Here’s my 1 month use summary of owning the machine. DAY TO DAY: I've been pretty amazed at the performance of this laptop since I got it a month ago. The 6-core CPU breezes through all my tasks and my work, although there are some hiccups (little lags) along the way. It's not as bad as you might expect but it's still annoying if you're working and it just does that hiccup. Sometimes it recovers, sometimes not. With a hefty weight of 5.5 lbs, this isn't your regular thin and light. Given the weight, it is still portable enough to be carried around in a backpack. It's not uncomfortably heavy and bulky, but you'll need the power adapter in the pack as well because the battery isn't really the laptop's strength. I the laptop and the power brick in a Sprayground back pack, with the 12.9 inch Ipad pro and a couple of portable hard drives and a 2016 Roccat Kova. FANS AND NOISE Fan Overboost found in the ROG Gaming Center gives you 3 different fan speeds, Silent, Balanced and Overboost. Overboost I think isn't helpful because it's too loud and it probably adds heat to the system because the fan is spinning at a higher rate. Balanced is something that I use often when playing, and Silent is my default when just working, and doing casual things. Balanced and Overboost sound like airplanes getting ready for take off. Balanced isn't that loud, but Overboost... It's loud enough but can still be drowned out by using headphones. Also, the fans are always on, even in Silent mode. HEAT Sadly, this laptop does not have the rising bottom flap that its more expensive siblings have. The bottom panel has grills for air to come in and out, and some rubber feet to elevate the machine. The heat? Meh. It's a gaming laptop for crying out loud! Which the fans will do if you set it to Overboost! I mean, loud fans, and heat are staple identities of gaming laptops. With Gore developing cooling solutions for Dell, and the rise of the vapor chambers, I'm sure gaming laptop heat problems will be a thing of the past, but for now, we can always undervolt. re-paste, or use cooling pads. WORK My recent workload consists of doing animation in Flash and Spine and some drawing work in Photoshop. The performance of the laptop while working has been top notch ever since I got this as the replacement of the q535ud. The 1080p screen resolution means that I don't need to adjust UI scaling for Photoshop and Spine. I plug in my Huion GT-156D, which is also 1080p, when I want to draw. Setting up was just plug, install the driver and play. I wanted to use my Intuos tablet paired with this laptop but Windows Ink would not cooperate with Wacom drivers, so I had to give up. Palm rejection needs a little work as well. I find myself turning off the touch pad every once in a while if I want to rest my palms while typing. Of course, this is when I have a mouse plugged in. PLAY I am pleased to say that most of the games that I play runs well. I play Destiny 2 and Diablo 3 most of the time. Destiny 2 makes the laptop a little bit warm. I got about 75-90 frames average and the max temp that I saw through HWInfo was 90degrees C while Diablo 3 reached at about 85. It could be just a spike, because if it held at 90, the laptop would've throttled. This is all with the balanced fan setting. I played PUBG for 30 minutes (2 games of approx 15 min each, no wins) and it never choked on me. Overwatch reached 80 degrees on high settings but the framerate held above 100. Everything was buttery smooth thanks in part to the 120hz display. This laptop can basically handle most games at medium to high setting on 1080p. BATTERY LIFE The GU501GM only has a 55-Whr battery. This is its weakest link. Even the higher end GM501 has the same battery. I don't know what ASUS was thinking when they decided to pick this one. Longest that I can get is 3.5-4 hrs half brightness, keyboard backlight off, screen at 60hz. So you have to bring the 180W power adapter. The only thing going for this device is Nvidia Optimus. It is a mixed bag for some but for me I like saving battery life when I'm unplugged. So when you unplug the device, the screen turns off of a bit, then turns back on again, switching to the Intel UHD 630, and then restarting the display at 60hz. People with the GM501 with the AAS do not have this feature and have to do it though the ROG Gaming Center, which will require a restart. KEYBOARD Keyboard is great. I'm not really particular about the depth and the actuation force since I am a heavy typer. It's definitely not as light as my Logitech G810, but it works. I'm just also used to a more central layout instead of a left-leaning one because of the numpad. I found myself missing the backspace and pressing the numlock key and sometimes I press the enter key instead of the shift. I also occasionally miss the arrow keys and hit the num0 key. This keyboard has a back light as well you can adjust it through the ASUS ROG Aura Core. It has 4 lighting zones and you can choose any color from the RGB spectrum. DISPLAY The display is a Full HD, 120hz IPS Panel. It is in the average color accuracy but the brightness is good enough. The only thing that I see with regards to the display that could potentially be a downside are the bezels. I mean, the competition as super thin bezels but this one doesn't. I mean, I don't really care. For the past month that I've been using this laptop, it really has not bothered me at all. Colors are ok. Great in games and in normal use, but for work it is sometimes washed out. I do animation and drawing, and sometimes I have to rely on the hexcodes to get the right color. There is little to no light bleed and the 120hz screen is a charm. Possibly the best feature of this display. The 120hz only turns on when the machine is plugged though. Otherwise, Optimus will kick in and reduce the display frequency to 60hz. It is an automatic feature and this specific feature isn't available on the higher tier models. There's also an HD webcam on the top bezel and I'm pretty sure it's the same as every laptops' webcam. STORAGE Another low point of this version of the Zephyrus is the storage. I am glad they didn't cut corners anywhere else. This spec only has 128GB M.2 SSD and a 1 TB 5400rpm spinner. It isn't that bad, but some laptops at least have a 256GB for their primary but the downside is that they're probably thicker, screen is probably not 120hz and it also probably has a lesser quality build. The quality of the SSD isn't that bad. It loads Windows fast and does copying and pasting well. I recommend upgrading when you have the budget. CHASSIS The build quality of this laptop is solid. I love how it feels and how you know that it's 5.5lb isn't just the internals. This Zephyrus is missing the bottom flap (AAS) but the design is identical to the rest of it's family. Black with copper(bronze) accents, brushed aluminum lid, and hard plastic on the main body. There's no gamer red except for the ROG logo on the lid, and the power LED on the keyboard panel. The lid has a cutout on the bottom middle so that when you close it, you'll still see the status LEDs situated on the top middle of the keyboard. There are 13 screws that hold the bottom panel and the internals in place. Removing these will grant you access to the M.2 SSD, the HDD, RAM and the Wi-Fi card. The chassis comes with 4 USB 3.1 Type-A ports and a USB Type-C with Thunderbolt, HDMI 2.0. They've also changed the keyboard layout to a standard one with the Numpad on the right instead of a dynamic touch pad, and placed the touch pad on the default position. Overall, I can say that I am pleased with the design and build quality for the price. TOUCH PAD The touch pad is a little small compared to other laptops out there. Reason is that they gave enough space above the keyboard for cooling. Touch pad is too smooth and sometimes too sensitive as well. And since it's not centered but a little bit to the left, I often 0find myself hitting the right-click area of the touchpad instead of the left. Otherwise it's a great touch pad. It uses Windows Precision and works as intended. SPEAKERS They are louder than I expected. The full blast of these speakers will fully drown out the Overboost of the fan. Well, not really, but it's really loud. It isn't perfect sounding but they're great for what they are. It also sounds like it has a subwoofer. Just a side note though, depending on what music you're listening too, or movie you're watching, raising the volume above 60% can cause the keyboard area to vibrate and the sounds would we distorted. Ideal volume is 30-50%. CONCLUSION Amazing. I never thought I'd buy an ASUS ROG laptop and will love it. They've come a long way from designing a gamerish looking beast of a machine to something sleek without sacrificing the performance. Granted that the specs of this gaming underdog isn't over the top, and is limited by not having the AAS, this laptop will still blow you away. Maybe not too far. Battery life is also something to consider. With only 4-4.5 hrs of usable power, it could be the biggest drawback, or maybe a deal-breaker for some. The heat and fan noise is also to consider but why will you buy a gaming laptop if you're not going to use it's power? Priced at $1499 in the US, I can say that this machine is well worth it. I just wonder if there is a similar priced and spec'd model for the market outside of the US since this one is particularly a US Best Buy exclusive. TL;DR PROS Good overall performance Toned down gamer look Great keyboard Nice Power brick Sleek design Thunderbolt 3/USB-C Worth-it Price Nvidia Optimus CONS Could potentially be loud No Ethernet port Battery life/Small Battery Small SSD Slow HDD No AAS Nvidia Optimus NITPICKS Touch Pad Heat Management Display Bezels Display​ ROG LOGO