Also see: Best Black Friday Laptop Deals The Asus G751J serves as a platform for the Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M, still one of the most powerful laptop GPUs on the market. This is backed by a worthy quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, starting at 2.3GHz with Turbo to stretch to 3.5GHz. No less than 24GB memory is fitted, and storage comprises one of the fastest SSDs available – a 256GB Samsung SM951 with PCIe attachment. For bulk games storage there’s a 7200rpm 1TB hard disk.
Asus G751JT-T7171H review: Style
The raw physical stats suggest a portable PC of some stature – nearly 4.2kg in weight, and a thickness of 82mm better listed as ‘height’. Yet the sculpted chassis mixes soft lines and stealthy angles to create a beautifully fashioned machine of utility and style. Lifting the huge 17.3in lid continues a black-with-red-highlight theme, and reveals the high-quality expansive screen. This IPS panel provides a superb window through which to experience modern games. A contrast ratio of 680:1 and good colour accuracy (Delta E average 1.4) are complemented by textbook wide viewability and a decent, if not stellar, gamut of 91 percent sRGB. Its full-HD resolution is arguably ideal for gaming, ignoring the Ultra HD trend that is not ideal here (you need a lot more graphics power to drive four-times more pixels). The red-backlit keyboard is high-quality but a little clackety. Three macro buttons are included, along with Steam and screen-capture video buttons. Exactly what today’s gamers need. The large trackpad moves the cursor smoothly but with overshoot that gives a drunken effect. Huge left/right mechanical buttons have a deep action and add to the clunk effect. However, you’re extremely unlikely to ever play a game using a touchpad, so it’s not a major problem. This version of the G751 includes a Blu-ray reader and DVD writer, and besides the standard fare of HDMI, VGA, four USB 3.0 and SD card slot Asus has added a versatile high-end port: Thunderbolt. This also allows a third monitor to be connected.
Asus G751JT-T7171H review: Performance
By default Nvidia’s G-SYNC is enabled which smooths action and removes tearing effects, although it also limited maximum framerate to an admittedly silky 75fps. We disengaged to see what the 970M could achieve, and quickly saw its potential – 103fps in Cinebench 15 is a sterling result. Gaming is the aim though, and Batman zipped through at 117fps at the screen’s native resolution and High detail. Maxing out to Extreme still allowed 95fps. Similarly Tomb Raider averaged 115fps at High detail, and with all effects on and Ultimate mode, action still ran 60fps. The challenge of Metro: Last Light was met with 90fps at High detail, and a nearly playable 28fps (Very High with all effects), although we did see some unexplained regular pauses through this benchmark. You may not expect long runtime off the mains but the massive sealed 90Wh battery allowed 3hr 09min in the streaming video test.
