ASUS ROG Strix G16 (2025) G615LWN laptop review: a new league

 

ASUS has been systematically updating its gaming laptop lineup with new processors and graphics cards. Today, you can choose models with both more affordable and top-of-the-line components. Let’s talk about one of the flagship gaming laptops – ROG Strix G16 (2025) G615LWН.

 

Design and Ergonomics

 

 

It is clear that the gaming elements characteristic of the ROG Strix series were not missing. Although the appearance could be made more concise. The 2025 model has RGB lighting around the perimeter of the lower part of the case, as well as multi-colored key illumination. If you turn off the illumination and choose calm shades of button illumination, the ASUS ROG Strix G16 (2025) G615 case will look quite restrained.

 

This is achieved by rounded corners and a matte gray color. In this form, it can be perceived not only as a gaming model, but also as a mobile workstation. This is especially true for the modification provided to us for testing. It is made in gray and does not have a logo backlight in the corner of the lid. This is the case in the Volt Green version.

 

Despite the considerable cost, only the display unit cover is made of aluminum. Its smooth matte surface hardly collects fingerprints. The cover has a decorative diagonal line and the ROG logo. The plastic body elements have a similar gray color and texture. They are also quite resistant to fingerprints.

 

The ASUS ROG Strix G16 (2025) G615 laptop is easy to open with one hand. The maximum opening angle is 125 °. The display covers only bend slightly only when pressed hard. In general, the build quality can be called good. Surprisingly, there are no mismatches in the form of half panels or protruding corners of connectors.

 

On the back, the user is greeted by massive cooling ventilation holes arranged in two rows to remove hot air, as well as Republic of Gamers engraving along the entire length of the back.

 

 

There aren’t many small design elements here, but you can make a quest out of studying them.

 

A sufficient set of ports. For a powerful cooling system, all of them are spaced on the sides. On the left are: a power connector with a red indicator, a 2.5-gigabit RJ45 port, HDMI 2.1 FRL, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, two Thunderbolt 5 (USB Type-C), as well as a combined 3.5 mm audio jack. On the right side are two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports.

 

 

Three massive rubber feet at the base provide grip on the surface. Most of the bottom panel is occupied by ventilation holes for cold air intake. Here you can find the stylized logo of the series. Its design is interesting in isometric design with a volume effect.

 

 

To access the inside of the case, you don’t have to unscrew the screws – the bottom cover is attached to a special latch. Just pull the latch and the cover will come off. Not to say that this feature will come in handy often, but you won’t have to worry about losing the screws either. Especially since we encountered the fact that some of them can unscrew themselves over time.

What do we get access to in this way? Inside, there is a place for installing an additional M.2 2280 drive. Both SSD slots are equipped with convenient Q-Latch latches, which simplify the installation and replacement of drives. As for RAM, all slots are already occupied from the factory, but in the tested configuration the maximum volume is set to 64 GB.

 

The built-in webcam is equipped with a 2.1 MP sensor with 1080p support and an IR sensor for unlocking via Windows Hello. Two microphones are located nearby. For video calls, online conferences and streaming – more than enough.

 

Stereo speakers are located on the sides of the case, each behind a separate oblong cutout. Dolby Atmos and Smart Amp technologies are supported, thanks to which the sound becomes voluminous and balanced. Music is played with good detail, but there is not enough depth at low frequencies. Even at 40% volume, the sound was quite loud. For a laptop solution, it is quite enough.

 

Keyboard

 

 

ASUS ROG Strix G16 (2025) G615 is equipped with an island-type keyboard with the ability to individually adjust the RGB backlight for each key. The backlight is uniform and illuminates all characters well. Several brightness levels are supported, as well as synchronization of the backlight with the device body, as well as connected brand peripherals.

 

The keys have a flat shape and a stroke of 2 mm. The dimensions are as follows: the main keys and arrows – 16 × 16 mm, functional – 16 × 8 mm, additional – 16 × 7 mm.

 

Standard function combinations are available on the keyboard via the Fn key, and a separate block of multimedia keys is located on the right. In the lower right part of the keyboard there is a special key for launching the Microsoft Copilot AI assistant, and Print Screen is located next to it, as in previous models – outside the top row.

 

 

Slightly above the main row on the left is an additional block of four keys designed to adjust the volume, turn on the microphone, switch the cooling system operating modes, and launch the proprietary Armoury Crate utility.

 

The power button is located separately from the main block of keys, is conveniently sized, and has a red light indicator — like the Caps Lock key.

 

 

The touchpad in the laptop is really large – 150×99 mm. It supports the NumberPad function, which turns it into a touch-sensitive numeric keypad. Smart gestures are also supported. Using the touchpad is convenient and pleasant. We would call its dimensions one of the largest in relation to the keyboard.

 

Hardware

 

 

Display

 

 

ASUS ROG Strix G16 (2025) G615LW-S5131W is equipped with a 16-inch ROG Nebula display. This is an IPS matrix manufactured by BOE with a resolution of WQXGA (2560 × 1600) and an aspect ratio of 16:10. It has a refresh rate of 240 Hz and a response time of 3 ms. To reduce glare and increase contrast, the screen is covered with two layers of a special film.

 

The panel supports NVIDIA G-Sync and Dolby Vision HDR technologies, and is also PANTONE Validated and TÜV Rheinland certified. Even at a brightness level of 60%, the screen remains comfortable to use. The side bezels of the display are only 4 mm, the top bezel is 7 mm, and the bottom bezel is 15 mm.

 

The display provides not only rich colors, but also full coverage of the DCI-P3 color space. All this makes it suitable not only for games, but also for professional use – creating photo and video content, working with graphics, streaming.

 

Processor

 

ASUS ROG Strix G16 (2025) is built on the basis of a 24-core, 24-thread Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor. Manufactured using a 3 nm process technology. Eight productive cores operate at a base frequency of 2.7 GHz and are capable of overclocking to 5.4 GHz in turbo mode. They are complemented by sixteen energy-efficient cores, the frequency of which varies from 2.1 to 4.6 GHz.

 

At maximum loads, the TDP can reach 160 W, but in the configuration it is limited to 80 W. However, this still exceeds the standard value of 55 W. The chip remains powerful even with reduced power consumption.

 

The processor includes an integrated Intel Graphics graphics core with a frequency of 1900 MHz, consisting of 4 Xe cores and 1024 execution units. The system RAM serves as its video memory.

 

The processor also integrates an AI hardware acceleration unit – Intel AI Boost, capable of performing up to 13 trillion operations per second (13 TOPS). It should provide a significant increase in performance in tasks related to artificial intelligence.

 

 

Video card

 

The discrete graphics processing in the ASUS ROG Strix G16 (2025) G615LW-S5131W is handled by the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 mobile graphics card.

 

The NVIDIA GB203 graphics processor, manufactured using a 5nm process, includes 7680 CUDA cores, 240 texture units, 96 raster units, 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores. In this modification of the laptop, the maximum dynamic frequency of the GPU reaches 1550 MHz.

 

The TGP indicator has been increased from the base 150 W to 175 W. The video memory is represented by GDDR7 chips from Samsung, with a total capacity of 16 GB. The effective data transfer rate is 28 Gbps, and thanks to the 256-bit bus, the total bandwidth reaches 902.7 GB/s – this provides high bandwidth for working with high-resolution graphics.

 

Thanks to the mobile NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 at a resolution of 2560×1600, we can play at maximum settings with 60+ frames per second.

 

 

Other components

 

Cooling

 

The ASUS ROG Strix G16 (2025) G615 cooling system is represented by a long evaporation chamber with a multi-level radiator that extends the entire length of the case, as well as three 2nd generation Arc Flow fans (Tri-Fan technology). The manufacturer uses Conductonaut Extreme liquid metal from Thermal Grizzly as a thermal interface for the CPU and GPU.

 

As we have already said, hot air is discharged outside only through the back of the laptop. But the holes on the side and bottom panels act as air intakes. Additionally, air enters inside and through the keyboard.

 

RAM

 

The RAM of the ASUS ROG Strix G16 (2025) G615LW-S5131W is represented by two DDR5 SO-DIMM modules manufactured by SK hynix. The total capacity is 64 GB, the modules operate in dual-channel mode with an effective frequency of 5600 MT/s.

 

Drives

 

The disk subsystem is built on the basis of a high-speed solid-state drive Micron 2500 (MTFDKBA2T0QGN). It is made in the M.2 2280 form factor, has a capacity of 2 TB and is connected via the PCIe 4.0 x4 interface. The Phison PS5027-E27-75 controller is used, which operates without DRAM cache. The claimed speeds – up to 6990 MB/s read and 5979 MB/s write – are among the best among SSDs with PCIe 4.0 support.

 

 

Connectivity

 

Wireless communication is implemented using the Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200 network controller, which supports three bands – 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz, as well as operation with a channel width of up to 320 MHz, which provides a bandwidth of up to 5.8 Gbps. The controller supports Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be, 2×2) and Bluetooth 5.4, providing current wireless communication standards.

 

A 2.5-gigabit Ethernet controller Realtek RTL8125 is used for wired connection.

 

Battery and autonomy

 

The laptop is equipped with a non-removable 4-cell lithium-polymer battery ASUS C41N2109 with a capacity of 5800 mAh (90 Wh). Battery life is short, which is to be expected for a high-performance gaming laptop. One of the pluses is support for fast charging via USB Type-C.

 

 

The kit includes two power supplies. The large power supply, ASUS A24-380P1A has a power of 380 W. Input parameters: 100-240, 5 A, 50-60 Hz; output – 20 V at 19 A.

 

The compact, ASUS A20-100P1A, is designed for 100 W with input parameters of 100–240 V, 1.6 A, 50–60 Hz and output 20 V at 5 A. For charging, a USB Type-C connector is used.

 

New Armoury Crate

 

 

A few words about the update of the proprietary utility Armoury Crate. The new version has a noticeably updated design. The main panel now displays the parameters of the processor, video card, fans and memory.

 

On laptops, settings such as GPU performance, system configuration and processor cores are now collected in the “Devices” tab. From there, you can control the backlight, GPU operating modes (maximum, standard, economical) and reassign hot keys. This allows you to optimize performance and battery life, as well as conveniently configure the device’s behavior for different tasks and games.

 

Functions are now implemented in the form of modules that can be selected during installation to use only the necessary features. According to the sensations, the proprietary ASUS application now works a little faster. Background processes are launched only when necessary.

 

Modules include Aura Sync lighting control, AniMe Vision display wallpapers and animations, scenario profiles, a game library, display tuning tools, fan control, network optimization, and macro creation. The app also features a section with news, promotions, and recommendations.

 

Packages

 

 

The package includes, in addition to the laptop itself, two power supplies with separate cables, as well as a set of user documentation. Given that we have a premium device in front of us, the manufacturer has added a branded backpack in the Republic of Gamers style to the package. Its dimensions are 65 × 40 cm. Inside, the backpack is divided into two main compartments, and its length is adjustable depending on the filling. Sometimes the company also adds a mouse and a small mat, but this time they are not there.

 

Impressions

 

ASUS ROG Strix G16 (2025) G615LW-S5131W combines powerful hardware in the form of an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor and a mobile NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card. The display with a high resolution, 240 Hz refresh rate is professional level. Two Thunderbolt 5 ports significantly expand connectivity, and support for Wi-Fi 7, 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, a high-speed 2 TB SSD and 64 GB of RAM allow you not to deny yourself anything. It is important that access to internal components is as simple as possible: you can add a second M.2 SSD without tools thanks to the Q-Latch lock.

 

Special attention has been paid to the cooling system – the use of an evaporation chamber, a multi-level radiator and liquid metal as a thermal interface allows you to keep processor throttling at only 1% even under prolonged loads. At the same time, fan noise even in Turbo mode remains average, and at rest the system operates almost or completely silently.

 

The gray design combines gaming accents with a restrained business style. The delivery set corresponds to the premium level and includes everything you need for comfortable use. The price of this configuration is quite high, but corresponds to its capabilities.

 

This and other ASUS Republic of Gamers products are eligible for the ROG Elite loyalty program. This is a loyalty program for Republic of Gamers fans. Register, complete tasks, visit the site, register products and accumulate points. Exchange them for prizes – from accessories and digital content to exclusive games. Join now and get rewards together with thousands of gamers in Ukraine!

ASUS ROG Strix G16 G615LW-S5131W specifications

Rating:

+ combination of compactness and performance

+ efficient cooling

+ easy access to components

- disassembly only from the side