Asus ROG Strix G17 Review: Bringing serious CPU performance and a 1440p display, the latest Asus ROG Strix G17 is a capable and affordable big-screen gaming laptop that suffers when compared with more refined models.
Design Asus ROG Strix G17
The Strix G17 boasts a simple design and solid build quality. While it doesn’t scream extravagance, its understated aesthetics appeal to those who prefer a more subtle gaming laptop. However, the smudgy interior and the annoying status LEDs might irk some users. Additionally, the panel-lit ROG logo on the lid could be a hit or miss. The massive case of the gaming laptop shows an excellent stability. Despite its hefty weight of almost 3 kg (~6.6 lb), we are unable to detect any warping, even though the whole base unit is exclusively made from plastic. In contrast, the large 17.3-inch display is framed in a metal lid. The overall construction appears correspondingly robust, without giving any reason for complaint.
Display Asus ROG Strix G17
The Strix G17 features an alright QHD 240 Hz screen. Although it’s not exceptionally bright, the 240 Hz refresh rate ensures smooth gameplay and responsiveness. Gamers will appreciate the high refresh rate, even if the brightness falls short of expectations.
Aside from the high refresh rate and very large color space coverage that covers at least the Display-P3 almost completely, the display of the ROG Strix G17 offers average values. The limited brightness and at most average contrast aren’t particularly attractive. However, the competitors are hardly any better here. But if the gaming laptop sits on your desk at home and your surroundings aren’t flooded by sunlight, this shouldn’t matter much anyways.
On the other hand, the large 17-inch diagonal, extensive color space, QHD resolution, and of course the 240-Hz refresh rate fully show their advantages when gaming. With some very dark images, the screen bleeding might become a hindrance. Our test unit is affected by this in the top left corner, and it is visible even without long exposures. However, as soon as the images or scenes are slightly brighter, it is not noticeable anymore.
The display also fits this performance. With its accurate color reproduction, the QHD resolution, and 240-Hz refresh rate fitting the system performance, it appears almost custom tailored. The weak brightness hardly makes any difference when using it on the desk. The illumination is also visually appealing. It won’t take much time to find an individual illumination option that even gives some information on the system status.
The color display is very accurate even without an additional calibration. Deviations are hardly noticeable with the bare eye. After a calibration, all the deviations drop below perceptible limits. With this, the display is also suitable for image processing. You can download the corresponding color profile from the link above in the area with the display values.
Performance Asus ROG Strix G17
Under the hood, the Strix G17 packs a punch. Equipped with the AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX processor, it delivers impressive CPU performance. Paired with the Nvidia RTX 4070 GPU, this configuration is one of the most powerful mid-range laptops available today. However, the GPU side might feel unbalanced, especially when compared to the 4080/4090 dGPUs found in the Scar 17 models. Still, the Strix G17 holds its own in gaming and multitasking scenarios.
Asus presents a gaming laptop that is supposed to make an impression particularly with its processor. And indeed, 16 cores, 32 threads, a huge 64-MB L3 cache, and the Zen4 architecture of the AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX at least sound impressive. It turns out that this not only goes for the technical spec sheet, but the CPU also does quite a job in our benchmarks.
The Asus ROG Strix G17 just barely misses a placement in the high-end segment, but this is surely not the fault of the CPU, which is currently one of the most powerful models. Together with the 32 GB of DDR5-RAM in our G713PI-LL005W test unit, this leaves no doubts in the high computing performance. The graphics card, on the other hand, still leaves some room for improvement.
However, the RTX 4070 should still allow you to comfortably play most games, even more complex ones, at the highest detail levels and in full resolution. If you want frame rates that are as high as possible, you are more likely to achieve that in Full-HD resolution. With the models with the RTX 4060 and RTX 4050, you correspondingly have to expect a few more compromises. Even current games can be played smoothly in native QHD resolution at maximum detail settings. If the amount of pixels that have to be computed is cut in half as is the case in Full-HD resolution, the frame rates can be doubled almost throughout.
The result is considerable. The 240-Hz display makes the high frame rates shine, while the loss in detail from QHD to Full-HD is easy to bear. But the high refresh rate also has advantages at 60 frames per second, since the input delay is still reduced significantly. This means that the display always does justice to its tasks, even at significantly less than 240 fps. The Turbo mode hardly brings any improvements (5% in the Time-Spy benchmark), while the noise level increases hugely. The system doesn’t fare too bad in battery operation. Although the power consumption is reduced significantly, it still reaches 65% of the performance in mains operation.
Audio Asus ROG Strix G17
The laptop surprises with its punchy audio. Whether you’re immersed in intense battles or enjoying music, the Strix G17 delivers clear sound quality. It’s a pleasant surprise for a mid-tier gaming laptop.
The built-in speakers sound really good, without showing any weaknesses across the whole frequency spectrum. They even produce particularly impressive bass. You can also hear some fine details. If we want to complain at a very high level, we could say that the lower mids lack some punch.
You can use the speakers for listening to music from rock to classical, for watching movies, and of course also for gaming. However, during the latter, the audible fans might become annoying. The result is remarkable for a laptop, whose sound quality usually isn’t predestined for playing music in most cases. Asus shows with the ROG Strix G17 that this can be done significantly better.
Battery Asus ROG Strix G17
Long periods of battery operation are definitely not part of the plan, despite the large 90-Wh battery. The ROG Strix G17 even remains below the average values of the class of gaming laptops, which are already very low, lasting barely 4 hours in our WLAN test with a limited display brightness.
The powerful processor is unable to contribute much to the results here. The manual power settings allow you to reduce its power consumption to a maximum of 75 W and constant 50 W, without causing a worse benchmark result with this. But this procedure isn’t really necessary, since the CPU is only allowed a significantly lower power consumption under constant load anyways. If a similar model with a weaker processor becomes available at some time in the future, it would probably perform only minimally worse in games, so it correspondingly might be the better choice.
It might be possible to reach a halfway usable runtime with some manual setting adjustments. At least, Asus shows that much longer runtimes are possible with the ROG Strix G16, which is similarly powerful and offers the same battery capacity. By the way, turning of the dGPU did not lead to a noticeable improvement of the results. With the settings used here, mobile usage of the laptop hardly makes any sense, particularly since it was only able to play a Full-HD video in airplane mode for less than 3 hours.
Keyboard and Touchpad Asus ROG Strix G17
The keyboard offers good inputs and is comfortable for extended gaming sessions. The touchpad is responsive and adequately sized. Gamers won’t find themselves struggling with input lag or unresponsive keys.
The lid contains a bright logo that always remains illuminated in white. The bottom also houses a freely configurable RGB bar that can be illuminated together with or independent from the RGB keyboard. In addition, there are letterings and slogans around the case. The large distance between the display and the back of the case with the fan vents appears well thought-out. When the case is closed, all the status LEDs remain visible and the fans continue to work without any hindrance, while you can continue playing your game using an external monitor and desktop keyboard.
The keyboard presents itself as very suitable for gaming. In addition to the full-sized number block and F-keys that are indeed defaulting to their basic functions, the ROG Strix offers five additional keys, which control the performance modes, volume, and microphone. However, you can also configure them with your own macros. The key stroke of almost 1.5 mm (~0.06 in) makes typing very comfortable. We also like the well-adjusted pressure point.
The keyboard illumination doesn’t leave anything to be desired. From the classic rainbow effect up to connecting individual keys to sensor values, to music played, or to colors on the display, the Aura Creator allows you to program any behavior you can think of, even individually for each key and the six elements on the bottom. With the corresponding accessories, you can also extend this to your whole desktop. The touchpad is large, and its hidden keys respond accurately and with well-adjusted pressure points. But usually this won’t matter much as soon as you connect a mouse.
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Connectivity Asus ROG Strix G17
Since the rest of the connections are placed in the back, your desk can be kept comfortably clutter free, even though the ROG Strix can rarely get along completely without any wired connections, as we will show below. The two USB-C connections barely reach 10 Gbit/s, which is just barely sufficient to also start games from an external SSD. We would have liked at least one USB port offering twice or even four times the speed. We see a similar picture with the LAN port: While we currently often find 2.5-Gbit ports, Asus only offers 1 Gbit. This is sufficient, but nothing more.
At least there are three video output ports, but only the first USB-C port supports G-Sync. While a gaming laptop doesn’t need a large variety of connections, the transfer rates of the few connections that are available could have at least turned out higher.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Solid performance across various power profiles.
- More affordable than the Intel-based 2023 Strix G models.
- Good inputs and IO for seamless connectivity.
- Balanced performance for gaming and productivity tasks.
Cons:
- Short battery life: The Strix G17 struggles in this department.
- No card-reader or biometrics: Some users might miss these features.
- Limited display options: Only available with a 16:9 350-nits panel.
Price and Availability
The Strix G17 (RTX 4070 variant) is priced at $2199. While it offers excellent performance, potential buyers should consider the trade-offs, especially if battery life is a priority. If you’re willing to spend more, the Scar 17 models with higher efficiency and better displays might be worth exploring. In summary, the ASUS ROG Strix G17 strikes a balance between power and affordability, making it a worthy contender in the mid-tier gaming laptop market. Gamers seeking raw performance without breaking the bank should definitely give it a closer look.