Customer Ratings & Reviews

I've been using this laptop for 2 months. I love it. I have the RTX 5080 version because I thought the 5070Ti wouldn't cut it for me, mainly for the vram reason. And going for the 5090 version in this chasis is in my opinion a waste of money because of the power limitations. Some say the 5070Ti is the sweet spot for the G16, but if you think the 12GB vram of 5070Ti won't cut it for you, you'll want to go for the 5080 16GB version like me. That being said, the power of this laptop is amazing. Even in silent mode, it delivers amazing performance in games. Not that you shouldn't run all of your games in silent mode, but it is pretty capable if you want to. It has a dedicated secondary SSD slot and I've slappe another 2TB Samsung 990 Pro in there. The rams on the G16 are soldered onto the motherboard but they're speedy at 7467MHz (LPDDR5X) I've done Cinebench R23 tests, In multicore results, the Core Ultra 9 285H scored between 20k-21k. Pretty impressive for a CPU in a slim design laptop. The Wi-Fi7 performance is also amazing. I've surpassed gigabit download speeds. And in online games, I had no lags or latencies either. The screen is amazing too. The OLED display provides vivid colors and true blacks, it's so nice to view anything on it. This laptop is all-in-one. Portability, power, style. I'm usually a perfectionist, but I personally can't find anything negative to state about 2025 G16. Love it.

[Employee of bestbuy] I Had the 5080 version of the Zephyrus. The build and overall quality of the machine is top tier, for day to day use mixed with gaming I don’t think there is a better line of laptops. There are a few gripes with this model hence the 4 star. The limited TDP on the GPU is noticeably low, my legion with a 4080 at a higher TDP out performed this machine by about 30%! Also the CPU is underpowered for gaming as well however I do think the focus is work/school/day to day. Hopefully some of this info is found useful by others.

Overall this laptop is extremely powerful. The 32 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage makes it very accessible for storage and high intensity gaming. Given the current state of PC costs, it’s a worthwhile purchase in lieu of a Desktop. Only issue is overheating and battery life. The GPU gets very hot, naturally, and thus consumes A LOT of power when not plugged in.

I bought this ROG Zephyrus G16 with the RTX 5080 as a desktop stand-in for college next year (mechanical engineering), since I won't have room in my dorm for a full setup. So far, it's been an amazing laptop for general productivity applications, and in gaming has consistently output good framerates in 1600p ultra settings. The build quality is excellent; the solid aluminum body feels significantly better than a cheaper plastic one. The keyboard and touchpad are amazing to use, and the 1600p OLED looks stunning no matter what you're using it for. I think that a solid cooling stand is definitely a good idea if you want to lower temps and increase consistency under sustained loads, but the G16 has decent enough onboard cooling that I'm able to use it on its own (typically not even on turbo fan settings!), with temps a little high but not concerningly so. I would recommend that anyone looking to purchase this laptop go through the process of replacing Armoury Crate with G-Helper, as doing so significantly reduces bloatware and allows for an extra couple of hours of battery life (I typically get 8ish hours of use in web-based tasks). The Zephyrus lineup as a whole also benefits (in my opinion) from looking much more professional and less in-your-face than most gaming laptops, meaning you don't stick out like a sore thumb when you use it in public. Overall, I'd say that the G16 accomplishes what it sets out to do extremely well and is therefore an amazing pick if you need a portable workhorse!

I recently picked up the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 and it has completely exceeded my expectations. The processing power paired with the graphics card handles demanding AAA titles smoothly without dropping frames. The refresh rate on the display makes gameplay incredibly fluid, and the colors are vibrant. The cooling system handles intensive sessions well, keeping performance stable under load. Highly recommend if you want a no-compromise gaming laptop.

This laptop has exceeded my expectations for daily productivity and creative tasks. The display is vibrant and sharp, making it a joy to work on for long periods. Performance is snappy with no noticeable lag when multitasking. It feels premium, runs quietly, and the battery life has been reliable enough to get me through most of the day without reaching for a charger. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a powerful, portable workstation.

The computer I acquired has turned out to be one of the best investments I have made. It stands out for its lightness, high performance and portability, which allows me to easily transport it anywhere. In addition, it complies perfectly for both academic activities and recreational use, including video games

Great Laptop for any setting office or gaming! gets a bit hot during heavy gaming but with right cooling settings it could be resolved.

Very dissapointed with the purchase. I have C state power rail issues which cant be fixed without firmware editing which is obviously locked for a normal user who paid almost 3 grands for it. In other words - laptop crashes if ledt idle for more than 10min. Not in US right now so not sure how to claim in warranty since bestbuy products are exclusively covered by bestbuy only (Not ASUS)!

It is very good laptop for travel. I love it. But it is my 3rd laptop with has some build quality issues.

Buyer beware, it is difficult to get support from Best Buy. I tried to chat with BB but the live agent takes forever and just times out. Upon trying again, the AI chat does not register my input, keeps telling me to rephrase. It does not identify the words "damaged laptop". I also registered the warranty on the Asus website and it gave me a warranty expiration date that is 4 months prior to my purchase date. This makes me think someone already registered it prior and I got an open boxed that was sold as brand new. I will most likely initiate a chargeback with my Amex Platinum if this is not resolved.

Asus did a fantastic job with the aesthetic design of this new G16 laptop. They also did a great job fitting the high performance hardware into such a compact package. Unfortunately, keeping it portable and light does come with some trade offs. Nonetheless, if high performance portability is a priority, you may be able to see past some of the issues I personally had with this laptop. Speaking of portability, at under 4.5lbs and approximately 0.6” thick, this laptop is extremely portable for the amount of performance it puts out. Makes it great for some coffee shop work or gaming. Included is the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H CPU coupled with 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM (soldered) and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU with 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM and to complete the amazing grouping of awesome hardware is a 16” 2.5K (2560x1600) OLED panel at 240Hz with 0.2 ms response time. The screen is absolutely gorgeous and is likely my favorite part of this performance laptop. Not having ever owned an OLED screen of any sort, this is definitely the icing on the cake of this machine. The sound quality is pretty good. Sporting Dolby Atmos, the stock sound experience is enough for me given it’s a portable laptop. I’m not expecting a surround sound speaker sound experience but for what they packet in the case, it sounds pretty decent. I also like the oversized trackpad on this laptop. It’s really a great addition if you aren’t using an external mouse. I also like that you can lock the trackpad and prevent its use if you are indeed using a mouse. I mostly play Warzone and with custom “almost” Ultra settings (with the exception of a few I don’t like being the highest) I was getting 120+ FPS on the gorgeous OLED screen. I could definitely push it beyond that if I was to turn down the settings. I will say, make sure the CORRECT GPU is selected in whatever game you are playing. There was a time I went through troubleshooting some pretty awful issues only to find out the game had selected the wrong GPU. The other problem I had, I accidentally put the machine in battery saver mode and even plugged in, it stayed on this mode. I was concerned as to why my benchmarks were turning out really low and ended up finding the setting was accidentally turned on and remained on. Just keep these things in mind if you run into issues. It really took me on a wild goose chase. My only issue with this machine is likely an issue with most performance gaming laptops. The heat, the fan noise, and the battery. It gets HOT. As I was experimenting with the different modes, I noticed that if you put it in Turbo mode and the NVIDIA GPU in use at all times, it will get hot just doing basic general tasks as well. This is likely why they have the built in profiles with auto GPU switching etc. Battery life is ok with general use. I would approximate roughly 6-7 hours while more intensive tasks or gaming significantly reduce that number. As I said, I feel like this is somewhat to be expected with most gaming laptops but it's better to know going into the purchase than not knowing and being caught off guard. I'm not a big fan of the Asus software at all. It tends to be resource intensive and honestly, bloated. Unfortunately you kind of need it for all of the advanced and power saving features of the laptop. As well as the RGB control. They kind of rolled it all up into a single suite of software and I just feel like the laptop would perform better without it. I'm not a fan of any sort of bloatware, granted this is more software with built in customization and functionality but nonetheless I wish you could do all these power saving auto switching features on its own with no heavy software running in the background. Outside of the software, I think my only other issue with this laptop is the soldered 32GB of RAM. What if you want 64GB? You’re out of luck. You can't upgrade it. Which is a real bummer and I feel like a real step backwards for PC/Laptop manufacturers. I think you should have the bare minimum upgradeability. Overall it's an excellent system and it's mind boggling to see how far technology has truly come as they keep rolling out machines that are better and better. It makes you wonder “what's the true limit for a consumer machine going to be?”

To start off, I've used the previous 2024 G14 variant spec'd with the AMD 8945HS 32GB and 4070 mobile. I really enjoyed the form factor of last years G14 (14"), but there were a ton of caveats I just didn't like.. I mean it was a great laptop, but it didn't really check every box for me. Enter the 2025 G16: -The size is obviously bigger, but I can't fault or praise that. I'm used to smaller 13.3-14" laptops. -Screen resolution is slightly downgraded from the G14 model 2880x1800 vs 2560x1600 on this G16, but offers a subjectively brighter looking 240hz OLED, which I do enjoy more. Spec wise, this laptop is really hard to complain about. You get a 5080 mobile that can turbo up to 130w, 32GB of 7467mhz LPDDR5X, 2GB SSD all interconnected to a core ultra 9 285H. SUBJECTIVE THOUGHTS: People might dislike me for this, but I personally think the Intel chip is a bit better for a mobile platform. Everything from downclocking to heat output seems more streamlined relative to the 2024 G14 model. For example, I can tune the AMD chip to consume lower power and output less heat, but the Intel option "just works" for a better lack of terms. Less driver conflict and ease of swapping to dedicated GPU.. which required an actual reboot on the G14 (I left mine in auto swap mode long term). Battery is great. The display auto adjusts down to low hz to save power and pretty sure this G16 is lasting longer throughput my work days. The current gen core Ultra 9 seems underrated in this aspect. Laptop has intel WIFI7 (BE201) Power saving features limit throughput, but the performance is exceptional, especially next to the MediaTek 6E option in the previous G14. (That one had high latency and random driver conflicts). Sound is nice.. similar to G14. I cant really fault it. CONS: This one isn't super big for most people considering it's a laptop, but the CPU performance is a bit weak for CPU bound stuff such as Counterstrike 2. (Yes it's plugged in and set to ultimate performance) The GPU can pull it's own weight as it's a 60 SM 5080 Mobile @ 130w turbo, but I'm a little disappointed with the max CPU performance. To be completely fair, the 8945HS on the G14 has similar dips and performance on this end. -This is obvious the trade off of a ultra portable mobile platform. If you want desktop like CPU performance, you might have to look into an option with a Intel HX, which is going to be a larger form factor. OVERALL: I think this is a solid jack of all trades if you're always on the run or traveling. It can play AAA games relatively well at decent settings. I wish there was a G14 variant of this 285H CPU with maybe a weaker GPU. I love AMD (I run a 9800X3D on desktop), but I still think Intel holds the edge on mobile platforms. (subjective). I'm giving it a solid 4/5. Again, I wish the CPU was a little stronger, but I cant exactly fault it given the battery performance. Max CPU power on 285H is only 115W. Exceptional laptop all around.

Slim gaming laptops all the rage, offering serious power in a sleek, portable design despite some inevitable trade-offs. Asus impressed with the 2024 ROG Zephyrus G16, establishing itself as one of the best options in its class. The 2025 version maintains much of the same design, featuring the latest Nvidia GPU and Intel CPU, with an AMD option possibly arriving later. The most notable improvements are in the cooling system. The configuration I’m using includes an Intel Core Ultra 9 285H processor, RTX 5080 mobile GPU, 32GB of soldered RAM, and 2TB of storage. While the RAM isn’t upgradeable, a 64GB variant is available, and there’s an extra slot for additional storage. Weighing only 4.2 lbs., the Zephyrus G16 is highly portable, and its dark gray finish gives it a sleek look that does a reasonable job of hiding fingerprints. Asus integrated Thunderbolt 4 support thanks to Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285H but omitted an Ethernet port to maintain the slim profile. Wi-Fi 7 ensures excellent connectivity, and the laptop offers a strong selection of ports, including multiple USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A and Type-C connections, HDMI 2.1, Thunderbolt 4 with DisplayPort 2.1 and Power Delivery, a 3.5mm audio jack, and even a UHS-II SD card reader. Typing on the Zephyrus G16 is a great experience, thanks to its keyboard with 1.7mm key travel providing a responsive and comfortable feel, making it one of the best keyboards I’ve used in a compact laptop. The backlighting is more basic, with a single-zone setup, but the touchpad is spacious, making everyday navigation effortless. The 16-inch OLED display offers WQHD resolution (2560 x 1600 pixels) and a smooth 240Hz refresh rate. Visuals are crisp, colors are rich, and response times are fast, with accurate color profiles for P3 and sRGB, making it a great choice for creators as well. Asus offers configurations with up to an RTX 5090 graphics card, though I found the maximum power draw to be slightly lower than some of the other laptops in this class, meaning the Zephyrus doesn’t quite push the frame rate other higher-wattage setups achieve. That said, unless you’re chasing every last frame, the difference isn’t likely to be a dealbreaker. Gaming performance on the Zephyrus G16 is strong. DLSS4 upscaling ensures smooth gameplay in demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Alan Wake 2. One of the laptop’s standout features is battery life, which outlasts some of its competitors. The speakers are also exceptional, ranking among the best I’ve ever heard in a gaming laptop, though under heavy loads the noise of the cooling fans dictate headphones will offer a better audio experience. If maximizing gaming power is your priority, other models with slightly higher-wattage GPUs may offer a bit faster performance. Asus seems to have kept power levels lower to ensure better thermals and quieter operation. For those seeking a well-balanced, portable gaming laptop that excels at multimedia tasks, the Zephyrus G16 is an outstanding choice. With a great keyboard, long battery life, impressive speakers, and strong overall performance, it’s easy to recommend for both gamers and creators alike.

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 16” OLED 2.5K 240 HZ Gaming Laptop is hands down the best laptop I have ever owned. • Unboxing and setup – The laptop came well protected without a bunch of excess packaging. It includes the ROG Zephyrus G16 featuring Windows 11 Home and a 240W power brick. Everything worked out of the box; although, there were some expected updates (driver/security/GPU/BIOS) that needed to be done for optimal performance which took about 30 minutes to download and install. All-in-all, the unboxing and setup process was about as smooth as it could be. • Aesthetics – The laptop is made with a premium aluminum lightweight chassis weighing 4.3 lbs. I am a big fan of the eclipse gray color; although, it does show fingerprints. I also think the slash lighting on the lid is a nice touch. • CPU – The Intel Core Ultra 9 285H processor with 16-cores and a boost clock up to 5.4 GHz is an absolute beast and can handle anything a gamer can throw at it. I did not experience any CPU throttling due to overheating; although, the computer does get quite loud when set to performance and turbo mode. I will note that the combination of liquid metal and 2nd Gen Arc Flow Fans do a great job cooling the computer. It is perfectly paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 for the ultimate gaming experience. • GPU – It comes with a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 which is a perfect card for 2.5K gaming. I tested several different games including Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Valorant, Path of Exile 2, and PUBG and all ran flawlessly. I was able to push 200+ fps on high/ultra settings. I do appreciate that depending on how you have the GPU performance setup in Armoury Crate, the software will automatically switch between the discrete GPU and the integrated GPU. This allows for solid performance while maintaining long battery life during non-intensive tasks. As I mostly have the laptop plugged in, I have been running it on the ultimate setting which gives the best overall performance and lowest button-to-pixel latency. • RAM – It comes with 32 GB of 7468 MHz LPDDR5X, the sweet spot for gaming and multitasking. • Storage - It comes with a PCIe 4.0 2 TB SSD, a great size hard drive given many games easily hit 100+ GB in size. The 2 TB SSD will allow you to have several games downloaded and still have room for other apps/music/documents/etc. • OLED Display – The 2.5k (2560 x 1600) OLED display is stunning featuring a 0.2ms response time, 240 Hz refresh rate, and NVIDIA G-SYNC. Between the ultrafast response time, high refresh rate, and no screen tearing, it is the perfect display for gaming. I really like the true black of the OLED display as it provides unparalleled contrast. It also supports HDR producing greater luminance and color depth; although, this display is somewhat limited as it only has max 500 nit brightness. • Windows Copilot AI – My main complaint about this laptop is that this garbage bloatware comes preinstalled. AI seems to be the trend with all major companies these days and unfortunately there are some serious privacy/data concerns linked to using it. I immediately uninstalled and disabled everything I could relating to Copilot. • Connectivity – The laptop has a Thunderbolt 4 Type C port,1 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type C port, 2 USB 3.2 Gen2 Type A ports, 1 HDMI 2.1 port, media card reader, and a headphone jack. It also offers Wi-Fi 7. Overall, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 is in my opinion the best laptop in its class offering an outstanding gaming experience. I highly recommend it.

I’ve been a big fan of the Asus ROG Zephyrus laptop lineup for some time. I started with a Zephyrus G14 a few years back and was extremely impressed at that time with specs and performance. Although I’ve upgraded to a 16 inch chassis, I’m still wildly impressed with the hardware and performance coming from a portable machine that only weighs 4.3 pounds. The G16 is even thin enough to fit in a standard 16 inch laptop sleeve, which is not something that too many gaming laptops can boast. The biggest thing that I personally love about these laptops is how inconspicuous they are. While most gaming laptops are bulky and flashy with colors, lights, logos, etc, the Zephyrus G16 isn’t unless you want it to be. The laptop’s logo is very small and only on the corner of the lid. Turn off the slash lighting and change your keyboard backlighting to white and no one would ever know you were carrying around a gaming laptop. You could easily use it for daily note taking, word processing, photo and video editing, media consumption, or as a work machine. That being said, when you’re ready to game, you can turn on and customize the slash lighting on the laptop’s lid to many different presets or even have it sync with music or other media audio. The backlit RGB keys can be set to your favorite color or cycle through various colors and presets. Long story short, the customizability is great, but not overdone. Performance-wise, if you’re looking at this laptop, you know its specs and your assumption that it rips is correct. You can run even poorly optimized games at their high or highest settings without issue. My G16 has been a portable Marvel Rivals and Warzone machine and it performs just as well as my desktop. The OLED display is stunning with perfect colors and deep blacks. The 6 integrated speakers and Dolby Atmos do sound great for both gaming and music/media consumption. And they get surprisingly loud. The 32GB of RAM and 2TB PCIe SSD allow you to multitask like no other. There are two USB-A, two USB-C, and one HDMI port that allow you to connect an additional monitor, headphones, and a mouse without the need for a splitter. An SD card slot is also included, which I didn’t expect, but is certainly convenient when downloading camera or drone pictures for editing. The only real gripe I have about the G16 is the fact that it is air cooled. Because it needs a lot of air to keep things from overheating, the fans do get loud when the GPU is under load. I started using a prop to keep the back of mine held up and that has helped a bit. I might invest in a dedicated cooling pad if need be. That being said, it does move enough air to keep the keyboard cool even after long gaming sessions. So despite the noise, you won’t be cooking your fingers. All in all, the Zephyrus G16 is phenomenal both esthetically and performance-wise. If you’ve got the capital to pick one up, I think you’ll love it!

This laptop is amazing in almost every way. Besides being a powerhouse, it has a great screen and exceptional battery life (for an X86 CPU) making it perfect for gaming and productivity. I only encountered a few hiccups explained in my review, but overall, this laptop is one of the best on the market. I only removed one star due to the issues at the bottom of the review, but they are not deal breakers. Pros: -Thin and lightweight design -RTX 5080 GPU -Fast and efficient processor -Excellent battery life -Impressive speakers -Stunning screen -Comfortable keyboard feel -Upgradable and repairable -Fan is not too loud Cons: -A few driver bugs -Oversized trackpad -No touchscreen -Low-power NPU Setup and unboxing: The packaging is minimal, containing a 240W power brick and the device. Setup is the standard Windows installation process, but it was nice to see that there is pretty much no bloatware aside from the usual ASUS Armory Crate and MyAsus software for updates. I don’t personally see those as bad as they serve a function for device control. Everything worked well out of the box. Benchmarks: Being a new computer, I was eager to test the new Intel Processors given the brand’s reputation recently. I can happily say it is a great processor along with all the other specs. The RTX 5080 has 16GB of VRAM and is very speedy. Additionally this machine has PCIe 5.0 for faster hard drives and 32GB of fast DDR5 RAM. Here are a few numbers I was able to test. Unless stated elsewhere, all tests are on Performance mode / best performance when plugged in and Windows mode / balanced when on battery. All games are at native resolution and full settings, DLSS on when able. Browserbench 3.1 Chrome: 25.6 (plugged in) / 13.3 (battery) Cinebench R23 Multi Core: 16310 Geekbench 6 CPU: 2816 Single, 15455 Multi (plugged in) / 1500 Single, 11860 Multi (battery) Geekbench 6 OpenCL: 148145 (Plugged in 4080) 42244 (plugged in Intel) / 123468 (Battery 4080), 36062 (battery Intel) Geekbench AI OpenVino NPU Quantized: 14968 (plugged in) / 13032 (battery) Lightroom: 159 24MP Raw exports to JPEG in 59 seconds Handbrake: 4K MKV HDR to H.264 2160P60 conversion 1:18 1806 frames CrystalDiskMark: Read 6753 MB/s Write 5935 MB/s Overwatch 2: 200 FPS avg Doom Eternal: 140 FPS avg (with ray tracing) Horizon Zero Dawn Bench: 110 FPS Assassin's Creed Valhalla Bench: 81 FPS Forza Horizon 5 Bench w/DLAA: 129 FPS Homeworld 3 bench: 52 FPS (ray tracing on), 57 FPS (ray tracing off) Performance was consistently top-notch, and as far as gaming laptops go, the fan was loud but never too loud in my opinion. Keep in mind, on battery this is a silent mode as well which works as advertised but at reduced performance. Speakers: I enjoyed listening to music on the four large speakers on the side of the keyboard. They put out a full loud sound with no distortion that I could tell. They support Dolby Atmos and natively support 24-bit 48000Hz. I did not get a chance to try it out with wired headphones but it is supposed to be Hi-Res certified. Display: The display is a stunner. Supporting 100% DCI-P3 and Pantone Validated, the OLED is great for work or play. Dolby Vision HDR is also supported and looks great in video and games. I have absolutely no concerns here for photo editing or gaming. Being 16” it is a large laptop, but the bezels are minimal and it easily fits in my bag. Connectivity: The Intel BE201 card supports Wi-Fi 7 and BT 5.4. Physical ports consist of a proprietary power input, 1 HDMI 2.1, 2 USB 3.2 Gen 2 A, 1 Thunderbolt 4 and 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2 C port. Additionally the USB C ports support power delivery. My favorite port is the full sized SD card slot which supports UHS-II at up to 312 MB/s. Battery: Battery life depends on your usage, but the 90 WHrs battery will hold up well to most demands. The Arrow Lake processor is very efficient by X86 standards and I was able to get a full day of work on this thing. Heavy use such as the benchmarks I did earlier will drain the battery as using all cores or the discrete GPU is very power intensive. I am very happy with the battery life personally. If using the integrated ARC graphics, the battery is much better as it is much more efficient, yet still powerful. Upgradability: For anyone who wants to later do some upgrades, this is a great laptop. There are 11 screws on the bottom I was able to undo with a T6 torx screwdriver (two are hidden under rubber tabs at the top). The bottom comes off very easily with one captive screw on the bottom right allowing a gap after unscrewing. Inside, the layout is very clean with a lot of thermal tape and heat dissipation. The installed hard drive can be upgraded and there is a second empty slot on the other side (pictured) along with the Wi-Fi adaptor. That is it as I believe the RAM is soldered onto this model. If one day you need to replace a fan or the battery, all are easy to access and replace. I would say repairability is high on this laptop. Issues Encountered: Nvidia Optimus glitches - There were times where nVidia Optimus had issues switching between the RTX 4080 and the Intel Arc GPU. In these instances, I had to restart the computer to prevent any freezes it might have caused. Speaker volume bug - After prolonged standby, the sound output occasionally became very quiet. Upon troubleshooting I looked in the device manager and saw that the Cirrus Logic Awesome Speaker Amps had an error. This was easily fixed each time by disabling and reenabling the device but it is an issue rampant on pretty much all Asus laptops I have used, this one included. I believe it is a driver issue but time will tell. Weak NPU - With only 13 TOPS, the NPU is on the weaker side. This is not a huge deal if you use the GPU for NPU purposes, but it does mean the laptop will not be CoPilot+ certified even though there is a copilot button which just opens up the app. Trackpad - It is not necessarily bad but in my opinion it is oversized. Palm rejection works well when typing but there were times I accidentally moved the mouse or clicked when working. While gaming it is a non-issue as I use a mouse and turn off the trackpad. Also, this trackpad is a traditional diving board design with no haptic feedback. It is very accurate when used though.

If you went back in time 40 years with this laptop in your hands, people wouldn't believe what they saw as this laptop from ROG packs an insane level of performance, graphics and overall capabilities in a beautiful thin and light laptop. I guess I feel old as I'm barely old enough to remember what things were like back then, but it just goes to show you how far technology has come in 4 decades, and this laptop is definitely the peak of what is capable. I actually have the previous version of the Zephyrus G16 but with a 4070m and only 16GB of system RAM, so some of my comparisons will draw on the main improvements and upgrades over last year's model. The most impactful and meaningful differences with the Zephyrus G16 4070 and G16 5080 are as follows: 1. 5080 mobile is based on the 2nd fastest consumer chip in the Blackwell stack GB203. It is cut down compared to the desktop 5080, but the big thing is it still retains the 16GB VRAM which is important for maxing out textures in demanding games in 2025. It is also useful for AI, which is why the big brother 5090m has 24GB. The 4070 mobile only had 8GB VRAM and was based on the AD106 which was the 4th biggest chip for Ada Lovelace 40 series. 2. The RAM is still soldered on and not upgradeable, so thankfully the G16 5080 2025 edition comes with 32GB of system RAM which is absolutely needed for a fast Windows PC nowadays with browsers, OS and programs using so much RAM doing very little. 3. The 5080 (and 4080 version from last year) has a vapor chamber cooling system but more importantly, deletes the high-pitched whiny 3rd fan on last year's 4070 model. This was borderline hair dryer loud last year and probably my biggest gripe about that laptop. The vapor chamber is much more efficient and moving heat so they only needed 2 fans which had better acoustics anyways. 4. Intel is still being used here, not sure if this is due to form factor but RyZen parts would likely give Intel a run for their money and even older Intel Raptor Lake HX CPUs are often faster in gaming and some professional workloads. However, this core Ultra 9 285H is no slouch in multi-tasking workloads. It isn't quite as fast in gaming but Intel has improved the performance of Ultra 200 over time after a rough launch. It is also significantly faster than last year's Ultra 185H. Another big boost from Intel however with their Ultra 200 series chips is battery life in non-gaming workloads is much better, especially when idle or when the laptop isn't being used. Instead of draining battery overnight, you might only lose 1-2% of battery. What's still great about this laptop and form factor? - Its beautiful to look at. You will dominate the airport lounge and Starbucks when you pull this thing out of your bag. The accent stripe draws attention without being over the top loud, the keyboard and LEDs look and feel amazing and everything is just so crisp and satisfying. - The OLED screen is still amazing and the 2560x1600 240Hz is perfect for the 5080m, while I felt last year's 4070m was overmatched by this resolution with no chance of hitting the max refresh. A few things that were added to 50 series was 4xMFG (quadrupled AI frames) and the introduction of DLSS4 to all RTX cards, including the 4070m, gives you even more flexibility to hit the 240Hz framerates when gaming calls for it. If you do game on this, make sure a power source is nearby or you'll throttle badly before the battery dies. -Connectivity is mostly the same but this year's model gets WiFi7 instead of 6E. Thunderbolt 4 is still the supported standard instead of 5. Size, weight, ports are all the same as last year's model. No need to change a winning recipe. -The speakers still sound amazing, some of the best you will find on a laptop and with OLED and its inky blacks and amazing contrast, this is once again a great road warrior for watching movies, streaming TV shows, etc. while traveling or away from home. -The 2TB SSD is a white label drive by Micron (Crucial), but isn't as fast as their T500 offerings. I was getting 6600/4700MB/s seq. read/write speeds which is solid, but top-end drives will do up to 7500/7500 for PCIe 4.0. You still have the option to expand storage to 1 more m.2 SSD which is great for those who want more than 2TB. So how does it perform in gaming? It is actually similar to a desktop 3080, which was top 3-5 performance just 4-5 years ago, and still a very fast card today. Compared to current cards, it is slightly slower than a desktop RTX 5070, which again, is fantastic performance for 2560x1600. Compared to other laptops, its 25-30% faster than the 4070m, 10% faster than the 4090m, and 10-15% slower than the 5090m. Check the image I uploaded for an idea of 3DMark scores. I've actually been playing Oblivion Remastered and Clair Obscur on this laptop and it looks and runs amazingly, even when plugged into a 3440x1440p Ultrawide monitor. I've also been playing Diablo 4 and it runs that even better with the 32GB of RAM and improved performance at the 2560x1600 resolution. I actually took last year's model on vacation and to the beach and I'm definitely looking forward to that again this summer. The Zephyrus G16 is expensive but it is for those who are on the go and want to still have the ability to game and do professional workloads (CAD, photo/video editing, AI) while looking good doing it. Personally, it addressed the biggest shortcomings from last year's 4070 model for me with the performance/resolution, the 16GB to 32GB of system RAM, but most importantly, the noise from that loud 3rd fan! Love this laptop from Asus ROG, its a marvel of modern technology.

Coming from the previous generation’s Zephyrus, there was hope that with new technology would bring better performance, better efficiency, and a chance of fixing all (or at least most) of the problems that were encountered before. Has this been met with this newest iteration? Well, there are mixed feelings on that. I will be conducting this review compared to the previous generation that had an Intel 185H and RTX 4090, all other specs are the same. For those coming onto this platform fresh, the Zephyrus lineup has always had decent build quality; you get the feeling that you got what you paid for. The keyboard is a joy to use, the touchpad is nice and large so you have to be a little careful when typing, and the speakers are amongst the best for a laptop. There are no problems with the OLED screen, it is extremely sharp and amazing for photography. I find that this has the perfect I/O ports for travel without needing a dongle. You do need to bring the charging brick, otherwise you are forced into the discrete graphics when on a lower powered charger (on battery, you can use the GPU without a problem). Overall, using this is a joy and it is definitely a more enjoyable experience than the previous generation. With that said, let’s dive into what has changed and fixed. For starters, one of the main reasons why it is more enjoyable is they have really dialed in the fan noise. You really do not hear the fan unless you start doing processing work, compared to before where the fans start kicking on when you watch YouTube. The CPU and GPU seem to play more nicely together on the platform too. The problem where the 185H would hit a high temperature limit and suddenly drop to 300MHz were not seen for the 285H. All that being said, one of the biggest elephant in the room needs to be addressed, and that is the price. This is coming in at about the same price as the 4090 last generation, which is a huge price jump as that was last year’s flagship model. Looking at the benchmark photos uploaded, there is only a minor improvement. Also one thing to note, the current fan profiles do not have the fans running at 100% and that really drops the CPU scores as shown. That means to get the extra CPU performance, you’ll need to change the fan profiles and say goodbye to the quiet life. So at the end of the day, this was a marginal improvement over the 4090 from last generation at a similar MSRP. Intel once again should not have been the CPU choice, AMD has a much better option and better efficiency. The 5080 is disappointing and barely better than a 4090. This laptop leaves much to be desired; as an upgrade from last generation it is not much, and for a newcomer, you may be better off getting a used 4090 variant or wait for a sale. If you must have the shiniest and newest, the Zephyrus platform is an extremely enjoyable user experience and that is something that should be considered.

This laptop combines a powerhouse gaming PC with a more svelte and sleek body that would not give itself away as a gaming device quite so easily. It is remarkably thin and light weight, has excellent battery life, a beautiful OLED screen, and the keyboard and touchpad are both responsive and comfortable. It supports a favorite login method of mine in Windows Hello facial recognition. It has subtle lighting via a diagonal “slash” bar across the back of the screen and RGB backlighting in the keyboard which are the only physical indicators of its gaming heritage in an otherwise smooth dark aluminum frame. The screen is bright with 500 nit Dolby Vision HDR, and 240hz with G-Sync but no touch functionality which I don’t mind since I would hate to leave fingerprints all over it anyway. Upon initial setup I quickly found that the touchpad is super responsive and easy to interact with, and in the 3-4 hours I spent setting things up, installing my apps, games, and updates, it only used around 40% of the battery in that time, so for regular tasks it has a lot of battery life to offer. Gaming on battery only will deplete it very quickly, however. It did everything quickly and I did not let up on installing as many things as I could at once to try and see what it could do. Once ready, I have since spent as much time gaming as I can on it and have been incredibly pleased with my experience so far. Playing the newest games such as Expedition 33 on the RTX 5080 yields a gorgeous high settings play through with good framerate on my 4K external monitor. Moving back to the internal screen at 2560x1600 brings the framerate up substantially. But suffice it to say that it is more than capable of gaming at 4K even with high settings if you are willing to live with 40-60FPS. Even the built-in speakers sound fantastic and support Dolby Atmos, I was surprised with the sound quality they produce. Wi-Fi 7 speeds are remarkable; it will pull 800+ Mbps on Wi-Fi downloading new games. Ports are plentiful, with an HDMI 2.1, Thunderbolt 4, USB-C and 2 USB-A ports available in addition to an SD card slot and 3.5mm audio jack. It even uses a dedicated charge port, so it does not have to sacrifice a USB-C for power although the Thunderbolt 4 port does also support Power Delivery. It also has an additional m.2 slot under the bottom cover for secondary SSD storage that I intend to add to later. My external monitors have built in USB hubs, so I use them to expand the capacity even further, but I have discovered that one of them causes a boot loop sometimes when it is connected so I am still investigating what is creating that particular issue, however that is the only problem I have experienced and it is intermittent. It does run hot and loud when gaming but that is expected considering the heat generated is being expelled and keeping the temperatures under control. Between the heat and short battery life while gaming unplugged it would be tough to play long without good ventilation and a plug nearby. Everything I have thrown at this laptop so far has clearly shown its prowess and power. I will run two external high-end monitors, a Bluetooth headset, mouse, keyboard, and controller, several additional USB devices on the hubs, and still load up games quickly and be able to play with great FPS and high graphics settings. It handles tasks with ease. I can bring it places and not have it scream to the world that it is a gaming computer. It is exactly the device I have always wanted to have, and I am very happy that it does everything I want it to and more.