Customer Ratings & Reviews

3 years later still runs AAA games and VR games on ultra or high graphics ( using A/C power not battery ) it gets hot but I have not experienced any glitches or shutdowns. This is an AMD cpu/gpu laptop and some VR games or apps are not as compatible as the intel/nvidia laptops but still runs great for my needs. I installed a 1TB ssd on the 2nd ssd slot because most games now use around 250GB. And 1TB is just not enough. So far im happy with it and will buy again.

The short and sweet is that if you are an AMD fan, this laptop will deliver performance for most of your games without issue and you likely won't need to upgrade for a while. For an in-depth review, read on. This laptop is a beast. The 5900HX can handle pretty much any CPU based game you can throw at it and then some and the 300Mhz display looks buttery smooth. At first I didn't notice it until I looked back at a 60Mhz display and my eyes started to tweak out. Motion pops and frames are not wasted, giving you a competitive advantage in most finger twitch games. The SSD is also a genuine Samsung, which surprised me. I assumed they would go with an off-brand drive to save cash, but this should have enough write endurance to last the life of your laptop and then some. However, AMD skimped in one crucial area. This laptop does not come with a MUX chip that would allow input switching on the LCD panel between the two video cards. Instead, renders from the 6800M have to go through the Vega8 chip (built into the CPU) and then to the monitor. When this works, it's great. When it doesn't, and that happened on a few games and almost every benchmark software, then it's jarring. Many games have an option in settings to choose which GPU they will use to render, but for games that don't, if they try and run through the Vega8 chip alone, you're FPS will suffer to the point of being barely playable. The only way to "force" video through the 6800M is to use the display out via the USB-C port to an external monitor (note : the HDMI runs through the Vega8 chip). This however requires either a special cable or a special monitor with USB-C DP in and completely negates the beautiful display of the laptop. Lastly, while not a deal breaker, I am annoyed that the under side LED lights do not have a separate off option. They are controlled by the same profile as your keyboard pattern. If you take off the bottom panel though, you'll notice to two flex cables that connect the LEDs to the motherboard. If you flip up the two black tabs, the wiring easily comes free from the motherboard. Remove the screw in each LED and you can remove them from the case and the computer will run fine without it (do not leave them in the case if you disconnect them or you risk creating shorts with the exposed wire). This gives the laptop more of a sleeper look if you plan on taking this to the office or if you just don't want to get the attention of all the gamers at the LAN party.

The ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition is a great performer of a gaming laptop, and competes admirably with other high-end laptops. Performance should fall somewhere between comparable RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 laptops, depending on the game or benchmark (and a lot closer to a RTX 3080 with some setup changes, see below). This is even more impressive, considering that pricing for the Strix G15 AE is more along the lines of an RTX 3060/3070 laptop! Starting with the cons: -No webcam. -No MUX switch for display is holding back performance of the 6800m dGPU. The G15 AE will still perform well, just not at full potential. -RAM subtimings are apparently slow, which will impact game performance. Again, the G15 AE will still perform well, just not at full potential. -Wears its gamer aethestic on its sleeve, and may not be for everyone. Pros & counterpoints: +Not as convenient, but just use an external webcam when needed. Lack of a webcam may also be a Pro for privacy concerns. +Connecting an external monitor using the laptop's USB-C port as the output will bypass the iGPU. Lack of MUX switch was also likely to lower costs, and improve battery life. +The slower stock RAM can be replaced since none of the memory is soldered on to the motherboard. If replacing with RAM that has faster subtimings for performance improvements, picking the correct one will require a little research (I picked a PC3200 16GB x 2 Mushkin Essentials kit). +The red Armor Cap is replaceable. As of this purchase, the laptop came with matte-silver and opaque-black Armor Caps as well to tone down the gamer styling. The RGB lighting can be turned off using the included Asus Armory Crate software. The bootup sound can also be disabled through Armory Crate.

I have spent hours yesterday trying to get this laptop working just like what normal gaming laptop supposed to do, nothing crazy at all not trying to push its limit by playing games at maximum settings or benchmarking it for hours to see its full potential etc but nope.. this laptop refused to meet me in the middle and just kept crashing over and over again, the wifi barely works at all even after i messed around with my modem router resettting all the settings and so on but nope, nothin. i bought it with open box “exellent” condition and choosed the fast shipping because i wanted to surprise my 10yr old on the exact day im off work but instead he received such a big disappointment. And before you guys blame it on me, yes i have updated every single things that needed to be updated, reinstalling every drivers to the point of resetting the whole system and started all over again after upgrading it to windows 11 the laptop still kept on crashing and rebooting everytime my son played a game (garrys mod, scrap mechanics etc) and the wifi never ever worked with our home internet but strangely, it would work decent when its connected to hotspot from my iphone. for little less than a thousand buck i thought i got a crazy deal but it turned ou to be a headache. Never had problem with asus products before but experience like this is just enough to destroy costumers trust in this brand imho. Taking it back to the store today and although i dont plan to spend too much on a gaming laptop for my 10yr old but im gonna see if the alienware would be better choice because ive had 3 high end of their gaming laptops before in the past and never ever had a single problem whatsoever but then i quit gaming and moved on to the m1pro macbook for photo and video editing. If this laptop works, it would be the best bang for you buck but i guess i got a lemon maybe? Pros: -decent build - great price - great hardwares (when they work) - io ports placement - crazy high screen refresh rate - very attractive rgb lights and good keyboard Cons : - runs very hot at times (might come handy in winter) - crappy wifi adapter (im guessing) - the screen could be brighter - lack of webcam (although this actually a pro for me) - screen is kinda hard to clean im (it delivered with somekind of oilish liquid stain all over the screen, not bad but it was kind of a job to get it perfectly clean and shinny)

this laptop has been great so far. i've been using macbook air/pro for over a decade. i am a developer and need a "linux" type environment for work but i also play games. a compromise would be to use macOS on laptop while i game on my desktop. recently, i was able to duplicate my dev environment on windows (finally) with docker. i wanted a laptop that was windows to play games and have enough power to run my docker environment. i was looking at the zephyrus G14. i don't need a crazy video card. a 3060 would do but those have soldered ram. i chose this because i can upgrade the ram in pair to keep the dual channel performance. it also has a free nvme slot which i've already added another 512GB stick i had lying around. i love the ability to upgrade the hardware on laptops. i was almost going to use a pci-e gen4 nvme drive but i was worried about the temps in an enclosed laptop. so i just used a spare WD SN750 500GB as a secondary drive. it runs at gen3 speeds. honestly, i probably can't tell the difference and the temps are fine so far. i plan to upgrade the ram to 32GB. so far, developing and playing games i have no issue but i like the ability to do so later on. i know i can boost performance by updating the ram with games but again, i'm pleased w/ the results so far. but i have the option. i'm able to game at 100hz on the laptop screen. i mainly play steam games and blizzard games. nothing too demanding which is why i would've been happy with a 3060 GPU. but the upgradability is what i was after with this model. the battery life is outstanding even gaming with it unplug... wow! performance overall has met and exceeded my expectations. the keyboard feels nice. i type a lot as a developer. it's a lot better than those stupid butterfly keys on my old macbook pro. ports galore. coming from macbooks, it's a welcome to see full size HDMI, ethernet port, USB ports, type-c with power delivery? (i haven't checked). did i mention an ethernet port? i tend to hate the company software/bloatware but the asus software is not too bad. it helps customize the laptop. okay here are my gripes/complains as nothing is perfect... - the RGB light around the laptop and keycaps are connected. you cannot turn off one, they both will turn off. i don't like the RGB below the laptop since i bring it to work but i do like the keyboard backlight. - there is some screen flickering when not connected to an external monitor and is on idle. many users have reported this online. it doesn't do it while i'm using the laptop, just when it's just sitting there. - when i wake up the laptop from sleep, the bluetooth "disappears". i would have to restart it just to have the laptop see it again. this is an inconvenience when i'm at home and i have a bluetooth keyboard connected to it. - there are media controls on the right side of the keyboard that i would rather not have there. i tend to hit the print screen key when i want to hit the right arrow key. - i wish it came with windows 10 pro - for the price, i wish it would have come with a 1tb drive but i'm nitpicking now - the power brick is huge overall, i've been happy with the laptop. it's bigger, heavier, bulkier than my macbook m1 but it's a compromise i'm willing to deal with. i'd still be using my mac laptop and game on my desktop had i not been able to duplicate my dev environment on windows. yay me! it's not a perfect laptop but close enough. get it as an open box like me and save a few bucks.

Truly fast machine, I love the built quality, performance and cooling, Asus did a great job on this one Built quality: 1080p res is perfect for 15in panel, this has a truly IPS screen the colors look amazing, 300hz is neat! The keyboard is about neck to neck with thinkpads keyboard, tho this one has a nicer RGB which looks fantastic The laptop feels very solid, it looks very gaming and professional at the same time The trackpad is big and accurate, right and left clicking is easy to press it just works The cooling solution is plenty for such a powerful combo, the 5900HX and 6800M is top class performance on the go, I have stress test this laptop to its fullest and no matter what I'm doing it never thermal throttle, gaming stays smooth like butter... The 5900HX makes this laptop fast and snappy, the powerful 6800M gives you the power to run any game you throw at it, I was worat first I was worried about the MUX switch that everyone seems to care about but honestly this laptop does not need it as all latest AMD technologies are all in one place so yes internal hardware is smart enough to know when it needs to use the iGPU/Dedicated GPU, the benefits of this is the amazing battery life. Speakers on the other hand is very good, fairy loud with good mids and a little punchy bass. I ended up returning a GS66 11th gen RTX 3060 for this one, once I got the Strix I realized how bad the other was, that being said I give this amazing laptop a solid 9.5/10 I am a happy customer! Asus keep up the great work, Best Buy thanks for the great deals!

I wish I could give this laptop 5 stars because it does so many things well. Unfortunately there are a couple issues that hold it back from perfection. First the good: The speakers are incredible, the best I’ve heard on a laptop. The screen is excellent, good colors, good brightness, fast and excellent contrast ratio. Superb build quality, everything feels solid and well built. No creaking or flexing. Premium feel to every surface. The keyboard is wonderful to type on and the RGB is very bright. For the performance, the laptop is very portable. It fits comfortably into my small backpack and isn’t that heavy. Outstanding battery life, truly amazing for a gaming laptop. With a few tweaks, I was able to get 12.5 hours of mixed video playback and web browsing. The laptop is very smart about when to disable the discrete GPU. Looks great if you like the gamer aesthetic, which I do. This is not the laptop to try and blend in at the coffee shop or meeting. The G14 fits that profile a lot better. 2 M.2 slots. One is open. Performance is good once you get the power and fan settings set correctly. Now the bad. 512 GB is not enough in this day and age. You pretty much have to budget in a 1TB M.2 drive on top of the laptop’s price. I had about 400 GB available. This laptop will throttle out of the box on either performance or turbo settings. The throttling is very bad and abrupt. In any demanding game, your frame rate will tank to 5-10 FPS for a couple seconds. This will happen every 20-30 seconds and makes faces unplayable. I sent mine in for service 2 times and the motherboard was replaced both times. There was no change. I did find a way to get around it. If you open Aurmory Crate, you can set the fan speed to go to 100% at 70 degrees and set the Platform sPPT to 160/190 W. This will keep the throttling from happening. It will, however make it sound like a jet engine. I’ve updated the bios and all drivers to the newest available with no change. I’m hoping Asus can solve this with a BIOS update at some point. But for now, this is not a great solution. The Aura creator app is a nightmare. It has to be the least user friendly app I’ve ever used. I had to watch a YouTube guide to figure out how to get the lighting set how I wanted. There is a lot of potential for custom lighting schemes but I’d much rather just be able to click a couple buttons than have this much customizability. There is no webcam. This is kind of a pain. I knew it didn’t have one but I didn’t think it would be a big deal. Then I had to bring it to work and had to lug around a webcam and cable with me. All in all, I still like my laptop but I do wish I’d read some of the reviews on Best Buy’s site so I’d known about the throttling issue. If I’d known, I’d probably have picked something else. Buyer beware.

Bought this to replace my GE75 Raider as the price was hard to beat. Pros Ryzen 9 5900hx 6800m Build Quality is decent for the price point. Battery 5/5 got 8hrs out of it so far with no tweaking besides silent mode. Price point 1650$ USD its hard to beat, Cons liquid metal application can be hit or miss. i see lot of people saying the LM application is trash and has cause issues with the GPU. artifacting and no detection that 6800m is there. This thing runs hot even with LM and vaper cooling. The ram in this thing is also trash youre going to have to replace it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XCeAdFqsKg video here explains why. RGB is lack luster and only 4 zones for Keyboard. Small SSD out of the box. other thoughts. Asus hit the mark on this one if it works out of the box. and if youre buying this open box or new i suggest running it through its paces play games bench mark etc and when buying again youre taking a gamble on this but if all is good you have a beat machine for the price point. apologize if this review is lacking and a bit of a ramble did on the fly. Oh one more thing. i highly recommend getting a protection plan on this even for a year. it will probably be well worth as i dont know how this product will hold up long term.

Nothin but fast and reliable. Been jammin’ on this for 5 months now. The AMD combo is a one two punch. I dropped two sticks of new 32gb 3200 RAM in this for cheap then got a 2tb 980pro and I truly can’t find much that I can’t play fully maxed. There were some bad reviews when this first launched ASUS fixed these issues a bit ago. Took back an Alienware R4 for this. The heat was so horrible on the Alienware I had to buy a cooling pad, which didn’t work. This never really gets that hot. The fan is quite enough… WAY quieter than Alienware and is equivalent speed and performance to a 3080. And that is a correct assessment. I really don’t know another laptop that keeps this cool, runs this efficient, has such a solid tight build, and munches through the highest level games with such ease. Blows most desktops out of the water. The screen is crazy good no need for 4K with 300hz. And VR is fantastic. Easy hookup once you learn. ALYX is stunning and when you hook it up To a 4K 120hz television it looses no res. Fun to have people watch at the same level you are experiencing in the headset. So really I’m fully off the NVIDIA bus. I used the 600$ I saved on the Alienware return to get my drive and ram. You should do the same.

I would give this excellent laptop 4 stars as I was one of the peeps who had "disconnected" WiFi/Ethernet cards on arrival (about 1:3 people report this issue across review platforms). However, I'd hate to deter people from this machine when there's an easy fix. I'm no tech and can usually fix these kinds of things... but after ~5 hours of fruitless attempts to reinstall the drivers etc. I decided to just schedule a tech appt with Geek Squad. Got the laptop back in 36 hours and everything was right as rain. My kiddo is a graphics design person and uses Adobe products and Clip Studio with peripheral drawing pads. AMD nailed it with this edition. The speeds and utilization across heavy duty graphics programs is phenomenal. We were debating on this vs a higher cost Intel system and I'm 100% satisfied with our more budget friendly choice. I don't mind paying for quality but this machine saved me ~$2k. And for my kiddo's purposes, this should be a 3+ year laptop. Fantastic ASUS!

Pros: + Great screen with decent color reproduction, usable brightness levels, and a nice 300hz refresh rate. 144hz would have been plenty here. + Keyboard has nice travel and good feel to it. Tactile, but not clicky and a good weight. + Very little deck flex. + 6800m performs admirably. Beat the RTX 3070 mobile in most things and even matches the RTX 3080 in some. + Price! Much less expensive price to performance over an Intel/Nvidia equivelent. + The 5900HX performs really well. + Should come with a 1tb SSD for the 512 price. 512 is not big enough in 2021. + Even on full blast the fans are not as loud as I expected. Cons: - Only the top lid is metal. The rest is plastic, though it seems to be of good quality. - Only 4 zone rgb and the front light bar can not be controlled separately. - 12 screws to hold the back on is a bit much. - Ribbon cables to the bottom for the front led. Gross. - This has one beefy power brick. - Speaker sound good, but do not get loud enough.

Highly recommended. I upgrade this unit with G-SKillz 32GB or 3200Mhz of RAM, and it performed a lot more smoothly. I played Hell Let Loose, Fortnite, Sea of Thieves, Age of Empires and Age of Mythology on max graphics and had ZERO issues with performance. The laptop does get hot and the fan does get loud, but with a gaming headset you won't hear the fan go off. As for the heat, I read somewhere in the reviews someone put a cooling pad underneath theirs. Nice idea and I'm going to do that! I've upgraded from an HP Probook 4540s from 2013, and it was time for an upgrade. I know this laptop will last me the next 9-10 years without question. I bought this laptop when it was on sale for $1,400.00 a couple of weeks ago, and I could pass up on this laptop after reading the reviews. The $250 I saved I used on a 1 TB Samsung EVO 980 NVme drive + the G-SKillz 3200MHz 32 GB of RAM. I don't regret once purchasing this laptop, and I really like how the screen is 300Hz, especially since I'm coming from a laptop that was below 720p 60Hz.

Score 4.5/5 Note: 1. By the time this review is posted, the price for this machine is $1399.99 2. Since this laptop is mainly for gaming, the battery is always plugged, so the rating for battery life is omitted with a 1 star. This is a very cool and best value gaming laptop from the asus rog series that gives you a good visual and gaming performance. Pros: - reasonable price (way more affordable after discount) - powerful cpu and gpu - nice screen - good thermal build Cons: - weird behaviors - refresh rate of the screen is a bit too high - ssd storage Starting off with the pros, this laptop has a nice screen where it gives you a high refresh rate and good color visualization which feels very comfortable to look at it. Not only the screen is good, the cpu and gpu are capable to utilize that 300 hz refresh rate for games that has a lower gpu requirement which is enjoyable when looking at it for games with decent graphic setting. When it comes to the thermal part it actually able to handle the heat for some moderm game that requires a good spec like elden ring. Though the setting for the game is in a mid-low range setting, but it handles the heat effectively so when touching the spot that the heat comes out, not too much of a feeling of hot (might also due to the weather). When it comes to discuss the cons, this laptop is sometime performing some weird behaviors like other review described (the sleep issue). The driver seems up to date, but it also seems only happening when it is plugged with a hdmi cable. This problem is not too big of deal for me, but it is still annoying. The other con is the screen refresh rate. 300 hz it is a very high refresh rate for a gaming laptop, but as a laptop I don't expect to have 300 hz, a 165 or 240 hz maximum it is good enough for this laptop. Since not all games are able to make it 300 hz, I rather they make the ssd to 1 TB with a trade off to the refresh rate. 512 gb with system is not really useful in a modern day situation especially you are not able to use all 512 gb, it end up with around 490 gb. I will say a higher storage will attract more than a 300 hz refresh rate. a 165hz with 1tb ssd sounds more a better deal than 300 hz with 512 gb ssd. With a 512gb ssd, it can barely install a few modern AAA games that cost a huge disk space and this gpu should be capable for 165hz for majority of the game. But if you don't mind spending a bit extra money to get another m.2 ssd (this laptop come with 2 m.2 ssd slot), then this 300 hz is pretty good. Otherwise, maybe drop down the screen frame rate and get a larger ssd will attract more people. Lastly and the most importamt part, pricing. Usually for asus's rog series, there sale point is premium with high-end performance and charge way more expensive. To my surprise, I randomly found this laptop on sale with 1499.99 when I first bought it, and then it drop to 1399.99 then I price matched the machine since it is still within the return policy date of the original purchase. I know some people are saying that amd is bad why don't choose a laptop with nvidia. Honestly speaking, amd's gpu setting interface is way more confusing than nvidia control pannel, but once you get through it, it will be very straight forward and amd's gpu is powerful as well since they improve a lot from before (especislly pair up with amd cpu). Before getting this laptop, I checked out some spec review with this machine and they say this machine is in between a 3070 and 3080 mobile gpu. The down side is that this laptop consume more power to get the performance while the 3070/80 is more power friendly. Going back to the topic of pricing, if you are planning to get a decent 3070 laptop with discount, it usually around $1500 before tax (also depends if you buy from the official site with a bunch of coupons applied to it), but the refresh rate might not be as high as this one. For $1399.99 before tax, and you get a pretty high-end gaming laptop ( that can compete with laptop's rtx3070) from asus's rog series (where at least the rog series has a better quality control for a gaming laptop), it is a very good deal. For people who are looking for a best value gaming laptop, I will defintely recommend this laptop not only its performance but also the price, I don't think you can find a laptop with such cheap price (when on sale) that gives you a high performance. REMINDER: BEFORE GETTING THIS LAPTOP, PLEASE ALSO CONSIDER READING OTHER REVIEWS AS WELL. MY REVIEW IS BASED ON MY OWN EXPERIENCE, BE SURE TO CHECK OUT SOME OTHER POTENTIAL ISSUES FOR THIS LAPTOP THAT HAD HAPPENED ON OTHER PEOPLE'S REVIEW.

I am pretty disappointed with Best Buy and ASUS on this one. Poor packaging/shipping: Best Buy shipped this in a standard USP plastic shipping bag with no extra packing material. Honestly I was shocked. It didn't help that the ASUS box doesn't come with any foam padding or protection. ASUS Quality control issues for this model: When it comes to ASUS, they did a good job with the performance on this thing, when it works. The earlier serial batch of this model has ISSUES and you can read all about it on various forums and reviews mostly from 2021. The early batch of this laptop with serial number starting in Ma and manufacture date (MFD) in 2021 (mine was MFD 2021-10) have issues with liquid metal cooling, reboot issues, and sleep issues. Mine had the reboot issue. You can find MFD on the bottom of the laptop and serial number on the box. The laptop reboots during gameplay when the GPU/CPU gets going. It reboots during benchmark tests (3D mark) as well. I spent the better half of my weekend troubleshooting this laptop: - Updated to the latest BIOS, AMD software, ASUS software, Windows software. - Updated to latest drivers, specifically GPU/chipset drivers. - Reformatted multiple times. - Disabled hardware acceleration in Chromium based browser (Chrome). - Fiddled with Event 10016 (Disabled COMS) troubleshooting as this appeared in my Windows event log after reboot (adjusting permissions, etc). - Calibrated a bunch of different settings based on various videos/recommendations. - Read through far too many posts and threads on this model across various community forums/sites. I don't want to have to read through 50 pages of user troubleshooting for a laptop to work out of the box. Bottom line: The customer should not have to pay in both their time and money for an investment item like this operate let alone as advertised out of the box. That doesn't include the poor RAM this laptop comes with which holds back performance (more on that later). ---- Overall review of this laptop ---- Boxing: No padding, no frills. No bonus goodies that ASUS has previously included like stickers, keychains, etc. The opening mechanism is interesting (the laptop is propped open when the box is fully opened). Chassis/materials: The chassis is a hard plastic and originally I was worried about this as a metal chassis is preferred. That being said, the plastic is extremely soft and comfortable during gameplay, more so than a metal chassis. Screen: Compared to QHD, the screen wasn't as vibrant but that's expected for FHD. I won't add much more since I bought this with the intent on gaming on an external monitor since there's also no MUX switch. Performance & Price point: When this laptop works, it's a great investment in powerful hardware and a full AMD model is something I was very excited about. The RX 6800M is on par with an RTX 3070 to RTX 3080. Coupled with a Ryzen 9 at this price point is a steal. The RAM holds back the performance, Jarrod has a video on it with benchmark comparisons and recommended RAM upgrade. For reference, the Legion 5 Pro also comes with poor RAM so this is just something companies seem to be doing to lower the price tag. No MUX switch is a bummer but if using an external monitor on USB-C to Display port you can bypass the iGPU to boost FPS by about ~5%. Keyboard/trackpad: Keyboard is smooth, keys are slightly elevated, very comfortable to type on and natural. Track pad was great, the location of it was hard to get used to, but had no issues with that and typing. Design: I find it tacky overall and looks a bit cheap with the materials used, but does not feel cheap during use. The hinges on the screen make it look like a child's toy as does the red plate which is interchangeable with a silver or transparent plate. The text on the chassis feels like a poor design choice, especially with the hard plastic which won't age as well as a metal chassis. The gap under the screen is a confusing design choice, and I'm not sure if it serves much function other than aesthetic but it is not a great aesthetic. I get that this isn't a Zephyrus, but other ROG models have had better designs. ASUS/Warranty: Customer service with ASUS isn't great and a 1 year warranty from ASUS is concerning considering all of the issues with this model from release. Takeaway: If you can get this model to function as intended, this is a great deal for performance at the price point. If you are looking for performance in a laptop for gaming, rendering, graphic design, etc. this is a cool choice as an all AMD system but they have been known to be slow on optimizing drivers, etc.

This is a workhorse gaming laptop!! This thing is a beast!!! Runs hot plays hotter !!! Jk but it’s really amazing the performance at the price point that it is. Definitely upgrade the ram!! And it will be perfect for you in any gam !!

Pros -The price is absolutely amazing when compared to similar laptops with intel and RTX gpus -Amazing Battery life -Amazing Thermals -Keyboard feels really good and has a nice spring to it. -I know not everyone will like it but the RGB lighting is cool and the asus eye on the back glows which is a nice touch. 3 RGB zones on the keyboard and 5 or 6 on the light bar. -Love the detachable corner piece to fit the style. Love to see some custom 3d printed designs. Cons -Rather heavy (i like heavy but traveling with it is noticeable.) -500gb is way too little storage for games. Upgrade is recommended and it only takes nvme so expect to spend an extra 70 bucks minimum for more storage.

I found this laptop as an open box item and took it for a test drive while on vacation. The overall performance was more than fantastic. There are so many examples of how this PC performed compared to Desktop PC's I have owned in the past that it changed my perspective of Laptop gaming. The processor may be overkill but the 6800m was able to play any game i wanted to play at high or medium graphics at more than stable 60FPS. Examples being Red Dead Redpemption 2 at medium high settings at around 60fps, Rust at more than 60fps, Farming sim 22 at more than 75fps and many more modern titles. This laptop is the best bang for your buck for latpop gaming compared to other models that could run you 500+ more dollars

I wanted an all AMD machine for when I'm traveling and want to game or have to work, which led me to this fine piece of machinery. She's a little chonky, but nothing excessive by any means. Just don't expect it to be one of the new generation ultra slim 500 gram laptops that have low grade hardware in them. In stock form as it came it still performed well, and benchmarked very well. I've seen some complaints about the factory RAM, SSD, and the lack of a mux switch. Let me clear that up. Mine came with 2 8gb sticks of Micron modules (part #mta8atf1g64hz-3g2j1) which are not bad units at all. They are 3200mhz with 22 ms cas timings. Looking through the available options for upgrade in 16gb and 32gb sticks, you will find almost all so-dimm ddr4 running 3200mhz falls into these same timings or worse. It benchmarked well, and for most peoples usage needs this is enough capacity to run everything well. I opted to upgrade this right away with a Gskill Ripjaws 64gb kit, as I have a few processes I run occasionally that are memory intensive. The SSD in mine is an Intel 760P unit which is a very fast respectable unit that has factory rated read/write speeds of 3230/1625 MBps respectively. This is well more than enough again for most all usage scenarios. 512gb isn't the greatest capacity, but it has a second m.2 slot that you can throw another drive in if need be. The price we get this beast for is amazingly low given the overall hardware specs. This machine does not have a mux switch built in. Yes the 6800m graphics get routed through the integrated graphics when gaming on the built in display. Plug an external display in, and you get a direct line to the 6800m discrete chip. This is because when you're using the laptop for everyday things like watching videos, homework, web surfing, etc. it shuts down the discrete chip completely to reduce power consumption and heat, which it does VERY well. The battery run time on this thing is incredibly long. I've seen independent reports of up to 16 hours. You will see a slight fps reduction when playing on the internal display due to this, but AMD realized that for the best gaming experience possible you need an external display anyway. No tiny 15" or 17" laptop display is good enough for the best gaming experience. Adding a mux switch would mean they wouldn't be able to run the SmartShift, which is VERY useful in maximizing the performance both on battery and plugged in. Moral of the story is to run an external display if you want the best graphics. That being said the built in display is gorgeous, and the 300hz refresh looks great. Watching movies on this vs a regular low end 60hz display is a night and day difference. Heat is handled very well, even with the laptop sitting on your lap not getting the best airflow. I have the fans in Turbo mode and they still are quieter than my big water cooled desktop. The keyboard and trackpad both stay cool to the touch as well. The passmark benchmark test I ran on this machine with my 64gb memory upgrade showed phenomenal results. This thing is a power house. The games I've played thus far all ran on ultra settings with ease, even through the internal display. If you're on the edge considering this machine, just do it! You won't regret it. The only laptop I've seen that can touch this is equipped with the biggest new i9 cpu and 3080 gpu, and it costs twice as much.

I have been waiting for this for while now, finally a high end laptop from AMD! Coming from Dells G5 SE, an all amd laptop with a 5600m, there was potential, just wanted more performance. Seeing all the reviews and my personal testing, this thing is a powerhouse, while the ram gimps the performance a little and no mux switch, future updates for faster ram gives you peace of mind that if it's fast now, it could be a little faster. Usb-c to display port further more increases performance as it's goes straight to the discrete gpu. Build quality is nice with all the Rrr-gee-beees you will ever need. 300hz monitor is pretty good and gets decently bright at 300nits. I don't see much ghosting with the ge I tried, apex, response time seemed pretty good. Keyboard is actually nice to type on, actuates nicely. Only con I will give is that this thing could've has 1tb of HDD. Tip for first boot!! Update everything, amd drivers, Asus drivers and bios! Update windows. With fast internet, this laptop will do all of that with ease. This rivals my main PC build with 5800x and an 6800 video card.

Tired of dealing with crappy NVIDIA drivers on your linux laptop? Want a laptop that can put in an 8 hour day on battery and light use? Want to be able to compile like a boss, or load up World of Warcraft in WINE and play it flawlessly? Then this laptop is for you... with a few caveats. First, bluetooth isn't working under Linux yet for this model as of Sept 2021. Wifi requires at least kernel 5.12. Installing from a distro based on less than a 5.13 kernel can be a hassle, as using the laptop's built-in keyboard is seen as hitting shutdown - you have to use an external keyboard to get yourself to a 5.13 kernel. In other words, if you want this beast, be prepared to run bleeding edge Linux. SuSE Tumbleweed installs perfectly, as does Manjaro. Currently I'm running Fedora 34/5.13.14 but it was a little painful to get here, I just happen to really like Fedora. <laugh> This all should become a heck of a lot less painful in October when Ubuntu 21.10 and Fedora 35 come out, which will have kernels that can run on this machine out of the box. I haven't had any problems with overheating, and it isn't nearly as loud as my old Sager i9. I've popped a second SSD in as well as 32 GB of RAM (2 x 16), and this thing is just a beast. It's my new daily driver, and once I got on a new enough kernel and distro, it's been smooth sailing. Don't buy this expecting to run Ubuntu 20.04 though. ;-) My only real complaints are that there is no webcam (not necessarily a bad thing), and that there is no Linux bluetooth support yet. The touchpad also takes some tweaking, but that's been true of every linux laptop I've ever owned, and may just be a personal preference thing. I picked this up on sale at $1499, while I was considering buying a system76 laptop for more money that was less powerful. I'm happy with my purchase, and would make it again.