Asus ROG Strix G15 (2021) with AMD Ryzen 5000 series and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 - Review
Updated: Apr 11, 2021
ASUS ROG STRIX G15 is the latest Asus ROG arrival together with its other ROG variants that ASUS has unveiled during CES.
The new G15 comes with a new chassis with several differences between this one and the older G15 models. The new G15 is a bit smaller in every way but you can't see the difference directly. There’s a nice layer of Aluminum across the chassis but don't expect it to hit the likes of MacBook or a Razor Blade metal tank kind of experience.
This Asus ROG Strix G15 comes with a huge 300Hz screen, customizable RGB lightings, redesigned light bar, and clamouring Republic Of Gamers logo which gives an added kick for the user. When you open the lid, with both hands or single-handedly, you will get the to witness the FHD 300Hz gaming display that offers you a tournament level speed. This display gives you a detail-rich visual with deepening immersion with Adaptive-Sync technology that eliminates screen tearing that minimizes stuttering. You can opt for WQHD display option that comes with the refresh rate of 165HZ. The beautiful anti-glare IPS level screen does give my preferred taste of deep blacks with high levels of brightness and colours with 100% sRGB.
At the sides, the Asus ROG Strix G15 comes with a single USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C that now supports DisplayPort and Power Delivery. Now, its good to have the option to charge with a USB C but it’s very slow, so it is encouraged for you to bring the 240W adapter brick while video editing or gaming. Alongside that single USB C port, 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack, 1x HDMI 2.0b to add a monitor or to plug with a TV, 3x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A and an RJ 45 port if the already fast WIFI 6 isn’t enough connectivity for you. The only caveat for the port section is notably the absence of the SD card slot which is a shame for a pricey gaming laptop but that is nowhere near as big an omission as the lack of a webcam. Maybe ASUS though that the hardcore gamers will often have a big own high-quality webcam but speaking on how we desperately needed a camera in 2020 taking it off without thinking twice in these times is fanatical.
In the processor section, the focused firepower streamlines and elevates the core Windows 10 Pro gaming experience in the ROG Strix G15. With a powerful AMD Ryzen™ 7 5800H CPU with GeForce RTX™ 3070 GPU and 16GB of RAM, this laptop is everything… from gaming to multitasking is fast and fluid. Go full-throttle on e-sports speed with a competition-grade display up to 300Hz/3ms. Adaptive-Sync makes gameplay ultra-smooth, while advanced thermal upgrades help you stay cool under pressure. No matter what your game is, you can achieve your perfect play.
For Gaming, for the most recent of titles, Cyberpunk 2077, Depending on where your priorities lie, this game must be the buggies mess or the perfect play. While it is probably a mess as that’s the reason why it was removed from Sony. During gaming, even though the laptop was trying to attempt for liftoff as the fans spooled up so high. The game ran up with a respectable 30FPS with DLSS "ON". Well, cyberpunk 2077 is a wildly demanding title but the computer handled it with no problem at all.
For Far Cry 5 and Assassin's Creed Odyssey and with a brand new high-end CPU and Nvidia's latest RTX 3070, I have high expectations for this laptop to pull ahead of the pack by a lot but it didn't, in far cry 5 it ended up behind some of the RTX 2070s which is a bit odd and in assassin's creed odyssey it did perform near the top but again some 2070 laptops scored pretty similar here. These numbers are all fine on their own, but it did feel a bit disappointing after seeing how big of a jump desktop RTX cards made but laptops are a bit more difficult to compare than desktop GPUs. This variant can run most heavy AAA titles, expect smooth frame rates at high or even ultra-settings and games that support Nvidia’s DLSS especially do well.
With this laptop you can have a good full HD gaming experience as well when it comes to thermal performance. ASUS has made very good progress this time, there are additional heat pipes for the new models and that’s working. On a previous laptop, the temperature is around 90 degrees Celsius or more and here is the default performance mode, both CPU and GPU sit much closer to 80 degrees Celsius which is a decent temperature and it's not extremely loud for a laptop either standing at 47 decibels.
The Asus Strix G15 has plenty of heat pipes both fans, plenty of exhaust space, and the bottom cover has plenty of ventilation. There is also padding for the internal airflow and they are now using liquid metal instead of traditional paste. You can check the maintenance and upgradeability boxes too, as you can easily clean the fans, easily replace the battery you can add a second SSD, replace the wi-fi chip below the first SSD and both memory slots are upgradable too.
The performance in Cinebench R23, The Ryzen 7 5800H easily beats Intel's i9 9880h, 11th Gen i7-1165g7 in single-core performance, in multicore performance beats Intel's i9 9880h, i71165g7, Ryzen 7 1700x. In ba lender, it only does a little bit better than last-gen AMD CPUs and Intel's eight cores are still very competitive as well but at the end of the day, most of those differences don't matter that much anyway. The take away from all this is that this G15 has plenty of horsepowers to offer.
The ROG Strix G15 is like most gaming laptops which also equal to not a portable gaming machine but even here Asus exceeded my expectations. It weighs 2.4kg with 1 inch thick. This device just fit into a normal bag pack. You still must get used to the large Backlit Chiclet Keyboard Per-Key RGB. The position of the delete key is slightly awkward which is beside the flight/ save key. I most often hit the save key while typing on the keyboard and the keyboard is quite wide and you make the struggle to type if you have small hands. But these are compromises I’m happier to endure, given all the added utility that this gaming laptop is offering. Overall, the typing experience is comfortable and there’s no annoying click-ness while typing.
For the battery life, for streaming on Disneyplus using GPU, it almost reaches the 10 hours mark, which for a gaming laptop is great. You can use the laptop for office usage for at least 12 hours. The storage options, the laptop comes with one terabyte of fast the SSD. This model per fully well, and the speakers are really good, and it offers plenty of volume with good sound quality overall. For both music and videos and that's pretty much it, don't expect it to sound better than the MacBook's.
Asus Rog Strix G15 PROS
New CPUs are great and capable of doing anything
Fast Full HD screens
Better battery life
Full upgradeability
Type-C
A good number of ports
Good LED RGB keyboard lighting
Brilliant Armory Crate
Free mouse
Asus Rog Strix G15 CONS
Laptop GPU and CPU difference is not as high improvements as desktop versions
No webcam
No SD card
Placement of delete and save key
Should I get this or why not I get a cheaper desktop?
Well, the answer to that is ridiculously simple as you might expect. Portability and mobility. Several times this week I have bring this Asus Rog Strix G15 to office or outstations. Desktops are great but they are cheaper for a reason, there’s no portability in it, you can bring it anywhere or move it from room to room. Laptops allow for that and this Strix G15 does a brilliant job in doing so.
Yes, the Asus Rog Strix G15 is expensive but so are the competitors who offer similar specs range. And based on my usage and since these just launched and I only had them for a few days it's going to take a few more laptops and some more testing to figure out. But for the time being if your question revolves around the Asus Rog Strix G15 being worth for what the asking price is for?
Then it’s a HUGE YES!