Classier than its “Republic of Gamers” branding might suggest, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is a stylish gaming laptop with all the bells and whistles in a sleek form factor.
Once the domain of gaudy designs and extravagant RGB lighting arrays, it’s now possible to find gaming devices that suit the office. ROG’s latest Zephyrus laptops are perhaps the epitome of this design trend. It looks fantastic and runs just as capably, in what might be my favourite form factor of any gaming laptop I’ve used.
Other gaming laptops might have more raw power but quickly expand to unwieldy sizes. This might be fine for some, who intend to anchor the device in one place, although it limits overall utility. Meanwhile, the Zephyrus G14 beautifully balances power and portability, resulting in a wonderfully versatile laptop suited for both work and play.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) review
First impressions
This laptop is what I’d picture if Apple made a gaming-specific computer. It’s gorgeously designed, slim, and smooth to the touch. Made from a sturdy aluminium alloy, the Zephyrus G14 abandons the tacky plastic design of many a gaming peripheral in years gone by. Aesthetics are relatively unimportant in the long run – what good is a beautiful laptop that doesn’t run – but Asus nailed the brief.
In my mind, the only objectionable design element here is the “Slash Lighting” emblazoned on the laptop lid. It’s a lighting array programmed to flash at set intervals or in time with your gaming, customisable via the ROG Armoury Crate software. There’s a catch, though: only others can see it.
Which, perhaps, is the point – to stand out from the crowd and get everyone to notice your fancy laptop. I turned it off at the earliest opportunity because I didn’t want it taxing the battery if I couldn’t at least enjoy the light show myself.
Otherwise, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is a great laptop in both form and function. For me, 14 inches is the sweet spot of size and portability, making it easy to take wherever you go. Most importantly, the laptop packs a decent wallop.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) specifications
There are a few different configurations available, with up to an Nvidia RTX 4070 version available. The model I tested ran an RTX 4060 along with the following specs:
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS |
| GPU | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 / AMD Radeon 780M integrated |
| Memory | 16GB LPDDR5X 6400 RAM |
| Storage | 1TB WD SN650 |
| Display | 2880 x 1800 OLED 16:10 aspect ratio 120Hz refresh rate 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut |
| Connectivity | One HDMI 2.1 port Two USB-A 3.2 ports One USB-C 3.2 port One USB-C 4 port with power delivery One 3.5mm headphone jack One MicroSD card slot Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Battery | 73Wh 180W AC Adapter |
| Dimensions | 31.1 (W) x 22.0 (D) x 1.59 (H) cm |
| Price (RRP) | $3,399 |
| Warranty | Two years |
| Official website | Asus Australia |
Performance
As I alluded to before, this is one hot laptop, but not just in looks. Under heavy workloads, it doesn’t take long to heat up to uncomfortable levels, which I found out by resting it on my lap for a quick couch gaming session. Fearing for my potential future chances at fatherhood, I soon grabbed a lap desk.
Fortunately, the keyboard remains a comfortable temperature. So, as long as the laptop is on another surface, you’ll be fine. Just don’t touch the laptop’s underside in the middle of an intense game. Try as it might, the Zephyrus G14’s fan doesn’t quite prevent the metallic chassis from getting toasty. At least it’s quieter than the noisy Acer Predator Helios Neo 16.
With that disclaimer out of the way, I’m pleased to report that the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 can certainly play games. Extremely well, in fact. Equipped with an RTX 4060, it’s not at the absolute top-end of power configurations, but it does well across all sorts of games.
These figures below are all without enabling frame generation technology like Nvidia’s DLSS or AMD’s FSR. What you see is the hardware punching out some decent numbers as close to the laptop’s native display resolution as possible.
| Game | Average frames per second (FPS) |
| Forza Horizon 5 benchmark (Extreme, 2560 x 1600) | 73 |
| Baldur’s Gate 3 (Ultra, 2880 x 1880) | 56.1 |
| Returnal benchmark (High, 1920 x 1200) | 100 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark (Ultra, 2560 x 1600) | 43.25 |
All of these are comfortably playable frame rates, made even more impressive by the high resolution each game ran at. Dial the settings down to 1080p or tweak some textures and you’ll be flying.
General use
Complementing the G14’s smart looks is its stunning 120Hz OLED screen. Between gaming, browsing and watching videos, everything you do on this laptop looks exceptional. Colours in particular appear in fully vibrant detail, taking full advantage of games with broad palettes like Forza Horizon 5‘s idyllic Mexican landscapes.
Its glossy finish does mean glare is an issue, though. Matte OLED panels are expensive – just look at Samsung’s latest TV as an example – so cost was likely a deciding factor. However, a reflective laptop screen is nowhere near as troublesome as a TV afflicted by the same problem. After all, you can just move the laptop away from bright light sources.
Away from the display, premium design features throughout the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. It has a nicely sized central touchpad that’s smooth and tactile to use. Plus, the responsive keyboard feels nice for both gaming and typing alike. There’s also a dedicated Armoury Crate key that opens the laptop’s performance management software. Here, you can adjust lighting, fan speeds, and various performance settings.
Another point towards my argument in favour of 14-inch laptops: lots of ports. Without taking up much space, the G14 still wields plenty of connectivity options, including an onboard HDMI 2.1 port, plus an even spread of USB-A and USB-C inputs.
Benchmarks
Turning to the quantitative data from benchmarking software, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 performed pretty much as expected for a mid-range gaming laptop. Its CPU scores across Geekbench 6 and Cinebench R24 placed it closely alongside recent MacBooks and Asus’ own dual-screen Zenbook Duo laptop.
| Device | CPU (Single-core) | CPU (Multi-core) |
| Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 | 2,903 | 17,385 |
| Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 8) | 2,870 | 17,089 |
| MacBook Pro M2 Max | 2,701 | 14,916 |
| Macbook Air M3 | 3,075 | 12,015 |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 | 2,581 | 12,160 |
| Asus ROG Ally | 2,543 | 12,181 |
| Lenovo Legion Go | 2,346 | 9,619 |
| Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 | 1,567 | 8,761 |
| Device | CPU (Single-core) | CPU (Multi-core) |
| Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 | 123 | 1,395 |
| MacBook Pro M2 Max | 122 | 1,031 |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 | 86 | 927 |
| Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8406) | 105 | 763 |
| Macbook Air M3 | 141 | 550 |
Sporting a discrete graphics card means the G14 starts to pull away from laptops relying on integrated graphics. Devices with the more powerful RTX 4070 GPUs output higher performance but also cost more. This raises the question: how much power do you need? If you need to play games smoothly at higher resolutions than 1080p, choose a laptop with a beefier card.
There is an RTX 4070 version of the G14 that also addresses another shortcoming of this particular model. With the 4060, you only get 16GB of RAM, which is the minimum you’d want in a gaming rig these days. Shelling out more for the 4070 model nets you 32GB of RAM, which would be worth considering if you stream and edit videos on top of gaming.
| Device | OpenCL |
| Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 8, RTX 4070) | 158,787 |
| Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 (RTX 4070) | 119,970 |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (RTX 4060) | 96,452 |
| MacBook Pro M2 Max | 72,833 |
| Macbook Air M3 | 30,479 |
| Device | Score |
| Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 8, RTX 4070) | 13,796 |
| Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 (RTX 4070) | 12,881 |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (RTX 4060) | 9,620 |
| Asus TUF A16 | 9,196 |
| Asus Zenbook Duo (UX8406) | 3,235 |
| Asus ROG Ally (30W) | 3,198 |
Its PCMark 10 score of 7,648 puts the laptop in the top nine per cent of computers, meaning it’s an adept all-around machine. Casting an eye to the G14’s storage, its SSD recorded sequential read speeds of just over 5,000MB/s and write speeds of 3,400MB/s. It’s not a super-fast SSD but it is comfortably quicker than the sluggish storage drive used by last year’s Asus TUF A16 laptop.
Who is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 for?
Boasting a beautiful blend of power and portability, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is a stellar laptop for 1080p gaming. Any complaints feel rather inconsequential given it does so many things well.
Sure, the RTX 4060 version could benefit from more RAM, and the otherwise attractive aluminium chassis gets quite hot. On the other hand, these minor slights are easy to mitigate. Anyone desperately needing more RAM is likely in the market for the RTX 4070 model anyway.
Sporting one of the best gaming laptop designs I’ve seen, the Zephyrus G14 is a reliable all-around companion for swapping between spreadsheets and the latest games.
The post Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) review: strong and stylish appeared first on GadgetGuy.
0 (mga) komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento