ASUS FX503VD-DM080T 15.6 Inch Gaming Laptop - (Black) (Intel i5-7300HQ, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, GTX 1050 Graphics, Windows 10)

Great entry level gaming laptop and the £599 black Friday deal was a Christmas gift I couldn't pass up.I, like everyone else, experienced quite a bit of sluggishness on first start-up. This is most probably due to background configuration taking place to ameliorate any incidental system quirks.The reason for the 4 stars is that given the spec they could have at least provided an ssd/hdd hybrid. The available M.2 SSD slot is a nice addition that I plan on making use of after Christmas in the New Year sales with a 256GB Adata or WD SSD.The BAD: Amazon customer service is the worst I've ever experienced, and I've been working in the IT industry for 25 years. My initial order was finally determined to be lost somewhere in Amazon's bottomless pit of lost and/or missing items. Not before however, being lied to, or put off, or reassured, numerous times about the status of my order.1. It will be there on time, we promise! ( that was supposed to be Nov 30, as I had ordered it on the 22nd.)2. After not arriving, I was told that ; a. You never ordered it, (I told them I could prove it) b. Next, I was told, by a supposed supervisor that it was never offered at the £599 price and that it was a misprint (another intentional lie) which I had proof of yet again! c. After many more frustrating and annoying calls, Amazon finally conceded that, yes, my laptop had been lost and I was asked to order it again. The biggest joke then was that they wanted me to pay the full price of £799. After telling them that even if hell froze over I wouldn't do that, they agreed to cover the difference with a gift card. d. At this point, the fun and games started all over again, "we'll ship it priority express" or, "it seems to be out of stock". That was when the laptop shows as being "In Stock" on the details page, and that they didn't offer priority service for that particular item! After a whole crapload of other garbage, I was being told, I was furious. I finally received the laptop on Dec. 15th, almost 31/2wks after I had initially ordered it ?!This does bring up an extremely salient point however, the ASUS FX503VD, for the price, is an excellent bargain and worth every penny I paid for it. When I finally install the aforementioned ssd, this rig will be sic!I know others experienced the same waiting game that I did. However, if you can wait a bit for the delivery (and the customer service people don't drive you crazy first), it's worth it...Update Feb. 6, 2018:This laptop DOES have an NVME slot. Do not buy an m.2 SSD as you will be sorely disappointed upon receipt when it doesn't fit in your rig. The NVME can be up to 6 X faster than the m.2 SATA SSD's. I've seen them benchmark at 3200MBs per sec! If you purchase a 128GB however, the transfer pipelines are not all taken advantage of due to an issue regarding the size (Storage) limitations on the speeds of the 128GB storage stick. My suggestion, if you can afford it, is to buy a 256GB or bigger and you should (with a good reliable brand) obtain between 2600-3200MBs. My 128GB Adata SVX8000 NVME4 loads windows in exactly 6 seconds from power on to fully loaded, processes and all, and I'm benchmarking at around 1010MBs. No problems with heat or sluggishness on this laptop. It idles at 28-32C! At full load, it maxes at 45-48C. The SSD itself has not gone above 45C since I installed it 6 wks ago to my pleasant surprise!

I received this laptop yesterday and I have a had a few hours to get a good first impression.PROS:-Black steel-like finish with red accents looks fantastic and surprisingly doesn't show finger prints too much.-Feels very sturdy.-Slim compared to other gaming laptops.-Doesn't have the typical childish 'gamer' look, while still looking very cool and sleek.-Keyboard feels fantastic and has red backlit keys (colour cannot be changed as far as I'm aware); brightness can be changed by simply holding Fn and using the arrow keys.-Speakers are decent, no complaints there.-Able to browse, watch Netflix etc with no problems.-Trackpad is comfortable, no complaints there.CONS:-Overheats a lot, I'll definitely need to invest in a cooling stand.-Battery life is apparently very short, this isn't much of a problem as I usually have mine plugged in.-Screen is fairly terrible. This isn't something that bothers me too much as usually I'm looking directly at the screen, but when the viewing angle is changed it is almost impossible to see. The image is remarkably sharp however, especially when I compare it to my old laptop. It is also made of a cheap-looking, hard matte plastic material.-Wide bezels around the screen look quite unattractive but the laptop still looks great.-Seems to take a long time to boot up but my opinion could be biased here as I had to wait for a lot of updates to install when setting up.-I was expecting to feel a big difference in performance compared to my old laptop (Intel i3, 4GM RAM), but so far it feels about the same.-The number 2 key on the keyboard feels stuck and takes more force to press than any other but this isn't a big issue.-Quite heavy so not ideal to be carrying around.OTHER POINTS:-The only game I have tried is Fortnite; medium settings were recommended by default and it runs fairly smoothly at 60fps. It suffers from the occasional drop in frame rate but overall my gaming experience feels on par with my Xbox One so I can't fault that for a budget gaming PC, however I was hoping for a bit more - I'm yet to try out any graphically intense games so it might surprise me.To conclude, I am satisfied with the laptop however I have not been overwhelmed by it. It seems like a solid machine for the price, but don't be expecting miracles.

My configuration is I5-7300HQ with a NVidia GTX 1050.I bought it when it was in discount for £600.The laptop is great for its price, though if you do not install an SSD you are going to regret it.The HDD is absolutely horrible: it took 18 hours just to install a Windows update, loading times are ridiculously long, etc.It is a major bottleneck if you do not use a SSD.Also the power brick is quite large though it does not bother me.Other than that I do not have ANY criticism.What I love about the laptop: - the quality you get for the price - the keyboard is really comfortable to type on - you can access the hard drive, M.2 NVMe slot and unoccupied ram slot by loosening just one screw - the design is absolutely gorgeous - if you have a SSD installed then you can truly notice the performance of the laptop, programs load instantly, boot time is a fraction of the boot time of the HDDWhat I recommend is that you install a SSD. I personally use the Samsung 960 evo 250 GB which I recommend. 250 GB is enough for Windows, your more important programs and a few games. And the Samsung is really fast. To give you an idea, my laptop boots from completely off to the desktop within 9 seconds.I recommend this laptop if you want a budget friendly gaming laptop if you do invest in a SSD.Otherwise the laptop will seem slow which it is not.