Lenovo Legion Y530 vs ASUS ROG GL504 (SCAR II / Hero II) – tough choice

Previously in our group of in-depth comparisons, we put side by side the mid-range model Lenovo Legion Y530 and the budget-friendly ASUS TUF FX504. Quite expectedly, the Lenovo solution turned out to be the better gaming option in almost every aspect and if interested, you can read more about it over HERE. And so, for the purposes of today’s comparison, we have chosen once again the Lenovo Legion Y530 but on the other side of the ring awaits the ASUS ROG GL504 which is claimed as one of the best gaming laptops for 2018. Without further ado, let’s see how the two beasts differ in terms of performance, build quality and other essential specification in order to help you decide which device is your cup of tea.

Lenovo Legion Y530: Full review / Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

ASUS ROG GL504: Full review / Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

Contents


Design and construction

For starters, let’s take a closer look at the constructions of the notebooks. Although Legion Y530 employs only plastic in its chassis, the stability is quite decent. In addition, Lenovo has decided to opt for a more simplistic approach to its design without including any shiny or obtrusive elements, unlike other regular gaming devices. In addition, the physical size of the device is impressive – it is significantly smaller than most 15.6-inch solutions on the market mostly because of the super thin screen bezels.

Next, we have the ASUS ROG GL504 which this time incorporates not only plastic but also aluminum in its construction so we have no complaints here. The lid happens to be the only metal part here. Additionally, the GL504 follows the “bezel-less” design trend – in fact, it is the first ROG which is prominent for its small size.

As for dimensions, Lenovo Legion Y530 is slightly more portable than its ASUS rival measuring at 23.9 – 24.9 mm in height and tipping the scale at 2.30 kg (5.07 lbs). On the other hand, ROG weighs 2.4 kg and is 26.1 mm thin so as you can see the difference in numbers is not that drastic.

Lenovo Legion Y530
ASUS ROG GL504

Moving on, we are quite impressed by the input devices that are unveiled when opening the lids of the notebooks. The backlit keyboard of Lenovo Legion Y520 turned out to be one of the main selling points of the device, therefore Lenovo has decided to also use it in this year’s model. It boasts long key travel ideal for typing and gaming, bigger arrow keys and media control buttons. We should note that the Numpad area has been moved and also there is no room for the small Enter key, however, the current layout will appeal to most gaming enthusiasts. We also liked that the touchpad features dedicated mouse buttons and we find it responsive and comfortable to use.

ASUS also takes pride in its input devices. The keyboard construction is referred to as HyperStrike Pro, which includes several technologies – each key boasts a 0.25mm concavity and a 1.8mm travel when typing. In addition, the keys are pretty durable as they are rated at 20 million clicks. Other notable features include “N-key rollover” which means that many keys can be pressed at the same time, as well as Aura Sync RGB backlight with four zones. And if you are wondering what’s the difference between the SCAR and HERO models – well, it lies purely in terms of design. The SCAR configurations are meant for FPS gaming including highlighted WASD keys, whereas HERO – for MOBA games with highlighted QWER keys. Overall, we find the keyboard to be nice and convenient to use and the only complaint we have is that the NumPad is slightly too tight for users with bigger fingers.

Lenovo Legion Y530
ASUS ROG GL504

Now let’s take a look at the I/O side of things. Lenovo has decided to locate almost all its ports along the back of the notebook. This is quite pleasant as there will be no cables getting in your way when using the external mouse. There is a full-sized USB Type-A port (3.0 standard) both on the left and on the right. On the left side, you will also find an audio jack, whereas on the right – a hardware reset opening. And finally, along the back are placed a USB 3.0 Type-C, Mini DisplayPort 1.4, USB 3.0 Type-A, HDMI 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45), charging port, as well as a lock slot.

Lenovo Legion Y530

We also liked the port distribution on ASUS ROG GL504. Most of the ports are placed on the left which means there will be no cables interfering with the use of an external mouse. Here, we notice a DC jack, LAN port, Dual-Mode Mini DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 2.0, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C and a combo audio jack. In addition, the right side accommodates one USB 3.1 (Gen 2) port, SD card reader, and a Kensington lock slot. Unfortunately, the device doesn’t offer Thunderbolt support which is a slight letdown given the price range.

ASUS ROG GL504

Display

Both notebooks incorporate 15.6-inch IPS displays with Full HD (1920×1080) resolution, which translates into a pixel density of 142 ppi, and have a 0.18 x 0.18 mm pixel pitch but that is not of such importance as the following specs. ASUS ROG GL504 stands out with 144Hz refresh rate which translates into smoother gameplay and less lagging. Its rival also offers such display option, however, we have chosen the regular version for our review. In addition, Lenovo’s Legion Y530 panel has a model number LG LP156WF9-SPK1 (LGD0563), whereas ASUS’ one comes with a model number AUO B156HAN08.2 (AUO82ED).

Lenovo Legion Y530
ASUS ROG GL504

As both gaming beasts boast IPS displays, it is quite natural that the viewing angles are comfortable. The brightness levels are the first area where ROG GL504 surpasses its Lenovo opponent with 338 nits in the middle of the screen vs 265 nits respectively. When it comes to color temperature, both devices have slightly colder than the optimal one – 7760 K on the Legion Y530 and 7690 K on the ROG GL504. Furthermore, ASUS’ solution boasts a higher contrast ratio of 1260:1 as opposed to 1100:1 in Lenovo’s one.

Lenovo Legion Y530
ASUS ROG GL504

Let’s move on to a slightly more intriguing aspect – the color reproduction. Here, ROG GL504 literally blows Legion Y530 out of the water covering 96% of the sRGB gamut which translates into saturated and vibrant images. And with the help of our Gaming and Web design profiles, the colors become accurate enough for color sensitive work. On the other hand, Lenovo Legion Y530 offers a modest gamut coverage – only 55% of the sRGB which is not suitable for color editing. As for color accuracy, Legion Y530 has an average dE before calibration of 5.2 and after calibration, the value is reduced to 3.3. On the other hand, ASUS ROG’s average dE is 4.4 before calibration and after it is significantly reduced to 1.7 (lower is better).

Lenovo Legion Y530
ASUS ROG GL504

Lenovo Legion Y530
ASUS ROG GL504

To put the icing on top, we are pleased to confirm that the panels of both opponents don’t use PWM to control monitor brightness which means they are safe to use for long periods of time without causing unnecessary eye strain.

Lenovo Legion Y530
ASUS ROG GL504

Our display profiles

Here at LaptopMedia, we create a set of custom-tailored profiles for every notebook we review. They boost the productivity of display and reduce negative effects such as blue light emissions and PWM. You can read more about them here.

Buy our profiles from here:

Lenovo Legion Y530: Profiles

ASUS ROG GL504: Profiles

Specs sheet comparison

In terms of hardware options, the configurations of the two models we tested boast the 8th generation Intel Core i7-8750H processor. It features a total of six physical cores running at base speeds from 2.2 GHz to 2.8 GHz, while the Turbo one is 4.1 GHz (up from 3.8 GHz). On top of that, the TDP of the chip is rated at 45W and it has 9 MB of cache (vs 6 MB on Core i7-7700HQ).

More information about Intel Core i7-8750H and its position in our Top CPU Ranking you can find HERE.

On the other hand, the notebooks don’t feature the same graphics card, therefore there will be a noticeable difference in terms of performance. Lenovo Legion Y530 comes with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti based on the GP107 chip and offers 4GB of GDDR5 memory connected via a 128-bit interface, as well as 768 CUDA cores.

In contrast, ASUS ROG GL504 sports the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 based on the GP106 chip paired with up to 6GB GDDR5 VRAM on a 192-bit interface. In addition, the GPU features 1280 CUDA cores.

More information about the GTX 1050 Тi and its place in our Top GPU Ranking you can find HERE.

More information about the GTX 1060 and its place in our Top GPU Ranking you can find HERE.

Lenovo Legion Y530 ASUS ROG GL504
CPU
  • Intel Core i7-8750H
  • Intel Core i5-8300H
  • Intel Core i7-8750H
  • Intel Core i5-8300H
RAMDDR4, 2666 MHzDDR4, 2666 MHz
GPU
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (4GB GDDR5)
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (4GB GDDR5)
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1160 (6GB)

 

  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB GDDR5)
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB GDDR5)
HDD/SSD2.5″ HDD/SSD slot + 2280 M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe slot2.5″ HDD/SSD slot + 1x 2280 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe M.2 slot
Display
  • 15.6”, Full HD (1920 x 1080), IPS
  • 15.6”, Full HD (1920 x 1080), 144 Hz, IPS
  • 15.6”, Full HD (1920 x 1080), IPS
  • 15.6”, Full HD (1920 x 1080), 144 Hz, IPS
Features
  • 3x USB 3.0 Type-A (3.1 Gen 1)
  • 1x USB 3.0 Type-C
  • HDMI 2.0
  • mini Displayport
  • combo audio/microphone jack
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Security Lock slot
  • 1x USB 3.1 Type-C
  • 1x USB 3.1 Type-A
  • 2x USB 2.0 Type-A
  • HDMI 2.0
  • mini Displayport
  • SD card reader
  • combo audio/microphone jack
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Security Lock slot
Battery52.5Wh66Wh
Profile thickness24.9 – 23.9 mm (0.98″)26.1 mm (1.03″)
Weight2.30 kg (5.1 lbs)2.40 kg (5.3 lbs)
Price Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned) Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

Battery

ASUS ROG GL504 packs a battery unit with a larger capacity than that of Lenovo’s notebook – 66Wh vs 52.5Wh to be precise, which quite expectedly results in noticeably better runtimes.

As usual, we put our devices to several tests. The first one is the Web browsing test where our own script browses automatically through over 70 websites. ASUS ROG GL504 scores 368 minutes on a single charge which is a pretty decent result given the gaming nature of the device, whereas Lenovo Legion Y530 drags behind providing 343 minutes.

The second test is for Video playback where we put an HD video on loop. ASUS ROG GL504 once again outperforms its rival scoring 352 minutes compared to the 278 minutes its Lenovo rival managed to deliver.

And finally, our Gaming test using F1 2015. ASUS’ battery provides 169 minutes while Lenovo Legion Y530 managed to keep the lights on for just 106 minutes.

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

For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.

We use F1 2017’s built-in benchmark on loop in order to simulate real-life gaming.


Temperatures

We have a new way of torturing laptops, and for gaming machines, it comprises of 100% CPU load plus real gameplay test (Rise of the Tomb Raider).

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 response 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 temperature (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Lenovo Legion Y530 [Sample]3.24 GHz @ 94°C3.20 GHz @ 94°C2.97 GHz @ 94°C
ASUS ROG GL5043.29 GHz @ 95°C3.12 GHz @ 95°C2.56 GHz @ 80°C

As you can see from the graph above, both notebooks run at almost similar frequencies with Lenovo Legion Y530 showing slightly better results. The performance is quite high, however, this comes at the expense of high internal temperatures.

Real gameplay

The test here is longer. The GPU is engaged at its max performance, trying to process as many frames per second as possible.

Core temp (after 2 min)Core temp (after 30 min)
Lenovo Legion Y530 [Sample] (GeForce GTX 1050 Ti)72°C75°C
ASUS ROG GL504 (GeForce GTX 1060)82°C88°C

Judging by the numbers in the graph above, Lenovo Legion Y530 shows better performance and temperatures compared to ASUS ROG GL504. During continuous gaming, the Legion Y530 reaches a maximum of 75°C which is within the normal, and its frequency drops by around 1% compared to the beginning of the test (from 1696 MHz to 1683 MHz). On the other hand, the ASUS ROG GL504 runs at frequencies of around 1557-1580 MHz for the entire period of our torture test maintaining relatively high temperatures at around 85°C.

Verdict

In conclusion, the main stars of today’s in-depth comparisons are both top models that shine with their own light. If you are after a more simple design, you will probably like Lenovo Legion Y530 better. However, we find the construction of ASUS ROG GL504 slightly more reliable as it uses more optimal materials – a combination between plastic and aluminum. On the other hand, Legion Y530 turns out to be the slightly more portable device measuring at 23.9 – 24.9 mm in height and weighing 2.30 kg (5.07 lbs) but the difference in numbers here is not that drastic. In addition, we were fairly pleased with the input devices of both models which will definitely meet your gaming needs.

When it comes to the connectivity side of things, the gaming beasts boast a wide variety of ports with good distribution. Moving on, ASUS ROG GL504 smashes its rival in the display department offering better maximum brightness, higher contrast ratio and impressive sRGB gamut coverage of 96%. We also recommend installing our custom profiles that will further improve the color accuracy, white balance, and gamma. In addition, you don’t have to worry about the presence of PWM regardless of the device you decide to opt for.

ASUS ROG GL504 also excels its Lenovo rival as far as battery runtimes are concerned, providing more than 6 hours of work on a single charge. On the other hand, Lenovo’s cooling system proves to be more efficient allowing very high CPU and GPU performance, while keeping temperatures lower than what we witnessed during the heavy load of ASUS’ solution.

Lenovo Legion Y530: Full review / Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

ASUS ROG GL504: Full review / Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)



Why choose Lenovo Legion Y530?

  • Slightly more compact
  • More simplistic design
  • Same Core i7-8750H, higher performance




Why choose ASUS ROG GL504?

  • More reliable construction
  • Better maximum brightness, higher contrast ratio, and 96% sRGB gamut coverage (when comparing AUO82ED vs LGD0563)
  • Longer battery life


Subscribe
Notify of
guest
4 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Arnold Bidal
Arnold Bidal
5 years ago

The price would be a good argument for the lenovo too !

Gabomondes
Gabomondes
5 years ago

It seems to me that comparison isn’t fair, having one laptop sporting a gtx1060 and the other a gtx1050ti, specially because of the thermals.

oppo a3s 3gb ram Specification

awesome skill

Michael
Michael
4 years ago

Could you tell a bit more about how loud the fans of both laptops are?