ASUS ROG Strix G17 – For serious gamers

The ASUS ROG Strix G17 is a seriously impressive gaming machine, packed with powerful hardware and a smooth high-refresh rate display in a rugged, gaming-focused design.

The moment you open the laptop you are greeted by the per-key RGB lighting dancing across the keyboard, accompanied by more RGB lighting at the laptop’s base.

All of these, combined with the overall rugged look of the laptop make for a distinct gaming aesthetic, which is exactly what ASUS aims for with this machine.

When it comes to a gaming machine, however, it’s the hardware that really matters.

The ASUS ROG Strix G17 boasts AMD’s top of the line 8-core Ryzen 9 5900HX processor, which operates between 3.3 and 4.6GHz and provides plenty of power for gaming and creative tasks.

The same goes for the Nvidia RTX 3070 GPU our machine came with, which offers ample frames for seamless gaming sessions.

Combine these with the smooth 300Hz display and its 3ms response time, and you have a machine armed for competitive gaming.

The system’s RAM can be customised up to 32GB DDR4 with 3,200MHz frequency, and there are two M.2 SSD slots inside for expanding storage.

Sturdy build quality

The chassis of the Strix G17 is made up almost completely of plastic, while the lid primarily consists of metal. Overall, it feels extremely sturdy.

One-handed screen opening is easy, and the hinge feels solid up to the last few centimetres before closing.

This new model of the G17 has a smaller footprint than the previous generation and weighs 2.7kg.

While this might be heavy when compared to the latest thin and light laptops, the G17 isn’t intended to accompany you back and forth between work every day.

Yet, for those occasions where you do want to take it along to game on the go, you won’t find it too cumbersome.

One major factor to consider when buying a gaming laptop is thermal performance.

The thermals of both the CPU and GPU in the Strix G17 were stable after hours of running the machine under full stress.

During our tests, the RTX 3070 reached a maximum of 86°C and the Ryzen 9 5900HX – to which ASUS has added a liquid metal thermal compound in the factory – never went over 94°C.

Aided by the four fan outlets, thermal throttling was never a concern.

The stable thermals are enhanced further by the Armory Crate software designed by ASUS itself, which allows for manual overclocking and cooling management and is immediately accessible on the keyboard itself.

Both typing and gaming were comfortable on the keyboard. The keys were responsive and had great tactile feedback, striking a good balance between productive typing and enjoyable gaming.

Overall the keyboard feels high quality and this is only enhanced, of course, by the per-key RGB, which is fully customisable through the Armory Crate software and the added Aura Sync functionality.

One feature we sorely missed was a fingerprint sensor.

In terms of sound quality, the Strix G17 is one of the best on the market.

With powerful speakers, there’s more volume than you would typically use for video, series or movie watching.  Sounds are not only loud but crisp as well, with minimal bass distortion.

Battery life can last up to 10 hours with 1080p video playback, with the added benefit of USB-C power delivery which allows you to charge the laptop with a power bank.

While just browsing and doing some office work, we got around 8 hours of battery.

With heavy loads such as gaming you’re looking at about 1.5 hours, though ideally you would game with the laptop plugged into the wall.

The fans on the machine can get quite loud and even in silent mode you will hear them slightly.

Notwithstanding, fan noise is a near-inconsequential trade-off for the excellent thermal performance of the device.

There is a wide selection of ports on this machine, with three USB-A, one USB-C, 3.5mm Audio Jack, Ethernet and HDMI 2.0 input.

The USB-C port features Power Delivery and DisplayPort output capabilities, but does not come with Thunderbolt support.

Positioning the majority of ports on the back of the device was a great choice by ASUS, avoiding cable clutter and congestion on your desk.

Pricing and specifications

The ASUS ROG Strix G17 gaming laptop is available at R47,999 from Evetech.

Below are the specifications and more images of this powerful gaming laptop.

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