GamingLaptopsReviews

Review: Asus ROG Strix Hero Edition (GL503G)

Asus has been churning out one gaming laptop after the other in quick succession – quicker than you can say “Asus!”. We recently reviewed the Asus ROG Strix SCAR Edition. Now, it’s time for the Asus ROG Strix Hero Edition to undergo some tests and benchmarks.

The Strix Hero Edition is being marketed as a gaming laptop for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) aficionados. This one comes with a 15.6-inch IPS display that offers a refresh rate of 120Hz. The laptop derives its computing power from an 8th Gen Intel i7 7700HQ processor, which supports Intel TurboBoost technology. You also get an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti with up to 4GB of GDDR5 to handle all the graphics performance.

Other things that round off the specs sheet includes the 16GB DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Gigabit NIC. The build quality of the Strix Hero Edition is pretty good – something similar to most laptops we have seen Asus launch onto the market. The body of the laptop is made from a mix of brushed aluminium and plastic.

The gaming laptop is a bit thick on the sides in order to accommodate a range of connectivity options such as one USB Type-C port, three USB 3.1 ports, one USB 2.0, one mDP 1.2, one HDMI 1.4, one RJ-45 jack, one 2-in-1 card reader, one 3.5mm headphone jack, and one Kensington lock. You also get a 64Whr battery, which on paper claims to provide a battery life of 9-hours.

The laptop weighs around 2.5-kgs and accompanies an RGB-backlit keyboard that offers a full-size numpad, and dedicated volume rockers. The keyboard uses a technology to actuate the membrane keys earlier in the stroke than usual.

By doing this, you will be pressing a little too hard during the non-resistant portion of the stroke. However, once you get used to it, you will find the keyboard to be responsive and comfortable.

For customizing the Strix Hero Edition as per your requirement, Asus also ships a wide range of software with the laptop. You get the GameFirst IV network management software, which lets you prioritize gaming traffic on your network. The Android ROG Gaming Center app meanwhile allows you to monitor your system remotely. You also get the ROG Gaming Center which is a dashboard that offers a few ROG utilities, apps and tools.

In order to gauge the overall performance of the laptop, we ran a few games such as Rise of the Tomb Raider and we ran a few benchmarks such as Geekbench 4, Cinebench R15, and 3DMark Timespy.

In the Cinebench 15 multi-core tests, the ROG Strix Hero Edition was able to score 681 points. In Geekbench 4 single-core tests, we clocked 4319 points and in multi-core tests, we clocked 12824 points. 3DMark Timespy meanwhile came up with 3612 points.

While on paper Asus claims that the ROG Strix Hero Edition offers 9-hours of battery life, in real-world tests we got an average of 3 hours of intensive gaming sessions per charge. For a price of AED 5599, the Asus ROG Strix Hero Edition stands out from the crowd of similarly priced and spec-ed laptops with its good design and build quality, and good overall performance.

Price: AED 5599

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Chris Fernando

Chris N. Fernando is an experienced media professional with over two decades of journalistic experience. He is the Editor of Arabian Reseller magazine, the authoritative guide to the regional IT industry. Follow him on Twitter (@chris508) and Instagram (@chris2508).

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