I am on a role today with the second on the same day. To tell the truth I have had this waiting in the wings, but was waiting to get some more experience before posting.
With that let me tell you about a new thin and light gaming laptop that has been introduced to our household, the Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 GX. This is Asus’s top tier gaming ultraportable. The configuration I am testing has a Core i7 processor, Nvidia RTX 2070 graphics, 17-inch screen and 1 TB of SSD storage.
The laptop provides an option of both GSync and Optimus mode for the screen depending on if you are trying to save battery life of want game performance. This provides you the best of both worlds.
Design and build
The ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is one of the smallest 17-inch gaming laptops on the market, and also one of the lighter models, at around 5.9 lbs. In all fairness, there are some lighter 17-inch ultraportables out there, but the GX701 is light enough for a device that does not compromise on the build quality or the choice in materials.
In fact, the GX701 is pretty much a slightly larger version of the 15-inch Zephyrus GX531, just large enough to accommodate a 17-inch screen with tiny side and top bezels, but still a fairly chunky chin, which I actually don’t mind, as it pushes the screen upwards in a more ergonomic position in front of my eyes.
It also inherits some of the unique traits of the Zephyrus S line, like the fact that the keyboard and touchpad are placed lower onto the inner frame, where you’ll normally find the arm-rest with regular notebooks, in order to leave room for the cooling system above, as well as the mechanical raising mechanism that pushes the chassis up in order to allow better air intake on the bottom. The screen also only leans back to about 110 degrees, and all these make the GX701 a compelling desk-laptop, but also one that you’ll struggle with in other situations. I find this rather contradicting on a device that’s supposed to be portable, as this is compact and light nonetheless, but still needs to stay on a spacious desk to be actually useful.
The GX701 also builds on the same design lines as the GX531. Metal is used for the entire outer case, with some good quality plastic around the display, and the build is mostly sturdy and premium, with little flex in the screen and interior. I would also add that this laptop looks beautiful, although I would have liked the option to switch off that big ROG logo on the hood. That’s not possible though, as it’s lit by the screen’s panel, but you can control and switch off the RGB logo at the top of the keyboard. The power button and the status LEDs placed just beneath the screen are also always lit and can be distracting when watching a movie in a dark room.
This 17-inch Zephyrus does get a few unique traits of its own though, my favorite being the front-facing speakers that are flanking the keyboard and touchpad. Asus pretty much took the keyboard/touchpad of the GX531 and filled in the extra space with speakers, and they sound much nicer and clearer than those on the 15-inch model. Asus also implemented a neat mechanical volume-wheel that allows to easily adjust the volume or mute the speakers when pressed.
You’ll also notice that there’s no camera at the top or at the bottom, and that’s because Asus ditched it entirely and replaced it with a supposedly better external USB camera (included in the pack in most regions).
I can see how you might occasionally need a webcam and not have it around or how you can lose it over time, but for the most part, I can accept this compromise for a better quality webcam. What you get is only alright though, better than with other Asus laptops, but not necessarily better than with some of the other internal cameras available out there. I don’t have a GX531 around, but I am curious about a side-by-side comparison with its integrated camera.
All in all, I had a great time with the ROG Zephyrus GX701 in daily use. It’s sturdy enough so you don’t have to worry about it breaking when throwing it in your backpack, although you might want to get some sort or sleeve, as the metallic surfaces can scratch easily. The grippy feet allow it to sit sturdily on a desk and you can lift-up the screen with a single hand, easily grabbing it from the knob on the front lip.
As for the IO, you’ll find it lined on the edges, with most ports and the DC-In jack conveniently placed on the left side. In fact, this is pretty much a computer for right-handed users, due to the touchpad’s placement.
I’ll also add that there’s no card-reader and no Thunderbolt 3 on the Zephyrus GX701, but only two USB-C slots, one of them with support for DisplayPort and Power Delivery. There’s no LAN either, so you’ll have to rely exclusively on Wireless, or perhaps use an USB to LAN adapter when needed.
At the end of the day though this is not a computer for everyone. Yes, it’s well made and light and portable for a 17-incher, but at the same time the design, the keyboard/touchpad placement, the screen-angle, the mechanical raiser or even the lack of an included webcam make it much more usable as a desk computer, thus the thin-and-light aspect will only come in handy when actually having to carry it around.
Of course, you might argue that you’ll mostly keep such a laptop on a desk anyway, working or playing games, hooked up to an external mouse, but how about when you’re not? I for one see this kind of devices as a jack of all trades, good for both work and fun, and the GX701’s design might not have what it takes to cover all needs.
Keyboard and trackpad
Much like the other Zephyrus S models before and other thin-and-lights with powerful hardware, the GX701 gets the keyboard placed where you’ll normally find the palm-rest on most laptops. That’s unusual, and makes using this device on the lap or leaned on the thighs fairly uncomfortable, but it’s actually practical while it sits on a desk, where the experience resembles that of typing on a regular desktop keyboard.
This keyboard gets a standard layout, with a deck of well-sized and spaced keys, but smaller arrows which can be a little difficult to find with daily use. There’s no NumPad, as this keyboard is identical to the one on the GX531, and feels the same as well. The touchpad can be switched into a NumPad with the click of a button, disabling the cursor, but don’t expect this to feel like a regular physical NumPad, as hitting the virtual keys lacks any sort of feedback.
That aside, this keyboard is rather on the shallow side, with little key travel (1.4 mm) and soft actuation, so this resembles the keyboards you’ll find on many modern ultrabooks. As a result, some of you might consider it a tad mushy, but I actually found this to be a great typer, very fast and fairly accurate once I got used to the feedback. This is also quiet, so it checks many of the boxes I want in a compelling keyboard.
Asus also implements n-key rollover and per-key backlighting, with some bright LEDs and various control options accessible in the Armoury Crate app, as part of the Aura sub-section. The F1-F12 marking on the function keys doesn’t light up though. You can sync the keyboard’s lighting with Asus’s peripherals and the RGB ROG logo at the top of the keyboard, in case you’re all into RGB.
The illumination can also be activated by swiping your fingers over the touchpad, without having to press a key, but the doesn’t feel as seamless as with regular laptops due to the touchpad’s positioning. On most laptops, it seems that the keys light up by simply putting your hands over them, even if in reality that’s done by swiping the hands over the touchpad on their way to the keys, and that’s not the case when the touchpad sits at the right.
Speaking of that, I was expecting to hate the unusual touchpad placement, crammed to the right, but I actually got used to it, as the experience resembles that from a desktop computer, where the right hands sits on the mouse. However, that’s only while keeping the device on a desk, much like with the keyboard.
Of course, there’s no way around the fact that this touchpad is small and narrow and sometimes you’ll feel like there’s not enough room to move the cursor around or perform gestures. The cursor is also rather slow out-of-the-box, but you can boost its sensitivity from the settings, as this gets Precision drivers. Its surface is also a bit sticky and doesn’t allow the fingers to glide as easily as with glass implementations, but even so, this is not bad. I also like the physical buttons at the bottom, which are clicky and quiet, but again small and perhaps a little difficult to find in the dark.
I’ll also add that the GX701 lacks any sort of biometric login options, with no finger-sensor or IR cameras, so you’ll have to rely on typing your password each time you want to log in.
Screen
Asus puts one of the better 17-inch 144 Hz panels on the market on the Zephyrus GX701, the AU Optronics B173HAN04.0.
According to the spec sheet the laptop uses an IPS panel with mid-level brightness, contrast and color accuracy, as well as fast-response times, no PWM and G-Sync support.
- Panel HardwareID: AU Optronics AUO409D (B173HAN04.0);
- Coverage: 96% sRGB, 70% NTSC, 74% AdobeRGB;
- Measured gamma: 2.2;
- Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 279 cd/m2 on power;
- Contrast at max brightness: 930:1
- White point: 7100 K;
- Black on max brightness: 0.30 cd/m2.
- PWM: No;
- Response time: 3ms advertised, 7.5 ms GtG.
Hardware and performance
My test model is the higher-end configuration of the ROG Zephyrus S GX701GX, with the Core i7-9750H processor, 16 GB of RAM, the RTX 2070 graphics chip and a 1 TB NVMe SSD.
My review unit is a retail model with current drivers from Nvidia , thus my findings should be in line with what you should expect from the models you can find in stores.
The GX701 has a few hardware particularities. It only supports up to 32 GB of RAM, with 16 GB soldered on the motherboard and an extra memory DIMM, but the memory still works in dual-channel. It also gets two NVMe drives. My test unit came with a fast 1 TB Samsung PM981 drive.
Accessing the components is a pesky chore on this laptop, though, as you first have to remove the mechanical foot at the bottom and then take care of a handful of Torx and Philips screws to be able to completely separate the inner deck from the main-frame.
This laptop is also one of the few to implement both Optimus and G-Sync. They don’t work at the same time, but you can switch between the two modes with a single click (and a restart each time) in the Armoury Crate app.
Noise, Heat, Connectivity and speakers
The Zephyrus GX701 shares most of its cooling design with the smaller GX531, with similar 12V fans and slightly longer heatpipes that should help better spread-out heat.
The two fans are always active with daily use, even on the Silent profile, but at about 38 dB at head level, they are barely audible in a normal environment, and you’ll only hear it a quiet room. We also noticed some electronic noise coming from the right side of the ROG logo, but fairly faint and inaudible at head-level.
My unite, the fans ramp up with gaming to about 54 dB in the Turbo mode, so you’ll most likely need headsets to cover them up. Fan noise is nonetheless a given in such thin-and-light devices if you’re looking for excellent performance, and much preferred to the alternative of throttling the components in order to keep them quiet. You can manually tweak the fan’s behavior if you’re looking for a different noise/heat ratio, or you can use the Balanced power profile, but in these cases expect higher temperatures and even poorer performance, as the components would heat-up and throttle.
For connectivity, there’s Wireless AC and Bluetooth on this laptop, through the popular Intel AC 9650 wi-fi module. It works well and maintains solid signal strength and performance once stepping further away from the router. I will be looking to upgrade this to a WiFi 6 module in the future so check back to see how that upgrade goes.
The speakers are one of this laptop’s strong selling points. They provide pretty good sound, with up to 80 dB volume and clear, punchy sound quality, even at the lower end.
As for the webcam, I already mentioned that Asus did not include a built in webcam. However they do include a ROG Eye with the purchase that provides full HD. The nice thing about using the external webcam is that you can place it at locations that provide the best results while keeping the laptop in a comfertalbe position.
Battery life
Asus squeezed a 76 Wh battery inside the Zephyrus GX701, There’s also Optimus, but the high-refresh rate screen and powerful hardware do take their fair toll, so you’ll only get average battery life in most scenarios.
The Zephyrus GX701 charges via a barrel-plug like all performance laptops, hooked up to the included 230W charger, which is adequately sized for the system’s requirements. However, it can also charge via USB-C, which supports up to 65W of power, so it will only charge the laptop with daily lower-load tasks. A USB-C charger is not included, in case you were planning to leave the big one at home and take a smaller alternative when traveling, but you could buy one or you could also hook up a USB-C power bank and add up to a few hours of runtime when there’s no outlet around.
Final thoughts
If you’re looking for a compact and well made 17-inch laptop that you plan to mostly use on a desk, hooked up to a mouse, but benefit from its smaller size and lighter weight when carrying it around, the Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 could be the one for you.
It’s well made, it types well, it gets a good-quality screen, punchy speakers and offers excellent performance out of the box, without requiring much tweaking except for opting for the Turbo profile in the included Armoury Crate control panel. This is also one of the very few thin gaming laptops that won’t cause you sweaty hands while playing games, due to the keyboard’s positioning and thermal design, and also one of the very few that offer both GSync and Optimus, based on what you want to do: play games, or get longer battery life with daily use.
I personally find the positioning of the keyboard and the number/trackpad combo to be great factors. However they can also be polarizing. If you can get over those two quarks then this is a great laptop for you.
