The Asus ROG Zephyrus M15 GU502, which sits in the middle of the Zephyrus gaming laptop lineup, is powered by an Intel Core i7 10750H and Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti. This nifty combo delivers consistent gaming performance, especially considering its relatively reasonable price of $1,299 (£1,000). At this price, however, I would expect a few more other features than what I actually got.

I will admit that when I pulled the M15 out of the package, it really took my breath away. Upon opening the box, the laptop is pushed out like an expensive pop-up storybook. Not performance related, but a bit of Asus flair.

The chassis itself is gorgeously understated. It's slimmer and lighter than most gaming laptops. It is half brushed aluminum and half "prism dot design" finish, which gives the M15 a classy look and feel and means it is very resistant to grease marks. The fact that it is machined from solid aluminum makes it a very sturdy laptop.

The major drawback of a metal chassis is that while it is sturdy, it is also a heat conductor. Therefore, if you inadvertently block the exhaust for more than a minute, it is very difficult to get it down to an acceptable temperature until you quit the game and let it rest a bit; given that CPU temperatures tend to be as high as 96-100°C (~205°F) and GPUs as low as 83°C (181°F), when the whole thing is covered in metal, it is quite unwieldy external temperatures.

There is a bit of screeching when the machine tries to cool itself down to no avail. At a maximum of about 37 decibels, it probably wouldn't pass Jacob's "train carriage test." However, the downward-facing speakers are pretty decent, if only to drown out the noise of the cooling system. I've heard them louder, but there are no real problems with sound distortion at high volumes, and as long as the machine is placed on a hard surface, the resonance of the sound through the table helps to enhance the experience.

Asus' "Armory Crate" software also has settings to disable noise in the cooling system, which is quite expressive, and to fine-tune performance. The software includes a number of preconfigured visual profiles, including an "Eye Care" setting that limits the amount of blue light irradiated to the eyeholes and a configurable profile that allows users to save personal system and app settings for different situations.

There is great customization here, and connectivity is not bad at all. All ports and connections are placed on the sides for easy access and do not block the screen when opened. This meets my preferences, but may get in the way for some users. n.b. The power cable can be easily removed, but I would recommend not removing it during gameplay. Not only is there a serious performance degradation issue when running on battery power, but without the power cable it only lasts about an hour and 10 minutes. This is not ideal.

The lack of an onboard webcam may seem like a disadvantage to some, but at least it helps keep the price down. The mediocre keyboard also contributes to the price tag. The keys feel rather stiff when pressed, and the backlighting is not programmable on a per-key basis, so the single-zone lighting effect is very limited. Other models with the "prismatic" design are similar, perhaps another attempt to move away from the edgy gamer aesthetic and add corporate uniformity to the design.

Still, given that it is a gaming laptop, one of the biggest problems with this machine is its low storage capacity. With only 512GB of SSD at its disposal, we had to install and uninstall individual games for benchmarking, which was quite tedious. Therefore, don't expect to have your entire gaming library ready.

Given its shortcomings, most importantly, the M15 can deliver solid gaming performance for the price, but don't expect all settings to be full.

That said, the GU502L is as good (and more expensive) as the XPG Xenia 15, and in some cases even better. In Far Cry New Dawn, it smoothly averages 78 FPS at screen-native 1080p and Ultra settings, and in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, it runs at a very consistent 70 FPS with the highest settings and Shadow on Ultra.

In the most graphically demanding games, such as Metro Exodus, the Asus M15 could only average 43 FPS. This is with a very special haircut and PhysX turned off. And while this is not the worst score we have seen, it may require some tuning to get the most out of its performance.

In CPU-intensive games like Total War: Warhammer 2, the average is only 50 FPS. Still, backing up these frames with an above-average 144 Hz refresh rate display makes it more likely that reflexes will actually mean something as long as the frame rate actually allows.

Sadly, it's easy to see where corners have been cut with this machine. In other words, if you want portability, stable FPS, and a speedy display at this price, there is no small trade-off. Overall, the M15 seems best suited for those who only play a few games at a time and are willing to ditch all the fancy bells and whistles that more expensive gaming laptops offer.

It is entirely possible to do good old-fashioned 1080p gaming at mid-high settings and do it in impeccable corporate style. But in terms of performance, don't expect more than that, save for a nice productivity score.

Still, it's a sturdy, slim, stylish machine with punchy speakers and enough horsepower to get speed-conscious gamers on their feet. And it proves that it is possible to design a good-performing gaming laptop without looking like it was born by a transformer. Though, a few more exhaust vents wouldn't hurt, either.