The ASUS Republic of Gamers G751 Review: G-SYNC Comes To The Notebook Computer
by Brett Howse on July 29, 2015 8:30 AM ESTDisplay
ASUS turned to LG to supply the IPS panel for the G751. The resolution is a mere 1920x1080, which on a panel this large works out to just 127 pixels per inch. That is certainly a low number when you see devices shipping now with UHD panels. On a gaming laptop, it would have been nice to see a higher resolution panel, but it seems that large high resolution panels are hard to come by, and all of the large gaming notebooks seem to be stuck at 1080p. Meanwhile I'm not ready to rule out the role G-SYNC played in this, as ASUS may have needed to stick to a 1080p panel for better G-SYNC support, especially given the slightly increased refresh rate the laptop supports.
The ironic thing is that a laptop with a GTX 980M would actually be able to handle a higher resolution in gaming and still get good frame rates, but unfortunately this is the state of how things are. That being said, being able to run Windows scaling at 100% is an advantage for certain applications, and games can be one of those scenarios.
But this is a gaming system, and 1080p seems to be where it’s at, but ASUS has gone with a 75 Hz panel which is a nice step up from the typical 60 Hz displays. And of course, it’s hooked up with NVIDIA’s G-SYNC technology to keep the frame rates smooth even if they dip below 75 frames per second.
The slight fog is the matte coating
In order to test the display accuracy, we use SpectraCal’s CalMAN 5 suite with a custom workflow. Brightness and contrast readings are done with an X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter, and color accuracy is checked with an X-Rite i1Pro spectrophotometer. Like our battery life tests, the display is checked at 200 nits.
In the case of the ASUS, since it has several modes, I used the Splendid Normal mode which is the closest to the sRGB color space that is the calibration target.
The G751 achieves almost 370 nits brightness, which should be plenty for any scenario where this matte panel is being used. The black levels are decent which results in a contrast ratio over just over 900:1. It’s a reasonable result, but still a ways off of the best panels out there. Still, it is a big step up on the TN panels that are still shipped on some gaming notebooks.
When looking at white levels, the red values creep up quite a bit which results in a display with a warm tone. The average grayscale is pretty good though, but the errors creep up as the brightness levels get higher. Gamma is pretty close to the 2.2 target using the Normal mode in the Splendid Color utility.
Once again we end up with a good result on saturations, but not quite perfect. According to CalMAN the panel can reproduce 88% of the sRGB color space. At 100% saturations, blue is a bit high which pulls magenta out as well.
The Gretag MacBeth colorchecker is the most comprehensive test, and with all factors considered, the G751’s panel scores over four. For reference, values under three are considered not detectable, so the G751 is close but not quite there.
In order to give a look at what these errors in color accuracy represent, the above images represent a normalized view of the colors, with the correct color on the bottom and the displayed color on the top. Just remember that any inaccuracies in your own display will throw these results out, but they can be taken as a way to put a value to the inaccuracies.
The G751 has a great display for a gaming notebook, with an IPS panel that bumps the refresh rate up to 75 Hz, and the out of the box color accuracy is very good for a system like this. It could be better, but for most end users what is available is certainly good enough for gaming.
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boeush - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
(The sad and rarely advertised/appreciated aspect of any kind of engineering or architecting, us that 50% or more of the time is spent on writing or reviewing of documentation.)douglord - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
Has anyone seen a windows laptop with a 4 core cpu and Iris Pro with NO igpu?ingwe - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
Isn't Iris Pro an iGPU?BMNify - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
pointless question is pointless, Iris Pro IS igpu.Notmyusualid - Saturday, August 1, 2015 - link
+1Meaker10 - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
Yes this model with the 4870HQ, also the GT72/GT80 with the 4950HQ and 5950HQ. However they can manually switch to it too.deeps6x - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
I believe the author must have been referring to the Zenbook 303, as the Zenbook 305 is a cpu crippled piece of dung. But an otherwise nice piece of dung. 1080P (not some unusable in windows 3k or 4k BS), matte screen (which is the only way to go on a non-touch laptop), NON-TOUCH (which is also the only way to go imho), nice keyboard, nice case, nice weight, so-so connectivity. But the 303 doesn't gimp the CPU and that makes it a NICE ZENBOOK.As for this overweight (big steaming pile) mini-desktop (as nobody wants almost 9 lbs dropped on their laps, and certainly not 9 lbs of HOT laptop while gaming).... I will say this: I love that GSync is being included in laptops now.
Note to Asus, quit trying to 'check boxes' and start offering real value in some other form in your laptops. Does anyone need 24 or 32 GB of ram in a lower mid level desktop equivalent laptop used for gaming? Um... NOPE. 16 GB is overkill, but 8GB is underkill, so stick to 16. But don't cheap out on the SSD. These days, when you can get a 480-512 GB SSD for like $200, just put that in it and be done with it. Don't try to up sell your customers for $500 for something that should already be included for your bloated list price. BTW, stop overcharging for GPUs in laptops. If you take this 980M out of the laptop, what do you have? A laptop spec wise similar to something you charge $799 for? That is CRAZY! Does adding a GPU that is functionally equivalent to a $250-$300 desktop card mean you should charge $1200 (or whatever) more? Sure seems like you are milking your loyal customers instead of trying to expand your user base by offering a better bang for the buck than your competitors. Which sucks, because I personally think you are second only to Apple in design quality. I'm typing on a Zenbook now. Love ya. Try harder. Do better.
/end rant
WackyWRZ - Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - link
While I agree with most of your statements, I fail to see how they are "cheaping out on the SSD". Its an XP941 which is a PCIe SSD - not SATA and is known to hit 1.0Gbyte/sec+... They also cost about 2x the price of a SATA drive too.deeps6x - Thursday, July 30, 2015 - link
My mistake. I missed that the first time I glanced at the article. Came back to read it. I do love the PCIe SSDs. I have a small one in my MSI Ghost Pro and it is actually noticeably faster than the regular SSD in my Zenbook. Hopefully everything will start coming with the twice as fast PCIe version, from the lowest Zenbook to this massive gaming box.One other thing I'd add to my rant. Asus, you clearly have enough room on the keyboard, so could you PLEASE return the double wide zero key on the keypad? For people who actually use the keypad for number entry, the double wide zero key makes it so much easier. Especially since we are used to it on every desktop keyboard and calculator out there. Why do you insist on gimping your laptops this way?
PS, I looked at the picture of the back of the laptop, read the Pontiac Aztec comment, and laughed. Yup, both look quirky. Some people will love it, some will hate it.
boeush - Thursday, July 30, 2015 - link
At least the keyboard spans the width. What really gets my goat, is when laptop vendors stick a 13" keyboard into a 17" form factor...The fact that I feel a need to actually commend Asus on this matter, is a very sorry commentary on the state of the laptop market these days.