Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501V review - The thinnest and most powerful gaming laptop with GTX 1080

A year ago, ASUS made waves when it released a laptop with two true displays. One screen was normal, and the second took the place of the keyboard, which moved closer to the user.

The ZenBook Pro Duo was a work machine primarily for creativity. We published a review of both the older and compact models.

This time the idea of ​​two screens has been reinvented.

Instead of raising the entire bottom panel, the new ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 for RUB 335,990 now lifts the additional display itself up to the top. And along with the new mechanism, the positioning also changed.

In our review, you will find out whether it has become more convenient or not, whether the laptop is as gaming as ASUS claims it is, and what else interesting things have been added here.

Now the second display is visible better. And it’s more convenient to touch

A lot has been said about the first generation of “dual-screen” devices from ASUS.

Some had doubts about the location of the keyboard, others did not quite understand the purpose of the second screen. As the review progressed, it was easy for me to find answers to both questions. Printing is convenient, and the expanded area is needed for tools in programs.

But not everyone was happy with the angle of the bottom panel, which is called ScreenPad Plus . The previous ErgoLift mechanism lifted the laptop itself. This was enough for the keyboard, but not for easy access to the second screen.

I wanted a steeper angle so that I could see better, and I didn’t have to bend my fingers too much. Because it is more convenient to press touch screens when they are closer to a vertical position.

What did they do in ROG Zephyrus Duo 15? They literally left the bottom part of the laptop alone and came up with a new mechanism that became a stand for the second screen.

It works like this. There are stops attached to the lid with the main display, which, when opening the laptop, smoothly push the ScreenPad Plus to a comfortable angle of 13º.

Once the main panel reaches a position perpendicular to the table, the additional one no longer moves, so you can adjust the screen without fear of accidentally closing the lower part.

Design and construction

Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is a rather strange laptop. If you do not take into account the increase in screen to 17 inches, the laptop is similar to the 2017 model. At the same time, major changes have occurred in the design. The keyboard has moved closer to the user, leaving a huge space with light perforation, on which a small ROG logo flaunts.

Everyone who saw the design of the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 for the first time asked the same question: “Is this a speaker?” No, the upper part above the keyboard does not have speakers, it is just free space, due to which there will be no heating components under your hands.

Despite such oddities, the body of the Zephyrus S is durable and does not flex anywhere. The keyboard has a sturdy support and the lid is made of polished aluminum. Firstly, this option allows you to increase the strength of the case. Secondly, it attracts attention very much, although some may not like it.

I was able to find weak points in the design and build quality here. The first is a weak hinge. Although the device can be opened with one finger, at certain angles the lid may slam shut on its own.

Another problem is the hood hole on the back side. Although the body is not wedge-shaped, the holes overlap when the back is raised at a certain angle. The vent provides additional airflow to cool the internal components.

The Zephyrus S GX701 weighs a little for a 17-inch model, which makes it one of the lightest in the segment. The thickness of the case is only 1.88 cm, which is smaller than the 15-inch Blade from Razer, except that the Asus ROG weighs a little more than its closest competitors.

The set of connectors surprised me a lot. The device received 3 USB-A ports, 2 USB-C connectors and HDMI. On the left is USB-C Gen.2 3.1, which supports charging and connecting an external display. On the right is USB-C Gen.1 3.1, which supports data transfer only. None of them are compatible with Thunderbolt 3, so connecting an external graphics card is out of the question.

There is also no Ethernet port, which makes games on the Zephyrus S completely dependent on a high-quality Wi-Fi connection. The case also has a standard cylindrical connector for charging, headphones and a Kensington lock.

The laptop has another controversial solution - it does not have a built-in webcam or biometric authentication. The camera had to be abandoned in order to reduce the frame above the display. If necessary, you will have to buy an external camera. It's a pity that there is no fingerprint scanner built into the keyboard. You will have to unlock the laptop using passwords or PIN codes.

ScreenPad Plus has an intuitive interface

Just like on a big screen, here you can automatically “sculpt” windows onto the entire panel, half or a third of it, if you bring them to the desired highlighted area.

There are many applications here.

Previously, they were limited only to self-customization of programs.

For example, you could turn on the game on the main screen, and leave chats with progress tips at the bottom. Or transfer editing tools for editing, retouching or 3D modeling to ScreenPad Plus.

Now ASUS has decided to work directly with developers, so such active settings can also be seen inside games like Dying Light 2.

In general, after a year of the second screen’s life on the market, its software was undermined. Judging by the sensations, it has become more convenient to use: the animations work smoother, and the navigation buttons have become more obvious.

Bottom line

The Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is an excellent gaming laptop in every way. Thanks to RTX 2080 graphics and an improved cooling system, we get high gaming performance. The laptop also has a stunning display with a high refresh rate and G-Sync support.

However, in addition to all the advantages, this is far from the most convenient laptop for working or typing. It also has poor battery life and no built-in webcam. I can also call the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 a portable laptop, but not a mobile one.

Advantages

• Slim and light design.
• High performance.
• Colorful, fast, G-Sync display.
• Efficient cooling system.

Flaws

• Low battery life.
• Inconvenient operating and typing experience.
• No built-in camera or Windows Hello.

They also worked hard on cooling.

Due to the fact that there is now more space for the ScreenPad Plus, the engineers were able to install much better coolers. Now these are not just small holes, but full-fledged turbine exhausts. More precisely, slams.

How much better have things gotten? If previously the air intakes ranged in size from 7 to 10 mm in width, then in the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 the ventilation holes have tripled in size - up to 28.5 mm.

ASUS didn’t even hesitate to make a juicy animation on the additional screen at the first launch to remind the user: this is a real gaming beast with powerful fans.

At the same time, you will experience less stress when the laptop is on your lap or a blanket: cold currents now come from above, not from below.

Keyboard and touchpad

The placement of the keyboard and touchpad unit at the bottom of the Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 makes you think about ease of use. Firstly, when typing, your hands will not be on the body, but on the table. You will have to get used to this, and what is even more important is that using a laptop on your lap is very inconvenient or impossible.

Secondly, the close location of the connectors led to the need for a strange keyboard layout. However, it is relatively small in size. The ROG Zephyrus S GX701 touchpad turned out to be elongated vertically. It's good that the size and location of the keys here are very convenient.

I have an additional question about the location and size of the arrow keys. They are really tiny and yet sit below the rest of the row of buttons. For the same Razer, the keyboard layout is more convenient, although it is also located next to the touchpad.

Typing text on this keyboard, oddly enough, is convenient. The stroke is sufficient - 1.4 mm, and when pressed, precision is felt. The touchpad is also of high quality, its portrait orientation makes it comfortable to use gestures like scrolling.

Despite all these strange decisions, the Zephyrus S GX701 is comfortable to play. The keyboard additionally received RGB backlighting. It can be configured for each key separately in a special application. When turned on, the numeric keypad appears right in place of the touchpad.

You won't find a more powerful laptop yet.

Let's talk about where this price came from.

Developing a new mechanism, adding a second display, finding a balance in autonomy costs money, but all this does not add up to a hefty 335,990 ₽.

Zephyrus models have always been flagship models. Some options are cheaper, others are more expensive, but they were united by top-end components from the processor to the video card.

To save money, they didn’t include anything in the younger versions. Either the RAM was slow, or there wasn’t enough storage for everything.

With the current model, ASUS seems to have decided to create an unbeatable solution. I have not yet been able to find compromises inside the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15.

There are so many ports here that you can forget about any connection problems. Only there is no SD slot

The laptop comes with one of two top-end graphics cards: the choice will be between NVIDIA RTX 2070 SUPER and RTX 2080 SUPER with 8 GB of memory.

In games, they correctly simulate lighting using ray tracing, produce realistic reflections with all the nuances, and complete image smoothing thanks to artificial intelligence.

Cards are also suitable for work. I myself often use GPU acceleration in editing, which also helps render 3D images and animations faster.

The main stones here are also of the highest quality. The choice was given to eight-core Intel Core i7-10875H and i9-10980HK. The latter can accelerate from 2.4 GHz to 5.3 GHz, that is, perform 5.3 billion operations per second on one core. This is a record for a laptop without special external cooling.

By the way, the processors are not coated with ordinary thermal paste, but with liquid metal. Typically, such material requires manual work, but ASUS has found a way to partially automate the process.

And now they add this interesting layer to all their ROG brand laptops with the 10th generation Intel processor:

You can also be calm about the RAM. Here, the base for RUB 251,990 already includes 16 GB of fast RAM with a frequency of 3200 MHz, the top model has 32 GB, and you can independently expand it up to 48 GB.

So an upgrade is also possible here. Don't forget, the laptop is 21mm thick.

Finally, I was impressed by the memory. Here, multiple physical flash drives are combined into one using RAID 0 technology.

RAID 0 is a data storage method where one file is divided into chunks and written across multiple storage cells. Using this method, reading speed increases greatly.

Additionally, a drive with Intel Optane technology was introduced here. I talked about it in detail in the review of ASUS ZenBook 14. In short, it is a synthesis of two storages, one of which works as RAM and writes and reads a third faster than a regular SSD.

Video card and games

To test the gaming capabilities of the RTX 2080, I ran 3DMark Fire Strike. Not surprisingly, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 easily beat the Alienware 17 R5 with Nvidia GTX 1080. The gaming laptop from Asus also showed a 19% increase in performance compared to last year's 15-inch Zephyrus and its Nvidia GTX 1080 Max-Q.

However, these are tests; in games the situation may be different. But no - the Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is impressive here too. I've tested most of the popular games, Battlefield I to Battlefield V, Fortnite, Civilization VI, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. In each of them the laptop came out on top. Even in Battlefield and Fortnite the frame rate was around 100 fps, and in Civilization VI it was around 95 fps.

Performance in more demanding titles was no less high. In Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, I got more than 60 fps, and on ultra-high settings. The only game that made the Zephyrus S strain was Assassin's Creed, where on ultra, the frame rate was only 48 fps, but at high it already exceeded 60 fps.

To see how the laptop handled higher resolutions, I connected an external 4K monitor. Here the RTX 2080 demonstrated all its capabilities. My Asus Zephyrus S matched the Predator Helios 500 in Battlefield 1, showing 85 fps at 1440p on ultra-high graphics settings.

In 4K resolution it was also possible to play with pleasure, but in order to get more than 60 fps, we had to reduce the detail.

The main screens have both 4K and 300 Hz. And a powerful webcam

It is precisely because of its extreme performance that the company decided to position the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 for two groups of buyers at once.

If a professional is looking for a tool for work, then the option with a 4K panel will suit him. There is both Pantone calibration and 100% coverage of the Adobe RGB color space.

And gamers and, especially, eSports players should look at the option with a refresh rate of 300 Hz and a response of 3 ms.

In most laptops, such a Hertz power would be superfluous due to the weak hardware, but we are talking about the Zephyrus Duo, which has an RTX 2080 SUPER inside. In CS:GO alone in Full HD resolution, this card produces more than 230 fps.

So even top-end 144 Hz for many devices would be catastrophically low.

If you don't find the webcam on your screen, don't worry too much. It comes in a box, attaches in at least three ways, and shoots cleaner than the built-in one.

For those who are critical of being in touch (especially now), they can always attach a clip in the form of a micro-USB bar to the top frame and start communicating. Two other options are to mount the webcam on the included stand or even screw it onto a tripod.

Laptop display

Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 has a 17.3-inch display with a resolution of 1080p and a matte surface. You can see the pixels up close, but you're unlikely to be able to do so while gaming because the keyboard's placement forces you to sit further away from the screen.

The panel here has a 144Hz refresh rate, G-Sync compatibility, and a 3ms response time. The picture quality and fast response times give you an amazing gaming experience in titles like Battlefield V and Fortnite. Interestingly, the Zephyrus S supports both G-Sync and Intel Optimus. This option provides uninterrupted gameplay and better battery life.

After testing in the Spyder5 colorimeter, I was pleasantly surprised. The Asus ROG Zephyrus S laptop outperforms most competitors in terms of contrast and color accuracy. The average color error here is only 1.78, and the contrast is close to 1000:1. The maximum brightness here is 279 nits, which is average. The matte surface improves the situation - due to this, the screen does not glare.

A large battery will draw out the work. There are also two chargers in the box

Battery life can be extended using special settings.
The Duo 15 has a 90 Wh battery. With a daily load such as browsers, documents and instant messengers, this figure stays around 6 to 7 hours of screen time.

With heavy programs, the figure, of course, will drop sharply: such a crazy filling will have a huge appetite.

For both situations, two power adapters were included in the kit.

In case of high load there is a 240 W power supply. The second is much lighter, because it is 65 W and connects via USB-C. You need this to keep your laptop vigorous on the road and not carry a huge brick with you in your bag.

Autonomy Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701

Modern gaming laptops show good battery life. But for 17-inch models this is always a challenge. Due to G-Sync and a powerful graphics card, the Zephyrus S GX701 is far from the best laptop in terms of battery life.

In Basemark, the device lasted only 1 hour. In the looped web browsing test, this Asus ROG Zephyrus lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes. When playing the video in loop, the result was also not surprising - 1 hour 40 minutes. These are some of the worst numbers I've ever seen.

Why is that? The ROG Zephyrus S GX701 comes with G-Sync support, which is great for gaming, but doesn't allow the system to switch between integrated and discrete graphics. This is the main reason for the low autonomy. But Asus took this into account, and therefore the Zephyrus S now supports Intel Optimus.

Thus, during games this machine uses G-Sync technology, the rest of the time Intel Optimus. Due to this restructuring, the results improved from terrible to poor. In the web browsing test, the time increased to 2 hours 10 minutes.

They also added some useful tricks under the hood. And an interesting guarantee

ASUS adds proprietary software to all mid-range and higher-level laptops.

For gaming solutions, this is a huge status hub for the Armory Crate , where you can adjust the backlighting of devices, monitor indicators such as processor temperature and frequency, memory load or cooling fan speed.

For the rest there is MyASUS . This is a lightweight program for monitoring hardware, and at the same time there is also a link to your smartphone.

This way you will have a single clipboard and will be able to receive calls or broadcast images from Android to a laptop.

As for service, the ROG line comes with a two-year post-purchase warranty that is covered by Pick Up and Return service.

Thanks to it, you can submit a request for laptop repair, a courier will come to you, and after servicing the device, bring it back.

In general, you can find out more about such details, various competitions and interesting news on the official pages of the ROG brand on , Facebook and Instagram.

Cooling and memory

I remember the 15″ Zephyrus being criticized for overheating. The ROG Zephyrus S GX701 still has the same problems. During games, the space above the keyboard becomes warm, as well as under the laptop. Fortunately, a different placement of the hands now makes it possible not to notice the inconvenience.

The memory here also surprises with its speed. The installed solid-state SSD drive shows ultra-fast read and write speeds, over 1000 Mbps. By the way, if one SSD is not enough for you, there are 2 more free M.2 slots.