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

It's hard to know what you're missing out on when compared to other laptops if you've never owned a gaming laptop of a similar caliber to the M16. If you get the M16 I guarantee there will be a lot you will be satisfied with a lot like me and others who have left their reviews here. It's still important, however, to contemplate what features you truly desire and then decide what laptop you're going to buy. You could be buying a Lenovo Legion 5 Pro instead of this, which has the same bright 16 inch screen, twice the storage and a higher wattage RTX 3070 for the same the price as this laptop. You could also get a Zephyrus G15 for the same price as this which has AMD and an RTX 3070 for the same price point. You could get an Eluktronics Mech laptop, which offers the best performance for the money. You should only be getting this laptop if you absolutely want it for it's specialties. In this case it would be the brighter taller display, combined with a slightly weaker performance and slightly better design than the Zephyrus G15. If you're looking for a pure monster gaming machine that is relatively portable, then there are better options for your money. I can also state some additional pros of this laptop. One of them being the excellent keyboard typing experience (though there is no prt scn key if you need that). The speakers being relatively good especially when compared to almost every other gaming laptop out there. The Armoury Crate software does offer some useful performance, cooling control, and battery saving options. Optimal laziness with the finger-print reader. The overall design being sleek, light, and not to gamery despite the ROG branding. The only downsides to this laptop I think really come down to value: what you're buying it for and when you compare it to other laptops. You could argue fan noise is problematic, but most gaming laptop fans blow and sound like a hurricane (which is good because the last thing you want is some weak fans on you thin and light gaming laptop).

I’ve been using this laptop for almost 2 years and it’s served me really well. Runs very smoothly and can handle some heavy load. However, due its sleek and thin design, this machine can get hot and LOUD. I messed around the different fan settings and even at low speeds, you can always hear them. Coming from a powerful quiet pc setup, this bothered me a lot at first, but you get used to it over time. The display is beautiful and crisp, absolutely stunning colors.

An excellent laptop at an affordable price. I’ve had this system almost 2 years and I haven’t had any major problems. I’ve played modern games like PUBG and World of Warcraft. I also used it for editing content on Photoshop. Love the look, love the hardware, a great system for sure!

The ROG M16 is one of the most premium choices available in terms of aesthetics and usability for under $2,000. I tried out the G14 (3060 variant), G15 (3070 variant), and this laptop (3060 variant) for a considerable amount of time before ultimately deciding on keeping this laptop. I am confident others in this market are debating among these three models, so I will try justifying my reasonings with what I really liked about the M16 over the other. Things I liked: 1. Finish: the M16 has a velvety/leathery finish on the chassis, keyboard, and trackpad that isn’t found on the other two laptops. Whereas the G14 and G15 is only a magnesium chassis that is colder to touch, the M16 feels more like soft carbon fiber which makes it more premium and improves the typing experience. 2. Screen: Easily the biggest factor for many people considering this laptop, the M16 has a bigger screen, yet the size of the laptop is identical to the G15. This means that the M16 is nearly bezeless. After using this laptop for a day, I wasn’t able to ignore the fat chin that is present on the G15. To make things even more attractive, the M16 screen registers about 550 nits in brightness (G14 and G15 only have 350 nits). What’s the real-world difference between these different brightnesses? I like studying in cafes by the windows. With the G14 and G15 on max brightness, I still had a less-than-pleasant time reading the screen. The M16 at 70% brightness reaches the max brightness of the G15. With the M16 at max brightness, I can see everything clearly even in the face of sunlight. Lastly, the M16 has much more accurate colors than the G14/G15. The G15 seems to have a slight green tint to every color, and I didn’t notice this until I started using the M16. 3. Webcam: the M16 separates itself from the G14 and G15 with a 720p webcam. I thought that I could live without a webcam, but I quickly realized how much I missed it when I couldn’t video chat with friends or use it for work needs. Buying an external webcam would not only cost more money but would also be cumbersome to plug in or put away. The webcam on the M16 is nothing special (bonus points had it been 1080p) but having a bad but convenient integrated webcam is magnitudes better than having a good but inconvenient external webcam. 4. Temperature: the M16 with the i9-11900h has lower temperatures (to my surprise) than the G14 and G15 with the Ryzen 9 5800. At idle and under CPU stress, the M16 managed to be about 5 degrees Celsius cooler. While this didn’t translate into a longer battery for the M16 (Intel chips still draw much more power than Ryzen), it did make for more comfortable gaming sessions. One of the reasons the temperature is lower is because the fans on the M16 seem to spin much louder than the G14 and G15. 5. Quality control: while my M16 didn’t have any significant issues that I experienced with the G15 (backlight bleeding, warped screen, chassis creaking), my M16 still has some slight chassis creaking that I don’t mind enough to return. Reading other people’s reviews, it seems that the M16 has better quality control than the G15. However, the G14 still has the best quality control of all three. 6. Speakers: the speakers of the M16 and G15 are identical in sound quality. They are superb for gaming laptops but not nearly as good as the ones found in the M1 Macbook. The G14 speakers sounded distorted and buzzed when at max volume which was very annoying. Things I didn’t like: 1. Battery life: I am noticing nearly 20% less battery in the M16 compared to the G15. This is attributed mainly to the intel chip drawing about 10 watts more than the Ryzen chip. While this was a tough pill to swallow as I am a student, I can compromise because the battery life still averages around 6 hours on full charge, and the M16 conveniently supports USB C charging. The battery life is not enough for me to give up its god-like screen and webcam. 2. Value: do not be mistaken, you are paying a massive premium for the portability, screen, and battery of the M16. My laptop with a 3060 costs as much as the 3070 G15. 3060 laptops with the same or higher TDP (wattage) in 2021 can be found for $1200. The M16 is suited for the person who is willing to pay for portability and battery. I would not recommend this machine to anybody who is looking for just a gaming computer. It can currently play any AAA title on 1080p high to max settings with about 60-100 fps, but you won’t be able to play on its native 1440p resolution. I would recommend waiting for the 3070 variant that comes out later if you want to tackle 1440p gaming.

It was a tough decision between all gaming laptops available in the market. I was looking for a laptop that could last at least +7 years, as my old 2012 did. The 16inch @165Hz is excellent not just for gaming but also for productivity. With its thin bezel, this laptop will age well. The design is solid, which makes a 2020 Legion 5 look outdated. The i9-11900H has a superb performance as well as the RTX3060. At peak utilization, gets HOT but the fan does a great job of maintaining the temp, so it does not go to thermal throttle. Fans at 100% speed are noisy. You can undervolt the CPU down to -80mV and tweak the power usage using the ROG Armoury Crate as well as the GPU. The top center, where the status LEDs are, also gets hot but isn’t a big issue since you don’t really reach your hands up there. The mouse touchpad is nice and large. The keyboard is good, but the only downside are the tiny arrow keys. Keyboard backlight LEDs can be seen at certain angle, which sometimes distracts me a little bit. The weight and size are great compare to some other gaming laptops. A downside I see is the onboard memory that comes with this particular model GU603HM-211.ZM16, is just 8GB.

All around a great laptop. The panel is beautiful with only a slight light bleed, color, brightness is OLED like but it is fast and smooth. Keyboard is one zone RGB and has all the I/O you'll need. Mine had a good build quality with very slight creaking on bezel by the webcam area. Oh ya it has a WEBCAM! I personally don't care either way but it is nice just to have it. Wish they had the option to get the RTX3070 but they don't. RTX3060 is good and will handle most AAA titles. Also wish they can get this panel with the Ryzen chip instead of Intel, but I guess that is why they have the G15. Which let me add its a good laptop too, but the screen is not that bright and there is a lot different QC issues, I bought 4 and returned 4, all had some sort of speaker popping noise, creaking in the chassis and few other issues. I am picky but I am not dropping 1900 for a laptop with bad QC out of the box. Over all this is a great laptop that can handle anything you throw at it for work and play. Very little compromise on this gaming laptop for a reasonable price. Oh ya the LED indicator in the middle of the laptop doesn't reflect off the panel that will bother you, only if you turn the brightness complete down in a completely dimmed room. Other wise its not that noticeable

Great Laptop one of the best performance I've seen there, it comes with a thunderbolt wich makes everything faster and easier for my video editing

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!