Computer Shopper – September 2019

ISSUE 379|COMPUTERSHOPPER|SEPTEMBER (^201997)
GAMING
THEROGZEPHYRUSfamily can claim to
containsome of the best gaminglaptops
in the world, if also some of the most
expensive.Anyone unfamiliar with the
range might also look upon the new
ROG Zephyrus SGX701 and be confused
as to why the keyboardhas been
shunted all the waytothe front.
Besidesthere being afairly
mundaneanswerto this (namely,improved
heat dissipation),the up-close-and-
personalkeyboardis nothingnew to Asus.
That said, there have been some big
changesto the GX701. It now has a17.3in
screen,up from the previous GX501’s15.6in,
but the bezels have shrunk down significantly
to keep its dimensionssimilar.This, in turn,
has forced the completeremovalofthe
built-in webcam;instead, you now get a
wired Micro USB camerato plug in.
SPREADTHIN
There are some flaws to this approach:one is
that the includedcable forthe camerais very
short, thoughyou can replaceit with alonger
Micro USB cable.Even so,itdoes mean that
the ROG Zephyrus SGX701 is of apleasantly
manageablesize,atleast by 17.3in gaming
laptop standards.It’s only 18.7mmthick,
which is all the more impressiveknowing
that there’s such high-endcomponentsas an
Intel Core i7-8750Hprocessor,16GB of DDR4
RAM and an 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX2080
Max-Q graphicschip inside.
Amagnesiumalloychassis makes it
mostly durable,though there’s aflimsy plastic
plateonthe undersidethat elevatesthe
laptop’s base when the lid is opened.The idea
is to give the power centre more space to
dissipateheat, but the platefeels as if it
would break all tooeasily.Wealso got the
power cable trappedin the gap when trying
to close the lid, so cautionis advised.
The displayruns at 1,920x1,080with a
smooth144Hz refresh rate, but if you’d
prefertoconnectto adesktop monitor
there are single HDMI and DisplayPort-
enabledUSB Type-C ports on the leftside.
Here,there’s also afull-size USB3.1port, with
anothertwo USB3.1ports, one USB Type-C
port and aKensington lock slot on
the right. It’s adecent selection,
althoughthe lack of an SD
card slot is ashame.
The positionof the
keyboardis no easier
ASUSROG
ZephyrusSGX701
★★★★★
£2,880•From http://www.ebuyer.com
VERDICT
It’saheftyinvestment,buttheROG
ZephyrusSGX701hasbetterpowerand
portabilitythanmost17.3inlaptops
to get used to than it was on previous
Zephyrus laptops. Forastart, there are
obviouslyno palm rests, which means your
wrists have to either hover above the
keyboardor lie flat on the desk space.The
latter feels very awkwardif sitting tooclose to
the laptop.And, becausethe touchpadtakes
up so much space on the right-hand side,the
keyboardis more compactthan on the
average gaminglaptop.Key travel is minimal
and keys have alight feel to them, but they
do produceasatisfyingclack.
The touchpad’sverticalorientationalso
feels counter-intuitive,althoughthis being a
gaminglaptop,amouse is pretty much
essentialanyway.
DISPLAYFAIR
As forthe screen,the refresh rateisagreat
help to high-fpsgames,and the IPS panel
mostly performs well. Brightnesscould be a
lot higher –wemeasuredit peakingat just
296cd/m^2 –but the matt finish helps deal
with glare,and the high 1,412:1 contrastratio
lends plenty of pop to images.
Colour performancedoesn’t look so
good by the numbers:sRGB coverage is a
middling86.9%, and average delta-Eis 2.25.
Nonetheless,the screen looks fine in
practice:we didn’t notice any glaring hue
issues when runninggames.
Crucially,the GX701 makes short work of
even highly intensive games.Using the High
quality preset in Metro: Last Light Redux, at
native resolution,netted us asmooth 78fps,
while Dirt Showdownhit 111fps with Ultra
settings.The SteamVRperformancetest
returnedaperfect score of 11, so you can
plug in aheadset to the HDMI port and run
any VR game at its best settings.
The CPU performs admirably,too,scoring
184 overall in our benchmarks,just six points
behind the Alienwarem15, which has the
same Intel CPU. The m15 is alot cheaper–
over £900 cheaper,infact –but its GTX 1070
GPU isn’t nearly as fast as the RTX2080 in
more graphicallyintensive games such as
Metro.That said, the two performed almost
identicallyin Dirt, where GPU power only
goes so farbefore the CPU becomesthe
defining factor forperformance.
SPACEODYSSEY
Of course,part of that price differenceis
also down to this GX701 spec’s enormous
1TB SSD.Asisfrustratinglycommonin
laptops, writespeed wasn’t as good as
NVMe drives are remotely capableof –we
recordeda500MB/swritespeed on Asus’s
notebook –but at least read speeds were
decent,at 1,259MB/s.
Battery lifehas been the downfall of many
agaming laptop,and the GX701’sresult of
3h 7m in our video playback test looks pretty
bad. It’s forgivable in the context of gaming
laptops as awhole; the old GX501 only lasted
2h 20m, and that had asmaller screen.Most
gaminglaptops rarely go much furtherthan
four hours, so you’ll need to make regularuse
of the chargingcable in any case.
It’s easy to baulk at
the ROG Zephyrus S
GX701’sprice,and that’s
perfectly understandable.
The £1,850 Razer Blade 15 is
better value overall, even with its less
powerfulGPU and smallerSSD.Even so,
those fortunateenough to afford this slimline
powerhousewill very much enjoyit, so long
as the keyboard
positioningdoesn’t
feel toostrange.