What gives a 3,000-euro laptop

It is clear that not everyone is going to buy a laptop for 3,000 euros, but if you think about it, this is what the new Asus Rog Zephyrus S can do for you.

No, you do not need to buy a laptop to work, unless you are an architect who needs a lot of graphics power or, as we are going to talk about here, you are a real fool of frames per second, the video games that are seen with the best graphics and risky designs.

So I start this test of the Asus Rog Zephyrus S (model GX701GXR-HG125T, to be more exact, it matters here) because I know that every time you see such a high price on a technological product you can think that you need to leave that money behind. or if. And no, for Word, Excel and little else you do not need a laptop today, with a tablet it would serve you.

Gaming laptops are niche products, almost elitist I would dare to say, because most standard players bet on the classic tower with its removable components that, for 1000 euros, are fantastic. But laptops are sometimes necessary for lack of space or for necessities of life (you travel a lot, for example). And although there are great products for just a thousand euros, like the one we talked about recently, there are also some that don’t cut anything and don’t understand limits.

Again, here is the Asus Rog Zephyrus S, with its 17-inch, G-Sync compatible, 300hz display (five times more than normal), its Intel i7 9750H processor (latest generation, until next month) , its Nvidia RTX 2080 graphics card, the most powerful so far in laptops, 32GB of RAM (twice as much as my desktop computer with which I play), 1TB of SSD …

All this is not so difficult to achieve (it is, but follow me the roll), but what is difficult is to put it in such a fine body and get it to refrigerate well. Although in return it makes a quite important noise when you are playing something that requires taking advantage of its components, the laptop does it. I have thrown everything and has endured it well: playing online at 240hz Overwatch, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Rocket League … All this is possible, although sometimes lowering the graphics a little . In Destiny 2 keeping 144hz was easy too.

You are not going to play the most demanding games of the moment at 300 hertz, that you can already forget about it, but even if some game does not reach the maximum of ‘frames’ that you ask for, G-Sync technology comes into play, that avoids screen tearing, that is, that two frames overlap each other as they are not perfectly aligned and that the image looks worse.

This is the best thing about the Zephyrus: it is powerful enough, but even when it is not powerful enough due to its portable condition, it knows how to adapt so that it is not noticeable. The bad thing is that it is a bit noisy and that it has a somewhat quirky design, for my taste.

That the touchpad is on the right makes some sense because it can function as a full keyboard thanks to it, with the numeric keypad appearing almost magically through LED lighting. But still, it’s awkward when you don’t use a traditional mouse. Is it mandatory to use it with this equipment to play? Of course, but perhaps not for everything …

If the touchpad is on the right it is because the keyboard is glued to its bottom, which does not make it the most comfortable keyboard in the world: the wrist is slightly twisted when you play and it can hurt after a while if you do not put yourself well constantly . This is so because, where the keyboard would normally be, in the center of the body of the laptop, there is an immense grid of points through which the computer is cooled.

It is a price to pay because the equipment does not overheat excessively, something that it also achieves by raising its rear when fully opened. That is, when the computer is closed, its lower part, which rests on the table, is also flat; But when you open it and raise the screen, a small elevation unfolds through which more heat dissipates.

This is one of the little ‘tricks’ that the laptop uses to run at full capacity whenever possible. Although if you are not for the work, with a simple key you can change the operating mode, being my favorite for any work that does not involve playing silent mode. I insist, both dissipating heat turns this laptop at times into a turbine.

In short, and going back to the first thing I said. Is it absurd that there are such powerful laptops with better screens than even desktop monitors? Sure, but that does not mean that there is a specific and demanding audience that is going to take advantage of them. Do you need a 3,000 euro laptop? Surely not, but as I said above, all this is what you can do and do it divinely. I wish I could pay for it, yes, but I am satisfied and I manage with much less.