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.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (AMD, February 2022) price and configurations
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 specs
Price: N/A
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800S 8GB
RAM: 32GB
Storage: 1TB SSD
Display: 14-inch, 1600p, 120Hz
Battery: 10:38
Size: 12.3 x 8.9 x 0.7~0.8 inches
Weight: 3.8 pounds
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.
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 (AMD, February 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 (AMD, February 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.
If you need more ports, check out our best laptop docking stations and best USB Type-C hubs pages.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (AMD, February 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 (AMD, February 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 (AMD, February 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 “More 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 (AMD, February 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 (AMD, February 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 (AMD, February 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 (AMD, February 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 D&D 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 (AMD, February 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 (AMD, February 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.
However, you simply cannot beat the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14’s battery life, design, and bumpin’ speakers. It has its place for sure.
