ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024): What worked (and what didn't)

okay while I was working away on this laptop video happily I might add a random thought came to mind what exactly does zephrus mean so a quick search shows that it's the god of the West Wind and it's a fairly gentle God now by contrast I decided to check what the definition for strix was a strix is like a bird of ill Omen the product of metamorphosis that fit on human flesh and blood yeah quite a different and let's say aggressive meaning but I think if you've been following and anticipating the latest laptops from Asus this year you might know where I'm going with this the latest compact gaming laptop from the brands made a splash at the beginning of this year with a design that was decidedly more toned down than in previous editions yeah it's less flashy sure but it's also sleeker than ever so how might the Republic of Gamers Community react to this brand new chapter so let's get down to it because it's Josh vagara what's going on everybody here's what worked and what didn't with the brand new Asus zephrus G14 sponsored by soundcore and their new speaker the boom 2 now obviously the biggest change in the new zephrus G14 is how it looks and how it feels I've been a huge fan of what Asus has been bringing to gaming laptops over the last few years and the G14 has been one of the easiest laptops to recommend to my friends who are looking to upgrade their gaming laptops while maintaining some good portability and it would seem that this year Asus really wanted to prioritize portability because this is about as Sleek a gaming laptop I've ever had the pleasure of using the entire body of this laptop is made of an aluminum CNC unibody that is a big upgrade from the materials of last year's Edition it really gives the zephyris G14 and g16 which I do have and I'm going to do a video on that soon it gives it all a certain sturdiness that I don't always feel in 14-in Windows laptops I actually feel really good lugging this thing around either in my backpack or in a sleeve popping it around in cafes and hotel rooms while feeling safe that it can withstand all that travel this material also seems to repel fingerprints pretty well although I will say after bringing this with me to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress I do have a couple of uh let's say uh ings on here since it was going in and out of my backpack a lot but still not really any fingerprints anywhere here and also that is true for the deck which is obviously where the Palms are going to rest a lot I don't see uh much discoloration there yet this keyboard is fairly typical even though Asus increase the key cap size by like 12% the keys feel really nice and Meaty without too much resistance so I can still keep my 100 WS per mitted speed the buttons above the keyboard here are much squishier but they are functionality keys that you only use when needed and down below Asus really tries to maximize the real estate by making the touchpad hit the very edges of the area that it occupies right up to the bottom of the keyboard and to the very bottom lip down here of the chassis okay back to the body of this device um I do have to applaud the I/O because almost every port in connection that I would need is on here and yes this does actually include full-sized usba ports uh which allows me to use my gaming mouse and gaming keyboard with the dongles and not rely on Bluetooth anymore you still get the rest including a headphone jack and HDMI port and then you also get a Micro SD card slot over here on the other side and finally the proprietary charging port those last two things I just mentioned um I will talk about how those are kind of a uh give and take situation for the G14 and finally there is the slash on the cover now I was a fan of the Matrix Lights of the previous G4S but I can totally understand why they went with a simple line this time going diagonally down the middle it's just simpler but it's still totally effective at differentiating the Asus from from any other laptop after all it's a minimal flourish that along with the simpler metal materials and color uh can evoke the same minimalism as let's say another laptop that I use a lot and the lights can be customized in the Armory crate app though it's always going to be white colored it's good enough for a tiny bit of flashiness and for knowing that the laptop is sleeping when closing the lid so Asus seems to be in like a mode of dialing back some things in their gaming products and honestly I'm pretty here for it see it's interesting that this G14 comes at the heels of a phone that starts to go in a more minimalistic Direction and of course I'm talking about the Rog Phone 8 Pro that I recently reviewed on this channel it got a similar treatment it's no longer RGB everything and it definitely looks a little bit less uh let's say flashy compared to previous gaming devices gaming smartphones whether or not these moves work for you um well obviously it be a matter of personal taste but I do want to hear your opinions in the comments downstairs now where really put some massive upgrades are in the quality of life updates the AMD CPU the integrated radon GPU and then the the dedicated Nvidia Graphics all come together for a pretty nice Harmony that likely feels really familiar to anyone using recent gaming laptops however supporting all of that is one of the best screens I have ever used on a gaming laptop and a speaker system that might win the crown of most improved feature now before I forget there is a webcam on here so here's a quick webcam test uh it is right above the screen in that small bezel up top but there are also bits in there that allow for Windows hello face recognition for for a simpler sign in that does mean that you no longer get the fingerprint reader in the power button which is a little bit of a bummer but I do appreciate the windows hello on here the webcam quality is all right as probably expected and alongside the microphone it should be plenty for Discord video calling with friends while playing but also if you're relying on the onboard microphone for calls one thing you can do is go into the Armory crate app and actually use an AI recording feature where it's just going to record from one side and do some noise reduction so that it is focusing mainly on your voice once again let me know what you think of the quality of the webcam and the microphones uh and anything else you want to say about this laptop in the comments downstairs but let's get to the heart of the matter Asus outfits the zephrus G14 with an OLED panel that supports 3K resolution and 120 HZ refresh rates all things that support gaming but also manage to be great for basically any other task or viewing now some of the buzzwords you might want to know include Dolby vision for HDR viewing uh it does do 100% of the DCI P3 color gamut and then there's g-sync that last one will obviously be pretty important for more hardcore gamers but it's also really significant because this display is one of the first to get nvidia's g-sync and variable refresh rate into an OLED panel on a gaming laptop I'll try to explain this a little bit um it's usually difficult to achieve vrr or variable refresh rate on an OLED display because it's just easier to do it on an LCD panel that projects whole images across the panel all at once compared to an OLED that is closer to a pixel by pixel basis so it's actually firing off multiple times and in multiple ways every single time so Asus went ahead and just just partnered up with Nvidia and Samsung to bring vrr to an OLED panel with a custom firmware that drives the image projection in line with the gsync the bottom line is Asus was able to bring the colors and vividness of OLED to a gaming laptop especially a compact one like this without sacrificing some of those features that a gaming laptop should have and the result honestly is pretty dang glorious of course all media and gaming content then looks so good on here with the Vivid colors of games like like a dragon infinite wealth coming through beautifully and then watching anything on the G14 has has been good too as you can clearly see right here uh because I found myself just throwing shows or YouTube videos on here and letting it play wherever I am part of the reason is because of the new speaker system which is quite the Revelation to the sides of the keyboard here are speaker units that include two woofers which provide loud sound that is richer than I've ever heard on a compact Windows laptop it's a huge quality of life update that really helps Elevate this notebook sh jelly sh jelly all over the place yeah sh jell sh jelly feels good to drink with impecable taste honestly the only real grab I have is that the Bas could be even Fuller though Asus has done a good job of adding in any at all compared to before so this will definitely be good for everyday enjoyment but if I really wanted some powerful base there are easy ways of getting it for example via an easy to carry powerful speaker courtesy of this video sponsor soundcore shouts out to soundc core for sponsoring this video If you're looking for some real booming sound you got to check out the sound core boom 2 a wireless speaker that packs more than a punch first off it's really easy to bring around pretty much any where you want to enjoy some tunes and it's actually really light and it's got that heavy base because there is a large subwoofer in here making this a 2.1 sound system sound core then pushes it further with base up Tech amplifying the power from 60 to 80 watts and you can really feel the change in the bass all over the place sh jelly sh jelly mulam mineral come on sh jelly sh jelly I can actually do a visual representation of this because the speaker is ipx7 water resistant and it floats by the way both sides light up like this adding to the Ambiance and just like the EQ these lights are fully customizable in the soundcore app all of this makes for a great outdoor speaker whether you're by the pool or even on rainy days where the boom 2 can withstand the elements it's even got enough battery to spare the 24-hour battery can charge other devices so you can keep the Good Vibes going and the best part is that all of this is available for under $200 so head to the description down below for links to check out the soundc core boom 2 for yourself and thank you again to soundcore for sponsoring this video of course all that we are seeing in this laptop is in the pursuit of a good gaming experience and good gaming performance this time in a pretty light but definitely sturdy body the display in the speakers are big for adding to the gaming experience as long as they are powered by the right bits so what we end up getting in this one is the AMD ryzen 98945 HS with integrated Radeon 780m graphics before you fire up the dedicated graphics which are the Nvidia GeForce RTX 460 that maxes out at 90 W tgp who you might realize in hearing that that this is the lower configuration that is available since a version of this laptop does Sport a 4070 and more RAM more on that in a little bit like any good zeph's laptop getting the most out of the system can entail turning the discrete graphics on and off at will or automatically I've opted for the optimized GPU mode which will turn off the 4060 completely if I'm not plugged in so when it comes to the proper portable Work and Play It's all about using that Radeon 780m and you know what it's actually worked out just fine for me because the integrated Graphics that come on the ryzen 9 might sound really familiar and that's because it is when you turn off the dedicated GPU on the zephrus G4 you're basically getting an Rog Ally now you know I'm a fan of the Rog Ally and the performance of that handheld has been well documented already but now that's all just being put into a laptop that supports a full keyboard better speakers a bigger battery and a glorious larger OLED display the parallels to the RG Ally also come complete with this micro SD card slot now I know that for creators out there this wouldn't be ideal we would want a full-sized SD card slot right here but this isn't really trying to be a Creator's PC so it kind of makes sense to me if anything I'm actually embracing it and I'm putting in uh a Micro SD card that will stay there and store my single player games like infinite wealth and Jedi after that I just do all my video editing on the internal storage so ultimately if you needed a way of understanding what kind of performance you can expect from this notebook when you're not plugged in and you don't want to use that dedicated uh GPU you could just think of this as a bigger and more capable Rog Ally and since a couple of hours of that kind of gaming as possible plenty more as possible when I'm just doing work I've been able to take the laptop on a couple of trips recently where I could comfortably write scripts answer emails and have YouTube playing in the background for like four or 5 hours and honestly even though I may not be able to Super comfortably Video Edit uh when I'm not plugged in it's still a big deal that I can bring this laptop and still have at least a couple to a few hours of just general work uh easily completed while I'm just on location or at a cafe just typing out scripts and answering emails like I'm doing right now and that's before I even plug in I mean sure bringing the power adapter everywhere is an extra consideration but at least it is a uh pretty minimal brick for a 180 W charger since I am in the optimized mode uh plugging in will change things up pretty immediately and now we're in the performance mode with the GPU completely turned on obviously the 4060 allows for higher settings in games and it is certainly a good support for D Vinci resolve in my case which suddenly moves super smoothly across timelines with 4K video so the G14 is a pretty great laptop to have as both an avid gamer and as a Creator it's a pretty good hybrid system there is enough power in both main configurations of the laptop integrated graphics on battery or dedicated graphics on AC power to be able to do almost any major task beyond the usual web browsing or media viewing and that's the reason for the first time in a long while I've been finding myself slotting something different than a Macbook in my backpack lately okay it's not all perfect however and that has less to do with the zephrus G14 at Large and more specifically with the configuration that Asus actually sent me to review uh as I mentioned this is the lower configuration with the RTX 460 and um that is not a big deal to me but the 16 GB of RAM on the other hand is a bit of a harder pill to swallow and the reason for that is because you're not able to upgrade it at all under the bottom cover here you'll see that only the storage can be changed and the 16 GB of RAM is fixed 16 GB meant that I had to turn off basically every other program while I was video editing with the occasional reboot of the computer needed to really clean things up and keep D Vinci resolve comfy and if having more RAM as a consideration for you you're just going to be locked into getting the higher configuration that also includes the RTX 4070 don't get me wrong those are good specs but it is also more money out of your pocket and speaking of this compact size um I have to admit that despite asus's best efforts to pack in as much cooling support as possible in this Sleek body the laptop still gets pretty warm the heat is pretty much all up here making it important to ensure that the exhaust here on the back portion is free of any obstructions which brings me to the final bit of this laptop that keeps it from getting close to Perfection like with any high- powerered laptop one of my favorite things to do is prop this up either at home as a gaming console of sorts or use it as the centerpiece of my office editing Bay I do have to make sure that it's upside down sort of so that the exhaust points upward uh but then plugging it into my dock reveals that a simple USBC connection is here without Thunderbolt don't get me wrong this is not really that much of a deal breaker but it is something that I wish was here for real flexibility to go from a portable Beast that the G14 is to a proper desktop Warrior it still works fine as a desktop replacement but being able to fully power and charge the laptop from that USBC Port would be a welcome feature instead the USBC Port pulls a singular Duty as the docking station while the isus power adapter still needs to be connected alongside it and yet despite those quibbles I'm thoroughly in love with this zephyr's G14 gaming is still something a Windows laptop will always have over a Macbook that has powered my work for the last couple of years but now Asus has found a way of bridging some of the productivity gaps while providing the gaming enjoyment as always meanwhile if you're not jumping between ecosystems like I am and you're just looking at this G14 as an upgrade I do think that the quality of life adjustments are all worth the price of admission if you want those features this gorgeous display the better speakers and an updated design all wraparound specs and performance that are really familiar and thus raw performance is not the leap this year so if you're coming from last year's laptop which by the way is still on sale I'd say that you can take take a good hard look at your setup you have right now and then decide if that panel and that design and those speakers are no longer doing it for you if you're still enjoying yourself on the previous edition of any recent compact gaming laptop the extra premium that this year's zephrus G14 requires could probably be skipped but I have to give Asus plenty of credit because this year's zepis lineup marks a paradigm shift and for anyone looking for a gaming rig that is as sturdy as it is Nimble capable as it is stylish this one is pretty hard not to notice woo laptop videos always take a bit longer but there you have it what worked and what didn't with the 2024 Asus zephrus G14 this laptop has already proven itself to me as a good hybrid tool a good creators tool and a great gaming rig so you can definitely call me a fan I want you to let me know what you think of this laptop especially if you got one for yourself in the comments downstairs I want to give one more shout out to the sponsor of this video soundcore and their boom 2 speaker that you can check out using the links below but from there I'm going to go ahead and call it on this one thank you so much for kicking it with me again today please take care of yourselves and each other and enjoy your tea everybody

Channel: Joshua Vergara

Views: 72,665

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Id: oqlxWaM1F5w

Length: 16min 5sec (965 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 13 2024