Asus ROG needs to step up its Thunderbolt 3 game

When you're spending $2000 or more on a gaming laptop, it's not unreasonable to expect everything and the kitchen sink. The flagship Alienware series, MSI GT70 and GS series, Razer Blade series, Acer Predator Triton 700 series, and even the less expensive Lenovo Legion Y700 series all include Thunderbolt 3 ports by default.

The notable exception here is Asus and its Republic of Gamers (ROG) series. The OEM recently announced a host of new ROG laptops updated with Intel 9th gen CPUs and Nvidia GTX 16 GPUs with many models reaching $1600 and up. Despite belonging to Asus' flagship ROG family, however, only a select few are actually equipped with Thunderbolt 3 ports. The upcoming $2500 Zephyrus GX701, $1700 Strix Scar III G531, Strix Hero III G731, and even $2200 Zephyrus S GX531GW are each lacking the versatile port option. This is something we would expect from the budget Asus TUF series rather than the higher-end ROG series.

Worse yet, the original 2017 Zephyrus GX501 included Thunderbolt 3 and yet its upcoming GX502 successor will actually drop the feature altogether. If you want an ROG laptop with the port, then you'd have to skip the ultra-thin models and opt for the larger G703 series or the Mothership GZ700 series instead.

With nearly every other major competitor integrating Thunderbolt 3 as standard on its mainstream to high-end gaming models, we think it's time for Asus to step up its game and offer the same for more of its flagship ROG offerings.