ASUS’ ROG Strix gaming laptop line gets refreshed with Intel’s fastest laptop chip yet

The ASUS ROG Strix G16 and G18 are built for hardcore gamers.

By Vikhyaat Vivek Published March 18, 2026

Computer, Electronics, Laptop — ASUS

ASUS has refreshed its ROG Strix gaming laptop lineup, launching updated versions of the Strix G16 and Strix G18 models powered by Intel’s latest Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus processor.

The new machines were built for gamers and creators who need the best performance on offer. From competitive titles to demanding AAA games and content creation workloads, these laptops are designed to handle everything.

What’s exciting about it?

The real highlight is the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus at the heart of the new ROG Strix lineup. This is a high-end chip built to handle heavy multitasking, next-gen games, and AI workloads. To really boost gaming performance, ASUS teams it with up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 laptop GPU.

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The CPU and GPU combination is one of the best configs you can get your hands on, especially for gaming enthusiasts who need higher frame rates, fast rendering, and future-ready performance. And this top-tier performance is also reflected in the display.

Bright, accurate, and fast displays

Both the G16 and G18 bring super smooth displays. The larger Strix G18 sports an 18-inch MiniLED display with a 2.5K resolution, a 240Hz refresh rate, and a full DCI-P3 color gamut. The duo also use ASUS’ ROG Nebula display technology, which is designed to deliver improved brightness, contrast, and color accuracy.

The rest of the good stuff

For the storage configuration, you can get the 2026 ROG Strix gaming laptops with up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM and up to 2TB of SSD storage. Thanks to its tool-less design, upgrading the memory is easier and more accessible to gamers. Even on the connectivity front, there’s a healthy selection of ports from Thunderbolt 5, LAN port, HDMI, and much more.

High-performance hardware needs powerful thermal solutions, and ASUS brings an advanced cooling system with an updated design. This includes a tri-fan setup and a vapor chamber that help maintain consistent performance under heavy workloads.

The company has yet to reveal the full details. So the pricing and release date are still unknown. But just looking at the large memory and storage options, you can bet that these will cost a pretty penny.

Vikhyaat Vivek is a tech journalist and reviewer with seven years of experience covering consumer hardware, with a focus on…

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