Final Thoughts

There's a lot to like about the Asus ROG G752VS, mostly related to the super performance of the GeForce GTX 1070 graphics. However, if you do decide to purchase this beastly laptop, there are a few things to be wary of.

Starting with the negatives, the G752VS is enormous. Competing 17.3-inch products from MSI, Gigabyte and Alienware are all thinner and lighter while packing the same hardware, which could be key factors for buyers that actually want a portable gaming machine. However, the extra weight and thickness allows Asus to include a large cooling system that provides good overclocking headroom and surprisingly quiet (but not silent) operation while gaming.

The ROG G752VS is also bold, gamer-style bold. There is nothing understated about the design of this notebook, thanks to a generous helping of typical 'gamer style' which personally I don't like. The red vented section along the back is particularly striking; you'll need to be a fan of aggressive elements like this to appreciate the design of the G752VS.

The good news is that, despite the ugly build, this laptop is functional. There's a removable panel on the bottom that gives access to user-replaceable components such as the RAM and storage. There's a good selection of ports, including four USB 3.0, a single Thunderbolt 3 USB-C port, Ethernet, and HDMI 2.0. And the keyboard is decent thanks to a good layout, extra macro keys, and strong red backlighting.

As for the display, the 17.3-inch 1080p 75 Hz LCD in my review unit is well suited to gaming, thanks to a higher-than-standard refresh rate and G-Sync. The 1080p resolution allows you to crank the settings to the maximum in most games, and although it's not particularly sharp at this size, there is supposedly a 4K variant of this laptop available.

Performance is where the G752VS succeeds. The Core i7-6820HK in my review unit was around 25% faster than the i7-6700HQ we typically see in gaming laptops, helped along by a small factory overclock. SSD performance from the 1TB RAID 0 array was spectacular as well, although this option will set you back a fair bit of cash. There's also a ridiculous 64 GB of RAM in this model, which I wouldn't recommend purchasing considering it provides next to no performance advantage over 16 or 32 GB of DDR4 in games.

The GTX 1070 is the real winner here, as it provides beastly performance in the games I tested. Packing nearly double the performance of the GTX 980M, and a good 30% more than the GTX 980, the GTX 1070 is the fastest mobile GPU I've tested (and I still haven't looked at the faster GTX 1080).

Cranking up settings to the maximum, the GTX 1070 provides well north of 60 FPS in most games and in those that didn't reach 60 FPS, the gaming experience is still smooth thanks to G-Sync. If you want a desktop-like gaming experience in a laptop, the GTX 1070 in the G752VS provides this without compromise.

Pricing is an interesting discussion here, as the entry-level model comes in at $1,999: the same as competing models from Gigabyte and MSI with very similar hardware. However, the cheapest G752VS doesn't pack an SSD, while both the Gigabyte and MSI models do, and I wouldn't go purchasing a $2,000 laptop without fast storage. Adding in a 128 GB SSD increases the price by $100, or $170 for a 256GB SSD.

The one thing the Asus laptop has in its favor is a beefier cooling solution, which provides decent overclocking and quite possibly a more silent experience when cranking it up in a gaming session. There's also the option of adding in a faster CPU and a lot more RAM and storage, although some of the higher end models are quite expensive for what you get, and buyers may be better off performing their own upgrades.

75
TechSpot
score

Pros: The GTX 1070 is extremely fast, providing desktop-class gaming performance. Huge cooler is overclocking friendly. Very easy to upgrade RAM and storage. G-Sync (variable refresh rate) should be a must-have for gaming laptops.

Cons: Larger, uglier and slightly more expensive than its competitors. The 17.3-inch 1080p display doesn't set any quality records.