So I’ve just finished testing out the ASUS Strix G16 for this review, and I was trying to work out
what the worst part about it was so that I could tease it in this intro. But then I realized,
there just wasn’t anything that bad about this laptop. It’s a great mid-range option. The main
problem that I’ve got with it is just that the current price seems to be a bit too high, which
is the case with a lot of laptops this year. But that will of course change over time, so let’s get
into why this laptop is worth considering, as well as the minor issues that you need to know about.
My Strix G16 has the eclipse gray finish, which is more muted compared to the volt green option.
That one has bright green accenting on the back, around the lid logo, and underneath.
Not that the eclipse gray version is exactly stealthy or anything,
as it still has an RGB light bar along the front.
The plastic interior feels smooth and sturdy,
with only a little flex when pushing hard, overall build quality feels great.
Part of the lid sticks out, making one finger opening very easy,
and although the hinge felt strong, the left one was making this noise when opening and closing.
This indicates that moving parts might be rubbing against each other,
so hard to say how this holds up long term, but it’s likely just my unit.
This 16 inch model isn't that much bigger compared to a 15 inch gaming laptop,
but it is a little thicker at that back compared to others.
The laptop alone weighs about 5.2lb or 2.4kg, increasing to 7.1lb or 3.2kg with the 280
watt charger included. The lower specced ones have a smaller power brick, while the higher
specced ones go up to 330 watts, so expect a weight difference with other configurations.
This Strix G16 has Intel’s Core i7-13650HX processor,
Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics, 16 gigs of memory and a 16 inch 240Hz screen,
but you can check other configurations and current prices with the link below.
The keyboard has 4 zones of RGB backlighting, and all keys and secondary functions get lit up,
though the lighting looks a little patchy. The Q,
W, E, R, A, S, D, F and spacebar keys are clear, which kind of looks cool at first,
but depending on the lighting it makes it harder to read the letters on the keys.
Key brightness can be changed between 3 levels or turned off with the F2 and F3 shortcut keys,
or you can press the Aura Key on F4 to cycle through the 5 built in effects,
and this controls the front light bar too. You can customize it much
more through the Aura Creator software, and this also lets you control the light bar.
The keys have 1.9mm of key travel, and the keys have a nice clicky feel.
I liked typing on it, but the short right shift might annoy some. We’ve also got extra
keys above for adjusting volume, muting the mic, changing the performance mode,
and opening Armory Crate - which is the control panel software for the laptop.
The touchpad is 10% larger this year and feels nice to click with. The images online of the
Strix G16 show the touchpad having a numpad built in, and it’s listed on ASUS’s website,
but for whatever reason ours does not appear to have this option.
Most of the ports are on the left, including the power input, gigabit ethernet, HDMI 2.1 output,
two Type-C ports, the left one is Thunderbolt 4 while the right is USB 3.2 Gen 2, followed
by a 3.5mm audio combo jack. The right just has two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports,
while there’s nothing at all on the back.
The Type-C port closest to the front can be used to charge the laptop,
but the Thunderbolt 4 port closer to the back cannot.
Both Type-C ports offer DisplayPort support, so you can connect an external monitor to either.
But the Thunderbolt 4 port always connects to the Intel integrated graphics, whether optimus
is on or off. The other Type-C port and HDMI on the other hand always connect directly to
the Nvidia graphics, and we confirmed HDMI could run our 4K LG B9 TV at 120Hz 12-Bit with G-Sync.
Getting inside requires removing 11 Phillips head screws. The 4 down the front are shorter
than the rest, so keep track. It was fairly easy to open up with some pry tools, I’ll leave a link
to the ones I use below. Thankfully this new 2023 design does not have the RGB light bar as part of
the bottom panel like last year, so there aren’t any easy to break ribbon cables to worry about.
Once inside we’ve got the battery down the front, two memory slots just above, installed
SSD on the right, and a second spare M.2 slot on the left which sits on top of the Wi-Fi 6E card.
The Wi-Fi speeds were quite good,
and in line with other laptops I’ve tested that have the same Intel card.
The 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD offered decent performance, and I confirmed both M.2 slots
can fit a 4TB drive with chips on both sides. That helped it get a good upgradeability score,
as we can also replace both memory slots and the Wi-Fi without any problems.
The speakers are found down the front on the left and right sides. They sound clear,
but tinny without bass at higher volume levels. I found 50% volume
to sound much better, and considered it above average for a gaming laptop.
The Latencymon results were quite good, one of the best results we’ve seen all year.
Speaking of sounds, by default it plays this boot up sound.
You can turn it off through Armory Crate or the BIOS though.
The Strix is powered by a 4-Cell 90Wh battery. We can enable battery care
mode through the MyASUS software, which is separate to Armory Crate,
and this limits the charge level to 80% to help improve the batteries lifespan.
Panel power saver is enabled by default, which automatically lowers the screen’s refresh rate
to 60Hz when you unplug the charger to save power. This is why the screen flashes black,
and it goes back to 240Hz when you plug back in.
Battery life was ok, but not impressive, lasting for 5 hours in the YouTube video playback test,
and an hour and 50 minutes while playing a game, which was an above average result.
The Strix also has this message from our sponsor, Pulseway!
Say goodbye to the stress of IT infrastructure management, and Hello to Pulseway.
Pulseway's advanced technology quickly spots and solves problems before they escalate. We all know
computers are faster and more efficient, so let Pulseway handle the hard work for you!
From executing repetitive tasks, defining multi-level auto-remediation workflows,
to ensuring critical patches are automatically applied, Pulseway has got you covered.
Think of Pulseway as an extra team member,
tirelessly working for you so that you can spend more time doing the things that matter.
Make your life easier and start your free trial with the link below.
Back to the laptop. Let’s check out thermals next. There are three fans with 7 heatpipes.
Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut Extreme liquid metal is used on the CPU, but only on the GPU for the
top-end RTX 4080 config. The third fan helps cool the GPU and VRAM, and it blows air out the back,
which is why there aren’t any ports on the back - the whole thing is basically a heatsink,
and air also gets exhausted out of the left and right sides. The bottom panel has plenty
of air intake holes underneath, with dust filters directly over the intake fans.
ASUS’s Armory Crate software allows us to change between different performance modes,
which from lowest to highest are silent, performance, turbo and manual. Turbo and manual
modes apply the following overclock to the GPU, but only manual mode lets you customize it. Manual
mode also gives you control over fan speed, CPU and GPU power limits and GPU temperature limit.
The internal temperatures were fine when just sitting there idle. The rest of the results are
from combined CPU and GPU stress tests which aim to represent a worst case full load scenario. The
CPU was able to hit thermal throttling with manual mode and the power sliders maxed out,
but of course you don’t have to do that, again I’m after a worst case. The cooling pad I use,
linked below the video, was able to lower the temps,
and there was no difference if you wanted to close the lid and dock the laptop.
These are the clock speeds during the same tests. The performance in manual
mode was basically the same with the lid closed,
so that’s not a limitation. Performance was barely different with the cooling pad, so the
thermal throttle must have only been extremely subtle. These are very high CPU clock speeds
during a combined CPU and GPU stress test by the way, considering we’ve got 14 cores to power.
This is possible because the CPU is running close to 90 watts, crazy stuff given the GPU is maxed
out too. According to Nvidia control panel, the RTX 4060 graphics max out at 140 watts,
but we didn’t actually see this due to Nvidia’s voltage limit. 90 watts will be more realistic
with an actual game running. Even turbo mode running the CPU at 70 watts is higher than a
number of other gaming laptops, these results should mean good performance.
The ASUS website mentions up to 65 watts for the CPU,
but that’s with a higher tier RTX 4080 GPU, so it seems that they’re allowing
the CPU to use more power because the 4070 and below can’t run as high.
There wasn’t that much of a performance difference
between the top three performance modes in terms of FPS with an actual game running.
The CPU can use even more power and hit thermal
throttling when the GPU is idle, like in Cinebench.
This is the first time we’ve ever had an i7-13650Hx processor,
but it’s got the same amount of P and E cores as a 12th or 13th gen H series chip. The multicore
performance is excellent due to the high CPU power limits that are possible in manual mode,
this is our best 14 core result if we’re not including water cooling testing.
Performance lowers if we unplug the charger and instead run purely off of battery power.
The single core score doesn’t change much, but the multicore result suffered hard. I mean the
8 core ASUS ROG Ally handheld gaming console was scoring 19% higher, let that sink in.
Most laptops I test are in the low 30 degrees Celsius range on the keyboard at idle,
and the G16 was right in line with this. It’s warmer in the middle with the stress tests going,
but it didn’t actually feel that warm. Performance mode was fairly similar,
but again that middle hot looking spot wasn’t uncomfortable. Turbo mode was cooler, and we can
see air is coming through the keyboard on the left and right sides. Setting the fans to max speed in
manual mode was even cooler and it felt good, but it’s way louder too, let’s have a listen.
The fans were completely silent when just sitting there idle. It gets louder in the higher modes,
as expected, with manual mode set to max fan speed being quite loud,
you’ll definitely want headphones if you’re also after max performance.
Like a lot of laptops this year, and as you can probably tell from its name,
the Strix G16 moves to a larger 16 inch screen this year. And it’s 16:10,
which means that it’s taller and has more pixels vertically and less of a bottom chin.
The Strix G16 is available with a 2560 by 1600 Nebula display, which I’ve got here,
and a cheaper 1920 by 1200 option which probably won’t be quite as good as what I’m showing here.
Color gamut was seriously impressive from a gaming laptop with the Nebula display,
even content creators are covered here, the screen just looks great.
It gets fairly bright compared to many other laptops, but I
wasn’t seeing ASUS’s claimed 500 nits at full brightness,
but this may just be the panel lottery, there is some variance even with the same panel model.
I had no backlight bleed, an excellent result, but this will vary between laptops.
The Armory Crate software has panel overdrive enabled by default, which lowers response time.
We’re looking at 3.7ms for average grey-to-grey response time with overdrive on, which is below
the 4.17ms needed for transitions to occur within the 240Hz refresh window, a good result. It’s
slower with overdrive off, as expected, but this removes the overshoot and undershoot.
It’s a great result when compared against other laptops, one of the best non-OLED
results measured so far and right in line with a number of other 2560 by 1600 240Hz panels.
The total system latency is the amount of time between a mouse click and when
a gunshot fire appears on the screen in CS:GO. It’s quite fast here too,
I doubt most people would notice the difference between this and
the first result, but at least it’s not much slower like the cheaper laptops.
There’s a 720p camera above the screen, but it does not have IR for Windows hello face unlock.
Here’s how the camera and microphones look and sound,
and this is what it sounds like while typing on the keyboard.
The Strix G16 has a MUX switch, and ASUS’s software allows us to disable optimus with a
reboot by setting ultimate mode. Most people won’t need to use that as it also has advanced optimus,
so you can just leave standard mode on and then open the Nvidia control panel to enable
or disable the integrated graphics. It also has G-Sync when optimus is off,
and this applies to the lower tier Full HD panel too.
Now let’s find out how well the Strix G16 with RTX 4060 graphics actually performs in games!
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested the same on all laptops, and I’ve got the G16 shown by the
red highlight. At 1080p it’s one of the lower results we’ve got for an RTX 4060 laptop so far,
but the difference is quite small, and the Strix has fewer dips in performance,
as shown by the 1% low, so it’s likely a smoother experience. It’s much the same
at the higher 1440p resolution, one of the lower 4060s tested, but the best 1% low.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with the game’s benchmark, and this time the Strix
G16 was basically tied with the Helios Neo 16 for best 4060 result, so it clearly varies by game. At
1440p it’s right next to the cheaper ASUS TUF A16, as this game tends to perform better with AMD’s
Radeon graphics. The RTX 4070 laptops aren’t that much better than the 4060 results, Nvidia really
seems to want you to spend more on a 4080 or 4090 laptop to get a nice boost over last generation.
Control on the other hand prefers Nvidia’s GeForce graphics, which is why the G16 is now reaching
a 22% higher average frame rate compared to the A16. Again like Cyberpunk earlier,
the G16 just has a better 1% low result compared to the other 4060 laptops, and this is seen at the
higher 1440p resolution too. Higher 1% low results tend to be due to the CPU, and as we saw earlier,
this laptop can run the CPU with a very high power limit, which I suspect is why the Strix is ahead.
Here are the 3DMark results for those that find them useful, now for some content creator tests.
Adobe Photoshop was tested with the Puget Systems benchmark tool, and it’s right next
to MSI’s GP77 with essentially the same processor from a core count perspective and the same GPU,
and then they’re both very close together in DaVinci Resolve too. This test is GPU dependent,
and the RTX 4070 laptops weren’t that much better. Like the games,
you’ve really got to go for a 4080 or 4090 for big gains.
This goes for Blender too, which is another GPU heavy test. All the 4060s are essentially
performing the same, with the 4070 getting you a 9% boost, while a 4080 offers a 68% boost.
We’ve also tested SPECviewperf which tests out various professional 3D workloads.
ASUS’s BIOS looks nice, but there’s not actually a whole lot of customization
that can be done through here, at least when compared to other brands like MSI,
who allow us to change pretty much anything you can imagine.
Linux support was tested with an Ubuntu 23.04 live CD. By default the keyboard,
touchpad, camera, ethernet and Wi-Fi all worked fine, but the speakers did
not work. Keyboard shortcuts for adjusting screen brightness and RGB lighting brightness worked,
but the Aura key did not change the effect off the default rainbow.
Pricing and availability will change over time, so check the link below for updates
and current sales. And if this laptop does go on sale, we’ll be sure to add it to our
gaminglaptop.deals website. We update that every day to include all of the latest sales,
so check that out regularly to save money on your next gaming laptop!
At the time of recording, well the RTX 4060 config isn’t for sale on Bestbuy, Amazon or B&H.
I’ve only found it through some random reseller on Newegg for $1600 USD, which is too expensive for
a 4060 laptop in my opinion. You can easily find 4070s for less money. The 4050 model is $1190 on
Newegg, while the 4070 config is $2200. I’ve seen 4080 laptops on sale for close to that,
and a 4080 will absolutely destroy a 4070. I mean you could get a Legion Pro 5 on sale for
$700 less than the Strix, even without the sale its full price is like $360 less than the G16.
Don’t get me wrong, I do think that the Strix G16 is a pretty good gaming laptop. It’s just
that it seems a bit too expensive right now compared to the competition. In terms of
features, the Strix G16 is probably somewhat competitive against Lenovo’s Legion Pro 5,
and as we just saw the Pro 5 is less money. Though I suppose it doesn’t have the RGB
light bar. Anyway the point I’m trying to make is that this is a pretty good laptop,
so it just depends on whether or not the price is right at the time you’re
watching this video. Again you’ll just have to check that link below for updates.
If you are looking for a better priced 4060 laptop then check this video next
where I’ve reviewed Lenovo’s LOQ 15 and 16 gaming laptops. They’ve got less
features compared to the Strix, which probably explains why they’re cheaper,
but the performance in games wasn’t all that different, as we saw earlier in the game
benchmarks. So if you’re after better FPS for the dollar then I’ll see you in that one next!