Over the years, ASUS has introduced a wide of gaming hardware, PCs and peripherals under its sub-brand ROG (Republic of Gamers). But the most successful products of ROG are its gaming laptops, known for high-end specs and powerful GPUs. ASUS ROG GA502DU is a relatively new addition that was released in August 2019. This is a well-built, muscular Gaming laptop carrying mighty hardware inside a robust case.
This is a large screen gaming machine that offers the real value for money without compromising over battery life. ASUS has certainly loaded the ROG GA502DU with the right combination of hardware. The ROG GA502DU is a well-balanced ASUS gaming laptop that offers AMD Ryzen 7 CPU along with a massive 16GB RAM and VR-ready graphics.
Let’s find out what this mid-range gaming laptop has to offer in the real gaming world. We have evaluates its design, specs, display, functionality and gaming performance to check out its strengths and weaknesses.
Specs Sheet
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 3750H (Quad-Core) / 2.3GHz Max. Turbo Speed 4.0GHz
RAM: 16GB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Dedicated (GDDR5, 6GB)
Storage: 512GB SSD
Display: 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Resolution
Battery: 73Wh
Weight: Around 4.63lbs (2.1kg)
Operating System: Windows 10 Home (64-bit)
Design
As a gaming laptop, ASUS ROG GA502DU is really a stylish machine packed inside a beautiful case. ASUS has brushed its aluminium hood both diagonally and vertically, while the top half features ROG logo with red backlighting. At the hinge, there is an elegant cutout that discloses the three LED indicators and the deck.
The ROG GA502DU comes with understated aesthetics and a minimal design. ASUS has packed its 15-inch display inside a relatively small 14-inch chassis for better user experience. This unique design has guaranteed thin bezels around the vIPS-level display of around 6.2mm. Furthermore, the laptop weighs around 4.63lbs (2.1kg) with a maximum thickness of 20mm.
There are no flashy additions, extensions or logos, except the ROG logo on the front. ASUS has really kept the things restrained on the ROG GA502DU to avoid extra weight. At a glance, this ASUS gaming laptop looks like a decent machine that is meant to outperform competitors.
Display
There are three things that you have to consider when it comes to picking a gaming laptop. Aside from colour accuracy and pixel density, you must also pay attention to the refresh rate. ASUS ROG GA502DU is a large screen (15-inch) gaming laptop with FHD and 1920 x 1080 screen Resolution. However, the GA502DU doesn’t fit the bill in terms of colour accuracy.
Even the average laptops nowadays manage to provide 90-100% sRGB, but the ROG GA502DU only offers 57%. However, this is not big a deal as it makes up for its colour accuracy by delivering excellent screen refresh rate. Its display offers a magnificent 120Hz refresh rate, which seems like a visual treat when you are playing online.
The FHD resolution of 1080p and the contrast ratio of 880:1 are also great from a gaming laptop of this class. But, the average screen brightness of 220 nits is not suitable for outdoor gaming.
Keyboard
ASUS has equipped the ROG GA502DU with a normal keyboard layout, which is kind of give and take. At one hand, its keys come with a high required actuation force and there it features palm rests as well. On the other hand, the keys are too shallow and the travel is 0.8mm, which we found disturbing and irritating.
The 4.1 x 2.8-inch touchpad on the GA502DU is a delight to use. The pad is impressively responsive and features Windows 10 gestures i.e. two-finger scrolling and three-finger tabbing. It is soft, comfortable and has Windows precision drivers, but lacks discrete buttons.
Connectivity
ASUS ROG GA502DU features a decent array of ports and offers all the connectivity that a gamer would want. Most of the ports are on the left side of the laptop, including a USB 3.1 port, an HDMI 2.0 port and a Type-C USB port (DisplayPort 1.4). In addition, there is a headphone jack, an RJ45 Ethernet port and a power jack. The laptop also houses two additional USB 3.1 ports on its right side.
Graphics and VR
ASUS has equipped the ROG GA502DU with the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Dedicated graphics card. This is a powerful NVIDIA GPU with 6GB of VRAM that is meant to support high-speed gaming. We tested it on the Ultra 1080p Hitman benchmark and were able to extract 73 frames per second (fps).
Although this is close to the average 80 fps of its category, its real performance was revealed on the Grand Theft Auto V benchmark. The ROG GA502DU delivered 57 fps and left behind the majority gaming-laptop average of 54 fps.
Moreover, we tested the GeForce GTX 1660 for VR and found it more than ready for it. On the SteamVR Performance Test, ASUS ROG GA502DU scored 9.2, way above the category average of 8.2.
Performance
The ROG GA502DU is armed with AMD Ryzen 7 CPU that runs on the Windows 10 Home operating system. This is a quad-core processor that offers a clock speed range from 2.3GHz to 4.0GHz. To further speed up the process, ASUS has loaded it with a massive 16GB memory paired with 512GB SSD storage drive.
This is a powerful hardware combo that ensures you get high-speed performance while battling online. NVIDIA graphics and 16GB RAM helps the gamer take on rivals during long sessions and online feuds with rivals. Overall, this is a powerful laptop to play 3D games, including Overwatch, Fortnite and PUBG.
Battery Life
Gaming laptops are notoriously famous for low battery life due to their demanding hardware. However, ASUS ROG GA502DU offers a decent battery life than average gaming laptops of its class. It features a 73Wh battery and we were able to extract around 4.5 hours of battery life from it.
Verdict
All in all, the ROG GA502DU is a great ASUS gaming laptop that has everything you has your eyes on. It features a powerful AMD Ryzen 7 CPU, 16GB memory, SSD storage and VR-ready NVIDIA graphics. Although its display is a bit dull, it still is better than its competitors. In a nutshell, ASUS ROG GA502DU is a magnificent gaming laptop that delivers solid performance.
