The Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition gets all A’s: AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, AMD Radeon RX 6800M, and AMD Advantage, meaning it’s the first machine to meet AMD guidelines designed to make midrange gaming laptops better. And yes, it’s made by Asus, too.
We’ll say this as a public service announcement right now: If you’re on the hunt for an affordable yet stupidly fast laptop on a medium budget, you may want to skip the rest of this and simply buy the Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition right now ($1,650 at Best Buy [go.pcworld.com/16bb]) because of its stunning price-to-performance ratio. But if you prefer to be a little more cautious and actually finish reading this review, we’ll break down what’s inside.
SPECIFICATIONS
Asus doesn’t skimp with the ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition. Considering the price, the 16GB of DDR4/3200 RAM and 512GB NVMe SSD are solid components, actually very typical of this price range. If they’re not enough for you, both could be upgraded at a later date. Heck, the laptop even comes with Windows 10 Professional, which can cost $60 to $70 or more on most laptops. Here’s the longer specifications list:
CPU: 8-core AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800M (go.pcworld. com/rx6m) with 12GB of GDDR6
RAM: 16GB DDR4/3200
Display: 15.6-inch, FHD (1920x1080) IPS-level 300Hz panel with FreeSync
Storage: 512GB NVMe SSD
Dimensions: 14x10.25x0.8 inches
Weight: 5.1 pounds; add 2.1 pounds for the 280-watt AC adapter
Operating system: Windows 10 Pro
CONNECTIVITY
The ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition locates most of its ports at the rear, including:
• One USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
• One USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C
• One HDMI 2.0b
• Gigabit ethernet running off of a Realtek controller
As with every AMD laptop we’ve seen, the USB-C port doesn’t include Thunderbolt support, but it does have DisplayPort as well as USB-Power Delivery up to 100 watts.
The right side doesn’t feature any ports, which makes sense for the majority of gamers who are righthanded (sorry, southpaws). Asus does integrate another pair of USB-A ports on the left side, along with an analog combo jack.
DESIGN AND BUILD QUALITY
We should warn you that if you’re looking for a thin gaming laptop with an all-aluminum body—the ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition isn’t it. The lid and keyboard deck are aluminum, but the bottom and sides are unabashedly plastic.
It’s also relatively chunky, at about 28mm (1.1 inches) at its thickest point (not including the feet). That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as thicker laptops tend to allow more room for cooling. We’ve seen many thinner laptops struggle with thermal throttling as their components heat up.
The 280-watt AC adapter can justifiably be called a power brick considering its 2.1-pound weight. You could also power the ROG Strix G15 on a 100-watt USB-C charger, but don’t expect the same experience compared to the full-fat charger.
Continue reading your story on the app
Continue reading your story in the magazine
File Explorer tabs are finally in Windows! Here's how to use them to simplify your life
It's a simple upgrade, but you won't want to go back.
LastPass hacked: How to export and protect your passwords
You can leave LastPass and move elsewhere in just minutes.
How to insert and adjust images in Microsoft Word
It's easy-peasy.
10 Windows 11 tips and tricks we use to customize our PCs
We use these Windows 11 tips, and we think you should too.
BEST OF CES 2023: THE MOST INTRIGUING AND INNOVATIVE PC HARDWARE
IT'S GOING TO BE A GREAT YEAR FOR THE PC, BUT TVS, EXERCISE BIKE DESKS, AND MORE ALSO CAUGHT OUR ATTENTION.
The best ultrawide monitors: Let's get large
These immersive monitors are perfect for productivity and gaming.
iDrive: Excellent online backup, sharing, and more
Backup, storage, sharing, physical transfer-if it has something to do with backup, iDrive supports it.
The best cheap cell phone plans: Slash your monthly bill
Alternative providers offer a wider range of plans and at better prices.
Intel and AMD are building AI into PCs. It doesn't matter yet-but it will
CES 2023 showed us the future of Al in PCs, but 2024 and beyond is where we'll reach it.
The year of the OLED monitor has finally arrived
Drop-dead-gorgeous OLED monitors are going mainstream, finally.
Radeon RX 7900 XTX
Red Leader, standing by
AMD RDNA 3 ARCHITECTURAL DEEP DIVE
Taking a dip in the pool with the upcoming RX 7900-series
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
Insane multithreaded performance
ASRock RX 6750 XT Phantom Gaming D
Graphics prices falling down, falling down…
Acer Predator XB323QK
32 inches of fantastic 4K 144Hz action
Workstation
The best setups to build your next-level private office
AMD ZEN 4 UNWRAPPED - Welcome to the modern age
AMD’S ZEN ARCHITECTURE revitalized the CPU industry, bringing much-needed competition and higher core counts to consumers everywhere. It’s hard to believe we languished on 4-core Intel CPUs as the top mainstream solution for a full decade, starting with the Core 2 Quad in early 2007 and lasting until the Core i7-8700K launched in late 2017. If you wanted more CPU cores, you had to move to the more expensive LGA2011 HEDT (high-end desktop) platform. AMD kicked that idea to the curb with its first Ryzen 7 CPUs, and we’ve been watching an arms race of escalating core counts and clock speeds ever since.
Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED
Two screens better than one?
Asus RX 6750 XT ROG Strix
An incremental improvement worthy of the price?
TEN THINGS I'VE LEARNED AFTER 20 YEARS WORKING IN AUTOBODY REPAIR
Automotive Painter and Autobody Technician (plus writer and TV host) Kevin Tetz offers his top 10 lessons gleaned from many years of working in the field.