ASUS - ROG Zephyrus 16" WQXGA 165Hz Gaming Laptop-Intel Core i9-16GB DDR5 Memory-NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti-1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD - Off Black

Let's start with Pro's and Con's Pros: - Slim and lightweight - Very nice 16:10 format screen - Powerful and fast for a lightweight machine - Tons of i/o - 2x nvme slots - 1x ram slot upgradable (unlike alienware x15, ram is not upgradable at all) - Nice keyboard for a non-mechanical type. - Very silent on silent mode. Also very loud on turbo mode. (I'll explain below why is this Pro for me) - Nice soft touch finish Cons: - Fingerprint magnet! - "Slow" pcie4 nvme drive included - Hot air blowing directly at screen - HDMI port is not 2.1 - Power port is on the middle of left side. I like that it is very silent on silent mode. I also like that the CPU can run on high wattage on turbo mode. I'd rather have this option than crippling the CPU with lower wattage to make it cooler. If I need to run any CPU intensive task and want to finish work faster, then I put it in turbo mode. When done, put it back to silent. I also have the Asus Z13 and that machine runs cool and more quiet on turbo mode. But that's because the i9 12900H in that machine is capped and doesn't use it's full potential. But if you prefer the tablet style of Z13, by all means please get that machine. Gaming on M16 (silent mode) vs Z13 (turbo mode) is roughly about the same. And that is with M16 very quiet!

Admittedly I was hesitant to purchase this laptop due to all the Q/A issues I’ve seen in other reviews but I decided to buy it anyway. I could not be happier! This machine is so powerful and versatile. The display is so beautiful and bright. Yes the fans are very loud but only when gaming and I use a headset anyway so it’s no big deal. Back light bleed is very minimal on my unit and battery life is decent. Overall I would recommend buying this new when it’s on sale. Avoid open box because quality varies drastically.

This laptop keeps up with my desktop! Desktop is a i9 12900k with a 2080ti. For the price you can't beat it I think, a similar Dell with the same specs would run about 400 more. The design is pleasing. The display works great with it being 165 hertz, especially in gaming. But there is a bit of backlight bleed on mine also, but it really doesn't bother me too much. The battery life is really not great. But I knew that before buying. When getting basically a desktop replacement laptop it is not going to have the best battery life period. They can put the biggest battery allowed by airlines and it will still not be the best when gaming. But I expected that with what the laptop is sporting! An i9 12900H and a 3070ti will suck those cells dead quick when gaming! I was disappointed in the fact that they soldered 8GB of RAM on the motherboard, so if I wanted to upgrade later I only have the 1 slot to work with so I think the most I can install will be 40 GB total. I just don't like having 2 different size GB modules in any of my machines. But that is a bit down the road as finding DDR5 RAM is hard right now, especially laptop DIMMS of DDR5. Just wished they didn't solder the one on the motherboard. But even that is not enough to drop an egg down for me. I knew that issue before I bought it so they did nothing wrong in my eyes. But I also researched it for a while before I purchased it. And the other problem is the heat it produces and the fan noise. But I think Asus should come out with a bios update hopefully that will fix some of these issues. But they did use liquid metal instead of regular thermal compound and they have clever heat piping hooked up to the CPU and GPU. But these components maxed out while gaming in such a small form factor are going to generate some heat and the fans will rev up. I've been a very loyal user of Asus for a while. I use their motherboards and monitors in my desktop and I never ran into a problem that Asus did not take care of. I do think Asus will come up with a software fix for the heat and noise. They have one m.2 slot available for a storage upgrade. I just purchased a 1TB NVMe gen 4 drive to install as a games drive. I just couldn't find in an article or video what speed that M.2 is running. But that does make for a good upgrade for people, the fact that you won't have to uninstall the main drive just to upgrade your memory when you decide to do it. I would really recommend this laptop to anyone looking for a gaming laptop that can tackle triple A games now and for a while down the road. It does have some issues but so does every other laptop I've ever owned. Before I researched this laptop I was looking at a Dell that had 11th gen i7 and a 3050. It was 500 more and when I found out about this release I researched it and never went back to Dell. Would definitely buy it again.

Pros: Looks pretty and plays whatever game I want. Touch pad is very responsive. Easy to set up. Fits on the seat tray in economy on an airplane. Has a lot of features you can set up so it saves batter when unplugged, like dropping the refresh rate and a muk switch. Cons: Gets really hot and loud during gameplay. Windows 11 took some getting used to. High price tag.

Pros: - This laptop is a beast when it comes to laptop gaming. I have been hitting around 250-300FPS in Valorant at high settings. - 12900H and 3070Ti (Mobile) performs around the same as a 11900K+2070 Desktop which is awesome for a laptop - The laptop is very sleek and feels like it's made of quality materials - Ton of port options -Screen is bright and beautiful Speakers are loud and clear - good bass Cons: - Sounds like an airplane about to take flight when playing a game - Hotter than the pits of hell - Idel around 60-65 -DDR5 was one 8Gb Stick and 8Gb Soldered - There is a space to the right of the ASUS button that gets hotter than the rest of the computer Charging Port is in a strange location If you are looking for a desktop replacement or a gaming laptop this is the one for you. For extended battery life and casual use, I would probably look somewhere else. The reason why I gave it three stars is, while it is fast and it works well, it idles at a higher temp that I would like for long term use and it ramps up randomly or with mild use. It also came with a decent amount of bloatware. I am not even that upset about the fans being 52dB at their loudest while gaming. For laptops that makes sense but for $2300 I expect a laptop that can switch between that gaming and executing light loads with ease at a low temp.

First things first, let’s get this out of the way… This is an awesome device with so much power in a thin form factor and an amazing display! But everything isn’t all good… Giving it 3 stars for the issues with the devices I received. 4.7 is the rating I would actually give for the working device, itself. In my experience, I had to go through two returns to finally end up with something decent. I returned my first unit, because it had multiple obvious defects in the lid. Literally, 5 or 6 dips and dents in the prismatic film on the lid that looked horrible, if the light hit it right. I noticed it immediately after opening the box, even before taking off the plastic film surrounding the device. Not to mention, an also blatantly obvious, crooked key “I” key that you can also see in the pictures. Completely unacceptable. So, I went through the hassle of returning that device and received a replacement the following week. I’m excited, this one’s gonna be good right? Wrong! Soon as I boot it, I’m greeted by a hot stuck pixel in the middle of the screen and severe backlight bleed towards the bottom right and bad clouding all over. Not to mention, this one also exuded a high pitched frequency at all times that wasn’t on the previous device. Similar to the mosquito whistles that we all used on our phones when we were kids. It was so annoying and unacceptable for a $2000+ laptop! I mean, what are the chances of 2 duds in a row, right? That just goes to show you what is sliding by and I don’t like it. After years of using Asus products, this may be my last, because I don’t like gambling and RNG, outside of video games. I understand backlight bleed is a thing with ips panels, but I think they could really do better with what’s considered passing. Who wants to pay $2000 for a screen with cones of light bleeding from multiple locations, especially on a 16:10 ratio display, where black bars will be frequent??? Not me. Back to the second defective M16, I almost didn’t want to return it, in fear of getting something worse. What did, however, make it worse is that I couldn’t get BestBuy to send another replacement by mail, I had to drive an hour to a city nearby to return (deliver) something that was sent twice defective to me.. that’s fair? I tried to sway multiple reps or asked for a manager, but apparently they didn’t have the ability to do it and I never got to speak with anyone higher up. And, I haven’t had to return many things in my life, so it’s not like I’m some return freak that you may hear stories of online. So, anyways, I had to go in-store.. They were actually wonderful out there and it was, admittedly, easier explaining and just showing them what I had received. Also felt like they understood me more than over-the-phone. Got it returned it, no problem, and it felt good that they felt the same when they saw it and pictures of the first one. When I finally received the 3rd one, which was shipped in a bag, by the way, I was expecting the worse.. Literally, scared to open it, but to my surprise, lo and behold, this one was much better and doesn’t have any issues, except for some backlight bleed, I guess I’ll have to deal with it. The panel is not nearly as bad as the second device. What’s crazy is the first one had a perfect panel (probably purposely put in) and I knew I probably wouldn’t get another one like it, but it had too many obvious external defects to enjoy keeping it. Now, for the laptop itself, I won’t get into too many details, since there are many good reviews on here, sharing my exact thoughts. Pros: -Screen - 165hz 1600p, awesome colors, and adaptive sync -Looks - Thin, Sexy, Stealthy, and Stylish -Speaker - They are great! Sounds so much richer than any other computer I’ve used. They get really loud as well. Only a MacBook or XPS can beat these. -Mux Switch - so higher frames/performance. -Keyboard - has a good feel for typing. -Trackpad - is nice, glass, and very responsive. -Windows Hello -Small charging brick -Deck’s soft touch - I actually really like this. You have to keep clean hands to like it. Exactly like the Xbox elite series 2 controller, seen in the pics I posted. I always have microfibers nearby, even with my previous laptop. Mine doesn’t get dirty.. -Silent mode - is silent, especially with eco(igpu) mode. - Jekyll and Hyde - it can be ultra quiet or extremely loud, but you’re in control of that. It’s like two different devices, in one. -Thunderbolt 4 -DDRR5 -PCIE Gen 4 - In both SSD slots -Lots of i/o - If you need more A ports, get some short USB C to A adapter cables and you’re good to go. There are some really nice one’s for really low prices. -Powerful! Cons: -Deck gets warmer than I would like. Cpu temps actually do quite well, though. Somewhat expected for it’s form factor and considering the ridiculous amounts of beastly power jammed inside it. It's not that bad, except for the top, near the screen when gaming, but I guess I will put it out there. -Fans might be louder than most would like at 52-53 decibels in turbo and ~48 on performance at max. Performance profile is what I normally use. You do get a nice jump in frames and power on turbo, however, if your can bear the noise. Again, the cpu keeps pretty good temps on mine, so I guess that what matters. Just hope they get manual mode working soon, for more control. -No advanced Optimus, so you have to restart every time you enable discrete gpu mode or to re-enable Optimus with the MUX switch. Not too big of a deal, really. More of a nitpick, but advanced Optimus is the future and it’s definitely better to have than not. Power plug port - Needs to be towards the back of the device or further up along the side. I’m not a fan of the current position, right in the center or it’s side, but it’s not a deal breaker or anything. -Quality Control, do I need to explain this one?

Plays Star Citizen at about average 30-40fps so ya not bad for a thin laptop! Only reason why I bought it basically. Oh did I mention you can take it with you anywhere!

This machine is great and for the price open box: a steal. Not even the 9th gen intel is at this price now a days and I got a i9 12 gen intel masterpiece... Running perfectly, my dream machine for work hard and play HARDER!!!