Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Assessment: A Lot to Love for Creators and Players

Execs

• Wonderful, coloration correct OLED show
• Very properly designed

Cons

• Backside will get sizzling when plugged in
• Does not help USB-C charging
• No Adobe RGB profiling

Asus brings OLED shows to its ROG Zephyrus line in 2024 and does a fab job for a primary timer. The brand new flashy slash programmable-LED on the quilt of the well-designed laptop computer, plus stable efficiency for its 14-inch dimension, makes the G14 a wonderful alternative for a small mannequin that is adept for each gaming and creating.

Regardless of being a member of Asus’ gaming-focused ROG household of laptops, the G14 has a extra inventive bent; it is technically thought of an Nvidia Studio mannequin and ships with Nvidia’s Studio driver moderately than the extra frequent Sport Prepared model. (You possibly can swap to the latter if you would like the extra frequent and game-optimized updates.) It is available in two fashions: the $2,000 model I examined, geared up with a AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS, GeForce RTX 4070, 32GB RAM and 1TB storage; and a $1,600 model with 16GB RAM and an RTX 4060. 

The cheaper mannequin can in all probability swimsuit most individuals’s wants. When you play video games at 1080p or light-weight ones at 1440p, the 4060 must be OK; when you’re not a giant multitasker or do not work with a number of giant photograph or video information the 16GB of RAM should not be a lot of a limitation. But when you are going to push to, say, 1800p (the display screen’s most decision) for gaming or enhancing advanced video initiatives, you will want not less than the 32GB and RTX 4070. Each fashions come geared up with the 14-inch, 2,880×1,800-pixel decision OLED display screen.

New and novel, a diagonal set of white LEDs on the highest flashes in patterns, for instance, to sync with audio or for notifications. It may be helpful, however some purposes do not work very properly. Sonic Match, for example, wants some strategy to fine-tune it past “sensitivity.” It simply finally ends up simply being solidly lit when there is no actual silence (it can not seem to decide up the beat successfully), which implies it is not nice for music; it is best for spoken phrase. You possibly can flip it off and alter the brightness. When it is off, it simply appears reflective. I do not know the way sturdy it’s in opposition to scratches, although.

Basically, the laptop computer’s very properly designed. The membrane-switch keyboard feels nice for typing — it seems like there’s extra journey than there may be, with a pleasant bounce, a nice soft-touch floor and massive, hard-to-miss keycaps. (For gaming you may wish to connect an exterior keyboard, although.) The secondary capabilities aren’t brightly backlit — you’ll be able to inform the LED is within the middle beneath the important thing — however they’re lit properly sufficient to make them out, which is vital when you work at nighttime. In addition they keep cool when the laptop computer heats up.

And there are delicate touches which may make a giant distinction. As a result of it is an AMD-based laptop computer, there is no Thunderbolt (it is a licensing factor). As a substitute, there’s one USB4 USB-C port along with a USB 3.2 they usually’re labeled 40Gbps and 10Gbps, respectively, which differentiates them in a significant manner: That is actually useful and too unusual. The laptop computer has a surprisingly full set of ports for its dimension, with ample house between them that you should have no points with larger-than-normal connectors. 

It isn’t an particularly skinny design, and a few individuals may take into account the highest and backside show bezels a bit thick, however in these methods it is paying homage to the MacBook Pro 14 and similar to the Razer Blade 14. Total, when you take away the slash on the quilt it offers off a extra critical vibe than you get from a gaming laptop computer. That features the first rate business-quality 1080p webcam.

There are some things I want it did have — RGB backlighting on the keyboard and the slash and a full-size SD card slot moderately than micro SD, for instance, in addition to help for USB-C charging and the flexibility to open to a wider angle — however none of them are important. It even helps Nvidia’s Advanced Optimus, which implies you’ll be able to drive it to completely use the discrete GPU with out rebooting by way of the Nvidia driver. It will get complicated, although, as a result of Asus’ software program additionally helps you to drive discrete-GPU-only, however that makes use of the normal must-reboot MUX swap.

And, in truth, my largest concern with the laptop computer is the Armoury Crate software program, Asus’ conventional control-panel dashboard for players. It isn’t tailor-made sufficient to the particular mannequin, as a substitute geared to cowl a number of various fashions with totally different options. That makes it complicated, providing a number of choices you can change, however don’t have any impact (like keyboard backlight colours). 

It additionally means the colour profiles vital to creators, which the laptop computer is primarily aimed toward, are in an simply neglected dropdown that appears grafted on, whereas GameVisual, the noncalibrated presets for informal and gaming use, predominate. Just a few fiddle with the gamma with a purpose to open up element within the darkest areas; that is actually vital with OLED screens, which produce true blacks (in comparison with IPS), however they have an inclination to clip darkish shadows to black as properly.  

The twin-tweeter/dual-subwoofer stereo speaker system is fairly good for a laptop computer, however you are still much better off with headphones for watching motion pictures and taking part in music — the sound remains to be skinny, even tweaked by Dolby Atmos (which is included, as is Dolby Imaginative and prescient). HDR is nice — it may well’t match the brightness of a 1,000-nit mini-LED backlit IPS display screen, however for probably the most half the excessive distinction of OLED blacks make up for it.

Efficiency

There usually is not an enormous distinction between Studio-designated fashions from equally geared up gaming-focused variations, however on this case Asus consists of factory-calibration profiles for sRGB, D65 P3 and DCI-P3. Asus consists of the calibration end result sheets as properly, one thing I see loads with desktop screens however not often with laptops. And I not often see client fashions that differentiate between DCI and D65 P3: the requirements use the identical coloration house however have totally different white factors and gamma curves.

Armoury Crate consists of coloration profiling software program that works with X-Ceremony client calibrators and what appears like a customized subset of the X-Ceremony software program; it runs rapidly via a medium-size set of coloration patches and generates a end result sheet and a profile. You possibly can solely profile whereas operating on the built-in GPU, although, a typical however bothersome limitation. And since it is based mostly on the built-in profiles, you’ll be able to’t use the software program to calibrate for Adobe RGB.

Regardless of all its goodness, the one factor that retains me from with the ability to advocate the laptop computer as a funds mannequin for skilled color-critical work is that it would not have hardware-based profiles. Meaning it may well’t constrain brightness to a selected degree, both for the specs that require it, for private consistency or for consistency throughout totally different screens. (A few the gaming presets restrict peak brightness, however that is by way of the gamma settings, which does not work for profiles with normal gamma curves.) It doesn’t suggest you’ll be able to’t use it for professional work, simply that it is a limitation you may want to contemplate.

However general it is nonetheless one of many higher prosumer implementations I’ve seen, together with nailing the three normal coloration areas. That features limiting the gamut primaries to the related house. (Many profiles, for instance, will lengthen the maximum-saturation crimson, inexperienced and blue factors to these of the most important house, sometimes P3. That may grow to be an issue in sRGB, a small subset of P3 which may’t hit these saturation ranges.)

As for typical efficiency measures, the G14’s Ryzen 9 8945HS tends to underperform often, which tends to occur when producers’ use conservative energy utilization and profiles (equivalent to biasing in direction of quiet, which implies little to no fan noise, translating to much less cooling energy). You may get higher GPU efficiency plugged in and operating on Turbo, however the CPU solely confirmed insignificant upticks in restricted testing. It did appear to carry out comparatively properly on Procyon’s AI inferencing exams (Home windows ML), however I have not constructed up sufficient outcomes for comparable methods and have solely simply began testing the Intel Core Extremely processors. 

On the flip facet, it looks as if the efficiency takes a giant hit on battery, the place the G14 switches to its Silent energy profile — it roughly halved on Geekbench 6 multicore. (At evaluation time, a bug within the Nvidia driver prevented getting correct battery testing outcomes.)

The GPU, then again, which exhibits middling outcomes for an RTX 4070, received a major efficiency elevate in Turbo, however not sufficient to drag it as much as full energy. Partially, that is as a result of “full energy” is decrease than earlier than. The 4070 within the 2024 G14 is proscribed to 90w; compared, final 12 months’s mannequin maxed out at 125w.

That is to not say it performs badly, it simply would not stand out from the group for gaming or heavy-duty 3D graphics manipulation. Total, although, due to good design and tradeoffs, the ROG Zephyrus G14 is a content material creation crowd pleaser that has a lot left over for good gaming.