The ROG Zephyrus lineup has always been a favorite of mine. Over the years, it’s gotten the reputation of being powerful, portable, and full of character. So much so that it’s one of ROG’s most distinguishable laptops.

It’s often compared to MacBooks and, when talking about performance and aesthetics (and maybe price), there’s some truth to that. With the bonus of top-notch gaming capabilities that seem to elude the Apple ecosystem.

The 2024 ROG Zephyrus G16, with its RTX 4090 processor and Ultra 9 processor, is undeniably powerful but that power comes at a sacrifice. We’ll cover that and more but let’s first get to know the ROG Zephyrus G16,

Specs rundown

While we believe specs shouldn’t be the sole basis for a decision, it’s always wise to know what you’re dealing with.

As mentioned the ROG Zephyrus G16 boasts no less than top-tier specs across the board.

Starting with one of the stars of the show: its display.

A first for ROG, the Zephyrus G16 boasts a beautiful 16-inch 2.5K OLED display with a super fast 240Hz refresh rate. It’s got all the bells and whistles of a premium display including high brightness, fast response times, color accuracy, and even support for Nvidia G0SYnc and Dolby Vision HDR.

You also have a webcam here up that’s Windows Hello ready for that extra layer of security

Under the hood, the G16 impresses with a high-performance Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and an RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, complemented by 32GB RAM. These powerful internals are further supported by various software and AI enhancements.

To enhance gameplay, for example, ASUS includes Advanced Optimus, which bypasses the integrated graphic and goes straight for that RTX 4090.

Like before we have the easily accessible eMUX switch offering different performance options: Optimized, Eco, Standard, and Ultimate.

Connectivity options are plenty and include the essentials including USB type A ports, Type C ports, a miniSD card reader, and an HDMI port

The Good

It’ll do what you want it to do

If a laptop is a gaming laptop and a high-end one like this one, you’re almost always sure that it’ll handle practically anything you throw at it.

Needless to say, lightweight tasks like browsing, social media management, general typing tasks, and the like are easy breezy for the Zephyrus G16.

Starting out as a gaming laptop first, the Zephyrus line has also found its place in the hearts of content creators like ourselves. And the G16 leans further into this with performance and features fit for this audience.

On the gaming front, you’re almost always going to be set to Ultra graphics. In my experience, turn up everything to maximum and yup you will get impressive graphics but with a caveat. We’ll talk more about what that is in a little bit.

Focusing on the good first, I guess I can’t stress enough that there’s no absence of power here.

I love gaming but err on the side of casual. Lately, I’ve been spending too many hours on Diablo IV and the G16 has no trouble through the hours of grinding and rendering cinematic cutscenes.

Maxed out ray tracing settings and all.

Framerates were consistent provided you do use the bigger, more powerful charger. Using the USB-C charger can still get you smooth gameplay but I found myself lowering the resolution to get better framerates

And on weekends, we’d hook up the G16 to our projector and have some couch co-op fun with Hot Wheels.

As a media professional, time is precious and the speed of the G16 means you don’t lose that time rendering or buffering.

Editing 4K 10-bit footage on Premiere Pro posed no problems and color grading flat footage didn’t make the device lagm either.

Adding processor-heavy effects like glow, motion blur, and working on 3D or having multitudes of layers also didn’t make the G16 stumble for the most part.

This level of performance means no more waiting around for your projects to be completed, allowing you to focus on what matters most — creating

And you can even do some light multi-tasking on the side without it slowing down too much.

Outside of content creation or gaming, I believe it should fare well for other resource-heavy tasks like using AutoCAD.

Big, beautiful, and fast display

This year, ROG introduces its first 240Hz OLED panel on the G16 and I can’t say this enough, it’s downright gorgeous.

You’re getting crisp details, rich colors, and buttery smooth movement.

Going through photos and videos is a daily task for me which means having a color-accurate display is a need.

The G16’s display not only provides confidence in color accuracy but also delivers satisfying detail with its rich OLED panel.

And it’s huge, too. Combining 2.5k resolution and the 16-inch size means you can cram a lot in here and it’s a very good combination that allows you not just space to work on but also highly detailed images.

And of course, it’s got eye health tech, too, so you can work for more than a few hours. (But you really shouldn’t.)

The display quality enhances gaming, with additional tech like Nvidia G-Sync to prevent screen tearing.

I typically game on an external monitor, but the G16’s display provides a big-screen experience on the go. Coming from a lower refresh rate monitor, the 240Hz is noticeably smoother, especially in FPS games like Overwatch.

Is it overkill on a laptop? Maybe, depends on where you’re coming from.

As a casual gamer, I could probably do with a slightly lower refresh rate but keep the quality and size of this display. If that also means a lower price, why not right?

Brilliant audio

Two speakers flanking the left and right side of the keyboard, along with four more under the G16, provided unexpectedly brilliant audio quality.

I’ll be honest, I was surprised at the speaker quality of the G16 — I didn’t think they’d be this good.

Consistently, it delivered impressively balanced sound right out of the box. There’s a fullness to the lows, and details in the highs, though it is a little bit thin in the mids.

Combined with spatial audio technology, you do feel like you’re in a little bubble of sound. I did experience sound distortion even when the volume wasn’t maxed out though rather infrequently.

The Bad

Not as cool as we’d like it to be

As mentioned earlier, this laptop packs a punch with its RTX 4090 graphics card, and you can really feel the power –literally.

One of the biggest gripes I have with the Zephyrus G16 is its tendency to run excessively hot. During intense gaming sessions, temperatures can soar up to a scorching 92 degrees Celsius.

Even with the fans, which do get loud, blasting at full throttle in a cool room, it struggles to stay cool.

Despite ASUS’s efforts to improve cooling with liquid metal and new heat pipes, the sheer power of the hardware often overwhelms its thermal management.

There have been instances reported where the laptop overheats to the point of automatically shutting down.

To combat this, I found myself resorting to using an additional external fan or elevating the device for better cooling.

As pretty as the body is, it might be time for ASUS to consider a redesign focused on enhancing airflow to better handle the heat generated by this powerhouse.

Battery life is still short

There’s a reason ASUS includes two chargers in the box– it’s more of a necessity than a luxury. Straight out of the box, the G16 provided me with roughly 4 hours of battery life before needing to plug in. I suppose you can still be more conservative and stretch this out to 5, maybe 6 hours.

But for those 4 hours, I stuck to Balanced mode, with short bursts of Ultra when editing photos. My display also hovered around 50 – 70% brightness during this time.

Though not really surprising for a gaming laptop, I do wish the G16 offered just a smidge more longevity because it makes it harder to use untethered especially when editing or other power-hungry tasks,

ASUS attempts to mitigate this issue with fast charging options, boasting a 50% charge in just 30 minutes with the included 240W charger.

The price tag

The Zephyrus G16 was never really on the lower end of the price segment but is sporting an even higher price tag this time around

However, despite its improvements, some skepticism exists regarding its overall value for the money.

The crux of the issue lies in its limited performance.

The Zephyrus G16 comes packed with high-end components like the Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and the RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, but it doesn’t always make the most of them.

You’re investing a significant amount for top-tier specs that might not deliver the exceptional performance you expect. If the Zephyrus G16 doesn’t meet your expectations, the hefty price tag becomes hard to justify.

The Unexpected

It’s its own worst enemy

It’s disheartening that the Zephyrus G16’s power is limited by itself but it seems to be the truth.

Its body while gorgeous is seemingly not adept at dissipating heat and packing an RTX 4090 only adds to the amount of processing this lil’ laptop has to do.

Truly its specs are impressive on paper but performance is throttled because of how its slim build.

A different look and no more AniMe matrix

Speaking of how it’s built, the ROG Zephyrus G16 has undergone a noticeable aesthetic transformation this year, shedding its youthful AniMe matrix for a more mature appearance.

While I still have a soft spot for last year’s matte white design, the current iteration blends beauty with durability admirably.

Replacing the AniMe matrix is the Slash lighting, which, while less customizable, still adds a touch of flair characteristic of the Zephyrus line. With 7 sections to customize behavior (albeit not color), it offers preset animations and features Sonic Match, a music visualizer of sorts.

Oh, and I’d just like to add that it’s impressively light for a 16-inch laptop. Granted my trips are in short bursts and I carry it for about an hour maximum.

Still, I didn’t notice any discomfort while walking with it in my backpack.

Final thoughts