ASUS ROG Strix G16 (2023) Gaming Laptop, 16” 16:10 FHD 165Hz, GeForce RTX 4070, Intel Core i9-13980HX, 16GB DDR5, 1TB PCIe SSD, Wi-Fi 6E, Windows 11, G614JI-AS94, Eclipse Gray

Product ID: G614JI-AS94.Price: $1649.Pros:- Value. The I9-13980HX + GeForce RTX 4070 are a step above mid-tier hardware and are offered here at a reasonable price compared to other "gaming laptops."- Performance. I've been able to play the newest and biggest games all on high / very high settings. I've had no issues, and I feel as if the games look and play great.- Upgradability. I've NOT upgraded my machine as I don't wish to void the warranty. However, and as there was confusion in other reviews, I have personally spoken directly with ASUS support ,as well as Crucial support, and I've confirmed that YES this machine can be upgraded to 64GB of Ram (2x 32GB sticks) and YES there is an available open SSD slot. As such, and considering current prices of Ram and SSDs, you can scale this up to 64GB Ram and add second SSD for a D-drive for a minimal additional investment to really finish out this machine.- Wifi. I get SIGNIFICANTLY better wireless Internet speeds on this device than the older gaming laptop I replaced. Did not expect that, but was pleasantly surprised.- Sounds. Speakers sound good enough. Music through Spotify is crisp and bass gets picked up okay too.Cons:- Battery life. When playing a video game on battery power, I get about only 45-minutes of game time, which is disappointing. However, performance seems to remain higher than expected. When general web browsing or doing home office tasks, I get about 3 hours. When streaming content, such as Netflix, I about about 2 hours, which is frustrating as you can't really watch a movie on a single charge.- Number pad. I was expecting a digital number pad or display as part of the track pad per the advertisement. This model number, G614JI-AS94, does not have that feature and that was very disappointing and seemed misleading.- Touchpad. Doesn't feel as responsive as the touchpad on the older gaming laptop I replaced. Additionally, oftentimes after exiting a video game the touchpad will outright not work and require a device restart.- Lights. As an adult, the multicolored lights are annoying and not something I'm interested in. It was not immediately intuitive on how to turn them off, but I found out that you can do so through the included software.- Startup sound. It's awful and ear piercing! I can't figure out how to turn it off.- Camera. Would have liked a better resolution here as it's not great.Indifferent:- Screen. I'm not a "gamer" so I don't really care or know anything about refresh rate. For me, it seems bright, clear, and things look good! However, I personally wish it was a 15.6 inch machine and not the 16 inch, as I'd prefer a slightly smaller and wider screen than this square.- Ports. Good enough for me and has everything I needed. However, some people might wish for more options.Conclusion:If you're not a real gamer, but want to play games, this is a great option that offers value and performance along with upgradability.

Let me first tell you what I don't like about this laptop.I don't like that I had to wait until 2024 to get it. There, I said it.I have always been a fan of ASUS, and this ROG Strix gaming laptop is the 'bees-knees'.However, I wouldn't call it a laptop so much as a fancy space-heater. Yeah, it gets very hot!That being said, I'm running Satisfactory at max settings and only getting 67°C heat out of it. My electric blanket thanks you ASUS. And I still get over 100fps consistently.What do I mean when I say I'm a Compu-snob? I mean that I only want the best, but at the lowest price. I'm not a space-ship mogul after all...I spent the better part of a year sourcing out laptops, desktops, and tablets for something that would scream, MORE, and yet not make my wallet scream, LESS!And this is it.The CPU idles at 2.20GHz but revs up to 4GHz for all your high-performance needs. With 16GB DDR5 RAM clocked at a ridiculous 5600MHz, this RTX 4070 GPU machine puts ultimate power where it belongs...In my living room...and yours too. P.S. You can up the RAM to 32GB and the SSD to 2 or 4 TB if you want, and who doesn't?The screen is bright and vibrant, however, it's not bright enough for outdoors. But with a battery life of one hour or less, you will want to plug this power-hungry beast into a wall. And, yes, there are some very appreciable power-saver settings you can use. I don't. Never will...The price tag is reasonable. I got the seasonal deal, but even at MFG price, you really can't beat what you are getting.If you want to make your friends envious with a screaming beast of a gaming machine without having to donate organs, then the ROG Strix 2024 is your choice.

The CPU in this laptop was on the of the best available when I purchased it at the end of 2023, and it still is more than a year later. The GPU is reasonable too, and can easily handle external displays with higher resolution than the internal one. The laptop also supports up to 64 GiB of memory and has a spare SSD slot. Taken together, all of these features make it a great desktop replacement, which is what I bought it for.I was generally happy with the laptop for the first 15 months or so, although there were a few occasional stability issues. The crashes were almost all related to video, especially timeouts connecting to the external display, so I suspect that buggy Nvidia drivers were to blame. In any case, the problems were intermittent, probably linked to driver updates, and the system was fine most of the time.Since I bought this laptop as a desktop replacement, using external displays, keyboard, mouse, etc. I haven’t really used it in laptop mode. As a laptop, it might be okay for gaming, but the screen is mediocre for productivity work. They keyboard is pretty good and the touchpad seems fine. It’s fairly large and heavy for a productivity laptop, but for gaming that’s usually worth it, in exchange for performance. Having said that, the GPU seems a bit underpowered with compared with the CPU. As a gaming system, it seems rather unbalanced, but I bought it for CPU-intensive tasks, not gaming.Performance can be a bit erratic, especially for graphics. It’s probably because thermal issues. Performance does tend to be smoother in Performance or Turbo mode than in Quiet mode, but it still isn’t as smooth as, e.g., an Apple Silicon Mac. I have an M2 Pro-based Mac, and it’s must less powerful, both in CPU and GPU terms, but its performance is more consistent and it’s much quieter.The noise from the laptop is tolerable in ‘Silent’ mode, but it certainly isn’t silent. In Silent mode, it’s quieter when running on battery power, so it must throttle more and use the fans less than when connected to AC power. Since I use it as a desktop replacement, I almost always have it plugged in, and the noise is irritating, even in Silent mode. In Performance mode and especially Turbo mode, it’s much louder, and I’d say it calls for wearing noise-cancelling headphones or earbuds.I probably would have given this laptop a 4-star rating, but the quality has let it down. The manufacturer’s warranty is 12 months, and after 15 months, it simply failed during normal use. The screen froze and the fans continued to spin, but there was no response to input. I powered it off by holding down the power button, but when I turned it back on, it failed to boot. Troubleshooting with Asus support got nowhere. The power LED lights up and the keyboard LEDs show the startup sequence, but the fans remain low and the ROG boot screen never appears.I’ll be getting this laptop serviced soon, and the repair should be covered by an extended warranty from my credit card. If it turns out to be a minor issue, then I might add back a couple of stars, but even in that case, I’d expect better quality for a laptop in this class.Overall, this laptop excels in CPU performance, but the GPU is a bit underpowered by comparison, leaving a somewhat unbalanced system for gaming. For my purposes, as a desktop replacement for CPU-intensive work, it worked reasonably well and was a great value, until the hardware failed a few months after the warranty expired.