ASUS - FX505DD 15.6" Gaming Laptop - AMD Ryzen 5 - 8GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 - 256GB Solid State Drive - Black

For such a high-end computer, this laptop has an unbelievably cheap case. The left hinge (connecting the screen to the keyboard) completely broke off less than 6 months after purchase. The hinge and cover around the screen had to be replaced at a cost of $300. Now, 4 months later (and less than a year from purchase), the right hinge just broke. A computer costing $1800 should not have such a cheap casing. In addition, the computer very quickly overheats while gaming. I cannot run it unless it is on a cooling pad. The internal parts are fantastic, but the outer parts are cheaply made and terrible. If you buy this, make sure to get a protection plan, you are going to need it. I will never buy an MSI again.

So after some searching and deal hunting, I came across this piece. It has the minimum specs I wanted and the price was great. A big need outside of the interior specs was the screen size, listed at 15.6”, which was my minimum. When I revived it, it looked abnormally small. I measured the diagonal size and sure enough, it was 15.6”, but when compared to the toshiba I would be replacing it with, it was massively smaller. The toshiba screen measured 14” across and just under 8” tall. The asus measured 13 1/2” across and 7 3/4” tall. While that may not seem like much, the viewing display for something of those dimensions already is massively smaller. Very disappointed.

This laptop is a great choice if you are looking for something reasonably priced that still has solid hardware. The Ryzen 5 processor is as powerful as older quad-core Core i7s (right between the 6th and 7th generations), so this thing is no slouch even without a Ryzen 7. I'm honestly pretty impressed with what AMD is doing with their mobile processors right now. The graphics card does leave something to be desired, but it is plenty for laptop gaming and 3D modeling. You just can't expect to run all of the latest AAA games at the highest settings. Obviously you can find a better gaming laptop if you want, but you're not going to be getting it at this price. Despite the specs listed here, this thing can be upgraded to 32GB of RAM. I've seen some confusion about whether or not it can support that much (Best Buy says 16GB, Asus says 32GB), so I rolled the dice and bought two 16GB DDR4-2666 sticks. Windows recognizes it as running at that speed, but CPU-Z disagrees and says it is 2400. It was the same price for both speeds, so I'm not concerned. Either way, it's faster than the DDR3-1600 RAM in my previous laptop, so I'm happy. Another question I had when purchasing it was what kind of PCIe SSD it uses. It is a Western Digital NVMe drive. This means the boot drive on the machine is impressively fast. It also comes with a bracket for SATA hard drives installed already, and there is a bag of screws included in the box for the drive. Since the 256GB boot drive is definitely less than I'd prefer, I took advantage of this immediately. The RGB keyboard has been questioned by some people, and there have been claims that it only cycles through a rainbow setting. That is the default, but if you use the pre-installed Armoury Crate software, you can modify it by clicking the "Device" button, then "System", then "Lighting". This wasn't intuitive, so I thought I would add it here to help other people out. You may have to update the software before it starts working correctly. I didn't figure it out until I finished updating everything. While I'm on the topic of updates, it initially refused to come out of sleep mode after closing the lid. This was fixed by a BIOS update that was installed through Windows Update, so it wasn't really a big deal. The screen has a 60Hz refresh rate, which is the other part of the specs that was unclear when I bought it. That's what I expected for this price, so it's not exactly disappointing that it didn't come with the optional 120Hz display. It's been a while since I've bought a brand new laptop, so I was pleasantly surprised that it felt as light as it does for a gaming laptop. The keyboard is solid for a laptop in this price range, and like most Windows laptops, the trackpad isn't the greatest. I think I've gotten spoiled by the trackpad on the MacBook I use at work though. At the end of the day, I can't really complain about this purchase now that all the software is updated. It's a great machine at a great price, and as long as it stays under $600 on sale, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for a solid laptop.

My wife told me that she needs laptop to get her photos, backups and files organized. This is simple task, any laptop for $300 can get the job done. I am a casual photographer and wanted to take advantage of this purchase and get something that I can use from time to time. As my post-processing is done in Lightroom, I wanted something with dedicated GPU. I have 1050 in my desktop and I know what it's capable of. I spent 3 nights doing my research and found this asus. The price is not as tempting as previous deals on Dell G3, but still OK. Asus TUF is kind of promising on durability. I found the RGB coverage for the display and decided to pull the trigger. First thing that surprised me that laptop did not come with load of bloatware, trial versions etc. I had my memory stick prepared with clean win10, but it was not really needed. Couple rounds of windows updates and everything was set. It almost feels like getting google pixel phone. Clean install. Keyboard... I am still getting used to that, since I have MS Ergonomic keyboard at home and at work, but did not make many typos during this review. Anyway, for my work, I am using mostly mouse. Backlight can be pretty well configured, so nothing to complain about. It took me a while to get used to the del/pause/home buttons, but it's gonna be ok soon. The only think that I am missing is spare black ASDW keys so it looks more like workstation then gaming laptop. But not a biggie. Touchpad... terrible. Response, scrolling... I did not get used to it. So disabled and got another G602 mouse. Screen - mate, brightness is great for our work (at home, all the time), I am honestly impressed. I have 3 full HD displays (U2415H) , 1x4k display, so I have something to compare it to. Really nice to look at. I have screen calibration device, so I am all set to work on my photos. Noise - not a problem, I switched to the silent mode and haven't hear fan yet. Size/weight: I wish I could get this in 14" package, but since we won't be traveling with laptop, not that big issue for us. TLDR; pros: price/value, display. keyboard, external GPU cons: size,weight (if it matters), touchpad, only 8GB RAM I would definitely recommend this laptop to anyone who is not into heavy gaming, but who can benefit from dedicated GPU and nice display.

Exterior: Kinda reminds me of a less aggressive Panasonic Toughbook. Very plasticky, but solid and tastefully done. My one complaint is all of the ports, including USB, HDMI, and charging are all on the left hand side of the unit. I wish there was at least 1 USB port on the right side. Ventilation seems adequate. Programs: Surprisingly not too much bloatware came pre-installed. I actually had to reset my unit to factory specs once to get the Pre-installed ASUS backlight program to work correctly. Other then that, no complaints. Performance: Very snappy performance. Upgraded from a 6 year old budget desktop so no comparison performance wise. Upgraded the ram to 16gb without any issues, Very easy to get to the intervals and add in an additional 8gb ram to the existing 8gb. Recommendation: Highly recommended! For the price that I paid ($599 during the 4th of July sale) I am very happy with my purchase!

With the budget I was working with, I chose this laptop in the price range and so far it's been very good. Set-up was super easy, comes with Windows 10. A few core games installed and it's off to the races. Performs very well, highest settings on 3 modern games. Only issues are heat and battery life. I keep mine docked so battery isn't an issue for me, but off the dock gaming I only get a few hours, so could be an issue for you. And this thing can get a little warm at times when we are pushing full graphics. I purchased a laptop cooling pad so it definitely helps out. But other than that it looks great and runs smooth. Come black Friday I'll scoop up another 8gb ram stick and an ssd to add in to help performance and she'll be complete. If you're on a budget, I highly recommend.

I have used this laptop for gaming as well as for work purposes. It is extremely versatile and I have been using this laptop daily especially for gaming! I the graphics and the gameplay are really smooth. I just purchased battlefield 5 and this is the perfect laptop for this game. As a first time PC gamer I am now hooked and I also love the portability.

I bought this because I needed to replace computer and I wanted something to game on, watch movies, and browse the internet. 1080p IPS panel is great for gaming and movies. Keyboard is sturdy, responsive, and reliable. It's light enough to carry, and the exterior is very strong for a plastic build. The SSD boots up within seconds, works great with the 8gb of RAM. Has space to upgrade a second stick of RAM, and even an HDD if needed. No problems with it at all. The only dislike i have for this is the battery life which can last around 3 hrs while gaming and brightness all the way up. I recommend keeping the charger nearby. Other than that this is a great laptop for the price.