Customer Ratings & Reviews

It stopped working suddenly, graphics card crashed on me

Good laptop as a desktop replacement but not portable enough. Just depends on your needs

The computer doesn’t deliver the necessary performance. It freezes a lot, and even older games won’t run on max graphics.

ASUS AND BESTBUY WERE IN CHARGE OF CREATING THE BIGGEST SCAM IN WHAT REFERS TO GAMING LAPTOPS. THEY PROMISE A LATEST GENERATION HARDWARE BUT IT IS A COMPUTER THAT SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN TESTED BY DOLPHINS, SINCE IT DOESN'T WORK, IT HAS THOUSANDS OF ERRORS AND THEY PRETEND TO BE IDIOTS BY PROHIBITING YOU FROM RETURNING THE PRODUCT. SCAMMERS AND THIEVES, THE VALUE OF THIS COMPUTER SHOULD NOT EXCEED 20 DOLLARS, SINCE THE ONLY THING THAT WORKS MORE OR LESS WELL ARE THE LED LIGHTS.

The screen switching gpu tech was horrid, caused countless freezes for nearly 5-10 seconds a piece. After 3 days with the product and disabling and uninstalling more automatic "performance features" it felt okay..but the magic was lost. I was upset already. returned it. maybe it won't bother you and it will be awesome. For me it was a nightmare to have to uninstall and configure for 3 days to get it working "fine"

I am always impressed how Asus keeps raising the bar, over and over and over! I've been a hug Asus fan for over a decade. I use their motherboards (Strix and TUF), video cards, power supplies and even some peripherals. When I need a laptop I've had a few other brands but always gravitate to Asus. Vivobooks are an awesome value for business or school but gaming laptops always push boundaries. I think my first gaming laptop was a G1 and everyone thought it was an AW. Stylish and powerful. What more do you need? I've settled in on Strix and Zephyrus laptops as my workhorse... for both work and play. The 16" are luggable and great for work. Not too heavy or bulky and fit most laptop bags. The 18" variants are more of a desktop replacement but even still, if determined, you can lug them just as easily but you need a spacious bag. The specs on this beast are amazing. Cram the Intel Ultra 9 HX into the case along with 32GB of replaceable DDR5-5600 SODIMM memory, a nVidia GeForce RTX5080 (mobile chip) and yes... finally a 2TB SSD. I was always stymied why manufacturers were stuffing 512GB or if lucky 1TB SSDs in a gaming laptop. Storage is key for a high performance gaming system... a lot of the AAA games take up gobs of space so the 2TB is welcome!!!! Even better is there is a spare NVME M.2 drive slot for an easy way to add to your storage. Back on memory for a second, the growing trend of soldering in at least one stick of RAM onto the motherboard is horrible and Asus doesn't bend to that practice, keeping with replaceable SODIMM sticks. While my previous Zephyrus G16 go scorching hot in the space between the keyboard and screen. That is not the case with this one. Cooling has gotten much better... more heat pipes that move the generated heat easily out of the shell. Pairing the RTX5080 with the 240Hz IPS display at 3ms response time gives you the awe-factor you look for in gaming. The 16:10 aspect ratio at 2560 x 1600 2.5K screen produces amazing clarity and 500 nits of brightness produces bright colors. Along with all the other hardware produces amazing frame rates and of course that depends on what game you are playing. Lots of RGB but glad it doesn't have the annoying lit slash on the lid that last year's Zephyrus had. Turned that off quickly! The keyboard has programmable RGB and I really love the translucent WASD-RF-Space keys. I use the numpad for work so the G18 gets me that with the extra real estate over the G16. Plenty of I/O ports that make connectivity a breeze. Left side you have power (rectangular connector instead of the usual barrel), ethernet, HDMI 2.1, USB-A 3.2, 2 Thunderbolt USB-Cs and headphone jack. On the right there are 2 USB-A 3.2. Wifi-7 provides the fast network connection needed when playing demanding games as long as your wifi system supports the faster speeds. Upgrading this system is a breeze. Gone are the bazillion case screens... okay... maybe 12 that you have to not lose and them grab the guitar picks and pry the bottom off. No sir, now it's a simple slide button on the bottom towards the front and once slid into the unlock position you slide the bottom forward and it's off. I personally don't see the need to upgrade the memory but you can definitely add that second NVME drive. For me... I tossed in a 4TB SSD and slid the bottom back on and the latch snapped to the locked position. Sound from the speakers is okay, could use a bit more bass for my liking but still more than adequate and nothing really to complain about. All in all bravo Asus. A well designed and beastly equipped machine.

To exspensive to be plastic and very buggy software i spent more time tweaking it than enjoying it. Asus no more for me.

To reiterate the title - for every ounce of weight of this laptop (omg is it heavy), you will get top rated gaming performance. I guess if you're into weighted blankets, you would want this on your lap while in use. Other than that, some other downsides: -You're going to want to plug this in unless you're gaming for only like an hour at a time -Fan noise can get high -Puts off some heat I loaded up Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered from XBox GamePass as I heard it is a machine crippler - I don't think I've ever seen such a beautiful game delivered without any sort of performance hit in the least. The visuals were great, though some may want to try to make the blacks 'blacker'. Absolutely no tearing of any kind. Sound was great for a laptop, though I'd suspect most gamers would be wielding headsets anyway. In the same vain, the touchpad - which worked as expected - is not something I would ever use while gaming - it just seemed to take up more space than needed. I hooked up an XBox game controller via Bluetooth without any issues. Lots of hard drive space to fill up with games. Lots of customization options with the built in Asus apps. If you're into LEDs, there's loads of them. I liked the treatment of them for the AWSD keys which are normally used for movement. The one 'gimmick' I wasn't a huge fan of was the laser light show the laptop generated while sitting idle. I just haven't taken the time to see if that was a thing I could disable. Other than that, the laptop looks great in general. Other highlights: -Ethernet port -Charging cord length was good, though the power brick - again - heavy/big. -Tool-less entry was a little fiddly but once you get it, it is nice, though I don't know what I'd be doing inside this machine anytime soon

To do this review, I had my gamer son assist me in testing the Asus ROG Strix G18 and I wrote the review based on our mutual thoughts on the computer. I would consider myself average to somewhat advanced gamer, but my son is next level and is pretty gifted at gaming (and humbles me quicker than I care to admit). So, this is an honest review from someone that was extremely impressed with this computer and logged a lot of RPG hours in doing this review. When I look for a gaming computer, I want something that can pull it's weight. With tech always getting bigger, better and faster, it often comes down to a few brands and Asus is always a brand to look at first. The Asus ROG Strix G18 is more than just a strong performer, it feels like it was legitimately made with gamers in mind. Like taking feedback from the field and applying those considerations. It incorporates the top hardware, an advanced cooling system, a superior display, and a top-quality build. For me as a gamer/reviewer this is the best gaming computer I personally have had the chance to review. In this review I will focus on the Processor, GPU, cooling system, the display and build quality. I will then tell you why I like it so much. You can then decide if it would be a good option for you.  The heart of the G18 is the Intel Core i9-13980HX. The 24 core (not a typo) processor is among the most powerful processors on the market today. That includes 8 performance cores and 16 efficiency cores. Performance cores handle the demanding tasks and are faster, while the efficiency cores are just that, more efficient and handle the background tasks. For a gamer, this means more than simply high frame rates. It means you can multitask. Specifically, you can game, stream, record and/or browse with superior performance, without slowing your system down. I tested this playing a few different FPS games with the setting placed on high. I had various chrome tabs open, running OBS to stream and listening to some music. No stutters or any sort of delay what so ever, everything was smooth. Everything loaded quickly, background taskers were still responsive and demanding software runs smooth as silk. This kind of CPU performance is beneficial for gamers, as this core power makes sure your games never lag even with other programs running in the background. This computer will handle anything you throw at it.  For any gaming computer, the graphics card is going to maximize the experience, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX series in the G18 is a powerhouse. These are some of the fastest mobile GPUs available, and they effectively revolutionized the gaming laptop. I tested the G18 with the RTX 4080 model, and the performance was spectacular! Again the FPS's ran smoothly on the ultra settings and it was better than anything else I have owed or tested to date on a laptop. If you prioritize frame rate, this GPU is for you. In the FPS games I tested, I was consistently pushing frame rates well over 200 FPS on the high settings, allowing me to enjoy that crisp 240Hz display. That smoothness can give you a competitive edge over others especially in the fast-moving FPS games where fractions of a second mean a lot. The RTX 40-series also supports something called hardware-accelerated ray tracing. This brings a more realistic look to the shadows, reflections and lighting.  So for a machine running this hard all the time, ASUS apparently understood it needed any equally high performing cooling system. So they utilize a three-fan cooling system with Conductonaut Extreme liquid metal on the CPU. This set up allows the ROG Strix G18 to run cool under the stress load.  I stress-tested the system with long gaming sessions, and I was surprised at how well it held up. Even after several hours of playing Starfield on ultra settings, the chassis remained comfortable to the touch and the system didn’t throttle performance due to overheating. For gamers, when a system gets too hot, it can affect the performance of your CPU or GPU to protect the hardware, which leads to lag and frame rate drops. With this advanced cooling system, the G18 delivers even performance when you are playing extended gaming sessions. The fans tend to kick in when needed, but they are extremely quiet and of zero distraction. ASUS also allows you to adjust performance and fan profiles using "Armoury Crate," so you can go full send with the fans when you are gaming harder, or you can limit the fan use when you are doing lighter work.  This laptop features a rather large 18" display. The QHD+ (2560x1600) Nebula display with a 240Hz refresh rate. That combo is perfect for anything from competitive gaming to watching a movie. The high resolution provides sharper images as you would expect. What I also learned was that it allows you to use more of your screen than when you compare it to the standard 1080p, Of course the high refresh rate ensures smooth motion while viewing or playing.  The color is another big plus. The panel supports 100% DCI-P3 color, making colors appear to me as more accurate. Blacks and shadows are deep and rich, and the highlights really stand out. When playing competitively, the combo of high frame rates and low latency creates a super responsive experience that can help improve gameplay.  The ROG Strix G18 is a large and heavy laptop, but that is because it is loaded with high end components. It has sharp lines highlighted by lighting. The thing just feels substantial and durable, like you would expect a really gaming machine to be. The keyboard is comfortable with a substantially deep press and the keys light up in a manner that does not affect your visibility of the keys with a nice key response. There are plenty of port options on the G18, with multiple USB-A and USB-C ports, HDMI 2.1, Ethernet, and a full-sized SD card slot. Again, another reason this laptop would be great for gamers and creators. The touchpad is large, and the large chassis leaves enough room for quality speakers that sound excellent.  This is not something that is designed to carry with you all the time, so its not exactly portable. But by far, this is the most portable laptop with the closest to desktop level performance that I have tried to date. But it is a bit heavy in that respect. Personally?  I will trade the weight for this level of performance.  So I spent a lot of time with the G18, and I have to say it impresses me a lot. Gamers demand certain things, and this hits all the marks. The processing performance and excellent choice for a GPU and an extremely smooth and responsive display. You pay for these options for sure, and there are cheaper options out there. But this is definitely an instance where you get what you pay for. Pull the trigger on this one folks, you won't regret it. I HIGHLY recommend this laptop to anyone wanting a superior gaming computer in a more compact form. Or any influencer wanting the ultimate platform to create their content. You will be happy with your decision.

This is not the daily commuter, student laptop, or just to Netflix and chill. This is for the hardcore gamer, developer, video editor, or designer (or all of the above). Perfect for those that are tight on space or need to move around. I have been around technology a long time, this is one of the most powerful laptops I have ever used. While not the biggest, it is big compared to most laptops today, but it uses all of that space for good. This full 18" monitor is GORGEOUS, detailed color, bright, just enough bezel to allow your eyes to stay focused on the screen for what ever you are doing. Sturdy and firm casing, you can feel it... this isn't flimsy, doesn't dip or tilt like some other large screen mobile devices. Full sized keyboard with number keypad... Great for a long list of reasons, a lot of laptops get rid of it... it's here and present. My first dislike, is the big oversized touchpad. I am not a fan of touchpads, especially large ones, that then take a lot of space at the bottom of the deck. Being a touch typist, for almost 40 years, it is a little awkward, but not crazy bad. There is just a lot of space.. .Bling it up with stickers :) RJ-45 hard line port, HDMI, and your standard USB assortment of ports. Now for my next negative... Power. The power brick is BIG!!! and heavy. I get it, this big computer needs the power. However, it has a custom power connector to the computer on the side. First would have loved it in the back, as the firm cord, jets out further to the left side, and then with its custom port.. can't readily get a replacement. Seems to be compatible with USB-C charging, but haven't tried pushing it. Thunderbolt ports are going to be really nice, to connect to large monitors. Only tried a single basic connection, worked great, was able to handle my wide screen, with no decline in image performance. It runs Windows out of the box, not going to review Windows, there are thousands of reviews out there. However, I will say that it took about 2 hours to get it all setup, software and hardware updates, and ready to go. Once setup though, here comes the performance. From a gaming point of view, I put it through the most recent Forza, and connected a XBOX controller to play. Racing and graphics was super smooth. The 5080 graphic card, did its job. The computer though didn't even seem like it was pushing itself. Fans were minimal. And the game play was great. no issues at all. From a design point of view, I fired up Adobe Suite, and was able to do my normal Illustrator usage and editing. The big screen was great, and I was able to send it over to my CNC machine and do its work. I don't do a lot of video editing, but did try it out, and full size videos were playing with no hiccups. Rendering some quick edits were fast, very little lag. Uploads to YouTube were quick on my WiFi, that clocked at over 600mps, but I was far from my WiFi7 access point, so this was on WiFi6. Lastly I fired up Visual Studio, to do some sample compiles, and it was great. I typically code on my Mac, but now with this, I will be able to use this Unreal or Unity development, as my Mac is tapping out on that. This is going to be a laptop I can use for a long time. Outstanding piece of equipment, looking forward to more title releases in 2025 and 2026, that can tap into all its power. So to recap: This really gets a 4.25 out of 5: Pros: - Big storage - Big Memory - Big Screen - Big Speed - Big Performance Con's - Custom and Large Power Brick - Big TouchPad and Big "deck" area

DO NOT BUY! Stay away. Low performance and terrible thermals

The ASUS - ROG Strix G18 18" 2.5K 240Hz Gaming Laptop - Intel Core Ultra 9 HX - 32GB RAM - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 - 2TB SSD - Eclipse Gray is one beast of a laptop! This ROG Strix G18 laptop comes well packaged as it should as the ROG Strix G18 is a heavy laptop indeed at just over 7lbs, as it needs to be with its stunning 18" WQXGA and all the heat sink's inside to cool the system while in demand like playing games. The power supply brick that comes with the ROG Strix G18 is huge as it needs to be, especially plugged in during gameplay, that is required as this Asus laptop need the power to get you the best you can be visually and without lag. The setup went extremely easy and quick. The ROG Strix G18 comes with 3 months of pc game pass. The display is just a tad below OLED, meaning blacks are near perfect black. Colors are stunning, watching movies are stunning with perfect visuals. Playing games is just outstanding visually, also just perfect motion at playing games at 240htz. The display is perfect at everything and stunning! Pictures look stunning, movies look stunning, games look stunning. Viewing angles are great also. I just love having an 18" high end display built in, basically no need for anything bigger. The sound this laptop produces is stunning for a laptop, certainly not high end sound system type (as expected) but certainly surprised on how great the speakers sound. Wifi 7 works great, super fast connection and definitely delivers on minimal lag in games, just like playing while plugged into Ethernet. The keyboard is just wow, you can set the color of your choice as the backlight. The keys feel great and placement of the keys is perfect. I love having a number pad. Playing games on the ROG Strix G18 is just wow, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 with the Intel Core Ultra 9 HX processor, this combo has so much power for present and future games. Playing games on this without any lag is just mind blowing. The response of the entire laptop and hearing the fans kick up when the 16 gigabytes of GPU ram of GDDR7 is used and you see and feel it while playing games, nice and smoothly as it should be. Asus just got everything perfect in syncing everything perfectly. You can max out all visualls in games and this Asus laptop just handles all aspects perfectly. I saw absolutely no studder, jitter or game lag. I was blown away at what games look like when you have all the power you need to get you to a point and beyond of stunning visuals and extremely smooth gameplay, that is extremely greatfull, so you have that advantage over others! You will not be disappointed! I am just blown away by this laptop!

This laptop is a beast in the best possible way. Yes, it’s fairly expensive, but you get a beautiful, high-performance, portable gaming machine. In a nutshell, it runs cool, the fans are not too noisy, the graphics performance is top-notch, and the 18” monitor is beautiful. It is a little on the heavy side (a bit more than 7lbs) but it’s perfectly fine to haul to those occasional game nights with friends. At home, I typically use it with a Samsung 49” Odyssey Neo which it handles perfectly. My old gaming laptop would have some annoying stutter at times during lots of screen movement, but so far, the ASUS has been butter smooth for me. But if you don’t have or want to mess with an external monitor, the 18” monitor on the laptop is perfectly fine. It was easy to get set up initially. After the Windows updates were done, I started installing games via Microsoft Xbox. There are some useful ASUS utilities for system performance, graphics, etc. but very little in the way of annoying bloatware like on some computers these days. The 2TB drive gives me plenty of room, so I’m not worried about having to expand any time soon. You can read all the specs and other details of the system, so I won’t go into that, but here are some features I like. The RGB lightbar that outlines the underneath side of the laptop is a nice touch. It’s not something that would have influenced my purchasing decision, but now that I have it, I really like it. The chamfered edges of the laptop are a nice touch, too, and it makes the laptop seem a little sleeker. My favorite feature, though, is the tool-less access to the RAM, SSD, and fans on the back. I don’t know why every system made from now on would NOT have this kind of simple access. Not that I’m going to be messing with the RAM and SSD all the time, but it will be nice to be able to make sure the fans are staying clean. I do have cats that like to lay around near the computers, so this is going to be great for keeping the air flow clean. Speaking of the fans and airflow, another nice design feature is the hot air is vented out the back and not to the sides. So many laptops over the years would blow hot air out the side right onto your mouse hand, which I found annoying. With this laptop, the intakes are on the side and the vents are on the rear. One small detail that would have been nice is a power connector that was a 90-degree elbow instead of straight out. The power cord does stick out quite a way on the left side and my only concern is about bumping it or possibly smashing it into something. If it had a 90-degree turn, then it would be a sleeker fit and could route towards the back. Having said that, when I’m using it with an HDMI cable plugged in, then they’re both sticking out about the same, so it doesn’t matter as much. Overall, I’m super impressed with gaming on this computer. I feel like it’s top-of-the-line enough that it’s going to continue running my games for years to come. If this type of machine is within your budget, I think you’ll be very happy with the ASUS ROG Strix G18.

WOW. I wish I could write this review and just leave it there. I have had other high end gaming laptops in the past but never have I been this blown away by the performance, versatility, look, and feel of one of these machines. First off, the unboxing and packaging. The box that this unit arrived in was just a cool presentation as it lifted the laptop up slightly when opened giving the vibe of premium right out of the gate. Not much included in the box, small instruction and warranty paperwork, the charger, and the laptop itself and you're set. The physical feel of this machine just screams premium. The materials feel nice and at 18" on the screen it's large. I do not intend to do much travelling with this and rather mostly treat it like a desktop that takes up way less space, but if you did want to travel with it, you need a large and sturdy bag. The keyboard is of course RGB backlit and there is even lighting around the bottom to give it that "gamer" look. Booting up, setting up, etc was very quick. It's very fast, but standard windows setup. Immediately moved into downloading some games from the Xbox PC app (I have Gamepass, highly recommend) and getting Steam going. I've tried a few things from indie titles that are not very intense up to the latest releases and some free to play titles. Everything I have tried has run very smoothly and looked very impressive whether I used the built in monitor or hooked up to my normal docking station. Speaking of docking, The setup to connect to my triple monitor, gaming keyboard and mouse, external webcam and mic docking station was absolutely seamless. I've even done a bit of twitch streaming on this system and had no issues. Overall, this unit carries an premium price tag and it delivers. As the PC gaming industry trends more towards portability and ease of use with products like this as well as handheld options like the Steamdeck and upcoming Xbox branded ROG Ally, this premium price point delivers on everything I can think of or could want from a high end gaming laptop. If it's in your budget, this is the one to get.

The laptop is wonderful. No problems at all. Runs all games at a great FPS and has abeautiful display.

Is more than expected, is a really powerful and nice price

I have attempted to purchase 3 of these ROG Strix 18" laptops since February. Every single one of them had freezing issues. I am a system builder, and I know my way around Windows, drivers, updates, SSDs, ect. I know Asus machines very well. My 5 year old gaming Asus ROG machine is still running to this day. I don't know WHAT is going on with these machines, but they are NOT ready for release. The first one I bought had faulty wiring in it, and the backlit keyboard would not work. The second and third ones worked fine for a couple of days, and then started freezing. No Blue Screen of Death. Straight up, freezing. Everything would just lock up. No mouse movements, no keyboard response, nothing. I needed to hold down the power button for a hard reset. Afterward, it would boot up normally, and moments after it would totally freeze again. The LED light next to the charging port would just rapidly flash a while color. I had all the latest Windows Updates, I had all the latest BIOS and drivers from the My Asus app. This happened on 2 machines in the span of 3 days. These are not ready for release, and with the amount of software and licenses I have to assign to my machines and what not, this is unacceptable. At this price point, these things should be 1000% flawless right out of the box. I will not buy another Asus laptop again. This has been by fat the worse computer experience I have ever had. And I am a 25 year system builder. It's a shame, because specs wise these are impressive. Nothing but issues with them. It very well could be BIOS or driver update related. Some of us are trying to run businesses with these machines, and we just don't have time to deal with this garbage.