ASUS ROG Strix GL502VT-GS74 Gaming Laptop Review

ASUS takes gaming seriously. So seriously, in fact, that it has two sub-brands dedicated to hardware for gamers. One is the Republic of Gamers (ROG), a brand ASUS created in 2006 to designate products that deliver "innovative hardcore PC performance," and the other is Strix, a more recent creation that's taken from the ancient Roman and Greek word for owl. No, we're not kidding.

"Strix means the keenest hearing and sharpest eyesight. Strix means feeling your environment so that you detect and react to the slightest movement. Strix means survival on the very edge of instinct. Strix is in your blood, as it is in ours," ASUS explains.


Though the two brands exist separate from one another, ASUS has begun creating a line of ROG Strix products, including the ROG Strix GL502, a 15.6-inch gaming laptop that aims to strike a balance between gaming prowess and portability. It's also the first gaming laptop from the recent marriage of ROG and Strix. Confused? All that marketing jargon aside, the ROG Strix GL502 is a laptop for gamers who want a high end gaming experience without the weight and bulk that comes from a typical desktop replacement configuration.

The ROG Strix GL502VT-DS74 model reviewed here pairs a 6th generation Intel Core i7-6700HQ quad-core processor (Skylake) with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M GPU wielding 6GB of GDDR5 memory. It also has 16GB of DDR4-2133 RAM, a 128GB M.2 SATA3 SSD paired with a 1TB HDD for bulk storage duties, and an assortment of ports packed in a plastic chassis that measures 15.35 x 10.47 x 0.92 inches and weighs 4.85 pounds.