Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) review

The promised land of minute however mighty laptops with few compromises has by no means felt as absolutely realized because it does with the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) sitting on my desk. Whereas falling simply shy of perfection, its minor flaws do little to get in the best way of what’s in any other case an outstanding system, in and out. A lot so, in reality, that options have a tough time competing.

Serving as my day by day driver, I’ve been gaming away on the Asus Zephyrus G14 for just a bit below a month. In that point, it’s greater than confirmed itself as the perfect gaming laptop computer I’ve used on this explicit kind issue. Its measurement naturally comes with some constraints, which primarily have an effect on efficiency and worth, however this squeeze is barely noticeable, as this laptop computer it by no means fails to maintain its cool each metaphorically and below load.

ROG Strix Zephyrus G14 (2024) design

Design adjustments to the ROG Strix Zephyrus G14 (2024) go away it each slimmer and smaller than final yr’s mannequin, weighing in at a comparatively dainty 1.5kg and measuring simply 1.6cm thick, with its size and width additionally receiving a trim. These measurements, mixed with the Zephyrus G14’s trendy but sturdy CNC-machined aluminum alloy chassis, make for a machine whose luxurious look matches its premium parts.

Nonetheless, Asus’ pursuit of kind has consequently affected the perform of the Zephyrus G14 with combined outcomes. One optimistic is that the audio system of this yr’s laptop computer is markedly improved, with two extra audio system, making for a complete of six, and a shift within the placement of grills, which now run on both facet of the keyboard as an alternative of in the direction of the exhaust vents. Video games and music sound surprisingly punchy and loud on the Zephyrus G14, regardless of its small stature, with the system punching above its weight and displaying up greater laptops such because the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18.

These design adjustments have ushered in a redesigned keyboard too, which now has keycaps which are bigger than those on final yr’s mannequin, regardless of the shrunken chassis. Generational enhancements apart, the Zephyrus G14’s chiclet keyboard makes for snug gaming and typing experiences, however a mechanical possibility could be welcome in future fashions to additional push its premium qualities. Serendipitously, this keyboard design additionally apparently will increase air consumption for the interior parts, based on Asus, however the firm hasn’t defined how.

On the floor, then, all appears optimistic, however wanting beneath the aluminum reveals two compromises to the internals of the Zephyrus G14, made in service of its new design. The much less detrimental change is a discount in charging capability, down from 76WHrs to 73Whrs. In concept, this leaves the laptop computer barely worse off in the case of battery life in comparison with final yr’s mannequin. Nonetheless, efficiencies have been made elsewhere, to the purpose that this has successfully turn out to be a non-issue, though capability continues to be decreased regardless.

The extra controversial change comes within the swap to soldered RAM, eradicating the power to improve your reminiscence capability or speeds down the road, and this negatively impacts repairability too. As a substitute of swapping in bigger or quicker sticks, your solely choice to delay the lifespan of the Zephyrus G14 is to purchase costlier configurations that includes 32GB of RAM proper off the bat, rather than 16GB fashions. Whereas an extra fan over the now soldered RAM for a tri-fan cooling system softens the blow to a level, Asus can’t escape the warmth of this design selection, particularly when opponents just like the Razer Blade 14 don’t make this error.

AniMe Matrix additionally makes a return on the Zephyrus G14 in a brand new kind. Changing the 14,969 holes discovered on the 2023 mannequin, there’s now a ‘Slash Lighting’ array of LEDs. This streak of sunshine could be personalized to function a notification mild, in addition to a number of different features, nevertheless it nonetheless seems like a largely superfluous addition that wouldn’t be sorely missed had been it given the chop. To be clear, although, it’s a novel strategy to customization that feels extra applicable to this laptop computer’s styling than a bar of RGB LEDs.

You’ll discover the Zephyrus G14 in two colours, ‘Eclipse Grey’ and ‘Moonlight White’. Primarily based on our expertise with the latter colour possibility, choosing the darker of the 2 could be the good transfer, on condition that it supplies larger distinction for the keyboard LEDs to shine. The lighter tones of our evaluation pattern can go away the keycap backlights wanting a contact washed out, notably with white chosen as the colour of selection.

Save for the sore spot that’s its soldered RAM, the Zephyrus G14’s design is in any other case very good. It’s a delightful sight to behold, open or closed, with a pristine, fashionable styling that I want extra gaming peripherals and methods would undertake, or at the very least emulate. It will get much more pleasing when you get hands-on with it too, making for an awesomely lavish little laptop computer.

ROG Strix Zephyrus G14 (2024) specs

Inside specs for the ROG Strix Zephyrus G14 (2024) aren’t markedly totally different from final yr, with the one notable distinction being the substitute of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor with the newer AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS.

Nonetheless, these two CPUs are virtually similar in each manner that issues, together with cores, threads, and clocks, with the one distinction being the inclusion of a neural processing unit (NPU) within the latter. This addition might show helpful to some creatives that use synthetic intelligence of their workloads, nevertheless it does nothing for gaming at this cut-off date.

Our pattern is probably the most highly effective configuration you will get for the Zephyrus G14 (GA403UI-G14.R94070), that includes the aforementioned Ryzen 9 8945HS alongside an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. Topping out with an RTX 4070, at 95W, marks a change of tempo for Asus, with the earlier era of the Zephyrus G14 rocking as much as a GeForce RTX 4090 at 125W.

A selection of fewer configurations might rub some the improper manner, however RTX 4090 graphics in a chassis this small and at such a decreased wattage doesn’t make a lot sense by way of worth. Moreover, whereas this might not be an RTX 4070 at its full 115W TDP, the extra 25W left on the desk would solely web you just a few extra frames per second, making it a sensible selection from an effectivity standpoint.

RAM within the Zephyrus G14 can’t be upgraded, as beforehand talked about, however its storage is fortunately swappable do you have to want some extra house. Do notice, although, that the laptop computer solely has one M.2 slot, so that you’ll have to clone your present drive or undergo a extra concerned setup course of to extend your storage capability. Whereas I’m glad Asus has raised the ground from 512GB, a 2TB and even 4TB config would have been welcome as nicely.

Debuting in an Asus ROG laptop computer for the primary time, the Zephyrus G14’s OLED show serves as the largest shakeup in its specs. Sporting a staggeringly excessive decision of two,880 x 1800, this can be a satisfyingly pin-sharp display with glorious distinction, and its factory-calibrated colour accuracy has a Delta E below one as nicely. What’s extra, the addition of Nvidia G-Sync makes this panel a reduce above the present OLED competitors, eliminating tearing and stuttering artifacts in video games by syncing the display’s refresh charge together with your GPU’s body charge.

Shifting from Mini LED to OLED does have some tradeoffs, although. Except for the apparent concern of burn-in, for which Asus supplies an ‘OLED Care’ characteristic to mitigate, OLED merely can’t match the brightness of Mini LED, though the Zephyrus G14 places in admirable displaying right here, even in sunlit out of doors eventualities. Nonetheless, its self-emissive nature offers OLED the benefit in the case of blooming, notably in darkish scenes, with vastly extra dimming zones than the 504 zones discovered on final yr’s mannequin of this laptop computer.

As a consequence of swapping to this explicit OLED panel, although, the Zephyrus G14 finds itself extra strained to run video games at its native decision, because the decision has jumped from 1600p to 1800p.

Though this unlocks the power to make use of extra performance-oriented upscaling presets in DLSS, in video games that assist it, you’ll should be ready to show the decision down from 1800p to a extra manageable 1080p or 1440p in most titles. This can be a minor level of fiddliness in an in any other case fairly package deal that additional provides to the laptop computer’s premium high quality.

Regardless of the Zephyrus G14 rocking a smaller chassis on this era, Asus hasn’t skimped out in the case of ports both. Peripheral connections embody two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Kind-A ports, a single USB 3.2 Gen Kind-C port, in addition to a USB 4 port that helps DP-Alt mode and energy supply.

Whereas that’s handy, although, you’ll want to make use of the included energy brick with Asus’ proprietary connector to get probably the most efficiency out of the laptop computer. Along with DP-Alt, you even have a HDMI 2.1 port at your disposal for connecting exterior shows, which connects on to the RTX 4070 relatively than the iGPU, by way of a MUX swap for max efficiency. A 3.5mm combo audio jack and microSD card spherical off the choice and are welcome inclusions.

ROG Strix Zephyrus G14 (2024) benchmarks

Working the ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) by means of our benchmarks suite locations the laptop computer alongside a desktop GeForce RTX 4060 paired with an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D by way of gaming efficiency. This isn’t too stunning given RTX 4070 cell’s specs, however body charges aren’t nice until you’re ready to shift right down to a decrease decision than the display’s native 1800p.

Cyberpunk 2077’s ‘RT Extremely’ preset proves an excessive amount of for the Zephyrus G14 at 1800p, however that is shortly addressed as soon as we swap to a decrease decision or, extra ideally, make use of DLSS Tremendous Decision. In DLSS ‘Efficiency’ mode, or 900p, the RTX 4070 contained in the laptop computer fares significantly better, producing a median body charge of 40fps, with the minimal body charge bottoming out at 35fps. The sport itself appears implausible on this configuration too, notably with HDR enabled, taking full benefit of the G14’s OLED show.

These body charges are sadly too low for DLSS Body Technology to be of any help, truly negatively impacting efficiency on this case, however the Zephyrus G14 does assist it and makes for a fantastic enhancement in the precise circumstances.

F1 23 proves equally troublesome for the Zephyrus G14 at its native decision, as the sport’s ray traced ‘Extremely Excessive’ preset sees common body charges scrape throughout the 30fps end line. It does this not fairly so gracefully, although, as minimal body charges clock in at 24fps. Taking a pit cease within the settings menu, and getting your metaphorical pit crew to drop the decision or allow DLSS Tremendous Decision, naturally alleviates this bottleneck, although.

Whereas DLSS can salvage efficiency in lots of video games, retaining all of the important particulars, titles like Whole Battle: Warhammer 3 don’t get pleasure from such luxuries. As soon as once more, native 1800p decision doesn’t make for an pleasing expertise, with minimal body charges of 21fps and a median body charge of 30fps. Fortunately, dropping right down to a extra manageable 1440p and even 1080p supplies drastic enhancements.

In the meantime, the 3DMark benchmark suite exhibits up the clearest parallels between the Zephyrus G14’s RTX 4070 and a desktop RTX 4060. Given the efficiency we’ve noticed to date, I’d strongly advocate choosing the costlier configurations of this machine with the RTX 4070 and 32GB of RAM if you will discover the extra $400 in your finances, because the longevity of the baseline G14 with a cell RTX 4060 GPU and 16GB of reminiscence is questionable.

Turning away from worst-case stress exams and benchmarks, although, the Zephyrus G14 is a surprisingly nippy machine that doesn’t have to run its followers at full pelt to get the job carried out both. Much less intense however nonetheless glorious fashionable video games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Helldivers 2 had been a pleasure to expertise on this laptop computer. Its 14-inch show did imply I couldn’t relax fairly so usually, notably after I wanted to learn textual content, however that is true of all laptops of this measurement.

Movement readability and responsiveness are glorious on the Zephyrus G14 too, which is not any shock given its 120Hz OLED panel. Nonetheless, the variety of video games you’ll be capable of run at that refresh charge will show few and much between with out some compromise in your decision or settings. Nonetheless, Nvidia G-Sync does at the very least help you run with an uncapped body charge without having to make use of VSync to keep away from display tearing, which you received’t discover on different OLED laptops in the meanwhile.

Unsurprisingly, the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS performs nicely in each single and multi core Cinebench 2024 benchmarks, simply because the Ryzen 9 7940HS did earlier than it. Its eight cores and 16 threads provide loads of efficiency for right now’s video games, and for these to come back within the subsequent a number of years, serving as an appropriate pairing for the Zephyrus G14’s RTX 40 sequence GPUs.

What’s most exceptional about this CPU, although, is its effectivity and thermal efficiency, retaining a cool head that by no means rose above 79°C. That is in little question partly on account of Asus’ well-designed cooling system, and whereas the Zephyrus G14’s followers will ramp up below load, they’re by no means as obnoxiously loud as these on bigger, spec-heavy laptops, and so they’ll most of the time run at an appropriate stage. Higher nonetheless, outdoors of gaming, they’re virtually inaudible.

ROG Strix Zephyrus G14 (2024) battery

Lowering the quantity of energy that its GPU attracts naturally offsets the discount within the measurement of the ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024)’s battery, with the swap to LPDDR5X reminiscence additionally helping. The brand new score of 73WHrs, down from 76 WHrs from final yr’s laptop computer, proved to be loads in our exams.

Utilizing the Zephyrus G14 in a typical workday, I wouldn’t want to achieve for the charger till the tip of my shift, regardless of rocking the display at 80% brightness and utilizing the audio system to hearken to some tunes. Even then I’d nonetheless have sufficient juice left for an hour or two of YouTube, spectacular stuff.

Battery life is of course a lot worse in the case of gaming, with the Zephyrus G14 lasting only one hour and 6 minutes in PCMark 10’s ‘Gaming’ benchmark. So, whilst you can sport on this laptop computer at full pelt for a brief stint, you’re nonetheless greatest served with a charger in tow.

ROG Strix Zephyrus G14 (2024) worth

Beginning at $1,599.99, the ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) worth is surprisingly reasonably priced for a 14-inch gaming laptop computer, with opponents just like the MSI Stealth 14 commanding the identical value, whereas others such because the HP Omen Transcend 14 are barely costlier.

It isn’t till bigger 15.6-inch laptops enter the body that the Zephyrus G14’s worth reveals itself to be firmly on the pricier facet. Whereas it’s true that you simply’ll seemingly discover efficiency akin to the G14 in a much bigger and cheaper laptop computer, you definitely received’t discover matching construct high quality or as dazzling a show.

For these trying to save a couple of bucks, although, final yr’s Zephyrus G14 does seize a lot of what’s on provide with the 2024 mannequin, except for just a few niceties such because the OLED show and enhancements to each its keyboard and audio system.

You’ll have to splash out $1,999.99 for our evaluation configuration, however the Zephyrus G14 stays aggressive at this worth level too. Simply bear in mind that you’re partly paying for the shape issue right here, and that there are cheaper choices out there for those who’re snug with a bigger system.

ROG Strix Zephyrus G14 (2024) conclusion

With the brand new ROG Strix Zephyrus G14 (2024), Asus has crafted the perfect model of this machine thus far, and the best 14-inch gaming laptop computer you should buy right now. If not for its soldered RAM and the small nuisance of decision administration, I’d describe it as virtually good.

The Zephyrus G14 simply exudes high quality, whether or not you’re typing away, resting your palms on its aluminum alloy chassis, or dropping your self in its vibrant, responsive OLED show. Whereas some might balk on the concept of gaming laptops adopting aesthetics akin to Apple Macbooks, I personally welcome this shift to a extra refined and polished look.

The Zephyrus G14 is not any slouch in the case of efficiency both, regardless of its measurement, in some methods reminding me of the Steam Deck OLED (albeit a lot, far more costly). Whereas this can be its weakest side, comparatively talking, there’s sufficient energy right here to final for years to come back offering you splash somewhat additional money on the highest spec, and also you’re pleased to dial down the decision.

Merely put, if I had the money and the necessity for a small but highly effective laptop computer, I’d go proper forward and purchase the Zephyrus G14, and that suggestion naturally extends to only about everybody in the identical spot.

ROG Strix Zephyrus G14 (2024) options

If the ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) isn’t the precise laptop computer for you, take a look at these options:

Razer Blade 14 (2024)

Whereas costlier than the Zephyrus G14 (2024), the Razer Blade 14 (2024) doesn’t skimp on upgradable RAM. Nonetheless, there are not any Mini LED or OLED show choices for this laptop computer, leaving you with a comparatively stable however naturally much less premium display.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2024)

If the looks and construct high quality of the Zephyrus G14 (2024) attraction to you, however you want it had a contact extra horsepower, the Zephyrus G16 (2024) has you coated. With a big 16-inch display, it’s barely bigger than its 14-inch sibling, however its graphics choice tops out on the flagship GeForce RTX 4090.