Pros: There is a lot of computational power in this lightweight laptop. The Intel i5-8300H has 4 cores (8 threads), a large 8.0 MB L3 cache, and it will boost the clock to 4.0 GHz for single-thread workloads. I found it to be extremely energy efficient during light workloads as well. The on-board Intel UHD Graphics 630 handles normal display use including 2D graphics, reserving the power of the NVIDIA GPU for 3D graphics and GPU-specific computation. This processor is more than capable for whatever a power user or gamer is likely to throw at it over the next few years. The GeForce GTX 1050Ti is the highest-end of NVIDIA’s 75-watt Pascal architecture GPU family. It’s a good choice for 1080p displays and rendered very smooth 3D animation at high detail. The Wi-Fi speed is absolutely amazing. I ran an iperf3 server on a fast desktop computer that is connected to an 802.11ac access point with wired gigabit ethernet, and measured 656 Mbit/s with this laptop about six feet from the access point, and 340 Mbit/s two rooms away. The wired ethernet port measured 949 Mbit/s. Both were solid throughout a week of suspend/resume and power cycling. The IPS display is a nice upgrade from TN panels. It’s not glossy, so it doesn’t reflect everything behind you and show every speck of dust. I’m happy with the colors, the black level, and the contrast. The only possible complaint is that it could be a little brighter. I use most laptop displays at about 70% to 80% of full brightness, and this one looks good to me with the brightness set to 100%. In normal use the fans are either off or very slow. At low speeds there is a bit of a variable-pitch whine as the speed changes. At high speeds, the fans sound like a waterfall. That is to say, it’s a nice white noise mostly free of tones. There are three fan modes, selectable by hotkey (Fn+F5): Balanced, Overboost, and Silent. I found little difference between Balanced and Overboost, but Silent is a great option to have. Silent mode keeps the fan speeds low with just a small performance penalty. Unless you’re gaming with headphones on, I’d recommend using Silent mode all the time. I also came to appreciate that the rear exhaust vents keep the warm air flow away from hands and workspace. I used PassMark Performance Test 9.0 to measure CPU and 3D GPU performance in each of the three fan modes, while watching the power consumption at the outlet. Balanced: CPU Mark 9761, max. power 88 watts; 3D Mark 6628, max. power 104 watts. Overboost: CPU Mark 9772, max. power 91 watts; 3D Mark 6676, max. power 107 watts. Silent: CPU Mark 9665, max power 72 watts; 3D Mark 5995, max. power 83 watts. Case temperatures were the highest in Silent fan mode, despite the lower power draw. At 77 degrees F ambient, after running 8 threads for a few hours, I measured 89 F on the left wrist rest and 82 F on the right wrist rest. The hottest key was “U” at 105 F, and the hottest area on the case bottom was 106 F. For comparison, in Overboost fan mode, the wrist rests were the same temperature, the “U” key dropped to 100 F and the hottest area on the case bottom dropped to 103 F. The touchpad is large and very smooth when the laptop is not bogged down (see disk, below). There are no discrete left/right click buttons, but I didn’t miss them. The keyboard feels good, with adequate travel and a light tactile touch. The wider keys, like shift and the space bar, have the same feel all the way across. There are three levels of red lighting selectable by hotkey. I’ll preface the gaming performance review by stating up front that I’m not a gamer. The last game I bought was Portal (in 2007), and unsurprisingly it played perfectly smooth on this laptop with high detail settings. Of course I had to try the bundled games to see how they performed. Age of Empires Definitive Edition (a 17.19 GB download) is a refresh of the 1997 original release. It didn’t seem to be very demanding of the hardware. There were a few visual glitches where objects were drawn offset from where I expected them, but I’m blaming the age of the software for that. Otherwise it played fine and everything was smooth. Gears of War 4 (a 132.3 GB download!) is not my style of game (see Portal, above), but wow, the 3D graphics are just insane. The game defaulted to very high quality settings but everything was perfectly fluid on A/C power. On battery power, there were a couple of small lags, usually at the start of a graphics sequence. The built-in benchmark measured 59.8 FPS on A/C power, 28.7 FPS on battery. The HDMI output worked as it should. There were no problems extending the desktop onto a 2560x1080 external monitor. Audio also redirected to HDMI properly. There is a single 1/8” audio jack. When I plug in my headphones, there is a pop-up prompt to select mic in, headphone, or speaker out.

Cons: The all-plastic build felt a little cheap at first. The thin power cord and small barrel connector reinforce this feeling. After a week, though, what started out feeling cheap started to feel like it was just better optimized for weight. At 5 lb 1 oz on my postage scale, it’s 6 oz lighter than my 14” aluminum HP. There are no dedicated keys for PageUp and PageDown; they are on the numeric keypad’s 9 and 3 keys respectively. I would have liked to see those functions duplicated on Fn+UpArrow/DownArrow, where they are commonly located on sub-notebooks. As it stands, there’s no way to access PageUp and PageDown when num-lock is enabled. Speaking of which, there’s no LED indicator for num-lock. Caps-lock has an indicator on the key itself. There’s no CSM (Compatibility Support Module) option in the BIOS (version 312) to allow booting from older non-UEFI media. This isn’t a big deal but I was disappointed by ASUS support when I contacted them to ask about this, since it’s shown as present in their documentation. They first replied with instructions on how to enable CSM after disabling Secure Boot and Fast Boot. I replied with screen shots showing that there’s still no CSM option in this BIOS after making those changes, and received an unhelpful reply that said to reset the BIOS with F9 (load optimized defaults) and F10 (save). After I did this and reported there was no change, there was no further response from ASUS support. To make matters worse, the downloads and manuals on the ASUS support site for this product repeatedly disappeared for hours at a time during my evaluation. The Seagate ST1000LX015 SSHD is a very poor choice for this laptop and hinders the performance in spite of all the other very fast components. I would expect many customers to return this laptop for this reason alone. This disk frequently causes the entire system to become sluggish, including lags in the touchpad movement. Part of this is due to the way Windows 10 likes to thrash the disk at 100% activity with processes that ought to run at a very low priority, but I have an older model of this disk (ST1000LM014) as the boot drive on another Windows 10 laptop and it’s perfectly usable there. This disk is noisier too, and the frequent seeking is audible and distracting. Seagate’s specifications show the newer disk as having 1 ms slower average access time. Comparing sequential read performance and access time on those two disks with HD Tune reflects this increase: ST1000LM014: 57.2 MB/s min, 114.1 MB/s max, 89.8 MB/s average; 19.4 ms average access time. ST1000LX015: 60.1 MB/s min, 137.2 MB/s max, 105.2 MB/s average; 20.8 ms average access time. Using h2testw to evaluate sequential write-then-read on 900 GB of free space on this disk, compared to the entire 1 TB of the older model, shows a dramatic decrease in write speed: ST1000LM014: 83.9 MB/s write, 87.0 MB/s read. ST1000LX015: 63.7 MB/s write, 86.5 MB/s read. This isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison but it strongly suggests there’s an issue with the disk performance. Fortunately, there’s an open slot for an M.2 SSD so you can move Windows to an SSD while keeping this slow SSHD as a data drive.

Overall Review: ASUS didn’t go overboard with unwanted software. I uninstalled two Candy Crush games, plus LinkedIn, OneDrive, and Skype which I think are bundled by Microsoft. At first boot I had to agree to McAfee’s terms to continue, but it didn’t seem to be installed, which is good. With the discrete GPU and 120-watt power adapter, I expected this laptop to be something of an energy hog. I was very wrong. At idle, with the screen on, it draws only 10 watts from the outlet. While surfing the web, the power would spike to 50 watts while Firefox was drawing a page, then fall back to about 12 watts. During an overnight ping test, the power dropped to just 5 watts after the display blanked. Of course, during CPU or GPU benchmarking or 3D gaming, the power used was much higher. The highest I ever observed was 123 watts while running the Gears of War 4 benchmark and charging a depleted battery. Running 8 threads in BOINC caused the laptop to draw a consistent 43 watts with the display off. It wasn’t long ago that 4 cores / 8 threads were only found in i7 series processors, and with IPC improvements this i5-8300H benchmarks faster than many recent i7 processors. About the only features not enabled on this processor are TSX-NI, which can accelerate certain memory accesses found in large multi-threaded database applications, and Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) which is more of an enterprise-level security feature and unlikely to be useful on a personal laptop. While researching this product I found that the 1050Ti is also considered a good entry-level GPU for those looking to get into “deep learning” (e.g. neural net) applications. The next step up in the NVIDIA family is the GeForce GTX 1060, a 120-watt part, which seems like overkill for a laptop. The built-in speakers have no bass at all, which is expected. A 100 Hz test tone is completely inaudible. The default display settings have scaling set to 125%, which makes text in older applications look blurry. At 100% everything is crisp but tiny. There are occasional loud pops from the speakers or headphones when a sound begins or ends. This is easily replicated with the built-in sample sounds. I don’t see this on my other Windows 10 computers. Web searches suggest that this problem is not specific to ASUS or to this particular laptop. People are blaming the Realtek driver, the NVIDIA driver, Windows fast startup, or some combination. I’d expect that this will eventually be fixed in a software update. Until then, headphone use can be very unpleasant. Although it’s not marketed for Linux use, I had to try anyway, and found that the touchpad didn’t work. Some cursory research indicated that it’s an Elan 1200 touchpad and that there are some workarounds that involve compiling a custom kernel. It may be supported with kernel version 4.19, which was just released. The 8 GB of RAM occupies one slot (mine has a PC4-21300 SK Hynix HMA81GS6CJRBN-UK) . The second slot is open for an easy and cheap upgrade to 16 GB. Other PassMark Performance Test 9.0 scores, in Balanced fan mode: 2D Mark (Intel UHD Graphics 630): 756 Memory Mark: 2206 Disk Mark: 607

Pros: It a nice feeling when you open the box and see a box from ASUS so nicely printed, you know something special is inside. And what you’ll find is a handsome designed laptop. The cuts and corners are eye appealing, the lid is easy to grab and open and ay just under 1” thick, what a nice thin profile. The 15.6” 1920X1080 screen with Anti-Glare is easy on the eyes and full HD. The red illumination of the extra durable keyboard with a lifespan of 20 million key presses. This is a gaming keyboard, special keys for WSAD, only a quick 1.8mm of key press travel with key caps of only .25mm height. Fast reaction that you want. The Dual Fan with Anti-Dust Technology is awesome, and I don’t use awesome very much in my reviews. 3 fan settings and when they power up for more cooling, you absolutely hear it. It gives confidence that this ASUS TUF Laptop has cooling like you’ve never experienced in a gaming laptop. The patented Anti-Dust Technology with a self-cleaning is a great feature in a laptop. With a 5th generation Intel Core i5-8300H quad processor, it runs at 2.30 GHZ which gives good battery life, but when your multitasking or heavy Gaming it clocks up to 3.9GHZ or anywhere in between as demand calls for it. That along with 8GB od DDR4 High Frequency 2666 MHZ Ram, it does anything you throw at it and runs AAA games easily. Gigabit Wave 2 Wi-Fi, up to 1.73 Gbps and 2X2 802.11ac connect ability, I’ve been impressed how much better it is than other laptops I’ve used. Not a miss in gaming. 1TB FireCuda Hybrid Drive SSHD is up to 5 times faster than a traditional HDD and a lot of storage. Windows 10 Home 64bit and the initial setup was a breeze and the first time use updates brought this right up to date. On the left side are 2 USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type a connector along with 1 USB 2.0, 1 HDMI Out, 1 Headphone/Microphone combo jack and a Hardwire LAN connection for when you want to use it that way. With the awesome Wi-Fi connection this has, you probably won’t hardwire often. Built in Array Microphone and 2X2 Speaker. The AC adapter has a good length cord. A 1yr warranty along with the great ASUS Support if needed.

Cons: None.. not a one.

Overall Review: I have enjoyed reviewing this ASUS TUF Laptop. No rush review here, I like to take a couple of weeks of use, load it up to be mine and run it all uses from just a general use at home Laptop to multi-Tasking and hours of Gaming. An external gaming mouse and USB Headset were used during gaming. The Included Gears of War 4 and Age of Empires are a nice plus. At the Microsoft Store they were there awaiting to be downloaded. There are so many laptops to choose from and if your looking for a Gaming Laptop, that is lightweight and of course able to do all your needs, ASUS has put together a great combo of items that makes this a top choice. The FireCuda SSHD and its high-performance levels, 8th Gen Intel i5 Quadcore topping out at 3.9Ghz, DDR4 2666MHZ Ram, up to 1.7Gbps Wi-Fi connectivity, the amazing Anti-Dust Cooling System, you’ve probably never heard fans doing their cooling job like this. 3 Fan settings, or customizable settings… when you’re in the heat of a game or just using the speed and power on demand, the fans whip up and aid in keeping this cool. A true Gaming Keyboard is what this has, with special WSAD key illumination. It’s easy to not even need a desktop PC with the great performance of a laptop like this. When I connected my HDTV or external monitor the connection was instant, changing from duplicate, extended or even out only, the software makes it easy for anyone to enjoy it. But as much as I talk about the gaming this does so well, it’s also a great daily PC. With the 1TB SSHD there is a lot of storage for all your different wants. So many reasons that this is a good choice beyond just great reviews and this deserves them. When you compare features like the gaming keyboard, FireCuda SSHD, special anti-dust/cooling fans, CPU, memory and even size and weight, even at regular price it’s a great choice, on sale even better. Absolutely I put this in the recommend buying. ASUS is a leader in performance PC equipment and their laptops. Support if you need it and a track record of being a #1 choice. I had my 12yr old grandson play Gears of War 4 on this and he said its way better than his gaming station. A sperate mouse, headset and he was just excited. Now he wants to use a laptop or pc for his gaming. That’s an approval from a pro.

Pros: FireCuda 1 TB drive in this configuration Bundle games Open Memory Slot for upgrade to 16/32 Lightweight Minimal bloatware-really! Fast Booting @ 17 seconds Supports Intel Optane memory HDMI video out

Cons: 8GB ram is a little thin for gaming Fans can be loud and that may become a real annoyance New Model production blues (stripped screws) All plastic casing with good engineering values Keyboard good for gaming with subtle lighting ---------------------- I went way overboard here given length limits so..... ------------------------------------ Having just come off reviewing the Acer Aspire 7 i7 gaming rig I was anxious to take another stab at this laptop segment when the notice came I was selected to review the Fx504GE. In anticipation of exploring the new Intel Optane Memory system that the FX supports I purchased a 16GB chip. I quickly got the system setup and let Win10 do its updating. I had read some of the previous reviews on the FX and knew that updating the firmware to current was an urgent need. So I did. It went very smooth without any issues. I’ll mention that on the first boot and after hardware changes (like installing the Optane memory chip) the FX may go thru a few rapid startup/shut off cycles. Don’t worry that you’ve bricked the FX, that’s just how the system does auto configuration. The Bios was simple with few options to allow for trouble, but zero options to allow for enthusiast tweeks. I’m still trying to hunt down a utility that can at least control the fan speeds. Some outside reviews indicated that the processor was underutilized due to heat concerns. I needed to update all the drivers too-vendors never do any special prep for an Eggxpert review. We get exactly what you do. That took a while as each update had to be downloaded then unpacked and installed. The ASUS website made it easy to keep track of where I was in the process. The keyboard is “just ok” for me, with a durability claim of 200k keystrokes. I couldn’t use it for my daily work. For gaming it was okay. The red led backlighting was well implemented and the overall feel was good. Maybe over time I could adapt. It should be okay for new users who haven’t typed a million keystrokes over 20 years. I like clickity keyboards. It’s what I am accustomed to. External video was supported with HDMI instead of a Display Port, which means you won’t have to become an adapter specialist. A pair of USB 3 ports (USB 3 is not denoted by the blue plastic bit inside but a small embossed {SS} by the port). I needed reading glasses to see it. One USB 2 port and the headphone jack. Overall it’s a very nice rig with abilities to play the games I have with its GTX 1050i graphic controller. Mind you my i7 primary rig only has GTX 660 video. I’ve been waiting for the 1080 to become 2nd gen. After downloading a couple of hundred gigs of the Gears Of War bundle I played for about an hour. It easily handed that game even with graphics set to extreme, which dropped the frame rate to 45 from 60 at the suggested settings. The display was good with no bad pixels but there are a number of options for displays in this line. I also loaded Fallout New Vegas which ran well on extreme setting; for gaming and watching video, it’s good enough. For a primary use laptop where wider viewing angles would be a benefit, get the best screen, or commit to running an external monitor. The case is all plastic, with noticeable 45 degree cuts at each corner. The cuts were some really good design. Somebody was paying attention to how laptops get broken. I noticed my “tank laptop” which had taken a 3 foot trip to my tile floor last year had a similar shaped edge after a full blow impact on the corner. I have no doubts the FX could take this fall, land on a designed corner and not break the screen. Even though the bezel of the screen had a scary amount of flex on the back side, still seems “Tuf” to me. Now on to the “Optane Option”: In a word or two GET IT! In my rough testing boot time was decreased by 25% and most amazingly the disk mark program showed read speeds on par with pricey M.2 drives (to a point), on a 8 GB file the read speed was reported at over 500. The 1TB FireCuda alone “only” managed 170 at best (sorry, funny that now I have to say “only”. I come from the age of 80MB/s scsi.). So the addition of 16GB of really fast ram as a disk cache seemed to be a good move. Any and all accesses for upgrades require removal of a bunch of cross point screws and then you have to pop the bottom cover. As I removed the screws I had two problems, one of the screws was cross threaded into its brass insert, I got that one out (use a proper sized screwdriver or else). The second did not come out, as it stripped the brass insert from the case. The “tamper seal” was still in place, so I assume an assembly problem. I trust it’s an isolated problem. Certainly a game changer for a novice wanting to install an M2 SSD and it could trigger a “just don’t like it” return. Like all things plastic, look for some web videos on proper technique on how-to open it. continued....

Overall Review: You’ll need some gentle finesse and a credit card. Once the first latches are popped, the rest come easy. I managed to get it open without much trouble after the screws were out. I would have preferred a simpler access hatch for the storage for a number of reasons. The screw to mount the M.2 Optane stick was included on the mainboard. KUDOS ASUS! It’s a very hard bit to track down when you need one. More plastic molding around the brass screw inserts and we’re good. Maybe larger case screws too. There is lots of voodoo on the web regarding the Optane setup. This is what I did after reading the Optane forums and was successful. Installing the software first is THE HUGE mistake. Don’t do that! Install the Optane chip FIRST. Then UNINSTALL the Intel Rapid Storage Tech software via the program control panel. Then INSTALL the Optane management software. You’ll find some easy promptage and before you know it your Optane will be caching data. Pretty smooth install, from a guy that wrote installers for ten years. Thanks to the tip to "install the chip first". I was in fear of having to reload the OS after reading the Optane support forums, so I did a full backup, just to be safe. I might say that whatever problems were around (oh just imagine), were corrected in the latest firmware. Before installing Optane on any system, it’s advised to install the very latest firmware. The Optane is “melded” to the primary storage drive by the installation process and the most frequently used data is kept there. The Optane hardware shows up in disk manager at first, and then it disappears after the Optane drivers are in play. There is a uninstall application for Optane. IF you just pull the stick out (say to install the 1TB M.2 you got for Christmas), you’ll lose the data on the hard drive associated with it. Think of it as a RAID 1 with a hidden volume I don’t see any reason to remove it. It gave me great benchmark speeds with the 1TB storage capacity on the FireCuda. Oh yeah, the chip is also insanely cheap ($34 MSRP). Seeing that the FX does not include recovery media, take the advice. If you donk the hard drive’s recovery partition, you have a long afternoon ahead of you. Benchmarks aside, consider this: In a head to head “boot off against the Acer Aspire 7, the FX booted a grand total of two seconds slower than the Acer with a M.2 boot drive and an I7 processor in a pretty much day 2 configuration on both (steam and a few games loaded). Optane is the key to bring this I5 into the big leagues. Of course, I did some diskmarking to see if I was dreaming. Pre Optane: 50MB file READ 170 WRITE 75 500MB file READ 92 WRITE 91 1GB file READ 109 WRITE 87 Post Optane: 1GB file READ 926(!) Write 179 8GB file READ 548 WRITE 179 32GB file READ 246 Write 179 With support from the processor and the m.2 slot, the addition of the Optane module should be a total no brainer. The FX only supports 16gb of Optane ram, later model laptops/desktops may support the 32gb modules which have even a bigger and frankly speaking, exciting feature set. Be sure to find the YouTube video where a tech had a pair of FX 504’s for a direct head to head with and without Optane installed. I don’t gush too much about tech these days but the wife came over to see what I was watching as I was ooing and ahhhing so much. What I did not oooh and ahhh about was the fan situation. They initially wound up like a jet turbine to a full power runup and slowed down the same way. Now with all drivers updated and Optane installed, they seem to be a bit better behaved (for now). I’m running the fans on manual high speed (via handy keyboard control) hoping that with some break-in the bearings will quiet down a little. All part of the new “anti-dust” system. It might turn out to be effective, but sticky greasy dust from tobacco smoke may still be an issue. I swear that stuff has got magnetic properties. I’ll open the case back up next month for a peek and follow up. We’re a non-smoking house, but desert dust is a real problem in our area. A day later the fans are not as high pitched. It likely won’t bother gamers too much. I’m very sensitive to noise. The scoop If you have to stretch to purchase this laptop, it’s a solid move, but add the Optane. If you’re of sufficient funds, go for the i7 version with the i7/ SSD and better video/display for a few hundred more for future proofing. I’d be quick to take the FX on a road trip. It’s got everything I want with the exception of the DVD drive, but I plan ahead so it’s only a minor annoyance USB drives are cheap enough. I’d say the FX504GE hits its price point squarely in the face. Great machine. Great gaming value. I paid over $500 just for my i7’s processor With an Optane module installed this little i5 can certainly play with the big boys FIVE EGG rating for a solid mid-range gaming laptop with some high end potential, even with my minor issues.

Pros: I have only recently bought this, but it works well in all aspects. I see the complaints about the FireCuda drive on other sites too, but mine works well. I see no problems. I have another computer, albeit older, that has a small solid state drive that I thought was fast. The FireCuda is as fast, maybe faster. Now admittedly I haven't loaded it fully, but I don't expect any degradation. Although I have not yet tried it, I like the expansion possibilities - more ram and adding a solid state drive. I like the looks, even the red backlit keys. The special attention to the WSAD keys is a nice touch. It is heavy, but I knew that going in. I am not carrying this one to Starbucks.

Cons: The major con thus far is Windows in the set up process, but that is true with all Windows 10 installations. I particularly didn't like being forced to use Cortana. I never use it. And, I didn't like being forced to use a password for me to access a computer that will never leave my apartment or have any other user. And the bloat ware and the impossibility to remove all of it. Windows takes up way too much drive space. But that is Windows 10. ASUS, I own several, failed in the manual department. The one that came with the system and on their website are useless. If you want to add any expansion items - the manual will be of no use. If you want to overclock the cpu (can I?) - the manual will not help. If you want to know what the specialty keys do - don't look in the manual. But if you want to know where the keyboard is - the manual is there for you. For some reason the 'num lk' key appears to have no indicator, and of course the manual is no help.

Overall Review: This computer is not relegated to gaming only. I would recommend it to others. And I would purchase it again, but the price initially was off-putting. But after comparing this computer with others, I decided the price was well fixed. Of course there are better computers, but not at this price ($699). However, I see it priced much higher at other stores - I am not sure I would pay their prices. The missing egg in the rating is because of the manual. If there was a half egg, I would have used that.

Pros: - Very fast due to i5 8300H - 8 GB RAM + Expandable Slot - 1 TB SSHD: It;s NOT a SSD. I is usually faster than traditional HDD. - +1 slot for HDD/SSD is a huge advantage. - Premium looking Gaming Laptop - Low Temperatures - Keyboard is also of a premium quality.

Cons: - only 3 USB ports - no thunderbolt 3 port - If you want to do a clean install, you must use the latest version of windows 10. If you use older version, your display driver will be stuck to 64 Hz (!!) and touchpad will not work, Fn keys will not work. And updating to 1709 build will also not work. You need to have at least 1709 already installed to get all of the updates through windows update. Don't download drivers from ASUS website. They are unnecessary bloatware (except the one that controls the fan). Use windows update to get the drivers.

Overall Review: At the end, it was a great buy. I have been loyal ASUS customer for so long and it has paid off consistently.

Pros: 8th Gen i5 GTX 1050ti Price

Cons: 25w TDP limit (see other)

Overall Review: Got two of these with a MSI GV62 that has the same i5 and a GTX 1060 instead of the 1050ti. I would have gotten 3 MSI's because after the MIR it was the same price, but MSI limited to one per household, so for the price I saw no equivalent to this laptop specs. Any research on this laptop will show reviews and youtube videos of people talking about a 25w TDP limit on the processor making it under perform. When I first got this laptop, this was the case. Using Cinebench R15 the CPU received a score of 462, the MSI in comparison got 711, with the same CPU. After a firmware upgrade, I didn't see a difference until I went to "overboost" mode in windows (FN+F5), this "unlocks" that limit on the CPU and I received proper 720-750 scores in Cinebench. Similar results were seen in 3DMark Timespy. I averaged between 40-50fps on Medium settings in Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (perfectly playable). The reason for the two star drop is ASUS shot themselves in the foot by releasing this laptop with the TDP limit in place, and when they "fixed" it, there is no information or documentation or anything that informs you that you must enable OverBoost to get full use of your hardware. Also, My kids and I are primary Linux users, we rarely use Windows, and the "fix" for this problem only works in Windows that I can tell so far. Running Phoronix-Test-Suite cpu benchmarks side by side with the MSI shows about half performance again in Linux and none of the Fan Control functions or profiles work. This should really be a setting placed in the BIOS to let us set that mode as default or somehow disable the limit altogether for those of us that don't keep Windows. Advertising an i5-8300 but throttling it to half the available power is just.. icky. If you are a Windows person, this is more likely a 4-star laptop if you get it at the right price since you can fix the throttle. Most comparable laptops with a 1050ti and 8th gen i5 are $150+ more. Switching to "Overboost" is not that big of a deal, and unlike what I've read from the reviewers it doesn't make your fans spin loud non-stop, only if you're under load, which is fine and expected. Especially considering that, again compared to the MSI, my temperatures are ~10 degrees cooler on this laptop. Maxing out around 90 for the ASUS, and 98 for the MSI which is horrendous. This is in overboost with the TDP limit disabled. My kids have played the included Gears of War 4, Warhammer 2, Armello and a few others between Linux and Windows and have not expressed any concerns or stuttering issues (not that these are the newest AAA titles or anything), and I ran the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmarks which ran fine in both Linux and Windows at Medium settings, which is on par for a 1050ti. You don't notice the CPU bottleneck as much in most games, but again for Windows you can get around it. If they do complain I'll come back and adjust the review but it's unlikely, they are used to 3rd gen i3's or AMD Phenom II cpu's and a GTX 750, so pretty much everything runs better for them than they had, and it saved me $150ish per laptop at least making Christmas less painful on my pocket book (even if they aren't getting full use of their cpu in Linux).

Pros: Light weight and really cool design! Installed 32 Gb of Cosair High Performance memory and WD 1Tb ssd Runs like a dream! Doesn't over-heat! Just runs like Batman out of the Batcave! :)

Cons: none

Overall Review: . . . What ARE YOU waiting for?

Pros: This laptop is awesome. It has enough processing power to game while being slick enough to carry around! Great battery power compared to others like it. Love the idea of expandable storage and memory!

Cons: The actual unit runs pretty warm/hot, even on just Minecraft. The SSD expansion slot is for PCIe Gen3 cards, not the 3.5” SSDs out there. Screen is flexible, showing poor build quality, casing is made from plastic. Trackpad on mine was slightly defective.

Overall Review: You could really tell that your money is going toward the components inside, not the shell. Charger does run hot, and WILL overheat if covered while charging. Keyboard gets hot after a bit(might be poor cooling). Recommend getting fan pad for cooler usage. Recommend upgrading ram and adding SSD as soon as possible to gain full potential.