ASUS VivoBook Pro Thin & Light Laptop, 17.3" Full HD, Intel i7-8550U, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 256GB M.2 SSD + 1TB HDD, GeForce GTX 1050 4GB, Backlit KB, Windows 10 - N705UD-EH76, Star Gray, Casual Gaming

I chose this laptop because wanted something of this size and power, and by golly it has those. The computer handles my game library nicely, I love the big screen and roomy keyboard, which I really needed on account of my big hands. The computer also looks and feels nice. Its light but doesnt feel at all flimsy. That said, its got some quality of life issues that just REALLY bum me out and are enough to make me wish Id gone with a different computer. First, the touch pad works fine almost all the time, but will sometimes just become altogether unresponsive. I can click, but it wont track my fingers movements. This might go on for about ten seconds before it starts doing its thing again. This might happen every one or two days. Its not game breaking, but it is enough that I dont want to leave home without a mouse if i can help it. Second, the speakers are placed in just the dumbest place possible. They are on the very bottom of the PC, right where the base ever so slightly curves towards the edge. This means that sound quality is fine, if a little quiet on a flat surface like a desk. But if I have it resting on my lap, couch, or bed then the sound is muffled. I am a laptop on couch kind of guy, so this makes for a problem for me. Mostly if Im watching a video I find that I want to tilt the base up, even on a desk, so that I can hear better. So while theres a lot going for this computer and the price point was nice, I really have so recommend going with something else unless youre using this as a true, semi-portable desktop replacement and will be keeping it in your office/workspace 80+% of the time.

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Pros: +Great value for money, i7 8550u performs around 5% worse than i7 7700hq in all core situations while consuming MUCH less power (15W vs 45W). The single thread speeds and clockspeed of the i7 8550u are faster than i7 700hq though so it feels extremely snappy when doing normal stuff like word/powerpoint/web browsing (single core applications) +GTX 1050 just makes it even better +IO selection is great as long as you dont rely on thunderbolt. +Decent screen on the IPS model(core i7 8th gen) +++Very good and loud speakers which do not peak at all even when playing opera music. Bass is clear even for electro music which is really impressive. Little distortion (at 17inches its inexcusable for a laptop to have that). Not as good as macbook pro 2017 speakers but still way better than most windows laptops. +Heat is exhausted out the sides which are some distance away from the keyboard so the keyboard does not get hot. +keyboard is nice to type on and I could easily get up to 100wpm. +only a few bloatware, 10mins of uninstallation should do the trick Cons: -VERY bad battery life even with the more efficient i7 8550u, getting around 4.5 hours of normal web browsing on a full charge. I feel this is a design flaw rather than a compromise since most of the space inside the laptop is empty instead of being used for more battery capacity. EDIT TOOK A STAR OFF: I thermal tested the computer by stressing the i7 with folding@home, and on 100% load, the processor boosts up to 3.8ghz. However in just 10s it hits 90C/194F and throttles down to 3.1ghz so as to not damage itself. Thermal throttling of this level should not be present in a laptop this big and this is a HUGE performance drop. Furthermore ASUS, unlike most other laptop brands, places a "warranty void if broken" sticker on the cpu hotplate, so YOU CANNOT CHANGE THERMAL PASTE WITHOUT VOIDING THE WARRANTY.

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Pro: * Well put together, good aesthetics that makes this device feel on par with a similar Apple product * Heat management for standard usage is whisper quiet * Speakers have excellent power and clarity. * Its an ASUS laptop with a numeric pad that also has a numlock. My last ASUS laptop was some bizarre in that I paid extra to have a numeric pad but someone in design thought it was a good idea to not have a numeric lock... no idea. Anyway this has a numlock and life is good. Con: * This thing is obnoxiously loud when under load. There is a possibility it has a defect in the fan or it just maybe the fact that it is an ultra-thin laptop without sufficient space for cooling. * The touch pad by default cant handle two fingers touching it. So if you have one finger on the left click area while the other tries to move the cursor, it stops taking input.

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