“In a year from now, the ASUS ROG ZENBOOK PRO UX501VW-DS71T Review could be the best gaming laptop on the market.” Right before I received this sample for review, that’s what I said about it. Now that I’ve tested ASUS’ latest flagship ZenBook for almost two weeks, I can say that it is the best non-Alienware/Dell gaming laptop on the market right now. It’s also a pretty great laptop in general, but more about that later.
First of all, this is not your average laptop. I don’t mean that in the typical sense, even though this is obviously an ultraportable with a 15-inch display and all of them are. I’m talking about aesthetics. The ROG ZENBOOK Pro looks like no other notebook on the market today, thanks to its brushed aluminum lid with the iconic pattern, the bold shape of its not-so-thin screen bezels, and its overall aggressive design. It’s still a bit too flashy for my taste, but it definitely stands out from the crowd.
Performance:
This is definitely one of the best gaming laptops out there. I was able to play Minecraft, League of Legends, and StarCraft 2 on ultra settings with no lag at all even though it’s usually not recommended to run these games on such high settings. As for more demanding titles like Crysis 3 or Battlefield 4, they ran quite nicely as well even on ultra settings, but if your computer isn’t that great you might want to reduce the graphics just slightly.
Battery Life:
The laptop is a bit heavy weighing 4.5 lbs and it has a large footprint because of its 15.6-inch display, but it makes up for this with its pretty decent battery life of 5 hours. You can definitely get a day’s worth of work done on this laptop without having to search for a power outlet.
Physical Size:
This is an enormous laptop coming in at 16.9 x 11.9 x 0.98 inches thick and weighing 4.5 pounds, but it also packs quite the punch with its beautiful 15-inch display and a 7th generation Intel Core i7 processor.
Ports:
It has 4 USB ports, a HDMI port, a VGA port, an Ethernet port, an SD card slot, and audio jacks so you can plug in all your devices with no problem. I only wish the laptops had more than one Thunderbolt port since they can be used for dual monitors with one adapter.ASUS ROG ZENBOOK PRO UX501VW-DS71T Review
