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Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Gaming Laptop
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA401Q is a powerful gaming laptop in an ultra-portable chassis. The Asus Zephyrus range brings the best of the manufacturer to the gaming segment. This laptop offers a small chassis with its 14″ screen and dimensions of 324 x 222 x 1.9 mm, even less than the Zephyrus S (15 inches). But without making any concessions on power. Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop has an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS processor accompanied by an Nvidia GeForce 3060 (6 GB of memory) Max-Q design graphics card. A solid setup for 1080p gaming. What offers more performance and makes the Asus compact gaming laptop even more attractive?
Specifications
Processor: | AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS 3.1GHz (16MB cache, up to 4.6GHz) |
Video Card: | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop 6GB GDDR6 (60W with ROG Boost, 80W with Dynamic Boost) |
RAM: | 32GB DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM |
Storage: | SK 1TB M.2 2280 NVMe PCIe 3.0 |
Display: | 14″, 2560 × 1440, IPS, 60/120 Hz |
Interfaces: | 2×USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A, 2×USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C, 1×3.5mm mini-jack, 1×HDMI 2.0b |
Network: | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax, 2 bands), Bluetooth 5.1 |
Battery: | 76 Wh, 4S1P, 4 cells, Li-Ion |
Power: | 100W, 20V, 5A, TYPE-C connector; 180 W ø 6.0 mm, 20 V, 9 A |
Dimensions and Weight: | 324 × 220 × 20 mm; 1.7 kg |
Pros and Cons
Pros | Cons |
Well-crafted stylish design | Relatively noisy and hot in turbo mode |
4 loud speakers with Dolby Atmos technology | Limited connectivity |
Display QWHD 2560×1440 120 Hz | Limited to 80W graphics card TDP |
High-quality IPS matrix with coverage of 98.4% sRGB | |
Discrete graphics card RTX 3060 Laptop | |
New 8-core Ryzen 9 5900HS processo | |
Very high performance for a 14″ laptop | |
Compact dimensions and low weight of 1.7 kg | |
Magnesium alloy metal body | |
Good set of interfaces, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) | |
Two charging adapters included | |
AniMe Matrix LED display on lid |
Image Credit: Asus
Design
The ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop sports a very sober design, moving away from the usual canons of gaming PCs with their aggressive lines and chassis embellished with LEDs. The body, made of aluminum and magnesium, offers the added bonus of excellent rigidity at all points.
Once the Zephyrus G14 laptop is open, you will notice that the keyboard part rises slightly. It is based on the base of the screen. A technique much used by Asus on its ROG computers (like the Zephyrus S). This design trick serves two purposes. The first is to tilt the keyboard slightly to provide more comfort. The second is to allow the chassis to draw in cool air from below. The hot air is expelled via the grille located in the hinge and therefore does not disturb the user. An excellent thing, many manufacturers still favor the expulsion of air from the sides, which has the effect of blowing heat on the hand when using a mouse. The touchpad becomes a little larger, the upper speakers have moved, and the protrusion at the bottom of the gap has disappeared.
Despite its compact format, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop has rich and varied connectivity. In total, two USB-C 3.2 gen 2 ports (one of which, the one to the left, is Power Delivery compatible for charging via USB-C), an HDMI output, and 2 USB-A 3.2 gen 2 ports. Not to mention a card reader micro SD UHS-II.
Keyboard and touchpad
The keyboard offers keys with a short stroke, despite a slightly unpleasant feeling of softness in the first hours of use. The chassis does not bend when typing. A small format requires that the numeric keypad is not present. The strike here is supple and precise, with a good length of stroke and a sufficiently tonic return to make the whole thing pleasant.
The touchpad benefits from a large glass surface (130×75 mm). It offers a fast and precise glide.
Display Screen
On the Zephyrus G14, Asus offers a 14″ matte screen with thin six-millimeter edges. This allows it to gain even more size in terms of the chassis, which is similar to that of a PC with a 13″ screen. The model is equipped with an IPS LCD panel with a definition of 2560 x 1440 pixels with a refresh rate of 60 Hz. Asus offers several versions of its computer, and it is quite possible to opt for a 1080p panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate.
The Ergolift hinge improves air circulation by slightly raising the rear of the chassis. The screen can also be opened flat (180°). Convenient to slide it under an external monitor.
Bringing in a small welcome novelty, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 now has a webcam in its usual location (in the center of the upper amount of the screen). If the definition (720P) is classic with less sharp images, the Zephyrus makes up for it with the presence of infrared sensors. Corollary to Windows Hello biometric identification. Remember in this regard that the fingerprint sensor has disappeared on the GA402.
Image Credit: Asus
Performance
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA401Q system is built based on the flagship 8-core Ryzen 9 5900HS, which can handle 16 threads. Chip frequencies – from base 3.3 GHz to 4.6 GHz in boost. The 7nm process and the new Zen 3 architecture deliver significantly higher performance than the previous Ryzen 9 4900H, as well as lower heat dissipation of up to 35W. Thus, the processor is ideally suited for the role of a productive chip for mobile solutions in the form of gaming laptops, especially compact ones.
The Ryzen 9 5900HS integrates the Radeon RX Vega 8 graphics accelerator with 8 computing units and a frequency of up to 2100 MHz with a dual-channel RAM controller (clocks up to LPDDR4 4266 are supported).
The maximum supported RAM is 32 GB. In this case, this is a 16 GB bar in the only available slot, and another 16 GB soldered on the board. The memory operates in 2-channel mode at a frequency of 3200 MHz. The AIDA64 test shows an average throughput but small delays and a good exchange rate with the L1 cache.
In addition to the integrated graphics of the RX Vega 8 processor, the laptop has a discrete GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop. A version with a TDP reduced to 60W in standard mode (up to 80W in boost mode) is installed. However, the card is currently one of the fastest on the market, so it should show good FPS in heavy games even at QWHD resolution.
Conclusion
ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 GA401Q turned out to be even more productive than previous models: such a level for a 14 ”compact and relatively light (1.7 kg) laptop is almost the ceiling of possibilities. The new Ryzen 9 5900HS processor makes the model very fast: 16 threads provide tremendous performance at work, and a high boost frequency of up to 4.6 GHz allows you to realize excellent performance while playing. Having also a discrete graphics card, RTX 3060 Laptop, you get enough power for games at a resolution of QWHD 2560×1440. Here it is not only for show but is quite applicable in practice, and quite comfortable FPS show even AAA projects that are demanding on hardware.
There is also support for the new Wi-Fi 6 standard (802.11ax). The icing on the cake is a bright display with almost 100% coverage of the sRGB range and a frequency of 120 Hz, as well as a branded AniMe Matrix display on the lid, which can display any image with additional effects. All-in-all, A very solid laptop that is worth its weight in gold if you can pay the price.
