Asus ROG GL551JW-DS74 and GL551JW-DS71 15.6″ Gaming Laptops

The Asus ROG GL551JW-DS74 and GL551JW-DS71 are 15.6-inch gaming laptops with the mid-range Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M video card, powerful Intel’s quad-core i7 processor, and a Full HD non-touch display and anti-reflective coating. There are two differences between the GL551JW-DS74 and GL551JW-DS71: IPS wide-viewing angle technology and storage. The former is IPS-enabled, while the latter is not. Both have a 1-Terabyte 7,200rpm hard drive, but the DS74 additionally includes a 128GB solid state drive for faster program loading and system boot times. The notebooks have 16GB of system memory, which is sufficient for hard-core multitasking.

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M with 2GB of GDDR5 video memory provides decent performance even in the latest and toughest blockbuster games. It is accompanied by the Intel Core i7-4720HQ, one of the fastest laptop processors on the market. The quad-core chip can easily handle all games and day-to-day tasks. It is an excellent solution for professional work like photography and video editing, too.

The chiclet-style keyboard has backlight beneath the keys. It glows red and has adjustable brightness levels. WASD keys are highlighted. The trackpad has integrated click buttons, as opposed to physically separated ones.

The GL551JW-DS74 / DS71 comes with stereo speakers. Asus has made the speaker chambers larger-than-average in order to deliver better sound and richer bass. Rounding off the feature set, there’s a built-in DVD optical drive, a 720p web camera, 802.11n wireless and Ethernet LAN network interfaces, HDMI and mini DisplayPort video outputs, three USB 3.0 ports, a memory card reader, and a combo audio jack.

Design-wise, the aluminum-skinned laptop looks stately simplistic in comparison to some other models with excessive curves and ornaments. The streamlined design is broken up only by speaker grilles above the keyboard and a large Asus and Republic of Gamers logos on display’s backpanel. The LCD lid and palmrests are made of black brushed aluminum, while the bottom and sides are done up in matte black plastics. The profile is 1.3” thick and overall weight is six pounds. Therefore, the machine isn’t as good for carrying around like thinner and lighter mainstream notebooks, but is still quite portable for a gaming rig.

The battery life can last up to five hours, according to the manufacturer.

A nice perk is Asus’ 1-year Accidental Damage Protection, which covers accidents like drops, liquid spills, and power surges.