It's hard to know what you're missing out on when compared to other laptops if you've never owned a gaming laptop of a similar caliber to the M16. If you get the M16 I guarantee there will be a lot you will be satisfied with a lot like me and others who have left their reviews here. It's still important, however, to contemplate what features you truly desire and then decide what laptop you're going to buy. You could be buying a Lenovo Legion 5 Pro instead of this, which has the same bright 16 inch screen, twice the storage and a higher wattage RTX 3070 for the same the price as this laptop. You could also get a Zephyrus G15 for the same price as this which has AMD and an RTX 3070 for the same price point. You could get an Eluktronics Mech laptop, which offers the best performance for the money. You should only be getting this laptop if you absolutely want it for it's specialties. In this case it would be the brighter taller display, combined with a slightly weaker performance and slightly better design than the Zephyrus G15. If you're looking for a pure monster gaming machine that is relatively portable, then there are better options for your money. I can also state some additional pros of this laptop. One of them being the excellent keyboard typing experience (though there is no prt scn key if you need that). The speakers being relatively good especially when compared to almost every other gaming laptop out there. The Armoury Crate software does offer some useful performance, cooling control, and battery saving options. Optimal laziness with the finger-print reader. The overall design being sleek, light, and not to gamery despite the ROG branding. The only downsides to this laptop I think really come down to value: what you're buying it for and when you compare it to other laptops. You could argue fan noise is problematic, but most gaming laptop fans blow and sound like a hurricane (which is good because the last thing you want is some weak fans on you thin and light gaming laptop).

The ROG M16 is one of the most premium choices available in terms of aesthetics and usability for under $2,000. I tried out the G14 (3060 variant), G15 (3070 variant), and this laptop (3060 variant) for a considerable amount of time before ultimately deciding on keeping this laptop. I am confident others in this market are debating among these three models, so I will try justifying my reasonings with what I really liked about the M16 over the other. Things I liked: 1. Finish: the M16 has a velvety/leathery finish on the chassis, keyboard, and trackpad that isn’t found on the other two laptops. Whereas the G14 and G15 is only a magnesium chassis that is colder to touch, the M16 feels more like soft carbon fiber which makes it more premium and improves the typing experience. 2. Screen: Easily the biggest factor for many people considering this laptop, the M16 has a bigger screen, yet the size of the laptop is identical to the G15. This means that the M16 is nearly bezeless. After using this laptop for a day, I wasn’t able to ignore the fat chin that is present on the G15. To make things even more attractive, the M16 screen registers about 550 nits in brightness (G14 and G15 only have 350 nits). What’s the real-world difference between these different brightnesses? I like studying in cafes by the windows. With the G14 and G15 on max brightness, I still had a less-than-pleasant time reading the screen. The M16 at 70% brightness reaches the max brightness of the G15. With the M16 at max brightness, I can see everything clearly even in the face of sunlight. Lastly, the M16 has much more accurate colors than the G14/G15. The G15 seems to have a slight green tint to every color, and I didn’t notice this until I started using the M16. 3. Webcam: the M16 separates itself from the G14 and G15 with a 720p webcam. I thought that I could live without a webcam, but I quickly realized how much I missed it when I couldn’t video chat with friends or use it for work needs. Buying an external webcam would not only cost more money but would also be cumbersome to plug in or put away. The webcam on the M16 is nothing special (bonus points had it been 1080p) but having a bad but convenient integrated webcam is magnitudes better than having a good but inconvenient external webcam. 4. Temperature: the M16 with the i9-11900h has lower temperatures (to my surprise) than the G14 and G15 with the Ryzen 9 5800. At idle and under CPU stress, the M16 managed to be about 5 degrees Celsius cooler. While this didn’t translate into a longer battery for the M16 (Intel chips still draw much more power than Ryzen), it did make for more comfortable gaming sessions. One of the reasons the temperature is lower is because the fans on the M16 seem to spin much louder than the G14 and G15. 5. Quality control: while my M16 didn’t have any significant issues that I experienced with the G15 (backlight bleeding, warped screen, chassis creaking), my M16 still has some slight chassis creaking that I don’t mind enough to return. Reading other people’s reviews, it seems that the M16 has better quality control than the G15. However, the G14 still has the best quality control of all three. 6. Speakers: the speakers of the M16 and G15 are identical in sound quality. They are superb for gaming laptops but not nearly as good as the ones found in the M1 Macbook. The G14 speakers sounded distorted and buzzed when at max volume which was very annoying. Things I didn’t like: 1. Battery life: I am noticing nearly 20% less battery in the M16 compared to the G15. This is attributed mainly to the intel chip drawing about 10 watts more than the Ryzen chip. While this was a tough pill to swallow as I am a student, I can compromise because the battery life still averages around 6 hours on full charge, and the M16 conveniently supports USB C charging. The battery life is not enough for me to give up its god-like screen and webcam. 2. Value: do not be mistaken, you are paying a massive premium for the portability, screen, and battery of the M16. My laptop with a 3060 costs as much as the 3070 G15. 3060 laptops with the same or higher TDP (wattage) in 2021 can be found for $1200. The M16 is suited for the person who is willing to pay for portability and battery. I would not recommend this machine to anybody who is looking for just a gaming computer. It can currently play any AAA title on 1080p high to max settings with about 60-100 fps, but you won’t be able to play on its native 1440p resolution. I would recommend waiting for the 3070 variant that comes out later if you want to tackle 1440p gaming.

So im going to be straight to the point here this thing performs amazingly well even for "last years" 11th gen cpu. Youll notice a lot of people talking about fan noise.. i thought no way it cant be that bad. It IS. When you play a game im not kidding you have to turn the great speakers up all the way to overcome it. When you dont have a headset you use of course and when you dont use a headset watch out because not only is it just a fan air rushing sound its a high pitched extremely annoying sound (coil whine i hear??) Seriously though its not tolerable and im very tolerant of things like this but it was just too much. Everything else about the computer i absolutely loved! From the nebula display to the components, the QC on this was perfect but those darn fans were an absolute killer!!! Thing is the cpu and gpu never even got that hot never crossed 85c on maxxed settings but the kicker is the fans make that loud piercing sound when there not even full tilt, once they reach full speed its insane its like standing in a wind tunnel. I tried to ignore all those reviews trust me lol its that bad. Shame.

I’ve been using this laptop for almost 2 years and it’s served me really well. Runs very smoothly and can handle some heavy load. However, due its sleek and thin design, this machine can get hot and LOUD. I messed around the different fan settings and even at low speeds, you can always hear them. Coming from a powerful quiet pc setup, this bothered me a lot at first, but you get used to it over time. The display is beautiful and crisp, absolutely stunning colors.

My first gaming laptop purchase. I’m completely satisfied with it’s performance. I’m already ok with 1080p display and 30 - 60 fps. Battery life is about 4 hours for regular use and drains fast when gaming so I suggest playing while it’s charging. It gets hot really fast and can be noisy but, I didn’t mind because I’m wearing earphones. I took a bunch of photos showing what it can do.