Asus ROG Strix G16 (G614) review: our full review – Laptops

The ROG Strix range remains one of the most important from Asus, and particularly the G16 model. It is the one that will appeal to the greatest number, at a price that remains attractive for a large part of the market. Far from being as expensive as a Zephyrus or as bulky as a Scar, the Strix G16 is more or less the all-purpose gaming PC from which we know exactly what to expect. With this new refresh for 2023, it must succeed in taming two new monsters: the 13th generation from Intel, and the 40 series from NVIDIA. Mission accomplished ?

Asus ROG Strix G16 (G614) Technical sheet

The machine is lent by Asus for this test.

Asus ROG Strix G16 (G614) Design

Let’s be honest: it’s not really on the point of design that the Strix range has managed to convince us over the years. It must be said that we are more or less on the image that anyone has in mind when we talk about gaming PCs: a fairly thick chassis, made mostly of plastic, whose main personality trait is to integrate LEDs. And if the designs have become less backfiring over the years, we still stay on this line.

The ROG Strix G16 isn’t the prettiest or ugliest of machines, and its main aesthetic appeal is that LED strip running across the front of the computer. The rest is helpful, in a format that the dimensions make it easily transportable, but whose thickness (3 cm) and weight (2.5 kg) do not necessarily make these PCs that we will move everywhere. At the same time, we can say that it will be a PC that we will easily transport to the next LAN, or for this little family weekend. And this is the real aim of these machines, which the ROG Strix G16 still does as well in 2023.

Keyboard and touchpad

Asus provides a very appreciable keyboard here. Admittedly still chiclet, its rebound and its activation distance are both well designed to allow a certain return and a certain precision in use. Note also that the most obvious game keys are transparent, to emphasize the gamer aspect of the configuration further.

No numeric keypad on this config, in favor of a comfortable diagonal touchpad with very good glide. In short, we are on a proven and effective formula.

connectors

We find on the left of the machine the standard power port, an Ethernet port, an HDMI 2.1 port, a USB-C Thunderbolt 4, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 and a combo jack. The right part is more sober, with simply two USB A 3.2 Gen 2 ports.

Source: Chloé Pertuis – Frandroid

Source: Chloé Pertuis – Frandroid

Satisfactory connectivity for a gaming PC of these dimensions, therefore, with the right placement, moreover. It might have been wise to move certain sockets to the back of the device, as these machines tend to be very sedentary in use, but on this diagonal, the choice remains relevant.

webcam and audio

No surprise here: it is on this ground that Asus traditionally makes some cuts in its budget, and it shows. The 720p webcam is below average, although it will serve for light video conferencing. The loudspeakers, located at the bottom of the device, have very little power and only render the highs really well, where the mids are crushed and the bass absent. We are still in the middle of the gamer configs of this level, where these points have never been particularly well treated by the majority of manufacturers.

Asus ROG Strix G16 (G614) Screen

The ROG Strix G16 that we received for testing is equipped with a simple IPS LCD panel with anti-reflective treatment that supports a maximum definition of 1920 x 1200 pixels, i.e. a 16:10 ratio. Above all, it is compatible with a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz. The manufacturer itself puts forward a simple 100% coverage of the sRGB space. Note that the other models in the range feature a better quality ROG Nebula Display screen in QHD +, but their higher definition will naturally push you to have to equip yourself with a more expensive graphics card to really enjoy it. The question therefore becomes: does this 1080p model offer a sufficient experience despite everything, or is it too big a sacrifice?

Under our probe and with the DisplayCal software, we can measure a maximum brightness of 303 cd/m². If this will be helped by the matte treatment of the screen, it remains too low to be able to withstand strong summer sun without difficulty. On the other hand, the coverage of the sRGB space is indeed there at 104.2% precisely, against 73.8% of the DCI-P3 space which we only really find on the QHD models.

Despite this, we are still facing a good screen. The default color temperature of 5952K is a bit too warm than we’d like, but the rest of the tracking is excellent with a Delta E00 measured at just 0.99 on the sRGB space, for a maximum deviation of just 2.47 again. And above all, the contrast ratio here is excellent at 1442:1. Creatives focused on the sRGB space will therefore be able to find their way around, when gamers will be far from being harmed. The sacrifice is worth it, especially coupled with an RTX 4050.

Asus ROG Strix G16 (G614) Software

Asus never surprises us on this point. The bad points are always the same: a lot of pre-installed adware, like this McAfee that does everything to push you to download and buy. And on the other, Armory Crate, which remains one of the best software for managing the performance and customizations of your PC gamer.

Only MyAsus, which manages updates and certain less typical gamer features, is starting to get old and deserves a little overhaul, but it remains quite effective.

Asus ROG Strix G16 (G614) Performance

Our test configuration of the 2023 Asus ROG Strix G16 is one of the least expensive currently available. The gaming PC is equipped with an Intel Core i5-13450HX, a 10-core SoC – 6 performance and 4 efficient – ​​that can turbo up to 4.6 GHz. It is paired with 16 GB of 4800 MHz DDR5 RAM, which are two SO-DIMMs that can be changed in the future. Finally, for the graphics part, we find the GeForce RTX 4050 with a TGP of 140W and 6 GB of GDDR6, and a storage of 512 GB in PCIe 4.0.

Benchmarks

Admittedly, with scores of 15,793 points in multi-core and 1,716 points in single-core, the 2023 Core i5 isn’t the most impressive CPU in Intel’s line-up. But despite everything, such raw power will be able to withstand many heavy tasks for ordinary mortals; only digital workers will truly feel the difference. For ordinary mortals and classic players, the score of 7267 points on PCMark 10 gives us great resilience for this configuration.

The most disappointing thing is to see once again that Asus has made savings on its storage. At 4325MB/s read and 1834MB/s write, the onboard NVMe PCIe 4.0 isn’t the best representative of this generation. And when DirectStorage expands further, it could become a bottleneck for gamers.

Stake

It is at stake that this configuration may prove to be more limited… if you expect to run everything fully in the native definition and without any help. In this context, Cyberpunk 2077 barely reaches 18 FPS, and the Witcher 3 is content with 36 FPS. That being said, generation 40 benefits from DLSS 3 Performance, and this is also the case for the RTX 4050. Therefore, we manage to find a hundred FPS on greedy experiences of this kind. And for less demanding games, like Diablo IV, 103 FPS are achieved without artifice.

This is the great strength of DLSS 3: to ensure that these more modest configurations can still find excellent playing conditions, and therefore greater longevity. And as such, it is to be wondered whether the RTX 4060 mobile is so interesting this year for a profile favoring narrative experiences.

Cooling and noise

The advantage of this more humble configuration is also to be seen in terms of thermal management. The ROG Strix G16 does not exceed 47°C at its hottest point, and even turns around 40°C even at full throttle. Its fans are audible, that’s a fact, but nothing that is shocking for this type of machine: like a small vacuum cleaner, when launched in Turbo mode, where the fans give it their all. heart joy.

Asus ROG Strix G16 (G614) Autonomy

The Asus ROG Strix G16 from 2023 is equipped with a large 90 Wh battery, which partly explains the thickness of the device. This is recharged using the supplied 280W power supply, but it is also possible to take advantage of the USB-C port and the Power Delivery standard to recover a little autonomy on the mop.

In use, however, there are no surprises: like all its PC gamer brothers, the ROG Strix G16 lasts between 4 and 5 hours in office use. Enough to keep an afternoon of work away from a socket, but no more. Nothing surprising: we are rather faced with an easily transportable gamer config here.

Asus ROG Strix G16 (G614) Price and availability

The 2023 ROG Strix G16 is already available in France. You can currently find it at the starting price of 1599.99 euros.