ASUS Zephyrus G16 is one of ASUS’s latest gaming laptops sporting top of the line specs without compromising on portability. As someone who greatly values portable tech, this is something I always look for in a laptop as well as any other tech I wish to purchase. My unit is sporting a 13th Gen Intel I9, Nvidia RTX 4060, 16 GB of RAM, and a 16” QHD screen and a 1 TB SSD. All this will cost you a hefty $1699.99
The unboxing experience, while not overly exciting, still had some nice touches such as ASUS choosing to make the box look more presentable than the typical cardboard box as well as making the laptop raise up when opening the box. All you will find in the box, aside from the laptop, is the 240W AC adapter and your typical paperwork containing warranty info etc. While it may have been nice to have some little extras like a carrying case like years ago or even just some decals to stick on other devices or the laptop, there are no other extras at all.
Looking around the laptop, the ASUS Zephyrus G16 has a fairly generous offering of IO compared to a number of other thinner laptops on the market these days. Along the left side of the laptop, you will find the power port, an HDMI 2.1 port, Ethernet, USB 3.2 type A, 2 USB 4.0 type C ports and a headphone jack. Along the right side, you will see an additional USB 3.2 type A port, a MicroSD card reader and a Kensington lock slot. Also, around the left, right and rear of the laptop you will find some large exhaust vents to help disperse heat from the laptop.
Opening the laptop, you will see 2 large grilles for the speakers, a very large trackpad and the keyboard. Above the screen is a 720p webcam equipped with IR for Windows Hello. The keyboard itself, while nicely spaced and sized, unfortunately lacks a number pad, but more on that later. While some models of the ASUS Zephyrus G16 have ASUS’s AniMe Matrix lighting on the lid, the unit I am testing does not come equipped with it.
“For days when hard-core gaming or intensive tasks were not something I found myself doing, the ASUS Zephyrus G16 was a very competent productivity and business laptop.”
Looking at the screen, the 16” QHD screen is matte, something I personally enjoy as it greatly helps reduce sun glare or glare from other light sources. The screen is also equipped with an impressive 240Hz refresh rate. While I personally can’t really tell much difference between 140Hz and 240 or more, it’s still nice to have given the heftier price tag of this laptop. It is also supported by nVidia G-Sync and Dolby Vision HDR. Content creators will also appreciate the fact that this screen covers 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. I found this was without a doubt one of the nicest screens I have used on any laptop I have used over the years.
Using the ASUS Zephyrus G16 as intended, as a gaming laptop, was a very pleasant experience. I was able to run a wide array of games all at maxed out settings at the laptop’s native resolution well above 60FPS, at times even above 100FPS. While the unit I am testing only has an nVidia RTX 4060, it is around the middle of the range in the Zephyrus G16 line. Some other models offer the impressive feature of having an RTX 4070 available. While gaming, the fans are certainly quite audible, however they did a superb job of keeping the laptop well cooled, and I never found myself getting uncomfortable from the temperatures reached, even when used on my lap.
For days when hard-core gaming or intensive tasks were not something I found myself doing, the ASUS Zephyrus G16 was a very competent productivity and business laptop. The fact that the laptop didn’t scream that it was a gaming laptop with its appearance made me more comfortable taking it to work for different meetings and presentations. While the RGB could give away that the G16 is a gaming laptop in offices, I often found myself changing the colour of it to white to look more professional.
“…the ASUS Zephyrus G16 has a fairly generous offering of IO compared to a number of other thinner laptops on the market these days.”
My only gripe when it comes to that RGB is the lack of customizability with it. ASUS has only given the Zephyrus G16 single zone RGB which can severely limit your options for what you can do with it. Many other gaming laptops around this price tag at least have a few different zones, if not per-key lighting, giving a wider array of options to set the lighting up how you want. While I don’t often find myself using RGB that much, I do like having a keyboard that allows for more customization if I am going to have that option.
Typing out documents or files for said meetings and presentations was easily accomplished with the extremely comfortable chicklet style keys that have just the right amount of actuation distance that makes extended use no issue at all. This is the same style found on my personal ASUS Zephyrus G14 from last year and both deliver an experience I would say is nothing short of excellent.
While browsing web pages or even looking through loads of files, the very large trackpad made this a breeze. The size was similar to those found on laptops such as Macbooks or even some other Ultrabooks such as the Samsung Galaxy Book lineup. While it may not have haptic feedback, clicks still felt good without being overly loud and obnoxious as I have heard from other laptops. Gesture support is also handy and they are easily executed with minimal difficulty.
Battery life is an aspect about the Zephyrus line that has always impressed me after using a few generations of the products. The Zephyrus G16 is easily able to get over 8 hours of battery life when running Microsoft Edge with YouTube playing consistently, while even lighter use such as browsing the web or typing out documents could see you closer to the 10-hour range. This is in part thanks to ASUS equipping the Zephyrus G16 with a massive 90Wh battery, nearly the largest battery size allowed to be travelled with on an airplane. While gaming will significantly reduce this time, the fact that you can still get these kinds of battery life out of a gaming laptop was almost unheard of only a short time ago.
To wrap things up, the ASUS Zephyrus G16 is a very competent gaming laptop that can blend in to office and other professional environments where most gaming laptops wouldn’t. The long battery life is sure to get you through most, if not full days of work before requiring a top-up, making it also great for students looking for an all-in-one system. While I do find the RGB lighting to be a minor let down, ASUS more than makes up for it with a wide array of port selection, performance and overall build quality and delivers on a very incredible laptop. While the price may be a little steep when compared to other comparable configured laptops, many do not offer the same degree of battery life or portability.
