Asus ROG Strix G16 Review: Power Packed Performance

Asus’s ROG Strix laptops have served as a midpoint between the hardcore, performance-focused Scar and the portable Zephyrus lineup for several years, churning out well-rounded laptops for value-focused consumers. The new Asus ROG Strix G16 is the latest refresh in the lineup, boasting the all-new 5070-series Nvidia GPUs and decked-out CPU options.

In this review, I’ll share my experience using the laptop for over two weeks—the pros, the cons, and everything you need to know to make an informed buying decision. Spoiler alert, I love the G16. Here’s why.

Key Specs & Models

Usually, my reviews start with the design, but with the Strix G16, there’s one thing I need to talk about first, and that’s the configuration and models. The G16 comes in several specifications, and depending on which one you choose, it can alter the entire experience.

Asus has done what many brands shy away from: giving users the choice between AMD and Intel CPUs in the same lineup. This is amazing news for consumers as they can spec the G16 with the most powerful Ryzen 9 9955HX3D processor as well. While I didn’t receive that variant, the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX model I tested was no slouch either. Plus, you get to choose from different GPU options, ranging from the RTX 5060 all the way up to the RTX 5080 Ti.

Design & Hardware

Starting with the unboxing experience, I love how much thought and effort Asus has put into making its buyers feel special. The box looks pretty, and the way the laptop rises looks cool.

It’s easy to imagine what a gaming laptop looks like. For most, it’s a bulky laptop with RGB lighting plastered all over. But surprisingly, this isn’t the case with the G16. I love its understated look. The lid features no flashy lights—just a subtle ROG logo that blends in beautifully with the laptop’s color.

However, it’s not all subtle. Underneath, Asus has included a strip of RGB lighting that encircles the laptop, creating an underglow effect. And I love how it adds a touch of flair while also looking super premium. You can also change the brightness of the effect or turn it off completely to save battery life.

Opening up the laptop, you’re greeted with the same grey sophisticated aesthetic running along the keyboard deck. Asus has added transparent WASD and Space keys, and they look awesome—you can actually see the underlying switch mechanism.

Regarding the dimensions, the G16 weighs 2.6 kg and measures 2.28 cm in thickness. While Asus has done a good job of hiding the thickness by tapering the edge, there is no way to avoid the weight. This makes the laptop somewhat difficult to carry around, making it more of a sitting and working on a desk experience.

Ports

Since I received the Intel version of the G16, it features a Thunderbolt 4 port, which supports both power delivery and DisplayPort, instead of the USB 4 port on the AMD version. And while Thunderbolt 5 is already available, the difference isn’t noticeable much unless you’re transferring huge files every day.

In addition, you get three Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, an RJ45 LAN, HDMI 2.1, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and Asus’s proprietary charging port.

Keyboard & Trackpad

Typically, on a 16-inch device, laptop makers opt for a 75% keyboard, along with a number pad, to fill the space. While this does offer extra macro options, I have never been a fan of this layout because it shifts the entire keyboard to the left.

Fortunately, Asus has done away with the numpad on the G16 and instead accommodated the 75% standard keyboard, along with an array of macro keys that can be customized.

The keys themselves feel absolutely amazing. There’s a lot of travel, the clicks feel snappy, and the extra space makes for a comfortable typing experience, which is high praise for a gaming laptop. I was pleasantly surprised by the trackpad, too. The surface is super spacious and smooth, and Asus has merged the mechanical click with haptic feedback.

Display

All models of the Asus ROG Strix G16 house the 16-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS display, which runs at an eye-watering 240Hz and has a response time of 3ms. Sure, you don’t get the deep blacks of an OLED panel, but with this lineup of GPUs, I believe this is the perfect combination of display specifications.

Asus has done an excellent job of refining the colors on the panel, and they look pretty good. Never once did I wish for more colors, and when comparing it directly to the Vivobook S14 OLED, the difference wasn’t that big. You can also adjust the color profile through the MyAsus app as well.

Plus, the panel is Dolby Vision certified and can reach up to 500 nits of peak brightness, which is plenty to work even in outdoor environments. For professionals, the panel covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color space.

Performance

My unit of the Asus ROG Strix G16 came with the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, which features 8 performance cores (up to 5.4GHz) and 16 efficiency cores (up to 4.6GHz). Paired with the Nvidia RTX 5070 mobile GPU (8GB VRAM, 115W TGP), 32GB Dual Channel DDR5 5600MHz RAM, and 1TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD.

As expected, the performance in day-to-day tasks is just perfect. I used the G16 as my main work laptop, and everything—from writing and multitasking to browsing—ran without a hint of lag. The 240Hz refresh rate is the cherry on top, making everything feel super snappy.

Going up a notch to demanding tasks like programming and video editing, the G16 delivers as well. I tried editing multiple 4K videos simultaneously and faced no issues with rendering or playback with the timeline.

To manage it all, Asus has bundled the Armoury Crate app, which is actually quite good. You have multiple performance profiles to choose from, including a full manual mode where you can control each aspect individually. Although I didn’t tinker with the settings much, the built-in modes were quite helpful and yielded a noticeable performance difference.

Coming to synthetic benchmarks, the Asus ROG Strix G16 shines here as well. For starters, the laptop scored 3,019 in Geekbench’s single-core and 19,371 in the multi-core tests. Moving to Geekbench’s GPU benchmark, the G16 achieved a solid 139,799 points.

Finally, in 3DMark’s Fire Strike test, it managed to score 32,733 points. To put these numbers into perspective, the G16 is approximately 20% faster than last year’s RTX 4070 laptops.

Gaming & Thermals

It’s safe to say that anyone looking to buy the G16 would want it to play the latest AAA games. And after testing the laptop for over two weeks and playing countless hours of the latest titles, I’m really impressed.

Starting with Red Dead Redemption 2 (played at 2.5K resolution with high graphics), the G16 delivered an average of over 85 FPS, with 1% lows around 69 FPS. Cyberpunk 2077, set to the 2.5K resolution preset (without DLSS), followed a similar trend, averaging 60 FPS with 1% lows of 55.

In Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, at medium-to-high quality and DLSS Quality turned on, the G16 churned out over 100 FPS on average. While I did try the higher graphics settings in Indiana Jones, the game quit unexpectedly a few times due to the lack of GPU memory.

In lighter titles like Forza Motorsport, I customized the settings to prioritize the ray-tracing setting, and the experience was quite good, with an average of over 60 FPS. Similarly, in F1 24 at the highest settings, the frame rates were well over 100.

Regarding the thermals, Asus has done an excellent job of managing them. The laptop doesn’t get any warm when working on everyday tasks. And in gaming, the fans are never loud enough to bother the session, and I didn’t encounter any thermal throttling. Just note that the rear exhaust air can feel quite hot.

Battery & Charging

When it comes to gaming laptops, the battery life is often the Achilles’ Heel, since packing high performance often comes at a cost. But to my surprise, the battery life on the Strix G16, when browsing the web or watching YouTube videos, is actually decent.

In Silent mode, with the RGB lights either turned off or on at 25%, I achieved a solid 4.5 hours of battery life, which is excellent when compared to other gaming laptops that often struggle to deliver even 2 hours. Of course, if you’re gaming on battery, then the G16 would run out of juice in less than an hour.

Regarding the charging situation, Asus has bundled a massive 280W charger, which alone weighs around 1 kg. However, despite its weight, the charger is extremely fast and took the laptop from 20% to 80% in just over an hour.

Webcam & Speakers

The 1080p webcam on the G16 is just decent. It’s not amazing—images get grainy quickly in low light—but under good lighting, performance is quite good, with accurate skin tones, colors, and exposure. The webcam also doubles as the Windows Hello sensor, which is the most convenient way to unlock the laptop.

Like the webcam, the speakers are also good enough for the job. While their downward position inherently limits their output on a soft surface, the actual audio quality was better than expected, with a good amount of bass and clear highs and lows. However, I did observe some harshness at the max volume.

Should you buy the Asus ROG Strix G16?

At $2,399.99 or INR 2,29,990, the Asus ROG Strix G16 is one of the first RTX 5070 laptops on the market, and in my opinion, Asus has knocked it out of the park with this. For the price, you get an impressive display combination, a nice design that isn’t flashy, a super-fast Intel chip (you can opt for the AMD one for the same price), an excellent keyboard and trackpad combo, and the RTX 5070 graphics card.

Yes, laptops with the RTX 5080 or the 5090 would ultimately be faster, but for the games available today, the 5070 is pretty sufficient if you’re okay with adjusting a few settings or enabling DLSS. This balance of value and performance is the reason why the Strix G16 earns my recommendation.