ASUS Strix GL502 Review - A Thin and Powerful 15' Gaming Laptop!

The Asus GL502: A Thin and Light Gaming Laptop Review

HEY GUYS, THIS IS DAVE 2D AND THIS IS MY REVIEW OF THE ASUS GL502, SO THIS IS THEIR THIN AND LIGHT GAMING LAPTOP WE'VE SEEN THIN AND LIGHT DEVICES FROM ASUS BEFORE, BUT THIS IS THE FIRST ONE THAT'S HAD A GTX 970M, A MORE POWERFUL GRAPHICS CARD. STARTS AT $1,400.

The exterior of the GL502 is sleek and modern, with a black brushed aluminum top surface that features the ROG logo in bright orange accents. The accent lights up when you turn on the laptop, adding a touch of personality to the overall design. The bottom surface is made of reinforced plastic, with bright orange feet that provide good grip and stability. If you remove some screws, you'll be able to take a look inside and see 16 gigs of RAM, eight of which are soldered on and eight of which can be upgraded. The base configuration also comes with a one terabyte hard drive at 7,200 rpm, which is a standard hard drive speed but can always be swapped out for something faster.

The screen on the GL502 is a 1080p non-touch IPS panel that offers excellent color accuracy and good viewing angles. It's also pretty bright at 310 nits, making it great for gaming and content creation. The matte finish helps to reduce glare, and there's no significant light bleed to speak of. The webcam on the GL502 is 720p, which doesn't offer any special features or image quality.

Performance on the GL502 is impressive, thanks to the combination of the GTX 970M graphics card and the Intel Core i7 processor. This setup allows for smooth gameplay in a wide range of titles, even at high settings. The laptop can handle games like Street Fighter V with ease, running at over 60 frames per second even on ultra graphic settings. However, more demanding titles may require reduced graphics settings to keep frame rates above 60.

In terms of real-world usage, the GL502 is a great choice for anyone who wants a powerful gaming laptop that's also portable and easy to use. The keyboard is a highlight of the laptop, with good travel, backlighting, and an orange WASD key layout that may take some getting used to. The trackpad is also very good, thanks to native Windows drivers that provide smooth tracking and gestures.

The speakers on the GL502 are bright orange and look like they belong in a toy box, but they're surprisingly loud and clear. However, they could benefit from a bit more bass. The laptop's power adapter is 180 watts, and the battery life is around three and a half hours of regular use and about one and a half hours of gaming.

So how does the GL502 stack up against its competitors? The MSI GS60 is definitely a contender, with a better keyboard, cooler system, and thinner chassis. However, the GL502 has some advantages of its own, including a better screen, quieter system, and longer battery life. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference - both laptops are fantastic in their own ways.

In conclusion, the Asus GL502 is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a thin and light gaming laptop with powerful performance and good features. With its 16 gigs of RAM, GTX 970M graphics card, and excellent screen, this laptop has it all. Whether you're a gamer or just need a reliable device for content creation, the GL502 is definitely worth considering.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey how's it going guys this is dave 2d and this is my review of the asus gl502 so this is their thin and light gaming laptop we've seen thin and light devices from asus before but this is the first one that's had a gtx 970m a more powerful graphics card starts at fourteen hundred dollars let's take a look so the top surface is a black brushed aluminum with the rog logo but this time instead of the ultra common red coloring it's a bright orange it's not obnoxious or anything because it's only an accent color but it does have some pop to it at least more than the red does now when you turn the laptop on the accent lights up as well the bottom surface is a reinforced plastic with some bright orange feet and if you remove some screws you can take a look inside and you'll see 16 gigs of ram eight of which are soldered on and eight of which you can upgrade the base configuration also has a one terabyte hard drive 7 200 rpm it's pretty standard hard drive speeds but you can always swap it out and there's room for a second drive in there using the m2 pcie slot the screen is pretty rigid because of that aluminum panel the chassis has some flex it's more noticeable up top above the keyboard but on the actual keyboard itself and the palm rest area is pretty rigid the hinge tension is good one hand openable and the mechanism feels smooth and it's well built overall build quality is good fingerprints show a little on the aluminum top surface but the brush pattern kind of masks it and then on the plastic inside and the bottom fingerprints don't show at all for ports we have an ethernet jack video outputs one usbc three usb 3s an sd card and an audio jack the usbc port is not thunderbolt 3. if we take a look at the back you can also see the exhaust vents and the fins of the heatsink are also that bright orange color on the inside of the laptop the material has a brushed finish to it it's plastic but it looks and feels a lot like the aluminum top surface the keyboard has that number pad layout so if you're new to these you'll need a couple days to get used to the positioning because everything's kind of shifted over to the left but once you're used to it it's a good keyboard 1.6 millimeters travel red back lighting orange wasd keys the track pad has a nice texture to it i think it's plastic but it feels like glass and since it uses windows drivers like native windows drivers instead of third-party ones tracking and gestures work really nicely the button mechanism also works nicely i had no issues clicking around the speakers are on the side they're also bright orange and they look really small but they get loud and they sound good i just wish there was more bass they sound a lot like the gl552 speakers the screen on this one is a 1080p non-touch ips panel it also comes in a 4k option but this panel is really good it's pretty bright at 310 nits matte finish to produce glare no significant light bleed good contrast good viewing angles and good color accuracy it's actually a very solid screen 720p webcam is okay image doesn't look super special or anything performance is great it's a 970m with a skylake quad core i7 it's got the same configuration as the new razer blade and it plays games really nicely light games will break 60 frames per second even on ultra graphic settings so something like street fighter 5 a game which i wish i was so much better at runs at really good frame rates they actually use asus monitors at the big street fighter 5 tournaments that was kind of cool now moderate titles need reduced graphics settings to keep that frame rate so something like overwatch you'll have to drop it down to high graphics to keep it at over 60 frames if you want to play it ultra or epic it's gonna dip below and for heavier titles well it depends on the game but you'll have to reduce the graphics quality to hit 60 frames but it can basically play any modern title with nice looking graphics and video editing is also no problem on the gl502 because of that second drive slot fan noise at idle is quiet and even under load it's not as loud as i thought it would be but the temperatures are a little bit hot now i'm not sure if the reading i'm getting here is higher because of the position of the cpu like maybe the heatsink is directly underneath the plastic here because the cpu and gpu temperatures look totally normal when i'm running benchmarks and there's no cpu throttling it's just pretty warm in this spot right here the power adapter is 180 watts the battery lasts around three and a half hours of regular use and about one and a half hours of gaming okay the asus gl502 starts at 1400 it has a slim polycarbonate chassis with good build quality the 1080p panel is pretty color accurate and it's great for gaming and content creation the backlit keyboard trackpad and the speakers are all pretty good actually the trackpad i would call very good because of the native drivers inside the i7 skylake chip and the gtx 970m are powerful but the temperatures on load can get pretty hot the 16 gigs of ram and both storage locations are easily accessible and upgradable and then powering this is a 64 watt hour battery that gets around three and a half hours of battery life now if you're looking at the gl502 you're probably looking at its competitors but they're not that many of them the one that does come to mind is the msi gs60 so it's also thin and light and it also has a gtx 970m how do you choose between the two the gs60 i think its advantages are a better keyboard a slightly cooler system and a thinner chassis so it's the same length and width but four millimeters thinner so if that matters to you get that if you're looking at the 502 its advantages are a better screen a quieter system because it runs a little bit warmer and also a longer battery life so really you can't go wrong with either of them i think they're both fantastic i personally like the gl502 a little bit more that's the end of this video hope you guys liked it thumbs if you liked it subs if you loved it it's been nice see you guys next time\n"