Asus ROG Strix Hero II Gaming Laptop, 15.6” 144Hz IPS Type Full HD
Asus ROG Strix Hero II Gaming Laptop, 15.6” 144Hz IPS Type Full HD
OUR VERDICT
The Asus ROG Strix Hero II is a sleek gaming laptop that bursts with power and captivates you with its sharp 144-Hz panel and intense speakers.
FORStylish design
Vivid 144-Hz panel
Excellent keyboard
Awesome speakers
Powerful performance
Above-average battery life
AGAINSTWebcam stares at your chin
Bottom runs hot
Learn more about the ASUS GL504GM-DS74
ModelBrandASUSSeriesROG Strix Hero IIModelGL504GM-DS74Part Number90NR00K2-M04540
Quick InfoOperating SystemWindows 10 Home 64-bitCPUIntel Core i7-8750H 2.20 GHzScreen15.6" 144 Hz IPSMemory16 GB DDR4Storage1 TB HDD + 256 GB NVMe SSDGraphics CardGeForce GTX 1060Video Memory6 GB GDDR5CommunicationGigabit LAN and WLANDimensions (W x D x H)14.21" x 10.31" x 1.00"-1.03"Weight5.29 lbs.
CPUCPU TypeIntel Core i7 8th GenCPU Speed8750H (2.20 GHz)Number of Cores6-core ProcessorCore NameCoffee LakeTurbo FrequencyUp to 3.90 GHzCPU L3 Cache9 MB
ChipsetChipsetIntel HM370
DisplayScreen Size15.6"TouchscreenNoWide Screen SupportYesDisplay TypeFull HDResolution1920 x 1080PanelIPSRefresh Rate144 HzColor Gamut72% NTSC, 100% sRGBLCD Features144 Hz IPS-Level 300 nits 72% NTSC 100% sRGB Anti-Glare
Operating SystemsOperating SystemWindows 10 Home 64-bit
GraphicsGPU/VPUNVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060Video Memory6 GBGraphic TypeDedicated Card
StorageSSD256 GB NVMeHDD1 TBHDD RPM5400 RPMHDD InterfaceSATAStorage Spec1 TB SATA 5400 RPM 2.5" HDD + 256 GB PCIe Gen3x2 NVMe M.2 SSD
MemoryMemory16 GBMemory SpeedDDR4 2666Memory Slot (Total)2Max Memory Supported32 GB
Optical DriveOptical Drive TypeNo
CommunicationsLAN10/100/1000MbpsWLAN802.11ac Wireless LANBluetoothBluetooth 5.0
PortsUSB1 x USB 3.1 Type-C (Gen 2)
2 x USB 3.1 Type-A (Gen 1)
1 x USB 3.1 Type-A (Gen 2)Video Port1 x Mini DisplayPortHDMI1 x HDMI 2.0Audio Ports1 x Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack
AudioAudioBuilt-in array microphoneSpeaker2 x Speakers (1W)
Output DeviceVirtual Reality ReadyYes
Input DeviceKeyboardIlluminated Chiclet Keyboard 4-Zone RGBBacklit KeyboardBacklitWebcam720p HDCard ReaderSD
GeneralStyleStandardTypeGaming & EntertainmentUsageConsumer
PowerAC Adapter180-watt AC adapterBattery66 WHrs, 4S1P, 4-cell Li-ion
Dimensions & WeightDimensions (W x D x H)14.21" x 10.31" x 1.00"-1.03"Weight5.29 lbs.
Additional InformationDate First AvailableOctober 21, 2019
Strap in and enjoy the ride. Asus' ROG Strix Hero II is the best asus laptop for gaming thanks to robust specs, including an 8th Gen Core i7 processor and GTX 1060 graphics. That means you'll have no problem playing the latest titles. This 15.6-inch beast will also blow you away with its colorful, 144-Hz panel and mesmerizing speakers.
The Strix Hero II does have a few flaws, including a ton of bloatware and an awkward camera located on the bottom bezel. But overall, this is a gaming rig you'll definitely want to own.
Design
The ROG Strix Hero II's black, aluminum lid is stylishly designed, with a slash representing the battle line in MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) games. The upper-right section is elegantly hairline brushed, creating a satisfying sensation to the touch. It's also accompanied by an engraved, metallic-gray ROG logo that glows with RGB color. It's subtle enough not to be obnoxious.
The lower left is smoothly anodized and adorned with a white Republic of Gamers logo protruding near the hinge. The inner lid is exquisitely carved out, and the internal chassis features indicators for power, battery, hard drive and Wi-Fi. The vents in the back feature an ROG Strix logo and are edgily fashioned in red. Right before I opened the laptop, I saw an RGB light bar below the lid; it's a bit too gaudy for my taste, but it can be disabled.
The ROG Strix Hero II is subtle enough not to be obnoxious.
The internal, plastic chassis has a similar slash design, using gray-and-black paint to create a cyberpunk-style finish. The interior features an RGB-backlit keyboard that looks like something out of Metal Gear Solid, down to the exclamation point. The QWER keys are transparent, to make them stand out for MOBA players, which is pretty neat. Additionally, the touchpad has two discrete clickers. Above the keyboard lies a diagonal vent lid for the fan, and to the left are four distinguishable buttons for the audio sliders, microphone and ROG's Gaming Center.
I was particularly happy to find that the Hero II's bezels are practically nonexistent, though it means the webcam is awkwardly placed along the bottom bezel. The result is that other people will be gazing at your chin during video calls or Twitch streams.
At 5.1 pounds and 14.2 x 10.3 x 1 inches, the ROG Strix Hero II is the thinnest and lightest mainstream gaming laptop among its competitors. The Acer Predator Helios 300 (15-inch) is the thickest, measuring 1.5 inches; the Lenovo Legion Y720 is the heaviest, weighing 6.8 pounds; and the PowerSpec 1510 fell in between, at 6.5 pounds and 1.3 inches thick.
Ports
The ROG Strix Hero II covers a wide selection of ports. Starting on the left, there's the power jack, an RJ45 port, a Mini DisplayPort, an HDMI 2.0 port, two USB 3.1 ports, one USB Type-C port and a headphone/microphone jack.
The right side features a Kensington lock slot, one USB 3.1 port and an SD memory reader.
Display
The ROG Strix Hero II's 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 144-Hz panel is wonderfully bright and vivid, capturing each detail as it was meant to be represented.
I watched the trailer for Welcome to Marwen on the Hero II's display, and as an emotional Steve Carell sat in a courtroom, I was captivated by his crisp, glistening eyes. I noticed the stitching in his collared shirt and each strand of hair frizzing out of his head.
While playing Middle-earth: Shadow of War, I walked into the nook of a grassy-stone courtyard and was greeted by several muddy-looking orcs with sharp, wooden clubs. Every move I made to dodge and leap out of the way of their weapons was fluid and smooth, as if I had floated through time and space to slice their vibrant, green skin with my sharp, gold-trimmed blade. With their gory corpses laid out before me, I moved deeper into the sunlit courtyard and soaked in the details of each broken pillar and tattered blue-gold flag that hung over the castle walls as fiery ashes blew in the wind.
According to our testing, the Hero II's display covers a solid 120 percent of the sRGB color gamut, sliding past both the mainstream gaming laptop average and the PowerSpec 1510 (both 113 percent). It also soared by the Lenovo Legion Y720's 82 percent and the Acer Predator Helios 300's 88 percent.
At 276 nits, the Hero II's screen is plenty bright, but it's still below the 308-nit category average. It's brighter than the Predator and the Legion, which averaged 226 and 210 nits, respectively. The PowerSpec also fell slightly below the average, at 306 nits.
Keyboard and Touchpad
Between its stylish design and responsiveness, the Hero II's island-style keyboard is quite the gem. The palm rests are incredibly soft, and I especially enjoyed the panache of the carved spacebar, which reminded me of Metal Gear's gritty aesthetic. Asus was smart to embed the arrow keys into the number pad, as the keys for Enter, Shift and Control are neatly aligned together.
With the keys being so well spaced, I nailed 66 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, besting my 60-wpm average. The key travel is 1.4 millimeters, and the keys require 63 grams of actuation force. We typically look for travel in the 1.5-to-2.0-mm range and a minimum force of 60 grams.
The 4.2 x 2.3-inch touchpad is silky smooth, and its discrete clickers are very responsive. It recognized all the Windows 10 gestures I used.
Audio
The Hero II's speakers are so ferocious that my co-workers could hear Jonathan Young's "Unravel" beyond the closed doors of a large conference room. The gentle vocals that open the song are intended to be soft, but the speakers are so powerful, it sounded like I was at a concert.
The Hero II's speakers are so ferocious that my co-workers could hear Jonathan Young's 'Unravel' beyond the closed doors of a large conference room.
Once it got to the metal guitar section, I was blown away by the intensity of the bilateral sounds and how well the treble and bass weaved together during Young's guitar solo. The chorus exploded with crisp, heart-pounding audio, and when the end of the song closed with a sweet melodic tune, the desperation in Young's voice was captured perfectly.
When I played Shadow of War, I could easily hear how far I was from the intense catapult firing in the background. Every slash and dash in the fight against six orcs felt sharp and fierce, and after they all dropped, the sweet sound of sheathing my blade was so smooth it was music to my ears.
The Hero II's awesome sound is enhanced by the Sonic Studio III app, which comes with a customizable equalizer as well as preset settings such as Bright, Deep, Deep and Bright, Dynamic, and Lively.
Gaming, Graphics and VR
The Hero II's Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU, with 6GB of VRAM, ran Shadow of War at a smooth 61 frames per second on very high settings as I invaded an orc outpost on the hunt for revenge against Norsko, a berserker who murdered me while I was writing my audio blurb. I fluidly swiped and dodged surrounding orcs without a single frame-rate dip for several minutes, until another Captain showed up and quickly overwhelmed and killed me. My death looked velvety smooth, though.
Rise of the Tomb Raider ran at 38 fps on very high and 1080p, and while that's above the 34-fps category average, other laptops have fared better. The Acer Predator Helios 300 (GTX 1060 6GB) ran the game the best, at 67 fps, and the PowerSpec 1510 (GTX 1070 8GB) was close behind, at 56 fps. The Lenovo Legion Y720 (GTX 1060 6GB) was the slowest, at 35 fps. (We consider anything above 30 fps to be playable.)
On the Hitman benchmark (1080p, ultra), the Hero II maintained a very smooth 72 fps, beating the 67-fps category average. The Predator (64 fps), Legion (62 fps) and PowerSpec (60 fps) all fell behind the Hero II and the average.
Grand Theft Auto V ran at 52 fps on very high and 1080p, falling slightly under the 56-fps category average and the PowerSpec's 60 fps. The Legion and the Predator averaged 47 and 49 fps, respectively.
The Hero II scored a solid 7.4 out of 11 on the SteamVR Performance test, surpassing the 5.5 category average as well as the Legion's 6.7 and the Predator's 7.1. The PowerSpec, however, scored a perfect 11.]
The Hero II also comes with an Intel UHD 630 graphics card built in for those moments when you just want to watch a video or do some actual work.
Performance
This baby roars with power. The Hero II can run Shadow of War like a champ, stream your favorite Spotify playlist and manage over 40 Google Chrome tabs filled with more wikis than you need all at the same time. The laptop gets that fiery horsepower from its Intel Core i7-8750H processor, 32GB of RAM, 256GB NVMe SSD, and 1TB, 5,400-rpm HDD.
On the Geekbench 4 overall performance test, the ROG Strix Hero II scored an amazing 20,690, skyrocketing over the 15,676 mainstream gaming laptop average. The Lenovo Legion Y720 (12,169), the Acer Predator Helios 300 (13,587) and the PowerSpec 1510 (14,223) all fell below the category average, with their respective Intel Core i7-7700HQ processors.
It took the Hero II 11 seconds to copy 4.97GB of multimedia files, translating to a whopping 462 megabytes per second. That's higher than the 323MBps category average as well as the PowerSpec's 391MBps. The Predator and the Legion were a little slower, at 188 and 164MBps, respectively.
On our HandBrake test, the Hero II took 9 minutes and 36 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p, knocking out the 12:21 category average and the PowerSpec's 14:00.
The Hero II took 35 seconds to match 65,000 names and addresses on our Excel test, once again speeding past the category average (0:48) and the PowerSpec (1:08).
Battery Life
The ROG Strix Hero II put up a good fight, especially for a gaming laptop. Its battery lasted 4 hours and 56 minutes while continuously web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of screen brightness, crushing the 3:17 mainstream gaming laptop average. However, both the Acer Predator Helios 300 and the Lenovo Legion Y720 lasted just over 6 hours.
Webcam
In an effort to make the bezels thin, Asus placed the Hero II's webcam along the bottom bezel, where it looks directly at your chin. And it looks as awkward as you can imagine. Even if its weird location weren't an issue, there was another problem: The webcam took dark and grainy images. My hair looked like a 5-year-old drew it on, although the colors weren't too bad. The shades of gray, white and blue were decently represented on my flannel shirt, and the lights on the ceiling weren't blown out. But ultimately, the images looked very unpleasant.
Heat
After we played Shadow of War for 15 minutes, the Hero II's underside measured 110 degrees Fahrenheit, climbing above our 95-degree comfort threshold. The center of the keyboard and touchpad measured 100 and 79 degrees, respectively. The hottest point was close to the center of the hinge, which hit 120 degrees. Despite that, I wasn't uncomfortable while I was gaming at home with the Hero II on my lap.
In fact, the Hero II still climbed above our threshold even when it wasn't gaming. After we streamed a 15-minute HD video, the underside climbed to 103 degrees. The center of the keyboard hit a more reasonable 92 degrees, and the touchpad registered a cool 79 degrees.
Software and Warranty
Asus offers several of its own apps for the Republic of Gamers. The Gaming Center highlights the CPU and GPU specs, clock speed, temps and memory, as well as provides options for freeing up memory. Below the interface are shortcuts for other ROG apps and settings for the fan speed, touchpad, Windows key and ROG key. The Aura Core app controls the RGB backlighting, and GameVisual features multiple settings to change the panel's color and brightness.
GameFirst V has fully customizable Wi-Fi options to manage gameplay as well as other activities. Sonic Radar III displays a radar on-screen to visualize which direction audio is coming from, specifically for gamers looking for an edge. Sonic Studio III enhances capabilities for streaming and audio recording through various settings. There's also the XSplit Gamecaster for live streaming, as well as the Asus Gift Box, which allows you to buy select programs, such as Adobe Acrobat Pro, at Asus-exclusive discounts. There's a customer support app called MyAsus, as well as an antivirus app McAfee Security.
Like most Windows 10 machines, the Strix Hero II features tons of Microsoft-supplied bloatware, such as Cooking Fever, Candy Crush Saga, Netflix and Asphalt Street Storm Racing.
The ROG Strix Hero II comes with a one-year limited warranty. See how Asus performed on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands ranking.
Bottom Line
Asus' ROG Strix Hero II is an absolute beaut of a gaming laptop. It's thinner and lighter than competitors and still manages to pack intense firepower, and provides plenty of immersion with its immaculate display and heart-pounding speakers. The high amount of bloatware and awkward webcam might stamp out some of your fun, though.
If you're looking for a brighter display, better battery life and stronger graphics, the PowerSpec 1510 is an excellent alternative, especially if you want to play in VR. However, that system is considerably heavier than the Asus, its speakers are relatively quiet, it provides no helpful gaming utilities and its bezels are considerably bigger.
Overall, the Hero II's solid battery life, awesome keyboard and impressive overall performance make it an excellent choice for gaming on the go.
Strap in and enjoy the ride. Asus' ROG Strix Hero II is a gaming laptop that boasts some robust specs, including an 8th Gen Core i7 processor and GTX 1060 graphics. That means you'll have no problem playing the latest titles. This 15.6-inch beast will also blow you away with its colorful, 144-Hz panel and mesmerizing speakers.
The Strix Hero II does have a few flaws, including a ton of bloatware and an awkward camera located on the bottom bezel. But overall, this is a gaming rig you'll definitely want to own.
Design
The ROG Strix Hero II's black, aluminum lid is stylishly designed, with a slash representing the battle line in MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) games. The upper-right section is elegantly hairline brushed, creating a satisfying sensation to the touch. It's also accompanied by an engraved, metallic-gray ROG logo that glows with RGB color. It's subtle enough not to be obnoxious.
The lower left is smoothly anodized and adorned with a white Republic of Gamers logo protruding near the hinge. The inner lid is exquisitely carved out, and the internal chassis features indicators for power, battery, hard drive and Wi-Fi. The vents in the back feature an ROG Strix logo and are edgily fashioned in red. Right before I opened the laptop, I saw an RGB light bar below the lid; it's a bit too gaudy for my taste, but it can be disabled.
The ROG Strix Hero II is subtle enough not to be obnoxious.
The internal, plastic chassis has a similar slash design, using gray-and-black paint to create a cyberpunk-style finish. The interior features an RGB-backlit keyboard that looks like something out of Metal Gear Solid, down to the exclamation point. The QWER keys are transparent, to make them stand out for MOBA players, which is pretty neat. Additionally, the touchpad has two discrete clickers. Above the keyboard lies a diagonal vent lid for the fan, and to the left are four distinguishable buttons for the audio sliders, microphone and ROG's Gaming Center.
I was particularly happy to find that the Hero II's bezels are practically nonexistent, though it means the webcam is awkwardly placed along the bottom bezel. The result is that other people will be gazing at your chin during video calls or Twitch streams.
At 5.1 pounds and 14.2 x 10.3 x 1 inches, the ROG Strix Hero II is the thinnest and lightest mainstream gaming laptop among its competitors. The Acer Predator Helios 300 (15-inch) is the thickest, measuring 1.5 inches; the Lenovo Legion Y720 is the heaviest, weighing 6.8 pounds; and the PowerSpec 1510 fell in between, at 6.5 pounds and 1.3 inches thick.
Ports
The ROG Strix Hero II covers a wide selection of ports. Starting on the left, there's the power jack, an RJ45 port, a Mini DisplayPort, an HDMI 2.0 port, two USB 3.1 ports, one USB Type-C port and a headphone/microphone jack.
The right side features a Kensington lock slot, one USB 3.1 port and an SD memory reader.
Display
The ROG Strix Hero II's 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 144-Hz panel is wonderfully bright and vivid, capturing each detail as it was meant to be represented.
I watched the trailer for Welcome to Marwen on the Hero II's display, and as an emotional Steve Carell sat in a courtroom, I was captivated by his crisp, glistening eyes. I noticed the stitching in his collared shirt and each strand of hair frizzing out of his head.
While playing Middle-earth: Shadow of War, I walked into the nook of a grassy-stone courtyard and was greeted by several muddy-looking orcs with sharp, wooden clubs. Every move I made to dodge and leap out of the way of their weapons was fluid and smooth, as if I had floated through time and space to slice their vibrant, green skin with my sharp, gold-trimmed blade. With their gory corpses laid out before me, I moved deeper into the sunlit courtyard and soaked in the details of each broken pillar and tattered blue-gold flag that hung over the castle walls as fiery ashes blew in the wind.
According to our testing, the Hero II's display covers a solid 120 percent of the sRGB color gamut, sliding past both the mainstream gaming laptop average and the PowerSpec 1510 (both 113 percent). It also soared by the Lenovo Legion Y720's 82 percent and the Acer Predator Helios 300's 88 percent.
At 276 nits, the Hero II's screen is plenty bright, but it's still below the 308-nit category average. It's brighter than the Predator and the Legion, which averaged 226 and 210 nits, respectively. The PowerSpec also fell slightly below the average, at 306 nits.
Keyboard and Touchpad
Between its stylish design and responsiveness, the Hero II's island-style keyboard is quite the gem. The palm rests are incredibly soft, and I especially enjoyed the panache of the carved spacebar, which reminded me of Metal Gear's gritty aesthetic. Asus was smart to embed the arrow keys into the number pad, as the keys for Enter, Shift and Control are neatly aligned together.
With the keys being so well spaced, I nailed 66 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, besting my 60-wpm average. The key travel is 1.4 millimeters, and the keys require 63 grams of actuation force. We typically look for travel in the 1.5-to-2.0-mm range and a minimum force of 60 grams.
The 4.2 x 2.3-inch touchpad is silky smooth, and its discrete clickers are very responsive. It recognized all the Windows 10 gestures I used.
Audio
The Hero II's speakers are so ferocious that my co-workers could hear Jonathan Young's "Unravel" beyond the closed doors of a large conference room. The gentle vocals that open the song are intended to be soft, but the speakers are so powerful, it sounded like I was at a concert.
The Hero II's speakers are so ferocious that my co-workers could hear Jonathan Young's 'Unravel' beyond the closed doors of a large conference room.
Once it got to the metal guitar section, I was blown away by the intensity of the bilateral sounds and how well the treble and bass weaved together during Young's guitar solo. The chorus exploded with crisp, heart-pounding audio, and when the end of the song closed with a sweet melodic tune, the desperation in Young's voice was captured perfectly.
When I played Shadow of War, I could easily hear how far I was from the intense catapult firing in the background. Every slash and dash in the fight against six orcs felt sharp and fierce, and after they all dropped, the sweet sound of sheathing my blade was so smooth it was music to my ears.
The Hero II's awesome sound is enhanced by the Sonic Studio III app, which comes with a customizable equalizer as well as preset settings such as Bright, Deep, Deep and Bright, Dynamic, and Lively.
Gaming, Graphics and VR
The Hero II's Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU, with 6GB of VRAM, ran Shadow of War at a smooth 61 frames per second on very high settings as I invaded an orc outpost on the hunt for revenge against Norsko, a berserker who murdered me while I was writing my audio blurb. I fluidly swiped and dodged surrounding orcs without a single frame-rate dip for several minutes, until another Captain showed up and quickly overwhelmed and killed me. My death looked velvety smooth, though.
Rise of the Tomb Raider ran at 38 fps on very high and 1080p, and while that's above the 34-fps category average, other laptops have fared better. The Acer Predator Helios 300 (GTX 1060 6GB) ran the game the best, at 67 fps, and the PowerSpec 1510 (GTX 1070 8GB) was close behind, at 56 fps. The Lenovo Legion Y720 (GTX 1060 6GB) was the slowest, at 35 fps. (We consider anything above 30 fps to be playable.)
On the Hitman benchmark (1080p, ultra), the Hero II maintained a very smooth 72 fps, beating the 67-fps category average. The Predator (64 fps), Legion (62 fps) and PowerSpec (60 fps) all fell behind the Hero II and the average.
Grand Theft Auto V ran at 52 fps on very high and 1080p, falling slightly under the 56-fps category average and the PowerSpec's 60 fps. The Legion and the Predator averaged 47 and 49 fps, respectively.
The Hero II scored a solid 7.4 out of 11 on the SteamVR Performance test, surpassing the 5.5 category average as well as the Legion's 6.7 and the Predator's 7.1. The PowerSpec, however, scored a perfect 11.
The Hero II also comes with an Intel UHD 630 graphics card built in for those moments when you just want to watch a video or do some actual work.
Performance
This baby roars with power. The Hero II can run Shadow of War like a champ, stream your favorite Spotify playlist and manage over 40 Google Chrome tabs filled with more wikis than you need all at the same time. The laptop gets that fiery horsepower from its Intel Core i7-8750H processor, 32GB of RAM, 256GB NVMe SSD, and 1TB, 5,400-rpm HDD.
On the Geekbench 4 overall performance test, the ROG Strix Hero II scored an amazing 20,690, skyrocketing over the 15,676 mainstream gaming laptop average. The Lenovo Legion Y720 (12,169), the Acer Predator Helios 300 (13,587) and the PowerSpec 1510 (14,223) all fell below the category average, with their respective Intel Core i7-7700HQ processors.
It took the Hero II 11 seconds to copy 4.97GB of multimedia files, translating to a whopping 462 megabytes per second. That's higher than the 323MBps category average as well as the PowerSpec's 391MBps. The Predator and the Legion were a little slower, at 188 and 164MBps, respectively.
On our HandBrake test, the Hero II took 9 minutes and 36 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p, knocking out the 12:21 category average and the PowerSpec's 14:00.
The Hero II took 35 seconds to match 65,000 names and addresses on our Excel test, once again speeding past the category average (0:48) and the PowerSpec (1:08).
Battery Life
The ROG Strix Hero II put up a good fight, especially for a gaming laptop. Its battery lasted 4 hours and 56 minutes while continuously web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of screen brightness, crushing the 3:17 mainstream gaming laptop average. However, both the Acer Predator Helios 300 and the Lenovo Legion Y720 lasted just over 6 hours.
Webcam
In an effort to make the bezels thin, Asus placed the Hero II's webcam along the bottom bezel, where it looks directly at your chin. And it looks as awkward as you can imagine. Even if its weird location weren't an issue, there was another problem: The webcam took dark and grainy images. My hair looked like a 5-year-old drew it on, although the colors weren't too bad. The shades of gray, white and blue were decently represented on my flannel shirt, and the lights on the ceiling weren't blown out. But ultimately, the images looked very unpleasant.
Heat
After we played Shadow of War for 15 minutes, the Hero II's underside measured 110 degrees Fahrenheit, climbing above our 95-degree comfort threshold. The center of the keyboard and touchpad measured 100 and 79 degrees, respectively. The hottest point was close to the center of the hinge, which hit 120 degrees. Despite that, I wasn't uncomfortable while I was gaming at home with the Hero II on my lap.
In fact, the Hero II still climbed above our threshold even when it wasn't gaming. After we streamed a 15-minute HD video, the underside climbed to 103 degrees. The center of the keyboard hit a more reasonable 92 degrees, and the touchpad registered a cool 79 degrees.
Software and Warranty
Asus offers several of its own apps for the Republic of Gamers. The Gaming Center highlights the CPU and GPU specs, clock speed, temps and memory, as well as provides options for freeing up memory. Below the interface are shortcuts for other ROG apps and settings for the fan speed, touchpad, Windows key and ROG key. The Aura Core app controls the RGB backlighting, and GameVisual features multiple settings to change the panel's color and brightness.
GameFirst V has fully customizable Wi-Fi options to manage gameplay as well as other activities. Sonic Radar III displays a radar on-screen to visualize which direction audio is coming from, specifically for gamers looking for an edge. Sonic Studio III enhances capabilities for streaming and audio recording through various settings. There's also the XSplit Gamecaster for live streaming, as well as the Asus Gift Box, which allows you to buy select programs, such as Adobe Acrobat Pro, at Asus-exclusive discounts. There's a customer support app called MyAsus, as well as an antivirus app McAfee Security.
Like most Windows 10 machines, the Strix Hero II features tons of Microsoft-supplied bloatware, such as Cooking Fever, Candy Crush Saga, Netflix and Asphalt Street Storm Racing.
The ROG Strix Hero II comes with a one-year limited warranty. See how Asus performed on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands ranking.
Bottom Line
Asus' ROG Strix Hero II is an absolute beaut of a gaming laptop. It's thinner and lighter than competitors and still manages to pack intense firepower, and provides plenty of immersion with its immaculate display and heart-pounding speakers. The high amount of bloatware and awkward webcam might stamp out some of your fun, though.
If you're looking for a brighter display, better battery life and stronger graphics, the PowerSpec 1510 is an excellent alternative, especially if you want to play in VR. However, that system is considerably heavier than the Asus, its speakers are relatively quiet, it provides no helpful gaming utilities and its bezels are considerably bigger.
Overall, the Hero II's solid battery life, awesome keyboard and impressive overall performance make it an excellent choice for gaming on the go.
What is the Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II?
The Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II is a gaming laptop that’s chiefly geared towards players of MOBA-type games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends, hence the QWER keys and a super-high 144Hz refresh rate display.
While the requirements of such games are typically less intensive than modern day blockbusters (which is the reason you get a lower-specced Nvidia GTX 1060 here), how does the ROG Hero II measure up against gaming laptops released over the past few months?
The ROG Hero II looks every inch the party piece.
Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II – Design and features
Style-wise, the Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II is typical of a gaming laptop. It’s all black with red accents, angular, and mean-looking. RGB lights under the keycaps are complemented by an LED strip on the laptop’s base, a look that’s completed with a light on the rear shaped like the Republic of Gamers logo.
While you won’t see it much of the time, this party piece will flash and pulse in sync with whatever you’re playing or listening to. At all other times, it will just look like a regrettable radioactive tattoo.
Personally, I’m a little bemused by RGB bells and whistles such as this, but if flashing LEDs are your bag, then you’ll no doubt love the ROG Strix Hero II’s many, many lighting modes.
Since the ROG Hero II is an Asus laptop, it also supports Asus’s Aura Sync RGB software. As such, if you want your gaming mouse’s lights to flash in tandem, then you’ll need this instead of, say, Razer’s Chroma software.
I really like that you can set the lights to pulse in time to the music you’re listening to. If you’ve got the laptop hooked up to speakers, the ROG Hero II can double quite comfortably as a party station.
Gaming laptops tend to have more ports than Singapore, and the ROG Hero II is no exception.
Note that you’ll want to hook up the ROG Hero II to some speakers too, because the built-in units offer pretty poor bass response. They’re plenty loud, but low-end frequencies are muddy. I blasted “Master of Puppets” at my colleagues, and everyone in the room visibly winced once the bass starts to properly get going.
With the Bass Boost setting turned off (it’s turned on by default), low-end distortion is still audible – even at 30% volume. This was present on other tracks and game audio too, so it isn’t only 80s thrash bands who end up sounding terrible. You’ll obviously want to invest in a headset for gaming anyway. Regardless, I’m hoping the poor bass response was only an issue in this review model, and not the entire line.
In addition to the 3.5mm audio jack, the ROG Hero II treats you to a selection of ports that’s above and beyond what you’d get on a typical notebook or Ultrabook.
On the left there’s Ethernet, DisplayPort, HDMI, two USB-A ports, and a USB-C. Most of the space on the right is taken up by an air vent, but even so, you get an SD card reader, a third USB-A port and a security slot.
There are fewer ports over on the right-hand side of the ROG Hero II, as most of the space is taken up by an air vent.
Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II – Keyboard
Since the Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II is a gaming laptop aimed primarily at MOBA players, it’s the QWER keycaps that are highlighted here instead of the typical WASD keys used for most FPS games. Typically, these hotkeys are where your commands will be mapped, so you can quickly chug healing potions, mana boosts and the like.
There are dedicated hotkeys above the F1-4 keys for volume controls, mute and a ROG hotkey that launches the Gaming Centre dashboard. Here, you can tweak features such as the RGB lighting modes and check CPU and GPU temperatures.
The Fan Overboost feature lets you manually toggle whether the fan is either running quietly or running at maximum “Overboost” speed. You’d use this to accelerate the cooling of the ROG Hero II’s cores, which is useful if you’ve just come to the end of a gaming session and everything is running a little hot.
For the majority of the time you’ll want to stick to the default Balanced setting, which strikes a balance between the other two extremes and doesn’t see gaming performance dip.
The Gaming Centre dashboard provides a quick look at CPU and GPU core temperature, lets you toggle fan speeds, game profiles and lighting modes.
There are modes for racing, FPS, and RTS/RPGs games, a Scenery mode (which generally boosts the brightness), Cinema mode, which dials down the contrast, and a default mode. These modes are cosmetic, and had no bearing on actual performance in my tests.
Aside from gaming, the keyboard is relatively well spaced for typing and getting your hands on those hotkeys. There’s a fair bit of travel, but this arguably makes for more precise typing/commands, and less fat-finger fumbles.
The chiclet-style keys don’t quite reach the same levels of typing nirvana afforded by the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1’s maglev setup, but they’re decent enough. You’ll have no issues working on this in-between gaming sessions.
On the downside, the numerical keys shunted over to the right are too tightly bunched for my liking, to the point where it’s a typo minefield. The arrow keys, in particular, are too small, and their positioning – as an inverse T-shape that’s tacked on to the number pad like a stray Tetris piece – is difficult to get used to.
The trackpad is super-responsive, while the left and right keys are big and chunky, offering a satisfying degree of travel. It’s a little smaller than the trackpads of the Razer Blade 15 and the Gigabyte Aero 15, but it never made my admittedly bigger-than-average hands feel claustrophobic.
Chances are you’ll want to splash out on a mouse anyway, so some of the trackpad limitations might not be a big issue.
Like most gaming laptops, the ROG GL504 Hero II’s spartan black body is offset by polychromatic show-off lights.
Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II – Display
Two versions of the ROG Hero II are on sale, one with a 60Hz refresh rate and the other with 144Hz. The model we tested was of the latter version. It perhaps isn’t surprising that everything in general looks smooth. As MOBA-type games tend to be frantic and fast-paced, a high refresh rate will come in handy. Whichever model you pick, you’ll no doubt appreciate the super-skinny bezels, which are a hair’s breadth over 10mm.
Note that when I performed my screen tests, I also made sure the “default” mode was selected.
With the screen cranked to max brightness, I recorded a high of 342 nits with our colorimeter, and a good black level of 0.27 nits. I recorded a colour temperature of 7150K, which is quite a lot cooler than the ideal 6500K. Colours did on occasion look a little washed out, although this may have more to do with the reflective coating that sometimes catches ambient light in odd ways and limits the otherwise decent viewing angles.
Colour gamut coverage was respectable, but not exactly mind-blowing. The ROG Strix Hero II covered 84.8% of the sRGB colour space. The sRGB gamut is the world’s standard for digital and printed art. Anything above 80% is generally pretty good. However, if you were thinking about using this device for Photoshop work, there are far better options available.
Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 scores were low. I recorded coverage levels of 61.8% and 66% respectively. These colour gamuts are generally favoured by digital photographers. These scores aren’t ideal; generally if you’re working with photography, you’d want a display to offer 80% (or more) here.
The Razer Blade 15 and Gigabyte Aero 15 scored similarly in the latter two colour gamut tests, but both presented significantly better sRGB coverage – 92.6% and 97% respectively, proving that they’re easily the best choices for colour accuracy.
The viewing angles of the ROG Hero II are generally very good. Generally…
Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II – Benchmarks and performance
In terms of using the ROG Strix Hero II as a standard laptop, performance is on par with the likes of the LG Gram 14Z980 and Microsoft Surface Pro 6, which achieved similar Geekbench 4 and PC Mark 10 results.
Read and write speeds were low as well, although whether I was booting a game or moving large photo files around between phones, SD cards and an external drive, nothing felt too sluggish.
Here’s how I got on when putting the ROG Hero II through the standard Trusted Reviews benchmarking process:
Battery Life
The ROG Strix Hero II put up a good fight, especially for a gaming laptop. Its battery lasted 4 hours and 56 minutes while continuously web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of screen brightness, crushing the 3:17 mainstream gaming laptop average. However, both the Acer Predator Helios 300 and the Lenovo Legion Y720 lasted just over 6 hours.
Webcam
In an effort to make the bezels thin, Asus placed the Hero II's webcam along the bottom bezel, where it looks directly at your chin. And it looks as awkward as you can imagine. Even if its weird location weren't an issue, there was another problem: The webcam took dark and grainy images. My hair looked like a 5-year-old drew it on, although the colors weren't too bad. The shades of gray, white and blue were decently represented on my flannel shirt, and the lights on the ceiling weren't blown out. But ultimately, the images looked very unpleasant.
Heat
After we played Shadow of War for 15 minutes, the Hero II's underside measured 110 degrees Fahrenheit, climbing above our 95-degree comfort threshold. The center of the keyboard and touchpad measured 100 and 79 degrees, respectively. The hottest point was close to the center of the hinge, which hit 120 degrees. Despite that, I wasn't uncomfortable while I was gaming at home with the Hero II on my lap.
In fact, the Hero II still climbed above our threshold even when it wasn't gaming. After we streamed a 15-minute HD video, the underside climbed to 103 degrees. The center of the keyboard hit a more reasonable 92 degrees, and the touchpad registered a cool 79 degrees.
Software and Warranty
Asus offers several of its own apps for the Republic of Gamers. The Gaming Center highlights the CPU and GPU specs, clock speed, temps and memory, as well as provides options for freeing up memory. Below the interface are shortcuts for other ROG apps and settings for the fan speed, touchpad, Windows key and ROG key. The Aura Core app controls the RGB backlighting, and GameVisual features multiple settings to change the panel's color and brightness.
GameFirst V has fully customizable Wi-Fi options to manage gameplay as well as other activities. Sonic Radar III displays a radar on-screen to visualize which direction audio is coming from, specifically for gamers looking for an edge. Sonic Studio III enhances capabilities for streaming and audio recording through various settings. There's also the XSplit Gamecaster for live streaming, as well as the Asus Gift Box, which allows you to buy select programs, such as Adobe Acrobat Pro, at Asus-exclusive discounts. There's a customer support app called MyAsus, as well as an antivirus app McAfee Security.
Like most Windows 10 machines, the Strix Hero II features tons of Microsoft-supplied bloatware, such as Cooking Fever, Candy Crush Saga, Netflix and Asphalt Street Storm Racing.
The ROG Strix Hero II comes with a one-year limited warranty. See how Asus performed on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands ranking.
Bottom Line
Asus' ROG Strix Hero II is an absolute beaut of a gaming laptop. It's thinner and lighter than competitors and still manages to pack intense firepower, and provides plenty of immersion with its immaculate display and heart-pounding speakers. The high amount of bloatware and awkward webcam might stamp out some of your fun, though.
If you're looking for a brighter display, better battery life and stronger graphics, the PowerSpec 1510 is an excellent alternative, especially if you want to play in VR. However, that system is considerably heavier than the Asus, its speakers are relatively quiet, it provides no helpful gaming utilities and its bezels are considerably bigger.
Overall, the Hero II's solid battery life, awesome keyboard and impressive overall performance make it an excellent choice for gaming on the go.
What is the Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II?
The Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II is a gaming laptop that’s chiefly geared towards players of MOBA-type games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends, hence the QWER keys and a super-high 144Hz refresh rate display.
While the requirements of such games are typically less intensive than modern day blockbusters (which is the reason you get a lower-specced Nvidia GTX 1060 here), how does the ROG Hero II measure up against gaming laptops released over the past few months?
The ROG Hero II looks every inch the party piece.
Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II – Design and features
Style-wise, the Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II is typical of a gaming laptop. It’s all black with red accents, angular, and mean-looking. RGB lights under the keycaps are complemented by an LED strip on the laptop’s base, a look that’s completed with a light on the rear shaped like the Republic of Gamers logo.
While you won’t see it much of the time, this party piece will flash and pulse in sync with whatever you’re playing or listening to. At all other times, it will just look like a regrettable radioactive tattoo.
Personally, I’m a little bemused by RGB bells and whistles such as this, but if flashing LEDs are your bag, then you’ll no doubt love the ROG Strix Hero II’s many, many lighting modes.
Since the ROG Hero II is an Asus laptop, it also supports Asus’s Aura Sync RGB software. As such, if you want your gaming mouse’s lights to flash in tandem, then you’ll need this instead of, say, Razer’s Chroma software.
I really like that you can set the lights to pulse in time to the music you’re listening to. If you’ve got the laptop hooked up to speakers, the ROG Hero II can double quite comfortably as a party station.
Gaming laptops tend to have more ports than Singapore, and the ROG Hero II is no exception.
Note that you’ll want to hook up the ROG Hero II to some speakers too, because the built-in units offer pretty poor bass response. They’re plenty loud, but low-end frequencies are muddy. I blasted “Master of Puppets” at my colleagues, and everyone in the room visibly winced once the bass starts to properly get going.
With the Bass Boost setting turned off (it’s turned on by default), low-end distortion is still audible – even at 30% volume. This was present on other tracks and game audio too, so it isn’t only 80s thrash bands who end up sounding terrible. You’ll obviously want to invest in a headset for gaming anyway. Regardless, I’m hoping the poor bass response was only an issue in this review model, and not the entire line.
In addition to the 3.5mm audio jack, the ROG Hero II treats you to a selection of ports that’s above and beyond what you’d get on a typical notebook or Ultrabook.
On the left there’s Ethernet, DisplayPort, HDMI, two USB-A ports, and a USB-C. Most of the space on the right is taken up by an air vent, but even so, you get an SD card reader, a third USB-A port and a security slot.
There are fewer ports over on the right-hand side of the ROG Hero II, as most of the space is taken up by an air vent.
Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II – Keyboard
Since the Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II is a gaming laptop aimed primarily at MOBA players, it’s the QWER keycaps that are highlighted here instead of the typical WASD keys used for most FPS games. Typically, these hotkeys are where your commands will be mapped, so you can quickly chug healing potions, mana boosts and the like.
There are dedicated hotkeys above the F1-4 keys for volume controls, mute and a ROG hotkey that launches the Gaming Centre dashboard. Here, you can tweak features such as the RGB lighting modes and check CPU and GPU temperatures.
The Fan Overboost feature lets you manually toggle whether the fan is either running quietly or running at maximum “Overboost” speed. You’d use this to accelerate the cooling of the ROG Hero II’s cores, which is useful if you’ve just come to the end of a gaming session and everything is running a little hot.
For the majority of the time you’ll want to stick to the default Balanced setting, which strikes a balance between the other two extremes and doesn’t see gaming performance dip.
The Gaming Centre dashboard provides a quick look at CPU and GPU core temperature, lets you toggle fan speeds, game profiles and lighting modes.
There are modes for racing, FPS, and RTS/RPGs games, a Scenery mode (which generally boosts the brightness), Cinema mode, which dials down the contrast, and a default mode. These modes are cosmetic, and had no bearing on actual performance in my tests.
Aside from gaming, the keyboard is relatively well spaced for typing and getting your hands on those hotkeys. There’s a fair bit of travel, but this arguably makes for more precise typing/commands, and less fat-finger fumbles.
The chiclet-style keys don’t quite reach the same levels of typing nirvana afforded by the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1’s maglev setup, but they’re decent enough. You’ll have no issues working on this in-between gaming sessions.
On the downside, the numerical keys shunted over to the right are too tightly bunched for my liking, to the point where it’s a typo minefield. The arrow keys, in particular, are too small, and their positioning – as an inverse T-shape that’s tacked on to the number pad like a stray Tetris piece – is difficult to get used to.
The trackpad is super-responsive, while the left and right keys are big and chunky, offering a satisfying degree of travel. It’s a little smaller than the trackpads of the Razer Blade 15 and the Gigabyte Aero 15, but it never made my admittedly bigger-than-average hands feel claustrophobic.
Chances are you’ll want to splash out on a mouse anyway, so some of the trackpad limitations might not be a big issue.
Like most gaming laptops, the ROG GL504 Hero II’s spartan black body is offset by polychromatic show-off lights.
Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II – Display
Two versions of the ROG Hero II are on sale, one with a 60Hz refresh rate and the other with 144Hz. The model we tested was of the latter version. It perhaps isn’t surprising that everything in general looks smooth. As MOBA-type games tend to be frantic and fast-paced, a high refresh rate will come in handy. Whichever model you pick, you’ll no doubt appreciate the super-skinny bezels, which are a hair’s breadth over 10mm.
Note that when I performed my screen tests, I also made sure the “default” mode was selected.
With the screen cranked to max brightness, I recorded a high of 342 nits with our colorimeter, and a good black level of 0.27 nits. I recorded a colour temperature of 7150K, which is quite a lot cooler than the ideal 6500K. Colours did on occasion look a little washed out, although this may have more to do with the reflective coating that sometimes catches ambient light in odd ways and limits the otherwise decent viewing angles.
Colour gamut coverage was respectable, but not exactly mind-blowing. The ROG Strix Hero II covered 84.8% of the sRGB colour space. The sRGB gamut is the world’s standard for digital and printed art. Anything above 80% is generally pretty good. However, if you were thinking about using this device for Photoshop work, there are far better options available.
Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 scores were low. I recorded coverage levels of 61.8% and 66% respectively. These colour gamuts are generally favoured by digital photographers. These scores aren’t ideal; generally if you’re working with photography, you’d want a display to offer 80% (or more) here.
The Razer Blade 15 and Gigabyte Aero 15 scored similarly in the latter two colour gamut tests, but both presented significantly better sRGB coverage – 92.6% and 97% respectively, proving that they’re easily the best choices for colour accuracy.
The viewing angles of the ROG Hero II are generally very good. Generally…
Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II – Benchmarks and performance
In terms of using the ROG Strix Hero II as a standard laptop, performance is on par with the likes of the LG Gram 14Z980 and Microsoft Surface Pro 6, which achieved similar Geekbench 4 and PC Mark 10 results.
Read and write speeds were low as well, although whether I was booting a game or moving large photo files around between phones, SD cards and an external drive, nothing felt too sluggish.
Here’s how I got on when putting the ROG Hero II through the standard Trusted Reviews benchmarking process:
Asus ROG Strix Hero II Gaming Laptop, 15.6” 144Hz IPS Type Full HD
Asus ROG GL504 Hero II
|
|
Geekbench 4 single-core
|
4670
|
Geekbench 4 multi-core
|
17,092
|
PC Mark 10
|
3169
|
CrystalDiskMark read
|
1291.5 MB/s
|
CrystalDiskMark write
|
248.9 MB/s
|
Cinebench OpenGL
|
86.45fps
|
Cinebench cb
|
1209 cb
|
3DMark Firestrike
|
10,115
|
3DMark Firestrike Extreme
|
5280
|
Since the ROG Hero II comes with a GTX 1060 built in, I ran the Fire Strike simulation in 3DMark, which is the Trusted Reviews standard test for laptops with dedicated graphics cards.
This gave me a result of 10,115, a little below the Razer Blade 15’s 11,624 and the Gigabyte Aero 15’s 12 894. However, this is to be expected, since the latter two come with more powerful GTX 1070 GPUs.
If you want a laptop or PC to play battle arena-type games then a GTX 1060 ought to provide sufficient power to deliver 60fps at 1080p Full HD. In the absence of a Dota 2 benchmark, I used Steam’s in-game fps counter. Most of the time, I found that I’d comfortably hit 80fps and above when there wasn’t much happening on-screen, and around 60-80fps during intense battles, on the highest possible video settings.
I picked a range of other games for my tests – including Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Ghost Recon Wildlands – to see how modern-day solo and multiplayer games might fare on the ROG Hero II. I also tested a couple of older titles, Dirt Rally and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.
Pushing some games – Shadow of the Tomb Raider in particular – up to High and Ultra settings saw quite a jittery performance. On occasion, Tomb Raider and Ghost Recon would dip to 15-20fps, which is really not ideal.
Given that the ROG Strix Hero II has a 1080p display and a last-gen GPU, it clearly isn’t aimed at bleeding-edge gamers who want to get into 4K gaming – although the 144Hz screen option is a nice feature, especially when playing old games such as Shadow of Mordor that see frame rates soar above the 100-mark.
You’ll want to have the fan mode set to Balanced when gaming. All the above results were recorded with this fan mode switched on. You might think that cranking up the fan speed to max in order to lower component temperature will work, but in my experience, this actually resulted in frame rate dips of around 20fps. This setting is intended to be used between gaming, not during.
Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II – Battery
It’s usual for gaming laptops to be relatively poor in the battery department, and the ROG Strix Hero II doesn’t buck the trend.
Using Powermark to loop 10 minutes of browsing and five hours of video, the ROG Strix Hero achieved a result of 3hrs 44mins. This is a somewhat middling score for gaming laptops, which tend to offer at worst two hours of unplugged action or at the very best around five hours.
For day-to-day, non-gaming use I found the ROG Strix Hero II would survive a little over four hours before needing to be plugged in – so a little more than the Powermark score implies. Gaming was another matter entirely. Playing Tomb Raider at Medium settings, I managed just over an hour before the ROG Hero II started flashing warning messages at me.
I might be holding the ROG Hero II in one hand here, but trust me, this thing is pretty heavy.
Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II – Specifications
Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II |
|
Dimensions
|
361 x 262 x 26.1mm
|
Weight
|
2.4kg
|
Processor
|
Intel Core i5 8300H/Core i7-8750H (tested)
|
Memory
|
Up to 32GB
|
Graphics
|
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB GDDR5 vRAM)
|
Storage
|
M.2 NVMe PCIe 128GB/256GB/512GB SSD, 1TB
HDD/1TB SSDH
|
Display
|
15.6-inch Full HD IPS 3ms (60Hz)/15.6-inch
Full HD IPS 3ms (144Hz)
|
Connectivity
|
802.11ac 2×2 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0
|
Ports
|
Ethernet, USB-C 3.1 (Gen 2), USB-A 3.1 (Gen
2), USB-A 3.1 (Gen 1), mini-DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 2.0, 3.5mm audio jack, SD
card port, Kensington lock
|
Cameras, mics and speakers
|
720p HD camera, 2 x 3.5W SmartAMP speakers,
array microphones
|
Misc
|
VR Ready, Asus Aura Sync RGB lighting,
marked QWER keys,
|
Why buy the Asus ROG Strix GL504 Hero II?
The ROG Hero II offers underwhelming frame rates for modern AAA games, especially when you consider that the likes of the Dell G5 offer a superior performance for a significantly lower price.
But to compromise, you’re getting a 144Hz display with the ROG Hero II. You’ll do very well indeed to find a gaming laptop boasting a better refresh rate at a cheaper price. Sure, the ROG Hero II will struggle to offer a smooth performance for recent triple AAA games such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Ghost Recon Wildlands, but less intensive games will benefit significantly thanks to the 144Hz display.
So if you’re content with sticking to the likes of Dota 2 and older iterations of Call of Duty, then the Asus ROG Hero II offers great value for money.
Verdict
One of the cheapest gaming laptops you’ll find with a 144Hz display, but rival options offer superior performances for less cash.
SDCardreader Transfer Speed
|
|
average JPG Copy Test (av. of 3 runs)
|
|
Eurocom Sky X4C
(Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II) |
193.6 MB/s ∼100%+1%
|
Gigabyte Aero 15X v8
(Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II) |
191 MB/s ∼99%0%
|
Asus Strix GL504GM
(Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II) |
78 MB/s ∼40%-59%
|
Asus Strix GL502VM-FY039T
(Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II) |
75 MB/s ∼39%-61%
|
maximum AS SSD Seq Read Test (1GB)
|
|
Gigabyte Aero 15X v8
(Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II) |
242 MB/s ∼100%0%
|
Eurocom Sky X4C
(Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II) |
206.3 MB/s ∼85%-15%
|
Asus Strix GL502VM-FY039T
(Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II) |
85 MB/s ∼35%-65%
|
Asus Strix GL504GM
(Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II) |
|
Networking
|
|
iperf3
Client (receive) TCP 1 m 4M x10
|
|
Asus Zephyrus M GM501
Intel Wireless-AC 9560 |
683 MBit/s ∼100%+1%
|
Razer Blade 15 GTX 1060
Intel Wireless-AC 9260 |
682 MBit/s ∼100%+1%
|
Asus Strix GL502VM-FY039T
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 |
677 MBit/s ∼99%0%
|
Asus Strix GL504GM
Intel Wireless-AC 9560 |
657 MBit/s ∼96%-3%
|
iperf3 Client (transmit) TCP 1 m 4M x10
|
|
Asus Strix GL504GM
Intel Wireless-AC 9560 |
675 MBit/s ∼100%+5%
|
Razer Blade 15 GTX 1060
Intel Wireless-AC 9260 |
642 MBit/s ∼95%0%
|
Asus Zephyrus M GM501
Intel Wireless-AC 9560 |
585 MBit/s ∼87%-9%
|
Asus Strix GL502VM-FY039T
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 |
507 MBit/s ∼75%-21%
|
Cinebench R15
|
|
CPU Single 64Bit
|
|
Asus Chimera G703GI
Intel Core i9-8950HK |
206 Points ∼94%+43%
|
Eurocom Sky X4C
Intel Core i7-8700K |
192 Points ∼88%+33%
|
Asus Strix GL504GM
Intel Core i7-8750H |
174 Points ∼80%+21%
|
Asus VivoBook 15 X570UD
Intel Core i7-8550U |
172 Points ∼79%+19%
|
Average Intel Core i7-8750H
(163 - 177, n=86) |
172 Points ∼79%+19%
|
Asus FX504GD
Intel Core i5-8300H |
170 Points ∼78%+18%
|
Asus Strix GL502VM-FY039T
Intel Core i7-6700HQ |
148 Points ∼68%+3%
|
Asus GL702ZC-GC104T
AMD Ryzen 7 1700 |
144 Points ∼66%0%
|
Asus Strix GL703VM-DB74
Intel Core i7-7700HQ |
142 Points ∼65%-1%
|
Asus ZenBook UX530UX-FY070T
Intel Core i7-7500U |
141 Points ∼65%-2%
|
CPU Multi 64Bit
|
|
Asus GL702ZC-GC104T
AMD Ryzen 7 1700 |
1408 Points ∼32%+112%
|
Eurocom Sky X4C
Intel Core i7-8700K |
1359 Points ∼31%+105%
|
Asus Chimera G703GI
Intel Core i9-8950HK |
1312 Points ∼30%+98%
|
Asus Strix GL504GM
Intel Core i7-8750H |
1203 Points ∼27%+81%
|
Average Intel Core i7-8750H
(863 - 1251, n=93) |
1107 Points ∼25%+67%
|
Asus Strix GL703VM-DB74
Intel Core i7-7700HQ |
710 Points ∼16%+7%
|
Asus Strix GL502VM-FY039T
Intel Core i7-6700HQ |
680 Points ∼16%+3%
|
Asus VivoBook 15 X570UD
Intel Core i7-8550U |
663 Points ∼15%0%
|
Asus FX504GD
Intel Core i5-8300H |
604 Points ∼14%-9%
|
Asus ZenBook UX530UX-FY070T
Intel Core i7-7500U |
307 Points ∼7%-54%
|
Asus ROG Strix Hero II Gaming Laptop, 15.6” 144Hz IPS Type Full HD
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