**A Closer Look at the ASUS ZenBook 14: A Gaming Laptop that Defies Expectations**

You may think that laptops are all about their specs, but there's more to it than meets the eye. The ASUS ZenBook 14 is a prime example of this. With its RTX 3060 GPU, this laptop may not be the most powerful gaming device out there, but it packs a punch in terms of performance and value.

One thing that stands out about this laptop is its power level. Capping out at an average of just 76 watts in Turbo and 70 watts in Performance mode, this is one of the lowest wattage RTX 3060s we've seen so far. This is significant because it means that this laptop will not be able to handle demanding games or applications with ease. The Silent mode is also a concern, as it will not be suitable for gaming sessions.

However, despite its power limitations, this laptop still manages to deliver respectable performance. In Turbo mode, the GPU clock speeds reach 1283-1703 MHz, while in Performance mode, they remain steady at around 1050 MHz. The CPU temperatures are also well-managed, with minimal fluctuation during testing.

**Gaming Results**

When it comes to gaming, the ASUS ZenBook 14 falls short of expectations. In 1080p gaming, the laptop's performance is mediocre, pushing the RTX 3060 GPU to the back of the charts. However, in mid-tier configurations, this laptop can still offer good value. The Blade 14, which we also tested, offers better performance at a similar price point.

In 1440p gaming, things don't get much better. While the G14 can handle 1440p games with ease, there are better options available in larger form factors that offer more bang for your buck. In fact, if you're dead set on getting a gaming-focused laptop, a 15-inch device with similar specs to the G14 would be a better choice.

**Design and Features**

One area where the ASUS ZenBook 14 shines is in its design. The laptop's compact size and lightweight build make it incredibly portable, making it perfect for those who want to take their gaming on the go. However, this premium feel comes at a cost - specifically, in terms of features. Unlike last year's Zephyrus G14 lineup, this year's model lacks some unique features that made it stand out.

**Conclusion**

The ASUS ZenBook 14 is an interesting device that defies expectations when it comes to power and performance. While it may not be the most powerful gaming laptop out there, its value proposition is still significant. However, if you're looking for a laptop that focuses purely on gaming, there are better options available.

**Design and Build**

The ASUS ZenBook 14 rocks the same i/o layout as last year's Zephyrus G14 lineup, with a keyboard and trackpad that feel premium. However, one notable omission is the webcam - something that we'd expect to see in any modern laptop. The build quality is still excellent, but we can't help but wonder if ASUS needs to step up its design game.

**Future Plans**

As the gaming landscape continues to evolve, it's clear that ASUS will need to adapt if they want to stay competitive. With the Blade 14 already on the market and more Ryzen-based 14-inch competitors looming on the horizon, this year's Zephyrus G14 lineup needs to bring its A-game.

**A Final Word**

The ASUS ZenBook 14 is a great laptop that offers incredible value for those who want a compact gaming device. However, it's not without its flaws - specifically, in terms of power and performance. If you're looking for a more powerful gaming laptop, there are better options available. Still, this laptop is worth considering if you're dead set on getting a 14-inch gaming laptop with a premium feel.

**Personal Recommendation**

If I had to choose from the mid-tier spec (around $1500), I'd say it's a great option for those who want a solid gaming experience without breaking the bank. However, if you're looking for the best bang for your buck, look elsewhere - specifically at 15-inch devices with similar specs.

**Recommendation for the Future**

Overall, the ASUS ZenBook 14 is an interesting device that shows promise, but ultimately falls short in terms of power and performance. If ASUS wants to stay competitive, they'll need to step up their game and offer something unique in the future. Until then, we can't help but wonder if this laptop is worth considering - especially at its price point.

**Final Thoughts**

Thank you for watching! I'm glad I was able to finally get my hands on the G14, and I hope you guys enjoyed the results. Let me know what you think about the ASUS ZenBook 14 in the comments below. Don't forget to like and subscribe for more content!

Note: The text has been rewritten to provide a better flow and structure.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwell what can i say folks uh just about a week ago i was ranting about how i couldn't get my hands on the zephyrus g14 due to availability and now i'm here with one in front of me and guys you can actually buy this right now even here in canada and i'll actually make sure to leave links in the description down below if you want to pick one up so the story with the g14 is actually really interesting it was first introduced last year with amd's ryzen 9 4 900 hs cpu and an rtx 2060 max q graphics card in a 14 inch form factor and that just broke the internet i mean everyone was just so impressed with what it was able to offer for less than fifteen hundred dollars and i also have to mention that it was really hard to find one and of course the pandemic happened things just wasn't really in a good state also this laptop sort of set the bar as to what we can expect for every amd based gaming laptop moving forward now this year they've made a few tweaks under the hood so what we're gonna do is compare it to what's already out there in 2021 notably the razer blade 40 that was just recently announced so let's get right into it but first a quick word from our sponsor extra 5mz1 size rail a unique project and a very unique mouse designed by rocket jump ninja for better aim after testing more than 250 mice zai knew what a mouse needed for maximum aim potential but the shape did not exist so he teamed up with extra five shaped his own mouse and loaded it with top tier components that means pixar 3389 sensor klgm 8.0 switches and the new easy cord pro on the lightest extra five mouse yet a killer in the right hands try it out for yourself on extrafight.com all right so let's start with pricing and specs the base model starts at tad below 1200 and that'll get you a ryzen 7 5800 hs cpu with eight cords and 16 threads 16 gigabytes of ram half a terabyte of storage and a gtx 1650 and a quad hd 120 hertz display the next tier costs around 1350 which bumps up the cpu to a ryzen 9 5900 hs twice the storage size and an rtx 3060 and a full hd 144 hertz display the sample that we have over here comes with 32 gigabytes of ram and a fancy anime matrix display that costs around 2 000 by the way this is a sample that we have over here now finding those skews especially for those prices can be a bit challenging you might find some for a few hundred dollars more or a few hundred dollars less i actually found a 30 60 sample for around fifteen hundred dollars which is a pretty good sweet spot and if i were to compare that to the 30 60 sample of blade 14 it's significantly cheaper we're talking roughly 250 dollars to a 350 difference which is huge so what exactly are you getting for that price difference well for starters the exterior design remains exactly the same compared to last year asus is still using the same chassis that's made out of magnesium alloy that's put together pretty well i didn't notice any creaking with my sample when handling so the build quality is pretty good i wouldn't say it competes with the blade 14 because this laptop is made entirely of cnc milled aluminum utility chassis so you can exactly feel that premium sort of craftsmanship when you uh you know hold this thing the hinge on the g14 is actually not that stiff it does wobble a little bit and that is due to its supporting itself on the surface but at the same time it elevates the keyboard at an angle to help with your typing experience this moonlight white finish is pretty unique but it's not consistent throughout the chassis it's just a mashup of white and silver which honestly doesn't look that great personally i would pick the gray finish as it looks more consistent but finding one with these specs also is pretty challenging so that is also kind of weird the anime matrix display on the lid is actually pretty unique essentially it's a combination of a thousand million leds that can allow you to display any sort of graphics that you might be interested in so you can import images or cycle through a handful of presets that asus has one of my favorites is the battery indicator and you can actually have that enabled full time even with the lid closed but keep in mind that's going to consume a lot more battery it's a great conversation starter if you're at a coffee shop which speaking of which if you do have that setting everybody's going to know how much battery you have on your laptop which can also be a little bit weird this is a very lightweight device coming in at around 3.75 pounds or 1.7 kilos which is lighter than the blade 14. however i have to mention that the z height on this laptop is a bit chunky coming in at 0.78 inches versus 0.66 on the blade honestly it's not a big deal because even with this form factor you can easily fit this thing inside a backpack or a messenger bag and it's not going to take up too much space on your desk the power adapter is also very compact and easier to handle which is another bonus the keyboard layout hasn't changed all that much you still get dedicated keys to control the volume and access armory crate the keys are excellent with the right amount of travel distance and good feedback when you bottom out honestly this is miles better than what you'll find on the blade 14 because the keyboard on this is just not my personal favorite sadly you don't get rgb lighting on the g14 it's backlit in white and it's pretty bright for your night sessions the trackpad is smooth it's actually a lot smaller than the blade 14 which did get a while to get used to personally i do prefer the size on the blade 14 because i do have big hands but that being said this gets the job done it's super smooth and the primary left right click buttons are nice and satisfying i have nothing to complain here i'm actually really glad that asus isn't cheap out in this area especially compared to some of their own offerings like the tough and the strix series the port setup has been carried over from last year's model over to this year so on the left-hand side you get power in hdmi 2.0 usb 3.2 gen 2 with displayport pass-through and power delivery along with an audio jack switching over to the right-hand side you get kensington lock a couple of usb 3.2 gen one type a ports and another usb type-c 3.2 gen 2 port now i was hoping for asus to implement a webcam on this year's model but unfortunately you don't get that once again but they do have a microphone built in at least i mean thank god so it does have asus signature ai noise canceling characteristics and this is what it sounds like i also noticed that interestingly um with their zephyrus lineup asus only offers webcams on their intel models whereas on amd i can't seem to find any with a webcam so i'm not sure if they're just reserving pretty much everything for intel specs instead of amd so yeah i think that that's kind of odd but let me know what you guys think about the microphone quality on the g14 the speakers are great on this laptop you get two tiny tweeters at the top and then a couple of woofers at the bottom beneath and the end result is basically a combination of high fidelity in the trebles and then a good depth in the bass response so i didn't have any issues you know watching videos and of course uh performing some casual gaming here and there as well so yeah nothing to complain there switching gears to the display asus has added another option this time uh on top of their 1080p 144 hertz ips level screen and that's quad hd at 120 hertz with a better color gamut as you can see it covers 100 srgb 87 adobe rgb and 98 dcip3 which is a huge improvement compared to last year's model so if your workflow requires a screen that's good with colors and contrast then this will get the job done it's also a great panel for gaming as well but i will be honest having used 240hz and faster displays on laptops this does feel like a step back and i also don't know exactly what's the point with having quad hd in a 14 inch form factor i mean scaling it at 100 is just complete out of question because you'll need magnifying glasses to just you know identify things my comfort zone was 125 and i also wish if they went with a 16 by 10 display this time because you know they're not giving us a webcam so might as well just give us or use that extra space to extend the screen upgradability is pretty flexible on the g14 considering its size you have instant access to a single sodium slot that's already populated on my sample um 16 gigabytes is on board so the max you can go with is 32 gigabytes which is a nice bump up from 24 gigabytes last year the primary nvme ssd is right over here and once again the drive speeds are a substantial improvement over last year's model we're getting almost double the performance in both read and write speeds which is just awesome i think this is an area where the g14 takes an edge over the blade 14 because on this laptop the only thing that's user upgradable is the ssd and that is a bummer now another impressive aspect on the g14 is its bigger battery and to test battery life we use the built-in silent mode uh since asus actually doesn't have a balanced setting on the g14 one thing i want to mention right away is what's being highlighted of course there's the g14 but i wanted to emphasize the blade 14 since it's the only other 14 inch laptop in these charts and by the way the new g14 has some really tough competition but with a combination of an efficient hs class cpu and a pretty big 76w battery it does end up topping the charts while it may be a bit larger overall than the blade 14 the additional capacity means a lot guys and this is a huge deal for anyone who wants a gaming laptop that's also adaptable for travel work or school that lower wattage ryzen 9 5900hs and its larger battery also pushes the g14 just a bit ahead of the blade 14 here and of course nothing touches the zephyrs g15 with its massive 90 watt hours but when it comes to getting the most out of a gaming laptop the g14 is still one of the best now just like every other asus laptop that we've seen in a while there are three performance settings that you can cycle between so there is silent performance and then turbo or the other option is to just let windows power plants take care of everything even in performance mode the g14 is really well behaved but i guess that's what we've come to expect from laptops with hs series cpus and lower wattage graphics cards turbo does get a bit noisy but that's because asus runs it at full fan speed and it's not something that you'd want to use for extended periods of time either way these numbers are right in line with what i saw on the blade 14 so that's good news exterior temperatures are pretty good too since the cooling system keeps the palm rest areas and part of the keyboard at just above ambient temperatures looking a bit further there's a hot spot right in the middle which can be a bit uncomfortable at times but luckily the wasp areas stay cool to the touch i also like the fact that all of the hot air is directed out the back sure it means two areas of the screen gets roasting hot but at least it's not blasting at your mouse hand the bottom doesn't really show anything too worrying but i really wouldn't want a game with this thing on my lap you might also remember that one of the blade 14's biggest advantages was that it used a ryzen 9 5900 hx and also ran at an impressive 77 watts at 3.7 gigahertz in high mode now keep those numbers in the back of your head since this version of these fsg14 uses a lower voltage 5900 hs let's start right at the top with power and i've got to say it's sort of all over the place for short workloads turbo running with its max fan speeds starts at a respectable 65 watts but then it takes a massive dip to 56 watts before finally settling right around the 60 watt mark performance mode does the same thing it hits 65 watts for a little while then it dives to 51 watts and then heads up to 56 once but there's also another reduction to just 45 watts where it stays for the rest of the test silence should be nothing new to anyone who's already seen one of our other reviews of asus laptops it cuts back power big time which is also why the g14 stays so quiet in that mode now when it comes to clock speeds things get even more interesting with them taking a bit of a dive as power gets decreased but turbo eventually maintained 3.85 gigahertz while performance first wants to settle at 3.7 gigahertz but add a few more minutes and we're looking at 3.5 but this is also the strength of the hs series cpus the g4t just needed 56 watts to reach just above 3.7 gigahertz while the blade 14's 5900hx needed 77 watts as for temperatures remember the g14 cooling system hadn't really been updated and that sort of shows with both performance and turbo reaching over 90 degrees silent is a lot better but you're also getting a big cut in frequencies for those numbers and that all leads to the g14 actually beating the blade 14 and cinebench r20 since it can capitalize on those higher clock speeds in shorter tests i should also mention these are being done in performance mode just like all other laptops but the blades 5900 hx does move a bit out of front in single core run which could technically lead to better gaming results either way the g14 puts up some amazing results when you compare its size to a lot of the other bigger and thicker 50-inch laptops here it even manages to beat its closest competitor the blade 14 everyone's been talking about there isn't a massive gap between the two but it is there and that might be a bit worrying for razer considering their blade does cost a lot more but move on to some programs like premiere where there's more emphasis on the gpu and i really thought the blades rtx 3070 would give an advantage here but it actually didn't either the g14 was out front by a bit or at least tied with the blade guys i've got to say when it comes to productivity see these results just confirms that you can't really judge laptops by their specs alone there's just so much going behind the scenes that affects performance and after seeing these results i actually was wondering if asus might be pumping a bit more power into the gpu but no not at all this is actually one of the lowest wattage rtx 3060 i've seen so far capping out at an average of just 76 watts in turbo and 70 watts in performance and the silent setting certainly isn't something you'd want to game on unless you're into less demanding titles since its power level is so low and that leads to frequencies that can't keep up with some of the other larger laptops that we tested but they're still pretty respectable and turbo and performance sticks right between nvidia's clock speeds of 1283 to 1703 megahertz the only exception is silent which is way under that at around 1050 megahertz but it's still good to see every one of these completely stable which is of course a lot better than what i saw on the cpu temperatures on this laptop are pretty good and you can actually see right here where the fans turn itself to higher rpm levels as it tries to keep up but as time goes on heat continually increases at least in performance mode while the other two modes are a lot better managed it hits 78 by the end of the test which isn't that bad but where does it end let's expand that graph a bit it looks like performance finally reaches a steady temperature around the 13 second mark where it peaks at 80 degrees and it stays there regardless of how much additional time you gain those extra few degrees don't change frequencies by any measurable amount either so it looks like asus pegged their gpu clock speeds to run exactly parallel with a peak of 80 degrees so don't worry about extended gaming sessions destroying performance now as we go through the 1080p gaming results you're going to see a bit of a trend the average of between 70 and 72 watts in the performance setting ends up pushing the rtx 360 on this laptop to the back of the charts the only laptop it consistently beats is actually the triton which is about the same price as the g14 in its mid-tier configuration in comparison to the blade 14 well razer's laptop is a better gaming machine by a long shot it isn't even close but neither are the prices i mean sure both are 14-inch gaming laptops but the machines we've tested have very very different specs and price points the same goes for performance at 1440p if you're dead set on buying a gaming focus laptop in a 14 inch form factor the g14 still offers really good value but there are plenty of slightly larger 15-inch devices out there they'll cost about the same or less while offering better performance i mean don't get me wrong the g14 doesn't have any trouble gaming at 1440p but there are better options if you want a laptop that focuses purely on gaming and i guess that really sums up what you're paying for with the g14 and even the blade 14 and that's convenience these laptops cram a ton of performance into a compact and really portable form factor and there is a premium to pay for that and speaking of premiums if you want the best bang for the buck i would avoid the model that i have over here unless if you're hell-bent on getting a 1440p display and of course other fancy features like the anime or anime matrix display because those things really don't add to the performance on this laptop in fact for two grand you can actually get one hell of a 15-inch gaming laptop these days my personal sweet plot or my personal pick would be the mid-tier spec which is around 1500 and the performance between that and the 2k version is most likely going to be the same but other than that this is basically the same laptop just like last year guys it rocks the same i o layout keyboard trackpad you still don't get a webcam it's built really well but i think asus needs to watch out because the zephyrus g14 lineup used to be unique but now there are a ton of other ryzen based 14-inch competitors around the corner and something like the blade 14 you know it's already available they definitely need to step it up in terms of design and offering a unique sort of feature set with the next generation so asus if watching this take notes and on that note thank you so much for watching i'm just glad i was able to finally get my hands on the g14 you guys have seen the results let us know what you guys think about it in the comments i'm bieber with hurricane x thank you so much for watching and i will talk to you guys in the next one spend responsibly my friendswell what can i say folks uh just about a week ago i was ranting about how i couldn't get my hands on the zephyrus g14 due to availability and now i'm here with one in front of me and guys you can actually buy this right now even here in canada and i'll actually make sure to leave links in the description down below if you want to pick one up so the story with the g14 is actually really interesting it was first introduced last year with amd's ryzen 9 4 900 hs cpu and an rtx 2060 max q graphics card in a 14 inch form factor and that just broke the internet i mean everyone was just so impressed with what it was able to offer for less than fifteen hundred dollars and i also have to mention that it was really hard to find one and of course the pandemic happened things just wasn't really in a good state also this laptop sort of set the bar as to what we can expect for every amd based gaming laptop moving forward now this year they've made a few tweaks under the hood so what we're gonna do is compare it to what's already out there in 2021 notably the razer blade 40 that was just recently announced so let's get right into it but first a quick word from our sponsor extra 5mz1 size rail a unique project and a very unique mouse designed by rocket jump ninja for better aim after testing more than 250 mice zai knew what a mouse needed for maximum aim potential but the shape did not exist so he teamed up with extra five shaped his own mouse and loaded it with top tier components that means pixar 3389 sensor klgm 8.0 switches and the new easy cord pro on the lightest extra five mouse yet a killer in the right hands try it out for yourself on extrafight.com all right so let's start with pricing and specs the base model starts at tad below 1200 and that'll get you a ryzen 7 5800 hs cpu with eight cords and 16 threads 16 gigabytes of ram half a terabyte of storage and a gtx 1650 and a quad hd 120 hertz display the next tier costs around 1350 which bumps up the cpu to a ryzen 9 5900 hs twice the storage size and an rtx 3060 and a full hd 144 hertz display the sample that we have over here comes with 32 gigabytes of ram and a fancy anime matrix display that costs around 2 000 by the way this is a sample that we have over here now finding those skews especially for those prices can be a bit challenging you might find some for a few hundred dollars more or a few hundred dollars less i actually found a 30 60 sample for around fifteen hundred dollars which is a pretty good sweet spot and if i were to compare that to the 30 60 sample of blade 14 it's significantly cheaper we're talking roughly 250 dollars to a 350 difference which is huge so what exactly are you getting for that price difference well for starters the exterior design remains exactly the same compared to last year asus is still using the same chassis that's made out of magnesium alloy that's put together pretty well i didn't notice any creaking with my sample when handling so the build quality is pretty good i wouldn't say it competes with the blade 14 because this laptop is made entirely of cnc milled aluminum utility chassis so you can exactly feel that premium sort of craftsmanship when you uh you know hold this thing the hinge on the g14 is actually not that stiff it does wobble a little bit and that is due to its supporting itself on the surface but at the same time it elevates the keyboard at an angle to help with your typing experience this moonlight white finish is pretty unique but it's not consistent throughout the chassis it's just a mashup of white and silver which honestly doesn't look that great personally i would pick the gray finish as it looks more consistent but finding one with these specs also is pretty challenging so that is also kind of weird the anime matrix display on the lid is actually pretty unique essentially it's a combination of a thousand million leds that can allow you to display any sort of graphics that you might be interested in so you can import images or cycle through a handful of presets that asus has one of my favorites is the battery indicator and you can actually have that enabled full time even with the lid closed but keep in mind that's going to consume a lot more battery it's a great conversation starter if you're at a coffee shop which speaking of which if you do have that setting everybody's going to know how much battery you have on your laptop which can also be a little bit weird this is a very lightweight device coming in at around 3.75 pounds or 1.7 kilos which is lighter than the blade 14. however i have to mention that the z height on this laptop is a bit chunky coming in at 0.78 inches versus 0.66 on the blade honestly it's not a big deal because even with this form factor you can easily fit this thing inside a backpack or a messenger bag and it's not going to take up too much space on your desk the power adapter is also very compact and easier to handle which is another bonus the keyboard layout hasn't changed all that much you still get dedicated keys to control the volume and access armory crate the keys are excellent with the right amount of travel distance and good feedback when you bottom out honestly this is miles better than what you'll find on the blade 14 because the keyboard on this is just not my personal favorite sadly you don't get rgb lighting on the g14 it's backlit in white and it's pretty bright for your night sessions the trackpad is smooth it's actually a lot smaller than the blade 14 which did get a while to get used to personally i do prefer the size on the blade 14 because i do have big hands but that being said this gets the job done it's super smooth and the primary left right click buttons are nice and satisfying i have nothing to complain here i'm actually really glad that asus isn't cheap out in this area especially compared to some of their own offerings like the tough and the strix series the port setup has been carried over from last year's model over to this year so on the left-hand side you get power in hdmi 2.0 usb 3.2 gen 2 with displayport pass-through and power delivery along with an audio jack switching over to the right-hand side you get kensington lock a couple of usb 3.2 gen one type a ports and another usb type-c 3.2 gen 2 port now i was hoping for asus to implement a webcam on this year's model but unfortunately you don't get that once again but they do have a microphone built in at least i mean thank god so it does have asus signature ai noise canceling characteristics and this is what it sounds like i also noticed that interestingly um with their zephyrus lineup asus only offers webcams on their intel models whereas on amd i can't seem to find any with a webcam so i'm not sure if they're just reserving pretty much everything for intel specs instead of amd so yeah i think that that's kind of odd but let me know what you guys think about the microphone quality on the g14 the speakers are great on this laptop you get two tiny tweeters at the top and then a couple of woofers at the bottom beneath and the end result is basically a combination of high fidelity in the trebles and then a good depth in the bass response so i didn't have any issues you know watching videos and of course uh performing some casual gaming here and there as well so yeah nothing to complain there switching gears to the display asus has added another option this time uh on top of their 1080p 144 hertz ips level screen and that's quad hd at 120 hertz with a better color gamut as you can see it covers 100 srgb 87 adobe rgb and 98 dcip3 which is a huge improvement compared to last year's model so if your workflow requires a screen that's good with colors and contrast then this will get the job done it's also a great panel for gaming as well but i will be honest having used 240hz and faster displays on laptops this does feel like a step back and i also don't know exactly what's the point with having quad hd in a 14 inch form factor i mean scaling it at 100 is just complete out of question because you'll need magnifying glasses to just you know identify things my comfort zone was 125 and i also wish if they went with a 16 by 10 display this time because you know they're not giving us a webcam so might as well just give us or use that extra space to extend the screen upgradability is pretty flexible on the g14 considering its size you have instant access to a single sodium slot that's already populated on my sample um 16 gigabytes is on board so the max you can go with is 32 gigabytes which is a nice bump up from 24 gigabytes last year the primary nvme ssd is right over here and once again the drive speeds are a substantial improvement over last year's model we're getting almost double the performance in both read and write speeds which is just awesome i think this is an area where the g14 takes an edge over the blade 14 because on this laptop the only thing that's user upgradable is the ssd and that is a bummer now another impressive aspect on the g14 is its bigger battery and to test battery life we use the built-in silent mode uh since asus actually doesn't have a balanced setting on the g14 one thing i want to mention right away is what's being highlighted of course there's the g14 but i wanted to emphasize the blade 14 since it's the only other 14 inch laptop in these charts and by the way the new g14 has some really tough competition but with a combination of an efficient hs class cpu and a pretty big 76w battery it does end up topping the charts while it may be a bit larger overall than the blade 14 the additional capacity means a lot guys and this is a huge deal for anyone who wants a gaming laptop that's also adaptable for travel work or school that lower wattage ryzen 9 5900hs and its larger battery also pushes the g14 just a bit ahead of the blade 14 here and of course nothing touches the zephyrs g15 with its massive 90 watt hours but when it comes to getting the most out of a gaming laptop the g14 is still one of the best now just like every other asus laptop that we've seen in a while there are three performance settings that you can cycle between so there is silent performance and then turbo or the other option is to just let windows power plants take care of everything even in performance mode the g14 is really well behaved but i guess that's what we've come to expect from laptops with hs series cpus and lower wattage graphics cards turbo does get a bit noisy but that's because asus runs it at full fan speed and it's not something that you'd want to use for extended periods of time either way these numbers are right in line with what i saw on the blade 14 so that's good news exterior temperatures are pretty good too since the cooling system keeps the palm rest areas and part of the keyboard at just above ambient temperatures looking a bit further there's a hot spot right in the middle which can be a bit uncomfortable at times but luckily the wasp areas stay cool to the touch i also like the fact that all of the hot air is directed out the back sure it means two areas of the screen gets roasting hot but at least it's not blasting at your mouse hand the bottom doesn't really show anything too worrying but i really wouldn't want a game with this thing on my lap you might also remember that one of the blade 14's biggest advantages was that it used a ryzen 9 5900 hx and also ran at an impressive 77 watts at 3.7 gigahertz in high mode now keep those numbers in the back of your head since this version of these fsg14 uses a lower voltage 5900 hs let's start right at the top with power and i've got to say it's sort of all over the place for short workloads turbo running with its max fan speeds starts at a respectable 65 watts but then it takes a massive dip to 56 watts before finally settling right around the 60 watt mark performance mode does the same thing it hits 65 watts for a little while then it dives to 51 watts and then heads up to 56 once but there's also another reduction to just 45 watts where it stays for the rest of the test silence should be nothing new to anyone who's already seen one of our other reviews of asus laptops it cuts back power big time which is also why the g14 stays so quiet in that mode now when it comes to clock speeds things get even more interesting with them taking a bit of a dive as power gets decreased but turbo eventually maintained 3.85 gigahertz while performance first wants to settle at 3.7 gigahertz but add a few more minutes and we're looking at 3.5 but this is also the strength of the hs series cpus the g4t just needed 56 watts to reach just above 3.7 gigahertz while the blade 14's 5900hx needed 77 watts as for temperatures remember the g14 cooling system hadn't really been updated and that sort of shows with both performance and turbo reaching over 90 degrees silent is a lot better but you're also getting a big cut in frequencies for those numbers and that all leads to the g14 actually beating the blade 14 and cinebench r20 since it can capitalize on those higher clock speeds in shorter tests i should also mention these are being done in performance mode just like all other laptops but the blades 5900 hx does move a bit out of front in single core run which could technically lead to better gaming results either way the g14 puts up some amazing results when you compare its size to a lot of the other bigger and thicker 50-inch laptops here it even manages to beat its closest competitor the blade 14 everyone's been talking about there isn't a massive gap between the two but it is there and that might be a bit worrying for razer considering their blade does cost a lot more but move on to some programs like premiere where there's more emphasis on the gpu and i really thought the blades rtx 3070 would give an advantage here but it actually didn't either the g14 was out front by a bit or at least tied with the blade guys i've got to say when it comes to productivity see these results just confirms that you can't really judge laptops by their specs alone there's just so much going behind the scenes that affects performance and after seeing these results i actually was wondering if asus might be pumping a bit more power into the gpu but no not at all this is actually one of the lowest wattage rtx 3060 i've seen so far capping out at an average of just 76 watts in turbo and 70 watts in performance and the silent setting certainly isn't something you'd want to game on unless you're into less demanding titles since its power level is so low and that leads to frequencies that can't keep up with some of the other larger laptops that we tested but they're still pretty respectable and turbo and performance sticks right between nvidia's clock speeds of 1283 to 1703 megahertz the only exception is silent which is way under that at around 1050 megahertz but it's still good to see every one of these completely stable which is of course a lot better than what i saw on the cpu temperatures on this laptop are pretty good and you can actually see right here where the fans turn itself to higher rpm levels as it tries to keep up but as time goes on heat continually increases at least in performance mode while the other two modes are a lot better managed it hits 78 by the end of the test which isn't that bad but where does it end let's expand that graph a bit it looks like performance finally reaches a steady temperature around the 13 second mark where it peaks at 80 degrees and it stays there regardless of how much additional time you gain those extra few degrees don't change frequencies by any measurable amount either so it looks like asus pegged their gpu clock speeds to run exactly parallel with a peak of 80 degrees so don't worry about extended gaming sessions destroying performance now as we go through the 1080p gaming results you're going to see a bit of a trend the average of between 70 and 72 watts in the performance setting ends up pushing the rtx 360 on this laptop to the back of the charts the only laptop it consistently beats is actually the triton which is about the same price as the g14 in its mid-tier configuration in comparison to the blade 14 well razer's laptop is a better gaming machine by a long shot it isn't even close but neither are the prices i mean sure both are 14-inch gaming laptops but the machines we've tested have very very different specs and price points the same goes for performance at 1440p if you're dead set on buying a gaming focus laptop in a 14 inch form factor the g14 still offers really good value but there are plenty of slightly larger 15-inch devices out there they'll cost about the same or less while offering better performance i mean don't get me wrong the g14 doesn't have any trouble gaming at 1440p but there are better options if you want a laptop that focuses purely on gaming and i guess that really sums up what you're paying for with the g14 and even the blade 14 and that's convenience these laptops cram a ton of performance into a compact and really portable form factor and there is a premium to pay for that and speaking of premiums if you want the best bang for the buck i would avoid the model that i have over here unless if you're hell-bent on getting a 1440p display and of course other fancy features like the anime or anime matrix display because those things really don't add to the performance on this laptop in fact for two grand you can actually get one hell of a 15-inch gaming laptop these days my personal sweet plot or my personal pick would be the mid-tier spec which is around 1500 and the performance between that and the 2k version is most likely going to be the same but other than that this is basically the same laptop just like last year guys it rocks the same i o layout keyboard trackpad you still don't get a webcam it's built really well but i think asus needs to watch out because the zephyrus g14 lineup used to be unique but now there are a ton of other ryzen based 14-inch competitors around the corner and something like the blade 14 you know it's already available they definitely need to step it up in terms of design and offering a unique sort of feature set with the next generation so asus if watching this take notes and on that note thank you so much for watching i'm just glad i was able to finally get my hands on the g14 you guys have seen the results let us know what you guys think about it in the comments i'm bieber with hurricane x thank you so much for watching and i will talk to you guys in the next one spend responsibly my friends\n"