ASUS - TUF Gaming 17.3" Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX3050 Ti - 512GB SSD - Eclipse Grey

I have had extremely bad luck with the amount of time that my laptop is powered under battery only power. I normally have less that 2 hours of operating time to work with. None of the energy saving settings seem to help, and the battery analysis tells me that the battery health is good. For the

So far, out of the box this has been one of the most problematic computers I have ever had to set up. Most of that has been due to Windows 10 and lack of familiarity. Some parts though would have been a little easier with a basic guide that explained about the Armory Crate Utility. That is the most important utility as it is where all the hardware setups are including cooling, lighting for the keyboard, and a number of other things. The only big problem I have noticed is lack of a NUM LOCK visual indicator. As this has always been a standard, and in the case of this computer it is a major flaw. The 10 key layout on the right side also substitutes for the HOME, END, PgUP, and PgDN keys. In fact that is the ONLY location for the page up and down keys. There have already been several times when I needed the 10 key to enter numbers and nothing happens. THAT is the only indicator that the NUM LOCK key is off. Why there isn't a little light like with the CAPS LOCK key I don't know. Someone didn't think things through. There was also an instance after I had gone through a lot of setups, shut the machine down for the night and started it up again where I had all kinds of program pop ups and notices from ARMOURY CRATE. It was fine the night before, and had not gone browsing on the web except for known items I needed. It was horrible and I couldn't shut it off. Finally ARMOURY CRATE called for an update where it completely changed itself and solved the problem. The Windows 10 issues I blame on Microsoft (Big Brother Microsoft SUCKS by the way), the other issues are all on ASUS. Cooling. If you are going to use this for gaming, IT will HAVE to be plugged in. The cooling fans are basically disabled when on battery, and the machine will need a cooling plate of some sort underneath. Be aware of where the cooling air ducts are located. It is not recommended to be set on your lap, and I found that even setting flat on a smooth table it tended to run a bit warmer. If elevated about an inch or so toward the back it runs fairly cool. I know some of this is old hat if you have had a machine like this before. It is new to me as my last notebook/laptop was 20 years ago. To sum this up, I gave it a 4 due to lack of information about where to look for setups on things like keyboard lighting and hardware setups. The lack of a NUM LOCK visual indicator isn't a deal breaker, but it is a pain in the rear when it isn't in the correct mode. The lack of dedicated Pg UP and DOWN keys is also a bit of a pain. That ended up being solved by purchasing a Kensington trackball with the scroll ring. Some of the choices ASUS made on this are questionable to me, and some of the hassles and problems out of the box could have been solved with some actual documentation rather than the tiny pamphlet with the obvious things of plug in the power supply, open the display and turn on the on switch. A simple but visually catching bit that all hardware and lighting controls can be found in the Armoury Crate utility would have been real effing helpful. I only learned that from reading another person's review. It stands at 4 stars. The frustration with it almost dropped it to 3, but the actual machine seems to be fairly decent for the money.

Very good laptop. Pretty fast when connected to power cord. It drops speed and brightness under battery. It is understandable because it is a gaming laptop. Overall great machine.

It is a very stable and over-all very good computer. I've hadn't tried it out for gaming yet, but it looks to be very competent when utilizing it in such a manner.

I didn't buy this laptop for gaming, just everyday use. So far it has been great. Love the backlit keyboard and 17" screen. My old Asus machine running Windows 10 with 4 gb of RAM was tired and not working well even after a fresh install. This machine was it's replacement.