Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 And G16 Gaming Laptops

Tom's Guide

The Asus Zenbook Duo gets a major update with its upgraded dual 14-inch OLED displays, slimmer removable keyboard, and lower starting price of $1,499, the DUO makes a strong case for folding Windows laptops.

Transcript

00:00 Hello, I am the awfully English Jason England,

00:02 and these are the brand new ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14

00:06 and G16 gaming laptops.

00:08 Sporting the latest Intel Core Ultra Meteor Lake

00:10 and AMD Ryzen 8000 CPUs.

00:12 ASUS just announced these in its big event at CES 2024.

00:16 And with no new NVIDIA laptop GPUs launching at the event,

00:19 the laptop maker is going big on three key areas

00:23 for the new Zephyrus models.

00:24 The CPU, the design, and the display.

00:27 So let's start with what is currently topping

00:30 our best gaming laptop list, which is the G14.

00:32 We absolutely fell in love

00:34 with this portable gaming powerhouse,

00:36 and for the new year, we're getting a lot more of the same.

00:39 It starts with the new AMD Ryzen 8000 CPU,

00:42 otherwise known by its screen name of Hawkpoint,

00:44 which really brings the fight to Intel's AI NPU,

00:47 alongside some pretty tidy speed boosts.

00:50 The GPU can be specced up to an RTX 4070,

00:53 alongside 32 gigs of RAM,

00:55 and has a starting price in the UK of £1,899.

00:58 Now I know what a lot of you are thinking,

01:00 didn't ASUS do an RTX 4090 version of this machine?

01:03 Well, that last generation model will continue to be sold,

01:06 but we're not seeing that most powerful GPU

01:08 come to this mini machine.

01:10 And I think that could come down to the fresh redesign.

01:13 Gone is the anime matrix display,

01:16 and replaced with far more subtle slash lighting on the back.

01:19 Something I'd feel far more comfortable pulling out

01:21 in public and not embarrassing myself.

01:23 The machine is built around a single block of aluminium,

01:26 not aluminium, and ASUS has both minimised the size

01:30 and maximised what it's done with the space.

01:33 What do I mean?

01:34 Even though it is 18% thinner and 12% lighter,

01:37 ASUS has made the touchpad bigger,

01:39 made the six speaker system 250% louder,

01:43 with 125% larger dual woofers,

01:45 and made the keyboard's key caps larger

01:48 with the same amount of travel.

01:49 One thing to note is that the battery

01:51 is just a touch smaller now at 73 watt hours rather than 76,

01:55 but we'll have to see what that does to the battery drain

01:58 when we get round to it.

01:59 But most impressively,

02:00 these are the first ROG gaming laptops

02:02 since the Zephyrus S demo machine back in 2019

02:06 to come with an OLED display.

02:08 The same 16 by 10 aspect ratio as before,

02:11 3K ratio, 120 hertz refresh rate,

02:14 and a 0.2 millisecond response time,

02:16 and up to 500 nits of brightness.

02:18 Basically all the gaming performance you need,

02:20 but with the added benefit of a flash flood of color

02:23 and a 1 million to 1 contrast ratio

02:25 that OLED technology is known for.

02:28 The larger Zephyrus G16 benefits

02:30 from all the same premium design and OLED display updates,

02:33 as well as the G14, but with its increased size,

02:37 there are now some big differences,

02:39 including a full size SD card slot over micro SD,

02:42 the same liquid metal and tri-fan cooling

02:44 being complimented by a vapor chamber too

02:46 for both 4080 and RTX 4090 support,

02:49 configurations including Meteor Lake

02:51 up to Intel Core Ultra 9 185H,

02:55 and a larger starting price of 2,299 pounds.

02:58 They unmistakably feel more premium to the touch

03:00 than last year's models.

03:02 They have drop-dead gorgeous displays and better keyboards.

03:05 Without getting ahead of myself,

03:06 as we'll need to review them for a full opinion,

03:08 I think there's a lot to be excited about

03:10 when it comes to the ROG Zephyrus G14 and G16.

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