The Zephyrus G14 is bringing the sleek to portable gaming
ASUS have announced that the Zephyrus G14 has gotten an update and will provide gamers a much more sleeker looking package for their portable gaming needs. While initially shown off at CES 2020, the focus there was more on the impressive LED wall that was built into the outside portion of the screen casing.
The entire unit is just under 20mm thick, making it a very light and thin laptop, which when you consider that it can support NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU, alongside the 4th generation AMD Ryzen CPUs, that size makes it impressive. Of course, with all that potential power, a new customised cooling system was created for the laptop, which help leverage the power on the inside.
With a battery life that is expected to exceed 10 hours between charges and the ability to use any compatible USB-C power pack, it makes it exceedingly portable, which is something that some laptops struggle with. The laptop is available in two colours, Moonlight White and Eclipse Gray and the LED screen on the back, is optional, so you can get it if you desire.
If you are aiming to get one for yourself, they won’t be in stores here until the end of April, with a RRP of $2,199 for the basic model, and prices go up from there. All the little details you need to know, can be found below the pictures of the devices, so enjoy.
Small size with big impact
Packed into a much smaller footprint than 15-inch alternatives, the G14 easily slips into conventional laptop bags and backpacks. The system is only 17.9mm thin and 1.6kg without the custom LED matrix.
To keep the notebook light and strong, honeycomb reinforcements beneath the palm rest add strength with minimal extra material. The Magnesium-aluminum alloy deck is precisely machined and fingerprint resistant for a professional polish. High strength and low weight make aluminum ideal for the lid, whose distinctive dot matrix design is produced by a CNC milling process that puts 6,536 precise perforations in the exterior panel.
Innovative LED personalisation
The ROG splash across the lid comes to life with the AniMe Matrix display available on select models.
Users can import animated GIFs and other graphics, build custom animations frame by frame, and type text messages with different fonts. Visualisations react to music and other audio, creating a unique platform for DJs and other artists. Additional features that will be added at the end of Q1 include system functions that show new email notifications, as well as the date, time, and battery level.
Immersive gaming visuals
The Zephyrus G14 comes with up to a GeForce RTX 2060 augmented by ROG Boost up to 1298MHz at 65W. The discrete GPU is based on the latest NVIDIA Turing architecture, which melds dedicated cores for programmable shading, real-time ray tracing, and artificial intelligence. This combination enables improved lighting, shadows, and other in-game effects, and it also offers a diverse array of compute resources for accelerating demanding workloads like content creation, 3D modeling, and deep learning.
Turing’s dedicated video encoder is largely responsible for the G14’s ability to game and stream simultaneously. The specialised hardware allows higher stream quality with minimal performance impact, and it’s compatible with Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), a popular capture tool among burgeoning creators and aspiring Twitch streamers.
High refresh or high resolution
The G14 offers a choice between two premium panels tailored for different needs. Users can select a faster Full HD display that goes up to 120Hz or opt for a higher WQHD resolution. The 120Hz panel doubles the speed of typical laptop displays for smoother, high-intensity action.
AMD FreeSync™ technology adds another level of smoothness by coordinating frame delivery between the GPU and display. Most displays refresh at a consistent rate, which creates problems when new frames aren’t ready at the right time. FreeSync synchronises the refresh rate of the display with the frame rate of the GPU to eliminate visual tearing that can ruin immersion, and also minimise stuttering and input lag.
Although FreeSync has existed for years, it enters a new era with 4th Gen AMD Ryzen processors. Their integrated Radeon graphics allow the technology to work with discrete GeForce GPUs for the first time.
FreeSync support extends to the WQHD display, and it can be even more effective at the lower FPS associated with the higher resolution. The extra pixels are primed for creators who want to see more detail in their work, but they also appeal to gamers who prefer taking in their surroundings at a slower pace. Thanks to smaller dimensions, the WQHD panel has a higher pixel density than typical 4K desktop monitors. Even the Full HD panel matches the PPI of a 28-inch Ultra HD display.
Both displays are factory calibrated and Pantone Validated to ensure creators get the colour accuracy they crave. The IPS-type panels have wide viewing angles and cover 100% of the sRGB range. They’re framed by exceptionally thin bezels, creating an expansive 85% screen-to-body ratio.
Non-stop speed
For the G14, ROG and AMD teamed up again to create an exclusive series tuned specifically for the smaller chassis.
The fastest 4th Gen Ryzen Mobile CPUs have a 45W power envelope that is too high for this particular form factor, so the Zephyrus G14 uses special 35W variations based on the same silicon. The chips retain up to 8 cores and 16 threads to blast through demanding workloads, but dial back the clocks slightly to make thermals more manageable. There’s still ample power for demanding applications like video editing and 3D rendering, and for heavy multitasking like mixing gaming with streaming, recording, and chats.
Cutting-edge 7nm fabrication technology helps condense so much power into such a small and efficient package. As a result, the Zephyrus G14 gives users greater freedom to work longer off-charge.
With up to 32GB of fast DDR4-3200 RAM across dual channels, there’s enough headroom for bigger projects too. Ultra-fast storage is supplied by an NVMe SSD with up to 1TB of capacity, meaning minimal load times for a huge library of games and apps.
One-of-a-kind cool
The G14 has an exclusive feature that dynamically adjusts the power available to the CPU based on the GPU temperatures. It can make changes every second to react to spikes in GPU utilisation, ensuring optimal gaming performance for the conditions.
This is the first ROG laptop to feature an ErgoLift hinge that tilts the keyboard at a more comfortable angle. The bottom of the display lifts the back of the machine when the lid is opened, giving the vents in the base more room to breathe. The design hides part of the lower bezel, too, but in doing so it can impede airflow out the rear exhaust ports. To compensate, vents have been cut into the bezel and the distance to rear heatsinks has been widened. Since that larger gap increases the depth of the chassis and makes the hinge more susceptible to downward pressure, a stiffer spring is used for added strength.
Dust and other particles inevitably get sucked into laptop fans, but self-cleaning cooling helps to avoid accumulation that can compromise performance and stability over time. It uses anti-dust tunnels to catch particles and direct them out the back of the chassis. Since full-sized tunnels take space away from the fan, the G14 features shortened tunnels that make room for the same size of fan used in the 15-inch Zephyrus models. This custom design offers higher airflow while retaining good dust ejection, striking a better balance for this size of machine.
Fan speeds are controlled by an intelligent algorithm that responds automatically to temperature changes. Three expertly tuned operating modes let users quickly adapt to different scenarios using a convenient keyboard shortcut, while Scenario Profiles seamlessly switch between modes based on user-defined preferences for individual games and applications. With the highest fan speed and frequencies, Turbo mode is the best for maximum performance. Performance mode strikes a better balance for gaming, while Silent mode goes further to reduce acoustics for lighter work and entertainment.
Top off with Type-C charging
ROG created the first gaming laptop capable of being powered by DC or USB-C input, and the technology is a perfect fit for the mobile Zephyrus G14. With support for USB Power Delivery, it can handle lighter work powered by up to a 65W Type-C adapter that’s much smaller than the 180W unit required to unleash the discrete GPU.
If the battery runs low, Type-C charging allows users to extend their life on the go and work longer anywhere. While the Zephyrus G14 is plugged in for a full recharge, USB power flows in the opposite direction as well, offering fast-charging support capable of supplying up to 3A to compatible smartphones and other devices.
Flexible options on the go
The Type-C port with USB Power Delivery is also capable of driving an external monitor via DisplayPort 1.4. The HDMI 2.0b port makes it easy to game or watch movies on 4K monitors and TVs. There’s plenty of connectivity for external devices through a secondary Type-C port focused on USB functionality, plus two Type-A ports for additional gear. No dongles needed.
The Zephyrus G14 amps up wireless networking with Intel Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) connectivity, also known as 802.11ax. When paired with a compatible router, Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) boosts peak interface bandwidth up to 2.4Gbps, and improves efficiency for crowded spaces. It also reduces latency, meaning less lag for sensitive activities like online gaming, and expands upstream capacity, which provides more bandwidth for live-streaming.
The G14 is the first ROG laptop to integrate fingerprint login into the power button. A single press wakes the machine and briefly caches a user’s fingerprint, saving it to authenticate when Windows is ready to log in. On machines with multiple users, the OS automatically detects the right account.
Dolby Atmos Sound
Multidimensional sound brings greater depth and direction with a range of audio experiences, and it can even provide a competitive advantage in games. In the Zephyrus G14, Dolby Atmos technology enhances spatial immersion with virtual surround sound for both headphones and speakers.
The Dolby algorithms are also optimised to maximise loudness and fidelity for the G14’s integrated speakers. Two tweeters positioned above the keyboard fire high-frequency sounds directly toward the user, while two woofers beneath them offer deep bass amplified by the ErgoLift design. This quad-speaker setup delivers perfectly balanced audio across the spectrum. With this technology, users can pump up the volume on movies, music, and games without losing clarity or detail.
