Asus ROG G752VY review: A gaming behemoth

Display

As you’d expect with a massive gaming laptop, the G752VY has a huge 17.3in screen. Sadly, its image quality is rather lacking compared to other gaming behemoths I’ve tested, as our colour calibrator showed it was only displaying 85.5% of the sRGB colour gamut. It’s far from the worst laptop display I’ve seen, but I was expecting more given the price, especially since its closest rival, the Aorus X5S managed to cover a more impressive 93.1%.

A saving grace is its surprisingly high brightness levels, which peaked at 360.8cd/m2. Its contrast ratio of 927:1 was also respectable, but again, hardly revolutionary. Still, our test images looked perfectly good in our subjective tests, and the high level of detail on show should definitely help highlight those dark shadow areas in dimly-lit shooters.

There’s also Nvidia’s G-Sync on offer here too, which helps to smooth out visuals and reduce screen tearing by synchronising frame rates with the GPU. Turning on G-Sync in the Nvidia Control Panel didn’t seem to make a whole lot of difference in terms of performance, though, with only a couple of frames gained here and there.

Battery life

Of course, I’d never expect such a powerful laptop to last long away from the mains, but its 8-cell 6,000mAh battery still lasted a reasonable 4h 9m in our continuous video playback test with the screen brightness set to our usual measurement of 170cd/m2. This compares well with the Aorus X5s Camo, which lasted just over 3 hours, but it can’t touch the Gigabyte P55W v5 , as this lasted just under 6 hours in the same test.

Ports and speakers

You’re certainly not left wanting for ports with the G752VY, as you’ll find a Thunderbolt 3 USB3.1 Type C port, a regular USB3.1 Type-C port and four standard USB3 ports. There’s also an SD card reader, separate 3.5mm headphone and mic jacks and an HDMI port for external display connectivity. You shouldn’t struggle to connect online either, thanks to 802.11ac wireless and a Gigabit Ethernet port, as well as Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.

The stereo speakers found at the back of the G752VY behind the display would best be described as modest at best. There’s some decent sound balance on offer here, helped in part by the dedicated soundwoofer on the underside of the laptop, and there’s plenty of volume to fill a large room, but I often felt sound was muffled a bit from time to time. Turn the laptop facing away from you and you don’t have this problem, so you’ll probably want to plug in a pair of headphones for the best audio experience.

Conclusion

All in all, the Asus ROG G752VY is a monstrously powerful laptop that keeps its cool even when it’s under pressure from the latest games. It’s expensive, but its performance is exemplary, making it a much better buy than the similarly-priced Aorus X5s Camo.

That said, the Gigabyte P55W v5 puts up a pretty decent fight as its main competitor, even if its gaming performance isn’t quite as fast or as smooth. Still, with a difference of around £1,000 separating the two, a slightly lower overall frame rate is definitely worth the saving in my eyes, and it just edges ahead of the G752VY as our top gaming laptop recommendation. However, if you’ve got the budget and want something to show off to your friends, the G752VY certainly won’t disappoint.

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