ASUS’ Gaming lineup – ROG Flow, Zephyrus, Strix, and TUF (in-depth specs, info, and prices)

Going through all the new models of your favorite brand when choosing your next laptop could be a pretty hard task. Most retailers don’t specify all specs but what’s more – almost all of them skip the most important data for a gaming laptop – the performance of their GPU. For example, not all RTX 3080 are made equal – a 165W RTX 3080 is much, much faster than a 95W RTX 3080.

And if your favorite brand is ASUS and you’re about to buy a new gaming machine, it’s not a bad idea to check out the following material – we’ve gathered everything you should know in one place.

Of course, if you want to know everything about every detail, dive into our in-depth reviews, you’ll find links below.

Contents


ASUS TUF – FX706, FA706, FX516, FA506, FA506

ASUS TUF F17 (FX706, 2021)ASUS TUF A17 (FA706, 2021)ASUS TUF Dash F15 (FX516)ASUS TUF F15 (FA506, 2021)ASUS TUF A15 (FA506, 2021)
CPUIntel Core i5-11200H
Intel Core i5-11400H
Intel Core i7-11800H
Intel Core i9-11900H
AMD Ryzen 7 5800HIntel Core i5-11300H
Intel Core i7-11370H
Intel Core i7-11375H
Core i5-10300H
Core i7-10750H
Core i7-10870H
Ryzen 5 5600H
Ryzen 7 5800H
Ryzen 9 5900HX
GPUGeForce RTX 3050 (75W)
GeForce RTX 3050 Ti (75W)
GeForce RTX 3060 (95W)
GeForce RTX 3050 Ti (75W)
GeForce RTX 3060 (95W)
GeForce RTX 3070 (95W)
GeForce RTX 3050 (75W)
GeForce RTX 3050 Ti (75W)
GeForce RTX 3060 (85W)
GeForce RTX 3070 (85W)
GeForce RTX 3050 (75W)
GeForce RTX 3050 Ti (75W)
GeForce RTX 3060 (95W)
GeForce RTX 3050 Ti (75W)
GeForce RTX 3060 (95W)
GeForce RTX 3070 (95W)
Display17.3″ Full HD, IPS
17.3″ Full HD 144Hz IPS
17.3″ Full HD 240Hz IPS
17.3″ Full HD IPS
17.3″ Full HD 120Hz IPS
17.3″ Full HD 144Hz IPS
15.6″ Full HD 144Hz IPS
15.6″ Full HD 240Hz IPS
15.6″ QHD 165Hz IPS
15.6″ Full HD IPS
15.6″ Full HD 144Hz IPS
15.6″ Full HD 240Hz IPS
15.6″ Full HD IPS
15.6″ Full HD 144Hz IPS
15.6″ Full HD 240Hz IPS
15.6″ QHD 165Hz IPS

ASUS TUF F17 (FX706, 2021)

The TUF F17 combines a large display that has a high refresh rate, with the newest hardware that has every bit of performance to be a great budget gaming laptop. As it uses the new Tiger Lake architecture, it gets support for the new Thunderbolt 4 interface, along with Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.

While the laptop is made of plastic, it doesn’t have to feel bendy and cheap, due to the hexagonal pattern on the inside and the MIL-STD-810H certification, which puts the device through several tests, including drop, humidity, shock, and temperature tests. A 90Wh battery ensures that you won’t need a charge every few hours. The TUF F17 does exactly that, by offering an inexpensive platform that entry gamers will love.

ASUS TUF Gaming F17 (FX706, 2021) in-depth review

It wasn't long ago before we showed you the ASUS TUF Gaming F17 FX706. However, like many other manufacturers, ASUS itself has released facelifts of some of its most popular laptops. Including the FX706. Generally, it looks pretty similar, but it brings a lot of new hardware.Since it was released in 2021, you can't expect Alder Lake chips. Nevertheless, their Tiger Lake counterparts are pretty capable in both games and productivity. What else is great for gaming and productivity is the RTX 3060 GPU, which you can find inside of it. It comes with 95W of TGP, and 6GB of GDDR6 graphics memor[...]

Pros

  • Tough chassis
  • 2x SODIMM + 2x M.2 PCIe x4 (one of which supports Gen 4 SSDs)
  • 144Hz refresh rate (AUO B173HAN04.9)
  • No PWM (AUO B173HAN04.9)
  • Thunderbolt 4 + HDMI 2.0b (G-Sync)
  • Adaptive Sync support (AUO B173HAN04.9)
  • Great battery life for a gaming laptop

Cons

  • No SD card reader
  • Covers only 51% of sRGB (AUO B173HAN04.9)

ASUS TUF A17 (FA706, 2021)

The TUF A17 still keeps the budget nature, while offering the newest hardware from AMD and NVIDIA. Coming with the Zen 3-based Ryzen 7 5800H and a choice between three RTX Ampere graphics cards, this laptop is made for serious gaming. The laptop offers a great keyboard and touchpad combo, superb upgradeability with two RAM and two SSD slots, and a 90Wh battery, which performed really well for a gaming laptop.

Yes, the laptop doesn’t feature premium materials, but you have to find a way to keep the cost down without sacrificing the performance. Not only that, but if you want to expand into the field of creativity and manage to afford a good color-accurate monitor, this laptop has the performance to handle video editing and rendering.

ASUS TUF Gaming A17 (FA706, 2021) in-depth review

In 2021 ASUS decides that it needs to reintroduce the laptop, which arguably changed the budget gaming market - the TUF A17 (FA706). Instead of making any significant visual changes, and rebrand it, they just slapped 2021 at the name and called it a day.However, this is only a part of the story. Building on the Ryzen 4000H success, they now employ the latest and greatest from both AMD and NVIDIA (weird, right?), with the Ryzen 5000H processors, based on the Zen 3 architecture, and new RTX 3000 graphics cards.Well, there is a lot to be talked about but we have to praise them for being [...]

Pros

  • Great price/performance ratio
  • Good keyboard with decent travel, clicky feedback, and an RGB backlight
  • Ryzen 5000H CPU + RTX 3000 combo
  • There are two M.2 PCIe slots, and two RAM SODIMM slots in dual channel
  • Great battery life for a gaming laptop
  • 144Hz panel with relatively quick pixel response times (BOE NV173FHM-NX4 (BOE0995))
  • No PWM (BOE NV173FHM-NX4 (BOE0995))

Cons

  • Lacks an SD card reader and Thunderbolt support
  • Warms up pretty quickly during gaming
  • All-plastic design
  • 50% sRGB coverage (BOE NV173FHM-NX4 (BOE0995))

ASUS TUF Dash F15 (FX516)

For those that appreciate a sleeker-looking and more portable laptop, ASUS has the TUF Dash F15. The laptop has an improved design, which is sturdy and rigid. It combines a flat body with chamfered edges and rounded corners. Despite the portable exterior, you get a good keyboard with long key travel and clicky feedback.

The build materials haven’t been specified, but whatever they are, they do a fine job. This laptop also brings new technology to the table, featuring the Tiger Lake H-based Core i7-11370H that gets paired with several RTX Ampere graphics card options.

ASUS TUF Dash F15 (FX516) in-depth review

Last year, ASUS was one of the first manufacturers (if not the first) to trust AMD and their Ryzen 4000 processors. And it turned out to be a success. You could have snatched a rather affordable unit with supreme computational performance, which was something unseen to this day. And as they continue to do that in 2021, with AMD's even more powerful Ryzen 5000H CPUs, they did a slight detour.This is how the TUF Dash F15 (FX516) was born. Instead of the extremely powerful AMD processors, it includes something bold from Intel - the Core i7-11370H - the first quad-core high-performance Core i[...]

Pros

  • Good keyboard with decent travel, clicky feedback, and an RGB backlight
  • Interesting and efficient CPU/GPU combo
  • 3200 MHz memory in dual-channel, RAID support via dual M.2 PCIe x4 slots, and Thunderbolt 4 + Wi-Fi 6 support
  • The display doesn't flicker at any brightness level (LM156LF-2F03)
  • Has a good contrast ratio and comfortable viewing angles (LM156LF-2F03)
  • Can be purchased with a 165Hz 1440p panel

Cons

  • Lacks an SD card reader
  • It gets pretty loud and hot on the outside when gaming
  • Covers only half of sRGB and has slow response times (despite the fast refresh rate) (LM156LF-2F03)
  • Lacks a Web camera

ASUS TUF F15 (FX506, 2021)

Much like its F17 brother, the F15 features the same hardware, but with a smaller display, which is definitely easier to carry around, but the smaller display will be a minus and affect the gaming experience in a negative way.

The design is also a carbon copy of the F17 and uses the same materials. All in all, it is a fine gaming machine for entry gamers that would love the general military aesthetic and the performance of the hardware. The addition of a 240Hz IPS panel with 100% sRGB coverage means that you can make this laptop double both as gaming and a creator one.

ASUS TUF Gaming F15 (FX506, 2021) in-depth review

After some years, the ASUS' TUF series is clearly distinguishable from the ROG devices (in a good way). The design language of these laptops is very different compared to their more exclusive and expensive siblings. The TUF machines are bringing good performance to the table without being too expensive and at the same time, the design is a bit more stealth-ish and mature.The good news is that these devices come with a decent amount of goodies. Let's take for example our test laptop for today's article - the ASUS TUF Gaming F15 FX506HM. What this fella has to offer? The 2021 version of TUF [...]

Pros

  • Capable cooling
  • Two M.2 PCIe slots and two RAM SODIMM slots
  • The display doesn't flicker at any brightness level Innolux N156HRA-EA1 (CMN1521)
  • Budget-conscious
  • Wi-Fi 6 and an RGB backlight
  • A good keyboard and touchpad combo

Cons

  • The panel has slow pixel response times Innolux N156HRA-EA1 (CMN1521)
  • Tiny Arrow keys
  • Covers only 57% of the sRGB gamut
  • No SD card reader

ASUS TUF A15 (FA506)

The TUF A15 is the smaller, but more powerful brother of the A17. Nowadays companies focus more on the smaller devices since the market is moving to more portable laptops.

This is also happening due to the fact that hardware is getting smaller and more powerful with every generation, allowing for powerful laptops to shrink in size. The A15 offers up to a Ryzen 9 and an RTX 3070, which will deliver the killing blow to any game, at most resolutions. It also gets four display choices, some of which we hope are suitable for content creation.


ASUS ROG Strix – G733, G713, G533, G513

ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 G733ASUS ROG Strix G17 (G713)ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533ASUS ROG Strix G15 (G513)
CPURyzen 7 5800H
Ryzen 9 5900HX
Ryzen 5 5600H
Ryzen 7 5800H
Ryzen 9 5900HX
Ryzen 7 5800H
Ryzen 7 5800HS
Ryzen 9 5900HX
Ryzen 5 5600H
Ryzen 7 5800H
Ryzen 9 5900HX
GPUGeForce RTX 3060 (130W)
GeForce RTX3070 (130W)
GeForce RTX 3080 (130W)
Radeon RX Vega 8 (35/45W)
GeForce RTX 3050 Ti (95W)
GeForce RTX 3060 (130W)
GeForce RTX 3070 (130W)
GeForce RTX 3060 (130W)
GeForce RTX3070 (130W)
GeForce RTX 3080 (130W)
GeForce RTX 3050 (95W)
GeForce RTX 3050 Ti (95W)
GeForce RTX 3060 (130W)
GeForce RTX 3070 (130W)
Radeon RX 6800M
Display17.3″ Full HD 144Hz IPS
17.3″ QHD 165Hz IPS
17.3″ Full HD 360Hz IPS
17.3″ Full HD 144Hz IPS
17.3″ QHD 165Hz IPS
17.3″ Full HD 300Hz IPS
15.6″ Full HD 300Hz IPS
15.6″ QHD 165Hz IPS
15.6″ Full HD 144Hz IPS
15.6″ QHD 165Hz IPS
15.6″ Full HD 300Hz IPS

ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 G733

Moving into flagship territory, the Strix SCAR series offers the best possible performance. To keep the hardware in check, ASUS uses a liquid metal cooling solution and a total of four air outlets. The upgraded fans use 84 blades and can push more air while being quieter. The design uses a lot of RGB, which polarizes the masses.

The cooling has also been thoroughly improved, featuring liquid metal. It performs really well, managing to maintain high frequencies on both the CPU and GPU. You get an option for a display with 100% sRGB coverage and a 360Hz refresh rate, which is great for both gaming and content creation. The RGB backlit keyboard with optical-mechanical switches delivers long key travel and a response time of 0.2 ms.

ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 G733 in-depth review

Ladies and gentlemen say hello to the flagship gaming laptop from ASUS - the ROG Strix SCAR 17 G733. Well... if there is a flagship series this year, considering the extreme similarity between the SCAR and the "regular" Strix G17 G713 specs-wise. It is a surprise to no one, that this laptop comes with some of the best from AMD and NVIDIA - the up to the Ryzen 9 5900HX, and the 130W version of the RTX 3080 with 16GB of graphics memory.So, behind the sheer monstrosity of the hardware sits a quirky laptop, that may or may not be to everybody's taste. For now, let's not concentrate on the met[...]

Pros

  • Loaded with RGB
  • 1080p 360Hz, and 1440p 165Hz IPS panel options
  • Covers 96% of the sRGB color gamut and has an accurate color representation thanks to our Gaming and Web design profile (Sharp LQ173M1JW04)
  • Doesn't use PWM for brightness adjustment (Sharp LQ173M1JW04)
  • 300Hz panel has very quick pixel response times (Sharp LQ173M1JW04)
  • One of the best hardware combinations up to this day
  • Liquid metal thermal compound on the CPU
  • Wi-Fi 6 support and two M.2 PCIe x4 drives
  • Optically mechanical keyboard with very low latency and big Arrow keys

Cons

  • No Thunderbolt support (due to chipset limitations)
  • No SD card reader

ASUS ROG Strix G17 (G713)

The newest G-series from ASUS ROG wants to make the new laptops as small as possible, while still offering a big 17.3-inch display. The new laptop is 5% smaller and has slim bezels, with an 85% screen-to-body ratio. While the body has shrunk, the input devices haven’t, with the touchpad having an 85% larger active area.

This laptop also gets a 90Wh battery unit, delivering a long battery life, especially for a gaming laptop. The twin Smart Amp speakers are placed on the base and fire directly at you, delivering clear audio. The Dolby Audio support and true noise cancelation transform this laptop into a very capable streaming machine as well.

ASUS ROG Strix G17 (G713) in-depth review

Okay, guys, we were really excited about this day, because, with us, we have one of the most powerful machines for portable gaming money can buy (at least for now). It packs one of the best, if not the best mobile processor on the market right now - the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, and can be configured with up to the RTX 3070.As we saw with the last two reviews we made, manufacturers won't make it easy for their customers, as the RTX 3070 alone comes in configurations between 80 and 125W. Well, at least this is what NVIDIA states on their webpage. However, NVIDIA also told us that you can check t[...]

Pros

  • Good keyboard with decent travel, clicky feedback, and an RGB backlight
  • 130W RTX 3060 / 3070 onboard
  • Uses liquid metal for the CPU
  • There are two M.2 PCIe slots, and two RAM SODIMM slots in dual channel, and Wi-Fi 6
  • Great battery life for a gaming laptop
  • 300Hz 1080p IPS panel, or a 165Hz 1440p IPS one

Cons

  • Lacks an SD card reader and Thunderbolt support
  • GPU warms up pretty quickly during gaming
  • Tiny Arrow keys

ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533

The smaller brother to the SCAR 17, the SCAR 15 features the same level of performance in a smaller body, which is made out of aluminum and plastic, and has gone through rigorous testing, including vibrations, humidity, drop, and extreme temperature tests. From the unboxing experience, you know that you’re dealing with a flagship product, which comes with its own NFC key, which comes with its own set of features.

Of course, you receive a very good display, which makes this machine very versatile, with near 100% sRGB coverage and fantastic color accuracy, if you choose to use our display profiles. The same 90Wh battery unit and keyboard are a part of this mix. All in all, you’re getting a shrunk-down version of the SCAR 17, which is in no way inferior to its bigger brother.

ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533 in-depth review

We are almost done with the entire lineup of Republic of Gamers devices revealed in this year's CES event. And today, we are going to show you the ROG Strix SCAR 15 G533. A laptop that promises to deliver extreme performance levels, thanks to the Zen 3 processors from AMD, and the new Ampere graphics cards from NVIDIA. More importantly, it is particularly interesting to see how would it perform against the competitions, since currently, the notebooks are probably the best way you can get your hands on the latest and greatest from team Green.In order to try to be the best in a very competi[...]

Pros

  • Loaded with RGB
  • 1080p 360Hz, and 1440p 165Hz IPS panel options
  • Covers 97% of the sRGB color gamut and has an accurate color representation thanks to our Gaming and Web design profile (Sharp LQ173M1JW04)
  • Doesn't use PWM for brightness adjustment (Sharp LQ173M1JW04)
  • Very quick pixel response times (Sharp LQ173M1JW04)
  • One of the best hardware combinations up to this day
  • Liquid metal thermal compound on the CPU
  • Wi-Fi 6 support and two M.2 PCIe x4 drives
  • Optically mechanical keyboard with very low latency and big Arrow keys
  • Great battery life

Cons

  • No Thunderbolt support (due to chipset limitations)
  • No SD card reader

ASUS ROG Strix G15 (G513)

In our review of the G15 G513, we mentioned that the laptop could be a potential best-seller for 2021. It’s hard not to say so, as it gets next to the same level of engineering prowess, performance, and ingenuity as the SCAR devices while being placed lower on the ASUS pyramid. It also doesn’t lack anything when compared to the G17.

The G15 and G17 also get something that the SCAR laptops don’t: mobile AMD graphics. The RDNA2 based RX 6800M is a killer card, currently sitting at #1 in our Top Laptop Graphics Ranking.

It has made some sacrifices, in the name of aesthetics, such as the lack of a webcam, which makes the bezels extremely thin. It is made from aluminum and plastic and is quite sturdy both in the lid and the base. It is not without its shortcoming, though, as the keyboard has small arrow keys and doesn’t use the optical switches of the SCAR laptops. Still, it covers all the necessities of a great gaming laptop, such as good performance, cooling, and upgradeability.

ASUS ROG Strix G15 (G513) in-depth review

Although it launched side by side with its 17-inch sibling, we were able to snatch a ROG Strix G15 G513 just now. And to be honest, it doesn't feel a whole lot different. In fact, it is a smaller version of the same laptop and packs pretty much the same features.This includes AMD's latest and greatest from the processor world, with the Zen 3 chips proving to be absolute units when it comes to sheer power. Also, there are some very capable variants of the RTX 3000 graphics cards, such as the 130W version of the RTX 3070, which we have on our unit.You see, this is not even the most grou[...]

Pros

  • Good performance from the CPU with a very low temperature under stress (thanks to the pre-applied liquid metal)
  • There are two M.2 PCIe slots, two RAM SODIMM slots (up to 64GB of RAM in total) + it supports Wi-Fi 6
  • Covers 98% of the sRGB color gamut and has accurate color representation with our Gaming and Web design profile (Sharp LQ156M1JW25)
  • Snappy 300Hz panel with quick response times (Sharp LQ156M1JW25)
  • PWM-free
  • RGB all around the place
  • Very good battery life

Cons

  • Its GPU gets pretty toasty during gameplay
  • Tiny Arrow keys
  • No SD card slot and Thunderbolt support

ASUS ROG Zephyrus – GX703, GX551, GU603, GA503

ASUS ROG Zephyrus S17 GX703
CPUCore i7-11800H
Core i9-11900H
Ryzen 7 5800H
Ryzen 9 5900H
Ryzen 9 5900HX
Ryzen 9 5980HS
Ryzen 9 5900HS
Core i7-11800H
Core i9-11900H
Ryzen 7 5800HS
Ryzen 9 5900HS
GPUGeForce RTX 3060 (130W)
GeForce RTX3070 (140W)
GeForce RTX 3080 (140W)
GeForce RTX 3060 (130W)
GeForce RTX 3070 (130W)
GeForce RTX 3080 (130W)
GeForce RTX 3060 (130W)
GeForce RTX3070 (130W)
GeForce RTX 3080 (130W)
GeForce RTX 3060 (95W)
GeForce RTX 3070 (100W)
GeForce RTX 3080 (100W)
GeForce RTX 3070 (130W)
Display17.3″ 4K 120Hz IPS
17.3″ QHD 165Hz IPS
15.6″ 4K 120Hz IPS
15.6″ Full HD 300Hz IPS
16.0″ FHD+ 144Hz IPS
16.0″ QHD+ 165Hz IPS
15.6″ Full HD 144Hz IPS
15.6″ QHD 165Hz IPS

ASUS ROG Zephyrus S17 GX703

From the outside, this device looks like the average ROG device. Once you open it, however, you see that the tech that you’re dealing with is something special. The Zephyrus line from ASUS strives to bring innovation to the laptop space and so far, they have done a remarkable job. The S17 gets a special mechanism below the keyboard, which lifts it up every time you open the laptop. This has several effects. First of all, it gives you a more comfortable angle to type. Secondly, it opens a huge area for ventilation, improving the cooling significantly.

Having an all-metal chassis and a very portable 19.9mm profile. The keyboard also uses optical-mechanical switches, which give you a 1.9 mm travel time and record a response at just 0.2mm of travel. A per-key RGB backlight is also part of the mix, along with a new touchpad, which is now 125% larger. The cooling uses liquid metal and fans that are now 5dB quieter. The laptop is offered with a 4K panel with 100% DCI-P3 coverage, Dolby Vision support, and Pantone certification for color reproduction.


ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE (GX551)

The Zephyrus Duo sacrifices some of the gaming comforts, in order to introduce a secondary display, which totally changes the way how you interact with the laptop. Thankfully, you get an attachable palm rest in the box, which somewhat alleviates the problem with the awkward keyboard positioning.

Otherwise, you get a fantastic laptop that creators and gamers will love to use. The display acts in a similar way to the keyboard of the S17, popping up to both make it seem like you have a singular long display and improve the cooling, by allowing air to enter the system from below the display.

The cooling is in fact so good, that we got the Ryzen 7 5800H to reach nearly 4.00GHz boost speed, while the temperature was a tad over 90°C. You can read more about it here. This was better than what both the SCAR laptop offered. The secondary display allows you to fit menus and shortcuts, when you’re video editing or 3D Rendering, being able to fit the timeline there.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE (GX551) in-depth review

Yesterday, we took a look at one of the most intriguing laptops ASUS released this year - the ROG Flow X13 (GV301). And today, we have probably the second most interesting unit. Well, it is not exactly new, as it is more like a refresh to last year's device, but the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE (GX551) does not only have a mouthful of a name. It seems like ASUS has ditched Intel for AMD's brand new Zen 3 processor architecture, and you can max out the notebook with up to the Ryzen 9 5900HX.Needless to say, you also get to choose from some Ampere graphics cards. Thankfully all of them (the RTX 3[...]

Pros

  • Up to 130W RTX 3080
  • There are two M.2 PCIe slots with RAID 0 support + it supports Wi-Fi 6
  • Covers 99.5% of the sRGB color gamut and has accurate color representation with our Gaming and Web design profile (Sharp LQ156M1JW25)
  • Snappy 300Hz panel with quick response times (Sharp LQ156M1JW25)
  • Both panels are PWM-free
  • Exceptional performance
  • ROG ScreenPad Plus adds some productivity enhancement
  • Good battery life

Cons

  • The secondary display brings additional weight
  • Uncomfortable keyboard and touchpad location

ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 GU603

The M16 offers a different approach to content creation, albeit a less effective one in our opinion. This laptop lacks a secondary screen but makes up for it by offering a display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. This gives the consumer more room on the Y-axis, which allows more apps and menus to be present on the screen at once. This also makes the laptop more portable, since fitting a second screen does increase the weight significantly, while also bumping up the price. Still, the laptop isn’t affordable by any means.

However, you get a lot for your money, including up to a Ryzen 9 5900HS and an RTX 3070. The unit used here doesn’t exceed 100W of TDP, which will affect the performance, but we do understand the decision from ASUS, as this laptop is pretty thin and light, and with the lack of an additional vent that the second display or even the lifting keyboard, cooling becomes a bit of an issue.

You get tons of features, including a fingerprint reader, an RGB backlit keyboard, a noise-canceling microphone, and a stereo speaker setup with a total of six speakers. Two of them produce actual audio, while the four woofers provide bass.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 GU603 in-depth review

Following the success of the Zephyrus G15 GA503, ASUS was quick to release the 16-inch M16. Its name is a bit of a mouthful (ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 GU603), but at the end of the day what matters is performance. And the manufacturer has clearly taken care of this.In terms of CPUs, you can choose between the brand new eight-core devices from Intel - the Core i7-11800H, and the Core i9-11900H. Surprisingly, these two are on the same level, if not better than the top dogs of AMD. But in order to extract the maximum of these CPUs, you need a good cooling system. And to aid that, ASUS uses liqui[...]

Pros

  • Fingerprint reader, Wi-Fi 6 support
  • Up to 48GB of RAM
  • Dual NVMe drive support
  • PWM-free display (QHD, 165Hz panel)
  • Quick pixel response times (QHD, 165Hz panel)
  • 100% sRGB coverage + almost full DCI-P3 coverage and great color accuracy thanks to our Gaming and Web design profile (QHD, 165Hz panel)
  • Extremely powerful CPU and GPU performance

Cons

  • The middle of the keyboard gets pretty warm during gaming
  • The keyboard has tiny arrow keys
  • No NumberPad

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503

The Zephyrus G15 shares a lot of similarities with the M16, design-wise, as it uses a very similar, aluminum-magnesium body, with exactly the same weight and height. However, it brings decently more powerful GPUs into the mix, including the RTX 3080. It comes with either the Ryzen 7 5800HS or the Ryzen 9 5900HS, which are both great at gaming and perfectly suitable for content creation.

The laptop offers two display choices, with ours boasting the QHD 165Hz variant, which achieves complete sRGB coverage and near-complete DCI-P3 coverage. Our Design and Gaming profile also brings the dE value down to 2.2, which is near the standard and makes the laptop very suitable for color-sensitive work.

Despite being a portable notebook, it offers decent upgradeability, with both the RAM and storage being expandable. You also get a 90Wh battery unit, which is present on most of the laptops that we have here. The laptop performed very well in our battery tests, reaching well nearly 13 hours in our web browsing test and 10 hours in our video playback test. One caveat is the keyboard, which despite its long key travel and clicky feedback, offers smaller keys, especially the arrow ones.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503 in-depth review

So, this is the third year that ASUS is making an ROG Zephyrus G15. If we have to be honest, the previous two iterations were flawed and didn't deserve their users' attention. However, the GA502 (in both its forms) paved the way for ASUS and AMD's relationship. And the result of this is the ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503, which aims to completely revamp our views on the family of laptops.For starters, it now comes with a Zen 3 portfolio of processors, maxing out with the Ryzen 9 5900HS. Also, on the graphics side, you have the latest and greatest from NVIDIA, in the form of three Ampere GPUs. The[...]

Pros

  • Fingerprint reader, Wi-Fi 6 support
  • Up to 32GB of RAM in dual-channel mode
  • Dual NVMe drive support
  • PWM-free display (QHD, 165Hz panel)
  • Quick pixel response times (QHD, 165Hz panel)
  • 100% sRGB coverage + almost full DCI-P3 coverage and great color accuracy thanks to our Gaming and Web design profile (QHD, 165Hz panel)
  • The USB Type-C port supports charging, DisplayPort 1.4, and G-Sync
  • Extremely powerful CPU and GPU performance

Cons

  • No Thunderbolt support (due to AMD limitations)
  • The keyboard has tiny arrow keys
  • No NumberPad

ASUS ROG Flow

ASUS ROG Flow X13 (GV301)

The ROG Flow X13 takes a different approach to a gaming laptop, which might signal what’s to come in the future. The laptop itself is incredibly portable, coming in with a weight of 1.30 kg and being 15.8 mm thick. The laptop uses a plethora of materials when it comes to its build, with aluminum, magnesium, and plastic being part of the mix.

This combination gives you a very strong chassis that is resistant to flex. This is important, especially since this is a convertible and will be subjected to even more bending and twisting.

The real interesting part comes when you get the ROG XG Mobile external graphics card, which takes this light and portable device and transforms it into a full-fledged gaming machine. The external RTX 3080, with a TDP of 150W, will completely destroy any game you throw at it. The concept of a portable gaming convertible, which you can carry everywhere with you during the workday and just plug the discrete GPU module, while at home is quite smart, as consumers don’t need all that power on the go. As with my convertibles, the upgradeability is quite lacking, with only one M.2 PCIe slot.

ASUS ROG Flow X13 (GV301 / PV301) in-depth review

At this year's CES (2021), ASUS brought a lot of firsts to the world. It was one of the first manufacturers to introduce a mainstream laptop equipped with the Zen 3 processors, as well as the RTX 3000 series graphics cards. However, one of the notebooks there caught our eye. Although they released a super-powerful ROG Strix G733 and the ROG Zephyrus Duo, we were interested in their smallest challenger - the ROG Flow X13 (GV301). Why? Because, if it's done right, it might revolutionize the market. Not only the gamer one but the entire laptop world, based on very strong foundations.So, what[...]

Pros

  • The most powerful convertible on the market
  • Decent cooling, considering the size of the laptop
  • 16:10 aspect ratio is great for work and the 1200p panel has a 120Hz refresh rate (Sharp LQ134N1JW52)
  • Covers 97% of sRGB and our Gaming and Web design profile helps it reach an Average dE of <2.0 (Sharp LQ134N1JW52)
  • Doesn't use PWM for brightness adjustment (Sharp LQ134N1JW52)
  • Optional RTX 3080 (150W) upgrade with an I/O hub
  • Great build quality and revolutionary design
  • Very high CPU performance

Cons

  • Pricey
  • Soldered memory
  • Limited I/O and no SD card reader
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