Asus ROG G751JY-T7051H Gaming Notebook Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

For a penny under £2000 at Overclockers UK you certainly do get a lot of hardware for your money, especially when compared against the likes of Alienware. The G751JY offers a viable option for those seeking the most powerful components on the market in a price range that sits under the “elite laptop” 2k price bracket.

For those who would like this calibre of hardware but could live with slightly lower specs, the Asus G751JY-DH71 offers an Intel Core i7-4710HQ 2.5GHz, 24GB RAM, GTX 980, 1TB HDD + 256GB SSD for £1599.99. This still offers a huge spec and perhaps even better value for money than our review version, depending on whether you think the extra 8GB stick of ram and the PCIE SSD upgrade is worth the extra £300. One thing is for sure, for an investment such as this, spending the extra £65 for a warranty extension to 3 years is a no brainer for peace of mind if you are planning on keeping your G751 for a long period of time regardless of which model you decide on.

Overview

The G751JY is like a sequel to an action movie promising to bigger, badder and better than its predecessor though not without its own flaws. In this case the aim of providing the user with a portable powerhouse designed solely with gaming in mind means that the odd questionable design choice such as the ROG numlock key, and Stream key placement have made it to the final product, and although this may be helpful for gamers they will serve almost no use and perhaps a minor irritation in everyday use when not being used for gaming purposes.

In terms of bundled software with the exception of Office and Antivirus trials, there isn’t actually a huge amount of software that would instantly jump out at me as needing instantly removed or performance hindering bloatware. There are some default windows 8 apps preinstalled which can be removed in seconds and a few offerings from Asus (such as Asus Webstorage) which can easily be removed, but aren’t really intrusive. Speaking of offerings from Asus, the rather excellent Asus Turbomaster squeezes an extra 5% overclock out the GTX 980, while the advanced cooling solution makes this un-noticeable to the end-user in terms of thermals.

With regards to build quality the G751 feels solid and reliable, with the only suspect area of the chassis being a slight give in the keyboard when heavily pressed, though under normal use this is not an issue. The backlit keys can be set to time-out, fading off after a set time period. This can be handy for when watching TV shows or movies and saves you having to manually turn the keyboard lights off. Acoustically speaking the sound quality is crisp and powerful thanks to the woofer; though it is not ground-breaking. There have been complaints of a sound imbalance on the ROG forums apparently due to speaker placement, though I personally did not experience this with my sample.

This is a laptop that can be strongly recommended for anyone looking for nothing short of a mobile gaming workhorse. The FHD IPS screen is crisp and vibrant and ticks all of the boxes for a good gaming panel, and can be further customised using the bundled “Splendid Technology” tool to manage colour profiles. The custom cooling solution means that you can game for literally hours on end without worrying about overheating or it becoming uncomfortable on your lap due to heat. Indeed, you will sooner feel the weight of the laptop on your legs becoming apparent than you would your legs getting boiled; which is so common amongst gaming laptops. Asus have been unashamedly bullish here, seemingly ignoring factors such as weight and battery capacity and instead relying on the act of gaming to sell itself. The result is an incredible gaming experience even at the highest graphical settings, though even with Nvidia Battery Boost enabled be sure not to stray too far from an outlet.

Pros

• 5% Overclock on already extremely fast GTX 980
• 2. PCIE HDD is blisteringly fast
• “User Service Bay” for upgrading parts without affecting warranty
• Aggressive aesthetic design, improved on previous generations
• Competitive pricing for top end hardware
• Support for 3 screens via Displayport 1.2 and HDMI 1.4 together.
• Macro keys come in handy
• Very good cooling, even when gaming for prolonged periods

Cons

• Battery is non-removable (not accessible via the “User Service Bay”)
• Livestream and Steam keys are in a silly place, easy to press them instead of Esc meaning you occasionally get alt-tabbed out of game until you get used to it.
• Poor battery life due to 6000mAh battery.
• Very heavy

Neutral

• Only 2 of 4 RAM slots are accessible for upgrades
• Lighting could easily have been RGB instead of just red
• No optional extras (Headset / Mouse / Backpack)

“The ASUS G751JY could be named as one of the most powerful single GPU gaming notebooks on the market, and should be carefully considered by those seeking a portable powerhouse for their gaming needs.”