ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 Gaming Laptop

DESIGN: This ASUS Zephyrus G14 laptop is perfectly sized for PC gaming on the go. The size, weight, and form factor allow me to transport it easily while traveling and it provides a AAA gaming experience comparable to my console and gaming desktop. It may be small, but it packs some serious gaming power in that small frame with performance that rivals or exceeds many much larger gaming laptops. The design and build are top notch, sporting a well crafted aluminum chassis with stylish touches like the laser etched logo on the lid. Lighting is kept to a conservative minimum where it is just enough to be noticed without going overboard. This includes the backlit keyboard and a flashing RGB light strip on the back of the lid. The Zephyrus line has always been a favorite of mine for looks and this machine continues the trend of being among the more attractively designed gaming laptops available. The power brick isn’t tiny, but it is thankfully at least a normal size. Unlike the enormous brick on my larger primary gaming laptop, it is much lighter and easier to travel with. BUILD AND FEATURES: The 3K OLED ROG 120Hz Nebula display looks fantastic. Nebula panels must meet strict quality standards and it shows. The 500-nit panel has good brightness the richly saturated colors and deep contrast that are typically the hallmark of OLED screens. Depending on the usage needs, the colors may be too highly saturated for some artists and/or photo/video editors who may require more natural looking colors. Others, like me, can and will simply calibrate the display to our liking. It basically comes down to personal preference. I personally prefer more saturation and contrast. The lush rich colors and deep dark contrast of this OLED panel satisfy that preference nicely. The screen has a glossy finish but I haven’t had any major issues with glare. That may differ with outdoor use in bright sunlight, but I seldom use laptops outdoors. Even in my brightest room with bright overhead daylight temperature lights, the screen looks fine. Pixel density on the 3K 14-inch panel is good and it produces crisp sharp images. 3K seems to be a sweet spot for this machine. I’m glad ASUS went with 3K rather than sacrificing performance trying to bump the resolution up to 4K. I can game fine at 3K resolution, depending on how demanding the game is. Another plus of the OLED screen is the lack of imperfections I typically find on even some high-end machine IPS screens. Issues like clouding, backlight bleed, uneven brightness, washed-out blacks and grays are all absent on this screen. I also have not observed any stuck pixels on this panel. The Zephyrus has a built-in 1080p webcam, but it lacks a hardware privacy shutter. Video quality looks okay at its max of 1080p 30fps, but feels somewhat lacking. It’s usable for video conferencing and chatting in a pinch, but I’d likely use a better quality camera if used frequently. The camera works with Windows Hello, but it is the only biometric login option available. Windows Hello usually detects my face accurately and logs me in automatically. There were a few occasions where I had to adjust my face angle, but it works well most times. The mic and integrated speakers have good volume and clarity. The speakers are suitable for both gaming and media playback. Multi-channel stereo works well with good sound isolation and surround sound effects. Bass lovers may opt for external speakers with a dedicated subwoofer, but these speakers are more than sufficient if deep bass isn’t required. The laptop has one USB-A, one USB-C, one full sized HDMI, and one audio port on the left, and one micro-SD, one USB-A and one USB-C port on the right. The multi-color RGB backlit keyboard is good for typing, but otherwise doesn’t have any special qualities that set it apart from other keyboards. The keys are easy to locate typing by feel, but I find the key travel and bottom out lacking and a bit mushy. The adjustable RGB keyboard backlighting looks fantastic when illuminated and is bright and vivid. In addition to the keyboard lighting, there is a diagonal LED light strip on the back of the top lid that has a strobe-like effect. The trackpad is spacious and reliably recognizes swipes and gestures in most instances. Button taps/clicks are okay most times, but I occasionally find it lacking, especially the right-click when selecting text. That quickly got frustrating, so I began using an external mouse instead. The 1TB M.2 drive is sufficiently fast and gives me no issues during large file transfers, fast paced gaming or media playback. Pre-installed software includes the usual ASUS bundle of MyAsus and Armory Crate. A new AI virtual assistant is also installed but I disabled it and kept the other two apps. I initially had some issues logging into both MyAsus and Armory Crate using my Asus ID. Although valid and current, I kept getting server unavailable errors. It appears to have been a transient issue and I was still able to perform the initial system updates as a guest. PERFORMANCE: The MediaTek MT7925 Wi-Fi card is excellent and blazing fast when within good range of my home router. Even through a single wall obstruction, I typically see download speeds averaging 700-800Mbps. It remains a solid performer at further distances with even more obstructions, although not quite as fast. There is no ethernet port for wired connectivity, so I rely on USB ethernet adapters for wired connections. Bluetooth has also worked solidly so far. I haven’t experienced any disconnections or latency issues with Bluetooth connected mice and game controllers. The Ryzen 9 270 CPU, GeForce RTX-5060, and 16GB LPDDR5X 7500 RAM all work nicely together to provide a fun gaming experience. The Nvidia GPU in this machine is the studio edition but works with both the game ready and studio Nvidia drivers. If I were using this machine primarily for creative content, I would have installed Nvidia’s Studio drivers because they are the best choice for media creation and typically are more stable with fewer bugs. However, since this will primarily be used for gaming, I installed Nvidia’s game ready drivers. I opted for the custom clean install option so it would first remove the pre-installed studio drivers before installing the game ready drivers. Desktop performance is solid regardless of being on AC or battery power. Gaming performance is excellent on AC power, especially for a machine this size and weight. However, that performance takes a significant hit on battery power. On AC power, I have no issues hitting 130-140fps or higher in Ultra quality in Forza Horizon 4, 5 or Crew Motorfest. MS Flight Simulator 2020 also runs well. The 120Hz refresh is good enough for my gaming needs and vision. I seldom experience issues with dropped frames or bottlenecks on AC power. The machine runs stable, even when gaming at higher resolutions. Gaming on battery is so poor by comparison, I only play the least demanding games to preserve my sanity because it feels like playing on integrated graphics. When playing more demanding games, the fans get noticeably louder but never get as loud as my larger gaming laptops. The machine has plenty of vents and a robust cooling system, so it usually stays sufficiently cool and doesn’t get overly warm or hot. At full blast, these fans are still much quieter than my other gaming laptop. New games usually try to launch on ultra presets or higher. One game even launched running in extreme preset after performing a pre-launch graphics assessment. Others launch in high. I have yet to lunch a game that defaults to a preset below high. Although some games may determine extreme and ultra presets to be suitable, I noticed in real world gaming that ultra feels like the cap, although it depends on the game. Extreme is where the limitations of this machine begin to become more noticeable, especially in resource intensive games. If a game launches in extreme, I usually dial the settings down to ultra or high and tweak individual effects even further to strike the best balance of visuals and performance while extending system life. I have no problems maintaining stable triple-digit frame rates at higher presets and resolutions, but dialing down some of the more demanding lighting and particle effects provides the most enjoyable problem-free experience. The speakers, keyboard, and wireless card all work well during gaming and keep up even with fast paced play. The trackpad can be used for gaming in a pinch, but I prefer to use an external mouse. I was already unimpressed with the trackpad in normal desktop use, so I have no desire to game with it. CONS: I didn’t find many cons with this machine. The two biggest are the proprietary power brick and non-upgradable RAM. The laptop uses a proprietary DC power connector that resembles older style Thunderbolt connectors. I understand why many gaming PC’s don’t use USB-C adapters, but a barrel connector might have been an easier option to replace if necessary than this style. As for the RAM, it is soldered to the motherboard and cannot be upgraded, so make sure to select a model with sufficient RAM before purchase. CONCLUSION: The Zephyrus G14 is a solid option for those looking for a small yet powerful machine. It is more than capable of running most office and productivity apps, and can also accommodate advanced photo/video editing, play smooth streaming media, and playing recent AAA game titles at decent frame rates and resolutions. A versatile machine suitable for productivity, creative, or leisure use, it runs cool and near silent with normal use. Even when taxed to the limit, the fans are still reasonably loud. It runs stable in most instances, although I did experience one hard crash that I believe was caused by a recently installed video driver after I launched a game. Despite that minor hiccup, I still feel the G14 is a great option for anyone desiring full desktop computing power in