Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Review - Compact Gaming Laptop with AMD Zen4 Phoenix & RTX 4090

[Alexander_]

Check out IPS and MiniLED specifications.
The latter is in some sense the same IPS, but already with full black (than 0.42 cd/m² on IPS).
Subjectively, when you use OLED-like screens for some time (on phones, for example), you don't really want to go back to regular IPS.
If you are unable to compare both laptops live, then at least try to compare two business phones (preferably from the same manufacturer) where one screen is IPS and the other is AMOLED. Sometimes it takes time to understand the difference.


But, NB preliminarily notes that OLED can consume three times more energy to display full white color than IPS screens.
I think that these estimates are still preliminary, because various factors "play" here, such as the nature of use: do you only surf the web on dark-colored sites? How many colors will be displayed in total, and what "color mode" is selected?
So here it makes sense to think if there can be significant differences in autonomy. (Remember, the screen is not the only thing that consumes battery power).

[NikoB]

All miniLEDs have an inherent bug with zone illumination - halos around objects at the borders of zones. And no super black in this case.

The only analogue of AMOLED is microLED, but even Apple has not yet been able to master it, despite all the attempts in recent years. Everyone is waiting for it, but under the conditions that there will be no low-frequency PWM and a glossy coating (the scourge of AMOLED). As well as rapid burnout, because the AMOLED resource is on average 2 times lower than that of the IPS backlit. Plus, which has been repeatedly proven by reviews - AMOLED has extremely inaccurate color reproduction - even after hardware calibration(which also needs to be done much more often than on IPS) it is rarely possible to bring the spread in colors to dE less than 2, which is elementary made on IPS in 99% of cases.

[Alexander_]

but even Apple has not yet been able to master it

But here we are talking about Asus - the pioneers of many PC components... Here, as you can see, the PWM is extremely high and the panel is matte. So I wouldn't make a biased assessment of what I haven't held in my hands yet.

And about the possible halos. I completely agree - you need to look specifically at how it is implemented in this laptop and which modes to what extent eliminate this effect [and there is special software for setting up different color rendering profiles].

Burnout - yes, it must be taken into account. [But this is not 2 years.. The question is still open in time].

Typically, ZenBooks have all screens already well calibrated at the factory, as confirmed by numerous NB tests.

[Raven m]

Hey, Are the battery runtimes done with the use of MUX-switch? I'd imgine this could make a huge difference...

[rmjps]

In which power mode are the battery runtime tests done? And is it possible to circumvent the RTX GPU in favor of the iGPU to gain more battery life?

[MiniBlahaj]

Is it possible to upgrade the 1TB SSD to a double-sided 4TB SSD? Wondering if anyone has tried.

[NigelFarageTheRacist]

Product: 2023 Asus ROG G14 + RTX 4090
Price: $3592/€3290/£2817 from NY, US incl. tax
Bought on: 2 Jul 2023
BIOS: 314

I am comparing it with the 2022 G14 6900HS, 6800S for $2050/€1870/£1600 bought on 1 Jul 2023.
BIOs: 317

SUMMARY
The best 14" performance laptop for creators and gamers. Overall better product than G15, G16.

PROs
+ Better product than 2022 G14
+ 80% better GPU performance for 76% price premium is fair
+ 1.7kg without charger
+ 16GB VRAM reduced stuttering and texture bugs by 95% in Diablo 4
+ comes in white
+ white keyboard no longer has a beige, green hue
+ you can buy additional 240W barrel chargers from Asus
+ fantastic 1.7mm key travel
+ great screen
+ decent speakers (no match to MacBooks though)
+ slim bezels

CONs
- no European keyboard layout
- USB C on left (iGPU) does not work on my model, and I will wait for a BIOS update
- only 100W USB C power in even though we could easily have 240W
- Laptop battery drains if powered by 100W USB C even in Silent Mode and forcing iGPU at low brightness
- official Asus keyboard costs $250/€230/£200 while you can get 3rd party RGB alternatives in US, UK layout for $50 on AliExpress
- changing keyboards is extremely difficult as it requires removal of lots of sticky tape and glued wires (high risk of damaging parts in the process)
- terribly patchy and uneven keyboard backlight
- 240W charger bulky, heavy and lacks USB C
- Asus Armoury Crate control software a terrible, ugly and tacky mess
- Cycling through power modes very cumbersome
- Useless M4 key
- Tacky ROG gaming bootup logo
- even a July 2023 Win11 ISO was unable to detect WiFi
- sharp display corners cut into your legs when on lap
- laptop can move around too easily due to insufficiently sized rubber feet on display frame
- lacks webcam shutter
- lacks Page Up/Down keys as found on ThinkPads
- trackpad too sensitive in BIOS

FAQ
- Yes, a double sided 2280 M.2 fits. The stock 1TB is 2mm (single sided), and 4mm (dual sided) 8TB PNY XLR8 CS3140 PCie 4.0 works well and does hardly flex. No thermal throttling
- Maximum M.2 speed is PCIe 4.0 due to processor
- Maximum RAM is 48GB (16GB soldered + 1 DIMM). There are no 48GB or 64GB DIMMs AFAIK
- Soldered RAM is 4800MHz, CL38
- The 2023 has the same RAM as the 2022 model

[MobileTechUser]

Can Asus please send the black chassis version to the U.S.? We are sick and tired of moonlight white G14s

i agree with you, even the last generation 2022 g14s don't have any black variants in the us, all of them are only white, even if the laptop is good value the white color makes it a deal breaker because dirt and grime is easier to see

[Willis]

- Yes, a double sided 2280 M.2 fits. The stock 1TB is 2mm (single sided), and 4mm (dual sided) 8TB PNY XLR8 CS3140 PCie 4.0 works well and does hardly flex. No thermal throttling
- Maximum M.2 speed is PCIe 4.0 due to processor

Quick question: how was your experience changing the SSD? Did you use their stock heat sink-ish metal fins for the replacement SSD? If so, was there any trouble removing that metal fin from the stock SSD and sticking it to the new one?

[George]

Can Asus please send the black chassis version to the U.S.? We are sick and tired of moonlight white G14s

I whole heartedly agree!!

As a owner of multiple 14" laptops (including a few Razor Blades) this review interested me in that THIS model can be configured with many of my "must have" specs: Quick 14" QHD screen, 4070 GPU and AMD CPU.

While I generally will purchase BLACK if it is an option, sadly in the US only the 'white' is available. Oh well.

Considering that not many (or for very long) will be attempting to play many games while on battery power it WOULD OF BEEN interesting to note if this AMD model can/could support an EXTERNAL GPU or not as sku's with 4050 and <sic> HD screens are way less expensive.

I currently have one inbound.

Thanks for the review!


g.

[George]

In the US Bestbuy had the IPS/16GB/1TB/4070 version on sale for the same price as the 512GB/4060 version - I pounced on it.

Ok it is white. Big deal. While out and about it will be in a case so not worried about 'dirt'. This is a bit thicker and heavier then my Razor's or MacBooks.

On setup the same sequence usually happens: 1) get control of the box, 2) get rid of bloatware, 3) install my favorite apps/games and finally, 4) use/have fun.

The first step was fairly easy with using a command (alt-f10) prompt at the 'network' stage and typing "oobe\BypassNRO", after a reboot no more MS account sillyness.

Thankfully Asus did not not load with much bloatware so it was rather quick to get rid of what was there (mostly unwanted/needed MS crap).

Next up was put Firefox, Steam and Open office on. These all went fairly quickly. After Steam I installed: Witcher3, Horizon and RDR2. All installed quickly and the downloads actually maxed out the bandwidth of my internet connection (I ended up enabling QOS because of this).

I've played a bit of all three and they look STUNNING on the 14" screen! I will mention that over time the Asus got a bit "uncomfortable" on my lap so I grabbed a single fan 'laptop cooler' I had and sat the Asus on it. The 'cooler' blows cool air from the center of my 2 legs to the bottom of the Asus keeping both my legs cool and dissipating some of the heat the Asus is generating.

In all 3 games I believe the 'Nvidia Experience' configured 'ultimate' image quality on all of them. I ran the Benchmark on Horizon just for kicks and was stunned with the image quality of everything presented during the benchmark.

Funny, in this and many reviews they mention the fan noise but I really did NOT notice any before or after I started using the laptop cooler. I DID notice that above the keyboard on the top it gets rather warm to down right hot to the touch even with the extra laptop cooler.

Since I have many other laptop and computing devices for other things THIS Asus will be a 'dedicated gaming' device.

[TC]

Where to get the wallpaper from?

[TuanHM]

Notebookcheck, you need to measure the display between iGPU and dGPU mode because the color accuracy is different between them. I wish you doing so a lot thanks