Michael Higham
Since its debut in 2017, the Asus ROG Zephyrus has been a go-to recommendation, spinning the plates of gaming performance, portability, and aesthetics with relative ease. The ROG Zephyrus G16 makes its return this year and comes in two forms, the GU605, which packs the Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, and the GA605, which comes with the new AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. I’ve put the AMD model through its paces, and if you don’t need more than an Nvidia RTX 4070 for graphics or mind paying extra for design versus performance, it’s a good choice for gaming and beyond.
This year’s Zephyrus G16 shares a lot of DNA with last year’s model, so if you have a previous model from recent years, you don’t have to worry about being alienated. But, while much has stayed the same, a good deal has changed and, overall, for the better.
The first noticeable change comes with the laptop’s lid. The previous dot matrix array has been replaced with a diagonal stripe of tiny white LEDS which Asus calls Slash Lighting. It looks fine and is significantly more minimal, but whether that’s a positive or not will depend on how outspoken you prefer your laptops. It looks fine, but with only a thin strip to configure, options are limited and I wound up turning it off.
The chassis itself has seen a rework. It’s now made from a single unibody design that improves its rigidity and offers a firmer typing experience across the entire keyboard deck. It’s thinner, too, measuring only 0.59 inches (14.9mm) at its thinnest point. It’s also a touch lighter at 4.01 pounds. Though its 16-inch design keeps it from feeling too compact, it’s quite thin for a gaming laptop and is lighter than many of its competitors.
This move to a thinner, lighter, sleeker design makes it a better fit than ever for gamers who also need a laptop for work or school. This is especially true if you work in a creative field that needs more graphics power than a traditional productivity laptop. It’s not the kind of machine that garners unwanted attention or makes you look unprofessional next to your colleague’s ThinkPad… at least so long as the Slash Lighting is turned off. It’s a darn good-looking laptop and feels premium through and through.
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Internally, the AMD model is a bit more limited than the Intel variant. It’s available in silver or black and you can choose between 16GB or 32GB of soldered-on memory. It comes with 1TB of storage, utilizing a fast NVMe SSD, and can be expanded thanks to a second M.2 slot on the other side of the motherboard. For graphics, you can choose between an Nvidia RTX 4060 or RTX 4070. The Intel version, on the other hand, offers 32GB of memory across the board but lets you upgrade to 2TB of storage. It comes with either an RTX 4080 or RTX 4090. It has much higher performance but is also $800 to $1,000 more expensive and uses more power, so it has worse battery life as well.
I wish the AMD version gave the option for higher-performance graphics, but even more so, upgradeable memory. Unless you plan to upgrade your laptop again over the next couple of years, 16GB is cutting it close to minimum spec for gaming. Since you can’t pop in a higher capacity stick to cover increased potential RAM requirements, I suggest saving up and buying the 32GB version from the start.
The top options for storage drive and graphics are great, though. The SSD is able to reach read speeds above 5,000 MB/s, so load times are fast and unobtrusive. The GPU is limited to 105 watts, which is lower than the 140 watts marketed by competing laptops like the Razer Blade 16, but because the card is voltage-limited, there shouldn’t be a major performance difference over 100 watts anyway.
The Ryzen 9 HX 370 CPU is a beast. Though the selection of AI-enhanced apps is still limited (but growing), it can process up to 80 TOPS, which is twice the requirement to be considered a Copilot+ PC and leverage the different AI capabilities Microsoft has baked into Windows and Microsoft Office 365. Local Copilot assistive AI and image generation also benefit, and the trend of integrated AI is only set to continue.
Even if you take all of the AI capabilities out of the picture, the HX 370 is still a killer CPU for a laptop. It features 12 cores and 24 threads, more than enough for even a chronic multitasker, and is perfect for streaming gameplay to YouTube or Twitch. It also tops out at 5.1GHz, a boon for most games which still benefit from clock speed more than core count.
Just as importantly, the HX 370 is energy efficient. It only draws 28W of power at its peak, allowing the system’s 90wHr battery to outlast its Intel counterpart. Still, with a high resolution, high refresh rate OLED screen, you can’t expect miracles. As I’ll get to later, it’s able to last most of a workday working in productivity apps. If all you’re doing is streaming movies, it can last significantly longer.
The screen is gorgeous. It’s a ROG Nebula Display, which is the Asus in-house certification for the type of panel you can expect. It’s an OLED screen with a peak brightness of 500 nits in HDR and around 400 nits in SDR. It features a 2.5K (2560 x 1600) resolution, a maximum refresh rate of 240Hz, and variable refresh rate (VRR) support through Nvidia G-Sync for smooth gameplay experiences below 240 FPS. It also comes with wide color gamut coverage, including 100% of the DCI-P3 color space. It’s DisplayHDR 500 True Black certified and supports Dolby Vision for scene-by-scene lighting in movies.
It’s a recipe for a vibrant, responsive, and highly detailed screen and is one of the G16’s single best qualities. It’s bright enough to use outdoors (though does decrease quite a bit a single notch down the brightness slider) and looks stunning for games and movies even without HDR. I wasn’t able to get it to reach its rated brightness, however. I measured a peak brightness of 462 nits with my SpyderX Elite colorimeter. On the other hand, its color coverage lives up to its marketing claims and is very accurate with a Delta E average of just under two, which means it’s accurate enough for color sensitive work.
The new unibody design makes a noticeable improvement to the keyboard. There’s very little flex remaining, which allows the tactility of the keys to shine. They’re not mechanical like you’ll sometimes find on more expensive gaming laptops, but they offer a deep 1.7mm travel distance, so typing feels genuinely good. The touchpad has also been improved and is now an impressive 37% larger than last generation, measuring 5.9 x 3.9 inches. It’s made of glass and feels great to use, and has a 16:10 aspect ratio to match the screen.
Flanking the keyboard are two speaker grilles that hide a total of six drivers. Dual two-watt woofers and a two-watt tweeter hide on each side and fire upward for a more spacious sound that works well with Dolby Atmos. It gets loud and is impressively full-bodied for a gaming laptop. It’s not as good as dedicated speakers or one of the best gaming headsets, but I was able to use these for gaming and movies and have an enjoyable experience.
Since you may well use the Zephyrus for virtual meetings, online classes, or creating content for social media, a quality webcam is an important feature. Nested within the top of the display is a 1080p IR camera. It captures crisp photos and videos, as well as full-bodied audio from its noise-canceling microphones. Depending on your background, its exposure can be hit or miss. In the picture above, it wanted to overexpose my face to the point of creating glare. When I smiled, it dialed that back to the brightness you see there. This doesn’t happen often but it seems like a firmware update may be needed to dial in its metering.
The camera can also be used for Windows Hello. I was impressed by how well the camera recognized me, even in poor lighting, with or without my glasses. As long as I was looking at the camera, it was able to identify me and log me in to Windows, usually without my needing to think about it.
You expect plentiful connectivity options from a gaming laptop and the G16 doesn’t disappoint. For networking and wireless, it supports WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, promising fast, energy-efficient connections. For I/O, it features two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports. There is one on each side, but the left USB-C supports USB 4 with 40 Gbps transfer speeds, perfect for full-speed eGPUs. Two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports are also split between the sides. A full-size HDMI 2.1 port, audio combo jack, and DC plug-in grade the left and an SD card reader the right. There’s enough here to connect peripherals, plug into wall power for Turbo mode, and add a USB-C peripheral like a USB hub for good measure.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2024) GA605 – Software
If you’ve used an Asus laptop recently, the Zephyrus G16’s Armoury Crate should be immediately familiar. The broad strokes of its layout and features are largely the same. All of its most used options are available right on the home page, including the fan profile and graphics performance mode. It also provides options for the touchpad, refresh rate, the color profile of the screen, and the ability to create performance and lighting profiles for individual games and apps. There’s also a hardware monitor so you can keep an eye on your performance and temperatures in real time.
Each of these options is broken down in more depth in subsequent tabs. You’ll also find options for configuring the RGB backlighting on the keyboard and the slash lighting on the lid. Macro functionality is also built into the software, though it’s limited to the four “M” keys above the normal keyboard and assigning them forces you to give up the dedicated media controls that come pre-assigned. These buttons can also be set to other system options or media controls, like putting the laptop to sleep or changing tracks. They can also be assigned to quick-launch individual apps if you want a hotkey dedicated to your favorite game.
The software also allows you to customize the color profile of the screen on the GameVisual tab. It offers greater depth than most laptops and is much closer to Asus’s gaming monitors in what you can do. There are presets for different game genres as well as Native, sRGB, DCI-P3, and Display-P3 color gamut settings for color-sensitive work. This tab also offers OLED care options to hide the taskbar and toggle its transparency, flicker reduction, and target mode which dims everything but your current active window.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2024) GA605 – Performance
The Zephyrus G16 GA605 offers solid performance in a great form factor that makes it a pleasure to use, but it isn’t the machine to pick if you’re looking for the highest frame rates and benchmark scores. It has decent battery life, a pretty stellar keyboard, touchpad, and screen, and a thinner, lighter, and more elegant design than most gaming laptops. It’s a notebook to choose because you like its design and are willing to pay extra for those sensibilities, and can accept performance that’s good without being class-leading.
In fact, the only real test that the G16 earned a decisive win in was PCMark 10. It’s a whole system benchmark but really benefits from a great CPU. The HX 370 has room to stretch its legs compared to the Intel Core i7-14650HX and AMD Ryzen 9 8845HS in our comparison notebooks.
In games, it generally scored right about where the other RTX 4070-based laptops scored. The frame rates are playable across the board, even on ultra settings like we configure our benchmarks to run at. Though, to really leverage its 240Hz display, using DLSS and dropping to a lower resolution like 1200p is recommended. It’s a testament to the voltage limitations on the chip because even though it’s only rated for 105W instead of 140W like the Gigabyte AORUS 16X or Razer Blade 14, its performance is very close.
Lower wattage is what allowed Asus to shave thickness and weight, and I’m all for it. The most powerful machines are often the worst to carry through the day. They’re often bulky and heavy with roaring fans and brash appearances. Form factor and design matter when it comes to a laptop you carry with you throughout the day. It’s your digital companion, so it should look the part for every environment, and those secondary details, like screen quality and a great keyboard, are nearly as important as the frame rates it’s able to deliver.
On most of those fronts, the Zephyrus G16 is an absolute winner. Its small design touches, like the metal unibody design, come together to deliver an experience that feels well-crafted and premium. Its responsiveness and ease of use in productivity apps and browsing the web is excellent thanks to its CPU. The HX 370 and dedicated GPU also allow it to shine in productivity apps like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere. You can count on snappy performance just about everywhere.
I say “just about” because the G16 does have a couple of significant drawbacks that hold it back from greatness. First, the temperatures – inside the system, they’re fine with the GPU hovering around 75C, and thermal throttling isn’t an issue. Surface temperatures, on the other hand, are another issue. In particular, the bottom of the laptop gets so hot that I found it physically uncomfortable to keep on my lap when gaming. There’s no risk of getting burnt but I would recommend using it on a desk or table to keep your legs from cooking.
The fans also get very loud. You’d hope they would help with this, but while they accomplish their job of sucking fresh air in and exhausting hot air out, it’s not pleasant to be on the other side while playing games. In performance and turbo modes, their volume level is loud enough to earn me side-eye from using it in the same room as my partner watching her program.
Even with those issues, the user experience is very good overall. Its OLED screen can be downright enrapturing and its thin bezels and glossy finish are excellent. I even toyed with the idea of buying one for myself before I remembered how expensive it is and the other options that are available around the same price or even less.
Which brings us to the topic of value. The version we tested retails for $2,299, and that’s a lot for a gaming laptop, especially when you consider that the main driver of performance is the GPU. The RTX 4070 can be had in a laptop for less than $1,700 in a very similar form factor elsewhere, like the Lenovo Legion Slim 5. None of the competitors blend great build quality, a screen as impressive as the Nebula Display, and I/O capabilities the way the Zephyrus G16 does, and that’s not mentioning its speakers and user experience. But the premium price you pay is a tough ask regardless.
On that front, the G16 does well for itself. Its 90wHr battery is gigantic for a laptop of this size. The power-sipping nature of the HX 370 and the lower wattage of the RTX 4070 allow it to last longer than its Intel counterpart. In the PCMark 10 Modern Office battery test, it lasted for eight hours and 12 minutes. In power saving mode watching video, I was able to stretch that to just over 13 hours.
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