Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 2024 Review - It is complicated!

hello there my fellow notebook afficionados this is the allnew 2024 Asus alga sephus g16 and it actually took me quite a while to come up with an intro for this one since even now I have not really decided for myself what I think about this puppy while this is an R device it is a very clear departure from the 2023 M16 which was kind of the closest sibling to this one but rather isus opted for a very sleek and streamlined appearance and while many people out there calling this the MacBook Pro of gaming notebooks I am not so sure if this still classifies as a gaming machine while the a DNA is sprinkled all over the absolutely gorgeous CN seed aluminium chassis all the major disadvantages of trying to cram powerful Hardware in super thin laptops are also very present so if isus still managed to put together an enjoyable notebook experience or if the compromise took over well let's talk about it after the intro right off the bat our review configuration is a little odd to begin with and there's probably a good reason it is not listed on any of asus's websites since it really does not make any sense at the heart of the 16 inja we got Intel's metor core Ultra 155h alongside an Nvidia RX 470 running with up to 105 wats a mere 16 GB of LP ddr5x 7,467 MHz and and a 1 TB SSD on the German website they list the 470s Q with a core Ultra 9 185h and 32 gigs of RAM which is a much better fit especially since you cannot upgrade it yourself but more on that later that particular config will cost you € 2700 while an ax 4050 variant which is otherwise identical to our sample starts at €2,000 and while I do not know if this one will be able to buy I would assume it would land somewhere in between all cont configurations will only be available with the new 240 HZ QHD plus olet and as a first for 2024 we finally get gsync which makes this an absolute treat for all different sorts of virtual entertainment Endeavors the main highlight of the new Seas is of course the redesigned chassis and by the way we got the smaller brother the G14 in the studio already as well so please make sure to subscribe so you won't miss that review once it's live and I really have to give it to Asus here while I do not think the G14 or the M16 from 2023 have been badl looking notebooks the 2024 lineup is on a completely new level you may argue that these are just MacBook Pro lookalikes but I would have to disagree yes they use a lot of aluminium as well but as I said in the beginning they sprinkle in enough unique its and bits to really make it their own and Visually I really like the blend of subtle Creator lifestyle Performance Machine with enough gamer DNA to make this one class CL ify as an RG product so you still get an RGB keyboard and while that enemy Matrix thingy on the display LD is gone you still get a single mini LED light bar that can be customized to your heart's content in addition the g16 feels absolutely incredible and not only is it insanely thin but it's also very light despite the performance you can get from it you just have to keep in mind that the higher end RTX 4080 and 490 skes are a little thicker to accommodate a vapor chamber chesse rigidity is excellent for the base unit which almost feels like a solid piece of aluminum and while you can easily open or close the g16 with one hand the lid is a little too wobbly for my liking and the hinges could be attached stiffer to match the rest of the premium notebook in Star contrast to other brands that tried the superin gaming or performance notebook in the past Asus managed to slim down their laptops without sacrificing connectivity within HDMI 2.1 USBC fbl 4 usba 3.2 Gen 2 and headphone jack on the right and a full siize SD card reader with unfortunately only average transfer rates another usba and USBC 3.2 genu on the left side there is really not a whole lot to complain about and if you do not want to bring the new charger even though it is quite a portable one both USB C's support power delivery Wireless transfer rates are excellent and the 1080p webcam is all right if not particularly special we would have wished for some improvements in this regard because chances are you would use this one as a much more General communication device in the maintenance department we have to deal with the first major compromise because of the much thinner chassis not only does Theus makes it a lot more difficult to get inside of this thing because two screws are hidden beneath two glued in rubber feed but the RAM is unfortunately also slded which makes this 16 gig config very hard to swallow and while most variants do come with 32 gigs this is also the Max Ram capacity which will definitely be a deal breaker for some creators out there looking for for a super portable and Powerful undergo workstation that said there is a second nvme slot which is good news for relatively Easy Storage expansion in the input Department isus delivers once more and despite the fin chassis we still get a very generous 1.7 mm of travel making this a great keyboard for both work and games the layout might take you some time to get used to especially with the relatively finicky arrow keys and single line Enter key the touchpad is simply massive and worked very well during our testing with reliable tracking and gesture support and a nice weighted click that feels quite satisfying all righty folks it's display time and alongside the new razor blade 16 the g16 is the first notebook to hit the market with this super fast 16in 240 HZ olet and while you may already know that I'm a little partial to the display Tech it's hard to deny the fact that subjectively the visual quality is simply amazing brightness is of course the weak spot of the panel Tech with only about 420 NS on average in SDR and just around 450 in HDR the mini LED panels used in the flow x16 or M16 can almost double that so I can see how it might be a bummer for some that Asus does not at least offer the option for those that said contrast for the OLED is unmatched and color gamut coverage and color reproduction straight from the factory is simply topnotch in typical Asus fashion they also offer additional color profiles for when you want to limit colors to certain standards like srgb for example with insane response times and g-sync Gamers will have their Fair bit of fun with this panel as well and considering that the screen can deliver stunning visuals for HDR story titles as well as being the perfect option for super fast Shooters at the same time well it seems like the sephus g16 is a gaming laptop after all pwm is still a thing with the g16 though but Asus implemented a few technical Shenanigans to make the problem less severe should you be sensitive towards it above 60% display brightness you use to potentially less harmful DC dimming at 240 HZ while everything below runs with pwm at 960 HZ but let's finally see if the g16 can deliver Beyond its pretty appearance to give you some insight into the different power levels we did again some general testing and given the more mainstream Focus we decided to test the sephus in performance mode rather than in TBO since unfortunately it can get quite loud even though it will net you the best performance results in this CPU Department we can see why Asus usually combines the core Ultra 7 155h only with the RTX 4050 well it's not a badet per se and the question really is how much pure CPU Grant you really need these days the i93 900h which is commonly found in similarly focused machines from last year is quite a bit faster we hope we can get a sample with the core Ultra 9 soon to see what the higher and meteor leg silicon can bring to the table system performance is once more all right without offering anything special to write home about and while it might not matter during regular use the drive in the g16 is not the fastest we ever came across in the past year even though it can keep up its transfer rates without a problem on the GPU side of things we get pretty much the same picture since we test it in performance mode which lets the GPU run at only around 80 Watts so the Sleek 16 inch therefore trads behind the competition but the difference can relatively easily be rectified with utilizing the TBO profile should you find yourself in the need for more performance the results from our gaming rating might look disappointing once more since most of the competition can simply allocate more power to both the CPU and GPU at the same time resulting in better numbers in our 1080p speed of older more CPU bound games so I would get your argument that the g16 is simply not a good gaming notebook anymore but that really would not do it justice yes you would get a couple of more frames out of competing devices still I would say the whole gaming experience is much more than just raw FPS numbers and while the RX 4070 might struggle with a few really demanding games in QHD and rendered natively with dlss and in some slower games even with frame generation you can get to 60 FPS with relative ease so yeah the g16 is not an uncompromising gaming machine however with the gorgeous OLED and another performance in most games it still manages to deliver a great experience despite the numbers but let's talk about fan noise and again remember that we are talking about the config without the vapor chamber which uses a third fan roughly in the middle of the chassis and it is really dead fan that is a bit of a problem since it's constantly running with a pretty high pitched wine even in low load scenarios which can get quite annoying to be honest underload performance is all right giving the finner chassis and turbo is well just loud but do not take my word for it and enjoy our noise samples as always if you want further insight into our fan noise measurements temperature and stress test behavior for the Finn Performance Machine please head on over to our written review we also included some speaker tests and guys we finally might have a Windows machine ending the reign of Apple's MacBook Pros when it comes to laptop speakers they are really just plain amazing [Music] away from the wall the G6 performs once more all right I would be lying if I say I wasn't expecting a little more especially considering the lower and core Ultra 155h but 7 and 1 half hours in our Wi-Fi test is certainly not really bad but it's also not amazing and once again only on par with what we have already seen from similarly equipped devices from the competition all right folks it's time to wrap it up again I am still not quite sure about the g16 in general if you're look at the numbers alone you might end up disappointed with relatively loud fans especially that third system fan and lackluster performance numbers compared to the competition you might just be a little too quick to put the seus in the too thin to make sense category but when you actually use this thing you realize that Asus put together a great blend of features that certainly delivers an overall excellent laptop experience be it for media consumption General productivity Creator tasks or even gaming I have high hopes that they may be able to fix the fan curve for the third fan so that you can at least work in silence while doing less demanding tasks and I'm actually quite interested to see what the higher end configs bring to the table with the RTX 480 and 490 and the upgraded waer chamber cooling system in the end I think it really depends on where you're coming from and what you're looking for if you want a hardcore gaming machine that can properly utilize the fast OLED with its insane refresh rate and if you only care about the highest FPS numbers well you will probably not be happy with the g16 but if you are looking for a machine that can do it all that you can easily take with you everywhere which can handle a bit of everything combined with a premium overall experience well then you should definitely check this one out but please folks let me know what you think think sound off in the comments below and once again please make sure to subscribe since we got the G14 review coming really soon and it's going up against the plate 14 once again for a rematch fighting for the 14-in laptop crown and I got the plate 16 in the studio already as well and you definitely do not want to miss that review but that should be it for today thanks a ton for watching my name is Alex you have been amazing and I cannot wait to see you all in the next one take care yeah

Channel: NotebookcheckReviews

Views: 120,068

Keywords: best gaming laptop 2024, asus zephyrus vs macbook pro, windows macbook alternative, oled gaming laptop, 240 Hz Oled, asus rog, asus rog zephyrus g16, zephyrus g16 2024, asus rog zephyrus g14, rog zephyrus vs razer blade, razer blade 16, zephyrus g16 review, best windows notebook, creator laptop, content creation notebook, notebook test, laptop review, tech review, techtube, nvidia rtx 4070, nvidia studio laptop, notebookcheck, notebook check, notebookcheck reviews

Id: AsxhyscqQzM

Length: 13min 38sec (818 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 13 2024