Everybody needs a computer in this day and age. With so many to choose from it can be quite overwhelming. Students are required to do more and more advanced tasks using their computers and a basic notebook might not cut it for some of them. While a high powered laptop would be great for a student that needs power on the move, they can get very expensive. One can easily spend almost $2,000 on a laptop with a lot of unnecessary features. The ASUS GL752VW Laptop is a good-quality, higher-end laptop that’s just below the $1,000 mark and can help get anyone started in the world of powerful laptops.

The frame is constructed with a mix of aluminum and hard plastic. The top cover is sleek sliver aluminum with a light-up ASUS ROG logo right in the middle. The aluminum doesn’t show any fingerprints so it helps keep the computer clean. The main chassis is sturdy with very little flexing and the hinges that connect the screen to the keyboard are solid as well. Most ASUS ROGs also come with deep red back lights for their keyboards. It’s a really nice touch and it gives the buyer the feeling of having a powerful laptop.

The sides of the laptop have 3 USB ports, 1 USB 3.1 type-c port, an HDMI port, a media card slot, and standard microphone and head phone jacks. A nice bonus feature that isn’t on most laptops nowadays is a DVD-Drive built into it. This lets you play DVD’s and CD’s without having to use and external player. A lot of laptops go for the skinniest body possible, but being a bit of a larger laptop with a 17.3-inch display, this one’s got room to spare. The larger body also means a slightly heavier overall weight at about 6.6 pounds. That’s not that heavy and it’s still portable, but it might not be something you want to carry around everywhere.

The GL75VW comes equipped with an Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor. The i7 processors are some of the newer and more reliable processors out there and ensure any program will run fast and smooth. The 16 GB of RAM is good for standard multi-tasking. It will let you watch YouTube videos, type a homework assignment, and video chat your friends all at one with ease.

The one main problem with the computer is that with all of this hardware put into a portable package, the battery life suffers. The average battery life will only last about 4 hours at best while doing light to standard work such as watching videos or typing word documents. Video editing and gaming will cut the battery life in half to only 2 hours, so make sure to stay plugged in for the more heavy duty programs.

As for the drives, the laptop has a 1 TB 5400RPM hard drive and a 128 GB solid state drive. The 1 TB is a good amount of storage for your standard files while the 128 GB solid state is a decent size drive for the more graphic intensive programs. The video card is a NVIDIA GTX 960M and it runs standard video editing and gaming well. It’s not the best for something much more demanding like recording and streaming video games simultaneously, but if a person’s just starting out in the world of higher powered computers then they shouldn’t have to worry about that.

The ASUS ROG GL75VW overall has a decent build quality. It’s 17.3-inch screen is clear and vibrant and makes doing work and playing games easy, the keyboard feels nice to type on and the body is solid, and the i7 processor combined with the GTX 960M graphics card will be able to handle most of your video editing and gaming needs. A good amount of power, large screen, and sturdy body all in one package make the GL75VW a good starting higher-end laptop all for around $999.