Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 evaluate: Slim design meets critical gaming energy

Greatest Costs As we speak: Asus ROG Zephyrus G16

Asus already had a terrific laptop computer on its fingers with 2024’s ROG Zephyrus G16, and the 2025 Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 doesn’t change an excessive amount of. The outward look of the laptop computer is essentially the identical, persevering with to supply a skinny and lightweight gaming laptop computer with a chic steel construct and nice show.

Asus appears to have taken among the criticism to coronary heart, although, because it proves a largely quiet operating gadget even when it’s cranked to Turbo settings. And although it has a premium worth and trails beefier machines in efficiency, it stays conveniently moveable and even undercuts different design-focused laptops.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Specs and options

• CPU: Intel Core Extremely 9 285H
• Reminiscence: 16GB LPDDR5X-7467
• Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 5070 8GB 115W
• Show: 16-inch 2560×1600 240Hz OLED, Shiny, G-Sync
• Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD
• Webcam: 1080p IR
• Connectivity: 1x Thunderbolt 4 with Energy Supply and DisplayPort Alternate Mode, 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with Energy Supply and DisplayPort Alternate Mode, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x SD card reader, 1x 3.5mm combo audio
• Networking: WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
• Biometrics: Home windows Good day facial recognition
• Battery capability: 90 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 13.97 x 9.72 x 0.66 inches
• Weight: 4.01 kilos
• MSRP: $2,149 as-tested ($2,149 base)

This take a look at unit is a particular Greatest Purchase mannequin with decrease base specs than Asus’s personal retailer choices. It has a $2,149 beginning worth. To get the Zephyrus G16 from Asus instantly, you’ll pay $2,799, however you’ll additionally get bumped as much as an RTX 5070 Ti, 32GB of reminiscence, and 2TB of storage. Moreover, Asus gives two even larger configurations. Bumping as much as an RTX 5080 and 64GB of reminiscence raises the value to $3,599. For an RTX 5090 and in any other case an identical specs, that raises additional to $4,599. 

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Design and construct high quality

Foundry / Mark Knapp

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is splendidly constructed and much sleeker than you’d anticipate from a gaming laptop computer, even with the impressively slim fashions which were popping out in recent times. It boasts a largely aluminum design with the keyboard deck, base, and show lid all product of steel.

The show additionally has an all glass cowl — no plastic bezels. It might be extra spectacular if it weren’t primarily the identical {hardware} as final 12 months’s Zephyrus G16, however there’s no want to repair what isn’t damaged, and the inner parts haven’t modified sufficient to justify a significant redesign.

All of the steel right here makes for a agency building that doesn’t flex a lot. And despite the fact that this can be a 16-inch gaming laptop computer, it weighs solely a hair over 4 kilos. The chassis itself can be simply 0.66 inches thick, although its rubber ft add to its total top.

The slim design nonetheless has loads of air consumption beneath with a big grille on the underside panel, however there’s little or no exhaust alongside the again edge, which goals all of the exhaust downward. Fortuitously, the lengthy rubber foot on the rear of the bottom prevents any of the exhaust from feeding instantly again into the consumption followers. 

The show has uneven bezels, together with a barely bigger one on the backside that doesn’t look terribly trendy however is a minimum of not too ugly. The thicker prime bezel matches within the webcam with Home windows Good day tech, which makes it simpler to excuse given how handy that is for fast sign-ins.

Chamfered edges across the body present a great lip for opening the lid with one hand, and the bottom retains planted whereas doing so. The again of the lid has a classy slash throughout it that additionally integrates some flashy lighting, although it’s not colourful just like the RGB keyboard lighting.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Keyboard, trackpad

Foundry / Mark Knapp

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 packs in a terrific keyboard and trackpad. The keyboard isn’t fairly glorious, because it has solely delicate contour to the keycaps that doesn’t assist with finger centering, and edge stability may use a little bit enchancment.

The RGB backlighting additionally struggles to evenly illuminate bigger key legends and secondary features. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless fairly a nice keyboard to sort on. I used to be in a position to attain a typing velocity of 126 words-per-minute at 99 p.c accuracy. Given this can be a 16-inch laptop computer, it will have been good to see a quantity pad, however a minimum of with out it the keyboard finally ends up properly centered.

Asus has squeezed in a large trackpad that makes use of up nearly all of the vertical house obtainable to it with solely a skinny strip bordered its prime and backside edges. It additionally spans an excessive width. Between the ample house for swiping round, the pleasantly gentle bodily click on, and the graceful glass floor, it’s a pleasure to make use of. The trackpad additionally has confirmed to supply good palm rejection, a difficulty that held again the Razer Blade 16 and its large trackpad.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Show, audio

Foundry / Mark Knapp

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is ready up nicely for media. It combines a superb show and speaker setup. The sizable 16-inch show gives a 2560×1600 decision and runs at 240Hz for super-smooth visuals. That’s aided alongside by the panel’s OLED tech, which has quick pixel response instances for crisp gameplay and G-Sync help to make sure clear frames and no display tearing.

The show can be splendidly vivid and colourful. It proved able to hitting 419 nits in SDR and 444 nits in HDR with smaller highlights going brighter nonetheless. A ten p.c window in HDR was in a position to hit 640 nits, and that comes alongside infinite distinction and 100% protection of the DCI-P3 and sRGB coloration areas. Shade accuracy was additionally excessive with a median dE1976 measured at 0.85 and a max dE of simply 2.33.

Loads of high-end gaming laptops have equally spectacular shows, and even some cheaper ones come shut. However many laptops skimp on audio system. Asus didn’t. This laptop computer’s audio system are distinctive.

It combines 4 woofers that stability one another in pairs offering stunning depth for the sound; in the meantime two further tweeters can ship crisp high-end. Collectively, the audio system pump out loads of quantity with out distorting or sounding boxed in. Sturdy sub-bass continues to be out of the playing cards, however the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16’s audio system stay spectacular for a laptop computer audio system. 

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The webcam’s efficiency is combined. On one hand, it handles publicity nicely, avoiding blown out highlights or sunken darkish particulars. Despite the fact that it’s a 1080p sensor, the visible constancy is a little bit missing with grainy element something aside from vivid lighting after which odd sharpening even in vivid mild. However the visuals look pure a minimum of, and in case you’re simply showing as a small window in a gaggle video name, the standard shall be ample.

The webcam additionally helps Home windows Good day facial recognition, offering a fast and straightforward approach to check in that has confirmed useful in testing. 

The mics even have combined efficiency. They seize my voice fairly absolutely, however they don’t appear to have any processing occurring to cancel out room noise. This results in a little bit of room echo, and the mics will choose up background noises fairly nicely, so that you’ll need to keep away from typing or clicking round together with your mouse whilst you’re on calls. 

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Connectivity

Foundry / Mark Knapp

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 gives first rate connectivity. It’s a pleasure to see a laptop computer spreading out ports of the identical sort, and the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 places one USB-A and one USB-C port on both sides. Each USB-A ports are 3.2 Gen 2 ports with 10Gbps speeds. The left USB-C port gives Thunderbolt 4 whereas the proper one is simply a USB 3.2 Gen 2, and both can help DisplayPort output, although solely the proper one runs via the GPU for G-Sync help.

Asus rounds out the connections with an HDMI 2.1 port and three.5mm audio jack on the left edge and a full-size UHS-II SD card slot on the proper edge. For the reason that laptop computer doesn’t embrace any aspect vents, all the ports are located towards the again half of the laptop computer as nicely. 

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 features a devoted 200W energy brick with a proprietary port on the left fringe of the laptop computer. That is key to getting the complete energy of the system, however could also be rather a lot to lug round in all places you go. Fortunately, the system’s USB-C ports may also help energy enter, letting you juice up on the go together with one thing smaller when you’ve got a GaN charger or different USB-C energy supply. I used to be in a position to trickle cost with a compact 65W PD charger I had useful.

Wi-fi connectivity can be sturdy. The system helps Wi-Fi 7 and has provided excessive bandwidth and stability connectivity all through testing. It’s disappointing to see Bluetooth 5.4 nonetheless now that 6.0 exists, however the laptop computer’s Bluetooth connection a minimum of offered dependable, rapidly reconnecting to a paired set of headphones each time I turned them on and by no means as soon as dropping that connection. 

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Efficiency

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 packs in highly effective parts, so it stands to purpose that it will have loads of efficiency. And for probably the most half, that is the case.

We are able to see within the holistic PCMark 10 benchmark that the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 gives loads of velocity for on a regular basis workplace duties and even artistic workloads, dramatically exceeding the 5,000-point threshold that tends to mark a machine that’ll readily deal with most workplace duties. It largely retains tempo with comparable programs operating Intel and AMD {hardware}. 

Whereas common duties shall be a breeze on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16, when you begin moving into extra demanding duties that put critical pressure on the system, chances are you’ll start to come across a few of its limitations. The CPU included is just not as potent as what you will get in a few of its rivals.

The Intel Core Extremely 9 285H’s single-core efficiency is superb, however it’s no match for HX-series CPUs from Intel, which lots of its rivals embrace. Throughout Cinebench R15, R20, R23, and R24, it falls nicely behind. This decrease efficiency additionally sees it take longer in our Handbrake video encoding take a look at. Whereas warmth may very well be an element for the skinny Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 in Cinebench R24’s and Handbrake’s longer assessments, the decrease efficiency in Cinebench R15, R20, and R23, that are a lot faster, suggests it’s only a limitation of this CPU subsequent to the competitors. 

Graphical efficiency can be respectable within the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16, although not essentially what you’d anticipate from a system with an RTX 5070 and a price ticket over $2,000. Within the graphically demanding 3DMark Port Royal take a look at, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 lags behind RTX 5070-equipped programs just like the Alienware 16X Aurora and Asus ProArtP16, however maybe extra embarrassingly, it even falls in need of the RTX 5060-powered Lenovo Legion 5i 15IRX10 — a system that prices nearly half as a lot. The identical destiny befalls the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 in Time Spy as nicely.

The curious factor is that the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 isn’t restricted to that efficiency degree, however Asus simply defaults to it. The truth is, utilizing the laptop computer’s Turbo profile, its Port Royal rating leaps as much as 8,552 factors. This sort of bump from altering energy profiles is pretty widespread, however the reality Asus’s default Efficiency profile sees the RTX 5070 nerfed to RTX 5060 ranges is an odd selection that its rivals don’t appear to be making. 

The shortcoming in graphical efficiency stemming from Asus’s settings mix with the weaker CPU within the system to go away the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 falling behind the pack in precise video games. We see it lag the entire area in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which tends to lean a bit extra closely on the CPU than another video games, thus giving these programs with extra highly effective processors an edge. Once more, enabling Turbo mode brings the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16’s common body charge as much as 159. 

Cyberpunk 2077 is an particularly demanding recreation, sufficient in order that even the power-limited RTX 5070 may ultimately come out forward of the Legion’s RTX 5060, probably aided alongside by the quicker single-core efficiency of the CPU, which tends to enhance body charges. The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 doesn’t pull forward of its rivals although, except Turbo mode is enabled, then its common body charge jumps to 99. 

Whereas the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 tends to fall behind the opposite programs in its default Efficiency profile, a perk of the system is that it musters that efficiency whereas remaining somewhat quiet. Even underneath load in its Efficiency mode, the followers are hushed and hardly a trouble. For some, which may be a worthwhile trade-off, and infrequently, when critical efficiency isn’t important, it will probably actually be a profit. The system even stays steady with that mild fan operation, with it offering 99.1 p.c steady efficiency in 3DMark’s 20-run Metal Nomad Stress Take a look at.

The followers actually solely kick into excessive gear in Asus’s Turbo mode, and even then they’re not shrill, only a noisy breeze. In addition they handle the warmth nicely, with the system once more sustaining steady efficiency within the Metal Nomad Stress Take a look at and the floor of the laptop computer not even getting sizzling over the course of the take a look at. It’s nice to see that Turbo mode can carry the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 largely again into efficiency parity with its rivals, although it’s equally probably that these programs would get well a great chunk of their leads in the event that they, too, flipped over to their highest energy settings. 

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Battery life

Conservative energy administration tends to have a profit the place battery life is anxious, and that proves the case for the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16. In our offline video playback assessments, which run a domestically saved 4K video on repeat with the show brightness set between 250 and 260 nits, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 managed a formidable 12 hours and 46 minutes, displaying previous Asus’s personal ProArt 16 and dramatically outpacing the opposite programs operating on HX-series Intel processors. 

As nice a outcome as that’s for a gaming PC, you continue to shouldn’t anticipate the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 to be an all-day performer for precise use exterior of video playback. It’s good for a gaming PC, however real-world workplace use tends to see the battery drain after 5 to 6 hours. That also beats the 2 to 3 hours you may anticipate from numerous gaming laptops. 

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: Conclusion

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is a formidable machine. It gives a superb construct, nice audio system, a beautiful show, and matches potent {hardware} all right into a laptop computer that’s surprisingly skinny and lightweight. All of the extra stunning is the truth that the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 doesn’t present a lot of a wrestle managing its warmth. By default, it doesn’t take full benefit of its {hardware}, and it stays quiet due to that call, however full efficiency is only a couple clicks away and helps the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 preserve tempo with its competitors higher.

When you’ll nonetheless probably need a beefier laptop computer if you’d like full efficiency on a regular basis, there’s one thing to be stated for the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16’s means to ship strong efficiency generally and good portability the remainder of the time. The pricing on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 additionally makes it a real risk to the Razer Blade 16, a system that’s thicker, heavier, and usually costlier for like configurations.