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Asus is no stranger to giving customers options; their ROG brand is familiar with notebook models that can be configured nearly any way imaginable. The Strix line is typically their highest echelon, rife with notebooks brandishing the latest specs and boasting wonderful build quality. We have looked at Asus’ 17.3-inch offerings in the past – the GL752, GL702, and GL753 each provide different tiers for games at different budgets. For people who want a more portable machine, the Strix line also contains some 15.6-inch models as nicely. Today, we take a look at the GL553VD.
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Asus ROG Strix GL553VD Review – Specification
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ASUS ROG Strix GL553VD 15.6" Gaming Laptop GTX 1050 4GB Intel Core i7-7700HQ 16GB DDR4 1TB 7200RPM HDD RGB Keyboard
Features
- 7th generation Intel Cor i7 quad core processor and with a discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 1050 4GB graphics
- 15-inch panel with wide 178 viewing angles and Windows 10 pre installed
- 1TB HDD 7200RPM HDD for fast performance and large storage capacity
- Aura RGB-backlit scissor-switch keys offering 2.5mm of travel distance for tactile keystrokes; 4 zones of lighting control
- 802.11 ac WiFi for superior bandwidth and stability; Bluetooth 4.0, USB Type C Gen 2, Up to 5 hours battery life.Storage
Asus ROG Strix GL553VD-DS71-HID1 FHD IPS 15.6" i7-7700HQ 2.8-3.8GHz (1050/1T HDD/16G RAM)
Features
- CPU: 7th Generation "Kaby Lake" Intel Core i7-7700HQ Quad Core Processor, 2.8-3.8 GHz
- GPU: nVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 128bit w/ 4GB GDDR5
- RAM: 16GB 2400MHz DDR4, Hard Drive: 1TB 7200RPM HDD, ODD: DVDRW
- DISPLAY: 15.6" IPS FHD Antiglare, OS: Windows 10 Home 64 bit
- WARRANTY: 1 Year Warranty, KEYBOARD: US English
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Asus ROG Strix GL553VD Review – Design
The Strix offers you both colors, and it isn’t exactly a looker. Between its black plastic chassis and bright-orange accents, Asus’ laptop appears like it’s prepared for Halloween. The sides of the Strix are lined including ports for networking and expansion. On the left, you will find an Ethernet jack, HDMI output, a headphone jack, two USB 3.0 ports.
Asus ROG Strix GL553VD Review – Keyboard and TouchPad
The keyboard on the Strix is extremely comfy. Thanks to its 62 grams of required force to depress the keys and deep 2 millimeters of travel, I never found myself bottoming out on the keyboard deck.
The 4.1 x 2-inch touchpad is overly careful, so you might wish to use a gaming mouse when browsing the web. It’s superb for navigating and performing Windows 10 gestures. However, it only let me right click in the very-bottom-right corner of the touchpad (similar to its 17-inch cousin), whereas it usually (however not always) would let me left click just about anywhere.
Asus ROG Strix GL553VD Review – Display
It comes with a 15.6-inch, 1080p screen on the Strix is colorful and sharp. When I watched a full-HD trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming, the red in Spidey’s suit was the proper shade of crimson and the blue was good and deep, while the fur in the villainous Vulture’s collar was good and sharp.
Asus ROG Strix GL553VD Review – Graphics and Gaming
You are not going to play games at their highest settings on the Strix. However, its Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU with 4GB of VRAM will handle most titles on normal or medium settings. If I played a game on excessive settings, I noticed frame rates between 33 and 37 fps, that is above our 30-fps playability threshold. However, there was fairly a bit of screen tearing.
Asus ROG Strix GL553VD Review – Audio
The speakers on the Strix are serviceable. However, the sound quality isn’t up to par. When I listened to Blink-182’s “Wishing Well,” the sound stuffed our lab. However, the only parts I could make out clearly were the vocals and guitars.
Asus ROG Strix GL553VD Review – Heat
The Strix stayed cool under pressure. After we had streamed HD video from YouTube for 15 minutes, the bottom of the laptop arrived 93 degrees Fahrenheit, and both the center of the keyboard and the touchpad reached 88 degrees, all of which are under our 95-degree comfort threshold.
Asus ROG Strix GL553VD Review – Hardware and Performance
Armed including a 16GB of RAM; 2.8-GHz 7th-gen Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU; and a 1TB, 7,200-rpm HDD, the Strix is a superb multitasking machine. I had 28 tabs open in Google Chrome, two of which have been streaming games from Twitch at excessive resolution, and I noticed only the faintest hint of lag when switching with websites.
At the Geekbench 3 overall performance benchmark, the Strix comes with a score of 13,766, defeating the mainstream notebook average (8,277) and the Stealth Pro (Intel Core i7-6700HQ; 13,454). However, it fell simply shy of the Alienware (Intel Core i7-6820HK; 13,906).
Asus ROG Strix GL553VD Review – Battery Life
The Asus GL553 has a relatively small 4-cell 48 Wh battery. The battery is respectable for light office work whereas in Airplane mode, however, middling for anything else.
Configuration Options
The Asus ROG Strix GL553VD we examined price $1,099 and included a 2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU; a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU with 4GB of VRAM, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB, 7,200 rpm HDD.
Asus sells a different model that bumps the GPU as much as a GTX 1050 Ti and provides a 256GB SSD for a total of $1,299.
Gallery
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Conclusion
The Asus ROG Strix GL553VD is a prince among paupers. Whereas its graphics card is focused at the budget-conscious, its price is not. The identical can be found in the MSI GL62M about $100-150 less. That price can be even lower if users are willing to forgo the Core i7-770HQ for a more modest Core i5-7300HQ. However, users can find the more powerful GTX 1050 Ti in the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 at the similar price or the Acer Aspire VX5 for $50 cheaper.
For players that are looking to play titles at excessive details and Full HD resolution, the selection has never been tougher to make. The Asus GL553 wraps a stable gaming experience in a beautiful and well-built package. Users that need a quality screen, keyboard, and finish will be happy with the Asus GL553.
Review Score
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