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Yeah, I said it. The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is the MacBook Pro of gaming laptops. But the difference is that the battery life is much worse (as one would expect from any gaming laptop).
And, throwing some playful shade to MacBooks, you can actually game to your heart's desire on it with your favorite envelope-pushing triple-A titles. Plus, the ROG Zephyrus G14 is surprisingly light. When I first picked it up, I was expecting a lot of heft — only to be met a shocking featherweight design.
However, thin-and-light gaming laptops face one major hurdle: heat. Although the ROG Zephyrus G14 struggles to overcome this, it delivers a decent gaming experience at a practical price point.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 price
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is $1,599 via Best Buy. This is the cheapest configuration you can get (the same configuration I tested for this review) — and it comes with the following specs:
AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS CPU
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU
16GB of RAM
1TB of SSD storage
120Hz, 14-inch display with 2560 x 1440-pixel resolution
Windows 11 Home
If you want more RAM and better graphics — 32GB of memory and a 4070 GPU, to be exact — you can upgrade to the $1,999 model.
MacBook-like design
The ROG Zephyrus G14 is perfect for those who want to bring a respectable, MacBook Pro-esque laptop to the office — before gaming at night with a beastly gaming rig.
From the dual speaker grilles flanking the keyboard to the "platinum white" chassis, it's no wonder the ROG Zephyrus G14 is the MacBook Pro of gaming laptops.
The design is on par with Apple's laptops. Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable
The ROG Zephyrus G14 is wrapped in a sturdy, solid CNC aluminum unibody chassis along with a silvery hue and rounded corners that is quite MacBook-esque.
Hell, it even weighs as much as a MacBook Pro, too. For example, the 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro weighs 3.4 pounds, which is only slightly heavier than the 3.3-pound ROG Zephyrus G14.
Adding more credence to my MacBook Pro-esque claim, the ROG Zephyrus G14 is 0.62 inches thick; the 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro is 0.61 inches thick.
However, what differentiates the ROG Zephyrus G14 from the MacBook world is the giant slash design on the lid that has programmable LED lighting (you can play with it via the pre-installed Armoury Crate app).
Nice variety of ports
One thing that's not very MacBook, in a good way, is the ROG Zephyrus G14's wide variety of ports. On the left side, you'll find a USB4 port, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a headset jack.
You won't be hurting for ports on this laptop. Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable
On the right side, you'll find a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, another USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, and a microSD card slot (a nod to you creators out there).
No, there isn't a Thunderbolt 4 port on this laptop. (This is an AMD-based laptop, so due to licensing hindrances regarding Intel, USB4 is the best you'll get.)
Decent OLED display
I watched the Deadpool & Wolverine trailer on YouTube to test the ROG Zephyrus G14's 14-inch, 3K (2560 x 1440-pixel resolution) display. The picture was crisp, almost too crisp, as I watched Ryan Reynold's character prance around the screen with reptilian-like pockmarks and scaly, unsightly skin.
The OLED display is really lovely. Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable
The colors are and textures are rich, too, showing off Deadpool's forest-green jacket and the vivid Hawaiian shirt, filled with tropical designs on it, underneath it. While playing Cyberpunk 2077, I marveled at the sheen that emanated from robo-secretary with a gold-plated face.
However, as I talk about farther down in the review, the screen does have a notable flaw: brightness.
Awesome keyboard layout
Have you ever experienced a moment in which you're quickly trying to find the mute button, but as it's sandwiched between a row of other keys, you find yourself scrambling to press it?
The keyboard was designed with gamers in mind. Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable
The ROG Zephyrus G14 rectifies this issue by isolating the mute button, the volume up/down keys, and the pre-installed Armoury Crate app (for quick assess to gaming settings), placing the four keys above the function row.
In the words of Agnes from Despicable Me, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14's keyboard is so clicky I'm going to die! These aren't keys. These are mini trampolines built for my fingers, allowing them to jump from symbol to symbol with graceful ease.
Yes, this gaming laptop features RGB backlighting, but keep in mind that it's not per-key RGB backlighting. In other words, if you change the RGB backlighting (which you can do via the pre-installed Armoury Crate app), it will affect the whole keyboard. You can't make per-key adjustments.
Surprisingly good audio
The ROG Zephyrus G14's will never come close to the honeyed sound of a MacBook Pro, but it's not half bad.
You might not even need a gaming headset thanks to this laptop's speakers. Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable
I fired up Benson Boone's "Beautiful Things" on Spotify. His gritty, moody voice sounded crisp, full, and well-rounded on the G14's stereo speaker system, which features a double-tweeter and dual-subwoofer setup. It's sufficiently loud, too, at max volume.
Gaming laptops typically have so-so audio. After all, most gamers grab one of the best gaming headsets to pair with their gaming laptops. However, Asus doesn't make that assumption with its consumers, which is a breath of fresh air.
Impressive performance
We tested the ROG Zephyrus G14 with the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark and it blew past 100 frames with ease. See our performance section to see how well it handled one of the most graphics-intensive PC games.
An excellent thigh warmer
There's no way around it. The internals inside a gaming laptop are quite powerful, which produces a lot of heat. One way to circumvent heat issues is to find a way to exhaust hot air away from commonly touched areas.
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is not immune to overheating fans. Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable
However, while running Cyberpunk 2077, it seems like most of the heat escapes from the ROG Zephyrus' G14 underside. This can be an issue if you want to use it on your lap. However, if you plan on placing the Asus gaming laptop on a desk or table, you should be fine.
On the plus side, the ROG Zephyrus G14 will make for an excellent source of heat during the thick of winter; it can double as a thigh warmer for sure.
Display could be brighter
As someone who travels a lot and often sits next to bright windows, one of my biggest pet peeves is a dim screen. I wouldn't say the ROG Zephyrus G14 is "dim," but it could stand to be brighter.
Asus claims that the ROG Zephyrus G14 has 500-nit display, which should be sufficient, but it looks slightly dimmer than expected.
Credit: Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
While navigating darker scenes in Cyberpunk 2077 or moody Netflix shows, I found myself reaching for the brightness button — only to find that I've already reached max brightness.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 battery life
Yes, I know that battery life on a gaming laptop isn't all that great. However, compared to the other gaming laptops I've tested, the ROG Zephyrus G14 isn't the worst, but it's definitely not the best either.
Note: Fingerprints and smudges will show up on the body of this laptop. Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable
While it beats the gaming laptops that couldn't last more than an hour, the Asus gaming rig struggled to catch up with more power-efficient rivals.
We tested the ROG Zephyrus G14's battery life with PCMark 10's gaming battery life test. It lasted one hour and 17 minutes. Compare this to the HP Victus, for example, which survived for one hour and 56 minutes, nearly two hours.
For what it's worth, the HP Victus we tested has the same GPU as the ROG Zephyrus G14 (i.e., Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU).
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Geekbench 6 and other performance scores
Packed with an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS chip and an Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU, here are the numbers we got from running Cyberpunk 2077 (High preset, 1080p).
102 frames per second
Compare this to the HP Victus, which has an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU. With the same settings, it delivered 95 frames per second.
On the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, we ran Geekbench 6, which tests for processor prowess. It delivered a multi-core score of 12,170.
For reference, this beats the M3 chip inside the 14-inch MacBook Pro, which delivered a score of 11,998 on the same benchmark.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 webcam
Webcams on most general-purpose laptops stink, but on gaming laptops, they're even worse. The ROG Zephyrus G14 is no exception. Equipped with 1080p webcam, the shooter looks hazy, unclear, and muddy.
I certainly wouldn't post a selfie from the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 webcam to Instagram. Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable
On the plus side, it's an IR camera, which means it supports face unlock for Windows Hello logins.
Is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 worth it?
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is worth it if you want a sleek, thin-and-light gaming laptop that can be disguised as a laptop for work by day — while unleashing its true, beastly powers by night for triple-A gaming.
However, it's worth noting that its rival, the HP Victus, is typically on sale for less than $1,000. It packs the same Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU and plays Cyberpunk 2077 at an average of 95 frames per second, which is only slightly behind the ROG Zephyrus G14's 102 frames-per-second score.
Still, the ROG Zephyrus G14 undeniably has the better chassis, with a MacBook Pro-esque, premium design. Its $1,599 price tag gets you an uptick in performance, a slim, featherweight design, top-notch speakers, and an awesome keyboard. What's not to love?
Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most graphics-intensive titles on the market, so if you want to know if a gaming laptop is powerful, run the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark on it to really test its prowess. On our gaming laptops, we run two Cyberpunk 2077 benchmarks (with the charging cable plugged in): one with DLSS off (to test raw GPU power) and another with DLSS on (to test performance with AI upscaling). We use the High preset with ray-tracing off.
To test processor performance, we run Geekbench 6, and for battery life, we use PCMark 10's battery life test.
After running these benchmarks, we experiment with the display (e.g., surf YouTube and launch Netflix), explore the keyboard (i.e., we use LiveChat's typing speed test to assess its comfort levels), inspect the design and build quality, run Spotify to test the speakers, take photos to determine webcam quality, and more.
Kimberly Gedeon is a tech explorer who enjoys doing deep dives into the most popular gadgets, from the latest iPhones to the most immersive VR headsets. She's drawn to strange, avant-garde, bizarre tech, whether it's a 3D laptop, a gaming rig that can transform into a briefcase, or smart glasses that can capture video. Her journalism career kicked off about a decade ago at MadameNoire where she covered tech and business before landing as a tech editor at Laptop Mag in 2020.
