ASUS ROG Strix G18 G815, Intel Ultra 9 275HX, 32GB, 1TB SSD, RTX 5060, Black

A monster CPU and gorgeous 18-inch screen trapped in a body that's anything but portable. The RTX 5060 is the weak link, but at the right price this is a creator's dream machine.

The CPU is the headline act. That 24-core Ultra 9 275HX is one of the best laptop chips we've seen in our database, and it chews through creator workloads and CPU-heavy games without breaking a sweat. The RTX 5060 is solid, landing in the 83rd percentile for GPUs, but 8GB of VRAM is going to age poorly for a laptop this expensive. The 18-inch 2560x1600 IPS panel with 100% DCI-P3 and 240Hz refresh is a genuine highlight, and the port selection is excellent with Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 7, and plenty of USB-A. The compact score of 1st percentile tells you everything about the form factor, this thing is a tank.

Against the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10, the Strix G18 wins on raw CPU power but loses on GPU headroom if the Legion is configured with a higher-tier card. The Apple MacBook Pro M4 Max is in a different league for creator work and battery life, but it costs significantly more and can't match this display size for gaming immersion. The HP OMEN Transcend 14 is far more portable but gives up the big screen and CPU muscle.

Pricing is all over the place. In the US you're looking at $2,109 to $2,179, which is reasonable for this hardware. But in Europe, the spread is absurd, from EUR 2,633 all the way up to EUR 4,529 across six listings. If you're in the EU, shop carefully and don't pay anywhere near the top of that range. The best deals are on Amazon US and the lower-priced EU listings.

The ASUS ROG Strix G18 G815 is a big, brash desktop replacement that puts a genuinely top-tier CPU inside a chassis that refuses to be portable. The Intel Ultra 9 275HX is the star here, sitting in the 96th percentile for laptop processors, and it's paired with 32GB of RAM and a fast 240Hz 18-inch panel. But the RTX 5060 with only 8GB of VRAM feels like a mismatch for a machine this size and price.

If you want a laptop you can actually carry around, this isn't it. Go get an HP OMEN Transcend 14 or a MacBook Pro instead. And if you're a serious gamer, the 8GB RTX 5060 will frustrate you in a year or two, look for something with at least 12GB of VRAM.

The ROG Strix G18 G815 is a strange mix of incredible CPU performance and a mid-range GPU. If you're a creator or developer who needs serious processor power and a huge, color-accurate screen, this is a compelling option at the right price. But if you're a gamer spending this much money, you should be getting more than 8GB of VRAM. Buy it for the CPU and the display, not for the graphics card.