ASUS - ROG Zephyrus 15.6" QHD Gaming Laptop - AMD Ryzen 9 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 - 1TB SSD
Model: GA503QR-211.ZG15
SKU: 6448848
This item is no longer available in new condition. See similar items below
Customers often highlight the excellent performance, impressive build quality, and long battery life of the ROG Zephyrus 15.6" QHD Gaming Laptop. Many also praise its powerful GPU, lightweight design, and vibrant display, along with the keyboard. However, some users mention that the laptop can get hot, and the fan noise can be noticeable. Other criticisms include the soldered RAM, less-than-stellar speakers, and the absence of a built-in webcam.
This laptop is a great example of a balance between a portable laptop on the go and a great powerful beast for gaming/ heavy workloads. The thing it isn't perfect with possible major flaws. Like your first love in school with your girlfriend/boyfriend, you may find great things but uncover the bad after being deeply together after a while. Ill list the Pros and Cons since there is a lot to cover. Pros: 1. The design is good with a great metal feel on the lid and a trackpad that is similar to the Microsoft Surface. The device is very portable and the charger is really compact with not a lot of weight. I usually carry my laptop to worksites once a week and it is barely noticeable. 2. Great battery life. Able to get around 6 hours on ASUS silent mode with mix office work and Teams conferencing. 3. Great gaming performance all around. Time Spy hits average 9723 while Firestrike hits 22359 benchmark score. These scores in comparison is about 12% slower than an RTX 2080 desktop with an i9. For gaming with an external monitor I was able to get 90 FPS average on Ultra 1080P with GTA 5, COD Warzone at max setting 1080P no raytracing was averaging about 80 FPS, FF15 with hairworks off on ultra 1080P was getting about 88 FPS average. That is great results for a 4 lbs. laptop as most laptops can't even come close to these results. 4. The built in 2k screen is fast and colors are almost as accurate as my external 4k monitor. Still needs to be calibrated for actual color work related tasks but for most gamers this should be a fine great panel. 5. Low power draw is something that people really don't mention since I guess people just don't pay for electricity? This laptop has an average power draw of about 130 Watts when gaming which makes it very attractive for people who don't want to spend a lot on utilities for people who want to be more environmentally conscious. Could also be a good option for hash mining if you live in an area that has low electric costs but I can't confirm since I don't mine. Cons: 1. When using it as a workstation connected to 2 monitors with the lid closed, the device will go to Sleep when pushing the CPU/GPU which indicates an overheat. The temps seem to be fine when I monitor (hits around 87 C on CPU and 82 on GPU) but it seems that there is something that is baking inside that forces it to sleep. I was able to remedy this issue by using a cooling pad and adjusting the laptop fan curve to be a lot higher that what it supposed to be. This is a disappointing one since with the Dell and HP I used to own, I would just have to use a cooling pad in the workstation area and it would work with no issues. 2. Speakers are alright. It has good sound but sometimes on bass, it will have a very light pop noise. Kind of annoying for an expensive laptop of this caliber. 3. I know this doesn't have a webcam but it is annoying to lug a webcam around to when using it for Teams conferencing. Yes I know most laptop webcams suck but it's better than no webcam and ASUS could have change the game by adding a good webcam similar to my work loaned Microsoft Surface. The kicker is that ASUS feature their "amazing noise canceling" mic which is decent but not a replacement for a dedicated mic. What's the point of adding a mic to the laptop if there's no webcam..... 4. Minor issue of one 8 RAM module being soldered to the mainboard which means max upgrade is 24 GB of RAM (16 GB dual channel + 8 GB single channel). For an enthusiast gaming laptop, this is slightly disappointing and will dissuade some customers who need 32 GB of dual channel RAM for heavy workloads. Overall this is a good portable laptop with great performance in which to be honest will fit with the majority of people use case. There is a much darker picture I have to paint though. Questionable QC is my concern since I actually exchanged the laptop with the same model. The previous laptop had random blue screen issues when on battery power and had a really bad blown out right speaker that would pop and scratch during certain noises. Since this laptop is a new design for ASUS, I would recommend to test every feature of this laptop since there is a chance of possible defects. Since I tested what I could on this second laptop and seems to be fine, I will be keeping this for many years to come.
Posted by AnAlpaca
This is an amazing laptop. AMD processor wors perfect, super fast, can render in 3dmax, work on cad, photoshop, anything. I thought about taking a star out for the quality of the case (all plastic) but after using for a while I realized I like it much more then my hp spectre high end metal construcion, looks and feels good but waaay to heavy, the light plastic is much better on this Asus. The other bad point is the lack of a webcam, but I personally like it like that , more private, no need to worry, if I want a camera I can connect it on the usb. It is one of the best laptops I've ever had, had it for over 2 years now and still works great, amazing performance, great value, you pay for the actual components, not for brand, unlike other apple trash I got in the past . AMD is def the way to go. Also upgraded the memory and storage, very easy and unexpensive upgrade.
Posted by JonathasV
Great laptop. My first higher priced quality laptop. Well built in a metallic casing. Fast and has very good high performance Nvidia graphics card built in. Long battery life. Lightweight, slim design. Very pleased with it.
Posted by EdwardM