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Chassis, trackpad, and Keyboard:
Once opened, the chassis is made out of magnesium and the lower panel is made of plastic. The chassis is very sturdy since it's made out of an internal honeycomb design. The build quality is excellent and gives out a premium look. The rubbery magnesium top surface is soft and comfortable as a palm rest and this surface does not attract fingerprints. The keyboard is excellent with decent key travel for gaming and typing for long hours. The per-key RGB lighting is brilliant and the brightness of the keyboard backlight can be adjusted. Although, the porous material near the power key and volume keys becomes a host to dust particles and is very hard to clean. The touchpad is not that great with a mediocre size and a plastic surface. It would be nice to have a glass touchpad.
Display:
The 240 Hz Pantone validated IPS display is very smooth and color accurate. The blacks are deep and backlight bleed is almost non-existent. It offers a great gaming experience and it is also suitable for content creation. The only drawback with the screen is the brightness. If you are using the device in bright daylight, the screen has to be set to maximum brightness and it is still a little hard to see. If the device is being used indoors, the brightness is sufficient.
Performance:
This is where the laptop knocks the competition out of the water. This was a major concern for me before buying this laptop. But I was not disappointed. 9th gen i7 processor, stock 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 2070 Max Q graphics and 1TB SSD is the sweet spot for portable gaming. The 16 GB RAM which comes with the laptop is single-channel RAM. Meaning, there is another empty slot for RAM expansion up to 32GB. Once, I installed an additional 16 gigs of RAM, the performance increased drastically. Note: RTX laptops perform optimally with dual-channel RAM. With the upgraded RAM, I could see increased frame rates instantly. CS GO gives an average frame rate of 250 fps at the highest settings. Apex legends gives an average frame rate of 200 fps at the highest settings. Many other graphic intensive games give about 150 - 200 fps on an average. Apart from gaming, I also use this laptop for Adobe Premiere Pro, ANSYS Fluent, etc. and the performance is mind-blowing. I would recommend upgrading this device to 32 GB RAM to witness the wrath of this laptop.
Thermals:
Thermals should be of least concern as this is equipped with two high-speed fans for the CPU and GPU. When the fans are set to Turbo mode, any task/ game can be run without worrying about thermal throttling. The fans run very loud at Turbo mode which can be a little embarrassing in office spaces. It would be advisable to place a small item under the screen hinges. This allows the fans to suck more volume of air which provides better cooling. I use two erasers.
ASUS Software:
ASUS uses Armoury Crate which acts like the ROG control panel. This software allows numerous customizations and is very clean to look at. To use the per-key RGB keyboard function, an additional app called AURA Creator has to be downloaded. Sadly, Windows does not recognize AURA Creator as a default app. Meaning, the keyboard lighting reverts to the default Rainbow colors every time you restart. ASUS also allows you to restrict charging to 60% or 80%. This is very helpful when you keep the laptop plugged in all day. This feature prolongs battery life. I hope ASUS integrates AURA Creator into the Armoury Crate.
CONS:
- The biggest CON of this device is the downward-firing speakers. Even though the speaker's quality is good, because of its downward orientation, you hear a muffled sound which is very irritating.
- Missing Thunderbolt 3. Most laptops in 2019 were Thunderbolt 3 compatible. Somehow, ASUS skipped it, making this device a little less future proof.
- The trackpad could be improved. It is not a bad trackpad, but would be better with a glass surface.
- The power brick is big and heavy. Though this laptop is thin and very light, the power brick is literally a brick!
Overall, considering the pros and cons, I would say this is an amazing device. I feel this is a better option when compared with its counterparts from Razer, MSI, Alienware, Dell.
