User Interface, A/V Quality, Thermal Design

User Interface

Not much has changed with regard to the G751JT’s keyboard either.  It’s still the same general layout, with identical key sizes and feel to boot.  To fit with the revised styling, the key accents and labels are now red, which certainly is attractive, but which also renders them less legible than the G750J counterparts in low light while the backlight is off.  Speaking of which, the backlight is adjustable in four increments (OFF and three levels of brightness).

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A few minor modifications were made to the number pad (numlock and scroll lock are now sub-functions of other keys) to accommodate the new ROG key in the upper left, and we suppose we can’t complain about that.  The ROG key launches into the Gaming Center, which is a new feature where you can adjust audio/visual post-processing options and assign them to profiles as you see fit (along with “Marco” keys—heh), as well as get a quick snapshot of the current time, weather, and your memory and storage usage.  It’s basically just a central hub for the various OEM-specific settings for the machine, and while it’s not likely to be frequently leveraged, it does look nice at least.

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Five additional buttons have also been added atop the keyboard on the left-hand side above the ESC key.  Left to right, they are: one-click video recording via NVIDIA ShadowPlay, Steam, and Macro buttons 1 through 3.  There’s nothing wrong with the inclusion of these keys apart from their location (it’s easy to accidentally activate them while pressing, for instance, ESC).  Finally, the only remaining notable change to the keyboard is an enlarged left half of the spacebar, which makes it easier to press during gaming.  Overall, it’s an excellent keyboard with great key travel, comfortable (low) actuation force, and good feedback.  It is immediately familiar.

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The ELAN touchpad is slightly larger than that of the G750J, with vertically-enlarged buttons as well.  The surface is pleasant and the buttons are good, though the input delay is unfortunate.  We experienced pointer input lag when using the touchpad that was definitely noticeable and even annoying—though we suppose that during gaming this isn’t likely to be much of a problem due to the use of an external mouse in lieu of it.  Still, here’s hoping an updated driver can rectify this problem.

A/V Quality

The G751JT’s LG Philips LP173WF4-SPD1 display panel is a real looker, with vivid colors, sufficient brightness, good contrast, and a matte finish to top it all off.  It’s an IPS panel with a claimed brightness of 300 cd/m²; we found more than bright enough to view even outdoors, thanks largely to the matte finish.  In fact, much of this review was written outside in the shade, comfortably.

Audio quality is very good, though a number of users have reported a crackling sensation as detailed in this forum thread.  Throughout our testing we didn’t find this to be noticeable on our particular unit, though that certainly does not mean that other future units cannot exhibit the problem.  Thus far no definitive solution has been offered, though the community has been on top of the situation for months.

Thermal Design

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The G751J employs a dual-exhaust design with two large vents on the rear of the machine facing away from the user.  This is a great location for the exhaust as it doesn’t become bothersome while gaming as it does in some other notebooks (where, for instance, it blows the hot air onto the user’s hand).  Plus, as an added bonus, the machine is surprisingly quiet, and even barely audible during most use until the heaviest of loads are introduced.  It’s the quietest gaming notebook we can recall testing.

CPU stress:

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GPU stress:

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CPU + GPU stress:

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Our stress testing of the G751J revealed absolutely zero weaknesses in terms of thermal design.  The CPU stress test (using FurMark’s CPU burner) resulted in top-end temperatures of just 74 degrees, which is hardly cause for concern.  The same goes for the GPU stress test (using FurMark’s built-in GPU stress test), where even after 20 minutes the maximum GPU temperature that resulted was just 56 degrees.

Finally, we applied both CPU and GPU stress together just to see how the machine would handle maximal stress—and although no thermal issues transpired, we encountered a different sort of problem; the machine’s TDP appeared to be limiting GPU clock rates for a short period before both CPU and GPU began working in harmony with one another.  After this point, however, things calmed down and the machine took it all in stride: maximum temperatures for the CPU and GPU respectively under combined load were 81 and 59 degrees C.  Overall, the G751J’s thermal design is a triumph; in spite of the machine’s power, it’s still extremely quiet, such that the user can game even with low audio volume without bothersome fan noise, even during demanding sequences.

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