Asus ROG Strix G15 Review: Yes, It Definitely Can Run Crysis

This is the Asus ROG Strix G15. A gaming laptop that has a new AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 9 5900 HX with Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070. It has a brand new 165 Hz QHD IPS panel. Even though the name Strix G15 is new this is a proper next generation laptop and there are so many things to get excited about when it comes to this machine but there are also some things that aren't really as exciting as you might have thought. Before you get ready to spend your money for this particular model let's see what you should realistically expect from this thing.

At first glance this new Asus ROG Strix G15 does feel very familiar, and it looks very much so like a typical ROG laptop, but the chassis is actually new and there are several differences between this one and the older G15 models. The first one is that the new G15 is a bit smaller in every way. It's about a centimeter shorter and a centimeter less deep. It did get a tiny bit thicker as a result, but that difference is too small to even notice. Furthermore, it is still a performance focused gaming laptop, so it's not the thinnest or the lightest machine of them all but at 2.3 kilos it is still light enough to drag it around with you.

The top cover does have a nice layer of aluminum which looks and feels very nice but do keep in mind that most of the chassis is still made of plastic. The quality is quite good, but you know don't expect a MacBook or a razor blade metal tank kind of experience. The biggest improvement is actually the underside of the laptop which feels sturdier and looks well ventilated. In terms of ports it is pretty much the same story as it was before. You get two five gigabit usb ports on the left as well as a headphone jack. There is nothing on the right side which is great as it won't interfere with your mouse. On the back there is the power connection, a gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, USB 3.2 gen 2, type c port and another 5 gigabit USB type A port.

On the inside it's pretty much the same as last generation laptops which is completely fine. There isn't too much flex in the chassis, the keyboard is pretty good and very easy to get used to, and I do appreciate the extra keys at the top for volume or opening the software to quickly change some settings. The keyboard can really make or break a laptop experience, but this one works really well for both gaming and for work. The touchpad is fine for a gaming laptop, and it won't cause any trouble when you do use it. One thing that's still missing from the inside is the webcam. Even though this is a gaming laptop and many gamers won't really care, but it is also the year 2021 where many of us need to work from home or study from home.

Let's get to the good stuff right now and that is the panel of this thing. This 1440p 165 hertz panel really makes the biggest difference in using this laptop as the daily driver when compared to the gaming laptops with fast 1080p screens. Just having that high resolution means the screen is visibly sharper than the previous fast gaming panels and more importantly you really gain a significant amount of workspace. I do know there were gaming laptops with high resolution screens before this one but those always run at 60 hertz while this one has a refresh rate of 165 hertz. You don't need to choose anymore between speed or space.

The benchmark results aren't that bad either. The color gamut especially is excellent with a full sRGB coverage and 94 DCI P3 coverage. The factory calibration does over saturate reds and greens a tiny bit which makes the colors really pop and looks really nice while gaming, but you should tweak those if you are really serious about photo or video editing. The contrast isn't amazing, but it is fine and the same goes for the white point and the gamma curve. The maximum brightness seems pretty average at just under 300 nits which is fine for indoor usage but not for way too brightly lit environment.

The party piece of the Asus ROG Strix G15 is its internals. This model comes with an eight core Ryzen 9 5900 HX. It runs at around 35 watts typically, but it can be pushed up to 80 watts in some scenarios depending on your profile settings. Even if you leave it in the default performance mode which does put it at around 35 watts the performance is really impressive. In cine bench 15 and 20 it easily beats Intel's ultimate i9 10980 HK which uses a lot more power, and it even pulls ahead of the desktop core i9 9900k in a single core test. What this bascially means is that the Asus ROG Strix G15 has plenty of horsepower for pretty much any task.