Customer Ratings & Reviews

I already loved the 2025 version of this laptop. This one is basically the same, even looks identical, but now with a more efficient CPU, more GPU power, a brighter screen, a new bottom grille, a tighter hinge, and much better battery life. Those improvements are basically what makes this now a very “complete” feeling premium laptop. We now have a 14” laptop that is hitting almost the same fps in most games as other 16” ones I’ve tested that weigh twice as much and are much chunkier. So it’s very impressive, and the screen is almost blindingly bright now, especially in HDR. The fans are loud in Turbo mode, but there’s lots of ways to optimize it to your preference, you just have to take the time to understand the settings and how to tweak them to your liking. The price hike is crazy, so hopefully some sales happen asap. And the downgrade to 16GB of RAM on this model due to the rampocalypse is very sad. I personally haven’t run into any problems with that after some heavy gaming and benchmarking, video editing, and photo editing, but 16GB isn’t quite “future proof”, so that’s a shame. I guess they didn’t want to give people even more sticker shock if they had gone with 32GB, but still annoying (thanks AI companies). The 2025 is a better value because of this, but the improvements are still very welcomed here.

I'll start by saying that I was a little skeptical about having and using this laptop as a primary work and gaming laptop because it only has 16gb of ram and the 5070ti supposedly isn't leaps and bounds better than the previous generation of mobile GPU's. I don't want to get tooo much into those specs and make it sound like I'm bashing it because I don't want to deter you from purchasing this laptop because overall it is really great. I will say that I am impressed with Intel's newest processor that is included in this machine. It is very power efficient , runs relatively cool and quiet for normal tasks and web browser use. When using it for gaming or intense graphical purposes.. the fans will kick in especially in performance or turbo modes. They're not the loudest fans ive heard on a laptop, but you will definitely hear them. Fortunately the speakers on this laptop are nice and loud. The speakers have a nice bassy and punchy sound. They are honestly the best speakers ive heard in a windows machine probably ever. They are good enough to use for music, media consumption and gaming. The laptop feels very premium, seems the whole laptop is made of aluminum.. or at least it feels like it is. The keys are very tactile, have good travel and are the perfect size for typing out long essays. The screen on this machine, is beautiful! I am genuinely impressed with the screen on. It is an OLED screen with 120hz refresh rate. I think it has a matte like anti glare coating on it but it doesn't affect the screen quality like some anti reflection coats can sometimes. Colors are very vibrant and punchy, contrast is among the best Ive seen on a laptop and it is 16:10 ratio so it makes it look bigger than a typical 14" screen. Battery life is very very good, for a windows machine. We all know windows tends to be a battery hog for laptops, but this will easily get more than 6-10 hours of casual use. I watched a whole movie on it on battery and the battery was still above 75%. Intel has made major improvements in power consumption and battery efficiency. The i9 ultra in this machine is quite efficient when doing small tasks and web browsing. Once you start gaming or rendering without it plugged in, you can probably expect closer to 3 maybe 4 hours of use. Which still is pretty good in my opinion. While gaming, I didn't really experience any frame drops in most games I Tried. Ive been playing Pragmata on it and it runs great in 1440 @ 120hz. Like I said before, the fans do kick on and make a ruckus, but the speakers are able to over power them and you'll still be able to hear your game. Other games I tried and all run well are Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Rocket League, Alan Wake 2, Rocket League, and Marvel Rivals. The only game I experienced a little bit of stutter on was Red Dead Redemption 2. Once I let the Nvidia app auto optimize the settings, it ran a little bit smoother. My guess would be that the 16gb of RAM can be a lil bit of a bottleneck for software that needs a lot of ram to run. But like I mentioned before, most games run perfectly smooth on it. I plan on making this my primary machine for gaming, media consumption and work or the foreseeable future. It is the perfect size for carrying around in a backpack. If you can look past the hefty price tag, I think you will really enjoy this laptop and not have many regrets. It is near perfect. You could upgrade the SSD later if you want but if you want more Ram and can afford it maybe opt for the model with 32GB of ram. It will future proof your machine for years, 16gb of RAM is the bare minimum these days. Almost forgot to mention that it has a full size SD card on it. Perfect for photographers and videographers. No need to mess with micro sd cards with this. I am a photographer and love this upgrade for it. Definitely completes the package and makes it perfect for work and play.

Great Core i9 Ultra more power efficient Intel Wi-Fi instead of MediaTek Screen brightness up to 1100nits Subtle but good anti reflective coating Hinge seems to have improved further Finally has a full-sized SD card slot Thunderbolt 4 support More zones for Slashdot lights Presence sensor Ambient light sensor Windows Hello face login support Long battery life Increased wattage of power brick Light and versatile Thicker chassis used to improve cooling Excellent sound for the size Great typing experience Metal chassis feels premium and strong Display hinge feels smooth and consistent Supports MUX switch and Optimus Upgradable SSD and Wi-Fi Not so great Still a diving board trackpad NVME slot only PCIe 4 RAM soldered in and not upgradable Limited RAM limits performance when using Optimus AI buying it all up memory and storage creating gaming sacrifices Intel Arc iGPU poor gaming performance compared to the previous Radeon Armory Crate and Optimus conflict sometimes disabling the iGPU or dGPU Out of the box, the 2026 G14 looks nearly identical to the previous 2 models. This isn’t a bad thing as the Zephyrus line didn’t need any major changes. It feels like a premium laptop that can be subtle enough in style and light enough in build to use for productivity purposes as well as gaming. Chassis and Ports 9.5/10 The aluminum chassis feels rigid and sturdy with the slight chamfer on the edges so it doesn’t feel sharp in the hands. While it does support charging via USB-C, this would only be suitable to keep the battery topped off during casual use or for slower charging. For gaming using the dGPU you are going to need to use the included power adapter that looks like and oversized and squared off USB-C plug. For 2026 Asus bumped up the capacity of the charger from a max of 200 watts to a standard of 250 with a peak of 300 watts. This means you don’t have to choose if you want more power for the CPU or GPU anymore. There is one USB-A 3.2 on each side for peripherals such as a mouse or flash drive. The left USB-C port is USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 and the right side USB-C port is only version 3.2. A nice change is the SD card slot on the right side is now full sized like the G16, so you don’t need a USB adapter anymore. Screen 10/10 It is possible that there are better laptop screens out there, but it is hard to fault this one. Asus was able to more than double the max brightness of the OLED over previous generations which makes it better for both gaming and casual use even in brightly lit environments. The pixel arrangement doesn’t exhibit any noticeable color fringing on text and with the 3K screen everything is very sharp with the inky blacks you expect. So far, there has been no sign of PWM flicker even at low light levels. It also still supports VRR and 120Hz refresh rate. The 240Hz is still reserved for the 16 inch. They finally added an ambient light sensor so it can adjust automatically. However, Microsoft’s implementation of adaptive brightness is best left off if you use night shift. As it adjusts it essentially turns night shift off and on as the color temperature shifts. If you use night shift, then it is best to only have on automatic brightness adjustments. With the factory color calibration of the screen the system feels well suited regardless of what you use it for. Some complained about screen wobble on past models but this one seems to have the most stable screen of any laptop I have used. Keyboard 9/10 The keyboard feels the same as previous generations. It works great for typing and gaming with a good amount of travel and no discernable wobble. While it could be argued that Asus needs to try to move onto hall effect switches, that tech would feel like too much of a compromise towards the gaming focus for a well-rounded laptop. The design might be dated but it still works great with fast, consistent response. Just like previous generations there are some minor backlight uniformity issues, but it seems like it has been improved further. The keyboard feels linear with a distinct but silent activation point and a soft landing. If you tend to type heavy, you will appreciate the dampened feeling at the end. Trackpad 7/10 While the keyboard might still be ok even if a bit of an old design, the trackpad feels dated for a premium laptop. It does seem like it has improved slightly but it is still a diving board design. Current premium laptops have moved onto haptic designs as the tech has fully matured. While the diving board design does feel well built and works smoothly, it doesn’t change the fact that it feels out of place for the class. Speakers 9.5/10 The Zephyrus line has for years had some of the best speakers available, particularly when you consider the size of the chassis. While they can get loud enough to be heard in the next room it’s the richness and clarity that makes the difference. Of course they won’t compare to discrete speakers they are some of the best if not the best sounding in such a small chassis. The sound is well balanced without the hollowness or tin can sound that many have. They are good enough to where listening to music or watching a movie with them doesn’t feel like you are sacrificing. More importantly, if you want to game without headphones on Turbo they can easily overpower the air rushing sound of the cooling fans. With the Dolby software you can customize them further. Battery 9/10 While the battery hasn’t changed, the design of the new Core Ultra 9 has made a noticeable difference in battery life, at least for casual use. When running on silent using the iGPU the battery life seems like it is likely higher than 12 hours during casual use. It is hard to estimate the actual time since Windows battery estimates fluctuate frequently. The longest stretch the laptop was used off the charger was about 6 hours over 2 days without plugging in and that used less than 50% of the battery. This is without using G-Helper to undervolt the system or disabling any cores. That was with the screen brightness around 40% most of the time. If you want to game on battery with the dGPU you are looking at a max of 2 hours of gameplay. Battery life gaming on the iGPU is unknown as the Intel Arc graphics are much weaker, and even more so when paired with less RAM, than the old Radeon option meaning a lot more sacrifices to quality and frame rate are needed. However, if you can find the right settings the power efficiency seen for casual use should also translate to longer gaming on the iGPU as well. Performance 9/10 After comparing this to a family members older 2025 G14 speced similar, the performance improvements are modest. The CPU is about 10% faster than the old AMD option. With AI gobbling up all the memory even the new RTX chips have been delayed so any performance improvements are appreciated. Even though the 5070Ti remained unchanged, and thankfully still has 12GB of VRAM, the larger power brick did allow it to squeeze out a few more FPS. Doom Eternal set to Ultra Nightmare returned an average of 118.9fps with a 1% low of 95.5fps and a 0.1% low of 60.9fps. GTAV returned an average of 82.1fps with a 1.0% low of 72.8fps and a 0.1% low of 67.4fps. Both games were played with the system plugged in on Turbo with Ultimate enabled, VRR enabled, and DLSS off. When running the integrated benchmark in Forza 5, the weak spot of this system having 16GB of RAM came to the surface. With the Extreme graphics preset, it returned 115fps. However, that was with a stutter count of 32, and the GPU Limited percentage of only 35.5. Unfortunately, limited RAM seems like its going to be the new norm for the next few years. Thankfully minor game tweaks can smooth out those dips with no discernable change in quality. The same can’t be said for gaming on the iGPU since not only do the Intel Arc graphics perform much worse than the outgoing Radeon, the 16GB RAM becomes even more of a bottleneck. If you are thinking of gaming on battery with the iGPU it is best to keep your expectations low. You can definitely get good battery life that way but graphics are going to need to be dialed down significantly. Cooling 9.5/10 The new G14 is slightly thicker, about 1mm, to accommodate better cooling, but the overall wattage was bumped up. The net result is that this version runs just around 12 to 15 degrees cooler than the previous generation. While you can’t defy the laws of thermodynamics, Asus has done a good job of balancing managing the heat and the sound for such a compact chassis. The system does get hot when running on Turbo, but the heat is pushed to the back of the chassis and away from your hands. It also does this without any hint of bearing whine or intrusive sounds. You just hear the sound of air rushing out of the chassis. While I rarely game for long enough to push thermal management to the limits, it doesn’t seem like this unit will have any issues staying stable. Going based off memory, it seems the keyboard on this latest one stays even cooler than older generations. Wi-Fi 10/10 This is an easy one. Intel doesn’t get everything right, but one thing they do well is Wi-Fi. Compared to the previous generation of G14 a family member has, this Intel card kept completely stable and locked in at higher speeds. The old MediaTek would choose 5Ghz while sitting right next to the access point. This Intel card can stay locked in on 6E at 2400Mbps while in another room. While the MediaTek card could be swapped out on the older G14, it is nice to see this one come with a solid Wi-Fi card. Final Thoughts The upgrades to the G14 are mostly evolutionary. The previous G14 was and still is a solid system. The question is if you should get the older generation or this new one. The previous generation would win out on gaming on the iGPU. However, if you prefer substantially longer battery life for casual use, a much brighter screen, and cooler operation then this latest of the G14 is worth considering.

This laptop is outstanding for power, portability and even professional style. It is hard to imagine using anything else that works in all settings from play to work. Unboxing: The laptop includes the basics in a nice box. There is a huge 250-300W power supply, the laptop and basic documentation. As with most Windows laptops, log in, install the initial updates and you will be ready to go. I recommend you take time after setup to allow any updates to install as you will get better out of the box functionality with some of the apps like the “Nvidia App” or the latest BIOS. Initial impressions: The laptop is very well built with very little flex in the keyboard and the screen. The screen can be opened with one hand, most of the body is metal. The looks are largely professional, and I wouldn’t mind using this in an office setting or during a meeting. The only time you will know this is a gaming PC is if you have the slash lighting turned on (I usually leave it off since I can’t see it as the user) or if you took a look at the keyboard which has a more “gaming” type font to it. Make sure to set up Windows Hello for easy secure face authentication using infrared similar to Apple FaceID. Performance: Starting with storage, the NVME appears to be PCI Express 4 with read speeds topping out at 6853 MB/s read and 5366 MB/s write in my tests. This is plenty fast for pretty much everything you might throw at it, though it would be nice to see PCI Express 5. With a Panther Lake processor and a discreet RTX 5070 Ti, this thing screams at pretty much anything you throw at it. Applications load instantly, battery life lasts forever (on internal GPU), every game will run at or close to 60+ FPS maxed out full resolution. Most surprisingly, I rarely heard the fan as I feel ASUS has a nice setup for cooling inside combined with the efficient x86 processor. The only time it ran audibly was when gaming or doing heavy AI work with a LLM. For gaming it is no issue, but the only limitations you may see are related to RAM. With 16GB of DDR5 performing at 8533 MT/s, and the video card being capped at 12GB, you may be limited by the size of a LLM you can load or how much heavy duty work you may be able to do with large projects. Otherwise, for photo editing, coding/development, gaming and everyday tasks I had no issues. Benchmarks: Wild Life Extreme: 23831 points at 142.7 FPS Steel Nomad: 3432 points at 34.33 FPS Steel Nomad Light: 14412 points at 106.76 FPS Geekbench 7 CPU: 2507 Single Core / 16685 Multi-Core Geekbench 7 OpenCL: 140595 Geekbench 7 CUDA: 206240 Geekbench AI Single / Half / Quantized: OpenVINO NPU 4262/38482/60019 OpenVINO CPU 4483/4162/9017 OpenVINO GPU 8870/26472/32530 Cinebench 2026: GPU 62226 CPU Multi 4357 Games: Halo CE (2026) - 45-50 fps balanced DLSS Ultra settings Forza Horizon 6 - 60-70 fps Extreme+RT settings Aliens: Fireteam Elite - 70-120 FPS (no DLSS) Max settings Display: The display works at an outstanding 2880x1800 resolution. This surprised me as at 14”, it is somewhat overkill. This resolution was great for development work as you can comfortably do some side-by-side windows with no issue. Some tips I suggest for this screen, change the settings from 200% to 175% scaling as 200% is a waste of this resolution. 175% was comfortable to my eyes, 150% may be too small. Also, ensure you turn on HDR (not on battery unless you don’t mind the extra drain) to get the full brightness and color space available from this display. It will look stunning in games, movies and any creative work. Audio: Asus is well known for having some of the best speakers on any PC. This is no different here. The speakers may be small on a 14” laptop, but they sound huge! The audio was impressive and sounded like it belonged on a 16” laptop with plenty of bass and detail. Keyboard / Trackpad: The keyboard is one of my favorites. First, I suggest you go into the Armoury Crate app and adjust the lighting of the keyboard if you do not want it cycling every color. Set it to white or pick a color. They keys have a perfect amount of key travel (not too shallow) and plenty of space for accurate typing. The backlight is bright with even lighting making the keys easy to see if needed. The mouse is precise and has a glass texture, but lacks haptic feedback as it is a traditional diving board style. This is no issue for me as I do a tap as opposed to a press when I use it, but if you prefer a press, it may be disappointing in this regard. Repairability: The laptop only has two modules (pictured) available to be replaced, the Wi-Fi card and the single NVME slot. If you are comfortable cloning your SSD, you can easily upgrade the included 1TB hard drive, but this is plenty of storage for most in my opinion and should last a good while as is. For information purposes, the Wireless card is a Intel BE211 which is 2x2, 320 MHz supporting up to 5.8 Gbps Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. When opening the bottom, be aware there are two hidden screws (also pictured) under plastic caps toward the rear which blend in with the rest of the device. One of the front screws is also a captive screw so be sure to not try to get that one out, this design is similar across pretty much every Asus laptop. All major parts I could see such as the battery, fans, and heat pipes appear to be modular and able to replace if they ever break. .

I’ve been in the market for a smaller form factor gaming laptop and I feel like the 14” was the sweet spot between not too small and not too big. I opted for the Asus ROG Zephryus G14 for a few reasons. The 14” OLED panel, I love Asus as a brand and have always been happy with their products, and the Nvidia GeForce 5070Ti. I enjoy Asus products because I’ve never experienced any issues with them, they always feel high quality, and they are jam packed with performance. The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is no exception. Not only is it great from a performance perspective, it's also gorgeous! The exterior is nice and sleek and they did a great job with the lighting on the top of the lid. The interior keyboard and touchpad are also great looking. I love the feel of the keyboard. The keys are perfect and tactile but not annoying. I can type quietly if I want, which is a plus. The keyboard backlighting is excellent as well. The touchpad is a bit still for me although I don't use it when gaming, just general browsing I find myself making mistakes with the left/right click of the touchpad. Is it a huge deal? No. Maybe it will loosen up over time? The Intel Core Ultra 9 386H is a beast of a CPU to have in a machine this small and lightweight. It is a fantastic performer. I have yet to experience any slowdowns or lagging whatsoever on this system. I also typically leave applications open in the background while I’m gaming and this machine doesn't miss a beat. Photo editing, 3D modeling, and games perform excellent. My games load decently fast even with my Discord, and Photoshop apps open in the background. This laptop came with only 16GB of high speed LPDDR5X that is NOT upgradable. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. My initial impressions are, maybe 16GB is all I need especially with it being DDR5. I haven't had any issues that would make me feel like I needed more but over my years and years of building machines and gaming, I can't help but feel like 32GB should be standard in a gaming system. But if efficiency of RAM has improved, maybe there should be a new expectation of standard when it comes to how much RAM a system has. Or is this a case where to save space, corners were cut and the RAM was one of the areas that were cut? I'm going to go with the efficiency theory for now until I'm proven otherwise. The GPU is fantastic and I’m still shocked that a powerful Nvidia Geforce RTX 5070Ti can fit in such a small compact system. I've been able to play AAA titles with no issue. I'm currently playing the new 007 and Mafia Old Country games and they perform great. I’ve had 0 issues on the recommended performance settings for the games. No stuttering and great FPS on both games. Battlefield 6 is also a great performing title. From what I can tell so far, I am easily future proofed for several years of upcoming game titles with the hardware combination in this system. The 3k OLED screen is gorgeous and bright enough for my liking. The colors in the games really pop and the blacks are truly black. It's a different experience playing on an OLED panel. I also find when I’m not gaming, this system has great battery life. I'm not used to great battery life on gaming laptops but I think the combination of the size and the fact it doesn't utilize the 5070Ti GPU when I’m not gaming really helps the battery life of the system. It does have an Asus proprietary large brick charger which I don't prefer. I really wish all companies would switch to a USB-C standard but that wasn't what I got with this one. Storage wise it comes with a 1TB NVMe drive which is plenty of storage space and blazing fast. You really see the performance advantages with an NVMe drive on boot and when your applications and games are loading. Cooling seems pretty good so far. I will say, the fans can get a bit loud when you are gaming but I haven't noticed any thermal issues so the fans are definitely doing their job keeping the system cool. This is a fantastic gaming machine if you are in the market for a 14” with tons of performance and a beautiful OLED panel, I would highly recommend it.

You don’t have to spend much time with the new ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 to know this is a top tier gaming notebook. As an ex-machinist I really appreciate the build quality of the chassis. Each corner shows care and thought for not just part of the chassis but everywhere you touch and feel. Of special note is the trackpad. It's smooth and responsive and a joy to use. The keyboard has good travel and very nice RGB lighting. You will also find keys dedicated for multimedia control. The 4 speakers have enough separation to provide a good volume and sound stage for music, movies and gaming. The 14" 3K OLED 120Hz screen is bright and has great colors that just pop off the screen. ASUS claims 100% DCI-P3 color coverage and 1100 nits of peak brightness and although I don’t have the tools to validate these claims looking at the screen it’s easy to believe these specifications. This version of the Zephyrus G14 comes with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070Ti with 12GB of video memory. This is the same amount of video memory as found in the desktop RTX 5070. You can expect about the same gaming performance as the desktop part but on average it will be slightly less. This is normal for mobile versions of Nvidia GPUs compared to their desktop versions. Depending on the games you play you might have to use DLSS and frame insertion to get good frame rates for some games. The good news is those setting options will allow you to play most any game with high visual quality and playable frame rates. And those tools are getting better all the time. The current trend is to use AI powered tools like Nvidia's DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) and most modern games support these features. The RTX 5070Ti is one of the best mobile GPUs you can get and it's anyone's guess when any new versions will be released. What I like especially about the RTX 5070Ti is I can actually play AAA games without the excessive heat and battery drain a higher GPU like the RTX 5080 creates. This version of the Zephyrus G14 is equipped with the Intel Core Ultra 9 386H. This is a new family of Intel mobile CPUs for 2026. This Intel Core Ultra 9 386H is a 16-core CPU. It's not the highest version in the Intel Core Ultra Panther Lake family. That title goes to the Core Ultra 388H. The main difference between the Core Ultra 9 386H and the Core Ultra 9 388H can be found with the iGPU. The 386H iGPU has 4 Xe3 cores while the higher spec’ed 388H iGPU has 12 Xe3 cores. The more Xe3 cores the better non dedicated GPU gaming and local AI performance you will get. This version of the Zephyrus G14 comes with 16GB of LPDDR5X and a 1TB of NVMe storage. These are the two main issues I have with the specifications of the Zephyrus G14. It should have a full 32GB of ram and 2TB of storage at this price level. The problem of course isn't because of ASUS. It’s because of supply issues due to a world wide demand for these types of chips. It's anyone’s guess when or if this supply issue might be corrected. I like the port selection on the Zephyrus G14. You get a dedicated charging port, 1x 3.5mm combo audio jack, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port supporting DisplayPort and power delivery and finally a SD Card reader. The notebook weighs in at 3.5 lbs. My notebook came with 2 free months of Xbox Game Pass. A one month trial for Microsoft 365, 3-Months of Google AI Pro, a 6-Month Dropbox 500GB Subscription and 1-Year of ASUS’s Secure Auto-Backup 200GB Subscription. For a long time gamer like myself I have seen the included ASUS support utilities get much better over the years. The Armoury Create application allows you to monitor and control most system components. It's now a clean, useful interface to your CPU and GPU, fans, Aura Sync and many options that can keep you very busy. You will also find the MyASUS application for other information such as warranty coverage, battery, storage, memory diagnosis and system updates. All in all a very comprehensive suite of useful utilities that continue to be improved. I have had the great fortune to have owned many gaming laptops over the years. These have been ones with smaller 14” displays like the Zephyrus G14 to larger laptops with 18” displays. It is my experience that if I am going to play on a display larger than 14” I will use my desktop computer. To me the 14” display size is the sweet spot for a gaming laptop. It is portable, gets relatively long battery life and easily handles any basic or advanced computer tasks I need. The ASUS Zephyrus does this with a refined style that is a match for any of the best the industry has to offer. Now if ASUS would just make this wonderful OLED display touch screen compatible.

Hands down, this is by far the most premium laptop I have ever used in this gaming segment. From the packaging and unboxing to the hands-on experience, ASUS has thoroughly designed this laptop to excel and leave you nothing to complain about. Inside the regular laptop cardboard box, the laptop is housed in a gift-like box, which is a nice touch from ASUS. The moment I took it out of the box, I was impressed by the incredible craftsmanship. The laptop feels solid and is made of premium aluminum, and the build quality is simply breathtaking. Everything about this laptop feels high-quality, well-structured, and extremely well-built. With that being said, the laptop is still surprisingly thin and lightweight considering its capabilities. The Zephyrus G14 is packed with cutting-edge hardware and comes with a supplied powerful 250W power brick to support its peak performance. I put it on charge for about an hour and then dove right into the setup. The welcome screen is, without a doubt, gorgeous, with vivid and vibrant colors. It features a 14-inch 3K OLED display, and just looking at it, everything appears incredibly sharp and clear. Navigation through the laptop felt smooth and super-fast. The 120Hz refresh rate makes everything feel fluid and responsive. The front-facing camera is also crystal clear and works well for Windows Hello facial login. The performance of this Zephyrus G14 really shines. This compact form factor is powered by an Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processor, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU, and 16GB of RAM. This combination provides an incredible amount of power for a 14-inch laptop, which became pretty obvious during my testing. Games run smoothly, multitasking is smooth, and applications open like a flash. The 1TB SSD also makes Windows startup and application loading extremely fast. The RGB lighting effects are amazing the especially the “slash” area on the back of the display’s lid. Because this laptop requires substantial power to maintain its peak performance, the included 250W power adapter is needed to get the most out of it. Since the laptop supports USB-C Power pass-through charging, when I used this method of charging, I got a warning message that I have to use a higher power charger due to the USB-C power limitation to maintain maximum performance. Hence, I switched back to the 250-watt power brick because I want the laptop to perform flawlessly. The cooling system is impressive. The laptop stays relatively cool during normal use; however, the fans become noticeably loud under heavy workloads. Compared to its predecessors, this cooling system beats them!!! The keyboard is comfortable and feels premium; the large touchpad is smooth and responsive to gestures. Even though this laptop is designed for gaming, I found its keyboard is also excellent for productivity. The Dolby Atmos speakers are another plus for this laptop. They sound clear, and gaming, watching videos, and listening to music are just a blessing. The audio quality is impressive considering its size. My only little disappointment is the 16GB of LPDDR5X memory. Personally, to be fair, I would expect to have at least 32GB of RAM at this price point, since the memory is soldered to the motherboard and cannot be upgraded later. Overall, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is an exceptional laptop. It is the combination of performance, portability, craftsmanship, and premium design that really puts it on the throne of gaming laptops. This laptop, by far, is truly the best-built laptop I've ever used, and the fact that ASUS skillfully managed to pack this compact form-factor laptop with so much power is astonishing.

This ASUS G14 is a beautiful little powerhouse. It is well-designed, lightweight, and packs an impressive amount of performance into a compact 14-inch laptop. This particular model comes with a 14-inch 3K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti graphics, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth, and an RGB-backlit keyboard. For connectivity, it has two USB-C ports that support power delivery and display output, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, an SD card reader, and a headphone jack. The model I received looks like silver to me, although ASUS calls the color "Platinum White." It also features a 1080p front-facing camera that supports video conferencing and Windows Hello. Setup was very simple. After signing in with a Microsoft account, you can either start fresh or restore your settings and data from another computer. I chose to restore from another computer, and the entire process took approximately 15 minutes. I am very impressed with the performance of this laptop. Who would have thought something this small could perform this well. Whether using its built-in display or connecting it to an external monitor or TV, the performance has been excellent. I was able to play Halo and Call of Duty at Ultra settings without any issues. I even connected it to my 98-inch TCL X11L, and it ran at 4K and 119Hz like a champ with no noticeable lag whatsoever. Another thing I really like about this laptop is how quiet it runs, even when using the higher-performance Turbo mode. Not only does it remain relatively quiet, but it also stays surprisingly cool. After finishing a gaming session, I picked it up expecting it to be hot, but the laptop was only slightly warm. Its compact size and lightweight design make this powerhouse extremely portable. Programs open quickly and run smoothly, making it great for everyday productivity as well as gaming. The non-touch display is absolutely beautiful. Despite being only 14 inches, the 3K OLED panel delivers deep blacks, sharp images, and vibrant colors. The 120Hz refresh rate also makes everything feel smooth and responsive. On the outside cove it has an LED lighting strip that displays animations. It looks pretty cool and can be customized through ASUS software. Battery life is also good. For everyday use, it can easily last throughout the day, although gaming will obviously reduce battery life considerably. The keyboard feels great to type on, with soft and relatively quiet keys. The keys feature customizable RGB backlighting, which adds a nice gaming touch. The trackpad is also responsive and smooth. The built-in speakers have a phenomenal sound reproduction for a laptop of this size, they are loud and don't sound flat. One thing to keep in mind is that the RAM is not upgradeable. If 16GB isn't enough for your needs, you'll want to purchase a configuration with more RAM from the beginning. Overall, this tiny powerhouse is an excellent laptop for everyday use and fantastic for gaming. Its 14-inch size and lightweight design make it extremely portable, while the powerful hardware gives it enough performance for demanding games and applications. It's a great option for school, work, gaming, and travel. The OLED display looks fantastic, the colors really pop, and there are plenty of ports for connecting additional peripherals. While it is definitely on the expensive side, I think the hardware configuration and performance justify the price. In the box, you get the laptop, power adapter, and user documentation.

Although i wasn't happy to pay the price that I paid due to ramageddon. However this is hands down the best laptop I've ever own. I ditched my old laptop dongle because this laptop has every port I needed. I'm an IT professional who attends several meetings and I'm always on the go and this laptop is able to last me all day and more without charging. I love that I can also take this home, connect it to a 4k TV and play games on high settings. This laptop can do everything. I'm more than happy with this purchase.

Unboxing - The ROG Zephyrus G14 arrived double boxed with the AC adaptor isolated from the laptop. The CNC'ed Aluminum chassis is stiff and has a premium feel only a metal chassis can deliver. The entire external chassis is metal including the screen backplate. The included 250w AC adaptor is substantial in weight but compact for the wattage. The laptop itself is a about 3.5lbs. Platinum White Color - Online representations of this laptop can lead to color confusion - The laptop chassis is silver/platinum - the keyboard, function buttons and rubber foot are white. Setup - After powering up, running windows update, Asus Armoury Crate and logging into MyAsus - a number of updates were installed. This little powerhouse blazed through all of that while downloading a dozen of my favorite games in steam the background. Daily Use - The display - 3k OLED - Unreal blacks absolutely magical color. The anti reflection properties of the screen work well even on a "glossy" screen. Asus profiles help to manage brightness for various uses (gaming versus office and productivity apps) and also keep the power use and noise in check. When plugged in and running performance mode - all fans spun up at high load use result in a white noise low pitch whooshing without any of the traditional annoying "jet engine" or high pitch fan noises. I do often work in visual studio with docker containers and AI during the day which generates very high loads. This rips through with minimal noise. Power Management and Battery use - Asus's profile based power control is excellent. This is a top feature that brings me back to these laptops as a repeat customer. When used on battery the throttled modes result in a near silent portable with extended battery life. Playing videos, surfing and low load tasks can easily yield a 8-10+ hours of use. Gaming under a reduced power profile can still yield a few hours of play at acceptable frame rates. Running older titles on the internal graphics chip can stretch out battery use even further. Gaming - The RTX5070 TI drives high frame rates with almost everything "ultra" on older titles on both the 3k display as well as when connected to my larger and higher resolution home monitor. Forza Horizon 6 , Doom Ultra etc. . .No issue - awesome - connected to any display. I had no issue running a dozen plus older titles as well. The laptop lighting profiles can be automatically tied to games via Asus's software which provides a fun extra touch when playing in a dim or dark room. The built in audio is quite good with overall rich sound for a laptop this portable. Overall - Top notch gaming and productivity portable with ultra premium build quality, low weight great battery life and brilliant display !

The ASUS - ROG Zephyrus G14 14" OLED 3K Gaming Laptop - Intel Core Ultra 9 386H 2026 - 16GB Memory - GeForce RTX 5070Ti - 1TB Storage - Platinum White is just an exquisite experience from the moment you open the original packaging! Right away I'm intrigued by the smaller box within a box which contains the laptop itself and has its own shrink wrap. I have to say I've never seen that before and it made this opening feel extra special for some reason. The laptop box itself is a sleek looking grey and feels premium like you're opening a fine piece of jewelry. Inside the box is this gorgeous aluminum cased laptop covered in a plastic sheath. It's very similar to the MacBook Pro aesthetic I would say. Just a gorgeous piece of hardware. The screen on this is ultra-thin... maybe 2-3 mm and opens smoothly to reveal a white set of keyboard keys, a large trackpad, and some speakers on each side of the keyboard. The laptop has a very solid feel to it and has the perfect amount of weight and balance when holding it I would say. Getting out the included power brick and plugging the laptop in I turn it on for the first time and the white keys burst with awesome RGB color and a cool animation plays on the screen from the Republic of Gamers ROG :) Super cool! Also, you immediately see how ultra fine the resolution on the display is! This is not a touch screen, and it is fairly reflective, so it does pickup background reflections... something to consider if you're in a space where bright lights or windows are an issue. Right away you're greeted with the Windows 11 setup process which gets you connected to the internet and downloads all the necessary updates for the machine. This process did take about an hour I would say a bit longer than some laptops I've setup. The Windows setup gets you all setup with facial recognition for logging into your computer if you want to and it's very easy and fast. It also gets you setup with a PIN for logging in, so you can use either method. After going through the setup, you're asked if you want to activate the Xbox Game Pass 2-month trial that comes with the laptop and a Microsoft Office offer, but otherwise there is no bloatware. Very clean install of Windows! I immediately started getting my regular software installed so I could do some kicking the tires. Installed Steam and EPIC so I could install some of my favorite games to run the laptop through its paces. I said this laptop is almost perfect and one of the things that I think are on the almost list is the 16 GB of memory instead of 32 GB. At this price point I would normally expect 32 but with the current memory crisis going on I think it's just something that they had to scale back perhaps. 16 is still quite adequate, but 32 obviously gives you more room for multitasking. All the games I tested performed excellent. ARC Raiders, Fortnite, Borderlands 3, World of Warcraft performed in the ultra-smooth 85-120+ fps with all the bells and whistles turned on. The 3K HDR screen looks incredibly vibrant! The ample cooling vents on the underside of the laptop and rear keep the laptop running smooth under stress with pretty minimal fan noise. Running the 3DMark Time Spy Stress Test resulted in a 99.3% stress test score which is the highest I've ever gotten. It benchmarked almost as well as my desktop 5080 GPU system in the Time Spy 3D benchmark scores as well! Everyday tasks like surfing the web, watching videos, running Office software, video and photo editing run ultra speedy on the Core Ultra 9 processor. My second almost perfect item is the battery life. Playing video full screen with about 40% screen brightness and power saver battery settings only lasted about 5-6 hrs. With all the laptops boasting much higher scores than that these days and the size of this laptop and screen I was expecting quite a bit more battery life doing just normal tasks. I never expect large numbers when it comes to gaming, but it would be nice if this ultra-portable laptop had at least 8-10 hours before needing a charger. The speakers on this laptop are excellent! For speakers so small they really put out the bass and volume. I wasn't expecting them to be as good as they are! There is a good selection of ports for a laptop this size! Even a SD card reader which I don't see too often anymore. 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x Thunderbolt, Display connection via USB port, 2 x USB-C 3.2, 2 x USB-A 3.2, audio jack, and a dedicated power charging port. Built-in Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth. The keyboard on this is one of the better ones I've ever used. Love the size of the keys and the tactile resistance. Good amount of travel for a laptop keyboard as well. The led light bar on the backside of the screen is a subtle but super sleek design choice!

To start out with, I really loved the previous year model of this laptop and it seems that Asus really upped the specs under the hood and produced this laptop as a serious top performer and so far I've loved using this one! Here's a quick list of what's great about this laptop and what could be better. What's great: - Looks and feels premium, the aluminum body makes it nice to hold and looks sharp. - The OLED panel is bright and vibrant which is a huge upgrade from last year's model. I really like how this screen looks and welcome this upgrade, this alone makes an upgrade worth considering in my opinion. - The slash lighting has been improved and I like how it looks over the last years model I have of this same laptop. - Performance is top notice, and this year there's even more power available for the GPU and I've experienced better performance overall with this laptop - Sound/speakers are just as good if not quite a bit better with full rich deep loud sound, which from a small laptop like this is actually a bit surprising when you hear it turned up the first time. - Weight is actually surprisingly light for the power you get with this laptop.. it's dang near as good in terms of overall performance as my dedicated gaming desktop which is pretty amazing. - Intel CPU and NVIDIA GPU combo in this laptop is insane performance wise.. you won't be disappointed! - Keyboard is pleasant to type on and is solid.. with keys that are responsive and feel great, it really is a pleasure to type on this keyboard and game with it too! What could be better: - 16GB of RAM.....and no way to upgrade it. While 16gb itself is not bad, you definitely are not future proofed with no way to upgrade it (it is soldered and there's no way to add more) however, for most people this will be fine... but for a power user who does video editing and needs more memory, someone like me who runs AI models locally, this may be a limitation for this model. - Fan noise.. in turbo mode under some games the fans are a little noisy and while this laptop does get warm, for me it hasn't got super hot either so there's a bit of trade off to have a thin and light laptop which so much horsepower under the hood! - RGB Keyboard lighting being one zone is disappointing for a laptop in this top tier category, period... and even for the slash too, it would have been awesome to have RGB lights in the panel for that and individual per key RGB lighting and allow the user to customize this laptop and either RGB it all out or keep it muted and sleek/professional looking. - Only ONE M.2 slot is another huge disappointment in a premium laptop like this.. there's absolutely ZERO good reasons to not have an additional SSD slot for upgradeability, especially considering many games now are commonly 50 to 200gb in size. 1TB will get ate up surprisingly quick.. and upgrading your SSD is expensive, and not as straightforward as just installing an additional SSD stick. Anyone looking to get this laptop will definitely want to get a Thunderbolt or USB 3.2 external drive if seeking more storage than what's onboard or consider an upgrade. Outside of the few items noted in the what could be better section, this laptop really is outstanding. Those few items though, could undermine the intent of this laptop being a gaming/high performance laptop with limited options for upgrading storage and no options for upgrading ram. Beyond that, it's powerful, sleek and professional looking and I would recommend it for either an upgrade a purchase with those caveats about storage and ram in mind. It can serve as a seriously good mobile gaming PC or workstation for on the go work and fun and the memory really isn't a big deal for everyone as 16gb in most situations is plenty, especially with the 5070Ti that has 12GB vram.

Design This 14-inch laptop is basically a Swiss army knife of high-end laptop. It can be a gaming laptop that can chew every AAA game you throw at it. It can also become a business laptop, with enough battery life to last through long meetings and a full day of activities afterward. Or an entertainment laptop for watching a movie with OLED difference. The design is not too gamey, but then of course it takes no time for gamers to recognize the ROG logo on the laptop’s front cover. This Zephyrus G-14 laptop and its power brick are light enough to carry around in a small backpack. I can even toss them inside my sling back. The ports are varied enough with Thunderbolt 4 connections, USB-C with PD capabilities, HDMI port, audio jack and SD Card slot. It also has WIFI 7 connectivity. Screen The screen is magnificent. It’s a 3K OLED HDR screen. I don’t really care about Asus’ ROG Nebula monicker. However, whatever monicker ASUS wants to brand it, let them have it. This screen is simply gorgeous. The color, resolution, brightness, black level, HDR, it’s all there. On top of that, this is a glare resistant screen. The anti-glare capability of the screen is so great that I don’t need to install an anti-reflective screen protector for the screen. Sound The sound is excellent for a Windows laptop. The volume is loud enough, the treble and bass are sweet. When playing music, instrument separation is excellent. Bass could be punchier, but it’s definitely present. Afterall, we’re talking about a laptop, not a Hi-Fi sound system. This Asus laptop delivers sound quality that makes music enjoyable to hear from a portable computer. Gaming This is the whole point of the laptop. I am a bit bothered by the fact that it only has 16GB of RAM and it is not upgradeable. However, even without 32GB of RAM this laptop is real fast. The soldered DDR5 RAM is fast, the CPU is fast and of course the GPU is also fast. When you combine all of these factors, this laptop can run every AAA game out there you throw at it. Something that is so special about this laptop is that it can run games using either the Nvidia dedicated graphics or the integrated Intel chip graphics. The laptop’s Intel Panther Lake Ultra 9 386H is not just for productivity tasks. Just for fun I try to run Crimson Desert not using the dedicated NVIDIA GPU, but relying on just the intel chip. Why? Battery efficiency while gaming on the road and better thermal management. At default TDP and running on battery, high demanding games like Crimson Desert can last for about more than one and half hour. This laptop can seriously question the whole point of having a separate handheld gaming device. Even the latest Arc G Extreme 3 chip should not be able to outperform the Intel Ultra 9 386H considering that the latter has more cores. This Intel chip alone can basically run every game on the Steam library. Now onto the dedicated Nvidia graphics. This is where the laptop truly shines. The laptop’s Nvidia 5070 Ti performs about 30% below its desktop counterpart, but it is still excellent and far ahead of the graphics capabilities of the Intel Ultra 9. In Crimson Desert I can max out the graphics to ultra setting at 1440P and it still runs smoothly at 40 FPS even without DLSS or frame generation. If I set the resolution to Full HD, the game will run at 60 FPS using pure rasterization. I don’t even bother to check FPS when playing Helldivers 2. The game runs smoothly at max settings and default resolutions. Wifi 7 capabilities bring smoother SteamVR and Steam Link experiences. Final Thoughts This is definitely an excellent laptop for people who want to run AAA games on a portable form factor. The fact that it only has 16GB of RAM is actually irrelevant for AAA gaming. It may, however, limit the laptop’s capabilities to run LLM locally due to the memory dependencies. In an ideal world where RAMpocalipse is not a thing, this laptop should have way more memories and storage. Even with 16GB of RAM this laptop is a clear winner as a portable gaming machine. As a business laptop, it is plenty fast and has durable battery performance. Gaming performance, excellent screen and audio quality, battery performance are all there to emerge as an excellent gaming laptop and top pick for those who can afford it. Now I’m having a hard time whether to bring my handheld PC or this G14 for portable gaming on the road. Pros: Excellent portable design Bright and beautiful OLED screen quality Enjoyable audio quality with enough loudness Battery that last very long for a Windows laptop WIFI 7 Cons: 16GB of RAM limits capabilities to run LLM locally

Today we are reviewing the Zephyrus G14 GU405, the newest laptop release by ASUS for 2026. ASUS has been firing on all cylinders over the last decade, releasing powerhouse high end laptops for Gamers or Creatives who want the best cutting-edge technology. I’ve had great experiences with Zephyrus laptops in the past and the G14 this year is no different. ASUS has made some exciting changes to this year’s model that have some noticeable benefits, let’s dig into what makes this laptop so great! This year’s G14 has been slightly revamped with some nice exterior changes. A new hinge system allows you to be able to open the laptop with a single finger and feels consistent from open to close. The exterior lighting on the bar on the top has been upgraded from 7 to 35 lights this year with 15 preprogrammed animations, battery status and the ability to match the lights to music or even spoken word. The chassis has been refined to .7 mm but is supposedly much rigid and robust, with more refined airflow channels underneath as well allowing for cooler run temps. Clocking in at just 3.5 pounds and only .72 inches thick the Platinum white G14 has a beautiful finish. The screen has also been upgraded this year with an Anti-Glare OLED that is twice as bright as previous years, clocking in at up to 1100 Nits! They also have added a Thunderbolt 4 port and a full SD card which is a welcome upgrade for me as a photographer. With this year’s version they’ve also made some big internal changes, switching to an Intel chip for the first time in G14’s history. Because of this switch I’ve seen some HUGE jumps in battery life compared to previous years. It seems the Intel chips do a great job at handling day-to-day tasks and conserves battery life astoundingly better than previous years. This year’s G14 is a great option if you’re looking for a portable laptop and want a robust battery life. As usual, the G14 is a powerhouse when it comes to gaming. ASUS always does a phenomenal job of giving you the customization options you need to really get the most of your setup. The Armory Crate software allows you to dial in the G14 for exactly what you need it to do at that moment. The 3K OLED in this year’s model is beautiful and bright, and the anti-reflective screen is a nice touch as well. The OLED can utilize G-sync which is just another notch in the belt for ASUS. The 5070ti handles any game you throw at it. I’m currently enjoying Forza Horizon 6, Marvel Rivals and Alan Wake 2. The details on the cars in Forza 6 are just mind blowing. And I’ve really noticed in Alan Wake how well the OLED handles shadows and separations of dark colors. I’m not sure if it’s the Anti Reflective screen, but I’ve been very impressed by how well the blacks display on the G14. Whether you want to crank your games for highest FPS or refine them for competitive play the G14 has the options and customizations you want and need! Overall, I couldn’t be happier with the G14 this year. Even with a robust price point it delivers on performance and battery life. The switch to the Intel chip has paid dividends with longer battery life and all the small subtle refinements all add up to a powerhouse laptop from a consistent and reliable laptop company. You can’t go wrong with this laptop!

Maybe other users will see it differently, but the first thing that this laptop reminded of was a MacBook because of its look and similar aluminum chassis. Not only that, but it's sleek and very light for a gaming laptop. I loved that because although I still am a gamer, I'm far from being young anymore. That means that I don't like showing to everybody that I'm carrying a gaming laptop, especially because I do a lot of video work and that's a professional image that this laptop won't spoil. More like Clark Kent on the outside, looking very professional, and Superman inside albeit with super gaming power instead of super hero powers. Once I turned it on, I was stunned by its beautiful OLED screen. You simply can't get deeper blacks than that, and the colors are so vibrant. But for a gamer, refresh rate is at least as important as a beautiful display. Most laptops stop at 60Hz which is not ideal for any serious game. However, Asus added 120Hz capability and I can easily tell that it reaches that. I know some games like even higher rates than that, but for a laptop, this is just spectacular, especially when you consider that's just one of other great features it comes with such as an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, an RTX 5070 Ti graphics card, 32GB RAM, and to my surprise, the best speakers on any Windows laptop I've ever owned. That combination of specs have allowed me to run two ray-traced AAA games with performance close to a dedicated game desktop PC I have with few small issues that didn't bother me. I've had very good gaming laptops, but they were all heavy and awkward to carry around and the screen quality didn't even get close to this ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14. I never used them for work because most of what I do require accurate colors. On the other hand, I will probably be using it for work more than anything else. And as I've already hinted, it has the power to run any video editing software and the battery is large enough to keep you from having it plugged in all the time. As you can tell by now, I'm in love with this laptop. Of course, not everything is super. When you play high performance games or use Adobe Premier at full capability, this laptop becomes very loud and often very hot. It's not necessarily a flaw since that's expected and likely caused by the RTX 5070, but it's something to keep in mind before making your decision to purchase it. Still, I think it's more than worth it. Lastly, one thing I like about it is the 14-inch frame because of its portability. However, it may feel small when playing some games.

Incredible! The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is simply the BEST gaming laptop I have ever owned or used. I don't even know how ASUS have squeezed so much into such a compact 14" gaming laptop, while also keeping it cool to touch and relatively quiet. It's magic. Setup was easy, although I was surprised that the ASUS G14 doesn't have a finger print reader (the power button looks like one but is not, but you can use the Windows Hello camera login). Design wise the G14 is just beautiful, it's more silver than white (although the keys are white) and has a beautiful design aesthetic. ASUS haven't skimped on ports, you get full sized HDMI (great if you want to game on a monitor), USB A and USB C on each side, and a SD slot. Power is delivered via a proprietary power connector, it kind of looks like a USB C but it's about double the height. The power brick is big, I had to laugh as it's fatter than the G14 but I guess that's fair as it outputs up to 300W of power (whoa!). I was anxious about the 16Gb memory, but I got 98FPS on Forza and sure, the fans fired up, but again wow! The keyboard doesn't get hot to touch under heavy load, which is impressive and you can fine tune performance using Armory Crate, ASUS' thermals, fan, RGB software (which is one of the best tuning software from any vendor). I will also say, because not only am I a gamer, I'm also an engineer and I ran a LTSPice (analog circuit design modeling software) and it was building models for me in 15min vs the hour I get on my work laptop. I'd upload the passmark results, but the G14 smokes my desktop gaming PC, which is crazy when you compare the size difference. There is honestly nothing to fault, the OLED screen is beautiful, sharp, vibrant, the trackpad spacious sand large, I can see myself owning this laptop for many many years and if you're on the fence, just buy it - the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is the best laptop you could ever own. It's also gorgeous to look at. PS. I almosty forget, there's a cool light reflecting strip that lights up on the back (you can turn it off) which just adds to the awesomeness.

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is a nice gaming laptops that comes with a 14" OLED 3K display. It has an Intel Core Ultra 9 with 16GB of Memory and 1TB internal SSD storage. It also has GeForce RTX 5070Ti. The laptop comes well packaged that includes a quick start guide and a proprietary charging cable with adapter. I tried plugging in a USB-C charger from another computer, but I received a message stating that it’s a slow charger, suggesting I use the included charger instead. I had somewhat of challenge while trying to setup my laptop for the first time. I ran into the dreaded “Oops Something Went Wrong” during the Windows Setup process. I went online and searched for a solution from another device and was able to find a way to bypass this error by using Shift + F10 to enter command prompt, then type OOBE\BYPASSNRO. I was then able to continue the initial setup process. I don’t think this is an AUS issue, and probably more of an issue from Windows.The laptop has top firing speakers on each side of the keyboard that makes the sound louder than other laptops that have the speakers underneath the keyboard or underbody of the laptop. The laptop has a nice finish that doesn’t really show fingerprints and it has a nice light strip on the outer lid of the laptop. The laptop has plenty of ports for connecting external devices. On the right side it has a USB-C port, USB A port a slot for an SDcard. On the left side it has the proprietary charging port, HDMI port, USB-C, USB A and a headphone jack. The laptop dues a good job running the games I’ve used. The fans do not get too loud, which is always a plus. Overall, I’m enjoying this nice laptop for my gaming and other needs.

The ASUS Republic of Gamers Zephyrus G14 is a truly fantastic portable gaming laptop. Small and light enough to take anywhere but it also delivers in just about every way. The laptop comes with a serious, dedicated power supply. At first I was a little put off by the size of the power supply, but looking at the specs it delivers 20v at 15 amps! I can’t imagine it will need anywhere near that amperage capacity, but it’s there if needed. Note that the laptop can also be charged with a standard USB-C power supply (assuming 20v capable) but charging times will be longer. Battey life is really good for a gaming laptop. As a test I streamed a 4K video with the screen at the brightest setting and after 9.5 hours there was still 20% battery life remaining. This isn’t the best for a portable laptop but for a laptop with this hardware and power requirements I think that’s very good. I was also amazed at how cool the laptop remained, even under significant load. The aluminum chassis, combined with the ROG intelligent cooling, kept the laptop comfortable. Speaking of performance and load, playing Fortnite I was able to get about 140fps with DLSS high settings enabled. The keyboard is responsive feels great. Keys are a good size for a 14” screen laptop. The screen is great! Bright and contrasty. Gaming is smooth and of course video rendering is smooth as well. A few other little things I appreciated: -does not come with much bloatware -I like that there are 4 separate toggle buttons above the standard function keys for volume up and down, microphone mute button, and the fourth button opens ASUS Armory Crate. A few minor things I didn’t like -The price -16GB RAM. Seems like it should have 32GB at this price point.

The Zephyrus G14 build quality is a huge improvement over my old Asus Tuf. Brushed metal case with nice lines and no sharp edges where your hands or wrists may rest. It feels solidly built but not overly heavy for a gaming laptop. The OLED display is crisp and bright with excellent color reproduction. Display brightness is also very impressive and will allow you to easily use it outdoors in full sun. The sound this machine can put out is crazy. For such a small laptop, this thing can get deceptively loud. And it even manages to maintain decent quality when you start turning it up. I’m not saying it’s going to impress the audiophiles out there, but for a laptop that’s less than an inch thick, it’s no slouch. Another nice touch, if you’re into photography, is that it has a UHS-II SD card reader built-in. This’ll let you transfer large video/image files MUCH faster than a typical SD card. The keyboard has a nice feel to it as well. Crisp action on the keys with a bit of positive feedback with each keypress. Pretty quiet too, so you shouldn’t have to worry about annoying anyone nearby if you’re typing out a novel. You also shouldn’t have any trouble running most games, especially if you’ve got the 250W power supply plugged in. I had no issues running Forza Horizon 5 or F1 24. Won’t have much trouble when on battery either, and should be able to get about an hour+ before needing to get plugged back in. Overall it’s a very capable machine that looks and feels great!

I’ve owned several of Asus’s G14 series laptops. The very first G14 was one favorite laptops, and its follow-ups have come with powerful AMD chips and solid RTX series chips. 6 years later, the G14’s latest iteration is an amazing refinement. This particular unit comes with a Intel Ultra 9 386H - a bit of a throwback chipname. The RTX card in use on this unit is the 5070 ti mobile, which has some similarities to the desktop 5070. The chassis returns from the 2024 refresh, which isn’t a bad thing. The drive is still a 1TB offering adequate space. The casing material is definitely aluminum, and offers a light and thin chassis. However the rampocalypse claims yet another victim as we’ll see. The G14 GU405A is simply a refresh of the prior 2024 and 2025 models. A series of LED’s in a slash offering a bit of flair - controlled by Asus Armory Crate software. Included in the monitor frame is a Windows Hello IR facial recognition. This year’s model sports and OLED like prior models, but this one is DisplayHDR 1000 certified - meaning it’s VERY bright. Still boasting a 120hz refresh rate, it’s an incremental, but welcome improvement in brightness. The 4 speaker setup is familiar. Boasting one of the most expansive and clear sound I’ve heard from a laptop. Bass is solid, and clarity is quite good. The keyboard is the same as prior models, sporting single zone RGB. The color is good, but white backlighting does hint at the RGB nature on some keys with a bit of a purple glow. The trackpad returns with it’s solid gesture support and wide touch area. Build wise, the laptop is quite light - weighing in at 3lbs 5oz and solid with its aluminum construction. Port selection is two USB-C Thunderbolt ports, one on each side. Flanking each of those are 10Gbs USB-A ports. On the left side you have the proprietary power port, HDMI, and a 3.5mm audio jack. On the right side you have an SD card slot. No creaking or flex is felt in the chassis. Like previous models,shifting the GPU mode to ‘Ultimate’ in Armory Crate unlocks the higher 115w power limit. The 5070ti (boasting a partially disabled GB205 chip) has 5888 cuda cores, 184 TMUs and 80 ROPs. 12GB of Vram is available, and this GPU puts out some strong scores. The CPU also is no slouch, given Panther Lake’s Cougar Cove (wow what a mouthful) P-cores that speed through tasks effortlessly. These are both class leading parts. Besting AMD, Intel also is pushing even better battery life than the G14’s predecessors. Games, when played plugged in, were butterly smooth. The mux setup returns as well - allowing the GPU, on demand, to bypass the internal on-board graphics, and drive the screen directly. That allows for native things like g-sync, and better performance. When not required, the mux downshifts to the Intel GPU to drive the display. Overall this is a great setup. Now, using it on battery I noticed the RTX GPU seemed to be hiccuping a bit. The 386H is surprisingly nearly as fast on battery, losing only a few percentage points of performance from when it was plugged in. R23 Cinebench returned over 16k. Plugged in over 20k. The inbuilt graphics on the 386H is only 4 Xe cores of the 3rd generation - which while anemic - can still get you by for normal and casual activities. The power port is unique to Asus, and can be found on multiple other machines. It can deliver a lot of power and can be plugged either direction. It’s no magnetic charger, but overall it’s a sure way to deliver the 250-300w of power the brick is rated for - a necessary amount given the CPU and GPU can pull 80 and 115w respectively. The device can also charge via USB-C PD, which can be effective when not gaming. Disassembly of the chassis is fairly easy. There are 11 screws - 2 hidden under black plugs. They’re a very small torx head (t-8?). On opening you are presented with the complex headpipe design, 2 fans, and the only 2 upgradable components: the WiFi and NVMe SSD. The big downside is the 16GB of ram. Like I mentioned earlier, rampocalypse has claimed this machine - there is only 16GB of ram; which is an odd pairing with a 12GB GPU. With no opportunity to upgrade this later, do keep this in mine when looking at this model. That said, for many, especially dedicated gamers, 16GB may be enough. The G14 GU405 keeps pushing the G14 series forward. The screen is an obvious highlight, as is the addition of Thunderbolt 4. This year’s model feels like it brings Intel’s best, but at the cost of losing some system memory that seemed to be table stakes just a bit over a year ago.