Product: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022)
Type: Gaming Laptop
Price: ~ $3499.00 AUD
Availability: Now
Link: rog.asus.com/au/laptops/rog-strix/rog-strix-scar-15-2022-series/

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is one of the most stylish gaming laptops currently available, this was as true back when it first hit the scene in 2020 as it is in the upgraded 2022 revision. Its most striking design feature remains intact, which is the AniMe Matrix lid that essentially becomes an animated LED light show in a way that’s reminiscent of old-school text files. Basically, animating the ASCII art that used to be all over the walkthroughs available at GameFAQs back in the day.

Needless to say, it’s very cool - and right up there with Apple products in terms of style and distinct personality. Coming from ASUS it still retains some of the ROG spirit, meaning this is a product designed first and foremost for gamers. But, with its vibrant and accurate 1600p display that offers up excellent colour accuracy, not to mention well under 2kg weight and 14-inch form factor, there’s an all-rounder quality here too. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) is as portable as it is powerful enough to run the latest games.

Speaking of gaming chops, both the CPU and the GPU found in the review unit here are AMD - with AMD Ryzen and Radeon driving it all. How does it stack up against mobile GeForce RTX hardware for games? Well, let’s dig in.

Look and Feel

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The white finish (also available in a darker colour), the AniMe Matrix lighting, and the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 just screams cool. But, as per the intro the 14-inch form factor has led to a design that is both lightweight and portable. In terms of shape and how it feels to carry around, it has the characteristics of a productivity laptop versus a gaming laptop. Though, that side of the Zephyrus G14 comes into the picture once you connect the suitably chunky power pack. The good news is that ASUS has allowed for USB-C charging, which is perfect for those that would mostly use the productivity side of the laptop when on the go.

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The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) is as portable as it is powerful enough to run the latest games.

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Once open the body tilts up (on the screen side) and that adds to the cooling potential not to mention improving comfort when typing. The chicklet keys themselves have a great feel too, and the large trackpad is fine to use when you don’t have a mouse handy.

Under the Lid

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As per the specifications below, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) is an all AMD machine, with the CPU and GPU offering up the latest in terms of mobile Ryzen and mobile Radeon technology. With that in mind, the review model had the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS Mobile Processor and AMD Radeon RX 6800S graphics which definitely sits on the high-end. When we reviewed the very first ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 a couple of years ago, as one of the first flagship AMD Ryzen laptops, the cooling wasn’t the best so under load the CPU would get close to an eye-watering (or melting) 100-degrees Celsius. This had the added effect of making the laptop itself hot, and the heat coming out of the exhausts intense.

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The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) is an all AMD machine, with the CPU and GPU offering up the latest in terms of mobile Ryzen and mobile Radeon technology. With that in mind, the review model had the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS Mobile Processor and AMD Radeon RX 6800S graphics which definitely sits on the high-end.

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It’s not exactly a night and day difference here, but close. The 2022 model does run cooler, is quieter, and produces less heat. Now, as we’re talking about a gaming laptop things aren’t super quiet - cooling will always be one of the big hurdles to overcome in this space. But it is no longer too hot to handle. The flip side to this is that the Silent mode is exactly that, which is awesome to see.

Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS Mobile Processor (8-core/16-thread, 16MB cache, up to 4.9 GHz max boost)
Display: 14-Inch ROG Nebula Display
QHD+ 16:10 (2560 x 1600, WQXGA), anti-glare display, DCI-P3 100%, Refresh Rate 120Hz, Response Time 3ms, IPS Adaptive-Sync, Pantone Validated, Dolby Vision HDR
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6800S with ROG Boost up to 105W(SmartShift) 8GB GDDR6
Memory: 16GB DDR5-4800 SO-DIMM (Max Capacity 32GB)
Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
OS: Windows 11
Interfaces: 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack, 1x HDMI 2.0b, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C support DisplayPort, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C support DisplayPort / power delivery, 1x card reader (microSD) (UHS-II)
Features: Wi-Fi 6E(802.11ax) (Dual band) + Bluetooth 5.2
Dimensions (WxDxH): 31.2 x 22.7 x 1.95cm
Weight: 1.72 Kg

Elsewhere the specs impress, from the 14-inch 1600p screen (that offers up some amazing colour accuracy and detail) is a 16:10 version of a more traditional 1440p display, to the fast DDR5 memory, and the quick PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage. This is as fast as it is stylish, which is also good because you do need a bit of grunt to run games natively at 1600p. The only downside, and immediately noticeable, is the sound quality from the speakers - which are tinny and completely lacking when it comes to bass and mid-range frequencies. Definitely a headset laptop when gaming.

Gaming Performance

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With an AMD CPU and GPU we decided to test games at both the native 16:10 1600p resolution and the 16:10 1200p resolution, which roughly translates to 1440p and 1080p performance. As the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) features a 14-inch display, games look excellent at either resolution benefiting from the excellent colour accuracy, overall brightness, and great contrast ratio. For cinematic titles like Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Horizon Zero Dawn, the results are truly impressive when you factor in the lightweight and portable form factor of the laptop.

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For cinematic titles like Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Horizon Zero Dawn, the results are truly impressive when you factor in the lightweight and portable form factor of the laptop.

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As for performance, in frames-per-second terms, the results were definitely on the positive side. Especially at 1200p where you can get the full effect of the adaptive-sync 120 Hz refresh rate.

How the AMD Radeon RX 6800S stacks up against NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX mobile range is a tricky one to answer, as the price point of the model tested here puts the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) into the high-end range. In terms of like for like, the performance sits somewhere below the GeForce RTX 3070 laptop GPU - which is one of the best all-around GPUs currently available. So being able to hit 60fps at the native 1600p resolution is doable across a broad range of titles.

For ray-tracing heavy titles, we also enabled AMD’s FSR scaling technology (which is comparable but different to NVIDIA DLSS) at its highest possible quality mode to ensure smooth performance without a big change to the visual fidelity. And, yeah, it was good to see the laptop hold up when RT entered the picture.

Overall it’s hard not to be impressed by the portable and lightweight ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022), the AMD hardware is more than capable of running the latest games and the stylish design still makes it one of the best-looking gaming products out there. Battery life too is decent when in productivity or game mode, with the latter naturally putting the system through its paces a lot quicker. Here’s hoping ASUS continues to improve and iterate on this range in the future because there’s nothing better than when performance and style come together like this.