ASUS ROG Zephyrus M GM501 (GM501GS-XS74) 15.6" Ultra Slim Gaming Laptop, 144 Hz IPS-Type G-SYNC Panel, GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB, Intel Core i7-8750H (Up to 3.9 GHz), 256 GB PCIe SSD + 1 TB SSHD, 16 GB DDR4 2666 MHz

Pros: - Light, portable, sleek - runs smoothly, screen features are nice - will probably lasts me awhile in terms of content delivery, driving the components with this configuration is enough for me.

Cons: - laptop runs loud while gaming (though headsets help) - trackpad is a bit lackluster (though i often use a mouse)

Overall Review: Potential build issues: summary: So I have had this laptop roughly 2 weeks from the original purchase date and everything was working perfectly fine. I was able to take some time off and have an extended gaming session. Now I have babied this laptop as one would with such an expensive piece of hardware, but that seems to not have prevented issues from surfacing. It Appears that the hinges of the Zephyrus are susceptible to fractures as one of the hinges on mine has developed one ONLY after the night i finished that session. Before that, I wasn't gaming on anything too hardware intensive and the hinges were perfectly fine. It also seems like other users have reported that these hinges are one of the more fragile pieces of the laptop. The support options for this verbatim from tech support was 1) return it / 2) use the (1)x ADP warranty or 3) $510 for a repair on the one hinge. I really do like this laptop but it has some flaws that are questionable.

Pros: - Aesthetically pleasing and an overall great machine and product, very fast and runs everything I've thrown at it with ease - The keys feel nice and solid, I've connected my Corsair K95 on occasion when I play CS:GO and actually prefer the laptop keys over the Corsair (maybe it's just me though, who knows) - Feels very solid and well built while being super low profile - The speakers are very loud, I have yet to even use them over about 80 per cent - It should last several years before it becomes outdated, this is definitely a good buy if you're constantly on the go and want to game or need to edit videos and such - I've been very happy with my purchase, Asus never disappoints and for the price range, this is more than I could wish for

Cons: - As mentioned in another review, it runs hot. My max temperature reading was 96°C during an hour session of CS:GO. Typically runs mid 80s to low 90s but it definitely is something I worry about - No dedicated Ethernet port - The charger is pretty bulky, right out of box it surprised me how hefty it was - Battery life is extremely disappointing, it probably lasts as long as my 6 year old Asus Vivobook, however in this day and age who doesn't usually just keep their laptop plugged in, plus the Zephyrus has a full powered 1070 - still though, it's surprisingly low battery life

Overall Review: - Maybe once it outgrows its warranty I'll put fresh liquid metal paste to see if it cools down cpu temperature. However it does worry me if it'll even make it until then under heavy loads or repeating gaming. - Those thick bezels worried me at first and had me looking at other laptops but you really get accustomed to it and the first thing I realized upon opening it up was - "Hey, these really aren't too bad or annoying." you'll learn to live with it - Another thing that annoyed me (and probably the only thing that still does after using it for about two weeks) is the location of the charging port, it is on the center of the left side - I get that the fans are above but could they really have not picked a better spot? It's just really annoying to have right there - It definitely isn't perfect, but I can live with the small compromises for the price and low profile, also - just a quick side note, I really like how well it was packaged! It survived and was in pristine condition going from one side of the country to another - and another - which brings me to my last point (on Newegg, not Asus) - Shipping was a nightmare, I ordered this laptop and two other items separately, all were sent to my billing address in California despite me having the new shipping address in Florida input correctly. I don't know if it was FEDEX to blame or Newegg but my 3 day shipping became about a week to a week and a half I think. Tracking showed it went from Indiana to California then had "shipping information updated", then to Florida, as this was going on I realized what was happening and tried contacted both Newegg and FEDEX to expedite the process but they both just blamed each other and offered little to no help, so needless to say I wasn't able to get it in the time that was expected and had to borrow a friend's laptop for a presentation, so just keep in mind you may want to check tracking if you have a different billing and shipping address

Pros: -On Siege, GTA V, and CS:GO, I’m running either max settings or close to max settings and getting 150, 80-145, and 200-270 FPS respectively. -Relatively light-weight -Aesthetically it looks nice -Keyboard feels solid -Fans are loud, but do a pretty good job at keeping temperatures down

Cons: -Lack of an Ethernet port is a downer, but I just bought an adapter to get over that -Fans do get loud on Overboost, so wear headphones when playing demanding games

Pros: Thin, light weight, awesome screen. great keys, separate number pad, screaming fast processor, Full GTX 1070 graphics card, 1TB SSD and 240GB nvMe drive (very fast)

Cons: Bogus offer of Call of Duty Black OPS 4 from ASUS. This is an eligible product and Newegg sponsors it, but good luck getting a Promotion Code

Overall Review: If you are looking for a laptop that competes with Desktops this is it! Definitely recommend this laptop

Pros: 1 the panel is great love the 144hz and gsync (though would have been nice to get the newer small Bessel on the slightly newer models) 2 power, the 6 core 12 threads and a FULL 1070 8GB are great together 3 keyboard is great as well fills good to type and play on, the positioning of the keyboard in the normal position is nice (would like the per key RGB like on the slightly newer models) 4 storage, there has been some controversy on this but this was high on my list, an NVME SSD and a 2.5 drive bay for cheep 2TB storage upgrade 5 thunderbolt 3 for longer lifespan via external GPU, and universal compatibility via adapters 6 almost all IO on left side away from your mouse 7 fan control, useful when encoding videos overnight and want to sleep in peace 3 ft away 8 one USB on the left supply’s more power and power when the computer is off so I can charge my wireless mouse at night and use my laptop as a battery bank if needed on the go as well as supplies enough power to like a blue ray writer off one USB not two

Cons: 1 though better than the other zephyruses, this is not much of a lap computer 2 cant close the lid with the computer on to like encode video overnight as the fans get sorta sealed 3 speakers on the bottom and not relative in position to each other 4 lack of Ethernet 5 and this is the BIG one..... the Realtek ALC3288 audio chip/smart amp/Realtek drivers there a crapshoot.... like nocking off 4 eggs for this that’s how bad it is.... so the Realtek drivers are worse IN EVERY WAY compared to the MS default drivers, the only thing that does not work with the MS driver is the combo headphone mic jack not detecting mics, but the Realtek drivers the mic array sounds like echoing stereo junk, the smart amp is just broken, the mic in via the headset jack has some gate on it that is WAY to high (and no it’s not my mic it’s the laptop) all of these thing are fine with the MS drivers, though there is this strange thing that happens with the smart amp regardless of the driver used in witch (not totally sure what all causes this but) if I turn on Dolby atmos, or use an openAL program, or plug in headphones the laptop audio from the speakers on the laptop just get borked, the left channel is volume locked and the right channel (I think it’s smart amp) is super overbearing and the volume fluctuates from set volume down to inaudible levels and back repeatedly about every 8 seconds and the worst part is the only way to fix this after it happens is to Bios flash the computer..... like WHAT?????? Now I should point out that this may not be the ALC3288 per say as the audio it can make with the MS drivers over the headphone jack for my high end IEMs (TRN V80s) is spectacular, but.... 6. Asus customer service, I’m 90% sure I know more about there laptops than they do.... they believe that the above issue in #5 is a hardware problem, and I’m 90% sure that it’s all software and firmware, they just cant grasp the concept, like 1 guy didn’t even know what a Bios was.... 7 the included software, the only ones worth installing is the ROG command station (for GPU switching) and asus aura for the lighting.... everything else is kinda junk, take the network one would be nice if it didn’t mess up more than it helped.... and the sonic studio just doesn’t work probably related to con #5

Overall Review: The fans are very good at cooling the laptop I’ve found, though I did have the GPU fan bearing kinda break (it’s being RMAed as we speak) though this may have just been bad luck as the CPU fan witch is literally the same fan mirrored was going strong without any dust in it even aka the “self cleaning fans” were actually doing their job, with that said this was not a concern for me as when I play games I will either have my headset on or my very sound isolated IEMs in but the fan at full tilt are like a leaf blower though in some ways this is a good thing all the parts stay nice and cool, the only game I’ve has stress the cooling to potential throttling is vermintide 2 maxed while using 10 of the 12 threads.... Would like to have seen a combo headphone jack an just mic in. Wish the ROG logo on the back was RGB and could be turned off (yes I know it using the LCD backlight) The “areo” lights that shine out form the vents are not RGB though they can be turned off. The startup ROG logo makes a load sound that is honestly just terrible, should not be a thing though it can be turned off via Bios though it is annoying that a cmos clear or a Bios update resets it and windows can update the Bios now so you will just start the computer one day and get jump scared... The 16GB ram you get are all on one dim instead of 2 for the duel channel memory. The battery is not great though I knew this going in so not complaining. There is this battery health app from asus that is a GREAT idea but functional does not fully work, the idea is to prolonge the battery health (it being able to keep its total capacity) so it only allows the computer to charge to 60% for people like me that use it 90% of the time at a power outlet, sounds nice but.... the charging limit is not Bios level Nor windows level its user level so for that brief time from when you press the power button to the time it takes to get to the desktop the battery can charge unlimited witch defeats the purpose as the laptop with its smaller battery will charge about 1-3% per power on evenly fully charging the battery........ worthless Asus aura (lighting controller) does not have profiles and dynamic lighting so you can have certain games have certain colors, also the lack of keyboard remapping tied to a game with like a key like cap lock to momentarily switch back to a default keyboard Also asus aura has about 3 different elements that need to be installed for it to work.... witch is annoying Thankful you can turn it off but the keyboard when your in sleep mode does this heartbeat wave thing, not only is it distracting but it also wasted battery as it does it when the lid is closed....

Pros: great gaming!

Cons: horrible speakers!

Pros: Very beautiful design Nice keyboard Fast screen Good speaker with bass

Cons: My touch pad has a minor issue, which the left button will scrub the chassis when I press it. The touch pad assembly seems to be not very precisely fit with chassis. There is a noticeable larger gap on top left than top right, which forcing the left button to make contact with chassis when pressing it. Loud when under load, I think this machine share similar design with GX501, so they should perform very similar. However, this machine has louder noise when under load. The internal component is also not very cool as it advertised. I prefer asus can turn off the fans during light load and office work.

Overall Review: I will definitely recommend this product to anyone who is struggling on making decision between gs65, aero 15 and gm501. This machine is more balanced towards portability and power. Better cooling. Support of a 2.5 inch sata drive is also a thumb up point.

Pros: -The biggest pro is definitively the monitor. The best screen I've ever used. The colors were nice, and everything ran super smooth with the 144hz refresh rate -Speakers were a lot better quality than I expected coming from a laptop of this size -Extra storage is really nice in comparison to the other slim/stealth size laptops on the market.

Cons: -The Zephyrus M doesn't run nearly as cool as advertised. Under any load at all the cpu is getting to be anywhere from 85-90 degrees. This is really worrisome to me given how much I game. I blue screened after maybe 2hrs of non-intensive gaming, Im assuming from overheating, because the computer was really hot to the touch. Also despite the big friendly "VR Ready sticker" I have yet to be in a VR game for more than 10min before either getting blue screened or having the game crash. All the while having temps stay around 90-95 degrees. In the few days that Ive owned this, I havnt been able to do hardly anything on it due to overheating.

Overall Review: -This really is an amazing idea for a laptop. I picked this one over the other portable sized gaming laptops because of the full size 1070 and the extra storage. Its an awesome idea. That being said, I can't recommend it. The cpu overheating is just too much.