First off, I would like to tell you, I really like this laptop. It’s rocking the new Intel Core i9 14900HX CPU, NVIDIA 4090 GPU, 32GB of 5600 ram and a 2TB hard drive from Samsung. It is way expensive, I know, and I heard a lot of bad reviews on it. I loved the look, took a chance, and it paid off.
Where shall I start? I guess my main concern; “Is it as hot as the one I felt at the razer store (2023 model year),” the answer is no. It does get warm sometimes around the left palm rest when playing Fortnite (I know, don’t judge me) but not hot at all. When doing regular tasks, it never even gets warm. At first, I thought something was wrong with mine as it is always cool. I will say below the screen it does get hot but not like it would burn you. I did run a few benchmarks on different settings to see if it would overheat. I did see it spike in Time Spy to 99 degrees before coming back down on turbo mode. I don’t know if this is good. In actual games though I see 82-84 (CPU), 72-74 (GPU) in balanced mode. 87-90 (CPU), 77-79 (GPU) in Turbo mode. All this is adjustable in synapse with the fan speed though. My fan speed is set to auto.
That leads me into my next concern, “Fan Speed.” Is it loud? I would say yes in turbo, can be in Balanced but not usually in Silent. I do see myself always switching due to the task (FN+P). It is simple to switch. If I am watching YouTube or shopping on Amazon, I just leave it in Silent mode. If I am gaming, I usually leave it in Balanced mode (I don’t wear ear plugs or headphones). If I want more power then I will use Turbo, however, to be honest, I don’t really use Turbo mode much as the fans can get loud. Balanced mode seems to deliver enough performance on the QHD+ OLED display with Ultra Settings enabled.
Speaking of not wearing headphones, the speakers are quite good on this laptop. I can clearly hear the audio over the fan speed, even on Turbo mode. I don’t have anything to compare it to, but I find the sound acceptable to me so far.
The one thing overshadowing everything else is the display though. Man, this thing is nice. The only thing I wish for is it to be brighter. I am no display afficionado, but I think most individuals will find this display spectacular and without the screen wobble of other brands. I love that when It’s dark it’s not glowing some weird grey color. One thing everyone is talking about is the reflections and I will comment that they are indeed there under certain conditions. Is it a deal breaker? Not for me and under most circumstances, I don’t even notice it.
Now the bad stuff, and I get it, even the Mona Lisa has its flaws. The Keyboard? It’s not great. It works fine but feels kind of flat. I am not a great typer or anything, but I get a bit lost. The Presses are superb, but the “Huge Trackpad” gets in the way and sometimes I randomly end up palm pressing somewhere else on the page. Quite frankly it’s annoying. It is not a deal breaker as most other laptops have adopted this same huge design. These brands could reduce the trackpad by 15-20% and they would still be big enough while giving a more comfortable typing experience.
So, in closing I would like to say I am super satisfied will my pricy purchase, however, there are Improvements to be made. This is especially true from a useability standpoint mostly stemming from the huge trackpad. Would I buy another laptop brand if I could do it all again? Probably not as I think this laptop checks all the marks I could ask for (Powerful, stylish, cool running, great display, superb keyboard lighting etc.). I would recommend it to anyone that has the extra money to spend and wants something more powerful than the ASUS G16.