Rated 5 out of 5 stars
An excellent desktop-replacement gaming laptop
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Posted .
This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
=== Summary ===The 2025 Asus ROG Strix 18 has replaced my MSI Aegis gaming desktop with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and Radeon 6700XT 12GB, and it did not disappoint as a desktop-replacement do-it-all machine. It provides and does everything I want from a laptop of this class – a powerful CPU and GPU combo for gaming and video editing, fast NVME storage (2TB) with room to add another drive, 32GB of DDR5 memory, a vibrant and fast-refreshing 18” display, a big and responsive touchpad along with a spacious and responsive keyboard with a usable number pad on the side, fast and stable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections without weird connection drop-outs, plenty of USB-A and USB-C ports, and a good and relatively quiet cooling system. For this much coin, one should expect all-around excellence in performance and stability, and the 2025 ROG Strix 18 delivers it. It’s a Win._________*Pros:-Powerful components that provide an excellent gaming experience.-Bright, vibrant, and fast-refreshing (250Hz) G-Sync display with even lighting and crisp resolution.-Spacious and responsive touchpad.-Comfortable keyboard with good feedback.-Useful and usable number pad.-Quick-access bottom panel for easy access for upgrades and cleaning.-Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.-Decent audio speakers.-Plenty of ports._________*Neutral:-The 1080P webcam is grainy under low-light conditions.-Can’t open the lid with just one finger. _________*Cons:-None=== Design and Build Quality ===The Asus ROG Strix 18 is my third high-end gaming laptop, and its design and build quality have met my expectations for a device at this price point. It’s a dark and handsome machine with great fit-and-finish and solid build materials. Some people may be disappointed that only the lid is made of metal with the rest being plastic, but I don’t mind it since Asus did not utilize the rough, cheap, and grainy kind of plastic but the kind that feels smooth, hard, and durable. The 18” display has relatively slim bezels with excellent brightness, color accuracy, and viewing angles, and with enough room on the top bezel for both a 1080P webcam and an IR module for Windows Hello facial recognition, which I appreciate. The display tech may be IPS but it’s a good one, and I don’t notice a big difference between the 250Hz IPS panel on the ROG Strix 18 and the mini-LED 240Hz panel on my 2024 Acer Predator Helio 18 gaming laptop. As I get older, I appreciate larger displays, and 18” is my favorite display size on a laptop.The keyboard layout is spacious, and the keys feel soft and gentle with good uptake and snappiness. The Microsoft Precision touchpad is also big and spacious, and it’s an absolute pleasure to use. I like that a numpad was included since I use it when doing my finances and calculations.Thanks to the variety of ports offered, I can avoid using any dongles and I love it. I appreciate having three USB-A ports (one on the left, two on the right), two USB-C ports, an ethernet port, an audio jack, and an HDMI port. Gaming laptops usually come with some bling, and the ROG Strix 18 is no different, with a rectangular LED strip on the bottom panel as well as an RGB keyboard with multiple lighting effects. It’s not too over-the-top nor garish – I think Asus provided just the right amount of bling and customization.I absolutely love the tool-free, snap on and snap off design of the bottom panel. It made it so simple and easy when I added another 2TB NVME drive. Even the NVME drive doesn’t require any tools or screws as a plastic lever is used to hold down the drive in its slot (see picture). It’s a brilliant design touch from Asus, and I hope all other manufacturers copy and implement these features.At 7.05 lbs (3.20 kg), the Strix 18 feels heavy, but this is par for the course when it comes to desktop-replacement level gaming laptops, so I won’t knock any points off for that. Just make sure you get a backpack with ample shoulder padding and padded compartments for when traveling with the Strix 18.All in all, the ROG Strix 18 is easy on the eyes, easy on your hands and joints, and it’s a well-designed laptop that is a pleasure to use. === Performance ===With a 24-core, 24-thread Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 with 16GB of GDDR7 memory, 32GB of DDR5-5600, and a Micron 2TB NVME PCIe 4.0 hard drive, the ROG Strix 18 is a champion of a laptop that can handle pretty much everything in a fast and performant manner. For a machine such as the Strix 18, my primary usage scenario is playing games followed by video editing, and the Strix 18 was very well-equipped to make me a happy customer. I played a variety of games such as Clair Obscure Expedition 33 (turn-based RPG), Dragon Age the Veilguard (action RPG), Stalker 2 (shooter), Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (action RPG), Cyberpunk 2077 (shooter), The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Remastered (RPG), and Split Fiction (arcade & puzzler), and the Strix 18 handled all of them very well, delivering high and stable frame rates. The latest DLSS and frame generation technology from Nvidia can boost the framerates higher without much detrimental visual artifacts, and I think it’s a game-changer that will only get better with time.The Strix 18 comes with Wi-Fi 7 (latest) and Bluetooth 5.4 (latest), and they provide fast and stable speeds for a smooth and lag-free gaming experience. I currently have a Bluetooth keyboard (Corsair K100 Air Wireless), a gamepad (Corsair SCUF Envision controller), and some noise-cancelling headphones (Bose QuietComfort Ultra) connected to the Strix 18, and with the laptop connected to my 55” TV in the living room, it’s a satisfying and fun gaming experience on par with a traditional gaming desktop system.When it comes to performance, I’m completely content and satisfied, and I expect to use the Strix 18 as my main gaming system for many years to come.=== Windows, Apps, and Software Experience ===At first boot-up, I was kind of annoyed by how long it took to get Windows 11 set up and ready to go. There were many updates to be downloaded and installed, and the laptop was automatically rebooted several times to finish the installations. I know this is good for me and the machine, but I was feeling a bit impatient because I was so excited by the ROG Strix 18 and wanted to unleash the beast as soon as possible. 😊 Thankfully, BIOS and firmware updates did not take as long.Once all the Windows updates finished and my setting preferences were restored after logging in to Microsoft account, it was smooth sailing afterwards. There is not much bloatware installed, and whatever you don’t want is very easy to uninstall and remove. I only uninstalled one preinstalled app, and it was a video editing software called CapCut from Bytedance due to privacy concerns. There are many preinstalled Asus apps but they are useful and don’t take up much space, so I kept them. The Asus Armoury Crate is a good example of an excellent preinstalled manufacturer app, and it offers several useful customization features, such as quickly togging between various fan modes (Windows, Silent, Performance, Turbo, and Manual), setting RGB lighting effects, creating custom performance profiles for apps (e.g., games vs productivity apps), and creation of macros.Windows 11, compared to Windows 10, still kind of sucks, but I was able to customize it and make it more functional and easier to use by installing the ExplorerPatcher app (by Valinet), which allows for Taskbar and Start Menu customization, among others. Windows 11 has come a long way, and it has been very stable, and I made my peace with it.=== Everyday Usage and Livability ===The ROG Strix 18 is an easy machine to live with and comfortable to interact with. The big, bright 18” screen is very comfortable on the eyes and excellent for gaming, watching movies, working on spreadsheets, and anything else, really – the bigger the screen, the better, I say. The touchpad is big and very responsive, and the Microsoft Precision touchpad software makes it easy to customize and create your own touch and tap gestures. The keyboard is spaciously laid out and the keys are responsive with good feedback, uptake rate, and organization. I REALLY love that the arrow keys are full-size, and I also appreciate the gaps between the Function keys, which makes quickly finding and tapping on the desired Function key, like the F5 key, much faster and easier to memorize via muscle memory.When I’m not gaming, I set the operating mode to Silent via the Armoury Crate app, and the Strix 18 becomes either completely silent or whisper quiet while still offering enough power for non-demanding workloads such as office productivity apps, web browsing, and streaming movies and music. For gaming, I press the M4 keyboard button to switch over to the Turbo mode for maximum performance and frames. Doing so does increase the fan noise quite a bit but if you wear headphones or turn up the volume on the soundbar, then it’s a non-issue. For a big and heavy 18” gaming laptop, the Strix 18 is surprisingly easy and comfortable to live with, and I have no trouble recommending it as a desktop-replacement machine.=== Is it worth the coin? ===I absolutely think so. For this price, you’re getting top-notch CPU, GPU, HDD, and memory components, as well as a high refresh rate display that is vibrant and color accurate. The touchpad and keyboard are spacious and comfortable, and with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, it’s pretty future-proof. Upgrades and maintenance are dead-simple thanks to the tool-free bottom panel that easily pops off. The ROG Strix 18 will remain performant and relevant for many years due to its powerful components, and it’s definitely worth the high cost of entry price. It’s a Win, and I give it 5 Stars.
I would
recommend this to a friend