This month, Asus unveiled an updated range of ROG gaming laptops in India, featuring Nvidia’s latest GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs, ahead of the upcoming Computex 2025. While the primary target remains the gaming market, the company is also enhancing the AI capabilities of its premium ROG Strix, Zephyrus, and Flow laptops by integrating Intel Core Ultra 9 and AMD Ryzen processors. Asus continues its tradition of introducing cutting-edge hardware innovations to the market ahead of its competitors.
During Computex Taipei 2024, Asus was quick to showcase its AI-driven Copilot+ laptops powered by Snapdragon X Elite chipsets. With AI-ready laptops becoming increasingly popular and accessible, the company has experienced a significant uptick in demand in India. In the first two weeks of May, over 100 pre-orders for the new ROG lineup were recorded, marking the highest interest the company has observed in the last few years.
GeForce RTX 50 Series ROG Laptops Launch
Arnold Su, vice president of Asus’s consumer and gaming PC division in India, shared his thoughts with Gadgets 360 following the launch of the refreshed ROG lineup. He noted that the enthusiasm shown by consumers awaiting new graphics cards and chassis is a promising indicator for both Asus and the wider gaming industry.
Despite a slight decline in the overall consumer notebook shipments for 2023 and 2024, Su highlighted the ongoing growth in the graphics card sector in India. He attributed this trend to the versatility of gaming laptops, which appeal not just to gamers but also to content creators and professionals in graphic design, who make up approximately 20-30 percent of the customer base.
Asus debuted its new GeForce RTX 50 series ROG laptops on May 2, launching high-end models equipped with RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5070Ti. These units saw over 100 pre-orders, with an average retail price hovering around ₹2.5 lakh. Recently, the company also introduced the ROG Strix, ROG Zephyrus, and TUF series gaming laptops containing GeForce RTX 5060 GPUs, aimed at consumers looking for products priced below ₹2 lakh. Su emphasized the decision to launch premium models as they became available, stating that Asus wanted to avoid keeping customers waiting for the entire series to be released.
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) is priced at ₹2,79,999
AI PC Market
As the leading brand in the gaming PC sector in India, Asus has ambitious goals for the AI PC market. With increasing interest in AI-capable computers, the company aims to offer distinct products across three categories: “everyday AI,” “next-level AI,” and “advanced AI” PCs. Su explained that the benchmark for everyday AI is set at 10 TOPs (trillions of operations per second), while next-level AI systems, comparable to Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs, target 45 TOPs.
For its high-end advanced AI offerings, which include the ProArt, ROG, and TUF series laptops, Asus boasts capabilities of up to 321 TOPs. The demand for AI PCs is gradually increasing, with prices becoming more favorable. For instance, the Vivobook 16 Copilot+ PC was launched at ₹65,990 earlier this year. Nonetheless, the segment has yet to attract a large number of everyday users.
Su indicated that as Microsoft integrates AI into its software suite, users will start leveraging AI applications on their PCs, although the full potential of AI NPUs is not being tapped into currently.
“For professional workloads or creative tasks — take, for example, a graphic designer benefiting from AI features in Adobe software — investing in a next-generation AI PC might be advantageous. However, I would not recommend a student to invest heavily in a Copilot+ PC; an everyday AI PC would be sufficient for them,” he suggested.
Currently, Asus holds a 40 percent market share in the AI PC segment in India, although AI PCs constituted less than five percent of its total consumer notebook shipments in 2024. The company intends to boost the share of AI PC shipments to between 10 to 15 percent by the end of 2025.
The ROG Ally X handheld launched in India last year
Future of Asus ROG Ally
Asus has also made strides with its ROG Ally handheld gaming device, despite its niche status in the market. Launched in 2023, the ROG Ally was followed by the ROG Ally X in the subsequent year. Su reported that sales have remained stable, with an average monthly sale of around 400 to 500 units for nearly a year.
“To provide some context, our total monthly sales amount to 400 to 500 units, translating to about 6,000 to 7,000 units annually. While these figures are not bad, they do not signify a major market trend,” Su noted.
Specific future plans for the next generation of the ROG Ally were not disclosed, but the commitment to remain in the handheld market was affirmed by Su.
“We will continue this segment in India, as we see consistent demand for 400 to 500 units sold each month. We aim to explore new opportunities in this area,” he stated.
Reports suggest that Asus is also developing the next-gen Ally and an additional handheld in collaboration with Xbox, codenamed “Project Kennan.” Recently, these devices appeared in a leaked FCC listing, but Su refrained from revealing specific details on the upcoming handhelds. “Just like our customers, I am also looking forward to any updates,” he commented.
