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The Best Gaming Laptop. Period.

AlexTheGreatish
By AlexTheGreatish
in LTT Releases
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The Asus Zephyrus G15 checks all the boxes for a 2021 gaming laptop - slim, powerful, and very well built - but have Asus sacrificed too much power for sexiness?

 

Buy ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/PRxnAw

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

 

 

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Question for LTT.  In the last few years laptop manufacturers have adopted Apple's practice of riveting the effing keyboards to the laptop frame.  So if anything happens to the keyboard (which are usually one of the first/easiest pieces of a laptop to be damaged) it becomes a freaking nightmare to replace, and usually just ends up with you having to get a brand new laptop.  What used to be a $30, 15 minute fix you could do yourself now essentially totals your laptop.

 

I would just really like to know why LTT has not been calling manufacturers out on this? Linus has spent years complaining (rightfully imo) in nearly laptop review about the atrocious webcams & microphones included in laptops, but I can't think of any reviews he's brought this up in.

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"if you're a gamer, you have a headset"
Come on Linus... You've had mod mic sponsor enough video to know thats not always true. I'm a gamer, but don't have a headset, but do need a mic since I chat but almost never want to stream video of my face.

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Posted
3 hours ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

The Asus Zephyrus G15 checks all the boxes for a 2021 gaming laptop - slim, powerful, and very well built - but have Asus sacrificed too much power for sexiness?

 

Buy ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/PRxnAw

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

 

 

The asus laptops are amazing, but sadly its having a 10-40% performance loss because of regular optimus to save battery life.

 

These laptops are being cpu bottlenecked on purpose, yet being marketed for esport pro's.

 

There is no mux switch or advanced optimus in these models and the only way to get your performance is by plugging in an external monitor via USB C.

 

Linus forgot to talk about this sadly, i was hoping he would talk about it to asus as not everyone is always on the battery with his laptop.

 

The proof is made on the strix variant, but all of these notebooks dont have a mux switch, so the bottleneck is comparable to this notebook.

 

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credit: techtesters

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Posted
2 hours ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

The Asus Zephyrus G15 checks all the boxes for a 2021 gaming laptop - slim, powerful, and very well built - but have Asus sacrificed too much power for sexiness?

 

Buy ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/PRxnAw

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

 

 

Lol we on the same wavelength, LTT!

 

Sorry for the mess!  My laptop just went ROG!

"THE ROGUE":  ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503QR (2021)

  • Ryzen 9 5900HS
  • RTX 3070 Laptop GPU (80W)
  • 24GB DDR4-3200 (8+16)
  • 2TB SK Hynix NVMe (boot) + 2TB Crucial P2 NVMe (games)
  • 90Wh battery + 200W power brick
  • 15.6" 1440p 165Hz IPS Pantone display
  • Logitech G603 mouse + Logitech G733 headset

"Hex": Dell G7 7588 (2018)

  • i7-8750H
  • GTX 1060 Max-Q
  • 16GB DDR4-2666
  • 1TB SK Hynix NVMe (boot) + 2TB Crucial MX500 SATA (games)
  • 56Wh battery + 180W power brick
  • 15.6" 1080p 60Hz IPS display
  • Corsair Harpoon Wireless mouse + Corsair HS70 headset

"Mishiimin": Apple iMac 5K 27" (2017)

  • i7-7700K
  • Radeon Pro 580 8GB (basically a desktop R9 390)
  • 16GB DDR4-2400
  • 2TB SSHD
  • 400W power supply (I think?)
  • 27" 5K 75Hz Retina display
  • Logitech G213 keyboard + Logitech G203 Prodigy mouse

Other tech: Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max 256GB in White, Sennheiser PXC 550-II, Razer Hammerhead earbuds, JBL Tune Flex earbuds, OontZ Angle 3 Ultra, Raspberry Pi 400, Logitech M510 mouse, Redragon S113 keyboard & mouse, Cherry MX Silent Red keyboard, Cooler Master Devastator II keyboard (not in use), Sennheiser HD4.40BT (not in use)

Retired tech: Apple iPhone XR 256GB in Product(RED), Apple iPhone SE 64GB in Space Grey (2016), iPod Nano 7th Gen in Product(RED), Logitech G533 headset, Logitech G930 headset, Apple AirPods Gen 2 and Gen 3

Trash bin (do not buy): Logitech G935 headset, Logitech G933 headset, Cooler Master Devastator II mouse, Razer Atheris mouse, Chinese off-brand earbuds, anything made by Skullcandy

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Posted
6 hours ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

The Asus Zephyrus G15 checks all the boxes for a 2021 gaming laptop - slim, powerful, and very well built - but have Asus sacrificed too much power for sexiness?

 

Buy ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/PRxnAw

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

 

 

Mine powers down after a few minutes in the middle of gaming on external monitor with lid closed....any suggestions? Already set everything up in Windows 10 power settings no dice

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One of the SODIMMs is soldered?  Does the base config leave it unpopulated so it runs in single channel mode? I'd be curious to see how much worse CPU performance is because of that.

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27 minutes ago, Bigz3393 said:

Mine powers down after a few minutes in the middle of gaming on external monitor with lid closed....any suggestions? Already set everything up in Windows 10 power settings no dice

That's a weird issue.  You should post that in the troubleshooting section.  Or use Microsoft's support forum. 

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9 minutes ago, marcgii said:

One of the SODIMMs is soldered?  Does the base config leave it unpopulated so it runs in single channel mode? I'd be curious to see how much worse CPU performance is because of that.

It's dual channel.  The base model has 8GB soldered and 8GB Sodimm, so you can upgrade it to a max of 40GB (8+32).  Top model has 16GB soldered and 16GB SoDimm, so you could get a max of 48GB (16+32).

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11 minutes ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

It's dual channel.  The base model has 8GB soldered and 8GB Sodimm, so you can upgrade it to a max of 40GB (8+32).  Top model has 16GB soldered and 16GB SoDimm, so you could get a max of 48GB (16+32).

Well that explains the 40 GB variant on Amazon.  8+32 feels really wrong though lol.  But I guess it must not impact performance in most use cases

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I would hesitate on calling anything made by Asus "the best". My R5E has multiple issues LOL... and that was their flagship mobo back in the day that you would be mad not to pair with a $1000 CPU.  Certainly not in the laptop department where they have been behind their competition for decades.

 

The thing with gaming laptops is that people who buy them don't just want to game on them. One of the arguments in the past for a big 17 inch monster was that you could simply use it for everything - you had a big screen for spreadsheets and movie watching, a full keyboard with numpad for all your typing tasks, and better CPU/GPU to chew through the big jobs. That extra size also allowed for better cooling solutions, more drive storage and better speakers (RIP Toshiba Qosmio X305)

 

So yes, going down to a 15 inch is a compromise. That's not to say you can't use Steam and stream over wifi to something like a XPS 13 or LG Gram 17, but not every gamer wants that.

 

If I had to pick a gaming rig for myself I'd take the Alienware M17 R4. It ticks all the boxes I would require, including build quality, extended warranty and Dell will let you pay it off over 12 mos interest free. You don't see the other guys doing that.

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There have been issues with this laptop and its speakers being defective.

 

That and having a soldered DIMM limits this laptop's upgradability potential. Soldered RAM makes a semblance of sense on ultrabooks at least, but not on a high-performance machine where having tons of RAM would actually be beneficial.

The Workhorse (AMD-powered custom desktop)

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X | GPU: MSI X Trio GeForce RTX 2070S | RAM: XPG Spectrix D60G 32GB DDR4-3200 | Storage: 512GB XPG SX8200P + 2TB 7200RPM Seagate Barracuda Compute | OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro

 

The Portable Workstation (Apple MacBook Pro 16" 2021)

SoC: Apple M1 Max (8+2 core CPU w/ 32-core GPU) | RAM: 32GB unified LPDDR5 | Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD | OS: macOS Monterey

 

The Communicator (Apple iPhone 13 Pro)

SoC: Apple A15 Bionic | RAM: 6GB LPDDR4X | Storage: 128GB internal w/ NVMe controller | Display: 6.1" 2532x1170 "Super Retina XDR" OLED with VRR at up to 120Hz | OS: iOS 15.1

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It's odd I bought the RTX 3070 variant and been loving it. On all the reviews/videos I've seen they say the keyboard black light can't be changed from white. On mine in the aura settings I can set the back light to any solid color.

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"The Best Gaming Laptop. Period."

 

Until a better one comes along next week....

NOTE: I no longer frequent this site. If you really need help, PM/DM me and my e.mail will alert me. 

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2 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

"The Best Gaming Laptop. Period."

 

Until a better one comes along next week....

That's the price you pay for innovation.

 

(WARNING: I EDIT MY POSTS ALL THE TIME. GRAMMAR IS HARD.)

"As I, a humble internet browser who frequents the forum of the well known internet tech YouTuber 'Linus Tech Tips', named after host Linus Sebastian, have trouble understanding the intent of the authors' post, I find solace in the fact, that I am indeed not alone in my confusion. While I stumble through the comments above, I am reminded of a quote which helps me to cut through ambiguous and unnecessary verbiage. The simple eloquence of the phrase often uttered on internet forums leaves any reading it in no doubt as to the true intent of the wording. I believe that I, and indeed all of us can take a lesson from the message left by it:"

 

(Formerly known as @EjectedCasings)

"Thanks bro, my inner grammarian just had a stroke."

-Yours truly, EjectedCasings

___________________________________________

"It's stupid, but it works"

"AAAAAAHHH WHY AM I SPEEENING!"

 

 Enthusiast web surfer, 'epic' gamer.

#muricaparrotgang

 

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Hopefully my Strix Scar 15 with a 3080 will be better than best when it arrives lol.

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  • 1 month later...
Posted

Hi,

 

I'm a developer mostly working with AI and simulation of robotics and I've been waiting for this generation of laptops (professional looking and awsm HW). Don't worry, I do all the really heavy stuff on a dedicated GPU powerhouse of a machine, but I would love to be able to prototype/ test better on the go, and this laptop looks like it has all I need, except Thunderbolt. So my question is, how would you recommend to dock this thing? I've got one setup at home with two FHD monitors, and one 5120x1440 at the office. Until now I've been working on HP Z's and used the dock HP makes for it.

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  • 3 months later...
Posted
On 3/9/2021 at 6:35 AM, AlexTheGreatish said:

It's dual channel.  The base model has 8GB soldered and 8GB Sodimm, so you can upgrade it to a max of 40GB (8+32).  Top model has 16GB soldered and 16GB SoDimm, so you could get a max of 48GB (16+32).

Yo, alex, i just saw the video today! Yall forgot to mention that the G15 neither has a MUX switch nor Advanced Optimus, which is a really bad performance impact for most esports titles like CSGO and Valorant, they can see hits as much as 35% while running the game on the internal laptop display! Should have really included it in the video but great work! Also due to this small problem im about to buy a Lenovo Legion 5 pro :(

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