ASUS ROG Gaming Laptop: Ryzen 9 4900HS, 14" 120Hz, 1TB SSD, RTX 2060 Max-Q EXPIRED

QC issues, terrible display(awful 22ms+ response times visible ghosting 250 nit 60% sRGB) not great thermals. Generally don't recommend

I have the M15 and I can't recommend Asus. Too many minor details overlooked. Occasionally the mouse will screw up and feel like there's a third finger there causing it to jitter. May be a different laptop, but Asus QC has me second thinking their stuff. Fantastic price for their hardware...

Was at Best Buy yesterday and they offered an additional 10% off of open-box and clearance items and this was one of them. Check there as well for additional savings.

I wanted to love this laptop so much. I was trying to go from a desktop to a laptop, and it seemed to be the magical box that was powerful, but portable. I understand I was unicorn hunting, but this thing had more rules than a Mogwai. You couldn't use it with a dock with the lid closed.. The air flow was designed to have the lid open. Earlier builds of this model had a problem with using a dock that would power USB-C. It would fry something inside and your machine was dead.

I'm hoping that down the road, this is the machine it was meant to be.

Quote from jakk55 : Also, gaming is perhaps the last place that Intel can still claim a slight advantage over AMD.

This is true.

Have it and love it! Work first, gaming second... nothing out at this price point that's better.

Quote from rolltidewall : I wanted to love this laptop so much. I was trying to go from a desktop to a laptop, and it seemed to be the magical box that was powerful, but portable. I understand I was unicorn hunting, but this thing had more rules than a Mogwai. You couldn't use it with a dock with the lid closed.. The air flow was designed to have the lid open. Earlier builds of this model had a problem with using a dock that would power USB-C. It would fry something inside and your machine was dead. I'm hoping that down the road, this is the machine it was meant to be.

So your primary complaint is that it doesn't work well with a dock? Or were there other things wrong with it?

Quote from rolltidewall : I wanted to love this laptop so much. I was trying to go from a desktop to a laptop, and it seemed to be the magical box that was powerful, but portable. I understand I was unicorn hunting, but this thing had more rules than a Mogwai. You couldn't use it with a dock with the lid closed.. The air flow was designed to have the lid open. Earlier builds of this model had a problem with using a dock that would power USB-C. It would fry something inside and your machine was dead. I'm hoping that down the road, this is the machine it was meant to be.

That's one thing.

Quote from jakk55 : You think AMD has more thermal issues than Intel? What decade are you living in? Also, gaming is perhaps the last place that Intel can still claim a slight advantage over AMD. You really don't know what you're talking about.

So, I'm deciding between keeping the G14 or M15 - both purchased locally on FB Marketplace. The G14 is sleek and light but with great build quality, and has incredible battery life one you do the Reddit tweaks. Its display is okay, not great, but the speakers are tremendous. The 4900hs is crazy fast but super hot unless you do the simple edit to prevent turbo boost. Now it never reaches 80°C. Of course, the 2060 max-Q is only decent at gaming.

The M15 is also sleek and light for a 15-incher (4.2 lbs), but the chassis creaks more. The speakers are good, not great. Battery life is probably half of the g14, but that's not to say it's terrible! I've had gaming laptops with way less than the M15. The 240hz screen is definitely a step above the g14 in brightness, refresh, and response time...but gaming anywhere near that level of FPS is making the M15 roast. I've tried numerous tweaks including the nice option to undervolt in the Asus bios but that little devil puts out some serious 🔥. The 2070 max-Q is a nice step up from the 2060 max-Q, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to enjoy it.

Sorry for the long post but I'm trying to work this out for myself. If you are reading this and saying that you'd love one of these, PM me because I might sell you the one you like more and keep the other. 😁

Bought it a while back. Returned it. Too many design issues.

There is a black G15 model [bestbuy.com] with better specs for a few hundred more I would probably consider over this older model.

The one issue that ASUS did not remedy in the new model is still NO WEBCAM. And, not a fan of their keyboard design -- looks amateurish. But at least it's BLACK now!

Quote from BoastfulMice8832 : QC issues, terrible display(awful 22ms+ response times visible ghosting 250 nit 60% sRGB) not great thermals. Generally don't recommend

As the owner of my 3rd one, I can confirm the QC is absolutely terrible. I exchanged my first one after a week because one of the fan and display issues, the second one because the "closed" detection was faulty (would trigger "open" in a backpack, thermally nuke itself til shutdown), and the 3rd one I kept...and months later had the same fan and display issues which I still face to this day, both of which require RMA and this has been my only PC since last summer...so losing it for a duration of days or weeks didn't feel worth it. Hopefully I can send it in when I get my Omen so I have something to use...but it's hard for me to recommend this laptop to anybody with low tolerance for lemons.

I had an insurance claim and one of the items I needed to replace was a spare PC that I built myself. So, in the replacement cost range I needed to provide insurance with an option that was store bought. I picked an Asus ROG Strix Gaming Desktop. I'm now in the process of rebuilding it. It seems they use that ROG name on just about anything to imply it's the same quality as their top-end ROG parts. It's not. This PC had a quality ROG keyboard and mouse, but I guess they don't expect people to look past the shiny lights. It had generic unbranded RAM without heatsink, they did not even bother with the stock Wrath 3700x cooler which would have been better than what they put on. They took advantaged of the 3700x's low thermals to put some squat generic thing on the CPU. The power supply was Great Wall. The motherboard was their low-end Prime version.

uggggg


The point being, don't expect the ROG label on this to be anything more than cosmetic.

Great laptop, got it in November and couldn't be happier. Great solid build quality compact and games great on AAA titles.

Display is fine. People who complain about the refresh rate need to get their eyes checked.

I use this in my lap and docked.

Does it get hot and loud when gaming? Yes! Should it? Absolutely. It's a beast, uses a lot of power and it has to go somewhere. Don't complain about the limitation of physics people.

I obviously can't comment on QC as I only have one that has been without issue.

I would definitely buy it again.