ASUS GL771JM 17-Inch Gaming Laptop [2014]

I have spent quite some time looking for a gaming laptop and I picked ASUS GL771 for its power and design. For a gaming laptop, there are some unattractive machines out there. Some of them fairly powerful but I just cant bear to be seen with a laptop like that. Especially if I'm going to spend close to $1300, I want to make sure it can deliver on both the inside and outside. ASUS always designs the product very well. I was super excited when I was only unpackaging the laptop. The top aluminum cover feels very nice and I like the red stripe around the laptop. The front of the laptop looks awesome especially at night when the keyboard is lit up. Overall, it's a very well-designed laptop. Fairly comfortable to do work or play game with the keyboard for hours.So far I'm quite pleased with the performance. It takes very short time to boot up and run multiple tasks at the same time. I have habits of opening up 30+ tabs of browsers and running those image/video editing tools at the same time. That even crashed my desktop PC a few times. However, I have no problem on this one at all. Didnt even have a glich. I ended up using the laptop more than my desktop more for a lot of stuff I did in the past. Coming back to the main use of the machine, GeForce 860M is really powerful. I played Shadow of Mordor and Call of Duty for 30+ hours on the laptop. Both ran very well. The graphic was fantastic and very smooth. I didnt see any flickering that the other review mentioned. Given that those two games are somewhat different in the type of graphics required from the hardware, ASUS GL771 handled them pretty well. The screen offers great contrast even in fast speed running. The images were sharp when the person looks around as well. I'm very impressed with the graphics performance and cannot wait to try Far Cry 4 on this when I get it next week.Another thing worth mentioned is the cooling system of the laptop. I like it that the palm area on the keyboard doesnt get hot when I'm playing game. There's a air outlet on the top left for the heatsink that keeps the laptop cool. I can hear the fan sometimes but it's not really noticeable. The sound quality is decent. I didnt have a chance to play music very loud from the laptop since that's not how i was planning to use the laptop anyway. At the normal level, it's good enough for me. I mostly use headset when I need to turn up the sound for the game and have no complaint so far about the sound quality. I guess the only thing ASUS can improve on this laptop would be longer battery life. I understand people dont carry a 17" notebook walking around but longer battery life would be good to have for me. In summary, ASUS GL771JM is an awesome gaming laptop. With all the great things it deliver, I couldnt care less about the battery life. It has fantastic design and have more than enough power to handle any game in any settings. Graphics look very nice on the screen. It's truly a great experience. For this price, it offers great value. I would recommend this to my friend and any of you who are thinking about getting a powerful gaming machine.

Overall Rating: 5 StarsI am an avid gamer of many years with experiences both with desktop and laptop PC gaming, as well as Mac. Technical specs are not my expertise or focus, as I am not a professional gamer, but unwavering performance and reliability are and this review, I hope, will reflect this.The ASUS ROG GL771 is my first ASUS laptop purchase. It is a very good gaming laptop that met all of my gaming needs. It is built with gaming in mind and is not for users who plan to use this for general use (i.e.) e-mail, web browsing, word processing.UnboxingFrom the get-go, this laptop looked and felt like a beast. It was laid at the top of the box, like any standard electronic product, showing off the meat of the purchase, and it was a heavy slab of meat. It is to be expected for a gaming laptop to have such a heft, but this felt a lot lighter than I imagined a gaming laptop to be. Underneath was the battery, a heavy monster in its own right, as well as the charging components, which were themselves massive as well. Together, the weight felt appropriate for a machine designed for gaming. I immediately started the initial overcharging process and noticed the brick was not as hefty as most become. The charging cable fits snugly and there was more than enough length on the cord in case I needed to use a far off outlet.Start-upInitial booting was seemingly painless asides from the Windows 8 interface. Personally, it was only a bit troublesome because I had never worked with it before, but it became very obvious where things were located, and there was not a whole lot of adjustment needed. Overall the interface felt like a smartphone was integrated with a PC, and neither are hard to navigate. With everything set, I started to install some games to get the hardware testing. This of course was interrupted by a few system updates and restarts. The laptop itself booted up fairly quickly and I’m sure with an SSD upgrade, it will load up even faster.GamingPlaying games on the highest settings never felt so good, being that this is on a laptop. Having the highest settings running while having exceptional load times for games, with no connection issues, on top of a huge screen is really where its at. The GL771 plays and feels like any desktop decked out for gaming. High resolution on the 17.3 inch screen really helps to immerse your gaming experience with what the games were meant to give you. The graphics are crisp and with the highest settings not denting your laptop in the slightest, you feel as if you are playing the game the developers had in mind, while on a laptop.Heat has not been an issue yet and I have been running the machine for a few hours on StarCraft II, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and World of Warcraft. The side vents did become a bit warm, but this is to be expected. The power brick warmed up a bit as well but nothing seemed out of the norm. I would suspect that being a laptop, having this monster on your lap may be commonplace, but with its weight and the heat produced, I would not suggest it. Notably, many gaming laptops used for gaming are usually played on a desk where your laptop is stable and plugged in to support the constant battery drainage, so I don’t see this as being a problem at all for the GL771. Battery life for the laptop is a little over 3 hours with any low key processes or any general use, though no one expects any battery powering a laptop like this to last any longer than 4 hours, nor does any gamer want to risk the shut down by playing games with the charger unplugged.Overall DesignThe GL771 is very sleek. It looks refined when closed and when open, the sheer size of it shows that it means business. The red backlight glow is subtle but mean and the black aluminum finish is the best kind of eye candy.WeightFor a gaming laptop the GL771 is quite light. Many gaming laptops lose almost all of their portability with such heavy parts used to give them their gaming edge, but this one is easier to handle. I can see that it may pose a problem if you are using this on your lap all the time, but generally speaking, no gamer plays on their lap all the time.Keyboard and TouchpadThe keyboard is very nice with the red backlight glow, highlighting the WASD keys specifically for those gamers who prefer the play in low-light or the dark. It is a full keyboard so there is a number pad included, which is smaller and less defined than the keyboard itself. There is no clear light for num lock and a very minimal one for caps lock.The touchpad is very responsive and easy to use, however it leaves smudges occasionally from moisture on your fingers as well as oils. Easily cleaned off if this becomes a concern.DisplayThe 17.3 inch screen size on the GL771 is very impressive. It is stunning to have high resolutions up all the time, with crisp graphics in every game. The clarity of the screen is a definite win on this machine.PerformanceThe GL771 performs flawlessly in game with no setbacks. It plays like a desktop and is tailored for gaming. I have played at least 6 hours nonstop so far (StarCraft II, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive,Diablo 3, Dota 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, and World of Warcraft) on the highest settings and have had no issues with performance in game. It connects quickly and loads quickly - even the initial boot up and update restarts were quick, all finishing under 10 seconds. I’m sure with an SSD swap it will be much faster.The processor works amazingly and I have no issues with the 1 TB that I will almost certainly never use for memory. The 12GB of RAM seems like a menacing number, and though I don’t see myself in a position to need all of it, I’ll take them all anyway.AudioThe sound output on the GL771 is slightly lacking, although very loud. However, I use headsets for my audio needs anyway so this isn’t a problem for me.Heat & CoolingThe main heat vent that I have noticed is to the left side of the keyboard, along the bottom edge of the laptop. So far, this has not posed a problem for me and is does not produce an enormous amount of heat. I have not had an issue with the noise from the fan as well - it is practically silent. I can see anyone gaming on their lap may have an issue with a warm lap after a small while, but this is normal for any laptop under this circumstance.BatteryGeneral computer use should net at least 3 hours, if not a bit more on a full charge but while gaming this is most likely around the 2 hour range for most games, presuming highest settings are used. I don’t intent to play without the charger plugged in anyhow so this isn’t a problem for me as well.PeripheralsThe optical drive included on this model is a nice touch, and standard operating procedure. A nice point to the GL771 is that it has 4 USB ports for you to use, more than enough for all your gaming peripherals. I personally use a USB headset, mouse, and gamepad, leaving one port for anything else I may need, which after the first three, there isn’t much.WirelessNo complaints on this end about the strength of the wireless card in this badboy. After a 6 hour gaming session, I had no connection issues. I had no lag either, and my modem is 3 rooms away.Conclusion:Overall, I'm very happy with the purchase and extremely satisfied with its performance. I highly recommended this laptop.