When you first look at the 2023 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, it is easy to realise that no one else really does what Asus does with its ROG line of machines. Yes, there are a number of manufacturers that boast of seriously capable machines in the product catalogues. But, over the past few years, if you have seriously considered powerful, yet portable and/or modular devices for yourself, you would have found yourself with just Asus devices to pick from.
We have been loaned the GA402XZ, the highest spec available in the country. With a footprint that’s about the same as my daily 14-inch work laptop, the G14 packs in considerably more power. An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 with 12 gigs of RAM takes care of graphics processing needs, with a AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor (clocked at 4.00GHz) and Radeon 780M Graphics onboard. 32 gigs of fast DDR5 RAM power the laptop. On the storage front, you get a 1TB PCIe-4.0 SSD. All that is incredible, especially so for a laptop that is as light as this (1.72kg).
The laptop is built like a tank with a magnesium alloy base and an aluminium lid. There is no flex whatsoever. This comes in especially handy when using the keyboard and trackpad. Coming from a laptop with a thin profile, it is easy to appreciate the lack of flex while typing. There is good travel and feedback as well. The hinges raise the base of the device off the desk and that makes it a bit more ergonomic. The hinges themselves feel solid and can open up the device to upto 180 degrees.
Our review unit is in a subtle shade of grey but you can also have it in a less discreet white shade. I do prefer the grey though. The AniME display looks and works similarly to the one last year but it still manages to be a show stopper. Port selection remains robust, with the left side getting a power port, HDMI 2.1, USB-C 4.0 (can connect to the integrated GPU) and a 3.5mm audio jack. On the right hand side, there’s a microSD reader, USB-C 3.2 Gen.2 (connects to the dedicated GPU) and 2 USB-A 3.2 Gen.2 ports.
On the display front, the 14-inch mini-LED panel has a resolution of 2560 x 1600 and has a high refresh rate of 165Hz with a response rate of just 3ms. Importantly, for someone like me who tends to use their laptop outside, the 500 nits of max brightness comes in very handy. The colour reproduction is very good and movements are very smooth. In my opinion, this is probably among the best panels on a laptop this size. The display profiles can be altered in the Armoury Crate with a specific mode for editing called Display-P3 which should help with better colour accuracy. The default profile with slight oversaturation, in my opinion, is perfect for everyday use.
To be fair, my workload doesn’t even get close to testing the limits of this device. In fact, for most of my time with it, the ROG Zephyrus G14 could get by without even switching on the fans, such is the sheer power under the hood. I will be loaning this device to the video editors in the team to get a better sense of performance under sustained loads. But by all accounts, it does seem like something that will be unperturbed no matter what you throw at it.
With everything it packs under the hood, and the software optimizations that are possible with Armoury Crate, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 comes across as a beast that will easily replace some much larger machines for some people. A number of devices in the present ROG lineup are targeted at a small niche of people. They are what you can call halo devices. This is one such laptop. While it might not do the numbers of some of the brand’s more affordable laptops, it is an important product when it comes to what it represents for the enthusiasts.
