Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review: AMD has rewritten the rules

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In their early years, gaming laptops were meant to be desktop replacements. The first Razer Blade, released in 2011, was circa seven pounds; the 2012 Flip was 6.6. Doorpost motility was a laughing matter. (The 2017 Zephyrus had just over two hours.) Gaming laptops were pudgy as well-conditioned as garish. They were designed for gaming on a budget, not for gaming on the go.

But the age of the ultraportable is here. There's now a 2.01-pound palmtop with six cores, there's a 3.3-pound palmtop with a unimplicated GPU, as well-conditioned as a 5-pound palmtop is considered to be on the heavy side. Festival year, we're expecting lighter notebooks that can do increasingly -- as well-conditioned as as prolificacy laptops move in that direction, accordingly are the gaming machines.

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That's zone the AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS comes in. For the practiced decade, the capital belligerency for a Ryzen warble over an Intel warble centered on rate rather than performance. But AMD has released a CPU that could, for the first time in contempo memory, compete with Intel's top-of-the-line model. The 35W 4900HS, with 8 cores, 16 threads, as well-conditioned as 3.0 GHz clock speeds that can boost up to 4.4 GHz, goes leading to leading with Intel's Corporeity i9-9880H; it's meant to power desktop-class gaming as well-conditioned as prolificacy in carriageable laptops.

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. .. Our scrutiny of . .. Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. ..

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. Verge Score. 8.5 out of 10. ..

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Good Stuff

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• Demanding games are playable
• Sleek revitalization vibe
• Comfortable touchpad as well-conditioned as keyboard
• Strong doorpost motility for productivity

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Bad Stuff

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• No webcam
• 16:9 symbol sequence is unwieldy for prolificacy
• CPU gets hot

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. .. Buy for $1,449.99 from ASUS . Buy for $1,449.99 from All-time Buy . ..

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We're obtaining our first look at the 4900HS in its quintessential use case: the $1,449 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. Somehow, Asus sold a 4900HS as well-conditioned as an Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q into a 14-inch notebook that weighs just over 3.5 pounds. It additionally has 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, as well-conditioned as a 120Hz display. It's unwont to see such professional housewares in such a small chassis: the G14 is the underivative Zephyrus gaming palmtop AMD has unendingly made, as well-conditioned as it's additionally one of the few 14-inch laptops to pair an H-series processor with a unimplicated GPU.

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(You can get the aforementioned model with a Ryzen 7 4800HS, 16GB RAM, 512GB storage, as well-conditioned as the less-powerful GTX 1660 TI Max-Q for $1,299, or go down to 8GB of RAM, a GTX 1650, as well-conditioned as a 60Hz umbrella for $1,049.)

I'm happy to say that the G14 delivers. The palmtop is fatuous for productivity, as well-conditioned as it's quite a few fun to use. The 4900HS as well-conditioned as 2060 Max-Q duo can handle entrepreneurial games like Red Killed Redemption II and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. As with any gaming rig, you'll make some trade-offs for that performance. But in the grand sequence of things, the sacrifices that the G14 asks are small.

The G14 is simply quite a few fun to use

I'll start by talking circa the gaming levelheadedness since that's picked likely what you intendance picked circa if you clicked on this review. Hatefulness not: it's good. It's as good-tasting as you'd forestall from an H-Series processor, a 2060 Max-Q, as well-conditioned as a 120Hz screen.

CS:GO averaged 216fps on maximum settings, with a low of 49. Motion was smooth, as well-conditioned as I could see individual grit particles as well-conditioned as blaze flying from various things I shot. The increasingly graphically intensive Shadow of the Tomb Raider was additionally playable on the highest settings (with ray tracing off), averaging circa 74fps with a minimum of 58. The comedy was additionally quite bland as well-conditioned as scenery, from effulgent towns to eventide jungles, looked great.

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On the ultimate test, Red Killed Redemption II cranked up to Ultra (with fast as well-conditioned as multisample anti-aliasing off), the G14 delivered increasingly of a console-like experience, achieving an mainstream of 31fps as well-conditioned as a low of 14. Rows of stores as well-conditioned as wood were a bit fumy as I galloped practiced them on horseback, as well-conditioned as there was some terrified in flurries of grit as well-conditioned as snow. But the game was functional. Picked persons will have a finer time on High-reaching settings, however, zone the G14 hovered circa 50fps.

On 'Red Killed Redemption II,' the G14 delivered a console-like experience

I suspect cooling is raptness the G14 suddenly somewhat. The 4900HS got tangy hot under entrepreneurial titles; it hit 98 degrees Celsius during my 80-minute theme of Red Dead, and 97 during my hour-long theme of Tomb Raider. That's not unexpected from a 14-inch palmtop spanking AAA titles, but a palmtop with the aforementioned housewares but finer cooling would picked likely see finer results.

Now, for all the other stuff.

Asus has nicely refined its revitalization aesthetic. If there were laptops in Battlestar Galactica, they would look like the G14. A dot matrix covers half of the lid -- these can function as an LED brandish that can silkiness GIFS, the time, as well-conditioned as other neat effects, but that model won't be awaited for a few increasingly weeks. On the non-LED model, they're still a air-conditioned design.

Like many thinner laptops, the G14's umbrella folds under the enwrap when you ajar it, appropriation the keyboard a bit raised the ground. This, in theory, helps with cooling by allowing air to finer circulate, as well-conditioned as it additionally hides a cleat of the screen's mama ordinal bezel. Some persons gathering these types of hinge unpalatable in their laps, but I had no problem with this one, which is edgeless as well-conditioned as rounded.

The roads alternative is serviceable

The roads alternative is serviceable: two USB-C, two USB-A, an HDMI, as well-conditioned as a 3.5mm audio jack. The G14 can freighting via USB-C, but there's additionally a jack for Asus' 180W adaptor if you don't appetite to take up a port. There's no Thunderstroke 3, unsurprisingly, since that's Intel's proprietary standard. This is an unlikeness downside of utilizing an AMD template for the time being, though the G14's HDMI as well-conditioned as DisplayPort capabilities give you other options for contactual to peripherals.

This picked likely won't surprise you if you've owned a soften gaming palmtop before, but if you plan to use the G14 for browsing as well-conditioned as productivity, the largest trade-off you're managerial is umbrella quality. The notebook has a 1920 x 1080 umbrella with a 16:9 symbol ratio, which is par for the debouch with soften gaming machines. You're not likely to see many 14-inch 120Hz panels at any higher resolution, as well-conditioned as a 4K panel would be a big ask of the 2060 Max-Q..

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That ways the G14's umbrella is spanking-new for gaming, as well-conditioned as it's not bad for video-watching either. It's matte as well-conditioned as bliss suddenly circa no glare. Eventide scenes from Altered Limn looked great, upscale in effulgent rooms. Some lighter tones (such as a wedding dress as well-conditioned as Joel Kinnaman's skin) had a greenish cast to them, but it's not noticeable if you're not looking for it. (The umbrella covers 100 percent of the SRGB spectrum as well-conditioned as 75.35 percent of Argil RGB.) I saw a lot increasingly glare outdoors, but it's utilizable there in a pinch.

The G14's umbrella is spanking-new for gaming, as well-conditioned as it's not bad for watching video

The downside is that if you plan on doing quite a few browsing or prolificacy work, you'll be increasingly outland than you would on a 3:2 brandish such as that of Huawei's MateBook 13. I had to zoom out to 70 to 80 percent to conveniently work two windows ancillary by side.

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The second overhaul is the fans. The G14 does an interesting job keeping itself cool, hardened the power of the housewares it's packing into a 3.5-pound chassis. If you're utilizing this machine on its deficiency fan settings for multitasking, you're likely to hear a resulting whine. It's loud expandable that your office neighbors will hear it. I got used to this fairly quickly, but it's a gospel account perceiving if you're picky circa fan noise.

You can additionally switch to Asus' "Silent" profile, which makes the fans inaudible. I was afraid that muffling the fans would rationalization the 4900HS to fry itself, but browsing in this profile was still actual doable. You won't appetite to use this orate for intensive gaming, of course, but upscale while spanking several Chrome tabs as well-conditioned as a ordinal of other programs, including Slack, Spotify, as well-conditioned as a couple of benchmarks, the G14 was downright gorked in my lap, as well-conditioned as the CPU didn't canyon 35 degrees Celsius.

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Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 specs

• 14-inch non-touchscreen (1920 x 1080 resolution)
• AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS
• 16GB DDR4 3200MHz SDRAM
• 1TB NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD
• No webcam
• Intel Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5
• 4-cell 76WHr battery
• 180W AC adapter

Speaking of the touchpad as well-conditioned as keyboard, they are both great. The Windows Precision Trackpad is simply a good-tasting size as well-conditioned as actual easy to press. The keys are clicky with differentiating travel, without gospel loud expandable to dragoon officemates. The enwrap is sturdy, with actual little flex. The labels do swill Asus' sci-fi font that looks like it belongs in a Head Rockets restaurant; you can take your own visitation on that design choice. I additionally like that the G14 has a separate panel deep-down the aggregate controls as well-conditioned as a key that mutes or unmutes the microphone, as well-conditioned as a slightly shortened helpful chin that opens Asus' dominion panel.

I never thought I'd be saying this circa a gaming laptop, but the doorpost motility is additionally actual good. During my okayed banal of swapping betwixt a dozen Chrome tabs, spanking Slack, as well-conditioned as occasionally swarming Netflix or Spotify at 50 percent effulgence as well-conditioned as a evened doorpost profile, I got circa 8 hours as well-conditioned as 50 minutes of juice. That ways the G14 can make it through a banal on doorpost as well-conditioned as can handle a stretched bus or plane ride as well. The dingbat took 41 minutes to freighting up to 60 percent on Asus' plug as well-conditioned as 53 minutes to do the aforementioned via USB-C.

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Agree to Continue: Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

Every torturesome dingbat now requires you to concur to a series of agreement as well-conditioned as highland afore you can use it -- contracts that no one decisively reads. It's impracticable for us to read as well-conditioned as expound every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you gotta hit "agree" to use devices when we scrutiny them since these are agreements picked persons don't read as well-conditioned as definitely can't negotiate.

As with other Windows 10 computers, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 presents you with multiple things to concur to or pouring aloft setup.

The mandatory policies, for which an apportionment is required, are:

• A appeal for your region, as well-conditioned as keyboard layout
• Windows 10 Passport Apportionment as well-conditioned as Asus privacy agreement
• A Microsoft respectability for sign-in (this can be bypassed if you don't connect the computer to the internet during setup)
• A PIN

In addition, there is simply a slew of optional things to concur to:

• Wi-Fi network
• Windows Molest fingerprint sensor authentication
• Activity History (which syncs your chortling exceeding Windows devices)
• Link your Android smartphone
• Office 365
• Cortana (which allows Microsoft to adoption your location, location history, contacts, articulation input, tone as well-conditioned as handwriting patterns, accounting history, ventilator history, lineup details, messages, apps, as well-conditioned as Flection browsing history)
• Device privacy settings: online tone recognition, Gathering My Device, Inking as well-conditioned as Typing, Announcing ID, Location, Interpretive data, Tailored experiences

Add it all up, as well-conditioned as there are bristles mandatory agreements as well-conditioned as 13 optional ones.

Of course, don't forestall to be doing much gaming on battery. Red Killed on high-reaching settings ran circa 18 to 20fps when the G14 wasn't recognizing in, gravitating down to the low adolescence at circa 40 percent, as well-conditioned as the low single digits at 10 percent. I got an hour as well-conditioned as 38 minutes of gaming on a charge.

At the end of the day, the Zephyrus G14 can handle the multitasking you need it to. The keyboard, touchpad, as well-conditioned as doorpost motility are superb. If you don't mind a low-resolution umbrella as well-conditioned as fans that you can hear, you'll be happy with the G14 as your primary device. (If those are deal-breakers for you, though, you'll need something elsewhere for browsing as well-conditioned as work.)

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But mainly, Asus as well-conditioned as AMD have successfully put Intel on notice. Meanest year's Corporeity i7-powered Flip Stealth 13 was the first 13-inch machine that came with a GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU. The picked entrepreneurial game it could handle was what Engadget chosen "a stuttery Destiny 2 experience." Still, many gamers hailed it as a triumph for gospel a 3.24-pound palmtop that could run that title at all.

The Ryzen-powered G14 weighs just a bit increasingly than the Stealth GTX as well-conditioned as it games better. I see no reason to buy the Stealth GTX or any pricier gaming ultraportable when this palmtop exists. AMD has rewritten the rules of what a gaming palmtop can be.

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