Asus ROG Strix G18 (2026) G815 vs Apple MacBook Air 13 (M2, 2022)

Please select specific configurations for the laptops to get a more accurate comparative review
Display
2560 x 1664
GPU
Apple M2 GPU (8-core)
RAM
Storage

Review

Evaluation of Asus ROG Strix G18 (2026) G815 and Apple MacBook Air 13 (M2, 2022) important characteristics
Performance
System and application performance
Gaming
Performance in popular 3D games
Display
Viewing angle, color accuracy, brightness
Battery Life
Potential battery life in light and average use
Connectivity
Ports, webcam and other interfaces
Portability
Design, materials, durability and usability
Pick the usage scenario that best matches your needs
Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Please input up-to-date prices for the selected laptop configurations to get an accurate value-for-money index.
Currency
VS
21.0
(Mediocre)
Value Index
55.9
(Average)

Key Differences

What are the key differences between the notebooks
Advantages of the Asus ROG Strix G18 (2026) G815
  • Higher screen refresh rate: 300 versus 60 Hz
  • Includes an old-school USB-A port
  • Around 4.8x better multi-core CPU performance in the Cinebench 2024 test
  • Features a much bigger (~71%) battery – 90 against 52.6 watt-hours
  • User-upgradable RAM (up to 64GB) and an SSD
Advantages of the Apple MacBook Air 13 (M2, 2022)
  • Significantly easier to carry: weighs 2260 grams less (around 4.98 lbs)
  • MacBook with the Apple M2 chip maintains its performance even when running on battery power.
  • Thinner bezels and 2% higher screen-to-body ratio
  • Much smaller footprint: 44% more compact case (101.4 vs 181.8 square inches)
  • 34% sharper screen – 225 versus 168 pixels per inch (PPI)

Tests and Specifications

Comparison table of test results and technical specs

Case

Weight 3.5 kg (7.72 lbs) 1.24 kg (2.73 lbs)
Dimensions 399 x 294 x 23.1-32 mm
15.71 x 11.57 x 0.91-1.26 inches
304.1 x 215 x 11.3 mm
11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches
Area 1173 cm2 (181.8 inches2) 654 cm2 (101.3 inches2)
Screen-to-body ratio ~80.1% ~82%
Side bezels 5.7 mm 5.6 mm
Colors Gray, Green Silver, Gold, Gray, Blue
Material Plastic Aluminum
Transformer No No
Opening angle 130° 130°
Size comparison
Cooling solution
Cooling system Active Passive
Vapor chamber Yes -
Liquid metal Yes No
Number of fans 3 -

Display

Size 18 inches 13.6 inches
Type IPS LCD IPS LCD
Refresh rate 300 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate - No
PPI 168 ppi 225 ppi
Aspect ratio 16:10 16:10
Resolution 2560 x 1600 pixels 2560 x 1664 pixels
HDR support Yes, Dolby Vision Yes, Dolby Vision
Sync technology G-Sync No
Touchscreen No No
Coating Matte Glossy (Antireflective)
Ambient light sensor No Yes
Screen space comparison
ROG Strix G18 (2026) G815
18″ (16:10 ratio) = 145.6 in2
MacBook Air 13 (M2, 2022)
13.6″ (16:10 ratio) = 83.1 in2
~75% more screen space
Display tests
Contrast - 1384:1
sRGB color space 100% 99.9%
Adobe RGB profile - 87.6%
DCI-P3 color gamut 100% 98.4%
Response time 3 ms 29 ms
Max. brightness

Battery

Capacity
Full charging time - 2:30 hr
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Fast charging Yes Yes
Charging via USB (Power Delivery) Yes, 100 W Yes, 65 W
Charging port position Left Left
Charge power 280 / 380 / 450 W 30 / 35 / 67 W
Cable length - 2 meters
Weight of AC adapter 1004 grams 174 / 189 / 250 grams

CPU

CPU name
Base frequency 2.7 GHz 3.5 GHz
Turbo frequency 5.5 GHz -
Cores 24 (8P + 16E) 8 (4P + 4E)
Threads 24 8
L3 Cache 36 MB -
Integrated GPU Arc Graphics (4-Cores) Apple M2 GPU
Fabrication process 3 nm 5 nm

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Cinebench 2024 (Single-Core)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi-Core)

Graphics Card

GPU name
TGP 115 W 15 W
Nvidia Optimus MUX -
Type Dedicated Integrated
Fabrication process 4 nm 5 nm
GPU base clock - 500 MHz
GPU boost clock - 1398 MHz
FLOPS 18.4 TFLOPS 2.9 TFLOPS
Memory size 8 GB System Shared
Memory type GDDR7 LPDDR5
Memory bus 128 bit 128 bit
Memory speed ~24 Gbps 6.4 Gbps
Shading units (cores) 3328 1024
Texture mapping units (TMUs) 104 64
Raster operations pipelines (ROPs) 48 32
GPU performance 18.4 TFLOPS 2.9 TFLOPS

GPU Benchmarks

Steel Nomad Lite Score
Blender GPU 3995 264
Solar Bay 66292 6237
Expected FPS based on average performance across 9 popular games. Details

RAM

RAM size
Channels 2x8 GB 2x4 GB
Clock 5600 MHz 6400 MHz
Type DDR5 LPDDR5
Upgradable Yes No
Total slots 2 -
Max. ram size 64 GB -

Storage

Storage size
Bus PCI-E Gen 4.0 (4x) Custom
Storage type SSD (M2) SSD (M2)
Channels 1x1024 GB 1x256 GB
Upgradable Yes No
Total slots 2 -
NVMe Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers 2.0 2.2 (2 tweeters and 2 woofers)
Power 2x2W -
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Loudness - ~82.7 dB
Microphones 2 3

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard v7 v6
Bluetooth v5.4 v5.3
Fingerprint No Yes
Infrared sensor Yes No
Optical drive No No
Webcam Above the display Above the display
Webcam resolution 1920 x 1080 1920 x 1080
Ports
USB-A 3x USB 3.2 No
USB Type-C 2x USB 4.0 2x USB 4.0
Thunderbolt Thunderbolt 5 Thunderbolt 3
HDMI 1x HDMI 2.1 No
DisplayPort No No
VGA No No
Audio jack (3.5 mm) Yes Yes
Ethernet (RJ45) Yes No
SD card reader No No
Proprietary charging port Yes Yes

Input

Keyboard
Keyboard type Island Island
Numpad Yes No
Backlight Yes Yes
Key travel 1.7 mm 1 mm
Touchpad
Size 13.0 x 8.5 cm -
Surface Glass Glass
Windows Precision Yes No
*Disclaimer! Ports, speakers, display, and other specifications can vary depending on the laptop's specific configuration or region.

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