcmag.com the plastics chassis feels solid. The laptop weighs at 2.54 kg (5.6 lb) and measures at 38.35 x 26.16 x 2.29 cm (15.1 x 10.3 x 0.9 inch). uk.pcmag.com says that it is not especially portable and recommends to take a look at more expensive Max-Q designs like the Origin PC EVO15-S and Asus' own ROG Zephyrus if you want a truly thin and light gaming laptop.

Networking is possible via Ethernet, 802.11ac, and Bluetooth 4.2. Connectivity includes one USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C port, four USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports, a mini DisplayPort, an HDMI port, a RJ-45 Ethernet jack, a 2-in-1 card reader, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a 3.5 mm combo jack.

Input Devices

The Asus Aura RGB gaming keyboard features a key travel of 1.8 mm. N-key rollover ensures fast, precise response. Asus specifies that the keycaps are curved 0.25 mm deep. uk.pcmag.com thinks that the typing experience is comfortable and satisfying, and the key travel feels good for gaming. Lori Grunin from www.cnet.com likes the keyboard a lot, both for playing and typing. She found it very comfortable and responsive, with no rollover issues, but complains that she could not find a NumLock indicator. www.firstpost.com summarizes, “The keys have good travel, respond uniformly and accurately to taps and there was no wobble to the keys.” www.hardwarezone.com.sg evaluates the keyboard is very decent with some appreciable tactile feedback and travel. www.gadgetsnow.com finds the RGB keyboard is laid out well and feels great to touch. The keyboard light can be customized in four zones.

The Hero Edition uses a Clickpad with integrated buttons. www.firstpost.com finds the trackpad is good and tracks precisely. www.gadgetsnow.com thinks the trackpad is easy to use and pretty standard one that comes with most gaming laptops at this price.

Display

The Asus Strix GL503VM-DB74 Hero Edition features a 15.6-inch display with an aspect ratio of 16:9, FHD resolution (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) and a 120 Hz refresh rate. It uses the IPS technology. The anti-glare panel covers 94 % of sRGB, but the display is cool the entire gamut is shifted according to www.cnet.com. In contrast, www.firstpost.com reports an sRGB rating of only about 86 percent. They measured a maximum brightness of 250 cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of 825:1 after calibration. Thanks to the higher refresh rate games look and feel smoother. www.gadgetsnow.com writes that the response time is 3 ms and the viewing angles are excellent especially in first person shooter games.

Hardware and Performance

This model comes with a 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor and 16 GB of RAM, while newer ROG Strix Hero Edition family laptops already feature 8th Intel Core i processors (i7 8750HQ or i5 8300HQ) according to Asus' website. uk.pcmag.com got a PCMark 8 Work Conventional test result of 3420, which is about on par with their results for the MSI GP62X Leopard Pro and the Lenovo Legion Y520. www.firstpost.com reports that the CPU performance is about 10-15 percent lower than what they’ve seen on similarly specced machines. www.hardwarezone.com.sg got a PCMark 10 Extended (Overall) score of 5300 and a Productivity Score of 6528.

The Nvidia GTX 1060 has been designed for 1080p gaming. uk.pcmag.com says that most titles should run smoothly, but you might have to reduce details in more demanding games to to maintain 60 frames per second (fps). They report the following results: 5144 in 3Mark Fire Strike Extreme, 68 fps in Heaven (1080p, ultra, AA 4X), and 73 fps in Valley (1080p, ultra, AA 4X). Rise of the Tomb Raider ran at a 57.5 fps average at the “Very High” preset in www.firstpost.com’s tests. This is comparable to Notebookcheck’s results for the GTX 1060 (min: 51, avg: 61, max: 68.8).

The 256 GB boot SSD ensures short boot times and swift program starts. A 1 TB hybrid drive expands the storage capacity. www.hardwarezone.com.sg calls the 1TB 5400rpm secondary hybrid drive agonizingly slow.

Battery Life

uk.pcmag.com reports a battery life of 3 hours and 1 minute in their rundown test. www.hardwarezone.com.sg measured the battery life with PCMark 8’s Home benchmark. They had the keyboard backlighting disabled and display set at 50 percent brightness and conclude that the battery performance is disappointing. Moreover, they report that G-Sync is automatically disabled when the laptop is running on battery. www.gadgetsnow.com confirms that the battery can easily last for three hours of normal use without being plugged in, but they find that this is surprisingly good.

Temperature and System Noise

www.firstpost.com says that load (CPU) temperatures easily touched 91 degrees Celsius and conclude that the lower CPU performance they've observed (see above) could be caused by thermal throttling. They report that the fans get loud during gaming, but heat was directed away from the keyboard and palm rest, making extended gaming sessions very comfortable. www.hardwarezone.com.sg finds that the fans never get excessively loud when running the laptop at full load, although it’s certainly noticeable. www.hardwarezone.com.sg assumes that the thermal efficiency controls and air cooling are working as claimed. They measured GPU and CPU temperatures of 84 and 83 degrees Celsius, respectively after looping the 3DMark Fire Strike stress test for 15 minutes. www.gadgetsnow.com did not face any heating issues even after spending a lot of hours playing quite a few games at a stretch.

Sound

www.firstpost.com finds that the sound has some body to it and doesn’t seem tinny, yet it is not loud enough to make movie watching fun. www.gadgetsnow.com finds the audio quality on the Hero is not really the best and while it is undoubtedly a loud laptop, there is a sense of something missing with the audio of the Hero.

Summary

The 1080p resolution of the 120 Hz panel goes well with the graphics performance of the GTX 1060. The high refresh rate makes games appear smoother. The keyboard is decent. Unfortunately, this model still uses a 7th generation Intel Core i7 processor. www.hardwarezone.com.sg calls the battery life disappointing and www.hardwarezone.com.sg finds that the secondary hybrid drive is slow. The ASUS GL503VM stands out for its excellent build quality and design for www.firstpost.com. uk.pcmag.com summarizes, “The Strix Hero Edition is a solid midrange gaming laptop”. 

Alternatives include the MSI GP63 Leopard 8RE (i7-8750H, GTX 1060, FHD) Xotic PC Edition, the Dell G5 15 5587 (i5-8300H, GTX 1060 Max-Q, SSD, IPS), and the Schenker XMG Apex 15 (Clevo N950TP6).

As of 07-16-2018 amazon.com lists the GL503VM-DB74 for $1,442.97 and the GL503VD-UH73 (smaller 128 GB SSD) for $1,185.40. In Europe amazon.de offers the ASUS ROG STRIX Hero Edition GL503VM-GZ081 (90NB0GI4-M03540) with Intel Core i5-7300HQ and 8 GB of DDR 4 RAM (vs. Core i7-7700HQ and 16 GB in the Strix GL503VM-DB74 Hero Edition) for EUR 1.122,30 at the time of writing. In view of the competitition, the prices appear to be quite fair.

Sources

Press Review by Martina Osztovits

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile: The mobile GTX 1060 is based on the GP106 chip and offer 1280 shaders. Compared to the identically named desktop version it features a slightly lower clock rate. Games in Full HD and maximum details should run fluently on the card.

With these GPUs you are able to play modern and demanding games fluently at medium detail settings and HD resolution.

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.


i7-7700HQ: Quad-core notebook processor based on the Kaby Lake architecture. Besides four CPU cores (including Hyper Threading), the chips also integrates the HD Graphics 630 GPU and is manufactured in an improved 14 nm process.» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.


15.60":

15-inch display variants are the standard and are used for more than half of all laptops.

The reason for the popularity of mid-sized displays is that this size is reasonably easy on the eyes, often allows high resolutions and thus offers rich details on the screen, yet does not consume too much power and the devices can still be reasonably compact - simply the standard compromise.

» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.


Asus: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. is a major Taiwanese computer hardware manufacturer based in Taipei, founded in 1989. Under the Asus brand name, the company manufactures a wide range of products, including laptops, desktops, motherboards, graphics cards, monitors, smartphones and networking equipment, complete systems and PC components for end users.

Under the ROG (Republic of Gamers) brand name, ASUS manufactures gaming laptops known by gamers for their powerful specifications, dedicated graphics cards, high refresh rate displays and advanced cooling systems.

Beyond gaming, a wide range of notebooks are offered for different needs and budgets, from ultra-slim and lightweight ultrabooks to versatile 2-in-1 convertibles and budget-friendly options. In 2023, Asus had a 7% global market share of the PC market.

Customer satisfaction with ASUS notebooks concerns performance, the features, and the good price-performance ratio of ASUS notebooks. However, as with any brand, there are occasional reports of problems such as overheating, driver compatibility, or build quality issues.


76.8%: This rating is not earth-shattering. This rating must actually be seen as average, since there are about as many devices with worse ratings as better ones. A purchase recommendation can only be seen with a lot of goodwill, unless it is about websites that generally rate strictly.


» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.

 

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Current Prices
Stefan Hinum, 2017-12-26 (Update: 2017-12-26)