ASUS GL771JM 17-Inch Gaming Laptop [2014]

Overall Rating: 5 Stars I am an avid gamer of many years with experiences both with desktop and laptop PC gaming, as well as Mac. Technical specs are not my expertise or focus, as I am not a professional gamer, but unwavering performance and reliability are and this review, I hope, will reflect this. The ASUS ROG GL771 is my first ASUS laptop purchase. It is a very good gaming laptop that met all of my gaming needs. It is built with gaming in mind and is not for users who plan to use this for general use (i.e.) e-mail, web browsing, word processing. Unboxing From the get-go, this laptop looked and felt like a beast. It was laid at the top of the box, like any standard electronic product, showing off the meat of the purchase, and it was a heavy slab of meat. It is to be expected for a gaming laptop to have such a heft, but this felt a lot lighter than I imagined a gaming laptop to be. Underneath was the battery, a heavy monster in its own right, as well as the charging components, which were themselves massive as well. Together, the weight felt appropriate for a machine designed for gaming. I immediately started the initial overcharging process and noticed the brick was not as hefty as most become. The charging cable fits snugly and there was more than enough length on the cord in case I needed to use a far off outlet. Start-up Initial booting was seemingly painless asides from the Windows 8 interface. Personally, it was only a bit troublesome because I had never worked with it before, but it became very obvious where things were located, and there was not a whole lot of adjustment needed. Overall the interface felt like a smartphone was integrated with a PC, and neither are hard to navigate. With everything set, I started to install some games to get the hardware testing. This of course was interrupted by a few system updates and restarts. The laptop itself booted up fairly quickly and I’m sure with an SSD upgrade, it will load up even faster. Gaming Playing games on the highest settings never felt so good, being that this is on a laptop. Having the highest settings running while having exceptional load times for games, with no connection issues, on top of a huge screen is really where its at. The GL771 plays and feels like any desktop decked out for gaming. High resolution on the 17.3 inch screen really helps to immerse your gaming experience with what the games were meant to give you. The graphics are crisp and with the highest settings not denting your laptop in the slightest, you feel as if you are playing the game the developers had in mind, while on a laptop. Heat has not been an issue yet and I have been running the machine for a few hours on StarCraft II, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and World of Warcraft. The side vents did become a bit warm, but this is to be expected. The power brick warmed up a bit as well but nothing seemed out of the norm. I would suspect that being a laptop, having this monster on your lap may be commonplace, but with its weight and the heat produced, I would not suggest it. Notably, many gaming laptops used for gaming are usually played on a desk where your laptop is stable and plugged in to support the constant battery drainage, so I don’t see this as being a problem at all for the GL771. Battery life for the laptop is a little over 3 hours with any low key processes or any general use, though no one expects any battery powering a laptop like this to last any longer than 4 hours, nor does any gamer want to risk the shut down by playing games with the charger unplugged. Overall Design The GL771 is very sleek. It looks refined when closed and when open, the sheer size of it shows that it means business. The red backlight glow is subtle but mean and the black aluminum finish is the best kind of eye candy. Weight For a gaming laptop the GL771 is quite light. Many gaming laptops lose almost all of their portability with such heavy parts used to give them their gaming edge, but this one is easier to handle. I can see that it may pose a problem if you are using this on your lap all the time, but generally speaking, no gamer plays on their lap all the time. Keyboard and Touchpad The keyboard is very nice with the red backlight glow, highlighting the WASD keys specifically for those gamers who prefer the play in low-light or the dark. It is a full keyboard so there is a number pad included, which is smaller and less defined than the keyboard itself. There is no clear light for num lock and a very minimal one for caps lock. The touchpad is very responsive and easy to use, however it leaves smudges occasionally from moisture on your fingers as well as oils. Easily cleaned off if this becomes a concern. Display The 17.3 inch screen size on the GL771 is very impressive. It is stunning to have high resolutions up all the time, with crisp graphics in every game. The clarity of the screen is a definite win on this machine. Performance The GL771 performs flawlessly in game with no setbacks. It plays like a desktop and is tailored for gaming. I have played at least 6 hours nonstop so far (StarCraft II, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive,Diablo 3, Dota 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, and World of Warcraft) on the highest settings and have had no issues with performance in game. It connects quickly and loads quickly - even the initial boot up and update restarts were quick, all finishing under 10 seconds. I’m sure with an SSD swap it will be much faster. The processor works amazingly and I have no issues with the 1 TB that I will almost certainly never use for memory. The 12GB of RAM seems like a menacing number, and though I don’t see myself in a position to need all of it, I’ll take them all anyway. Audio The sound output on the GL771 is slightly lacking, although very loud. However, I use headsets for my audio needs anyway so this isn’t a problem for me. Heat & Cooling The main heat vent that I have noticed is to the left side of the keyboard, along the bottom edge of the laptop. So far, this has not posed a problem for me and is does not produce an enormous amount of heat. I have not had an issue with the noise from the fan as well - it is practically silent. I can see anyone gaming on their lap may have an issue with a warm lap after a small while, but this is normal for any laptop under this circumstance. Battery General computer use should net at least 3 hours, if not a bit more on a full charge but while gaming this is most likely around the 2 hour range for most games, presuming highest settings are used. I don’t intent to play without the charger plugged in anyhow so this isn’t a problem for me as well. Peripherals The optical drive included on this model is a nice touch, and standard operating procedure. A nice point to the GL771 is that it has 4 USB ports for you to use, more than enough for all your gaming peripherals. I personally use a USB headset, mouse, and gamepad, leaving one port for anything else I may need, which after the first three, there isn’t much. Wireless No complaints on this end about the strength of the wireless card in this badboy. After a 6 hour gaming session, I had no connection issues. I had no lag either, and my modem is 3 rooms away. Conclusion: Overall, I'm very happy with the purchase and extremely satisfied with its performance. I highly recommended this laptop.

I have spent quite some time looking for a gaming laptop and I picked ASUS GL771 for its power and design. For a gaming laptop, there are some unattractive machines out there. Some of them fairly powerful but I just cant bear to be seen with a laptop like that. Especially if I'm going to spend close to $1300, I want to make sure it can deliver on both the inside and outside. ASUS always designs the product very well. I was super excited when I was only unpackaging the laptop. The top aluminum cover feels very nice and I like the red stripe around the laptop. The front of the laptop looks awesome especially at night when the keyboard is lit up. Overall, it's a very well-designed laptop. Fairly comfortable to do work or play game with the keyboard for hours. So far I'm quite pleased with the performance. It takes very short time to boot up and run multiple tasks at the same time. I have habits of opening up 30+ tabs of browsers and running those image/video editing tools at the same time. That even crashed my desktop PC a few times. However, I have no problem on this one at all. Didnt even have a glich. I ended up using the laptop more than my desktop more for a lot of stuff I did in the past. Coming back to the main use of the machine, GeForce 860M is really powerful. I played Shadow of Mordor and Call of Duty for 30+ hours on the laptop. Both ran very well. The graphic was fantastic and very smooth. I didnt see any flickering that the other review mentioned. Given that those two games are somewhat different in the type of graphics required from the hardware, ASUS GL771 handled them pretty well. The screen offers great contrast even in fast speed running. The images were sharp when the person looks around as well. I'm very impressed with the graphics performance and cannot wait to try Far Cry 4 on this when I get it next week. Another thing worth mentioned is the cooling system of the laptop. I like it that the palm area on the keyboard doesnt get hot when I'm playing game. There's a air outlet on the top left for the heatsink that keeps the laptop cool. I can hear the fan sometimes but it's not really noticeable. The sound quality is decent. I didnt have a chance to play music very loud from the laptop since that's not how i was planning to use the laptop anyway. At the normal level, it's good enough for me. I mostly use headset when I need to turn up the sound for the game and have no complaint so far about the sound quality. I guess the only thing ASUS can improve on this laptop would be longer battery life. I understand people dont carry a 17" notebook walking around but longer battery life would be good to have for me. In summary, ASUS GL771JM is an awesome gaming laptop. With all the great things it deliver, I couldnt care less about the battery life. It has fantastic design and have more than enough power to handle any game in any settings. Graphics look very nice on the screen. It's truly a great experience. For this price, it offers great value. I would recommend this to my friend and any of you who are thinking about getting a powerful gaming machine.

I give my new ASUS 4 of 5 stars; I'll explain this later--absolutely NOT b/c of quality in the least. Great laptop. The best that I've had thus far. I'll use bullet points for my analysis: Graphics = Awesome HD effect on all accounts--video, DVD, photo media, and especially real-time online streaming (emphasis added). Not one complaint. Clear, sharp, crisp, accurate brilliantly vibrant colors. Be use your graphics controls to adjust to your personal preference setting. (From desktop; right click to get controls menu; choose 'graphics preference'; choose from the 6 programmed settings; 'Display' is the master control, the other 5 are feature specific to the program run--e.g.: 'Video is specific to streaming media and DVDs) Those complaining about the graphics, I don't get. Perhaps they are not savvy enough to make the correct adjustments necessary either from the desktop or from NIVIDIA. And, for the adamant gamers; dude, get a life. It's computer graphics. It's not Hollywood Studios. The tech is what it is. ASUS is graphics quality perfect. Software Induction = No problem at all. All of my software programs and apps from my previous computer, from disc or downloaded online, incorporates into my new ASUS w/o any glitches, whatsoever. Yes, this includes music, movies, and games. The new 'Software Wizard' of Windows 8.1 is a charm, almost effortless installation. The problems that others have been having with games, I just do not see it. My ASUS is very efficient with all of my software. Program efficiency/speed = Splendid. Windows 8.1 is a charm, so far. Especially well pleased my ASUS startup speed to desktop ready in less than 3 min., and that's with all of my apps and software installed. Startup speed, programming efficiency, and online internet speed all amazing relative to other laptops that I've had including Sony, HP, ACER, and DELL. Sound = Uses RealTek HD Dolby Digital 5.1 with equalizer controls for personal adjustments. Well, built-in computer speakers sound like built-in computer speakers. Not a problem. Go online to amazon.com and find a great set of external speakers to connect with USB and an awesome set of headphones = Sony MDR-10RNC. Use your RealTek Equalizer Sound Graphics features. Sound problem solved! Now, the 4 stars instead of 5 = Keyboard is for, beckon to say it, girl hands. However, that is the new tech for all laptop companies as I researched. But once again, make the adjustment by holding your fingers a little closer together than normal, practice makes perfect, and your typing speed with adjust to normal in very little time. Not necessarily a mark against ASUS b/c these style of keyboards are now industry standard. I'd give 4.5 stars but not half points not indicated by the Amazon's rating. Overall, my new ASUS about $1,100. Pay it! Well worth it.

I bought this hoping for a great gaming laptop for its reasonable price. Booted it up, and everything went great, setup was fine, got stream up and running in no time. Once i tried installing and running any game, the computer did just what everyone said. Black flashes constantly. Happily sending this one back to amazon

Great laptop. Can run some demanding games, windows 8 conflicts with some emulators. The power supply cord is a bit cheap. Still works fine. Edit to Review and additional details. This is an awesome laptop. I have been using it for over 2 months and have had ZERO problems related to the the actual computer. Anything that has come up was user error. 3 hour battery life, shorter on games and high settings. Use a cord when gaming or extended use, don't be a moron. Probably not the laptop you're looking for if you just want an internet and facebook machine, it's too powerful to waste not using it for demanding tasks. Features I really enjoy: -An average of 8 second start time to usable. Comes in really handy when you need to access something really quick. -Quiet at all times, I have never heard it get louder from extended use. Have had it on longer than 6 hours at a time with no additional noise. Graphic settings turned on high, performance at highest setting. -Stays cool, except the air coming out of the exhaust fan on the left side. DON'T LEAVE ITEMS NEXT TO THE EXHAUST FAN. They get very hot, very quick. -The keyboard is comfortable to use, Full keyboard and number pad I have played two PC games online, Tera Online and Titan Fall, both run smooth and have been optimized by the GeForce graphics card. Cons: Have not been significant enough to lower my rating. Still love this laptop -Screen resolution could be sharper with window boxes, but could be due to software and not hardware. Not a big issue, games are still clear and smooth. -The power supply cord separated on the converter box slightly. I put some electrical tape on it and have had no problems. Be careful when -handling and storing the cord.

As someone who jumped ship from having a macbook pro since mid 2010, you can imagine I did a lot of research before investing in a PC. As someone who needs a laptop for work and for gaming I was tired of a mac so when I read up and looked into the ASUS rog series I was immediately hooked. The graphics are awesome when I play games like Star Wars: the old republic and world of warcraft (granted you can run mmo's on potatoes and they look good but coming from a 5 year old macbook pro with a gtx 330m being able to run these games on ultra made my face tingle). I know a lot of people have complained about getting faulty units of this model and saying how the screen flickers black when they play games and that it must be a faulty graphics card and I will say that I did get one with this issue however instead of just returning it to Amazon I researched the issue and called ASUS customer support (who were extremely helpful) and they processed an RMA for me right away. No questions, no skepticism or "turn it off or on again" non sense or "oh must be nividia's chip or you must have a virus or the game is not supported" they were quick about the process. TURNS OUT for all of you who might have this problem that it is NOT the graphics card being faulty but actually a loose connection with one of the LCD cables between the screen and the video card (or motherboard or something) and they literally opened it up, fixed it, and shipped it back out to me the SAME DAY they got it at their service center (just as an FYI, this cable issue and a dead graphics card have similar symptoms but a faulty graphics card will get more severe than the LCD cable issue I just described). I tested the issue last night and the black flicker was gone. I understand people getting frustrated with a faulty model on delivery after spending all that money but life isn't always perfect and you don't send your car back if a tire blows out...you get it fixed! All in all I'm more than happy with the service and treatment I got from Asus' customer support and from what I've heard it is a LOT better than customer support from other laptop manufacturers so I'm fortunate for that. I plan to get more graphics intensive games in the near future so if I don't forget to do it, I'll update this review after I see their performance. I would definitely recommend Asus to anyone looking for a new computer. Even my computer savy friend (moreso than me) said how beautiful this laptop and it's specs are even after I told him about the small issue so if you get a similar issue be patient and don't freak out at Asus. Awesome for what it is. A great gaming laptop at a good value.

The headline says it all. I purchased this laptop as a heavy video editing/photoshop computer for processing high resolution images on the go. I needed something that could push 4k video to a larger monitor. (the gl771 IPS screen is only native 1080p fyi). After expanding my ram to 16 gb and adding an SSD in the expansion slot its turned out to be a smooth running beast. For my purposes, this laptop is choice! As far as being an Republic of Gamer's series laptop, it eeks by at gaming with a solid B+ (settings at high on 1080). However if you plan on getting into GPU intensive gameplay such as Crisis or Tomb Raider you will be sorely upset with its performance. On "Ultra" settings and even "high" you will see the Nividia 860m throttle creating chop/screen tearing with FPS around 20 to 30. Core Temps will often times hit between 83C to 90C decreasing the performance of the GPU considerably. This is further compounded by the computers lack of intake ventilation grills on the case to feed the large exhaust grills on the side. The only intake vent found is on the bottom of the case and sits below the mouse pad where the RAM slots are rendering most Cooling Pads useless to help force air in to cool cpu/gpu. ASUS has also integrated a passive heat cooling system that will allow for the heat to release through the keyboard. Under heavy load you will feel heat rising from the "Y" key and just above the mouse pad. In my opinion its no supplement for good active intake vents for fans. If you are a serious gamer looking for a portable solution, I would recommend looking at the GL771's big brother the G751 with 980m graphics card. Its double the vent size for better breathing and the 980m GPU doubles the clock of the 860m. Nothing will slow it down even set at maxed settings. After having this laptop in use for the last few weeks, I have a good feel out its pros and cons in my perspective. Here they are: Pros: 860m maxwell with Geforce experience handles 90 percent of games at high settings and offers a gaming optimization feature Sleek and stylish. Nice brush finish. Large backlit keyboard with number pad for easier data entry Amazing IPS screen with increased viewing angle and vivid colors for image work I7 cpu handles everything you throw at it. custom ROG sound settings for gaming and video use. Decent stock sound (no bass/mini subwoofer like other gaming laptops) Super quick starts ASUS has an incredible tech help line Easy access PCI express port as well as hard drives/ram Strong bluetooth connections WIndows 8.1 is easily compatible with 360 controller drivers and works with all my old programs from windows 7 The amount of ports for connectivity is wonderful Cons: Brushed metal top and mouse/arm guard leaves smudges on everything!! nightmare to keep clean. Easily scratched lack of proper venting throttles the 860m GPU for heavy gaming Games will sometimes crash when throttled on this laptop Battery is very poor. Gaming gave me tops 90 minutes of use. Everyday tasks will give you about 3.5 hours. Be prepared to be wired to wall DC power supply has no light on it to confirm power is surging through it. Cheap thermal pasted used on CPU and GPU. Better thermal paste could lower temps by 5C easily. In conclusion, this laptop us a beefed up version of ASUS ultrabook N551 with a 17 inch screen instead of the 15.6. Similar specs/similar design. However it suits all my needs and some for media work. I would have only reconsidered this purchase if I was to planning to game much more than i do. *****************UPDATE***************************** 28 days later from this purchase and Im returning the laptop. Ive dropped the rating from 4 stars to 2. Reasons for return *couple hours of gameplay and the unit heats extremely high. Clocking temps around max 85C with 98 percent GPU usage *Cooling pads do not work for this unit. No intake vents on bottom will circulate air to GPU/CPU *Unit drivers keep crashing. Screen blanks in gameplay for seconds at a time occasionally. *Games app have been crashing *Blue Screen of death has been appearing *Nvidia 860m drivers are not upgradable past 333.37 which is a very old driver. Cannot download new drivers from Nvidia. Must use ASUS support site. No other drivers available *Heavy throttling became an issue *Windows factory install contain several registry errors and chkdsk.exe was not able to repair factory disk issues. *Factory Recovery drive was not ID properly. Had to correct this to access Advanced troubleshooting options to get to the bios. *Bios boot priority interface lackluster. Difficulty setting up boot path priority with the asus UEFI softwar. Anyways, I hope maybe my unit was just a factory lemon. Im upgrading to the ROG G751 as I do very much like the product line's legacy. Best of you to you if you purchase this item. AMAZON has been very helpful and understanding in this return process.

Actually love computer very irritated that backlit keyboard does not light up on this dark config