ASUS Zephyrus G14 (2024) Review - Problems You Must Know!

????Check G14 Prices: https://geni.us/ASUS-G14 ???? Save money on your next gaming laptop with our daily deals: https://gaminglaptop.deals ???? Chat with me and the community in Discord and get behind the scenes videos! https://patreon.com/jarrodstech The ASUS Zephyrus G14 has some awesome improvements in 2024, but unfortunately it’s not all good news. These are the problems you need to know about! Other items featured: Tools I use for opening laptops: https://geni.us/eT3n Cooling Pad I test with: https://geni.us/d9768J5 Screen Calibration - X-Rite i1 Display Pro: https://geni.us/uhlitT RGB HDMI cables: https://geni.us/rgb-hdmi EVERYTHING I USE: ???? My Current Laptop - https://geni.us/JarrodsLaptop ????️ My Current Desktop PC - https://geni.us/JarrodsPC ???? My Camera Gear - https://geni.us/JarrodsStudio ???? My Smart Ring - https://geni.us/oFfTMJ FOLLOW ME: ???? Twitter - https://twitter.com/jarrodstech ???? My Website - https://jarrods.tech ???? 2nd Channel - https://youtube.com/jarrodslaptops ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) Review Timestamps: 0:00 Nice Improvements, But Also Problems 0:16 Design & Build Quality 1:00 Size & Weight 1:27 Slash Lighting 1:40 Laptop Specs 1:57 Keyboard, Lighting & Touchpad 2:53 Speakers, Boot Sound & Latencymon 3:20 Ports 4:42 Getting Inside & Internals 5:17 SSD, SD & Wi-Fi Speed 5:46 The Biggest Problem 6:14 Upgrade Options 6:27 Battery Size & Power Saving Features 6:56 Battery Life Comparison - Amazing Result! 7:13 Cooling Design & Performance Modes 8:17 Thermal Testing - Temperatures / Clock Speed / TDP 9:57 Game Performance in Different Modes 10:23 Is the Lower Powered GPU a Problem? 10:51 CPU Performance in Different Modes 11:18 The New 8945HS CPU is Just a Name… 11:53 CPU Performance vs Others (On & Off Battery) 12:44 Does it Feel Hot - Keyboard Temperatures 13:37 Is it Loud - Fan Noise 14:27 Why CPU Power is so Low 14:51 OLED Screen Color, Brightness, Contrast & Bleed 15:23 Screen Response Time & Latency 16:06 MUX Switch, Advanced Optimus & G-Sync Status 16:34 OLED Burn-in Reduction 16:42 Camera & Microphone Test - Sounds Great! 17:01 3 Game Comparison at (1440p & 1080p) 18:48 3DMark & Content Creation 19:13 BIOS Options 19:27 Linux Support 19:50 Pricing, Availability & Laptop Deals 21:04 Is G14 in 2024 Worth It? 21:59 Want More Upgrade Options? Check This Laptop! Disclosure: Purchases made through store links above may provide some compensation to Jarrod'sTech. ASUS’s Zephyrus G14 gets some awesome upgradethis yearLike an OLED screen, a new level of batterlife, all while being smaller, lighter anmore portable than ever before. But it’s not all good news. Unfortunately there are also some big problemthat you need to know aboutThe G14 is available in platinum white oeclipse grey finishes. It’s using a CNC aluminum chassis for thfirst time, which feels more solid compareto previous generations. Overall build quality feels excellent, anthe texture just feels more metallic compareto any older G14. So Keyboard flex is minor, and so is lid fletoo, but I found the lid to be more wobblcompared to before. It can flop around for quite a while if yobump the table or move the screen. Despite the wobble the hinges feel nice ansmooth, even when ripping the lid open fast. The screen doesn’t go all the way back anymoreither, but it’s enough for me at 135 degrees. This new G14 is smaller in every dimensiocompared to last year’s version, it jusfeels more portable. It’s lighter too, at less than one and half kilos or 3.3lb, increasing to 2kg ofour and a half pounds with the 180 watt chargeincluded. Last year’s model used a larger 240 watcharger, so this is another change that jusmakes the 2024 G14 a more portable packagthan ever before. The new design has what ASUS calls slash lightinon the lid. There are different effects you can set througsoftware, including audio visualizationsand even system notifications so you can geupdates with the lid closed. I’ve got the highest configuration witAMD’s Ryzen 9 8945HS processor, Nvidia’RTX 4070 graphics, and that new 14” OLEscreen with G-Sync, but there are lower specceversions available for less money with thlink below the video. The chiclet keyboard has 1 zone of eitheRGB or white backlighting. All keys and secondary functions get lit upbut the lighting looks a little patchy. The tops of the F keys for instance are hardeto see. Key brightness can be adjusted between 3 levelwith the function and F2 or F3 shortcutsand you can swap between three basic effectwith the Aura key on F4. The backlighting was harder to see on thplatinum white model. The key caps are 12% larger this year. The keys have 1.7mm of travel and I liketyping on it, there’s just a subtle clickfeel. The glass touchpad is fairly big, nice ansmooth, and accurate to click with. The only thing I didn’t like is it needtoo much force to trigger a click once yoget higher up. Unfortunately there’s still no fingerprinscanner in the power button. The G14 hasn’t had that since the 2021 model. There are 6 speakers in total, including fronfacing and some underneath. They sound really good, better than most othelaptops with plenty of bass, while still soundinclear at higher volume. Speaking of sounds, it plays this one by defaulon boot. Luckily you can disable it through eitheArmory Crate or the BIOS. The latencymon results were great, much bettethan what we were seeing from laptops lasyear. Ports are improved this year because they’rcloser to the back. ASUS were able to remove the air exhaust venton the sides, but we’ll see if this is problem in the upcoming thermal testing. The left side has the power input at the backwhich uses a custom rectangle connector insteaof round now, HDMI 2.1 output, USB 4 Type-port, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, and a 3.5maudio combo jack. The right side has a UHS-II MicroSD card slotand there are USB Type-A and C ports on thiside too, but 3.2 Gen 2 for both this time. So only the left Type-C port has USB 4 supportand it’s also the only Type-C port thacan be used to charge the laptop with up t100 watts. So if you wanted to both charge the laptoon Type-C and use USB 4 speeds for somethinelse then you’re out of luck. But both Type-C ports have DisplayPort 1.support, so you can connect a monitor to either. And with optimus on, the left Type-C porconnects to the integrated graphics, but iconnects to the discrete graphics if you turoptimus off. The right Type-C port on the other hand alwayconnects to the Nvidia discrete graphicswhether optimus is on or off. HDMI always connects directly to the Nvidigraphics too, and we confirmed it could ruour LG B9 TV at 4K 120Hz 12-Bit with G-Sync. Getting inside requires removing 11 TR6 screwof 3 different lengths, so keep track as yoremove them. For some reason 2 on the back are covereby these rubber bits, but they’re easy tremove. In last year’s G14, the front right screonly came out a bit and helped lift the bottopanel up, making opening easier. The 2024 one doesn’t do this anymore, buthe pry tools I use, linked below, were ablto open it up easily enough. Inside we’ve got the battery down the frontWi-Fi 6E card just above on the right, ansingle M.2 2280 slot on the left. The speeds from the installed 1TB PCIe Ge4 SSD were decent, but not amazing. The read speeds from the Micro SD card slowere great though, basically maxing out mV90 card. Wi-Fi speed was also excellent, one of thbest results I’ve ever measured, and fastecompared to last year’s G14 despite thfact that it had the same MediaTek Wi-Fi card. My test setup is exactly the same, so I caonly assume they’ve somehow improved antennplacement. Since 2020, the G14 has always had one memorslot for upgrades, but that’s been removethis year in favor of the smaller design. It’s available with 16 and 32 gig optionsand although 16 gigs is still ok for mosgames, it’s getting difficult to justiffor a machine you’ll probably want to usfor years, so probably worth getting the 3gig option. On the plus side, soldered memory means fasteLPDDR5X-6400. So the upgradeability score isn’t greathis year. I removed half a point for the change froPhillips head screws to the less common TR6and removing the memory slot takes off a fulpoint. So in this regard, it’s worse compared tany other G14 laptop so far. The G14 is powered by a 4-Cell 73Wh battery. We can enable battery care mode through thMyASUS software, which is separate from ArmorCrate, and this limits the charge level t80% to help improve the battery's lifespan. Panel power saver is enabled by default, whicautomatically lowers the screen’s refresrate to 60Hz when you unplug the charger tsave power. This is why the screen flashes black, anit goes back to 120Hz when you plug back in. Battery life was extremely good, almost lastinfor 11 hours in the YouTube video playbactest, and over 2 hours in the gaming test. This puts it well above most other laptoptested, including last year’s G14 whicactually has a slightly larger battery inside. Let’s check out thermals next. The G14 has 3 fans inside now, up from lasyear’s 2, but one of those fans is wherthe memory slot used to be. There are heatpipes shared between the CPand GPU with thermal grizzly liquid metaon the CPU and paste on the GPU. There are holes directly above the air intakfans, and air gets exhausted out of the back. There are not any air exhaust vents on thsides this year, despite the slimmer design. The rear lift up design is also missing thiyear, so it’s harder for fresh air to gein underneath. ASUS’s Armoury Crate software allows uto change between different performance modeswhich from lowest to highest are silent, performanceturbo and manual. Both turbo and manual modes apply this overclocto the GPU, but only manual mode lets yocustomize it. Manual mode also lets you control CPU anGPU power limits, temperature limits, angives you some control over the fan curves. Whenever we’ve tested manual mode, all poweand temp sliders were maxed out with fanon 100% speed for best results. The internal temps were fine when just sittinthere idle considering the fans were off. The rest of the results are from combineCPU and GPU stress tests which aim to represena worst case full load scenario. The internal temps are all running cool ithis workload, regardless of the performancmode in use. It barely got warmer with the lid closedso no problems if you want to dock it. The cooling pad I test with, linked belowdidn’t make a difference though. Only running the fans at full speed was ablto lower temps, but you just don’t neeto considering that worst case we’re belo80 degrees Celsius. This is a great result, so removing the aiexhaust vents from the side doesn’t seeto matter. These are the clock speeds during the samtests. There’s not really a difference betweeperformance, turbo and manual modes, whicexplains why the temperatures weren’t thamuch different either. Checking the power levels explains why. The processor was limited to just a 12 watTDP when the GPU is under load, which is quitlow - definitely one of the lowest I’vever seen, which is why the 8 cores of thRyzen 9 8945HS were averaging 2.5GHz in performanceturbo and manual modes. Though to be fair, those are decent clockfor the lower power level, so I’m wonderinif the 8945hs is binned well. Clock speeds only went higher in silent modeand that’s because the CPU was able to ruwith more power, but at the expense of lesGPU power. The Nvidia control panel software says thathis is a 90 watt RTX 4070, and that’s whawe’re running at in turbo and manual modes. So not what I’d consider to be a full powere4070. This behavior is confirmed in a game test. Performance, Turbo and Manual modes were allimited to 12 watts on the CPU so that thGPU can sustain 90 watts, and this mix seemto be working. The G14 has a high 2880 by 1800 resolutionso it makes sense to prioritize GPU powefor gaming, though considering these framrates you’ll definitely want to make usof features like DLSS. For context, last year’s thicker G14 waable to run between 100 and 125 watts, sthe 2024 G14 sacrifices some GPU power fothe thinner design. I don’t think this is too bad though, becausbased on my own testing there’s only a slighdifference in game FPS between running thRTX 4070 at 90 and 100 watts, with 100 wattoffering just 1.5% more FPS in a 10 game average. The CPU can use more power if the GPU is idlelike in Cinebench. Up to the mid 70 watt range was seen, buwith Ryzen processors adding more power resultin diminishing returns faster when compareto Intel processors. This explains why the multicore score isn’changing too much between the different performancmodes. Although game performance isn’t great isilent mode, as we just saw, CPU only performancis still good. Now let’s not forget that the 8945HS iessentially just a renamed 7940HS from lasyear. They’re both Zen 4 chips with the same corcount, same thread count, same clock speedsand same amount of cache. The only difference is the 8945hs has a bettenpu for AI work. In turbo and manual modes I actually founlast year’s G14 with 7940HS to perform betterboth in single and multi core performancebut that’s because the 2023 version waable to send more power to the processor. This results in the 8945HS coming in a littlbehind the other Zen 4 laptops that I’vtested, so don’t be fooled by the name lookinlike a higher number - it’s meaninglesin terms of performance differences. Now to be fair, the new 2024 version of thG14 is also smaller than those other Ryzelaptops too. ASUS have prioritized a smaller laptop thiyear, but the expense is less performancegranted not too much. It just depends if that’s a tradeoff you’rwilling to make. CPU Performance lowers if we unplug the chargeand instead run off of battery power. It’s ahead compared to last year’s G1now, but it’s difficult to say how mucof this is due to generational laptop differencesbattery chemistry, or just straight up silicolottery luck. Regardless, this is a decent result compareto the same selection of laptops. Most laptops I test are in the low 30 degreeCelsius range on the keyboard at idle, anthe G14 was in-line with this and felt cool. It’s warmer in the middle with a strestest running. The middle of the keyboard only felt warmnot hot. The back was hotter, but you don’t neeto touch there. The higher performance mode was fairly similarbut the fans are louder now to compensatfor the extra power. Turbo mode was a little warmer in the centeof the keyboard, but it’s still only a biwarm. The left and right sides are quite cool aair goes through the keyboard. Actually just for some context, here’s lasyear’s G14 in the same workload in turbmode. The center of the keyboard is around 10 degreeCelsius warmer, so the 2024 model is a nicimprovement in this regard. It’s possible to get the 2024 model evecooler in manual mode with the fans maxeout, but this makes it much louder too, let’have a listen. The fans were off most of the time at idle. They briefly turned on from time to timewhich is why I’ve got two results, but thewere still quiet. The fans get louder in the higher performancmodes, as expected, and although the coolinpad didn’t really lower the temperatureit was able to reduce the fan noise by aroun4 decibels. It’s fairly loud in manual mode with thfans maxed out, but as we saw earlier, there’no real benefit to doing this as the internalaren’t hot enough to justify the extra volume. And considering that the internal temps wercool, I’ve got to assume that the main reasothey’re limiting the processor to just 1watts with the GPU also active is to keethe exterior cool. Because last year’s G14 could feel pretthot when under load. The fans on this one did sound a bit highepitched as well, which might be annoyingbut it didn’t really annoy me because always wear headphones. Alright, we really need to talk about thscreen, because this is the first time ASUhave given an OLED panel to the G14. The colors look excellent, as expected froan OLED panel. It’s not super bright or anything, but abov400 nits in SDR mode isn’t bad, and thiputs it in-line with other OLED panels thaI’ve tested recently. You’ve really got to go for Mini-LED iyou want much brighter. Backlight bleed doesn’t exist, because blacon an OLED turns off the pixels. It’s a glossy display, but we noticed lesobvious reflection compared to previous OLElaptops. Screen response time is another area wherOLED really shines. On average we’re looking at less than millisecond for transitions to occur, whicis super fast when compared against non-OLEgaming laptops. This makes it faster when compared to lasyear’s G14, but honestly 4ms is such a grearesult anyway that I doubt most people wilnotice the difference. The total system latency is the amount otime between a mouse click and when a gunshofire appears on the screen in Counter-Strik2. The fast OLED screen contributes to it gettinsuch a fast result here, but that said othelaptops without OLED are quite close. The G14 has a MUX switch, so you can turoptimus on and off through ASUS’s ArmorCrate software, but that needs a reboot. You don’t have to do that though, as ihas advanced optimus, so you can use the Nvidicontrol panel to enable or disable optimuwithout rebooting. The G14 also has G-Sync, which is a new featuravailable in 2024 OLED panels. Gaming laptops with OLED before this yeawere not able to support G-Sync. Like other ASUS laptops with OLED screensthe software has some OLED care options thelp reduce the chance of burn in over time. There’s a 1080p camera above the screen. It has IR for Windows Hello face unlock, anmic quality is way better compared to lasyear. Here’s how the camera and microphones looand sound, and this is what it sounds likwhile typing on the keyboard, and as you casee there is a little bit of screen wobblwhen doing this. Now let’s find out how well the new G1performs in games. We’ve tested with these settings for besresults. Cyberpunk 2077 was tested with our own custotest run, and I’ve got the G14 shown bthe red highlight. At 1080p it’s one of the lowest resultfrom an RTX 4070 laptop, basically matchinMSI’s similarly sized Stealth 14 from lasyear. Razer’s Blade 14 with the same GPU was 12ahead though. I confirmed that the CPU was still limiteto 12 watts with this game running, just likthe stress tests earlier, but it doesn’seem to be limiting 1080p performance as mucas I thought. There’s a much smaller difference betweethose 14 inch laptops at the higher 1440resolution, but the G14 is still one of thlower 4070 results and not too different compareto cheaper 4060 laptops. Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested with thgame’s benchmark. Again at 1080p it’s closer to the bottoof the 4070 laptops tested, but the differencisn’t that big, and to be fair the G14 ismaller compared to many of those. It’s not doing so well at 1440p, actuallgetting beaten by RTX 4060 laptops now. Look, the difference is only minor and honestlwithin the margin of error range, but it jusgoes to show that it might not be worth spendinmore money for the 4070 in this year’s G14. That said, it does still offer an increascompared to last year’s G14 with 4060. It’s a similar deal in Control at 1080pthe G14 is one of the lower RTX 4070 resultand not too different when compared to RT4060 laptops, like last year’s cheaper G14. And then it’s the same deal at the highe1440p resolution as well. Here are the 3DMark results for those thafind them useful, now for some content creatotests. Adobe Premiere and DaVinci Resolve were similato the games, one of the lower 4070 resultand close to the RTX 4060 laptops. Adobe Photoshop was a bit better, but thitest depends more on single core performancthan the GPU. 4070s in Blender are only a little ahead othe 4060, regardless of laptop size. The BIOS looks nice, but there’s almosno customization available, just the basicand no tuning of any kind. Come on, what are you doing asusIt’s especially bare when compared to othebrands like MSI, Dell or Lenovo. Linux support was tested with an Ubuntu 23.1live CD. By default the keyboard, touchpad, cameraand Wi-Fi all worked. Speakers kind of worked, but were super quietlike I was hearing an internal speaker, buI couldn’t change it in the sound settings. Keyboard shortcuts to adjust screen brightnesand volume worked, but keyboard brightnesand effect controls did not work. Pricing and availability will change ovetime, so check the link below the video foupdates and current sales. And if the G14 does have a good sale, we’lbe sure to add it to our gaminglaptop.dealwebsite. We update that everyday to include all othe latest sales, so make sure that you checit out regularly to save money on your nexgaming laptop. At the time of recording, the configuratioI’ve tested goes for $2200 USD on ASUS’website, but it was on Best Buy a few dayago for $2000, not sure why they removed it. Again, availability will change over timeso you’ll have to refer to the link belothe video. For some context, last year’s G14 with 407but half the RAM goes for $150-350 less withoua sale. So you’re definitely paying a premium fothis newer model which arguably is a stebackwards in some regards. The 2024 G14 with lower tier RTX 4060 an16 gigs of RAM apparently goes for $1600 USDbut last year’s version is $550 less osale at the moment, which is why we’ve goit on the gaminglaptop.deals website. Without the sale though, it’s the same pricas the newer 2024 model. Ultimately, I don’t have a problem witASUS offering this version of the G14 as aoption. If you’re someone that likes OLED and wanta more portable, smaller and lighter versioat a higher cost, then here’s a new optiofor you. But on the other hand, if you prefer morupgrade options, slightly better performancbut a slightly bigger laptop that’s stilquite portable as it’s 14 inches, then lasyear’s G14 isn’t going anywhere and wilstill be available for less money. For most people, I don’t think that it’worth spending more money on this newer G14. Unless it has a great sale or has somethinthat you really want to spend the extra moneon. But if you do go for this new model, as mucas your wallet’s going to hate it, you probablwant to go for the 32 gig RAM option. I’ve actually been told that some regionmight not even have the 16 gig option fosale, which might be for the best, as it wilkeep this laptop running longer and help reducE-waste. If you’re after something with way morupgradeability that’s far less likely tbe E-waste any time soon then check out thivideo next where I’ve tested Framework’Laptop 16. Yeah, it’s a bigger 16 inch gaming laptopbut I mean you can take out the GPU and swait, as well as way more cool things - I’lsee you in that video next!