Review: ASUS ROG Strix XG17AHP Portable Gaming Monitor

The ASUS ROG Strix XG17AHP is a 17.3-inch IPS gaming monitor that supports 240Hz and 3ms response time. This is a monitor made for gamers who play games at high frame rates, which are probably going to be mostly FPS gamers.

Two disclaimers first.

1st. The review unit that I have is actually a loan unit from ASUS. This is not a paid review, and I've got to return the monitor. Do check out the various ASUS product reviews I have on the blog.

2nd. I'm don't play much games. The games I usually play are RTS games are RPGs, so these aren't the games that can push this monitor to its true potential.

The monitor is actually shipped in a smaller box (shown above) that inside a bigger box that contains the monitor stand, carrying case, flip case stand, wall charger and plugs.

That's the huge padded carrying case included. There are three big pockets inside so you can slide the monitor and your laptop into two, and still have one spare. A padded sling is also included.

That's the factory colour calibrator report.

That's the USB-C to USB-C cable, USB-C to USB-A adaptor, and micro HDMI to full-sized HDMI cable.

Region specific plugs are included with the USB-A wall charger.

The detachable portable monitor stand included is quite heavy. It's almost all metal except for the body which is hard plastic.

Note that the monitor stand is only included with certain bundles.

The legs can be pulled out easily for quick deployment.

There's a detachable plate that can be screwed onto the back of the monitor.

The ball head does not have any lock but it's stiff enough to hold the monitor in any position. The monitor stand can be adjusted for height, tilt and swivel. Height can be locked by toggling the locking latch.

You can't rotate the ball head from landscape to portrait though. So if you need the monitor vertical, you have to unscrew the tripod plate and adjust the orientation. It will be inconvenient if you need to change the orientation often.

The design is clean and simple. Bezels are thin.

The front facing speakers have pretty good audio quality.

Screw mount for the metal plate is right in the middle.

The monitor is 1cm thick and the weight is 1.06kg not including the heavy stand. It's definitely quite portable, more portable compared to 17-inch laptops for sure.

The buttons at the top left are for power and OSD.

The ports at the bottom left are micro HDMI, USB-C for video and audio, USB-C for power (DC in) and the 3.5mm audio jack.

Brightness and contrast can be adjusted from the OSD. Colour temperature adjustment is in the form of RGB. Under certain visual modes, the brightness and contrasts may not be adjustable.

GamePlus options allow you to place visual tools on the screen. For example, with Crosshair, there will be a dot or crosshair in the middle of the display, regardless of whether you're playing any game. You can have the FPS counter display on screen but that's not a live counter but merely reflects the current frame rate that the monitor is set to run.

The OSD has plenty of visual modes to choose from, namely Scenery/Racing/Cinema/RTS/RPG/FPS/sRGB Modes/MOBA Mode/User Mode. There's also GamePlus mode (Crosshair/Timer/FPS Counter/Display Alignment).

The ASUS ROG Strix XG17AHP is a 17.3-inch 1080P IPS panel with colours that look good out of the box.

I've colour calibrated the display and measured 97% sRGB, 74% NTSC, 79% AdobeRGB and 78% P3. Colour accuracy is quite good.

Maximum brightness measured is 234 nits which is pretty decent for a portable monitor. It's bright enough to use in a brightly lit room but definitely not outdoors near strong sunlight.

It may look like it's able to power up with a single USB-C but it's actually running off the internal 7800mAh battery that's rated to last for 3.5 hours when running at 240Hz. Considering the frame rate, that's actually decent battery life.

You will definitely want to connect the monitor to wall power if you don't want your gaming experience to cut short by it suddenly running out of battery life.

The flip cover case snaps onto the base of the monitor with magnets. That case can only be deploy at certain angles so it's not that useful.

I definitely won't recommend using the flip case vertically even if you can do so since the base is not stable, so the monitor has the risk of toppling with the display forward.

Use the metal monitor stand if you have it.

It's better to fix the stand onto the monitor stand which is more stable.

It's a joy to play vertical format games when you rotate the display. That's Raiden Fighters 2, one of my favourite games from decades ago, now available on Steam under the Raiden Legacy bundle for just S$10.

The highlight of this monitor is it's made for gaming.

The display has a maximum frame rate of 240Hz, response time of 3ms (gray to gray) and Adaptive Sync.

This monitor is made for gamers who play high frame rate games. If you only play 60Hz games or console games, there's not much reason to get this monitor since you're not utilising what this monitor is made for. Besides, there are way cheaper portable monitors that run 60Hz just fine.

With GTA 5, when running at 1080P, I was only able to get up to 40-50FPS on my Surface Book 3 with NVIDIA Gefore GTX 1650 Max-Q. When I reduce the resolution to 720P, frame rates double to 80-90FPS.

In the photo above, I had the USB-C cable run from the right side of the SB3 to the left side of the monitor – I'm a right hander. That USB-C cable is barely long enough.

At 1080P on a 17-inch display, there is some pixelation. But it's not too bad when seated one arms length away.

This 17.3-inch display is good for those who are using laptops with screens smaller than 13-inches, phones, Nintendo Switch, or consoles. If your laptop already has a big display, eg 13-15 inches, there's no point getting this external display because it's bigger only by a few inches. It totally does not make any sense to connect a 12.9-inch iPad Pro to this display.

Conclusion

The ASUS ROG Strix XG17AHP delivers quality on many aspects. It is pricey so only you can decide whether it is value for your money. I did enjoy gaming on this monitor, mostly because I like the speakers even though they are just 1W speakers. Or go connect your Bluetooth speakers.

Pros and cons
+ Clean and simple design
+ Thin bezels
+ Compact, lightweight, portable
+ 97% sRGB colour support
+ Good viewing angles
+ Decent audio quality from front facing speakers
+ Metal monitor stand has excellent build quality
+ Internal 7800mAh battery
+ Plenty of gaming visual modes
+ OSD easy to navigate
- USB-C cable could be longer
- Metal stand cost US $100 more in a different bundle
- Metal stand does not support changing monitor orientation
- Flip cover case feels flimsy

Where to buy

Full specifications on ASUS website
https://www.asus.com/Monitors/ROG-Strix-XG17AHPE/

Check out the reviews on Amazon US and Lazada Singapore
Amazon US - https://amzn.to/3h6AGEw
Lazada SG 1
Lazada SG 2