Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 laptop review: Eye-catcher

[Łukasz Buśko]

Comparing to Schenker XMG Neo 17 Ampere Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 is electronic waste.

[Brian]

For your upcoming G14 review, please compare performance using the power adapter vs 100w usb-c power delivery.

I'm hoping to FINALLY get rid of power adapters🙌

[Owen]

The price is way too steep, G15 with a 3070 is probably a sweet spot. But the 100watt TGP is really disappointing

[Warney's World]

My Blade 17 3080 also has a 100w tgp gpu but outperforms the G15 by 14% times graphics and 19% firestrike graphics. Even more in some of the gaming tests.

Ryzen lack of PCIE lanes or superior heat dissipation from Razer? Maybe the mux?

[_MT_]

Also I don't have a problem with this, but I can see the lack of HDMI 2.1 port and a 2280 PCIe 4.0 slot on a gaming laptop in 2021 being a deal-breaker for a lot of people concerned about future-proofing.

Then AMD is out of the game, isn't it. And Intel as well until Tiger Lake H comes to town. Cezanne don't support PCIe 4.0. And I'm not sure whether they support HDMI 2.1. I tied looking at AMD's website but the specification blurb only states HDMI: Yes, Display Port: Yes. :D AMD does employ some jokers for sure. I guess they could hardwire HDMI to dGPU, leaving iGPU out.

[_MT_]

Also I don't have a problem with this, but I can see the lack of HDMI 2.1 port and a 2280 PCIe 4.0 slot on a gaming laptop in 2021 being a deal-breaker for a lot of people concerned about future-proofing.

Then AMD is out of the game, isn't it. And Intel as well until Tiger Lake H comes to town. Cezanne don't support PCIe 4.0. And I'm not sure whether they support HDMI 2.1. I tied looking at AMD's website but the specification blurb only states HDMI: Yes, Display Port: Yes. :D AMD does employ some jokers for sure. I guess they could hardwire HDMI to dGPU, leaving iGPU out.

My Blade 17 3080 also has a 100w tgp gpu but outperforms the G15 by 14% times graphics and 19% firestrike graphics. Even more in some of the gaming tests.

Ryzen lack of PCIE lanes or superior heat dissipation from Razer? Maybe the mux?

As I understand it, it's actually 80 W TGP version - the weakest 3080 there is. There is a 20 W boost (making it 100 W in total) but that's on top of TGP.

[S.Yu]

My Blade 17 3080 also has a 100w tgp gpu but outperforms the G15 by 14% times graphics and 19% firestrike graphics. Even more in some of the gaming tests.

Ryzen lack of PCIE lanes or superior heat dissipation from Razer? Maybe the mux?

The 2080 Blade 17 outperformed the 2080 Blade 15 by about that much, so yes obviously the cooling, obviously you can't compare a 17" to a 15" and if they actually end up comparable it would be an extreme case, either the 15" has exceptionally good cooling or the 17" has exceptionally bad cooling, or both.

[Dorby]

Also I don't have a problem with this, but I can see the lack of HDMI 2.1 port and a 2280 PCIe 4.0 slot on a gaming laptop in 2021 being a deal-breaker for a lot of people concerned about future-proofing.

Then AMD is out of the game, isn't it. And Intel as well until Tiger Lake H comes to town. Cezanne don't support PCIe 4.0. And I'm not sure whether they support HDMI 2.1. I tied looking at AMD's website but the specification blurb only states HDMI: Yes, Display Port: Yes. :D AMD does employ some jokers for sure. I guess they could hardwire HDMI to dGPU, leaving iGPU out.

Yeah I don't know what AMD was thinking.

For a lot of people shopping in the high-end segment, 'minor' details like HDMI 2.1, PCIe 4.0, Thunderbolt/USB 4, Touchscreen (on performance laptops), and OLED display options are going to matter quite a lot. And even if they don't matter, it's going to look like it does because let's be honest, these features become only more useful if you spend more money down the road.

Again, not a big deal for me personally but still...

[Hunyx]

The performance of this 3080 is wired. I think a lot of g15 with 3070 can get 9500 in 3D mark Time Spy.

[Vetch]

Two things - firstly the only other review that's available for this laptop (that I've seen) has the Timespy score over 800 points higher?

Secondly, this laptop is significantly faster than the 80w 2080 Super in the Razer Blade 15 Advanced 2020.

[john10001]

Also I don't have a problem with this, but I can see the lack of HDMI 2.1 port and a 2280 PCIe 4.0 slot on a gaming laptop in 2021 being a deal-breaker for a lot of people concerned about future-proofing.

Then AMD is out of the game, isn't it. And Intel as well until Tiger Lake H comes to town. Cezanne don't support PCIe 4.0. And I'm not sure whether they support HDMI 2.1. I tied looking at AMD's website but the specification blurb only states HDMI: Yes, Display Port: Yes. :D AMD does employ some jokers for sure. I guess they could hardwire HDMI to dGPU, leaving iGPU out.

Yeah I don't know what AMD was thinking.

For a lot of people shopping in the high-end segment, 'minor' details like HDMI 2.1, PCIe 4.0, Thunderbolt/USB 4, Touchscreen (on performance laptops), and OLED display options are going to matter quite a lot. And even if they don't matter, it's going to look like it does because let's be honest, these features become only more useful if you spend more money down the road.

Again, not a big deal for me personally but still...

Nobody should want an OLED screen on a gaming laptop or on any device for that matter given all the issues with them. I agree about the ports though. I don't see the point of touchscreens on a laptop. Maybe others have a use for them but I don't. I have one at the moment and never use it. It only annoys me whenever I accidentally move the screen if I touch it by accident.

[Dorby]

@john10001:
Touchscreen is certainly a polarized topic, which is why I believe there should be at least an option on every laptop. Pro choice.
OLED is just better than IPS for gaming, consuming media, content creation, pretty much everything.

Last year I took part in a Reddit survey provided by XMG/Schenker (I can't remember), who asked tech enthusiasts if we wanted OLED on a certain Ryzen gaming laptop. Long story short, turns out Ryzen 4000 was incompatible with OLED and certain Touchscreens. This wouldn't be a deal-breaker for a lot of people, but not me.

Finally on October I bought a HP ZBook Create 15 laptop from HP(USA) with a big discount.
- 4K OLED Touchscreen, 500 nits, 80% AdobeRGB, glossy but I applied a matte screen protector so now it's anti-glare.
- i7-10750H
- RTX 2070 Super Max-Q
- 32GB DDR4-3200
- 1TB NVMe
- 83Wh battery
- 2.1 kg
- Better build quality than any gaming laptop ever made, including Razor Blade
- $2200 USD

And I would never trade that 4K OLED Glossy Touchscreen for a generic FHD Matte IPS display, ever, again.

[MARCM0DE]

Hey guys wanted to ask if there's any sort of advanced Optimus or mux on this or the g14 and if not what is the combined power draw from the wall of the CPU and GPU in silent mode while stress testing as well as gaming at 1080p and 720p with a 60fps and 30fps cap (any game will do) Thanks! (Reasoning is a 100w pd USB c power bank will be my go to source of power while traveling and want to know if it's possible to keep total system load under 100w while doing intensive tasks on silent mode)

[S.Yu]

@john10001:
Touchscreen is certainly a polarized topic, which is why I believe there should be at least an option on every laptop. Pro choice.
OLED is just better than IPS for gaming, consuming media, content creation, pretty much everything.

Last year I took part in a Reddit survey provided by XMG/Schenker (I can't remember), who asked tech enthusiasts if we wanted OLED on a certain Ryzen gaming laptop. Long story short, turns out Ryzen 4000 was incompatible with OLED and certain Touchscreens. This wouldn't be a deal-breaker for a lot of people, but not me.

Finally on October I bought a HP ZBook Create 15 laptop from HP(USA) with a big discount.
- 4K OLED Touchscreen, 500 nits, 80% AdobeRGB, glossy but I applied a matte screen protector so now it's anti-glare.
- i7-10750H
- RTX 2070 Super Max-Q
- 32GB DDR4-3200
- 1TB NVMe
- 83Wh battery
- 2.1 kg
- Better build quality than any gaming laptop ever made, including Razor Blade
- $2200 USD

And I would never trade that 4K OLED Glossy Touchscreen for a generic FHD Matte IPS display, ever, again.

80% ARGB means it's one of the worst OLEDs on the market, and I would prefer not to settle for an Intel, especially a 14nm+++++ right now, so I'm looking at the Zephyrus/Duo lately. If I buy the vanilla then I'll use it as is but would settle for 80W TGP, if I buy the Duo then it'll be quite a bit heavier and I'll have to get something to cover up the ROG logo on the lid. I'm still inclined towards the Duo.

[Dorby]

@S. Yu:
"80% ARGB means it's one of the worst OLEDs on the market"

To be clear, this is the same 2020 Samsung OLED panel being used on every high-end laptop like XPS 15, X1 Extreme, etc. OLED has slight color accuracy shifting when changing brightness, so 80% ARGB is not really a fixed value.
HP also has 2 other non-touch screens that can be "better", depending on what you need, but I mostly wanted touch,
- 4K UHD "DreamColor" 600nit 100% ARGB Matte IPS
- 2K FHD "SureView" 1000nit 70% ARGB Matte IPS

I have yet to see a better touchscreen than this on a high-end performance laptop. So if you find a Ryzen 5000H + RTX 3000 laptop with a better screen, then please, do let me know :)

Zephyrus Duo 15 SE looks very appealing, and almost 2x$ as laptops of similar specs. Good for you if you can afford one.