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Digital Trends
22-05-2025
- Digital Trends
Asus ROG Strix G16 review: fast and more affordable, at a cost
Asus ROG Strix G16 MSRP $2,500.00 Score Details 'The Asus ROG Strix G16 is a very fast laptop, but its display will let you down.' Pros Quality build Attractive gamer aesthetic Solid gaming performance Very good creative performance Reasonably affordable Cons Disappointing IPS display Keyboard and touchpad are just okay Thick and heavy I've reviewed two laptops running both Intel's Arrow Lake-HX chipsets and Nvidia's second-fastest Blackwell GPU, the GeForce RTX 5080. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i and Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 are both very impressive gaming laptops, but they're also very expensive at over $3,000. Recommended Videos What if you want something that's a little more affordable? That's where the Asus ROG Strix G16 comes in, running AMD's very fast Ryzen 9 9955HX3D chipset and Nvidia's midrange RTX 5070 Ti. It's fast as well, but it doesn't have the outstanding displays of the other two and so it's a bit harder to recommend even at its lower price. Specs and configurations Asus ROG Strix G16 Dimensions 13.94 x 10.39 x 0.89-1.20 inches Weight 5.51 pounds Processor AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D Graphics Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti RAM 32GB DDR5-5600 Display 16.0-inch 16:10 QHD+ (2560 x 1600) IPS, 240Hz Storage 1TB SSD Touch No Ports 2 x USB4 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 1 x HDMI 2.1 1 x 1G RJ45 1 x 3.5mm audio Wireless Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 Webcam 1080p with infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello Operating system Windows 11 Battery 90 watt-hour Price $2,000+ The Asus web store still several ROG Strix G16 configurations as unavailable. The base model is $2,400 for an AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU, and a 16.0-inch QHD+ IPS display. Opting for the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D chipset raises the price to $2,500. That's the configuration that I reviewed, and both of those models are currently out of stock. The one configuration that can be purchased includes a slower AMD Ryzen 9 8940HX chipset and costs $2,000. Those are okay prices for a very fast gaming laptop. You'll compromise on the display, as we'll see below, and the midrange GPU is a bit slower, but you'll have to spend a lot more to get something faster. Design At first glance, the ROG Strix G16 bears a strong resemblance to the much larger Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 that I previously reviewed. At least, it does if you focus on the per-key RGB backlighting on the keyboard and the row of RGB LEDs that light up the front of the laptop. Looking more closely at the rest of the chassis, though, the smaller machine has its own aesthetic. To begin with, it doesn't have the Asus AniMe Vision LEDs on the lid, which is a lot simpler on the ROG Strix G16 with just a subdued logo. There's aggressive geometric venting on the back, along with more vents along the sides. That makes the smaller laptop more minimalist in some ways, while also coming across with a slightly more aggressive gamer look. The lid is offset a bit from the rear, as you'll find in many larger laptops. Inset along the inside rear edge are a set of speakers and some anachronistic LEDs that show power and storage accesses. That's unusual today and, really, I found the blinking light distracting. We're really not so worried today about shutting down a laptop before data is written, compared to when we were relying on much slower spinning disks. Overall, I think the aesthetic is good for gamers, but anyone who's looking for a less ostentatious design will want to consider something like the very MacBook-like Razer Blade 16. The ROG Strix G16 is constructed of plastic in the external chassis and aluminum in the lid, which is fine. Interestingly, the lid is a little flexible, but the bottom chassis and keyboard deck are plenty stiff. Some users might prefer a more premium feel, as with the Razer Blade 16, but it's not a significant concern. I suppose the plastic does keep the palm rests cooler than if they were aluminum, which is a plus. Unsurprisingly, this is a very thick laptop at up to 1.2 inches, and it's very heavy at 5.51 pounds. The top and side display bezels are thin, but the bottom chin is quite large. That makes the ROG Strix G16 a very large laptop in all dimensions. It's a bit to carry around, especially when you include the very large power brick. Of course, Asus built in a robust cooling system. There's Asus's Tri-Fan technology, full-width heatsink and Condoctonaut Extreme liquid metal. Combined with the copious venting, the laptop is able to keep the internals reasonably cool with some serious fan noise when the laptop is working particularly hard. Keyboard and touchpad Unlike many gaming laptops, the ROG Strix G16's version doesn't have a numeric keypad. That's a strange omission given that many gamers like to bind those keys to macros. It does make for a more spacious keyboard for non-gamers, with large keycaps and springy switches that make for comfortable typing. With other gaming laptops, I typically say that it's a great keyboard for gamers but not for writers. The opposite is true here, which might not be the best choice given the laptop's intended target. The touchpad is okay, being a large enough mechanical version. It's better than the touchpad on the ROG Strix SCAR 18, which had buttons that were hard to reliably engage. This one's fine, but I suspect most gamers will choose to use a dedicated gaming mouse. Connectivity and webcam Large, 16-inch laptops that are this thick and heavy typically have a lot of connectivity. The ROG Strix G16 is good enough, with a couple of fast USB4 ports to go with a selection of legacy ports. There's an Ethernet port for anyone who wants to connect directly to a router and avoid wireless latency. It's not the most connectivity I've seen in a gaming laptop, but it's fine. The wireless connectivity is one generation behind, which might disappoint some users. The webcam is okay at 1080p, which is the new baseline. Videoconferencing clearly isn't a focus of this machine, but it's serviceable. There's no fingerprint reader or infrared camera, so you'll be limited to typing in a PIN to login. Performance So far, I've reviewed a couple of gaming laptops with the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX chipset, the latest high-end part that's aimed at gaming and other performance-intensive tasks. But it's not alone. There's also the AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D, which is perhaps even faster for gamers thanks to several unique features. To begin with, the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D is a 16-core/32-thread part built on the Zen 5 architecture. That compares to the Core Ultra 9 275HX that has more cores at 24 but is single-threaded. Both run at up to 5.8GHz, and both consume 55 watts of base power with the AMD chipset bursting to 130 watts and the Intel chipset up to 160 watts. The CPU can get up to 110 watts and the GPU can get up to 140 watts, but in total, the ROG Strix G16 maxes out at 195 watts. That's considerably less than the 250 watts the ROG Strix SCAR 18 can provide. The Ryzen 9 55HX3D's hyper threading optimizes parallel tasks, while the 3D V-Cache architecture reduces memory latency and thus boosts gaming performance. That's particularly true at 1080p, but 3D V-Cache makes the AMD chipset faster at gaming across the board. It also performs well in various CPU-intensive tasks, but the Core ultra 9 275HX is faster overall thanks to its higher core count. In our suite of non-gaming benchmarks, the ROG Strix G16 fell behind the Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 and Lenovo Legion Pro 7i running the Intel chipset. Single-core speeds are similar, while multi-core tasks favor the Intel-based laptops. Interestingly, the ROG Strix G16 was faster in the Pugetbench for Photoshop benchmark, that runs in a live version of Adobe's application. That attests to the impact of the CPU in photo editing tasks where the slower RTX 5070 Ti wasn't as important. In the Pugetbench for Premiere Pro benchmark, however, the ROG Strix G16 fell behind. In video editing, the faster GPU is more of an advantage. If you care about non-gaming performance, then, the ROG Strix G16 won't be quite as fast. But it will still be very fast, particularly for photo editors, making it a solid choice. Geekbench 6 (single/multi) Handbrake (seconds) Cinebench R24 (single/multi/GPU) PCMark 10 Complete PugetBench Premiere Pro Pugetbench Photoshop Asus ROG Strix G16 (Ryzen 9 9955HX3D / RTX 5070 Ti) 3,021 / 15,946 38 128 / 1,575 / N/A 8,758 6,650 9,843 Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2025) (Core Ultra 9 275HD /RTX 5080) 3,050 / 18,876 35 133 / 1,998 / N/A 8,601 9,867 8,486 Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (2025) (Core Ultra 9 275HX / RTX 5080) 3,136 / 20,228 33 135 / 2,054 / N/A 9,361 10,377 9,087 Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 9 (Core i9-14900H / RTX 4090) 1,873 / 13,175 71 117 / 916 / 8,873 9,122 N/A 6,622 Asus ROG Strix 18 (Core i9-14900HX / RTX 4090) 2,946 / 17,622 N/A Bal: 124 / 1,533 / 22,067 N/A 7,430 N/A Asus ROG Flow Z13 (Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 / Radeon 8060S) 2,993 / 20,659 36 121 / 1,568 / NA N/A 7,250 7,250 Alienware m16 R2 (Core Ultra 7 155H / RTX 4070) 2,366 / 12,707 N/A 103 / 1,040 / 10,884 7,028 5,590 5,590 Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M4 Max 16/40) 3,626 / 25,332 48 179 /2,072 / 16,463 N/A 9,347 13,856 Gaming In terms of its gaming performance, the ROG Strix G16 made a strong showing. While its Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti naturally fell behind the RTX 5080 in the other two gaming machines, it still performed admirably. Probably, the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D helped out here, balancing the drop in GPU performance with an overall boost from the AMD chipset. As I've noted in those other reviews, the Nvidia Blackwell 5000-series GPUs are aimed more at improving image quality via AI-powered processes like DLSS 4, upscaling, and frame generation. There's something of an uptick in framerates compared to the previous generation, but it's not remarkable — at least with the current state of drivers and game optimizations. Asus includes the same Armoury Crate utility as in the larger machine, and it provides the same fine control over various CPU and GPU settings. I ran each benchmark in various performance modes, and I reported the results in the fastest Turbo mode. I also tried out the option to optimize the GPU, but I didn't find that setting to make a difference. In fact, some scores were reduced, so I kept it at the default setting for most of these tests. If you want to optimize the laptop for various uses, Armoury Crate provides most of the settings you'll require. In terms of performance, we'll start with the 3DMark Time Spy synthetic benchmark. Here, the ROG Strix G16 is much faster than the MSI Creator Z17 HX Studio running the RTX 4070, again likely benefiting as well from the much faster AMD chipset. It's behind the two other modern laptops, but it's faster than the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 with an RTX 4080 and closer Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 with the RTX 4090. Looking at the individual titles we use due to their built-in (and therefore more objective) real-world benchmarks, the ROG Strix G16 performs very well. It benefits from its fast CPU in the Civilization VI test running at 1600p Ultra, beating out every previous-generation laptop in our comparison group. The same holds true in Cyperbunk 2077 at 1600p Ultra RT (ray tracing), Red Dead Redemption 1600p Ultra, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla 1600p Ultra High. Ultimately, you can game at 1440p or better on the ROG Strix G16 with graphics turned up, and if a title supports Blackwell, you'll enjoy incredible image quality as well. 3DMark Time Spy Civ VI 1600p Ultra CyberPunk 2077 1600p Ultra RT Red Dead Redemption 16oop Ultra Assassin's Creed Valhalla 1600p Ultra High Asus ROG Strix G16 (Ryzen 9 9955HX3D / RTX 5070 Ti) 15,925 239 fps 66 fps 78 fps 101 fps Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2025) (Core Ultra 9 275HD /RTX 5080) 19,823 273 fps 70 fps 87 fps 122 fps Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (2025) (Core Ultra 9 275HX / RTX 5080) 21,486 296 fps 77 fps 94 fps 127 fps MSI Creator Z17 HX Studio (Core i9-13950HX / RTX 4070) 11,630 157 fps N/A N/A 73 fps Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (2023) (Core i9-13900HX / RTX 4080) 18,382 223 fps 45 fps 99 fps 126 fps Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 9 (Core i9-14900H / RTX 4090) 20,293 N/A 88 fps N/A N/A Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 (Core i9-13900H / RTX 4090) 18,372 191 fps N/A 99 fps N/A Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 (Core i7-13800H / RTX 4080) 13,615 170 fps 57 fps N/A N/A Asus ROG Flow Z13 (Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 / Radeon 8060S) 10,532 88 fps N/A 73 fps 67 fps Battery life There's a 90-watt battery packed away inside the ROG Strix G16, and that's only a little smaller than some that offer the maximum that can be put into a laptop — 100 watts. There's a high-res IPS display and very powerful components, so I wasn't expecting great battery life. In our suite of battery tests, the ROG Strix G16 lasted for 4.75 hours in our web browsing test and five hours in our video looping test. In our most demanding test, looping the Cinebench R24 multi-core test, the laptop couldn't quite hit two hours. Those are actually better results than many gaming laptops that barely make it to two hours. It means that you can get some work done without being plugged in, but you'll want to run with the power brick connected when gaming or doing serious creative work. Display and audio The ROG Strix G16 is built around a 16.0-inch 16:10 QHD+ (2560 x 1600) IPS display that runs at up to 240Hz. Subjectively, it looks fine, although it's a significant drop down after reviewing the spectacular mini-LED display on the ROG Strix SCAR 18. It's not as bright and the colors aren't as dynamic. According to the Datacolor SpyderPro colorimeter I use to evaluate displays, this one's a mixed bag. First, it's not very bright at just 248 nits — one of the few displays I've reviewed in the last couple of years that fails to hit our 300-nit baseline. That's going to limit its effectiveness in running HDR content (which, although the specs indicate Dolby Vision support, can't actually be switched on in Windows Settings). Contrast is very good for IPS, though, at 1,600:1. Colors are wide at 100% of sRGB, 89% of AdobeRGB, and 100% of DCI-P3, well above the IPS average. But, they're not very accurate at a DeltaE of 3.79. Most IPS displays today come in at less than 2.0. And, unusually, the gamma is way off at 3.0, which is a lot darker than the optimal 2.2 gamma. Overall, this isn't a terribly impressive display. In fact, I'd say It's one of the compromises you'll make to squeeze in so much power at well under $3,000. The audio is just okay, with four speakers including two woofers. But as with the keyboard and touchpad, you'll probably want to consider plugging something in. Less money, less performance, a lesser display The ROG Strix G16 is plenty fast for most gamers, with the AMD chipset and Nvidia midrange GPU providing a real boost for modern titles. They'll look good, as well, with support for Blackwell's various AI-driven features. And the laptop has a good gaming aesthetic and a solid enough build. But, the display disappoints a bit, even at the $2,500 price. It should be brighter and the colors should be more accurate, the latter weakness limiting the ROG Strix G16's usefulness to the creators who would also appreciate the laptop's speed.
Gizmodo
19-05-2025
- Gizmodo
Razer Thins Out the Blade 14 and Fattens the Price Tag
The newly announced Razer Blade 14 isn't quite stiletto-thin, but it's becoming far more knife-like over time. Compared to past iterations, the shell is now as tall as 10 pennies stacked on top of each other, which means the new blade might be as thin as your wallet after buying one. On top of being the thinnest Blade 14 Razer has ever made, it's also the most expensive, starting at $2,300 for a version with Nvidia's new GeForce RTX 5060 laptop GPU. Razer's always tried to offer quality for its high price, but with tariffs in effect, the new Blade 14 is pushing what consumers can expect from gaming laptops. The Blade 14's base price is $100 more than you would have paid for the 2024 Blade 14 with an RTX 4060. If you upgrade the new Blade to the version with the RTX 5070, Razer told us you could spend $2,700 for the sake of a laptop that's 'not a big brick,' as the company put it. Razer is always an enticing buy because of its generally strong build quality, but even a frisbee-light frame doesn't take the sting out of today's tariff-inflated product prices. Razer's new ultra-thin design houses an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 and up to 64GB of 8,000MHz LPDDR5X RAM. It's the first time Razer is pairing a Copilot+ CPU made for lightweight laptops with an Nvidia GPU in a thoroughbred gaming machine, which means it's compatible with Windows 11 AI features like Recall (which you should probably remember to turn off during setup). The laptop sports a bevy of ports, including HDMI and a microSD card slot. As per usual, Razer promotes its hardy aluminum with an anodized black finish that will manage to stave off bumps or blemishes. We don't doubt that all that combined will offer enough juice to showcase the Blade 14's 3K, 120Hz OLED display. We do wonder what kind of CPU performance it might provide compared to a similarly sized laptop like the Asus TUF Gaming A14 and its top-end AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. Asus' older model also costs hundreds of dollars less than Razer's latest. Razer promised you'll get 2 to 3 hours while gaming on the 72WHr battery. That doesn't sound like much, but it's technically better than what you already get on the Razer Blade 16 from this year. We've yet to find a gaming laptop with a battery life that will keep up for extended periods. The Blade 14 powers the RTX 5070 up to the max 115W TGP, which may give you enough juice for most modern games at the max 2,880 x 1,800 resolution. The RTX 5060 laptop GPU is still so new, we don't yet know how it performs compared to Nvidia's mid-range graphics options. No matter which GPU you choose, the machine will still support a six-speaker system through upward-firing speakers. That may offer better sound quality than you may be used to on such small systems, especially with support for THX Spatial Audio. There has been a rash of relatively light gaming laptops from 2024 stretching into this year. Razer seemingly knew it needed to step up its game with the 2025 edition of the Blade 14. At 0.62-inch thickness and weighing in at 3.59 pounds, it's 11% thinner and lighter than the 2024 edition. It takes the same thermal hood design from this year's rendition of the Blade 16. That laptop also went on a diet for the sake of customers who want a less hefty device to fit a little bit better in their backpacks. We found it also tended to get rather hot when playing intensive games, so we hope that's less of a problem with a smaller battery and less demanding GPU. The one thing that hasn't been brought over from the Blade 16 is the improved keyboard. It's a Razer device, so of course it's packed to the gills with gamer lights, including per-key RGB. Those keys still only have 1 mm of key travel compared to the deeper, more impactful 1.5mm on the redesigned 16-incher. There are no color options save for black and white, as much as we might beg Razer to bring back the 'coral' pink color from the 2019 Razer Blade Stealth. There's nothing wrong with a thin system, but perhaps a pink blade would help take away the sting of price hikes.
The Verge
19-05-2025
- The Verge
Razer made its new Blade 14 thinner than ever and gave it a full-power RTX 5070
Razer is making its Blade 14 thinner and more powerful, just like it did recently with its 16-inch counterpart. In addition to giving it an RTX 5060 GPU with a starting price of $2,299.99, the Blade 14 can be specced out with the RTX 5070 for $2,699.99. Razer says it isn't limiting that 5070 in this thin chassis, as it can deliver its maximum TGP of 115W. Both the 5060 and 5070 versions of the Blade 14 are expected to launch in May, and Razer is also introducing a lower-cost Blade 16 with the RTX 5060 for $2,399.99 — due out this month as well. The Blade 14 will have an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU and a 14-inch 3K 120Hz OLED display in all configurations, as well as per-key RGB lighting with customizable Razer Chroma compatibility. It can be configured with up to 64GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. Sadly, the RAM is soldered in, but the single NVMe SSD slot is user-accessible if you want to put in a larger drive. The ports are mostly the same as last gen, with two USB4, two USB 3.2 Type-A, HDMI 2.1, reversible proprietary power plug, and 3.5mm combo audio jack, but it adds a UHS-II microSD slot. What's also changed for the 2025 Blade 14 is that it's 11 percent thinner and 11 percent lighter than its predecessor. That translates to a laptop that's 0.62 to 0.64 inches (15.7 mm to around 16.2 mm) thick from its thinnest to thickest points, and it weighs 3.59 pounds / 1.63 kg. Razer says it was able to make the Blade 14 thinner without sacrificing power or battery life (it's still got a 72Whr cell) by redesigning its thermal shelf and cooling design — just like it did the Blade 16. The Blade 14 looks a lot like a slightly shrunken-down Blade 16, following its bigger sibling's redesign to a T. Well, mostly, as its microSD slot feels like a slight downgrade compared to the 16's full-size SD. But even microSD is better than no slot at all. One differentiator of the Blade 14 is that it will be available in white as well as Razer's typical matte black.
Gizmodo
16-05-2025
- Gizmodo
Acer's New Triton 14 Lets You Draw Directly on the Touchpad
Many light gaming laptops also try to bill themselves as creative laptops as well. Few provide any features beyond a pretty screen that actually support artistic types. Acer's 14-inch Predator Triton 14 AI has a glassy, haptic touchpad that also works with a stylus. This means the touchpad can act as a digital drawing pad for creatives who prefer a PC and don't want to draw directly on a touchscreen. For those who haven't tried a haptic touchpad like that on the Triton 14 AI, it's a slightly different experience than a traditional mechanical pad. It uses force feedback on your clicks, but the benefit beyond looks is uniform force feedback along a wider surface area. Despite this, few devices have thought to take advantage of a flat surface with full stylus support. Unlike Dell's XPS 13 design from last year, the Triton 14 AI breaks up the flat palm rest with plastic brackets when your finger or pen is trying to draw outside the lines. The size of the Triton AI's trackpad won't stand up to a full drawing pad or a quality creative-minded tablet like an iPad Pro M4, but stylus support without covering up a laptop screen could be handy in a pinch. I had the chance to try out the Triton 14 AI, but Acer wasn't about to let me put the laptop through its paces. Just like every other laptop brand, Acer has a slate of new gaming laptops sporting Nvidia GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs, but it's still hard to get excited for most of them. And then the company dropped the Predator Triton 14 AI on my lap, and I was immediately intrigued. It seems Acer took a page from the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 from last year—still one of the best-feeling gaming laptops you can buy for this size. The shell has a very sturdy frame based on my short time with it. Save for its large Predator logo on the back, the Triton can pass as a non-gaming machine if you opt to not show off the per-key RGB. Other devices like the Microsoft Surface Pro or Asus ProArt PZ13 may also fit the bill as Windows machines for artists, but the Triton AI has one element those devices don't—a discrete GPU. The device sports an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V CPU, the top-end Lunar Lake processor from last year that only now seems to be featured in today's mobile devices. As for graphics, configurations top out with an Nvidia RTX 5070 laptop GPU. The device also supports up to 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 2TB of SSD storage. That's about what we expect from a device of this size, and we can expect with that GPU it should be enough for 1440p gaming in most intensive titles. The laptop isn't too heavy either at 3.5 pounds. As is necessary for a modern creator's laptop, the Triton 14 AI houses an OLED display with a 120Hz, 2,880 x 1,800 resolution panel and a stated peak brightness of 340 nits. That might not be enough for working in bright daylight, but at least you should be able to hold onto it without burning your fingers. Acer packed a graphene thermal interface material on the CPU, which it claims is far better at transferring heat than traditional thermal grease or paste. The touchpad works with Acer's Active stylus which comes bundled with the laptop. The one missing piece is a magnetic attachment point for users to keep their pen close during use. At least, the Active pen includes pressure sensitivity and tilt response, plus it has built-in haptics for force feedback when pressing down on the tip. It supports AES 2.0, USI 2.0, and MPP 2.5 protocols, which encompass the majority of digital pens that work across capacitive touchscreens and pads. Acer did not reveal pricing for the Triton 14 AI or when we can expect it to hit store shelves. The company was one of the early few that explicitly raised prices on its devices, citing Trump tariffs. The Zephyrus started at $1,600 but the RTX 4070 model with more RAM cost closer to $2,000. If the Triton 14 AI costs more than that, it may be a hard machine to justify, even if you want to practice your penmanship on your laptop.
