ASUS ROG Strix G15 Advantage review: All AMD and A-OK

Regardless of being a really quick show although, it is not significantly brilliant, particularly in the event you’re utilizing the Strix G15 open air. It is higher suited to low-light gameplay in a darkish room. Colours look a bit washed out, and it is not almost as detailed because the Zephyrus G15’s sharper 1,440p show. (That is additionally an choice with this mannequin, it simply wasn’t accessible to evaluate.) This is not the pc I would choose to look at films on, or to do severe media creation work. It is a gaming rig, by and thru.

Relating to basic productiveness work, like shopping the net and scripting this evaluate, the G15 Benefit is what you’d name overqualified. It has greater than sufficient energy to deal with my every day workflow with out a sweat, and the quick display made scrolling by web sites a dream. However when you cease gaming, it is simple to see that not all the {hardware} acquired the identical stage of consideration as its beefy internals. The keyboard, for one, feels much less responsive and mushier than what I’ve seen on different ASUS gaming laptops. It is serviceable, however it was by no means comfy as I typed up this evaluate. No less than its touchpad was clean and responsive, so no main complaints there.

Throughout our battery benchmark, which entails looping a video till the pc loses energy utterly, the ROG G15 lasted almost 8 hours. That’s lower than each gaming laptop computer we’ve seen this 12 months, however it’s no less than sufficient to get some work executed out of the home. I used to be additionally shocked to seek out it nonetheless carried out decently whereas gaming even when unplugged, one thing AMD is touting closely with its Radeon 6000M GPUs. I hit between 80 and 100fps in Overwatch with 1080p Epic graphics settings. That’s roughly half of what I noticed when plugged into energy, however it’s nonetheless very playable.

Given its plethora of LED lights, one thing that extends to each certainly one of its keys, the Strix G15 might look a bit too garish for a buttoned-down workplace or lecture corridor. And you may undoubtedly hear it in a quiet room as soon as its followers kick up, one thing that’ll occur usually in the event you’re doing any severe work or operating a recreation within the background. ASUS’s Armoury Crate software program may help quiet issues down in the event you select the “Home windows” or “Silent” modes, however that additionally severely limits its pace. On the flip facet, switching to “Efficiency” or “Turbo” mode will get you extra horsepower, however the followers shall be incessantly loud. Throughout prolonged gaming periods, the Strix G15’s Ryzen CPU reached close to 80 celsius, making it really feel like a small house heater after some time.

Like lots of ASUS’s latest gaming notebooks, the Strix G15 does not have a webcam, which is not superb if you want to deal with loads of distant conferences. However given its meant viewers — players and budding streamers who doubtless have some type of exterior digital camera — that is not an enormous loss. On a brighter be aware, there’s numerous ports accessible, together with three USB 3.0 Kind A connections, one USB-C (which may additionally cost the laptop computer at as much as 100 watts), HDMI and gigabit Ethernet. The one factor lacking is an SD card reader, which might make it a extra helpful media workhorse. You can too 3D print your personal design to exchange the Strix G15’s colourful rear nook. That does not provide any sensible advantages, however it might be helpful in the event you wished to match your eSports teammates.

What I preserve coming again to with the Strix G15 Benefit Version is its stunning affordability. Coming in between $1,550 and $1,700 (the ultimate pricing hasn’t been locked in but), it is nonetheless $100 lower than a Strix G15 with an RTX 3070. And that is much more spectacular contemplating the 6800M GPU generally performs higher than the extra highly effective RTX 3080. Then there’s the ASUS Zephyrus G15, a slimmer and extra delicate machine, which can run you $2,230 with an RTX 3070. (You may nab that for nearer to $1,500 with a much less highly effective GPU.)

By slicing a couple of corners, particularly in the case of weight and case design, ASUS has made the ROG Strix G15 Benefit Version top-of-the-line gaming values available on the market. Certain, there are inexpensive notebooks on the market, like Dell’s G15 lineup, however these really feel even cheaper and provide much less efficiency. The G15 Benefit additionally makes it clear that AMD is not simply dabbling in gaming notebooks anymore — it is lastly prepared to significantly compete with NVIDIA and Intel.