Sleek, stealthy, superb: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 review

Originally published on What’s the Best.

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16, released in March 2024, is one of the best gaming laptops available on the market right now, maybe even one of the best laptops of this year. The raw power afforded by the best computing components on the market, wrapped in a sleek CNC machined aluminium case, is stealthy enough to pass as just another word processor or MacBook knock-off until you look closer. Despite appearances, it has certainly made a big splash at What's the Best.

Building off of the already brilliant 2023 edition of the same name, improving in many big ways, most notably with the absolutely colossal RTX 4090 GPU, which was the model we tested. To be able to fit a top-of-the-line gaming experience in a backpack is certainly a rare one, but the price reflects that.

Standing shoulder to shoulder with ROG’s Strix line of gaming laptops, the Zephyrus is the more subtle of the two, yet still offering the same computational power when needed. To get our heads around this beast of a machine, writer and tester Olivia spent dozens of hours with it, and can lay out everything about it, her experiences, and what might be improved.

The quick version

The Zephyrus G16 (2024) is a gaming laptop designed to blend in. It does not have big RGB lights or anything sticking out the back; it just has a great, sleek design and fantastic internals.

The model tested included the RTX 4090, with the 4060, 70 and 80 also available. For everything from everyday tasks, watching movies, rendering and gaming, there was no point in which this machine struggled. The display is OLED, a relatively new technology for the laptop market. The 2.5K resolution, coupled with the 240Hz refresh rate, makes everyday tasks so much clearer and smoother and allows movies to truly shine with great colour depth.

There’s nothing the 4090 GPU can’t chew through with power to spare, but all that power results in a lot of heat. A problem plaguing gaming laptops since their invention has been dealt with by a dual fan system with a vapour channel. While this helps keep internal temps low, be aware if you’re using a lap that it can get rather hot. While great for heat dispersion, the aluminium body is best kept on a cooling mat or laptop stand when used for intensive tasks like high frame rate gaming.

The body itself is perfectly sized and contained for what’s inside. Rivalling the MacBook for design, it’s almost as thin and has more than twice the gaming power. The slash lighting on the back seems more for show than anything functional, but that and the small ROG logo are the only indications that this laptop is more than it appears.

There are a few drawbacks, such as the switch to soldered RAM, the lack of privacy shutter and usual gaming laptop battery issues, but overall for what you’re paying, you’re getting one hell of a computer.

What’s new?

The big differences between the 2024 and 2023 models happen on the inside, however, the case is worth a mention. Somehow managing to pack in more power whilst trimming down the size and weight is certainly something to shout about, as well as the change from the standard prismatic shimmer from the old version, a “slash light” lights up to match soundwaves, give charging information, or just look cool. If you’d prefer to stay stealthy, the chassis is perfect for that, as the sleek CNC-machined aluminium gives a refined look to the computer, making it just as home in the boardroom as it would be in a LAN party.

Speaking of gaming, the updated model sets itself apart from its predecessor with current-gen hardware, including the 14th-gen Intel I9 Ultra, as well as the GeForce RTX 4090, making it hard to beat on internals alone. However, RAM is where it falters. Though faster than ever, it caps out at 32GB of soldered DDR5 RAM, unlike the 2023 model that could reach up to 48GB after installing further RAM. It may seem like a small thing, but with some gaming laptops reaching up to 64GB, it would be nice to easily replace and improve as tech trends change.

All of that means nothing, however, if you don’t have a good display to make the most of the RAM, this laptop comes prepared. With a whopping 240Hz refresh rate, using all the RAM you have for gaming at high frame rates has never been easier. If you’d rather relax than grind your next achievement, the display now utilizes OLED technology, meaning movies have never looked so good.

There are certainly improvements and drawbacks, but only by diving deeper into the 2024 G16 does it become apparent just how much this laptop packs in for the money you’re paying. Time for the full review.

Build

Looking at the laptop from the outside, you’d never be able to guess what it had in store. Aesthetically matching a MacBook more than a gaming laptop, smooth CNC-machined aluminium in the silver looks just like the Apple rival, except for a few noticeable differences. In fact, it is closer to the ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED we reviewed, rather than the HP Omen Ryzen 7 16GB 1TB RTX4060 we tested.

The slash lighting covers the diagonal length of the back of the screen, with various options available in the ROG Aura software to customise its function. It flashes slowly to tell you it’s charging, and can be configured to be volume reactive, unfortunately, these are the only configurations with real use.

The rest of the effects are organised by vague descriptors such as “Resonance” “Neoretro” and “Glitch” to try to distinguish the ways you can change the appearance of the band of light. While attractive, it’s only mildly useful, and so drains the already limited battery more than anything else. Though this isn’t the flashiest lighting option out there for gaming laptops, especially not in the age of RGB, it feels poorly thought out, and perhaps the next iteration will nail it, but not this one.

Besides the disappointing slash lighting, the rest of the construction is fantastic, and solid without feeling overly heavy, given the metal chassis, it’s a surprise but a welcome one. The grills at the bottom for the fans are aplenty, without compromising the overall construction, though when you’re in an intense gaming session, the fans kick out quite a bit of heat. The fans closer to the sides stay cool, but down the middle of the laptop can get quite warm. I used an older laptop stand, but due to the size of the computer, it’d be worth looking into a good laptop stand or cooling pad.

The heat of the laptop comes up when you’re typing. The keyboard has a great feel to it, satisfying without feeling heavy, light enough but not cheap feeling. The backlight on the keys, unfortunately, is only centred on the letter, so discerning legends at the top of the key, such as symbols and function numbers, can be tricky. As a self-proclaimed keyboard nerd, I can safely say this felt great to type on, and I found myself writing a lot of this review on it. Though I will admit, I wasn’t personally a fan of the very “gamery” legend, in stark contrast to the rest of the design of the laptop. The US model comes with RGB lighting for the keyboard, but it’s uncertain if/when this may come to the UK model, as for now it’s simply a white backlight.

There are a good number of ports, with two power input options depending on the sort of task you’re doing. Thunderbolt connector for USB-C connection, charging and the DisplayPort help save space, though this charger is only useful for lighter tasks such as streaming movies or surfing the web. For gaming, you’d definitely need the chunkier 240W charger, doubling the available power and actually allowing you to game for more than 30 minutes at a time. Which leads us very well into the usability of the laptop.

Usability

The computer can vary on this massively depending on what you’re using it for, and it comes down to the two main weaknesses of all gaming laptops; battery and cooling.

The G16 comes with two chargers, one USB-C capable of providing 100W worth of power, and another rectangle connector capable of more than double that with 240W power. When I was using it, I think I used the USB-C once or twice, if I was just watching something on Netflix or doing light tasks, whereas anything remotely demanding will require the 240W charger I affectionately dubbed “big boy”. Without the larger charger, I experienced about 1.5 hours of gaming, the 4090 is just so power-intensive. The battery is rated to last 300 full cycles, but at the rate you need to charge, mileage will vary greatly on how long you get before battery degradation. This is exacerbated by the OLED display, which is beautiful and vibrant, but at higher brightness levels can chew through the battery.

The battery is the main crutch of laptop gaming, but the fact that many people still want a 4090 GPU means that these higher-end models require a lot more juice. In addition to this, in order to fit everything within the slim and compact chassis, ASUS have limited the GPU to 115W which improves power balance but compromises the performance of the top-spec card. It’s a tricky balance to strike, performance suffers for compactness and power consumption, and this feels to me like a lot of tradeoffs to make. If I were in ASUS’ shoes, I’d limit the Zephyrus line to a maximum of a 4080 GPU. It looks great on the adverts and on paper to have the power of a 4090 able to fit in a standard-size laptop, but perhaps this is one thing that is best left for later iterations.

Then there is cooling, another weak point in any gaming laptop. Recently, some gaming laptops have extended backs to to give more room for bigger GPUs and the fans that come along with it, but ASUS were adamant about that slim and sleek design, and worked around it. Using their “intelligent” cooling systems inside the computer, coupled with a triple fan plus vapour chamber system, helps keep temps stable. Something I noticed right away, however, was fan noise.

There was a “silent” option that was just quieter rather than silent, but if you’re doing anything intensive, the fan noise can quickly become quite loud. I found myself occasionally using headphones when gaming, which was a shame as I’d wanted to take advantage of the Dolby Atmos speakers while gaming. With all that said, the cooling system works brilliantly, which is a shame because only the 4080 and 4090 models include the vapour chamber, it would have been nice to have seen it included across all models.

All that said, these were the main issues I’d seen through testing when it came to how the system interacts with itself, performance when in use, and especially when gaming, is a whole different story.

Performance

If you're someone who wants to max out their computer and get the most bang for your buck, this laptop certainly supports it. The included ASUS Armoury software helps you monitor temperature and usage, allowing you to tune performance to whatever game you want, as well as configure the slash lighting and dynamic desktop backgrounds to rival the popular Wallpaper Engine (though I'd still recommend the engine over Armoury as there can be considerable lag).

Many consumers look to this if they’re spending a lot of money on a gaming machine. How well does it actually perform? Well, that depends. Game optimisation for release is a topic in and of itself, but simply put, the better games are optimised, the more they can make of a standard GPU, meaning better overall performance. When testing and running benchmarks, going between games like Helldivers and Stray over to the notoriously demanding Cyberpunk start to show the gaps in the armour.

For high FPS gaming, this laptop is certainly for you. Helldivers 2 and Apex Legends run as smooth as butter, brilliantly displayed on the 240Hz OLED screen, free of performance issues. However, when it came to certain games, the smoothness was not shared. Cyberpunk ran well enough, though if you wanted to turn on ray tracing you’d be looking at <30FPS gaming. I ran a gamut of benchmarks with different settings, and I was having to compromise on a lot of quality in one area or another if I wanted a smooth experience.

However, when it did run, it was spectacular. The vibrant colours of Night City were a good test for the DCI-P3: 100 per cent Pantone verified colour gamut, though I’d had some issues when adjusting HDR through the game. My advice would be to leave HDR gaming to one side and focus on that aspect for movies and shows you may want to watch.

This is without a doubt some powerful, high-performance hardware. Enhanced with the new Intel AI Boost NPU allowing machine learning to take control of hardware acceleration on your computer to help manage additional tasks and power consumption. They seem to work in conjunction with each other well enough, it is only when faced with really hardware-heavy games and tasks does the power-limited 4090 reveals itself.

Overall, the performance from the laptop was better than I was expecting honestly, though falls short in some areas I wasn’t expecting. Here's a full list of the games tested, as well as a rating of how well I think they run.

• Cyberpunk 2077 - 4/5

• Helldivers 2 - 5/5

• Baldur’s Gate 3 - 5/5

• Apex Legends - 4.5/5

• Horizon Zero Dawn - 4/5

• Stray - 4.5/5

• Outer Wilds - 5/5

Price and competition

Breaking down the individual components of the 4090 G16, it comes out to a decent deal. While it won't be making it into our round-up of the best budget gaming laptops, and many may baulk at the £4,000 price tag, for the GPU alone you’re looking at £1,500. Then there’s the CPU, display, motherboard, RAM, power supply, it adds up quickly. Yes, it may be cheaper to build a desktop with similar specs, but the rebuttal is simply asking “Can I use it on a train to play Cyberpunk?”

The portability of this powerhouse is what helps make it marketable and attractive, the fact that it’s at home on a laptop stand hooked up to a monitor as it would be on someone’s lap lying down in bed. But we’re not here to get into the desktop vs laptop gaming debate, because, after all, this isn’t the only laptop out there.

Each gaming tech company is constantly running in two races, the tech advancements from companies like Intel, Nvidia and AMD, and the race to get a good flagship to market ahead of the competition. ROG by ASUS has been one of the frontrunners in that race for a long time now, especially with their Strix line of gaming tech, and while they haven’t grown complacent, other companies haven’t stood still. Razer’s Blade and the Lenovo Legion are both the biggest risks to ROG’s lead.

While the Legion resembles more “traditional” gaming laptops, if you wanted the closest comparison to the Zephyrus you look to the Blade, with the same sleek metal frame, subtle gamer design and outstanding internals. However, at this level of quality, there can sometimes be diminishing returns.

Overall though, there’s no getting around it, the price for the model I reviewed is high. Higher than many an avid gamer would pay, myself included. This laptop is catering for the “completionists” of PC gaming in my opinion, who must have the latest and greatest to have a fulfilling gaming experience, and who want to push their computer to the limit. I’m not one of those people, but they are there, make no mistake. 4090 GPUs make up just shy of one per cent of all Steam users, which may initially not sound like many, until you realise that it’s more popular than any other AMD GPU, and just as popular as the Steam Deck.

There is an audience for this type of laptop, and they will find a familiar welcome with this calibre of laptop.

Final thoughts

To sum up a lot of technical jargon, nit-picking and testing, it feels safe to say this laptop definitely has a user in mind, while I may not exactly be one of them. There have been so many positives with this, running ray tracing from anywhere, the great quality screen for binging TV shows, and the amazing construction and design. But it’s hard to think of all that without finding the little things that bug me, the lack of privacy shutter, the soldered and limited RAM, hit-or-miss benchmarks and getting hindered by the high-end hardware. When you’re paying £4,000 for something, there should be nothing negative to say, and there is.

If I were a more hardcore gamer, pulling in 40 hours a week in Warzone, or even an animator burning the midnight oil perfecting my project in Blender, perhaps I could be persuaded to look past these things. But that’s not me. If it’s not you either, that’s okay. If I can’t quite recommend the 4090 model, I would recommend the 4080 model. For about £600 less, you get the most balanced performance without the total GPU power being hindered by the form factor, whilst taking advantage of the vapour chamber cooling.

The Zephyrus line is stronger than ever, it’s just that sometimes there can be too much of a good thing.