A year ago around this same time, I had the pleasure of taking the ROG Flow X13 for a spin, during this release cycle, Asus ROG PH hooked me up with the Strix G 2022 refresh powered by the Ryzen 7 6800H coupled with a 3070Ti under the hood. It has a 512GB SSD / 16GB combo with a 300Hz 15″ FHD screen as the cherry on top. This model comes in three colorways with non-replaceable accents of which the one I have is the Eclipse Gray and retails for just under Php120,000.
Device Tour
This device is very thoughtful – it has major ports at the left and rear of the device only; freeing up the right of any connectors and wires that might otherwise hamper the movements of your mouse, which btw, the retail package also comes bundled with (along with a gaming backpack). On the left side there’s two USB Type A ports and a headphone combo jack.
At the back there’s the two USB Type-C ports – one of which supports 100W PD and DisplayOut, an HDMI port, LAN and the AC
When closed, the gap created by the display frame notch at the bottom allows you to see the activity LEDs that are situated on the upper portion of the keyboard deck.
The keyboard has 5 dedicated action keys for media volume, operation mode, as well as the Armoury Crate which can be remapped as M1 to M5 for enhanced functionality.
The trackpad is fairly large – usable but, let’s face it, you won’t be using this much especially for intense gaming sessions… It also comes with the Capacitive NumPad that can be triggered by holding down the NumLk label on it as an added perk, I can imagine using this as a sort of mini Streamdeck if you’re into some configuration magic.
Gaming Cues
Being eSports oriented, the Strix G ticks off all the boxes in terms of making sure you know how serious the game, and your play experience, actually is. It’s eSports equipment right to the very tip of the screen lid. Fine tuned for performance devoid of unnecessary components that make no practical sense during gameplay. The Strix G has so many accents, even on the underside of the device that no matter how you’re carrying it, anyone who sees it will be informed that you’re taking no prisoners once the match is commenced.
The lighting on the ROG logo behind the display has also been updated for a sleeker outline instead of the more traditional full color approach
Overall Aesthetic
Well what can we really say about an ROG device that has per-key RGB and the under-glow wraparound bar? It’s really quite the elevated experience for play, especially if you’re using it on your lap (not that I’d recommend doing this for extended time periods) – the under-glow manages to perceptively “lift” the laptop further giving you more immersion. Even more so if you have Aura tailor fit to your preferred gaming aesthetic, whatever color that might be. I was messing around with Aura Creator but I couldn’t find the “Trigger” function which would make the light pan out from a key that you have just pressed, imagine throwing rocks at a still pond – that sort of thing.
Overall Performance
I noticed the fans do ramp up under load. During the synthetic benchmark from Vray the fans were most audible during the CUDA test and there’s a longer windup durig the RTX test but the sound was a bit different – like it was spinning faster, if that even makes sense. To put that into perspective, during the CUDA test you hear the fan turn up and run whirr that increases in power over time… on the RTX test, its a different sound, much more fluid, like a jet engine if I may say so myself. Silent but you know there’s real power behind it.
Heat is also very well isolated beneath the keyboard deck for every scenario keeping your palms cool and fresh no matter the length of gameplay and the load being processed. Here are the Vray benches which matters most to design professionals and the numbers show a marked difference from the combo I tested out last year. Specifics as follows:
Performance compared to last year’s Flow X13 + XGm
CPU improved 20.74%
GPU CUDA improved 18.42%
3070 Ti vs 3080 RTX saw only a 5.92% difference with the 3080 on top
The ROG Strix G 2022 is a definitive member of this year’s refresh lineup and the numbers speak volumes as to what the machine is capable of – frags, chicken dinners, survival, and every other variation of “victory” that had and will have ever been thought of… in the hands of the capable, the skilled, the lucky… the republic!
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