ASUS - ROG GL502VT 15.6" Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 12GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive - Black

The only other laptop that I can find with this size is with MSI and and Razer and their laptops are expensive. This laptop packs similar power to those with a whopping GeForce GTX 970M (or 980M if Best Buy ever sells that version). This is probably the first gaming laptop that ASUS has released with that GPU which is not 17". This GL502 ships with 12GB of RAM upgradeable to 16 GB. In my opinion, there is not a lot of reasons to run a lot of RAM. 16 is plentiful enough. I am going to complain about why they went with 12GB instead of 16GB with this, but it might be to cut costs. Anyways, 12GB is more than I need and I will just upgrade to 16GB as I see fit. They did a great job in making the laptop cool under heavy load. The front of the laptop (by the screen) does get a little hot, but that is because the vents are right there. The keyboard and the track pad do not get hot at all. The most it gets is about a slight warmth on the right side of the keyboard. Apart from that, everything else is cool. The laptop itself does get a little loud while under heavy use, but if it is just internet browsing and light activities on this laptop, it is seriously quiet. The only thing really audible is the HDD inside. The HDD is pretty slow. If it was a 7200 RPM, that would have made the laptop tons better, The 5400 RPM HDD isn't bad, but it's definitely worth upgrading to an SSD or at least keep that 5400 RPM HDD and get a M.2 PCIe SSD to make the laptop run a little faster. Apart from that, the laptop is blazing fast. The design of the laptop is fantastic. It is slick, simple, and clean. The brushed feel of the laptop is great. The speakers are good in my opinion. It's loud and it doesn't lack that much quality. It's a laptop, I don't expect all too much use from the speakers as I always use external speakers or headphones. The screen is fair. I had a G751 prior that I had to return and exchange for this due to a Quality Control issue, and the screen on the G751 looks amazing. The screen on this GL502 is a little washed out in my opinion. There could be an option to fix this, but apart from that, the screen looks great. The screen is not too washed out so gaming or watching movies on this laptop is still good. The matte is fantastic because I hate looking into a mirror when I use my laptop. The keyboard is great. Feels great to the hands, responsive, and sturdy. The trackpad is good and responsive as well, but I would have preferred separate physical buttons for left and right click. Connection to this laptop is great. I don't know what that other guy is talking about, but the GL502 that I got came with the Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 8260. It is fast and has not let me down yet. It sends and receives data without a hiccup. I have heard of some versions of this laptop shipping with a junk Atheros wireless adapter. Make sure you check which wireless adapter is in your laptop right when you purchase it. Overall, fantastic laptop. A lot of power inside a small, portable laptop. It is much more pleasant to carry this around than a G751, with that I'm sure.

I spent weeks trying to find the perfect laptop with a real 4 core hyper threaded i7 and a GTX 970M before seeing this one pop up as “New” on Bestbuy just a few days ago. And since it was the cheapest one that also fell into the 15 inch laptop category I settled on giving it a shot and picked one up in store. The salesman told me stock is really limited as they did just start getting these in stores so if you’re interested definitely give a store a call as I find the whole if it’s in stock at a store thing hit or miss a lot. This laptop has a lot of positives for me so I’ll start with the negatives so it’s not all positives until right at the very end. First up is the keyboard. It’s just bland to type on to me with very little feedback. It’s really hard to explain on the internet you just have to go out and use different laptops. It’s the springs or something in the laptop that just makes it feel bland to me. Not a huge deal breaker and it is a personal preference so you may like it. 2nd is the hard drive. The specs say it’s a 5400rpm unit and boy does it feel it. Slow is an understatement especially if you’re like me and had an SSD powered laptop or desktop. This is something I’ll address later when I’m not traveling and either replace or add an SSD depending on the chassis. 3rdly is the 12gb of RAM. When windows eats up a good 4gb on average leaving you with 8gb it just worries me. I haven’t had issues with it yet but I do plan on upgrading that as well just food for thought. 4th is the battery. It’s a gaming laptop so of course it’s not going to last as long as say a Macbook or something BUT with that being said it’s not easily replaceable like in most laptops which is why I’m listing it as a negative. I’m sure it can be replaced if/when it goes bad but it doesn’t just pop out like most laptops and at least from the looks of it requires the bottom cover off, and then unscrew about 6 screws and unplug it from the mainboard. And of course lastly since some people can’t ready descriptions NO it DOES NOT have a CD Drive. Not a huge deal for me as almost all my games are downloaded. NOW onto the good stuff. Performance outside of loading (because slow hard drive) is fan freaking tastic. It’s a true quad core hyper threaded CPU and a 970M. It’s not like my SLI 980 Ti rig at home but it’s not supposed to be but high/very high settings at 1080p is fine for me on the road. As for the display itself well it works. I’m not a display-a-holic nor someone that needs accurate colors or what have you that you need different display tech for. It gets bright enough to almost hurt while looking at a blank white screen and it’s 60hz refresh idk what else some people want. Bloatware is still there but it’s not too crazy imho. Took me maybe all of 5 minutes to get rid of everything not ASUS related as I’ll get rid of them depending if they annoy me or not which so far hasn’t been the case. The keyboard even though it’s bland for me to type on it looks nice I like the back lightning on it. And it has a number pad a nice touch even though imho it made things a bit cramped but not a huge deal breaker for me either way. The chassis itself feels nice. The back of the display is this really slick aluminum but then sadly everything else is basically plastic but hey this thing doesn’t have a bitten apple on the back so I wasn’t expecting everything aluminum. As for its gaming chops well I have yet to find a game that I have to dial things down past high. The new Doom, The Division, Fallout 4 and Metal Gear V all play at high at full 1080p or even with a couple settings on Ultra. Can play 4K video from Youtube onto my 4K monitor just fine so there’s that but as for 4K gaming well yeah right not on a laptop. My big desktop with more power GPU’s can barely do that so that’s wishful thinking for another time. I replaced the stock 5400rpm SATA Drive with a Samsung 850 Evo and things are much better now. There’s still that m.2 slot that I’ll eventually use up but my local Frys had a deal on that 2.5 inch drive I couldn’t miss out. Swapping it was fairly easy just requiring basic tools and of course the knowhow how to transfer the data from the source drive over or if you’re feeling brave doing a fresh Windows install. All in all very impressed and happy with my purchase.

This Laptop Is Amazing for it's price, Both Gaming and Software Development. A solid and stylish casing and a sizable screen that's not too large but not too small. Gamers will be pleased to have this laptop if you are someone who moves around a lot, If you are either in your own home, a friends house or flying across the country it's a must have. The performance this laptop holds can conquer any current game on the market, with a solid 60 frames per second, and it's built in wireless adapter which boasts "Up to 862Mbps" can easily give you great internet Download speeds and upload times, perfect for those wanted to get the edge in competitive games. The 970m although not top of the line, Is able to give you enough power to run modern games with ease typically running games with High to Ultra settings and not stuttering or dropping in frames. The CPU and RAM is where this PC really shines however. with a i7-6700HQ quad core processor, with hyper threading and Intel smart boost I found this CPU hardly ever stressed itself multitasking, and gaming with it's Integrated graphics card could still handle modern games albeit lower settings. The RAM In the Laptop is more than enough for gamers, but are slightly under what would be used for Rendering programs and software, However it is still enough for photo and video editing software. A 950gb hard drive (With Windows installed) is great and shouldn't run out anytime soon, Bluetooth capabilities and wireless HDTV streaming are seamless and easy. boasting 4.85lbs however I weighed 5.03lbs which isn't too much of a difference. 0.9" measurement on a closed lid of the laptop which came out the same in my measurements. The 1080p display could be a little better, the quality dips in photos and gaming with vibrant colours and contrast, however with some tuning in the settings menu I fixed a little bit. The brightness isn't a problem and I rarely fin myself turning it all the way up. Once again, great for gamers but developer users mind the screen quality if you work with lot's of colours. The Fans work great although under high gaming load and temperatures they get annoyingly loud to the point where I have to either turn up my volume or put in headphones. However many gaming laptops suffer from this problem as well. This is a concern for those who don't wear any audio device or have their sound muted. I've rated this laptop a 5/5 because of these reasons: Pros; An absolutely must have for gamers who move around a lot, with stunning performance and a top of the line processor and Graphics-card that can run any modern game and Enough RAM to still be browsing on the internet in the background. Cons; A slightly disappointing 1080p HD display with a few issues here and there. Fans Are annoying and loud when throttling. Keyboard keys are Flat and and hard to remove and replace, which will annoy many people out there. And the 12gb RAM is not enough for rendering big files in photo or video editing software. All in all it's rated high by me because it boasts the be a gaming laptop and not a workstation, and the value of the pc gives it the edge over my cons as you don't find many laptops with this much power for so little money. A Must buy for those looking for a great gaming laptop!

I had done my homework reviewing multiple gaming laptops over the past couple of months. I even purchased a few different brands trying to obtain that perfect mobile gaming machine. A few came close however they all had one thing in common, very poor build quality especially the screen. Behold we have the Asus GL502VT gaming laptop finally! At first I was like wow this is really cool looking and oh my the orange accents are bold. Then I fired it up and was stunned at the screen quality on this machine. The colors are vibrant and pop out at you. The laptop is surprisingly light for its class and very sturdy build quality. The sound quality is above average for only having two speakers which are nicely placed on opposite sides of the trackpad. The 12GBs of DDR4 are more than adequate for getting the job done. The NVidia GTX 970M is a powerhouse for a mobile GPU. This baby delivers 120GBs of graphic bandwidth on a 192bit PCIe 3.0 bus. Plays all your games on High or Higher settings maxxed out at 1080P with ease. The only negative I would have to say is the pokey 1TB 5400rpm mechanical hard drive Asus included with this laptop. "Do yourself a favor" Swap out for an SSD HD and or M2 SSD. You will not regret. I replaced the mechanical hard drive with a Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SSD. What a difference! Night and day, From the included screen shot I attached you can see this makes this laptop scream with performance. Boots in less than 5 seconds flat! Go grab one today and get your gaming on! You will not regret it!

Warning: If you buy any ASUS product, in my case a higher end laptop (this exact computer), and it breaks (manufactures warranty or not) THEIR CUSTOMER SUPPORT IS COMPLETELY USELESS. Had repeated and various problems and sent back laptop (4) times, all refurbished and non-functional. After the fourth time, I was promised a new model, still in the litigation process, been a month now and they are trying to send me another refurbished same model. I work as a supervisor in State Government and will do everything in my limited power to use a different company for Government business. Best Buy was excellent, and fully understand that models break down, but was severely disappointed in the customer service from ASUS. Buyer be extremely cautious. I just lost 1200$ to ASUS and have nothing to show for it. I was always told how great of a company ASUS was and how great their components are but that is NO LONGER TRUE! They have not won any significant awards since 2013 (you can look that up) and are no longer this great company. I bought the computer 11 months ago and have not had the computer in my possession for 4 of those 11 months. Here is my story, if you want the details of what I went through: I bought an ASUS notebook (Republic of Gamers) in 12/2015.....it failed in April 2015 for a failed component in my charger, it fried my daughter board, sent into their repair center....3 weeks later got the same model back and fixed...it failed AGAIN in July 2015 with a failed Intel Graphics card.... sent back to repair center....ANOTHER 3 weeks later got the same computer back fixed......failed AGAIN in Aug. 2015, failed NVIDA graphics card....sent in to repair...3 weeks later got a refurbished same model replacement.....had that for 3 weeks then failed AGAIN when a component failed in my screen....sent back in to repair center...3 weeks later got MY 2ND REFURBISHED same model and it came BROKEN!! It didn’t even work when I got it. I sent that model in the repair center, got there 11/4, they mixed up my RMA number so I did not match my serial number, took a week to figure that you, I was promised by their top supervisors that with this many failed model I would be eligible for a new, upgraded different model replacement. Couldn’t get ahold of the supervisor I have been talking to, she was avoiding my phone calls. I got an email from the support center that they are offering me AGAIN, THE SAME MODEL REFURBISHED replacement for the 3rd time. If I was to reject this offer, and they choose not to offer me anything else, they said they are going to SEND BACK MY BROKEN COMPUTER and that would be it! The customer support said they actually have nothing to do with what replacement you would get. It’s all up to the repair center, and you cannot speak to the repair center, because, “it is not in their job description to talk to the public.” All this has happened while in the manufactures warranty. I bought the computer 11 months ago and have not had the computer in my possession for 4 of those 11 months. Once again, beware, if you decide to go with ASUS because you are risking hundreds or thousands of dollars (in my case).

I own a PC repair shop and I do video editing and light gaming. This laptop is the perfect purchase for both purposes. Contrary to what several other reviews stated, my laptop DID come with a 7200 RPM hard drive instead of a slower 5400 RPM model. The computer has an M.2 PCIe SSD slot, so users that want a massively faster all-around experience without sacrificing the storage of the 1TB hard drive can look forward to purchasing and adding an SSD to the computer. 12GB of RAM is plenty of room for Adobe After Effects and Premiere to do their rendering work with memory to spare, but there is one memory stick that can be replaced inside. The cooling system is excellent and is hard to accidentally cover up, a common issue with some laptops that pull air through the bottom. The CPU is as fast as some higher-end desktop CPUs and benchmarks around 80% the speed of my massively hot AMD FX-9590 desktop. The computer lacks an optical drive bay which is unfortunate since I store archive data on BD-R discs, but I found an external USB 3.0 enclosure to install my BD-R drive into and it works fine. The matte non-touch IPS screen is a very welcome change from the IPS glossy touchscreen garbage I came from; touchscreens are a pain in several respects and the glare from a glossy screen makes them unusable in bright conditions, so this laptop wins several points for the matte screen without touch. One aspect I do not like is the position of the speakers. I usually use this laptop connected to an ultrawide 2560x1080 monitor for video work and the laptop remains closed. I have to jam a piece of cloth in between the lid and palmrest for the sound to not be terrible. Another major nuisance is that the location for the End key is the power button. This is a common flaw with Asus gaming laptops. I use an external keyboard most of the time, but I really wanted an End key, especially since I do programming work and that key is super useful. Compounding the issue, the number pad's cursor control functions including the End key don't work when you press the Fn key; you HAVE to disable number lock to use them and that takes away the usefulness of having the number pad. There is a completely useless ROG key where number lock usually is. There is no good workaround for these poor keyboard choices. Be aware of this before buying the computer. Overall, it's a great computer. I can live with the flaws and I don't regret the purchase one bit.

This is a very nice Notebook. If you're like me and looking for a fast, new gaming laptop at an affordable price, this is going to work for you. You can already read the specs so I'll just tell you what I think. Fit and Finish: Coming from a retina Macbook Pro, this comes nowhere near close. Apple just makes thinner, prettier products. That said; this is pretty decent for the price. The Aluminum pieces are nice and cool to the touch. Speed: It's fast! It may not be an 8gb 980m but it blows Xbox One and PS4 out of the water for sure. The first major game I bought to play on here was Shadow of Mordor GOTY Edition and I can just about max that out at 1080p and still get 60fps. Pretty. Display: I hear that other retailers have the model with IPS display; the one here at Best Buy doesn't. Mine has the TN panel, so it looks okay but blacks are washed out and the viewing angles (especially vertical) are atrocious. I purchased the Samsung IPS Panel from a third party and will be replacing it in a few days. The cheaper price at Best Buy combined with my rewards balance made it worth the hassle for me but if you want a nice screen, either look at a different retailer for the IPS version or be prepared to change it out like me. What's in the box: Just the notebook and charger. Nothing extra. Overall Impression: I'm happy with my purchase. I wanted an inexpensive, lightweight (relatively), and fast portable notebook, and that's just what I got. If you want something thinner or more stylish, spend double and get the new Razer Blade. I would if I wasn't on a budget ;)

I bought this for my brother since he need a good computer when he starts Engineering classes at college while also doing some decent amounts of gaming. The laptop handles well, HDD is holding the GPU and CPU back so upgrade that to an SSD as soon as you can. Upgradability is easy and plentiful with only a few screews and a card to separate the bottom and the body. Supports m.2 PCIe cards btw, and warranty isn't voided when opened but you have to return the original parts back if you need to have the thing serviced by Asus. Handles CodeBlocks, Visual Studio, Auto CAD, Photoshop, and Sony Premier nicely. Can do some 4K rendering but don't expect much. The GTX 970M is a good card, handles moderately demanding games easily in FHD. Triple A games will need to bumped down to medium setting to medium-high to break the 60+fps mark, but games like Overwatch can be played on High and still break 60+fps. Heat is well around the average for thin and light gaming laptops of this size. Battery life is decent, lasts around 1-2 hours of gaming, but regular use lasts around 3-4 hours. Sometimes reaches 5. Mileage depends on how you use it. Typing experience is great, but the orange colored ASWD keys might turn you off. Speakers are muffled and and can be easily muffled even more with you wrist while gaming. Screen looks a bit washed out, and has some light bleed. Touch pad uses native windows drivers so it is good, but it feels cheap since it's made out of plastic. Build quality is great. For something this thing I was expecting a bit more flex, but there want a lot. Top is aluminum, rest is plastic. The design is a hit or miss for people, it has orange accents. The orange accents on the lid light up too. Even the fan grill is orange and the rubber feet. No CD drive on it, so if you need one either buy an external one look at a different laptop. Overall, it is a great mid range gaming machine. The orange gamer inspired design might turn off a lot of people, but to those who are t turned off by that, just do light-moderate gaming or need a good computer to do some Engineering work that is tight on a budget, this laptop is an option to consider.