Asus ROG GL502VT-BSI7N27 15.6″ Gaming Laptop (GeForce GTX 970M, Intel Core i7, 12GB RAM, 1TB HDD)

The GL502VT-BSI7N27 is the cheapest model in the Asus ROG Strix gaming notebook series. This 15.6-incher usually sells for less than $1,000. It features the high-end Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M video card, powerful 6th Generation Intel Core i7-6700HQ quad-core processor, a large system memory size of 12GB, and a traditional 1-Terabyte hard drive.

Sub-1,000-dollar price tags in the full-blown gaming notebook category are considered to be quite cheap. Of course, there are some trade offs of the GL502VT-BSI7N27 in comparison to pricier Asus ROG Strix models. The most important one is a lack of IPS display technology, so you won’t be having as wide viewing angles as on the IPS equipped configurations. Furthermore, the included GeForce GTX 970M graphics card has 3GB of video memory instead of 6GB, but that doesn’t affect performance of the system and games much. With the GTX 970M 3GB you’ll be able to play all modern PC games, with maximal detail settings in many of them. What does matter for loading games and overall system responsiveness is type of storage. The provided 1TB traditional HDD at 5,400rpm has a plenty of storage space, but unfortunately it lacks speed of modern solid state drives you can find in many gaming laptop configurations. On the positive side, all GL502VT models feature the 6th Generation Intel Core i7-6700HQ quad-core processor, which is among the fastest laptop CPUs today. 12GB of system memory is enough for the latest games and heavy multitasking.

Externally, the black chassis with orange accents carries a full-size backlit keyboard with numeric pad and orange colored W,A,S,and D keys (common game navigation keys). There’s also a multi-touch trackpad with integrated click buttons. The keyboard deck is made of plastics, while the lid is aluminum-topped.

The Asus ROG GL502VT-BSI7N27 doesn’t include a built-in DVD burner. Stereo speakers, HD web cam, Wi-Fi, Ethernet LAN, Bluetooth, three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI video output, combo audio port, and a media card reader are common features for this type of a 15.6″ laptop. In addition, the notebook provides a compact USB-C port and a mini DisplayPort video out.

The official estimation of battery life on this model is “up to 8 hours”.