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Dell
Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK 15.6" Full-HD Gaming Laptop (Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, NVIDIA GeForce GTX960M) with Windows 10 - Dell
Asus
ASUS K501UX 15 Inch, Discrete GPU GTX 950M, Intel Core i7, 8GB, 256GB SSD Gaming Laptop, Windows 10 (64 bit), Dark Blue Metal - Asus

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Dell http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41BrD2bCAeL._SL160_.jpg
Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK 15.6" Full-HD Gaming Laptop (Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, NVIDIA GeForce GTX960M) with Windows 10 - Dell
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Asus http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WN8y6bohL._SL160_.jpg
ASUS K501UX 15 Inch, Discrete GPU GTX 950M, Intel Core i7, 8GB, 256GB SSD Gaming Laptop, Windows 10 (64 bit), Dark Blue Metal - Asus
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eComparisons Score
eComparisons ScoreThe "Comparison Score" Is calculated based on the average number of times this item was compared with other items in this category by our users
8.2
7.2
User Rating (Amazon)
User Rating (Amazon)

Five Star Reviews:

57%
I have to say it's a pretty fantastic package
February 4, 2017
I will update this review if the initial impression fades, but after a few days of using this for gaming, office, web browsing, e-mail, etc I have to say it's a pretty fantastic package for the price. First thing I did when it came was open the bottom case and pop in an extra 8GB of ram and drop a 2.5" drive in the open and waiting drive bay. Both installed with no drama. Then I removed the McAfee, DropBox, etc... and installed Chrome and Steam. Here are initial impressions:Gaming:My Steam library contains hundreds of games, but I basically play Rocket League and Borderlands 2. Both run at max settings with no problems. I also booted up GTA V for giggles and framerate remained steady. Fans kick on when you start playing, but it's not bad at all, and the system stays pretty cool.Office:Reviews of the keyboard were mixed, but I like it. It reminds me a little of the MacBook Air keyboard, but with springier keys. The trackpad is a little small and touchy, but I got used to it pretty quickly.Chrome:Obviously runs great.Other thoughts:Battery seems really solid, somewhere between 5-7 hours, maybe more. Screen is bright and easy to read. Speakers are loud (turn off MaxxAudio eq, they sound much better without it). It charges pretty quickly too.Really there's not much to complain about. I'm coming from a three year old MacBook Air so yeah, it's twice the weight and a good bit bigger but it's to the point where if I am bothering to do something on a laptop and not my iPhone I don't mind it being big. Getting a discrete Nvidia card, SSD, 1080P IPS for this coin... that's crazy. Thanks Dell and Amazon!
Its Almost Like She Found Me
January 9, 2017
This laptop was everything I was looking for and what it said it would be. I was in need of a serious laptop upgrade. As a graphic designer using mostly the Adobe sweet I needed something that could pull more than the average consumer laptop and I am also part of the quite group of designers who don't use Apple products. While they are brilliant they tend to be one trick ponies, I have no intention of buying a Macbook for graphics then buying another laptop for anything else. So are there laptops out there that meet good graphical requirements? Plenty. How many of them don't look terrible. Few. I play games. Many games. I am a gamer. Gaming laptops look horrible. No two ways around it. The exception being Razer, but I've not the money to pay their laptop tax and wasn't looking for something so powerful. I needed a Quadcore, discreet graphics ( 950m up), room for both an a 2.5" and M.2 SSD and it has to look good. Then I found it, it was a lovely laptop by Asus. Then Dell came out with this lovely dear. The one difference was 2GB of VRAM and anyone whose spent a little time in Premiere Pro knows that can mean a lot of saved time. So I went with the Dell. She's not the thinnest or lightest, but she fits well in a bag. Her performance is topnotch for her price as a mobile unit and you can play most modern games at a mix of medium high to high settings with 60fps. On the design side she boots up in 4 seconds and all Adobe software are up and ready in 10 seconds or less. The screen is just okay, but LG has a screen for this laptop that is much better with the colour accuracy. So at the end of the day, do you want a beautiful, understated machine with good specs and good power for a great price? You can't go wrong with this laptop. As a side note I forgot to write this review for a while and Dell just announced their 2017 version of this laptop. Same price but with a 1050. More powerful, but ...lets just say it LOOKS like a gaming laptop. So with that in mind I'd buy the last gen version again.
Exactly what I wanted in my price range.
September 25, 2016
Runs great, played Dragon Age: Inquisition on ultra (minus some shaders) steady at 30+FPS (got as high as 60 periodically), Starcraft 2 on Ultra, WoW on ultra, Heroes of the Storm on ultra,and Guild Wars 2 on ultra. Under load, it can be a little loud but nothing to complain about, plus I feel like people usually wear headphones anyway. Gets a tad hot when under load for a while, but I am using the crap out of it, so I'm not too surprised. But it is more warm out the back and not on the keyboard. Boots up in under 10 seconds, I added a 1tb 7200 RPM HDD for extra storage. It was everything I was looking for in my price range. The screen is gorgeous (albeit a TINY bit dark, but I just adjusted the gamma a little and it was perfect. You can see your picture from any angle which is fantastic, can't go wrong with the IPS monitor. Sound is good, I haven't had any issues with it personally, though, I am not a techno snob so I'm sure someone can find something wrong with it.I would just say make sure to keep all drivers and windows updates current and everything will run smoothly. 0% regret on this purchase, completely worth it.
Great all round laptop and super for games, including Fallout 4
October 29, 2015
Got my laptop this evening. Before I even turned it on, I added a sandisk SSD to it. Took about 3 minutes. Just 1 screw to contend with. The SSD was a tight fit and BIOS picked it up right away. When you 1st start the laptop, Windows will finish installing. If you added a 2nd SSD you need to right click THIS PC then click MANAGE then click disk management. You will see 2nd drive unformatted most likely. Click and follow prompts to do simple format (I made 1 partition of whole drive). Then you're in business. I loaded Diablo 3 , Guild Wars 2, and World of Warcraft from a thumb drive. They all played flawlessly at full resolution will high frame rates. Guild wars 2 was in mid 50s. Other 2 were even higher with Diablo 3 being maxed graphics with no problems. Didn't even warm up playing it and WoW .Look forward to trying Fallout 4 on it in a couple of weeks. That should be a better test of the GPU and heat issues. The screen does have some light bleed in lower edge of screen , but only on startup when screen is black. That is the only time I noticed. Not sure about visual quality vs other computers, but looks better than my desktop monitor at work, and my 4 year old laptop I'm replacing. If they cut corners here, I'm not really noticing that much since I'm not doing any photoshop or pro stuff where color has to be spot on.The keyboard is responsive and similar to many other laptop keyboards. Love the full size keys. Not jammed too close together so fewer typos. Sound is decent for a laptop. The laptop is whisper quiet unless you are pushing the graphics card a bit, then the fans wind up a bit. Still not too loud. You can go to sound settings and tweak equalizer to get sound you prefer. The nice thing about this computer is you can sneak it past your wife as a business computer, but it runs like a much more expensive gaming laptop. Nice to be able to play a game while on a business trip. Will probably add 8Gb of compatible ram a little later so it will run dual channel. Highly recommend 2nd SSD in this unit. Runs games so well, you will want to install a ton on here. Can get another 256gb for $89 any day of the week with 512gb running around $150-160 for name brand. All in all, very pleased with my purchase.Update: After a weekend of gaming and surfing the web, I've found that you really need to download the latest drivers for the Intel HD video card, and the Wireless driver as well. Fixes many little irritating freezes and glitches. Just go to device manager and update from there. I also updated the Nvidia 960M driver though I never had a moments problem with it. Still loving this laptop!2nd Update: Got Fallout 4 last week and have played more hours of it than I care to admit. The laptop has handled it perfectly with very little heat buildup. No glitches, crashes and lag whatsoever. I play it on Medium settings and get 40-50 FPS . The game works on high but FPS dips into the low 20s at times which will ruin your aim a bit. Only use VATS for bosses. Gonna try Witcher 3 next which I hear is even more of a graphics challenge.
It's hard to imagine a better laptop bargain
October 29, 2015
I have always had fairly high end desktop computers - always with Intel (where I once worked) and Nvidia (with which I worked) processors. I continually upgrade motherboards, CPU's and graphics boards, something that can't be done with laptops. Recently I have been looking for a laptop computer that I would find useful with a limited budget and, at $800, it is difficult to imagine a better bargain than this Dell Inspiron i7559-763. I made a leap of faith and ordered this computer before it was even released - something I have never before done. So far it has been fast and reliable, and I am definitely happy with my decision. It even runs cool and quiet. Other high points for me are:- Intel i5-6300HQ processor- Nvidia GTX 960M GPU- Bright, sharp IPS screen- Backlit keyboard- SSDWhen I received this laptop I discovered another feature that I definitely appreciate. There is a large hatch on the bottom of the computer that can be opened with a single screw (and without breaking any seals). This hatch provides easy access to the memory and AN EMPTY SLOT FOR A DISK DRIVE WITH A CONNECTOR CABLE WAITING! The only hesitancy I had about the features of this computer was the limited storage space on the included SSD (i.e. 256GB) but that is now a non-issue with the easy addition of another SSD in the future. I even temporarily installed a 2.5 inch HD I had lying around and verified it would work. There also appears to be an empty slot for another memory card but I did not test it.One feature I didn't test well is the touchpad. All touchpads are beneath contempt to me so I always use a mouse.So far this is a great computer and I definitely recommend it.
First Impressions - Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK
October 27, 2015
Just received this laptop today, 10/27/2015.***Summary***Overall, I am very pleased with this laptop. I think it's a fantastic value for the parts you are getting. The overall look and feel of the laptop is great, the red trim is not overbearing. Using the laptop feels fast and snappy. Boots Windows 10 in less than 20 seconds! The weight and size keeps it portable, but it's no Ultrabook. The laptop doesn't have a touchscreen, if that's a deal-breaker for you.More details are below, wanted to keep the summary at the top for the folks who don't care to read the whole review.***Short review***Build quality seems good to me. The unit is all plastic on the outside; however, I am okay with this. It is a very soft plastic that is nice to the touch. The unit does not feel flimsy and seems fairly durable. It also appears (at first glance) that access to the HDD and RAM won't be terrible, as opposed to some other new laptops on the market, there seems to be a removable plate/panel on the bottom of the laptop to access the bottom of the mainboard, picture attached.Boot time is rather fast. From the time I hit the power button it takes about 17 seconds until I am at my Windows 10 desktop environment. This is exactly what I was looking for. You will not achieve this in laptops without an SSD hard drive.Wireless internet signal is pretty strong. I am fully able to receive a signal in the very back room of my house (35+ feet w/ walls), on par with iPhone 6 Plus.The main storage drive is an SSD, it is a SanDisk Z400s M.2 2280 256GB. Read/Write speeds are fairly strong, I have attached a picture from a CrystalDiskMark speed test I ran. The SSD drive from Dell has (4) partitions, you are left with approximately 200GB free of 225GB available when you receive it. The Dell backup image takes up about 12GB. The fact that your operating system is installed on the M.2 drive would mean that you can add an additional HDD or SSD in the spare 2.5" SATA bay for additional storage. I am not familiar with the spare bay yet.Memory/RAM is pre-installed 8GB of DDR3, installed in 1 of 2 available slots, according to CPUZ. This leaves spare slot open for future expansion. The RAM is PC3-12800 (800mHz) (PC3 1600) Hyundai Electronics P/N - HMT41GS6BFR8A-PB, with a CAS Latency of 11, according to CPUZ.Battery life is unknown at this point, I haven't had enough time to fully test this. While playing around with the laptop for the last 3-4 hours I still have about 87% left.Keyboard is comfortable to use, even with large hands. The 10-key pad is a little undersized, but this keeps the primary keyboard area nice and roomy. The CapsLock key does have a light on the key to indicate whether or not CapsLock is on; although, NumLock does not. The backlit keyboard features (2) brighness levels and is a nice blueish white color light output. The backlit keyboard seems to provide adequate light.Sound quality seems very good thus far. I watched a couple music videos online and the vocals were clear. The bass was lacking, but this is a laptop, this is to be expected.I really like that the charger has an indication light on the cord, on the end that plug into the laptop port, that lets you know the charger is powered. The charger also features a built in strap to keep the cord neatly stowed while not using.Not an overly amount of bloatware installed. Mainly Dell proprietary applications for updates and registration.***For those who care...why I decided on this laptop.***I had been shopping for a laptop for everyday use that could also handle heavier tasks such as multi-tasking with multiple browser windows open, music playing, light duty photo editing etc.. I did want a laptop that was portable, but I was not willing to trade off the "more affordable" power you get by not shopping for an Ultrabook. I was also not as concerned with a touchscreen (don't care for a smudgy screen).My criteria was:Sub $1000256GB or greater SSD, I wanted something that would boot Windows fast!8GB Ram Minimum15" Screen Minimum1920x1080 Resolution MinimumDecent dedicated GPU.Windows 10
45%
Everything I wanted plus a little extra
March 20, 2016
I started with a wish list of requirements and this laptop was one of maybe three or so that met all of them. I chose ASUS because my desktop is built around an ASUS ROG mobo which has performed beautifully for me so far.I wanted:SSD with empty bay for future expansion4 stars or higher rating8GB RAM mini7 processorGraphics card rated to run Windows 10 Game Bar for screen recordingCapable of 720p video editingLess than $900So far, I love it. Boots up in just over 10 seconds. Minimal bloatware to remove. Very smooth and quiet. Other reviews have mentioned not liking the screen, keyboard layout and trackpad but everything seems of good quality to me. For the price, this laptop is a beast. For the next step up in performance expect to add some serious $$. Cons: the webcam is average. Seems like a little weak compared to the rest of the components.
Asus K501UX 15 inch Gaming Laptop = Awesome !
March 10, 2016
Asus K501UX 15 inch Gaming Laptop. Its fast, has long battery life even when gaming. Fallout 4 is amazing on this laptop. Sound seemed a little low at first but after adjusting the ICEaudio settings (DSP) that was corrected. The Screen is fine. I have no clue why others are complaining about this screen, mine is fantastic. Windows 10 display settings were set to 125% after correction the 1920x1080 screen gave me the expected real estate, icon size and font size. Boot time on this laptop is almost instant. Get your coffee first!
Fast and Powerful, but don't remove your sound drivers. Still a well deserved 5 star rating. ASUS, check sound drivers.
March 7, 2016
This laptop had one glaring issue, and I hope ASUS sees this and can research n fix. But it's an issue only geeks like me may come across. It still deserved 5 starts and I will speak of the issue first before telling you why you should get this laptop.Issue, there was a bug on certain 3d games (Fallout 4) being one of them, when the 3d engine loaded after the opening intro, the sound would not continue to play thru the HDMI port for large gaming TV's and so on. So the sound transferred over to the laptop speakers. I found a work around for the issue so this is now solved, however during my troubleshooting, I removed the sound driver from device manager. Here is where a huge issue developed. I could not reinstall it for the life of me. Even the sound drivers from this laptops own website would not work and kept getting code 10 in Device manager. The ONLY way to get my sound back was to reset the PC back to factory defaults, basicly reinstalling windows 10 again.This is huge cause this should not happen by removing any driver from device manager. You should be able to reinstall any driver, but the fact that the only sound driver on ASUS's website did not work, is shocking as that is the real issue. Techie FYI on this. :)Now the great news.Amazing game performance, I also know that a lot of "bench marking" tools do not correctly reflect the ability of mobile GPU's. Example Nvidia Geforce Experience detects Fallout 4 and says I need to run the game at low settings. Even Fallout game detects and recommends low settings. But I ignore these and run this game at ULTRA settings and do not have any slow downs.. fast as s****!The laptop battery life is amazing. When I take it on the road for meetings I now just leave my power supply at home. Now, I have never did a 3d game on the road, always at home with my High Def TV and soundbar system, but for business work, it last a very long time.I currently use this laptop with a High Def TV via HDMI, the laptop monitor and a USB to monitor adapter for a 3rd widescreen monitor. I have had games like fallout 4 and alt tabbed out of it to do some web work and emails and not one hiccup. This laptop just feels bulletproof in performance.Now being the geek tech I am, I severely optimize my windows 10 load with several tools for optimum speed, fyi.The restart speed is crazy fast, this laptop can go from desktop, restart to desktop faster than my Nexus 10 tablet can even load.So for gaming / business I cant stress enough how great this laptop performs, and the price is just too good. I was lucky, i got mine back in December for 750.00 total.So it may be a bit more now, but trust me, this laptop rocks. ASUS has always been known for their hardware quality, lets hope they check out those sound drivers online. :)Cheers
Easily the best value you can get from a laptop of this price
December 10, 2015
I was a little skeptical when buying this laptop. It seemed too good to be true for the price, having an i7 and discrete graphics card. But after looking at feedback and reviews I bought it, and have loved this laptop ever since. I am a college student, so I need to be able to run programs like visual studio, eclipse, and also gaming on the side is nice. It runs flawlessly, I haven't had a lag spike or glitch in a single thing. I can run as many programs as I want without issue. As for the gaming quality, it isn't a top of the line gaming PC, but for a little package it packs a punch. I can run League of Legends at ultra at around 200FPS, it can handle Just Cause 2 at high res without a hiccup.Now to address the complaints about the screen. Sure, it isn't the best, if you're looking at the screen from the side you're going to see a dim/black screen, but for normal view this doesn't affect a thing. For the distorted text on menus, this does happen occasionally. On SOME system menus, the text will be a bit fuzzy and small. It can be annoying, but for what the laptop offers I can easily overlook this, especially because it only happens on certain menus. Web browsers and programs display without a problem.Pros-Processing power-Great graphics card-Decent battery life and charging-Looks and feels greatCons-Screen text can be a little fuzzy-Not much else to say hereAll in all, the laptop has the best value you can get, and doesn't come with any unnecessary features like touch screen or swivel display. I would completely recommend this computer to anyone needing a lightweight computer that still is a powerhouse.
Great Price, Great Tech.
November 1, 2015
For what you get, this laptop is a fantastic deal.To start, the general build quality is what I expect out of a premium piece of technology. It is very thin and light yet sturdy with the majority of the laptop being made out of aluminum with the only large piece of plastic being on the bottom of the base of it as well as the keys on the keyboard. The keyboard layout is full sized, with a 10-key section, but it is scrunched incredibly close to the regular keys. After a day of data entry, I did finally get used to it.The screen on this laptop has gotten a bad reputation from the previous model of this laptop, but all of my uses has shown me that the screen is just fine. When at full brightness, everything is crisp and clear. Fonts in Microsoft Word are great as well as photos and graphics in Photoshop. When I unplug the power and the screen dims, it can start to get a little fuzzy to see fine details, but it is far from unusable. The hinge for the screen and lid is relatively stiff and will likely take two hands to open. Rest assured, however, that it will not fly open in your bag or flop about as you move around in your chair.The speakers on this laptop had me confused for a little bit as they were incredibly quiet, even at full volume. However, once I started playing with some of the included sound software that ASUS includes it got a lot better. The speakers are still small laptop speakers and can sound a bit tinny with certain sounds, but they are defiantly usable in the case you don’t want to use headphones. It is strange that the speakers are located on the bottom of the laptop, and this may add to some of the issues about perceived volume and quality, but I ended up forgetting about it with things generally working how I intended them to.The performance of this laptop is very superior, especially when considering its price. A brand new 6th generation Core i7 processor, a Nvidia GTX 950m, 8 gigs of RAM and a 256 gig SSD make it very snappy in any task you throw at it. From the time the power button is pressed to being able to launch a program only about ten seconds have elapsed. Once it is started, Photoshop or any other Adobe program takes just under three seconds to launch with Office programs performing similarly.Along the lines of hardware, I was curious about some of the brands of components inside of it. The SSD inside of this laptop is a Micron m600 (Micron is the parent company that produces Crucial hard drives and memory as well as Lexar brand flash memory cards). The memory is Hyundai and the onboard graphics is an Intel HD graphics 520.Battery performance is some of the best I have seen for a full featured laptop. When utilizing the battery, having the screen at its lowest intensity, using the onboard graphics processor and just browsing the Internet or typing a document, it is incredibly efficient. The battery can last upwards of eight hours with those operating conditions. If the Internet is not needed, putting the laptop in airplane mode can extend this even further. It is worth noting that when the laptop is being used in its lowest power state it produces almost no heat, allowing it to stay on bare legs without a problem for extended periods of time. When under full load and using the discrete graphics card it does produce heat but so little that I have not heard the fans wind up to something that I would think is annoyingly noisy by far.Although this is a fine piece of hardware that can see anyone through many years of service, it is worth noting some of the nuances about it that I have noticed after using it for a week.While mentioned before, they keyboard is full sized but scrunched, I don’t know if it is missing some of my keystrokes or if I have just not fully acclimated to it yet. That issue aside, the stroke length of the keys is quite shallow, something that can be annoying at first but can become unnoticeable after some time using it. The backlighting feature is nice, nearly being expected by laptop users, but when it turns off or on, the fade up and down of the lighting can be abrupt or flickery, far from being an operation issue, just something I noticed. It is nice to note that there are three brightness settings for it as well.The track pad is similar to that which is found on laptops currently for sale. It is a single surface with a button built into the bottom of it. The left and right buttons are included in the main pad, but recognized with a single short vertical line near the bottom. Generally speaking, the touch pad works as expected with few navigational issues. Clicking the button is fine and seems like it requires just the right amount of pressure so that it is not pressed accidentally while driving the cursor. While typing, it is not in the way and placed in such a way relative to the keyboard that I have never accidentally hit it on accident. Lastly, the manner in which the touch pad is connected to the chassis of the laptop has me puzzled. Although the chassis flexes very little when picked up by a corner, the bottom of the touch pad seems to protrude from the surface of the base slightly. It is nothing so drastic that it completely lifts off the laptop, but it creates a significant amount of space that a fingernail can fit under it. When the laptop is placed back of a flat surface or not being articulated, the touch pad is in its normal position.The software that comes preloaded in this laptop is what is to be expected. There is a little bloatware from ASUS themselves as well as a few things from Microsoft that comes with Windows in addition to an introductory offer for some third party antivirus software. All of this was easily removed, and while it was still installed, did not seem to impact performance negatively. A couple of notes about a few things regarding the software image that ASUS put on this laptop: when installing the Adobe CC products, I kept getting install errors. After I did a little reading, I found that one or more of the preinstalled Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable packages were corrupt. It was a relatively quick process to fix this so it was not too annoying. The second thing is the OS was set to defragment the hard drive once per week. With a solid state drive, this is a definite no no as it will cause unneeded writes to the drive and will shorten the useful life time of the drive. Once purchasing this laptop, it is a must to correct this.Lastly, and this is by no fault of ASUS, this laptop is being sold as having a dark blue lid color. When I opened the box of mine, it did not look blue at all, it was unmistakable gray. Honestly, it is not a deal breaker for me at all, it looks just as stylish and functions just the same. When inspecting the carton that it shipped in, ASUS even labeled the laptop as having a gray color, not blue.All in all, for the price of this computer and what you get, it is a fantastic piece of equipment, capable of handling just about whatever you can toss at it. Notwithstanding the few oddities that accompany it, a user can expect to be very pleased with this computer and what it has to offer, especially when the price is taken into account.Edited for spelling and grammar.
A BEAST for $800
August 19, 2015
All I can say is Wow! I never thought a laptop for this price could be so powerful.Boot Time: About 5-10 seconds from the time you turn it on to the desktop.Intel Core i7: Multitasking all day no problem. I can be playing a game then come out of it to use my chrome browser then back to the game with ease.Nvidia Geforce GTX 950m:Very Beastly. This graphics card can definitely hold up on high demanding games for sure. Of course you'll get lower fps on ultra settings with this card but its powerful enough to run GTA 5 on Medium to High settings between 30-45 fps at 1080p resolution. The Witcher 3 can run at least 30 fps on Low to Medium settings at 1080p and it looks beautiful. For me this is heaven. So please do not be discouraged by other reviews because this is not a $2000 gaming laptop. This actually exceeded my expectations. If you want to play games on Ultra 1080p 60 fps then this will not satisfy. But if you want to play the latest games and don't want to spend a fortune and get involved in the gaming world then this is perfect.Screen:Its a great screen and well above average. Its not an IPS display so if your looking for 180 degree viewing angles then more money is coming out your pocket. The viewing angles are very acceptable and I don't play games from the side anyways.Keyboard and Track pad:The keyboard feels nice and yes it is backlit. It is a white backlight with 3 different brightness levels you can set it to by holding fn and f3 to dimmer or fn/f4 to brighter. Now the main con is the trackpad. It feels like there is some sort of delay or lag while using it. But that is minor and should not discourage anyone from buying this.Sound:The sound is very crisp and clear and is above average for a laptop speaker.SSD:Lightning fast. No slow poke in this area. Allowing you to open applications in seconds or less. Storage space is the only issue since there is about 200GB usable. But an external hard drive can solve this problem easily.Overall:The combination of the core i7+Nvidia 950m+SSD is pure fire power at this price point. It allows you to play the latest games at Medium to High settings 30-45 fps and 60 fps on low settings. Games 2-3 years old like BioShock Infinite or Tomb Raider will be able to get 60 fps on at least High to Ultra settings. This is the best gaming laptop you can get for $800 without breaking the bank on those $2000 gaming enthusiast laptops out there. I'm totally amazed at how well Asus put this together. Its powerful, light, and very sleek. The beautiful open worlds of GTA 5 and The Witcher 3 playing on this laptop will make you realize that it really packs a punch and that not having an IPS display is really no problem at all. Excellent gaming laptop at an excellent price. 5/5

Four Star Reviews:

20%
BACKLIGHT BLEEDING WARNING - on all 3 laptops that were received.
February 14, 2017
It's a really good computer! It can run most games on medium to high and the SSD is really good too since the computer runs real quiet. I did have some issues that I'm trying to get fixed though1st item: The one I received apparently has a defect as the screen flickers when on the lowest brightness and the keyboard will randomly type double letters every now and then. I was able to mitigate the keyboard issue but it only decreased the frequency of it happening and not make it go away completely. The problem with the keyboard seem to only affect the n,m,.,/ area.I asked for a replacement from Amazon so hopefully the replacement will be fine.1st replacement: HUGE back-light bleeding at the bottom of the screen. They should all have it but this one had a massive case of bleeding. The thermal paste was probably applied wrong and the temperatures were 10C higher than the previous one which prompted the fans to kick in more frequently.and 2nd replacement is on its way this Saturday, I hope to end this and hopefully fall on a good enough one.edit: 2nd replacement is bad and Amazon won't replace this one. Debating if I should return this one as well unfortunately.
Great upgrade for me, pretty good laptop for everything else
December 17, 2016
There once was a time not so long ago I swore never to buy a Dell again, but I've really been wanting a laptop with a descrete graphics and didn't need much more than a GTX 960 to run the games I wanted to play. These would be mostly "on the go games" that were starting to run pretty badly on my almost 4 year old laptop. My older laptop had an i7 processor but I didn't expect this one to perform worse considering it has its own graphics card.So as for the games that I wanted to run better:Path of Exile - Much better on the Dell. I can have the graphics at around medium and don't get significant drops once the game is loaded and going. PoE runs a lot better on an SSD too so the Dell seems to be naturally set for it. Would be nice on a GTX 970M.Overwatch - Also much better. Graphics still have to be close to low to get 60FPS and I haven't played it all that much since it requires solid internet, but when my friend wants me to join them I now can.Cities Skylines - Amazingly better. This one is mostly processor-bottlenecked but the newer i5 seems to do better than my aging i7 on my previous laptop, and the graphics card can only help. My cities aren't big enough to cause problems yet.There's also a small list of other games that ran fine on my older laptop, and will obviously run even better on the Dell so I'm not worried about them. So far the upgrade was worth it.As for the usability of the laptop, I like pretty much every part of it. The battery life is solid when you aren't gaming (I'm getting close to 4 hours when it's not intensive usage), the keyboard is responsive and so far hasn't missed a tap from what I can tell, and the mouse pad is pretty good when needed. I would still reocmmend a regular mouse over a mouse pad. My previous laptop was a touchscreen and it's taken some getting used to to remember this one isn't, but I don't really miss the touch screen the more I'm without it. The sound gets pretty loud and the speakers aren't total crap, they'll get you through a song and don't distort very much. The keyboard backlighting is great and not too bright, and the generally rubberized feel of the laptop helps with grip and overall feel. This feels like a quality machine.Then my favorite part is how deadly silent the laptop is when you're just browsing. When gaming the fan will kick on but the laptop still doesn't get very hot, which is probably in part due to the lack of a hard drive and (I'm assuming) better heat dissapation overall. My last laptop wasn't very good sitting on your lap because it got hot really quickly but so far I haven't had to take this one off even when playing something like Path of Exile on a couch (not that that's an extremely demanding game). I have yet to try anything like Fallout 4 or Doom on here but I'm so spoiled with my desktop that I doubt I'll taint my experience by dumbing it down for a 960M.I also am really glad to be back to 1080p resolution. My last laptop was 3200x1800 which, while sometimes bigger is better, I have absolutely no idea why the company didn't go with 2560x1440 instead. 3200x1800 is a pain to deal with: games hate it, my desktop barely knew what to do with it, and trying to organize windows was just a pain. Fullscreened images and videos, when supported, did look good, but that was about it. But even though I'm happier with 1080p, I wish the screen size was on the smaller side. Something closer to 14 inches would be better to me, but for how light and quit this thing is I'm not going to complain too much.Overall if you need a surprisingly good laptop with a discrete graphics card, then this is one I can definitely recommend.
Specs are good, fit and finish may be personal preference
November 27, 2016
Speed is good, I immediately upgraded the RAM, which was very easy to do, but it wasn't necessary. My dislikes are all fit and finish. The top and wrist rest area are a flat rubber finish, both collect finger prints. The keyboard is okay, but a bit shallow. The touchpad is my biggest dislike. There are physical right/left click buttons, however they are under the touchpad area and not separated. This causes issues with right-clicking mostly, as the physical right-click is under an area where you could accidentally left-click, and the area which physically clicks is a little vague and hard to find sometimes.The SSD in mine was an M.2 drive, with nothing in the 2.5 inch bay, so if you are a little tech-savvy you could add your own. Removing the back is a matter of a couple screws, where you have access to the 2.5 inch bay, the M.2 slot, as well as the RAM slots.The real draw for me is the graphics card. I haven't done any hardcore gaming but it is plenty for the 1-2 year games I've been playing.
Go ahead and buy it.........
October 23, 2016
So like probably everyone else here, I researched the hell out of this thing before I pulled the trigger. For the most part, the reviews are pretty spot on. For $750.00 you are getting a nice looking machine that has some impressive internals that are easy to upgrade.I went with the Core i5, 256GB SSD model with the 8GB of Kingston RAM bundle. Immediately threw in a 275GB Crucial MX300 SSD for storage, and an Intel 7265 Wifi card. So the whole deal ran me about $850.00 + tax.For that you get a damn nice computer that is by no means top of the line, but just rock solid. The non-gaming battery life is very good (I got almost 6 hours yesterday unplugged - loading up the machine with Stream and other games and other software while web browsing). I tested out an older game yesterday (Wargame: European Escalation) and the performance was awesome - no lag or stutters at maxed out settings. The screen is very good - crisp and clear with colors good enough for my eyes. Minor light-bleed at the bottom of the screen. One thing here tho, those fans kick in when gaming and they are not silent. Also, IMHO, the small sub does make the sound more "full," and the speakers are pretty good, IMHO. But I'll be using headphones, so who really cares.Dell has really cut back on the bloatware. Mcafee was the main culprit, and I got rid of it immediately. Other than that, just Dell's diagnostic stuff - which I kept for now until I get sick of it and wipe the machine for a fresh install.A few negatives: I broke off 2 small plastic securing pieces when opening the base-plate to get inside. I found a site online that sells a replacement for about $15.00, and will get one. In the meantime 2 small strips of clear packing tape and it is solid. Bottom line here is don't take a knife and pop the back up. You kinda have to bend it in from the bottom and then pop it up. Search online for a video explanation.Second is the screen is great, but max brightness is a little dim compared to other machines. But the screen is matte, so there is little glare. It kinda balances out, but I do wish it was brighter.Another negative is I got the bundle with the extra 8GB of RAM. Unfortunately, the RAM in the machine for me was not Kingston, but Hyundi. But the RAM looks identical, so it should be OK. The other thing with the RAM is it shows 15.9 GB available of 16GB. Never seen that before. Researched and no big deal apparently. Have not tested to see if it is one stick or the other or a system thing.Soooooooo bottom line: Good machine, not perfect, but well worth the money you will pay for it, IMHO. Fast, pretty clean software, easily upgradeable, nice screen, speakers and keyboard (I don't use a trackpad - can't tell you whether it sucks or not), but at the same time with a construction you would expect from a budget machine.
I was able to solve my black screen problems.
October 4, 2016
I ordered this laptop at the end of May 2016 for my son to be able to play Minecraft and Roblox on without crashing and lagging. At first, we experienced what many reviewers experienced with the laptop going to a black screen. My son has autism, so sending it back really wasn't an answer I wanted to deal with because it would've been a long period of meltdowns. I made sure all of the drivers were updated and then finally ordered a laptop cooling fan from Amazon (Tree New Bee Cooling Pad for 15.6 - 17-Inch Laptops with Four 120mm Fans at 1200 RPM) As soon as we plugged it in, the screen went black once again. So we figured out that it must be an overheating or overpowered problem (excuse my non-technical terms.) I plugged the laptop cooling fan into a USB outlet (instead of the laptop powering it), changed the laptop settings to go into sleep mode after a period of time (my son would never just close it when he was finished) and I can HAPPILY say that we have not had the blackout screen since (a couple of months)So, if you want a cheap but well performing laptop, this will work. But there are going to be a couple things that you will need to do to make it work 100% of the time. If I knew then what I know now, I would still buy this laptop.
Perfect for Overwatch
June 16, 2016
Just played Overwatch for 3 hours straight. Brilliant. With a mix of Medium, High and a low (shadows, fog). It never dips below 60 fps and runs at native resolution with great detail. After reading pretty much all of the reviews. The consensus is pretty accurate. Great laptop for the money but with my short time with it, I can see the drawbacks that make this thing truly great. I'll address some of the major pros and cons based on my first impressions.Cons:-ScreenQuite dull and not very colorful. Something seems off. Viewing angles are pretty decent and I like the matte finish. But the screen won't wow you. It works quite well while gaming so can't complain there.:**Keyboard and Trackpad**Keyboard flex is not an issue unless you push really hard. Keys are definitely mushy. Easy to type but lifeless. Benefit of that is that it's very quite since the strikes deaden due to the clunkiness. The trackpad however, is abysmal. Worst trackpad I've ever used period. So if your thinking productivity and not always using a mouse, think again.**Speakers**Speakers are strange, like sometimes it seems like the sound comes from the left only, or its coming from another computer elsewhere. Quite poorly designed. Iphone seems more adequate.Pros:**Upgradeability**Put in an extra 8GB stick and my old 128GB in litterally about 10 seconds flat (took a minute to get the backplate off as it was a little troublesome, screw got stuck)**Battery**I game when plugged in, but as I sit here and type this, after being on battery for about 30 minutes. It's at 94% with 9 hours left. I expect 6-7 hours from this with web-browsing.**Graphics**I wanted to play Overwatch without many compromises and it delivers. It can play most games at medium settings at 40fps. Perfectly fine for the price.Overall:For the price, I can't complain. Really love the overall build and the fact that you can easily upgrade ram and hard drives in seconds. Doesn't get very warm and while a bit heavy, feels very sturdy. The trackpad is by far the most disappointing, followed closely by the keyboard. I would give it 3 stars since it is a laptop and these should be better, but the price, gaming prowess, battery and design get it up to a 4.If you're like me and need a cheap laptop that can game, then this is it. This will be great to tide you over until next gen graphics come out on mobile or if you're looking for a mac, when apple decides to make computers again.
19%
Good For Gaming and Resource-Intensive Projects Despite Drawbacks
July 10, 2016
I've had this laptop for a few weeks now and I have to say, I'm very happy with my purchase. The screen is a lot clearer than some of the more negative reviews make it out to be and I haven't encountered any issues viewing the screen at weird angles. The i7 processor and SSD make everything run smooth as butter. I have no problems playing more resource-intensive games like Overwatch on medium, and while I haven't tried a higher graphic setting I'm very pleased with the performance I can get out of this laptop. I think the most cpu/ram I've ever used at once was around 40% to 50% with Overwatch and Discord running, so I'm sure the laptop can handle whatever you throw at it. Battery life is pretty dang great, depending on how many programs you have open at once, and I have little complaints about the battery draining overly fast. I was intrigued by the capability to add a second SSD via the additional SATA port, and although I have yet to do so I will be adding a second drive in the future. I personally like the smooth keys and shallow press distance on this keyboard, although typing is a highly personal experience and this may be a drawback to some. I like that the metal finish shows less dirt and fingerprints than some laptops with plastic cases.That being said, there are some drawbacks. The fan tends to run constantly no matter what I'm doing, even if it's just browsing the internet or typing in a word document. Updating to the latest bios had no effect, so I had to solve the problem by installing a third party fan control software. I haven't run into the issue some people had where the laptop did not want to wake after being put to sleep, but sometimes it will only respond by hitting keyboard buttons instead of swiping or clicking the touchpad. The "activation" light for caps lock is not on the keyboard itself but instead on the front bezzle next to the rest of the activity lights, which is a mighty strange place to put it. The speakers are nothing to write home about; sometimes they sound ok, other times downright terrible with tinny reverb, and it honestly depends on the song being played. I also found it annoying that the F1-F12 keys are enabled by default and having to press the function key down every time I wanted to change volume, screen brightness, keyboard backlight got annoying fast. Unfortunately there is no option in the BIOS to switch this so it's something I have to live with. Sometimes the trackpad can be overly sensitive; with the wrong flick of a finger i'll go zooming up or down a webpage. No idea if this is a common occurrence or a machine-by-machine basis.Despite all the drawbacks, I am still very happy with this laptop and would recommend it as a wise investment if you want a laptop with a fast processor and an onboard graphics card for gaming and video editing.
Solid buy: strong performance, portable and keeps cool. However, blurry screen is an eye strain.
May 12, 2016
Summary: Used daily for 2 weeks. It runs mainstream games on medium-high and is portable enough to carry every day. Most concerning drawback is blurry text. Paid $800 + tax in April 2016, consider it a solid investment but not a steal.Performance: 10 second bootup time. 4 seconds to sleep, 2 seconds to wake. Microsoft Word and Excel 2016 each load in 1 second. Buttery smooth and running like a dream. No blue screens, graphics card crashes or other concerning issues. Runs Rocket League and Resident Evil 5 on high with decent fps.Chassis: The body of the laptop is unbelievably thin and light. The backside of the monitor is visually appealing but feels flimsier than a Mac. It can pick up fingerprints but I would not call it a fingerprint magnet. The bottom half is 100% plastic and bends visibly when picked up by the corner or directly pushed on. I can see why other reviewers have had their touchpads bulge out of their sockets. My touchpad fits perfectly. As other reviewers have noted, the USB sockets are an unusually tight fit, but not problematic. The laptop requires two hands to open as the bottom half is too light to stay put.Heat: Runs warm but not hot when playing games. Wrist-rest area remains cool. Fan is not loud. Have had a similar experience with a previous ASUS; if there's one thing ASUS has mastered it's their internal layout. Other reviewers have noted that the fan comes on when not needed. I have noticed it rev up for several seconds before stopping, but this happens rarely and is not terribly intrusive.Monitor: Some text comes on blurry. Noticeably less crisp than other laptops I have used. I feel increased eye strain using this laptop.Hard drive: Came unpartitioned, contrary to past reviews.Keyboard: Beautiful chiclet style with your standard keyboard layout. I never understood why some companies switch the left ctrl and fn keys, resize the left shift key, relegate page up/down to fn or place the power button inline with the other keys. ASUS doesn't do any of this. You can zoom in on the pictures Amazon provides to see the keyboard layout yourself. My only complaints here are that the arrow keys are difficult to locate by touch and the num lock does not have an on/off indicator. Other reviewers have complained about the feel of key presses but it hasn't bothered me.Touchpad: Works fine. Two minor complaints. The ASUS touchpad driver has a very inconsistent inertial scrolling "feature" where taking my fingers off the touchpad sometimes causes the document to rocket scroll. Inertial scrolling can be disabled by going to C:\Program Files (x86)\ASUS\ASUS Smart Gesture\AsTPCenter\model\InertiaSetting.ini and changing the "InertiaAlgo=0" to "InertiaAlgo=2". My other complaint is that there is no way to middle click with the touchpad using the provided ASUS driver; clicking with two fingers can only be processed as a right click. This seems to be standard as my previous Dell laptop also lacked this option.Sound: It takes the driver 4 seconds to redirect audio after jacking in my headphones.Battery: Does not charge when battery is at 95+%. This is a feature and not a bug. As a brand new battery, it lasts for 5+ hours of note taking and internet use at 40% brightness. May update as it ages.Bloatware: Minimal and easily removed. Just be careful not to remove the important ASUS softwares.Inconsistent system date/time: Many reviewers have commented on their system time randomly changing. Per instructions from the ASUS rep who has responded to these reviews here on Amazon, I upgraded my BIOS to 209 immediately out of the box, obtainable online from ASUS's website. I have not encountered this issue and believe that BIOS 209 fixes it 100%.
This was a really good purchase over all
March 9, 2016
This was a really good purchase over all. I got this used (really just open box) from Amazon. Some reviews I read said the keyboard was a little difficult to type on, but I have found that, for me, I can actually type much faster on my previous laptop. It also runs games much better than my other laptop, although to be fair it was quite old and really needed replaced.The largest issue I had (and why I docked a star, because it's really inconvenient) was the date/time issue that a few people talked about. The first two weeks were fine, and then one day I turned it on, and date was a month off. It happened on and off like that for the next week, being anywhere from a few hours to a few months off. Finally I decided to look into the issue, and the fix is actually pretty easy. In the Windows 10 Control Panel -> Date and Time, the internet settings gives the option to change settings. From there you can replace time.windows.com with time.nist.gov, and so far the problem seems to have gone away.
Yes, it's a great deal. Yes, it has flaws.
December 12, 2015
If I were giving this a comprehensive rating relative to all laptops on the market, I might give it a 3.5. But factoring in the price, more like a 4.25.Quick sidebar, I also bought a Zenbook UX303LB - high end specs in a very small laptop at a higher price than this one. I realized though, that I just needed a 15 inch screen and so I went for this one - I am actually very happy with this unit compared to that one, even though the Zenbooks have higher build quality (and pricetag to go with it). Full review below:Like most people, I was attracted to the specs that came with this given the price, and in a pretty light & thin form factor - and it delivers on those points. However, if you've read the reviews, you know that this laptop comes with a whole range of concerns raised by buyers which make it somewhat of a risky purchase. I'll list my experience with the items of concern, starting with the worst offenders:Date / Time Issue: Yes, this is a problem, and it Asus should be ashamed of themselves for shipping out so many units with a defective feature, even if it is a minor one. Hopefully someone will come up with an easy fix for this (it seems like there should be one), as of now from what I have read it seems that one fix might be to replace the CMOS battery. Would love to hear from others who have fixed this. Note: I've tried manually changing the date/time AND having it set automatically - BOTH have resulted in incorrect dates after a short period of time. However for now, this is only a minor annoyance:Fan: I have indeed experienced the intermittent stopping and starting of the fan that some people have noted. It seems to have only one speed - which is high - and so stopping and starting is very noticeable and at times seemingly random. At other times it goes silent for long periods of time and the laptop seems to run quiet otherwise. As I tend to use headphones this isn't a dealbreaker and another minor annoyance.Screen / Display: I've been actually pretty happy with the screen. Yes, you can find better screens on more expensive units and the Zenbook mentioned above definitely has a higher quality display. I DID notice the blurring many people complained about, however I have found this NOT to be an issue after I changed the Windows Zoom level down to 100% from the default 125%. I think it it's a perfectly workable display.Laptop Enclosure / fingerprints: I haven't found this to be as big of an issue as many others. Yes it tends to pick up some fingerprints but I've found it to be pretty minor. I will say that the Zenbook has a higher quality feeling enclosure and picks up less fingerprints. The whole thing does feel fairly 'plastic-y', but this also helps it stay light and I think they've done a pretty good job of making it feel respectable despite cheap materials. I will say that you will DEFINITELY need a laptop sleeve if you want to carry this around in a bag - I made the mistake of putting it in my bag without protection and I got a scratch on the top on Day 1. This is not a rugged enclosure and you will need to care for / protect it.Bulging Trackpad: Luckily, not an issue in my model. Though I will say the entire trackpad has some give and doesn't feel super solid. I always just use a mouse so I wasn't too worried about this, but in my little trackpad use I actually haven't found it too bad, though of course it feels inferior to say, a Macbook trackpad.Performance: I've been happy with the performance. I am not a gamer but using it for professional (CAD/CAM and 3d modeling) use, so I went for the i7 here rather than the i5 quad core Dell model many have gone for, and I've been happy. Everything has been responsive, bootup is fast, no complaints.Storage: For $60 I bought an extra 240GB SSD drive and plan to install it shortly. Barring any installation problems, I anticipate this to be a cheap and easy fix to make the laptop much more usable. I also bought an 8GB RAM to replace the 4GB which is not soldered on - hopefully another cheap and easy fix to make this even more useful.**UPDATE** Successfully installed SSD - very easy. Just remove bottom cover and plug in, then load drive in Windows. RAM is another story. Unable to locate free RAM slot. Read somewhere there is a metal box that can be opened to switch it out but I could not get it open and don't feel comfortable enough to mass around too much with the internals.
4 stars, but here is what you want to read about it:
July 4, 2015
PROS> 1080p> Snappy> Powerful> Sleek> Great battery lifeCONS> Not even the screen, just select text.(see details below)> Not amazing speakers.> Minimal typical bloatware.> Annoying touchpadThis is definitely a powerful and exceptional product. It feels like it was quality-built, and it definitely shows. The laptop feels a little weighty considering how it LOOKS, but compared to other laptops, its actually pretty light. Considering its made mostly of aluminum, it kinda makes sense. Even with the weight, its not like its super heavy, its just not tablet light (like it almost appears it should be because of how ridiculously thin it is).Listed above I mentioned that the screen has issues. I read lots of other reviews about how the screen sucks for this laptop, but I figured honestly, how bad could it be? So I bought it. Honestly, its not really bad at all. Its sharp, pristine, and has a matte-esque shine on it. I personally don't really view my laptop at retardedly sideways angles, so I don't know if it has "bad viewing angles", but I do know that in some instances, text within certain applications almost appears fuzzy, like it was zoomed from a lower resolution and not fixed with that microsoft thing "cleartype". This appears to happen inside of gaming applications primarily, but I've also seen it in places like the control panel and such. It is definitely unusual.Also, I mentioned that the speakers are not amazing. Really, I can't even call it a con, but I would never call it a pro, they just don't sound that great. I mean, I've only had my laptop for a short while, but it seems like they are just really... light sounding. No body. And though they do a good job at surrounding you as far as laptop speakers are concerned, the aren't great. Seriously though, they would not impede you as a casual user for listening to movies/music and such, you just probably wanna hook up headphones or something if you want it to sound good.EDIT: The touchpad still isn't amazing and wonderful and all that, but apparently some of the default software(bloatware?) that ASUS has installed on here [ASUS Smart Gesture] actually has a setting in there to disable the touchpad anytime there is an external mouse plugged in. This has remedied the most pressing issue on this laptop.Now I write about the bad because most people are more concerned about whats wrong with a laptop than whats right with it. This is still an exceptional piece of work, I don't regret the 700$ I spent(found "used-very good" actually meant the box it came in had a scratch, not the lid of the actual laptop) I spent on it. This will help me through college as a programmer, and as a student that needs to game on. If you think this is what you're going to be doing, I think you should stop thinking and just buy it.
I’ll say that the quality of this laptop is pretty high, with a few exceptions
June 23, 2015
I’ve had this laptop for a day, and I’m fairly technical so I’ll probably answer a few questions about this laptop that anyone might be having. First, I’ll say that the quality of this laptop is pretty high, with a few exceptions. With 3DMark, I benchmarked between notebooks and gaming laptops, with the noticeable bottleneck being the GPU. Physics tests performed much better than graphics tests. This is a great laptop for casual gamers or everyday use, but serious gamers should look for something more powerful or switch to a desktop. I won’t talk about any of the posted specs in the pro’s and cons, only the things Asus doesn’t tell you or you’re not guaranteed quality for.Pros:Great power for the priceWell constructedFast chargingFairly high touchpad responsivenessQuality keyboardCons:Tn Display(Average viewing angles for tn displays)Speakers are pretty terribleWebcam low light filter causes severe fps issuesBlue material fingerprints very easilyLight bloatware – took me about 30 minutes to find and remove all of it

Three Star Reviews:

7%
Charger woes
February 24, 2017
I got this about 1 and a half years ago and it has served me very well. It's got plenty of processing power, battery life is fantastic, and the screen, despite a little backlight bleed, is great. It also looks fantastic. It's very minimalistic for a gaming laptop which is exactly what I was looking for. Also, the price point is absolutely unbeatable. Even a year and a half later, you cannot find these specs on any laptop that is close to this price range.However, Dell seems to have engineered failure for its chargers and/or laptops themselves. Recently, I've started having issues with the charger not being recognized despite me using a genuine charger that is completely functional (it still powers the laptop when I remove the battery). This is apparently a very common issue with Dell chargers and has to do with the communications between the charger and power management on the laptop. So, I can only assume based on the time that it failed, that the failure is engineered. How better to make someone go out and buy new hardware than to have it fail right after warranty? Lots of companies do this but that really doesn't make it okay. It's a disgusting practice that should be stopped. That being said, with the price of this laptop being as low as it is, I don't mind going out and buying a new charger. If a new charger doesn't fix it, then Dell has lost a customer,I should add that I have all the latest BIOS updates. 2 of these updates promise better charger recognition.
Another thing I really don't like from this computer is that it freezes from time ...
February 12, 2017
Mouse is one thing from this computer which gets me insane. It changes settings automatically from time to time and then you can no longer click and drag as you regularly do until you restart comp and set all back again. Another thing I really don't like from this computer is that it freezes from time to time while opening new browser tabs which, for a new computer of this price range, is just unacceptable. I have owned much simpler computers before that work better and smooth. On the other side, screen is nice, keyboard I love, good processing speed. Overall though, I would not buy this computer again.
A good medium weight gaming laptop. Failed after 3 weeks.
February 10, 2017
02-17-17. It failed 3 weeks after purchase. Lost all sound devices. Returned for refund. I just might try another one. 01-18-17. I wanted a medium weight 15 inch gaming laptop for travel and portable use at home. I already have a heavyweight 17 inch gaming laptop and I didn't want to haul it around. Considering performance, flexibility and maintainability the Dell i7559 seems to fit pretty well. I am on an extended trip at this time and the Dell was convenient to haul from transport in and out of hotels. Be warned, their is no internal optical drive. I just happen to have a nice portable optical drive but I have not yet needed to use it. Note, if you connect an optical drive you will need DVD player software. On the performance side the Dell does as well as my heavyweight on the games I have played lately. The 256 GB SSD boot drive makes for quick startup and overall performance. For flexibility I have not felt the need to add a second SODIMM to the open memory slot, the installed 8 GB is working for me. The laptop is delivered with an open slot for a 2nd hard drive. There is even the correct connection kit included. I installed a 7200 rpm 1 TB drive in there. This brings up maintainability. Flip the laptop over and the entire bottom panel is removable with one screw for access to most components. I discovered the real reason for this is the only way to access the battery, so if you delve into the innards always unplug the battery first. The 2nd drive is where I load the vast majority of applications and data to keep the boot drive less than full. I have not yet used it outside or on battery so I cannot comment on that. The keyboard is backlit, a major item for me with any laptop. It is possible to open the screen with one hand...slowly. Their are two USB 3.0 ports on the left and another USB 3.0 on the right. Also on the right are ethernet and HDMI ports with an SD card slot. The Bluetooth works OK with a Bluetooth mouse. The WiFi and ethernet also work perfectly. I used the wireless in a half-dozen or so different environments with no connection or operation issues. I am now using it at 433 MB/sec speed. Dell support is OK. I had extensive experience with Dell support working with IT support and it is usually very dependable. See the photos for a view of the bottom and guts. I will answer any relevant questions.
USB 3.0 BUYER BEWARE
January 24, 2017
I purchased this and received a Dell Inspiron 7559 and found several issues, not immediately, but eventually, so I could not return it by the time I had learned. In short:1. CPU is not as promised2. Port speed is not as promised3. Software support from Dell is not as promised.1. CPUInstalling the Intel Processor Identification Utility from Intel (R), I found it recognized the chip is supposed to be an Intel (R) Core(TM) i6-6300HQ CPU @2.30GHz. Thus, you, me and Intel's software expect 2.30 GHz performance. But only 2.19GHz is reported by Intel as the operating frequency. Long story short, this appears to be a Dell configuration issue and Intel recommended contacting Dell. Too late for me, I suggest you try this test on or before your next purchase.2. Port speedFound that only one USB port (left side toward back) is high speed. The others are USB 3.0 compatible but not high speed. I have tested against a variety of drives. Let me give you some examples:SanDisk Extreme CZ80 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive - SDCZ80-064G-GAM46 I ran benchmarks on each of the USB ports on this laptop. Here's what I found.:Right side (next to Ethernet): The Flash drive benchmarks at 40 MB/sec write and 40 MB/sec readLeft side (toward front) The same Flash drive benchmarks at 40 MB/sec write and 40 MB/sec readLeft side (toward back) The same Flash drive benchmarks at 177 MB/Sec write and 204 MB/sec readThat's a 5x performance difference! I found similar differences in performance testing using WD Passport drives and other Western Digital external drives. (Actual values are different for each drive, but the HUGE performance difference on the ports is the same across all drives.)The DELL laptops currently shipping are newer models than mine, but you need to be aware that DELL seems to do this on all their units, providing one decent high speed USB 3.0 and several low performance USB 3.0 "compatible" ports without telling you the difference.... cutoff review :(
etc seem fine. I got this mainly for being able to ...
December 31, 2016
The build quality, screen, keyboard, etc seem fine. I got this mainly for being able to play games smoothly at any settings. I installed the Dell Updates, updated drivers, ended running tasks etc, yet I'm still struggling to run Overwatch at a consistent FPS on the lowest possible settings (well, short of changing internal settings/config files). It often drops down below 30, and I don't know what to do. Is this a software issue, a hardware issue, , or my fault for buying it?
Everything was awesome in first month (update: now its great)
January 3, 2016
Well. .. It's been almost 3 months of usage.The body is still solid, lovely access to internals with 1 screw only.But .. here goes why the 3 stars.Everything was awesome in first month.1star down due to:Now I have a nice warm laptop in upper middle section (F5 to F12 area), but strangly the fans are not kicking in. I guess I am few degrees off the limit. Would be nice if there is Fan Always On option in BIOS, I have it on my HP. Yes its very quiet due to SSD and no Fans usage but it really gets warm like this. No need to be so passive with cooling.While gaming they kick in, never reached full blast and temp never went over 75C for both CPU and GPU. Nice.I know how the maxed fan sounds like. When you update the BIOS they kick in max just in case. While gaming .. not even close. Tested with WoW, Borderlands 2, GTA 5 and few other smaller not so intensive games.2nd star down:The speakers started to crackle on volumes above 50, really noticeable on vocals / covers songs. Not so much on music rich songs.But REAAALLLYYY noticeable on movies since its mostly speech.and the biggest star down, but i wont take anymore just because its rated as "I dont like it". I do like it but quality is beyond poor.I have samsung evo 850 500gb sitting in my drawer for 2 MONTHS. why? because i cannot plug it in. my laptop was delivered without the tray/cradle and the connector cable to plug the 2.5inch drive. see attached pic.Been contacting Dell many times. no parts can be found. don't care if its chargeable, i need the extra storage space to be used.so far i ordered 3 cables that fit the connector and that are from dell laptops, older inspirons. none of them work. but all 3 work on my brothers dell. how about that. one time i got lucky with dell rep. gave me part numbers but said they dont have it in stock, instead gave me link to order from 3rd party. I did. 29.99$. what happens? nada. zip. on top the part numbers that the rep. gave me, do not exist anywhere. tried with another rep. they said I have something wrong with the part number as they do not have that. oh well ...I would return it, but its way over return period. and not sure if I even want a replacement. with the comments i read about quality and screen bleed and other issues ...Last 3 days started to be fun. Borderlands 2 is giving me artifacts ingame, object would just glow yellow/red/green with no texture. Had the same sign on my desktop before the GTX 860 died. looks like the memory for the GTX960 starts to fail.Lets see how it will go in future ...UPDATE on 4th Month:as time passed i did some upgrades and fixes--added +8 GB Kingston Hyper X Black ram. no issues there, its all fine.--replaced the wifi card with Intel 7625 (2x2, AC, with 4.0 bluetooth). smooth as butter. holding same signal strength but waaaaaay faster.--Had issue with the laptop with missing cradle + cable to connect the hard drive in 2.5inch bay.As i got help from another user that also had it missing but returned and received new one with the cable, i managed to get the part number. Every other cable i tried it doesnt work even if its same connector. the laptop wont even power up.now to get the correct cable in case yours is also missing but u like the laptop its Dell Part number HW01M. note its only the cable not the cradle. As I added another 500GB samsung evo 850 SSD there, i just fixed in in place with some 3Ms :)Afrifacts disapeared after upgrading from bios version 1.1.3 to 1.1.5. not sure how its related. but meh, worth mentioning.Also, if u use samsung ssd evo or pro, PLEASE do yourself a favor and clone the windows on that drive, or even better just reinstall everything. the performance (IOPS) for the samsung vs the sandisk are more than double with even faster data rates. the laptop is even faster since i did that.Lets see how it will go now that i consider to be the final build.
9%
Fast Laptop, Some Defects, Poor Customer Service
August 31, 2017
I purchased this laptop about 2 years ago, so I have experienced the positives and negatives. I will say that this is the fastest and most powerful laptop I have owned. It was a great value for the price, so I wasn't too disappointed when it had a few quirks. Unfortunately, some of the problems were a bit more severe and ASUS did not offer good support when I contacted them regarding these issues. The first issue I noticed was that the trackpad did not work at all out of the box until I installed additional drivers. This was not a huge issue for me since I usually use a wireless mouse anyway, but definitely annoying. Even after installing the proper drivers, the trackpad is still difficult to use and less responsive than other laptops I have owned, so I mostly just leave it disabled anyway. The more serious issue I had is that my machine has now severely crashed twice, forcing me to reset the windows operating system (Windows 10), and causing me to lose all my installed programs which I then had to reinstall. Finally, I have recently had issues with the laptop charger. The cord has begun to pull away from the power converter box, exposing the wire. When I contacted ASUS about this issue, they took about 3 weeks to get back to me, then went back and forth with me requesting more information and more photos for another 2 weeks (it was a total of about 6 messages). Finally, instead of owning up to their design flaw that caused the weak connection to the power converter, they said they couldn't help me because in their assessment it was probably "user caused damage".Bottom line: fast computer that works well for gaming and general purposes, but I wouldn't buy again because of the tendency to crash and the poor ASUS support
It has performed great in many different ways
January 1, 2017
Bought this Laptop for my Daughter as her first gaming laptop. It has performed great in many different ways. Runs well with built in Nvidia card. The only problem we've faced is the screen. after general use of opening and closing, the monitor cable that connect s the screen to the motherboard, gets loosened from the connector, resulting in a flickering screen. I have had to take this twice to get repaired. The Tech tells me there isn't really anything that can be done, as the cable is too short to give any tension relief. I'm forced to leave the screen up unless its crucial to travel with it.
Not What I Was Expecting
July 19, 2016
Firstly I should start this review off by stating that I bought this laptop primarily for the purpose of web development and I have had this laptop for a little over a month now and sadly, I am not impressed. I have owned, several HP and DELL laptops in the past, and this is the first laptop that I have had issues with straight out the box. However, this is the first laptop I have had that came pre-installed with Windows 10, and that might be the basis for most of my issues with this product.In no particular order, here are the issues I've had with this laptop since purchase: > RANDOM FAN NOISE - The fan comes on for a split second sporadically, even when the laptop is not running any processor-consuming apps. It doesn't stay on long enough to be a constant nuisance, I am just not sure why it even comes on at all when it chooses to. > BLURRY FONT IN SOME APPS - I first noticed that the fonts within some open apps were blurry in comparison to the browser and other windows fonts. Even selecting the "ClearType" did not help the issue. Turns out when you have a widescreen, with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 or higher or a bit lower, in Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1 you would put your DPI scaling to 125% or higher to make text and images appear larger and more easy to read.But when you put the DPI scaling to 125% in Windows 10, you see in a lot of dialog boxes and windows the font gets very blurry. Since I do not have a PRO version of windows 10 and could not run a script to fix this on my local group policy editor, my only solution to this problem was downloading a third-party DPI fix. Which was/is super annoying to run every time you restart Windows. > MICROPHONE - This is my MAIN matter of contention so far with this laptop. The built-in microphone array does not pick up my voice at all. So far, reverting the drivers AND uninstalling and re-installing them has done NO-GOOD. I have submitted a ticket to Asus' Technical Support and are awaiting their response, but based on my research on the Internet, I'm not holding my breath.It would be remiss of me to not mention the good qualities of this laptop before ending my review: > SPEED & PROCESSING POWER - You will find that the laptop boots very quickly thanks to the SSD and processor. The laptop handles my development programs with ease.> KEYBOARD - Even though I read some pretty negative reviews about the keyboard, I appreciate the chicklet-type keys and the back-lit keypad. (My only qualms about the keyboard is the odd placement of the arrow keys to the numeric keypad compared to a regular keypad. It's easy to keep pressing the > button for the 0 until you get used to it)> BATTERY LIFE - The battery life has been amazing so far.> PRICE - For what it's worth (not considering all the little issues) the price point is to be a steal of a deal for the specs.Really hopes this honest review helps you make your decision if you're considering this laptop.
Freezes and date/time changes on its own daily.
January 9, 2016
Freezes and date changes own its own daily after setting it.1st its a great laptop, its sleek, its fast, they keyboard is nice and matte and feels good to use...2nd IF they would fix these issues this would be a GREAT LAPTOP!From the 1st time we used it, it froze, we thought it needed updating, did the updates and it still freezes.. THE WHOLE laptop freezes, not just an app so the only way to turn it off is by powering it off and losing anything you were doing that you didnt save.Do NOT get this for a student who needs to save their work, they will get frustrated. Working of videos or editing, DONT BOTHER cause you know when you doing something that you cant save right away, you will lose it all!!!!I paid close to 800.00 for this. If it was 150.00 I could live with the freezing as i would save as i go, (i know like you should) but not for 800.00I did get the warranty though, like you should..Amazon has been great at helping me with this issue when i told them about it and I am very satisfied with how amazon handled this for me.They have better policies than most!
So close to being great
December 28, 2015
I really want to like this computer but unfortunately I think I will have to return it (reasons below)First, the Pros:-Really light weight and sleek, easy to carry around-Graphics while gaming were great, played LoL and Borderlands 2 with no issues-keyboard was nice, didn't have any issues with the touchpad-Super fast start up and browsing-Laptop doesn't heat upCons:-The display is pretty bad, this is the main reason I'm considering returning it. Colors are washed out and causes eye strain. Its a Tn panel, so do some research on this type before purchasing.-Date and time issue present, randomly changes date sometimes after start up-Webcam is really bad-Fan randomly starts and stops, noticeableOverall its great for the price but not sure if I want to put up with this display for the next few years.
Great price for the components (even the screen)
December 7, 2015
Pros: Great price for the components (even the screen). Smooth, strong, fast, bearable screen, backlit keyboard, nice sleek design.Cons: Track pad is one of the worst I've ever used, at first it's hard to even slide your fingers across the rigid track pad... now it is seriously delayed and moves randomly. So if you were to buy this laptop, get a usb/wireless mouse. What I assume to be the ethernet port, doesn't work... even with a usb - ethernet connection, I guess this laptop doesn't have the drivers to support it? Other than the really annoying cons, it is a decent laptop for its sleek slim design, backlit keyboard, gpu, cpu, ram, ssd, and price.

Two Star Reviews:

5%
Backlight bleed and Battery gone bad one month into ownership
April 19, 2017
All around it's a solid laptop that runs games perfectly well and is light enough to carry around (subjective considering it doesn't add much to my daily carry). Right off the bat I had issues with backlight bleed and soon I noticed that there was a small spot around the bottom right corner of the screen which was much brighter than the rest of the screen. These combined aren't noticeable when browsing or whatnot, but maybe a month after owning it the Battery went bad. I no longer can use the laptop unless it is plugged in, forcing me to leave whatever I had open and kind of ruining the idea of it being more than a lightweight desktop. The laptop is perfectly usable otherwise. If not for the battery issue I would definitely give it a 4/5, but this is just low.
Consistently has technical issues
April 11, 2017
This laptop works great... when it works.Every other day, it seems like, the graphics card disappears from the Device Manager and there are frequent sudden crashes due to something called "VIDEO_DGXKRNL_FATAL_ERROR".I gather that this is due to DirectX, which is Microsofts proprietary video whirlygig.Troubleshooting with Dell technicians over the phone has failed to solve the problem (and resulted in two hours of pushy, unsolicited proselytizing about Dell and Microsoft products -- it's bad enough that I have to call support at all, manual verbal ad content doesn't help my mood) and the next level of support involves mailing the computer to a service center.Seems kind of pathetic that a computer that's only a month old should need this much effort just to keep it running.Anyhow, I wish I'd picked a different computer, as this one seems cheaply built and it shows in the performance.
Before that I was quite satisfied with it though there are some problem in sound
April 4, 2017
Bought this at end of 2015, 3days ago it can't be turned on, since the warranty already past I find a computer service, they told me the motherboard is done so what I can do is buy a new laptop. Come on it's only one and half year, no water spill no damage it just suddenly die. Before that I was quite satisfied with it though there are some problem in sound. Any way disappointed at it.
One of the unlucky ones... chipset design defect?
February 28, 2017
I purchased two Inspiron 7559 for all the reasons already covered by other reviews. However, none of them seem to discuss the faint buzzing / static noise that constantly sounds from the bottom middle where the CPU / motherboard chipset is. Both of my systems do it, and it's noticeable when all fans are off. It sounds like an old hard disk platter spinning, and it can be quite annoying over time. I contacted Dell and send one of the systems in. It took their depot 3 weeks total to repair and ship back to me. According to other reviews 3 weeks is about par for the course for Dell repair depot, but my previous experiences with Asus for example is they had the system shipped back to me in 2 days' repair time. So... after receiving it back, the motherboard was replaced but the buzzing sound is still there, although slightly less noticeable. Now Dell advises to wait for a BIOS update. Meanwhile, after repair, the case is now loose and makes a popping sound whenever I rest my right palm on the front right area. The backlit keyboard also intermittently goes out because the cable is loose. Even though it's under warranty still, I won't be going another 3 weeks without this system again unless something's seriously wrong. I have lost confidence in Dell and will explore other options in the future.
Great PC when it works, but Dell won't help if it doesn't!
June 20, 2016
Let's get one thing out of the way, I absolutely love my 7559 which is why I'm giving it 2 stars instead of the 1 star Dell deserves. It's a great machine, blazing fast, runs all the latest games at 60FPS. The build quality isn't perfect, but good, very solid. It is a bit of a fingerprint magnet but I lived with it. The speakers are great - very loud, decent bass. The only complaint I have is the touch pad isn't wonderful but it works.Unfortunately my computer had an issue where it would lock up on a black screen and wouldn't respond to anything but holding down the power button to turn it off. After several phone calls with Dell support they agreed to repair it. Great! Repairs went fine, and I was happy to be up and running again.... Except the problem returned. This time I had a Dell rep confirm to me that it's a known hardware issue and the solution is to disable the integrated Intel graphics. I was okay with this until I discovered this means I can no longer suspend my pc! When I called back I had no less that four dell reps hang up on me after I gave them my pc's serial number. When I finally got someone willing to help I sent the pc in for repairs again. Upon getting it back I found they had only reinstalled windows, and the problem showed up again within ten minutes of booting it up! Dell didn't even bother letting it run for ten minutes after I explained many times its an intermittent issue that may take an hour or two to show up. AND it's a known hardware issue, but their solution was to reinstall windows, which I tried quite a few times (and told them I had done so as well).Fortunately Amazon agreed to refund me even though I'm well outside the return window. I will never buy a Dell again, I love the hardware but God help you if you have any sort of issue with it.
Good Laptop but Lots of Issues
January 20, 2016
This computer is nice. It's starts up quickly, the screen image looks very nice, and can handle games... But occasionally the computer turns off by itself, the screen turns off and on with a message that something is wrong with intel graphics card, and sometimes the computer doesn't recognize the hard drive. I love this computer but I'm returning it because I don't want to have it completely break after the 30 day return period and lose $800 dollars. Also, some other reviewers are experiencing the same issues as me so I am hesitant in ordering a replacement. Overall, if you don't get a lemon this computer is nice.
11%
Graphics and Screen Freeze problems.
May 26, 2017
I was honestly stoked for this computer. Gaming laptop for under 1k? I planned to use this for my day job, my home business, and get a little overwatch in on the side. NOPE. The first one of these I ordered developed a power supply problem within weeks and then wouldn't charge the battery at all. Amazon was awesome and replaced it. Now, this new one has been randomly freezing on me with no real source cause identifiable. I have run the gambit on suggested fixes and it continues to do so. Not to mention that on both of the computers I had to disable the cool up sale GTX graphics card because it interferes with the Intel graphics card, so my gaming is lackluster at best. Honestly, my old thinkpad did better, at least it was reliable.
A lot of glitches and problems
November 22, 2016
I had another ASUS laptop that was much smaller and LOVED it (it just kept running with no problems until I dropped it -- oops!) so I went with this brand again. I wanted something powerful enough to video-edit while on the road, and this fit the bill. However, it's had several glitches that my other laptop didn't have. Some have been mentioned on other reviews. They are:* The trackpad/left click is awkward and doesn't work half the time when pushed. It gets pretty irritating to have to force it.* On about four occasions, the computer simply would not turn on. I had to read about a forced stop/start that works to restore it. Very scary - thought I lost everything.* Many times, the login screen doesn't appear. I have to hard boot the computer, shutting off the power and all else to get it to appear again.* I've started to see pixels and weird random blotches that appear and disappear -- hoping this doesn't mean some type of failure. I only bought this about six months ago.* Despite trying many fixes, the wifi at some locations (including my home) simply stops working. I know it's this computer since it still works on my phone or my husband's laptop. I have to shut the laptop and open it back up after a few minutes.* Another irritating glitch -- the time and date randomly changes on its own to the wrong time/date. Here again I've tried many suggestions I found online to no avail.* It's heavy.* The zero/right arrow get in the way of one another, it's not really set up great ergonomically.That about covers the main issues. I can't wait until a few years from now when I can justify buying a new laptop.
Electronic RNG got me.
June 8, 2016
I really wanted to love this laptop. I purchased it for on the road gaming. By itself, it is great. It is powerful enough to play most games at medium settings. Didn't have a good time trying to play Doom, but then again I wasn't expecting a lot at the price point.The biggest issue that I have been having with this laptop since I received it nearly 3 months ago is using an external display through HDMI. I have been getting random "unsupported resolution/refresh rate" on any external screen or TV I try to use for gaming. At the beginning, it only happened a couple times. In the past few weeks, it has progressed to where it happens about every 5 minutes when any game is open.I've tried everything, from reinstalling games and wiping caches to reinstalling drivers and Windows 10 itself. YES I UPDATED TO BIOS 209. I even updated to beta drivers from Nvidia and the generic drivers from Intel. Still no luck. Last step is installing Windows 7 and do a manual search for the drivers, since Asus does not support any OS besides Windows 10 on this model. Blizzard Tech Support is even stumped on this one.I wrote in to Asus a few days ago since I hit a roadblock on everything I could think of myself. They sent me a link to a generic Microsoft article about refresh rates which provided no help. I immediately responded but have heard nothing in just over 2 days. I can't say that I really blame them as they probably get a lot of bs support requests, but it is still quite frustrating. I am going to try giving the support phone number a call tomorrow, and will update this review afterwards.
From high hopes to questionable hardware choices. Conclusion: lackluster product.
February 15, 2016
-Time used: 2-3 weeks-IT experience: 10 years+ building computer hardware/software-Pro's: Good specs. Decent battery life. Alright heat dissipation. Empty 2.5" bay.-Con's: Eye bleeding TN screen from the pit of Cthulhu's deepest darkest torture chamber worth 20 dollars or less. I have old crt screens with better color reproduction. Piss poor viewing angles (expected for tn panels) and shameful brightness. Horrible/variable clicking pressure on the trackpad. Questionable build quality and quality assurance. Buggy motherboard firmware. Feels like a rushed product with minimal bug testing.-Personal gripes: Not very compatible with linux bootable toolkits. Windows 10 boot manager (because windows is my only choice since linux is not well suited with the hardware.) Bizarre issue from the system clock reporting the wrong date & time randomly.-Conclusion: I returned it for my cash back. Even if I replaced the screen with an IPS pannel, the system clock problem and locked down hardware raised red flags for the long term life of the laptop. If it wasn't for the uber-crap tn screen, flimsy trackpad, and system clock problem I would of given this computer a solid 4/5.ASUS stick to your chromebooks, upper premium laptops, and desktop hardware. This product makes me question my other ASUS hardware.
UPDATE: Zero to hero to zero - thanks ASUS RMA.
January 26, 2016
UPDATE 11/15: So a large reason of why I chose ASUS in the first place was for the built-in free ADP (Accidental Damage Protection) plan. I slightly destroyed this thing last month... long story... and had to go through the process of building an ADP claim. It's not very clear, and you end up doing a standard RMA. Note to anyone else reading this: if you ever had to pursue ADP through an Asus RMA, call immediately after they receive the unit and escalate it. Call the next day and escalate it again. Rinse and repeat until someone from the company gets back to you.They received my laptop 11/3 and sat on it until I called them last Friday (11/12), when they informed me there was a wait code on it because the unit came in damaged. It came in for a damage claim for God's sake! They promised me a call or email update within 12-24 hours. I gave them the weekend and Monday and Tuesday morning without any communication before calling them back. The guy I spoke with said the repair clock reset when I had the case escalated so really in the eyes of ASUS they had only had it for two days.Needless to say, I'll be calling every day until they can at minimum get me an update and an ETA. If it's a month from now that's fine, but as a consumer without a computer this is pretty much solid agony not knowing what to expect. I won't be buying another ASUS product after this experience. So disappointing.UPDATE 5/13: So I did end up replacing this with a Toshiba.And I hated it.I mean, I really hated it. Hated it more than all of the associated commentary below.So I said what-the-hell and ran the dice on a replacement K501UX. I was sure to update everything and run a script posted below in the comments of this review. And you know what? I haven't had a single problem with it. It's fast, it keeps time, the fan is not loud in this one, the space bar doesn't make that obnoxious sound that the first version had. I almost gave this thing a four star review because the first product I had was SO bad, but this one really makes up for it. I wanted to give it at least three or four months before coming back, but I have to say, the durability of this rig, the speed, and the unbelievably light footprint of it makes it a must-have for anyone doing borderline things who do not want the price of a true "gaming rig".From zero to hero. If you get a bad one, just return it. I'm glad I did.>>> Original review below, in all of great angsty glory. Don't judge me, I was a little tipsy when I wrote it.This purchase is perhaps the most depressing and disappointing that I've made recently. Let me say that this could have VERY EASILY been the best laptop upgrade ever. To start with, I'm upgrading from a six year old Toshiba that has just taken every beating I've dosed out on it and kept on ticking -- I just wanted to treat myself with a faster rig.Asus knows how to box things up. I was very much wowed with the set-up opening the box rather than when I've purchased previous brown-box laptops. It looked slick coming out, GREAT form factor, rounded edges, very organic looking. All the specs looked great for the price point.I had 24 hours of bliss.Then the honeymoon ended.- The keys squeak. I don't mean a little. I mean every time you hit the space button it emits a high-pitched noise that sounds approximate to nails on a chalk board. For someone with sensitive hearing, this in and of itself would be a deal breaker.- The touchpad is REALLY sub-par. It isn't necessarily the touchpad itself (which is okay once you disable Asus' native Smart Gesture bloatware), but the "key" function at the bottom of the touchpad. I'm used to discrete buttons, which I prefer over the "dedicated touchpad space" as demonstrated on this product. If you don't hit it 'left' enough (the leftmost quartile, let's say) it won't register a click. It's atrocious when you use this rig as a casual game.- THE DATE PROBLEM reared its ugly head. I do a lot of online collaboration via text-based mediums, and I have a specific program to run a log on every day the system registers. I'll wake up after seven hours of sleep, having locked the computer the night before, and have no less than 24 strings of new log output where the system has changed the date two dozen + times. From what I can tell from rudimentary research this is indicative of CMOS battery issues; CMOS batteries are motherboard batteries, for those unused to the term, and I'm just not comfortable with dropping this much money to have such foundational issues less than 72 hours out of the box.It's enough to drive a person nuts, because otherwise this rig has enough power to run WoW on ultra settings no problem, even when raiding with 40 other people - no clue on more modern games, because I'm not cool enough to play those. :P It's lightweight and I can take it to work and it look respectable and sleek rather than getting side-eyed for having an obvious gaming rig. It is a BEAUTIFUL laptop. Some people don't like the matte display but I love it. Very easy on the eyes especially in low-light surroundings. And it is SO quick thanks to the SSD and recent-generation i7.All in all, it would be amazing if it wasn't for a) the touchpad, b) the INFERNAL MOUSE-BEING-TORTURED SQUEAKING, and most distressingly c) the constant date change problem. No, Asus, it is not March yet. Quit telling me it's March. Stop trying to make March happen. March is never going to...It drives me crazy for something to be this close and miss the mark. Literally crazy.So I'm buying a Toshiba, even though I think the design is not even 50% as pretty, it is more expensive AND it fails to have a SSD... because I know the product won't squeak like a tormented mouse and I can beat on it for the next four years without a whole lot of concern.Buyer beware. This dragon brings tears of frustration. :(
I really wanted to like this laptop
January 18, 2016
I really wanted to like this laptop, but it's going back to Amazon.Pros:- Great build. Slim but sturdy, and it doesn't get warm (ASUS usually gets this right). Looks sharp.- There's some weird, persistent fan noise from the left side (doesn't seem to be linked to activity), but it's really faint and won't be a problem with headphones.- The keyboard feels great, though the number pad keys are more narrow than I've seen before and take some getting used to.Cons:- The screen is really bad. I could generally care less about screen quality, and I prefer matte to reflective. Having said that, this screen is so low quality that I found it impossible to calibrate the color/contrast to where I didn't get a headache from the background whites within 10 minutes. This just shouldn't be an issue on an $800 computer. In fairness, I probably would've replaced the screen if it wasn't for the next complaint . . .- Ah, the dealbreaker: the BIOS/clock thing. Read through the other reviews - it's a real problem. Frankly, they shouldn't have released this model knowing it had such systemic issues. I tried several of the fixes here and nothing resolved it. Completely unacceptable, particularly if ASUS acknowledges the issue (they do) and doesn't offer a solution (they don't). Sad to say it's just really bad QC, and is probably linked to faulty or low quality hardware. Might be my last ASUS.

One Star Reviews:

11%
Poor build quality!
June 29, 2017
After only 10 months of use (and treated as a regular laptop), the audio port is no longer functional, the front and back panel have loosened/detached (freeing the screen hinge on one side), and one of the USB ports is no longer functional. I've owned several laptops in the past, and have never experienced issues remotely as bad as these.They also would not cover these issues with the warranty, and expect me to pay them for repairs.
I tried contacting customer service to resolve the dead pixels issue but they were completely useless. They offered me the optio
March 14, 2017
I ordered this laptop thinking I would get something of high quality and reliable durability. After 2 months of owning this laptop I already have a patch of dead pixels across on the right side of my screen. I have done nothing but take the laptop between rooms and open and shut it but apparently that is too much for this poorly crafted piece of machinery. I tried contacting customer service to resolve the dead pixels issue but they were completely useless. They offered me the option to send my laptop to them for 2 weeks WITHOUT a temporary. This is not an option for students who want the best of both worlds both gaming and working because customer service will leave you high and dry when it comes to keeping you productive. Never in my life have i experience customer service that does not give you a temporary when they give you an inferior product. Additionally, customer service warned me that if i send it I should back up everything in case they have to wipe the thing clean. So not only would I be out of a computer for 2 weeks but also need to buy an external hard-drive if I don't already own one?? And there's no guarantee you'll fix it?? Umm yeah, no thanks. Now I am stuck with a damaged screen and no way to get it replaced under the warranty they so generously gave out. Thanks Dell.
Amazon Warehouse Deals Scam
January 3, 2017
laptop turned itself off and finally turned on after three hours where it said it was suffering from a critical battery failure. Granted, I bought it from Amazon Warehouse Deals, so it was "used", but I digress. What makes things worse is Amazon didn't want to refund the money, despite the fact the item was defective.
I got completely screwed. This is my third Dell ...
December 16, 2016
I got completely screwed. This is my third Dell laptop. The first two were OK and I had few problems with their functionality. This one is a different story. Four months after I bought this machine, I opened the screen one morning to find a crack in the display. There had been nothing to cause this, it just appeared. A couple of days later another crack appeared. And now there are several. All the while this computer has been sitting on my desk. I contacted Dell and told them this story. They said the only way this could happen was if damage was inflicted on it. And that my warranty would not cover this due to the abuse. I did a little looking and ended up at the Dell customer forum. There I found several people that had the same thing happen to them. The Dell reps are completely oblivious, they are continuing to say there was abuse. This amounts to calling me dishonest. So I went online to see about getting this fixed any way possible. I found a replacement screen for $105 with an instruction video tools and full support. Dell had quoted me $319 just for the screen. And of course since it was not under warranty, I would have to pay for labor and shipping as well. As you can see, this is a horror story. I could go on about the complete lack of support and how it now constantly hangs up requiring rebooting. But this is enough.
Snappy.....when my hard drive works....I've been through two hard drives now.
June 13, 2016
Wow.....The Laptop worked great up until 45 days after I purchased it. Purchased on March 29th. On May 13th, it wouldn't boot anymore from the SSD. I called Dell, and was on the Phone for 4 hours. At that point, they decided the SSD was bad. They sent me out a new SSD. I lost the data on the Hard Drive, mind you. So, I installed the new SSD. Worked for another. 28 days. Today, it is not booting again. I've had this new laptop for 2 and half months. And, I've actually been able to use it for about one month. I don't download any crazy free software from the internet. I don't even play games on this gaming laptop. The only thing, I do is manage my finances and cruise the internet. When it was running, it was snappy and quick. Please, I'm writing this review so that others don't have the same problem as I have. I truely hope it's a fluke, but Dell has lost my business......
Malfunction on the first day.
April 1, 2016
Broke after a few hours. Now it only boots to a dell logo followed by a blue screen and an immediate loss of power. I would not buy from amazon's warehouse deals again.
16%
Cheap, but a little too cheap
June 8, 2016
I wanted something that I could take on business trips and wouldn't attract the type of attention I presume would be given to my Alienware in a conference room. The form factor and build quality were good enough, but the screen was awful. Very blurry and poor color saturation.
Stay away, great specs but sloppy quality control
June 1, 2016
On paper this is a fantastic machine. If only it were built out of parts that could maintain their specifications for more than three hours.Seriously fast setup, fast computer, nice display and good feel on the keyboard. The touchpad leaves a bit to be desired, feels a bit like it might fall apart on the next double click.Got the thing running, waited the required 3 hour charge as recommended by ASUS. Life is great, I love this laptop. Wake from sleep and wifi adapter is gone. About 5 hours of troubleshooting, driver installation, and even system reset (nice feature) later, I must conclude the wifi adapter is actually ghosted from the system at the hardware level.If the basic components can't even sustain a sleep cycle, or whatever madness happened after tipping the screen back open, then what an I think of the more critical components?Its possible I'm one of the few outliers in the bad reviews. It's possible you buy this badass computer and have no problems with it. It's also possible ASUS is cool with having no quality control.This machine is great if you get a unit without the devastating problems others have reported. It's super fast and huge bang for the buck. I ignored the few negative reviews because of so many awesome reviews, and am currently waiting for a refund.It'll work out better for you.
Highly Disappointed!
May 23, 2016
I have had a lot of trouble with this laptop. It could just be that I got a lemon, I don't know. This is my second Asus laptop. I never had any problems with my older one. Since the day I got this the date and time change for no reason. I keep manually changing it back and it keeps going ahead by months. The automatic time change options don't work. Sometimes this causes websites not to work and Youtube not to work. This has caused me many headaches, trying to figure out what is going on. It let me use a pin to sign in to my profle for the first few times instead of my email. This was a nice time saver to log in...that option went away the first week. I have searched all through settings and no option works. When I close the laptop without signing out, it stays on and drains the battery. When I sign out to stop this battery drain and try to sign back in, it gives me a message that says resources are low or something and I have to restart the computer to be allowed to sign back into my profile. Keep in mind that I have never downloaded anything to this computer. I don't watch adult films or stream video from this computer. Until this point I have only browsed legitimate websites. Plus the AC wifi doesn't work well at all, so I don't even use it. It's possible that it's my router, I don't know. I have a fairly new Nighthawk. I bought this brand new but I often feel like it was refurbished or something. Like it came with a virus in it already. I spent a good chunk of change on this and it is not efficient at all. Like I said, maybe it's a lemon, but I cannot recommend this model of Asus.
One of the mounting screws on the back missing one ...
May 11, 2016
One of the mounting screws on the back missing one. Keyboard face the lower right side have mechanical damage, a salient point. The left flank abnormal cracking, there is a big crack. The laptop can't boot up. I can provide clear pictures. Although the laptop can return, but give me the time and money loss. A very unpleasant shopping experience.Customer service, please give me a reasonable explanation!!!!!
Better on paper
February 8, 2016
Edit: After reply comment from customer service, changing from 2 to 1 stars. Luckily I am still in the 30 return window for amazon.Original review:Having considerable problems so far with this computer.1) the touchpad is awful. As other reviews mention, it is "bubbling." Meaning the pad is coming up off of where it is supposed to be attached, and as you can imagine this interferes with using it very well. If you purchase this computer, you'll need a mouse.2) I cannot get the date and time to work correctly. I understand how to use the auto and manual date and time adjustments in the control panel. However, when the computer goes into sleep mode, it wakes up with random dates and times. If I take it off auto location and back on it will correct itself, but obviously this isn't a permanent solution.3) The wifi adapter/driver has a ton of problems. Takes about 5 mins to connect initially. It will sporadically (every 15-30mins) disconnect from wifi and not be able to connect again for about 5 mins. Right now I'm writing this review on my phone and watching Friends on my Roku - all through the Wi-Fi. I'm just waiting for the computer to be able to reconnect (I have 300mb/s download and 60 mb/s through the router). The adapter thinks there is no connectivity through the router, :(.4) misc other stuff that I have to restart the computer for, like freezing up, the sound not working, connectivity issues though the HDMI, etc... I have to hit ctl-alt-del at least once a day to terminate something that's unresponsive. Pretty much all I'm using it for is school! ppts, pdfs, word docs, etc..The computer does do good work, from the hardware being solid - when it doesn't run into hiccups. However, it seems to be lacking in a lot of fundamental necessities. Looking back I would have bought a "lesser" computer that was better able to perform routine tasks. Especially if it had been for less money (and this computer was a "deal"!).
Good not great laptop but then again it died in less than 30 days
January 20, 2016
I am disappointed that this laptop didn't even last 30 days. Purchased as a Christmas present for my wife and at first it seemed to be exactly what she wanted. Lightweight but reasonably fast. I did notice that when you try and watch a movie that the sound was low and unacceptable. The next thing that was noticed was that the time was drifting. Time was reset to correct time but by morning the time was off by 6 plus hours. Later that night the laptop wouldn't even power upThere are some positives. Nice lightweight laptop and was able to keep up with some light gaming.Cons: Sound amplification was terrible, Display is poor and now won't even boot. Sending in for a RMA.11 months later sending in the laptop for another RMA. If I could give ASUS a negative 5 rating I would. You expect more from ASUS and they are not able to deliver a reliable laptop. So disappointed that I will be buying future laptops from other manufacturers.
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Pricing info
Old Price
Old Price
Price
Price
$999.77updated: Mar 19, 2020
$1100.00updated: Mar 20, 2020
Features
Answered Questions
Answered Questions
Article Number
Article Number
0884116204503
0889349200438
Binding
Binding
Personal Computers
Personal Computers
Brand
Brand
Dell
Asus
Color
Color
Black
-
Currency
Currency
USD
USD
Formatted Price
Formatted Price
$899.99
$799.00
Height
Height
410.6 in
35.4 in
Length
Length
593.7 in
393.7 in
Manufacturer
Manufacturer
Dell Marketing USA, LP
ASUS Computers
Model
Model
i7559-763BLK
K501UX-AH71
MPN
MPN
i7559-763BLK
K501UX-AH71
Number of Items
Number of Items
1
1
Number of Parts
Number of Parts
i7559-763BLK
K501UX-AH71
Operating System
Operating System
Windows 10
-
Product Group
Product Group
Personal Computer
Personal Computer
Product Type
Product Type
NOTEBOOK_COMPUTER
NOTEBOOK_COMPUTER
Publisher
Publisher
Dell Marketing USA, LP
ASUS Computers
Quantity
Quantity
1
1
Reviews
Reviews
Score
Score
9
7.8
Size
Size
Intel Core i5
-
Studio
Studio
Dell Marketing USA, LP
ASUS Computers
Warranty
Warranty
1YR RETL MAIL IN SERVICE
1YR International/1YR ADP with 1-way free shipping/30-Day Zero Bright Dot/2-way FREE shipping for standard warranty repair/24-7 tech support
Weight
Weight
30.7 oz
15.5 oz
Width
Width
593.7 in
590.5 in
Feature
Feature

Intel i5-6300HQ 2.3 GHz Quad-Core (6M Cache, Turbo up to 3.2 GHz)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4GB GDDR5

8 GB DDR3L / 256 GB Solid-State Drive

15.6-Inch FHD IPS, Wide-Angle, Anti Glare Screen

Powerful 6th-generation Intel Core i7-6500U 2.5GHz (Turbo up to 3.1GHz). Skylake

15.6 inches Matte FHD display. 1920 by 1080 resolution. Windows 10 Operation System.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M gaming graphic card; 8GB RAM; 256GB SSD Storage. Backlit keyboard.

Gigabit Dual-Band 802.11AC ultra-fast Wi-Fi.

Feature 2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, 1 x HDMI. Bluetooth 4.0.

1 year International Warranty with 1 year Accidental Damage Protection

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