ASUS ROG Strix G18 (2025): problems, parts and running costs

Checked: 2026-10-17

Summary

The G18’s most common complaints are fan noise under load, a plastic build that does not feel premium for the price, and a display whose measured color gamut falls well short of ASUS’s 100% DCI-P3 claim. There are no consumables; running costs are electricity and eventual battery wear only, and the research gives no yearly figure. It is a strong buy at $2,500 or less and a weak one above $3,500.

Common problems and fixes

Fan noise under load — XDA says it “gets loud” during gaming; tri-fan vapor-chamber cooling keeps thermals under control but the fans spin up hard. No owner-reported fix beyond lowering settings. [2]
Bulky and heavy — 7.05-7.54 lb and over an inch thick; Laptop Mag says it is too big to fit in most laptop bags. Not fixable; check your bag before buying. [1][2][4]
Mediocre battery life in absolute terms — 1:34 gaming, just under four hours of light web browsing (XDA), 6:17 in PCMag’s video test and 7:45 in Laptop Mag’s non-gaming test; methodologies differ, so the figures are not directly comparable. No fix beyond the charger, which weighs about 2.5 lb. [1][2][4]
Grainy 1080p webcam — owners describe the image as grainy and blurry despite the 1080p resolution. [1]
Copilot key replaces the right Control key — unwelcome for some users; no remap information in the research. [1]

Parts and consumables

90Wh 4-cell Li-ion battery — no replacement pricing or replacement frequency reported. [2][3]
Power brick — large external adapter weighing about 2.5 lb, included. [2]

Liquid metal (Conductonaut) on the CPU may complicate user servicing, and ASUS blocks off components with plastic under the tool-less panel. [2][4] ASUS covers the laptop with a standard 1-year warranty; some SKUs add a year of accidental protection when registered within 60 days. [1][6]

Yearly running cost

Not enough data. [1][2]

When it is a good buy

US prices at review time: ASUS direct $2,499.99 for the base RTX 5070 16GB/2TB config (Laptop Mag, June 2025), about $2,500 for a 16GB/2TB RTX 5080 config (XDA, July 2025), $3,059-3,060 at Best Buy for the RTX 5080 32GB/2TB review config (mid-2025), $3,299.99 at Best Buy (Laptop Mag, June 2025; PCMag, April 2026), and $3,499.99 at Newegg for the RTX 5080/2TB config (Android Headlines, July 2025). [1][2][4][7]

Value thresholds from the research: at $2,500 or less, strong value that undercuts the broader 18-inch RTX 5080 market; $2,501-3,000, good; $3,001-3,500, fair; above $3,500, weak, when premium 18-inch alternatives with mini-LED or OLED displays become accessible. [1][2]

Named alternatives: the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (16-inch) is faster almost across the board with identical specs, so it is the better choice if you want the performance in a smaller chassis. [2] The MSI Raider 18 HX AI (about $4,499) and Razer Blade 18 ($4,000 or more) are the price benchmarks the G18 undercuts by roughly $1,000-1,500 for similar specs; neither source names them as a better value. [1][2] The Alienware 18 Area-51 sits around $3,100 or more with the same GPU class. [1][2] A lower-GPU option exists: Consumer Reports tested a G18 with RTX 5060 at $1,700, with a 24-month warranty. [8]