Asus announces new midrange gaming laptops with 120Hz displays

Asus today announced a trio of new laptop models, two of which sport displays with a 120Hz refresh rate for fast-action gameplay. Unfortunately, all three top out with a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU, so there's not a ton of graphics horsepower to push those displays.

The models include the ROG Strix GL503, ROG Strix GL703, and TUF Gaming FX502. Starting with the first two, the GL503 has a 15.6-inch 120Hz TN display with a 3ms rated response time (gray-to-gray) and 1920x1080 resolution, and the GL703 wields a larger 17.3-inch IPS panel, also at 1920x1080 but with a 60Hz refresh rate. Even though IPS displays typically offer superior color accuracy to TN panels, Asus claims the GL503 offers 130 percent coverage of the sRGB color space, versus the GL703 offering 100 percent coverage.

Both laptops pair either an Intel Core i5-8300H or Core i7-8750H processor with the aforementioned GPU and are designed primarily for esports. Those are the new Coffee Lake mobile CPUs, with 4-cores/8-threads or 6-cores/12-threads. According to Asus, they are 23 percent faster than the previous generation. They can also be outfitted with up to 32GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory.

Different storage options are available, including 5400 RPM and 7200 RPM 1TB HDDs, a 5400 RPM 1TB SSHD, 256GB M.2 SATA 6Gbps SSD, and 128GB or 256GB M.2 NVMe SSDs.

These are relatively thin and light laptops measuring 11.02 x 16.34 x 0.94 inches and weighing 6.61 pounds. Unfortunately, Asus did not mention pricing or availability.

As for the TUF Gaming FX504, it's a 15.6-inch laptop with three different display options, all with a 1920x1080 resolution. Two of the panels have a 60Hz refresh rate, one of which is a TN panel, and the third is a TN panel with a 120Hz refresh rate.

This one comes configured with a Core i5-8300H or Core i7-8750H processor as well, along with either a GeForce GTX 1050 or GTX 1050 Ti GPU. Both options are available with 2GB or 4GB of GDDR5 memory.

It's a similar laptop with the same storage options, but built with "extreme durability." This laptop is also relatively thin and light for a gaming laptop, measuring 10.31x 15.11 x 0.98 inches and weighing 5.07 pounds.

Asus equips the TUF Gaming FX504 with an anti-dust cooling system. It's designed to expel dust particles and dirt through two dedicated tunnels to prevent dust bunnies from forming inside the laptop and caking on the fan blades.

There is no mention of price or availability for this one either. Presumably all these notebooks will start shipping this month, as Asus already has product pages on its website.

Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).