ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 Review: Better Than Zephyrus G14?

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ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15: At First Glance

In 2020 ASUS released the ROG Zephyrus G14 and it has won the hearts of many as the best gaming laptop of 2021. However, this review major on another 2020 release of the series – the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 GA502.

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 has a slightly larger screen than the G14 and this is a good thing. However, in the sections below, we will find out if it delivers an award-winning performance like the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 or not.

Before we get into that, it is worth noting that the laptop starts at a price of $1,099.99 in August 2021. Now that we have talked about the price, let’s find out if the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 is your best bet.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15: Design, Dimension & Weight

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 features the same quality build and design as its predecessor. ASUS has made the laptop’s chassis with a magnesium alloy together with high-quality plastic material.

Specifically, the all-metallic lid is available in an Eclipse Gray finish. Sadly, you can get the laptop easily stained by smudges and fingerprints from daily use.

ASUS made the lid with tiny CNC dots and underneath these dots, there are prismatic films that reflect different colors when hit by the light. This variation of the Zephyrus lineup boasts of a professional look, ditching LEDs except for the status LED and power button light

The rainbow reflections of the prismatic films are beautiful but how long before it gets overridden by dust? Beside the CNC holes, there is a black ROG insignia at the bottom left corner of the lid.

Moving on to opening the lid, you can do this using just one hand. Meanwhile, closing the lid with one hand is also very easy.

The screen is supported by hinges that rotate a full 180 degrees with the possibility of turning the screen all the way flat when it is opened. Additionally, the hinges lift the back of the laptop up off the desk.

This design is in a  bid to enable more air intake via the vents and ASUS has termed it Ergolift. The Ergolift is not only beneficial to air circulation but also makes the typing position a bit more comfortable.

The display is surrounded by thin bezels on its top and sides. However, the bottom bezel is a tad thicker and it houses a ROG insignia and some microphones.

One notable design flaw is that there is no webcam anywhere on the laptop. Hence, users are left with no choice but to use a detachable camera.

Moving on to the deck, ASUS designed it with a strong plastic material that exhibits minimal flex. The deck houses the full-sized chiclet keyboard which has a nice layout but lacks a Numpad.

The keys have decent sizes except for the smaller arrow keys. Additionally, the keyboard has a column of function keys by the right.

Also, there is a row of dedicated keys by the top-left corner of the keyboard. These keys include the volume controls, mic controls, and a key for launching the Armoury Crate App.

The keys have a decent travel of 1.7mm. You might need a little while to get used to the keyboard but once you do, you’d experience satisfactory typing.

Just like its predecessor, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 keyboard employs white lights and not RGB. You can customize the lights using the Armoury Crate app.       

As a pleasant touch, the white light contrasts nicely with the black keys on the ASUS RIG Zephyrus G15 keyboard. Hence, making typing in dim lights enjoyable.

Below the keyboard sits the trackpad with integrated mouse buttons. The trackpad is responsive enough and it supports Windows 10 gestures.

The touchpad is quite large, much so that my palm rests on it rather than the palm rest, its palm rejection is good and that’s a good thing. Although the touchpad and its buttons are great for navigation and daily use, I prefer an external mouse for gaming.

In terms of port selection, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 has a lot of ports for connecting your peripherals. On the right side, there are two USB Type-A ports.

Meanwhile, on the left side, there is an AC Adapter, an RJ45 Ethernet port, and an HDMI 2.0 port. Additionally, there is another USB Type-A port, one USB Type-C port with DisplayPort support, and a headphone jack.

ASUS positioned most of the ports on the left side of the laptop leaving enough space on the right for mouse usage. The ports selection is quite impressive except that there’s no Thunderbolt 3 support nor SD card reader.

Moving on to the dimension and weight, the laptop measures 360 x 252 x 19.9 mm and weighs 2100 g. Comparatively, the laptop is slightly lighter than the Razer Blade 15 which weighs 2200 g and measures 355 x 235 x 17.8 mm.

On a final note, ASUS has employed a minimalistic design approach to the ROG Zephyrus G15, there are no loud RGB lights here. Additionally, the design quality is impressive and there are lots of input-output selections available.

Hence, I’ll rate the laptop an eight out of ten in this aspect.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15: Processor (CPU) Performance

With the ROG Zephyrus G15, the relationship between ASUS and AMD has again proven successful. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 employs either a 4-core AMD Ryzen 7 3750H or AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS.

The AMD Ryzen 7 GPU has a 4 MB cache memory. Additionally, it has a base frequency of 2.30 GHz and can be increased to 4.0 GHz thanks to Turbo Boost.

Similarly, the AMD Ryzen 9 GPU has an 8 MB cache. Also, it has a base frequency of 3.0 GHz and can be increased to 4.30 GHz via Turbo Boost.

The test model I reviewed shipped with the faster processor configuration – the AMD Ryzen 9. My review unit was a beast, handling various activities seamlessly and still runs quietly.

To evaluate the real-life performance of the processor, I used the Cinebench R20 test. The Cinebench R20 is a benchmark test that evaluates how stable a computer runs under heavy CPU load.

From the test outcome, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 scored 4,288 points. Consequently, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15’s performance is a tie with that of its predecessor running the same GPU.

However, its performance surpassed that of the competitor I pitched it against. Specifically, the Acer Predator Helios 300 which employs the Intel Core i7-1075H scored 3,147 points in the same test.

As a result of its processor performance in the benchmark test, I will rate it an eight.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15: Memory (RAM) Performance

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus has two slots that take either DDR4-2400 RAM or DDR4-3200 RAM. However, one of the RAM slots is soldered to the motherboard.

Therefore, if users need to upgrade the RAM capacity, they can add up to 16 GB in the second RAM slot.

The test model I reviewed has a 3200 MHz 16 GB RAM in dual-channel. From the total 8 GB RAM, 8 GB was soldered to the board while 8 GB is removable and upgradeable.

Therefore, if there was a need to upgrade my review model, I can pull out the removable RAM. I can then replace it with 16 GB RAM to make a total capacity of 24 GB.

However, the 16 GB available on my test model served its purpose excellently. As evidence of this, the laptop was a great multitasker.

Precisely, the laptop ran 40 chrome tabs plus five YouTube videos while Metro Exodus ran in the background. Impressively, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 ran these multiple activities without missing a beat.

In addition to its impressive multitasking performance, the laptop also impressed me in the PCMark 10 test. PCMark 10 is a tool for evaluating the overall system performance of modern computers.

From the test, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 scored 6,896 points. The outcome here is also a top-of-the-chart performance as it surpassed the Lenovo Legion 7i which scored 6,574 points.

Additionally, ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 also beat MSI GS66 Stealth 10SGS with its 6,154 points in the same test.

Due to the outstanding performance of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 in this aspect, I’ll rate it an eight.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15: Storage Options & Performance

When it comes to storage, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 uses an SK Hynix M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD. There are two M.2 slots for storage expansion up to 1 TB.

With 1 TB of storage space, the test model I reviewed competed favorably with Samsung SSDs. The laptop copied 26 GB of file in 42 seconds at a rate of 632 MBps.

Unfortunately, this copy rate is behind the premium gaming laptop average of 877 MBps. Also, the laptop underperformed compared with the MSI GS66 Stealth which copied the same file in just 25 seconds and at a rate of 1,051 MBps.

As a basis of real-life benchmarking, I used the CrystalDiskMark benchmark test. The CrystalDiskMark is a Windows benchmark tool for evaluating the performance of storage drives by reading and writing through the file system.

Based on the test result, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 recorded a sequential read speed of 2,151 MBps. Additionally, it recorded a sequential write speed of 2,318 MBps.

Comparatively, the MSI GS66 Stealth 10SGS recorded a sequential read speed of 1,434 MBps. Also, it recorded a sequential write speed of 1,987 MBps.

The SK Hynix brand is not as famous as the Samsung brand of storage drives. However, the SK Hynix SSD of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 has proven to be a strong competitor.

Based on the storage performance of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15, I’ll rate it a seven.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15: Graphics Card Performance

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 comes in two graphics configurations. The first is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti Max Q with 6 GB GDDR6 memory.

The GTX 1660Ti Max Q GPU has a base frequency of 1140 MHz. Additionally, it has a boost frequency of 1,335 MHz.

Furthermore, you can also get a configuration with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q also with 6 GB GDDR6 memory. The RTX 2060 has a base frequency of 975 MHz and a boost frequency of 1,185 MHz.

The test model I reviewed shipped with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q. This is a mid-range video card with ray-tracing abilities.

In a quest to determine the capabilities of the RTX 2060 Max-Q graphics card, I used the 3D Mark Fire Strike test. 3D Mark Fire Strike is a graphics benchmarking tool for powerful modern laptops.

Furthermore, Fire Strike renders the 3D graphics with more details than other 3D graphics benchmarks.

As a result of the test, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 scored 14,824 points. In comparison, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 performed below the Acer Predator Helios 300.

The Acer Predator Helios 300 uses the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU and scored 16,187 points. Similarly, the predecessor – ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 with the same GPU also performed better at 15,296 points.

Furthermore, I will also discuss the gaming performance of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15. To achieve this, I played Rise Of The Tomb Raider at 1080p resolution and at three different presets.

Consequently, at ultra preset the game played at 40 fps while on very high preset the game played at 59 fps. Also, at medium preset the game played at 103 fps.

Comparatively, the gaming performance of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 was below that of its predecessor – ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14. Specifically, at ultra preset, the G14 played the game at 41 fps while at very high reset it played at 62 fps.

In addition to that, at medium preset the G14 played the game at 106 fps. To say the least, the performance of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 falls below the average of its class.

Sadly, the graphics performance of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 is also below that of its competitor. Hence, I’ll rate it a six in this aspect.

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ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15: Battery Life & Performance

Just like its predecessor – ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 – the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 ships with a 4-cell 76 Whr battery. The predecessor is known for its exceptional battery performance and I had hoped for the same or better with the G15.

However, in the web surfing test that I performed, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 lasted 7 hours 47 minutes. The web surfing test involved browsing through over 70 websites while I set the screen brightness to 120 nits.

The performance of the laptop would have been acceptable except that it underperformed against its predecessor which uses the same battery. Specifically, the predecessor lasted 14 hours 49 minutes, we can accredit its impressive performance to its smaller screen size.

Although the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 underperformed against its predecessor, it outperformed the Acer Predator Helios 300. Specifically, the Acer Predator Helios 300 uses a 90 Whr battery and it lasted just 5 hours 43 minutes in the same test.

When it comes to gaming off the plug, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 battery life reduces to just 1 hour 32 minutes same as its predecessor. Consequently, over one hour of off plug gaming isn’t bad considering that most gamers play with their laptops plugged.

In terms of charging, ASUS designed the ROG Zephyrus G15 with fast charging capabilities especially when you use the proper adapter. Hence, the battery will charge up to 50% with 30 minutes of charging.

Finally, the battery performance of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 is not as impressive as that of its predecessor. However, it performed better than other competitors hence, I’ll rate it a seven.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 GA502 is a good laptop with its solid design and above-average performance. However, it is the most controversial release of the Zephyrus G series.

Sadly, it doesn’t give an outstanding performance like its predecessor – the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14. In actual fact, it performed below the predecessor in most benchmark tests.

It is quite disappointing that the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 GA502 couldn’t keep up with the achievement of its predecessor. However, all hope isn’t lost as the 2021 refresh of the series – ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503 made us proud as the best gaming laptop of 2021.

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