ROG Zephyrus G16 (2024): A world-class laptop with amazing hardware

The larger Zephyrus is a true premium laptop, holding its own in the office and at eSports tournaments.

Introduction, design

Since the release of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G family, it has included highly portable and universal laptops, but at its heart are gamers. That's also the case with our test subject, the 2024 version of the G16, which features a Core Ultra 9 processor and an RTX 4090 GPU in a sleek aluminum unibody chassis with an LED strip and ventilation grilles that are almost completely hidden.

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This year's edition of the ROG G16 is designed in every detail to be a worthy member of the premium segment. Accordingly, it has a satiny glossy aluminum case (this is the version in dark grey, but it is also found in white, called Platinum White) of aluminum with perfect joints and strength. The hinges are smooth and can be operated with one hand, and the touchpad appears almost frameless in the middle of the wrist rest. One interesting feature of the design that may not be obvious at first is that the giant air vents, typical of high-performance laptops, are nowhere to be seen. However, it is there, that is, on the back side, hiding under the curved edge of the screen. During design, ASUS engineers paid attention to the fact that the outgoing warm air does not heat the OLED panel, but is directed downward towards the table.

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The 16-inch OLED panel is covered in slightly reflective glass and surrounded by a fashionably thin bezel, and above it there's also a Full HD webcam, which delivers acceptable image quality and is Windows Hello compatible. We have already mentioned the movement of the hinges that hold the screen, but we would like to mention that, due to its shape and design, it does not allow it to be opened 180 degrees. Incidentally, the relatively thin screen is probably the least solid part of the laptop, compared to the completely solid bottom half, and the tendency to warp is visible here, but the range isn't terrible at all. The entire notebook is surprisingly thin (16mm), with a core area of ​​354 x 246mm. It weighs 1.8kg, so we can't complain about how easy it is to carry.

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Instead of the previous AniMe Matrix LEDs, the laptop wears a restrained LED strip as a decoration on its cover, which is divided into seven parts, which can of course entertain us with customizable effects. Even more useful, they can draw our attention to various notifications, for example, the arrival of a message or a chat message; We can set all this in the usual Armory Crate program. In addition to the row of LEDs with the wonderful name Slash Lighting, we also find a small ROG logo in the upper corner of the case, so we have already reached the end of the decorations (even if we do not count the ARGB keyboard).

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The right and left sides have a total of TB4, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, one HDMI and a 3.5mm audio shared jack. The Type-C ports also offer DisplayPort and USB-PD support, and we also get an SD card reader.

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The lower part of the case is lined with ventilation meshes, and in addition to the visible screws, it also has two fasteners hidden under small rubber elements. If we unscrew all these things, the device can be easily opened, so we can easily expand the storage space (two M.2 sockets available), or after a few years we can replace the battery, remove the liquid metal and cool the vapor chamber.

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