ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 GA401II – Review

Husky
Husky

The ROG Zephyrus series laptops are definitely pricey, but the ASUS turned a new leaf with the Zephyrus G laptop last year, a sleek and mean machine that didn’t cost a bomb.

ASUS is now following that up with the Zephyrus G14, a ‘compact gaming laptop‘  that packs some serious spec for both AAA gaming and productivity tasks, while being light enough to carry it to your class or meeting room without a hitch. Plus, the cool new AniMe Matrix display on the lid adds some much-needed oomph that gaming laptops are known for.

The Zephyrus we’ve reviewed sports a 1080p display with a 120Hz refresh rate and support for adaptive sync (FreeSync). That refresh rate is ample for smooth, single-player gaming, even in frantic titles, and it’s also enough to sate casual and mainstream esports players.

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 starts at $2,498 in Singapore with 2 years international warranty for the base variant with Ryzen 7 4800HS processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650Ti graphics, 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD and a 14-inch FHD display. Other specifications are available, with a higher spec model available for $2798 that includes a Ryzen 7 4800HS CPU, a RTX2060 Max-Q GPU and 16GB of memory.

Display 14-inch FHD (1920 x 1080), 120Hz
100% sRGB
Adaptive Sync
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 4800HS (2.9 GHz, up to 4.2 GHz boost)
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti 4GB GDDR6 (55W)
RAM 8GB DDR4 3200Mhz
Expandable up to 24GB using 1x SO-DIMM slot
Storage Intel 660P 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD
Power 180W power adaptor
Support for Type-C PD 3.0 up to 65W
Ports 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C with DisplayPort 1.4 and Power Delivery
1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C
2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
1 x HDMI 2.0b
1 x 3.5mm headphone and microphone combo jack
1 x Kensington lock
Weight 1.7kg
Dimension Width: 32.4cm
Depth: 22.2cm
Height: 1.99cm
Colors Eclipse Grey

The keyboard has n-key rollover, and the buttons strike an excellent balance between the comfort required for long typing sessions and the speed needed for gaming. The buttons are smooth and comfortable, and their typing action is consistent. They’ve also got a generous 1.7mm of travel bag. You’ll also find a few extra buttons on the G14 – three to handle volume and microphone duties, and a fourth to open the Armoury Crate software utility. However, we don’t like armoury crate software, because it run service at the background. 

The only major complaint I have is the backlit of keys. The backlight not enough bright which makes it difficult to spot some of them, especially when under daylight. As for the trackpad, it is smooth and recognizes multi-finger gestures with ease. The G14 is paired with four speakers. The pairs of tweeters and woofers are excellent, with solid volume, a crisp high-end and a detailed mid-range – and a surprising amount of bass for such a small machine. For games and media, the kit here is easily good enough, although a headset will be better.

AniMe Matrix Display

The Zephyrus G14 lacks in RGB lighting, it makes up for that oomph with the AniMe Matrix display on the lid. One half (diagonally separated) of the lid has perforations behind which Asus has fitted 1,215 mini-LEDs that you can customize as per your liking. You can use it to display battery life and date, flash your name or a custom image as an animation, or simply use the ROG logo in an assortment of styles.

The G14 also includes an ErgoLift hinge that tilts the laptop to a better typing position and keeping the laptop cool.

Dual cooling Fan speeds are controlled by an intelligent algorithm that responds automatically to temperature changes. 

The laptop is also fairly slim, given the hardware its packing, and comes with a decent selection of ports. These comprise 2x USB type-A ports, 2x USB Type-C ports, 1x 3.5 mm combo jack, a full-size HDMI output, and a proprietary charging port. All USB ports are rated for USB 3 speeds. You also can use USB Type-C to charge the laptop with power delivery charger up to 65w.

Dismantle the chassis

Total: 16GB DDR4 Ram: 8 Gb soldered on-board DDR4 -3200Mhz & Micro 8Gb DDR4 3200Mhz.

CPUZ

GPUZ

Benchmark:

Comparison two models:

Model ASUS VivoBook S15 S533FL ASUS Zenbook 14 UM433DA ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 GA401II
CPU Intel 10th Gen Core i7- 10510U AMD Ryzen 7 3700U AMD Ryzen 7 4800HS
GPU Intel UHD Graphics & Geforce MX250 with 2GB DDR5 “Micron” AMD Radeon RX Vega 10 AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 & GTX1650Ti
Storage Intel 660P PCIe NVMe M.2  – 1TB Samsung PM981 1TB NVME M.2 Intel 660P PCIe NVMe M.2  – 1TB
RAM 8GB LDDR4 2600Mhz Dual-Channel 8GB LDDR4 2400Mhz Dual-Channel 16GB LDDR4 3200Mhz Dual-Channel
Driver Nvidia GeForce 452.06 AMD Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.5.1 AMD Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.9.2 & Nvidia 456.71

PCMark 10

PCMark 10 features a comprehensive set of tests that cover the wide variety of tasks performed in the modern workplace. With a range of performance tests, custom run options, Battery Life Profile, and new Storage benchmarks, PCMark 10 is the complete PC benchmark for the modern office.

Essentials Productivity Digital Content Creation Score
Zenbook 14 6992 5547 3438 3662
VivoBook S15 7848 6978 3411 4098
ROG Zephyrus G14 8996 6767 5941 5107

Cinebench R20

Improvements to Cinebench Release 20 reflect the overall advancements to CPU and rendering technology in recent years, providing a more accurate measurement of Cinema 4D‘s ability to take advantage of multiple CPU cores and modern processor features available to the average user.

CPU
Zenbook 14 1462
VivoBook S15 1437
ROG Zephyrus G14 3869

3Dmark Advanced Edition

3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your PC and mobile devices in one app. Whether you’re gaming on a smartphone, tablet, notebook, or a desktop gaming PC, 3DMark includes a benchmark designed specifically for your hardware.

Sky Diver  Time Spy
Zenbook 14 6779 827
VivoBook S15 10269 1273
ROG Zephyrus G14 27078 4067

Unigine Benchmark

Benchmark is a GPU-intensive benchmark that hammers graphics cards to the limits. This powerful tool can be effectively used to determine the stability of a GPU under extremely stressful conditions, as well as check the cooling system’s potential under maximum heat output.

Heaven Valley
Zenbook 14 326 610
VivoBook S15 590 849
ROG Zephyrus G14 1180 2063

 

Purchase information:

Click Here: For purchase $2798 model – RTX2060

Click Here: For purchase $2498 model – GTX1650Ti

ROG Zephyrus G14 GA401II

2498
9.7

Quality

9.8/10

Value

9.5/10

Design

9.8/10

Performance

9.5/10

Pros

  • Display 120Hz FreeSync
  • Excellent processor performance
  • Great build quality and attractive design
  • Decent speakers
  • Type-C with Power Delivery

Cons

  • No webcam and SD card slot
  • keyboard back lighting is too dim
  • Mid range GPU GTX1650Ti
  • Top up $300 more to get RTX2060 GPU model
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