How can a high-end gaming laptop like the Asus ROG G751JY-DH72X (starts at $1,479; $2,999 as tested) beat the competition without dominating the gaming benchmark tests? By being competitive, while coming in for less money, and outclassing its competitors on a feature-by-feature basis. That’s how. The G751JY-DH72X( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) comes with a fourth-generation Intel Core i7-4860HQ processor and Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M graphics. To that it adds 32GB of memory, a 512GB solid-state drive (SSD) and a 1TB storage hard drive, a 17-inch In-Plane Switching (IPS) display, and ergonomic features that make gaming more comfortable. The fact that it packs in so much and still comes in at a reasonable price, gives it the oomph to jump to the top of the heap as our latest Editors’ Choice for high-end gaming laptops. 

Design and Features
Thanks to the large screen, the system is understandably beefy. Its matte-black chassis measures 1.7 by 16.5 by 12.5 inch (HWD) and weighs 9.06 pounds. The 17.3-inch, matte-finish In-Plane Switching (IPS) display gives you the benefit of both a wide viewing angle and reduced reflections from ambient lighting. It’s a bright screen with a 1,920-by-1,080 resolution, which on first flush can seem a little small when high-end ultraportables have 4K screens, but 1080p is better for mobile gaming. Smooth animation in 3K or 4K gaming would require at least three GPUs, which is impractical in a laptop. For example, the MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 3k($1,799.99 at Office Depot® & OfficeMax®)(Opens in a new window) has trouble maintaining smooth frame rates at its native resolution of 2,880 by 1,620. The G751JY-DH72X runs fine at native resolution with all the eye candy turned on (more on that below).

The red, backlit, chiclet-style keyboard contrasts with the black chassis, and is quite comfortable to use, with enough space for a full numeric keypad. The spacebar is wider on the left side, to give you a wider area to hit with your left thumb while gaming. The touchpad has two physical mouse buttons, and the cursor keys are offset from the rest of the keyboard. The keyboard deck is also tilted toward the user, which makes it more comfortable during long gaming sessions. Above the function keys are five keys: one to bring up Steam, three customizable macro keys, and a key that can start a game video recording to play back for yourself or friends later. Speakers are loud and clear, with a subwoofer for a little extra low-end sound. The system has dual rear vents, so heated air is channeled away from the user.

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Connectivity is excellent: The sides of the system are chock full of I/O ports. You’ll find an Ethernet port, a headset jack, an HDMI port, a line-out jack, a Thunderbolt port, four USB 3.0 ports, and a VGA port. For wireless connectivity, there’s 802.11ac Wi-FI and Bluetooth. The system comes with a Blu-ray/DVD burner combo drive, so you can install older games and watch movies on disc. Speaking of movies, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M can drive up to four displays simultaneously (the internal display, HDMI, mini-DisplayPort/Thunderbolt, and VGA), allowing you to have game screens, instant messaging, Web browsing, and a movie all playing at once.

The system comes with two drives: a 512GB SSD for bootup and a 1TB 7,200rpm SATA hard drive. That’s plenty of space for games, movie files, music, photos, and myriad other programs. There are a few preinstalled programs like Flipboard, Fresh Paint, Line, Music Maker Jam, Netflix, Twitter, and Zinio, but most of the programs on the Windows 8.1 Start screen are the usual Asus and Microsoft utilities. The G751JY-DH72X comes with a one-year warranty with accidental-damage protection, free two-way shipping for that year, and a 30-day Zero Bright Dot guarantee.

Performance
The quad-core Intel Core i7-4860HQ processor runs at 2.4GHz stock speed. Asus includes overclocking utilities to tweak performance of the CPU and GPU, but we tested the system in the stock configuration. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M graphics processor helped the desktop score playable frame rates on our Heaven (55 frames per second) and Valley (59fps) gaming tests at extreme-quality settings at full 1080p resolution. That was a lot smoother than competitors like the Alienware 17 (2014)($849.90 at Newegg)(Opens in a new window), the Asus ROG G750JZ-XS72, and the Origin EON17-S. The only other competitor we’ve seen lately that can play at extreme levels smoothly is the $3,676 (as tested) Origin EON17-SLX (2014)(2,177.00 Base Configuration at ORIGIN PC)(Opens in a new window), which has two Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M GPUs to help with the heavy lifting. The 3DMark scores are likewise close, with the G751JY-DH72X scoring 4,324 points on the Fire Strike Extreme test, just behind the 4,932 points of the Origin EON17-SLX on the same test.

See How We Test Laptops

The G751JY-DH72X received very good scores on the Handbrake (1 minute 15 seconds) and Photoshop CS6 (3:04) tests, well within the range of the other high-end gaming laptops. Its PCMark 8 Work Conventional score of 3,369 points is also in the middle of this excellent pack.

Battery life is average for a gaming laptop, at 3 hours 4 minutes on our battery rundown test. That’s within a few minutes of the three hours and change garnered by the Alienware 17 (2014) and the Origin EON 17-S. The outliers are the Origin EON17-SLX (1:13) and the battery champ Asus ROG G750JZ-XS72 (5:32). Basically, all of these systems will work untethered for a short period of time. Gaming-oriented processors and large screens tend to drain battery life quickly.

So how does the Asus ROG G751JY-DH72X end up on top? By beating the former Editors’ Choice Origin EON17-SLX on price (the Asus rig is $700 less), better ergonomics, double the system memory, and much more storage (1.5TB vs. 990GB). The G751JY-DH72X is also a quarter-pound lighter than the EON17-SLX, has a more durable power adapter connector, and lasted almost two more hours on our battery rundown test. Sure, the Origin rig is ultimately a bit faster on games, but not always significantly so, and certainly not worth the extra $700 in the balance of features and performance. Simply put, while the Origin EON17-SLX may have the best extreme performance scores, the Asus ROG G751JY-DH72X is still quite competitive, and the money you save can be used to buy a backpack, a gaming mouse, and a lot of games.