ASUS - ROG Zephyrus M16 GU603 Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i9 - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 - 1TB SSD - Off black

Most of the reviews are probably going to be focused on centered, and yes it's a beast. So I won't go into too much detail on that. I game on a larger 17" lenovo laptop and work on a 16" macbook pro. This machine hits the sweet spot between the two to where i'm comfortable replacing both with one laptop now. The Zephyrus has a very similar footprint to the 16" macbook pro, though is a tad bit thicker, but fits in all the cases I had for the macbook. it's also a tad bit heavier, but still portable enough to travel with. It has the same 2560x1600 resolution as the mbp, which since i've owned has spoiled me to the point to where i don't enjoy working on a 1080p 16:9 res screen. now I have that in addition to the 165hz and a matte finish, it's pretty much perfect... speakers aren't as good as the mbp but just as loud, and better than most gaming laptops i've owned. also apple's trackpads are hard to beat, but asus has made a good attempt in the zephyrus using an oversized glass surface, it's still really good. plenty of ports, no longer have to carry any dongles around. it supports 100W charging through its USB C ports, which means I can use my mbp charger.. do note that the laptop comes with a 230W charger. so if you're doing anything cpu/gpu intensive while on 100W usb, it probably won't charge the battery. works perfectly in my case where it's low-power during work, so i can keep my usb charger there and the main charger at home. speaking of low-power, the battery life is flexible enough to where if I'm just using it on the couch at home for web browsing and watching youtube, it will last me the entire evening without any trouble. but don't expect more than a couple hours of gaming at full power. sure it's got an rgb keyboard and a bit of glimmer on the lid, but with the keyboard lighting off or set to white, you wouldn't know it's a beast of a gaming laptop, and is very unassuming on my office desk. be ready to wipe this thing down A LOT if you have clammy hands like me, it's quite the fingerprint smudge magnet. it feels like it stays warm even in sleep mode, so i've been hesitant to have it sleep while it's in my bag. however it boots up so quick that shutting down completely has not bothered me much. so far, very happy with my purchase!

Gaming enthusiasts have been anxiously anticipating the appearance of the new Asus M16 gaming laptops and speculating about their potential configurations. The wait is over and Asus has delivered their newest ROG (Republic of Gamers) laptop models, and I was extremely pleased to acquire one at the earliest possible opportunity. The new Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 GU603HM-211.ZM16 is an absolutely outstanding machine. Its excellent specifications are matched with incredible performance. It is extremely fast and powerful and the graphics are stunning. I have purchased several Asus laptops over more than the past decade. I have been a fan of Asus laptops because they are typically very good, reliable machines. The M16 GU603HM-211.ZM16 is preloaded with Windows 10 Home Edition. After completing the Windows 10 setup process the user is prompted to sign into (or create) their MyAsus account which allows for automated product registration, as well as a system check for updates. The MyAsus app immediately offered a Bios update. The M16 is thin, compact and relatively lightweight. The black M16 case (a white case is also offered) is plastic with perforations on the top and a reflective, prismatic film that is aesthetically interesting. The top incorporates a unique “Ergolift” hinge design which has a cam shape that elevates the bottom of the laptop as the top is rotated open, ostensibly to provide additional space for air circulation under the laptop. The Ergolift hinge only provides additional elevation when the display panel is rotated beyond approximately 90°. The hinge is not full-width, and there is a fair amount of flex in the thin top case which necessitates using due care when opening and closing the lid, which appears to be somewhat delicate. The hinge allows 180° rotation of the case allowing the opened laptop to lay flat on a table. The bottom of the case also incorporates a full-width fixed rubber foot for airflow. There are cooling vents located on either side, the rear and bottom of the case. The M16 is equipped with two fans and six heat pipes to moderate operating temperatures. Thermals can be monitored via Armoury Crate, and system performance is likewise managed through that app to manage system thermals and battery consumption rate. The cooling vents located on the rear of the case direct heated airflow directly at the lower quadrant of the display panel. The potential effects of the heat exposure on the display panel is undetermined. I hope that Asus has thoroughly evaluated this issue. The case and palm-rest area below the keyboard and surrounding the very large, very responsive touch pad, is a soft-touch, rubbery material which has a tendency to show fingerprints and handprints. The keyboard has excellent feel and response. The key travel is ideal with just the right amount of resistance and rapid return. The keys are fairly quiet, as well. However, in an evident design concession to providing speaker grilles on both sides of the keyboard, there is no numeric (NumPad) adjacent to the keyboard. I miss the ancillary numeric keypad in general, but it is specifically useful with certain games, including Flight Simulator. There is an array of media keys above the keyboard, but there is no PrintScreen key. The keyboard has single zone RGB backlighting. The backlighting is good and entertaining, with a variety of colors, patterns and options available through Asus Armoury Crate. The M16 has a large, approximately 5-1/4” x 3-11/32” glass touchpad, which offers exceptionally smooth functionality. The Asus Armoury Crate app is a robust dashboard which provides a comprehensive array of real-time system performance data including CPU, Memory, Thermals, Fan speed, etc., and allows setting parameters for the screen, keyboard lighting, customized scenarios, and other system settings. The M16 provides a fingerprint sensor for biometric security, which is very cleverly integrated into the laptop’s power switch. Depressing the power button stores a fingerprint which is forwarded for authentication during the boot process. This very unique and cool feature is working very reliably. Only one fingerprint is stored, however. The M16 series are all Intel based machines, with a couple of i7 models and a variety of I9 based variants. The M16 GU603HM-211.ZM16, is a well-equipped, nicely configured mid-tier model. The CPU is an Intel, Tiger-Lake, 11th generation Core i9-11900H (8Core/16Thread), 2.5 GHz (with a maximum clock speed up to 4.9 GHz!!!) chip with 24MB Cache, installed with liquid metal for optimal heat conductance and dissipation from this powerful CPU. Intel lists the TDP (Thermal Design Power) at 45 Watts. The M16 series has NVIDIA GeForce RTX30 Series GPUs, ranging from the RTX3050 to the RTX3070. The M16 GU603HM-211.ZM16 is equipped with the RTX3060 which is based on the GA106 Ampere chip and comes with 6GB of GDDR6 graphics memory and 80 Watts TDP (95Watts with Dynamic Boost). The RTX3060 also boasts 2nd Generation Ray Tracing Cores and 3rd Generation Tensor Cores, which greatly speed up graphics computations and rendering. Some other M16 models are equipped with the RTX3070 GPU with 8 GB of memory. With the i9 powerhouse CPU and the superb RTX3060 GPU, the highlight of the M16 is the display. The M16 has a 16” panel mounted in a 15.6” frame. The M16 panel is a 16:10, AU Optronics WQHD 2560x1600 IPS, 165 Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time panel, 100% DCI-P3 with Adaptive Sync, Pantone Validated panel with Dolby Vision. This panel is ideally suited to gaming with its tall aspect ratio, fast refresh rate and response time, and absolutely outstanding color fidelity, and the Adaptive Sync which prevents stuttering and frame tearing. The display panel is phenomenal. It is a bright, clear, fast, almost flawless display that is a pleasure to look at. Game visuals and game performance are genuinely outstanding! The color rendition is incredible, and performance is likewise superb thanks to the combination of a powerful CPU, great GPU and fabulous display panel. Even the most resource intensive games ran flawlessly. From GTA V, to Call of Duty to Assassin’s Creed to Flight Simulator 2020, every game was smooth, fast and flawless. There was no lag, stutter, frame tearing or other performance deficits. Gameplay was incredibly smooth and responsive. The M16 provided the best gaming experience that I have encountered! Resultant from the 16” panel residing in a 15.6” frame, the bezels are incredibly thin. The bezels measure approximately 6/32” wide on the sides and approximately 12/32” wide on the top. The top bezel has the addition of a 720p, HD webcam at its center. Asus located three large LED indicators for Power, Charging and Disk Activity on the top, rear edge of the case, immediately below the display panel. This results in those LEDs being reflected on the screen, which is most noticeable when dark scenes are displayed. The M16 GU603HM-211.ZM16 has 8 GB of DDR4 memory soldered to the board, and another 8GB on a 3200 MHz DIMM. The system supports a maximum 40 GB of memory. Other M16 variants have different amounts of memory. The M16 GU603HM-211.ZM16 supports PCIe 4.0, however this model is equipped with a 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD. Some other M16 models are equipped with PCIe 4.0 SSDs ranging from 520GB to 2TB capacity. I do not understand the provision of the PCIe 3.0 SSD, when PCIe 4.0 provides double the bandwidth (64GB), double the Gigatransfer bit rate (32GT/s) and double the frequency (16GHz) and ensures the absolute fastest load times and performance of drive-speed dependent software. The types and quantities of ports for connectivity are fairly good, especially considering the thin form-factor of the M16. On the right side of the case there is one USB-A 3.2 Gen1 port and one MicroSD Card reader. On the left side of the case there is a barrel plug type DC power port for use with the 240 Watt, 20 Volt DC @ 12 Amp power supply, one HDMI 2.0b port, one RJ45 LAN port, one Thunderbolt 4 port, one USB-C 3.2 Gen2 Display/Power Delivery port, and one 3.5mm Audio jack. The left side of the case is congested, and the ports are near the front where USB cables and drives are most likely to be in the way. Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) is supported as well as dual band Bluetooth 5.2. The M16 audio is outstanding. There are six speakers comprised of 2 tweeters and 4 woofers delivering Dolby Atmos audio with remarkable spatial qualities that really enhances the gaming experience. However, the audio volume levels are somewhat conservative. The M16 is powered by a 90 Wh, four cell Li-ion battery, with fast charging that recovers 50% of charge in 30 minutes. Although it is best to be plugged in when gaming, during other utilization, the excellent battery capacity and performance, and extremely rapid recharge is appreciated. It is interesting that Asus elected to make the M16 an Intel based system. Perhaps this was a strategic decision to make the M16 a more diversified, rather than single purpose system? In fact, the M16 is not only suitable for gaming (although it is certainly tailored to be a gaming “beast”). Resource demanding, graphics intensive creative applications including Adobe Creative Cloud applications and AutoCAD perform brilliantly on the M16. The M16 is extremely well suited to creative work and business productivity use as well as gaming. In summary, the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 GU603HM-211.ZM16 is the best, most robust laptop that I have experienced. It is outstanding in every respect and its suitability to all CPU and GPU demanding games and applications is extraordinarily impressive. I can unhesitatingly recommend the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 GU603HM-211.ZM16!

i have this laptop less than 2weeks.On day one the screen started acting up and going back to its normal display(i ignored it at first cause thought it was nothing ) now after 5days it showed up again and got worst. I will definitely return this and get a different one since i dont see this available at my store anymore.

So im going to be straight to the point here this thing performs amazingly well even for "last years" 11th gen cpu. Youll notice a lot of people talking about fan noise.. i thought no way it cant be that bad. It IS. When you play a game im not kidding you have to turn the great speakers up all the way to overcome it. When you dont have a headset you use of course and when you dont use a headset watch out because not only is it just a fan air rushing sound its a high pitched extremely annoying sound (coil whine i hear??) Seriously though its not tolerable and im very tolerant of things like this but it was just too much. Everything else about the computer i absolutely loved! From the nebula display to the components, the QC on this was perfect but those darn fans were an absolute killer!!! Thing is the cpu and gpu never even got that hot never crossed 85c on maxxed settings but the kicker is the fans make that loud piercing sound when there not even full tilt, once they reach full speed its insane its like standing in a wind tunnel. I tried to ignore all those reviews trust me lol its that bad. Shame.

It’s a good laptop, modern games run smoothly, but.. You guys didn’t clean it at all. It was all dust and fingerprints. You could have done a little more effort on that.. A couple scratches not a big deal but still. Yes I know it’s not brand new but still man. 1500$ bucks is something you know. I’m a little concerned about the heat that goes directly to the screen. But it seems that there’s nothing wrong with that. Time will tell

This is my sixth Asus computer, third ROG and once again they did not disapoint. The display is amazing as is the sound from it's 6 speakers. The Intel I9 processor and 16GB of memory are an extremly fast combination that work very well and I still have the option to add another 32GB in the future if I wish. I gernerally max out the memory immediately but just don't see a need at this time. I highly recomend this computer, especially if it lasts as long as my last 2 that are still working perfectly years later only needing the batteries replaced and nothing else

You get a lot of machine for you money with this laptop. The i9 absolutely is a beast, and paired with the RTX 3060, this machine will handle most anything you throw at it. It's fast refresh rate is also very welcome, especially if you're targetting the highest framerate possible, and willing to turn off a few bells and whistles to get there. If you're after resolution and image quality, this laptop will definitely hit the mark too.I ran a few modern games without any performance issues whatsoever. Gears 5 and Forza Horizon 4 performed perfectly at Ultra settings and look amazing. With Gears, that was even with Global Illumination. Very impressive for a laptop. When you're not gaming, Asus also has some cool profile modes that are built in to help keep the battery life as long as possible and the fans low or off, making it quiet in these modes. However, be prepared for this machine to put off some heat and moderate fan noise when under heavy loads. Using it in my lap while playing, it gets pretty warm, though that's to be excpected with the i9 and 3060 working hard. Those same components will also drain the battery, which again, is to be expected when they're under load. Asus also added a nice little touch of being able to set the RGB lighting of the keyboard to match what's on screen. It's a neat little touch that makes it even more of a pleasure to use. There's also a fingerprint reader nicely hidden on the power button. It's been very fast in my experience too. The monitor is very nice quality, with a nice finish and excellent color reproduction. It also has very little bezel, so you get a lot of screen for a machine this size. Of course, not to mention that i's capable of 165Hz! It's also very easy to get a good angle on, as it can be pushed as far back as to be flat with the keyboard. There is one minor annoyance I have though, and that's with the indicator lights on the base that can sometimes be seen on the screen. It's not a huge issue though. Audio is also handled very well for a portable machine. It supports Dolby Atmos, and sounds pretty great overall. The built-in mic array seemed to work well for the few times I used it as well. I didn't have any complaints about voice quality. Charging is a nice surprise too. Asus claims it can charge 50% in about 30 minutes, and that was definitely the case in my exerpience. Which is excellent if you're going to do any gaming on battery power. I added a couple of screenshots from some benchmarks I did in Gears 5 and Forza Horizon 4 as well. You can see how easily this laptop handles those games, even with a high performance target. Very easy to recommend this laptop if you're in the market for a well-performing portable gaming machine. Pros: Excellent performance, helpful modes from Asus when in and out of gaming, nice looking laptop with some neat features for RGB lighting and Audio. Cons: Can get fairly loud and warm under load, indicator lights can be a bit distracting in their location as they can be seen on the monitor.

Just google "asus m16 bios update stuck" and you'll find plenty of users complaining about how the laptop gets bricked after a BIOS update. It gets stuck in an infinite loop and you cannot boot into Windows or use the BIOS in this scenario -- thereby completely bricking the laptop. In fact, if you want more information, there's a r/ZephyrusM16 subreddit where you can search "bios" and find even more people having their laptops bricked for no good reason. The best part is, this happened to me right after a Windows update, I had no intention of upgrading BIOS whatsoever. The only way to bypass this is to RMA with Asus or return/exchange the device :(... Unless you want to do SPI flashing which definitely voids your warranty.