Although the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is the CES 2024 gaming laptop, we believe the MacBook Pro is the greater quarry for them to pursue. You have to make your own decisions. ASUS has done that with significant improvements to the design, performance, and display, placing the business squarely in the competitive market against Apple’s prosumer devices.
Price and Availability
You can get the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 that we reviewed for $1,649 at a few third-party stores, such as Best get. Several models are available at publication, all with only AMD hardware.
The base $1,649 model includes an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU, an AMD Radeon RX 6700S graphics card, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB SSD. There is a $1,899 variant with identical specs if you want more graphical power, but it comes with an updated AMD Radeon RX 6800S graphics card.
What does It Look Like?
The company fully equips ASUS laptop Zephyrus G14 review unit with ASUS’ striking Moonlight White color scheme. If you turn on the optional AniMe Matrix mini-LED display on the lid’s rear, it becomes even more visually striking. Even so, the Zephyrus G14 has a sleek appearance thanks to its rounded corners and tapered edges, which counteract the chassis’ numerous sharp diagonal vents.
When you open it, you’ll see a bright 14-inch display with nice narrow bezels on either side that thicken at the top and bottom, behind which is a well-sized keyboard and touchpad. The Zephyrus G14 has a lot of adaptability because of the excellent range of ports located around the laptop’s borders. Two USB-A ports, one USB-C port, and a UHS-II microSD card reader are on the right side.
A second USB-C port on the left side can also supply power, an HDMI 2.0b port, a 3.5mm audio jack for headphones, and a port where you may plug in the power cord. Unlike most laptops, this one has the power port in the center of the left side instead of back near the screen. Both USB-C connectors enable DisplayPort, and all USB ports are USB 3.2 Gen 2
Performance of ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14
The ROG Zephyrus G14 is a gaming laptop, but its comfortable keyboard and longer-than-average battery life that one can also use for business. The G14’s small chassis and simple appearance mix with the ultraportable you typically see at coworking spaces, especially if you turn off the RGB lights and the AniMe Matrix. In our experience, it’s also a decent workhorse; it fared well in our battery of general productivity tests.
The Zephyrus G14 transcodes a 4K video to 1080p in less than 6 minutes, demonstrating how quick this device is at video encoding. Although it beats a lot of gaming laptops, its time is slower than the Alienware x14, which finished the identical task about a minute faster.
- AniMe Matrix, ASUS’ term for its monochrome mini-LED display integrated into the rear of the lid, is an option for some Zephyrus G14 models. Thousands of pROGrammable mini-LEDs make up this interesting-looking device displayed in person.
- The Armory Crate offers a good assortment of tools and downloadable animations that you may use to create your animation patterns. In addition, the AniMe Matrix can be configured in System Mode to show information such as the time and date, battery life left, and the number of unread messages. In Audio Mode, it may be used as a visualizer that reacts to the music being played through the G14’s speakers.
Final Words
A fantastic gaming laptop with a strong balance of performance, portability, and power efficiency is the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14. Games and movies look great on the brilliant 120Hz display, and the speakers are loud enough that you won’t need headphones. Unfortunately, the new model’s excellent battery efficiency isn’t as high as the previous Zephyrus G14, possibly due to its revised design, improved internals, or brighter display. For whatever reason, the battery life of the ROG Zephyrus G14 is no longer as impressive as it was in the past. But it is still far longer than that of other gaming laptops. Even though it now has a webcam, you won’t enjoy using it because of the poor quality of the photographs it takes.