I lost track of how many gaming laptops I’ve reviewed here at IGN over the years. For all I know, it could easily be close to the century mark. And in all that time, I’ve used some laptops I grew fond of, and even felt a tinge of sadness as I boxed it up and shipped it back to its rightful owner. But this laptop, dear reader, this laptop is special.
After using the Asus ROG Zephyrus S17 (2021) for the last two weeks, I can confidently say it checks nearly every box that I would put on my dream gaming laptop list. RTX 3080? Latest generation Intel Core i9? A stunning display with a fast refresh rate that looks downright amazing? An optical-mechanical keyboard with individually lit RGB keys? Check. Check. Check. And… check.
I’ll stop there. My point is, after spending time getting to know this $3,300 version of the S17, I don’t ever want to part with it. Ever. Come and get it, Asus. I’m just kidding. Kind of.
Asus ROG Zephyrus S17 – Design
I hadn’t done much research about the S17 before it arrived and I unboxed it, and I’m glad I didn’t. In addition to realizing how large of a laptop it is – with a 17.3-inch 2K display – the keyboard immediately jumps out at you once you open it. Literally. As you lift the lid of the S17, the keyboard slightly raises up off the deck, putting the keys at a comfortable angle as you rest your wrists on either side of the trackpad.
Just above the keyboard on the left side is a scroll wheel that adjusts system volume by default, but if you press and hold the wheel in, a menu shows up on the display that gives you the option to use the scroll wheel to navigate or activate various tasks, like display brightness or the task manager.
I particularly like the ease of adjusting volume just by reaching up above the keyboard, or pressing the wheel in to instantly mute any gameplay if someone walks into the room and starts talking to me.
On the right side atop the keyboard is the power button that doubles as a fingerprint sensor, but you’d never know just by looking at it. I didn’t until a few days into testing and I was digging around in the Device Manager and found it listed. Sure enough, it’s there and it works really well. Asus did a great job at disguising it.
Below the keyboard is a large touchpad that’s quick and responsive to single swipes or taps, as well as multi-finger gestures. Its overall size fits the design of the S17; it doesn’t look out of place.
On either vertical edge of the screen, you’ll find two fairly thin bezels that stay out of the way, with a slightly thicker bezel going horizontal across the top of the screen. There’s a 720p webcam centered on the screen that looks just okay. If you’re wanting to stream or look a little more professional on a work Zoom call, you’ll definitely want a dedicated webcam.
There are plenty of modern ports on the S17, giving you many options to connect accessories, displays and peripherals to it. On the left side of the deck, from front to back, is the audio jack, a Thunderbolt 4 port, a USB-C port, a USB port, an Ethernet jack, an HDMI port and the charging port.
Both USB-C ports – that includes the Thunderbolt 4 port – can be used to connect external monitors or used as a power delivery port for quick charging. On the left side, you’re left with two lone USB ports.
You’ll want to have a spacious bag to carry the S17 around it. It measures 15.5 x 10.4 x 0.8-inches and weighs 5.7-pounds. That’s not huge given this is a laptop with a 17.3-inch screen, but it’s noticeable in any bag.
Asus ROG Zephyrus S17 – Performance and Gaming
Inside the S17 build I reviewed is an 11th Gen Intel Core i9-11900H, a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU with 16GB of GDDR6 memory, 32GB of 3200MHz RAM, and a 2TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD. It’s stacked, and the performance shows it. Here’s a look at the benchmark scores from the S17 up against the Razer Blade 15 Advanced Edition and MSI GS66 Stealth. As you can see, it’s not even close pretty much down the line.
To be clear, I ran some of these tests multiple times because I thought maybe I had checked the wrong box or selected the wrong setting. I didn’t. I ran the Borderlands 3 test multiple times just to be sure that was the right result.
Outside of the benchmarks, I spent all of my time testing the S17 in Dirt 5 or Call of Duty: Black Ops. I went back and forth between gaming at the display’s full 2K (1440p) resolution and 1080p, leaving all graphics settings at the max level for each respective game.
The results for both games were nearly identical for each resolution. For Black Ops and Dirt 5 at 1440p, the S17 averaged 83 and 82 frames per second, respectively. For 1080p gaming, both games stayed at a steady 99FPS.
The display has a refresh rate of 165Hz, which obviously none of those scores came close to hitting. But with enough tweaking of graphics settings at 1080p, you’d have no problem matching the frame rate to the display’s speed if that was what you wanted to do.
Speaking of the screen, it’s stunning. I honestly thought it was a 4K display at first, but then opened Speccy and realized it was only 2K. The colors are bright and vivid, and the graphics are crisp. It’s definitely one of my favorite features of the S17 overall.
The fans do a great job at keeping the laptop cool, but they’re loud at full blast. You’ll naturally want some headphones for intense gaming sessions. But the speakers do sound great when you’re not gaming. No complaints about the overall sound quality.
And coming with 2TB of SSD storage, as well as two additional SSD slots if you want to add more? A thing of beauty.
Asus ROG Zephyrus S17 – Battery Life
If there was a blemish on the S17’s rap sheet, it’s battery life. And to be honest, I’m not really mad about it, I’m more disappointed. Running PCMark10’s Modern Office battery test, the S17 powered through 3 hours and 31 minutes before it shut down. That’s not a horrible amount of time; long enough to watch a full-length movie and the credits. But it’s also not as good as the competition. For example, the $3,099 Razer Blade 15 Advanced Edition powered through 5:31 before calling it quits. The MSI GS66 Stealth turned in similar results, lasting 5:44.
I had higher hopes for the battery performance of the S17, mainly because as soon as you unplug the power from the laptop, it triggers a “silent” mode that stops the fans from making any noise, adjusts the display brightness (I reset it to our standard benchmark point of 50%) and otherwise optimizes the system for battery longevity.
Asus ROG Zephyrus S17 – Software
That fine-tuning I just mentioned is done by the Asus Armory Crate app that’s preinstalled on the S17. There are several modes available, like Turbo that goes all out to maximize the system’s potential. Or Performance that, well, boosts performance. Silent and Windows are also options that the app automatically switches between when it recognizes what you’re doing (or not doing) and adjusts accordingly.
Also possible in Armoury Crate is the option to customize the keyboard’s RGB lighting via preset effects, create gaming profiles, view system stats, fine-tune the display or update Asus services.
All-in-all, Armoury Crate offers a nearly one-stop shop for all things S17. You’ll need to open Aura Creator, however, if you want to further customize the keyboard’s lighting on a key-by-key basis.
Before I’m accused of giving Asus a pass for including the bloatware that is McAfee on the S17, let me quickly address that. For $3,299, Asus customers deserve better than dealing with prompts and alerts from McAfee about expiring antivirus protection. You can easily uninstall it, but it leaves a sour taste in my mouth that it’s even installed.
