Unfortunately, as it has gained greater notoriety and popularity, its price has increased by a large amount. The value offering may not be what it used to be, but it is still a superb gadget, especially in light of the new aspect ratio introduced this year, the inclusion of a webcam, and the use of an AMD processor in every configuration. The laptop comes close to being the ideal all-arounder; the only thing holding it back is its mediocre battery life.
Design
The brand new MacBook Pro with a 14-inch screen is a great laptop, particularly for creators. However, it is not appropriate for those who play video games. What do you do, then, if you’re interested in a portable powerhouse like the new MacBook Pro but you’re more of a PC player than anything else? The ROG Zephyrus G14 is the logical choice in this situation. This laptop offers an incredible degree of portability for a computer that can game at the same level as the greatest of them and also has creative capabilities. The appealing portability is achieved through the utilization of a small and astonishingly lightweight chassis, which, in its white iteration, features a particularly distinctive appearance. It does not feel to be of the same high quality as products offered by Apple or Razer, but it is eye-catching without being flashy, in part because to the distinctive perforated lid design. The keyboard is now the most advanced option available on the market. A camera and an aspect ratio that is more squared off at 16:10 are two more enhancements. This productivity device is one that is simple to get used to, thanks to the innovative display and keyboard combo that it comes equipped with.
Gaming Performance
The AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS processor and AMD Radeon RX 6800S graphics card are included in the gaming configuration of the model that costs $2,500. You may expect performance that falls somewhere in the middle of what you’d get from an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 and an RTX 3080 graphics card if you go this route. That is a significant improvement over prior incarnations of the G14, which were limited to an RTX 3060 GPU at most. On this 1440p panel running at 120 Hz, the end result is frame rates of approximately 60 fps and higher when using the Ultra settings. To get the full 120 frames per second out of this laptop when playing first-person shooter games like Apex Legends, you will need to adjust the graphics settings to low or medium. The 16:10 QHD display does an excellent job of displaying all of those frames as well as the high-quality images. Images that are either realistic or stylised look fantastic, thanks to accurate coloration and striking contrast. However, there is a slight loss of brightness in this display, so it is not quite perfect. You won’t even notice it in most settings, but when you’re not using the laptop for gaming, its portability will suffer slightly as a result of this. Those who prefer to have creative flexibility in addition to gaming power will find that the specifications make it more than capable as an editing workstation. This laptop can compete with some of the top-tier devices that will be released in 2021 and is also not too far off the pace of larger powerhouses that were released in this year. It is designed for creator types. In a nutshell, with the exception of the most power-hungry professionals, this device should serve most professionals’ needs rather adequately, despite the fact that its reading and writing speeds are slower than those of larger competitors. It is by no means slow, but it lags behind significantly enough that anyone who transfers files on a regular basis ought to take note of it.
Drawbacks
The battery life of this laptop is the primary factor that prevents it from being recommended as a high-end, all-purpose computing companion. Make no mistake about it, the battery life you get using this laptop for ordinary tasks that do not involve gaming remains good. This is especially true considering the level of power it possesses. But when compared to the battery life of an Apple M1, the five to seven hours that this device offers seems pitiful. This laptop has a battery life of approximately six hours on average, which is sufficient for a full day’s worth of work or a trip to a coffee shop. Thank goodness for the 100-watt USB-C charging port, which is readily available to quickly top you off whenever it is required. When it was first unveiled in 2020 as a mid-tier gaming machine with a surprisingly low price, the ROG Zephyrus G14 caused jaws to drop everywhere it was shown. The cost of electricity has increased over the course of the last few years as a direct result of efforts to generate more of it. The end result is a value that is less appealing across the board, with competitors such as Lenovo Legion laptops, MSI machines, and Asus’ own Strix range all taking aim at the G14. The G14 is able to deliver power in an innovative and compact package, which is part of the reason for its higher price tag. However, its price is getting closer and closer to that of its primary 14-inch competitor, the Razer Blade 14, which features a design that is more streamlined and of a higher quality along with a more powerful CPU and the option to squeeze in an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080.
Should You Buy?
For the time being, the G14 maintains its position as the most powerful 14-inch gaming laptop. I definitely think you already know the answer to the question, yes! You should definitely buy the laptop. Despite this, the walls are beginning to close in. This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional. © 2022 Maina Wilson
