Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review
Our Verdict
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is an impressive 14-inch gaming laptop that delivers on several fronts, with great performance, incredible battery life and unbeatable portability.
For
- Great performance for gaming and everything else
- Super portable design paired with 11-60 minutes battery life
- Neat display and audio
Against
- No webcam
- Keyboard has backlighting problems
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is an impressive 14-inch gaming laptop that delivers on several fronts, with bully performance, incredible battery life and unbeatable portability.
Pros
- +
Great performance for gaming and everything else
- +
Super portable design paired with 11-60 minutes battery life
- +
Bully display and audio
Cons
- -
No webcam
- -
Keyboard has backlighting problems
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Specs
Price: $1,449
Display: 14-inch, 1080p, 120Hz
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9-4900HS
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 1TB SSD
Bombardment: eleven:32
Size: 12.8 x 8.7 ten 0.7 inches
Weight: 3.5 pounds
EDITOR'S Notation: The Asus Zephyrus G14 won "all-time gaming laptop" in the Tom'south Guide Awards 2021 for gaming.
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is the sort of gaming automobile that gamers take dreamed of for years. Equipped with the latest AMD Ryzen 9-4900HS processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q GPU, it puts a lot of horsepower into its little 14-inch chassis. And its cost is reasonable, too, starting at $one,049 ($1,449 for the model we reviewed). It's non only one of the best gaming laptops out at that place, it's ane of the best laptops, period. In fact, information technology earned a spot among our picks for the best products of the year in our 2020 Tom's Guide Awards, and earned a recommendation for all-time-sounding laptop in our Tom'southward Guide Awards 2021.
The Zephyrus G14 sounds well-nigh too good to be true: More than 11 hours of bombardment life, awesome performance for gaming and VR, thermal management that never gets hot to the touch, and a design that can both satisfy gamers and expect at dwelling in more professional person settings. All this, plus funky personalization features.
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Only it's no dream. Every bit you'll see in our Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review, this is an awesome gaming laptop that's portable enough to go anywhere and powerful enough to play anything. Information technology besides offers some of the all-time battery life of whatever laptop, without compromising on way or adequacy, making it i of the all-time Windows laptops you lot can purchase.
At CES 2021, Asus appear the ROG Zephyrus G15, which packs up to GeForce RTX 3080 GPU and AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS CPUs, likewise every bit the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14: Cost and configurations
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is a compact 14-inch gaming laptop that offers plenty of power for a more than affordable price than gaming enthusiasts might expect. Starting at $1,049 and ranging upward to $1,999, the Zephyrus G14 provides a ton of value in its sleek fiddling chassis. Currently, though, discount pricing brings the G14 to $849 at Best Purchase, for the base model config.
Our review unit of measurement sells for $1,449 and offers arguably the best mix of power and value we've seen for the Zephyrus G14. Outfitted with an AMD Ryzen 9-4900HS processor, 16GB retentivity and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q GPU with 6GB of VRAM, it's a powerhouse that will handle most gaming demands with ease. With a 1TB SSD for storage and a 1080p 120Hz display, information technology'southward as well set for both gaming and productivity use.
The base model of the Zephyrus G14 sells for $one,049 with a less powerful Ryzen nine-4900HS CPU and Nvidia GTX 1650 GPU. With the RAM and storage chapters cut in half (8GB and 512GB SSD standard, respectively) and y'all'll nevertheless get a decent gaming motorcar, only without the prowess offered on better configurations.
At the tiptop of the carte is the $1,999 configuration. It has the same Ryzen ix-4900HS CPU and RTX 2060 Max-Q GPU of our review unit, as well as the same RAM and storage allotment, just it boasts a 1440p, 60Hz display panel. It also gets some cool bells and whistles, such as a mini LED RGB array on the lid, called the AniMe Matrix display.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14: Blueprint
Design-wise, the Zephyrus G14 is something of a small wonder. As gaming laptops go, it is extremely slim and light, cramming more than gaming prowess into its 14-inch chassis than whatever comparable Ultrabook from the past few years.
Measuring 12.8 ten 8.vii x 0.7 inches, the compact Zephyrus G14 weighs just 3.5 pounds, making it the smallest and lightest gaming laptop on the marketplace. The computer owes its lite weight to the materials that make up its sleek body, with rigid magnesium and aluminum used for the chassis, deck and lid.
But the compact design is missing a couple of features, dropped in order to cut weight and size. Most notable is the lack of a webcam. While the display's slim bezels don't leave much room for a camera higher up the screen, there'due south also no webcam beneath it, or on the laptop deck. If you want to video chat or stream yourself playing on Twitch, yous'll need to pick up a divide photographic camera.
Our review unit came in a sleek looking white finish, paired with a metallic silverish deck, for a color scheme that Asus calls "Moonlight White." Asus too offers the laptop in a more subdued "Eclipse Gray," which has a near-black terminate on the chapeau and matching deck, with black keys on the keyboard.
Effectually the outside border of the chassis are several ventilation grilles, which are a necessary part of whatever high performance laptop that has oestrus-generating components within. The design has a stylish flourish along the back swivel edge, where the grilles have an athwart look and a triangular iii-dimensional design.
That back edge of the laptop is also unique in that it has a driblet hinge lid that raises the dorsum end of the laptop slightly when opened. That puts the keyboard at a more comfy bending and raises up the display just a bit for more than comfy viewing.
The stylish design likewise puts 1 unexpected twist on an oftentimes-ignored office of the laptop: the lid. The smooth, flat surface of the lid appears to be embellished with a pattern of dots across one-half the lid's surface. Closer inspection reveals that these dots are actually tiny holes.
The result is a very distinctive look that is surprisingly subdued for a gaming laptop. Merely never fear, RGB fanatics: Asus withal has blinkenlights for yous. While our review unit had only the pigsty/dot texture across the chapeau, Asus likewise offers the Zephyrus G14 with an array of micro LED lights – called the AniMe Matrix display – that permit each pinprick hole glow with RGB goodness. You can and then turn those dots into an animated marquee, which you lot tin can farther customize with text and graphics.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14: Ports
Along the sides of the laptop you'll find a number of handy ports. On the correct are two USB 3.0 ports and a USB Type-C port. A Kensington lock slot also lets you physically secure the laptop, if you lot're worried about someone walking off with the imminently portable gaming machine.
On the left is the power connector, an HDMI ii.0b output and another USB-C port that offers charging for the laptop, and DisplayPort for output to a monitor. A combination audio jack gives you headphone and mic support.
For wireless connectivity, the Zephyrus G14 is as well equipped with Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) and Bluetooth 5.0. The result is plenty of speed for gaming, even without an Ethernet connection, and speedy connectivity for wireless devices like mice and speakers.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review: Brandish
Our review unit of measurement came outfitted with a 14-inch 1080p 120Hz display. While I would have loved a higher resolution panel, Asus only offers its 1440p WQHD resolution with a lower 60Hz refresh rate, and I'll usually opt for higher refresh rates over marginal resolution gains.
The panel itself offered decent color and brightness. According to our colorimeter, the panel produced 117% of the sRGB color gamut, which is slightly better than the Dell G7 15 (114%) or the Asus ROG Strix Scar III (110%), and notably better than the Razer Blade 15 (105%).
Its brightness is also above average, with 323 nits, topping the Dell G7 15 (303 nits), and leaving both the Asus ROG Strix Scar III (275 nits) and Razer Blade 15 (275 nits) looking a bit dim.
As I was swooping through the dark alleys of Batman'due south Gotham City in Arkham Origins, I was pleased to run across that vivid neon signs glowed with the vibrant reds and greens, and shadowy environments were never as well dark for good visibility, or also washed-out.
Even meliorate: The gaming experience is smooth and judder-free, thanks to AMD FreeSync. Y'all might be scratching your caput over the pairing of FreeSync with the G14's Nvidia GPU, only recent updates from Nvidia let the two technologies piece of work together, and the result is buttery smooth.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review: Audio
With a pair of 2.five-watt speakers and another pair of 0.seven-watt tweeters, the Zephyrus G14 offers up robust sound and great book for such a pocket-sized laptop.
Listening to Whitey's "Somebody, Catch the Wheel" I was impressed with the richness of the sound, whether information technology was the crash and pop of the drums or the heavily distorted guitar and vocals. In CheVelle'south "Emotional Drought" I could feel the burdensome guitars and a decent corporeality of bass, but the vocals also came through clearly and never got lost in the mix.
All of the sound is powered by Dolby's Atmos technology, which handles the sound processing. The included Dolby Atmos app lets you option from several preset audio modes, optimized for gaming, movies and vocalization-centric media, with presets called Dynamic, Game, Movie, Music and Voice. You lot can also create custom presets using the graphical EQ options to fine-tune the audio to your tastes.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review: Gaming performance
Armed with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q GPU with 6GB of VRAM, the Zephyrus G14 is a gaming beast that packs serious muscle into its 14-inch frame.
Playing games similar Batman: Arkham Origins and Doom Eternal, I did notice that there was some fan noise as the thermal management kicked on, simply it's quieter than many other gaming laptops, and not much louder than several standard, non-gaming laptops I've used.
The brandish likewise takes advantage of Nvidia'due south new compatibility with AMD FreeSync, which lets you savor tear-complimentary gaming with an Nvidia card and AMD-uniform displays. On this laptop, that means judder-free gameplay, whether I was brawling with thugs in Gotham or taking a chainsaw to the ghoulish baddies in Doom Eternal.
Our benchmark tests confirmed the impressive gaming prowess of the Zephyrus G14, delivering solid frame rates in a wide range of games at 1080p resolution and demanding settings. It'south a testament to how much power the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q GPU and 6GB of VRAM tin fit into such a compact chassis without overheating or being toasty-hot to the touch.
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, run in benchmark mode at the highest settings, the Zephyrus G14 cranked out 49 frames per second (fps), matching the Dell G7 15 (49 fps with a RTX 2060 GPU) and edging ahead of the Razer Blade 15 (46 fps with a GTX 1660 Ti), while falling just a few frames short of the Asus ROG Strix Scar III (55 fps with a RTX 2060 GPU).
In Hitman, running at Ultra settings, the Zephyrus G14 notched 87 fps, ahead of both the Asus ROG Strix Scar Three (86 fps) and the Razer Bract 15 (80 fps), only falling behind the Dell G7 fifteen (117 fps).
Simply the Zephyrus G14 actually delivered in K Theft Motorcar V, where information technology blew away the competition with 115 fps, nearly doubling the mid-60'south frame rates of the contest, like the Dell G7 fifteen (66 fps) or the Asus ROG Strix Scar Iii and Razer Blade xv (64 fps for both).
And the Zephyrus G14 as well gets y'all ready to strap on a headset for VR, scoring a solid 9.viii out of 11 in the SteamVR operation exam. Just while the system will let yous game in VR, it didn't lead the pack on that front; the Asus ROG Strix Scar 3 (10.3) and the Dell G7 15 (xi) both scored amend.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review: Performance
Only life's non all gaming and VR, and the Zephyrus G14's AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS processor and 16GB of retention also make information technology a formidable productivity and media-editing machine. During my employ of the laptop, I was able to run dozens of Google Chrome tabs at once, without any slowdown, and most non-gaming uses never even kicked on the fans to cool things downwardly.
In full general performance tests, like Geekbanch 4.3, the Zephyrus G14 scored 30,181 points, well above boilerplate for a xiv-inch laptop, ahead of both the Dell G7 15 (23,863) and the Scar III (23,196), and dramatically better than the Razer Blade 15 (19,542).
Video conversion barely fabricated the Zephyrus intermission a sweat, performing a 4K-to-1080p Handbrake conversion in simply under 7 minutes (6:59). That sort of transcoding work normally slows even the fastest systems. The Dell G7 15 (8:05) was closest with more than an extra minute, while the Asus ROG Strix Scar III (10:34) and Razer Bract Pro (10:47) were much slower.
The Zephyrus G14 owes some of its speed to a zippy 1TB SSD, which copied our 4.97GB exam folder in 4.five seconds, at a transfer rate of 1,131 megabytes per 2d (MBps). That's twice every bit fast as the Razer Blade Pro' 256GB PCIe SSD/iTB HDD philharmonic (565.5 MBps). The Zephyrus G14 leaves the G7 15's 256GB SSD (127 MBps) and the Scar Three's 1TB SSD (525 MBps) in the dust. Even amongst non-gaming systems, it'due south a speed demon, compared to the Dell XPS 13 2020's 512GB SSD (627 MBps).
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14: Keyboard
The keyboard is a standard QWERTY layout with tiled keys, with decent spacing betwixt the keys to amend replicate a gaming keyboard typing experience.
Despite the G14's smaller size, information technology doesn't have an edge-to-edge keyboard, and typing on it tin experience a piffling cramped. All the same, the spacing of the keys helps to alleviate this, and the cardinal travel feels reasonably deep, with an acceptably responsive typing experience.
The keyboard'due south backlight, however, is just lousy. Each key has transparent lettering that glows white when the backlight is turned on, which is a fairly standard design option. Still, each letter of the alphabet appears to be positioned directly on pinnacle of the keycap mail, which doesn't permit as much light through. This design gives each fundamental a dark shadowy spot correct in the middle of the letter.
The backlit letters as well aren't sufficiently contrasted by the light silver coloring of the keys, making them less legible when the backlight is on in all but adequately night conditions. This may not be an issue on the black-finished model, but it certainly was a problem on our review unit.
The bigger upshot, however, is the calorie-free leakage around and through the edges of each keycap. When viewed at a normal angle, the LED backlight tin actually exist seen through the gaps of each key well, lighting up the keyboard similar a Christmas tree. Additionally, the silvery coating of the keycaps appears much thinner around the edges of each tile-shaped cardinal, meaning that the edges of the keys will sometimes glow white when they shouldn't. The lighting is not entirely consistent across the whole key. The outcome is very uneven, and makes for a surprisingly unpolished note in otherwise impeccable design.
One other odd quirk on our review unit of measurement – both the "I" and neighboring "K" keys looked similar they had been depressed, and wouldn't jump back up to proper peak to match the rest of the keys. Whether this was a defect in the review unit nosotros were given, or the consequence of damage from aircraft, or from prior reviews, I don't know. We reached out to Asus about this issue, and will update this review in one case we know more than.
In a higher place the keyboard are defended buttons for volume command and mic muting, and a Republic Of Gamers control panel that lets y'all optimize system performance. Chosen ROG Armoury Crate, this tool gives you lot a handy dashboard interface for managing the CPU, GPU and fan performance, letting you tweak other settings.
While information technology may non get much apply in gaming, the Zephyrus G14 likewise has a surprisingly good touchpad. The 4.one x 2.iv-inch touchpad has a glassy polish surface, with clean, distinct clicks and good correct/left click distinction, even if the actual clicking depth is a fleck shallow. Multitouch gestures and two-fingered maneuvers all worked flawlessly as I used the laptop to browse, work and play.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review: Bombardment life
Simply for all of the Zephyrus G14'due south gaming prowess and raw power for daily productivity, we didn't expect the bombardment life to be particularly impressive. Afterward all, gaming laptops are notorious for their short endurance, often coming in at times too short to make information technology through a full day of work or school.
But the Zephyrus G14 blew us (and the competition) abroad with an outstanding xi hours and 32 minutes of continuous web surfing at 150 nits screen brightness. That'southward longer than the Dell G7 xv (iii:12), the Scar Three (5:09) or even the otherwise long-lived Razer Blade fifteen (v:48). The Zephyrus G14 nearly doubles that time, giving you hours and hours of usable battery without ever having to notice a wall outlet. Heck, that's long enough that y'all can head out for a day without having to even bring the charger along.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review: Oestrus
Despite the presence of serious heat-generating components within a slim metal chassis, the Zephyrus G14 didn't have any problem with heat.
In our standard heat test, which involves 15 minutes of streaming full HD video, the underside of the laptop peaked at 88 degrees Fahrenheit — well under the 95-caste marker where we consider the heat uncomfortable. The topside keyboard and touchpad temperatures besides stayed cool, measuring 82 and 74 degrees, respectively.
Under a heavier load for longer periods, like gaming for 45 minutes, the laptop does get noticeably warm, but the Zephyrus G14 doesn't seem to get the dangerously hot-to-the-affect hotspots that some gaming systems accept.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review: Verdict
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 isn't simply a keen gaming laptop; it's as well the smallest gaming laptop on the market, and boasts the longest-lasting bombardment of whatever gaming laptop we've seen. The display is stone solid, the audio rich and robust, and the performance offered past the G14's AMD Ryzen 9-4900HS processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q graphics card are some of the best you'll observe this side of a gaming desktop. The fact that you can get all of this for a non-insane amount of money is also pretty amazing.
The arrangement has some obvious problems, like the missing webcam and the surprisingly shoddy-looking keyboard. Simply bated from those relatively modest issues nosotros encountered in our Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review, Asus' latest gaming machine is an astonishingly capable and well-designed gaming laptop. It delivers better performance than whatsoever similarly sized gaming arrangement, and often past a large margin. Information technology handily beats the more expensive Razer Blade Pro, and is less expensive and more portable than the closest competitors. It's our favorite modest gaming laptop and one of the best gaming laptops ever fabricated.
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Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/asus-rog-zephyrus-g14
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