Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) review. Asus zephyrus g14 2022

Reviews

The Zephyrus G14 is still a long-lasting beast of a gaming laptop, but it has hiccups

Laptop Mag Verdict

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 packs great performance and battery life in a tight design, but falls short with its display and graphics.

Pros

  • Svelte design
  • Comfortable keyboard
  • Stellar performance
  • Solid audio
  • Amazing battery life

Cons

  • – Display could be brighter and more vivid
  • – Shallow touchpad
  • – Middling graphics
  • – Gets warm

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  • Video review
  • Price and configurations
  • Design
  • Ports
  • Display
  • Keyboard and touchpad
  • Audio
  • Gaming, graphics and VR
  • Performance
  • Battery life
  • Webcam
  • Heat
  • Software and warranty
  • Bottom line

I loved the original Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, and I was so hyped to get its successor, the all-AMD version of the Zephyrus G14, but I walked away quite disappointed.

To the Zephyrus G14’s credit, the new AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU is a hell of a performer, and that’s just the first layer of the cake. It rocks amazing battery life, solid speakers and a comfortable keyboard all packed into a svelte chassis. However, my hope for this device immediately diminished when I gazed upon its dim display. And unfortunately, the Radeon RX 6800S didn’t perform as well as its premium competitors.

I wouldn’t throw the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 on our best gaming laptops page, but it’s worth considering if you’re looking for great battery life in a gaming laptop.

Video review

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) price and configurations

The Zephyrus G14 that we tested is configured with an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU, an AMD Radeon RX 6800S 8GB GPU, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a 14-inch, 1600p, 120Hz display.

asus, zephyrus, 2022, review

Unfortunately, we don’t have official pricing and configurations for any of the available options at the time of writing, but the Zephyrus G14 will range from 1599 up to 2499. Our config will likely land on the pricier side of things.

If you’re looking for something more affordable, we recommend checking out our best cheap gaming laptops page.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) design

The Zephyrus G14 hasn’t changed much, but I am okay with that because this machine is still gorgeous as hell.

Our unit fits an elegant milky-white dress over its magnesium-alloy lid accompanied by tantalizing microdots for mini LED lights. Our model came with Asus’ AniMe Matrix display, which means we can customize the lid with a cute light show. The purple metallic Republic of Gamers establishment stamp on the bottom left corner gives the laptop that lovely industrial aesthetic. On the hinge, there are some indicator lights surrounded by a Zephyrus logo.

The carpet does match the drapes, as the interior slides on Asus’ Moonlight White outfit. It feels as good as it looks—the white color was applied via a soft-touch paint. There’s a much larger touchpad below the keyboard now. Like its predecessor, there are five dedicated keys above the keyboard, including a volume down, volume up, mute, ROG button (summons Armoury Crate app) and power button. On the outside of those keys, there’s a thin speaker vent on either side.

At 3.8 pounds and 12.3 x 8.9 x 0.7~0.8 inches, the Zephyrus G14 is the lightest and thinnest among its competitors, but that’s not a surprise since it’s a smaller 14-inch laptop. The Lenovo Legion 7i (Gen 6, Intel) (5.5 pounds, 14.2 x 10.2 x 0.8~0.9 inches), Acer Nitro 5 (5 pounds, 14.3 x 10 x 0.9 inches), and Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition (5.4 pounds, 14 x 10.7 x 0.5~0.9 inches) are all 15-inch laptops.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) ports

There’s a decent array of ports onboard the Zephyrus G14, but it’s still missing that dedicated Mini DisplayPort.

On the left there’s the power jack, an HDMI port, one USB Type-C port, and a headphone jack, while the right side features two USB Type-A ports, one USB Type-C port, and a microSD card slot.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) display

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14’s 14-inch, 2560 x 1600, 120Hz display is sharp and smooth, but incredibly dim as it is dull.

In the trailer for The King’s Daughter, a woman took a dive in the ocean, and the screen was so dark I couldn’t make out anything but the god rays in the center of the screen and half of her body. When she came up for air, there was a beautiful rocky mountain landscape in the background, or at least it would have been beautiful if there was a decent color range to highlight it.

When I played Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and hid up in the rafters, I couldn’t see where I was going unless I used my eagle vision because oh how dim the panel was. The reds and blacks on Eivor’s outfit were decently bold, but unfortunately, the poor contrast of the panel didn’t let them pop like they should. However, the grass and trees looked sharp and it ran silky smooth at 120Hz when I turned down the graphics.

According to our colorimeter, the Zephyrus G14 covers 78.6% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is not as colorful as the average premium gaming laptop (81.6%). Unfortunately, the Legion 7i (80.2%), Nitro 5 (81.7%), and Alienware m15 (87.3%) also had nicer displays.

At 232 nits of brightness, the Zephyrus G14 was the dimmest bulb in the house, falling behind the 324-nit category average as well as the Legion 7i (488 nits), Nitro 5 (284 nits), and Alienware m15 (328 nits).

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) keyboard and touchpad

My fingers clicked and clacked all over the Zephyrus G14’s keyboard without an issue, and my palms were oh-so happy with the soft-touch deck. The keys felt punchy as opposed to clicky.

I typed 79 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which barely slides past my 78-wpm average. The keys are very well spaced despite the limited real estate. To be fair, I do like 14-inch notebooks, so that just may be me.

Just like its predecessor, the white keyboard lighting is awful. Fix it. The LEDs only partly light up the clear font on the keyboard so I can barely make out each key.

The 3 x 5.1-inch touchpad also hasn’t really changed apart from its size. It’s pleasantly soft, but still features one of the shallowest clickers ever.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) audio

The top-firing and bottom-firing speakers on the Zephyrus G14 are quite impressive. There’s some room for improvement concerning the bass, but it’s hard to complain when I’m not instinctively jumping for headphones at the first tone played.

I listened to GIRLI’s “ Than a Friend,” and I reflexively started bobbing my head when the vocals hit. It electrified my office — I haven’t heard good laptop speakers in a while. When tuned to the Dynamic setting in Dolby Atmos, the speakers juggled the bassy and distorted beats incredibly well during the chorus.

In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, I was impressed with how crisp the voices came across during cutscenes. The hooves of my horse created thick thuds against the ground as I drew my bow and fired, nailing a wolf’s butt, which gave off a meaty pierce. I was less impressed with the hacks from my ax, as it missed the full depth of the sound.

Asus outfitted the laptop with Dolby Atmos, which you can use to configure the sound with Dynamic, Game, Movie, Music, and Voice presets. Within those presets, you can choose between detailed, balanced, or warm audio.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) gaming, graphics and VR

Tucked beneath all the levels of badassery lies the new AMD Radeon RX 6800S GPU with 8GB of VRAM. It was more than capable of running Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on Ultra, 1600p settings at 47 frames per second while I ran across the countryside and raided towns for fun. The new AMD Radeon RX 6800S GPU is outfitted with AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution technology, which means that it’ll deliver smooth 1080p gaming and boost fps at higher resolutions (according to AMD). AMD is also using what it calls Infinity Cache, which is the company’s branded term for how it delivers data in its GPU, and the RX 6800S features 32MB of Infinity Cache. This GPU also offers full DirectX 12 Ultimate and ray tracing support.

On the Far Cry New Dawn benchmark (Ultra, 1080p), the Zephyrus G14 averaged 86 fps, falling short of the average premium gaming laptop (92 fps). It even passed the Alienware m15’s Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU (79 fps), but it couldn’t do the same with the Legion 7i’s RTX 3070 GPU or the Nitro 5’s RTX 3080 GPU (94 fps). At 1600p, the G14 hit 75 fps.

The Zephyrus G14 scored 75 fps on the Borderlands 3 benchmark (Badass, 1080p), clipping its wings under the category average (81 fps). While it wrecked the Alienware m15 (66 fps), it couldn’t keep up with the Legion 7i (89 fps) or Nitro 5 (76 fps). When tested at 1600p, the G14 managed 46 fps.

On the Red Dead Redemption 2 benchmark (Medium, 1080p), the Zephyrus G14 shot too low, landing on 49 fps, which falls behind the 66-fps premium gaming laptop average as well as the Legion 7i (77 fps), Alienware m15 (53 fps), and Nitro 5 (66 fps). At 1600p, it barely missed the 30 fps threshold with 29 fps.

When testing the Zephyrus G14 against the Metro: Exodus benchmark (Ultra, 1080p), it managed 62 fps, falling back against the category average (73 fps). However, it was once again outpaced by the Legion 7i (81 fps), Alienware m15 (82 fps), and Nitro 5 (68 fps).

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) performance

With the brand spankin’ new AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU with 32GB of RAM, the Zephyrus G14 tore through everything I tossed at it, from 40 Google Chrome pages to five YouTube videos all with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla running in the background.

On the Geekbench 5.4 overall performance test, the Zephyrus G14 came in like a wrecking ball with a whopping 10,004 (I’ve never seen it go into the five digits before), toppling the average premium gaming laptop (7,212). It eclipsed the Legion 7i’s Intel Core i7-11800H (9,250), the Nitro 5’s Ryzen 9 5900HX (8,485), and the Alienware m15’s Ryzen R7 5800H (7,288).

The Zephyrus G14 transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in just 5 minutes and 58 seconds on our HandBrake benchmark, which sped past the category average (6:38). To my surprise, the Legion 7i came in clutch with a 5:44, but the Nitro 5 (6:17) and Alienware m15 (7:05) lagged behind.

Asus’ 1TB SSD has a transfer rate of 1,260 megabytes per second, blowing past the 1,131-MBps category average. It lapped around the Nitro 5’s 1TB SSD (742 MBps) and the Alienware m15’s 512GB SSD (874 MBps), but the Legion 7i’s 1TB SSD would not be defeated, scoring a 1,806-MBps transfer rate.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) battery life

The original Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 wowed me with its battery life, and I’ve yet to see another Zephyrus G-series laptop do the same, but this new G14 has broken that streak. On the Laptop Mag battery test, the Zephyrus G14 lasted a whopping 10 hours and 38 minutes, crushing the average premium gaming laptop (4:21). The Lenovo Legion 7i (5:02), Nitro 5 (4:33), and Alienware m15 (3:29) had no chance.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) webcam

I’m happy that it’s there and that it’s on the top bezel, but a 720p IR webcam is still a crappy webcam, even if it has Windows Hello support.

I could barely see any detailed features in my face during the test shot, and the poor contrast blew out part of my cheek in the process. The color was off, too, turning the blue palm trees on my shirt black. And the text on the Fullmetal Alchemist poster behind me was blurry as all hell. I wouldn’t want to play DD online with this thing. I recommend checking out our best webcams page for something that’ll make you look as beautiful as you truly are.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) heat

The Zephyrus G14 gets a little spicy under the hood, and maybe a little too much for my taste. After gaming for 15 minutes, the underside clocked in at 130 degrees Fahrenheit, leaping over our 95-degree comfort threshold. The center of the keyboard and touchpad hit 114 and 80 degrees, respectively. However, the hottest the machine got was 135 degrees, located on the rear left-center of the underside (the midway point between edge and center).

It even gets a bit warm when you’re not gaming. After streaming a video for 15 minutes, the underside hit 107 degrees, while the keyboard and touchpad measured 95 and 77 degrees, respectively.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) software and warranty

One of the most important apps in the Zephyrus G14’s arsenal is the Armoury Crate, which you can use to manage the performance of the CPU, GPU and fans. In the same app, you can also customize the key lighting, aggregate games from other launchers, and create profiles for performance and lighting based on what you’re playing or doing. The second important app is the AMD Radeon Software, which’ll give you access to performance and gaming options to optimize your experience.

The GameVisual app adjusts the color of your display. There’s also the MyAsus app, which can run system diagnostics and hardware checks on your system.

Additionally, you’ll find Windows 10 bloatware like Hulu, Roblox and Hidden City.

The Zephyrus G14 comes with a one-year limited warranty. See how Asus performed on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands ranking.

Bottom line

I wanted to love the new Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, but it has one too many flaws. The display is a big thing for me, and the brightness killed my hopes instantly. I was less concerned about the graphics, but it’s sad to see that it doesn’t live up to some of its competitors.

If you are willing to trade battery life, the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition is a way better alternative for great performance and a bright display.

asus, zephyrus, 2022, review

However, you simply cannot beat the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14’s battery life, design, and bumpin’ speakers. It has its place for sure.

Rami Tabari is an Editor for Laptop Mag. He reviews every shape and form of a laptop as well as all sorts of cool tech. You can find him sitting at his desk surrounded by a hoarder’s dream of laptops, and when he navigates his way out to civilization, you can catch him watching really bad anime or playing some kind of painfully difficult game. He’s the best at every game and he just doesn’t lose. That’s why you’ll occasionally catch his byline attached to the latest Souls-like challenge.

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Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) Review

It’s not often I start a review by telling you exactly how I feel about a product, but this time it’s warranted. Dear reader, I’m smitten with the 2022 rendition of Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. From a lightweight and portable design and solid performance to impressively long battery life – the G14 is easily my top pick for a gaming laptop over the last year, maybe longer.

I’ve been using a G14 powered by an AMD CPU and GPU for the last few weeks, and the entire experience has been fantastic. There are several different configurations of the G14 listed on the Asus website, but you won’t find the model I’ve been testing. The biggest difference I can see after scanning over the builds Asus is offering is that my review sample is running Windows 11 Pro and has 32GB of memory.

Here are the specifications of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 I’ve been testing:

  • Model: Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (GA402RK-XS96-WH)
  • Display: 14-inch WQXGA 120Hz (2560 x 1600)
  • Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS 3.3 GHz (16M cache, 4.9GHz Max Boost Clock)
  • Graphics: AMD RX 6800S GPU with 8GB GDDR6
  • Memory: 32GB DDR5 4,800MHz
  • OS: Windows 11 Pro
  • Storage: 1 x 1TB SSD
  • Webcam: 720p
  • Ports: 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 2 x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 2, 1 x HDMI 2.0, 1 x 3.5mm audio jack, 1 x microSD card reader
  • Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E 802.11ax, Bluetooth 5.2
  • Dimensions: 12.28 x 8.94 x 0.73-inches (WxDxH)
  • Weight: 3.79-pounds
  • Price: 2,499

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 – Design

When I first unboxed the G14, I wasn’t overly impressed. I wasn’t turned off by it, mind you, but the basic white housing with what appears to be a stipple effect on the lid has been done before. However, once I turned it on and I heard my kid yell WHOAAAA from across the room I grew to appreciate the design. You see, on the lid of the G14 is an Anime Matrix that has 1,449 mini-LEDs behind 14,969 individual holes that light up and are constantly in motion.

asus, zephyrus, 2022, review

The Anime Matrix has a series of default designs that move across the lid of the G14, display mini-games that you’re playing on the G14 or show off your own creations made on the Anime Matrix Pixel Editor website.

The matrix is on and constantly moving whenever the G14 is plugged in, regardless if the lid is closed or not. You can control when and how it behaves in the Armoury Crate app.

It’s a mesmerizing aspect of the G14’s design, and even though I saw it on last year’s G14, the smoother animations thanks to an increase in the number of lights and holes is a welcomed addition.

Outside of the changes to the Anime Matrix, the G14’s design looks a lot like last year’s G14, but there are some key changes. The 14-inch display now has a 16:10 aspect ratio, up from 16:9 in last year’s model. There’s also a webcam along the top of the display that includes the necessary hardware to work with Windows Hello, and the touchpad is 50% bigger than last year’s. The hinge can now rotate the display so that it lays flat on a table. It’s a nice feature to have on a touchscreen-equipped laptop, which the G14 is not. I’m not really sure when I’d use the G14 with the screen laying flat on a desk, but at least it’s an option. I think?

When the lid is opened, the bottom of the hinge lifts the deck of the G14 up off the table or desk, putting the keyboard at a slight angle that’s similar to a standalone keyboard while also providing space underneath the housing for improved airflow.

When you open the lid, you’re greeted with an RGB backlit chiclet keyboard with white keys. On the left side of the deck above the keyboard are three keys dedicated to volume control, and another that launches Armoury Crate app, though all four can be programmed to your preferred actions. To the right of those keys is the power button.

There are several ports on either side of the G14. On the left side, from front to back, there’s a 3.5mm audio jack, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port with support for DisplayPort 1.4 and 100W Power Delivery, an HDMI 2.0 port and the charging port. On the opposite side you’ll find a microSD card reader (UHS II), a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C and two USB 3.2 Type-A ports. The mix of ports and connections should be enough for a basic desktop setup, including the HDMI connection to an external monitor. That said, I would have loved to see an Ethernet port in place of one of the standard USB ports.

Forgetting about the light matrix for a minute, my favorite aspect of the G14’s design is how small it is. It measures 12.28 x 8.94 x 0.73 inches and weighs 3.79 pounds, which is more than light enough to put in a backpack or carry around the house without feeling like you have to do some pushups before moving it from one room to the next.

If you don’t want an all-white laptop, Asus does offer the G14 in an eclipse gray which I can’t help but think would look even better with the contrast of the white lights on the matrix.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 – Performance and Gaming

When it comes to gadgets, it’s not what’s on the outside that counts so much as what’s on the inside. And with the 2022 version of the G14, Asus opted to go all-in on AMD. specifically, the high-end G14 comes with an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU and an AMD Radeon RX 6800S GPU. Pair that with 32GB of DDR5 memory and a 1TB SSD, and you’re more than ready to tackle any school or work tasks, along with any triple-A game.

Before I get into my personal experience, here’s a quick benchmark comparison:

As you can see, the G14 held its own with the far more expensive MSI Raider GE76 and the Gigabyte Aero 16. When you take into account the total size of the G14 compared to something like the GE76 that’s akin to being a desktop with a built-in display, the results, while lower than higher-end gaming laptops, start to become pretty impressive. Meanwhile keeps pace or in some cases beats the also-slim but much pricier Aero 16.

As far as my personal experience using the G14, all I can say is, those benchmarks don’t tell the entire story. From using it as my daily work machine to gaming on it at night, I had zero issues with its performance or power. The speakers offer ample depth and direction to both entertainment (Spotify, YouTube) and gaming. When playing Call of Duty: Warzone, for example, I could tell the general direction of a nearby enemy’s footsteps or gunshots.

There are several power modes you can pick from in Armoury Crate to fine-tune how the system performs, however, I spent most of my time testing in Performance mode (including the benchmarks noted above), allowing the fans to do their job without getting overly noisy. I did some basic testing in Turbo mode, which adds a performance boost of 5 to 10% when gaming, but it comes at the cost of noisy fans. I was fine with the experience when using Performance mode, and I prefer not to deal with loud fans. But just know you can squeeze a little more power out of the system than what my test results show.

As a creature of habit, I spent a lot of time playing Call of Duty: Warzone. With all graphics settings maxed out – pushing the 8GB memory of the Radeon RX 6800S GPU to the limi – and the resolution set to 2560×1600, I recorded an average of 74 frames per second. When I left all of the settings the same but turned the resolution down to 1920×1200, the frame rate jumped up to 97 FPS.

Granted, the screen is 120Hz, but I had no issues playing at either setting both in terms of the experience, but also how it looked. Colors were bright and saturated, and the graphics were clear and crisp. I also liked that the matte finish on the display goes a long way in helping cut down on glare from overhead lights.

Where I wasn’t overly thrilled with the G14 was the keyboard. The keys are a little mushy, providing a minimal tactile feel when typing or gaming. The other complaint is that the keyboard’s backlighting is very, very weak. Unless I was in a very dim room, I could barely tell if keys were backlit or if I had turned it off at some point. I imagine if you go with the gray option you won’t have the same issue, but the white build definitely doesn’t show off the RGB backlights as much as I would like to see.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 – Battery Life

Battery life and gaming laptops just aren’t two phrases that usually go together. With the G14, however, it’s another area where the G14 shines. Going through PCMark 10’s battery benchmark test, the G14 lasted 9 hours and 7 minutes. That’s incredibly impressive and matches what I experienced when using the G14 as my daily computer.

The MSI Raider GE76 lasted 3 hours and 37 minutes while the Gigabyte Aero 16 lasted 2 hours and 58 minutes in the same exact test. Yea, the Zephrus G14 is a battery life champ.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 – Software

There isn’t a whole lot of extra software preinstalled on the G14. Asus has its Armoury Crate software for tweaking and controlling the system’s performance, lighting and viewing its stats in real-time. Out of all the similar apps from gaming laptop makers like MSI or Acer, Armoury Crate is my least favorite. It’s confusing to use, and something I only open when I want to switch between power modes or quickly view system stats.

Another small app that’s installed on the G14 is the Virtual Pet app. In addition to putting a small robot mouse (at least it looks like a mouse) on your desktop, the Anime Matrix lights up to reflect your interactions with your virtual pet. A right-click on your pet will give you the option to play games (that also show up the matrix), as well as overlays that show system stats and other information. The virtual pet is fun, but a little gimmicky at the same time.

Purchasing Guide

You can buy the G14 directly from Best Buy, starting at 1,649.99 for a build that’s equipped with an AMD Ryzen 9, RX 6700S, 16GB of memory and a 1TB SSD. The closest build I can find to what I tested is the 1,899 option at Best Buy, which has an AMD Ryzen 9, RX 6800S, 16GB of memory and a 1TB SSD.

Verdict

If I was shopping for a gaming laptop right now, the ROG Zephyrus G14 would be at the very top of my list. Actually, I wouldn’t even think about it. It’s the laptop I would get. It’s not only powerful enough to play on, but it’s small and lightweight enough that I would have no hesitation to take it on a work trip. Between its overall design, impressive battery life, and plenty of performance – all for under 1,900 – you can’t really go wrong.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. 2022

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is a slick, portable gaming notebook with long battery life and a much-needed webcam. Its display could be brighter, and it isn’t always as powerful as laptops with competitors’ components, but it often hangs with them.

User Score

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Reviewers Liked

  • Lots of ports and IO
  • Portable design
  • Good display
  • Surprisingly good webcam
  • Bigger touchpad

Reviewers Didn’t Like

  • Wish the SSD was faster
  • Unfortunately expensive
  • Gets warm
  • Not outperforming cheaper systems
  • Display could be brighter
  • Some keyboard touchpoints run uncomfortably warm
  • Price premium

Direct Competitors and Related Products

Our editors hand-pick these products using a variety of criteria: they can be direct competitors targeting the same market segment or can be similar devices in terms of size, performance, or features.

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Expert reviews and ratings

The Radeon RX 6800S is AMD’s latest attempt at doing something special in the gaming laptop market. The 6800S is a lower-power, higher-efficiency version of the Radeon RX 6800M that we reviewed last year, in a similar vein to what Nvidia has been doing.

The Zephyrus G14 is one of the more popular options for gaming laptops on the market, with Asus counting it as their ‘Most Popular Gaming laptop’ – and it’s easy to see why.The laptop has a comfortable keyboard with a large, responsive trackpad and a.

The Asus ROG G14 2022 is a solid recommendation for anyone looking to buy a compact, powerful machine that can transform into a gaming station on demand, and do it with some flair. I wouldn’t recommend G14 2021 users to upgrade to this, as there aren’t.

The 2022 ROG Zephyrus G14 has all the bells and whistles for a compact gaming notebook. I absolutely love the design updates which now make the laptop more aligned to the aesthetics of its larger sibling, the Zephyrus G15. It not only looks good, but is.

The Asus Zephyrus G14 is a fast, compact laptop that you can game and do serious work on.

If I was shopping for a gaming laptop right now, the ROG Zephyrus G14 would be at the very top of my list. Actually, I wouldn’t even think about it. It’s the laptop I would get. It’s not only powerful enough to play on, but it’s small and lightweight enough that I would have no hesitation to take it on a work trip. Between its overall design, impressive battery life, and plenty of performance – all for under 1,900 – you can’t really go wrong.

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) is a great gaming laptop, delivering a potent blend of performance, portability and power efficiency. While it can’t match the outlandish battery life of its predecessors, the brighter screen is worth it.

I have no regrets buying this Zephyrus G14. It really checks off a lot of boxes for me and the value offered by this configuration is tremendous. I never had any of the previous models, so I can’t make any direct comparisons like Andrei already has. But.

It’s no over exaggeration to call the 2022 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. with its concoction of new AMD hardware. a fantastic laptop. The Ryzen 9 6900HS processor is fast and incredibly efficient, the RX 6800S GPU pushes out some impressive frame numbers

The redesigned ROG Zephyrus G14 continues to standout by offering a ton of performance, an eye-catching AniMe Matrix screen, and a new 16:10 screen and webcam.

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 laptop offers blazing performance for gaming and everything else, and pairs it with awesome battery life and great.

The Zephyrus G14 is still an incredibly compelling 14-inch notebook, especially if you’re aiming for one of the cheaper models. It’s powerful, slim and it finally has a webcam. But it’s also lost much of what made the 2020 model so special. I suppose that’s progress, though. Asus kicked off a trend, but now it’s racing to keep up with the competition.

There’s a lot to like here. Ryzen 6000 series processors and the latest mobile Radeons make a great combination. Overall performance many not top the charts across the board, but the AA AMD Advantage Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 machine we tested here punches well above its weight class and offers an excellent experience.

The G14 has a nearly flawless chassis and a powerful CPU that may be worth 1,599, but you shouldn’t spend 2,500. To earn that price tag, it needs to bring better performance.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14: Thermals, Acoustics, Performance Update And The Verdict

The ROG Zephyrus G14 has multiple personalities in regards to its thermals and acoustics. Like most modern laptops, the system switches into different power modes, depending on the use case. Although you can alter this with a couple of clicks, the ROG Zephyrus G14 switches into Quiet mode when on battery, which scales back the processor’s frequency and voltage curve, limits framerates, and also prevents the fans from spinning up too high. The default Performance mode has more bite when under load, and the fans can spin up fast enough to produce a fair amount of noise. At idle though, the fans spin down completely in both Quiet and Performance modes. Turbo mode goes all out, however, and allows for higher power levels, and higher fan speeds. In Turbo mode, the fans also spin all the time, even at idle.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Thermal And Acoustic Performance

In Quiet mode, the machine if rather tame acoustically. It’s effectively silent at idle and under light loads. When the fans do spin up in Quiet mode, the ROG Zephyrus G14 barely registered over 41dB on our meter, with it placed about a foot away from the display.

In performance mode, the acoustic output from the fans ramps up considerably. Under a sustained, heavy workload, with the fans spinning at their max, we registered between 47 – 48dB on our meter. That’s not bad in light of other gaming notebooks. However, again the noise floor can fluctuate greatly, depending on the power mode.

When maxed out in Turbo mode and place under a heavy, sustained load, things can get a little louder. The ROG Zephyrus G14 flirted with the 53dB mark in our tests. The acoustic report is also somewhat high pitched, which may be off-putting for some. For a machine of this size, and with the kind of performance it offers, the ROG Zephyrus G14’s noise output is in-line with competing systems.

As you would expect, temperatures also ramp differently depending on what power mode the system is using. Quiet mode is the tamest, while Turbo mode is the most aggressive.

That said, even in Turbo mode, temperatures remain in check. The warmest “skin” temp we recorded was just above 132°F, but even then, it was at the farthest point of the back of the system, where the fans pump hot air out onto the bottom of the display area. The keyboard deck and trackpad area were significantly cooler. During real-world use, there’s no part of the deck area that likely to cause any sort of heat-related discomfort.

Internal temperatures are what you would expect as well. We’ve got some hardware health data to show you what we mean.

Hardware Details: Performance Mode

Hardware Details: Turbo Mode

This is the hardware health data captured during a couple of 3DMark Time Spy runs – and this was taken after many hours of benchmarking. The top plot is in Performance mode, the bottom one in Turbo mode. As you’ll see, CPU frequencies remain relatively consistent and GPU temperatures, peak under 90°C.

We also have some CPU-related data captured during a PCMark 10 run. What you see here are relatively consistent CPU frequencies across all of the tests, with lots of peaks and valleys in terms of power consumption. Unfortunately, UL’s tools weren’t capturing CPU temperatures across the plot, but we can report that the Ryzen 9 6900HS in the ROG Zephyrus G14 is well behaved. According to Asus’ Amory Crate app, the CPU temperatures will reach the mid-to-upper 90’s when initially under a heavy load, just like most of the today’s high-end notebooks, but the cooling fans will then kick in and drag temps down.

The inevitable swings in performance that this can sometimes bring to a notebook are not present on the ROG Zephyrus G14, however. Unlike some systems that will bleed off performance when under long sustained loads, the ROG Zephyrus G14’s performance remains consistent. In fact, after 10 consecutive Cinebench runs, scores were higher on some of the later passes through the benchmark.

Asus Zephyrus G14 June Performance Update

When evaluating laptops built around brand new mobile platforms, we often have to endure multiple software, firmware, and BIOS updates over the course of testing, while all of the parties involved in the launch work out various the kinks and bugs that crop up when systems are out in the wild, and as they optimize performance of the system.

Since our initial review hit, the Asus Zephyrus G14 for 2022 has received a couple of BIOS updates, a new VBIOS, updated monitor calibration profile, and numerous firmware and driver updates for various other components within the system. Microsoft has released a number of updates and patches for Windows 11 as well. Asus has released freshly minted versions of its Armory Crate and My Asus utilities. And AMD has released new chipset and graphics drivers too.

Due to the wide array of updates that have arrived for the Zephyrus G14, we thought it would be an interesting exercise to re-run a handful of benchmarks to see if the system’s performance has changed significantly – for better or worse. While the hardware hasn’t changed, the fast majority of the software is different. What does that mean for performance? Let’s find out.

asus, zephyrus, 2022, review

It appears there was some additional performance left under the G14’s hood. Post updates, nearly four months since launch, we saw significant performance increases in Speedometer and PCMark 10. Cinebench was essentially flat, however. In our initial article, the Turbo performance profile resulted in slightly lower performance in PCMark 10 than the default Balanced profile. That is clearly no longer the case.

Retesting the Radeon RX 6800S resulted in a slight performance decrease, but we’re talking about a relatively small difference that falls within the margin of error in this test.

The Radeon 680M iGPU integrated into Ryzen 6000 series processors was somewhat of an unsung Hero of our original coverage. Because the G14 has a powerful discrete GPU, the processor’s iGPU is overshadowed in the graphics tests. The Radeon 680M, however, is easily the most powerful on-processor graphics engine currently available. And post-updates, it’s performance is every so slightly higher.

Asus Zephyrus G14 With Ryzen 6000: The Verdict

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 will be available in multiple configurations today, from a few key retailers. The Ryzen 9 6900HS Radeon RX 6800S configuration we tested, with 32GB of RAM, WQXGA 120Hz display, in Moonlight White with AniMe Matrix display, has an MSRP of 2,499. That’s not chump change by any means, but considering the high-performance and relatively small form factor of this system, it’s easily justifiable in the current market environment. Personally, as cool as it is, we’d opt for a model without the AniMe Matrix display to save a few bucks, but if you dig the light show and customization, you do you.

AMD’s Ryzen 9 6900HS proved to be a strong performer overall. In the CPU-centric tests, it wasn’t able to overtake Intel’s latest Alder Lake-based 12th Gen chips in most tests, but keep in mind the 6900HS is a mid-range Ryzen 6000-series processor and its inside a 14” notebook here. Even still, it competes well with the latest laptops on the market, and in its default configuration it does so at lower power levels. AMD’s new Radeon RX 6800S also competes well, typically trading blows with GeForce RTX 3070 / RTX 3060 mobile-equipped systems.

Perhaps the unsung Hero of the performance story is the Radeon 680M iGPU. In a system like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, the discrete GPU will be put to use in gaming and heavy workloads, so the Radeon 680M will only be tasked with lighter-duty stuff. But as our tests showed on the previous page, the Radeon 680M is very powerful for an integrated GPU. It blew Intel’s Xe graphics out of the water and smoked the desktop Vega-based variant in the Ryzen 7 5700G. This bodes extremely well for future thin-and-light laptops that won’t have discrete GPUs.

All told, there’s a lot to like here. Ryzen 6000 series processors and the latest mobile Radeons make a great combination. Overall performance many not top the charts across the board, but the AA AMD Advantage Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 machine we tested here punches well above its weight class and offers an excellent experience. If you’ve been considering a smaller-form-factor gaming notebook, with the chops to handle virtually any workload, we can easily recommend that the Ryzen 6000-powered Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 should be added to your short list.