Asus partners with AU Optronics to ship world's first narrow bezel 17-inch gaming laptops

Laptops with narrow bezels are becoming increasingly common on screen sizes 15-inch or smaller. When shopping for larger screen sizes, however, it becomes apparent that 17-inch laptops have been lagging behind their smaller peers in terms of bezel thickness and screen-to-body ratios.

To remedy this, Asus teamed up with AU Optronics early last year to help develop a 17-inch panel compatible with narrow bezel designs. Such a panel would have to not sacrifice refresh rates or response times in order to offer a gaming experience suitable for hardcore gamers. Some existing narrow bezel 15-inch panels, such as the Sharp panel on the XPS 15, suffer from heavy ghosting.

The fruits of this partnership are now beginning to hit the 17-inch gaming market. Both the newly-launched high-end ROG GL704 series and mid-range TUF FX705 series utilize different narrow bezel designs, but they are each equipped with the same 1080p IPS panel from AU Optronics. Users get native 144 Hz refresh rate, fast 3 ms GtG response times, and full sRGB coverage from these systems.

It's inevitable that competing OEMs will eventually offer their own narrow bezel 17-inch laptops now that a compatible IPS panel is widely available. Walmart, for example, will begin selling its 17-inch OP 17 gaming laptop later this month for hundreds of dollars less than the GL704GM. Asus and AUO have definitely opened the floodgates for fans of 17-inch laptops and we fully expect this size class to take off again once Nvidia Turing becomes official for mobile.

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