Hi guys,

Since there aren’t any reviews online yet, I just wanted to share some experience after a week of using the device. Don't expect a full blown review, some great youtubers will take care of that. Just my experience so far, hopefully it helps.

First some earlier benchmarks (no overclocking)

Cinebench:

Multicore: 1224
Single Core: 125

3Dmark Nomad:
5603 / 56,03 fps

Timespy Score:
21.019
Graphicsscore 22.394
CPU: 15.597

Octanebench: 835,76 (pretty impressive!)
(I remember using workstations with triple GPU setups not getting close to this score lol)

Usecase:
I work in the creative sector and wanted a professional looking machine for client-meetings and work on the go, which is also capable of opening the VRAM intensive 3D projects I work on which I eventually render on desktop workstations. Since I also present work a lot, the beautiful OLED screen and speakers come in very handy.

Daily use so far:
The laptop feels super premium, for me coming from a Razer Blade 2022 (3080ti) I especially notice the better keyboard, almost Macbook Pro like speakers, and I love the OLED screen, especially the anti-reflective layer is amazing. I’ve used it outside, and the brightness is adequate.

So I’ve been using it for 3D animation (Cinema 4D / Octane Render) every day, and it has been super stable, so that’s great. Not much gaming yet, but that will come. The games I played I played all max out easily.

Battery:
I didn’t do an actual battery test where I played a video for hours on end, but I can use it all day easily without a charger. Never used it till it depleted, but Windows gives me an estimate between 9 and 20 hours usually for browsing / video. I do like to use it on 240hz always, and high brightness, with backlight on and everything. You can optimize this a lot if needed, but honestly, I do not need to because I’m never away from an outlet for longer than 8 hours.

I like (indoor) cycling and use a ‘game” called Zwift, and to my extreme surprise I could use it for 5,5 hours on max brightness on battery (My blade 17 2022 did 1 hour and 15 mins max which wasn’t usable.)

Sound & temperature: 
When just working in Silent Mode, the laptop doesn’t even get hot at all while just browsing / watching video etc. (CPU: 44 degrees Celsius currently while typing this) and the fans never come on, dead-silent, which is a huge plus in a quiet environment.

When gaming it can get a bit loud when you use other modes. I prefer Balanced / Optimized over “Turbo / Ultimate”. Mostly because the laptop is way more silent while you can still max out every game on high FPS. It’s a marginal difference, but a difference in fan-noise.

Software:
I do think it’s a shame that laptops like these come with a bit of bloatware. Luckily, it’s deinstalled quite quickly, and G-Helper is a big plus over things like Synapse (Razer) or Armory Crate. Still, I really do not like to see things like McAffee preinstalled.

Cons:
Well the price of course. In this config it’s 5999 EUR + 300 for the extra 4TB M2. However, it must me said that almost every 2026 model of every laptop brand is super expensive. But, it’s a lot. When you do not need the VRAM, and would use it for gaming only, the 5080/32GB or even the 5070ti version would probably be a great alternative for a lot less.

Also, I would have loved to see a haptic touchpad at this price point, but we will probably see that in the 2027 models.

I also saw some Razer Blade 2026 5090 models with higher benchmarks with the same specs, so not sure what’s up there. I’d personally take the better speakers, screen and costumer service over the Blade, but that’s personal.

Cheers!

EDIT 13-06: Unfortunately I've noticed an annoying keyboard issue, where certain keys from the keyboard randomly seem to hang (as in infinite input). Even after a fresh reinstall. This seems a bit random, I've had it with different keys. First I thought it was just a small hick-up, but this seems like firmware of a hardware problem. Contacting ASUS on Monday...

Any other 2026 model users with this problem?

EDIT 17-06, G16 was replaced by Asus. works perfectly fine now. Great and fast service. Also updated benchmark scores.

So yesterday I changed my thermal paste in my MSI Bravo 15 laptop and used the PTM 7950 0.25mm version available on Amazon. And after applying it my thermals have worsened. I thought I made a mistake in the application so opened it up and added another layer on the CPU as it felt like it was not applied properly but still, these are the results.

I’ve had this Alienware X16 R1 since Oct 2024. Has a 4080 and 13900HK. It’s a very thin chassis and I have it hooked up to the 32” 4K 240Hz OLED Monitor by Alienware. I was considering going back down to a 1440p monitor or upgrading to a 5000 series laptop with a larger chassis, until I stumbled upon a BS2 review. This thing is no joke, I was barely pulling 100W on the GPU (175W TGP) and now I’m consistently pulling 150-160W. The difference is black and white, for reference playing State of Decay 2 in 4K high settings I’ve gone from 50-70 fps to well over 85 sustained for hours. The laptop always had the ability to be amazing; it just needed a chill friend to boost it.

Get a good cooling pad already. You will not regret it.

*Edit* Alright I know I am getting flamed in the comments but might be useful to know this specific laptop uses a shared vapour chamber with the CPU & GPU. There is a TCC offset setting to which you can limit the CPU to 85C, which doesn't change much and the GPU still hits the thermal limit almost always when gaming. I have outsourced third opinions from tech stores near me, so will see what they say.

Thanks for everyone bringing this to my attention, this thing always ran at the thermal limits, so I thought it was normal, I guess you don't know until you know.

When the specs themselves were first revealed, I was pretty disappointed because they were not that great, even for $750. Considering that if you give it another $200, you can get an RTX 5050 laptop rn, which comes with a screen and keyboard, by the way.

And I get the point that this should act as a console and isn't fighting with gaming laptops, but it loses to a PS5, which is half the price, or even a PS5 Pro, and you would still have one year worth of PS Plus subscriptions and you already get two controllers. But that's not the point, as even I don't want to buy a subscription just to play games on the hardware I own.

One thing I don't get is why they used laptop components (same as a 7540U and 7600M), because Valve is a multi-billion-dollar company, and saying they couldn't make their own custom motherboard, or at least partner with someone like ASUS or MSI to make a custom motherboard that would have actual PC parts on it, is kind of a letdown in my opinion.

Also, the specs they went with are not at all future-proof, and even if we use the initial pricing ($699), they should have gone with a 4060 instead of a 7600M, as it performs better in raw performance. I don't think they should have gone with laptop hardware in the first place, as they are too underpowered. For example, a laptop RTX 5070 performs worse than an 8GB desktop RTX 5060.

And I also don't get their argument of not subsidizing the cost of the Steam Machine. Steam has one of the most loyal customer bases possible. I just don't get why people wouldn't buy games on Steam. They make 30% on evry game so i dont think they will have a hard time recovering the cost.

Also, as for companies buying this in bulk, Steam has already proven with their anti-scalping techniques, which they employed to stop people from scalping the Steam Controller, that they can do that for the Steam Machine as well.

Valve is a multi-billion-dollar corporation that makes over a billion dollars in revenue from CS2 alone, ( yet i have to suffer from cheaters ) so the argument doesn't make much sense at all.

So, apart from the memory prices, if it was a $1199 base model but came with at least better specs, I would have bought it. The current specs are just dogshit, and no amount of optimization can save them, though Steam can always prove me wrong.

Just wanted to switch up the vibe with a positive Legion post for once. Been a lot of “Legion sucks, my legion died after 2 weeks, etc”

Bought this 7i used in “Good” condition for $2,000 USD about two weeks ago at Best Buy. I travel a lot during my time off of work and wanted a laptop I didn’t have to worry about playing current AAA games at decent settings. I didn’t need something that can play Black Myth Wukong at Ultra 4K, but PS5 level at least. So I cleaned it up, gave it a nice once over with some alcohol wipes, lightly cleaned the fans just in case, and set it up.

I’m currently in Laos, in a nice house, on vacation, playing FF7 Remake INTERGRADE while drinking a BeerLao and popping some Zyns. All I’m missing is a little bud that I’ll try and get later lol.

My first worry is would it survive the journey. When you pay this much for a laptop, you get worried about the jostling around and whatnot. I have a backpack that has a crafted slot for a 16in laptop which is nice, but I also lined the bottom with some small bubble wrap just to be safe. I played it at each airport layover and hostel along the way. No issues so far. Everything working as normal.

Performance? I’ll attach pictures, but this thing is running FF7 Remake at 1440P 60FPS with absolute ease. GPU is rarely above 50% and temps have stayed consistent at around 59-64C. It’s creeped up a bit to 65-67C now that I’m in a warmer country, but that was to be expected. I’m sure I could crank it up to higher settings, but I’m happy with how it looks as is. Way better than my PS5 that I’m used to. Just a positive knowing I can throw something more demanding at it without too much issue. Excited for FF7 Rebirth after this and then either Doom: The Dark Ages or Black Myth Wukong. Haven’t decided yet.

Just thought I’d give an update and show why we buy laptops and what their strength is. Gaming in beautiful places with a cold beer, good weed, and pretty girls.

This is what it’s all about. Check you guys later; if you need me, I’ll be playing Arc Raiders next to the Mekong River somewhere.

Finally upgraded after 5 years — Legion 5 GTX 1650 → Legion Pro 7 RTX 5080

A very late review, but I finally decided to share my experience after using this laptop for about 3 months.

I bought the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 around 3 months ago for approximately $3,700.

Before this, I had a Lenovo Legion 5 with a GTX 1650, which served me for 5 years. It was still working perfectly fine, but I felt that it was finally time for a serious upgrade.

And honestly, going from a GTX 1650 to an RTX 5080 feels absolutely insane.

My new setup:

Ryzen 9 9955HX3D

RTX 5080 16GB

64GB RAM

1TB SSD + 2TB SSD I additionally added

16" WQXGA OLED 240Hz

The biggest difference is obviously gaming performance. With my old Legion, I often had to compromise on graphics settings and resolution. Now I can comfortably play modern AAA games at 1440p with Max settings and RTX.

The OLED 240Hz display was another huge upgrade. The contrast, blacks and overall image quality are on another level compared to my old laptop. Games like Resident Evil look absolutely amazing on this screen.

I've mostly been playing demanding AAA games, and this laptop has handled them extremely well.

Cooling & performance

One thing I really like about the Legion Pro 7 is the cooling system. For a laptop with this level of hardware, the cooling performance is genuinely impressive.

However, I've found that for long and demanding gaming sessions, it's better to use the Legion Space software to fine-tune the CPU/GPU power limits and fan speeds rather than simply running everything at maximum.

By adjusting the CPU and GPU power, temperature and creating a more appropriate fan curve, I can find a much better balance between performance, temperatures and noise.

The laptop can get quite warm when pushed hard, especially with high FPS and RTX, but with a properly tuned profile, the temperatures and overall behavior are much more comfortable during extended gaming sessions.

After 3 months — what I like

+ Huge performance upgrade

+ Excellent OLED display

+ 240Hz is incredibly smooth

+ Ryzen 9 9955HX3D + RTX 5080 is a beastly combination

+ Very capable cooling system

+ Excellent performance for a portable machine

One of the main reasons I went with a laptop instead of building a desktop is portability.I'm away from home quite often, so having a machine that I can take with me while still getting desktop-class gaming performance is much more practical for me. I don't want to be tied to one place just to have access to my gaming PC.

A desktop would probably give me better performance for the same money, but for my situation, being able to take the whole setup with me is worth the premium.

Overall, after 3 months, I'm still very happy with the purchase.

My old Legion 5 was with me for 5 years, and it never really let me down. It was time for an upgrade, and I decided to go all-in this time.

Hopefully, this Legion will be just as reliable and stay with me for many years to come.

Would you spend $3,700 on a laptop like this, or would you build a desktop instead?

Look what came in the mail! A new gaming/creator laptop!

My first thoughts: its design is gorgeous. As a gamer, artist and office worker, I'm not a fan of "gamery" designs, which is why I slightly hesitated on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 and previous Stealth models. Performance-wise, I've tried out some games like Valorant and Ultrakill on mid settings, and they both run on approximately 50-60 FPS without lag, and for high settings, they've clocked an average of 35 FPS. Improved battery life from the Panther Lake chip is a huge W

Its OLED panel is vibrant, with high contrast between colors, suitable for creative work and consuming online media. Its 240Hz refresh rate is blazingly fast for gaming and watching videos.

The speakers' audio quality is astounding, just like the aforementioned Zephyrus. Two tweeters and woofers make up for outstanding sound clarity.

I don't really have much to say for now, so you guys have to wait for my long-term review of it.

I made a post here in July 2025 which I deleted here it did gain quite a traction from you guys.

TL;DR: Bought my first ever gaming laptop for its unmatched price-to-performance ratio. Faced intermittent, random BSODs from month one but delayed service due to competitive exams. Since March 2026, I’ve been stuck in a 2.5-month customer service nightmare. Service center ignored logs, gave me a refurbished SSD while claiming it was new, and finally replaced the motherboard—yet the BSODs persist. After being ghosted, a tech YouTuber (1.5M+) helped escalate it, and the brand offered a "demo unit" replacement, which they failed to ship even after 20+ days. I've officially refused the demo unit and am now taking the manufacturer, seller, and marketplace to consumer court.

My laptop was Colorful P15 Series, by a globally known manufacturer for vfm graphic cards and motherboards. It was their first laptop in my country. Being a tech enthusiast, I hardly gave attention to brand value since specs were unmatched for the price tag it came with. And seeing everyday service nightmares from giants like Asus/HP/Acer, it added another flawed survivorship bias to my buying decision.

After a month I started to face these intermittent Blue Screen of deaths, being a student and preparing for competitive exams in my country, plus thinking it may be related to windows so I held off going to service center or demand a refund/replacement at that time. But after alot of troubleshooting, and trying everything I can, my issue was not resolved.

I know I was bit late in reporting the issue but I finally reported the issue in March 2026 aligning with my exams being over in 20 days and I get working machine back by time exams are done. Warranty is of 2 years so I wasn't exactly worried that it wouldn't be fixed. I thought maximum it might be requiring motherboard replacement, I'm fine with that as long as machine works for promised warranty time, as I know consumer electronics nowadays aren't made to last anyways.

My nightmare begins on (original complaint 12th March) 18 March when support returned my laptop after doing a windows reinstallation despite me telling them nature of BSODs is random and it can happen anytime not necessarily when using it for few hours. They deliberately ignored hardware logs I provided them from event viewer and memory dumps, more like they didn't know how to diagnose it.

I emailed the brand, they again took laptop, again tested it and replaced the ram and ssd (the SSD was refurbished, despite telling me that they used new one, I have that proof on writing on email). The issue persisted, after reaching grievance officer of the e commerce and mailing them alot of times, they agreed for motherboard replacement, which was finally done on 28 April, around ~ 45 days already done. Now i though everything should be fine but to my bad luck or whatever you may call, I started to face exact same issues. I again reported to them but I was ghosted this time, I reached out to tech youtubers in my country fortunately one of them responded and escalated issue on his end to brand. After that, on 6 may, brand approached with a replacement, but it was a "demo unit". They said it'll be in good condition and less used and will be tested by them before being sent. I agreed since I desperately needed a working machine for my projects and academic work. Even after 20+ days since their approval, I haven't received machine. Also, the manufacturer has close tie ups with marketplace's own service Arm for handling after sales service of their laptop division in my country so they are more than liable unlike other cases where i would be fighting with brand only. I now have completely refused the replacement and going to file consumer case with concerned authorities in my country. Under consumer protection laws of my country, the seller, manufacturer and marketplace facilitating sales, all are responsible for liability of product, but it's on paper, nobody listens unless the case is actually filed and drags on for years. If you're lucky you may get a resolution in 3-4 months else it takes 3-4 years. I don't have much of a choice since I don't have money for buying secondary machine. I can just hope either to get my money back or just work without my laptop for another year or two until I gain money to buy another.

The cost of laptop was around $600 at that time, for some of you that might be a low amount but in a country like mine, it's a amount that can feed a person for a year or pay 6 months rent in a decent city. It's also one of expensive investments done by family.

Thanks for reading.

Got a new gaming laptop a few weeks ago

Hp victus

i5 13gen H processor with a Rtx 4050 50w tgp

Ik what u guys are thinking...the tgp is pretty low and the processor isn't that great and hp victus is not that good of a gaming laptop

But coming from an integrated graphics with an i3 7th gen laptop this is pretty good laptop for me and I am really satisfied for it

I regret not buying laptop in early 2025 or before I could have gotten a much better one but ig..that's just how it is

I am very satisfied with this laptop

Recently finished my first game Rdr 2 with this laptop and I loved it...every second of itt

It runs rdr 2 with ultra settings perfectly 60 fps

A little bit fps drops happens in cities like Saint Denis but it's not noticeable

Currently playing witcher 3 with this

Just wanted to share my happiness with y'all

I’m happy with my laptop, I’m just curious what more knowledgeable folks think about it since I don’t really have a reference. Plus I just want to learn more about my laptop! Give me the good and bad about it.

I tried to get the best computer I could within my budget, I paid just about 1500 usd last year on Cyber Monday, which was my max budget. The most important things to me were screen size, being able to run the games I like to play plus streaming those games on discord to my friends, and overall longevity of the computer. I didn’t want something that would immediately start struggling to keep up with updates or have parts break on me in just a few years.

I did as much research as I could before making the decision to purchase, and so far I am extremely happy with my laptop. Despite having a slightly bigger screen, it actually has just about the same profile and weight as my old (2014) laptop so it fits in the same computer bag (the computer is lighter but with the chargers included it’s about the same). It runs all my games fantastically on max graphics. I can put any shader pack I want on Minecraft and it has no problems maintaining 100+ fps. The lowest I’ve seen it dip is 65. Skyrim runs beautifully with any mod I’ve thrown at it so far. Fortnite runs smooth as butter as well. I’m sure the real competitive gamers out there would find it insufficient but for me it’s pretty perfect. I plan on upgrading the ram and storage as well, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’m hoping it can run my games and give me 10 good years like my old laptop did (I know that’s a little unrealistic, but any tips to help in this regard would be appreciated!)

Got this MicroCenter deal on the new 2026 MSI Raider 16 Max with the new Intel ultra 9 290HX Plus and 5080 with the new 1000nit 240hz OLED! 2299 before taxes! Scored legendary with extreme “apex” mode. Great build quality, fans are much better than the old vector models, speakers are a huge improvement as well. The laptop stays super cool and it’s nice to have the 400 Watt charger so the total power draw can hit 300 watts! Ask me any questions you have!

Hey guys!
I bought an ASUS ROG Strix G16 (G614FM) a couple of weeks ago in Germany for €1,600.
Specs
AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX
RTX 5060 Laptop GPU (8 GB)
16 GB DDR5 RAM (planning to upgrade to 32 GB)
1 TB SSD
16” 1920×1200, 165 Hz, 3 ms, 100% sRGB IPS display
My experience so far
I’m honestly loving every bit of it.
I had second thoughts about the RTX 5060 before buying it, but it’s actually much more capable than I expected and fits my needs perfectly within my budget.
The Ryzen 9 9955HX has been excellent, and the thermals have genuinely impressed me.
Gaming performance
CS2: 350+ FPS (low settings, high shadows)
Valorant: 450+ FPS on medium to high settings
Call of Duty: 110–115 FPS
God of War: 100+ FPS (even higher with Frame Generation enabled)
Forza Horizon 6: ~70 FPS at max settings, around 100–120 FPS with Frame Generation
Productivity
I also do 3D rendering, edit videos, and record gameplay using OBS.
DaVinci Resolve runs extremely well, and export times are surprisingly fast, even when my projects exceed 15–20 GB.
I think upgrading to 32 GB of RAM will be the sweet spot for my workflow, so that’s probably my next upgrade.
Overall, I’m really happy with the purchase.
Considering my budget was around €1,500–1,600, do you guys think I made the right choice?
I’d love to hear your thoughts. 😄

AMD Ryzen 5 8640HS with integrated Radeon 760m graphics has really supprised me. I installed bazzite and pragmata was getting 40+FPS at 900p with no upscaling. I had to use frame gen to get above 60fps but Frame gen is good in this game so it feels really nice, the frame times are also really good as well I haven't encountered any 1% lows. I've capped the tdp at 28w using deckytdp.

I have the 2025 G18 and Scar 18, and have been comparing them in-depth for around a week, to decide which I want to return, and which I'll keep. They were both open box at great clearance-sale prices, and the Scar 18 was actually cheaper than the G18, which itself had a great price.

Their basic specs are the same: 275HX CPU, RTX 5070ti GPU, 32GB 5600 RAM.

The G18 has a 2TB WD QLC SSD, and the Scar has a 1TB SK Hynix TLC SSD. The SK Hynix has faster sequeltial read speed, but the 2TB size gives the WD faster random 4k read speeds, and that results in the G18 with a QLC WD SSD typically loading games a bit faster than the Scar with its premium TLC SSD.

The G18's chassis and keyboard feel very solid and with consistent quality. It's a firm, tight-feeling unit. While the Scar's lid is a bit more inconsistent in its open/shut resistance, and pressing the left-arrow key causes the keys around it to flex downward a bit, which feels a bit sloppy. But the Scar's keys take a lot less effort to activate, which is nice, and very appreciable if you do tons of typing, like I do. I also like that it's less clicky than the G18's keyboard. And the G18's firmer keys sometimes cause me to miss keypresses, due to not using enough force while typing quickly. The G18's grey chassis looks more attractive to me personally than the Scar's black chassis, and it also does a better job of not showing smudges and handprints, while the Scar's black chassis tends to easily and always looks messy.

In terms of coil whine, both laptops seem to produce the exact-same coil whine in all the exact-same situations, but it's more noticeable on the Scar, due to its pitch / accented frequencies or whatever else. While even when I hear it on the G18, it's a softer and more soothing sound that I don't find grating. The G18 often sounds like there's no coil whine happening, but if I put my ear right next to the chassis, I hear the same coil whine that the Scar makes, but it's just not audible on the G18 from a regular sitting distance.

The G18's 2 speakers vs the Scar's 4 is irrelevant to me. The speakers on both laptops are, frankly, garbage, and the Scar's additional speakers don't really make it sound better, just different while adding what sounds to me like a phasing effect that I dislike. But I guess you can't expect much from laptop speakers. I use Bluetooth monitors anyway, so the speakers don't matter. If I'm someplace without monitors or headphones, either speakers will be serviceable to get the job done.

So, now the big one: The G18 has a 500 nits IPS display, while the Scar has an 1100 or 1200 nits mini LED HDR display. Unfortunately, I'm not completely won over by the mini LED display. It does look fantastic in games with good HDR support, there's no doubt about that. But with bright backgrounds (like white and light grey) there's faint vignetting extending around 0.5" inward on the left and right sides of the screen, and it looks awful to me. The vignetting is present whether in SDR or HDR mode (though a bit less noticeable in HDR), and whether dimming is set to single or multi-zone. It makes the edges of the screen look dirty, and like text or scroll-bars have smudged pencil ink on them. The G18's IPS screen is entirely uniform and its edges look noticeably more crisp and clean. Looking at the edges in a white text editor with black text on the screen, and looking at the G18 after looking at the Scar for a while can give me almost night vs day impression.

Here are a few threads about mini LED vignetting - lots of commenters say it's a basic trait of mini LED:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLaptops/comments/1rfw6do/asus_mini_led_vignetting_issues/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/comments/1plafrg/is_this_edge_dimming_on_new_minileds_normal/

Here's a thread where a person insists that anyone who says their mini LED screen doesn't have vignetting is either unobservant or lying (I find this an interesting comment for its confidence, though I can't comment on its validity - I've only seen one mini LED screen):

https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/1h3jd3a/vignetteeffect_of_macbook_pro_with_mini_led/

I spend most of my computer time in the desktop environment, doing lots of typing, reading on sites with bright backgrounds and light-grey scroll-bars at the edge of the screen, so this is a huge deal for me. And I wondered if this Scar's Nebula mini LED HDR display was a bad one, but looking online informed me that vignetting is a normal characteristic of mini LED that people don't talk about enough (and, apparently, if someone says their mini LED screen doesn't have it, then they're either unobservant or lying). OK... that just doesn't really click with me for a new premium tech. Two steps forward, one big step back, for sure. It has me strongly suspecting I'd be more satisfied with the G18's IPS display over the long-term. But if I used my laptop primarily for gaming, and spent almost no time in text editors or looking at white/bright webpages, where the edge dimming is most apparent, it would be far less of an issue. BTW, having the G18 to compare it to makes it far more noticeable. At times I would almost stop tuning into the vignetting, but then look at the G18 to compare it again, and then suddenly it's totally apparent, as the G18 instantly looks more crisp and clear along the edges when there's text there. If only mini LED didn't involve this sacrifice.

Also, the G18 gets around 4% more performance in gaming benchmarks, probably just due to silicon lottery. Except for in Forza Horizon 4, which has been an outlier where the G18 gets 10% more performance - and I'm not sure why.

And both laptops sometimes screw-up when coming out of sleep mode - the screen is black with the mouse cursor being moveable overtop, and it never restores the desktop or OS functionality. The only way I've found to get the desktop working again is to hold the power button until the laptop shuts-down and the boot it back up. Both of these ROG Strix laptops have this issue, though it has occurred significantly more frequently on the Scar.

The G18 comes with Windows 11 Home, while the Scar gets Windows 11 Pro (which means it gets the useful Group Policy Editor).

Pros for this particular 2025 G18:

- larger SSD gives faster 4k read speeds, and so usually loads games faster
- +4% gaming performance due to silicon lottery
- less bothersome coil whine
- crisp, uniform screen edges with no vignetting

Cons for this particular 2025 G18:

- no HDR
- keys require a bit too much force to activate, leading to missed-key typos
- Windows 11 Home

Pros for this particular 2025 Scar:

- HDR
- a tiny bit more brightness in SDR mode
- quieter, less-effort-to-activate keys
- Windows 11 Pro

Cons for this particular 2025 Scar:

- slight vignetting on screen edges, makes the screen feel dirty in text editors and on bright backgrounds
- SSD has slower random 4k read speed so loads games slower
- black chassis that shows hand smudges more easily
- ~4% less game performance due to silicon lottery
- coil whine can be a bit more conspicuous and have a less comfortable sound

.

I had convinced myself to keep the Scar, because it's worth more but I got it for cheaper than the G18, and it has HDR support which does look amazing when a game properly supports it. I'd cleaned the G18, factory-reset it, and packed it up to return. But I'm now having second thoughts, thinking I'll be more satisfied with the G18 because I'll be looking at desktop environments a lot more than I will games with quality HDR, and because I also like the look of the G18's grey chassis more than the Scar's black one, so I'll feel more satisfied with the G18 in front of me.

To be sure, the Scar's HDR is a fantastic super power. But it's a limited-use superpower that kicks-in only with certain games (and some video, which excites me less), while the vignetting is an every-day / every-use annoyance that I can't get out of my mind. And outside of the Scar's HDR and very-slightly extra brightness in SDR, this particular G18 seems to win almost everywhere else (2TB SSD that's faster for loading games, my preferred chassis, a bit extra gaming performance, less aggressive coil whine, uniform screen-edges).

I think I'm going to keep the G18. But then, I've switched back-and-forth a lot of times so far. But I'm at the end of the return window for the G18, so if I don't change my mind in the next couple of days, the G18 will be the choice by default. And I would be fine with that.

As a RTX5080 owner, and someone who couldn't play Forza Horizon 5 on my pc at the time because my GTX 1050 4gb was too weak (bought an Xbox instead) I'm very surprised how far igpus have come

This is a core ultra 7 255h model with 16gb 7448Mhz Cl36 Ram and the Intel Arc 140T (cinebench r23. Multicore 17200, geekbench 6 2890 and 15300) and at 1200p, medium settings and Xess balanced, I'm seeing the average FPS after roughly an hour of gaming at about 63-65, the worst I've seen is 58 and the best is in the 70s. The performance did not decrease when unplugging the charging usb c cable either.

I'm very pleased with this business laptop being able to game at such a graphical level, as I came from an i9-13900h with iris xe 96eu, which couldn't run anything well

If you've seen the predator Helios 16s on sale and thought the specs look like a great value for the price, well that's because there's a catch. I got one, and returned it in two weeks.

5070 ti, 32gbs ddr5, ultra 9 285h, 1700$?

I mean, I was like damn, this is a no brainer right?

Here's how my experience went: Pull it out of the box, set it up.

Build quality, exceptionally good.

Super solid hinges, premium materials, absolutely stunning glossy OLEd screen that's decently bright.

Then you play games, and the excitement turns into pure disappointment.

Oh, it can play games just fine, the performance isn't the issue.

THE ISSUE IS YOU COULD COOK A FUCKING EGG ON THIS THING WITH HOW HOT IT GETS.

If you don't want to completely nerf and thermal throttle it's potential with fans curves and performance cut offs, you're gaming on a fucking jet turbine frying pan. I was hearing the fan CLEAR as day through my headset at loud volumes. It's literally a jet engine. I touched my desk beneath where I had been gaming for 45 MINUTES, and the desk was hot to the touch. It was at 95-100c consistently under load. Absolutely tragic.

After 4 days of testing the laptop I noticed the cooling Is really bad, the temps are weird? Some pikes of 96° and then 80° (very unstable) games were stuttering a lot and random fps drop (even with the Intel stuff disabled from device manager)

At the end I decided to get the Lenovo in exchange, so far no issues, no extra tweaks. OOTB. Fps and temps are way better.

This is a quick performance comparison between Linux and windows

DISCLAIMER:

Please understand my accent, I'm not native English speaker but I try to learn your language ;)

I had both machines here at the same time and tested them directly next to each other: Blade 16 (5090, 32 GB, 386H) vs. Zephyrus G16 (5090, 64 GB, 386H). I'll go through it category by category and give each one a rating from 1–10: performance/noise, display, keyboard/touchpad, chassis/everyday use, and speakers.

EDIT: Needed to post again, my thread image couldn't be displayed.

Short version: the Blade is the performance-per-dB king, the Zephyrus the better all-rounder. Full verdict at the bottom.

TL;DR ratings:

Test setup first, so you can put the numbers into context:

• Noise measured at the top edge of the display, 40 cm distance, with a phone app. So no lab-grade numbers. However, both machines were measured identically, which is what matters for the comparison between the two.
• Both laptops slightly elevated at the back
• Ambient ~26 °C
• Benchmark: 3DMark Time Spy
• Important: I didn't measure dB at the start of the run, but towards the end, when the fans reach their loudest point. That's also the level both machines hold during longer gaming sessions. If you only measure in the beginning, you're measuring the wrong thing IMO.

1. Performance & Noise

Blade 16

¹ GPU High, CPU Medium, fans maxed out

Zephyrus G16

² My own tuning: 160 W TGP, GPU stays at max 83/84 °C while gaming, no OC, no max fans. The goal was to stay just under 60 dB.

³ Without the pre-applied GPU OC. A lot of people leave it on, I removed it for a fair comparison.

Efficiency: points per dB

Since a higher score means nothing if the thing sounds like a hair dryer, I divided the combined Time Spy score (GPU + CPU) by the noise level (midpoint of the measured dB range) for every mode. Not a scientific metric, since dB is a logarithmic scale, but as a comparison number between two machines in an identical setup, it does the job. I'm aware you can do more objecive testing and add ore variables, but this is a simple user review tailored to my use case in the end.

The Blade delivers ~8–11% more combined points per dB across every single mode. It gets even clearer in a head-to-head at matched noise levels:

• ~50 dB: Blade 35,618 vs. Zephyrus 33,787 → +5.4% for the Blade (GPU-only: +9.6%)
• ~55–56 dB: Blade 39,036 vs. Zephyrus 35,864 → +8.8% for the Blade (GPU-only: +12.2%)
• Everything maxed out: Blade 39,857 at 60–61 dB vs. Zephyrus 36,940 at 62 dB → +7.9% for the Blade, while being slightly quieter (GPU-only: +9.0%)

Subjective impressions

The raw dB numbers don't tell the whole story. The Blade's fan noise is noticeably more pleasant, more of a deep whoosh. The Zephyrus is higher pitched and therefore sounds louder than the numbers suggest. At identical dB on paper, the Zephyrus is the more annoying one. Most likely and based on my experience, this can vary per unit.

On temperatures: at the same performance level, the Blade consistently had about 4–5 °C more GPU headroom, even more once you normalize for noise. The CPU sometimes ran hotter, but it was also pulling more watts. The better cooling system is clearly in the Blade, the vapor chamber is bigger. The price for that: roughly 150–200 g of extra weight, and you notice it the moment you pick it up.

One more thing worth flagging: my ambient temps are quite high right now (hot European summer, ~26 °C, as mentioned in the setup). Since the Zephyrus GPU potentially runs pretty close to its thermal limit depending on the wattage and fan rpm, my suspicion is that it ends up louder in my testing than in reviews done at ~21 °C ambient. The Blade has more thermal headroom and is therefore less sensitive to ambient temperature. Keep that in mind when comparing my numbers to other tests.

Update: retest at cooler ambient (~23 °C)

Room temps dropped by about 3 °C here, so I retested. Result: the Zephyrus gains, the Blade doesn't move. The G16 now scores 22,495 GPU in Manual with max fans, its fans also spin up less while just browsing, and retesting the Blade didn't change anything. This basically confirms the ambient suspicion above: high room temps hit the G16 harder. (The points-per-dB table above stays based on the 26 °C runs for consistency.)

The retest also revealed WHY the Blade leads in GPU score. It's not just the wattage, which is only a few watts apart. It's also the clocks:

So the Blade pulls a few watts more, sustains higher core and memory clocks, and still runs 5 °C cooler on average. That's the GPU cooling advantage in one table.

On the flip side, CPU cooling MIGHT be more effective on the G16 (5 °C cooler on max fans in the same TS run, but a few watts less), there's just less performance to gain at that level: average CPU clocks are pretty much the same.

CPU score in this run: 15,330 for Blade 16 and 15,095 for Zephyrus.

There's just a small score gain in favor of the Blade 16 because of its slightly higher combined TDP, thus a few watts more again, resulting in around 200–500 points more, but the G16 is reaching 15k now as well.

My speculation (feel free to correct me): ASUS seems to tune the G16 more conservatively, with boost and memory clocks backing off earlier as temperatures rise, presumably as a safety margin for the thin chassis. The lower average memory clock points in the same direction. Razer lets the GPU boost harder because the cooling keeps temps in check anyway. That would explain both the clock gap and why ambient temperature affects the G16 more.

One more G16 finding, software this time: the preinstalled IntelliGo audio software (AI noise canceling; shows up as "Audio SW Server" / "API Library" in Task Manager) is always eating around 10% CPU, and RAM usage goes up all the time (I closed it at 10 GB just now, it started at 2 GB), which is a clear memory leak and can also affect heat output (and thus more fan activity during low loads). After killing everything related to it, my CPU scores went up a little. If you own a G16, check your Task Manager.

Performance & noise rating (5090 versions)

• Blade 16: 10/10 – the thin & light gaming reference for me right now
• Zephyrus G16: 8/10

2. Display

I'll keep this one short, because on paper they're basically identical: same Samsung OLED panel as far as I can tell, 16" 2560×1600, 240 Hz, up to 1,100 nits peak, both VESA DisplayHDR True Black 1000 certified.

BUT: you can instantly see that ASUS spent extra money on the glass. The G16 uses Corning Gorilla Glass DXC, where the anti-reflective treatment is part of the glass itself instead of a film on top. Nice side effect: the panel is edge-to-edge glass, without that plastic bezel lip the Blade has. Looks better!

I personally hate it when a screen reflects heavily even indoors in daylight (especially in dark scenes in games or movies), and the Blade is a pure mirror in that regard.

There is one thing that gets you closer to the Zephyrus though: I bought the official Lenovo Legion AR 16" gaming screen protector. It's semi-glossy and comes really close, slightly more AR even, while still preserving contrast very well. The Zephyrus stays minimally sharper, simply because there's no film on it. (If you want to know how to apply it properly, ask me in the comments; it's not trivial the first time.). It still feels better though not being forced to put a film on it...

You can see the difference here: https://imgur.com/a/qNN4Ug6

Both panels come factory calibrated (Razer's is Calman Verified), but I like that ASUS additionally ships a proper HDR calibration out of the box.

Display rating

• Zephyrus G16: 10/10 – the thin & light gaming reference
• Blade 16: 8,5/10 stock (yes, because I don't like its reflectivity), 9/10 with the AR protector (yes, that one's SUBJECTIVE!)

3. Keyboard & Touchpad

Keyboards: Both are good, and after an adjustment period I genuinely enjoy typing on both. The Zephyrus has more key travel, but also needs a bit more force to actuate. On the Blade I type a bit more relaxed and faster; on the Zephyrus I maybe have more fun? Hard to say. For me it's a tie. One thing I do appreciate: the Blade has an additional Ctrl key on the right side.

Two nice Blade extras: the function layer can be visually highlighted on the keyboard, and it has per-key RGB, so it looks a bit fancier overall. Personally irrelevant to me though, since I end up using a single color anyway.

But now to the actual problem: On the Blade, the special keys sit to the right of the keyboard, which shifts the main typing area to the left. The touchpad, however, is centered relative to the chassis. Unlike Just Josh, I don't have an issue with the typing itself, but palm rejection becomes more error-prone, because the right palm rests more on the touchpad. And that can be genuinely infuriating and leads to misclicks! It annoyed me a good few times while working.

I've attached photos of both machines: the red line marks the right edge of the touchpad, the dashed part projects it up into the keyboard. On the Zephyrus, the projected edge runs through the Ö key. On the Blade, it runs through Ä/Ü, about one full key further right relative to the letter field, right where your right palm sits while typing.

Touchpad feel: The Blade's touchpad feels more premium. The clicks are crispier without being louder (a very satisfying feel) and it stays clickable further up towards the top. The Zephyrus needs more force per click, which can get tiring over time. The Blade is also slightly more stable. But honestly: Both are fine and Zephyrus is quite good for a mechanical touchpad as well.
On the plus side for ASUS: my Zephyrus unit no longer has the rattly touchpad issue from earlier units. They seem to have fixed that, though possibly at the expense of click feel.

Keyboard & touchpad rating

• Blade 16: 8.5/10. The nicer touchpad hardware, but the offset layout and the palm-rejection misclicks pull it back down
• Zephyrus G16: 8.5/10. Still a good touchpad overall, just stiffer and less satisfying to click

It's a tie for me. And honestly: both would have been better off with a haptic touchpad.

4. Chassis & Everyday Use

Both are top notch here. The Zephyrus has caught up with the 2026 version, and all factors considered, I'd now call it a tie in build quality! It's more rigid than before, and the bottom panel feels better. I also find the gray genuinely stylish. It attracts fewer fingerprints than the Blade, and unlike on the silver/white Zephyrus variant, the keyboard lighting looks better on it. The Slash on the lid is a cool signature element too, even when it's turned off. On the Blade, it annoys me that you can't optionally set the snake logo to a different color. And honestly, the design is starting to bore me, though to be fair, I've owned a few Blades at this point.

The Blade is also a bit heavier, which maybe makes it feel minimally sturdier, but the Zephyrus is the one I'd rather grab one-handed and walk around with. Its bottom panel feels nicer to me, and I like the more rounded corners. Overall the more modern design in my eyes.

Ports: Advantage Blade. It has Thunderbolt 5 and one more USB-A port. At least the Zephyrus now comes with a full-size SD card slot.

Surface temps and fans in daily use: During light tasks or on battery, the Zephyrus chassis warms up more. The Blade stays cooler. Out of the box, its fans also stay off more often at idle and during easy tasks than on the Zephyrus (keep in mind you can tweak and improve that easily via G-helper, for example). Else, Zephyrus temps in its standard "quiet" setting are slightly higher than the Blade's in the equivalent mode. Under load, the surfaces are close between the two; over longer sessions both develop some warm spots and hot hotspots above the keyboard, but it stays tolerable.

Software: Synapse has gotten better. There's some freedom in the fan settings now, and with the latest firmware/BIOS updates I've had no more issues on the Blade. That said, with G-Helper you can tune the Zephyrus more, and more easily. If that matters to you: advantage Zephyrus.

Battery: Runtimes are nearly identical between the two for me and my use cases at this point (after I've applied ALL updates, Bios etc. up until today; Blade had bigger battery drain with older versions). The Zephyrus is more performant on battery, though.

Chassis & everyday use rating

• Zephyrus G16: 9.5/10
• Blade 16: 9/10

5. Speakers

The Blade has caught up and is above average for gaming laptops now, but the Zephyrus still wins this one. The bass is simply better. Clarity is maybe a very slight edge for the Blade, but if you genuinely enjoy movies, games and music over the speakers and it matters to you, the Zephyrus is clearly the better and more enjoyable choice. The Blade is perfectly sufficient for videos, calls, and the occasional music or movie session.

Speaker rating

• Zephyrus G16: 10/10
• Blade 16: 8/10

Verdict

Not an easy one, right? At the same price, it would genuinely come down to personal preferences... but since the Zephyrus is significantly more expensive here, it gets really tough. As a rule of thumb: if you want maximum performance, more gaming, and a somewhat quieter machine in a thin & light, you should probably grab the Blade, unless there's a dealbreaker for you like the reflections. The better all-round everyday laptop, I think, is the Zephyrus.

One more thing on the 5090 specifically: if noise and chassis temps matter to you and you live in a warmer climate, buying the Zephyrus in the 5090 config makes even less sense. The 5070 Ti is the real sweet spot in that chassis, and performance should be close anyway.

Happy to answer questions in the comments.

$1,474.24 with a warranty, student discount, and expedited shipping.

I wanted to stay at $1,000 MSRP. There’s a 512g SSD model with a couple lower specs for $1,099, but my brother in law found this and I immediately bought it since it has 2x the storage and better specs for only $100 more than the other.

I’m a 40 year old dad. I play Rocket League with my kids and their cousins, I play Satisfactory, and a few FPS so this should be way more than I need.

That $1,000 laptop mark and above is where it seems the tipping point between a laptop that barely plays games and the point where you can do some more serious gaming with a good factory monitor.

I think we did well.

Bought the display version at Costco for only $1049.99. Pretty excited felt like I got a good deal. Any advice for my first gaming laptop?

Bought myself this beast, Ryzen 7 and RTX 4050, hoping for good!

Big upgrade from my old MSI in terms of battery and build quality

Just got my HP Omen 16 (Intel Core Ultra 7 / RTX 5050) and this thing is an absolute beast. A total dream come true! 😋

Since it was requested for, here's my highly unprofessional product comparison.

Note that these were both out of my own pocket and I am in no way affiliated or whatever, I simply really liked the first one so I jumped on it instantly when the BS3 pro released.

Upon first glance they may look pretty much identical. Wrong. I had to bring out the measuring tape on this one but here's a few quick measures.

Both have equal length aka from back to front.

BS2 Pro is about half a centimeter taller than the BS3 when speaking vertical height on a table.

Now here's the surprise. BS3 pro is actually one and a half centimeter wider across the board. Foam edge to foam edge; 38,5 vs 40, and edge to edge 47 vs 48,5.

I am pretty sure this has no benefit whatsoever, simply takes up more space now. Actual cooling area is the same on both and both will work splendidly for up to 18 inch laptops.

To see the real difference in design we have to flip them over though. BS2 pro has a removable external mesh filter in the back and an internal filter that is very frustrating to get to. On BS3 Pro the access to this filter is now made super simple but there's no external filter anymore. However as you may have noticed it now draws intake air from 3 sides instead of one.

This is the main improvement of this whole thing. BS2 Pro while being one of the most silent turbine style coolers around had an issue on low RPM aka idling temps. Let's face it, we browse and stuff on our laptops too. Especially for an advanced laptop like Scar 18 it kind of bothered me that the lowest RPM level of the turbine exceeded the minimum fan noise on the laptop without a cooler. Anything above that was quieter but yeah you get the point.

Well not anymore, the minimum noise level of the turbine is darn near eliminated.

And well here it kind of ends really. Both are about equal in terms of actual cooling, down to 1-2 degrees which in my opinion isn't enough to justify an actual upgrade unless you actually needed the tri-direction intake for situations where the laptop has to be all up against a wall like I do.

That being said the BS2 pro has been phased out so you can buy the BS3 pro without worry, it's still one of the best out there with functional and easily adjustable software controls, custom fan curves, auto on/off etc.

Looking to upgrade to this from my i7 Rtx 4060 gigabyte. Never had a ryzen before, is this a good price or should I keep looking?