Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Gaming Laptop
USD
Pros
- Slim and light profile
- Excellent CPU Performance
- Decent Battery Life
- Right ports
- Offers good value for money
Cons
- No 4K display option
- No Thunderbolt Support
- Loud fans when under a workload
- Keyboard backlighting isn’t up to the mark
- Support issue sometimes
In This Article
Verdict
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is one of the best launches of 2020. You can opt for it when you don’t want to spend much but are still looking for undeniably superior performance. It is safe to say that at this price range, it offers more than what you’d expect.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Gaming Laptop & Variants Price
Introduction
Imagine a laptop that can offer you the performance of one with a top-notch Intel Core i9-9980HK processor, at a price below $2000, and is lightweight at the same time.
Yes, AMD and ASUS have finally done it and produced the ROG Zephyrus G14 that offers the latest Ryzen 4000 Series processor, RTX 2060 Graphics, with some limitations on RAM.
Even the battery life is good on this one as we will be talking about below. Will it be the new premium laptop you have been looking for? Read more to find out, and we promise, things get very interesting from here on.
Buy for: Compact Size and light design│Excellent performance | VR ready
Beware of: A few minor flaws like no Thunderbolt support│Limited RAM
Best uses for: Streaming or making YouTube videos, photo editing, gaming, video editing, Age of Empires, Foxhole, Ground Control II: Operation Exodus, Jazz Jackrabbit, Jill of the Jungle, Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death, Kentucky Route Zero and other purposes.
The alternatives:
Design and Build
The device comes in two color variants, but we have to say that this one with the White exterior combined with the gray interior does stand out.
But, contrasts are still better in the other variant. The lid has an optional LED lighting on one of the diagonal half, while the other half is plain.
You can even customize it to display text or a GIF. But no worries regarding water going inside as a protective layer is present between the exterior and the display.
As you open the lid, the body of the laptop is raised upward by the hinge. This gives you a slightly better typing position, while also allowing more air intake.
A thing to know here is that this new iteration of the Zephyrus is very thin. The exact thickness is 0.7 inches, and it is a wonder how so many components are put together in such a small frame.
Magnesium-alloy is the material used to build the device, and this is why it is fairly durable. A hint of plastic is visible here and there, but it doesn’t distort the overall looks.
This is the reason it is quite light, weighing just below 4 pounds (1.6 Kgs). A 14” FHD display with thin bezels is available, and while this may feel like an ultrabook, it certainly performs better.
Performance
The AMD Ryzen 4900HS processor present in the laptop is what makes all the difference in the performance, and is one of the most attractive features Asus has provided.
It is so good that you can compare it with the latest 10th gen CPUs from Intel. The clock speed is not as high at 4.3 GHz max speed, but the 8 cores and 16 threads leave their mark in both single and multi-core tasks.
Then you have the NVIDIA RTX 2060 Max-Q graphics coprocessor with 6 GB VRAM.
We have already reviewed the Acer Predator Helios 700, and you would be surprised to know that the Zephyrus G14 was able to beat it in many tests.
These were Cinebench R15 and R20, video conversion, and even gaming. In a direct comparison, this laptop from Asus provided better frame rates in Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Rainbow 6 Siege than the Helios 700.
However, it is several times lighter and much cheaper than the latter. In other games too like BattleField V, Forza Horizon and GTA V, the results were brilliant. The laptop does well both at 1080p and 1440p gaming.
The display performance is good, but it isn’t very bright like other IPS panels. The quality and color accuracy was satisfactory, and the results of RGB were 94%.
When using it outside though, you might feel uncomfortable as the highest brightness is 330 nits. Some software like Adobe Premiere won’t run very comfortably though.
This is not so bad for a laptop at this price, but there are other options for dedicated editing purposes. Also, there is a QHD variant that you may consider.
But one of the bad things about the display is the poor response timings. While gaming specifically, one would feel some sluggishness even with the FreeSync. Windows 10 is the OS on which the laptop runs.
Benchmarks
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1. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop comes with an AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS processor. According to cpubenchmark, the AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS processor’s average CPU mark is 19335. The single thread rating of this AMD processor is 2619.
The technical experts of this benchmarking site checked out 379 samples and they found a low margin of error in this processor. They give this processor an overall rank of 347.
2. Another popular benchmarking site is UserBenchmark. This website states that the AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS processor’s average benchmark score is 72.8%.
The technical experts of this site have tested 1363 processors of a similar category with multiple tests. And this processor has ranked 299th position among them.
From the gaming perspective, the AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS has got a bench score of 73%. For desktops, this numerical value is also 73% and for workstations, this bench score is 72%. So we can consider this processor as a powerful, efficient one.
GPU
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX2060 Max-Q Graphics card is attached to the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX2060 Max-Q Graphics card’s 3D mark time spy graphics score is 5621.
The 3D mark rank of this graphics card is 75. The popularity rank of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX2060 Max-Q graphics card is 85.
Storage and RAM
The storage space you get is 1 TB. There isn’t any space to add more storage without replacing the default SSD as the single M.2 slot is occupied with it. This is the only storage drive.
The RAM present is 16 GB in a dual-channel setup. It operates at 3200 MHz speed. Even so, there is only one SO-DIMM module that you can alter, and thus the maximum memory one can install is 24 GB.
The other memory module cannot be accessed, not unless you are a professional. Check out best laptop brands.
Ports and Connectivity
The ports present on the laptop are as follows:
- A USB Type-C port
- 2 USB Type-A ports
- An HDMI port
- A Display Port (also a USB Type-C)
- A headphone/mic jack
For other connectivity, you get the standard Bluetooth 5 and WIFI 6 which is much faster than WIFI 5. Thus, you get better max speeds.
Battery Life
A high spec laptop does not tend to last long on battery, and those “gaming laptops” are even more so.
However, you would be delighted to know that even with so much power, this processor does not consume much wattage.
As a result, even with the 76 Wh battery, the laptop easily lasts for more than 8 hours for the basic tasks. Under workload, it surely reduces to less than 2 hours, so there’s nothing special about it.
However, when you are doing things like surfing the web or consuming media, you won’t feel like you are using a gaming laptop.
You have to use a standard AC adapter to power up the laptop, but it does support Type-C charging. But it is slower and a 65 W adapter has to be used, which isn’t provided in the packaging.
Additional Features
The laptop has two speakers, one at the top and the other at the bottom. They function well even at the higher volumes.
There isn’t a webcam present, which could be a problem for some. The keyboard and touchpad are responsive, and the later is quite precise.
VR gaming is supported by it and playing games is more enjoyable. A 1 year warranty from Asus has been provided.
Specs:
- Brand: Asus
- Display Size: 14”
- Display Type: FHD (1920*1080p)
- Storage: 1 TB SSD
- RAM: 16 GB
- Storage Type: M.2
- RAM Type: DDR4
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q
- Processor Speed: 3 GHz base, 4.3 GHz
- Processor Brand: AMD
- Product Dimensions: 12.8 * 8.7 * 0.7 inches
- Operating System: Windows 10
What Do Users Think about ROG Zephyrus G14?
The users were fairly satisfied with the device and its performance. They thought it was rightly priced, and the presence of the latest features made it worth buying.
The display was fast and they had a smooth experience while gaming, but it wasn’t the best. The laptop was extremely compact and because of the lightweight, they had convenience while traveling with it.
Some have even opted for the QHD display that produced more vibrant colors and richer visuals. A majority of them consider that it was overall a good laptop.
The latest Ryzen CPU, with decent graphics and long-lasting battery life, is a balanced set of features. Check out ROG Zephyrus G14 Manual.
However, some have complained regarding the fan noise which gets uncomfortable in the manual settings. Also, the fingerprint sensor was not perfect and failed to work at times.
Many professionals had troubles as it doesn’t have a webcam built-in, and they had to acquire a webcam to attend video conferences.
Also, the keyboard backlighting was useless at night and they would rather keep it turned off.
Our Testing & Analysis Report
For the purpose of testing the CPU of the Asus Rog Zephyrus G14, we compared its performance with a few laptops with similar capabilities such as Razer Blade 15 and others.
According to PCMark 10, we found that the overall performance of the CPU with respect to word processing, video conferencing or web browsing is pretty good.
We used Maxon’s Cinebench R23 stress-test to find out about the multi-threaded performance of the CPU using the Cinema 4D engine.
We also run Primate Labs’ Geekbench 5.4 Pro to test its ability to handle heavy tasks and real-world applications.
Our technical team also used HandBrake 1.4 to test its coding ability and Adobe’s Photoshop Creative Cloud 22 to test its editing ability on a test Image.
We also used several UserBenchmark and also a few other tests for its productivity and found that the performance was at par but nothing exceptionally different or higher in comparison to the performance of other similar laptops in our database.
For the GPU tests, we conducted 3DMark Night Raid and 3DMark Time Spy tests and played games like Foxhole, Ground Control II: Operation Exodus and more.
We found that the graphics performance of this laptop is relatively better than other 14-inch laptops.
We tested the display of the laptop with Datacolor SpyderX Elite display calibration tool and software. We found that its sRGB and Adobe RGB coverage along with DCI-P3 color gamut score was quite impressive.
Finally, to test the battery, we set the display brightness to half, audio to 100%, and disabled Wi-Fi.
After charging the battery to its full capacity, we ran a few 720p videos in loop, played games, and performed some high-end tasks. The battery lasted for just a couple of hours!
Questions & Answers:
Does the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop, comes with an inbuilt webcam?
There is no inbuilt webcam on this laptop.
Is the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop good for professional gamers?
Yes, professional gamers can consider this laptop. Its specifications are quite high and they can get very smooth processing from it.
Is there any Type C post in the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop?
Yes, there are two USB Type C ports in this laptop.
Does the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop have a backlit keyboard?
Yes, there is a backlit keyboard; but it is white and its color is non-changeable.
Is there Dolby Atmos sound in the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop?
Yes, the speakers of this laptop come with Dolby Atmos and Smart AMP technology. The users can experience throbbing sound quality.