ASUS ROG Strix G17 G712 review – something for gamers and designers

Today’s specimen is a pretty beefy one. It belongs to the gaming machine family and its natural habitat is enthusiast’s homes. No more than a week ago, we took a look at pretty much the same notebook, but with a smaller (15-inch) form factor – the ROG Strix G15 G512. Ultimately, it left a lot to be desired, but if we have to be honest, we didn’t let it show its full potential since it was equipped with the GTX 1650 Ti.

For the ROG Strix G17 G712, on the other side, we have chosen the RTX 2070 and the Core i7-10750H. Still, you can pick even more packed up version, that carries the Core i7-10875H and the RTX 2070 Super, but you are now starting to look at a not very pleasant price tag.

Nevertheless, other selling points of this machine are the trio of M.2 SSD slots, Wi-Fi 6 support, and of course – what is a gaming laptop without a high-refresh-rate screen? Currently, there are two IPS options to choose from – a 144Hz unit and a 240Hz device.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-rog-strix-g17-g712/

Contents


Specs Sheet

ASUS ROG STRIX G17 (G712) - Specs

  • LG LP173WFG-SPB3 (LGD065B)
  • Color accuracy  3.2  0.9
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 8000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 64GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro, No OS
  • Battery
  • 66Wh, 4-cell, 76Wh, 4-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate
  • Dimensions
  • 399 x 293 x 22-26 mm (15.71" x 11.54" x 0.87")
  • Weight
  • 2.85 kg (6.3 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 3x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 2.0b
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5 mm combo
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Array Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2x 4.2W, Smart Amp
  • Optical drive

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, we found a 230W power brick, some mandatory paper manuals, and the laptop itself.


Design and construction

It comes as no surprise that this laptop looks exactly like the ROG Strix G15 G512, just larger. This means an entirely plastic build, but somewhat strong chassis. As you can see, it features the signature for the ROG Strix series, brushed finish on the plastic, as well as a printed slogan on the base, placed at around 45-degrees. Similarly to the Legion series, this laptop’s lid is mounted slightly forwards, which leaves a turtle-shell behind when you open it. Additionally, the laptop has a profile of 22mm in its thinnest point and 26mm at its thickest. As of the weight – its on par with other gaming 17-inchers on the market – 2.85kg.

By the way, this model features an LED strip along the front and the sides of the bottom plate, which can be configured from through AURA from the Armoury Crate.

Next, let’s move on to the lid, which opens easily with a single hand, but has very little structural integrity. What is more surprising, is that this laptop features no Web camera, which is very rare these days. Indeed, it has super thin bezels on the top and the sides, but we’ve definitely seen cameras fitted in a lot tighter spaces.

Leaving the frustration of the lack of a camera behind, let’s take a peek at the keyboard. Unsurprisingly, it looks the same as that on the 15-inch model, but it adds a dedicated NumberPad. While its keycaps are smaller than the rest, the entire unit feels comfortable for typing and for gaming, thanks to its rather long key travel and relatively clicky feedback. Additionally, the “WASD” keys are transparent, but sadly – the Arrow keys are smaller than these of your TV remote control.

On the bright side, the touchpad is super responsive and has accurate tracking. Moreover, there are dedicated buttons beneath it, which have little resistance and produce a satisfying click, indicating you have successfully made an input.

Now, as you can see from the bottom plate, ASUS has done some smart engineering. They are trying to channel the air in such a way, so that it covers some of the essential hardware, including the RAM and the SSDs. Additionally, you can see the speaker cutouts, housing two massive 4.2W drivers.

Ports

On the left side of the notebook, you can see three USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) ports and an audio jack. The rest of the I/O is located on the back. This includes the charging plug, a USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen. 2) port with DisplayPort support, an HDMI 2.0b connector, and an RJ-45 connector.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

This device’s bottom plate is held in place by 11 Phillips-head screws. As soon as you remove them, you can start the prying process from the bottom right corner, when one of the screws lifts the panel.

In terms of the cooling, this laptop has four heat pipes that cool the CPU and the GPU – two of them are shared between them, and there is one more for each of them. Additionally, ASUS has taken care of the VRM and graphics memory temperatures with another heat pipe.

Upgradability-wise, there are two RAM SODIMM slots, which work in dual-channel and should support up to 64GB of DDR4 memory. Equally-impressive, there are three M.2 NVMe drive slots.

Last but not least, the ROG Strix G17 G712 features a 66Wh battery pack in the configuration we tested.


Display quality

ASUS ROG Strix G17 G712 has a Full HD 144Hz IPS panel, made by LG with a model number LP173WFG-SPB3 (LGD065B). Its diagonal is 17.3″ (43.94 cm), and the resolution 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 127 ppi, and a pitch of 0.2 х 0.2 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 69cm (27″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

Viewing angles are excellent. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

The measured maximum brightness of 328 nits in the middle of the screen and 306 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 9%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 7400K – colder than the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is fine – 1050:1 (1040:1 after profiling).

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows ASUS ROG Strix G17 G712’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers only 95% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of ASUS ROG Strix G17 G712 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 9.5 ms – a particularly fast panel.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

ASUS ROG Strix G17 G712’s display doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness at any level. This makes it comfortable for long periods of usage, such as a good gaming session or a night of eSports.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusion

ASUS ROG Strix G17 G712’s display has a 144Hz IPS panel with a Full HD resolution, good contrast ratio, and comfortable viewing angles. Moreover, it covers 95% of the sRGB color gamut and its backlight doesn’t flicker. Not only does this make the image look vibrant and comfortable, but our Gaming and Web design profile boosts the color accuracy of the display so that it can be used for professional work. And all of that, coming from a gamer-centric monitor with fast pixel response times.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for ASUS ROG Strix G17 G712 configurations with 17.3″ FHD IPS LG LP173WFG-SPB3 (LGD065B).

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://www.asus.com/Laptops/ROG-Strix-G15-17/HelpDesk_Download/

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. We got 6 hours and 22 minutes of Web browsing and 5 hours and 28 minutes of video playback.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.


CPU options

This device can be found with the two Core i7 options from the Comet Lake-H product line up. The more “budget” option is the Core i7-10750H (6c/12t), while the flagship for the series is the Core i7-10875H (8c/16t).


GPU options

While the 15-inch version of the model starts with the GTX 1650 Ti, this unit jumps straight to the GTX 1660 Ti as a default option. Up the line, you can choose from the RTX 2060, RTX 2070, and the RTX 2070 Super.


Gaming tests

Far Cry 5Full HD, Normal (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (115W)114 fps106 fps100 fps

rise-of-the-tomb-raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, MAX (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (115W)138 fps78 fps62 fps

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (115W)83 fps73 fps48 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Highest (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (115W)99 fps95 fps62 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i7-10750H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
ASUS ROG Strix G17 G7123.88 GHz (B+49%) @ 77°C3.83 GHz (B+47%) @ 84°C3.51 GHz (B+35%) @ 79°C
Acer Predator Triton 500 (PT515-52)3.72 GHz (B+43%) @ 90°C3.53 GHz (B+36%) @ 90°C3.26 GHz (B+25%) @ 85°C
ASUS ROG Strix G15 G5124.16 GHz (B+60%) @ 81°C3.99 GHz (B+53%) @ 95°C3.52 GHz (B+35%) @ 87°C
Acer Nitro 5 (AN517-52)3.05 GHz (B+17%) @ 68°C3.05 GHz (B+17%) @ 75°C2.90 GHz (B+12%) @ 79°C
Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-55)3.02 GHz (B+16%) @ 82°C3.04 GHz (B+17%) @ 92°C2.67 GHz (B+3%) @ 92°C
Lenovo Legion 7 (15)3.78 GHz (B+45%) @ 80°C3.69 GHz (B+42%) @ 83°C3.51 GHz (B+35%) @ 83°C
MSI GP65 Leopard 10Sx3.65 GHz (B+40%) @ 95°C3.41 GHz (B+31%) @ 95°C3.30 GHz (B+27%) @ 95°C

Interestingly, the ASUS ROG Strix G17 G712 uses a slightly lower boost frequency than its 15-inch sibling for the first part of the test. Respectively, this results in singificantly lower temperatures, although the noise levels are similar. And finally, at the end of the test, we monitored an 8C difference in favor of the ROG Strix G17 G712, when both of them were running within 10 MHz apart.

Real life gaming

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (Max Fans)
ASUS ROG Strix G17 G7121585 MHz @ 78°C1551 MHz @ 85°C
MSI GP65 Leopard 10Sx1662 MHz @ 77°C1636 MHz @ 80°C1647 MHz @ 77°C
MSI GE75 Raider1586 MHz @ 74°C1576 MHz @ 77°C
HP Omen 17 20191483 MHz @ 72°C1474 MHz @ 74°C
ASUS ROG GL704G1595 MHz @ 83°C1588 MHz @ 83°C

On the other side, the 115W NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 took everything out of the cooling solution. Here, not only the temperatures were quite high at the end of the test (especially comparing it to the MSI GE75 Raider), and the noise levels were definitely headphone-worthy.

Gaming comfort


Verdict

Without a doubt, this laptop can be a gaming beast when configured correctly. Add the 8-core Core i7-10875H, as well as the GeForce GTX 2070 Super and you get a system that would probably run the latest AAA titles on maximum settings at 1080p for the next couple of years. However, you should know that people from the northern countries would have a better experience, especially when gaming outside in the winter. Why? Well, not because the laptop runs particularly hot, but because its fans are extremely loud.

Ultimately, this means that the cooling solution is not capable enough of dealing with the high power/heat output of the hardware. And the result of this is a notebook that will certainly outnoise most of the vacuum cleaners out there.

Sure, there are things like undervolting that will certainly help you, but if you take a quick look at the Lenovo Legion 7 (15) (and the Razer Blade Pro before that) and its vapor chamber, you’ll see that some people are taking the next step. And it is somewhat pitty that despite stating that they apply liquid metal on their CPU, ASUS hasn’t thought of this solution, or improving the cooling with more heat pipes and beefier heat spreaders, given the huge amount of space inside of the ROG Strix G17 G712. After all, the RTX 2070 and the RTX 2070 Super emit more heat than the processor and you have no option but to take that into consideration when building a notebook.

Nevertheless, when it comes to usability, you get three M.2 NVme ports, support of up to 64GB of DDR4 memory, and input devices that are rather comfortable (with the exception of the tiny arrow keys).

Additionally, ASUS ROG Strix G17 G712’s display in the configuration we tested has a 144Hz IPS panel with a Full HD resolution, good contrast ratio, and comfortable viewing angles. Moreover, it covers 95% of the sRGB color gamut and its backlight doesn’t flicker. Not only does this make the image look vibrant and comfortable, but our Gaming and Web design profile boosts the color accuracy of the display so that it can be used for professional work. And all of that, coming from a gamer-centric monitor with fast pixel response times.

Its battery life goes as far as 6 hours and 22 minutes during Web browsing but falls down to five hours and a half of video playback. It will further decrease when you do some productivity tasks, so keep that in mind.

So, if you need a gaming laptop with a high-refresh-rate screen, you can take a look at the Lenovo Legion 7 (15), or if 17-inch notebooks are your vibe – the HP Omen 17 (2019) is still a great option. Now, we’re not saying you should skip the ROG Strix G17 G712, but the lack of an SD card reader and Thunderbolt 3 support is annoying in 2020, although you get support for Wi-Fi 6.

Pros

  • Pushes the Core i7-10750H to the edge with its decent cooling solution
  • Three M.2 slots with RAID 0 support
  • The display doesn’t flicker at any brightness level (Panda LM156LF-2F01)
  • Covers 95% of sRGB and has a great color accuracy (with our Gaming and Web design profile)
  • 144Hz and 240Hz IPS display options
  • Wi-Fi 6 support


Cons

  • Lacks an SD card reader and Thunderbolt support
  • Expect a lot of noise during long gaming sessions

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-rog-strix-g17-g712/

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Michael
Michael
3 years ago

What sort of hard-drive does it take?

bubba
bubba
3 years ago

just bought this laptop….2070, 32gb (3200), 1TB m.2, windows 10 pro….$1699

Jared
Jared
3 years ago
Reply to  bubba

where from?

Bernie
Bernie
3 years ago

Just picked the G712LU up for my wife and she loves it, I’m really impressed with the quality of build and cooling it provides. Most gaming laptops after about 30 mins of gaming the fan is cranked up and annoying, but yet this one stays extremely cool. Screen and keycaps are really nice. It has just a good quality feel to it. I benchmarked the 1TB M.2 drive in it and got 1650mb/s read and 1700+mb/s write which was odd but nice. Only issue I’m having is the memory is suppose to run at 3200mhz yet no matter what I… Read more »

bob
bob
3 years ago
Reply to  Bernie

i7-10750H can only go up to 2933 mate. Memory speed depends on the CPU, not the memory stick itself. You can stick in a 3600 RAM but if the CPU only takes 2400, you’ll only get 2400. Turbo mode also raising power limits and OCs GPU which gives you better performance but at cost of high temps and louder fans. I run in performance mode and it gets great FPS while being nearly silent and temps in Witcher 3 don’t go past 76 deg C.
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/201837/intel-core-i7-10750h-processor-12m-cache-up-to-5-00-ghz.html

bob
bob
3 years ago

1551 MHz @ 85°C
is this average, doesn’t seem right to me. mine in performance mode is 1835-1875mhz @ 76 deg C after 30 mins on average
also why is SD card readers so important? it’s like webcams, who uses them?

Last edited 3 years ago by bob
Dan911
Dan911
3 years ago

Got one in Japan (and downloaded Win 10 English language pack). It is a good gamming machine and for the price it offers good performance and value, yet it keeps it simple, but a few points are disappointing: 1) 2070 MaxQ is below my expectations, definitely go for the 2070 Super version if you want this laptop. 2) Fans ARE noisy! I bought this laptop to replace my full tower PC but on top of my desk, just in front of me, it is as much noticeable. 3) Sound is surprisingly low and muffled with pale stereo separation and contrast;… Read more »