Hey – remember the world’s first liquid-cooled laptop? That was launched about a year and a half ago. That laptop is ridiculous for its time – but that doesn’t stop ASUS from pushing the limit. Fast forward to now and there is actually quite a lot of difference in terms of hardware technology that’s available in the market. That’s where the brand new ASUS ROG GL701VI – specifically the G701VIK beastly gaming laptop fares out with the current top-of-the-line hardware available for mobile form factors.
It’s an insane gaming laptop, but we’ll try to make do it justice by taking a look at what the behemoth ASUS ROG G701VIK can do.
Unboxing
The box itself is a pain to deal with. The entire box with all the contents in it weighs more than 5 kilograms for sure, and it’s not small either. One tip before you unbox this monstrosity – make sure your desk has enough space first.
Opening up the box reveals the beast. Digging everything out reveals a humongous power brick, a power cord, a free ROG Sica mouse, and some documentation.
By the way, you’ll get a free ROG backpack to carry this giant along with your journeys. Unfortunately, we do not have that backpack in this review kit – which also made lugging around the humongous ASUS ROG G710VIK a very difficult task.
With that said, the I can’t help but highlight again – the power brick is seriously huge! Carrying it around will definitely be a problem. However, don’t think about leaving it behind and just take the laptop out. You’ll need both the ASUS ROG G701VIK and its power brick together.
More on why later, but take a guess. You’ll probably get it right.
[nextpage title=”Design”]
For those who have seen our original review of the ASUS ROG G752 from last year, then you’ve pretty much know its design inside out. Its design is near identical but has some tweaks here and there. The general size and geometry are tweaked, but generally remains the same. The general colors, however, have changed quite significantly. The new ASUS ROG G701VIK has a lot less red compared to its predecessor and more gunmetal grey all around.
ASUS still retains the ROG logo and two bars at the side that light up in red and only red when it boots up. Still the same as before.
The one thing that ASUS did change is the red LED strip along the rear where the two exhaust vents are found. This time around because the ASUS ROG G701VIK is such a power-hungry high-end laptop, ASUS employed a custom power jack. More on this later, too.
All other parts of the ASUS ROG G701VIK’s design remain pretty much the same as the G752, which is not a bad thing. Why change a design that’s aesthetically beautiful yet functional?
By the way, the ASUS ROG G701VIK weighs in at nearly 4kg (yes, four kilograms) and the power brick – with the power cord attached – weighs at about 1.5kg. Imagine lugging around 5.5kg for your laptop only. That’s pretty insane!
[nextpage title=”Connectivity and ports”]
ASUS is not joking around when it comes to I/O. They really do offer only the best when it comes to I/O. I mean, it shouldn’t, since it weighs 4.5kg and costs RM18k. Unlike Apple who charges a lot and only offers 4 Thunderbolt ports, ASUS is kind enough to provide a whole bunch of ports – ranging from USB 3.0 (now known as USB 3.1 Gen. 1) to Ethernet and even full-sized SD card readers!
With that said, I do find the location of the USB-A port on the right side very jarring. Why would ASUS even put it there? It’ll just block mouse movement! Routing the mouse cable to the other side however just makes no sense – but at least it wouldn’t obstruct your move movement.
As for network connectivity, the ASUS ROG G701VIK is equipped with the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 for WiFi and a Realtek RTL8168. Plentiful for gaming and everyday computing, by the way.
[nextpage title=”Screen”]
With big-sized laptops come big-sized screens – and the ASUS ROG G701VIK is indeed humongous. With its 17.3-inch screen and extra thick bezels just like its predecessors, its rigidity and strength are not to be questioned.
ASUS went all out (again) on the ASUS ROG G701VIK’s screen, as the 17.3-inch LED backlit panel has a 1080p resolution with 120Hz refresh rate and G-Sync enabled. IPS and G-Sync are definitely the highlights here when it comes to the ASUS ROG G701VIK’s screen. Topping it all off is a matte finish.
Now, it’s quite weird that ASUS didn’t actually specify what type of panel it’s using. I quite confirm that it’s using an IPS panel since it has such great viewing angles. By the looks of it, the colors are indeed vivid and its viewing angles are superb – as expected from an IPS panel.
Speaking of angles, even its hinge can reach great angles of about 150°. That’s great news for ergonomics!
[nextpage title=”Trackpad and keyboard”]
Nothing has changed compared to its predecessors. It’s still using the same keyboard layout and switches (if my memory serves me right), and also the same trackpad. The keyboard is actually pretty decent for both gaming and typing as its actuation force is rather low with good travel distance.
The keyboard here does indeed have a number pad just like before. Even the backlighting is the same! It’s only available in red backlighting and the WASD keys have a little more edge glow compared to all of the other keys.
Then comes the trackpad which is off-centered – just like before. While I know many people don’t use their laptop trackpads at all, sometimes you still have to use it – especially when the ASUS ROG G701VIK has such an obnoxious USB port placement on the right side.
It’s a fairly okay trackpad for everyday use. The ASUS ROG G701VIK’s trackpad is using Windows precision driver.
[nextpage title=”Performance”]
So what about the performance? The ASUS ROG G701VIK is indeed an RM18k laptop – so how well does its perform in gaming? Let’s take a deep look into each and every bit of it – inside out. But first, here’s a brief spec list of this monstrosity.
| ASUS ROG G701VIK | |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-7820HK @ 2.90GHz; Boosts to 3.90GHz Overclocks to 4.30GHz |
| Memory | 2*16GB DDR4 2400MHz SDRAM Has two more unused SODIMM slots |
| Graphic | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 with 8GB VRAM |
| Storage | 2*512GB PCIe Gen. 3 X4 NVMe SSD striped in RAID 0 |
| Display | 17.3-inch LED backlit with FHD resolution at 120Hz, anti-glare, and G-Sync |
The ASUS ROG G701VIK has a revamped ROG Gaming Center and it’s a whole lot better than before. This is obviously the center where all of the dials can be manually dialed in, or left it at auto. It now even has something called “TURBO GEAR CONFIG” and a dropdown menu. You can select up to a total of 3 different things here – Standard, Extreme, or that little gear icon where it brings out even more details and options – including Manual.
In CPU-Z, I can see that the speeds are indeed crazily overclocked. On Intel’s website, it states that the i7-7820HK runs at a stock base clock of 2.9GHz and boosts up to 3.9GHz. For this laptop, that holds true – until the Extreme profile kicks in. That overclocks the processor all the way up to just a tad shy of 4.3GHz maximum!
Benchmarks
When it comes to benchmarks, we’re going to separate it into two parts – one with Standard mode, and another with Extreme mode. By the way, the RAID 0 SSD doesn’t care if it’s in Standard or Extreme mode at all. Which makes sense, as the PCIe lanes are independent of CPU multiplier overclocking.
Without further ado, here’s out benchmarks done for both Standard and Extreme modes while plugged into its power brick.
According to these two graphs, there’s only one thing that rings true – the Extreme mode is actually something. Is it doing a good job? Well… that’s up to the cooling system – which leads us to the next segment.
Cooling performance
ASUS made the ROG G701VIK so that when the power jack is connected, it’ll switch to Extreme mode by itself. That’ll give you some extra performance boost – but not too much while gaming…
Because the ASUS ROG G701VIK is indeed an air-cooled laptop, it thermal throttles instantly once I launched any games. Even in Overwatch’s main menu. And it sounds like a jet engine too!
Both CPU and GPU will hit the 90℃ mark quite instantly, and it’ll thermal throttle right away. In Standard mode, it’ll still hit the 90℃ and sound like a jet engine. AIDA64 does say that the CPU is thermal throttling too, but at 0%. Once it’s on Extreme mode however… AIDA64 reports 24% throttling. Through a simple calculation, that means the CPU is at about ~300MHz above its stock clock speed.
It’s quite atrociously loud too. I had to turn on the volume to the max while playing Overwatch just to hear something through its built-in speakers. They sound decent by the way, but too bad it can’t be utilized while gaming.
Overclocking?
Yes – I know that I just mentioned that the ASUS ROG G701VIK indeed thermal throttles instantly and sound like a jet engine, spewing out hot air at the back – but hear me out here. The Gaming Center does give quite a lot of options to overclock – but I’m not sure if this machine is able to utilize any of it.
You can still enable XMP to give the RAM an extra 400MHz boost to run at 2800MHz. According to what I can find out through CPU-Z, both 16GB RAM in the ASUS ROG G701VIK is already running at 1.20V at 2400MHz, and enabling XMP here will overclock the RAM to run at 2800MHz – but still at 1.20V. Makes me wonder why ASUS didn’t enable it by default.
[nextpage title=”Maintenance & upgradability”]
With the fans running like jet engines, it surely does suck in a lot of air to cool down the CPU, GPU, and PCIe Gen.3 X4 NVMe SSDs. With more airflow, that means even more dust and debris – potentially even bugs too. Physical bugs, I mean.
Here’s where things differ from its predecessors. At the bottom of the ASUS ROG G701VIK is where these screw plugs are found. Take them out and unscrew all the Philips screw. You’re done with Part 1.
Part 2 is a little trickier. Remember that little part that’s behind the screen and above the two exhaust vents? You’ll have to pry that flap open and unscrew the Philips screws at an extremely awkward angle. Then, you’re done with part 2 and the bottom plate can be lifted off entirely, revealing the guts of the beast that is the ASUS ROG G701VIK.
Opening up the whole thing reveals a few components – the M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD, WiFi card, two more SO-DIMM slots, the two jet engine fans with a total of 6 heatpipes. The cooling system looks rather weird, as one of the heatpipe is stretched to the other fin stack instead.
By the looks of it, the ASUS ROG G701VIK is rather easily serviceable. Opening the back plate is indeed a little tricky, but its components are rather easily accessible. From CPU-Z, it says that this motherboard has 4 SO-DIMM slots and two of them are in use. However, I can’t find those two that are in use. I can’t find the other 512GB NVMe SSD too!
By the way, removing that lonesome NVMe SSD will break the RAID 0 stripe. You’ll have to wipe all data and reinstall Windows if you choose to separate the NVMe SSDs.
[nextpage title=”Battery”]
With a gaming laptop like this, don’t expect good battery life. As the ASUS ROG G701VIK does indeed have a G-Sync panel, it cannot have NVIDIA Optimus – the technology where it switches between integrated while on battery and discrete graphic card whenever it’s needed.
That means it’ll suck quite a lot of power from the battery even when it’s idling – and that’s going to impact battery life quite significantly. Luckily for us, the ASUS ROG G701VIK automatically switches and locks to Standard profile mode once the power jack is disconnected. Even with that, it still sits at about 2.5 hours of battery life tops.
The power brick as said before, weighs in at 1.5kg. It outputs a maximum of 19.5V at 16.9A, which means it’s 330W. That’s insane. And yes, with that amount of power going through the power brick, it does get hot. And the cables are really thick, too.
As for the proprietary jack, I’m not sure what to feel about it. It’s easy to insert but horrifyingly difficult to take out. It works if you plug it in upside down, but be aware of that push-release mechanism there.
[nextpage title=”Wrapping up the ASUS ROG G701VIK review”]
So here’s the bottomline. The ASUS ROG G701VIK is definitely for ballers – or “bangsawan”, as we Malaysians call it. It costs RM17,999 – which roughly translates to about USD $4,200!
Everything about the ASUS ROG G701VIK screams quality and durability – even its hardware and specs included too.
The performance is definitely up there – but the cooling solution is definitely the first thing I wish that ASUS revamps. That jet engine cooling solution is something that I don’t really know how to get by in day-to-day usage. Even active noise-cancelling headphones won’t be able to help.
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