The Beauty and The Beast

I have been a gaming enthusiast for a larger part of my life; there came a point where I gave up on the consoles and shifted entirely to laptops for gaming. In recent times, I’ve had my eyes on the ASUS ROG series, which has come up with some really cool gaming laptops, and the ROG Zephyrus series is something that has always stood out for its sophisticated design, slim form factor, and the performance it packs under all that thin frame. 

Asus 2025 ROG Zephyrus G16 sits at the top of the Zephyrus product line and comes equipped with specs that would put a lot of laptops to shame, but do these specs translate into praise worthy performance?

 The Zephyrus G16 looks premium; at first look at it, you will appreciate what a beautifully crafted laptop it is. G16 has a unibody CNC aluminium enclosure that looks so premium and carries an elegance that is hard to come by on gaming laptops. Despite having a 16inch screen it seems smaller than it actually is. All that real estate weighs a total of 1.85 kg and is 14.9mm at its slimmest point. For the latest variant, ASUS has ditched the AniMe Matrix from the model it replaces and has opted for a slash lighting design. Personally, I loved the array of customisable LEDs, which ran crazy animation patterns. This slash lighting would probably look nice and sophisticated to many but seems pretty vague to me as it lacks the character the old AniMe Matrix had.
Open the laptop, and you are greeted by a massive glass touchpad and a keyboard that feels fantastic and gives an impressive tactile feel. This, paired with the huge 16-inch screen, makes it a nice operating experience. 

What powers the Zephyrus G16 is AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, which is a beast to say the least. However, the whole AI-enhanced app shebang is still limited but growing. At 80 TOPS (Terra Operations Per Second), it possesses twice that of the basic requirement to be considered a Copilot+ PC and can make the best use of all the AI capabilities that are there in Windows. The HX 370 comes with 12 cores and 24 threads, which are more than enough to sustain any gameplay you can think of or even render your creative work at brilliant speeds. Not just the performance, the HX370 is also pretty energy efficient and consumes only 28W at the highest. Although with the 500 nits Nebula Display, it would be a push to say it lasts long. 

Now that we are talking about the display, let me tell you about the beauty of this 16-inch display: a maximum refresh rate of 240Hz and a variable refresh rate. This has a 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut and the DisplayHDR 500 True Black and also supports Dolby Vision for scene-by-scene lighting for movies.

The AMD version of the Zephyrus G16 gets an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU in place of the 4090 in its Intel counterpart. Coupled with a 32GB dual-channel LPDDR5X memory, it is indeed a performer, as good as any other 4070 setup, and with the expandable 2 TB Gen 4 SSD, it becomes a pretty compelling option for not just the gamers but creators also. My usage mostly consisted of Adobe Creative Suite, and when time allowed. 

ASUS has incorporated a tri-fan setup and a full-width heatsink to make sure the cooling is able to take on the heat load of the G16. During my usage, the laptop mostly remained pretty cool, barring a very few instances where heat was felt on the top right of the device. But the overall cooling of the G16 is pretty impressive. The 90Wh battery is decent for a gaming laptop, and I was able to squeeze out about a little more than 6 hours during normal usage and about 1 hour and 30 minutes during gameplay. The sleek form factor tricks you into believing it is a utility laptop with a more potent battery backup, but the blazing performance brings you back to reality. 

What I really liked is the inclusion of a full-sized UHS-II SD card reader on the device, which, for creative professionals and journalists like us, serves to be of great utility. Despite the brilliant performance, impressive design, and unibody aluminium frame, my favorite has to be the speakers. The laptop’s six-speaker setup is simply astounding and probably the best I have witnessed on a laptop. The sound is so good and clear that it becomes hard to believe that you are listening to laptop speakers and not standalone speakers. Dolby Atmos and lifetime access to the Dolby Access app add to the experience.

At ₹ 2.10lakh ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 stands as one of the best gaming laptops in the market. What adds to it is the sleek form factor, brilliant build quality, and the superb-sounding speakers.

₹ 1.77lakh onwards
www.rog.asus.com/in

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 
Processor: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370
Memory: Up to 32GB (16GB*2) 7500 MHz LPDDR5X dual-channel 
Storage: 2 TB M.2 NVMe PCIe® 4.0 SSD
Display: 16” OLED QHD+ 240Hz ROG Nebula Display with G-Sync
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 laptop GPU
Battery: 6-cell, 90 Wh Li-ion

The post ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 Review first appeared on Turbocharged.

Processor (AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS)
It is powered by the AMD Ryzen 9 processor. This powerhouse features the Ryzen 9 7940HS processor with up to 8 cores, 16 threads, clock speeds up to 5.2 GHz, and a 24MB cache, ensuring exceptional performance and efficiency.

Performance
In terms of RAM and graphics, the Razer 14 offers up to 64GB of upgradable DDR5 RAM (the model we tested had 16GB). As for graphics, it comes with options up to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, delivering excellent performance for gaming, content creation, and other high-octane tasks. No matter what you throw at it—be it gaming, photo editing, or video editing—the Ryzen 9 7940HS processor handles it all with ease. Trust me, we tried running Forza Horizon, Adobe Premiere and Photoshop with no stutters or lag whatsoever.

Display
The display is another highlight, featuring a 14-inch QHD panel with a 240Hz refresh rate and up to 500 nits of brightness providing sharp and accurate visuals.

AMD Ryzen AI
The Razer 14 stands out due to its AMD Ryzen 9 processor, which features advanced AI capabilities running on neural networks. One particularly useful feature is the suite of automatic framing, eye contact, and background effects included with Windows 11. Additionally, it comes with the benefit of a personal AI assistant that can help with various tasks such as budgeting, replying to emails, and more, all through voice interaction. AMD has taken a step forward in terms of gaming too! The Ryzen 9 AI enhances both gameplay and visuals, providing an enriched experience.

Having a dedicated AI engine offers several advantages, including
No latency: Improved performance due to on-device processing.
Better safety: Your data is not exposed to the cloud.
Cost-effectiveness: Eliminates the need for potentially expensive cloud models.

These AI features are also supported by various applications, such as Microsoft Studio Effects, Adobe, Topaz Labs, DaVinci Resolve, Audacity, Boris FX, Avid, Zoom, OBS Studio, Blender and many more.

AMD believes that AI is the new driver of pervasive technological benefits for decades to come.

Battery & Connectivity
Thanks to the AMD Ryzen’s efficiency, the Razer 14 delivers up to around 9 hours of video playback off the plug.  As for ports, the Razer 14 includes a variety of connectivity options, such as USB-C, USB-A, HDMI 2.1, and a headphone jack. However, there is no ethernet port but it is unfair to expect one in a laptop this thin.

Verdict
If you’re looking for something in a sleek and compact form factor (18mm thickness and 1.8kg heavy) that can take whatever you throw at it, this could be worth your time.  The Razer 14 goes on sale from US$1,599.99 (the price could go up depending on the upgrades) on the official razer website.  

The post Razer Blade 14 (2023): Review first appeared on Turbocharged.

₹ 1.73 lakh onwards*

What is it?

Size matters! And it’s sweeter when a powerful laptop is also compact making it hassle-free to carry around. The Zenbook Pro is one such laptop. It packs in a 14.5-inch 120Hz 2.8K OLED panel, a powerful Core i9-13900H and the new GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, in a package that weighs just 1.6kg! If you are worried that the battery might be compromised, it isn’t with a 76Wh battery pack which can last for 10 hours (claimed).

Why should I buy one?

The Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED is for someone who requires a powerful laptop with good portability. 

Where can I buy one?

asus.com/in/

*price mentioned is before duties

The post Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED – compact package, big performance first appeared on Turbocharged.