Zephyrus – also known as Zephyr – was the Greek God of the west wind.
Also known as the ‘gentlest of winds’, it was thought that when the western wind blew it would herald the start of spring.
Today, it means something different. Today, it may as well mean one kick ass gaming laptop.
ASUS ROG: Zephyrus G14: what’s new?
The ASUS G14 is the first of a new breed of gaming machines that puts portability up there with the importance of power.
In days of old, gaming laptops were huge rigs – designed to be put in one place and maybe moved, once every couple of months. But today, gamers want a little bit more in a laptop. They want to be able to play games at the highest-settings possible, but also be able move it from A to B with ease.
That’s where the new G14 comes in. This guy weighs just 1.58 kilogrammes – that’s comparable to an iPad Pro with its Magic Keyboard attached. And it packs quite a bit under the hood.
ASUS ROG: Zephyrus G14: how does it handle?
The G14 rocks an AMD RYZEN 9 4900HS processor that boasts 3GHz clock speeds that can be boosted up to 4.4GHz. The 14-inch screen has a refresh rate of 120-hertz, and there’s also an Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q video card under the hood. And to top all that off, Asus has crammed a 1TB solid state drive in there for fun.
All that translates into a laptop that really is rather powerful. You can play most games at their very highest settings, video editing is a doddle, and you can multitask to your heart’s content.
Want to play Overwatch while photoshopping some images? Go for it, this guy can handle it.
ASUS ROG: Zephyrus G14: quite the looker
Most gaming laptops look like they were designed by a 14-year-old boy with a penchant for LED lights, not so for the G14.
The sleek white case looks really rather good, and wouldn’t look out of place sat in the boardroom. The keyboard is big and springy, and the touchpad too is solid. You also get a wide variety of ports and connections – meaning there’s no need to carry a dongle around with you as you go.
Even the power brick has been designed with portability in mind.
ASUS ROG: Zephyrus G14: pin sharp
The screen is big and bright, and Asus has really tried its best to get it as close to those bezels as possible. Which brings us to our first downside – there’s no built-in camera. That won’t matter to die-hard gamers or streamers, who tend to use external cameras anyway.
But it today’s world and given the importance of video calls and conferencing, that will certainly impact more casual users.
Yes, gaming laptops do need big fans to stay cool. That’s a natural trade-off for all that extra power, but the fan on the G14 is certainly noticeable, very noticeable.
ASUS ROG: Zephyrus G14: verdict
The fan noise isn’t deal-breaker given everything the Zephyrus G14 does right.
It’s spectacularly tiny, especially when you consider the amount of gaming hardware Asus managed to cram under its rather attractive hood.
All in all, it’s a pretty fantastic device – and you can pick one up very competitive price. That makes it one of our favorite gaming laptops of 2020 (if not, the past couple of years).
Zephyrus was worshipped for being the God of the western wind. Personally, I am hoping that the G14 does bring with it the winds of change, and a new generation of gaming laptops that won’t break your back when you go to pick it up.
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