Execs
- Wonderful, colour correct OLED show
- Very nicely designed
Cons
- Backside will get scorching when plugged in
- Would not help USB-C charging
- No Adobe RGB profiling
Asus brings OLED shows to its ROG Zephyrus line in 2024 and does a fab job for a primary timer. The brand new flashy slash programmable-LED on the duvet of the well-designed laptop computer, plus strong efficiency for its 14-inch dimension, makes the G14 a wonderful selection for a small mannequin that is adept for each gaming and creating.
Regardless of being a member of Asus’ gaming-focused ROG household of laptops, the G14 has a extra artistic bent; it is technically thought of an Nvidia Studio mannequin and ships with Nvidia’s Studio driver quite than the extra frequent Recreation Prepared model. (You possibly can change to the latter in order for you the extra frequent and game-optimized updates.) It is available in two fashions: the $2,000 model I examined, outfitted with a AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS, GeForce RTX 4070, 32GB RAM and 1TB storage; and a $1,600 model with 16GB RAM and an RTX 4060.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 GA403UI (2024)
Value as reviewed | $2,000 |
---|---|
Show | 14-inch, 2,880×1,800 120Hz OLED (DisplayHDR 500 True Black) |
CPU | 4.0GHz AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS |
Reminiscence | 32GB LPDDR5-6400 (soldered) |
Graphics | 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 cell; AMD Radeon 780M (built-in) |
Storage | 1TB SSD, micro-SD slot |
Ports | 2 x USB-A, 2 x USB-C (1 x 4.0 w/ 100w PD, DP mode), 1 x HDMI 2.1, combo audio |
Networking | MediaTek Wi-Fi 6E MT7922, Bluetooth 5.3 |
Working system | Home windows 11 House (22H2) |
Weight | 3.3 lbs./1.5kg |
The cheaper mannequin can in all probability go well with most individuals’s wants. Should you play video games at 1080p or light-weight ones at 1440p, the 4060 must be OK; if you happen to’re not a giant multitasker or do not work with quite a lot of massive photograph or video recordsdata the 16GB of RAM should not be a lot of a limitation. But when you are going to push to, say, 1800p (the display screen’s most decision) for gaming or enhancing complicated video initiatives, you will want a minimum of the 32GB and RTX 4070. Each fashions come outfitted with the 14-inch, 2,880×1,800-pixel decision OLED display screen.
New and novel, a diagonal set of white LEDs on the highest flashes in patterns, for instance, to sync with audio or for notifications. It may be helpful, however some functions do not work very nicely. Sonic Match, for example, wants some solution to fine-tune it past “sensitivity.” It simply finally ends up simply being solidly lit when there is not any actual silence (it can not seem to decide up the beat successfully), which implies it is not nice for music; it is simplest for spoken phrase. You possibly can flip it off and regulate the brightness. When it is off, it simply appears to be like reflective. I do not understand how sturdy it’s in opposition to scratches, although.
The again slash.
Usually, the laptop computer’s very nicely designed. The membrane-switch keyboard feels nice for typing — it looks like there’s extra journey than there’s, with a pleasant bounce, a nice soft-touch floor and massive, hard-to-miss keycaps. (For gaming you would possibly need to connect an exterior keyboard, although.) The secondary capabilities aren’t brightly backlit — you possibly can inform the LED is within the heart beneath the important thing — however they’re lit nicely sufficient to make them out, which is essential if you happen to work in the dead of night. Additionally they keep cool when the laptop computer heats up.
And there are delicate touches which might make a giant distinction. As a result of it is an AMD-based laptop computer, there is not any Thunderbolt (it is a licensing factor). As an alternative, there’s one USB4 USB-C port along with a USB 3.2 and so they’re labeled 40Gbps and 10Gbps, respectively, which differentiates them in a significant approach: That is actually useful and too unusual. The laptop computer has a surprisingly full set of ports for its dimension, with enough house between them that you should not have any points with larger-than-normal connectors.
A pair of USB ports on both aspect makes them a bit extra handy.
It isn’t an particularly skinny design, and a few folks would possibly think about the highest and backside show bezels a bit thick, however in these methods it is paying homage to the MacBook Pro 14 and similar to the Razer Blade 14. General, if you happen to take away the slash on the duvet it offers off a extra critical vibe than you get from a gaming laptop computer. That features the respectable business-quality 1080p webcam.
There are some things I want it did have — RGB backlighting on the keyboard and the slash and a full-size SD card slot quite than micro SD, for instance, in addition to help for USB-C charging and the power to open to a wider angle — however none of them are crucial. It even helps Nvidia’s Advanced Optimus, which implies you possibly can pressure it to completely use the discrete GPU with out rebooting by way of the Nvidia driver. It will get complicated, although, as a result of Asus’ software program additionally enables you to pressure discrete-GPU-only, however that makes use of the standard must-reboot MUX change.
It does not open fairly so far as I might like.
And, actually, my greatest situation with the laptop computer is the Armoury Crate software program, Asus’ conventional control-panel dashboard for players. It isn’t tailor-made sufficient to the particular mannequin, as an alternative geared to cowl a bunch of various fashions with totally different options. That makes it complicated, providing quite a lot of choices that you would be able to change, however haven’t any impact (like keyboard backlight colours).
It additionally means the colour profiles essential to creators, which the laptop computer is primarily aimed toward, are in an simply neglected dropdown that appears grafted on, whereas GameVisual, the noncalibrated presets for informal and gaming use, predominate. A number of fiddle with the gamma in an effort to open up element within the darkest areas; that is actually essential with OLED screens, which produce true blacks (in comparison with IPS), however they have an inclination to clip darkish shadows to black as nicely.
The twin-tweeter/dual-subwoofer stereo speaker system is fairly good for a laptop computer, however you are still much better off with headphones for watching motion pictures and taking part in music — the sound remains to be skinny, even tweaked by Dolby Atmos (which is included, as is Dolby Imaginative and prescient). HDR is nice — it will possibly’t match the brightness of a 1,000-nit mini-LED backlit IPS display screen, however for essentially the most half the excessive distinction of OLED blacks make up for it.
Efficiency
There typically is not an enormous distinction between Studio-designated fashions from equally outfitted gaming-focused variations, however on this case Asus contains factory-calibration profiles for sRGB, D65 P3 and DCI-P3. Asus contains the calibration end result sheets as nicely, one thing I see rather a lot with desktop displays however hardly ever with laptops. And I hardly ever see shopper fashions that differentiate between DCI and D65 P3: the requirements use the identical colour house however have totally different white factors and gamma curves.
Armoury Crate contains colour profiling software program that works with X-Ceremony shopper calibrators and what appears to be like like a customized subset of the X-Ceremony software program; it runs rapidly by a medium-size set of colour patches and generates a end result sheet and a profile. You possibly can solely profile whereas operating on the built-in GPU, although, a typical however bothersome limitation. And since it is primarily based on the built-in profiles, you possibly can’t use the software program to calibrate for Adobe RGB.
Regardless of all its goodness, the one factor that retains me from having the ability to advocate the laptop computer as a funds mannequin for skilled color-critical work is that it does not have hardware-based profiles. Which means it will possibly’t constrain brightness to a selected stage, both for the specs that require it, for private consistency or for consistency throughout totally different screens. (A few the gaming presets restrict peak brightness, however that is by way of the gamma settings, which does not work for profiles with commonplace gamma curves.) It does not imply you possibly can’t use it for professional work, simply that it is a limitation you would possibly want to contemplate.
Coloration measurements
Preset | Gamut (% protection) | White level | Gamma | Peak brightness (full display screen, nits) | Accuracy (DE2K common/max) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Native (default) | 100 (P3) | 6500 | 2.2 | 414 | 2.97/5.32 (P3) |
sRGB | 104 | 6500 | 2.2 | 415 | 1.06/4.05 |
D65 P3 | 100 | 6500 | 2.2 | 416 | 1.52/4.81 |
DCI P3 | 100 | 6300 | 2.6 | 416 | 1.93/4.21 |
HDR | 100 | 6200 | n/a | 652 | n/a |
Cinema | n/a | varies (modal 7000-8000) | 1.9 | 399 | n/a |
FPS | n/a | varies (modal 7000-8000) | 1.9 | 419 | n/a |
Racing | n/a | 6500 | 1.6 | 419 | n/a |
RTS/RPG | n/a | varies (modal 7700-8300) | 2.2 | 399 | n/a |
Surroundings | n/a | 6500 | 1.3 | 419 | n/a |
Vivid | n/a | 6500 | 1.8 | 419 | n/a |
However total it is nonetheless one of many higher prosumer implementations I’ve seen, together with nailing the three commonplace colour areas. That features limiting the gamut primaries to the related house. (Many profiles, for instance, will prolong the maximum-saturation purple, inexperienced and blue factors to these of the biggest house, sometimes P3. That may develop into an issue in sRGB, a small subset of P3 which might’t hit these saturation ranges.)
As for typical efficiency measures, the G14’s Ryzen 9 8945HS tends to underperform often, which tends to occur when producers’ use conservative energy utilization and profiles (similar to biasing in the direction of quiet, which implies little to no fan noise, translating to much less cooling energy). You will get higher GPU efficiency plugged in and operating on Turbo, however the CPU solely confirmed insignificant upticks in restricted testing. It did appear to carry out comparatively nicely on Procyon’s AI inferencing exams (Home windows ML), however I have never constructed up sufficient outcomes for comparable techniques and have solely simply began testing the Intel Core Extremely processors.
On the flip aspect, it looks like the efficiency takes a giant hit on battery, the place the G14 switches to its Silent energy profile — it roughly halved on Geekbench 6 multicore. (At evaluate time, a bug within the Nvidia driver prevented getting correct battery testing outcomes.)
The GPU, however, which exhibits middling outcomes for an RTX 4070, obtained a big efficiency raise in Turbo, however not sufficient to tug it as much as full energy. Partly, that is as a result of “full energy” is decrease than earlier than. The 4070 within the 2024 G14 is proscribed to 90w; as compared, final 12 months’s mannequin maxed out at 125w.
That is to not say it performs badly, it simply does not stand out from the group for gaming or heavy-duty 3D graphics manipulation. General, although, because of sensible design and tradeoffs, the ROG Zephyrus G14 is a content material creation crowd pleaser that has loads left over for good gaming.
Geekbench 6 (multicore)
Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 Gen 2 11,365Acer Swift Go 14 (SFG14-72T) 12,459Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) 13,038Lenovo Slim Professional 9i 16 (2023) 13,723Acer Predator Triton 14 (PT14-51) 13,904
Shadow of the Tomb Raider gaming take a look at (1080p)
Dell XPS 15 9530 107Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) 128Lenovo Legion Slim 5 (2023) 143Acer Predator Triton 14 (PT14-51) 155
3DMark Time Spy
Dell XPS 15 9530 8,248Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) 10,416Acer Predator Triton 14 (PT14-51) 11,054Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) Turbo Mode 11,240HP Omen 16 (2023) 11,485Lenovo Legion Professional 5 (2023) 12,029
Guardians of the Galaxy (Excessive @1920 x 1080)
HP Omen 16 (2023) 121Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) 122Dell XPS 15 9530 136Acer Predator Triton 14 (PT14-51) 151
SpecViewPerf 2020 SolidWorks (1080p)
Lenovo Slim Professional 9i 14 152.27Lenovo Slim Professional 9i 16 180.65Lenovo Slim Professional 9i 14 (GPU overclocked) 191.45Lenovo Slim Professional 9i 16 (GPU overclocked) 192.16Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) 245.94Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024, Turbo mode) 279.41
Take a look at configurations
Acer Predator Triton 14 (PT14-51) | Microsoft Home windows 11 House 22H2; 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-13700H; 16GB DDR5 5,600MHz RAM; 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU; 1TB SSD |
---|---|
Acer Swift Go 14 (SFG14-72T) | Microsoft Home windows 11 House; 3.8GHz Intel Core Extremely 155H; 16GB DDR5 RAM; 128MB Intel Arc Graphics; 1TB SSD |
Apple MacBook Professional 14 (M3, 2023) | Apple MacOS Sonoma 14.1; Apple M3 (8-core CPU, 10-core GPU); 16GB unified reminiscence; 1TB SSD |
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) | Microsoft Home windows 11 House 22H2; 3.6GHz AMD Ryzen 9845HS; 32GB LPDDR5-6400 RAM; 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics; 1TB SSD |
Dell XPS 15 9530 | Microsoft Home windows 11 House 22H2; 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-13700H; 32GB DDR5 4,800MHz RAM; 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU; 512GB SSD |
HP Omen 16 (2023) | Microsoft Home windows 11 House 22H2; 2.6GHz Intel Core i9-13905H; 32GB DDR5 6,400MHz RAM; 6GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics; 1TB SSD |
Lenovo Legion Professional 5 (2023) | Microsoft Home windows 11 House 22H2; 3.6GHz AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX; 16GB DDR5 6,400MHz RAM; 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics; 1TB SSD |
Lenovo Legion Slim 5 Gen 8 | Microsoft Home windows 11 House 23H2; 3.8GHz AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS; 16GB DDR5 6,400MHz RAM; 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics; 1TB SSD |
Lenovo Slim Professional 9i 14 | Microsoft Home windows 11 House 22H2; 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-13705H; 32GB DDR5 6,400MHz RAM; 6GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics; 1TB SSD |
Lenovo Slim Professional 9i 16 | Microsoft Home windows 11 House 22H2; 2.6GHz Intel Core i9-13905H; 32GB DDR5 6,400MHz RAM; 6GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics; 1TB SSD |
Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 Gen 2 | Microsoft Home windows 11 Professional; AMD Ryzen 7 Professional 7840U; 32GB DDR5 RAM; AMD Radeon 780M graphics; 1TB SSD |