Introduction and Design
At under $1,500, this is one enticing package. We break it all down for you in our review.
With the introduction of the ASUS G751JT-CH71, we’ve now got our first look at the newest ROG notebook design revision. The celebrated design language remains the same, and the machine’s lineage is immediately discernible. However, unlike the $2,000 G750JX-DB71 unit we reviewed a year and a half ago, this particular G751JT configuration is 25% less expensive at just $1,500. So first off, what’s changed on the inside?
(Editor's Note: This is NOT the recent G-Sync version of the ASUS G751 notebook that was announced at Computex. This is the previously released version, one that I am told will continue to sell for the foreseeable future and one that will come at a lower overall price than the G-Sync enabled model. Expect a review on the G-Sync derivative very soon!)
Quite a lot, as it turns out. For starters, we’ve moved all the way from the 700M series to the 900M series—a leap which clearly ought to pay off in spades in terms of GPU performance. The CPU and RAM remain virtually equivalent, while the battery has migrated from external to internal and enjoyed a 100 mAh bump in the process (from 5900 to 6000 mAh). So what’s with the lower price then? Well, apart from the age difference, it’s the storage: the G750JX featured both a 1 TB storage drive and a 256 GB SSD, while the G751JT-CH71 drops the SSD. That’s a small sacrifice in our book, especially when an SSD is so easily added thereafter. By the way, if you’d rather simply have ASUS handle that part of the equation for you, you can score a virtually equivalent configuration (chipset and design evolutions notwithstanding) in the G751JT-DH72 for $1750—still $250 less than the G750JX we reviewed.
Design and Portability
The G751JT’s design retains the popular F-22 Raptor-inspired appearance, but swaps out materials in various places to spruce up the lid a bit while simultaneously cleaning up the base unit. The new color scheme is an attractive black with red accents, not unlike that of the Alienware machines. Fortunately a lack of shiny, reflective surfaces is implied, and the G751JT features none of them—a great way to make a first impression in our book.
The lid is similar in concept, with a single central hinge attaching visibly from the back. The hinge has shrunk some, and this does result in notably easier twisting near the base of the display—but in practice this is unlikely to prove detrimental. Returning is the ledge behind the screen which serves as a handy grip point while the unit is being moved—fortunate in light of its considerable weight. The lid does twist somewhat more easily than we might have hoped, but pressure from the back produces zero artifacts on the LCD panel. In terms of weight, the machine posts a significant 8.4 lbs.—pretty hefty to be sure, but then again, who’s buying a gaming notebook for extreme portability?
Opening up to the base unit, we find that the sleek brushed aluminum has been replaced by a matte, soft-touch material that seems comparably sturdy but which is notably more subdued. Aesthetically this change is preferable by our judgment, however it should be noted that fingerprints and smudges are now more of an issue than they ever were on the G750. Of course, a mildly damp paper towel can clean it up with relative ease, but it still amasses and visibly preserves the skin’s oils to an alarming degree.
In terms of ports, literally nothing has changed from the G750J to the G751J—and that’s not a bad thing. You’ll find a total of four USB 3.0 ports alongside VGA, HDMI, and mini-DisplayPort (doubling as Thunderbolt) for video output, as well as Gigabit Ethernet and a card reader. The addition of one audio port—a line-out—to accompany the existing headphone and microphone ports is nice. Apart from that, no surprises here.
Maintenance is also identical to that of its predecessor. A single panel on the bottom is secured by a single Phillips-head screw. Beneath it, you’ll find two of the four RAM slots (the other two are on the opposite side of the system board), along with both 2.5” (9.5 mm) hard drive bays. We were pleased to discover that in spite of our unit’s lack of a second storage drive, the bracket was still installed and ready to accept an SSD of our choosing, making aftermarket upgrades a breeze.
Hasn’t asus just announced
Hasn’t asus just announced that g-sync is coming to the G751? The weren’t clear whether this model is getting it with a driver update, or new hardware (?) only.
I have 2 g751 of different
I have 2 g751 of different configs. But both of them seem to have massive USB issues. The usb ports on the right side seem to work fine but the two on the left will never mount external HDDs.
Are your USB external HDDs
Are your USB external HDDs drawing power from the USB or is it external power? If I recall, not all the USB ports are fully powered on most, if not all Notebooks.
Nope, external 3.5 inch Glyph
Nope, external 3.5 inch Glyph drives, powered externally was what I was using. Also, if you plug in a thunderbolt device it drops all the internal sata drives except for c.
I am teh cool guy
I am teh cool guy
These laptops are riddled
These laptops are riddled with trouble, they software they use to make backup disks rarely works, bios updates fail on a regular basis bricking the laptops, the quality of assembly is plagued with defects, the ASUS brand software is known for causing latency issues that make the machine unusable for WIFI gaming. They use the same cheap keyboard internals as their 300 dollar model laptops that don’t even support 3 key rollover. Do use use ESDF to game? Not on this laptop, Shift+E+Space is a dead key. If you have to send in for warranty repair, expect it to come back damaged and have to fight for a claim. Buyer beware.
If you don’t believe me just
If you don’t believe me just go read the ASUS ROG forums.
Having owned an ASUS Nexus 7
Having owned an ASUS Nexus 7 for a few years, I thought ASUS quality would be on all their products, evidently NOT!
After reading the above revues, I won’t be buying any ASUS products in the future, but..the Nexus 7 works perfectly!
Well it appears to be a hit
Well it appears to be a hit or miss thing apparently because I have owned 5 different ROG laptops ranging from the GTX8 series all the way to the 10 series and other than the first model I had that had an issue with blowing out the KB leds when you flashed the bios requiring it be sent in for a new board, all of them worked as advertised, even my G751JT-TH71 I have flashed 5 bios revisions without any issues, I think alot of what you read in the forums is also alot of non-technical consumers doing things, and breaking them. Case in point the number of users using winflash over the UEFI bios update (preferred) and bricking their units. Any tech worth their stuff knows even if winflash does what it should, the method that most often is more secure and successful is not withing the windows environment.
The only complaint I have for the G751 is this rediculous notion that ASUS will not just give us i7 4710HQ owners the gsync option, it can be done, its not hardware related both panel, GPU and connection support it, its a silly license.
So, at that same price you
So, at that same price you can get the brand new G-sync MSI GT72 with a slightly higher clocked Broadwell. Most of the rest of the specs are virtually identical. The MSI has USB 3.1 ports rather than the Thunderbolt port, but I would take the USB 3.1 ports anyway.
I can’t imagine buying a non-G-sync laptop, especially when you can get a G-sync one at the same price.
I don’t get why it’s not
I don’t get why it’s not getting 9,000-10,000 3dmark 11 points? Is it the ssd or lack of?