Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Gaming Laptop Review: Sophistication Fused With Power

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Asus' ROG lineup is known for its gaming capabilities and unique design. The company has launched several iterations of the ROG Zephyrus and the latest entrant is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 (GA503QM-HQ145TS), a 15-inch gaming laptop powered by an AMD CPU and an NVIDIA GPU.

 

Rating:
4.0/5

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Gaming Laptop Review

We have been testing the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 with the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS CPU and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 mobile GPU, and it retails in India for Rs. 1,45,990. Here is what we think makes the ROG Zephyrus G15 unique from other mid-range laptops.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Specifications

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Specifications

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen R9 5900HS
  • Display: 15.6-inch IPS LCD 2560 x 1440 165Hz
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6GB GDDR6
  • Memory: 16GB DDR4 3200MHz
  • Storage: 1TB PCIe SSD
  • Battery: 90WHr
  • OS: Microsoft Windows 11 64-bit
Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Design: Fresh And Unique
 

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Design: Fresh And Unique

Most gaming laptops come in a dark finish with a hint of red, blue, or even green color in some cases. The Asus ROG Zephyrus G15, however, comes in white color. Again, there is also a grey/black variant of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15, which looks a lot similar to most laptops. If you want a laptop that looks unique, then the white color model just does that.

The white color also has a shimmering effect, which intensifies when the light is directly flashed on the device. Owning a white-colored laptop has its own set of challenges. If not maintained properly, the device would easily get dirty. In fact, we could already notice the science of discoloration on the unit that we tested.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Design: Fresh And Unique

The I/O on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 is at par with the other gaming laptops of this class. The device has a full-sized HDMI port, dual USB Type-C ports, RJ45 port, dual USB-A ports, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a microSD card slot. The only complaint that I have with this extensive I/O is the lack of a full-sized SD card slot, though it packs a microSD card slot.

It is also worth mentioning that the device has dedicated volume control keys along with a mute button and a button to access ROG Armory Crate, where you can customize the laptop. Lastly, the power button also doubles as a fingerprint sensor, which is an interesting feature that we usually don't see on a gaming laptop.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Display: High Resolution, High Refresh Rate Panel

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Display: High Resolution, High Refresh Rate Panel

Though a 1080p panel is pretty sharp enough for a 15.6-inch screen, a 1440p panel like the one on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 makes the screen look much sharper. When this high-resolution panel is combined with a high refresh rate of up to 165Hz, you get the best of both worlds.

While testing the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15, I used a couple of other laptops which had a 1080p panel. As soon as I made a switch, the other laptop with a 1080p panel would start to look less sharp, where I could even spot the pixels.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Display: High Resolution, High Refresh Rate Panel

Not just the resolution, the 15.6-inch IPS LCD screen on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 offers 100 percent DCI-P3 color space coverage and is also bright enough even for day-time usage. The display is also Pantone validated and it offers 3ms of response time, which is again on par with the competition. Overall, a great display for gaming, content consumption, and content creation.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Keyboard And Trackpad

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Keyboard And Trackpad

Most of the Asus laptops that I have tested have impressed me when it comes to keyboard and trackpad and it's the same on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15. The well-spaced backlit keys offer enough travel and a great keystroke, which makes it an excellent keyboard for typing and gaming.

As these are white-colored keys with black/transparent engraving, the letters become invisible when you turn on the backlight during the daytime. Coming to the trackpad, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 has one of the biggest trackpads that we have seen on a gaming laptop which also looks like a white marble slab.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Sound And Camera

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Sound And Camera

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G15's speaker setup is powered by a six-unit speaker with support from Dolby Atmos. The speakers also have twin speakers which throw the sound directly at the users. However, during my testing, I felt that the speakers aren't loud enough. However, they do offer clear sounds where one can easily differentiate between instruments and vocals.

Coming to the cameras, the device does not have a built-in web camera. Asus does this on a lot of gaming laptops. However, the company does include a camera, again a 720 web camera. Though the picture quality on the external camera is slightly better than the built-in web camera on most laptops, I still prefer a built-in camera on a laptop.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 CPU And GPU

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 CPU And GPU

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 is powered by the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS CPU, which is a binned-down version of the Ryzen 9 5900H. This sits between the Ryzen 7 5800H and the Ryzen 9 5900H and offers a base clock speed of 3GHz and a boost clock speed of 4.6GHz on all eight cores with a TDP of 35W.

Coming to the GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 is a 6GB GDDR6 graphics card with a max TDP of 95W on this laptop. Again, the TDP of the RTX 3060 on the Zephyrus G15 is slightly less than that of the RTX 3060 on the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5, which has a 120W of TDP.

The laptop also offers 16GB DDR4 memory with 1TB PCIe SSD-based storage. Here are some of the benchmarks and gaming performance of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 which gives us an idea regarding the real-world performance of this machine.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 CPU-Z And Geekbench 5 Performance

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 CPU-Z And Geekbench 5 Performance

On CPU-Z, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 posted 610.4 points on a single thread and 5767.8 on multi-thread performance. This clearly indicates that the Ryzen 9 5900HS is clearly a more powerful CPU when compared to the Ryzen 7 5800H, which powers the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5.

Similarly, on Geekbench 5, the device posted a single-core CPU performance of 1435 and a multi-core CPU performance of 7183. The Ryzen 9 5900HS outperforms processors like the Intel Core i9-11900H and the Ryzen 7 5800H on single-core performance, indicating an improvement in the gaming performance. Lastly, on the OpenCL graphics benchmark, the device scored 16328 points.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Cinebench R23 Performance

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Cinebench R23 Performance

Cinebench R23 gives us an idea regarding the real-world rendering performance of the machine. The Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 gave us a single-core rendering score of 1480 points on a multi-core rendering score of 11954. Again, the Ryzen 9 5900HS is a much better CPU than the Ryzen 7 5800H when it comes to multi-core rendering capability.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Superposition Benchmark Performance

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Superposition Benchmark Performance

On Superposition, we got an average FPS of 104 and 77 at 1080p resolution with medium and high graphics settings, respectively. Similarly, at 4K resolution and optimized graphics settings, the device got an average FPS of 46. Again, the FPS on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 is slightly lower than that of the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5, as the Alienware m15 has a GPU with a peak TDP of 120W.

These are still very good numbers for a laptop in this class. We will share a bit more about the gaming performance of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 in that specific section.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 3D Mark Performance

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 3D Mark Performance

On the 3D Mark Time Spy test, the laptop scored 7787 points. The benchmark also confirmed that the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 can offer 75+ FPS on Battlefield V at 1440p resolution and 95+ FPS on Battlefield V at 1080p resolution. The Max GPU tempered recorded while running the benchmark was 83 degrees centigrade, and the CPU went up to 86 degrees centigrade, which is well within the T-junction temperature.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Gaming Performance

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Gaming Performance

We tried several games on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 to get a sense of real-world performance. We started with something that is familiar with everyone -- GTA: V, where, the laptop offered an average FPS of 103 at 1440p resolution and the FPS went up to 134 when we changed the resolution to 1080p.

Similarly, we played The Shadow Of The Tomb Raider with real-time ray-tracing and without. At 1080p we got an average FPS of 88 without ray tracing and 64FPS with ray tracing. At 1440p with got an average FPS of 74 without ray tracing and 44fps with high ray tracing settings. We also ran the Bright Memory Infinite RTX benchmark, where we obtained an average FPS of 74 at 1080p resolution.

Lastly, we also played the recently launched AAA title Far Cry 6, where we got an average FPS of 67 at 1080p resolution and high graphics settings and 58fps at 1440p resolution and high graphics settings. This gaming performance gives us a clear idea regarding the real-world gaming capabilities of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15.

Verdict: Classy Gaming Machine

Verdict: Classy Gaming Machine

For the asking price of Rs. 1,45,990 (the black variant is available at a much lower price), the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 seems like a nice package with a mid-tier gaming CPU and GPU. On top of that, the laptop also offers 16GB RAM and 1TB PCIe SSD, which should be more than enough for most users.

The limitation on the GPU TDP is definitely visible on the gaming performance of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15, as the average FPS on all the games that we tested are slightly lower than that of the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5. However, the CPU performance on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 is better than that of the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5.

The highlight of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 is the 1440p 165Hz display, which no other gaming laptop at this price point offers. With the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15, the company has put together a machine that will impress both gamers and content creators.

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