ASUS - ROG Zephyrus G14 14" OLED 3K 120Hz Gaming Laptop - AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS - 32GB LPDDR5X - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 - 1TB SSD - Platinum White

The laptop that replaced my m3 MacBook. Build quality is amazing, screen is amazing, I prefer this keyboard of a Mac keyboard. The trackpad is nice and clicky, haptic would have been slightly better but I have nothing against this trackpad. Battery life is fantastic once setting up g helped and optimizing everything. In the end chose this because I travel a lot and like to game and work with development a MacBook just doesn’t cut it for gaming so in the end this killed two birds with one stone.

This is my third ROG Zephyrus G14. I've had the 2020 model with the RTX 2060 Max-Q, the 2021 model with the RTX 3060, and now this one (one of the previous ones was returned, and the other was resold). In some ways, it's a step down, notably with battery life. However, the thermals are finally under control. It's not piping ridiculously hot exhaust right onto the screen and it's not getting unbearably hot to the touch while gaming. Also, having a (single zone) RGB backlit keyboard now means that the backlight can stay on without making the keys illegible -- seriously, who thought white LEDs on silver keys was a good idea. I also like that the lid LEDs are now standard and not just a feature of the highest-end models, even though the area is much smaller.] That being said, let's dive in. The combination of the Ryzen 9 8945HS and the RTX 4070 are extremely performant, especially with 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM. Ordinarily soldered RAM is a hard pass for me, but I generally don't go above 32 GB on most computers unless they're going to be used for serious work. A good comparison is my desktop -- it has a Ryzen 5 5600X, a RTX 3070 TI and 64 GB of DDR4 RAM. The desktop is better for running VMs and has more expansion capabilities. The Zephyrus is better at everything else, including gaming. I was perfectly happy with my desktop's gaming chops until I bought this laptop -- but right now, subjectively, between the high-refresh OLED display and the RTX 4070, the Zephyrus feels like it's running circles around my desktop. My biggest gripe with this model is the fact that you only get a single M.2 slot for storage. Ordinarily I like to run at least 2 drives in my computers. Having your files split between 2 drives means that you're putting less wear on each, and having a single drive also means that you have to shell out more for larger storage, and that also means a single point of failure. I upgraded the SSD to a 2 TB drive on mine, cloning from the original using Macrium Reflect. And on the note of opening it, I will say that it's not hard to get inside the Zephyrus. The bottom is secured with a bunch of Torx screws, including 2 under the black plastic pieces on the back edge near the hinges, but there's no shenanigans like screws hidden under parts attached by adhesive. It's easy to get at the parts you will likely be interested in touching (SSD, wifi card, battery). Overall, I've had nothing but good experiences with the 2024 model, aside from the relatively short battery life -- in reality, getting 7-ish hours of battery out of a 14" gaming laptop just shows how spoiled we've gotten in the last several years -- and I think this is definitely worth the price, if you can swing it.

Incredibly light laptop, very portable, it is the same size as my 13'3 Surface Laptop, but lighter than it. Best speakers of any Windows Laptop, and onboard audio is good enough to drive even more demanding headphones like Dan Clark Aeon X Closed (barely). Very good keyboard and amazing trackpad. Fan noise is very acceptable, doing office work (internet browsing, watching videos) the fan doesn't even run, when doing more intensive tasks and gaming it can get loud but not loud enough to bother. Also, due to the amazing speakers the fan noise is hardly a distraction in the end. I don't play a lot of games, but it does a pretty good job delivering "good enough" performance in any title. As a buyer you need to have the right expectations, this is not a super powerful gaming laptop, or a desktop replacement, this is an incredibly portable, light, that can run pretty much any game you throw at it 45+ fps just fine. If your primary use is gaming, there are better options, but this is something you can do anything you need very competently, including gaming, and still carry it around anywhere with you. There are just two areas for improvements, the storage (1tb is too small and it is not a fast NVMe) and keyboard backlight is average at best. If you swap the storage for a higher performance and spacious one, and don't mind the backlight this is the best 14 inches laptop in the market, period.