Both CPU and GPU adopt AMD.Is Asus Rog Zephyrus G14 a strongest gaming notebook PC this year?

The latest games can be played comfortably, but the battery lasts a long time!

The 2022 model of Rog Zephyrus G14, ASUS gaming notebook PC, has been announced.According to Gizmodo's PHILLIP TRACY reporter, it seems that the number of defects in the 2021 edition is almost eliminated and the degree of perfection is increasing, but it is not perfect.What is good and what is not enough ... Please see below for details!

If there is a hero story in the gadget world, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (Zephyrus G14) has been the protagonist of AMD in recent years.A few years ago, in the first model, the AMD processor "Ryzen" proved that the tip performance of Intel (Intel) can be fulfilled and the runtime can achieve the highest level.ASUS has achieved a portable gaming system with a perfect balance of size, performance, and efficiency by working with Intel's rivals.The Zephyrus G14 sold out, and at one time it was out of stock for a few months.

The 2022 Zephyrus G14 does not change the recipes of the victory so far, and has more sophisticated the elements.ASUS listened to the feedback from the user and leveraged the parts that were not enough.While the drawbacks such as touchpads and cooling mechanisms have been improved, new features such as RGB backlight keyboards, 16:10 displays, and infrared web cameras have been added.

In addition to such a visible change, the update is still a twin turbo engine from AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU and Radeon RX 6800S GPU.Yes, the brain of Zephyrus G14 this year is bright red on AMD for both CPU and GPU.Is it okay to have nvidia?You may be worried, but this year's Zephyrus G14 is not all perfect, but I think it is the best finish ever.

Asus Rog Zephyrus G14 (2022 model)

What is this?: Portable 14 -inch gaming notebook PC.

Price: $ 1,599 (about 184,000 yen).The review machine is $ 2,499 (about 287,000 yen).

Favorite place: great performance, attractive portable design, encouraging port group, colorful 16:10 display, large touchpad, RGB keyboard (optional), web camera!

I don't like it: It's warm, the top configuration is high, the RTX 3070 system loses in performance, and the backlight is uneven.

Both elegance and fun

This year's Zephyrus G14 looks exactly the same as the predecessor, that is, the same eye -catching, especially the review machine Moonlight White is very beautiful (another Eclipse Gray).The balance of ASUS is wonderful, and Zephyrus G14 can pursue coolness for gamers, and in places that are not noticeable like schools and offices, you can behave modestly.

How flashy it is depends on the settings.There are some things that are not very modest, like dot pictures that spread almost all over the lid.Anime Matrix, which has increased LEDs (with 1,449) than before, is a white light grid and can display custom animation.You can see the dot pattern even if you do not turn on the light, and if you turn on the LED, the light show will start.I think that ASUS -like design approach that emphasizes play in a good way is effective.

I personally don't like this kind of gimmick, but it's fun to play with glowing dots.On Valentine's Day, the animation took about a minute and turned the animation from a star to a heart explosion, and when she opened the lid next to her wife, her wife laughed halfly.I might be a nard, but my wife was pleased.If you still have a lack of geeks, you can keep ASUS virtual pet omni in a dot picture and play a mini game.

Another one on the lid is the pink "Republic of Gamers" emblem just above the chrome line.If you open Zephyrus G14 under a moderate lighting, the keyboard and palm rest are pearls, and the turquoise blue and pink can be seen.This kind of thing is easy to pass through, but this kind of shine adds some kind of elegance.If you turn it upside down, the aggressive contour with an angle is a common cyberpunk flavor in Zephyrus.

The design of Zephyrus G14 is not just a coolness, and when you actually touch it, you will notice the comfort.The part where you put your hand when opening the lid has an angle downward, making it easier to open with one hand.When the lid is fully opened, the "ergolift" hinge will slightly higher the back side of the keyboard, resulting in an easy -to -type angle, and air flows below the main body to help cool.The hinge is rotating 180 degrees, so the screen will be flat.Some manufacturers are called "collaboration functions", but personally, I think that it is good that you can not remove even if you open the lid too much.

What I liked in the design was around the display.This year's Zephyrus G14 has a front camera on the screen, while keeping the slim bezel of the predecessor.In addition, the aspect ratio changes to 16:10, and the vertical space increases, giving a more compact impression.In fact, Zephyrus G14 is 12.3x8.9 × 0.73 inches (31).2x22.7 × 1.95cm), Weight 3.8 pounds (1).72kg), very thin and light.Even if you put it in a backpack and take it to the cafe, you hardly notice that you are there.

Large touchpad, RGB keyboard

ASUS has a small touchpad!Listening to the dissatisfaction voice, this Zephyrus G14 expanded the touchpad both vertically and horizontally, and increased by 50 % in terms of area.The glass surface has a faint elasticity, it is the best feeling I used on a gaming notebook PC, and the response to swipes and gestures is fast.

The keyboard also had a change, although the keyboard feeling was almost the same.The SF -like appearance has disappeared, and it is more traditional.The click feeling of the key is not the best, but the key label is 1.It was as deep as 7mm, and the balance between the key size and the key interval was exquisite, and it came to the right moment when I started type.I tried a typing test, but I hit 119 words much more per minute higher than the average at a correct answer rate of 97 %.I also like the arrangement of keys other than letters.The arrow key is inverted T -shaped and lined up a little from other keys, and the communication key (volume and mute) is on the upper side of the keyboard and is easy to access.

I think the RGB keyboard option is nice for gamers.Unfortunately, my review machine was a white key, so I can't show what kind of light shows will take place on the white background.Unfortunately, the backlight had unevenness.Regarding hardware, I can't do it because I'm hardly dissatisfied with anything else.

In the case of RGB keyboard, the color can be customized with ASUS's Armory Crate software.I like the software that ASUS pre -installed.The useful functions are integrated into one or two apps, and they show them with a modern and colorful interface.

The rest was just a quick use, but with a quad speaker (upward and downward, two drivers), a loud volume can be made, the sound is clear, and the bass is surprisingly sloppy.The 720p web camera is not the highest image quality of both photos and videos, but can be used normally.

And as a notebook PC of this size, ports are listed quite well.USB 3.2 Type-A two, USB 3.2 The second generation USB-C port is HDMI 2 one by one to the left and right.0B input is on the left, microSD card slot is on the right, and headphones / microphone jacks.It's hard to say that this compact machine should be attached to an Ethernet port, but I would be more happy if I could put it with the adapter alone.By the way, with the USB-C on the left, 100W power supply and DisplayPort connection can be connected, but it can not be used fully until the software update scheduled this year.

A display that has improved in all aspects

The previous 14 -inch display was enough, but this time it was even better.I would like to gently say goodbye to the 16: 9 aspect ratio and welcome the 16:10 panel.I think that the taller and the narrow one can feel wide when opening multiple windows or scrolling the Web.The 2560 x 1600 (WQXGA) IPS panel was brighter than the previous one, and the response time was dramatically faster from 25 milliseconds to 3 milliseconds.

This panel clears all the points you need.Bright, colorful, refresh rate 120Hz, Dolby Vision compatible, Pantone authentication, which indicates high color reproducibility, and low blue light certification.Even if you actually use it, you will feel the wonderfulness according to the specifications.I can compete with the notebook PC on the OLED display that I am reviewing separately now.Of course, the matte panels of Zephyrus G14 are not as colorful as organic EL, but vivid enough, and when we measure the maximum brightness, it has 530 Nito, much brighter than the previous 300 Nito.

AMD harmony

Well, here is the main subject.The Zephyrus G14 is one of the few gaming PCs with AMD GPUs, not NVIDIA, as well as AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPUs.The predecessor was the best specifications for the GeForce RTX 3060 model, but this time the high -end discrete GPU, Radeon RX 6800S announced by AMD at CES last month is MAX options.

Review machines are AMD Ryzen 9 6900hs (8 cores, 16 threads), 32GB DDR5 RAM, 1TB PCIe 4.It was a configuration of 0 SSD.No matter how much the Chrome tabs, the stream of Twitch, or editing the image, the movement did not slow down.Synthetic benchmarks have great results.

In the overall performance test of Geekbench 5, Zephyrus G14 was 1,552 for single core and 10,002 for multi -core.This lightly exceeded Razer Blade 14 (7,403) and Alienware 15X (9,339), but did not reach the invincible MacBook Pro14 (12,663).Last year's G15 was equipped with Ryzen 9 5900CPU, and the score was in the first half of the 8,000 units.By the way, the only notebook PC I tried in the 12th generation Intel is ASUS ROG STRIX SCAR 17 equipped with Core i9-12900H, but this is a score of 12,903.

In the test of converting the 4K video to 1080p, the time it took Zephyrus G14 was 3 minutes and 15 seconds faster than almost all notebook PCs, and only the only one that exceeded this was 2 seconds faster.Razer Blade 14 is 3 minutes 48 seconds, and MacBook Pro14 is 3 minutes 21 seconds.

Regarding graphics, the results are comparable to the machine equipped with NVIDIA RTX 3070.AMD's proprietary technology, which allocates power to a required part, should contribute to the fact that SMARTSHIFT and SmartAccess Memory can do 105W graphics processing.There is also a MUX switch that can send the output of the GPU directly to the display without going through the CPU.According to ASUS, the frame is now pushed directly into the screen, reducing the latency, and the frame rate is up to 9 %.

If you play "Far Cry 5" with ULTRA settings and 1920 × 1200 resolution, the Zephyrus G14 frame rate will be 94fps, which is only slightly lower than 106fps when you played with RTX 3070 with 1080p.The Razer Blade 14 with RTX 3070 was also 100fps.

In "TOTAL WAR: Warhammer II", it exceeded 66fps of Predator Triton 300 SE with 68fps and RTX 3060, but the only difference with the predecessor is only one frame.

Even when I played "Metro EXODUS" with Ultra settings, Zephyrus G14 was an average of 68 fps, a little higher than the predecessor Zephyrus G14 (66fps) and Razer Blade 14 (65fps), but alienware 15X (75fps).On the other hand, the Alienware M15 R5 with Ryzen 7 and RTX 3060 has stayed at 50 fps.

The slight heat does not change

ASUS gives a 77 -page reviewer guide, which has many pages in the new cooling system. It was as detailed as I thought it was a white paper for engineers, but in summary, the number of fans (from 71 to 84 cars) and fan tapered design, four heat pipes, vapor chamber, and normal thermal paste will be conducted. It seems that heating approaches from all directions, such as high THERMAL GRIZZLY liquid metals, prevent heat from staying. In addition, the ROG series is equipped with a dust filter for the first time, preventing small dust from accumulating inside. In ASUS's own test, it seems that this filter could maintain the CPU / GPU temperature at 4 degrees lower than in the case of no filter, and other components could use more power.

However, the effort is wonderful, but Zephyrus G14 is still warm.It is always warm just by using it normally, and it will be quite hot during game play.That said, it's not a concern, but I don't want to play "Crysis" on my knees.

One of the newly cooled cooling systems is "ODB mode", which can stop fans and quietly sound when the load is normal.I think it's good, but when I actually used it, the keyboard became very hot in this mode.Just one window is open, and the temperature of the key is 104 degrees (40 degrees Celsius).After that, when I opened a few tabs (the operation itself was instant), the fans started around, but the temperature was still slightly higher.

Battery life is unrivaled

The Zephyrus G14 has been highly evaluated for its performance and size, but the major difference from the competition is the unlimited battery life.As a portable gaming machine, I actually used it for about 10 hours.The 2022 model inherited its features, and in the video playback test with the screen brightness to 200 Nito, it has 9 hours and 21 minutes.

When using it for ordinary work, Zephyrus G14 has been in power saving mode for about 8 hours.However, this is when the screen is set to 75 % (about 200 Nito), and if it is 500 Nito of MAX, it should be shorter.Either way, Zephyrus G14 is one of the longest batteries as a gaming notebook PC, and can be used not only for the game purpose, but also as a notebook PC for work or movement.

Questions about the price

ASUS and AMD do not feel motivated about the price.The Zephyrus G14 is $ 1,599 (approximately 184,000 yen) with the minimum configuration and a maximum of $ 2,499 (about 287,000 yen).The machine I tested was $ 2,499 with Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Radeon 6800S GPU.This price is almost the same as rivals such as Alienware X14 and Razer Blade 14.

ASUS sent some composition examples handled at BEST BUY.The $ 1,699 (about 195,000 yen) model is equipped with a 14 -inch QHD display, Ryzen 9 CPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Radeon RX 6700 GPU.If it costs $ 300 (about 35,000 yen), the GPU will be RX 6800s.

Is it worth buying?

Yes, I really recommend it.In general, I like Dell XPS 15 or HP Specter, which is a GPU -separated notebook PC that is not a gaming, because I can get a performance without sacrifice the size or battery.I didn't want to buy a gaming PC because of the trade -off.However, Zephyrus G14 has the best performance, a day of the day's battery life, and a compact housing (although it is a little thicker than a non -gaming guy).

Zephyrus G14 may be the best omnidirectional notebook PC for those who want to play the latest game with high FPS.This model is quite good, especially in the sense that it has almost eliminated the various drawbacks of the predecessor.With a web camera, the display was 16:10, and the touchpad was much larger.If there is still a drawback, the heat problem that could not be overcome even with new technologies, and the MAX configuration is $ 2,499 (about 287,000 yen) and not friendly to your wallet.

You can also wait for the update version of Razer Blade 14 or other better machines.But Zephyrus G14 may be the best gaming notebook PC this year ... I have such a feeling.