Review: Asus Republic of Gamers GL552VW

Conclusion

We've come full circle, and what was the question? Ah, yes, can one of industry's most recognisable brands nail the gaming laptop? The answer is almost, but not quite.

At £875, the Asus Republic of Gamers GL552VW promises plenty but falls short in one or two key areas. The laptop looks good, build quality is decent, connectivity is excellent, battery life ain't bad and a Core i7-6700HQ processor and GeForce GTX 960M GPU combine to deliver respectable gaming thrills at the native 1080p resolution.

The price is right, and when you factor in a solid keyboard and trackpad, 256GB of solid-state storage plus the versatility of a user-removable battery, you have the makings of a competent all-rounder. The caveat, and it's a doozy, is that the TN display panel is a disappointment. The component that should bring the GL552VW to life with dazzling visuals delivers muted colour, lacklustre contrast and weak viewing angles that have little place on a modern gaming laptop.

A shame, really, as a better display and dual-channel memory is all it would take to propel this machine from reasonable to exemplary. A v2 revision could right the aforementioned wrongs, but as it stands, the GL552VW isn't the finished article.

HEXUS.where2buy

The Asus Republic of Gamers GL552VW gaming laptop is available to purchase from Scan Computers.

HEXUS.right2reply

At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.