Asus ROG Strix G16 review: fast and more affordable, at a cost

I’ve reviewed two laptops running both Intel’s Arrow Lake-HX chipsets and Nvidia’s second-fastest Blackwell GPU, the GeForce RTX 5080. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i and Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 are both very impressive gaming laptops, but they’re also very expensive at over $3,000.

What if you want something that’s a little more affordable? That’s where the Asus ROG Strix G16 comes in, running AMD’s very fast Ryzen 9 9955HX3D chipset and Nvidia’s midrange RTX 5070 Ti. It’s fast as well, but it doesn’t have the outstanding displays of the other two and so it’s a bit harder to recommend even at its lower price.

Specs and configurations

The Asus web store still several ROG Strix G16 configurations as unavailable. The base model is $2,400 for an AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU, and a 16.0-inch QHD+ IPS display. Opting for the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D chipset raises the price to $2,500. That’s the configuration that I reviewed, and both of those models are currently out of stock. The one configuration that can be purchased includes a slower AMD Ryzen 9 8940HX chipset and costs $2,000.

Those are okay prices for a very fast gaming laptop. You’ll compromise on the display, as we’ll see below, and the midrange GPU is a bit slower, but you’ll have to spend a lot more to get something faster.

Design

At first glance, the ROG Strix G16 bears a strong resemblance to the much larger Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 that I previously reviewed. At least, it does if you focus on the per-key RGB backlighting on the keyboard and the row of RGB LEDs that light up the front of the laptop. Looking more closely at the rest of the chassis, though, the smaller machine has its own aesthetic. To begin with, it doesn’t have the Asus AniMe Vision LEDs on the lid, which is a lot simpler on the ROG Strix G16 with just a subdued logo. There’s aggressive geometric venting on the back, along with more vents along the sides. That makes the smaller laptop more minimalist in some ways, while also coming across with a slightly more aggressive gamer look.

The lid is offset a bit from the rear, as you’ll find in many larger laptops. Inset along the inside rear edge are a set of speakers and some anachronistic LEDs that show power and storage accesses. That’s unusual today and, really, I found the blinking light distracting. We’re really not so worried today about shutting down a laptop before data is written, compared to when we were relying on much slower spinning disks. Overall, I think the aesthetic is good for gamers, but anyone who’s looking for a less ostentatious design will want to consider something like the very MacBook-like Razer Blade 16.

The ROG Strix G16 is constructed of plastic in the external chassis and aluminum in the lid, which is fine. Interestingly, the lid is a little flexible, but the bottom chassis and keyboard deck are plenty stiff. Some users might prefer a more premium feel, as with the Razer Blade 16, but it’s not a significant concern. I suppose the plastic does keep the palm rests cooler than if they were aluminum, which is a plus.

Unsurprisingly, this is a very thick laptop at up to 1.2 inches, and it’s very heavy at 5.51 pounds. The top and side display bezels are thin, but the bottom chin is quite large. That makes the ROG Strix G16 a very large laptop in all dimensions. It’s a bit to carry around, especially when you include the very large power brick.

Of course, Asus built in a robust cooling system. There’s Asus’s Tri-Fan technology, full-width heatsink and Condoctonaut Extreme liquid metal. Combined with the copious venting, the laptop is able to keep the internals reasonably cool with some serious fan noise when the laptop is working particularly hard.

Keyboard and touchpad

Unlike many gaming laptops, the ROG Strix G16’s version doesn’t have a numeric keypad. That’s a strange omission given that many gamers like to bind those keys to macros. It does make for a more spacious keyboard for non-gamers, with large keycaps and springy switches that make for comfortable typing. With other gaming laptops, I typically say that it’s a great keyboard for gamers but not for writers. The opposite is true here, which might not be the best choice given the laptop’s intended target.

The touchpad is okay, being a large enough mechanical version. It’s better than the touchpad on the ROG Strix SCAR 18, which had buttons that were hard to reliably engage. This one’s fine, but I suspect most gamers will choose to use a dedicated gaming mouse.

Connectivity and webcam

Large, 16-inch laptops that are this thick and heavy typically have a lot of connectivity. The ROG Strix G16 is good enough, with a couple of fast USB4 ports to go with a selection of legacy ports. There’s an Ethernet port for anyone who wants to connect directly to a router and avoid wireless latency. It’s not the most connectivity I’ve seen in a gaming laptop, but it’s fine. The wireless connectivity is one generation behind, which might disappoint some users.

The webcam is okay at 1080p, which is the new baseline. Videoconferencing clearly isn’t a focus of this machine, but it’s serviceable. There’s no fingerprint reader or infrared camera, so you’ll be limited to typing in a PIN to login.

Performance

So far, I’ve reviewed a couple of gaming laptops with the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX chipset, the latest high-end part that’s aimed at gaming and other performance-intensive tasks. But it’s not alone. There’s also the AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D, which is perhaps even faster for gamers thanks to several unique features. To begin with, the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D is a 16-core/32-thread part built on the Zen 5 architecture. That compares to the Core Ultra 9 275HX that has more cores at 24 but is single-threaded. Both run at up to 5.8GHz, and both consume 55 watts of base power with the AMD chipset bursting to 130 watts and the Intel chipset up to 160 watts. The CPU can get up to 110 watts and the GPU can get up to 140 watts, but in total, the ROG Strix G16 maxes out at 195 watts. That’s considerably less than the 250 watts the ROG Strix SCAR 18 can provide.

The Ryzen 9 55HX3D’s hyper threading optimizes parallel tasks, while the 3D V-Cache architecture reduces memory latency and thus boosts gaming performance. That’s particularly true at 1080p, but 3D V-Cache makes the AMD chipset faster at gaming across the board. It also performs well in various CPU-intensive tasks, but the Core ultra 9 275HX is faster overall thanks to its higher core count.

In our suite of non-gaming benchmarks, the ROG Strix G16 fell behind the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 and Lenovo Legion Pro 7i running the Intel chipset. Single-core speeds are similar, while multi-core tasks favor the Intel-based laptops. Interestingly, the ROG Strix G16 was faster in the Pugetbench for Photoshop benchmark, that runs in a live version of Adobe’s application. That attests to the impact of the CPU in photo editing tasks where the slower RTX 5070 Ti wasn’t as important. In the Pugetbench for Premiere Pro benchmark, however, the ROG Strix G16 fell behind. In video editing, the faster GPU is more of an advantage.

If you care about non-gaming performance, then, the ROG Strix G16 won’t be quite as fast. But it will still be very fast, particularly for photo editors, making it a solid choice.

Gaming

In terms of its gaming performance, the ROG Strix G16 made a strong showing. While its Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti naturally fell behind the RTX 5080 in the other two gaming machines, it still performed admirably. Probably, the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D helped out here, balancing the drop in GPU performance with an overall boost from the AMD chipset. As I’ve noted in those other reviews, the Nvidia Blackwell 5000-series GPUs are aimed more at improving image quality via AI-powered processes like DLSS 4, upscaling, and frame generation. There’s something of an uptick in framerates compared to the previous generation, but it’s not remarkable — at least with the current state of drivers and game optimizations.

Asus includes the same Armoury Crate utility as in the larger machine, and it provides the same fine control over various CPU and GPU settings. I ran each benchmark in various performance modes, and I reported the results in the fastest Turbo mode. I also tried out the option to optimize the GPU, but I didn’t find that setting to make a difference. In fact, some scores were reduced, so I kept it at the default setting for most of these tests. If you want to optimize the laptop for various uses, Armoury Crate provides most of the settings you’ll require.

In terms of performance, we’ll start with the 3DMark Time Spy synthetic benchmark. Here, the ROG Strix G16 is much faster than the MSI Creator Z17 HX Studio running the RTX 4070, again likely benefiting as well from the much faster AMD chipset. It’s behind the two other modern laptops, but it’s faster than the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 with an RTX 4080 and closer Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 with the RTX 4090.

Looking at the individual titles we use due to their built-in (and therefore more objective) real-world benchmarks, the ROG Strix G16 performs very well. It benefits from its fast CPU in the Civilization VI test running at 1600p Ultra, beating out every previous-generation laptop in our comparison group. The same holds true in Cyperbunk 2077 at 1600p Ultra RT (ray tracing), Red Dead Redemption 1600p Ultra, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 1600p Ultra High.

Ultimately, you can game at 1440p or better on the ROG Strix G16 with graphics turned up, and if a title supports Blackwell, you’ll enjoy incredible image quality as well.

Battery life

There’s a 90-watt battery packed away inside the ROG Strix G16, and that’s only a little smaller than some that offer the maximum that can be put into a laptop — 100 watts. There’s a high-res IPS display and very powerful components, so I wasn’t expecting great battery life.

In our suite of battery tests, the ROG Strix G16 lasted for 4.75 hours in our web browsing test and five hours in our video looping test. In our most demanding test, looping the Cinebench R24 multi-core test, the laptop couldn’t quite hit two hours. Those are actually better results than many gaming laptops that barely make it to two hours. It means that you can get some work done without being plugged in, but you’ll want to run with the power brick connected when gaming or doing serious creative work.

Display and audio

The ROG Strix G16 is built around a 16.0-inch 16:10 QHD+ (2560 x 1600) IPS display that runs at up to 240Hz. Subjectively, it looks fine, although it’s a significant drop down after reviewing the spectacular mini-LED display on the ROG Strix SCAR 18. It’s not as bright and the colors aren’t as dynamic.

According to the Datacolor SpyderPro colorimeter I use to evaluate displays, this one’s a mixed bag. First, it’s not very bright at just 248 nits — one of the few displays I’ve reviewed in the last couple of years that fails to hit our 300-nit baseline. That’s going to limit its effectiveness in running HDR content (which, although the specs indicate Dolby Vision support, can’t actually be switched on in Windows Settings). Contrast is very good for IPS, though, at 1,600:1. Colors are wide at 100% of sRGB, 89% of AdobeRGB, and 100% of DCI-P3, well above the IPS average. But, they’re not very accurate at a DeltaE of 3.79. Most IPS displays today come in at less than 2.0. And, unusually, the gamma is way off at 3.0, which is a lot darker than the optimal 2.2 gamma.

Overall, this isn’t a terribly impressive display. In fact, I’d say It’s one of the compromises you’ll make to squeeze in so much power at well under $3,000.

The audio is just okay, with four speakers including two woofers. But as with the keyboard and touchpad, you’ll probably want to consider plugging something in.

Less money, less performance, a lesser display

The ROG Strix G16 is plenty fast for most gamers, with the AMD chipset and Nvidia midrange GPU providing a real boost for modern titles. They’ll look good, as well, with support for Blackwell’s various AI-driven features. And the laptop has a good gaming aesthetic and a solid enough build.

But, the display disappoints a bit, even at the $2,500 price. It should be brighter and the colors should be more accurate, the latter weakness limiting the ROG Strix G16’s usefulness to the creators who would also appreciate the laptop’s speed.