In case you didn't get the memo, laptops aren't just devices you use when away from your desk to browse Facebook anymore. Sure, they can still do that, but in 2021, with the advancements from hardware manufacturers, your high-spec laptops of today can outpace the most powerful desktop machines from several years ago. It's an entirely different landscape, and a good laptop can now be your daily system for all of your needs - whether that's gaming, recording, video editing, or rendering.

Enter the ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition. Another powerful machine from the Republic of Gamers, a sovereign state we recognise at TheGamer, and it boasts specs that can easily run all of the latest games, even with ray-tracing enabled - no small feat for any PC in these times of hardware shortages. We sat down with the Strix G15 Advantage for a few weeks in order to find out if a slick laptop could possibly live up to the hype.

Important Specs

You want tech specs, you're getting them.

Let's run down the most important specs here. The CPU and GPU are both some of the best that AMD is currently putting in machines, and the 4.6GHz boost clock on the CPU, when paired with the 12GB of video RAM the GPU has available, should prove this machine to be incredibly competent in any workload. The 8GB of RAM is a bit underwhelming in 2021, but if you do decide to upgrade it won't be difficult to fit 16GB sticks into the two SO-DIMM slots, for a potential total of 32GB.

The 1TB SSD is nice to see - more storage than the PS5, at least - and the 2.5kg weight of the machine is surprisingly light, given that it's hardly a razor-thin laptop. This isn't meant to be a notebook for browsing social media, this is built for gaming, and just 2.5kg makes it surprisingly portable - though you probably wouldn't want it slung over your shoulder if you were moving around all day long.

Finally, the screen needs to be mentioned - at 1080p the graphics capability of this laptop far outweighs the resolution it needs to produce, but you can of course either plug in an external monitor for some 4K gaming. If you don't want to do that, then you'll be treated to up to 300fps, depending on what game you're playing. If you're an esports fanatic, you'll adore it. There is also a model of the laptop available with a 1440p display, paired with a 165Hz refresh rate - which will be even sharper to the eye but does of course lose out on some extra frames. Though, who needs that many pixels on a 15.6" screen?

Features

The trackpad is great. If you've been using a sub-par or even mediocre trackpad for a while, the way they struggle to discern your multi-touch gestures can put you off the idea of using a laptop trackpad for life. The trackpad on the Strix G15 however is great - every single gesture I used was recognised instantly, and the wide surface area still leaves plenty of room for my wrists to rest beside it while typing, all without ever touching the trackpad itself. It's the little things that make a big difference in ergonomics.

The keyboard also feels great. Keys are raised a little higher than I'm used to on most laptops, but this gives an excellent typing experience, and each tap feels satisfying, even if there's no mechanical click behind it. Moving up from the keyboard, the hinge for this laptop screen is incredibly strong and robust, and although you certainly shouldn't be lifting your laptop screen up from one corner (seriously, you will permanently damage that thing over time), it feels so much more durable than many laptop display hinges I've encountered, and I have no fear of it becoming weak - at least not in the near future.

Onto something a bit more understated - the cooling solution here is top-notch thanks to liquid metal being used internally, in addition to temperate sensors that keep the surface cool for your hands. While playing demanding games you can absolutely hear the fans ramp up in Turbo mode (something that can easily be drowned out by the speakers or a headset), but once the game is done it cools down incredibly quickly. There is plenty of room for air intake on the underside of the device and below the hinge, with the laptop sporting a total of four exhausts. This is plenty of room for liquid to get in (note: no laptop is safe to pour liquid over) and should rightfully make you nervous if you have a cup of tea precariously placed next to it, but in terms of cooling it does an amazing job of keeping things at a sensible temperature, even when placed down on a blanket or towel - though you definitely shouldn’t try that in demanding games.

And while the speakers are loud enough to overpower the fans in this laptop, at high volumes they can end up distorting bass and becoming somewhat muffled. But at more sensible volumes, this is absolutely ideal for playing games or watching YouTube and Netflix. A decent range to the sound when on a flat surface, though the bottom-firing speaker position will underwhelm when, again, on something softer.

Aesthetics

ROG loves to pull out all the stops when it comes to aesthetics, and the Strix G15 does not disappoint. Hope you like RGB, because this machine has a full RGB keyboard with ASUS Aura Sync functionality, and of course it has an RGB light bar on the underside of the unit, allowing it to literally light up any desk it sits on. Is it overkill? It may very well be. Is it really cool? Absolutely.

Does the mirrored ROG logo on the lid light up? It sure does. Can you set all your own lighting patterns for the keys? Of course you can. This can serve a functional purpose in games with complex controls schemes, but let's be honest, this is a self-illuminating brag, and not the humble kind. Mind you, that's not a complaint from me, I would just choose the coffee shop I take this to very carefully.

It is, aside from those flashy accoutrements, pretty typical for a laptop, honestly, with one of the only aesthetic points to highlight is a detachable "armor cover," which is a piece of plastic that slides over one of the display hinges. There are another two armor covers in the box, so you can choose which to use. Again, this serves no purpose, and there's seemingly no reason to ever remove it, but… that's nice?

Real World Use

It's all well and good hearing about how many gigabytes of RAM a PC has, how many frames the display can provide per second, and what clock speed the CPU is running at, but in reality, this tells the average gamer little to nothing. In practical terms, what you can expect is a machine that is pretty much entirely uncompromising in terms of power. The only use case I can think of which would see this laptop pushed beyond what it is capable of would be video editing with a huge number of assets, which could exceed the 32GB RAM cap. But even then, that's a very specific example, and anyone expecting to tackle those use cases likely has a machine better suited for that task already.

Likewise, a Cinebench score doesn't mean much to most people - but you should know that the Strix G15's 5900HX manages a very respectable rating of 12453 and a multi-thread benchmark easily elapses in less than ten minutes. But a more realistic use case for most gamers would be something along the lines of Doom Eternal, maybe?

While playing Doom Eternal with the internal performance metrics visible, and all visual settings cranked up to the max - including ray-traced reflections - the machine never dipped below 100fps, providing what is easily the highest ray-traced performance experience I have ever seen on any device.

Doom Eternal is incredibly well optimised, but even the likes of Control, with settings once again turned up to the max, runs incredibly well. The Freesync enabled monitor ensures you'll never actually notice any tearing or performance dips, and seeing games that have brought my desktop machine well under 60fps run with such ease is almost a bit disheartening, but nonetheless impressive. Microsoft Flight Simulator's latest updates have made it a much better performer on a variety of systems, but it's still a beast to run, and the Strix G15 makes it look smoother than I've ever seen it before.

Summary

With all of that said, the question is, should you buy a machine like this? Well, if you're a firm laptop fan, or you really don't want to wait on PC parts to become affordable again, but you need some PC gaming in your life, this is a great place to start - assuming the £1,700 asking price on sites like Amazon isn't too intimidating. This is not a cheap device, it's premium, but also feels premium. It compromises on nothing (aside from a webcam), and assuming you can keep your machine free of dust and viruses, it should be a powerful PC that can keep you gaming or creating for years to come.

Product was provided by the manufacturer for the purposes of review. Find out more about ASUS ROG laptops on the official site.