Thanks to its improved cooling system, the Zephyrus G14 ran far quieter than the 2020 mannequin, even after I was in a chronic Halo Infinite Big Team Battle session. The CPU by no means surpassed 85 celsius, whereas the GPU usually stayed round 75 celsius underneath load. Most importantly, the “Silent” fan mode lived as much as its identify, which is an enormous deal in the event you ever must carry your gaming laptop computer right into a quiet espresso home or assembly room.

While I used to be gaming, watching movies or simply bumming across the net, I genuinely appreciated the G14’s revamped “ROG Nebula Display.” In addition to the sooner refresh charges and Dolby Vision assist, it is also a 16-by-10 side ratio now, which provides you a bit extra vertical area for scrolling paperwork. Halo Infinite’s war-torn maps appeared vibrant and detailed on the G14, and I appreciated having Dolby Vision whereas I watched a number of Netflix exhibits. The pc’s HDR assist is a bit confounding, although. Windows 11 does not detect it as an HDR succesful show, and I could not view any HDR YouTube movies. And but by some means, I used to be nonetheless in a position to watch Netflix with Dolby Vision HDR enabled. I’ve requested ASUS for clarification on these points, and can replace this overview as I study extra.

As a lot as I really like the concept of 14-inch gaming laptops, their cramped keyboards usually go away me underwhelmed. Uncomfortable fingers might simply imply the distinction between successful or shedding a multiplayer match. Thankfully, the G14’s keyboard, whereas small, dealt with my fast-moving digits simply high-quality. There’s a satisfying quantity of journey too, which helps each throughout gaming and normal typing. While I definitely would not thoughts a bigger keyboard, the G14’s felt kinder to my gaming-battered digits than the Alienware x14 or Blade 14. But significantly, people, if these corporations could make luxuriously huge keyboards for his or her 13-inch ultraportables, why can’t they do the identical for gaming {hardware}?

I’m extra impressed with the Zephyrus G14’s new trackpad, which is 50 p.c bigger than it was final yr. I’m of the thoughts which you could by no means actually have a trackpad that is too huge, so I appreciated having more room to swipe round and use finger gestures. I by no means as soon as mistakenly hit the wrist pad accidentally, which is basically all I’m asking for in a pocket book lately.

Unlike different slim machines, the G14 is provided with the entire ports you’d want: two USB 3.2 Type-C ports, two USB 3.2 Type-A connections, a full-sized HDMI 2.0 socket, a mix audio jack and a microSD card reader. The laptop computer’s 240-watt energy provide additionally pushes extra juice than final yr’s, which implies you will see a sooner cost than earlier than. (You can even cost over USB-C in a pinch, however that will not ship sufficient energy whereas gaming.)

During our battery take a look at, which entails looping an HD video, the G14 lasted 9 hours and 46 minutes. That’s virtually two hours longer than the Alienware x14 lasted. And throughout my typical workflow of juggling dozens of browser tabs, enhancing images, and hopping on Zoom calls, the G14 normally saved going for over seven hours. That’s not spectacular when ultraportables are nicely into double-digit battery life, however that is the value you pay for having a slim-yet-powerful machine.

Pricing is the place issues get sticky with the . It technically begins at $1,600, based on ASUS. But the most affordable mannequin you possibly can at the moment snag at Best Buy goes for $1,650 with a quad HD show, Ryzen 9 CPU, 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD and a Radeon RX 6700 GPU. You can even bump as much as a Radeon RX 6800 GPU for $1,900. While these costs aren’t unreasonable with regards to gaming laptops, they’re considerably greater than the $1,050 beginning value of the 2020-era mannequin. Our authentic overview unit got here in at simply $1,450 with an RTX 2060, Ryzen 9 4900HS, and 16GB of RAM.

While it began out as a surprisingly reasonably priced 14-inch gaming laptop computer, the G14 is now firmly in mid-range and even premium pocket book territory. Chalk it as much as the worldwide chip crunch, value inflation (which, admittedly, is affecting all PC makers) and the entire different provide chain points we’re dealing with in 2022. If you’re in search of pure energy, the Blade 14 begins at $2,000 with the Ryzen 9 6900HX, an RTX 3060, and a 144Hz 1080p display. The Alienware x14, in the meantime, begins at $1,600 with a Core i7-12700H and RTX 3050 GPU (go as much as $1,900 and you’ll add the RTX 3060). ASUS remains to be your only option in the event you completely want a quad HD show, however in the event you simply care about excessive body charges, you’ve received higher choices.

And with regards to our overview mannequin, you’re principally simply paying an enormous premium to get respectable {hardware} in a slim case. Personally, I’d go for the heavier $2,500 Razer Blade 15 Advanced, which has an RTX 3070, Core i7-12800H and a 15-inch 240Hz quad HD display. But that’s admittedly an unfair comparability – I notice some folks don’t thoughts paying extra for portability.

The Zephyrus G14 remains to be an extremely compelling 14-inch pocket book, particularly in the event you’re aiming for one of many cheaper fashions. It’s {powerful}, slim and it lastly has a webcam. But it’s additionally misplaced a lot of what made the 2020 mannequin so particular. I suppose that’s progress, although. ASUS kicked off a development, however now it’s racing to maintain up with the competitors.