ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX502GW Review: Powerful Gaming Laptop with GeForce RTX 2070 weighing only 2 kg


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The range of compact and lightweight gaming laptops with top-end hardware is growing. Your own line

ASUS continues to expand such models.The Zephyrus line launched in 2017 and recently received another update. New models were shown at the end of April in Istanbul, and they recently reached Ukraine. The new models received not only the latest components, but also a number of important design changes. To the editorggThe 15-inch ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX502GW has already arrived, which we will get to know today.

  1. What is it?
  2. What is interesting ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX502GW?
  3. What is in the box?
  4. What with the look and design?
  5. How convenient is it to use?
  6. How good is the screen?
  7. What about performance and autonomy?
  8. In the dry residue

What is it?

ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX502GW - gaming laptop with15.6-inch IPS-display with support for G-Sync, 14-nm Intel Core processor of the ninth generation, up to 32 GB of RAM, nVidia discrete graphics card GeForce GTX 2070 with 8 GB of video memory and fast solid-state drive.

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What is interesting ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX502GW?


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The laptop received the most current ones at the momentinternals: powerful 6-core Intel Core i7-9750H processor clocked at 2.6-4.5 GHz with integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630, 32 GB of DDR4 RAM with a frequency of 2666 MHz and discrete graphics accelerator NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on board. Not &#8220;lite&#8221; Max-Q, but a full-fledged option. NVMe PCIe SSDs of 256, 512 GB or 1 TB with RAID0 support are used for storage. To cool all this, the proprietary Active Aerodynamic System (AAS) with two fans and six heat pipes is used, and for better air intake, a design with a slightly opening bottom cover of the laptop is used, already familiar from past Zephyrus. The laptop is equipped with a 15.6-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 and a refresh rate of 144 Hz (and this is the “basic” version, in the top - 240 Hz). There is almost the entire set of necessary ports: RJ45, USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C (with support for DisplayPort 1.4 and USB Power Delivery), 2xUSB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A, 1xUSB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A, HDMI 2.0b and separate 3.5- mm jacks for headphones and microphone. It uses its own power supply for charging, but Type-C charging is supported for &#8220;everyday&#8221; tasks from any power supply with 65 W USB Power Delivery. The laptop is powered by a 76 Wh battery.

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What is included?

ASUS ROG Zephyrus S kit arrived to usGX502GW with power supply, power cable, documentation and a metal “construction set” from which you can assemble the ROG logo. Commercial samples will have configuration options with a backpack, an external webcam (the laptop does not have a built-in one) and a Gladius II mouse in various combinations.


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What with the look and design?


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Compared to previous models, for example, ASUSROG Zephyrus GX501, there are really a lot of changes in design and materials. And they (subjectively) benefited the laptop exclusively. The case is made of magnesium alloy, thickness - 18.9 mm, weight - just under 2 kg. The laptop is black, this time without bronze inserts. The keyboard has moved to its usual laptop location, as has the touchpad. Separately, it is worth noting the rubberized material of the working surface. It is incredibly tactilely pleasant, reminiscent of Soft-Touch, but does not collect traces of work as actively. The metal top cover has a diagonal sanding, looks cool, but slightly collects fingerprints. At the bottom there is a trapezoidal cutout of the display unit:


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Logo ROG, of course, with the backlight:


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At the back end there is a plentiful number of ventilation holes and engraving with the inscription Republic of Gamers in the middle:


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All connectors are located on the side faces on themthere are also symmetric architectures with air vents. On the left are the power port, the network RJ-45 connector (which the predecessor did not have), HDMI, full-sized USB 3.1, and separate headphone and microphone connectors:


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On the right is USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C with support for DisplayPort 1.4 and Power Delivery technologies, another 2xUSB 3.1 and a Kensington lock slot. Unfortunately, there was no room for a card reader:


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Front - only cutout:


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Above the keyboard is a wide panel withperforation. In its upper part there are three LEDs. The gap under the impressive width of the screen, on it - the designation of the line Zephyrys and small holes built-in microphones:


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From above and on each side the frame is very thin. The webcam was decided to be removed in a laptop. There is a certain logic in this: it takes up space, it is regularly stuck, it increases the cost, and the quality of such solutions is not suitable for streams. Some trim levels will have a separate webcam:


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For stability there are two solid ones below.rubber bands almost the entire width of the laptop. In the same place - stereo speakers and additional ventilation holes, and along the perimeter of the bottom cover - the screws that hold it:


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As in past Zephyrus, for more effectivean air intake design is used with a bottom lid opening. This happens with the opening of the laptop. The decision may seem controversial because of the likelihood of hitting third-party objects. Although, it seems to me that ASUS engineers have also provided for this version of events:


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The laptop is assembled perfectly, high-quality ones are usedmaterials, nothing wobbles anywhere, no backlash. The bottom hinged lid flexes just a little when open, but this does not affect performance in any way and you can only feel it if you lift the laptop from below with one hand. Visual changes towards a calmer, strict design have benefited the laptop: it looks very stylish. Dimensions and weight allow you to carry it in a backpack every day without any problems.

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How convenient is it to use?


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Hinges allow you to open the laptop for about140 °. I think this is quite enough for a gaming laptop. Thanks to the design with the opening of the bottom panel, the keyboard is at a minimum angle. Not as much as in the ASUS ultra-portables with ErgoLift, but also not bad. About the coating of the working surface is already written above, but I repeat: it is very pleasant.

The keyboard this time is located on the usualplace for laptops, and not pushed to the front edge, as was the case with its predecessors. The keyboard layout is without any special distortions: both Shifts are long, one-story Enter, an enlarged spacebar, the arrow block is separated and slightly extended towards the user. The upper functional buttons are reduced in height and divided into groups of 4 pieces. Above there are 4 additional separate buttons for adjusting the volume, muting the microphone and launching the proprietary ROG application. The power button is also separate from the main unit. There is no number pad, but a row with the Home, End, PgUp, PgDown buttons has been added to the right:


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The keys have a scissor mechanism. The travel is not very large, but clear and informative, the keyboard turned out to be comfortable. There is Aura RGB backlight with flexible settings and all sorts of effects:


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The touchpad is located in the usual place. It is large, with a pleasant coating and good sensitivity. Buttons are not separated from the main plane:


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How good is the screen?

ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX502GW is installedIPS screen with a diagonal of 15.6 inches, a resolution of 1920x1080, a maximum refresh rate of 144 Hz, support for G-SYNC and a response time of 3 ms (in Overdrive mode). The color gamut is said to be 100% of the sRGB color space, excellent color reproduction is promised, and the screen has received Pantone certification. The coating is matte, viewing angles are maximum. The picture is very nice, games and movies look great.


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The application ROG Game Visual allows you to select one of the existing picture presets and manually adjust the color temperature.


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Measurements with a colorimeter were made in the modeDefault with Overdrive activated. Maximum brightness is 255.729 cd/m2, black field brightness is 0.323 cd/m2 and contrast ratio is 792:1. The brightness reserve is small, but quite enough for a gaming laptop. The screen is calibrated very intelligently, just a little goes into cool shades (which can be adjusted if desired), the color gamut is close to sRGB:


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What about performance and autonomy?


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ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX502GW is equipped with a six-coreninth generation Intel Core i7-9750H processor. Clock frequency is 2.6 GHz and Turbo Boost up to 4.5 GHz. Typer Threading supports 12 threads. There is integrated graphics Intel UHD Graphics 630 and discrete NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 with 8 GB GDDR6. This is a laptop version with frequencies of 1215 &#8211; 1440 (Boost) MHz. They are slightly lower than the desktop version with 1410 &#8211; 1620 (Boost) MHz, but higher than Max-Q version 885-1080 &#8211; 1185-1305 (Boost) MHz. Nvidia Optimus technology is supported: the laptop automatically switches between integrated and discrete graphics depending on the task. The laptop supports ROG Boost graphics card overclocking up to 1540 MHz. Our configuration has 32 GB DDR4 2666 RAM. This is the maximum; the database will have 16 GB. The laptop is equipped with Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0 and a Gigabit Ethernet port.


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As you might have guessed, the laptop copes with any tasks without any problems. The results in benchmarks are very high. Although there was no doubt about it:


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But the cooling system was not the mosteffective. It makes a noisy noise, which is typical of all gaming laptops. Although this is not the loudest CO, that I have heard in gaming models lately. Built-in speakers do not shout over. The stress test showed that with long maximum loads there is overheating of the processor, it is roasted to 90 or more degrees. Throttling on average is about 15%, but sometimes it can reach 30%. At the same time, the video card is on average 10-15 degrees cooler and feels comfortable:


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But in general, it is not critical: in real tasks such a load is very difficult to achieve. The case is heated in some places, but within reasonable limits. In Metro Exodus at maximum settings, you can drive while holding the laptop on your lap without problems (personally verified).

The drive used is an M.2 SSD with a PCI Express Gen3 x2 or x4 interface, depending on the configuration. We had a 512 GB variant made by Intel:


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When reading, the speed reaches 1715 MB/s, and when writing – 960 MB/s:


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Any modern games can be easily unscrewed onmaximum graphics settings. The laptop &#8220;pulls&#8221; no problem. Interestingly, the lowest FPS was in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands and averaged 60 frames per second, with a decrease to 50 in some moments. Perhaps something with optimization. Metro Exodus and Shadow of the Tomb Raider with RTX and other goodies of the new video cards work great. FPS does not drop below 80 frames, but on average remains at 90-100. Destiny 2 and Apex Legends deliver 100+ and 120+ fps respectively:


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The laptop uses a 76 Wh battery.Short battery life is a common feature of gaming laptops, but in this case it’s not all bad. In &#8220;office&#8221; In Wi-Fi mode, the laptop lasts just over 4 hours, and after watching a couple of movies, 20-25% of the battery remains. So, if the flight on the plane is not too long, you can easily entertain yourself by watching a couple of blockbusters. The included 230 W power supply takes about 2 hours to charge. The USB Type-C port supports Power Delivery 3.0 up to 65 W. So for office tasks you can take a compact power supply, but for games you need to connect a large complete one.

The laptop has 2 speakers, they soundvery good and loud (considering the class of the device), they are enough for games and videos. Plus, an ESS Saber DAC is installed inside for high-quality sound in headphones.

In addition to the ROG Game Visual, the laptop is installedArmory Crate's proprietary application, in which the entire configuration of the laptop is made, including modes of operation, backlight and updates. There is also a kind of hub with recommended applications:


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There is also its mobile version for smartphones:


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In the dry residue

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus line since itsthe appearance was extremely interesting, but the new models have become even better and the ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX502GW is an excellent example of this. The laptop not only increased productivity. The company has significantly updated the design and appearance: the laptop has become more stylish and discreet, the frames around the perimeter of the display have become thin, and the keyboard has moved to its usual place, which greatly added points to the laptop in terms of ease of use. At the same time, the laptop remains compact and lightweight. The other obvious advantages are quite expected: very productive hardware, a fast and high-quality IPS display with G-Sync support, and a decent number of ports, including RJ-45 network ports. Cooling such powerful systems in a compact package is still a challenge. And, unfortunately, ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX502GW was not a revolution in this regard. During long peak loads the CO is a little unable to cope and the processor throttles. Well, the price, as one would expect, is very impressive: from77 000 UAH. Although cheaper similar configuration will be difficult to find.

5 reasons to buy ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX502GW:

  • Very high performance;
  • fast and high-quality IPS-screen;
  • compact size and low weight (considering productivity);
  • stylish design, excellent materials and build quality;
  • comfortable keyboard and touchpad.

2 reasons not to buy ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX502GW:

  • not the most efficient cooling system and throttling;
  • high price.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX502GW

Very productive, with a compact, stylish and light gaming laptop with the latest top-end hardware, fast and high-quality IPS-display, comfortable keyboard and RGB-backlit

Comfy

F.ua

Brain

Citrus

We recommend

Specifications ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX502GW

Display
15.6 inches, 1920x1080, IPS, 144 Hz, G-Sync support, matte anti-glare coating

Dimensions
360x252x18.9 mm

Weight
2 kg

operating system
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

CPU
Intel Core i7-9750H (2.6-4.5 GHz), 6 cores, 12 threads, 2.8-3.8 GHz (Coffee Lake, 14 nm)

Ram
32GB DDR4-2666

Graphics
nVidia GeForce RTX2070, 8 GB GDDR6, Intel UHD Graphics 630

Storage device
SSD 512 GB (M.2)

Communications
Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, Gigabit Ethernet

Connectors
1xUSB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C (DisplayPort 1.4, USB Power Delivery 3.0), 1xUSB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A, 2xUSB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A, HDMI 2.0b, RJ45, Kensington Lock, 2x3.5 mm audio

Optical drive
No

Battery
76 Wh


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