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ASUS FX503 Gaming Laptop Review: Gaming And Productivity Combo

ASUS FX503

ASUS FX503 is the latest gaming laptop from Taiwan-based company’s gaming-centric line-up, but surprisingly doesn’t it carry the Republic of Gamers branding that ASUS usually sticks on their gaming products. Well, the FX503 is a portable solution for the gamers on a budget.

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ASUS FX503: Design

Although it doesn’t come in ROG sub-brand it does pretty much look like one at least in terms of aesthetics and design palette. Although FX503 comes on the cheaper end, but boast some nice texturing on both the interior and exterior of the laptop. Moreover, at the first look, you won’t find a big difference between this and something like the ROG Strix.

ASUS FX503 3

Thanks to the components needed to help the laptop process graphics, it naturally makes it bulky (addition of the fans included). Moreover, it comes with an optical disc drive, which adds an additional bulk to it. So, no denying FX503 is large, bulky, barely fits in (a normal) backpack and is (of course) very heavy. It isn’t a comfortable laptop to have at all, particularly if you need to carry it around everywhere with you.

Ports

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The FX503 has a decent selection of ports. On the left side of the laptop, you can find the Ethernet and the HDMI ports, a mini DisplayPort, two USB 3.0 ports, the audio port and the charging port. Moving to the right side, and you’ll find one more USB 3.0 port along with the SD Card reader. The back has two vents for heat dissipation.

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ASUS FX503: Display

There’s also a large 15.6-inch full-HD screen with 120fps refresh rate, which will help you make the most of any games you play. Well, FX503 isn’t quite the first laptop to offer such a display, but it is much appreciated.

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That said, putting the refresh rate aside, it makes the FX503 feel frustratingly ordinary, especially when gaming laptop is jumping on to 4K display and HDR bandwagon over the last few months and its absence here is felt.

ASUS FX503: Keyboard And Touchpad

The Keyboard on ASUS FX503 is excellent and easily fulfills a gamers delight. The keys have a decent amount of travel and the tactile feedback is impressive as well. Furthermore, the keys are backlit which enhances the experience in dark conditions.

Lastly, ASUS has very well differentiated the WASD keys by providing convenient positing and backlighting. Overall, the keyboard provides a better and accurate sense of key-presses.

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The touchpad on the laptop is well-positioned and fairly large. You won’t notice any issue while navigating or playing games with the Touchpad. Well, Gestures on the touchpad make things more productive and efficient.

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ASUS FX503: Performance

With either an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 (7th generation in both cases) processor, 8GB of DDR4 RAM which can be further expanded to up to 32GB, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card with either 2GB or 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD coupled with 1TB SATA storage you won’t notice any performance issue.

Well, ASUS FX503 can easily handle serious multitasking, heavy browsing, and long gaming sessions. The laptop works fastly and efficiently no matter what you throw at it.

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Since it’s a gaming oriented laptop we tested NFS Payback, Far Cry 5, and PUBG and the performance were totally satisfying. The games loaded up quickly and offered impressive framerates. Though, we noticed a few frame drops in Far Cry 5 at High settings but lowering some settings completely solved the issue.

The laptop comes with Windows 10 Home preloaded, making it plug and play machine. Well, all this is backed up by a four-cell 64Wh battery.

ASUS FX503: Sound And Webcam

The sound quality of the front-facing speakers is clear and offers an immersive experience while playing games or watching videos. The speakers are powered by ICEPower technology that helps improvise the overall sound experience.

Well, you also get a built-in array of front-facing microphone that ensures crisp and clear voice pickup. The webcam is decent and using it for Skype calls won’t be an issue.

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ASUS FX503: Pricing

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The Asus FX503 is available in two variants. The starting variant is priced at Rs. 69,990 and it comes with Intel Core i5 processor and no SSD based storage. Lastly, you only get 2GB of graphics memory on this variant. On the other hand, the higher end variant costs about Rs. 87,990 and offer a better Intel Core i7 processor, 128GB of SSD, and better 4GB graphics memory.

ASUS FX503: Verdict

ASUS FX503

ASUS FX503 is a perfect laptop for the price. Even though, its focused towards gaming it can be easily used for any sort of creative and productivity tasks like video/photo editing and much more. Well, if you want it for some serious hard-core gaming better invest some more money and purchase the higher end variant.

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The only issue with the laptop is its huge design ergonomics and build quality. It definitely reduces the mobility of the laptop and its difficult to carry the laptop around. Lastly, the laptop lasts only for a maximum of three hours once removed from charging. As a conclusion, the laptop is a perfect pick for almost all category of users.

With Inputs From Anubhav!


BONUS VIDEO

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN6tGQ8yUUo?rel=0]


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