Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition: This all-AMD laptop is affordable and very fast

It offers an amazing amount of performance and value.

GORDON MAH UNG

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.