ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 2024 Gaming Laptop Review

The 2024 ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 and the ROG Zephyrus G14 that we reviewed earlier in the year both have received a design overhaul particularly a thinner form factor and a more premium chassis redesign. ASUS has replaced the Anime Matrix lighting with the new Slash lighting for the 2024 Zephyrus G series. Today, we’ll focus on the bigger brother ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 using an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H.

ROG Zephyrus M vs Zephyrus G Series

Last year, the ROG Zephyrus M series received the Anime Matrix design which was previously exclusive to the Zephyrus G line. With this year’s iteration of the Zephyrus G series receiving the new Slash lighting design, there’s now an additional distinction between the two product lines. So, to round it up, the ASUS Zephyrus M series uses the AniMe Matrix while the 2024 Zephyrus G series has the new Slash lighting. Both of which are ASUS’ “thin and light” gaming laptops.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 PH Specs

Our specific review unit is the GU605MZ-QR100WS with an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H CPU and an RTX 4080 115W mobile GPU priced at Php 249,995.

ROG Zephyrus GU605MZ G16 Unboxing and First Impressions

Following the G14’s footsteps, the packaging of the Zephyrus G16 2024 is very compact, much so that you would think that it’s not a 16-inch gaming laptop.

ASUS includes two charging bricks for the ROG Zephyrus G16 2024. There’s a regular-sized rectangle brick rated at 240W for maximum power. Should you want to travel light, you can bring the 100w Type-C adapter especially if you don’t need to utilize the laptop’s GPU.

ASUS went for a new Platinum White colorway instead of maintaining last year’s moonlight white colorway. I personally like the silver-gray metal color on the 2024 Zephyrus G14 as it’s not only durable and resistant to fingerprints but also makes the laptop look more professional which is its target market.

We’ve seen the change from Moonlight White to Platinum White on the Zephyrus G14 which is also the same for the 2024 ROG Zephyrus G16. The other color variant is Eclipse Gray.

Unlike the Zephyrus G14, the Zephyrus G16 2024 has a large

Ports selection hasn’t changed over last year’s model as you still have one USB 4 Type-C port, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, and SD card UHS-II reader on the right. The left has your DC-in, HDMI 2.1 port, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 with support for DisplayPort over Type-C, one more USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, and one audio jack.

ASUS has ditched the typical DC-in connector and went for a boxy connector. Unlike Lenovo’s implementation, the new connector can be easily pulled as it has no lock of any sort to secure it in place.

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 GU605’s keyboard is the same version as the G14’s keyboard. ASUS made use of the larger surface area for the speakers instead of increasing the key size and spacing. That said, the key sizes are large enough and well-spaced out for an ergonomic typing experience.

The iconic ASUS ROG buttons are on the top left corner while the power button is positioned on the opposite side. The power button is separate from the keyboard area unlike what we’ve seen on ASUS Zenbook laptops so you don’t have to worry about mispresses especially when gaming.

I’m all for ASUS using the larger 16-inch form factor for the speaker rather than the keyboard as you have a surprisingly better audio experience that’s almost comparable to that of the Macbook Pro.

ASUS did not disappoint with the Zephyrus G16’s trackpad size as it put it in the leagues as one of the largest trackpads on a 16-inch chassis. Like the G14, the trackpad feel and tactile feedback are above average for a gaming laptop.

ROG Slash Lighting

As mentioned in our G14 review, the removal of the Anime Matrix in place of the ROG Slash Lighting is a bittersweet moment for me. While I do love the elevated professionalism of the Slash Lighting paired with the Platinum White colorway, there are fewer customization options compared to the Anime Matrix.

Making up the 7-section LED lighting are 68 capsule cells and 28 mini LEDs which you can customize on the ASUS Armoury Crate software. There are five themes to choose from with three presets available in each theme.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 GU605 Display

Apart from the new Slash Lighting design, one of the major overhauls of the ROG Zephyrus G14 is its display. The 2024 model now sports the very first ROG Nebula OLED panel coming from the 2023 variants mini-LED display. The G14 2024’s display is a 14″ 2880x1800p 16:10 120Hz 0.2ms panel with support for Nvidia G-Sync.

This year’s ROG Zephyrus G series line debuts with the very first ROG Nebula OLED panel on ROG gaming laptops. Weirdly enough, the ROG G16’s 16-inch display only has a 2560×1600 resolution compared to the G14’s 2880x1800p display. That said, the G16 has a 240Hz refresh rate while the G14 only has 120Hz.

ASUS claims a 500nit brightness and a DeltaE of <1 rating for the ROG Zephyrus G16 GU605 2024. Our SpyderX Pro Display Analysis tool measures 100% sRGB, 97% AdobeRGB, and 100% DCI-P3. Compared to the Zephyrus G14, the G16 is 2% more accurate on AdobeRGB and has better blacks with only a 0.01 Delta compared to the latter’s 0.03 measurement

That said, the G14 is brighter by about 30 nits. Despite the fewer pixel count, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 2024 should give a much better gaming and editing experience as far as display is concerned thanks to the overall better quality panel.

Like the G14, the G16 is well suited for professional-level photo and video editing, even beating the panel quality of some professional laptops.

Armoury Crate

Armoury Crate holds everything you need to customize the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 GU605 2024. Apart from the power profiles which we’ll use to benchmark the gaming laptop, you’ll likely spend most of your time customizing the ROG Slash Lighting inside the app. That said, there isn’t much to do with the lighting apart from choosing a preset and setting the brightness – a considerable downgrade compared to the Anime Matrix design. That said, it would’ve been much better if it was RGB lighting as you can customized the colors to represent an app or the laptop’s state. That said, we look forward to more customization options in the next iteration.

Benchmark Setup and Test Methodology

Gadget Pilipinas’ testing philosophy is to provide detail-oriented results as accurately as possible so that our readers can replicate our tests given that these conditions are met. Different benchmarking apps and sequences are used depending on the tested component or device.

We use CapFrameX 1.7.2 Beta as our primary FPS capture and analysis tool for all our gaming benchmarks. The latest build version of Windows 11 Pro and WHQL-certified drivers are used for our benchmarks. Readings such as temperatures and power draws are recorded using HWINFO64, and OCCT Enterprise.

We benchmarked the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 GU605MZ together with its different power settings found in the ASUS Armoury Crate Software – Silent, Performance, and Turbo. The main purpose of benchmarking power profiles is to show how aggressive or conservative the manufacturer is in terms of thermal management. These profiles will affect the CPU and GPUs’ boosting behavior in terms of duration and max clock speed which will translate to higher scores and stable framerates.

As part of our 2024 laptop benchmark methodology revamp, we’ve changed how these profiles are tested. Synthetic and Productivity benchmarks include all of the power profiles. We decided to drop the silent or power-saving profile for gaming benchmarks as these lowest profiles generally produce unplayable framerates, especially at 1440p and above resolutions. Moreover, games are tested at the laptop’s native resolution(in the G16’s case, 1600p) as we expect most, if not, all gamers to game on the laptop’s native resolution.

For more information read our Benchmark Methodology article.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 2024 Synthetic and Productivity Benchmarks

OCCT Benchmark

OCCT is a popular benchmark and stability testing tool among overclockers, enthusiasts and system integrators

CINEBENCH 2024

Maxon’s Cinebench benchmark is one of the most iconic benchmark applications used by reviewers and enthusiasts. The latest Cinebench 2024 uses the latest rendering architectures, including Intel’s Embree ray tracing technology and other advanced features from AMD and Intel that allow users to render the same scene on the same hard. 

PCMark10

From the same developers of the popular game benchmarking tool 3DMark, PCMark 10 is a benchmarking app for measuring a whole PC’s performance. It covers a wide variety of tests to reflect common tasks performed in a modern workplace. We selected PCMark 10’s extended benchmark and reported both the overall score and Digital Content Creation Score. 

V-RAY 5

V-Ray Benchmark is a stand-alone version of V-Ray developed by Chaos Group. It is designed to test the CPU and GPU by rendering sample scenes at a fixed amount of time. V-Ray is a plug-in mostly utilized by 3D computer graphics software applications mainly for industrial design, product design, architecture, film, and video game production. V-Ray is not limited to 64-threads as it supports multi and mega-threading.

SuperPI 32M 

SuperPI is a single-threaded benchmark application that lets the CPU calculate Pi(π) to the nth digit. In this benchmark, we selected the Pi calculation to 32M, the highest available for the app. 

wPrime 1024M

wPrime is a benchmark tool similar to SuperPI, but the former takes on finding prime numbers using Newton’s Method. The benchmark is set to calculate 1024 million prime numbers, and the performance is measured according to calculation time. 

GeekBench 6.3

Geekbench is a multi-platform benchmark used to gauge CPU performance and compare them across Windows, Mac, and Mobile. Geekbench 6 is the latest version and doesn’t rely on memory more than the previous Geekbench 4, making it a great tool to measure both single-core and multi-core CPU performance.

3DMark Firestrike and TimeSpy

3DMark is the go-to benchmark for gamers because of the ability to share and compare results online. We test GPUs both in DX11 Firestike and DX12 Timespy to get a gauge of the performance.

CORONA RENDERER

Corona Renderer is an unbiased photorealistic render available for Autodesk 3Ds Max, Maxon Cinema 4D, and as a stand-alone application. Its popularity, similar to Blender, led Chaos Group to develop a benchmark version of the app which runs using Corona Renderer 1.3. Workstation systems, especially CPUs, can utilize Corona Benchmark as up to 72 threads can be used in the benchmark, making it very suitable for CPUs with various price segments. 

BapCo CROSSMARK

Crossmark is one of the few native cross-platform benchmark tools available for Windows, Android, Linux ChromeOS, iOS, and macOS. It measures overall system performance and system responsiveness using models of real-world applications making it a great comparison point across multiple platforms.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 2024 SSD Benchmark

The ROG Zephyrus G16 2024 uses a Samsung PM9A1 SSD rated at 7,000MB/s read and 5,000 MB/s write, a much faster SSD compared to the WD SN560 found on the Zephy G14 2024.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 2024 Gaming Benchmarks

RETURNAL

Returnal is one of the most technologically advanced game since the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. Released last April 2021 on PS5 and February 2023 on PC, it uses Unreal Engine 4 and supports multiple technologies such as Ray Tracing, DLSS, VSR, and FSR.

COUNTERSTRIKE 2

CounterStrike 2 or CS2 is the successor to the now-retired CSGO and now uses the Source 2 Engine – the same engine used on DOTA 2. CS2 is a great FPS game to test out CPU performance. Our benchmark process uses the replay function of the game.

DOTA 2

Dota 2 is a good repesentation among F2P titles especially MOBAs and RTS as it lands on the demanding side of the spectrum. Its gameplay and quality of life updates are far more frequent than most F2P titles thanks to its vast popularity. Our benchmark sequence is based on a replay of OG vs. Gaimin Gladiators in the ESL ONE Berlin Major Finals Game 4 from the team fight that happened from 23:00 to 24:00. 

SPIDER-MAN: MILES MORALES

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony is one of the most popular PC port titles last 2022. It’s one of the few modern game titles that support upscaling technologies FSR, DLSS, and XeSS making it a great title to use for benchmarks.

F1 23

F1 23 is the official video game of the 2023 Formula One and Formula 2 championships developed by Codemasters. F1 2023 is the sixteenth installment in the franchise and uses the Ego Engine 4.0. F1 233 is a good representation of racing games thanks to its realistic graphics and fairly demanding spec requirements as well as support for Ray Tracing and the latest upscaling technologies such as DLSS, XeSS, and FSR.

ASSASSIN’S CREED: MIRAGE

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is the latest Assassin’s Creed game from Ubisoft making it the thirteenth major installment in the franchise. It uses the AnvilNext 2.0 game engine and is the very first AC game to support the latest upscaling technology such as XeSS, FSR, and DLSS.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is arguably the most hyped game of 2020. Developed by CD Projekt Red, the dystopian open-world, action-adventure RPG sports is one of the most demanding titles to date. Cyberpunk 2077 also supports three Ray Tracing settings as well as DLSS which makes the game a great tool to measure Ray tracing performance for both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards.

Far Cry 6

FarCry 6 is an FPS game published by Ubisoft and uses the Dunia engine. It heavily relies on and takes advantage of DirectX 12 to render a realistic environment that makes it taxing to both the CPU and GPU. It’s also the first game of the franchise to support Ray Tracing.

HORIZON ZERO DAWN

Horizon Zero Dawn is one of the most popular console-port RPG developed by Guerilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Horizon Zero Dawn is a multi-award-winning action RPG, and its popularity resulted in an exclusive Complete Edition game bundle on Steam.

METRO EXODUS

Metro Exodus is the third Metro game trilogy based on Dmitry Glukhovsky’s novels. The game is a first-person shooter with survival horror and stealth elements. The post-apocalyptic game uses 4A Engine by 4A games. Released last 2019, Metro Exodus remains one of the most graphically pleasing and demanding games that’s popular to date.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 2024 Battery Life

The more powerful components come at the cost of battery life and that’s frankly the biggest drawback of the ROG Zephyrus G16 2024. A more power-hungry CPU and GPU, a 16-inch OLED panel, and the new Slash lighting take a big toll on the 90WHr battery. Using the Silent profile and disabling the Slash lighting only nets four hours on our modern office benchmark. So, despite its thin profile you may need to compensate for its battery life by carrying the power brick or a PD power bank when you’re on the go.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 2024 Temperatures

Switching between the power profiles yields a negligible temperature difference in both the CPU and GPU however, our benchmarks show a reasonable performance disparity between the two profiles. That said, it’s best to use the Turbo profile whenever your laptop is plugged in as you’re not “saving” your CPU and GPU’s shelf life using a lower thermal profile.

Conclusion – Less for Gamers, More for Professionals

The design overhaul of the 2024 ROG Zephyrus G series also shifts the target market of the device more towards professionals than gamers on the go. Doubling down on what we said in our Zephyrus G14 2024 review, the design change, and thinner form factor make the ROG Zephyrus G16 feel more professional, especially with the larger and arguably better 16-inch WUXGA ROG Nebula display.

The redesign with a cost of weaker components albeit not as bad as the Zephyrus G14. The RTX 4080 on our review sample only caps out at 115W which is 35W less than the RTX 4080’s MAX TGP. The RTX 4070 variant on the other hand tops at 105W which is only 10W less than the TGP limit. ASUS had to lower the power consumption to compensate for the thin chassis’ cooling system. That said, the 2023 Zephyrus G16 only has a 90W TGP on the RTX 4070 variant, putting the 2024 model in a better position compared to the year-on-year change of the Zephyrus G14.

All in all, the all-new 2024 ROG Zephyrus G series caters more to the professional x gamers who value portability but want performance that ultrabooks simply couldn’t offer. It sacrifices the potential performance gain of using the latest Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU for a more portable and professional-looking chassis that could pass as a business laptop on a conference table. The upgrade to an OLED 16-inch display makes the Zephyrus G16 take your visual experience to a whole new level which is enough to forgive its measly 4-hour battery life.

So, if you are a gamer who takes more hours working, watching, and traveling with a laptop over some hardcore or competitive gaming, then the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 GU605 2024 provides an incomparable experience compared to what’s available in the market. That said, you aren’t left out when you want to play the latest AAA game or need to render a high-quality project in a short period thanks to the top-of-the-line albeit TGP-capped specs. It’s simply an amalgamation of the key aspects of ASUS’ Zenbook line and Zephyrus line by being more of a generalist slash jack of all trades than a laptop dedicated to gamers.

Grant Soriano

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Grant is a Financial Management graduate from UST. His passion for gadgets and tech crossed him over in the industry where he could apply his knowledge as an enthusiast and in-depth analytic skills as a Finance Major. His passion allows him to earn at the same time help Gadget Pilipinas' readers in making smart, value-based decisions and purchases with his reviews and guides.