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Laptops · Asus ROG Zephyrus

Asus ROG Zephyrus G15

6owners with an opinion
60%of verdicts positive
0/1positive/negative since 2024
2 yrslongest happy owner
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for build quality; criticized for reliability and performance.

What people wrote

Doesn’t like it
Well, they may be cheap, but that alone doesn't seem enough to me. I guess different people look for different things. I had a Asus ROG Zephyrus G15, and I'd rank it as one of the worst laptops I've ever owned (edit: don't even think it was that cheap). Including the awesome "feature" that it can't be run in clamshell mode, otherwise it will overheat and shut down. That took a while to debug. I also know of at least 2 other people who were not happy with the thermal performance. They were able to mod it, which is cool (pun intended), but it's disappointing that's even necessary.
Likes it
My experience with KDE has been great, until you start using proprietary drivers / hardware. I got an ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 (solid laptop aside from the spotty keyboard) and it was an absolute nightmare getting the keyboard lighting and the laptop GPU to work reliably with KDE Neon. I ended up just nuking it and restarting with Gnome. Gnome turned out to be a lot more restrictive, but the initial setup load was significantly less than KDE. The graphics card / keyboard LEDs just worked straight out of the box. The new widgets in KDE were pretty cool and very fluid. The desktop state didn't save for me though and any time I rebooted/logged out, everything disappeared from my desktop...
Doesn’t like it
The problem I ran into with a Zephyrus G15 that I owned for a short bit is that it was inanely fussy about GPU drivers. I had the 5900HS/3080 version, and under Windows if I we’re running anything other than the OEM Nvidia drivers, I’d lose 20% GPU performance without a corresponding reduction in heat. Didn’t matter if the drivers came from Nvidia or Windows Update, same problem. What made it worse is that locking the Nvidia drivers to a specific version is not straightforward — if you only lock the main driver with Windows policy manager, Windows Update will update other parts of the Nvidia driver and leave you with drivers that are partially broken. I didn’t try Linux since this machine was intended mostly for gaming. I ended up returning it at the end of its return window, because I don’t have time for a machine that won’t run properly without absurdly specific drivers. Built a gaming tower with the money instead, which has not only been better behaved but doesn’t sound like I’m cooking it alive when I’m running games on it like the G15 did.
Likes it
I do agree ultrabook + powerful desktop is the best combo for most people who actually need a powerful computer. that's what I ran for many years. there are a few reasons why you might want a powerful laptop though, mostly coming down the limitations of remote access. using a GUI over remote kinda sucks imo. even something like text editing is not as smooth as it would be locally. photo/video editing and especially anything 3D (CAD, gaming, etc.) is really painful. there's also the security implications of enabling remote desktop. it's not a showstopper, but it's something I'd rather not worry about for my personal computer. and finally, if you have the money for a powerful desktop and a powerful laptop, why not get both? anyways, I just gave away my old xps 13 and replaced it with a zephyrus g15. it's not nearly as fast as my 9700k + 1080ti desktop, but it runs most games acceptably at 1440p. c++ compilation is very fast, though obviously not comparable to an overclocked 9700k. the portability and overall fit and finish aren't as nice as the xps 13, but now that I'm not taking the laptop everywhere as a student, I don't find it to be much of a compromise.