Asus ROG Strix G15 review: The best-looking gaming laptop for its price, and more

Brand: Asus
Product name: ROG Strix G15
Key specs: 10th gen Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD, up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, up to 2TB HDD, 15.6-inch Full HD display.
Price: ₹79,990 (base model)
Rating: 3.5/5

Asus added two new laptops in its ROG Strix series with 10th gen Intel Core chipsets. The ROG Strix G15 and G17 come with up to 10th Intel Core i7, and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2060.

The Asus ROG Strix G15 which we got to review, is eye-catching like any other gaming laptop but more so for its light strip. It has RGB LEDs wrapped around the sides of the laptop. There are many options to customise the LEDs from the Aura Creator. You can keep the light static, breathing, strobing, and even to emit a rainbow glow. There’s quite a lot you can do to play around with the LEDs which look really cool. It comes in three colour options of Original Black (our unit), Glacier Blue and Electro Punk. If you’re crazy about pink like me then you would love the Electro Punk model as the logo is pink, and there’s a pink strip on the lid as well.

As you must have expected, the keyboard is also backlit with different colour customisations. It’s a chiclet keyboard, and the overall texture is pretty soft. It also has highlighted WASD keys, and hot keys for shortcuts to the laptop’s performance system. Typing feels pretty smooth on the keyboard and the keys were responsive throughout.

The ports are located on the left and rear sides of the laptop. You get 3 USB Type-A ports, 1 audio port, 1 USB Type-C port, 1 LAN port, and 1 HDMI port. The display is a 15.6-inch FHD screen with 144Hz refresh rate. The G17 model comes with a bigger 17.3-inch FHD display. 

The display seemed slightly lacking when it came to colour reproduction with some of it looking dull at times even with the brightness at maximum. This was during regular usage of the laptop. It worked fine for games which are rich in colour like Fortnite. The ROG Strix G15 also has really thin bezels and the lid is also very thin. It, however, doesn’t have a webcam which was quite disappointing especially for its price point.

The laptop will last you around four hours, and even less if you have a game running. I played Fortnite on the ROG Strix G15, and the game works fine with medium graphics and 30fps. If you crank up the graphics to the highest setting, and at 60 fps, the frame rate drops to around as low as 10%. It can otherwise handle lighter games even with the highest graphics settings. The laptop does heat up a little bit but it’s not unbearable. The fans, however, are automated and cannot be customised. The speakers on the ROG Strix G15 are loud and punchy but it lacks bass.

ALSO READ: Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 review

When it comes to regular usage, which for me was using Chrome for 8-9 hours continuously and with multiple tabs open, the laptop can handle it really well. Chrome tends to hog up to around 78% of RAM but the laptop did not heat up or lag.

Verdict

For its price, the Asus ROG Strix G15 performs as expected. The lighting strip adds that extra flair to the laptop without being tacky. The ROG Strix G15 sits in a category of gaming laptops between a budget and a premium one. Given all these factors, the ROG Strix G15 is definitely one of the best options you can get in this category.