what is it about gaming laptops that really gets you fired up is it the
flashy angular designs maybe the thick
cooling the anemic battery life and uh
super heavy power bricks yes bricks uh
they have more than one
well ASUS clearly didn't think it was any of
those things because their follow-up to last year's gl502 the gl503 features
none of them
synergy 2 makes sharing one mouse and keyboard between multiple computers so
simple and seamless that anyone can do it check it out today through the link
below picking up the gl503 scar edition ours
is the vs configuration the most
immediately noticeable thing is the significant difference in build quality
compared to the last generation it's noticeably thinner which gives it along
with the faux carbon fiber finish here
and the darkened brushed aluminum on the back panel a bit of extra curb appeal
now as for its little brother the gl 503
hero edition this is a vm model this guy
gets kind of a feathery halftone vinyl
wrap that looks pretty cool up close but then from a bit further away
subjectively i think kind of looks like dust or
dirt or something like this now although they share a common chassis
the keyboard area of the scar edition compared to the hero
is quite a bit stiffer leading us to
originally believe that this surface really is made of carbon
fiber hence the title of the video but as i alluded to before it is not it
should be noted both of them are on the excellent side of acceptable though with
better screen flex than the previous gen as an added bonus
there's more than meets the eye though when you're comparing the two incoming
models while both of them come equipped with five usb 3.1 ports four type a and
one type c the scar editions type c over here is
Thunderbolt 3 enabled allowing it to drive up to three external displays
speaking of displays let's switch back over to the hero here ASUS used a 120hz
ahva panel for the hero that's pretty good but the scar sports a
brighter 144 hertz ips g-sync affair with both of
them boasting 100 coverage of the adobe RGB color gamut for getting real work
done and they both deliver a spectacularly smooth gaming experience
in all but the most demanding titles a gtx 1070 can get near the 100 FPS mark
on medium to high settings and then especially on the scars g-sync display i
mean this is a huge upgrade compared to
whatever kind of gaming notebook you're running from a couple of years ago
inside them we find mostly the same guts that powered the gl502 except this time
with more storage thanks to seagate's fire cuda sshd hybrid drives ASUS also
added intake vents above the keyboard and then a cutout on the rear of the
display hinge that actually clears both
the intake and exhaust vents and allows the laptop to breathe easy whether the
lid is open or closed and then as a neat little bonus this
notch right here actually gives you a quick look at the main indicator leds
while the notebook is shut specs aside in terms of expansion they've both got
two ddr4 sodium slots with one slot populated on each of them and NVMe SSD
support along with a single two and a half inch SATA mount where they really
differ internally is in their cooling setups which might help explain the
extra stiffness of the scar it didn't throttle one bit even under a
combined CPU and GPU load
that is as long as you don't mind the mini vacuum sound that accompanies
ASUS's overboost mode by comparison the
hero and the last gen gl502 put up much
worse results as for our gaming tests it showed a bit
of a blow for blow between the gl502 and
our scar with all configurations scoring within 10 FPS of their desktop
equivalents except in cs go where
okay yeah they were different but like if somebody offered you a 600 scoop ice
cream sundae versus a 700 scoop ice cream sundae
would you really worry about it for productivity meanwhile the scar
overtakes its predecessor coming closer to our comparison desktop thanks to its
superior cooling with the hero taking a back seat
now of course all that comes with the cost and i'm not talking money yet
without switchable graphics both of our gl503 units put up
unimpressive battery life numbers so this is better than the gaming notebooks
of your but if you're planning to use either of them for school you might want
to factor an extension cord and a power strip into your backpack's weight
allowance for those of you who care the webcam and built-in microphone look and sound about
like this so serviceable but i wouldn't go using them for streaming on twitch or
anything like that as for the side-firing speakers well
they're nothing to write home about either but they're a significant
upgrading clarity over the previous model and well within the range of
acceptable moving on to the keyboard and trackpad
do you remember how the trackpad on the gl502 had this kind of lip that made it
awkward to use that's ancient history now we've got flush track pads that feel
smooth and easy to glide your fingers across with virtually no input leg and
four zones of RGB lighting on the keyboard now the switches themselves are just as
satisfying as the gl502 and the layout is improved with full-sized arrow keys
now making them easier to find by touch so overall
i've got to say ASUS did an excellent job of refining this design
it's still not to a level where i'd call it perfect and
sure at these prices you can get this raw performance for less
not to mention with better battery life but what ASUS brings to the table here
is superior build quality expansion
cooling performance especially in the scar and perhaps most importantly again
especially on the 144hz scar
truly gaming grade screens recommended
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