The Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503Q is pretty wild: it packs a Ryzen 9 5900HS CPU and Nvidia's mobile RTX 3080 in a very small package and is surprisingly light. It's the kind of laptop that makes you forget the limitations of using a portable computer and instead opens your eyes to the possibilities. It's a delightful little beast that can be used almost constantly.

The laptop comes in two aesthetic variations, dark gray and white, and I received the latter. The outer case is perforated in a linear pattern, allowing one to peek beneath it to see the iridescent, reflective surface. Additionally, when the keyboard is opened, the white-finished keyboard surround shines slightly. It has the sports car look typical of gaming technology, but is subtle enough that it would look right at home on an office desk, as long as your boss doesn't look too closely at it.

The Zephyrus G15 is also nicely versatile; it's not too surprising that the G15 can handle most basic tasks with aplomb, given the sheer power under the hood. The included software package is the standard Windows 10 home, which is what most people will be using until Windows 11 arrives (which this laptop should support without issue). Still, it can handle all the simple things like web browsing, watching videos, creating word documents, etc. without difficulty.

It also came with Asus' own installation, which installed McAfee Antivirus, even though I should have opted out during setup, and I had to wait nearly an hour for it to uninstall. It was not a great start to the experience, but it is pretty commonplace with many laptops at this point that bundle this. [However, this is a gaming laptop, and this site is not called PC Office Worker.

All the games I tried were very good. I loaded up Valheim and upped the specs. I had been frustrated with the performance of my old PC, so I upped the specs after a while. When the blizzard hit my cabin, I braced myself for the usual slowdown and jagged performance, but even after hours of misguided building in the snow, I was greeted with smooth sailing. The fan sounded like clean air, albeit with a bit of effort, and the laptop itself felt completely unremarkable in every other respect.

After something a bit more ray-tracing oriented, I loaded up Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition. The light coming through the broken subway during the theme establishment scene early in the game added to the eerie atmosphere. The guns and the flames reflecting off the snow also helped to set the mood. This is the best metro I've ever seen, and the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503Q seemed unfazed by it. With Dynamic Boost, it can go up to 100W, but even with a TDP of 80W, the RTX 3080 in the hood performed phenomenally.

In benchmarks, the numbers tell a pretty good story. It is firmly in the realm of high-end gaming laptops, lower than some, higher than most, and does a pretty good job of handling itself. While none of these are overwhelming others, it is a great high-end all-rounder when it comes to performance. Again, the laptop didn't seem to mind much while running these tests.

But that's why I think this little beast feels so comfortable to use. There are often moments when I worry that I'm pushing myself a bit too hard with a laptop or desktop PC. I've had this G15 tackle some pretty heavy stuff, and even when it's working hard, you don't feel it. No stuttering, and I don't recall noticing any performance degradation. It just manages like an absolute soldier.

And it helps that the rest of the package feels like it backs this up. The screens are beautiful. It is quite rich, and the combination of the 165hz display and adaptive sync makes for a really smooth image and play. Unfortunately, however, the display does not display well outdoors, even though it appears more than bright enough indoors. I tried to play a game under the patio cover on a sunny day, but could not get a good enough view even when plugged into a power source. With a laptop as powerful and light as this one for gaming on the go, this was actually my biggest complaint. Indoors, however, it did not bother me at all.

I was also surprised at how comfortable the keyboard was to use. I thought I might be tempted to plug in a separate keyboard, but in fact, I had no problem gaming with it. It maintains the familiar desktop-style layout, with convenient function buttons for volume, brightness, and other functions. In addition, the keys are responsive and not too noisy, maintaining a nice balance for a machine that can be used for both work and play. The touchpad is adequate, but I will still be using a mouse. Thankfully, there are two USB 3.2 Type-A ports and two USB 3.2 Type-C ports. Following the current trend of increasing screen real estate without a webcam, I may need one of those ports.

When we tried streaming, we missed the lack of a webcam. The laptop handled live streaming with Xsplit and Hades with no problems at all, but I was at a loss for webcam capture. I was constantly amazed by the onboard microphone and speakers (https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1025593908,）を使ったが、ゲーム音を拾わずによく拾ってくれた。マイクは高音域で少し弱くなるが、明瞭度は申し分ない。この6つのスピーカーはDolby Atmos capable and very good sound for a laptop.

Perhaps the only hardware drawback is that the fingerprint reader is cheeky and often makes me wish I had never set it up.

And then, of course, there's the price. Gaming laptops are never cheap, and the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 GA503Q is no exception: $3,899 for AUD, £2,500 for GBP, and similar models can be had for around $2,000 to $2,500 in the US. However, given its resistance to breakdowns, it may be worth it.